Wonderful Gal

I don't really have much to say about Wonder Woman (2017). We loved it, of course. It was a welcome relief to the Man of Steel, B v S downers coming from the DC-verse. But the main things is: Gal Gadot - What a Wonder Woman!

We meet the young Diana frolicking on the hidden island of Themiscyra with her mother Connie Neilsen and woman-at-arms Robin Wright. Yes, Princess Buttercup all buffed up and leathery, training little Diana to use weapons. Years later, when Diana is grown into Gal Gadot, a lifeboat containing Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) pierces the storm wall that hides the island. Yes, it appears that Themiscyra is Monster Island, or at least is protected the same way.

When the German gunboat that is chasing Pine shows up, there's a nice little battle scene: Amazons with swords, spears and bows vs. Germans with guns. It's not as one-sided as it sounds, given the out-gunned Amazons' skills. When Pine explains about the War (WWI) and the fiendish plan he has discovered, Gadot agrees to go to the outside world and help him fight.

There's a nice scene in London - the old fish-out-of-water scene, with Gadot trying to find clothes suited to a warrior and still fit into pre-Sufferage London. We also get to meet Etta Candy (Lucy Davis), Pine's chubby secretary. She acts a bit ditzy, but solid - always one of my favorite characters. Then Pine rounds up his misfit band to go undercover in Germany. Sameer (Saïd Taghmaoui), the Algerian conman, Charlie (Ewen Bremner), the drunken marksman, and Eugene Brave Rock as Chief, native American tracker and smuggler. They are actually pretty ineffectual - the conman never does much, the sharpshooter is too PTSD to kill, and the Chief is just a little embarrassed of his nickname. Still, a fun crew, especially Bremner.

There are also some villains: Dr. Poison, a poison gas scientist with a facial scar, played by Elena Anaya and her commanding officer Danny Huston. They feature in party for the Germans that Pine infiltrates and Gadot just blows through. Then we go to the trenches, where Wonder Woman isn't going to sit around while a little Belgian town gets massacred. She goes over the top and we get some nice bullets and bracelet work.

The final villain is Ares, god of war - SPOILER - it's scrawny balding David Thewlis. That was cute, but under-motivated. Then there's a superhero fight that's somewhat routine.

But so what? Throughout this whole thing, Gadot as Wonder Woman has been fierce as heck, just really leaning into it. She's a striking looking woman, with a suitable Mediterranean accent, but she just radiates strength and determination. It's white-hot and the best thing in the movie. Patty Jenkins did a great job in letting her do her thing.

However, one thing Ms. Spenser pointed out - someone once said, "Every war movie is a pro-war movie." The action, the excitement, they make war look fun, somehow. The horror of the trenches gets short shrift here. Even though Bremner plays a man damaged by killing, you don't feel it that much. That is a problem in a movie where the big bad is literally the god of War.

Still. that's just a weakness in the movie's story - or maybe just the subtext. Just watch Gadot do her thing and be happy.

Are You Not Entertained?

We put Gladiator (2000) on the queue because of Ridley Scott: We enjoyed Alien: Covenant so much we wanted more Ridley. But I guess it could fit in with Dragon Blade, the Jackie Chan/John Cusak movie.

It stars Russell Crowe as a Roman general, on campaign with Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). It starts with a very nice battle scene, one of many. Harris tells Crowe that his son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) is not a fit successor, and that he wants Crowe to act as regent and restore the Roman Senate to power. This leads Commodus to kill his father, and tries to kill Crowe, who escapes. He heads for his home in Spain, but Commodus got there first, and killed his family. He collapses and is taken by slavers.

He winds up as a gladiator, working for Oliver Reed, along with Nubian Djimon Hounsou. As a general, he has some novel ideas about strategy and teamwork, and is soon a star, heading for Rome. There, he hopes to meet up with Phoenix for revenge.

This is a great, old-fashioned sword and sandals epic. There's a ton of talk about the noble Roman virtues (Strength and Virtue!), stoicism, and  love of patria. There's also some great fights. Scott films this beautifully, every fight a story. There was even a testudo - the famous Roman infantry formation where the men stand close together and raise their shields to form walls and a roof (a personal fave).

We were entertained (to answer Crowe's question), but in retrospect, I feel like it might have been a touch too generic. It has all a batch of classic actors - even Claudius himself, Derek Jacobi. It was of a high quality, but not really groundbreaking. But if you like those old movies like Spartacus and Ben Hur, you'll love this.

Jour de Fete

We decided to watch The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) because we saw it contrasted to Umbrellas of Cherbourg - where the theme of Umbrellas is sadness and regret, the theme of Girls is joy. Also, it has Gene Kelly in it.

