Spoiler Alert Sunday :: our thoughts on a lot of movies.

So it’s been a crazy summer. It’s been a crazy year. Etcetera. We’ve seen a fair amount of movies that we haven’t yet reviewed, and part of it is that we keep just forgetting to write reviews because we get back late or we have other things to do or we’re just tired all the time or when we think about it it’ when we don’t have time to do it or who the hell knows. But also, I realized that part of it is that we’ve genuinely enjoyed most of the movies we haven’t posted reviews of but we aren’t overflowing with insightful comments about them. So… here. We’re just going to go through each movie and say some stuff. Sorry, guys.

The Favourite

So this is a movie about horrible people treating each other horribly. It’s about women who are queer, but they’re horrible people, and the other people around them are also horrible. It’s a period piece where nothing is pretty and in fact a lot of things are kind of yucky or grotesque. Olivia Coleman completely and 100% deserved her Oscar, but she’s not a likable character in the slightest. No one is. But then again, it’s sort of refreshing watching a movie where everyone, women and men alike, are just aggressively bad people, and they all face some consequences for that in one way or another.

Us

Jordan Peele should be allowed to keep making whatever media he wants to make, and I’m not usually one for horror but I love his horror. Us is an odd movie, and one that demands at least a couple of rewatches because you’ll definitely miss some of the clues the first time around. It does a lot with a very simple concept: what would you do if the people invading your home weren’t after your stuff, but they were after you? How do you escape if the intruders know exactly how you think and look exactly like you? It leaves some questions unanswered at the end of the movie, which I think makes it more powerful, but this will no doubt frustrate some viewers. Still, even if the ending is too much for you, it’s a visually interesting movie with some incredible performances (Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke definitely deserve awards for this movie).

Mary Queen of Scots

We rented this movie, admittedly, and it was alright. This was probably the least flattering portrayal of Elizabeth I I’ve ever seen. Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan give good performances. Also there was an internet kerfuffle when Gemma Chan was cast as Bess of Hardwick and racists got really mad about HISTORICAL ACCURACY!!11!!!!1!!! (She is in the movie for about ten minutes total and does nothing but stand by Elizabeth I and give her sad longing looks, so you do feel pretty bad for the poor little lesbian.) But this movie is mostly worth mentioning because of the scene where David Tennant, playing a Scottish Protestant clergyman, shouts “WHUUUUUUUUURES” in reference to female monarchs. (He means “whores,” which isn’t funny, but his accent makes it hilarious.)

Booksmart

This movie is so good! It’s earnest and sweet and despite the inevitable “best friends engage in dramatic social activity, come to conflict with each other, seem to have a falling out, and reconcile” plot it doesn’t induce the usual cringe that that does (at least for me). Also, Kaitlyn Dever’s (remember, Kaitlyn Dever, who I adore from Justified and Short Term 12 and and and) character is a little lesbian who actually successfully engages in positive lesbian activity, and Beanie Feldstein (who was in Lady Bird, among other things) is a lesbian in real life, so this is a very gay-positive movie. Billie Lourd is absolutely incredible in this movie, playing the protagonists’ indecipherably weird classmate (at one point she even makes an Almost Famous reference, which sent me over the moon, let me tell you). There is a significant issue with the movie, though: there’s a subplot with a young-ish “cool” teacher, who’s supposed to be maybe in her late 20s-early 30s, who helps out our two lead characters in their quest to get to a party…and then hangs around said party and ends up sleeping with one of her students. The student is stated to be older than 18, because he’s been held back, and it kind of feels like the movie is excusing it because of that. But nope! It is still gross, weird, and inappropriate for this teacher to be sleeping with one of her students! That’s the biggest problem with the script and it honestly feels like that subplot was accidentally left in there from an earlier draft. Other than that, though, it’s a really delightful comedy, and Olivia Wilde is clearly better at making directing choices than acting choices.

Always Be My Maybe

This movie was hyped up a lot on Twitter, as it’s an Asian American romcom and we don’t see a lot of those in the US. Ali Wong and Randall Park star as childhood friends who boned once, had a falling out, and then didn’t see anything of each other for twenty years until Wong returns to her hometown to begin setting up her new restaurant. From there, it’s pretty standard romcom fare, but created by Asian Americans, which really does make a difference to this story. I liked Crazy Rich Asians a lot, but this romance feels more real to me. I’d definitely recommend it even if you’re not usually a romcom fan, I think there’s enough here that most people will be charmed. (Also, Keanu Reeves is in it and he’s incredible as usual.)

