Biting the "Borat" Bullet

I did not want to watch the "Borat" sequel.  I spent most of the last six months actively trying to avoid it, ignoring the good reviews, the awards chatter, and the various pop culture reactions.  I watched the original "Borat" in a theater in 2006, and it was one of my best moviegoing experiences.  I didn't like the movie all that much, finding the crude humor and garish characters more cringe-inducing than anything else, but the communal experience was amazing.  And I admired Sacha Baron Cohen for his willingness to go so far in the name of satire and comedy, even if I found his output hard to take.

This time around, with the contentious election looming and COVID ramping up again, I was in no mood for anything provocative or edgy.  I was already uncomfortably aware how racist, misinformed, and how self-deluded many Americans were, and didn't feel like sitting through something that was just going to confirm this in the most awkward and embarrassing way possible.  I'd seen some of the clips of the Rudy Giuliani encounter and Borat's appearance at CPAC, so I figured I wasn't missing much.  However, when the end of the year lists started rolling out, and the support for the film stayed strong, I got more curious.  So, during my annual catch-up marathon, I made time for "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

I still don't much enjoy the character of Borat Sagdiyev, the fictional Kazakh reporter who is deeply racist, misogynist, and comes from a cartoonishly fictionalized Kazakhstan that represents the worst, most ignorant American views of foreigners.  However, I think the "Subsequent Moviefilm" uses him better this time out.  Cohen has clearer targets and a better storyline, allowing the character to evolve a little.  A big part of the film's success is also due to Tutar, Borat's teenage daughter, played fearlessly by Maria Bakalova.  She comes along on his latest trip to the United States, and quickly gets herself involved in her father's hijinks.  Because Borat is so recognizable, he's often in disguise or puts himself in the supporting role while Tutar takes the spotlight.  The two of them together are a formidable pair of troublemakers, and their relationship forms the surprisingly solid spine of the film.  

Cohen and his collaborators primarily go after the Trump administration and the alt-right, visiting a March for Our Rights rally, QAnon conspiracy theorists, CPAC, and the Hillsborough Republican Women's Club, as well as more traditional targets like a crisis pregnancy center.  A good chunk of the story involves Borat wanting to give Tutar as a gift to Mike Pence, so there are also trips to the plastic surgeon, a beauty salon, a social media beauty guru, and a debutante ball.  Once again, Borat uncovers hypocrisy and appalling behavior wherever he goes, but there are also encounters that turn out to be surprisingly sweet and uplifting.  Tutar is left in the care of a professional babysitter at one point, a woman named Jeanise Jones, who encourages her to reject plastic surgery and stand up for herself.  Borat also visits a synagogue, and is gently approached and shown compassion from an old woman who turns out to be a Holocaust survivor.    

So, the movie may show America is a screwed up place, but there's some hope in the mix too.  Borat and Tutar get a happy ending, and the person getting the worst of the fallout from the film so far seems to be Rudy Giuliani.  I also like "Subsequent Moviefilm" as a time capsule for this particular moment in American history, which already feels like it's quickly receding into the past even though the pandemic is far from over and Trump is barely out the door.  If you didn't like the first "Borat" film, this one will not change your mind.  I continue to roll my eyes at the scatalogical segments, and the more obvious pranks feel very old hat in the era of internet nasties like Jake Paul. 

Still, it's weirdly comforting to have Borat back in action, showing us how ridiculous we are.  It might be gallows humor, but these days a little laughter goes a long way.  

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"Ma Rainey" and "The 40 Year Old Version"

"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is getting a lot of attention for featuring one of the final performances of Chadwick Boseman, one of his best.  The production is a star-studded prestige affair, adapting the celebrated August Wilson play about blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) coming to Chicago in 1927 to record a new album.  The recording session is an ordeal, thanks to Ma's endless demands and refusal to compromise, clashes with the band's trumpet player Levee (Boseman), and various technical and artistic issues that crop up.  Caught in the crossfire are Ma's agent Irvin (Jeremy Shamos), the recording studio ower Sturdyvant (Jonny Coyne), and the other members of the band, Toledo (Glynn Turman), Cutler (Colman Domingo), and Slow Drag (Michael Potts).

"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" feels like a play, much in the same way that "Fences" did, with its limited locations and long monologues.  This is not a bad thing, as the production is lively and well-executed.  I appreciate the way that the performers are showcased, particularly Davis and Boseman.  The play itself is an absorbing examination of the way black performers are exploited by the white music industry, and the unfortunate repercussions.  Boseman's ambitious Levee emerges as the central character, a talented, troubled man who is charming one minute and dangerous the next.  Boseman's work here is a clear highlight, letting him play far more shades of gray than I've seen him play before.  Viola Davis as Ma Rainey is also stunner, less comic and more poignant in this version.  No matter how spoiled or exasperating her behavior, there's always a tangible undercurrent of fear and desperation.       

Moreover, I like how nimble the film is, directed by theater veteran George C. Wolfe.  It runs a trim 94 minutes, and is often enlivened with music, humor, and unpredictable changes in tone.  There clearly wasn't much of a budget, but the raw aesthetics help lend "Ma Rainey" a little more authenticity while undercutting any romantic notions of being a working musician during this era.  Ma herself, with her haphazard makeup and faded glamour, is hard to forget.  There are a few elements that don't translate well to film - a major third act confrontation doesn't quite land - but all in all I found the film highly watchable and very moving.

However, whether due to the subject matter or the artifice inherent in the construction of "Ma Rainey," I didn't connect to it the way I connected to Radha Blank's "The Forty Year-Old Version."  This is the semi-autobiographical tale of Radha, who plays a version of herself as a struggling New York playwright trying to do something significant before her fast-approaching fortieth birthday.  Once a rising star, she hasn't had any significant work produced in years, and is scraping by while teaching a high school theater class.  Her agent and best friend Archie (Peter Kim) connects her with a wealthy white producer named Whitman (Reed Birney), who only offers work that would require her to sell out.  She decides to try becoming a rapper, taking on the name RadhaMUSPrime and enlisting the help of a music producer, D (Oswin Benjamin).

I think I love this film, even if it's too long, I know nothing about rap music, and there were several moments of the kind of potent cringe I tend to avoid in films if I can.  However, Radha Blank is such an appealing onscreen presence.  And I love her willingness to keep trying and keep experimenting, even if it often just leads her to humiliation.  I love the way the story happily subverts the easy positivity of similar narratives about struggling artists.  There's a realism and an honesty to Radha's portrayal of her experience that is so refreshing to see - the homeless guy who hangs out in front of her apartment who refuses to be befriended, her passel of bright young students who can be alternately great cheerleaders or crushing critics, and of course Archie, her gay, yuppie, Korean agent who really is a slimeball, but one who is still her dear friend.  The plotting is a little contrived, especially the ending, but in the end Radha earns her big moments. 

The film is mostly in black and white, except for a few segments depicting Radha's work as a playwright, and occasional errant thought running through her mind.  I think it's a good choice here, because it helps keep the focus on the performances, which are great.  I didn't know a single one of the featured actors coming into this film, and now I want to see Blank, Kim, and Benjamin in everything.  I really hope that Radha Blank goes on to make more films, because I so enjoy her voice and her take on the theater community - her chronicle of the process of selling out is deeply funny and upsetting at the same time. 

Both films are available on Netflix.  Do watch and enjoy.       

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"It Should Happen To You" Should Happen to You

Working my way through '50s cinema these past few months, there haven't been many films that I've really enjoyed for their pure entertainment value.  Then I watched my first Judy Holliday film in roughly a decade, and I was promptly swept off my feet.  Written by Garson Kanin and directed by George Cukor, "It Should Happen to You" is a sparkling screwball comedy featuring Holliday paired with Jack Lemmon in his screen debut.  

After a long string of Marilyn Monroe movies, it was so good to see Holliday again.  Like Monroe, her screen persona is that of the sweetly naive and silly blonde, but the difference is that Holliday is shrewd and street smart in spite of this.  Here, she plays Gladys Glover, an unemployed New York model who decides to spend her hard-earned money to rent a billboard and put her name in giant letters over Columbus Circle.  Her passion for fame puts her on a rapid ascent to celebrity, to the exasperation of her would-be boyfriend Pete Sheppard, played by Lemmon.  She's also being pursued by hot shot executive Evan Adams, played by Peter Lawford.  Gladys's choice isn't really between Pete and Evan, but between Pete and her dreams of fame.  

And it's so much fun to watch Holliday in the first act, stubbornly negotiating with the ad executives and the billboard company, refusing to be steamrollered or sweet-talked into giving up her billboard.  She refuses to justify herself to Pete, who views her whole scheme as ridiculous, and holds her own during their many arguments about the subject.  Of course, Pete wins her over in the end, but Gladys is no pushover.  She decides for herself, after witnessing the phoniness and hypocrisy of various ad campaigns, that the business isn't for her.  The argument scenes between Holliday and Lemmon are fantastic, with just the right amount of absurdity.  One sequence has Holliday running up and down a flight of stairs as she keeps trying to get in the last word. 

It's also great to see Jack Lemmon here, his screen presence already fully formed after years of work on television.  Pete is a documentarian, and has a lot of fun bits of business with his 16mm camera.  I can't help wishing that we could have seen more of the action from his point of view.  However, it's the vulnerability that comes through, despite his fast-talking and bluster, that really sells the romance.  There's a film-within-a-film segment that is one of the most charming things I've ever seen him do.  Poor Peter Lawford is awfully stiff by comparison, even when having drinks spilled on him.  I suppose that makes him perfect as the symbol of Gladys's disillusionment with fame and fortune.  

One thing I really appreciate about the romantic comedies from this era is that they're fairly light on sentimentality.  Nobody mopes.  The pace never flags.  The big romantic gestures made by both parties function as punchlines as much as emotional beats.  A modern take on the same story - and couldn't you just see this one being remade so easily with a vlogger and an influencer? - would emphasize the romance over the comedy.  "It Should Happen to You" tilts much more toward the comedic side, and doesn't waste a moment.  Like most comedies of its time, it runs a brisk 87 minutes and doesn't feel short at all.  

I liked "It Should Happen to You" so much that I went and found "Phffft," the Lemmon and Holliday romantic comedy that they made later in the same year, directed by Mark Robson.  It does not compare, but it did cement my opinion that Holliday and Lemmon are great together, and I wish we had more pictures with them paired.  Judy Holliday's list of credits is depressingly short on its own, but I have at least three more of her films I haven't seen.  I'll be saving them for a rainy day.   

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"The Mandalorian," Year Two (With Spoilers)

As it says in the title, spoilers ahead.

I watched "Return of the Jedi" over and over when I was a kid, and I know the last hour of that film pretty much line for line.  So when Luke Skywalker showed up on the season finale of "The Mandalorian," I was as excited as anyone.  When he was finally fully revealed and started talking, the spell was immediately broken, as the show didn't have the budget or resources to deliver more than an obvious CGI deepfake who sounded all wrong.  However, for that first shot of the reveal, they had me.  It was just a few seconds, but they managed to bring "Return of the Jedi" Luke back in all his Jedi glory, and I loved it.  The lead-up was beautiful, with all those little visual and aural hints, and the big hallway action sequence that echoed Darth Vader's cameo at the end of "Rogue One."  I rewatched it multiple times, and then went and binged Youtube reaction videos for good measure.  

Of course, after the nostalgia hit had subsided, I realized that Luke's appearance was a massive deus ex machina and a distraction from everything else going on in "The Mandalorian."  Din and Grogu's goodby scene happened way too fast, considering that their relationship is the one big thing that has kept this show going since the beginning.  All the other characters are still on Moff Gideon's cruiser trying to figure out what to do with the darksaber.  My reaction to Luke was also markedly different from my reactions to the appearances of all the other legacy characters that appeared in the show this season - Bo Katan and Ahsoka Tano from the animated "Star Wars" series, and Boba Fett from the original trilogy.  While it was interesting to meet these characters, I didn't have much personal connection to them.  And frankly, though Rosario Dawson looks great in the costume, Ahsoka came off as overly solemn and stiff when actually interacting with people.  And I have no interest in watching a full series about her, no matter how many Kurosawa visuals Dave Filoni wants to heap on it.  

So, the limits of my own nostalgia have become perfectly clear this year.  Having not watched "Clone Wars" or "Rebels," when their characters showed up in "The Mandalorian," it did nothing for me.  And the more the showrunners lean into the nostalgia, the less effective it often is.  I wish they had spent more of their time on the original characters from "The Mandalorian."  I love Ming-Na as Fennec Shand and Gina Carano as Cara Dune.  Frog Lady was one of the highlights of the year.  Moff Gideon really needed more attention, as he just felt like a weak Vader stand-in.  The only one of these legacy characters I'd like to see more of is Bo Katan, because she's setting up more story for Mando, and she's got complicated allegiances.  I feel like there's more to learn about her.  None of that sort of groundwork was set up with Ahsoka or Boba Fett.

"The Mandalorian" has been mostly satisfying otherwise.  I'm sure the separation between Din and Grogu will be brief, as the creators know what a gold mine the little green guy is.  I liked that both of them got a little character progression - not a lot, but a little is fine when you're talking about an action show full of monsters and fight scenes.  I want to give the show all due credit for all the things it does right, like the beautifully tactile costumes, worldbuilding, and effects.  And the wonderfully diverse cast of characters.  And the way it uses the "Star Wars" visual language so beautifully while dropping in these homages to older media.  There is so much work and so much love that goes into this production, and it's still a marvel that "The Mandalorian" exists at all.  

And its future worries me.  I think this is a rich universe that absolutely can sustain more than one series at the same time.  However, I think Lucasfilm is pushing its luck with the number they currently have in development.  Out of all of these projects, the two I actually intend to watch right now are Obi-Wan Kenobi and Cassian Andor's shows, because of their lead actors.  If I watch "Boba Fett," it'll be for Ming-Na.  But nostalgia is what Disney's banking on, and nostalgia's what I've just about run out of.

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"The Mandalorian," Year Two (No Spoilers)

"The Mandalorian" fully blew up into a national phenomenon this year, with big streaming numbers, tons of merchandise, and every episode awaited with happy anticipation by its fans.  This is the show that's saved "Star Wars," apparently, and I feel like such a grinch even trying to voice my concerns about it.  The second season was a lot of fun, ironing out a lot of the production kinks from the first season and delivering some truly impressive feats of spectacle.  On the other hand, the story is also moving in a direction I'm not too sure about.  This post will be a spoiler-free review, and I want to talk about the last episode with spoilers in the next one.

The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and the Child are still traveling the galaxy, looking for other Mandalorians and people who might be able to help them get the little green foundling back where he belongs.  There are a lot of familiar faces and new characters to get acquainted with, though which category individuals fall in depends on how much you know about the rest of the "Star Wars" franchise.  A big development this year is that several characters from the "Clone Wars" and "Rebels" animated series, shepherded for years by Dave Filoni, are starting to cross over into the "Mandalorian."  While I'm not familiar with them, I thought these characters were mostly handled well, and brought some interesting new bits and pieces of "Stars Wars" lore with them.

What I was less happy about was learning that at least two of the major characters who show up this year are getting spun off into their own shows, and that "The Mandalorian" is doubling down in certain story elements that are pretty certain to put him in more contact with the older, more familiar parts of the "Star Wars" universe.  I've been enjoying "The Mandalorian" so much because it's been able to strike out into uncharted territory.  I like the show's steadily growing roster of original characters, like Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers).  There's an unnamed frog lady who features in two early episodes, played by Misty Rosas, who is a delight.  There are more puppets and models and large scale action sequences this year.  It feels like the whole production has gotten a major boost, allowing it to tackle really big, blockbuster film level action sequences.  The premiere features a fight on Tatooine against a Krayt dragon, a massive creature we'd only seen the skeleton of in the original "Star Wars."  The next episode is a survival story featuring hostile ice spiders.  It's fabulous stuff.    

"The Mandalorian" sticks to the format of the old television western, and we have episodes devoted to escort missions, fake lawmen, uneasy alliances, and rescue parties, among other things.  The regularity of having new guest stars every week takes away some of the awkwardness of several of these episodes pretty obviously being backdoor pilots.  There's no dip in quality or string or obvious filler episodes this year, and the momentum of the story is pretty strong.  I think the one major weakness of this season is that the main villain, Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), who is awfully derivative and gets no actual character aside from being a standard evil imperial.  He does have a pack of new badass Dark Troopers, however, that come with their own dubstep techno theme music.  Composer Ludwig Göransson remains one of the show's MVPs.

Step back from the whiz-bang cool of the action and effects, and the series sometimes falls short when it comes to character and story.  There were enough instances of humor falling flat or exposition being rattled off by a bored-sounding actor from under layers of prosthetics that I took notice.  One of the most touching, emotional moments of the season is dreadfully undercut by the distracting use of effects that aren't quite up to par.  There are plenty of good moments and great creative choices that outweigh the bad, but "The Mandalorian" is far from consistent and could still use some improvements in key areas. 

  

And I'm worried that this won't be a priority.  The show has all the potential in the galaxy to be whatever it wants to be, but with its creators' attentions about to be split, and with so many other interests in play to keep the "Star Wars" franchise going, I worry that "The Mandalorian" has already peaked.  I'm sure the show will go on for many more seasons, and we'll get many more exciting adventures with the Mandalorian and friends, but their universe feels like it's about to get a whole lot smaller.  

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PIXAR Brings the "Soul"

I've been a little resistant to the charms of PIXAR's "Soul," and I'm not sure why.  It's an absolutely lovely piece of cinema, featuring all the creative powers of the PIXAR artists at their best, and telling the kind of original story I'm always glad to see from them.  The hero is a middle-aged, African-American piano player and music teacher named Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), who loves playing jazz but has struggled to launch his career as a professional musician.  Then one day, he suffers a terrible accident and finds himself a disembodied soul on an existential quest to return to his body, avoid "the Great Beyond," and help mentor a new soul dubbed 22 (Tina Fey). 

"Soul" is one of the most ambitious films PIXAR has made yet, all about the concepts of life and death, meaning and purpose.  There's nothing remotely toyetic in sight, but there are a lot of difficult ideas handled in interesting ways.   22, for instance, needs to discover her "spark" before she can go to Earth.  Joe assumes that a "spark" is a passion or purpose, like his love for music,  but of course it's much more complicated.  As a disembodied soul, Joe travels through planes of being like "the Zone," that is usually accessed by transcendental experiences, and the "Great Before," the home of new souls being prepared for life.  There are also the Jerrys and Terrys who look after the souls, Lost Souls who have become stuck in existential funks, and a gang of New-Agers who travel the Zone for fun. 

However, the film is at its best when Joe is living his unglamorous life in New York -  trying to inspire a roomful of students, getting a haircut, visiting his mother Libba (Phylicia Rashad), and landing his big break - a gig with saxophone player Dorthea Williams (Angela Bassett).  New York has never looked more beautiful in its full autumnal glory, and perhaps jazz has never been more lovingly brought to screen.  There's such care and such attention to detail in the way that the musicians are animated, the way that finger movements and body language are captured.  And no small amount of credit should go to Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and John Batiste, for their contributions to the score.  

The metaphysical hijinks are a lot of fun, but they feel awfully reminiscent of director Pete Docter's last film, "Inside Out," but with less color and vibrancy.   There's a lot to like about the fantasy visions of places like the Great Beyond - essentially a giant "2001: a Space Odyssey" homage, or the Jerrys who are abstract line-art people, but at the same time it all feels reductionist and oversimplified in a way that prior PIXAR movies have usually managed to avoid.  It's strange to be drawing comparisons to other versions of the afterlife (and prelife) from movies like "Defending Your Life," "A Matter for Life and Death," and such, but the "Soul" version feels oddly lacking.  Joe's real living existence is so rich and beautiful and finely textured, that pairing it with such a cartoonish, simplistic conception of non-life doesn't quite seem to fit.    

These are minor complaints, of course.  I fully enjoyed the way the film played out, providing some new twists on old concepts, and exploring various ideas that only animation could do justice to.  The performances are a lot of fun, and I think the best compliment I can give them is that I had no idea who voiced Joe or 22 until the end credits.  I also appreciated that "Soul" is about an adult grappling with adult problems and crises, and resolves them in a mature way.   Much is left ambiguous, revelations are not spelled out, and Joe is left to make his big decisions by himself.  I honestly don't know how kids are going to react to this one, though I expect they'll enjoy the funny bits and the bright colors, which there are plenty of.  

"Soul" is wonderfully life-affirming, a marvel to look at, and a worthy addition to the PIXAR lineup.  I don't know if I buy its conception of how souls and the universe work, but its heart is definitely in the right place.  

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Listening Closely For "Sound of Metal"

I want to be careful in my praise of "Sound of Metal," the directing debut of Darius Marder, because it deals with subject matter that has been at the center of debate and controversy in the deaf community.  The experiences of the protagonist, Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed), are very specific and personal, and he doesn't take any particular stand one way or another, but his story does touch on some sensitive issues.

Ruben is a heavy metal drummer and recovering drug addict who is touring the U.S. with his bandmate and girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke), when his hearing begins to severely degrade.  After disorienting trips to doctors and specialists, the extent of Ruben's condition becomes clear - profound and irreversible hearing loss.  Ruben is convinced to join a program for deaf addicts run by a man named Joe (Paul Raci).  Still in deep denial about becoming deaf, Ruben wants to get cochlear implants and keep performing.  He feels abandoned by Lou, who is supportive, but has continued to tour without him.  However, spending more time with other deaf people proves valuable for Ruben, and he starts to shift his outlook.

There are two major components that elevate "Sound of Metal" - the excellent performance of Riz Ahmed as Ruben, and the way that the film uses sound.  The viewer is often put in Ruben's headspace by only hearing what he does in certain scenes.  We share in his confusion as he tries to communicate with others, and his frustration in suddenly being cut off from a big part of his world and coping mechanisms.  The strongest section of the film is the first third or so, when Ruben is still trying to function normally with his diminishing hearing, and struggling with the chaotic, frightening nature of his decline.  He tries to hide his condition from Lou, and it's only when she takes control of the situation that Ruben is able to get some help.

Riz Ahmed deserves all the kudos he's gotten for this role, playing Ruben as a man who is barely holding his life together, still battling his addiction demons, and not at all in a good mental place to tackle such a major life change.  One common criticism I've seen of the film is that it slows down too much in the second third, when Ruben joins Joe's treatment program and learns the fundamentals of navigating the world while deaf.  However, it's necessary not only for the story, but for the audience to get to know Ruben at his best and worst.  Ahmed puts Ruben's frailties on display, but also his talent and charm and capacity for doing good.  It raises the stakes so much more when we get a taste of the kind of person that Ruben could be at his best.  

I can't say much about the final third of the film where Ruben rejoins society, for fear of spoilers, except that I'm glad that it addresses the big, thorny issues in play related to cochlear implants and the deaf community, and gets Ruben to appreciate the position that Joe stands for, without going so far as to advocate for either side.  The movie ends in the right place, not when Ruben has made any kind of definitive choice, but when he seems to finally have an understanding about what his choices actually entail, and their consequences.  

"Sound of Metal" is not without its odd or contrived moments, and I felt that Ruben's relationship with Lou got seriously short shrift.  Still, the film is remarkably good at getting certain ideas across, and the sound design alone is worth the price of admission.  I wouldn't go as far as to say that watching this movie gives you a good idea of what it's like to experience profound hearing loss, but it's exceptional at putting you in the shoes of someone in that position, and getting you to empathize with him. 

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Your 2021 Oscar Nominees

Well, we made it.  After an extended, and eventful Oscar season, the nominees are out, and it's a pretty strong batch this year, all things considered.  The race wouldn't have looked the same if this had been a normal year - I suspect that the smaller films like "Promising Young Woman" would have been edged out - but it's got a little something for everyone, spread the wealth around, and there are some interesting surprises too.

First, my watch list just got longer again.  I feel compelled to track down "The United States vs. Billie Holiday," for Andra Day's performance, "The White Tiger" for Ramin Bahrani's screenplay nod, and "News of the World" for four nominations in smaller categories.  However, my apologies to Glenn Close, but I don't think I can work up any interest in "Hillbilly Elegy."  There were a lot of latecomers to the race this year that didn't end up on my radar for one reason or another, but in the end the big titles were pretty constant throughout: "Trial of the Chicago 7," "Mank," "Nomadland," "Minari," and "The Father."  Of the many strong African American films this year, "Judas and the Black Messiah" is not the one I would have gone with as a front runner.  At least "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and "One Night in Miami" got nods for performances, but the biggest snub this year was easily Delroy Lindo not appearing for "Da 5 Bloods."  The Best Score nod for "Da 5 Bloods" just looks bizarre.  I love Lakeith Stanfield, but there's clearly category fraud going on with his nomination for Best Supporting Actor.  Who was the lead in "Judas," if not him?  

Best surprise of the day is Thomas Vinterberg getting the Best Director nomination.  I wish Mads Mikkelson could have gotten a nomination, but the race was very tight this year.  And I'm delighted at the nominations for Steven Yeun, Riz Ahmed, Vanessa Kirby, Leslie Odom Jr., Paul Raci, Maria Bakalova, and Youn Yuh-jung, though I don't think any of them is going to win.  My predictions are - "Nomadland" and Chloe Zhao for Picture and Director, with the Acting trophies going to Chadwick Boseman, Frances McDormand, and Daniel Kaluuya, with Best Supporting Actress being a tossup.  You know, I wouldn't be mad if they gave it to Glenn Close at this point, this year has been so weird.  

"Borat" got more love than I was expecting, which is wild.  "Tenet" barely made a showing, with the same number of nominations as "Mulan" and the Matteo Garrone version of "Pinocchio."  "The Mauritanian" got totally shut out, which I'm a little sad about.  I've only seen three of the Best Documentary and two of the Best International Feature nominees, including "Collective," which is in both categories.  "Love and Monsters" got a Visual Effects nomination in a year with barely any blockbusters.  "Eurovision" got a song nomination.  Oh, and congratulations to Derek Cianfrance for his first Oscar nomination for co-writing "Sound of Metal."

It's a great year for representation, and I'm generally happy with how the nominations shook out. I have my usual frustrations over oddball categories like Documentary, which passed over a slew of strong contenders like "Dick Johnson is Dead" and "The Painter and the Thief," and Animated Feature, where the deeply mediocre "Over the Moon" won out over "The Croods: A New Age."  Still, some of the iffier possibilities like Chadwick Boseman getting a double nomination, and Jared Leto for "The Little Things" didn't pan out, and I think that's for the best. 

As always it's nice to have more to watch, and I have access to the vast majority of the nominees this year already through streaming options.  So, despite my reservations about the eligibility flimflammery and all the usual campaigning nonsense, I'm looking forward to Oscar night.  

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Welcome to "WandaVision"

Minor spoilers for the first four episodes ahead. 

"WandaVision" is the first of Marvel's Disney+ series, designed to be tied much more closely into the MCU film franchise, and to tell longer-form stories that aren't a good fit for theatrical films.  This has felt like something of an inevitability for a while, as the MCU has gotten so much bigger, with so many characters who haven't really gotten their due.  For instance, you've got Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), two of the Avengers who had a sweet little romance and tragic parting that was carried out over two "Avengers" films.  However, the storyline happened so fast, and mostly offscreen, it felt like a waste of interesting material.

So, this was the Disney+ series I was the most interested in from the outset.  "WandaVision," created by Jac Shaeffer and directed by Mark Shakman, runs for nine episodes of 20-45 minutes each, and uses the truly weird conceit of Wanda and Vision living out cuddly sitcom lives as doting newlyweds in the charming town of Westview.  Each episode parodies a different era of television, starting with the 1950s, straight out of "I Love Lucy."  The first few installments are played straight, with only hints that something more sinister might be going on.  Eventually we learn that the lovebirds' antics are being transmitted out of town, and they catch the attention of characters like FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) of the S.W.O.R.D. intelligence organization, and Dr. Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), who proceed to join forces and investigate.

I probably enjoyed the sitcom spoof aspects of the show more than most, and especially appreciated spotting all the little homages and spoofs of various old shows I watched as a kid.  The '50s episode ends with Wanda and Vision's beds being pushed together into a double, to mark the shift to the '60s.  The '80s episode painstakingly recreates the kitchen from "Family Ties," and puts nosy neighbor Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) in workout gear.  Every new version of "WandaVision" gets its own era-appropriate theme song from Robert and Kristen Lopez, wardrobe changes for everyone, and heaps of gorgeous production design.  I liked the meta jokes, the heavy lampshading of various story tropes, and little clues being dropped in the commercials.  The series is also full of easter eggs for comic book fans.  In a Halloween themed episode, Wanda and Vision dress up in the goofy superhero costumes they originally wore in the comics.      

It's great seeing the big budget MCU production values applied to something so much more offbeat and idiosyncratic.  The show is also considerably darker in tone than the bulk of the other MCU films.  The first six episodes, where flaws slowly start to emerge in Wanda's sitcom universe, have some downright disturbing moments that wouldn't be out of place in a David Lynch show.  However, this being a Disney and Marvel project, the third act is exactly as predictable and by-the-numbers as you might expect.  While the show does give Wanda and Vision the space to become more full-fledged personalities, ensures the actors have some strong scenes together, and lets their relationship feel more grounded and mature, there's an awful lot of spectacle and contrivance that has to come with it.  And the spectacle and contrivance is the least enjoyable part of the show.    

All in all I'm satisfied with "WandaVision," and look forward to the rest of the MCU series coming up, but the limitations required to be part of this franchise are all too clear.  There's much more wiggle room when it comes to subject matter and formal conventions, but we still have to have mid-credit and after-credit scenes setting up other MCU projects, consequences are kicked down the road, and everything has to end in a big, loud, fight scene.  

Oh well.  At least we got a few good earworms for our trouble.

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"Mank" and "Ammonite"

Time to get cracking on the prestige films.

I'm not sure what to make of "Mank," a film about the writing of "Citizen Kane," designed to look like a film made in the era of "Citizen Kane."  The subject matter is fascinating - the struggles of Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) to write the "Kane" screenplay, under intense pressure from director Orson Welles (Tom Burke) and studio RKO.  The film paints a picture of Mank as a shambling alcoholic who writes the screenplay while convalescing from a broken leg.  He's aided by a secretary, Rita (Lily Collins), who notices the protagonist of the new script resembles newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance).  A good amount of the film is spent on flashbacks to a younger Mank developing a friendship with Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried), and his gradual disillusionment with the Hollywood establishment.

I found it difficult to get on the same wavelength as "Mank."  I knew enough about "Citizen Kane" and its creation to follow along with the action and keep the characters straight, but I didn't find much of the material compelling.  David Fincher is one of my favorite directors, but "Mank" is wildly different from anything else he's made, a black and white period piece that spends the bulk of its efforts on aping the cinematography and filming techniques of the 1940s.  This is all very lovely to look at, but there's no getting away from the fact that the film is slow, lengthy, often very sedate, and if you don't already know and appreciate "Citizen Kane," you're not going to get much help.  "Mank" is stuffed with references to "Kane," but I was surprised at how little direct evocation there was.  On the other hand, "Mank" is clearly not anywhere near the level of "Citizen Kane" in quality, and leaning too heavily on their association would have only made that more obvious. 

Gary Oldman, despite being decades too old for the role, delivers a strong performance as the spiraling Mank, and Amanda Seyfried does an excellent job of making Marion Davies insightful and self-aware.  There's a dinner party scene, where Mank has a drunken tirade, that has the kind of energy I wish had been more present in the rest of the picture.  I like the angle that Mank witnessing the greed and manipulativeness of the studio bosses made him so bitter - and causes "Mank" to be slyly topical - but his relationships with Hearst and Davies aren't established well enough to make their falling out as impactful as it should be.  I can admire everything it took to get this film made, in the way that Fincher wanted, but like most passion projects, "Mank" is inevitably for a very niche audience.  And it's probably saying something that a film nerd like me doesn't feel like part of that niche.  

Now on to "Ammonite," which is very easy, but probably unfair, to characterize as the anti - "Portrait of a Lady on Fire."  It posits a lesbian relationship between two 19th century scientists, Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and Charlotte Murschison (Saoirse Ronan) in the 1840s.  Anning is a self-taught paleontologist, well known and respected, but not part of the scientific establishment of the time due to her class and gender.  We meet her when her fortunes are on the wane, living with her mother Molly (Gemma Jones) and eking out a living selling fossils near the harsh beaches of Lyme Regis, where she goes searching for new finds daily.  An aspiring geologist, Roderick Murchison (James McArdle), barges into her life one day, and ends up leaving his melancholic young wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) in the Annings' care.  

"Ammonite" is a showcase for Winslet's performance as Mary Anning.  Ronan does good work here as Murchison, a privileged young woman learning to escape tragedy and break out of her shell, but it's Winslet who is the main event.  Anning first presents a brusque, difficult front, a hard shell formed out of necessity after years of poverty and social isolation.  She speaks roughly, moves roughly, and seems to shun human company almost instinctively.  Little by little, Winslet exposes her softer interiors and sad history.  This culminates in a quiet romance with a fairly graphic sex scene.  However, "Ammonite" is less a romance than it is a character study, and doesn't indulge itself in sentiment for very long.  

The dialogue is sparse, and much of the storytelling is done through simply observing the three women living in the harsh environment of the Southern coastline.  Director Francis Lee's images are gray and bleak, and the cold seems to seep through the screen.   In the beach scenes, the crashing waves nearly drown out the dialogue.  Anning is constantly scrubbing, polishing, or meticulously searching out her fossils, putting an emphasis on the hard labor she puts into her work. I like the starkness and the naturalism, which is in such contrast to most period films.  There are few beauty shots here, and little romanticizing of the era. I expect the bleak, unfriendly aesthetics will make this a hard sell to many of the usual fans of costume dramas, which is a shame.

In the end I found "Ammonite" a very powerful cinematic experience.  The prickliness and stubbornness of Mary Anning turn out to hide a truly remarkable and admirable woman.  And the film really provides a sense of what her accomplishments and her way of living required, and the sacrifices that she made to keep doing what she loves.  There are stakes to the romance that give the story a rare impact, and I'm so glad to see Winslet in a role that makes such great use of her talents. 

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Big Ambitions, "Small Axe"

I put off watching the new Steve McQueen anthology series, "Small Axe," thinking that it was your standard television miniseries.  Then, the individual installments started showing up on the year-end "best of" lists - not the lists of best television, but of best films.  So I had some catching up to do.

This is McQueen's most ambitious project by far.  "Small Axe" is a series of five feature films, ranging in length from 63 minutes to over two hours.  Each tells a different story from the Black West Indian immigrant community of London in the 1960s and '70s, charting their fight for social justice and equality.  "Mangrove" follows a court case where demonstrators were subjected to police brutality.  "Red, White, and Blue" profiles one of the first black police officers from the community, while "Alex Wheatle" looks at the life of a prominent writer.  "Education" takes aim at the failings of the education system, while  "Lovers Rock" takes us to a house party where dozens of young people simply have a good time.  In each story, living day to day can be a struggle, and the threat of violence is everywhere.  The films are steeped in West Indian culture, and I confess I had to use subtitles to decipher some of the thick accents and unfamiliar terminology.

    

However, I love how the films are so celebratory of the culture, full of music, dance, food, and family, so many, many Black british actors.  The most prominent stars here are Letitia Wright, who has a supporting role in "Mangrove,"  and John Boyega, who plays the protagonist in "Red, White, and Blue."  But just as impressive are the performances by actors I was unfamiliar with - Shaun Parkes, Barbara Beese, Sheyi Cole, Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn, Kenyah Sandy, and many more.  The subject matter is clearly very personal and very dear to Steve McQueen, whose commitment to telling the stories of so many real-life figures and stand-ins for real life figures is clear.  The films are unabashedly political, always staying firmly with the POV of the black community and the cause of social justice.  

I found "Mangrove" and "Red, White, and Blue" to be the strongest installments.  They're the two that are unquestionably feature films, being significantly longer and better developed than the others.  They do the best job of setting up their stakes and characters, and presenting a keen look at particular social ills.  "Mangrove" in particular is my favorite.  It follows Frank Crichlow (Parkes), a black activist who opens the Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill and undergoes constant harassment from the local police.  This leads to a demonstration that turns violent, and Crichlow and other activists are arrested and accused of rioting.  The second half of the film is taken up with the fascinating trial of the "Mangrove Nine," which casts a critical eye on the British judicial system.  The sequence of events is so beautifully laid out, and gives us the time to really appreciate all the interests involved.    

"Lovers Rock," however, has been getting the most critical kudos.  It's a very different experience, an immersive visit to a house party where the attendees can dance the night away to their own music and their own rhythm.  We see most of the evening through the eyes of Martha (St. Aubyn), who has to sneak out to attend with her best friend Patty  (Shaniqua Okwok).  They have a few skirmishes with trouble during the night, but for the most part the party is a welcome chance for them to enjoy themselves and connect with each other.  I wish "Lovers Rock" had come later in the lineup of films, because it provides such a welcome respite from the heartbreaking stories of inequality and oppression that characterize most of the others.  Instead, it's all about being young and having a magical night out, which makes it tremendously appealing.  It didn't work as well for me as the more serious "Small Axe" films, but I definitely can appreciate its aims.

Taken all together, "Small Axe" is a beautiful accomplishment.  After years of very good films, I'm so happy that McQueen was able to embrace this material and share this part of himself. There will be inevitable squabbles as to how HBO and the BBC are going to categorize these films for awards time - I expect they'll end up dominating the Made for Television Movie Emmy races - but make no mistake that "Small Axe" is quality cinema.  

  

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"Collective" and "The Painter and the Thief"

It's been an excellent year for documentaries, and my favorites of 2020 so far are both from Europe.

"Collective," is from Romania, named after a 2015 nightclub fire that left 26 dead and dozens more injured.  38 more would later die in hospitals under suspicious circumstances.  The documentary, created after the disaster had already sparked massive social and political upheaval, follows a group of journalists who investigate the failings of the Romanian hospital system.  Directed by Alexander Nanau, "Collective" is composed entirely of footage of events playing out in real-time.  There are no interviews, no talking heads, and little by way of framing devices, aside from some news reports to provide context.  

As a result, "Collective" is wonderfully immersive, and its twists and turns are engrossing to see play out.  The first part of the film largely follows the journalists, lead by Catalin Tolontan, who discovers that a major supplier has been selling diluted disinfectants to hospitals.  The revelation is not nearly as upsetting as the multiple attempts to discredit or challenge the findings, or the discovery that the government apparently knew about the problem for years.  Other health care whistleblowers begin to emerge, leading to the uncovering of more and more corruption in the system.  In the later parts of the film, the focus shifts to the new Minister of Health, Vlad Voiculescu, whose attempts at reform are constantly stymied.  We watch him struggle against disinformation campaigns, political maneuvering, and constant cover-ups as the complicity of more and more figures comes to light.

"Collective" is a sobering picture of a totally dysfunctional health care system that is the symptom of a totally dysfunctional Romanian political culture that runs on a system of bribes and self-dealing.  It's absolutely breathtaking how thoroughly corrupt every agency and institution is, and the lengths to which those in power will go to hide their wrongdoing and deflect blame.  The cost of the corruption couldn't be plainer - unsafe hospitals that provide substandard care, no accountability, and no recourse to fix glaring problems.  The documentary serves as a powerful cautionary tale to those who would take their basic social services for granted, while also providing a stirring portrait of those reformers trying their best to change things for the better.  

Now, on to "The Painter and the Thief."  Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova has two of her most important and valuable paintings stolen from a gallery in Oslo in 2015.  The thieves are quickly identified, and Barbora strikes up an unlikely friendship with one of them,  Karl Bertil-Nordland, a deeply troubled drug addict who claims not to even remember participating in the heist.  Director Benjamin Ree keeps the perspective shifting between the two of them, showing us events first from the perspective of Barbora, and then Bertil, as the film sorts out their complicated, intense relationship.  Initially, Barbora's interest in Bertil seems to be out of compassion, but as they interact more and he becomes a subject for her paintings, Barbora's motives are revealed to be far more complex.   

"The Painter and the Thief" plays out like shameless melodrama, and I had to raise my eyebrows at some of its storytelling choices.  It holds back characters' knowledge of important events and information to make its narrative more exciting.   For example, from Barbora's point of view, we learn that Bertil has been in a car accident and might have been involved in more criminal activity.  Then the film hops back in time a few months to watch how things unfold from Bertil's point of view to fill in the blanks.  However, I appreciate the film's emphasis on keeping a balance between the two of them, because the narrative could have easily been very one-sided.  Barbora narrates the specifics of Bertil's unhappy childhood and his life before becoming a criminal, and later Bertil does the same with Barbora's upbringing and her career as an artist.  It turns out that both of them have their dark sides and personal challenges, though Bertil's are clearly far more destructive, both to himself and everyone around him.  

And it's so touching to watch these two truly connect and support each other.  Fairly early on in the film, there's a scene where Bertil sees a portrait of himself that Barbora has painted, and is so moved he starts crying.  Seeing that her work has had such an effect spurs Barbora to involve herself even more in Bertil's life - perhaps at the cost of her own well-being.  When the film's distributor, NEON, announced plans for a dramatized version of the film, I instantly wanted to reject the notion outright.  "The Painter and the Thief" is such a personal, intimate story that it feels fundamentally wrong to let anyone not directly involved muck around with it.  And I honestly couldn't conceive of anyone making a better film version of this story than the one that already exists.

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My Top Ten Films of 1959

This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog. The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order. Enjoy.

The 400 Blows -  The remarkable thing about Antoine Doinel was that he was allowed to act like a real child, and exist on the silver screen on his own terms.  "The 400 Blows" comes across as such an honest portrayal of childhood because it views the world subjectively from a child's point of view without ever imposing the moral judgments of an adult.  While it doesn't have many of the stylistic features that other New Wave films have, it is considered emblematic of the movement because it is such a deeply personal piece of cinema, a perfect example of filmmaking "in first person singular."

Some Like it Hot - One of the greatest comedies of all time, a cross-dressing romantic farce that puts Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in drag and on the run from mobsters.  It  thumbed its nose at the Motion Picture Production Code, and got away with some wild zingers, including the greatest final line of a movie of all time.  Marilyn Monroe is at her most appealing here, but for me the clear star of the picture is Jack Lemmon gleefully getting to know his feminine side, Daphne.  The scene of him declaring his intentions to get married to Osgood is one of the most delightful things I've ever seen.  

Araya - A documentary on the lives of salt laborers on the Arayan Peninsula of Venezuela.  The community is small, isolated, and seemingly untouched by outside civilization.  Shot in stark black and white, the film's images are very beautiful, even as they reveal an especially difficult and sobering way of life.  The filmmakers not only document the painstaking process of extracting salt from the peninsula, but how it shapes the lives of everyone in the community, their culture and their behavior.  Especially striking are the burial customs of the Arayans, which reflect their all-important ties to the sea.  

Les Cousins -  An idealistic young man becoming disillusioned by life is a common narrative, but I've rarely seen one executed so viciously as Claude Chabrol's malevolent psychodrama, "Les Cousins."  The naive hero is seemingly punished for all his morally upstanding values and good habits, while his profligate cousin succeeds without even trying, and gets the girl in the end.  Of course, it's not as simple as that.  This was only Chabrol's second film, and his style was still coming together.  However, his preoccupations with crime, morality, revenge, and obsession were already very apparent.    

The Bridge - Probably the best film I've seen addressing WWII from the Germans' point of view.  Its scope is very small, focusing on a group of boys from a small town who are conscripted into the fight during the final days of the war, when Germany is being overrun by the American armed forces.  There are some terrific action and suspense scenes, but the film is a tragedy through and through as we witness the hard coming-to-terms that the boys experience as they are faced with real warfare and all its horrors.  Its allegorical storytelling sidesteps most real-world politics, leaning into a potent anti-war message. 

The Nun's Story - A lengthy, but fascinating melodrama that charts the career of a Belgian nun, Sister Luke, who wrestles constantly with her own desires and spiritual difficulties.  Played by Audrey Hepburn, Sister Luke is a rare cinema heroine who struggles honestly with her faith, and the film is unusually nuanced in its portrayal of both her and the Catholic Church.  It's especially interesting on the subjects of obedience and self-abnegation, to the extent that all pride and self-determination are treated as personal faults.  In the end, the film sides with neither the church or the sister, and is stronger for it.

Fires on the Plain - Kon Ichikawa delivers one of the bleakest of all Japanese war films, about an ailing soldier stranded in the Philippines who witnesses all manner of horrors among the abandoned soldiers trying to survive.  Violent and despairing, many viewers balked at the grisly content and the extremes of human behavior that were showcased by the film.  In retrospect, "Fires on the Plain" was far ahead of its time in portraying the darker side of warfare.  I vastly prefer Kon's work here to Masaki Kobayashi's more self-important "Human Condition" trilogy that premiered the same year.  

North By Northwest - Not one of my favorite Hitchcock films, but I can't deny that it's one of his most successful and iconic.  The set pieces are stunners, especially Cary Grant being harassed by a crop duster in a corn field, and the finale taking place on Mount Rushmore.  Even if you don't know the originals, you've seen the countless imitators and spoofs.  The whole spy action/adventure genre owes this film immeasurably.  And speaking of Cary Grant, I don't know why he didn't play spy films more often, because he's so perfect here trying to dodge enemy agents and suspicious characters on the run.   

Pickpocket - I generally don't get along with Robert Bresson films, but I do enjoy "Pickpocket," a tense little crime thriller about a compulsive thief.  It's a very psychological film, focused on the protagonist's inability to control his larcenous impulses, leading to his doom.  The act of theft is not as important as the anticipation of it, as we're shown in several tense sequences where our thief fixates on potential victims.  Bresson makes great use of close-ups and montage here, and it's amazing how much tension and excitement he can evoke from simple shots of hands and pockets and faces.  

Sleeping Beauty - The film marked the end of an era, the last traditionally animated, high budget project that Walt Disney Studios would see during Walt's lifetime.  Using 70mm format, stylized character designs, and a lot of cribbing from Tchaikovsky for the score, "Sleeping Beauty" was designed to be a spectacular, and it certainly fits the bill.  Why I always liked it, though, was I realized that the three good fairies are secretly the heroes of the film, who have just as much narrative emphasis and screen time as Philip and Aurora.  And who could say no to Maleficent, that masterpiece of animated villainy? 

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The Year Asia Ruled the Box Office

The 2020 global box office is going to be a wild outlier for a lot of reasons, but it does provide a tantalizing glimpse of what the moviegoing world would look like if Hollywood was out of the picture.  Five of the top ten, and twelve of the top twenty-five highest grossers of 2020 came from China.  Topping the charts was war movie "The Eight Hundred" with  $472.5 million, and comedic anthology "My People, My Homeland" with $433.2 million.  The highest grossing Hollywood film was "Bad Boys for Life," which managed third place with $424.5 million.

