"The Harder They Fall" Makes an Impact

I don't appreciate Quentin Tarantino enough.  As much as I dislike "The Hateful Eight" and was frustrated with "Django Unchained," those were well-made films with some great style and artistry to them.  "The Harder They Fall" is an exploitation-style western in a similar vein that doesn't quite meet the mark, and it's largely because the director is trying a little too hard to be Tarantino.  It's a very enjoyable and watchable film, but it's flaws are pretty glaring.

To start, the cast is absolutely spectacular.  Lead by Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, Lakeith Stanfield, Delroy Lindo, and Zazie Beetz, the nearly all-black ensemble really gets the chance to shine.  I've been watching these talented actors in so many prestige films over the last few years, and it is such a joy to see them tackle a really pulpy, really over the top piece of genre filmmaking, and clearly have a blast while doing it.  We have our heroes, a gang lead by Nat Love (Majors), who stick to robbing other robbers, while Love hunts down the killers of his parents one by one.  Then there are the villains, lead by the evil Rufus Black (Elba), Trudy Smith (King), and unscrupulous Cherokee Bill (Stanfield).  In the mix are also Love's ex, Stagecoach Mary (Beetz), and lawman Bass Reeves (Lindo).  

First time feature director Jeymes Samuel has a background in music, and the soundtrack is easily the best thing about the film, mixing new songs written by Samuel with older classics.  Several members of the cast can be heard contributing vocals.  The film exists in a heightened, comic-book version of the Old West, where all the characters are based on real historical figures, but reimagined to be this outlandish collection of heroes and villains.  They pull off daring heists and robberies and rescues.  They're dressed to perfection in colorful clothes that match their equally stylized surroundings - a white town they visit is literally painted white.  The action scenes are dynamic and exciting to watch, though more brutal than the comic-book trappings would suggest.

The biggest trouble, unfortunately, is the pacing.  "The Harder They Fall" runs an unwieldy, unnecessary 139 minutes.  While the film moves at a brisk clip whenever there's action or suspense sequences, it often comes to a dead halt without them, and drags interminably.  And while most of the stylistic conceits work, some don't.  The anachronistic dialogue is fine for posturing and one-liners, but becomes awkward for everything else.   The love scenes between Majors and Beetz are especially dire, as there's little chemistry between these two.  They both look great holding firearms or getting into brawls, but I don't think either of them manage to deliver a memorable line.  On the other hand, they both really had to fight to keep my attention in the company of scene-stealers like Lakeith Stanfield, and energetic up-and-comers like RJ Cyler and Daneille Deadwyler, who play the other members of Nate Love's gang.  

When it comes down to it, the star of the show is Idris Elba as Rufus Black.  He gets the best entrance, the best backstory, and the best badass moments.  He dominates every scene he's in without breaking a sweat.  Regina King runs a close second, sporting a Creole accent and a lot of attitude.  These two play the truly larger-than-life characters of the bunch, and the performances are so charismatic that it makes me sad I didn't get to see this film on a much bigger screen.  Unfortunately, they also have far less screen time than I found acceptable, and I felt every moment that they weren't there.     

"The Harder They Fall" is certainly worth a watch.  Jeymes Samuel is talented and not afraid of making bold choices.  I love that the title sequence is actually at the beginning of the film, where it gets to serve as an introduction to all the different characters.  I love that there's a trans hero character, that Beetz and King get the best fight sequence, and that there's reggae on the soundtrack.  The execution is messy and uneven and this is clearly not the film that it could have been with some tighter editing and  smarter writing.  But it's a promising film, one I sincerely hope will be a stepping stone to better things.      

 

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So, About "Eternals"

I don't think that "Eternals" is a very good film, but I liked it anyway.  It breaks from the usual Marvel Cinematic Universe formula in some significant ways, and is ambitious and weird and looks great.  It also has way too many characters, and commits the cardinal sin of focusing on the most boring ones.

"Eternals" is about a group of ten immortal beings who are sent by the god-like alien Arishem to Earth in the distant past.  They're charged with protecting humanity from monsters called Deviants, but are not to interfere with Earth's development otherwise.  Each of the Eternals has their own specific superpower, such as flying, controlling minds, or firing energy blasts.  We catch up with one of them, the matter manipulator Sersi (Gemma Chan), in the present day, centuries after the Eternals split up as a group and went their separate ways.  When she and her human boyfriend Dane (Kit Harrington) are attacked by a Deviant - thought to be long extinct - she knows it's time for a family reunion.  

The other Eternals include illusion generator Sprite (Lia McHugh), warrior woman Thena (Angelina Jolie), flyer Ikaris (Richard Madden), super-strong Gilgamesh (Don Lee), speedster Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), technology guru Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), energy blaster Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), mind controller Druig (Barry Keoghan), and their leader Ajak (Salma Hayek).  Through flashbacks, we learn the history of the group, and their relationships and clashes with each other.  It's a purposefully diverse set of actors, representing all races, with LGBT representation, and one mute Eternal using sign language.  However, the group comes off as a familiar extended family regardless.  Several of them have paired off as romantic couples, and "Eternals" features the MCU's first, brief sex scene.  There are also longstanding rivalries, tensions, and points of contention, like how much involvement to have with humankind, and how much they should trust in the actions of Arishem.        

 

I like that "Eternals" is a film with some real scope to it, with a story that takes place over eons, and with characters who grow and change.  I like that a big part of it is about emotions and personal connections, especially Sersi coming to terms with her feelings about her ex, Ikaris.  Alas, Gemma Chan is one of the weaker actresses on the roster, but gets the lion's share of the screentime, while the likes of Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie are playing fairly minor characters.  Chloe Zhao makes sure that each of the Eternals gets their big moments, and we get to know all of them to some extent, but this means that "Eternals" runs an exhausting 156 minutes, and a lot of it is just taken up with finding one scattered Eternal after another, followed by a repetitive fight scene.  The Deviants are pretty badly handled - for the most part they're just your typical CGI monsters, though it's suggested that they're capable of being more. 

  

This is not to knock the action.  "Eternals" is perfectly fine as far as the spectacle goes.  Zhao sets many of her action scenes in interesting natural environments, creating the opportunity for some really striking cinematography.  The Eternals' designs are very appealing, with a motif of golden astrological signs and geometric symbols recurring in their costumes and their powers.  But no matter how much eye candy there is onscreen, it's hard to get away from how often the audience is asked to suspend their disbelief about everything from the Eternals affecting human history to the tin ear dialogue.  I appreciate that the film wants to grapple with big concepts and ideas, but it's just not good at doing that in cinematic ways.  Also, while it's great that the movie actively subverts several tropes, like gloomy mind-reader Druig actually not being a secret traitor in the third act, there are similar narrative decisions that wind up being confounding - one major character just sits out the entire final battle for no good reason.  Was the actor unavailable?  Did we lose a few scenes somewhere?  

