John Watt’s Spider-Man: Far From Home brims with hard choices for one very reluctant superhero.* Tom Holland continues to prove he’s the best Spider-Man ever as he makes plans to spend a summer getting away from his neighborhood and the big superhero shoes he’s stepped into since the events of Avengers: Endgame.** But that wouldn’t make for a very entertaining movie for us, now would it?***
*He is, after all, sixteen.
**He just wants to see Europe with his friends and maybe tell MJ (a delightfully frowny Zendaya) how he feels. The teen romance was totally on point in this film.
***Not to fear. Things go wrong. Spider-Man has to save the day. There are funny and clever parts.
Faviorte IMDB trivia item:
In the film, Spider-Man mentions Captain Marvel, which marks the first time a MCU character referred to Carol Danvers by that name.
I hadn’t seen David Fincher’s Fight Club since 1999*, and wasn’t at all certain it would hold up, so I pressed play with some amount of trepidation. My trepidation vanished in the first few minutes and I found myself settling back into the feeling I remember the movie giving me the first time I watched it.** It’s violent, a bit terrifying, hilarious, runs at a breakneck pace, and might be both Edward Norton and Brad Pitt’s best performances*** and if you haven’t seen this film, get thee to a viewing.****
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library Where watched: at home, as part of Filmspotting’s 9 from ’99*****
Consider also watching these other fine Fincher films:
*Or rather, since the year 2000, as the journal excerpt below proves. **The feeling in question: This movie is awesome! I also want to be in a Fight Club! And also, no, I can see that it isn’t actually a good thing! But I still am enjoying myself tremendously watching this film. ***This movie also manages the impossible: it’s a movie about men doing men things that exclude women, its plot contains only one woman and she’s more of a plot point than a character, and yet still I find myself charmed. How does this film do that? ****It’s been 20 years since its release, so you probably know the twist. It’s still worth watching if you do. *****And between this film, the Sixth Sense, and the Matrix the year 1999 was sending a very strong message that all was not as it seemed.
Favorite IMDB Trivia:
Author Chuck Palahniuk first came up with the idea for the novel after being beaten up on a camping trip when he complained to some nearby campers about the noise of their radio. When he returned to work, he was fascinated to find that nobody would mention or acknowledge his injuries, instead saying such commonplace things as “How was your weekend?” Palahniuk concluded that the reason people reacted this way was because if they asked him what had happened, a degree of personal interaction would be necessary, and his workmates simply didn’t care enough to connect with him on a personal level. It was his fascination with this societal ‘blocking’ which became the foundation for the novel.
Special bonus:
Excerpt from my journal the day I watched Fight Club:
(Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. It was years between me finding the “Toy Story 2 was okay” graffiti and me finding that it was a thing. I actually think this movie is quite good.)
The review:
John Lasseter and Ash Brannon’s Toy Story 2 continues the Toy Story story, mostly for better.* There are callbacks to the first movie** and many other movies (especially Star Wars movies) are quoted. There are plenty of laughs and the quality storytelling that Pixar is known for.
Verdict: Good
Cost: free from Multnomah County Library Where watched: at home with the boyfriend in preparation for another installment of Filmspotting’s 9 from ’99.
*My first twinge of annoyance was when all the guys went on a mission (the main plot of the film), with the lady toys seeing them off. What year is this? 1861? Maybe throw in some gender equity, you know because this was made right before the 21st century. My second twinge of annoyance was that an obese, hairy man (the only large person in the movie) was a bad guy. Fat and hairy doesn’t equal bad. Be a little inventive, Toy Story people. **There’s a great Buzz Lightyear sequence in a toy store.
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
John Ratzenberger, who does the voice of Hamm, has voiced a character in every film made by Pixar.
Sometimes the experience of watching a movie is an exercise in picking apart why the film isn’t working and so it was for James Wan’s Aquaman. I came up with a host of reasons: big gaps in the origin story; villains who had already turned evil, leaving me without reasons to “feel” for them;* flimsy story with not-great writing** that leads to too many action scenes; a very fit guy is only part of the reason to watch a movie, the character he creates has to also be compelling; lack of day-to-day stuff about his life.*** Overall, this was a great example of all style, no substance and I just didn’t care.
*Green Goblin from Spider-Man and Doc Ock also from Spider-Man come to mind as good examples of villains I felt for, even while rooting for their defeat. Even Ultron managed to by sympathetic. **For most of the movie Aquaman is all, “I’m totally not going to be your king!” and then at the end it’s suddenly, “This is gonna be fun!” Why the change Aquaman? ***The movie has placed him firmly as a laid-back surfer, and Aquaman himself says he’s dumb at one point. But he speaks, Russian, Italian, Maori and English? When did he learn all of that? Also, how does he eat? Or drink at the bar? Is he paid for his work? Who pays him?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
Arthur and Orm are elder and younger brothers, but Patrick Wilson is five years older than Jason Momoa, while Nicole Kidman, who plays their mother, is seven years older than Wilson.