Men In Black International

This movie is serviceable. It’s exactly what you expect from a Men in Black movie. It’s fine. The real reasons to see this movie are Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth, who are flipping delightful together and apart per usual. Thompson’s character M is pretty much the reason for the plot to happen, which is pretty cool. She’s written in a way that reads pretty clearly as neurodivergent and queer for anyone who recognizes that: she’s obsessed with aliens, she’s wary about letting people in but she is good at forming bonds with people once she trusts them, and she makes connections and notices things that most people wouldn’t notice. Also, part of the conflict is resolved because she’s good at making friends when she wants to. M and Hemsworth’s character, H, have a great vibe that could or could not be romantic, and at the end of the movie they’re implied to still be working together but you can read it as totally platonic if you want to.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

This movie is fun! It’s less fun if you think about it for a minute, because it’s about a bunch of teenagers being put into very dangerous situations, and also nostalgia for a billionaire capitalist who was an asshole, but still. Tom Holland is great as both Spider-Man and Peter Parker, which has never happened before in a live action movie, and Zendaya is the best MJ. (Zendaya’s MJ is also pretty aggressively coded as neurodivergent. It’s been a good time for that.) This movie also did a fun thing with its villain Mysterio/Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), and by fun I mean “pointedly topical.” He says in no uncertain terms that the goal of his villain team is to (well, to get back at Tony Stark, which is a pretty solid mood, and) engineer events to suit his agenda. To change the narrative. To create fake situations that will make people need help that specifically he can provide so he can be a hero. To unite people in fear so he can more easily take advantage of them and make them lift him up. Uh, that sounding familiar yet?

Little Woods

This was the debut film of Nia DaCosta, whose career I will be really interested to follow based on this movie. It’s a quiet movie, more atmospheric than anything, and the story is mainly about two sisters doing their best to get by when everything is going wrong. Ollie (Tessa Thompson) is trying to escape her hometown, after having been on probation for illegally crossing the Canadian border while transporting drugs. Her probation is almost up, and she’s hoping to move now that her adopted mother has passed away, but her sister Deb (Lily James) is making that difficult. Deb finds out she’s unexpectedly pregnant, days after the bank announces that their childhood home is being foreclosed on, and Ollie has to find a way to help her get to Canada for an abortion and get the money to save their house. The movie is mostly just characters interacting with each other, and that might sound boring, but it’s the kind of slow, quiet storytelling I really like.

Fast Color

I wanted to get to the theater for this, but it was only able to get to about 10 theaters in total. Still, I think this is my favorite movie of 2019. It stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a woman named Ruth, who is living in a future dystopia where it hasn’t rained in years and water has to be carefully rationed. The viewer is slowly shown what’s going on with her: all we know at the beginning is that she’s on the run and sometimes she has seizures, during which bad things happen. The story is about three generations of black women with superpowers, but it’s also about survival, resilience, and the ways in which we learn to protect ourselves and the people we love when we know we could cause them harm. I really wish this had been wider release, because I think it’s so important and honestly one of the best superhero movies I’ve ever seen.

Hobbs & Shaw

Was this our most anticipated movie of 2019? Maybe. Have we been clapping our hands like giddy children every time we so much as see a poster for it? Maybe. Are we aware that this is a complete nonsense movie full of nonsense? Yes, which is the answer for why we answer affirmatively to the first two questions. After The Fate of the Furious, we pretty much signed our hearts over to this franchise and any of its related presentations, and this movie lived up to our (technically low) expectations and then some. Hobbs & Shaw follows the adventures of Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) as they try to stop a crazy cybernetically-enhanced criminal named… Brixton Lore (Idris Elba). He’s like a ton of bricks, get it? They’re also joined by, and in fact their adventure is necessitated by, Deckard’s sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby). Anyway, it’s what you want and expect. A lot of vehicular mayhem ensues, a lot of other action mayhem ensues, there are explosions and a lot of far-fetched weaponry is used, Helen Mirren reappears as the Shaw matriarch and Eiza Gonzalez cameos as the leader of a criminal girl gang (and where’s that movie?) and Ryan Reynolds cameos as a CIA agent who thinks he’s bros with Hobbs and also wants to tell you his Game of Thrones opinions (I’m not even kidding about this). The final showdown takes place in Samoa and Hobbs’ family of Samoan car designers offers a beatdown with their collection of ancestral weapons and also their swank cars. It’s a perfect storm of nonsense and beauty.

–your fangirl heroines.

