Movies
WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story Trailer
WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story trailer.
I had no idea the Weird Al Yankovic movie was a parody of biopic movies. I mean, I should have known, but after watching the trailer… My goodness, is this going to be hilarious. It looks amazingly crazy. Rainn Wilson playing Dr. Demento is genius.
It also took several watches to realize that’s Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna.
Seriously, a biopic about an artist that makes parodies that is ALSO a parody? Perfect.
Olivia Newton-John, RIP
Olivia Newton-John has sadly passed away. She was one of my childhood crushes. Sad.
What better way to celebrate her life and career than to revisit this absolutely bananas 20 minute medley featuring Olivia, ABBA and Andy Gibb from her 1978 ABC special Olivia!
Blade Runner at 40
Tom Ward, writing for Esquire, does a deep dive into the movie as it celebrates 40 years.
Visually and sonically assured, intelligent and moody, there is much to be admired in Blade Runner. But why has its legacy endured to such a degree? Perhaps in its gloomy portrayal of environmental catastrophe, social divide and oppressive authority we recognise our own world. Or perhaps it’s because, despite all of its foreboding, Blade Runner offers a chance of hope. Hope of a love between two people not meant to love. Hope of freedom, however impossible. A hope as fragile as an origami unicorn, maybe. A hope as beautiful as C-beams glittering in the dark, and as fleeting as tears in rain. Blade Runner is not a film with easy answers. And maybe that is why, forty years later, we’re still remaking it, exploring it, pulling it apart and holding it up to the light.
Blade Runner is my favorite science fiction movie. It surpasses Star Wars for me.
Black Adam — Official Trailer
The latest DC movie, Black Adam, now has an Official Trailer.
I’m looking forward to this. It may not be obvious now, but I’m 100% positive this movie does not take place in the current DCEU, just like The Batman and Joker. No other explanation for a Justice Society when there’s an obvious Justice League.
However, I do expect to see it connect to the DCEU proper in the near future unlike the aforementioned The Batman and Joker.
I’m sure The Flash and all the universe hopping will help make all of this future consolidation make sense. It’s like they are moving toward creating a Crisis on Infinite Earths movie.
Memories of Things Nobody Cares About
Will Leitch, in his newsletter, spent most of it focused on his favorite movie of last year, The Worst Person in the World. The movie is about Aksel, a 43-year-old man who is dying of pancreatic cancer and reflects on his life. I have not seen the movie, but Leitch says the movie’s protagonist makes a realization that the things he cared about were meaningless.
Leitch quotes an Aksel monologue from the movie that feels revelatory in my own life.
I’d given up long before I got sick. Really. I just watch my favorite old movies over and over. Lynch, “The Godfather Part II”… How many times can you watch “Dog Day Afternoon”? Sometimes I listen to music I haven’t heard before. But it’s old as well. Music I didn’t know about, but from when I grew up. It felt as though I’d already given up. I grew up in an age without Internet and mobile phones. I sound like an old fart. But I think about it a lot.
The world that I knew has disappeared. For me it was all about going to stores. Record stores. I’d take the tram to Voices in Grünerløkka. Leaf through used comics at Pretty Price. I can close my eyes and see the aisles at Video Nova in Majorstua. I grew up in a time when culture was passed along through objects. They were interesting, because we could live among them. We could pick them up. Hold them in our hands. Compare them. Like books. That’s all I have. I spent my life doing that. Collecting all that stuff, comics, books. And I just continued, even when it stopped giving me the powerful emotions I felt in my early 20s. I continued anyway. And now it’s all I have left. Knowledge and memories of stupid, futile things nobody cares about.
Leitch chimes in with his own reflection on “memories of stupid, futile things nobody cares about.”
Aksel is dying, so his memories have an extra urgency and sadness. But it can feel like dying sometimes, to know that everything you valued your entire adult life, and thought would last as profoundly important, has gone away. And nobody really noticed, or cared.
I remember when the mysteries of Lost were what everyone was talking about. I remember the transition from the musical domination of Sunset Strip bands to the Seattle sound and understanding a shift was taking place. I remember a time when I didn’t want an iPhone. These were fundamentally important things in my life at that time. Today? Not so much.
