Summer movie season is here!
Catching up with ‘Planet of the Apes,’ ‘The Fall Guy’ and ‘Unfrosted’
Hey everyone!
We recently returned from our family Disney vacation. It was a great trip. My son built a droid at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, and my wife built a lightsaber. My daughter got a princess makeover in the Magic Kingdom and revealed herself to be a no-fear, hands-up coaster addict. We drank butterbeer, ate Dole Whips, and were at six parks from open to close each day. I even met Chewbacca.
Now, we’re home. And while I can’t say it was great to go from summer weather in Florida to a rainy and 55-degree Michigan weekday, I’ve had a few days to recover from the trip and get back into some routines. I’m back at work, the kids are in the thick of baseball and soccer seasons, and we’re turning our focus to gearing up for whatever comes next.
Also, it’s now summer movie season, and you better believe I jumped in with both feet upon my return. So, to kick things off, here are my thoughts on a few recent releases. And read to the end, where I make an announcement about my summer writing project that will debut later this week!
Apes together (mostly) strong
It’s kind of crazy how consistent the Planet of the Apes series has remained over the decades. It was one of the most dominant and socially conscious science-fiction franchises of the 1970s and then, after an unfortunate hiccup from Tim Burton in 2001, roared back to life last decade with renewed vigor. The most recent trilogy, kickstarted by Rupert Wyatt with its last two entries helmed by Matt Reeves, might be our best modern franchise, mixing astonishing visual effects and action sequences with thoughtfulness and social commentary – not to mention an outstanding motion capture performance from Andy Serkis – that elevated it above typical blockbuster fluff.
I was a bit worried when it was announced Reeves wouldn’t return for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes; his knack with world-building was crucial to the success of the last two films. But Maze Runner director Wes Ball more than acquits himself, introducing an intriguing new direction for the saga and continuing its reputation as one of the few modern franchises with big ideas on its mind.
Kingdom takes place hundreds of years after War of the Planet of the Apes, which ended with Serkis’ Caesar leading his people to peace. Humans have mostly vanished from the earth and apes are now the dominant species, having evolved to a place where they create their own tribes and traditions. The film opens with a new ape, Noa (Owen Teague), and his siblings engaged in one such ritual, as they hunt down an eagle egg to raise the hatchlings from birth.
Shortly after, Noa unwittingly leads a clan of hostile apes to their encampment. The bad apes raid the village and capture the people, leaving Noa for dead. Noa sets out to bring his family home and challenge the fascist ape king Proximus (Kevin Durand). Along the way, he encounters a kindly ape named Raka (Peter Macon), who tells Noa of Caesar’s teachings and desire for peace among apes and humans. He also finds himself taking care of a human, Mae (Freya Allen), who mysteriously stumbles upon the two.
Ball, working from a script by Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, seems most engaged when he slows the film down to examine the various rituals and guiding philosophies of the clans, whether it’s the bond between Noa’s tribe and the eagles or the ways that different ape have interpreted Caesar’s teachings. The first time Noa hears the name Caesar, it’s as a declaration of violence; Raka, however, teaches him that Caesar believed it was wrong for apes to kill each other and also had affection for humans. Much of Noa’s story involves how much his elders didn’t know about the world before them and the role of humans hundreds of years earlier; his journey involves being able to look at a human not as a pest but as a potential equal.
For the film’s first 90 minutes – mostly through its deliberately paced but thought-filled midsection – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes seems content not to be made in the mold of blockbusters eager to get to giant battles and twists. Its actors do commendable work making their motion-captured characters believable, aided by computer imagery that brings them to nearly photorealistic life. Only James Cameron’s Avatar films have built a more immersive, believable world, and the Apes films manage to one-up them by attaching their world-building to engaging social and political allegory. Kingdom examines legacies and how teachings get passed down, the rise of fascist empires, and the question of whether humans can truly share the planet with another dominant species.
…Until it doesn’t. After that middle section, it seems in a rush to introduce new threats and move on to a giant battle. Ball handles this well – the movie is never bad or boring, and the spectacle never fully overwhelms the story – but the film’s transition from an idea-filled adventure to another “stop the bad guy” fight is a bit deflating. The film’s final act also involves some table-turning and revelations that would be more effective if it didn’t feel so much like setup for future films. I appreciate the bittersweet and tenuous place that Kingdom ends, and am curious about the franchise’s future directions; but the introduction of new characters and new information about the state of ape/human affairs feels tossed off much too quickly for the film to truly satisfy.
But when it works, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a smart, exciting and expertly crafted new iteration of the saga, and I’m still onboard for wherever it goes from here.