Film Friday :: 2017 in film

First off, we have already seen The Last Jedi. We saw it opening night. We’ve just been waiting to write about it because A) we’ve been crazy-busy, B) we want to go see it again to pick up more before we write, and C) we figured it would be nice to let the spoilers die down a little. But I will talk about some things about it.

So!

Best Times At The Movies This Year

4. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
So yes, we’re in the camp that quite loved this movie. And our first night crowd was great! They laughed at all the right parts. It was a stressful time that also involved tears and emotions, but it was good and important.

3. Thor: Ragnarok
Good grief. Drift partner and I loved this damn movie, as evidence by the fact that we went to see it a second time in celebration of our anniversary earlier this month. Hela (Cate Blanchett) is a brilliant villain, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) is the bisexual warrior goddess icon we all need, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is a big golden retriever memelord, Bruce (Mark Ruffalo) is a good buddy who needs protected, Heimdall (Idris Elba) is our lord and savior. Etcetera.

2. Wonder Woman
This is cinematic gold. This movie was such a relief and such a celebration. Diana (Gal Gadot) is the other bisexual warrior goddess icon we need and also Etta (Lucy Davis) is absolutely everything.

1. The Fate of the Furious
Admittedly two of the best times we’ve had at the movies involved being able to drink during, but that’s a coincidence. This is a beautiful garbage movie full of a beautiful garbage family and the stupidest most wonderful nonsense ever, and I’m so glad of it.

Biggest Emotion-Grabbers

(Emotions other than intense happiness, since that was covered above.)

4. The Shape of Water
This movie, as we said last weekend, is flipping weird, but it’s beautiful and quiet and touching and just… lovely. It might not be for everyone, but it’s lovely.

3. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
For joy but also heartwrenching…ness both because it’s inspiring to watch Wonder Woman come to be and because a movie about bisexual polyamory that’s not only committed and tender and loving and emotionally intense but real is something that never happens and should always.

2. Get Out
This emotion, on the other hand, is some cross between anxiety, dread, and disgust at the world. This is such a fascinating movie, and while I don’t feel it’s my place to get into all of the details I feel it is my place to say it’s expertly done.

1. Hidden Figures
This emotion is pride, mostly. I am proud of these real people and the people who made this and the fact that this is a story we can tell and that it’s true and that it just rocks. Also Janelle Monae, Taraji P. Henson, and Octavia Spencer are goddesses.

Some Standout Ladies

10. All of the women of Star Wars
Leia (Carrie Fisher) always. Bless you space mom, thank you for sending us your bees and love. Rey (Daisy Ridley) always. We love our daughter. Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) is a beautiful delight and we also love the hell out of her. Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) is, surprise, also a bisexual goddess. I want more Maz (Lupita Nyong’o) in Episode IX, dammit. I’m glad Kaydel (Billie Lourd) got more to do and I dibsed her on principle.

9. Lady Bird McPherson (Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird)
As drift partner said, Saoirse deserves her damn Oscar for this emotional and compelling performance. Period.

8. (As mentioned,) Hela and Valkyrie
These two are opposites, enemies, and wonders. Hela is the most extra character, from the horns to the cape to the necroswords to the dramatic magic, and Cate Blanchett was clearly having the time of her life. Val is a tragic babe with a happy outcome, a pegasus-riding sword-wielder, and the kind of character women rarely get to be. They both make a great movie even greater.

7. Harley Quinn (Melissa Rauch, Batman and Harley Quinn)
I’m counting it! We watched this on-demand one night and then immediately ran out to buy it because it is a perfect movie. It exists in the same continuity as Batman: The Animated Series, but it’s rated significantly more PG-13, and Harley is done perfectly. She’s a big bisexual nerd trying to make good, flirting and punching and punning and singing and literally saving the world with her love for Ivy (Paget Brewster). Especially after Suicide Squad, this movie is a breath of fresh air and so is this incarnation of our best clown princess weirdo.

6. Elizabeth Marston (Rebecca Hall, Professor Marston…)
Like, I’ve always loved Rebecca Hall, but this performance is transcendent. Not because it’s flashy or particularly weird, but because it’s heartfelt and honest and, yes, quite h-o-t. It’s the best kind of movie about queer women, which is to say one that actually comes through a queer female gaze and not a straight male one, and Rebecca Hall shines as a fully realized person with fully real desires and appeal.

5. Michelle “MJ” Jones (Zendaya Coleman, Spider-Man: Homecoming)
She is just what we need in everything, namely a snarky black girl who takes no shit from anyone but isn’t afraid to give it. She’s so deadpan and perfect and such a great addition to the universe and the story and I’m excite to see how she ends up being properly MJ.