It all takes place in the provincial town of Rochefort. The festival is coming - we see the trucks of gear and performers taking the "transporter" - a huge basket on wires that carries traffic over the river, a kind of suspended ferry. In town, we meet the twins, Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac, real-life sisters in their only movie together (Dorléac died soon after). They are a musician and dancer, just dying to get out of Rochefort and into the big world.

We also meet their mama, Danielle Darrieux (RIP at age 100, this week). She runs the cafe in the town square, where the festival will be held. It is a kind of meeting place for the town. For instance, she meets two boys from the festival, George Chakiris and Grover Dale. (Aside - it was this movie that made me aware that George Chakiris - West Side Story - and George Maharis - Route 66 - are different people, not one guy with a lot of range.) Right away, she asks Chakiris to pick up here young son Boo-Boo from school. Because she doesn't want him walking home alone, and who wouldn't trust a carnie who just breezed into town?

Another visitor to the cafe is Jacques Perrin, a sailor for now, but soon to be demobbed to follow his dream of being a painter and poet. He is searching for a dream girl, who he has painted to look just like Deneuve. Will they ever meet?

Dorleac, in the meantime, has asked the owner of the music store in town for an introduction to the big producer in Paris, Gene Kelly. Then she actually bumps into Kelly, but doesn't know who he is, so she brushes him off. Will they ever find each other?

In addition, there is a bit of business with a brutal murder, but nobody seems to pay it much mind. Also, mama Darrieux tells a bit about her history, how she left her lover because his name was "Dame" - and she couldn't see herself marrying "Mr. Woman". Oh, did I mention that the music store owner is named Dame?

The girls join the festival circuit, being booth girls for Chakaris and Dale, who are selling motorboats at the festival. They will follow the circuit to Paris. The sailor poet-artist is going home to Marseilles. Kelly will go back to Paris alone. Or will these friends and lovers finally get together?

 This is all set to a jaunty Michel Grande score, with a few songs - it isn't "through-sung" like Umbrellas. It's a lovely bit of fluff that seems to be a tribute to the towns of France. Rochefort may not be exciting like Paris, but it is not exactly sleepy. It looks prosperous and civilized, comfortable, settled, but not old-fashioned. The cafe on the town square is a modern glass-walled box, but manages to be cozy nonetheless.

In conclusion, SPOILER, the answer to all of the rhetorical questions above is yes.

Towering Inferno

I want to thank the Ferdy on Films blog for introducing me to High-Rise (2016). It’s a funny dystopian horror film based on a J.G. Ballard story. Ms. Spenser liked it because it stars Tom Hiddlestone.

Hiddleston lives in a just-built apartment tower in 1970s England. It is quite brutalist - all raw concrete - and rather suits him, a somewhat severe, withdrawn young man. His upstairs neighbor, Siena Miller, sees him sunbathing and invites him to a party, where he meets some of the dwellers on the other floors. There are a lot of women and children, who live on the lower floors, for convenience. There's an insecure older movie star. There’s laddish, Alan Bayesian Luke Evans, who tries to seduce every woman he comes close to. Hiddleston offers a bottle of wine to the hostess, and murmurs: "I'm not good at fitting in in these kinds of things." But he seems to be fitting in quite well, getting to bed Miller a little later.

He also gets to meet the architect of the building, Royal (Jeremy Irons). He is taken up to the penthouse by a thuggish underling. There's a garden up there, and a little English cottage, and the missus keeps a horse. Later, he attends their party, and everyone is inexplicably dressed in Louis XIV finery. Although Royal talks about the mixture of classes living in the tower, it's clear who belongs to which level.

As the building's shoddy construction becomes apparent, lifts stop working, lights go off, and the stores aren't being stocked anymore. Fights break out over little things, and Hiddleston kind of likes it - it brings something out in him. And even as the microcosm of the tower is breaking down, Hiddleston still goes to work everyday - they are not cut off from the outside world. There are parties in the halls now, lit by fires or torches. The parties on the lower floors are earthier, the ones higher up more decadent, but there is the feeling that this is the way we live now.

This is all done with the lightest touch of 70s period setting. Hiddleston seems very at home in the milieu - I feel like there is a little Jeremy Irons in his choices, but maybe I'm just suggestive. I haven't read the J.G. Ballard story this is based on, but it seems very Ballardian.

In conclusion, it was directed by Ben Wheatley, a newish director who seems to specialize in low-budget, high-gloss, high-concept violent movies. I wonder if I would like any of the others.

Post Prometheus

I’m not sure what I expected of Alien: Covenant (2017): something sad and low-rent like the later sequels, or something shiny and incoherent like Prometheus. We’d be happy either way. I think we actually got the best of both.

It starts with the birth of David (Michael Fassbender), the android from Prometheus. Mr. Weyland, still a young man, wakes him up in a circular white room containing several works of art (including Michaelangelo’s David), with a striking view. It may not add much to the story, but it is visually striking.

