A great week for Colin Farrell, who seeks to repair his daughter's android companion in Kogonada's heartrending science-fiction drama and taunt a revitalized Batman as The Penguin.
As someone who very often wrongly identified as "The" Cookie Monster, me not can help but be irked by title. Me also have definite Bat-fatigue, no matter how good this is.
And there also issue with Batman and Gotham City, in that character was born out of lawlessness of 1930s, have major revival during lawlessness of Reagan Era (peaking with Tim Burton film). But even taking into account post-Covid uptick in crime, we currently living in safest era in American history. And it completely fine to have fantasy of urban hellscape, and certainly healthier to have that fantasy play out as superhero movie than Fox News fearmongering. But it still reinforce "our cities are on fire" lies that large swaths of country still believe.
And from storytelling perspective it might be interesting to see how gentrified Gotham without much street crime could still need Caped Crusader to protect it. Me guess Nolan films came closest to that, as they more rooted in fears of terrorism than crime.
Me still thinking about this, and why Batman beating up street criminals in 2020 still bother me. It because we *are* living in lawless era, but criminals not stopping you on street and trying to take wallet. Rigged elections, stolent Supreme Court seats, "President" funellling taxpayer money into his golf resort because he knows there no mechanism to stop him from blatantly violating Constitution, richest man on Earth getting there by wiping ass with labor laws and evading taxes while still taking handouts from taxpayers, and cops killing people without fear of reprisal worse than paid vacation. All while "street criminals" doing 15-20 for weed. That lawless version of America me would like to see Batman movie address, and it completely in character for Batman to go after people who operate above law. Grisly serial killer leaving clues? That was edgelord material back in '90s.
All good points. Without spoiling the movie, there is a concern with institutional corruption woven into the plot. And I'm not saying that this is a WIRE-like exploration of the topic and, yeah, some street toughs definitely get what's coming to them early on, but it's something. You make a good point about eras, too. I don't care much for JOKER, but setting it in 1981 makes sense for reasons beyond the Scorsese-homage.
Yeah, the rub on Batman absolutely that in the end, it plays like a real-deal Libertarian/conservative (borderline fascist) fantasy more so than just about every other superhero narrative. I really love the idea of a Batman in a 'now' where there's less cause for him - maybe he becomes more of The World's Greatest Detective again? Maybe he sucks? Feels fresher than any take we've seen in a long while (though I am intrigued to see this).
Now me feel bad that me jumped on here immediately to talk about Batman when Yang look like far more interesting film and one me more likely to see, given that Cookie kids are firmly in Marvel camp.
The most baffling part to me in The Batman is Dano’s performance. He’s a fantastic actor, but I haven’t seen this much whispering then yelling since Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending. Feels like a wild miscalculation, and elicited a lot of giggling in the theater
As someone who very often wrongly identified as "The" Cookie Monster, me not can help but be irked by title. Me also have definite Bat-fatigue, no matter how good this is.
And there also issue with Batman and Gotham City, in that character was born out of lawlessness of 1930s, have major revival during lawlessness of Reagan Era (peaking with Tim Burton film). But even taking into account post-Covid uptick in crime, we currently living in safest era in American history. And it completely fine to have fantasy of urban hellscape, and certainly healthier to have that fantasy play out as superhero movie than Fox News fearmongering. But it still reinforce "our cities are on fire" lies that large swaths of country still believe.
And from storytelling perspective it might be interesting to see how gentrified Gotham without much street crime could still need Caped Crusader to protect it. Me guess Nolan films came closest to that, as they more rooted in fears of terrorism than crime.
Amen, Cookie Monster.
Me still thinking about this, and why Batman beating up street criminals in 2020 still bother me. It because we *are* living in lawless era, but criminals not stopping you on street and trying to take wallet. Rigged elections, stolent Supreme Court seats, "President" funellling taxpayer money into his golf resort because he knows there no mechanism to stop him from blatantly violating Constitution, richest man on Earth getting there by wiping ass with labor laws and evading taxes while still taking handouts from taxpayers, and cops killing people without fear of reprisal worse than paid vacation. All while "street criminals" doing 15-20 for weed. That lawless version of America me would like to see Batman movie address, and it completely in character for Batman to go after people who operate above law. Grisly serial killer leaving clues? That was edgelord material back in '90s.
Same reason I find most cop shows increasingly pointless and distracting.
All good points. Without spoiling the movie, there is a concern with institutional corruption woven into the plot. And I'm not saying that this is a WIRE-like exploration of the topic and, yeah, some street toughs definitely get what's coming to them early on, but it's something. You make a good point about eras, too. I don't care much for JOKER, but setting it in 1981 makes sense for reasons beyond the Scorsese-homage.
Yeah, the rub on Batman absolutely that in the end, it plays like a real-deal Libertarian/conservative (borderline fascist) fantasy more so than just about every other superhero narrative. I really love the idea of a Batman in a 'now' where there's less cause for him - maybe he becomes more of The World's Greatest Detective again? Maybe he sucks? Feels fresher than any take we've seen in a long while (though I am intrigued to see this).
I know you’ve already written about it, but will you be reviewing Drive My Car now that it’s more widely available on HBO?
I think the Hamaguchi piece + our best-of piece was enough, though it’s exciting that so many folks have a chance to see it now.
That seemed like an almost uniformly glowing Batman review and then, 3.5?
Gotta go with my gut. I like it a lot! But 3.5 felt right.
I usually don't care about spoilers but for some reason I'm really liking that I know next to nothing about After Yang.
I say that to apologize for totally being the guy that just looked at the score, fist pumped, and then read the entire Batman review.
Now me feel bad that me jumped on here immediately to talk about Batman when Yang look like far more interesting film and one me more likely to see, given that Cookie kids are firmly in Marvel camp.
The most baffling part to me in The Batman is Dano’s performance. He’s a fantastic actor, but I haven’t seen this much whispering then yelling since Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending. Feels like a wild miscalculation, and elicited a lot of giggling in the theater