Cars

Pixar goes full redneck. One suspects this might have originally been titled “Cars Story” in keeping with its studio forebear, but that extra term in the name might have strained its target audience’s literacy level. For sure, I avoided this movie for a very long time, as I deduced from its upfront story elements—a thinly disguised NASCAR theme served up with a high degree of local yokel hi-jinx in a lot of the plot—that much about this work would not appeal to me from a baseline perspective. On top of that, viewing the film reveals another issue: a protagonist who is so relentlessly unappealing that it is hard to believe through most of the running time that the viewer will ever come about and actually root for him. Add to that some cookie cutter characters—including a few who would today probably fall under the baleful eyes of the identity crowd—and any number of predictable story elements, and it seems like this movie was just destined not to be my cup of tea, or motor oil as the case may be. No matter—the film found a gigantic audience anyway. And, I will admit, given all the above, it comes across as something of a miracle when, in the end, even the most disinterested viewer finds some redemption (and at least a bit of surprise) in the denouement. Add to that another welcome element—the movie gets the history of the impact of the interstate highways on small-town America 100% right—and there’s enough here for this film to earn a qualified recommendation. It’s no work of genius, to be sure, and in stretches it’s even a bit boring, but you don’t have to be ashamed of watching it, either. That’s about the the maximum praise this piece can get from this decidedly citified driver.