Movies: Meta on Spiderman No Way Home & King Richard

1.Spiderman No Way Home - which is kind of necessary prior to the flick Dr. Strange and the Multi-verse of Madness - since Spiderman leads directly into the Dr. Strange film.

The more I think about this film, the more impressed I am with it - also the more I find myself appreciating the last trio of Spiderman films over the previous ones. What this trio did differently from both the comics and the previous films - by looping them in with the broader MCU film verse and starting with Peter in high school - is create an interesting, unintentional and unrecognized villain at the center. The villain at the center of the films is who we think it is - and in truth, he's not really a villain, and is rather well-meaning actually.

A superhero series is only as good as its villains. And it works best when the villain isn't something you can kill or put in prison, but something bigger and not as easily resolved.

If the ghost of Tony Stark was the unseen and unintentional villain of Spiderman: Far From Home, along with an en absentia Nick Fury and his well-meaning, if disorganized Skrull invested Shield, then...well, guess who it is here?
( spoilers - because kind of impossible to discuss without them )

2. King Richard starring Will Smith, about Serena and Venus Williams father who coached them in tennis and helped advance their careers. If it weren't for their father - they wouldn't be tennis champions.

It's one of the better biopics. And unlike most - doesn't focus on the tragedies, just the tennis, and why it happened.

It begins with Richard hunting a coach for his girls, and ends with Venus's first pro match.

The over-riding theme of this story is staying humble and not letting the fame, fortune, etc get in your head. In one sequence he forces his family to watch Cinderella twice - in order to get the message that no matter what, Cinderella stayed humble.

He sees his daughters as champions, but he wants them to put family, education, love, charity, humility, and each other first.

Will Smith is almost unrecognizable in the lead, and it is a story that touches upon racism. Which the family combats daily. The tennis world is insanely white - in the 1970s-1990s, where this takes place.

It's also a tight film - held my interest and focused on the girls finding a coach, a sponsor, and getting to the pros. That's it. I think it serves it well - bio-pics are best when focused.

Animated Movies: Mitchells vs. The Machines & Flee

Both have been nominated for the Oscars, and have garnered multiple awards between them. Flee is short listed for an Oscar in the Documentary Film, International Film and Animated Film categories.

As an aside? I don't think they are comparable in the least. Outside of both being animated films, they've nothing in common. Comparing the two is akin to comparing an apple to a banana, both are fruit, both peelable, and both make great pies. Or comparing tennis to golf.

I'm not even certain which I liked better, I liked them for different reasons and had issues with them for different reasons.

1. Flee (currently available on Hulu on VOD)

I had to be in the right frame of mind for Flee. I tried to watch it last night and dozed off during it. Today, however, I was riveted. It's that kind of film.

It's subject matter is not easy. It's a documentary about a man whose family fled Afghanistan after Russia pulled out. So this was pre-21st Century Afghanistan - or around the early to mid-1980s. ( Read more... )

Nicolas Costa-Waldo and Riz Ahmed are the two main voices, and executive producers, along with Amin. And the story is depicted as entirely true and presented in a documentary style - Amin is being interviewed, except it is animated, along with the flashbacks.

I've not seen a documentary done quite like this before - although it does remind me a little of Persepolis (except I liked it better.)

Very moving, and sad. I had chills afterwards.

2. Mitchells vs. the Machines - this is a film directed towards kids and families, not single women in their fifties. So wrong demographic. The humor is well, American Situation Comedy. (So again wrong demographic).

At one point they state they are the weirdest family in America and not normal. And ...I'm thinking, no, you are like every single sitcom family that I've seen on television over the past ten-twenty years, and therefore I can't relate to you at all. My father wasn't a big dumb doofus who wanted to live in the woods. And we did not own dogs, nor was my brother ever into dinosaurs - Van Helan, Heavy Metal, and girls - yes, Dinosaurs, no.

So relatable - it wasn't.

It was however entertaining in its own way. Also possibly the most detailed animated film I've seen in my life. It was the exact opposite of Flee in that regard. Utilizing more than one animation style throughout (reminding me a little of Into the Spiderverse in that regard, although it's nowhere near as good as Into the Spiderverse.) It's computer three dimensional computer animation. The characters are kind of "cartoonish" as opposed to "realistic". People do kind of look alike, except for the central family.
( Read more... )