I still enjoyed "Eternals," because at this point Marvel's operation  is well-oiled enough that it can ensure even the roughest of their creations stays at least moderately entertaining throughout.  And I'm glad they let Chloe Zhao make a film a little more heartfelt and earnest than usual, and take some chances on unusual faces.  The movie's not great, but as far as MCU films go, I'd rank it squarely in the middle of the pack.  And I look forward to the return of the Eternals soon.        

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"Hawkeye" and "The Witcher," Year Two

Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), has always been the everyman hero of the Avengers, and I expected that there would be no difficulty building a miniseries around the character.  However, the real star of "Hawkeye" is actually Hailee Steinfeld, who plays newcomer Kate Bishop.  She's a young superhero wannabe who stumbles into a bad situation and gets way in over her head.  The two cross paths in New York City during the holiday season, and have to team up to recover some stolen property, defeat the bad guys, and sort out Kate's complicated family issues, in order to get Clint back to his loved ones in time for Christmas.  It's a very light, very fun show with no shortage of humor and irreverence.

Of all the Disney+ MCU series so far, "Hawkeye" feels the most off-the-cuff, and that's mostly in a good way.  Everything's kept at a very street level, very human scale.  Enemies include professional assassins, a badass deaf mercenary played by Alaqua Cox, dudebro Russians from the local Tracksuit Mafia, and a few higher difficulty foes whose identities I will not spoil, but no world-ending or even national crisis level events loom.  This allows for elements as silly as Kate being saved by an adorable stray dog who loves pizza, Clint encountering a LARPer enclave, and a grand finale endangering the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.  It was a canny decision to play up the lighthearted Christmas aesthetics, which help "Hawkeye" to stand out from all the other Marvel shows.  

I don't feel that the Clint Barton character has needed much of an upgrade, as some have suggested, but it's nice to see him get more of the spotlight, and just enjoy watching his day-to-day struggle to be a superhero while also being a dad, husband, and non-super-powered human being.  The show does a fantastic job of adding backstory for the Barton without dwelling on his past.  Early on, it's revealed he has to use hearing aids due to being in the middle of too many explosions.  His relationship with his unflinching wife Laura (Linda Cardellini) is fascinating.  Kate Bishop, however, completely takes over the show and I kind of love her for it. Her superhero growing pains are a lot of fun, and her relationship with her security tech mogul mother, played by Vera Farmiga, is awfully relatable.  Hailee Steinfeld is such a great addition to the MCU roster.   I hope to see more of her and Renner soon.

Now, the second season of "The Witcher" strikes me as an improvement over the first, if only because it's stopped the annoying game of jumping around the timeline, and the major characters get to spend more time interacting.  Well, Geralt and Ciri do, while Yennefer spends the first half of the season off on her own adventure.  She's lost her magic after the events of the first season, and getting it back may pit her against her former allies.  Meanwhile, Geralt and Ciri cool their heels in the Witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen with Geralt's old mentor, Vesemir (Kim Bodnia), where Ciri decides to train as a Witcher.  Other significant players include Fringilla (Mimi M. Khayisa), Yennefer's rival who is allied with Nilfgaard, and an elven sorceress, Francesca (Mecia Simson).  Jaskier the bard also shows up eventually, though I have no idea how his timeline makes any sense.

The politics of the "Witcher" universe are a little less murky this time around.  I'm still not clear on how any of the kingdoms relate to each other geographically, but at least the various factions are better defined.  The oppressed elf population gets a lot of screen time this year, and the ongoing subplots involving Francesca and Fringilla at least kept my attention, even if both characters still need a lot of work.  The main characters fare better, especially as Geralt and Ciri get to do some father-daughter bonding, and Ciri finally gets to be more active and self-actualized.  I was a little disappointed with the new insights into Witcher lore, however.  The comfortable winter digs at Kaer Morhen run contrary to Geralt's childhood of misery and abuse hinted at in the first season.  Kim Bodnia, who you might remember as Villanelle's handler from "Killing Eve," is positively cuddly here.

"The Witcher" is still far from a prestige production, preferring B-movie style action, creature battles, and gore.  However, it does a decent job of getting the momentum rolling for the next phase of the show that it's building up to.  Its tone is more focused on straightforward adventuring now - campy "Xena" style antics are kept to a minimum, and the production design leans toward the creepy and horrific.  I miss some of the humor and sexual misadventures, but I'm sure this will be better for the show in the long run.  It's not one of my favorites, but remains diverting enough that I'll probably stick around for the long haul.  I don't expect the show will continue to improve much, but it's improved enough to keep me happy.

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Trailers! Trailers! 2022 Incoming Edition

All links below lead to Trailer Addict. 

The Northman - This is going to be the biggest project Robert Eggers has tackled to date, a Viking revenge epic with an all-star cast.  The trailer is fabulous, setting out the whole story and really hammering home the central theme of violent revenge.  This is based on the life of a historical figure who is considered the inspiration for Shakespeare's "Hamlet," and Bjork (onscreen again after all this time!) is playing a witch, so I'm anticipating sinister supernatural doings in abundance.      

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - I've been progressively getting less and less excited about this Marvel film after seeing what the other Marvel properties have been doing with the multiverse concept, and Doctor Strange's appearances in "What If…?" and the latest "Spider-man" film.  I wasn't too impressed with the first "Strange" film, and the last time Sam Raimi made something for Disney, the result was "Oz the Great and Powerful."  The trailer doesn't do much to quell any of my fears, but I guess we'll see. 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent - Warning, this one's a red band trailer.  Honestly, this is a movie that I think looked better on paper.  Nicholas Cage having to meet and entertain one of his wacky criminal superfans in order to save his family is bonkers enough to be really entertaining - so as long as Cage really commits to the idea.  "JCVD" and "Being John Malkovitch" have pulled off similarly meta premises.  This one, however, has yet to show me that it knows what it's doing.  Or maybe I'm just not as much of a Cage fan as the writers of this film are.

The Black Phone - This horror film from the creators of "Sinister" was originally supposed to be a January release, but it was moved to a summer release date based on positive early response.  I think this is one of those cases where it's better not to watch the trailer at all since it gives away too much of the plot.  However, the premise of a kid trapped in a murderer's basement, trying to escape before he becomes the next victim, is fantastic.  And it doesn't hurt that Ethan Hawke will be playing the murderer.  

Everything Everywhere All at Once - Who says that only the superhero films can have fun with the multiverse concept?  This year, I think that Michelle Yeoh and the Daniels are going to give the MCU some real competition on this front.  Yeoh starring in a film like this also makes me so happy.  I've been regularly watching her in supporting roles in Hollywood films for decades now, and she's finally getting some of the spotlight next year with this film and the new "Witcher" spinoff series.  

The Lost City - Just when I thought that a "Romancing the Stone" reboot was off the table, along comes Sandra Bullock with her newest romantic comedy/action comedy combo.  Bullock as the romance writer who gets swept up in one of her own plots is pretty standard stuff, but Channing Tatum as her idiot cover model, who insists on tagging along, is inspired.  And Brad Pitt popping up, seemingly just because he can, makes this the funniest trailer I've seen for anything so far this year.  