4. Mantis (Pom Klementieff, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2)
These movies are definitely hit and miss in a lot of ways, but there are some universal truths, among them that space is very beautiful to look at and that Mantis is an adorable sincere autistic baby who needs to be protected. She’s so utterly charming and her need to be loved and be helpful is, uh, #relatable.

3. Cipher (Charlize Theron, The Fate of the Furious)
This is a garbage film, but she is the garbage queen. All of ur cars are belong to me.

2. Laura Kinney (Dafne Keen, Logan)
This kid. Just her performance in the final act of the movie nearly put this movie on the emotion-grabbing list, too, because she’s heartwrenching. She’s a little badass through the film, but she’s also so little and good and I’m proud of her and would like to make her cookies.

1. All of the women of The Lego Batman Movie
Obviously Barbara (Rosario Dawson) is the main female character in this movie, and she kicks so much ass and is just so delightful. I’m also talking about my favorite thing, the (potential) Gotham City Sirens triumvirate of Harley (Jenny Slate), Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), and Poison Ivy (Riki Lindholme). That’s the perfect film right there. Get on it.

–your fangirl heroine.

Spoiler Alert Sunday :: our thoughts on Thor: Ragnarok

So we’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while, despite the early announcement that not a single of our beloved ladies from the first two Thor movies – not darling brilliant Jane, not spectacular sassmaster Darcy, not even fantastically badass Sif – would be present. There are reasons (not great ones, but reasons) for this, but it’s still a bummer. We love them and pray that we have not seen the last of them.

That said, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Hela (Cate Blanchett) are about the best apologies that we could possibly have been given, and Taika Watiti as a director gave a film that was in general a beautiful apology, as well as a series of amendments and fixes and clarifications and extra bursts of joy and goodness.

But this is one of those ones where spoiling would be cruel because you need to experience this joy for yourself, so here are a few things that we can say that aren’t spoilers so much as just truths.

• Valkyrie. Valkyrie is in the comics (AKA Brunnhilde), leader of the Valkyrior, a group of warrior goddesses who choose which mortal Asgardian worshippers who have fallen in battle will be taken to Valhalla, member of multiple teams including the Fearless Defenders, and Valkyrie is a big giant bisexual. Both Thompson and Watiti have verified that they filmed a scene of a woman exiting her bedroom to confirm this, and Thompson has said she was playing Valkyrie as bisexual, but it was cut pretty late into production. Alas. It’s still been put forth into the world and it’s true and we love her. She is also kind of a disaster person who has Fallen On Hard Times. That’s all I’ll say about that from the get-go but it’s important to mention. She’s delightful. Also, she’s putting on my absolute favorite kind of British accent, very South Eastern and lovely. And she is seen riding a pegasus. That is the most glorious thing.
• Hela. Hela is the goddess of death. She is, mythologically, Loki’s daughter… but she is not in fact Loki’s daughter in this continuity because that would be just too odd. Hela is also completely batshit bonkers, and it’s clear Blanchett is having the absolute time of her life strutting and posturing and dramatically intoning and gesturing nonsensically. I spent most of the time before this movie affectionately calling her “goth swamp witch Cate Blanchett” and I am pleased to report that that is exactly what she is. Also, speaking as someone who has wanted her to play more batshit crazy witch-types since that infamous “you should not have a Dark Lord but a QUEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNN not beautiful but terrible as the dawn treacherous as the sea STRONGER THAN THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EEEAAAAARTTTHHHHH ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRR” bit in The Fellowship of the Ring, Hela is pretty much what would have happened if Galadriel had gotten ahold of the One Ring.
• Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is himself a lovely and wonderful man. He has been a lovely and wonderful man, and an infinitely lovable protagonist, since his mid-first-movie revelations, but now that he has spent enough time on Midgard to become a backtalking memelord he is unstoppable.
• Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is also something of a memelord. It must be interesting to be a memelord and a meme simultaneously. This is not a pro-Loki blog, but this is a blog that nonetheless appreciates Hiddleston’s performance objectively if not what fandom has made of him. Also, he gets mocked, humiliated, and thrown around in a slapstick way constantly throughout the movie, which is really delightful.
• Bruce/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) is mostly the latter, but manages to be an engaging character regardless. I’m very fond of Bruce, which I think not a lot of people are, but Ruffalo especially brings an earnestness and sweetness to him that previous incarnations of the character lacked (even Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk, who I think was pretty good). The Hulk is more talkative than he has been in the previous films, having semi-complex conversations with people, while still being a giant green rage-monster. He and Valkyrie have a weird little friendship that is adorable. I understand why they’ve made the choice to sideline him and not give him his own movie, but I hope they keep letting him take second or third billing alongside other characters, because I think it makes for some really fun character beats. (Also drift partner specifically: oh my god there was a reference to Bruce/Natasha and I almost lost it right there in the middle of the theater how could they do this to me MY HEART GOODBYE)
• This is a movie that is very clearly the product of Australian and New Zealander creators and performers. Not everyone is, obviously, and some of them are pretending to be not-British or some such, but it’s still very nice.
• Oh, and Heimdall (Idris Elba) is a joy always.

