Movies
Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
There's a moment in the mid-film sequence where Vanellope finds herself in a physical manifestation of a Disney fan site (best not to sweat the mechanics of this) and, amid a procession of stormtroopers and a cavalcade of Star Wars sound effects and musical cues, we hear the Wilhelm Scream—which seems to posit that either the use of the Wilhelm Scream in Star Wars is so iconic that an entire generation assumes it's a "Star Wars Sound," or else Disney really, really wants to will this into being. It's a strange little instant that's just one of a whole cascade of strange, disorienting choices in this film—the bright "Inside Out Meets The Internet" design of the film's environments crashing into the cynical brand exploitation of that same setting; the out-of-nowhere '80s-kids-movie style traumatizing imagery, like a dude with a talking cyst on his neck; the ouroboros of Disney's own muddled instinct for self-critiquing brand maintenance that the trailers promised. It's a film that flirts with a sort of conceptual Uncanny Valley, where we're presented with things (mostly brands) familiar to us from our years as digital natives or transplants, only twisted and personified in such a way that they're both cutesy and slightly zombified. It's an exceptionally creative film, but it doesn't have a clue where to focus that energy. Of all the feature films Disney has released in the Lasseter era onward, Ralph Breaks the Internet is certainly the weirdest, which I dig quite a bit. But it's also probably the least successful overall of those features, too. Grade: C+
Widows (2018)
A political thriller in which a coalition of women steal power and resources from an oppressive male oligarchy? Yes, please. It's not nearly so cut-and-dry "woke" as that, being much more about the knotty ways in which corruption and public good intertwine and make real, clean political reform difficult. But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't cathartic to see women of color going all Robin Hood on the racist old white dudes like it were the 2018 midterm elections. Not being from Chicago, I can't say if this is a particularly good depiction of the political climate of that city in particular, but as a vividly rendered mythological plane of byzantine political forces (reminiscent of David Simon's version of Baltimore in The Wire), it's wonderful. My only reservation is that the extension of one of the city's rail transit lines serves as a central metaphor for the corruption of political capital—dunno how my urbanist self feels about that. Grade: B+
Blindspotting (2018)
There is a lot to like in this movie. I'd even go so far as to say that the movie has no bad ideas, which is impressive (and a good sign) for a movie which is practically premised on being nothing but ideas. An Edgar-Wright-style urban comedy about dealing with how the world of your youth changes as you leave your youth (complete with tons of Wright-esque edits)? An incisive look at race identity that explores the interlocking layers of what defines whiteness and blackness? A soulful but really legitimately angry look at the collateral cost of a rapidly gentrifying Oakland, CA? An easy-going buddy comedy with naturalistic but frequently hilarious dialogue? A, like, freakin' rap opera? These are all A+ ideas executed sharply, and I've barely scratched the surface of what the film has on its mind. It's too bad that the only good idea the filmmakers couldn't think of was any idea of how to stitch all this together into anything resembling a cohesive film, since the whole thing feels like a particularly interesting but typically disjointed example of the old "exquisite corpse" writing experiment. But the individual pieces are so compelling that I'm willing to go along with the bumpy ride. Grade: B
Gertrud (1964)
If I'm being completely honest, I probably need to rewatch this, since I kind of rushed through the film distractedly because it was due back at the library and I had no renewals left. That said, what did stick with me I like a whole lot. The long takes of brutally honest conversations, the gorgeous but subdued cinematography, the way that the men float in and out of Gertrud's screentime like benevolent and malevolent spirits on her existential quest, the casting of love (or its dissolution) as some kind of history-ending, cosmic struggle—it's all very good. I just probably retained 70% of it at most, and I'd like to spend more time on it once the library isn't breathing down my neck. Grade: B+
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Masculinity—or at least, the traditionally performed signifiers of it within American society—is a prison, and I've not seen many films that evoke the agony of society's gendered weights as poignantly as this one does. I was kind of blown away; I dunno what I was thinking, but I was imagining more of a "bad boy has smoldering stare, rides a motorcycle" thing, not something this excruciatingly pained and well-observed.
If you're interested, the Cinematary podcast's 223rd episode discussed this movie this week, and I was on it! You can listen here.
Out of the Past (1947)
Solid film noir with tremendous lighting. It's a Jacques Tourneur movie, so of course the blacks are as black as they come, and the shadows are practically blotted onto the screen with India ink. There's probably more going on visually than narratively, which isn't to say that the narrative is "bad," but it does wear its film noir tropes on its sleeve perhaps to too naked an extent. Robert Mitchum is merely fine as the hard-boiled protagonist, which is a bit disappointing in light of Night of the Hunter. But Jane Greer is incredible as the femme fatale, and Kirk Douglas is doing this fun proto-Joe-Pesci heel turn. Grade: B
Television
Party Down, Season 2 (2010)
I basically have nothing to say about this cancelled-too-soon show's second season that I didn't already say about its first season. Megan Mullally does a good job of replacing Jane Lynch, who left for Glee, without recreating her exact dynamic, and this second year overall is a good example of how to lightly tweak the chemistry on the show without entirely re-inventing itself (Adam Scott's Henry becoming the team leader, for example). Anyway, the cast is great, the show is very funny and surprisingly poignant, the jokes sometimes edge into an unfortunate homophobia-adjacent space, etc. This season is at pretty much the precise same level of quality that the first season was. Too bad about that early cancellation, though it does have what seems like the perfect ending. Grade: B+
Books
The Truth Lies Here by Lindsey Klingele (2018)
A decent YA pastiche of Stranger Things and that kind of creepypasta-lite mystery. It's always fun in this type of story to see how the threads of the mystery creep out to tie together the whole town in a conspiracy; however, I can't help but remember all the William Sleator I read as a kid and wish that this whole thing were just a bit weirder--it ultimately boils down to a pretty standard (though tenderly rendered) daddy issues book, just with Men in Black creeping around. Klingele is no prose stylist, either, though I feel like I say that about most YA novelists I read these days. Maybe I'm just getting old. Grade: B-
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