(or, the internet hermitage of tyler w. weaver)
I don’t know if I’m more excited because I can’t wait to see where Lopez takes the series next or because of its middle finger-ness to Pizzolato’s petty bitching. Probably a bit of both: ‘True Detective’ Renewed For Season 5 At HBO As Showrunner Issa López Strikes Overall Deal (via Deadline).
(****+ / *****) :: Brilliant return to form (though I'm not among the legion that loathed season two, I can't remember much of anything about season three, other than Mahershala Ali being, unsurprisingly, excellent) courtesy of a director whose work I now need to devour. Should the series continue, would love to see it take the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE pre-McQuarrie route, a different writer/director taking a swing at a season/series (Barry Jenkins, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Lynne Ramsay, Jordan Peele, and Werner Herzog (see: BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL – NEW ORLEANS, great underrated film) being the first that spring to mind; would've included Jane Campion but she did it with TOP OF THE LAKE and Nicolas Winding-Refn but same with TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG and COPENHAGEN COWBOY). Will miss seeing the Ennisians on our Sunday night visit – I would've gladly spent the remainder of the long night with them (hanging with Rose would be brilliant) – but I'll especially miss Danvers's latest weekly variation on "fuck." Corpsicle FTW.
Input trend of "catch up from the last 10-80 years and finally explore" – see: Cassavetes, The Safdies, Chester Himes, et al – continues with Yorgos Lanthimos (the cinematic Gogol?) and this gem: darkly hilarious in its exploration of the stupidity of extremes (no one here is immune – everyone seems to have the emotional capacity of schoolchildren at recess (which, when it comes to love, I suppose we all do), to wonderful – and horrifying – effect) and far more moving than its weird would lead one to believe. All of Lanthimos’s work duly added to the "must-watch" list.
Frears + Winslet? Add another one to the “must-watch” list:
Fantastic read via Polygon on how Issa López and crew made the show’s already-legendary ice-rink thawing corpsicle. Found this bit, on the influences behind it, of particular interest:
(Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto from a script by Gareth Duner-Alcocer; starring Xolo Maridueña, Belissa Escobedo, Bruna Marquezine, Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Trujillo, George Lopez, and Susan Sarandon. Released 15 August 2023; watched 2023w47 via Max )
If you'd've told me ten years ago that the best film in the DCEU would be BLUE BEETLE, I wouldn't have believed you. Yet here we are - and it is, by far, the best: a perfect balance of heart, humor, and thrill. A shame it was lost to the box office undertow of the end of the DCEU and its (much-needed) rebirth into the Gunn/Safran DCU, but hopefully BEETLE finds the audience it deserves in streaming (ironic, given its origins) and physical release. Relief, too, that Xolo Maridueña will continue as Jaime in the new canon; here's hoping for his return sooner rather than later. Wonderful film.
A deliciously horrific (dark, dark dark) comedy-of-manners (think Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME if Octave went all Count Zarnoff ) meets excoriation of a CHEF'S TABLE culture that takes the love out of that most primal of arts – though it could be applied to any art, really – and in whose gut, as Ralph Fiennes's executive-chef-cum-cult-leader Julian so aptly puts it, that art becomes shit.
With the exception of the (apparent? I'm not discounting that I may have misread the final scene and relish the chance to revisit at some point) turn in the remaining diners' attitudes at the final course – I couldn't tell if it was acceptance or resignation or conversion or all (or none) of the above – feeling more than a bit like a switch flipped (had it been seeded throughout, perhaps that would have worked better; as it was, the totality of "The Menu" and its attendant punishments didn't feel as complete as it could have had total conversion to Julian's perspective been achieved – in my eyes, it didn't go far enough (which probably says more about me than the film itself)), THE MENU ranks among my favorite recent releases – so much so that It's now the second film (the first being PARASITE) that I purchased on Blu-Ray midway through my first viewing.
Indeed: as PARASITE did for peaches, THE MENU does for s'mores.
That THE FLASH even exists as more than a punchline (box office returns notwithstanding) after nine years of development, a litany of directors and visions, and the unending drama in and around the DCEU, is cause for celebration (or at the very least, a slow clap); that it's as enjoyable as it is – though not without significant flaws – is reason for elation.
Excepting his choice in Batfleck's new costume (which raises questions about his taste when it comes to his upcoming take on the DCU Batverse in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD), the sometimes-jarring and unearned tonal shifts, and my general weariness with both Miller's take on Barry (their iteration is far too Spider-Man-y for my taste) and the lackluster supporting characters (though I would certainly alter the timestream to save Maribel Verdu) surrounding him, Muschietti, to his eternal credit, made the most of a thankless mission that, for the most part, didn’t feel like the Frankenstein monster of visions and meddling for which its production history had seemingly destined it.