And then Leitch drops this killer paragraph:
Part of getting older is recognizing that the things you care about are not the things everybody else cares about, and being comfortable with that. Deep down, I don’t really care whether or not anyone thinks being a Wilco fan makes me “washed,” or if you think the third greatest rom-com of all time is freaking You’ve Got Mail (????!!!!!), or you don’t like watching college basketball, or if you get bored reading. I love Wilco, I love college basketball, I love reading, those things provide me pleasure, and if they don’t do that for you, I can’t do anything about that … and it doesn’t take anything away from my pleasure. There was a time that I would have obsessed over persuading you that you were wrong, that these things are fantastic and that you should come be a part of them with me, all the powerful emotions I felt in my early 20s. But it’s fine now. I like too much salt on my french fries, I like Rhone running shirts and Tracksmith running shorts, I like to sit in the third row at movie theaters, I like my car seat pushed farther back than the length of my leg necessarily requires. I like things the way I like them, and I’m comfortable with that. I don’t need you to be. And you shouldn’t need me to be comfortable with whatever you like.
It’s good to like what you like from “back in the day,” but time inches ever more into the future. Maybe I’m just getting old and set in my ways just like Leitch.
I like my own personal remembrances, and what I care about others might not, but I guess one can get lost in the way it used to be and forget to focus on the here and now and the future.
That’s the trick, isn’t it? I like to strike a balance between enjoying what I like and embracing something new. It’s hard but worth it. Because I don’t want to leave this world with just “memories of stupid, futile things nobody cares about.”
Overhauling DC Entertainment
According to Brent Lang, writing at Variety, David Zaslav, the new CEO of the combined Warner Bros. Discovery, is reportedly looking for his version of Marvel Entertainment’s Kevin Feige. He wants:
…candidates with experience in creating and nurturing blockbuster intellectual property with a goal of potentially finding someone to serve as a creative and strategic czar similar to what Marvel has in Kevin Feige.
Well… it’s about time.
The DC Cinematic Universe has been a dumpster fire since 2013′s Man of Steel, which saw Zack Snyder using all the wrong comics as inspiration for his Superman flick. In response to the backlash, Warner Brothers doubled down instead of doing the responsible thing and not letting Snyder anywhere near their potential cash cow. Instead, WB gave him a couple more shots at creating the DC Cinematic Universe before cutting their losses.
It is no surprise the DC films that bore little connection to Snyder’s sepia-toned, slow-motion crap like Shazam! and the recent The Batman were met with critical acclaim. Even a few films set in the DCEU, like Aquaman and Wonder Woman, were so much better than the start.
A hard reboot is screamingly obvious here, and I truly hope they do it. It remains to be seen if it will come to pass.
Movies and Streaming
Peter Kafka, writing for Vox, peers into a crystal ball and sees where movie theater experiences and streaming are headed.
Going to the movies — with friends, with strangers — and enjoying something together in the dark for a couple of hours is a very specific experience, and it’s getting taken away from me. And from us: We are a country that does a lot of the same stuff, but we don’t do it much together anymore. We’re asynchronous and alone. Movies were an exception to that.
How did we get here? Slowly, then all at once: Yes, the pandemic forced movie studios, out of desperation, to stream movies they might have once tried to put into theaters. More importantly, the pandemic gave studios the ability to do something they had wanted to do forever — shrink the “window” of time between when movies debut in theaters and when you can see them at home.
In the old days, you used to have to wait three months to watch a movie at home. Even then, you had to buy it on DVD or pay to download it. Now the industry standard is a 45-day delay — at which point you can watch them on a streaming service you probably already subscribe to, like Disney+ or HBO Max. Not exactly free, but close enough — and, as Rich Greenfield, an analyst at Lightspeed Partners notes, enough to create a very powerful cycle: If it’s not a movie you’re dying to see in a theater, you can be rewarded for your inaction and get it at home weeks later. Which makes studios even less likely to try to get anything but a slam dunk in the theater to begin with.
Ultimately, Kafka thinks all of this will eventually mean a consolidation of streaming services and finding ways to keep people at home. The movie theater experience will be only for big-budget extravaganzas like superhero movies and low-budget horror films.
Aside from the streaming services being bought by each other, the rest of it is already happening. A movie on a streaming service won the Best Picture Oscar, it’s all over but the shouting.
I can’t wait until Disney buys DC Comics, Image Comics, and the rest of them to put out the superhero movies people will love to see. I’m also waiting for Apple to buy Netflix, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.
The Slap Trap Clap
Dave Pell, the managing editor of the Internet, has had enough:
A request from the managing editor to the internet I cover: Stop. Seriously, stop with the bothsidesing think-pieces about Will Smith’s slap. I’m sure Alopecia can be a traumatic condition, but this isn’t story about Alopecia. We’re not even sure Chris Rock knew about Jada’s condition, and even if he had, it’s still not an Alopecia story. It’s also not a race story. It’s not a toxic male story. There are not two sides to this story. Here’s the whole story: Will Smith snapped and slapped and the audience clapped. The guy starting whaling on someone in the middle of the Academy Awards. Jim Carrey summed it up: “I would have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200 million because that video is going to be there forever. It’s going to be ubiquitous. That insult is going to last a very long time. I was sickened by the standing ovation. I felt like Hollywood is just spineless en masse. It really felt like: ‘Oh, this is really a clear indication that we’re not the cool club anymore.’” That’s it. Like the swelling on Chris Rock’s face, there’s only one side to this story. Jim Carrey got it right, and even though he’s famous for doing so, it’s the rest of the internet that’s talking out of its ass.