–your fangirl heroines.

Spoiler Alert Sunday :: her thoughts on The Jungle Book

I’m bad at seeing movies lately.  I’ve turned it over to my drift partner, I guess.

The nice thing about Disney’s new trend of remaking all their classic animated movies is that (so far) they haven’t tried to redo any that I feel a particular fondness for. (Though Mulan is coming, god help us all.) I liked the 1967 Jungle Book as a kid, but it wasn’t one I watched religiously. I don’t even think I’ve seen it since I was a young teenager and I don’t remember most of the plot. But when the announcement for the 2016 Disney version came out, I was intrigued, mostly because of the cast. Idris Elba, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Kingsley, and Lupita Nyong’o in the same movie? Sign me up! The early trailers also looked pretty good, and then the reviews were so overwhelmingly positive I decided maybe it was worth an opening weekend watch after all.

The thing is, I’ve gotten pretty good at picking out CGI, even really good CGI, from “real” special effects. So I knew going in that the film had been shot entirely on a soundstage in LA, which means basically all of the elements Mowgli (Neel Sethi) interacts with were created after the fact. And I can tell the animals are CGI, and some of the trees and branches Mowgli climbs on. The background sets, though? They’re indistinguishable from real sets. I was looking for elements that would give it away as CGI and I couldn’t find any. (Which isn’t to say that the animals don’t also look incredible, but it’s just a different look than if they’d, say, gotten a trained panther.) I almost wish I’d seen it in IMAX because the visuals are stunning – I know everyone is still talking about Avatar all these years later but I got the impression that that film was deliberately exaggerated and cartoonish, whereas Jungle Book’s sets feel absolutely real. And major kudos to Sethi, who had only acted in one short film prior to being cast, and is just as likeable and charming a hero as you could want. I’ve seen adult actors struggle to interact with CGI creatures and sets, and he does it beautifully. (Also, actually Indian, which is refreshing, since Disney doesn’t have the best track record for cultural sensitivity when adapting stories.)

I haven’t read the book, but I can only assume the plot is heavily influenced by it as opposed to the 1967 version. There’s some interesting mythology in the beginning, with the wolf pack’s mildly cult-ish chant about the ways of the wolf pack and the law of the jungle (there’s a joke Baloo gets about it which is funny in the moment but doesn’t make sense if you think about it), and the almost religious respect given to elephants. Elephants, you see, created the jungle, and to refuse to bow your head to them is a sign of total disrespect. That explanation comes early in the film, and there’s a great payoff to that later on. There’s also more exploration of Mowgli as a character: how he does and doesn’t fit in with his surrogate wolf family, and how his “tricks” (tools and machines) alarm the animals, who scold him that that is the way of man, not wolves. But not everyone objects to them; Baloo (Bill Murray) is a bit more like a con artist in this version, seizing upon Mowgli’s ingenuity and harnessing it to help him get honey from hard-to-reach beehives. The “tricks” are, of course, what ultimately save Mowgli and his friends in the end, when he must defeat Shere Khan (Idris Elba) with his brains rather than his fists. Shere Khan has an actual reason for targeting Mowgli, as well, as it turns out that Mowgli’s father defended himself and his son from Shere Khan and blinded the tiger in one eye with a torch. I don’t remember his motivations in the animated version, but I feel like they were probably flimsier.

