Well, it's Thanksgiving weekend, and every ad online or on TV is still about Black Friday deals or stupid Cyber Monday. Blegh at how commercialized holidays are. I mean technically it's "Small Business Saturday" but that's just more marketing for shopping. Plus the political fundraising emails clamor all at once, and I don't have the budget for all that.
Frozen 2 is out now, but I haven't seen it yet, wanting to avoid crowds and preferring to get into Knives Out first. Anyway, I haven't seen Frozen 2, but have read a couple of articles debating whether Elsa has a new female love interest. But if you have to debate it, then it's still too ambiguous, isn't it? It's subtext like in Xena, Warrior Princess or it's queer baiting, wanting the cachet of being progressive without actually being brave enough to make it clear and indisputable. I mean, back in the 1990s, I settled for that kind of subtext slash and Joey/Chandler jokes, but it's fucking 2019 now. Do we really have to settle for "if you squint, you can see it" representation? Disney is an entertainment behemoth. If even they aren't brave enough to risk a boycott from China or from anti-gay rightwingers who panic about their kids seeing anything non-hetero, then what hope is there for smaller Hollywood studios to take a leap? I say, either pull the trigger or stop teasing with your stupid "gay moments" and nameless characters in the background. Give us substance, not overblown hype. Surely somewhere in their multiple brands/properties there's room for more diversity and progressive values?
As for TV, the marketing for the big "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover has been nonstop for weeks. The more guest stars they announce, the more I feel they are desperate and stupid and gimmicky throwing in all these Supermen and Batmen. It's probably just going to amount to lots of cameos and maybe even another incomplete story pointing to next year's crossover. I'll watch it for the sake of Batwoman and Black Lightning, but I'm getting tired of this hype.
Saturday, November 30, 2019
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Knives Out
After a trying Thanksgiving at work, I caught this murder mystery instead of going straight home. I've heard the rave reviews of course, but still worried that it would be a disappointment like Kenneth Branagh's horrible take on Poirot. But to my relief, Knives Out was great and funny and clever. I will complain a little bit that that the sole black character didn't have much to do, simply interviewing suspects and reacting to Daniel Craig's outlandish private detective Benoit Blanc. A thankless role. Maybe also there could have been some color in the Thrombey family, because there were characters who had married into the family that could have been non-white. But maybe their whiteness was the point, with one grandchild actually being called a Nazi, while others keep harping on illegal immigration in front of Marta, whose mother is undocumented. (All of the family keep giving different countries of origin for Marta, while claiming they love her like family and will take care of her.)
Anyway, aside from the non-diverse cast perpetuating the idea that cozy mysteries have to take place in predominately white, wealthy settings, it was a good mystery. Marta as a woman of color is given a prominent role as Harlan's nurse and the sole beneficiary of his will. Her gimmicky quirk of always vomiting when she lies is part of the comedy, but is also a reason for Blanc to trust her and treat her as his "Watson" while investigating. The old mansion is full of creepy statuary and puppets, reminding me of the house full of macabre tricks in Sleuth, and there's a chair with knives displayed around it akin to the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones. We also get references to other whodunits like Murder She Wrote and Marta's sister watching another mystery on her laptop. We're all hungry for a good murder. Overall, the film reminded me of The Last of Sheila, too, which I recently saw on TV.
Anyway, aside from the non-diverse cast perpetuating the idea that cozy mysteries have to take place in predominately white, wealthy settings, it was a good mystery. Marta as a woman of color is given a prominent role as Harlan's nurse and the sole beneficiary of his will. Her gimmicky quirk of always vomiting when she lies is part of the comedy, but is also a reason for Blanc to trust her and treat her as his "Watson" while investigating. The old mansion is full of creepy statuary and puppets, reminding me of the house full of macabre tricks in Sleuth, and there's a chair with knives displayed around it akin to the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones. We also get references to other whodunits like Murder She Wrote and Marta's sister watching another mystery on her laptop. We're all hungry for a good murder. Overall, the film reminded me of The Last of Sheila, too, which I recently saw on TV.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Charlie's Angels
I saw the reboot today, and it was actually pretty funny and exciting. I had been iffy on seeing it due to the trailers, but I liked it. The Townsend Agency has been expanded to an international organization filled with tons of Angels and tons of Bosleys, all still reporting to Charlie. The opening sequence emphasizes this by showing much more than three Angels helping to subdue the Australian criminal Jonny Smith and his henchmen.