The Outfit - I don't know anything about this movie except from what I've seen in the trailer, and honestly I'm sold.  The cast is great, the setup - a British tailor gets mixed up in the dealings of a Chicago crime family - looks very solid, and the filmmaking looks gorgeous.  No surprise that Dick Pope shot this.  Winter's been a good season for smaller crime and thriller films lately, and between this and Guy Richie's latest, "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre," the season doesn't seem so glum.

Turning Red - It took me a while to come to the realization that PIXAR's "Turning Red" is about a Asian-Canadian girl in the '90s, so we're talking about someone pretty close to my demographic.  I've never seen a lead character like that in an animated film this high profile before, and I've got to say the prospect is an exciting one.  "Turning Red" will be directed by Domee Shi, who made the adorable "Bao" short, and I'll be secretly treating this as an unofficial spinoff of the "Ranma ½" universe, unless I hear otherwise.     

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"Pig" and "Lamb"

And let's get weirder.

"Pig" is easily the best film that Nicolas Cage has been part of in a while, and it's one that relies in part on the screen persona that Cage has cultivated in recent years: the over-the-top, violent maniac from films like "Mandy" and "Willy's Wonderland."  At the start of "Pig," the film sets up a scenario that recalls "John Wick."  Cage plays a recluse named Rob, who lives alone in remote Oregon, with only his truffle-hunting pig for company.  He ekes out a living finding and selling truffles to an ambitious young dealer named Amir (Alex Wolff).  Then one night, Rob is assaulted and the pig stolen.  This sends Rob back to his old stomping grounds in Portland, where he and Amir search for the pig and Rob's traumatic past is uncovered.

I don't want to get into too many spoilers, because discovering how the narrative of "Pig" unfolds is one of its chief pleasures.  However, I will say that aside from a few brief clashes, "Pig" is not a violent film and I would not describe it as a revenge story.  It's a weirdly affectionate love letter to Portland and its culinary community.  It's a deeply sad character portrait of a man undone by loss.  It's a stealth foodie movie.  And it's also a very good showcase for Nicolas Cage's talents as an actor.  The movie is entirely too odd for him to get any awards attention, but Cage is never anything less than totally committed to this role, and it's wonderful to see.  There's one monologue in particular that is worth the price of admission by itself.

"Pig" is the directorial debut of Michael Sarnoski, who also wrote and edited the film.  I admire his careful balance of tones and tension, and his ability to find images of nocturnal beauty in unexpected places.  He's not afraid of silence, which makes the scenes of Rob in his solitude hit so much harder.  The film is emotional in ways that I wasn't expecting, and discovering the actual path of Rob's journey is so rewarding.  I never thought, going into this movie, that I would be making comparisons to "Paris, Texas" and Atom Egoyan's "Exotica," but it's been a weird film year,  and "Pig" is one of it's better surprises.      

Now, on to "Lamb," which I was expecting to be an odd beast, and it sure didn't disappoint.  This Icelandic feature from Valdimar Johannsson is about a couple, Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), who are sheep farmers.  One day, one of the sheep gives birth to a strange lamb, which the couple feel compelled to raise and treat as a child.  They name her Ada, and try to ignore the oddity of the situation, and the increasing signs that something is terribly wrong.  The sudden arrival of Ingvar's vagabond brother Pétur (Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson) just adds fuel to the fire.

I wasn't surprised at all to learn that Hungarian director Béla Tarr was one of the film's executive producers.  "Lamb" feels like it occupies the same universe as some of his films, full of sinister unseen forces and horrors that spring forth from the natural world.  The pace is very slow, full of long, static shots of the desolate farm and surrounding country.  There's a cosmic menace at work in the story's mechanics, embodied by a mysterious presence that haunts the protagonists.  However, despite the strong premise and wealth of interesting ideas in the film, I don't feel like "Lamb" quite pays off.

Obviously, "Lamb" is meant to be allegorical, but the allegory is too vague to connect to any real world fears beyond vague discomfort about the exploitation of animals.  We don't learn enough about the characters beyond a few surface facts, and they don't really have personalities aside from reacting to various stimuli and stressors.  The big reveal is pretty good, but it's hard to discern what message we're supposed to take away from the film - and from how the film purposefully sets itself up as a modern day fable, there's clearly meant to be a message.  

The execution is good, and the mood is unsettling, but I don't think that "Lamb" quite achieves what it's meant to.  It'll attract plenty of fans because of the sheer strangeness of its premise, but it doesn't seem quite sure of what it's trying to say, and can only tantalize rather than truly move.     

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"Titane" and "I'm Your Man"

Let's get foreign and weird.

"Titane" won the Palme D'Or at Cannes last year for Julia Ducournau, and it's the wildest feature to have won the award in recent memory.  Frankly, just trying to describe this thing is a challenge.  Let's call it a fable about a woman named Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), who is wired differently from the norm.  As a child she's involved in a car accident that leaves her with a metal plate in her head, a gnarly scar over her ear, and an attraction to cars.  She's also deeply misanthropic, and her violent behavior as an adult forces her to go on the run.   Eventually, she deceives her way into the life of an aging fire department captain, Vincent (Vincent Adrien), who offers unconditional love, and she finally learns to connect to another human being.

Due to fear of spoilers, I'm leaving out a lot of strange, unsettling elements of body horror, mostly related to Alexia's relationship to cars - maybe she is a machine herself, or becoming one.  There are also some disturbingly visceral incidents of violence, including sexual violence, in the first half that lead me to believe that the story was leading somewhere very different from where it ended up going.  Ducournau is fantastic at juggling tones and emotional states, and I was constantly steeling myself for more unpleasantness at every turn.  Like her last film, "Raw," the way she juxtaposes her heroine's monstrousness with her vulnerability is so striking.  There's an unusual intensity to the way Alexia's body is used in particular.  We see her naked form constantly, sometimes sexualized, sometimes the source of violence and horror, sometimes a symbol of potent, uncontrollable power.  

Agathe Rousselle's performance is the main event, one that is heavily physical and often silent.  She broods and glowers and is able to transform and contort herself into very different forms.  You can read so many things into Alexia's struggle - gender issues, mental health problems, and a whole can of worms about female sexuality and motherhood.  I often have trouble connecting to the work of the more extreme European directors, like Gaspar Noe and Claire Denis, who use similar images of violence, nudity, and alienation.  With "Titane," however, there's also a tenderness and an empathy that comes through in even the most brutal frames, and I found myself connecting with Alexis almost in spite of myself.

Now, over to Germany and "I'm Your Man," Maria Schrader's lovely, low-key new science-fiction film.  An archaeologist, Anna (Maren Eggert), is recruited to test out a new android who has been designed to be her perfect romantic partner.  This is Tom (Dan Stevens), a talkative, unfailingly pleasant character who is determined to integrate himself fully in Anna's life, though Anna is stubbornly resistant to the idea.  She doesn't have any interest in romance and is deeply suspicious of Tom and all that he represents.  However, as she interacts more with Tom, and shares more about her life and circumstances, the situation becomes more complex.

