"Accomplishments"
In theaters: Somehow, mentioning spoilers for one of the highest-grossing films in history (during the Pandemic, no less) takes the sting out of it, but you've still been warned... It was perhaps inevitable that Sony/Marvel would make a live version of Spider-Verse. The success of THAT film certainly paved the way because now audiences can accept this kind of thing as normal without bucket loads of exposition. Between this and what's coming for Dr. Strange, I do wonder if the Multiversal stuff isn't dangerously making the MCU stare at its own navel. No Way Home could also be called Spider-Man: Fan Service, and I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing. For Spider-Man fans of the last 20 years of film, it's a great entertainment, with lots of laughs and action, as well as tears. And despite a pretty straightforward, even repetitive, plot, it does a LOT. One of these is answer the question as to whether the villains from the other two franchises should be rebooted in the "Home" series. Answer: No, let's make that point moot by having Peter break the Multiverse and meet the originals. More importantly, how THIS Spider-Man deals with them makes a statement about superhero films in general and how bloodthirsty and wasteful they are compared to the comics that spawned them. It goes yet another step further by integrating the other two Spider-Men, who make for a sweet comedy double act and introduce a lot of heart - no surprise to ME, a defender of the Amazing franchise's portrayal that Andrew Garfield is a stand-out, but a DELIGHTED surprise that his character gets a shot at such redemption. Easily the best and teariest moment of the movie, even though MCU Peter does make his sacrifices. In fact, No Way Home makes the point that all the Avengers business sort of interrupted Spider-Man's standard origin story, now back in the progress. After three movies, we're finally out of Amazing Fantasy #15. And I haven't even mentioned the Brand New Day riff on the status quo. Like I said, it does a LOT.
At home: Of all the MCU shows, Hawkeye has been my favorite. How could it not be. Hawkeye is possibly my favorite Marvel character (in the comics) and never got his due in the Avengers movies. I quite like Kate Bishop too. In fact, taking many of its cues from the spectacular Slott/Aja series, though having (sadly) little space for its experimentalism, the show is built on a strong foundation. When it connects to the greater MCU, it makes for nice surprises, in one instance bringing in one of my favorite actresses back into the fold with delightful results. The action is fun. The LARPers too (were they doing a Warriors Three riff there?). Hangdog Hawkeye trying to finish his business so he can get home for Christmas is a nice seasonal ticking clock, and I think we come out of it liking him more, and there's no not-liking Hailee Steinfeld as Kate. It makes good use of Christmas in New York, and I looked forward to each end of episode needle drop. If I have one complaint, it's that the final boss gets chumped too easily, and even if the final moment is ambiguous, it would seem a shame to now get rid of such a potent character. I should just be grateful he was included at all.
We all knew Neflix Daredevil (or as I often called it, "The Kingpin Show") was heading for the Born Again storyline, but its third season brings its own wrinkles to the tale. There's the addition of Agent Nadeem, a truly complex character, to the mix. There's the willingness to experiment with the format several ways, as with the surreal way Fisk's investigation of Dex is presented, the single shot escape from prison, and spending most of an episode telling Karen Page's back story. There's an intriguing (if ultimately frustrating) take on Bullseye. But mostly, it's how they take the trope I most disdain in genre TV, the Big Conspiracy, and make it work. It works because we already know the answer. It's all Fisk's doing, and it's just masterful. Everything goes wrong because the Kingpin's manipulation of the city is nearly superhuman. It's beautiful. This is how you play a human villain in a superhero story, even though it's all quite low level here. After this, you could well imagine Fisk taking down bigger guns like Iron Man or She-Hulk. Daredevil ends on its best season.
Jessica Jones' second season looks inward as the show explores Jessica's back story - where her powers came from, who else might have been changed, etc. - which means the dreaded Conspiracy Trope rears its ugly head, but it's not too pervasive. Once the revelations are out, the show wisely proceeds to put more pressure on Jessica's psyche, as its whole deal is torturing the character (though it's not without its moments of hope). I guess my main gripe at this point is Trish. Like Daredevil, Jessica Jones has a thin blond addict who is so obsessed with getting in on the action that she becomes an irritation. Karen Page, i can take. Patsy Walker... eeech. As soon as she was introduced as Jessica's foster sister, we knew she was going to become Hellcat - and wanted her to! - but the way they go about it is to make her entirely objectionable, spawning CW-level soap opera complications where people FAIL TO COMMUNICATE LEST THE EPISODE END EARLY as a matter of course. As a fan of Hellcat in the comics, it's disappointing, though I remain committed to Jessica, Jeri (as tangential as she is) and Malcolm.
Only comic book nerds are going to make the connection between Jessica Jones' 3rd season villain and the Foolkiller from the comics, but one could say the season's true baddie is Trish, as #notmyHellcat. She at least causes all the complications and only barely makes me like her better. Hey, as long as Jessica suffers, right? If Season 2 reminded me of the CW superhero shows, this one leans even more that way. Not only could many problems have been avoided if the characters revealed key information to one another in places where you'd think they would, but the action often seems pointless as victories are consistently undone to keep the story going. NotFoolkiller could have been over and done with by episode 5, perhaps sending NotHellcat after some other NotTheVillainFromTheComics, and it would have worked out the same, except less frustrating. I like the other characters and their journeys, but the Trish factor would cause me to only recommend Season 1 (and highly at that). The rest is mildly disappointing, comparatively speaking.
