Illumination Entertainment may not be at Pixar’s level when it comes to box office clout, but their last three animated films have certainly put them into the conversation. 2013’s “Despicable Me 2” brought in $970 million. Last year their spinoff film “Minions” made nearly $1.2 billion. Their latest is “The Secret Life of Pets” and with only five days under its box office belt, the wacky adventure comedy has already earned nearly $175 million.

Chris Renaud, one of the creative minds behind the “Despicable Me” films, directs this examination of the age-old question – what do our pets do while we are away all day? As has become the norm, an all-star cast lend their voices to an array of domesticated (and in some cases not so domesticated) members of the animal kingdom.

The film starts strong by introducing us to a host of pets in a downtown New York City apartment building. It lays out their relationships with their owners and each other while also having fun with the various identifiable pet quirks – a dog gently yelping while having a dream or a cat’s crazed infatuation with a laser pointer just to name a few.

A little terrier named Max (voiced by Louis C.K.) is the lead character. His top dog status takes a hit when his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper) brings home a big shaggy Newfoundland named Duke (Eric Stonestreet). While butting heads at the park the two end up wandering too far into the city where they encounter a feline street gang led by Steve Coogan (that’s funny in itself) and are ultimately caught by Animal Control.

This is where things takes a bit of a dive. Max and Duke are busted out by an underground militant group called “The Flushed Pets”. Their mantra – “liberated forever, domesticated never”. They are led by a fluffy white bunny named Snowball. He’s voiced by Kevin Hart who is basically doing what Kevin Hart always does – giving loud, hyperactive ramblings that just aren’t that funny. And during this stretch the film backburners the fun and charming bits for more run-of-the-mill breakneck animated action.

While that portion of the story sputters, another stays true to the endearing sweetness of the first act. Realizing Max and Duke are missing, the other pets from the apartment building set out to find them led by a prissy Pomeranian named Gidget (Jenny Slate). Add to the band a plump apathetic cat (Lake Bell), a rambunctious pug (Bobby Moynihan), a calm cool dachshund (Hannibal Burress), and a directionally challenged guinea pig (voiced by Renaud).

The camaraderie between these furry friends is fun to watch. I couldn’t help but laugh at several interactions that emphasized their unique personalities and pet-specific attributes. Renaud and company clearly have a blast playing with so many things that people (particularly pet owners) will get a kick out of.

Several other things help make this an effectively entertaining picture. Alexandre Desplat’s snazzy score amazingly keeps up and sometimes directs the film’s shifting tones. The animation is wonderfully bright and vibrant while still maintaining that silly exaggerated style that I’ve loved in Illumination’s other films. And as expected the voice acting is top-notch.

You can’t help but notice the “Toy Story” inspiration, but “The Secret Life of Pets” has a good enough premise to set itself apart. For most of the film it cleverly sticks with it. Unfortunately the lull in the middle and Kevin Hart’s unleashed performance brings it down a bit, but never enough kill the fun.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

One the surface “The Shallows” isn’t a film that would normally catch my eye. Neither Blake Lively in the lead role nor frequent Liam Neeson collaborator Jaume Collet-Serra directing was enough to draw my interest. But it’s amazing how a slick, compelling trailer can change your perspective.

In the Neeson thriller “Non-Stop” Collet-Serra played within the small confined space of a Boeing 767. Here he does the same, trading in the tight spaces of a jet plane for a remote Mexican beach. The bulk of the story takes place in a small isolated lagoon. It’s here that Lively’s character Nancy ends her emotional pilgrimage to find a favorite surfing spot of her recently deceased mother.

The simplicity of the story is actually a strength. We are fed small chunks of backstory that are a bit on the nose, but still brief enough to add context without distracting. The bulk of the story focuses on Nancy’s experience on the beach and what an experience it is. Her emotional release soon becomes a fight for survival after she is attacked by a shark and left stranded on a small reef.

“The Shallows” ultimately becomes an ocean water survival thriller mixed with shark horror in a tone reminiscent of “Jaws”. It works for a number of reasons namely that Collet-Serra and company never lose their lean and simple focus. It maintains its course steadily building up tension and offering up a handful of legitimate scares. It also works thanks to some fantastic cinematography featuring some great overhead shots and even better underwater photography.

While all of that is important to the film’s success,  Blake Lively is the anchor. I have to admit, I was surprised by her strong and gutsy performance. For the most part she carries the movie on her shoulders and she puts it all out there both physically and emotionally. It is a demanding role which Lively is more than capable of handling.

