"Accomplishments"
In theaters: The Tom Holland Spider-Man films have always been a cinematic representation of Marvel Team-Up, so I can't fault Brand New Day for feeling like a bunch of consecutive issues of that book, except that the late-stage MCU has poisoned the well by making almost every sequel of every subfranchise exactly that. And it's the catering to the larger universe that feels played out for me (indeed, one of the "team-ups" is especially surplus to requirements). I was a big fan of Bronze Age team-up books (indeed, I host a podcast on the subject), but I recognize the sort of convoluted reasoning that leads the main hero to meet a sequence of others in such narratives, and absent an actual serial format, it just feels like it's catering to too many ideas - the main subplot about Peter missing his amnesiac friends, an odd friendship with the Punisher (and his having to have an arc, too), Spider-Man fighting the demon from Fallen (or whatever), his new mutations, Damage Control as ICE, connective tissue with the post-Doomsday MCU, Jean DeWolff and the doom that hangs over her for us nerds, Hulk stuff... - not all of which can properly pay off, though it holds pretty well together. Criticisms aside, the action is blazingly good, and the effects are strong (in this slop-happy environment, it's good to see a popcorn movie that looks this good). And the third act really hits in terms of the hero's (heroes') journey(s). As off-model as Holland's Spider-Man is, he's still the best one to do it, and you (and I) can ignore my MCU fatigue, I'm still giving it the same rating I did all the others.
At home: Blockbuster scriptwriter David Koepp adapted his own novel Cold Storage for a near B-movie (let's call it a B+), a fungal take on the zombie picture, where SOMEthing virulent crashes to Earth with pieces of Skylab, and becomes a huge problem in the present day when the collected sample's secret government storage fails. By then, heroic disposal experts Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville are old and retired, so heroic storage lock-up employees Georgina Campbell (Barbarian) and Joe Keery (Spree), a likeable duo, might be on their own as the green slime spreads and infects people and animals around them. It's a pretty fun flick, even though it features noticeable CG. It's probably what makes the animal action palatable, cuz it's gross and upsetting even if you can tell it's not real (still too interested in following the infection into bodies at the micro-level). It makes a play at being ABOUT something - namely the disintegration of government agencies and crisis response in Trump's America - and I appreciate that. Still felt a little cursory, but better than average.
Now famous for inspiring Sandra Hüller's karaoke scene in Project Hail Mary, Toni Erdmann's own Sandra musical number is worth the wait. Peter Simonischek is an older dad who can't stop making jokes, the kind of guy who puts on characters when he answers the door for a package, and walks around in wigs and fright make-up. Some humor him, most find it too weird to laugh. Hüller is his daughter Ines, working a high-powered, very stressful consultant job in the oil business, and she doesn't want to admit that she's absolutely miserable. And dear old dad senses it, and a prankful visit to Roumania where she works will either blow up her career or save her soul. These are incredibly well-drawn characters, a father-daughter team who love and support each other, but make us aware of the cracks in their relationship. I instantly believed they were related, because despite Hüller's battleaxe persona, she still "yes ands" whatever her father is doing (and indeed, everyone else) even when she doesn't think it's funny. She was raised in that environment and has learned to commit to the bit. And dad (the eponymous "Toni" thought that's just a silly alias) commits to bits to fully, it becomes absurd. So absurd, I found myself laughing out loud at the pair's saddest moments. Poignant cringe. Loved it. But then, I think Hüller can do no wrong.
Though it's more of a family drama than the premise suggested, Sunshine Cleaning mixes in enough lightness to prevent the heaviness from overwhelming it. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are sisters who go into business for themselves, perhaps haplessly, in the booming crime scene removal business. One is a single mom who works hard, the other is perpetually in trouble, but it all comes from a shared trauma related to their mother's untimely death. I'll keep the mystery here, but the job obviously exposes some of their scars and helps explain their behaviors, whether that's having to take care of everyone (including a young boy whose curiosity gets him into trouble, and Alan Arkin as the dad always looking for the next revenue stream), or seeking out a woman who's own mom died alone and had to be cleaned up. They're coming late to cleaning their own psyches, but better late than never. Charming, but grounded. Only the last scene may feel too sweet.
Jonathan Demme shoots Rachel Getting Married like a wedding video, right there in the action, with abrupt cuts and visceral points of view. But the genius of the piece is really from juxtaposing two situations that provoke intense selfishness - addiction and a wedding. And so Emma (Anne Hathaway) comes out of rehab the weekend of her sister (Rosemarie DeWitt)'s wedding, putting all the old resentments on show as one's troubles threatens to steal attention away from the big event. The event itself is fully eccentric, taking place in a multi-cultural family that's entwined in the music business, no generic wedding here and plenty of musical performances included. The energy is frenetic because we're in Emma and Rachel's heads, only rarely being explicit about what they're thinking. It just plays out on their faces, and Demme's mobile camera rushes around the catch up, just as we do. And so the wedding itself might feel a bit long at the end, but it's a necessary release from the anxiety that had been building for the first 90s minutes. Great performances all 'round.