We've seen plenty of media about human beings and their relationships with robots in recent years, mostly genre projects that involve the robots standing in for exploited and subjugated groups.  What's interesting about "I'm Your Man" is that it actually grapples with the themes of humanity's relationship with technology head-on.  Dan Stevens' performance is showy and exaggerated, playing Tom as cheerfully inhuman and eager to be the most perfect boyfriend ever, with a bag of tricks that are fun to see brought out, one by one.  And it takes a while to realize that grumpy Anna is actually the far more interesting character.  As she's tempted by the companionship offered by Tom, it begins to feel more and more curious why she resists, and resists so strongly.  Untangling the reasons for her hostility and mistrust take up most of the film, and in the end the story is more about Anna's humanity than Tom's.

And I think that's why I appreciate "I'm Your Man" so much.  It's small scale, intimate and empathetic, committed to being a film about relationships and difficult feelings in spite of its flashy robots and holograms.  Tom turns out to be a foot in the door to get us acquainted with Anna, with her life and her responsibilities.  She's one of the most admirable leads of any science fiction film I've seen in a while, and Maren Eggert does great work in the part.  And it's nice to know that I can still be surprised by a film like this, one that looks so familiar, but has unexpected depths.      

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"The Matrix Resurrections" and "Encanto"

Here are some quick thoughts on some recent holiday streaming premieres…

There's no good reason for a fourth "Matrix" movie to exist, and co-writer/director Lana Wachowski is keenly aware of this.  "The Matrix Resurrections" is a strange, winding journey that starts out in a world where the original "Matrix" films were a video game series, created by Thomas "Neo" Anderson (Keanu Reeves), who subsequently had a mental breakdown and attempted suicide.  Now he's working on a new sequel for a Warner Brothers subsidiary, surrounded by sycophants, and constantly being distracted by an attractive mom (Carrie-Ann Moss) at the local cafe.  Significant chunks of the film acts as a metacommentary on living with the success of the original "Matrix" trilogy, and having to figure out a way to revisit it.  

This is not the only genre franchise film that has taken this approach, but it surprised me how much "Resurrections" digs into its examination of nostalgia, leans into the deja vu, and remains so self-aware about what it's doing.  Clips of the original film are used as flashes of Neo's memory throughout, similar to the way Danny Boyle's "Trainspotting" sequel incorporated bits of its original film.  There are scenes of writers discussing what made the trilogy special, and trading fan theories.  One character even has a nice rant on how "The Matrix" furthered along the blockbuster-fication of the movies.  Eventually the plot gets down to the business of chases and fights and gun battles, introducing new characters like Bugs (Jessica Henwick) and The Analyst (Neil Patrick Harris), and new versions of characters like Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Agent Smith (Jonathan Groff).  Though the sequence of events is familiar, the universe gets updated considerably, checking in on old friends and showing how the status quo has changed during the long gap between films.

However, "Resurrections" keeps the story simple.  Neo wants to be with Trinity, and everything boils down to reconnecting the two of them.  Though it shows off a lot of fancy CGI and stunt work, this "Matrix" film is far less interested in set pieces and new effects technology.  Instead, all the narrative emphasis is put on Neo reorienting himself and learning to prioritize his feelings.  "Resurrections" is emphatically a love story, and how much you're invested in Neo and Trinity's relationship is going to determine how well the movie works for you.  Fortunately, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are as magnetic as ever, and I had no problem taking some improbable leaps with them.  Those "Matrix" fans more interested in the philosophical and visually bombastic elements of the series, however, may come away less satisfied with its "love conquers all" attitude.  

Now, Disney Animation's latest feature is "Encanto," a musical set in Colombia, with songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.  We're introduced to the magical Madrigal family, a clan of refugees who were granted a "miracle" long ago when they needed it most.  An enchanted haven, an "encanto" was created, along with a magical, sentient house, "Casita," for the family to inhabit, which became the cornerstone of a thriving new community.  Each Madrigal family member was also granted a superpower, their "gift" - all except for one granddaughter, Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz).  However, Mirabel is also the only one who seems to notice that cracks are forming in the house and the Madrigal family, and she decides to take the initiative and save the family's miracle.  

"Encanto" is packed full of detail and color and motion - maybe a little too full, because it's yet another animated film that I frequently wished would slow down long enough for me to appreciate more of it.  And Lin-Manuel Miranda's rapid-fire lyrical style sure doesn't help combat the sensory overload.  However, this is a film designed to be replayed over and over again, and I found myself being infected by the catchy earworms regardless of how I felt about the music or story.  As with all of Disney's recent films featuring under-represented cultures, like "Raya and the Last Dragon," and "Moana," "Encanto" is very carefully constructed to show the best of Colombia, adding bits of Spanish dialogue and references for Colombian viewers.  The specificity of using one country's culture instead of an amalgam of multiple places helps the creators' efforts feel more genuine. 

More importantly, "Encanto" has a stronger story than most.  Mirabel's struggle to be seen and appreciated in a family where everyone is special is very relatable.  The film explores all kinds of family issues, from sibling rivalries to intergenerational trauma to stifling performance pressure.  It's not just Mirabel who's struggling, but also the family matriarch, Alma (Maria Cecilia Botero), Mirabel's older sisters Luisa (Jessica Darrow) and Isabela (Diane Guerro), and her uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo), the black sheep of the family.  I found the ending a little iffy, and the rules of the miracle and the magic are vague at best, but "Encanto" is much more substantial and dramatically interesting than the usual hero quests of something like "Moana."  And I think it has a much better shot at becoming a Disney perennial.

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"Shang-Chi" Lands a Hit

Minor spoilers ahead.

I've watched the evolution of these Hollywood blockbusters made for Chinese audiences for some time now, and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" is a very interesting case.  Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who hasn't made anything remotely like this movie in the past, it feels more like a Chinese film than most previous attempts, with a significant portion of the dialogue in Chinese, and themes of family reconciliation and legacy.  There are a few nods to the Chinese-American  experience toward the beginning of the film, and other parts of the Chinese diaspora, but the filmmakers quickly shift gears once the characters get to China.  This is a celebration of Chinese culture and mythology first, executed with all the resources of Marvel at their disposal.  

"Shang-Chi" stars Simu Liu as the titular Shang-Chi, a Chinese immigrant who lives in San Francisco, parks cars by day, and hangs out with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina) by night.  Quickly, it's revealed that he's the son of a powerful Chinese underworld figure, Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung), who wields the power of the supernatural weapons, the ten rings.  Wenwu is searching for Shang-Chi and his sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), who he wants to help him find the hidden villain of their late mother, Ying Li (Fala Chen).  The family's complicated history and long string of unprocessed traumas pit everyone against each other, providing plenty of opportunity for all manner of fights, chases, escapes, and demonstrations of crazy powers.  Michelle Yeoh, Ronny Chieng, and a couple of surprises fill out the supporting cast.     

