Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Remember when the Nazis used to be the bad guys? In the good old days, kids, Nazis used to be the bad guys and not the American governors and corporate leaders. Heroes like Indiana Jones would battle Nazis in various adventures and we the audience would take great pleasure in watching the Nazis’ faces melt as they screamed in agony. In The Dial of Destiny, Nazis are once again the villains, and Indiana Jones and his intrepid partner Helena manage to kill a few dozen of them (but still not enough) and it’s great fun. Sadly, Indiana’s reign as a Nazi Hunter is coming to an end, and now more than ever, Nazis need to get melted while screaming. All of them. And instead they’re taking positions of power and creating policy. I enjoyed every second of this Nazi-killing adventure. Filmmaking trickery and razzle-dazzle help old Harrison Ford as he kills the Nazis and throws them off of moving trains, etc. The chases are long and fantastic (but a distant second to Fury Road). The John Williams music is, as always, beautiful. Indy’s desire to go back in time and re-do some things is visceral. Don’t we all wish we could. So like Indy, this nostalgic chapter hopes to go back in time and make some corrections. It succeeds in many ways, but time also moves forward and there isn’t much Indy or we the audience can do about that. Just keep reminding people about the time when the Nazis used to be the bad guys, and not the guys in charge.

Still

With vulnerability that few movie stars would ever be courageous enough to reveal, Mike Fox shows and tells the story of his Parkinson’s diagnosis. It’s less melancholy and pitiful than you’d think, with plenty of humor and clever bits lifted from his famous movies. The huge stockpile of clips must’ve given the clearance department the shakes as well. Too soon?? Anyway, it’s not like he could’ve hidden it from his fans for very much longer. He was and still is really famous, and the symptoms eventually became more than he or his alcohol supplements could handle. Documentarians use plenty of interpretations and reenactments to tell the story, which is fine. But the interviews with Fox himself are the most revealing and authentic. As he’s still going strong, raising his family and living his life, there’s no sign of any kind of conclusion, good or bad, in the near future.

Asteroid City

All of the comic book movies have meta-multi-verses, so why shouldn’t Wes Anderson? Here’s your precious, old-timey-looking ticket. Welcome to the Meta-Wes-iverse. It’s a Twilight Zone hosted televised play, but also the making of that play, and also a filmed version of that play. It’s a kaleidoscope of deadpan oddness. It’s impossible to explain the overall plot, but the filmed story of the play is the principal stuff, a melancholy fable about a widowed dad (Jason Schwartzman) who falls in love with a movie star (Scarlett Johansson) during a science fair/alien invasion somewhere in the desert boonies. Their relationship is the emotional core of the story and it definitely achieves some poignant moments. Lots of other movie stars clutter-up the proceedings with their deadpan deliveries and it’s a bit difficult to reconcile it all. Production Design, costumes, hair, etcetera are all strongly Wes Andersony. But the plot and the pace is something new – slow, dry, and music-less. There’s lots of creativity on display, but you are and will always be at the mercy of the filmmaker -- and Anderson and company take their sweet time.

No Hard Feelings

This is an Alexander Payne movie. It doesn’t matter if Alexander Payne wasn’t involved -- his essence is all over this. Ad campaigns are selling this as a hilarious Farrelly Brothers type of sex comedy. But there’s an indie-movie bittersweetness here, too. Desaturated colors, shaky hand-held camera, very close close-ups, crying. It attempts, with some success, to match the TONE of Sideways, Election, or About Schmidt. They even got Broderick! The not-so secret ingredient is, of course, Jennifer Lawrence, who goes full H.A.M. in a way that most movie stars would never try. It’s only “risky” if it doesn’t work, and she brute-forces it to land with her commitment to the bit. The lead nerd (Andrew Barth Feldman) is solid, also. It’s a cousin to the Farrellys’ There’s Something About Mary, but the brothers always lean heavily into the silliness. Here the comedy is more grounded farce, with misfortune lurking just around the corner. The Payne homage, comedy/dramedy hybrid is rough around the edges, but it gets an A for effort.

Extraction 2

Another kill-fest featuring killing machine “Tyler Rake.” For the pandemic, it made sense that a big action movie like this would need to go straight to streaming, but now what gives?? This should be in theaters. “Thor” Hemsworth is solid and very physical as he guns down, stabs, and breaks the necks of hundreds of stooges and minions in a city that apparently doesn’t have any other people. He and the villains are able to endure numerous life-threatening injuries and it’s refreshing to see filmmakers at least TRY to throw a first-aid kit in there every once in a while. Rake’s team of sidekicks are also pretty competent which is welcome -- your best action movies always need a team of competent ass-kickers. 

And a train. There must always be a fight on a train. 

Boxes must be checked.

The Flash

** SPOILER ALERT **

There are too many Batmen. There are also too many Spider-people and too many Super-men and too many Jokers. The multiverse is getting full. The Flash has to interact with a variety of these doppelgängers and has double duty, since he has one of his own. Efforts to make this an emotional story are noble and welcome. Who wouldn’t want to go back in time and re-do some things? Ezra Miller is working double-time, literally, to suit the plot and serve the various JLA Batmen. It’s a lot. Not to mention the falling babies, of which there are many, and they all look really fake. I’m not sure if filmmakers used video game animation to save money or to dial-down the realism and cushion the blow during the funny but fake looking homage to Eisenstein, because the dog looked pretty real. The babies look like newborn residents of the uncanny valley, as do the various pseudo/meta characters in the quantum realm. Did they run out of time? Did they run out of money? Was DC/WB worried that serial assaulter and kidnapper Ezra Miller couldn’t carry a movie? Nevertheless, a lot of this was enjoyable, but mostly as fan service and stunt-casting cameos. Lots of nerd alert-Easter Eggs. But no HUGE emotional surprises. A lot of this material was covered in the CW Arrow-verse. Did I enjoy it? Sure. Would I see it again? Probably not. Am I answering my own questions? You bet your ass I am.

Edge of Tomorrow

Re-watched this Warner Brothers bottle of lightning from 2014. It shouldn’t have worked. There were so many red flags: A recycled “time-loop” premise from Groundhog Day, a weird mercurial director (Doug Liman), an alien creature lifted right out of The Matrix, a dumb title and sloppy marketing campaign, etc. If I had to guess, it was the editors that saved this movie -- the pacing is perfect. And the physicality and charisma of Emily Blunt, who had an established sci-fi record by then, but was always the lady in the dress. And so... don’t we all wish we could go back and re-do things?

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

It’s the Long Island Iced Tea of movies. It has a little bit of everything and packs a huge punch. Every frame is a piece of art, not just pop art, but French impressionism, surrealism, you name it. Like the first movie, characters are designed to represent certain comic printing styles, and it’s all beautiful. Story-wise it’s imperative to remember certain minute details from part one, so it’s not really free-standing, and the cliffhanger ending was a shock and kind of a bummer. Lots of “way-homers” as you try and piece together the plot and the story after the show. But the teenage, growing-up themes resonate profoundly. There’s more focus on Gwen and her experiences not fitting in – not knowing what universe to be in, etc. There’s subtext all over this. There’s also a wealth of fan-service Easter Eggs, many of which I didn’t catch, from the Spider-canon of comics, video-games, and movies. So, rather than being linear, the whole experience comes together like some sort of web that maybe a certain animal would make; a sticky, connecting surface, with no end. If this had an ending, it could’ve won Best Picture. It’s that “amazing.” But with no resolution, it’s a beautiful chapter of a larger volume, but required viewing.