And speaking of Shere Khan, I don’t think there was a better choice than Elba, who is compelling and menacing in turn. From what I can recall, the animated version made him a bit too preening to be as effective as he could be, but here, he’s genuinely intimidating. I think the PG rating helped, too – Shere Khan makes quick work of the alpha wolf, Akela (Giancarlo Esposito) and while his death is offscreen, it doesn’t shy away from saying what happened either. Nearly all the voicework is impeccable: Murray as Baloo is both loveable and appropriately scheming, Kingsley is stern but paternal as Bagheera, Nyong’o may actually get the most emotional meat of the piece (and her character becomes the new alpha in the end, which was cool to see), and Johansson as Kaa is…well. Let me just say that I as an adult who finds her voice incredibly sexy was a bit uncomfortable in a theater full of children. (They also let her do a cover of “Trust In Me” that plays over the credits and I’ve certainly gained a new appreciation for the song.) The only real miscast, in my opinion, is Christopher Walken as King Louie, but even then he’s serviceable, when he’s not singing. Someone thought a half-sung rendition of “I Wan’na Be Like You” right at the point when Louie is supposed to be menacing Mowgli into working with him was a good idea. It wasn’t. (The other song in the movie proper is “The Bare Necessities,” which is fine because it’s just a scene of Baloo and Mowgli goofing off.) I also find it interesting that over half the cast is composed of actors of color, particularly because the story is set in India. It works very well, I think.

So as someone who is affably indifferent to the original Disney movie, I was very pleased with this one. It’s a more coherent, interesting story, and it’s beautiful to look at. I’m glad it’s taking off and I hope that the other live-action Disney remakes will try for the bar this one has set.

Superlative Sunday :: the 2016 SAG Awards and my thoughts on them

Here’s the thing.  14 awards were given on this show last night.

Six of them (if you include the cast of Orange is the New Black, which is notably and emphatically diverse) went to actors of color, specifically black actors.

“I sense a theme,” said someone I was watching with, around the time of Viola Davis’ win.  He then went on to point out that, in what he deemed protest of the recent “controversy about the Oscars” (said in a tone that it was in fact a “controversy,” not a controversy, but I could be wrong because I have not otherwise discussed that issue with him, because contrary to his belief I do not enjoy being angry), all of the black actors who had been nominated up to that point had won.

Keep in mind that statistically, 8 of the winners were white people.  That’s still more white winners.  The cast of Spotlight got cast of a film (as I’m sure they deserved, from what I’ve heard) when there were multiple predominantly black casts nominated.  Male Actor in a Comedy Series went to a white cis man playing a trans woman, and one of the nominees for Male Actor in a Leading Role – Film was  Etcetera.

And as he continued to theorize, I pointed out that “I don’t hear you get mad when all the winners are white people.”  “I’m not mad,” he said, or implied, I’m not remembering, “and that doesn’t happen that much any more, anyway.”  (Reader, I laughed.)

Last night at the SAG Awards multiple actors of color were commended for their performances.  I admit I have not actually seen any of these performances in any great detail, but from what I know of the actors and from what I’ve heard about the performances, the awards were thoroughly well-deserved.  Maybe they all won because of a radical SAG protest against the Oscars.  But maybe, and again I’m just supposing, they were all deserving, more so than the other actors in their categories or at least equally much with a few more favorite votes.  Maybe Idris Elba really is two-SAG-Awards-in-a-night talented.  (From what little I know of him, he is.)  Maybe Uzo Aduba should keep winning all of the awards ever.  Maybe multiple POC actors can win awards at the same show without it being shocking.

Aforementioned person romanticized a theoretical future where we as human beings are “above” race.  Where it doesn’t matter if the winners of ultimately inconsequential award shows are white or black or brown or what-have-you.  I bit my tongue so I didn’t point out that in this particular case, maybe it wasn’t just the political protest he imagined, but also so I didn’t point out that that’s really not something he has any right to say, given that he is already the cultural “default” race (white).

Congratulations, Idris, Uzo, Queen Latifah, Viola Davis.  Congratulations also to Brie Larson, who I am very proud of even though I haven’t seen her film yet.  Congratulations to the stunt ensembles of Game of Thrones and Fury Road, who were not awarded on the show last night but were awarded.  And yeah, Oscars, take note.

–your fangirl heroine.

Film Friday :: 2013 in film (5 award-type movies, 5 action-type movies)

I’ve come to the conclusion that the big trends with what I see are award-buzzy sorts of things and action-related sorts of things; of course, there are others, but those are the big categories.  So here is me ranking some of those that I saw this year.

Award-type movies
I had feelings about all of these to an extent and they either deserve nominations for some things or deserved them.  Linking to past discussions thereof.

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild
2. Much Ado About Nothing
3. Short Term 12
4. 12 Years a Slave
5. Gravity

Plus bonus for all of these movies: two of the five feature nonwhite protagonists and four of the five feature female protagonists, and all of these handle such things with nuance, sympathy, and respect.  That’s awesome.  Beasts of the Southern Wild made me way more emotional than most films have the ability to and managed to feel both realistic and magical.  12 Years a Slave made me emotional, too, albeit in a different and admittedly more uncomfortable but necessarily so way.  Gravity is almost entirely comprised of Sandra Bullock, by herself, which is amazing (I can’t actually think of another film that does that with a female character), and Short Term 12, in addition to handling the subjects of foster care and familial abuse with care and respect and featuring a romantic relationship that was acknowledged as being flawed but also not destroyed just for the sake of narrative angst, featured a realistic and multilayered relationship between two female characters (Brie Larson and Kaitlyn Dever, respectively).  And, well, the last of them is Joss Whedon doing Shakespeare, which is just greatness.