There is a lot of story packed into "Shang-Chi," to the point where there's clearly a lot that was cut out of the film, and it's only in the closing moments when we even get around to asking what the ten rings are or where they came from.  I like that the film doesn't waste much time on certain expository things, like explaining what the rings can do, or who some of the minor characters are.  We just see them in action and the viewer is left to draw their own conclusions.  The action sequences in this film are some of the best in the MCU, using a combination of wuxia, traditional martial arts, and plenty of expensive CGI.  I love that they're allowed to shoulder some of the storytelling - revealing Shang-Chi's martial arts prowess, showing changing relationships, and the changing balance of power.  Between this and "Nobody," this is clearly the year for beatdowns on buses.  

The "Shang-Chi" comic books and the MCU in general haven't had the best track record with portraying Chinese culture respectfully.  Here, all the characters have been carefully rejiggered to be more pro-China, well-rounded, and sympathetic.  The Chinese dialogue was clearly written in Chinese, and the English subtitles often don't convey all the subtleties of it.  Katy, often the only character who doesn't understand Chinese, often feels like the odd one out.  The biggest thing on the movie's side, however, is having Tony Leung as Wenwu.  The character has such a wonderful, tragic arc, and Leung is given the opportunity to deliver an unusually nuanced, moving performance for an MCU villain.        

I'm also happy to report that Simu Liu makes for an excellent new hero, and he has some great humorous chemistry with Awkwafina.  These two may not be the Chinese ideal of what movie heroes should look like, but I found it hard to resist their karaoke-warbling charms.  This is very much still an MCU film, one that follows the formula to the letter.  My biggest complaint with the film is that it ends with a big battle scene with gobs of CGI nonsense, like way too many of these MCU films do.  That said, "Shang-Chi" also has my favorite MCU credits sequence ever.  I'm tempted to write a spoiler post for this movie just so I can gush more about it.

In any case, the MCU is going strong, it's a relief that the filmmakers didn't screw this one up, and I can't wait to see where all these new characters are going to pop up next.  Onward!

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"Val" and "Roadrunner"

Let's compare and contrast the two big celebrity documentaries that came out over the summer, "Val" about the life of actor Val Kilmer, and "Roadrunner," which profiles the departed chef, writer, and presenter Anthony Bourdain.  I came into these films knowing very little about either of them, and found one film  considerably more entertaining and interesting than the other.

To be fair, these are very  different features.  "Val" is something of an autobiopic, relying largely on the participation of the still living Val Kilmer, who shot all the footage and wrote all of the narration, delivered in the first person singular by his son Jack.  Kilmer suffered the loss of his voice after a battle with throat cancer in 2015, and we hear him a few times in the documentary using a voice box.  "Val" reminds me a lot of "Listen to Me Marlon," the recent Marlon Brando documentary that looks back at the life and career of the actor using his own words and observations as a framing device. 

 The weakness of the film is also its strength - this is an extremely subjective narrative.  We get the highlights of Kilmer's acting career from his POV, which is fascinating, but also feels heavily truncated.  He loved doing "The Doors" and "Tombstone," and shares plenty of footage from those projects, but didn't care much for "Batman Forever," and other films are barely acknowledged.  Roughly twenty years of his post-"Batman" career goes by in a five minute montage.  A big running thread through the film is Kilmer's struggle to stay a serious actor in the face of the demands of commercial success.  It's acknowledged that he had a reputation as a "difficult" actor at the height of his fame, and had various career and financial struggles, but the film doggedly refuses to address these subjects in any depth.  

"Val" is more engaging and more touching when it looks in on Kilmer's private life - his childhood and early passion for the stage, his troubled marriage, and his relationships with his children.  I found the sequences with the present-day Kilmer very touching, as they depict him getting on as well as he can with the help of family and friends.  We see his continuing artistic endeavors and his efforts to stay connected to the world after having to largely give up acting.  It's easy to admire and sympathize with him and I certainly wish him well in all his future pursuits.    

However, for a fuller picture of a major celebrity, "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain" is much more satisfying to watch.  Directed by Morgan Neville, who stirred up some controversy by using a "deepfake" voice for a few lines of Bourdain's narration, "Roadrunner" presents Bourdain's POV on his life and work, but also heavily supplements this with interviews from the ones who knew him best - family members, friends, colleagues, and co-workers.  The portrait that emerges is of a wildly talented, adventurous, admirable man who was up against a lot of personal demons and a lot of bad habits.  He enriched the lives of those around him and was deeply loved, but grew steadily less satisfied with the state of his life and relationships as his fame grew.  

"Roadrunner" spends equal time with the high points and the low points of Bourdain's life, including his suicide in 2018.  We get behind-the-scenes looks at the process of putting together his beloved food and travel shows, meeting some of the people behind the camera who were with him the whole way, and learning about some of the drama that happened offscreen.  Having a more well-rounded, complete picture of Bourdain makes him come off as all the more fascinating and admirable.  It doesn't hurt that so much of the footage is absolutely gorgeous, following Bourdain around the globe as he travels from one country to another for "No Reservations" and "Parts Unknown."  The interviewees include David Choe, Eric Ripert, and other fascinating figures whose relationships with Bourdain were sometimes difficult.        

"Roadrunner" is a more typical kind of biographical documentary than "Val," and perhaps takes some liberties that it shouldn't in the name of telling a good story.  However, "Roadrunner" was ultimately the picture that did a better job of convincing me that it had a story worth telling.

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Exploring "Bergman Island"

This is only the second film I've seen from Mia Hansen-Løve, after "Eden."  I feel like I'm still getting to know her as a director, and it's been a little rough going so far, since she tends to make contemplative films about relationships and inner struggles that I have a hard time connecting to.   Her latest, "Bergman Island," is about a couple, Chris (Vicky Krieps) and Tony (Tim Roth), who are both directors.  They visit Fårö Island, the famous home of Ingmar Bergman, and now something of a tourist spot and artists' retreat.  Chris, the less successful of the pair, is troubled by her latest project, which she doesn't have an ending for.   

"Bergman Island" is a slower watch, and much of it is spent with Chris, exploring the island and conversing with Tony and other visitors.  Eventually, an additional storyline is introduced, dramatizing the film that Chris is writing, about young lovers Amy (Mia Wasikowska) and Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie), that becomes increasingly tangled up with Chris's own life.  There's some flirting with meta elements and fourth wall breaking, but these don't feel like they're really the point of the film.  Rather, they're just a means for Hansen-Løve to explore the artistic process and other issues that come up in the course of Chris's self-examination.  For an added level of fun, consider that the original star of the film was supposed to be director Greta Gerwig.

I found "Bergman Island" engaging, but like "Eden," it's more about watching someone live their life than telling an interesting story.  This kind of narrative is more challenging for me, but at least in this case I was able to connect to Chris as a film fan.  I don't think you need to know much about Ingmar Bergman in order to enjoy "Bergman Island," but it is helpful to have some familiarity with his films.  Hansen-Løve clearly takes some influence from Bergman's work, and I suspect that the keys to unlocking the twisty second half of the story are the conversations where Chris expresses her dissatisfaction with Bergman's films, despite her admiration for them.  Bergman's work is dour and tragic, he clearly had problematic views of women, and despite living in such a beautiful place, he always made the island look bleak and uninviting in his films.  

