What it lacks in energy it makes up in meandering pointlessness.
Reviews
5 Reviews
Wonder Woman 1984
(2020)
The Worst of All Possible Movies
28 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
It's not just that the screenplay is trite, derivative, and incoherent. It's not just that the CG looks as though this movie was not only set in 1984, but actually produced then. It's not just that the characters are 1-dimensional and that their every action and decision is undertaken without any obvious motivation whatsoever. It's not even that Chris Pine and Gal* Gadot have zero chemistry, phoning in wooden, unmemorable performances (though the "phoning in" part is *so* 2020).
No: the fatal problem with this film its message, muddled though it may be. We are living -- the film would have us believe -- in the best of all possible worlds. Indeed, this world is "so beautiful" that giving people the opportunity to wish away their powerlessness, their loneliness, or their poverty, well -- that can only make things worse. In this Panglossian universe, if people could only perceive the inescapably negative sequelae of their desire to be free of the abuse and injustice of their lives, they would immediately abandon any attempt to change them.
The film treats every aspiration -- the child's for the care and affection of his father, the lover's to be reunited with her lost soulmate, the terrorist's to acquire nuclear weapons -- to be equally without merit. With the exception of the World Wars, there have been few periods in the history of filmmaking in which that privileged weltanschauung could have been less appropriate than it is today, as pandemic infection has killed 1 in every 1,000 Americans and nearly 2 million souls worldwide.
As a result, WW84 is not only insufferable: it is actually offensive. Don't just skip this film: avoid it. Tell your friends you hope they'll do the same: that's a wish you'll never want to renounce.
(*) Gal Gadot's first name rhymes with "ball", not with "pal". Fun fact: Gal is a Hebrew word meaning "wave" but also "happiness".
No: the fatal problem with this film its message, muddled though it may be. We are living -- the film would have us believe -- in the best of all possible worlds. Indeed, this world is "so beautiful" that giving people the opportunity to wish away their powerlessness, their loneliness, or their poverty, well -- that can only make things worse. In this Panglossian universe, if people could only perceive the inescapably negative sequelae of their desire to be free of the abuse and injustice of their lives, they would immediately abandon any attempt to change them.
The film treats every aspiration -- the child's for the care and affection of his father, the lover's to be reunited with her lost soulmate, the terrorist's to acquire nuclear weapons -- to be equally without merit. With the exception of the World Wars, there have been few periods in the history of filmmaking in which that privileged weltanschauung could have been less appropriate than it is today, as pandemic infection has killed 1 in every 1,000 Americans and nearly 2 million souls worldwide.
As a result, WW84 is not only insufferable: it is actually offensive. Don't just skip this film: avoid it. Tell your friends you hope they'll do the same: that's a wish you'll never want to renounce.
(*) Gal Gadot's first name rhymes with "ball", not with "pal". Fun fact: Gal is a Hebrew word meaning "wave" but also "happiness".
The Peanut Butter Falcon
(2019)
The Perfect Remedy For This Cynical Time
12 September 2020
Cinematography: 10
Direction: 9
Screenplay: 9
Acting: 10
Story: 9
Though it may not be the first thing most critics mention, The Peanut Butter Falcon is a visually beautiful movie. The mise en scène of broad marshes, lush fields, and rushing rivers seems perfectly balanced with the small-cast intimacy of the story.
And what a story! A hero's journey, complete with a lovable and fearless hero Zak (Zack Gottsagen), anti-hero sidekick Tyler (Shia LaBeouf), and beautiful love interest Eleanor (Dakota Johnson). Gottsagen and LeBeouf in particular were written and portrayed with depth and nuance. Johnson's portrayal is skillful, but unfortunately the Eleanor character is less filled-out. Worse, it's not clear that if Eleanor were removed from the script altogether that the story would have proceeded any differently. This is a buddy film: girls are motivators but not agents of the action.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The story (think "Huckleberry Finn" meets "Rain Man") is rich and captivating -- and yes, I'll say it, magical. Gottsagen and LaBeouf's interactions ring true, and continue to resonate throughout. The challenges they face include bad guys, sure; but the real obstacles to the protagonists reaching their goal are internal: Zak's Down Syndrome and Tyler's penchant for bad choices.
The writing is tremendous overall. The humor always hits the mark, the dialog is natural, and the exposition -- a critical yet too-often clumsy element -- is nearly always handled smoothly. There is plenty of exciting action throughout. However, the ending (don't worry, I won't spoil anything) seems rushed and under-written. Writer/directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz famously struggled to finance the film's creation (Nilson lived in a tent for at least some of this period), and I'm left wondering if perhaps the money ran dry before the ending could be fully fleshed out.
Even that flaw, however, failed to leave a scratch on the wonder and joy I felt at the close.
Finally, a few words of praise (and one reservation) for how the filmmakers portray individuals with Down Syndrome. As background, my brother has Down Syndrome, though he is not nearly as high-functioning as Zak.
Let's get my single qualm out of the way first. Zak is portrayed as being unusually strong (not critical to the plot, but more than a passing reference). The super-strong-yet-developmentally-disabled caricature has been a bogeyman of fiction for longer than any of us have been alive (the golem of Yiddish literature; the monster in the 1931 film, Frankenstein; the Incredible Hulk of comics, TV, and movies). Perhaps the writers were trying to take the hex off of that device by assigning it to the hero; in the end, though, I think the community would be better served by leaving the golem trope behind altogether.