‘The Fall Guy’ is a fun start to summer
When The Fall Guy kicked off the summer movie season with a fairly middling $28 million opening weekend – in a slot that is usually held by Marvel and opens northward of $100 million – ScreenCrush’s Matt Singer asked “What the hell do people want from the movies.”
It’s a valid question, and one I was asking when walking out of David Leitch’s action-comedy. The Fall Guy is not a great movie, but it is a perfectly constructed crowd-pleaser, the kind of movie that would have been a major hit 10 or 20 years ago. I think it’s good enough that, a year from now, everyone will try and maintain that they were onboard from the start.
A loose adaptation of the 1980s TV show, The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers, one of Hollywood’s most in-demand stuntmen, called back into action after a mishap caused him to quit the business. He’s lured back because it provides a chance to rekindle a flame with Jody (Emily Blunt), the director Colt ghosted after his injury. And while Jody isn’t thrilled to have Colt waltz back into her life, the two strike up a tentative flirtation that gets a bit more complicated when the film’s producer (Hannah Waddingham) reveals the real reason she brought Colt to the set: the film’s star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has gone missing, and she needs Colt to find him (after all, Colt’s just a stuntman and won’t be missed).
I’m loving this stage of Ryan Gosling’s career. After a decade of trying to prove that he was an important, stoic actor – and, to be fair, he was often very good at that – he’s embraced his sillier side. Yes, Barbie was the most high-profile proof that Gosling can be really funny and charming, but this is a groove he’s been settling into ever since the criminally underseen The Nice Guys proved how deft a comedic actor he could be.
And Colt Seavers is more in line with his Nice Guys character than Ken. Colt’s prone to a bit of clumsiness and cluelessness, but what I appreciate most is the vulnerability Gosling brings. It’s not just that Colt broke his back in the opening fall; he’s also broken his pride and knows he’s screwed up his chance with his dream girl. Gosling’s able to make Colt’s vulnerability charming while also leaning into the comedy; a scene where he sits in the car crying to Taylor Swift songs is funny but not silly, and Colt’s clumsiness comes more from being caught off-guard, not from being a dolt. In practice, he’s actually a talented stuntman and a stand-up guy.
It’s no surprise that Blunt is a great romantic interest for him; she’s one of those actresses who just knocks it out of the park every single time. The duo’s chemistry is strong; their flirtation is funny and sweet, and the romance works just as well as the action. Few films could wring just as much suspense out of both a fight scene and a sequence where one character rushes to meet the other at karaoke night, but The Fall Guy nails both.
I’ll admit that Leitch is not a director for whom I have a ton of affection. As a producer, he’s been behind several great action movies, from John Wick to Nobody. But as a director, I’ve found his films – including Hobbs and Shaw, Deadpool 2 and last year’s Bullet Train – to be shrill, empty and chaotic. And there’s still a bit of that in The Fall Guy; while I appreciate the nightclub fight sequence in which Colt is trying to stay alive after being drugged, the special effects that overlay the scene were more distracting than anything. But Leitch largely dials back his worst impulses and trusts his actors to do the emotional lifting and engaging himself most when it’s time to pull out the stunts. There’s no graphic violence or sense of sadism; it’s just some solid chases, fist fights, falls and explosions, and the film is less concerned with anything being too realistic or gritty and remembers that this should just be fun. It’s also probably the first action movie to have an extended sight gag involving a unicorn, and I can’t really ding a film that includes that.
During our vacation, we took in the Indiana Jones stunt show at Hollywood Studios. It was a blast to watch the crew pull off all the famous action sequences from Spielberg’s classic. And while I would normally consider it a pejorative to compare a movie to a stunt show – and I have done so in the past – I thought back to that show several times during the back half of The Fall Guy, and this time I mean it as a compliment. Leitch started in stunt work and his films often boast high-quality stunt sequences; it’s what makes the John Wick movies stand out above the imitators. The Fall Guy’s stunts are similarly impressive and depend on practical wire work, choreographed fights and real car crashes; the film’s end credits include a peek behind the scenes at the movie’s stunt work. And the film’s final act is a love letter to the dedication and expertise of stunt workers, weaving them into the narrative and delivering an inventive, fun and exciting climax.
Seriously, I’m kind of shocked this movie isn’t doing better at the box office. The romance works. The laughs connect. The action is a blast. I hope this one finds an audience as the summer pushes on.
‘Unfrosted’ is unfunny
I’ve read a lot of hate for Jerry Seinfeld’s directorial debut, Unfrosted, which debuted on Netflix a few weeks back. Critics had their knives out for this highly fictionalized take on the creation of PopTarts. And honestly, I don’t get the hate. It’s not substantial enough for an emotion that strong.