 

So, "Bergman Island" positions itself as something of a subversion of the typical Bergman narrative, while at the same time borrowing bits of his familiar themes and filmmaking techniques.  Hansen-Løve nicely distinguishes herself as a director, with her own take on existential dilemmas and a good sense of humor about her own artistic pretensions.  The actors are all very good, and the juxtaposition of Vickey Krieps and Mia Wasikowska is especially interesting.  There are hints of "Persona" here without the film ever coming close to being a "Persona" homage.  Similarly, Chris and Tony are not the protagonists of "Scenes From a Marriage," though a staff member ominously tells them that the bedroom they will be occupying for the duration of their stay on the island is the one from that particular film.  

But while it's fun examining "Bergman Island" on an intellectual and critical level, I can't say the experience of watching the film in the moment did much for me.  For the first half, it felt very much like a pleasant chronicle of a visit to Fårö Island.  I couldn't help wishing there was more to Chris as a character, and found Amy more compelling as a protagonist, though I know that this is  by design and the two women are really parts of the same character.  Also, frankly, the ending irked me something fierce.  It's too quickly deployed, and cuts off just as fast.  I know it's supposed to be sort of self-referential, because Chris can't find a satisfying ending for Amy's story, but what Hansen-Løve chooses for the end of Chris's story struck me as swinging a pendulum too hard in the other direction.  

Still, I'm glad I watched this and got the opportunity to take it apart for myself.  It's a really heady, fascinating feature that totally commits to its ideas, and that's always admirable.  And I'll be on the lookout for more of Mia Hansen-Løve's work in the future.

  

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"F9" and "Jungle Cruise"

Minor spoilers ahead.

I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm not a fan of the "Fast and Furious" franchise, though I've seen every entry in this series since the fifth.  While I've gotten to know the characters and admire many of the performances, I don't have any investment in where this series is going.  The films are far too haphazard, and the storytelling is far too silly for me to do any more than admire their excesses.  I was glad that Justin Lin was coming  back to direct this installment, and that John Cena was coming onboard to play the villain, but my expectations weren't high.  However, "F9" is on track to be one of the biggest blockbuster films of the year, and since it's one of the only major films that is getting an exclusive theatrical release I felt obligated to give it some attention.   

So here we are again, following Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew of fellow car enthusiasts turned super spies, as they go up against Dom's estranged younger brother Jakob (Cena), who is of course a mercenary assassin and terrific driver - but somehow not allowed to do anything interesting onscreen.  This installment spends a lot of time on flashbacks to Dom's troubled youth, and checking in with a ton of minor characters that the franchise has accumulated over the years, everyone from Kurt Russel's Mr. Nobody to Nathalie Emmanuel as hacker Ramsey.  A few of the bigger name stars and the more obscure ones show up, but it wouldn't be fair to reveal which ones.  The absurdity of the action scenes, including cars jumping impossible chasms, cars being sent flying by giant magnets, and cars being launched into the atmosphere, has been ramped up to infinity and beyond.  The plot really feels like it's beside the point.

On the other hand, there's a sloppiness to the characters constantly switching sides and faking their deaths that is starting to get very long in the tooth.  Secondary characters Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) get a lot of mileage (ahem) out of meta commentary on how ridiculous their lives have become, and how they really should all be dead by now.  This is a lot of fun, but drawing attention to the series' flaws may not be the best tactic here.  While "Fast and Furious" hasn't run out of gas for me yet, it's getting steadily more difficult to forgive all the little moments where we have to put aside basic logic and internal continuity for a cool moment.  And Vin Diesel's Dom keeps getting less and less interesting and charismatic with each installment.  I've been quietly hoping for him to pass the torch to one of his co-stars - any of his co-stars - for a while now.      

A notable actor who doesn't show up in "F9" is Dwayne Johnson, who is starring in Disney's "Jungle Cruise" with Emily Blunt.  I don't think anyone is going to be surprised that this is essentially a "Pirates of the Caribbean" revamp, with Johnson playing an affable steamboat captain named Frank, who makes a living ferrying tourists around the Amazon in the 1910s.  Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a botanist intent on finding a magical cure-all called the Tears of the Moon, which was apparently found by the conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre (Edgar Ramirez) before he disappeared into the jungle in the sixteenth century.  Jack Whitehall is also along for the trip, playing Lily's foppish brother MacGregor, while Jesse Plemmons, Paul Giamatti, and a lot of CGI critters are on hand for villainy.     

"Jungle Cruise" is exactly the kind of movie you'd expect it would be, a family friendly action-adventure comedy with a lot of banter and a lot of slapstick.  Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are very good separately, but not so much together, which is a shame.  They're set up to be a screwball comedy couple, but don't quite have the chemistry to pull it off.  The movie hums along in happy mediocrity, occasionally redeemed by a good moment like Plemmons hamming it up mightily as a German noble, or Johnson making nice with a cuddly CGI jaguar.  As someone who is perhaps a little too familiar with the Disneyland Jungle Cruise ride, I appreciated that there were some callbacks, but I also appreciated that they were dispensed with very quickly.       

The film is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who made his name in much lower budget horror and action films.  It's likely thanks to him that there's so much nightmare imagery and visceral body horror that you wouldn't expect in a film like this.  However, the execution is tripped up by some oddly underwhelming CGI and effects work that looks unfinished in many shots.  However, the machinery of the film's roller coaster ride narrative is well oiled, and avoids ever feeling slow or tedious.  The writing is just clever enough to spring a few surprises and keep your attention, but trots out all the old cliches exactly when you know it will.  

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My Favorite René Laloux Film

Beloved French animator René Laloux's films are all these psychedelic, fantastical adventures that take place on other planets, and are populated by casts of aliens, mutants, and otherworldly beings.  The most famous, "Fantastic Planet," wowed audiences with its wildly imaginative visuals, mind-bending concepts, and trippy score.  Laloux stood out as a producer of more high-minded, experimental, adult animation, coming to prominence around the same time as Ralph Bakshi in the 1970s.  Laloux's work was often in collaboration with other famous French artists and illustrators, with deep roots in French science-fiction and comics.  With Roland Topor, he made "Fantastic Planet," with Caza he made "Gandahar," and with Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius, he made "Time Masters."