By the amount of coincidence in Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers, I'm gonna say that a Christmas miracle is unambiguously at work. The story? Three homeless people - a drunk, a trans woman, and a teenage girl - find a baby in the trash during the holiday season and hope to find its parents. The child in a way does come from Heaven because the quest through snowy Tokyo intersects with each of the characters' lives (well, what's a Christmas story without a bit of Dickens happenstance?) and helps them find a little grace. With its muted color palette, the art gives us a good sense of cold, dirty streets, but its greatest achievement is the "acting". Though this can be exaggerated for comic effect at times, it feels very real in the dramatic moments. And that vertiginous climax, well, I suddenly found myself literally on the edge of my seat, and caring about these ink and color creations. For all the action, comedy and melodrama, it's that perfect ending that was the clincher.
After 30 minutes of Adam McKay's Don't Look Up, I was about ready for the comet to hit the Earth, preferably right on Jonah Hill's head, but I really despised 90% of the characters so I'm no fussy. Like, I get it. It's a satire about how people, especially our leaders, haven't and continue not to take climate change/the pandemic seriously, caring more about politics, entertainment and money than our survival. It's so obvious that's what it's about that I'd call it low-hanging fruit. But here's the thing. I am well past finding the situation even darkly funny, and in a way, the movie does exactly what it condemns by turning apocalyptic concerns into entertainment. You could argue that any film that elicits a strong emotional reaction "works" and I probably agree. But my sense of frustration - identifying with the scientists who are trying to raise the alarm - made me crazy and only the prospect of writing this capsule review kept me from bailing on it several times. Easily the most obnoxious movie to come out this year - it should come with all the trigger warnings, cuz I can't laugh at this sort of shit anymore.
/1991: Literally hypnotic (are there reports of Max von Sydow putting audience members into an actual trance?), Lars von Trier's Europa takes place in a Kafkaesque/Orwellian post-WWII Germany and formally, it's a triumph. Cinematography, music, effects, euro-style dub, all could have come out of 1945. Experimental for the time, especially the way process shots are used to mix black and white and color, but I think an adventurous film maker (an Orson Welles, for example) could have achieved it. If it's being told in a kind of second-person point of view, it's that we are meant to be/become Leopold Kessler, a German-American who refused to take sides (or enlist) during the war. His ambivalence is presented as a kind of sin, and (under hypnosis) throws our own apathy back at us. How do we justify our lack of participation, our little excuses, our going with the flow, and how would we fare in the film's train-like Purgatory? Would we fail the test, and for that matter, WHICH test? There's a lot to unpack in this one, and if you've put a cross on von Trier for his art house excesses, violence and weird sex stuff, you might want to give this earlier film a shot; it's a much less shocking experience.
Paired Short: Quite aside from its potent, auto-biographical, surreal essay on body dysmorphia (all kinds), The Body Beautiful, in part by virtue of Ngozi Onwurah's mom playing herself in the piece, is really quite touching too. Powerful.
1992: A Belgian mockumentary about a psychotic killer, C'est arrivé près de chez vous (It Happened Somewhere Near You, luridly translated as Man Bites Dog) could also be considered an early example of found footage, with it camera crew getting more and more involved as they follow the killer through life. Now, I like black comedies, but some moments are SO dark that they cross the line into objectionable territory, and we stop smirking. And the killer/armchair philosopher has one of those obnoxious talkative personalities that make me skip out on French comedies. Not to say there aren't so fine ironic lines, but also a lot of improvised padding. I suppose, ultimately, the point of the film is to make us ask questions about documentary objectivity, and maybe get some revenge for whatever packaged distortions we might have gobbled up unawares...
Paired Short: All sex organ imagery and androgyny, Transeltown is a fun, surreal LGBTQ+ trip, but damned if I know where we're going exactly.
Books: With 2012's Levels of Life, Julian Barnes connects past work (mostly Nothing to Be Frightened Of) and future (The Only Story and The Man in the Read Coat), as he exorcises (well, that would be going to far, let's say exteriorizes) his grief over the death of his wife. Covertly, at first, with a a historical essay about ballooning and photography, the first of a "putting two things together" in this triptych. We dip down to surface level to discuss a couple of the Belle Époque personages involved as the essay turns to historical fiction. And finally, these stories (and histories) become exemplar patterns to Barnes' meditations on grief, his own, and the general feeling, as we sink below. A beautiful love letter to his spouse, it does proposes a mirror to Nothing to Be Frightened Of (meditations on death), a book that deeply affected me. As does this. In Barnes' prose, I find my own feelings reflected, questioned, contradicted, confirmed. There's nothing simple about death and grief.
Comics: As a comics trade reader, I lean towards completism, but some trades aren't built like that. Case in point Daredevil - Love's Labors Lost, which reprints a smattering of issues between Frank Miller's main run and Born Again, by writer Denny O'Neil and artist David Mazzucchelli, just not ALL of them. And then a Frank Miller one-off is thrown in at the end, even though it was published in the middle. Why not the Jester story? And I guess we're spared the Secret Wars II issue, even if it's by this creative team. At times, it felt disjointed, but I don't know if I'm missing stories BEFORE this, or stories DURING. While I like O'Neil's writing, the real draw is the art, Mazzucchelli doing great stuff with fog and zip-a-tone, his Daredevil action clear, graceful and dynamic. The title of the collection might refer to all the women in DD's life featured, and all suffering (as do the women in other stories). Another motif is DD having adventures outside New York in several of the stories. One thing I have to acknowledge is that Matt Murdock's life was going off the rails BEFORE Born Again; Frank Miller was essentially completing O'Neil's pass.
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