I also liked the nods to the previous TV show and movies. During John Bosley's retirement party, we see photoshopped pics of Patrick Stewart's character with all the previous Angels we know of, and the voice of Charlie still sounds like John Forsythe, even though the actor is dead. Apparently they got a sound-alike voice, and I wasn't sure if the movie would address whether the character Charlie Townsend was gone, but they did, in a reveal during the credits, when we see someone using a voice modulator to make the Charlie voice for the phone call. So just like Bosley became a rank and not an individual person, the title "Charlie" has been passed on to a successor. I love it, and there are fun cameos from other women who are Angels.
The plot with the Calisto weapon was twisty, and they did fool me about who the traitor was. Only thing I didn't really like was the weird "The Saint" guy at the safe house who was in charge of the Angels' food, health, psychiatry, and yet also the gadgets and weapons. Way too much stuff into one character, and were they trying to reference Roger Moore's character Simon Templar with that Saint name? (shrug) Overall, a good, entertaining popcorn movie.
I also liked the nods to the previous TV show and movies. During John Bosley's retirement party, we see photoshopped pics of Patrick Stewart's character with all the previous Angels we know of, and the voice of Charlie still sounds like John Forsythe, even though the actor is dead. Apparently they got a sound-alike voice, and I wasn't sure if the movie would address whether the character Charlie Townsend was gone, but they did, in a reveal during the credits, when we see someone using a voice modulator to make the Charlie voice for the phone call. So just like Bosley became a rank and not an individual person, the title "Charlie" has been passed on to a successor. I love it, and there are fun cameos from other women who are Angels.
The plot with the Calisto weapon was twisty, and they did fool me about who the traitor was. Only thing I didn't really like was the weird "The Saint" guy at the safe house who was in charge of the Angels' food, health, psychiatry, and yet also the gadgets and weapons. Way too much stuff into one character, and were they trying to reference Roger Moore's character Simon Templar with that Saint name? (shrug) Overall, a good, entertaining popcorn movie.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
The Warrior Queen of Jhansi
I saw this Hollywood biopic about the Rani of Jhansi. It was very difficult to even find showtimes for it, because the movie didn't show up in Flixster or other movie listings. There was not a lot of advertising for it, and I had to seek it out.
The movie dramatizes the Rani's life and how she fought the British East India Company as one of the leaders of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It's a little bit of a mixture between legend and historical fact. The cast has some British actors, such as Rupert Everett as Sir Hugo Rose, the army commander, and Nathaniel Parker as Sir Robert Hamilton, apparently a civilian Company man and major shareholder. Derek Jacobi plays the Prime Minister in some scenes with Queen Victoria. Those scenes include the Queen's Indian favorite, but this character is actually a fictionalization of the Victoria's later patronage of Abdul Karim, which didn't begin until 1887. So that's a little artistic license so that they can have Victoria be sympathetic to the Indian cause, even though she doesn't really have any power in government to make the Prime Minister do anything.
The movie dramatizes the Rani's life and how she fought the British East India Company as one of the leaders of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It's a little bit of a mixture between legend and historical fact. The cast has some British actors, such as Rupert Everett as Sir Hugo Rose, the army commander, and Nathaniel Parker as Sir Robert Hamilton, apparently a civilian Company man and major shareholder. Derek Jacobi plays the Prime Minister in some scenes with Queen Victoria. Those scenes include the Queen's Indian favorite, but this character is actually a fictionalization of the Victoria's later patronage of Abdul Karim, which didn't begin until 1887. So that's a little artistic license so that they can have Victoria be sympathetic to the Indian cause, even though she doesn't really have any power in government to make the Prime Minister do anything.
Sunday, November 10, 2019
Too early for winter
I read that Fresh Off the Boat is cancelled, though they are still trying to do a spinoff about an Indian family. I mean, the ratings have declined, and I've found the plotlines more annoying and tedious lately so I stopped watching this season. The Cattleman's restaurant plots really got dumb once Kenny Rogers bought them, and then I really missed Eddie's older friend Nicole who moved to New York. I suppose Constance Wu and Randall Park have other movies to go make, but I hope there's a proper ending to this season.
I hope The Good Place's finale will be good too, but this first half of the season has been baffling and meandering. I thought they would use Simone for more stuff, but there's been too much Brent. I don't know what they're gonna do when they come back for midseason.