Now why would I bring this story up again, other than to whine about headlines that irritate news curators like me? Because this is an example of the same kind of asinine false equivalence that we’ve seen soil the media for the past several years. There were not two sides to Trump’s habitual lying. There are not two sides to the vaccine debate. There are not two sides to the potential upside of using disinfectant on the inside of your body. There are not two sides to the climate change debate. There are not two sides to the Jan 6 insurrection story. There are not two sides to the 2020 election results. Yesterday, Donald Trump requested that Vladimir Putin dig up and share dirt on Joe Biden’s family. At a time of war, that’s straight up treachery, the kind of anti-American garbage this criminal has been spewing for years. End of story.
Being unbiased does not mean giving lies the same weight as the truth. What you see and hear happening is what’s really happening, and it’s about time the media started reporting things that way, instead of making bad decisions like ABC ‘s hiring of Chris Christie or terrible ones like CBS News’ hiring of Mick Mulvaney as a paid contributor. Mick Mulvaney is what we call in the business, a stone cold liar. He once argued that Covid coverage was an attempt to bring down the president. And that’s just for starters. Why would this clown be hired by CBS News? So we can pretend that his bullshit side of the story is just as valid as the truth? Because maybe the Trumpian scumbags who did everything possible to destroy our country at home and abroad may have a perfectly valid reason for doing so? Because maybe Chris Rock’s face jumped in front of Will Smith’s hand?
Yeah. What he said.
Will Smith Smacks Chris Rock, a Breakdown
Here’s the Jomboy breakdown you didn’t think you needed but will give you all the necessary context for the slap heard ‘round the world at the 2022 Oscars.
Personally, I watched Will Smith smack Chris Rock live. He then went on to win the best actor award and deliver a rambling, semi-coherent speech about being a vessel for love. I don’t get it.
The fact that Will Smith wasn’t arrested for assault right after hitting Chris Rick on national television just shows you how different rich people are treated compared to the middle class and poor. I want people arrested and fired for assaulting people. I guess if you are rich and famous, you can get away with it. Where have I heard that before?
I am trying to imagine just how famous and privileged you must be to get out of your seat at the Academy Awards, slap someone, sit back down and heckle, and then win the Oscar. The answer is Will Smith famous.
He should have been escorted out of the room. If that meant he could not claim his Best Actor statue, all the better.
Was the joke tasteless? I thought it was pretty light. Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia.
She wasn’t going through cancer treatments. Still, I get the whole “defend your wife because she just gave Rock and then you the stink eye.” But also, overreact much?
It was a moment of toxic masculinity by an actor that disgraced not just himself but the event itself.
No one will remember it was the first time a streaming service (Apple TV+) won Best Picture at the Academy Awards for CODA. That in and of itself is mind-blowing and should be addressed by the industry. No one will remember Jane Campion’s win, Troy Kotsur’s, or anyone else’s win.
It will just be the Oscars where Will Smith smacked Chris Rock, and that’s sad.
The Greatest Superhero Movie Ever Made
I wanted to watch SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE one more time before writing a little something about it, but its just too good not to comment right now. I watched it right before the new year and thought I’d be able to catch it again. Alas, I have not.
The first thing you should know is that this is a movie the entire family will enjoy. The storytelling here is quite good and the visuals are out of this world.
Secondly, SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. Not the best animated feature, not the best Spider-Man movie (there’s been a few…), one of the best superhero movies.
PERIOD.
For me personally, it is the best example of the comic book superhero genre at the movies. Better than Black Panther. Better than Superman: The Movie. Better than The Dark Knight. Waaaaayyy better than any superhero animated feature (although Batman Mask of the Phantasm is really good).
If you haven’t already, go see it. You will not be disappointed.
If you want a deep-dive into why this movie is so incredibly amazing, read this article by Siddhant Adlakha in Slashfilm examining the artistic choices behind the movie. It’s insightful and smart.
Now, I need to go see it again.
Bandersnatch
One of the better things that happened in the last couple of years is the continued existence of Black Mirror on Netflix. It’s by far one of my favorite television shows and has been blowing my mind with each entry in the anthology series.
The movie trailer for the latest incarnation is about a programmer who is adapting a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style of books. The author of the series apparently “went cuckoo.” And now, maybe, the programmer.