A sweet little film about grief and how to help others cope with it, Corrina, Corrina eponymously stars the habitually likeable Whoopi Goldberg (in this era especially) working as a maid for Ray Liotta (as a jingle writer the film credits with some actually memorable campaigns) after his wife dies, leaving little Tina Majorino (memorable here and in Veronica Mars) in a traumatized, silent state. Corrina's easy humor may just be what shakes her out of her doldrums, and her interest in music (a Goldberg movie stable) makes her fit in well with the family (which also includes Don Ameche in his final role). Fit in perhaps a little too well for 1959 America, and on paper, Goldberg and Liotta seem an unlikely pair for a romance, even one as mature as this, but both leads play their roles with a kindness that makes their closeness believable, and the film doesn't want to go into the harsher territories the situation so often indicates. I'd forgotten how touching this was.
In 2005, Harper's editor Lewis Lapham hired two young actors to play Yale graduates looking to get ahead in the world - one meant to come from privilege, the other not, and essentially turned them into bouncing boards for his own opinions or set them up to interview the documentary's talking heads. The American Ruling Class is pretty clever that way, and also has fun with musical numbers (Nickle and Dimes, sung by actually low-wage workers is great) and other flights of fancy (like the silent film sequence). The idea is to explore whether America has a "ruling class", if so who, what do they do, and how can one become a "member". Not surprisingly, all the people who ARE in the ruling class deny such a thing exist. Yeah right. The truth is, 20+ years on, the doc is exposing things that have since become overt, so it's less revealing than it once was, but just as anger-inducing.
Ashes to Ashes' second series is all about corruption. Police corruption, of course, but juxtaposed with the supposed deterioration of Alex's brain in the real world. Is the mystery man behind the conspiracy a product of her damaged mind, or is he actually another time traveller who knows more than she does (than we do)? It certainly flips a few things around in the premise and keeps that mystery alive. The conspiracy also doesn't leave the rest of the cast alone, and there's the feeling that Alex's mind will start to shut other characters down, even as she receives messages from the real world indicating she may be on an operation table. So it's a tense season, with much heartbreak, and a crazy ending to push us into a third season. The 80s styling on Keeley Hawes is much softer this season (and of all three - judging the last one by DVD covers) and is my favorite.
One Film for Every Year Since Film Existed[1987] Over the Top: Rocky, but it's arm wrestling? Yeah, look, it's right there in the title, and even though I don't think it entirely makes good on the promise (the way, say, Roadhouse does), it's still pretty "over the top". It's over the top in the father-son relationship's cheesiness (a common trope in Hollywood is the absent dad who finally makes good and is forgiven - surely a scriptwriter fantasy). You could see the grandfather who wants custody's point, except he's over the top in his villainy. The kid at some point decides he'll do anything to be with the dad he never knew until this fateful truck ride, and his methods are way over the top and unbelievable. Stallone is an over the top kind father despite his absenteeism, and has over the top reactions like using his truck as a weapon. And then the arm wrestling competition has all these wrestler-type personalities. I fully acknowledge that it's all a little absurd, and not at all realistic, but hey, if taken for what it is - a Cannon film, guys - it works. Especially the competition that had me straining along with the competitors. And any film that makes me feel something (that it WANTS me to feel) are worth the watch.
[1988] Mississippi Burning: As a youth, this would have been my primer on the evils of the Klan. A refresher exposes how current political figures are still using the same poisonous arguments, sometimes word for word. Based on an actual case from the 1960s, though with fictionalized participants, the film is about the FBI descending on a small Southern town to investigate the disappearance of three young activists. Met with rural inhospitality, they'll make things worse before they get convictions by any means necessary. We've seen Willem Dafoe play so many eccentrics by now, his playing the FBI straight arrow is kind of weird. Gene Hackman is great as the "local knowledge" with a dark sense of humor. Strong support from France McDormand, Brad Dourif and Michael Rooker (the latter as the worst of the Klansmen). It was 1988, so the film isn't too surprisingly a little preachy in spots - I certainly don't need the overt messaging, but I guess some might, it was also my one complaint about BlackKKKlansman. But as a crime story where you wonder how they'll get the bad guys who see untouchable thanks to the corrupt system, it's still quite good,
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