Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post individual comments here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Les Misérables

I have seen the film, but believe that I am under an embargo for posting a review (since no other reviews have shown up on the internet so far. Until then, I’ll have to keep my thoughts to myself.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The story of a socially awkward high school freshman whose life is enriched by a pair of quirky half-sibling seniors stars the stars of two young adult big screen adaptations.

Logan Lerman who donned the mantle of Poseidon’s offspring in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief plays the freshman, Charlie, with a history of mental illness due to an unforeseen and traumatic accident when he was a young boy. The girl wizard from the Harry Potter franchise, Emma Watson, plays the free-spirited young woman Sam, intent on going to Penn State and dating a self-centered college poet. Completing the trio is Ezra Miller who got to a promising career start as the spiteful teen at the heart of We Need to Talk About Kevin. As Sam’s gay half-brother, Patrick, Miller centers the film as a kid who acts out to distract the world from his chaotic life and act as the cement that holds his misfit clique together.

Told in segmented narrative as Charlie periodically flashes back to the life-altering event that’s caused him to become an introvert, The Perks of Being a Wallflower explores the delicate lives of teens living on the fringes of high school popular culture and surviving because of their uniqueness. While the film never specifies the period of history in which it takes place, the setting and situations seem drawn from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, but could be set at any point afterwards. The film reminds me a good deal of my high school experience and resonates perhaps better with me than it might with those who were part of the popular crowd. Yet, anyone who ever found a group of friends that completed them will find something intelligent and personal in the film.

Rise of the Guardians

If there’s a film to ignite the imaginations of young children, Rise of the Guardians is that film. The story surrounds a group of guardians who protect children from the wickedness of the world, keeping away the darkness of fear. As that dangerous foe begins returning to form, a new guardian is needed to help fuse the group together and rescue kids from a terrible fate.

There are some fairly adult themes at play in Rise of the Guardians, but it’s filled with such a childlike sense of wonder that it works quite well as a kids film. You can pick out a handful of voices from the cast whether it’s Hugh Jackman in his full Aussie accent as the headstrong, boomerang wielding Easter Bunny; or the vicious Pitch Black, a manifestation of the evil bogeyman, voiced with maliciousness by Jude Law. The others are a bit less familiar. Chris Pine, who’s been struggling to find a niche as leading man in recent years, plays the fun-loving Jack Frost, a prominent holiday figure in whom no child believes; Alec Baldwin plays a Russian-accented Kris Kringle; and Isla Fisher plays the overly exuberant Tooth Fairy. The sixth member of the fantasy cast has no voice, delivering his dialogue through words and pictures displayed above his head: Sandy (otherwise known as the sand man).

The premise is somewhat simple and frequently predictable, but that doesn’t diminish the joy the film conveys in every delightfully detailed scene. Rise and fall, action and reaction, there’s a paint-by-numbers feel to the production, yet it doesn’t feel outdated or unwarranted. There is plenty of emotion at the heart of the film and if you’re at all a kid at heart, even one who hasn’t put much stock in these childhood figures in many years, that should be plenty to engage you for the film’s duration.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

Unlike the Ice Age franchise, DreamWorks’ Madagascar series is still churning out engaging and wonderful adventures featuring our favorite circus escapees from the first film. Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith and David Schwimmer return for a third outing as Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman respectively. These characters are as lovable as I remember from the first film and still reaching out to our imagination.

The franchise does grow a bit long in the tooth and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are certain formulaic aspects of the film that still work, including the ever crazy loopiness of Sacha Baron Cohen’s ring-tailed lemur Julien and the egotistical, plotting penguins. This time around, the crew escapes from Africa to join up with their penguin friends who’ve gone on holiday in Monaco. After a humorous escapade through a casino, they are pursued through Europe by the overzealous and murderous animal control agent Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand). To flee the country, they worm their way into a traveling circus where interesting new characters become part of the “herd.”

Adding their voices to this new effort, alongside the villainous McDormand, are Jessica Chastain as a sultry leopard named Gia, Bryan Cranston as a irascible Russian tiger, and Martin Short as an intellectually challenged Italian sea lion. The key to the film’s voice acting is that they are having fun with their roles. There’s very little serious going on in the third film, even if some of the plot turns are dramatic when appropriate. Familiarity doesn’t have to breed contempt and while the series may be slowly down a bit, these recognizable characters are comfortable and welcome to return to my living room as long as they remain true to their spirit and maintain their expansive heart.