Those unable to put aside an overly critical eye could dwell on a cheesy scene or two. They could point out a couple of preposterous things that happen in the final act. But I find it hard to imagine that someone wouldn’t find this to be a fun and entertaining ride especially considering the deluge of mediocre films so far this summer. “The Shallows” wisely stays true to its central concept. Its hook could easily wear thin if it extended itself too far, but the compact 80 minute running time keeps the tension high and the story moving forward. It keeps its bite and, unlike that pesky shark, it never overstays its welcome.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

One of the most highly praised films of 2015 came from 39 year-old Hungarian filmmaker László Nemes. He wrote and directed “Son of Saul”, a Holocaust drama set within the walls of the Auschwitz concentration camp. This certainly isn’t a new topic, but critics praised Nemes for his unique, honest, and unsentimental approach to it. The film has also won a slew of awards including several big prizes at Cannes, a Golden Globe, and it is the front runner for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. The great thing is “Son of Saul” is worthy of its praise.

Doing a film about the Holocaust requires a certain level of responsibility because reactions will undoubtedly vary depending on how you approach the subject matter. I remember criticisms surrounding 1997’s “Life is Beautiful”. Some took offense perceiving the film as too jokey and whimsical. While I completely disagree with that sentiment, it goes to show the range of reactions audiences often have even towards to most earnest of efforts.

Nemes doesn’t dodge these potential obstacles and he doesn’t take shortcuts. He firmly tackles the Holocaust with confidence both in the pull of his story and in the truth in his depiction. Nemes was inspired by a book titled “The Scrolls of Auschwitz”. It was a collection of true stories about Sonderkommandos – Jewish prisoners in concentration camps who were forced to dispose of those murdered in gas chambers and then executed themselves after a few months of work. Nemes and co-writer Clara Royer worked for five years on the script collaborating with historians and struggling to find financiers.

Hungarian poet Géza Röhrig (who had not acted since television 25 years ago) plays the lead character Saul Ausländer. It’s 1944 where Saul works as a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz. While clearing out gassed bodies of fellow Jews he discovers his son among the murdered. Nazi doctors designate the boy’s body for autopsy, but Saul wants a proper Jewish burial for his son. Obvious obstacles make that difficult. There is the brutal authority of his Nazi captors which is constantly in the background. He’s also caught in the middle of a brewing uprising which makes finding help among fellow prisoners difficult.

Röhrig’s performance is quiet but powerful. We know little about his character. No time is give to his history or backstory. But we do see Saul as a shell of a man. He is someone who has seen the very worst and it has left him emotionally cauterized. It is the sight of his son that stirs up something of his former self. It is that devastating discovery that reveals a small spark of life.

Nemes takes us along with Saul in a near moment-to-moment telling of his story. There is rarely a time lapse. His visual technique is clever, but it isn’t the easiest to get comfortable with. We spend the vast majority of the film looking at things through an over-the-shoulder third person perspective. We are literally right behind Saul. The camera will occasionally rotate around to focus in Röhrig’s intensely expressive face. We also get a few shots that zoom in to spotlight something that has grabbed Saul’s attention. But for the most part we are right on his back peering over his shoulder. It can offer some truly harrowing perspectives, but it can also be terribly disorienting especially when scenes intensify. This is clearly by design, but there were instances where I wanted the camera to just be still.

Thankfully the strengths of the visual presentation heavily outweigh the weaknesses. For example our vision is often hindered by our position. And since our line of sight is often strictly joined to Saul’s, we are often spared clear looks at the gruesome horrors taking place around us.

Nemes and cinematographer Matyas Erdely sometimes blur the outside boundaries of the shot which represent our unfocused view from the corners of our eyes. There is also a heavy dependence on sound. Tamás Zányi’s sound design is impeccable and plays a crucial part in deciphering what is going on around us. These techniques require our senses to play a major role in interpretation. We take the glimpses and sounds and paint our own mental depictions which can be challenging but also uniquely rewarding.

The approach the film uses frees it from many labels often cast upon Holocaust movies. It doesn’t sadistically wallow in misery. It doesn’t bludgeon the audience to death with the grisly horrors of the atrocities. At the same time it doesn’t soften its emotional punch in the slightest. “Son of Saul” is a difficult, harrowing, and exhausting film to endure – claustrophobic and psychological. But it’s also an intimate and gripping experience and an extraordinary feature film debut from László Nemes. What he has created is breathtaking and you won’t shake off its effects anytime soon.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS