"The Marvels" and "Next Goal Wins"

"The Marvels" will go down in movie history as the end of the MCU's run of box office hits, and it's really not deserved.  The movie is a mess, but not more of a mess than previous MCU installments like "Thor: Love and Thunder" "The Eternals," and the last two "Ant-Man" sequels.  My guess is that the movie looked too interconnected with the recent run of MCU series on Disney+, and audiences weren't quite as fond of Captain Marvel as her last film's box office take might have suggested.

And it's a shame, because "The Marvels" is very watchable, silly, superhero fun.  Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Agent Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and teenage Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) are all superheroes with light-based powers.  Due to the actions of the villain Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), leader of the planet Hala, the three of them become stuck in a "quantum entanglement" where they switch places physically if they happen to use their powers simultaneously.  So, naturally, the three of them have to learn to work as a team.  However, there are some complications.  Monica feels abandoned by Carol, who she knew when she was a child.  Kamala is a massive fangirl of Captain Marvel and comes on awfully strong.  And Carol knows more about the villain than she's letting on. 

Does "The Marvels" have all the usual MCU problems that I've been complaining about for years, like being a connector piece for other parts of the franchise, for speedrunning through character development in favor of CGI-heavy action scenes, and for incredibly sloppy writing that doesn't know what to do with half of its characters?  Yes, absolutely.  However, "The Marvels" is also much more entertaining than most MCU installments from the past few years, easily surpassing the original "Captain Marvel."  It has some great action sequences, the banter among the three leads is a joy, and the humor works.  Though the show is connected to "Ms. Marvel," "Wandavision," and other MCU media, you really don't have to know any of it to watch "The Marvels."  Kamala's protective Pakistani family following her into space, Carol's unsettling alien cat named Goose, and a nice planet where everyone sings all the time don't need that much explanation.  This could absolutely be better, but I thought director Nia DaCosta did a perfectly fine job, and I'd gladly watch "The Marvels" over most of the other post-"Endgame" MCU movies.    

Now on to Taika Waititi's soccer movie.  "Next Goal Wins" was delayed for so long, and made so little impact during its theatrical run that I figured it had to be bad.  And it's not.  It's just sort of aggressively mediocre with a key role woefully miscast.  Based on a 2014 documentary of the same name, "Next Goal Wins" tells the story of the last place American Samoa national soccer team that suffers a humiliating loss in 2001, and decides to recruit a new coach to help improve their prospects.  The only one willing to take the job is Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), a rage-prone Dutchman who has been fired from multiple positions.  However, the team's manager, Tavita (Oscar Kightley) remains hopeful.

"Next Goal Wins" is at its best when it sticks to the American Samoan characters - a cheerful, amiable bunch of oddballs who get all the best lines and observations.  The most effective comedy comes from the tightly wound Rongen being introduced to the island and the team, and being utterly bewildered by their laid back way of life.  The community is so small and remote that everyone knows everyone, everyone seems to have multiple jobs at once, and nobody really seems to mind how bad they are at soccer. Rongen is especially confounded that one of the better players is a "fa'afafine," roughly analogous to a transwoman, named Jaiyah Saelua (Kaimana). 

Initially, Michael Fassbender's totally incongruous appearance and energy works fine for being the stranger in paradise.  Unfortunately, he stays on that wavelength for the whole film.  Frankly, Fassbender just seems baffled at his role in the movie - Rongen's an asshole who has to reform, but he's an asshole for far too long before he finally seems to turn on a dime.  It doesn't help that the accent is a bit of a muddle, and sometimes he ends up sounding like Taika Waititi doing an impression of Rongen.  From what I've read about Waititi's directing methods, I have to wonder if Fassbender just gave up at some point and copied whatever Waititi was doing.        

Also, "Next Goal Wins" is a sports movie, and it's not very good at being a sports movie.  It hits all the requisite beats and builds up to a big climax with a World Cup qualifying match against Tonga, but the execution is clunky.  We never really get to know more than three of the players by name, and the stakes are always very low.  I barely know anything about soccer, and am clearly not a fan, which didn't help matters either.  I still enjoyed the film for some of the comedic bits and a few performances - Rachel House turns in a dependably swell appearance as Tavita's wife - but this isn't one of Taika Waititi's better efforts.       

---

"The Equalizer" Trilogy

What sets "The Equalizer" movies apart from all the other "one man army" wish fulfillment films that have been so popular lately?  What sets Robert McCall, played by Denzel Washington, apart from John Wick, Jack Reacher, and whoever Liam Neeson is playing this week?  Well, less and less as time goes on.

I watched all three of the "Equalizer" movies that Washington made with Antoine Fuqua over the past week, and have no other familiarity with the franchise.  I haven't seen the '80s television series or the recent reboot, but there's no apparent crossover among any of the different versions.  Honestly, there's not much crossover among the three "Equalizer" movies either.  All of them can be watched independently, and have different premises.  The first "Equalizer" from 2014 is a street-level crime film, about McCall using his ex-spy skills to help out the ordinary people around him with no other recourse.  The sequel is a more typical spy thriller with some revenge elements, and the most recent film, "The Equalizer 3," is a soft reboot that takes place in Italy.

The first "Equalizer" is easily the best film of the three, spending the most time with McCall's day to day routine and his relationships with the people around him.  There's a fun DIY quality to his vigilante activities, culminating in him turning the Home Depot where he works into a death trap for the baddies.  Chloe Grace Moretz plays the troubled prostitute that McCall befriends, and Melissa Leo plays an old colleague for a few brief scenes, but otherwise it's a lot of character actors and relative unknowns.  The average, everyday people mostly feel like average, everyday people, and it's a rare joy to see Denzel Washington interacting with them.  It doesn't matter that the stakes are small, because Fuqua does the work of getting us invested in  them.  And whenever Washington does something impossibly cool, the impact is greater.  All the "Equalizer" films are mid budget productions, fairly small scale, and nothing fancy.  However, they're solidly made, and have their own distinct character to them - think the early "Death Wish" films with less racism.

The sequels aren't as good, but still have their high points.  "The Equalizer 2" sees Robert McCall's past catch up to him, with an old partner played by Pedro Pascal in the villain role.  There's much more gunplay and spycraft, and little time is spent with civilians.  Notably, none of the people we saw McCall form relationships with in the first film return in the second, though there are a few new faces to fill in those roles.  Orson Bean, in his last film appearance, shows up in a bit part.  The first two acts are pretty good, but the big action finale is very generic, and I could feel my attention slipping the longer it went on.  "The Equalizer 3," however, sees a significant drop in quality.  I suspect the biggest problem is that Washington is now in his late sixties, and is physically slowing down.  The most impressive action scene is one where he's sitting down for practically the entire time.  Probably the biggest selling point is that Elle Fanning shows up as a CIA operative, for a nice "Man on Fire" reunion.  No characters from either of the previous "Equalizer" movies return, and it's never made clear what McCall is doing in Europe in the first place.

I should point out that the second and third "Equalizer" films are the only sequels that Denzel Washington has ever starred in, and while they're not the worst films he's ever made, they're pretty close to the bottom.  They represent that Washington's leading man days are naturally, inevitably coming to a close, and he's making some of the same choices that Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson, and other leading men have made before him - a few less prestige projects and a few more easy paychecks.  The "Equalizer" films are reliable performers though, and decently entertaining even at their worst.  And it's always good to see Washington onscreen in any capacity.  Even amidst the box office chaos of 2023, "The Equalizer 3" made a small profit.  And I was honestly sorry I hadn't seen any of these films before now.     

---

Going Woke - An Update

At the time of writing, we have a new live action version of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" that has recently premiered on Netflix.  Unlike the film adaptation from 2010, "The Last Airbender," this version has a much more diverse cast.  We can argue about the relative quality of the productions, but I already count this as a major win and a welcome sign of the times.  Part of the reason I started this blog back in 2010 was because I needed somewhere to vent about how Hollywood was handling "The Last Airbender" and other projects where Asian characters kept being cast with white actors.

And now it's 2024, and the old practice of whitewashing POC characters is firmly outdated and unacceptable.  Despite some setbacks, we are consistently seeing more representation of minority groups onscreen.  Moreover, it's common practice to cast POC actors in roles that previously went to white actors, which has sometimes caused a lot of controversy.  I've already written posts about this topic, like Who Gets To Exist in Fantasy Media?, so I won't rehash it all here.  But to sum up, I don't think that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, and I strongly believe that Hollywood still needs to be mindful of inclusion and representation.  

The past few years have been very encouraging as we've watched the talent pool diversity.  These last few months have been all about Native American representation, with "Killers of the Flower Moon," "True Detective: Night Country," "Echo," and the last season of "Reservation Dogs" all making waves.  A year ago, the big push was for Asian-American talent to be recognized, with "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" and "Beef" getting lots of attention.  However, even when the attention dies down, the awareness remains.  The actors and filmmakers get more work and more opportunities.  Other projects about Asian-Americans and Native Americans and African Americans and Latinos and other minority communities get made.  Could "Joy Ride," a raunchy comedy with four Asian-American female leads, have made it to the big screen five years ago?  How about a "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" adaptation with an interracial couple, neither of them Caucasian?    

It's being proven over and over again that there is room for everybody.  And it's so much better when there is room for everybody.  You simply can't make the excuse anymore that a POC lead or a POC story won't sell, because after "Bridgerton" and "Black Panther" and "Crazy Rich Asians," and "Abbott Elementary," and "Ghosts," it's clear that they do.  You can't argue that the talent isn't there to cast POC roles correctly, because now we can point to excellent Middle Eastern leading men and South Asian leading ladies, and there are more breaking out every day.  I love that up and coming stars like Ayo Edibiri and Charles Melton aren't automatically being talked about in terms of their race or their skin color like they might have ten years ago.  I love that there's less ghettoization of media - there are plenty of shows made with specific audiences in mind, but I'm not going to be asked why I'm watching that "black" show or movie, the way I remember being asked when I was a kid.  And since "Squid Game" conquered Netflix,  American viewers finally seem more willing to explore foreign television.   

At the same time, there have been massive strides in LGBT representation over the last fifteen years.  For a point of reference, "Modern Family" started in 2009, a year before "The Last Airbender" movie.  Transgender representation in particular has made such significant leaps that cisgender actors playing transgender roles isn't really okay anymore.  It feels like we're still taking baby steps with nonbinary representation, but it's been exciting seeing that community start to make some progress too.  None of this is happening in a vacuum and all of this matters.    

Of course, the culture war rages on.  There are people who want to pretend it's still 2010, and being white, male, straight and cisgender is the default.  And there's still plenty of media to cater to their tastes.  Half of this year's Best Picture nominees hardly have any POC presence at all.  When you get past all those nicely packaged narratives about how representation matters, and look at the numbers, there's always plenty of room for improvement.

I celebrate our victories, but I believe in constant vigilance.

---

My Top Ten Films of 1940

This post is part of my ongoing project to create Top Ten movie lists for the years before I began this blog, working my way as far back as I can.  Below, find my Top Ten films for 1940, unranked.

Rebecca - This is one of my favorite Hitchcock films, because it's also a love story and a Gothic romance.  Before we even get to Manderley and Mrs. Danvers and the presence of the dead first Mrs. De Winter, there's a whole suspenseful, delightful act where Joan Fontaine escapes her dreary life, to run away with Laurence Olivier.  Plenty of psychological horror films have tread in the footsteps of "Rebecca," but few have created such atmosphere, such performances, and such mystery.

 

Pinocchio - A disaster for Disney at the time of release, but one that's become a classic and a cornerstone for all animation.  The ambitious technical leaps, the intensely dramatic story, and the painstakingly laboriously little details of the artistry all paid off.  "Pinocchio" is one of the best films ever made, a fable for learning to be the best version of yourself and confronting a dangerous and unpredictable world.  I loved it as a child and I love it just as much as an adult.   

The Grapes of Wrath - My favorite John Ford film.  I've always loved the Steinbeck book, and while the film version is an imperfect adaptation, it has its heart in the right place.  It's an earnest attempt to capture the struggle of migrant farmers escaping the Dust Bowl, offering an unblinking depiction of the poverty and hardship they faced.  The clip of Henry Fonda is a favorite for movie montages, but Jane Darwell's iron-willed Ma Joad is easily the film's most memorable character.  

The Great Dictator - The last indisputable Chaplin masterpiece, and arguably the last time that Charlie Chaplin would appear as The Tramp, though here he's called the Barber.  It's a WWII satire that takes direct aim at Hitler, includes some wonderfully funny scenes of physical comedy and priceless sight gags, and isn't afraid to stand against tyranny.  The final speech is Chaplin's emotional appeal to the world to embrace humanity and value peace.  It's as resonant today as it ever was.

Fantasia - Easily the most fascinating experiment in animation that Disney was ever responsible for.  This was a "concert feature," intending to be a combination of classical music concert and animated spectacular.  The "Nutcracker Suite" is my favorite segment, but the film offers so many wonders, from the abstract visuals accompanying to "Toccata and Fugue" to the hilarity of "Dance of the Hours," to Mickey Mouse's greatest screen appearance in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."

His Girl Friday - One of the greatest comedies of all time, or at least the one with the most rapid fire dialogue.  Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant play a reporter and editor who also happen to be a divorced couple on their way to patching things up.  There are a ton of film innovations here, including the use of ad libs, fourth wall breaking, overlapping dialogue, and several innovations in editing, all helping to make this one of the most breathlessly lively and energetic films of its era.  

My Favorite Wife - Cary Grant and Irene Dunne follow up "The Awful Truth" with a tale of a supposedly dead wife who comes back into her husband's life at a very inconvenient time.  Grant is at his silliest and most loveable, despite being an awful coward, while Dunne lights up the screen and plays dirty.  The film never quite slips into slapstick, but has a lot of good screwball  laughs, while all the heartwarming bits play.  Special kudos go to Granville Bates as the pompous, flabbergasted judge.     

Pride and Prejudice - The one with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson.  I like this version because it's got a great sense of humor, full of wonderful supporting character actors like Edmund Gwenn and Mary Boland as the Bennett parents, and the glorious Edna Mae Oliver as the imposing Lady Cathering de Bourgh.  Purists may quibble with the story changes (mostly demanded by the Production Code), but it nails the satire of British society and the romance isn't too shabby either.

The Shop Around the Corner - One of the best Ernst Lubitsch films pairs Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart as a pair of rival shop clerks who have unknowingly fallen in love with each other through secret letters.  This was remade several times, perhaps most memorably in "You've Got Mail," and popularized the anonymous lovers trope in countless other films.  Sullavan had a brief career and a tragic life, and was also a highlight of "The Mortal Storm" with Stewart in the same year.

The Thief of Baghdad - This is the lone non-American film on this list for this year, a big budget Alexander Korda adventure spectacular that I consider the best of these "Arabian Night" style fantasy pastiches.  Sabu stars as the titular thief, who may not be properly Middle Eastern, but was as good as we were going to get in 1940.  Some of the images, particularly the fantasy landscapes and the special effects sequences of the genies, remain impressive to this day.

---

"Femme" is Fierce

The erotic thriller genre isn't one I'm too fond of, because the gender politics have often been very skewed and there are bad cliches all over the place.  "Femme," however, which is an LGBT erotic thriller, manages to take some of these cliches and do something different with them.  The contrivances are no more believable than you'd see in something like last year's "Fair Play" or "Sanctuary," but because of the dynamics in play, and the danger still inherent in being out and proud in many places, "Femme" feels much closer to life, with more serious stakes, than any other romantic thriller I've seen in a long time.

Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) is a gay black Londoner who performs in drag under the name Aphrodite.  One night he's brutally attacked by a group of thugs, and becomes withdrawn.  He stops performing or appearing in drag.  Still in recovery, Jules visits a bathhouse and unexpectedly sees his primary attacker.  This is Preston (George Mackay), who is so deep in the closet that he's created a hyper-masculine facade for himself, hangs out with drug dealers, and tends to fly into violent rages when he feels threatened.  Preston doesn't recognize Jules, but is attracted to him and shows interest. Jules decides to take the opportunity to have his revenge, seducing Preston with the intent to film one of their encounters and expose him.     

Written and directed by newcomers Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, "Femme" exists in a nocturnal world of nightclubs, convenience stores, bedrooms, and darkened streets.  It feels very much like a no-frills indie production, which suits the subject matter.  The sexuality is very raw, with multiple sex scenes being central to the plot, and some deliberately shot to emulate pornography.  Likewise, the violence is very tactile, especially the initial attack sequence that leaves Jules shattered.  There's always a looming, palpable sense of danger as Jules and Preston's relationship progresses.  The situation is volatile, and everyone is lying.  Both of our leads are performing what they think the other wants, but as they genuinely start to connect, the lines get blurry.  Through the relationship, they find they can explore different sides of themselves as the power dynamics shift and change.  

The performances are what make this unlikely story work.  Stewart-Jarrett and Mackay are constantly juggling all these different versions of Preston and Jules as they struggle to adapt to each new situation and phase of their relationship.  They code-switch repeatedly, depending on the environment, who they're with, the context of the interactions, and their relative level of comfort.  Jules as over-the-top Aphrodite is very different from the accommodating Jules who is trying to keep Preston's interest, and the bolder, more dominant Jules who reads as straight enough to hang with Preston's crew.  Which of these versions of Jules is Preston responding to, and are any of them really Jules at all?  

Speaking of Preston, covered in tattoos and forever posturing, he comes across as more and more vulnerable as the film goes on.  Mackay is genuinely threatening in the early scenes, spewing toxic masculinity every time he opens his mouth.  But put him in a different context, and suddenly the behavior is self-hatred.  Watch him in his chosen environment, with his friends, and suddenly the behavior is self-preservation.  Preston's paranoia about being outed makes perfect sense, and so does his violence - he's embodying all the homophobia he's afraid will be turned on him.  The performance is genuinely moving, as it becomes clear that Preston may not actually want to live like this.         

We don't see this side of the LGBT experience very often in mainstream cinema, which often goes with the broadest stereotypes and assumes all gay men act a certain way and exist in a certain familiar cultural milieu.  "Femme" is far more nuanced, acknowledging the complicated implications of femme and masc behaviors, unhealthy relationships and coping mechanisms, and that doxxing and revenge porn can get someone killed. The premise is salacious on its surface, but fascinating when you look at all the different issues of identity and psychology being explored.  

This feels like uncharted territory, if only because this is the first time I've seen many of these themes addressed through such an intimate lens.  "Femme" really should be getting more attention, but it was a great movie year, and it's fallen through the cracks a bit.  It's a shame, because I can't wait to see more from everyone involved.

---

The 2023 Movies I Didn't See

I write this post every year to acknowledge some of the movies that I've made a conscious decision not to watch despite my having access to them.  In some cases there's a reason, and in some cases I just can't work up the enthusiasm.  I'm a completionist, and my hope is that by hashing out my thought process here, I can put any lingering doubts to rest.   I reserve the right to revisit and reverse my viewing choices in the future. However, I still haven't watched anything from last year's list. 

"Five Nights at Freddy's" - This was a big enough hit at the box office that I was tempted to check out the movie just to have a point of reference.  However, every review I encountered was bad, and in some cases not just bad but bottom-of-the-barrel awful.  Horror's already a rough genre for me, and I've skipped a bunch of other recent horror titles like "Skinamarink" and "Terrifier 2."  The only thing that gives me doubts is that the few good reviews suggest that this is very much a kids' film, so I could probably handle any scares.  However, that's not a good enough argument for me to watch the movie.

"Chevalier" - I was looking forward to this biopic of Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint Georges, because there was a poster for it in the local multiplex for a few months.  However, I seem to have completely missed the release, and there was zero critical chatter for it from any of the media outlets I follow.  Reviews seem to be decent, and the cast looks good, but there's just zero buzz, which I don't take as a promising sign.  It was a very good year for movies and there's been too much on my plate, so unless I come across this on a long airplane flight in the future, I'm content to let it slip through the cracks.

"Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken" and "Under the Boardwalk" - I generally make a point to seek out under-the-radar animated films when I can, but this year I hit my limit.  I just couldn't bring myself to watch the latest Dreamworks film, "Ruby Gillman," starring another self-conscious young heroine who learns she's special, and has to contend with snobs and social media bullying.  The character designs just looked awful.  Likewise, if you thought "Elemental" looked generic, how about the same story but told with hermit crabs?   "Under the Boardwalk" might be a good movie, looking at the talent involved, but it barely got a theatrical release and was dumped on VOD with no fanfare last fall.  I think I can let this one go, along with the latest "Monkey King" (how many Monkey King movies do we need?!) and "The Magician's Elephant."

"Shortcomings" - As an Asian-American who has been cheerleading the rise of more Asian-American led films for a long time now, I meant to see Randall Park's directorial debut, "Shortcomings."  I really did.  I like Justin Min and Sherry Cola.  The film is set right where I used to live in the East Bay.  However, I had a tough time getting through "Beef" and "Joyride" last year, and decided "Shortcomings" could wait.  And that's still where I am with the film.  I'm thrilled that it got made, but I feel absolutely no urgency about actually sitting down and watching this one.    

"Flora and Son" - I'm one of those people who likes John Carney movies, but at the same time finds them really, really annoying.  Music may be our salvation, but listening to the characters in his films prattle on about it makes me roll my eyes.  After watching the trailer for "Flora and Son," all I could think was that I'd already seen this movie before, and I couldn't tell if it was being done well this time or not.  The general lack of critical buzz around the film led me to conclude it was one I could probably miss.  Sorry Eve Hewson. I'll probably see you in something else soon.

"The Marsh King's Daughter" - I want Daisy Ridley to have a successful career, but she keeps showing up in movies like this, which I just don't have any interest in whatsoever.  As for director Neil Burger, I can't remember the last film of his I've liked.  I don't think one exists.  Would I have watched this if it was Morten Tyldum directing and Alicia Vikander starring, as originally planned?  I don't know, but the odds would be much better.    

---

"30 Rock" Years Two and Three

I forgot the way that sitcom episodes tend to blur into each other.  Even a show as densely written as "30 Rock" is designed to be easily bingeable and I was at the end of season three before I knew it.  I find it easiest to keep track of passing time through whoever Jack and Liz are dating, and we've just wrapped up the Salma Hayek and Jon Hamm era.  I remember watching a couple of these episodes back during the original run, and it's been nice to fill in some blanks and get some closure on some of the storylines.

The show has hit its stride.  Like all successful sitcoms, "30 Rock" has found its formula and is sticking to it.  The A stories involve Jack or Liz dealing with their personal lives and romantic partners.  The B stories involve hijinks with Jenna, Tracy, or Kenneth.  Josh (Lonny Ross) has mostly been phased out and I don't think Rachel Dratch is coming back.  Jonathan (Maulik Pancholy), Jack's assistant, has ascended to the level of sturdy recurring character, similar to Lutz (J.D. Lutz) or Toofer (Keith Bowden).  I still don't know which of Tracy's bodyguards is Grizz (Grizz Chapman) and which is Dot Com (Kevin Brown), but I promise that I'm working on it.  

All the characters are more firmly established and leaning into broader comedy, so they get dumber and sillier more often.  Kenneth's not just a hick, but one of the "Hill People," the son of a pig farmer, and has a rural aphorism for every occasion.  Tracy seems to vacillate between being dumb as a rock and just pretending to be dumb as a rock.  Jenna is getting more fame hungry and vain.  To be fair, the show keeps trying to push back against us getting too comfortable with the status quo, such as the time Jenna was fat for a chunk of season two, or Tracy's skeevy pornographic video game actually paying off and making him millions.  There's also an admirable amount of continuity, with running jokes and callbacks trying to keep some baseline reality consistent throughout.

I like that Liz is allowed to be more of a mess as time goes on.  The show is often at its best when she's at her worst - plotting to adopt a baby through unethical means or revealing that she was a bully in high school.  Meanwhile, Jack has gotten cuddlier, still a staunch creature of business and capitalism, but we can root for him to make up with his estranged father (Alan Alda) or find love with a Democratic congresswoman (Edie Falco).  They're the best characters by default, because they're the most well rounded and the least caricatured.  I know Liz will finally find love in the later seasons of the show and I'm looking forward to it.  

Anticipating an eventual Top Ten list of episodes, I've been keeping an eye out for highlights, and it's been tough.  The episodes really do all seem to blur together after a while, though I've been careful not to watch more than three episodes at a time.  The workplace comedy structure is loose enough that it can accommodate the occasional wild tangent, like the kidney telethon in the finale of season three, or just letting Tim Conway wander the network's halls and say outrageous things for an episode.  However, these format-breaking episodes are rarer than I was hoping for.   

I'm going to keep watching, because "30 Rock" is a fun show, but I'm not connecting to it in the way that I did with "Parks and Rec" or "Community" or some of my other favorites from this era of television.  I feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop - maybe for "TGS" to be canceled or for Liz to be fired so we can really see how everyone ticks - and I suspect that "30 Rock" just isn't that kind of sitcom.  There's character progression, but it's slow and meandering.  The characters are fun to watch, but none are people I'd actually want to hang out with.  Well, maybe Jack for purely aesthetic reasons.      

I'm seriously considering starting another, more recent sitcom to watch alongside this, so I have something to compare and contrast to.  Stay tuned.

---

The New "Shogun"

The 1980 "Shogun" miniseries was one of the major prestige television events of its era.  I've never seen it, though the fact that the miniseries never bothered to subtitle the spoken Japanese doesn't strike me as a promising indicator of its quality.  The 2024 "Shogun" from FX arrives in a totally different television landscape, where prestige miniseries are very common, and audiences are more familiar with Japanese culture.  Even with my limited knowledge of the original, it's evident that the new "Shogun" is a far more nuanced, ambitious work that more than lives up to its predecessor.

Adapting a James Clavell novel based loosely on the life of William Adams, "Shogun" follows the adventures of a 17th century English sailor, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), who is shipwrecked in Japan.  He eventually becomes a vassal of the daimyo Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), who is trying to maneuver his way into the role of shogun, a dominant warlord who can unite a divided Japan.  Other major characters include Blackthorne's translator Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai) and her husband Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe), Toranaga's scheming underling Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano), a political rival Ishido (Takehiro Hida), and finally Lady Fumi (Moeka Hoshi), the widow of a recently deceased samurai.

Reportedly the most expensive FX series ever made, "Shogun" takes pains to establish the authenticity of its vision of 17th century Japan.  The show was created by Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, and shot mostly in Vancouver.  However, the script was written to appeal to both American and Japanese viewers, with many little cultural nuances in the Japanese dialogue that Western viewers will likely miss.  The language barrier is handled extremely well, with the common tongue being identified as Portuguese - but actually spoken as English because this is an American backed production.  You get a sense of the cultural divide from both perspectives in a way that I've rarely seen in Western media.  The participation of several Japanese writers and producers, including Sanada, clearly helped immensely.      

And make no mistake that Sanada is the lead of the series.  John Blackthorne's "Stranger in a Strange Land" struggles serve as a good entryway into this universe, but the political maneuverings of Toranaga (a thinly disguised Ieyasu Tokugawa) and the other daimyo is the main event.  This is a series where viewers would benefit from having some familiarity with Japanese history and classical literature.  There are multiple Japanese POV characters, including Mariko and Yabushige, who each give us different perspectives on the strict honor-bound culture.  Seppuku is a common occurrence, thoroughly discussed and put into context with multiple examples, to ensure the cultural underpinnings are crystal clear.  Blackthorne's story does hit a few of the usual white savior tropes, but he isn't in this story to save the Japanese, but rather to be civilized and redeemed by their example.   

The world of "Shogun" is immaculately realized, rivaling the fantasy kingdoms of "Game of Thrones" and any other blockbuster epic you could name.  The art direction is gorgeous, and offers plenty of  spectacle, recreating period sailing ships, castles, armies, and cities.  There's an episode entirely built around Blackthorne teaching Toranaga's men cannon warfare, and another featuring a visit to the "willow world" of a famous courtesan.  The show's violence is brutal and graphic, but not exploitative.  It's used for worldbuilding and character building rather than easy shocks.  I love the sound design, including a finale that makes wonderful use of long silences.  

In the end, the performances were what I was the most impressed with.  Hiroyuki Sanada and Tadanobu Asano are absolutely magnificent when given the opportunity to work with great material.  I was impressed with Anna Sawai in "Monarch" earlier this year, but I'm thrilled to see her become a full fledged leading lady as the indomitable Mariko.  Her negotiation scenes are as tense and exciting as any of the action sequences.  As for Cosmo Jarvis, I certainly won't keep confusing him with Tom Hardy after this.    

"Shogun" is a rare experience in a crowded season of splashy television projects, a miniseries that truly feels like an event.  It may not have the big marquee stars, but the level of quality is truly exceptional, and can only hope it sets the standard for every Western foray into jidaigeki to come.    

---

My Top Ten Episodes of "Gravity Falls"

The episodes below are unranked and ordered by airdate.  Moderate spoilers ahead.

"Double Dipper" - The one with the Dipper clones.  I like how "Gravity Falls" always plays the kids' personal quandaries completely straight, and uses them to anchor the supernatural hijinks.  Dipper's worries over trying to impress Wendy result in a clone army that eventually needs to be dispatched in some disturbing ways.  Also, Wendy finds her peer group - two friends and one rival.  

"The Time Traveler's Pig" - The first Blendin Blandin adventure, but crucially not his first appearance in the show.  Dipper abusing time travel to keep Wendy and Robbie apart is just wrong enough that it feels like there are real stakes here, even before we learn Mabel's happiness also hangs in the balance.  The other major character introduced in this episode is, of course, Waddles, everyone's favorite pig.  

"Summerween" - I love that we get a Halloween episode in the middle of summer, because Gravity Falls is the kind of place where they'd celebrate it twice a year.  While there are scares galore, the episode also gets points for getting the actual experience of trick-or-treating right - the discussions of loser candy, Dipper feeling weird about matching costumes, and the bittersweet inevitability of outgrowing the activity.   

"Carpet Diem" - It's a body switching episode!  Mabel and Dipper fight over a newly discovered room in the Mystery Shack, and learn that the rug has body-switching capabilities.  There are so many good gags in this one, especially as the body swapping madness soon expands to everyone else in the Mystery Shack, including Soos and Waddles.  Dipper's distaste for sleepovers is also completely reasonable and hilarious.

"Blendin's Game" - Blendin returns with revenge in mind, but it's not the main event.  This turns out to be my favorite Soos episode, really the only one that seriously explores him as a character and reveals a big, sad, absence in his life.  Soos works best as comic relief, but the episode really earned its tear-jerking payoff.  Of course Soos values the Pines as his real family because of their actions, and of course he'd use the greatest power in the universe for their benefit in the end.

"Northwest Mansion Mystery" - It's always nice when a kids' show redeems its villains, and "Gravity Falls" devoted several episodes to showing the better sides of Dipper and Mabel's first season rivals.  Here, we've got privileged Pacifica Northwest breaking the cycle of generations of horrible deeds committed by her family, with a little help and encouragement from the Pines.  Mabel and Candy learning not to underestimate Grenda is also  pretty sweet.

"Not What He Seems" - We finally find out what Stan has been up to since the end of the first season, and more importantly so do the kids.  The gravity fluctuations are exciting to watch, and animated beautifully.  The law enforcement characters have never felt like more of a real threat.  And the finale with the portal on the verge of opening is probably the most intense sequence in the entire show.  Ford eventually thanked Stan, but did he ever thank Mabel?    

"Roadside Attraction" - First, I love the road trip aspect of this episode, and all the different, wacky tourist traps that the Pines visit and prank along the way.  Second, I appreciate that Dipper gets a chance to really grow and learn here, actively working on talking to girls until he gets to be pretty good at it.  Finally, what other show is going to have a giant spider lady luring Stan into her clutches with an over-tanned human disguise? 

"Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" - Good grief, Bill Cipher is a scary villain, even if he only shows up here at the very end.  The rest of the episode shows a realistic rift developing between the twins, and Mabel getting a harsh wake-up call about her impending future.  The show never seemed so bleak, setting up the big three-part finale that will find the twins confronting the fact that they really could end up just like Stan and Ford. 

"Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls" - The final battle ensues, and summer comes to an end.  It's a little rushed, even though it's a double episode, but I so appreciate a good ending where everything gets wrapped up, and "Gravity Falls" delivers.  The mecha Mystery Shack with a T-rex for a hand is so nuts and so very "Gravity Falls."  And the bus driver being voiced by Kyle McLachlan is the final cherry on the cake.

Honorable mentions:  "Tourist Trapped," "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel," "Land Before Swine," "Dreamscaperers," "Gideon Rises," "Love God," "The Last Mabelcorn," "Weirdmageddon: Xpcveaoqfoxso"

---

I Binged "Gravity Falls"

"Gravity Falls" is the kind of cartoon that I would have adored when I was part of the audience it was made for.  I was that kid who wasn't keen on the way most shows would always reset everything to a comfortable status quo by the beginning of the next episode, who would notice continuity errors, and who disapproved of characters getting into the same scrapes over and over with no character growth.  I was also a fan of "Eerie, Indiana," an obscure children's show about two kids exploring the supernatural side of their small town.  The creator of "Gravity Falls," Alex Hirsch, cites "Eerie" as a major influence on his work, along with "Twin Peaks" and "The X-Files," so you can probably guess what kind of show "Gravity Falls" is.

Let's get to the plot.  Twelve year old twins, Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel (Kristen Schaal), are sent off to the tiny, woodsy town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, to spend their summer with their Great Uncle Stanford Pines - their Grunkle Stan (Alex Hirsch).  Stan runs the Mystery Shack, a dilapidated tourist trap full of weird artifacts and curiosities, most of them fake.  He has two employees - super cool high schooler Wendy (Linda Cardellini) and genial dim bulb handyman Soos (Hirsch) - but the twins quickly get roped into helping out too.  Happy-go-lucky Mabel seems fine with the situation, but her more serious brother definitely isn't - until Dipper discovers a secret journal that serves as his guide to all the strange and supernatural things going on in Gravity Falls.   

The spooky stuff is a lot of fun, but "Gravity Falls" is an especially satisfying watch for nerdy puzzlers and continuity enthusiasts like me.  The show is mostly episodic up until the last stretch of the final season, but there are several ongoing mystery storylines running throughout the whole show.  There are secret messages everywhere - cryptograms in the credits, backwards audio in the opening sequence, and mysterious symbols all over the place.  You can spot suspicious characters lurking in the backgrounds of scenes who don't become important until later.  The characters remember what happens from episode to episode, and it absolutely informs their actions.  Plus, there's a whole "The Simpsons" style community of interesting background players to keep track of.  

From the very first episode, this doesn't feel at all like the kind of show that usually comes out of Disney.  The humor is a little more warped and a little more adult, with Stan showing absolutely no remorse for being a con-man, and encouraging the kids to help in his schemes.  The peril is more perilous than you might expect, with the twins getting themselves on the wrong side of some particularly nasty critters and villains.  Interdimensional being Bill Cipher (Hirsch) is a favorite, who dips into outright horror territory a few times.  The show is definitely made for kids, with Dipper and Mabel eventually finding a friend group, and dealing with age-appropriate personal issues alongside whatever crazy supernatural event of the week is taking place.  There are many preteen crushes and much worrying over the future.  However, the show is  also not afraid of genuinely thorny emotional territory, big ambitious storylines, and the ending might just make you cry.  I'm not at all surprised that the show has an avid following among adults.    

What I really appreciate about "Gravity Falls" is that it ends after forty episodes.  The door is left open for more adventures, of course, but all the big mysteries are solved, the answers to all the puzzles are revealed, and everything ties up nicely after an impressive grand finale.  I never felt strung along, the way I often felt with "The X-files" and I never felt cheated out of a resolution, the way I felt after the quickly canceled "Eerie, Indiana."  I want to caution that the show is of its time - there are recurring characters voiced by T.J. Miller and Justin Roiland, with Louis C.K. putting in a cameo too.  However, the production quality is unusually high - all the work that went into all the little details is incredibly impressive.  

Younger viewers may not be ready for this one, especially the intense final stretch of episodes, but for certain kids, this will be their favorite cartoon.  It absolutely would have been mine if I'd found it at the right time in my life.  

---

My Favorite John Huston Film

I honestly thought I'd written a post for John Huston years ago.  Huston is one of the most iconic Hollywood directors, responsible for helming many iconic American films.  He's closely associated with his favorite leading man, Humphrey Bogart, whose screen persona was fashioned into the ultimate hardboiled detective in "The Maltese Falcon" and a classic antihero in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."  However, I always liked Bogart best when he showed a little more heart onscreen, and I'll always think of him first as Charlie Allnut, the captain of a steamboat named The African Queen.   

The stories of the making of "The African Queen" are legendary, and ended up inspiring an entire separate film - "White Hunter, Black Heart," with Clint Eastwood playing the larger than life director obsessed with hunting, who wants to kill off his heroes at the end of the movie.  Huston famously convinced his backers to shoot a good amount of "The African Queen" on location in Africa, braving tough conditions and constant technical problems.  Katherine Hepburn's account of the production is famously titled, "The Making of the African Queen, or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall, and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind."  Back in the 1950s, if you wanted to make an exciting, realistic looking adventure film, you didn't have to go on the adventure yourself, but it certainly helped. 

And what a great adventure film "The African Queen" is.  You've got the odd couple pairing of a stiff British missionary and a scruffy Canadian rogue, who decide to join forces against the encroaching Nazis.  They go on an impossible journey, defy death and river rapids, and of course fall in love along the way.  The romance is very implausible, but Bogart and Hepburn make it work, in a way that the stars of too many subsequent action-adventure movies have bungled.  To this day, I don't remember the stunts and the thrills of "The African Queen" nearly as well as the banter.  Bogart finally won his Best Actor Oscar for the movie for the ever grousing, ever put-upon Allnut, but I love Hepburn here just as much.  Her reaction when she learns Charlie's first name is such a delight.  The script is a bit slapdash, but the bones are sturdy and the flourishes are great - especially the funny bits.  The marriage ceremony is certainly one for the ages.    

I love that nobody in this movie looks like a movie star onscreen.  When the action gets going, Bogart and Hepburn are sweaty, damp, stained, and eventually covered in mud.  When Bogart has his shirt off to deal with the leeches, he doesn't look remotely sexy.  Hepburn, in accurate period Victorian clothing, clings to dignity until it becomes ridiculous, and gives it up.  The film is focused on capturing the viscerality of the experience more than the grand epic sweep of the story, or the nobility of the characters' motives.  Each new obstacle feels truly daunting, and every narrow escape is a reason to celebrate.  And no expense was spared to capture every speck of authenticity.  "The African Queen" was shot in glorious three strip Technicolor - a first for Huston -  which required a massive camera being lugged out onto the Congo River, along with substantial electrical lighting. 

Huston, if Hepburn and other collaborators are to be believed, was perhaps too lackadaisical about the demands of the production.  He kept putting himself in dangerous situations, often involving impromptu hunting trips, he never worried about the budget, and he sure liked drinking a lot.  However, his talent was always evident.  Perhaps no director in Hollywood was better suited to helming "The African Queen," having the experience as both a screenwriter and a director to improvise and adapt under difficult circumstances.  Huston was also an actor, professional boxer, producer and painter.  He was highly regarded for his ability to envision his films while on set, knowing exactly what shots he needed, and often leaving little for the editor to do.  On "The African Queen," despite all the reported chaos, he got the job done, and he deserves all the credit for its success.  

I don't feel like I've written enough here, either for Huston or for "The African Queen," but putting down everything I want to say would make this post several thousand words long.  I'll just wrap up by noting that Hollywood keeps remaking "The African Queen," even though they never call it "The African Queen," and nobody has ever come close to matching the original.  

What I've Seen - John Huston

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Key Largo (1948)

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

The African Queen (1951)

Moulin Rouge (1952)

Beat the Devil (1953)

The Misfits (1961)

The Night of the Iguana (1964)

The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966)

Fat City (1972)

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Wise Blood (1979)

Annie (1982)

Prizzi's Honor (1985)

The Dead (1987)

---

Any Movie But "Anyone But You"

A romantic comedy is making money at the box office!  And it's one that's starring up-and-coming actors Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney, instead of way-past-their-prime stars like Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts!  This genre isn't dead!  I was so excited to see this movie, and my expectations were, perhaps, too high.  Because I didn't like this one.  I really, really didn't like this one.

I've actually enjoyed all of director Will Gluck's prior films that I've seen.  "Easy A" is great and I think his version of "Annie" is pretty underrated.  However, after the first ten minutes, nothing about "Anyone But You" works.  We have a classic meet cute between our lovers, Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney), who spend a magical night together but are driven apart by a fatal miscommunication.  Six months later, their lovely sisters, Halle (Hadley Robinson) and Claudia (Alexandra Shipp) turn out to be getting married to each other, and Bea and Ben are forced to try and get along for the duration of the destination wedding in Australia.  And if you know your Shakespeare, you've figured out by now that this is a very loose modern retelling of "Much Ado About Nothing."  It's been over a decade since the Whedon version, so I guess we're due.

Powell and Sweeney have some decent chemistry together, but Ben and Bea are very broad, very typical romantic comedy creatures.  They talk themselves into a fake romance, are both tempted by conveniently available ex-partners, and get themselves into humiliating bits of physical comedy at the drop of a hat.  This sort of thing can be fun if done right, but too much of the farce turns into cringe, and too many of the sweeter moments feel forced.  Neither Powell nor Sweeney are comic actors, and they're constantly being asked to do very exaggerated, cartoonish things, and it doesn't work.  Oddly, there aren't really any comic relief secondary characters except maybe Pete (rap artist GaTa), the matchmaker figure whose clumsy attempts at matchmaking don't actually do anything, and were maybe meant to be a Shakespeare reference?  I think Pete is supposed to be Don Pedro, but he acts more like Dogberry.

Honestly, I'm not much of a Shakespeare buff, but the movie wasn't giving me anything more interesting to focus on.  There's a very Hollywood tour of Australia, with the usual jokes about impenetrable Aussie vernacular, an encounter with a cute koala and a scary spider, and some nice shots of the Sydney Opera House.  There's the usual wedding eye candy, with two adorable brides constantly in the middle of picture perfect gatherings.  One shot of them plating mountains of food for a casual family breakfast was a reminder that we were firmly in the realm of Instagram fantasy.  The impetus for several characters trying to intervene in the Ben/Bea hostilities is the threat they physically pose to the wedding - every time they fight, something gets destroyed, because that's how physics works here.  The cast includes some familiar faces like Michelle Hurd, Rachel Griffiths, and Dermot Mulroney playing parents-of-the-brides, who are all given nothing to do.  By the time we got to the credits sequence with the cast singing along to Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten," I was more than ready for the film to be over.  

What really gets me is that the opening sequence with Ben and Bea falling in love is pretty good, and feels like the beginning of a much better movie.  Clearly, Powell and Sweeney are perfectly capable of starring in a charming, sexy romantic comedy.  "Anyone But You," however, is not interested in being charming or sexy.  It's interested in being funny, but isn't actually any good at being funny.  It's interested in making the audience feel good, but doesn't pull that off either.  So my recommendation is to skip this movie, watch "Euphoria" and "The Hitman" if you like the leads, watch "No Hard Feelings" if you actually want a decent 2023 romantic comedy, and track down the Branagh version if you want a better "Much Ado about Nothing."  

Exeunt Miss Media Junkie.

---

"For All Mankind," Year Four

This is my favorite season of "For All Mankind" since the first one, primarily because the show has finally ejected its most problematic characters and storylines, and shifted its focus to a group of younger players.  

This season is set in 2003, splitting its time between Mars and Earth.  A grouchy, older Ed Baldwin is now the commander of the Happy Valley base on Mars, which has expanded operations.  However, it's a terrible place for the lower level workers contracted by Helios, including a newcomer named Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell).  Danielle Poole has also been convinced by the new head of NASA, Eli Hobson (Daniel Stern), to lead a new Mars mission, challenging Ed's leadership.  Meanwhile, Aleida and Kelly find themselves considering new career paths, while Margo gets a new boss in Russia, Irina Mozorova (Svetlana Efremova).  

The show does a great job of setting up life on the Mars base, characterized by deep divisions between the haves and the have-nots.  You also have NASA, Roscosmos, North Korean, and Helios personnel all uneasily inhabiting the same space, with a bunch of conflicting loyalties.  I like the introduction of Miles as a POV character, a blue collar average joe who gets completely shafted by Helios, and turns to under-the-table dealings with the Soviet black marketeer Ilya (Dimiter Breshov) and a North Korean ally, Lee Jung-Gil (C.S. Lee).  I appreciate that this season makes both Miles and Ed pretty unlikeable at certain points, and doesn't make it clear who you should be rooting for.  My patience with Ed was really wearing thin last season, and he works better here as part of the ensemble rather than the lead.  A major part of the plot involves trying to capture a resource-rich asteroid into Earth orbit, and we end up with multiple groups trying to turn the situation to their own advantage, for a variety of reasons.

After years of the Baldwins and their endless personal drama dominating the show, it's so nice to see Kelly and Aleida actually driving the story forward in a few episodes.  I was genuinely excited when they decided to join forces.  They don't quite share equal emphasis with Ed and Miles, but it's enough.  Also, Margo gets a nice, juicy storyline about her exile in the Soviet Union.  The manipulation of events to get her back to Johnson Space Center are completely ridiculous, but I can't really bring myself to care this time.  The depiction of Mozorova and the Soviets could have been much more nuanced, but by now I hope we've all realized by now that "For All Mankind" is not that kind of show.  The one character who feels a little shortchanged is Dani, whose role this year seems to be chiefly to act as a disapproving authority figure that Ed can rail against.     

For those viewers who like the show for its space adventure and action scenes, there are a couple of major setpieces, including an accident on the Mars surface and a suspenseful spacewalk sequence in the finale.  These don't feel as vital to the storylines as they have in the past, and I prefer it that way.  Instead, there's more emphasis put on the characters who need it.  Because we're getting so close to the present day, there's also not much exploration of alternate history.  Ellen is no longer president, the Soviets go through a regime change, and that's about it.  You could view developments at Helios and the return of Dev Ayesa as a commentary on the rise of the tech bros, but it's a stretch.

  

This year of "For All Mankind" isn't the flashiest, but I came away more satisfied with the show than I've been in a long time.  Several of the remaining characters saw some good personal growth and reached natural endpoints.  There were still instances of stupidly melodramatic twists, but far more restrained than the ones that soured me on seasons two and three.  We got some new POVs, some new faces, and there's plenty to explore in future seasons.  I can see the show reaching its planned seven seasons, but since some of the ongoing storylines have finally paid off, I also wouldn't be too upset if Apple decided to end the show here, on a high note.  