If I had a dollar for every movie with a woman playing a “mom” with this age span, it would add up quickly.
There are 21 reasons I happily sat through a three-hour finale of Anthony and Joe Russo’s Avengers: Endgame; at this point, this endeavor is more of a new-generation serial* than a movie. As my movie-going companion pointed out, this is almost like three separate movies: a drama, a heist, and then an action movie. I loved so much about this movie: the callbacks to the previous films; the assembly of so many characters I know and love;** the amount of gravitas; the humor; and the way everything wrapped up.
The verdict:
Recommended, assuming you’ve seen the majority of the 21 previous movies. If not, might I recommend you begin with 2008’s Iron Man?
Cost: $10.50 Where watched: Baghdad Theater with a crowd who clapped multiple times.
Additional sentences:
*You know like those short films that used to be before the main picture way before my time? That’s what this is, a serial told over a decade and in much bigger chunks. **That said Marvel, in the future, I’d prefer more movies with female superheroes in starring roles,*** rather than just gathering them together at a(n admittedly tear-inducing) specific point in a big battle. ***I feel cheated out of Black Widow’s full story.
I think the one-two punch of David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! is Asher Angel’s depiction of an abandoned kid searching for his mother plus Zachary Levi’s grown-man youthful exuberance. Add in Jack Dylan Grazer as the guy who’s super excited to suddenly be friends with a superhero and you have a sweet-natured comedy with more than the usual amount of feels.* While some plot points fall apart upon reflection, it’s an enjoyable and does not feel overly long 132 minutes.
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: $8.00 Where watched: St. Johns Twin Cinema with Matt (who rarely watches films from the DCEU, but who also enjoyed it.)
*Which is not to say that some Red Shirts (a.k.a. minor characters) don’t die in some ways that might be overly gruesome and/or scary to the under 13 set.
I’d not seen Blake Edwards’s The Great Race since I was a child; it was interesting to see the scenes I remembered in context* and I was happy that this managed to have aged almost 55 years and yet is nearly totally free of cringe-worthy moments.** It’s also hilarious (Jack Lemmon is the main carrier of this torch) and though its nearly three-hour run time means it does eventually drag, it has an overture and intermission included in those 160 minutes.*** Overall, it’s a fun intergenerational film, especially if your generations tilt toward the advanced ages, though kids would probably like parts of it too.
The verdict: Good
Cost: free via White Elephant Gift Exchange Where watched: at home with the mothers and aunts
*Tony Curtis’ teeth and eyes sparkling in a “dream boat” way and the best pie fight in the history of cinema were the most prominent, but some of the landscapes felt very familiar, too. **It’s not overtly racist (though that Indian-chase scene is a bit iffy), Natalie Wood playing a suffragette means that it doesn’t come off as terribly sexist (though I’m sure some of the suffragette stuff was “funnier” in the original) and though there’s a drunken crown price who veers dangerously close to a “light in the loafers” stereotype, most of his behavior can be chalked up to alcohol consumption and not same-sex proclivities. ***Unlike, say, a certain seminal superhero movie released in April, 2019.
Though I remembered a lot about this movie, I thought it best to do a quick re-watch* before the sequel appears. It was still very, very good, and as we were watching it at home we could pause for bathroom breaks.**
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99) Where watched: at home with Matt
*Although with a 149-minute movie, there’s no quick re-watch. **Inadvertently, we paused 10 seconds from halfway through the movie. For those curious, it comes during the scene where Thor, Rocket and Groot visit Eitri.
I’d missed out on Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3, and Filmspotting motivation helped catch me up.* I was happy to find a really fun prison-break narrative undertaken by the gang of toys, plus some fun twists. And as I had heard, the end was full-o-tears.
Verdict: Good
Cost: Free from Multnomah County Library Where watched: at home
*Although, now that I think about it, the motivation was to watch Toy Story 2 for the 9 from 99 series. But Toy Story 2 went back to the library before I could watch it. Must re-reserve.
You know who said that? Barbie. She’s the smart cookie I always knew she was.
Brie Larson has played a lot of characters who put their heads down and get through things; her turn in Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel continues that line. The plot of this film is like one of those “scrambler”-type carnival rides* but in a coherent way. You also get origin stories of many things, a woman casting off the mantle that was put on her so she can find her own power and a cat named Goose.**
Verdict: Good
Cost: $11.00 Where watched: McMenamins Baghdad Theater with Matt. (There were multiple points where we clapped. I love the Baghdad.)
*This is where we are—*woosh*— no this is where we are—*woosh*—no really we’re over here—*woosh*—but maybe we’re here? **And the classic Marvel intro has been restyled as a tribute to Stan Lee. I was not emotionally prepared, and was momentarily overcome. You’ve been warned.
Consider also watching some other great Brie Larson performances: Room, Short Term 12, The Spectacular Now (that’s a tiny role, but I like that movie for its depiction of a teenage alcoholic.)