"Time Masters" is often looked upon as the least of Laloux's films because it is not immediately visually impressive next to the others, and has a rather meandering story before it pulls off a very good twist.  The animation was primarily produced in Hungary by Pannonia Film Studio, best known for Marcell Jankovic's animated films like "Son of the White Mare" and "The Tragedy of Man."  However, I find it the most entertaining and engaging of Laloux's films, with the best characters.  "Fantastic Planet" and "Gandahar" are these grand epic adventures, featuring larger-than-life, god-like heroes.  These protagonists are very beautiful and charming, but also very bland.  The characters in "Time Masters," on the other hand, are much rougher and more relatable.  We have an odd collection of characters on a spaceship - a roguish pilot, his two fugitive passengers, and an elderly eccentric - who are trying to help a small boy who has been stranded alone on the hostile planet Perdide.  They are only able to talk with him through a small communication device, dubbed Mike.  There are encounters with aliens and monsters and science-fiction phenomena, but "Time Masters" maintains very approachable, very human points of reference to its storytelling throughout.    

As a fan of a lot of the 70s and 80s animation, "Time Masters" may not be as ambitious or as spectacle-based as something like "Gandahar," but it is extremely well executed.  The translation of Moebius's style into animation is excellent, and the film manages to nicely integrate both the caricatured and the highly realistic visual elements together.  The animation doesn't cut corners the way that similar films of the time period often do, and holds up very well.  My favorite characters are the two comic relief "gnomes," Jad and Yula, who comment on the action and largely stay separate from the rest of the crew.  They're telepathic, childlike, and have the ability to fly through the air like sprites and change their forms for comedic emphasis.  Though they move and act in ways that are much more cartoonish than the other characters, there's nonetheless always a real weight and gravity to their forms, so they still feel like they are a part of this universe.  Conversely, the same is true of the monstrous inhabitants of the planet Gamma 10, which look like faceless, identical, stark white angels.  They're stylized just enough that they come across as unreal and fantastical, while also exuding a real menace and danger.    

The story of "Time Masters" is messy, and its worldbuilding could certainly be better.  It feels like random things keep happening to the characters, and the whole adventure on Gamma 10 is like some of the crew just wandered off into a different movie for thirty minutes - a movie that is more reminiscent of the allegorical struggles against tyranny and evil seen in Laloux's other films.  Nobody ever lays down any rules in this universe.  Rather, we're just told how and why things are happening as they happen, often due to cosmic forces like mysterious time controlling aliens, or a sinister hive mind that can be defeated with enough self-hatred and abnegation.  It can be frustrating to watch, but if you give yourself over to the experience, and just accept the strangeness and the weirdness of the film, there is a lot to love.  And while I admire "Gandahar" and "Fantastic Planet," I can't help but prefer "Time Masters," as rough and scruffy as it is.  What it lacks in polish, it more than makes up for in daring.            

What I've Seen - René Laloux

Fantastic Planet (1973)

Time Masters (1982)

Gandahar (1987)

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My Top Ten Films of 1951

This is part of a series of top ten lists from the years before I started this blog.  Entries are listed below in no particular order.  Enjoy.

Scrooge  - I truly feel that every subsequent cinematic adaptation of "A Christmas Carol," including the ones featuring Mickey Mouse, CGI Jim Carrey, and Kermit the Frog, owe something to this version, featuring Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge.  This is the version that establishes so many of the visual tropes and familiar images that we all know and love.  And Sim himself is such a perfect, curmudgeonly Scrooge, whose transformation into a benevolent man is such a joy to behold.  

Bellissima - A very different film about fame is Luchino Visconti's neorealist drama about a woman intent on making her unexceptional little daughter famous.  The mother is played by Anna Magnani, giving a committed performance that is all nerves and anxiety.  As her hopes are continuously strung along, Visconti gives us a critical look at the way show business works in Italy, and how dreams of stardom can make even the most devoted mother lose sight of what's most important for their child.   

Ace in the Hole - One of Billy Wilder's most cynical films explores the dark side of news media sensationalism.  Kirk Douglas is memorably awful as a jaded reporter who seeks to profit off of an accident that has left a man trapped in rubble.  Though the methods and the media are different, the appalling lapses in journalistic ethics are all too familiar.  Wilder does a fantastic job of depicting how the situation spins out of control, and how easy it is to be swept up in the excitement of the crowd.         

The River - A lovely film about a white girl growing up in India, about a first love that goes sour, and about social divides that aren't as insurmountable as they seem.  There are difficult subjects lingering around the edges of the story related to colonialism, exploitation, and colonial strife, but Jean Renoir is able to present a sensitive, thoughtful portrait of adolescence that acknowledges the troubled waters that the children will have to navigate, while still their celebrating their momentary innocence and joy. 

A Streetcar Named Desire - The melodrama feels very tame today, but at the time of its release, this adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play was considered one of the most shocking, daring films ever made.  Simply making veiled references to Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski's sexual impropriety and psychological issues was considered pushing boundaries.  The intense performances, especially on the part of Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh make "Streetcar" a striking piece of cinema to this day.   

The African Queen - Famously, this is the film that Humphrey Bogart finally won his Oscar for, and it was well deserved.  The story of the behind-the-scenes madness of the making of this film is the stuff of movie legend.  John Huston shot much of "The African Queen" on location in extreme conditions, but the resulting images were worth it.  The chemistry between the leads, however, is what really makes the film a great watch, and helped to set the template for so many adventure film romances that followed.  

M - The Joseph Losey remake of Fritz Lang's crime classic is a fantastic film in and of itself.  I especially appreciate it for the way that it transplants the action from Berlin to Los Angeles, and is largely shot on locations.  Thus, it is able to serve as a time capsule for the city during the 1950s, preserving views of neighborhoods that don't exist anymore.  And while it does a great job of recreating segments of the original "M," the remake comes up with a few of its own - including the fantastic Bradbury building heist.

Death of a Salesman - This adaptation of Arthur Miller's play has become fairly obscure over time, but I enjoy it greatly for its stellar cast and its intense, dramatic filmmaking.  I also find the story of Willy Lohman and his family more poignant when it's being told using the familiar dramatic devices of the time period from which it was originally conceived.  The bleak cinematography pairs beautifully with Miller's language, and I appreciate the film retains certain sequences other adaptations tend to remove.

Strangers on a Train - The critics didn't like this Alfred Hitchcock thriller much when it was first released, as they thought it was too sensational and too contrived.  However, the precisely orchestrated thrills and chills, and the outre characters are so clearly the point of the film, and Hitch used them to create some of his most wonderful moments of cinema.  My favorite is the tennis match sequence, where the crowd is watching the ball go back and forth - except for one man, whose steady gaze is instantly disturbing. 

An American in Paris - Possibly the apex of the Gene Kelly musical extravaganza.  The dance sequences were never bigger or more elaborate, with a full blown ballet serving as the film's thrilling climax.  The art direction, which not only recreates Paris, but multiple artists' versions of Paris, is absolutely spectacular.  The George Gershwin music is, of course, a marvel.  And then there's Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, falling in love through song and dance in a way that could only happen in the movies.  

Honorable Mention:

The Steel Helmet 

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The State of the Superhero, 2022

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but I feel like it's a good time to take a look at what's coming up in superhero media in the next year, now that everyone's made their schedule adjustments and we have a better idea of what's actually coming out in 2022.  I'm not going to talk about every single superhero film and show coming our way, but hopefully cover enough of them to get a good sense of what the landscape looks like right now.