That said, the character that emerges over the course of the film -- Zak's choices, priorities, and dialog -- could only be the product of a collaboration between actor and writer/directors with a keen and intimate emotional connection to their subject. In each of a thousand discreet moments, Zak's gestures, sense of humor, and goals and desires sparkle with authenticity. Not once did Zak utter a word that I couldn't have imagined my coming out of my brother's mouth. I'd bet, if you asked them, that Gottsagen's family feels the same.
In the end, it's precisely that veracity that gives the film its heart, and makes it more than just another fun-but-mindless buddy adventure. The Peanut Butter Falcon is an engrossing journey from which you never want to depart.
(As of this writing, TPBF is streaming on Amazon Prime at no charge to subscribers.)
Though it may not be the first thing most critics mention, The Peanut Butter Falcon is a visually beautiful movie. The mise en scène of broad marshes, lush fields, and rushing rivers seems perfectly balanced with the small-cast intimacy of the story.
And what a story! A hero's journey, complete with a lovable and fearless hero Zak (Zack Gottsagen), anti-hero sidekick Tyler (Shia LaBeouf), and beautiful love interest Eleanor (Dakota Johnson). Gottsagen and LeBeouf in particular were written and portrayed with depth and nuance. Johnson's portrayal is skillful, but unfortunately the Eleanor character is less filled-out. Worse, it's not clear that if Eleanor were removed from the script altogether that the story would have proceeded any differently. This is a buddy film: girls are motivators but not agents of the action.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The story (think "Huckleberry Finn" meets "Rain Man") is rich and captivating -- and yes, I'll say it, magical. Gottsagen and LaBeouf's interactions ring true, and continue to resonate throughout. The challenges they face include bad guys, sure; but the real obstacles to the protagonists reaching their goal are internal: Zak's Down Syndrome and Tyler's penchant for bad choices.
The writing is tremendous overall. The humor always hits the mark, the dialog is natural, and the exposition -- a critical yet too-often clumsy element -- is nearly always handled smoothly. There is plenty of exciting action throughout. However, the ending (don't worry, I won't spoil anything) seems rushed and under-written. Writer/directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz famously struggled to finance the film's creation (Nilson lived in a tent for at least some of this period), and I'm left wondering if perhaps the money ran dry before the ending could be fully fleshed out.
Even that flaw, however, failed to leave a scratch on the wonder and joy I felt at the close.
Finally, a few words of praise (and one reservation) for how the filmmakers portray individuals with Down Syndrome. As background, my brother has Down Syndrome, though he is not nearly as high-functioning as Zak.
Let's get my single qualm out of the way first. Zak is portrayed as being unusually strong (not critical to the plot, but more than a passing reference). The super-strong-yet-developmentally-disabled caricature has been a bogeyman of fiction for longer than any of us have been alive (the golem of Yiddish literature; the monster in the 1931 film, Frankenstein; the Incredible Hulk of comics, TV, and movies). Perhaps the writers were trying to take the hex off of that device by assigning it to the hero; in the end, though, I think the community would be better served by leaving the golem trope behind altogether.
That said, the character that emerges over the course of the film -- Zak's choices, priorities, and dialog -- could only be the product of a collaboration between actor and writer/directors with a keen and intimate emotional connection to their subject. In each of a thousand discreet moments, Zak's gestures, sense of humor, and goals and desires sparkle with authenticity. Not once did Zak utter a word that I couldn't have imagined my coming out of my brother's mouth. I'd bet, if you asked them, that Gottsagen's family feels the same.
In the end, it's precisely that veracity that gives the film its heart, and makes it more than just another fun-but-mindless buddy adventure. The Peanut Butter Falcon is an engrossing journey from which you never want to depart.
(As of this writing, TPBF is streaming on Amazon Prime at no charge to subscribers.)
Upload
(2020– )
Surprisingly thoughtful; even more surprisingly, actually funny
3 May 2020
Upload is an imaginative look at a hyper-consumerized near future in which even death can be avoided - for a price. It would have been easy to play this scenario for cheap laughs - and sure, there are some - but Upload goes further, exploring relationships, ethical boundaries, and most of all, the blind spots in the mirror we hold up to ourselves.
The series has more range than you'd expect: mostly cheerful, but with moments of suspense, disappointment, and even (real) death. It reveals itself in stages, as each two-dimensional character, in turn, suddenly displays real depth. It's like watching popcorn, wondering when the next kernel is going to blow, always a little surprised by which one it turns out to be.
The humor is pervasive, and the writers didn't settle for (only) the obvious "hey, remember, I'm actually dead" jokes. The laugh-out-loud moments, for me, were much subtler - like in the news video showing a group of headless bodies as they are encountered by first responders, one of whom slips a pulse-oximeter on a corpse's finger.
My wife and I pretty much binged this series in about three sittings. I only wish we'd discovered it later, as a second season may be as much as two years away. Regardless of when that actually happens - unless I've been uploaded by then myself - I'll be watching.
The series has more range than you'd expect: mostly cheerful, but with moments of suspense, disappointment, and even (real) death. It reveals itself in stages, as each two-dimensional character, in turn, suddenly displays real depth. It's like watching popcorn, wondering when the next kernel is going to blow, always a little surprised by which one it turns out to be.
The humor is pervasive, and the writers didn't settle for (only) the obvious "hey, remember, I'm actually dead" jokes. The laugh-out-loud moments, for me, were much subtler - like in the news video showing a group of headless bodies as they are encountered by first responders, one of whom slips a pulse-oximeter on a corpse's finger.
My wife and I pretty much binged this series in about three sittings. I only wish we'd discovered it later, as a second season may be as much as two years away. Regardless of when that actually happens - unless I've been uploaded by then myself - I'll be watching.
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