Action-type movies
Same goes.

1. Pacific Rim
2. Thor: The Dark World
3. Iron Man 3
4. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
5. Machete Kills

Yeah, okay, all of these have flaws.  I could have done without Machete Kills‘ multiple trips to the fridge, and Hansel and Gretel was cheesy as hell (but it made me smile, and Gemma Arterton was there, so it can stay).  The MCU (and really most all movies) could stand to up its diversity quota for sure.  But the thing that all of these movies have in common is that they made me smile.  I saw a lot of movies this year that did not make me smile in the slightest, so this is something special.  But again: two of these featuring nonwhite protagonists, and between two and four of them featuring female protagonists (depending on if you class the MCU ladies as main or supporting characters, I guess, though I’d tend toward the former). 

Another thing these films all have in common is that each one features ladies kicking ass prominently.  Rinko Kikuchi’s Mako is, bar none, the hero of Pacific Rim and a wonderful badass with a classic character arc refreshingly applied to a character who’s not a white guy; the charming white guy of the film, Charlie Hunnam’s Raleigh, could have gone down a journey of manpain, but instead dealt with it and proceeded to cheerlead like nothing for her (without their relationship ever being forced down an explicitly romantic route, although they were totally in love).  Oh, and her relationship with her non-blood father (Idris Elba’s Stacker) was also beautiful and much more heartwrenching than something in a movie about robots punching sea aliens usually would be.  Thor 2 gave moments in the sun to all of its ladies (Natalie Portman’s Jane, Kat Dennings’ Darcy, Jaimie Alexander’s Sif, and Rene Russo’s Frigga) and valued their respective strengths equally, Iron Man 3 featured both an excellent morally gray lady scientist (Rebecca Hall’s Maya — also, I’m tentatively mentioning a belatedly started Maya Hansen Lives campaign, because of reasons) and an excellent CEO temporarily gone physical fighter emerging from the flames (Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper).

The other two movies on this list were decidedly and more openly silly, and I do not deny this at all.  But, again, they made me smile.  And that counts for something.

–your fangirl heroine.

Spoiler Alert Saturday :: my thoughts on Thor: The Dark World

I recently started forming a list of things that I am just so very done with in films and television, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.  Lists mean I’m able to organize information in my head, and that’s comforting.  Lists mean that I’m able to have more set criteria for things, which has advantages and disadvantages.   (This list is getting saved for the end of the year, when it will be applied to things scathingly.)

I go into everything expecting to tick off at least one of the boxes now.  It’s been that kind of year.  I’m glad to report that I didn’t really have to with Thor: The Dark World, though!  The “manpain” box was closest, probably, but even that… well, you can have men in pain, being sad and even angsty, without it falling into the realm of manpain.  And any of Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) manpain was called out, really, so that’s something too.

(I don’t have serious issues with Loki, but neither am I over the moon for him.  My people, not of the internet as I am, are all “Loki!!  So smirky, so much fun!!” and that’s fine.  I’m to the point where I have a slight adverse reaction just due to overexposure, but it’s no comment on Tom Hiddleston’s performance.)

I like many others was afraid of the “love triangle” box getting checked, and there were slight hints of the potential for this happening between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Jane (Natalie Portman) and Sif (Jaimie Alexander).  But the narrative didn’t go there because the narrative had other things to focus on, and I appreciate that.

Also, remember how earlier I was lamenting when research is not properly done?  This is one of the things I love the most about Jane freaking Foster.  Research!!!  Science!!!  She had been sad about Thor leaving before and not getting in touch after the events of The Avengers, but she had her emotional reaction to that and then went about the necessary business.  She got possessed by a magical thing, but because of science, and it did physically weaken her for a time, then it was taken out of her and she did more science!!!  And her science comingled with Thor’s deity-type superpowers to help save the world and oh that’s just wonderful.

Sif is a freaking badass.  Heimdall (Idris Elba) is a freaking badass.  Frigga (Rene Russo) is a freaking badass.  (Also, can I just say that her fate was disappointing but I appreciate like no other that at least she went out fighting?  The narrative at least had the decency to give her that, and that’s something, anyway.)