Here's the full chart:

1. The Eight Hundred - $461.3 (millions)

2. My People, My Homeland - $433.2

3. Bad Boys for Life - $426.5

4. Demon Slayer: Infinity Train - $401.4

5. Tenet - $363.1

6. Sonic the Hedgehog - $319.7

7. Dolittle - $245.5

8. Jiang Ziya - $240.6

9. A Little Red Flower - $238.6

10. Shock Wave 2 - $221.7

The other Chinese films are the animated "Jiang Ziya," teen cancer romance "A Little Red Flower," and an action film, "Shock Wave 2." "Demon Slayer: Infinity Train" is the wildly successful Japanese anime film, which is now the highest grossing film ever released in Japan, after dethroning "Spirited Away."  Compare this to 2019, when there were four Chinese films in the top twenty-five, the highest being the animated film "Nezha," in twelfth place with $742.5 million.  "Jiang Ziya" is its sequel, by the by.

I'm not familiar with the majority of these films, but the first thing you notice is how much more genre diversity there is in the Chinese films.  "The Eight Hundred" and "Shock Wave 2" are action films, and "Jiang Ziya" is an animated spectacular, but you've also got "A Little Red Flower," which is a teen romance more or less the equivalent of "The Fault in Our Stars," and "My People, My Homeland," which is a collection of five feel-good comedic shorts promoting Chinese patriotism for the National Day holiday.  Yeah, China's moviegoing culture has some interesting wrinkles to it, so I should add some caveats here.

   

Keep in mind that China still severely limits how many and what kind of non-Chinese films can be exhibited in China.  The biggest box office dates in China are Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day, and National Day in October, when Hollywood films are often shut out of theaters completely.  A big controversy erupted last year when a US and Chinese co-production, "Monster Hunter," saw its Chinese release cancelled over a joke deemed to be racially insensitive.  The "Demon Slayer" movie had its release in China delayed for similar reasons.  These kinds of protectionist and censorship issues are not unique to China, but they're more stringent about them than most, and they get more press because China now has the world biggest market for theatrical films.

Because the pandemic hit the US so much harder than Asia, the few major Hollywood films that were released in 2020 were more dependent on Chinese and international audiences than ever.  Covid had a significant impact on China, causing a nearly 66% decrease in box office receipts from the previous year, but that was still far better than in the US, where the box office was down 80%. "Tenet" only made 16% of its total gross domestically, and its biggest audience turned out to be China, where it earned $66 million.  However, China definitely benefited from decreased competition.  Foreign films made up 16% of ticket sales in 2020, compared to 36% the year before.   

At the time of writing, at the end of February, Chinese films comprise the entire global top ten box office earners.  A family comedy, "Hi Mom," is at number one, with $663.9 million.  I don't expect it'll stay that way as the COVID quarantines end, and delayed Hollywood blockbuster titles start rolling out at last.  Still, China's audiences continue to grow, and the film industry finally seems to be finding its footing.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if 2020 is a preview of things to come.   

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An Updated "Brave New World"

Spoilers ahead.

I ended up with full access to NBC's new streaming service Peacock for a weekend, which is pretty bare at the moment.  It has exactly one show that I wanted to watch, the new adaptation of Aldous Huxley's dystopian "Brave New World" from Davd Wiener and Grant Morrison.  I had no trouble polishing off all nine episodes.

As a science-fiction fan, I've seen many attempts to update older classics with some pretty terrible results.  The Ramin Bahrani take on "Fahrenheit 451" wasn't that long ago.  Here, there are all sorts of additions and departures from the novel's troubling dystopian society that are sure to cause raised eyebrows.  In addition to the class system of "Levels" that rank everybody from Alpha Plus to lowly Epsilon, and the endless popping of mood-regulating  Soma pills, there's the internet-like surveillance network Indra.  It connects everyone together through squicky optical devices and helps to guarantee that nobody has any privacy.  There are also the Monds, the mysterious world-controllers who seem to be pulling the strings behind the scenes.  The series uses them to explore the origins and past of the Utopian system.   

The biggest change, however, is that John the Savage (Alden Ehrenreich) is no longer the most prominent character.  Oh, he's an important piece of the series and his origins are more or less kept intact.  However, he doesn't have anything close to the same personality or character arc.  The Shakespeare-quoting, morally upright John of the novel has been morphed into a broody, working-class youngster whose swears casually, and listens to pop songs with an ancient music player and headphones.  More importantly, the two New Londoners who bring him back from the Savage Lands have seen their roles vastly expanded and changed.  Lenina Crowne (Jessica Findlay-Brown), John's love interest, becomes more self-aware over the course of the series, pushing at boundaries and inciting trouble.  Bernard Marx (Harry Lloyd) is still jealous and insecure, but also much more active and ambitious.  Findlay-Brown and Lloyd are both awfully good, maybe better than the material deserves.

In short, this take on "Brave New World" might borrow a lot of the world building and character names, but it's not telling anything close to the same story.  There is a lot of invented material to fill out nine episodes, including several major characters and a completely new ending.  And frankly, that's not such a bad thing.  Sure, John inciting an uprising among the lower classes and Indra turning out to be an evil AI are completely unnecessary and cliche as hell, but the expanded narrative also helps the series to deliver characters that are far more nuanced, sympathetic, and relatable.  The treatment of sex and relationships is updated to match modern standards, but still addresses Huxley's concerns about the breakdown of traditional bonds.  Notable figures who get more of the spotlight include a troubled Epsilon, CJack60 (Joseph Morgan), the world-controller Mustafa Mond (Nina Sosanya), Lenina's friend and rival Frannie (Kylie Bunbury), and John's alcoholic mother Linda (Demi Moore).

"Brave New World" also finds ways to deliver some good social satire and critique.  The Savage Lands, home to those who have chosen not to be part of the system, are now a garish theme-park version of America at its trashiest, featuring tours that allow New Londoners to gawk at live reenactments of Black Friday shopping sprees and shotgun weddings.  And they do gawk, with undisguised enjoyment of the poverty porn and feigned brutality.  There's a character named Helm (Hannah John-Kamen), who is essentially a professional party-planner/conceptual artist.  Her events, or "feelies," are a parody of Hollywood blockbuster cycles.  John's status as a novelty in New London is a good riff on celebrity culture.  I like that the show has a sense of humor about itself, and it's genuinely fun to see some of the culture clash between John and the hedonistic New Londoners.  The Soma dispensers being simultaneously clicked during awkward moments never gets old.       

The show looks very expensive, with everyone fabulously dressed and constantly attending parties and orgies.  The Indra AR interfaces and freaky contact lenses are also awfully convincing.   This is the first adaptation of the novel that has a mature rating, allowing for the depiction of sex and mild nudity, which is perfectly appropriate thematically.  There's also a lot of violence, which I found less so.  Really, does every piece of dystopian fiction these days need to end with a revolution?

"Brave New World" is an entertaining watch, and I enjoyed its take on the themes of the book, in spite of some big, glaring flaws.  Those wanting something more faithful, however, are advised to look elsewhere.
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