As for movies, Last Christmas is out now, but November still feels far too early to me for a Christmas movie, so I went to see Jojo Rabbit instead. The satire of Nazis was funny, though the darkness of war remains present. We glimpse people left hanging in the town square a couple of times, and there's a big battle scene when the Allies take Berlin. I'm not up on my WWII history, so I didn't realize what the "Free Germany" slogan meant, and I didn't catch that the Russian army was rounding up German prisoners including Jojo at the end. In all the talk of Jojo's sister Inga being dead, I didn't catch that it was from influenza, and thought there was some mystery about that. I'm not sure whether Taika Waititi was implying that Captain K and his assistant Finkel are covertly gay, because they look at each other a certain way and also come up with flamboyantly colored uniforms. That's a little weird that they would continue supporting Germany and don't feel relieved when they're delegated to desk jobs during the remainder of the war. Also, Captain K gets small moments of goodness, such as when he doesn't expose Elsa to the Gestapo and when he saves Jojo's life after the Russians catch them. I mean, I understand that humans are not all good or all bad, but why should this particular Nazi out of all the farcical Nazis in the film get humanized?
SPOILERS BELOW
I hope The Good Place's finale will be good too, but this first half of the season has been baffling and meandering. I thought they would use Simone for more stuff, but there's been too much Brent. I don't know what they're gonna do when they come back for midseason.
As for movies, Last Christmas is out now, but November still feels far too early to me for a Christmas movie, so I went to see Jojo Rabbit instead. The satire of Nazis was funny, though the darkness of war remains present. We glimpse people left hanging in the town square a couple of times, and there's a big battle scene when the Allies take Berlin. I'm not up on my WWII history, so I didn't realize what the "Free Germany" slogan meant, and I didn't catch that the Russian army was rounding up German prisoners including Jojo at the end. In all the talk of Jojo's sister Inga being dead, I didn't catch that it was from influenza, and thought there was some mystery about that. I'm not sure whether Taika Waititi was implying that Captain K and his assistant Finkel are covertly gay, because they look at each other a certain way and also come up with flamboyantly colored uniforms. That's a little weird that they would continue supporting Germany and don't feel relieved when they're delegated to desk jobs during the remainder of the war. Also, Captain K gets small moments of goodness, such as when he doesn't expose Elsa to the Gestapo and when he saves Jojo's life after the Russians catch them. I mean, I understand that humans are not all good or all bad, but why should this particular Nazi out of all the farcical Nazis in the film get humanized?
SPOILERS BELOW
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Harriet
It's a shame that Harriet Tubman isn't on our currency yet, but at least we have a new movie about her. Cynthia Erivo is great, and I also loved Janelle Monae's role as a free black woman in Philadelphia. Harriet's fainting spells coincide with seemingly prophetic visions, so she interprets this as God speaking to her and showing her the future. This conviction and strength help her to escape slavery and survive all her dangerous Underground Railroad trips.
I liked the movie a lot, though it puzzlingly focused a lot of time on Harriet's former owners the Brodesses. The son Gideon grew up with "Minty" as she was called then, and he makes racist analogies about slaves as pigs. Even after Minty escapes to the North and renames herself Harriet, we often see glimpses of the Brodess family struggling financially and trying to keep their other slaves from escaping. The movie builds up to a personal confrontation between Harriet and Gideon, and the plot revolves around it so much that when this climax finally happens, it seems to create an early, false ending. The rest of the movie spends too little time on the Combahee river raid, then Harriet rejoining her family after the war. I wish this had been a biopic that covered more of her life post-Civil War so we could see the complete picture.
I liked the movie a lot, though it puzzlingly focused a lot of time on Harriet's former owners the Brodesses. The son Gideon grew up with "Minty" as she was called then, and he makes racist analogies about slaves as pigs. Even after Minty escapes to the North and renames herself Harriet, we often see glimpses of the Brodess family struggling financially and trying to keep their other slaves from escaping. The movie builds up to a personal confrontation between Harriet and Gideon, and the plot revolves around it so much that when this climax finally happens, it seems to create an early, false ending. The rest of the movie spends too little time on the Combahee river raid, then Harriet rejoining her family after the war. I wish this had been a biopic that covered more of her life post-Civil War so we could see the complete picture.
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