WandaVision & I Care a Lot reviews
Mar. 7th, 2021 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. I Care A Lot - this is the Netflix film that selenak and various others have recommended. It stars Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, and Dianne Wiest. The plot? Marla Graystone with the help of a local doctor, obtains legal guardianship of elderly folks who don't require it. She puts them in a center, controls their meds, auctions off their homes, etc. Convinces the court that they can no longer function outside of a long-time care facility, and are suffering from dementia. Since they usually have no family or friends, it's rather easy to swoop in and do this. Once they are put in the facility, she takes over their bank accounts, and cleans out their homes for them.
Marla and her partner/lesbian lover are making a killing off of this. That is until they kidnap a Russian Mobster's mother, Dianne Weist (who they are told has no living relatives - mainly because the mobster doesn't want to be found, and faked his death, and hid his mother under an alias.) The mobster is played by Peter Dinklage (which was why I bothered to watch this film, because I love that actor. He can make the most dastardly character appealing. Pike not so much - that actress is like watching an iceberg melt.) The Russian mobster is involved in drug and human trafficking. He's horrible too.
Anyhow, I think this film works better if you don't know anything about the US legal system, or how guardianship and power of attorney works? Also possibly if you don't know how nursing care facilities work and the regulations regarding them. (See the NY State nursing home scandal.) And you know have a problem with the female anti-hero, when you are rooting for a mobster who excels in human trafficking to take her down and want her dead, along with her lover. Although the lover made her a little easier to take - I liked the lover, but only a smidgen.
And, I think it works a whole lot better if one of your parents isn't suffering from dementia at the moment, in a long term health facility, during a pandemic, while your mother frets daily about him on the phone and wants to bring him home - but can't until she is fully mobile. And is willing to put up with long-time pain in order to do it.
Because the later kind of made me want to see everyone in the movie and everyone who enjoyed it - to go through what I just described themselves with their parents for two months, and then tell me whether this thing should exist. (I was warned that it isn't for someone going through that. But I got curious. Sigh.)
Add to all of the above - there are things in the movie that are so absurd that I burst out laughing. Marla manages to survive being drugged, strapped into a car, and plunged into a lake. Apparently she's superwoman? And her lover manages to survive being beaten up, and left for dead in a house with the gas turned up full blast and flammables about until her lover saves her. Their only injury? A broken tooth. Alrighty then.
So, the movie didn't work for me. It's not very good. I'm not sure why people loved it?
Granted I have a morbid sense of humor, I admit that. But I didn't find the characters had a lot of depth, the dialogue wasn't memorable, and the only good performances were Diane Weist - who can give a devil of look when she wants to, and Peter Dinklage. (The appeal of Rosamund Pike is lost on me, she reminds me of Sharon Stone, except I thought Sharon Stone was a lot more interesting and entertaining. Pike I find impossible to like in her roles, and uninteresting.) I didn't really find it funny outside of two absurd scenes. The first half is slow and aggravating, the second half - when Dinklage pops up is more interesting and compelling, but doesn't quite save it. I don't know why so many people like this? Proof you can't trust most reviewers right there.
2. WandaVision
I enjoyed this a great deal. It's tight, only nine episodes. And works very well as an origin story for Wanda Maximov aka The Scarlett Witch.
I found it unpredictable, with some satisfying twists and turns, and just the right amount of superhero camp at the end. The camp was saved for the very end.
It does borrow heavily from Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone, but in a clever way. Also there's a decent amount of character development, and humor.
They nail the sitcoms, and explain why Wanda recreates a situation comedy universe for herself - thinking it is comforting for everyone involved.
The show at the same time kind of comments on the sitcom, such as what are the neighbors and everyone else involved doing - while they aren't involved directly with Wanda? Are they stuck in their houses. Or merely frozen until she needs them to perform in her show?
There's an underlying meta-narrative to the piece, that is kind of biting in its satire of the American Media Dream vs the Reality. When Wanda's reality unravels it leaves behind a wrecked ghost town, where the people just want to leave or are barely getting by. She'd thought she saved them, and their depressed town by remaking it and them - but all she'd done is hold them hostage - an interesting commentary on gentrification or subsidized housing alternatives. The people would rather live in a depressed town that they can leave, and be able to think for themselves, than with no free will in the pretty television sitcom world. They don't want to live in a situation comedy where Wanda is the star and center of attention. Nor do they want to have her nightmares.