The next scene is on a colony ship, with crew and colonists all asleep, except android Walter (again, Fassbender). There is an emergency power surge and he wakes the crew - except the captain, James Franco, who dies. They also pick up a strange signal from another planet, and their new captain, Billy Crudup, decides to head there instead of their original target. He doesn’t seem very stable or well-liked, and Franco’s widow, Katherine Waterston, logs an objection. But he’s the captain.

The planet they arrive on seems “to good to be true”, but there’s no animal life. Just like in Prom, they immediately start wandering around without suits, poking things and throwing their cigarette butts around. You know where that leads.

They are saved by David - he came to the planet after the end of Prom, along with Noomi Rapace, now deceased. He will have some interesting philosophical discussions with Walter, but how much help will he be with the dangerous wildlife? You know how tricky these androids can be.

In fact, although we get more information about the Engineers, and plenty of new and classic Xenomorphs, this movie is mostly about the androids and how they fit into the Alienverse.

The crew is a little bigger to start out, but the focus is mainly on Waterston and Crudup. The captain is a bit paranoid, and thinks his religious fundamentalism is what prevented him from getting his promoted. It’s actually that he makes a terrible leader. Waterston, on the other hand, is extremely cute, resourceful and resolute. She’s an alternative take on Ripley - more vulnerable, with an open, child-like face (and haircut), but still strong.

Ridley Scott has promised more of these, concentrating on the androids. Ms. Spenser is on board - she wanted to rewatch this as soon as it was done.

Magical Negro

I wasn't sure what kind of a movie Sleight (2017) was - gritty urban realism or superhero fantasy. That's fine, it doesn't want you to know either.

It stars Jacob Latimore, a black kid who was going to get a great scholarship after high school, but his mother's death put that on hold. Now he is raising his little sister on the proceeds of some street magic and dealing coke and molly. He's a charismatic young man, and his magic act is pretty impressive. As a dealer, his specialty seems to be white college kids who want to seem cooler than they are. Things aren't great, but he's doing all right. He even met a girl while busking and she likes him.

But his boss, Dule Hill (Psych), turns out to be a lot less chill than Latimore thinks. A new dealer is working his territory, and Hill gets tough - and makes Latimore his enforcer.

Now I hope you are not reading this before you see Sleight - which I recommend that you do - because spoilers. Some of Latimore's tricks seem inexplicable, but of course, that's what magic is about. Then you see him changing batteries for some gizmo, and he levitates the old batteries into the trash - He's Magneto! For real! Or is it part of another elaborate effect?

I'm not going to spoiler the answer, but it's both real and fantasy, awesome and silly. And in some ways, unnecessary. This could have been a simple story about a good kid who made bad choices, got the consequences for being a black man in America and so forth. It would have been a fine movie. But I probably wouldn't watch it, because that's not my genre. SF/Fantasy/Superhero is right up my alley, though, so I'm glad I watched. I can't say I was tricked into it, because it was just what I expected, even though I didn't really know what to expect.

April in Paris

I control the Netflix queue here at Casa Beveridge, so I'm always happy when Ms. Spenser enjoys one of my more risky picks. Like April and the Extraordinary World (2015). We don't always take to animation, and this one had mixed reviews, but it looked steampunk enough to check out.

April starts in the reign of Napolean III. He is visiting the secret lab of Dr. Franklin, who is working on a serum to make invincible soldiers. So far, all he has are some talking animals, and two slithery somethings that escape. When Nappy's guard tries to shoot them, there's an explosion, and everyone is killed. This sets off an alternate timeline where the Franco-Prussian War didn't happen. Also, great scientists are being captured mysteriously, so science never develops past steam power.

A generation later, one of Dr. Franklin's grandsons, his wife, and his little daughter April are continuing the work in secret. The government has become oppressive as natural resources dwindle, and all scientists who haven't vanished are shanghaied to work for the government. They are being spied on by goofy police detective Pizoni, but it isn't the government that gets them - it's a mysterious cloud shooting very accurate lightning. The adults are all stolen away, leaving only little April and her uplifted talking cat Darwin.

Ten years later, April lives alone in a secret laboratory inside a colossal monument to Napolean III. Her only companion is Darwin, now ancient and dying. Although she doesn't know it, Pizoni still pursues her, now using young petty thief, Julius as a stalking horse. But all April cares about it the ultimate serum, which, among other things, will restore Darwin to health.

This is just the setup, the adventures are just starting. There's a lot to like in this movie. The art style is rather Belgian - very Tin Tin, but more dark and dystopian. April is a great character, a scientist first, daughter and granddaughter second, and as for love, well... She does have a romance, but it's a subplot. Her mom is a scientist too, as well as her father, and they fight over medical and scientific ethics. It's like science is important to this movie. (Even though the actual science gets a little silly.)

And you get a talking cat and cameos by Einstein and Fermi. What more could you want