And Darcy (Kat Dennings).  Daaaaaaarcy, my lovely snarky darling.  I am disproportionately fond of Darcy and the fact that she plays the role she plays in these movies.  And the fact that here’s intern Ian (Jonathan Howard) just following these two badass ladies around like a helpful British puppy.  (Also it’s become a game of mine to check the resumes of twentysomethingish British actors for prior appearances on Skins or Hollyoaks.  I’ve never watched either of those shows, but it seems to be a commonality with a lot of them.)

Also, gosh, this is a pretty movie to look at.

–your fangirl heroine.

Spoiler Alert Saturday :: my thoughts on Pacific Rim

Namely, yay!

I’d heard good things from people I trust about this movie (also from professional reviewers, but their opinions don’t matter as much to me as a general rule) so I expected to like it.  I also do appreciate Charlie Hunnam, as I have before said, and while all I’d seen Rinko Kikuchi in prior to this was Babel and I haven’t seen that in years, I remember liking her very much there, and Idris Elba is just generally a badass, so I was good for it in those ways, too.

But sometime around the first Raleigh-and-Mako vs. kaiju battle, I found myself giggling.  Not a lot, not with any particular hysteria, but in a very certain way that’s usually reserved for watching films and occasionally television programs with me: the “oh my goodness though!” delighted giggle that almost always accompanies stylizedly unrealistic fictional violence, because I am a morbid person and really like it when things function like live-action comic books but still are relevant to the plot and make sense in the context of things.  The giggle I giggle during Tarantino and Rodriguez films, the giggle I giggle during Scott Pilgrim, etcetera.  It’s a high compliment.

This was not a perfect movie, because there is no such thing, but it was very much a delight.  Here is a list.

• Multiculturalism, yay!
• Okay so I was slightly bummed that there was not really lady-lady interaction (I mean, unless you count Mako and Gipsy, but) and there could have been more ladies (there can always be more ladies) but, but, I was doing that thing again of being super-watchful regarding crowd scenes.  It was not 50/50, it was still predominantly male, but I could always spot multiple women in the crowd!  Sometimes there were even women walking by in pairs or groups having conversations with each other in the background!  So that’s still something.
• Because of True Blood, I definitely do have some conditioning regarding Robert Kazinsky’s face.  It is not the same as, say, the no stop go away I get when I see Aidan Gillen; more it’s just… well, I’m already used to seeing him and thinking “ridiculous and also douchey.”  This is not a reflection on Robert Kazinsky as an individual IRL, as for all I know he’s a lovely person.  But Warlow is often a douche and also sometimes ridiculous, and Chuck was usually a douche and also sometimes ridiculous.  So.
• Aesthetics.  I really, really love that Gipsy was painted not unlike a WWII fighter plane, with the vintage lettering and whatnot.  I like that it was a world full of stuff that had been destroyed, but it didn’t come off like a total generic post-apocalyptic future setting.  I like it when hologram-interfaces are not synonymous with evil and are many bright colors.  And my goodness, but all of the fighting and exploding and whatnot was pretty.
• I liked that there were things about this movie that were ridiculous but in a good way.  First example: the name Stacker Pentecost.  That is a ridiculous name, and I appreciate it very much.  Second example: Ron Perlman’s performance in general.  Etcetera.
• The fact that kaiju were not any one particular traditional movie monster.  They felt very in keeping with Guillermo del Toro’s style, and that is in my opinion more effective than traditional movie monsters.
• The handling of Mako, of Raleigh, and of Mako-and-Raleigh.  Yes, her story could easily have turned into a cliche of several varieties, but it didn’t and that is nice.  Yes, his story could easily have turned into angstywank manpain, but it didn’t and that is nice.  Her weaknesses were never attributed to dumb things (except sort of by douchey Chuck, but he was clearly a douche and the narrative believed so too) and his weaknesses were managed well also.  And they obviously clearly had a connection but the story did not jump into said connection’s ~implications~ or anything, it didn’t do any nonsense at-first-sight whatnot, it let their relationship develop naturally.  Maybe they were just gonna be best friends forever, maybe they were with the love (they were, as I was saying to a friend I am quite comfy with understanding subtextual fictional love situations as I have a lot of experience with them, and this did feel like one quite significantly, love comes in at the eyes and my gosh though, their eyes) but either way it was an aspect of things, not the forced focus.
• And hello, shirtless Charlie Hunnam.  My shallow self and my constant-attention-to-media-sexualization self welcome you.

–your fangirl heroine.