Let's start with the MCU, which had an okay 2021, but one with some significant ups and downs.  "Black Widow" clearly suffered from being one of the first blockbusters back in theaters, "Shang-Chi" did a bit better than expected, "Eternals" had a mixed reception at best, and "Spider-man" wiped the floor with everyone.  Fortunately for their pocketbooks, the MCU film slate is all sequels this year - "Doctor Strange" and "Thor" in summer, and "Black Panther" for the holidays.  "Black Panther" is going to be the really interesting one because of the absence of Chadwick Boseman and some of the behind-the-scenes drama that's been going on.

The more interesting MCU media is going to be on Disney+, which is moving into series based on new characters like Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk, plus Sam Jackson will finally get top billing in a "Secret Invasion" series.  "Moon Knight" is the project that I'm most looking forward to, and the one that easily could have been a feature with the talent they have onboard - Oscar Isaac as the titular Moon Knight and Ethan Hawke as the villain.  Oh, and we can't forget about the "Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," which is expected in December, and will help set up their next sequel in 2023, or the Gael Garcia Bernal Halloween werewolf special… yeah.

Sony, meanwhile, still has "Morbius" delayed from 2020, and the highly anticipated "Spider-Verse" sequel is expected in the fall.  The Venom sequel did very well for them, and we can probably expect another one somewhere down the line.    

"New Mutants" is, alas, probably the end of the cinematic "X-men" universe for a while.  Deadpool popped up in a "Free Guy" promo last year, but the third "Deadpool" movie remains MIA.

On to DC.  They had a rough pandemic with "Wonder Woman 1984" and the surprising failure of James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" over the summer, despite strong reviews.  It looks like Warners is done with "Suicide Squad" as a franchise, or they would be if it weren't for the "Peacemaker" spinoff miniseries with John Cena, that's already been prepped to premiere on HBO Max in a few weeks.   I don't think we'll be seeing much of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn in the future, which is too bad.  

DC is also releasing a ton of films in 2022: "The Batman" starring Robert Pattinson in March, "Black Adam" starring Dwayne Johnson in July, "The Flash," in November, and  "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" in December.  Out of all of these, I'm looking forward to "Flash" the most, because the character has been fun in his DCEU appearances so far, and I can't resist some Tim Burton's "Batman" nostalgia.  I thought "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" was further along in production, but if that's being held back to be a summer tentpole for 2023, I'm not going to complain.  Oh, and there's also the "DC League of Super-Pets" animated film, which looks adorable.  

Finally, I'm keeping  an eye on a handful of other film projects, including the original  "Secret Headquarters" with Owen Wilson at Paramount, and "Samaritan" with Sylvester Stallone at UA, which is based on graphic novels from Mythos Comics.  Legendary also has their "Toxic Avenger" reboot with Peter Dinklage in the works, expected to be a comedic family film.

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Rank 'Em: "What If…?" Year One

The MCU's first animated series was mostly a success, as I enjoyed most of the installments.  The animation style is a little bland, but certainly executed well.  The stories are often much darker than I expected, and it was nice not knowing where anything was going from week to week.  This is very much a show aimed at the fans, however, because it assumes a lot of knowledge of the MCU.  Casual watchers may get lost.

I think the best way to talk about this series, as with any anthology, is to tackle every episode on its own merits.  Hence, a "Rank 'Em" post.  So here they are, from best to least.  Many, many spoilers ahead. 

1. "Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?" - This is the darkest episode of the series, but also the one where I felt the show really justified being told with animation.  We see Strange's life and his whole world literally collapse because he can't let go of Christine.  And while I'd ordinarily be unhappy with the dead girlfriend trope, Strange being unable to accept the death is the whole point of the story.  And honestly, Christine is put to better use here than she was in the "Doctor Strange" movie.

2. "The Watcher Broke His Oath?" - It is super satisfying to see all the callbacks to all the different stories as everyone teams up for the final showdown.  The big battle is a lot of fun, with its multiple twists, and the ending feels earned.  However, what really makes this episode so memorable is the use of characters like Killmonger, Doctor Strange, and Black Widow.  I was surprised how invested I was in their stories.   I even like frat boy Thor in this as comic relief, much more than I liked him in his own episode.

3. "Ultron Won?" - And here's the penultimate episode where The Watcher finds a threat too big to ignore, and has to get involved.  For the first half of the episode, Ultron's victory over the Avengers is appropriately chilling, even if his easy takedown of Thanos is sort of hilarious.  Ultron gaining enough power to start breaking through the barriers of the different universes, however, really gives the story an extra punch in the third act.  The cliffhanger with Doctor Strange is the icing on the cake.  

4. "Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?" - Killmonger is one of the best MCU villains, because he has an interesting backstory and stance on how the world should work, and I was excited to see him get more screen time.  Pairing him up with Tony Stark was a great choice, giving Killmonger a chance to show off his brainier side, and Michael B. Jordan's performance is excellent.  I also like the way this one resolves, leaving multiple characters at a crossroads and making good use of the Chadwick Boseman cameo.  

5. "Zombies?!" - The twists and turns in this one are great, and I appreciate that we get a different mix of featured characters than the norm - Wasp, Spider-man, Bucky, Ant-man's roommate, and Doctor Strange's cloak?  It ends exactly when it should, leaving room for more adventures in this very morbid reality.  I like that so many of the "What If…?" installments offer a good look at how each new universe operates, but doesn't resolve neatly.  It lets some of the stories go to some very un-MCU places.

6. "T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?" - It's one running joke throughout, but it's a good one.  T'Challa doesn't just become a Star-Lord, but evidently the greatest guy in the universe who is able to win over everyone he meets - including Thanos!  Really, I don't know if this one would have worked without the charisma of Chadwick Boseman.  There are some awkward bits, like these specific versions of Nebula and the Collector, but otherwise this is a lot of fun to watch, especially if you're a "Guardians of the Galaxy" fan. 

7. "Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?" - The premiere episode is devoted to easing viewers into the series with a fairly straightforward, one-to-one substitution of Sharon Carter for Steve Rogers.  And it's got some nice action sequences and one-liners, but it's all pretty predictable and obvious.  I like Captain Carter as a character, but I just wish that she got more interesting things to do here.  Fortunately, the finale gives her a much better capper to her story than her actual episode.    

8. "Thor Were an Only Child?" - The silliest installment of the lot, that keeps compounding the visual gags and the cameos and the jokes as Thor goes on an epic party bender, wrecks Earth, and is finally forced to shape up by Captain Marvel and his mother.  I like Jane Foster in this quite a bit, since it shows her getting giddy and flustered from her encounters with Thor, but I don't think I've ever liked Thor less.  Even if he's supposed to be ridiculous, frat boy Thor's goofiness is way out of proportion in this one. 

9. "The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?" - I was onboard for the morbid whodunit premise, but I didn't like the way that the story panned out, or the ultimate villain of the piece.  It also feels like this was added to the series at the last minute, as it's the only episode that isn't directly referenced in the finale.  

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