The American Media Dream is what most of the world sees via the US's television series, but it doesn't exist. It's not real - not even for those who have money. And it's always been astonishing to me how many folks believe it is real. I remember talking to a Russian guy, who was suffering depression - he'd done all the right things. Gone to Standford, got the degree, got the wife, so why wasn't he living the life that had been advertised on Television? I remember various folks in the group laughed at the poor man, stating that doesn't exist. It's not real. It's a marketing package. It's kind of like the Royal Family that the Brits promote here, but if you rip the veil - it's not the life we think. It's no fairy tale.
Nor is England - a polite costume dramedy a la Downton Abbey or a Jane Austen novel.
WandaVision has fun with the concept that what is advertised on the television is seemingly real to those who live outside the US. Wanda who lived in a War torn country, fantasizes about a better life - via the situation comedy tapes that her father gave her as a child to watch. Her means of escape. When she reaches the US and loses everything, in her grief and despair - she builds a sitcom world, thinking everyone including herself will be happy there. But the world isn't real, and reality begins to push through, fracturing her world.
She can't maintain it without hurting others in the process - so she must let it go.
There's other bits in there as well, and the villains it turns out aren't Wanda but those who want her power, or want Vision's, and only get foiled by their own machinations, and vast underestimation of those around them. In a way, both villains, Agatha and Haywood, are foils of Wanda. Haywood is the least interesting - a kind of stock Marvel villain that was overdone and kind of tiresome a century ago. But Agatha has a bit more spark, even is she too is also a stock villain in a different way. If WandaVision has a weakness it may be in its villains, who don't matter much. And serve more as a distraction from Wanda's kind of freakish abilities. Agatha does point out that what Wanda has is exceedingly dangerous - but it would be just as bad, if not worse in Agatha's hands.
If you watch it - they bury bits in the credits of episodes 8 and 9. I didn't see anything buried prior to that. The credits much like they are in Marvel's films are insanely long and repetitive. I don't know why Marvel likes insanely long and repetitive credit sequences? But if you can fast-forward - you might possibly catch the snippets. I did. The first involved Monica Rambeau and is a lead in to the Captain Marvel 2 film, and the second involves Wanda and may be a lead in to the Doctor Strange 2 film.
Overall? Worth watching and a lot of fun.
Marla and her partner/lesbian lover are making a killing off of this. That is until they kidnap a Russian Mobster's mother, Dianne Weist (who they are told has no living relatives - mainly because the mobster doesn't want to be found, and faked his death, and hid his mother under an alias.) The mobster is played by Peter Dinklage (which was why I bothered to watch this film, because I love that actor. He can make the most dastardly character appealing. Pike not so much - that actress is like watching an iceberg melt.) The Russian mobster is involved in drug and human trafficking. He's horrible too.
Anyhow, I think this film works better if you don't know anything about the US legal system, or how guardianship and power of attorney works? Also possibly if you don't know how nursing care facilities work and the regulations regarding them. (See the NY State nursing home scandal.) And you know have a problem with the female anti-hero, when you are rooting for a mobster who excels in human trafficking to take her down and want her dead, along with her lover. Although the lover made her a little easier to take - I liked the lover, but only a smidgen.
And, I think it works a whole lot better if one of your parents isn't suffering from dementia at the moment, in a long term health facility, during a pandemic, while your mother frets daily about him on the phone and wants to bring him home - but can't until she is fully mobile. And is willing to put up with long-time pain in order to do it.
Because the later kind of made me want to see everyone in the movie and everyone who enjoyed it - to go through what I just described themselves with their parents for two months, and then tell me whether this thing should exist. (I was warned that it isn't for someone going through that. But I got curious. Sigh.)
Add to all of the above - there are things in the movie that are so absurd that I burst out laughing. Marla manages to survive being drugged, strapped into a car, and plunged into a lake. Apparently she's superwoman? And her lover manages to survive being beaten up, and left for dead in a house with the gas turned up full blast and flammables about until her lover saves her. Their only injury? A broken tooth. Alrighty then.
So, the movie didn't work for me. It's not very good. I'm not sure why people loved it?