Keaton's return as Batman was wonderful and welcome – though I can't deny that his iteration felt tonally out of place here; I wanted to be more excited than I was by his presence. Were the possibility not sadly precluded by his health issues, Val Kilmer's Batman would have been the perfect fit (as I said in my Postscript on my BATMAN FOREVER rewatch, his Bats is the one I could see figuring out how to survive a fall from outer space and struggling to raise Damien) for this take – and would have solved the issue of Nu-Bruce in the Gunniverse-adjacent Flash-DCU which elicited a smile but felt forced, at best.
While I have my fingers crossed that we'll get more of Sasha Calle's Supergirl – she would be PERFECT for WOMAN OF TOMORROW (though, admittedly, Melissa Benoist would be amazing too; if they were going to bring any two over from the CW, let it be her and Grant Gustin) – it's lamentable that THE FLASH will most likely be the final time we'll see not only Calle, but also Affleck and Irons – who I wish had gotten their own film series as I still want to know more about their Gotham (BATMAN '16 digital-exclusive comics, DC?) – and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman: all deserved better than development hell, Joss Whedon, BvS, WW84, and that atrocity of a Batsuit seen here.
But hey: if nothing else, THE FLASH earned its place on a pedestal for being the first superhero film to save a baby by sticking it in a microwave (the DCEU's version of Indiana Jones's nuclear fridge?) – and to FINALLY give us Nic Cage as Superman facing down a giant spider.
(Directed by Joel Schumacher from a script by Lee Batchler, Janet Scott Batchler, and Akiva Goldsman; starring Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones, Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell, Michael Gough, and Pat Hingle. Released 16 June 1995; (re)watched 2023w28 via Max.)
While Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey still grate on the nerves (it did help, somewhat, to think of them as multiversal iterations of The Joker who happened to collide in this universe) and Nicole Kidman had to make the most of an under-written and -utilized role (she did, after all have to follow Michelle Pfieffer’s legendary Selina Kyle), FOREVER is far more excellent than I either a.) remembered or b.) let the bad taste of its sequel let me remember: amidst an intriguing psychological drama seasoned with cool Bat-jumps from tall buildings and a great car wrapped in something of a prescient story surrounding The Riddler's Apple Vision Pro, the Gotham of FOREVER – I view Schumacher's films to be in their own little universe, separate from the Burton-verse, this great fan trailer and Hamm's BATMAN '89 comic showing us how amazing a Hamm-penned, Burton-directed Billy Dee Williams Two-Face could have been – conjures a cyberpunk BATMAN: TAS channeled through the mind of Grant Morrison and the pencil of Kelley Jones (a pairing which MUST happen at some point), set to the kaleidoscopic music of Eliot Goldenthal's circus-meets-Elfman's-DICK-TRACY-score, and protected by the only cinematic Batman that I can imagine not only needing a Robin – Kilmer's Bat should serve as inspiration for the Gunn-verse's THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD – but surviving a fall from space (as the comics version did several months back in Zdarsky's excellent run). You may fully count me among those who wants to see the mythical Schumacher Cut: it's no masterpiece, but FOREVER is something special whose full canvas deserves to be seen. This one was a joy to revisit.
(Written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson; starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Jon Favreau, Keith David, and Ellen Pompeo. Released 14 February 2003; (re)watched 2023w23 via Max)
Bit late on publishing this one (rewatched it a week ago) but given that I haven't seen DD since its first DVD (or maybe even theatrical) release 20 years ago – and I still need to see Johnson's director's cut – I'll forgive my tardiness. The good news is that I enjoy it as much as I did the first time(s) through: the action scenes thrilled and hurt; the relationship between Foggy and Matt was better, I think, than the Netflix series (Foggy's perpetual Karen-ness, particularly in seasons two (loathed) and three (loved), grated and diminished an otherwise excellent performance from Elden Henson); Affleck – contrary to his own opinion – is a far more effective Matt Murdock / DD than Batman (though I do dig his Batman and wish we had gotten more of his Bats and Jeremy Irons's Alfred) and yes, I love the costume – even have the Marvel Legends action figure; Jennifer Garner, while remaining woefully miscast as Elektra, does her best with it (even making the hokey Matt/Elektra relationship scenes tolerable though apparently the director's cut diminishes the romance angle?) – a shame that her solo film was such an atrocity as she deserved far better; Keith David brought heartache and tragedy to Matt's origin as Battling Jack Murdock; and Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP - can't believe he's been gone for 11 years) and Colin Farrell were fantastic villains who I wanted to see more of – though I wish Farrell hadn't opted for the Tommy-Lee-Jones-as-Two-Face mode of supervillainy as it diminished much of his menace.
Next up: watch the director's cut and write about it sometime within the next 20 years.