Seinfeld stars as a marketing exec at Kellogg’s who teams up with a cereal genius (Melissa McCarthy) to develop a breakfast pastry before their rivals at Post. Basically Flamin’ Hot or Air filtered through a comic book lens, it’s an over-the-top and silly venture that puts the creation of the PopTart on par with placing men on the moon. It features multiple cameos, surreal digressions and about five gags thrown at the audience every minute. To be fair, some of the gags earn a slight chuckle; only one moment (a Rice Krispies-themed funeral) earned a response above that.
It’s not news that Seinfeld is not an actor; any fan of his sitcom knew that. And I’m not surprised that he doesn’t reveal himself to be a strong director on his first outing. But Seinfeld is a very smart and often very funny man. He knows nostalgia and he’s obsessed with comedy. Which is why it’s shocking that so many of the movie’s jokes land with a thud.
Take a moment in which Seinfeld’s character reveals that he and McCarthy’s have created a “veto” agreement in which one person can overrule the other if they find their behavior, ideas or dress annoying. This idea is seeded early on and practically underlined; the characters refer to it several times. But the film never has a payoff for it; if there’s one thing that Seinfeld should know, it’s that you can’t set something up and then not deliver a joke.
Likewise, the sitcom Seinfeld was famous for episodes in which multiple plot threads would ultimately come together in the final act. But despite Unfrosted’s many, many subplots – involving a flirtation between the head of Kellogg’s (Jim Gaffigan) and the CEO of Post (Amy Schumer), a focus group of dumpster-diving tweens, and the creator of Sea Monkeys creating a sentient ravioli with Chef Boyardee – they just float in and out of the movie without ever coming together or having much more of a purpose other than someone thought it was a funny idea and then apparently abandoned it halfway through. The movie feels less like an adapted version of Seinfeld’s stand-up routine than an adaptation of his idea notebook, with half-formed gags wheezing to the surface and then fading away without an impact.
The film is full of very funny people and so many gags that it’s impossible not to at least crack a half-smile a few times. But most of the time, the film can’t find a joke beyond “isn’t this idea crazy” or “here’s a famous person; laugh because you recognize them.” To wit: the idea of Hugh Grant as Thurl Ravenscroft, playing him as a tortured actor forced to moonlight as Tony the Tiger, is funny. Reducing him to a moment where he storms Kellogg’s headquarters in a parody of the Jan. 6 riot and defecates on the floor is not. Bringing in Jon Hamm and John Slattery as their Mad Men characters is a funny idea; but the movie can’t make it funny. There’s no satirical target for the film to focus on, and its attempts to tie it to nostalgia never work because there’s no actual human being for us to connect with. It’s a bad movie, but it’s too wispy to be truly wretched.
If there’s anything worth getting angry about, it’s that Seinfeld doesn’t work often. He takes years to hone his routine. And it’s a bit disappointing that instead of taking the time to work on something he loves, he wasted it on this soon-to-be-forgotten piffle for Netflix.
Coming Friday: The summer of ‘94 begins!
I had a lot of fun last year revisiting the films of the summer of 1994, which was a very formative one for me. I also liked the structure of having certain films lined up to watch and write about, which was especially helpful for the busy weeks in which I couldn’t get out to a screening. So, I began to think about what I could do this summer. I considered doing a summer of 1999 countdown, since 1999 was such an important year. But just five years ago, I did a 1999 retrospective for another site. And while I may revisit some 1999 films throughout the year, immersing myself in those movies didn’t really seem too exciting. And while there were some classics, many of the year’s most interesting films in ‘99 didn’t come out until the fall. I also considered the summer of 2004, which had some solid films in there. But I’ll be honest: even though I know it was 20 years ago, I still can’t bring myself to consider those movies “vintage.”
I had done a 1996 retrospective a few years back in this newsletter. And 1995 was the first summer in which my parents let me go whole-hog with some R-rated movies, so I was already putting a pin in that for next year. So, I thought, why not 1994? It wasn’t as iconic a year, but it was a time when my tastes were being formed and I was starting to pay more attention to movies. So, I decided to keep with the ‘90s theme and continue plowing a head.
So, starting this Friday, we’ll begin the Summer of ‘94 series! That was a fascinating summer, which includes a Disney animated classic, Tom Hanks’ second best actor win, a James Cameron/Arnold Schwarzenegger collaboration, another John Grisham adaptation, Jim Carrey’s second-straight blockbuster, one of Oliver Stone’s most controversial movies, and John Goodman as Fred Flintstone. But Friday, we kick things off with a look at the Mel Gibson/Richard Donner Western-comedy, Maverick.