Granted I have a morbid sense of humor, I admit that. But I didn't find the characters had a lot of depth, the dialogue wasn't memorable, and the only good performances were Diane Weist - who can give a devil of look when she wants to, and Peter Dinklage. (The appeal of Rosamund Pike is lost on me, she reminds me of Sharon Stone, except I thought Sharon Stone was a lot more interesting and entertaining. Pike I find impossible to like in her roles, and uninteresting.) I didn't really find it funny outside of two absurd scenes. The first half is slow and aggravating, the second half - when Dinklage pops up is more interesting and compelling, but doesn't quite save it. I don't know why so many people like this? Proof you can't trust most reviewers right there.
2. WandaVision
I enjoyed this a great deal. It's tight, only nine episodes. And works very well as an origin story for Wanda Maximov aka The Scarlett Witch.
I found it unpredictable, with some satisfying twists and turns, and just the right amount of superhero camp at the end. The camp was saved for the very end.
It does borrow heavily from Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone, but in a clever way. Also there's a decent amount of character development, and humor.
They nail the sitcoms, and explain why Wanda recreates a situation comedy universe for herself - thinking it is comforting for everyone involved.
The show at the same time kind of comments on the sitcom, such as what are the neighbors and everyone else involved doing - while they aren't involved directly with Wanda? Are they stuck in their houses. Or merely frozen until she needs them to perform in her show?
There's an underlying meta-narrative to the piece, that is kind of biting in its satire of the American Media Dream vs the Reality. When Wanda's reality unravels it leaves behind a wrecked ghost town, where the people just want to leave or are barely getting by. She'd thought she saved them, and their depressed town by remaking it and them - but all she'd done is hold them hostage - an interesting commentary on gentrification or subsidized housing alternatives. The people would rather live in a depressed town that they can leave, and be able to think for themselves, than with no free will in the pretty television sitcom world. They don't want to live in a situation comedy where Wanda is the star and center of attention. Nor do they want to have her nightmares.
The American Media Dream is what most of the world sees via the US's television series, but it doesn't exist. It's not real - not even for those who have money. And it's always been astonishing to me how many folks believe it is real. I remember talking to a Russian guy, who was suffering depression - he'd done all the right things. Gone to Standford, got the degree, got the wife, so why wasn't he living the life that had been advertised on Television? I remember various folks in the group laughed at the poor man, stating that doesn't exist. It's not real. It's a marketing package. It's kind of like the Royal Family that the Brits promote here, but if you rip the veil - it's not the life we think. It's no fairy tale.
Nor is England - a polite costume dramedy a la Downton Abbey or a Jane Austen novel.
WandaVision has fun with the concept that what is advertised on the television is seemingly real to those who live outside the US. Wanda who lived in a War torn country, fantasizes about a better life - via the situation comedy tapes that her father gave her as a child to watch. Her means of escape. When she reaches the US and loses everything, in her grief and despair - she builds a sitcom world, thinking everyone including herself will be happy there. But the world isn't real, and reality begins to push through, fracturing her world.
She can't maintain it without hurting others in the process - so she must let it go.
There's other bits in there as well, and the villains it turns out aren't Wanda but those who want her power, or want Vision's, and only get foiled by their own machinations, and vast underestimation of those around them. In a way, both villains, Agatha and Haywood, are foils of Wanda. Haywood is the least interesting - a kind of stock Marvel villain that was overdone and kind of tiresome a century ago. But Agatha has a bit more spark, even is she too is also a stock villain in a different way. If WandaVision has a weakness it may be in its villains, who don't matter much. And serve more as a distraction from Wanda's kind of freakish abilities. Agatha does point out that what Wanda has is exceedingly dangerous - but it would be just as bad, if not worse in Agatha's hands.
If you watch it - they bury bits in the credits of episodes 8 and 9. I didn't see anything buried prior to that. The credits much like they are in Marvel's films are insanely long and repetitive. I don't know why Marvel likes insanely long and repetitive credit sequences? But if you can fast-forward - you might possibly catch the snippets. I did. The first involved Monica Rambeau and is a lead in to the Captain Marvel 2 film, and the second involves Wanda and may be a lead in to the Doctor Strange 2 film.
Overall? Worth watching and a lot of fun.