The film is live on Netflix tomorrow, so you have less than 24 hours to watch the trailer over and over again looking for Easter eggs. By the way, this is what a Bandersnatch is.
Curiouser and curiouser.
50 Wonderful Things of 2018
Linda Holmes, of Pop Culture Happy Hour, adds to her annual end-of-year lists. I always find something I need to see, read, or hear.
How to Write a Hallmark Christmas Movie
My family adores Hallmark Christmas movies. My wife and step-daughter start watching as soon as they start hitting the airwaves, which I believe is sometime in October. They have a grand time commenting on the plot and the characters. They were doing this way before the drinking game became popular.
The general joke about these movies is they are all essentially the same movie ― woman comes home for the holidays has a meet-cute with a local man who they initially dislike, but end up falling in love by the time the snow falls on Christmas. Sprinkle in a big tree, ice skating, gingerbread making, cookies, and a non-threatening ex and you have a Hallmark Christmas movie.
Ruth Kinane, writing for Entertainment Weekly, interviewed two scriptwriters who have had movies made and they explain the ins and outs of Hallmark Christmas movie-making. I had no idea how many rules there are.
Right, there cannot be a single scene that does not acknowledge the theme. Well, maybe a scene, but you can’t have a single act that doesn’t acknowledge it and there are nine of them, so there’s lots of opportunities for Christmas. They have a really rigid nine-act structure that makes writing them a lot of fun because it’s almost like an exercise. You know where you have to get to: People have to be kissing for the first time, probably in some sort of a Christmas setting, probably with snow falling from the sky, probably with a small crowd watching. You have to start with two people who, for whatever reason, don’t like each other and you’re just maneuvering through those nine acts to get them to that kiss in the snow.It almost makes me want to give it a try.
The Comic Book Movie Illusion
Tim Grierson, in his review of Aquaman in MEL magazine, has an interesting take on super-hero films
But ultimately, this is what’s so hard about silly superhero films. In a sense, they’re owning up to a fundamental fact about comic-book movies — which is that, honestly, they’re all kinda dumb. People who can fly or lift heavy things or climb buildings? It’s total fantasy — but part of the reason that these stories work is that we emotionally invest in such universal tales of heroism and self-sacrifice. They’re goofy movies that we choose to treat seriously — if we acknowledged their idiocy, the whole illusion would come crashing down.Of course, the genre is fantasy so making a fantasy movie is kinda the point. Grierson thinks they are goofy. He thinks they are goofy because of the genre, which he mostly dislikes. Most professional critics actively dislike genre films. Audiences love them. Critics want “real stories.” Audiences want a fun time at the theater.
Sure, there is plenty of room for everything, and to be fair Grierson did put Annihilation and Mission: Impossible — Fallout in his top ten and those do fall under fantasy. However, his “universal tales of heroism and self-sacrifice” apply to all sorts of genre films from Westerns to Romantic Comedies.
Basically, I wish he’d acknowledge the idiocy and fantasy of ALL genre films and maybe even a few of the non-genre types too.
The Complicated Relationships in Love Actually Visualized
Amanda Shendruk at Quartz did a nice deep dive into Love Actually with a wonderful diagram of all the relationships in the movie from family, friends, lovers, lusters, and employee/employer.
It’s pretty good, but it misses the friendship between Mark and Mia, Colin and Tony, and John and Judy working for Colin. Plus, we don’t see the romance/lust between Colin, Stacey, Jeanie, Harriet, and Carol-Anne or the one between Tony and Carla. It also misses the lust between the US President and Natalie.
Penny Marshall, RIP
Dave Pell has my favorite short bio of Penny Marshall, who passed away today at 75.
She directed Big and Awakenings. She “was the first woman to direct a film that grossed more than $100 million, the first woman to direct two films that grossed more than $100 million, and she was only the second woman director to see her film Oscar-nominated for best picture.” But before all that, she was Laverne.
Pop Culture Multiverses
Salim Lamelle writer/producer for MEL Magazine has created video that speaks directly to me―an examination of all the multiverses that litter the pop culture landscape.
With Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse the next example getting blisteringly good reviews, I can’t wait to see it.
The Arnel Pineda Story
Mike Fleming Jr at Deadline is reporting Jon M. Chu, director of Crazy Rich Asians, has his sights on telling the story of how Arnel Pineda joined the band, Journey. It’s one of the most feel-good stories I know.
Dee Lockett over at Vulture summed it up this way –
Think of it as the Queen biopic if it was about Adam Lambert instead of Freddie Mercury.That’s a tad unfair. Freddie Mercury is no longer with us. With Journey, Steve Perry wanted out of the band and Arnel has admirably filled his shoes since 2007.