---

The Tragedy of "The Iron Claw"

I don't know much about professional wrestling, but I've come to the conclusion that films about professional wrestlers make for some very strong movie melodrama.  The mix of these massively exaggerated wrestler personas, with the dangerous, physically punishing nature of the performances, and the exploitative nature of the business, is a very potent combination.  And perhaps no wrestling saga is more tragic than the story of the Von Erich family.

Fritz von Erich (Holt McCallany) is a former wrestler turned promoter, who feels he never got his shot.  He's obsessed with one of his sons becoming a professional wrestling champion, initially pinning his hopes on his oldest, Kevin (Zac Efron).  Younger brother David (Harris Dickinson) is also an up and coming wrestler, while another brother, Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), is training for the Olympics, and the youngest, Mike (Stanley Simons), has an interest in music.  The Von Erichs become more famous as the popularity of professional wrestling explodes in the '80s, and all four brothers eventually enter the ring.  And then, a terrible series of accidents, injuries, and deaths throw the family into turmoil.  Maybe the cause is the long rumored Von Erich curse.  Maybe the cause is something worse.   

I knew the broad outlines of this story before I watched "The Iron Claw," enough to start getting antsy when we were halfway through the movie and nothing terrible had happened to anybody yet.  The sheer enormity of the misfortune that the Von Erichs suffer through is too much for one movie.  In fact, an entire Von Erich brother, Chris, was taken out of the story, and each tragedy still doesn't feel like it has the amount of impact that it should.  There's simply too much that happens too fast for us to process it all.  I still like the film very much for its performances and for its portrayal of professional wrestling as it transformed from smaller regional promotions into the giant televised spectacles they would eventually become.  Directed by Sean Durkin, individual sequences are beautifully executed and very enjoyable to watch.  There's a fantasy sequence toward the end that is simultaneously gorgeous and heartbreaking.      

The actors are all excellent.  We watch the family's fortunes rise and fall from the POV of Kevin, who is able to rise above the whole mess because he has emotional support from outside of the toxic family dynamic - a loving girlfriend, Pam (Lily Collins).  Zach Efron overcomes looking like a He-Man action figure brought to life, to deliver a truly touching, vulnerable performance.  There's an incredible physicality to him in the wrestling scenes, contrasted with Kevin's total powerlessness when it comes to keeping his brothers safe.  I came away from the film the most impressed with Holt McCallany, who doesn't play Fritz as some awful monster, but as a man so fixated on a particular goal and a particular grievance that he ends up sacrificing his whole family to it.  His interactions with his sons are chilling, because he expresses himself so calmly and with such unshakeable authority.  His sons never say no to him because that's simply not an option in his universe.  Maura Tierney also appears in a brief, but illuminating role as the Von Erich mother, Doris, who refuses to get involved.  

I think wrestling fans will appreciate "The Iron Claw," even if it takes a lot of liberties with the facts and doesn't portray professional wrestling in the best light.  Like Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," it's a cautionary tale about broken families and the price of glory, with a special emphasis on the dark side of idolizing an impossible standard of masculinity.  However, it also captures the allure of professional wrestling, and being part of a family and legacy like the Von Erichs.'  You don't see many melodramas with such a masculine bent, that examine relationships among men from this angle, and it's clear we need more of them.  

Durkin's filmography is fairly short, and this is easily the most ambitious project that he's tackled to date.  I think he may have bit off a bit more than he could chew this time, but I want him to keep doing ambitious projects like this, because he's getting awfully close to making something great.   

---

Taking on "Lessons in Chemistry"

It's on a different streaming service and features entirely different creatives, but Apple's "Lessons in Chemistry" is clearly cut from the same cloth as "The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix.  Here's another handsome mid-century limited series about a fictional brilliant woman making strides in an arena traditionally reserved for men.  Instead of chess, our heroine, Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) is a chemist who eventually finds a way to use her formidable skills to host a popular cooking show.  A quick note before we go further - foodies may enjoy some of the cooking scenes, but the cooking doesn't play nearly as big a role as the marketing would suggest.  

"Lessons in Chemistry" is more explicitly a show about feminism, and the world Elizabeth inhabits is much more hostile to her ambition.  In "The Queen's Gambit," the heroine was unlucky, but created a lot of her own problems.  In "Lessons in Chemistry," misogyny is the biggest block to Elizabeth's advancement from the beginning.  She starts out as a lab technician who wasn't able to complete her doctorate due to abusive faculty, so no one at her job will take her seriously.  Most of the men who should be her colleagues aren't above relying on her expertise, or sometimes outright stealing her work, but refuse to acknowledge her as an equal.  However, there are a few good eggs - namely the eccentric genius Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman) who becomes Elizabeth's greatest defender.  

I like the way that the feminist themes are handled in "Lessons in Chemistry."  The point of Elizabeth's story often comes down to resilience rather than empowerment.  She has to learn to overcome failure and disappointment over and over again, and almost none of the injustices she suffers are ever fixed.  Few of the bad actors see bad consequences.  Instead, the show has several twists and turns as Elizabeth explores alternate paths to success, paths that take us to some unexpected places.  Elizabeth's story is also paralleled by others - her neighbor Harriet (Aja Naomi King) is a black woman trying to save the neighborhood from being destroyed by a highway project, and a young relative of Elizabeth's named Mad (Alice Halsey) tries to find information about her father, an orphan with a mysterious past.

Because the show is more didactic, "Lessons in Chemistry" is not as easy a watch as "The Queen's Gambit."  The characters are also less complex and the plot beats are more familiar.  Frankly, it got tiresome watching actors like Rainn Wilson and Andy Daly show up to scold Elizabeth for being unreasonable while twirling their metaphorical mustaches.  When the show is about more personal matters, it's more watchable.  Brie Larson's performance as Elizabeth Zott is very good, adroitly mixing familiar undersocialized nerd and "science girl" tropes with enough vulnerability to keep us on her side.  In a different kind of show, her self-righteousness and know-it-all attitude might come off as grating, but when her wins are so few and far between, she comes off as terribly brave instead.  And while Elizabeth talks like a dictionary, her feelings are very human, and she takes crushing defeats like anybody would.  She and Lewis Pullman's lovable Calvin have the best scenes together, making connections over scientific discourse, and navigating gender politics like explorers charting new territory.

Like all of Apple TV+'s prestige projects, "Lessons in Chemistry" has high production values and significant talent involved.  I'm especially glad to see Larson in a role making good use of her talents after a couple of rough projects.  Aja Naomi King is also a highlight, and I'm glad that the series kept Harriet in the spotlight for so much of the running time.  If this show gets a follow-up, it should definitely be focused on her political and/or legal career.  If there's anything that "Lessons in Chemistry" does better than "The Queen's Gambit," it's that it makes the narrative space to do better by its non-white characters.  I admire the ambition of the show's creators, even when the execution is iffy, and I'll keep an eye out for whatever they do next.

---