Sunday morning coffee: The year’s best movie goes wide this weekend
Plus, a brief update
You might have noticed posts have been a little more sporadic than usual in the recent weeks. Let me explain, and also give an update on where this newsletter is headed in the coming months.
The last few weeks have kind of taken it out of me, for a variety of reasons. I’ve been interviewing for a new day job, which I was offered and accepted, and I’m closing out things at my current job this week and next before starting on April 18. I’ve also had some larger freelance projects I’ve been working on to meet a deadline. On top of that, I’ve been busy heading back to screenings and writing some reviews for CinemaNerdz, along with all the general craziness of life with a wife, two kids and a hyper dog.
What that means is that time for actually doing some of the extra stuff with this newsletter and podcasts has been at a bit of a premium. I write this at night and on the weekends, and lately my evenings and weekends have largely been spent either tackling these other projects or collapsing on the couch with a book or something lightweight on TV (on the plus side, I’ve been catching up with the latest season of Curb Your Enthusiasm). I’d kept it largely together, but this week, I was only able to get Franchise Friday out the door; there might be one other Lent project entry coming next week, but I’m not quite sure.
They’re all good changes, and eventually life will settle back down to something more manageable. As I start this new job, I’m going to be trying to pull back on some of the other outside obligations and projects I’ve been wrapped up to, allowing more time in the evenings and weekends to spend time with family and make reviews, this newsletter, and the podcast my focal outside projects.
I’m also beginning to formulate what the future of this newsletter will entail, and I think I’m getting closer to announcing it. Given that the reviews at CinemaNerdz are my main outlet for current releases, I think you can largely plan on this newsletter giving you looks back at older films, discussing current film news, digging deeper into new releases in a way a review can’t, or catching up on TV and movies that I didn’t do for CinemaNerdz. My question is one of rhythm; I’ve been keeping a pretty strong pace of 3 entries a week. Now that I have another outlet, will I pull back? I haven’t decided yet.
The next few weeks will be a bit tricky as I acclimate to this new job, since I’m anticipating the mental adjustment is going to wipe me out in the evenings. But my hope is that by early May, as that summer movie season starts heating up, we’ll be getting into the new rhythm. Posts might be a tad lighter until then, although I can pretty much guarantee we’ll keep Franchise Fridays going and probably at least one other weekly post. Then, we’ll figure out what the new rhythm is.
I’m getting closer to implementing a paid component to this newsletter, and I’m excited about it. There will always be free stuff here; at least one article each week will be free to read. Franchise Fridays probably, and occasional other musings. But paid subscribers will get extra posts. And I’m looking at ways I can incorporate a short weekly podcast and potentially a video series into this as well for subscribers. The details aren’t all ironed out, but my plan is to have something to announce in early May, and go live with that paid portion by Memorial Day weekend. So, big things are coming; I just have a pretty significant stretch of road to navigate in the coming weeks.
So, let’s talk about some movie-related stuff.
The Chrisicisms mini film festival
Last weekend, my wife and daughter went on a girls’ weekend to visit my sister-in-law Up North, leaving me home with my 10-year-old son. Mickey’s at the age where I can start showing him some movies I enjoyed as a kid, and I’d promised him we’d take this weekend to go through a few movies I thought he’d like that his sister isn’t ready for yet. He responds well to funny movies, but he’s also showing interest in sci-fi, action and mildly scary stuff.
We kicked things off with Richard Linklater’s School of Rock, a movie I hadn’t seen in a long time. Mickey’s been showing an interest in music. He got a bass guitar for Chrstmas, and I’ve caught him rifling through my Green Day, Weezer and White Stripes playlists on Spotify. So, this seemed like a no-brainer, because he’d also respond well to Jack Black in Kung Fu Panda.
I’d forgotten how good this movie is. It’s a Jack Black charisma machine, and Linklater knows how to properly use him. Exploiting his rock god status from his Tenacious D days and then placing him in a room full of kids is a perfect way to use Black, and I think this movie might the most essential one for understanding his appeal. He doesn’t talk down to the kids, and his journey from slacker to mentor is funny but also never feels overly formulaic.
It helps that the movie thrums with energy and love for rock and roll, and placing Black’s washed-up rocker in the midst of a starchy school full of kids is a great way to highlight the rebellious, stick-it-to-the-man attitude of rock. The kids are a lot of fun, and the fact that they can actually play and sing gives it a nice sense of reality. Linklater’s never been this successfully mainstream, but it also never feels like he’s phoning it in. He has a love for rock music and a very apparent love for Black’s skills, and you can feel him having a blast giving his constant collaborator the spotlight. The final battle of the bands is a blast, and the movie never goes for sentimentality or pandering. It’s fun, and Mickey declared it the best movie ever.
Next up, I wanted to give Mickey an introduction to Jackie Chan, but I wasn’t quite sure how to do that. Even though something like Police Story’s stunts would appeal to him, I think he’d get bored with the subtitles. The Rush Hour films are a bit inappropriate for a kid his age. And junk like The Tuxedo would likely have the opposite of the desired effect. But I really liked Shanghai Noon when it came out in 2000, and it had been awhile since I’d seen it. Plus, I figured, it could give Mickey an intro both to Jackie Chan and Westerns, as a bonus. So, we tried that.
I’d forgotten this one might also have been a bit inappropriate. The sexual innuendo and jokes are mild, but they are there. And the film’s racial politics are a bit weird; the jokes about Native Americans have dated poorly, in particular. But overall, this was about as fun as I remembered. Mickey loved watching Chan’s stunts, and they’re particularly fun here. Owen Wilson’s a great foil for him; maybe not as great a fit as Chris Tucker, but it’s just a different vibe. The film’s very funny at times; Mickey loved the drunken escape from the saloon, where Jackie can’t properly get on his horse. And his eyes went wide when he made the connection that Wilson is the voice of Lightning McQueen. Shanghai Noon isn’t exactly a forgotten classic, but it’s a lot of fun, and was a great introduction to one of our great action stars.
The next day, we had a screening to get to in the morning (more on that below) but we made it back for two that I was really excited to show Mickey. Ever since my wife and I got back from our Universal Studios trip, I’d wanted to watch Men in Black with him (they have a really fun MIB ride there). Granted, last week’s Oscars kind of made the idea of watching it more complicated, but Mickey doesn’t pay attention to that, and there are enough other good people in this that it was easy to dismiss it as just as much of an introduction to Tommy Lee Jones/Rip Torn or Barry Sonnenfeld (you know, because kids love them some Rip Torn).
But who am I kidding? There’s no way to watch Men in Black without realizing it belongs completely to Smith. His swagger and charm are off the charts, and his humor undercuts the intergalactic weirdness in a way that reminds me of Bill Murray in Ghostbusters. It had been years since I’d seen Men in Black, and I’d forgotten how fast it moves and how endlessly inventive it is. Smith’s chemistry with Jones is fantastic, and I wish they’d found a way to do something interesting with the franchise instead of running it into the ground in subsequent entries. Plus, is this peak Vincent D’ Onofrio? It goes without saying that Mickey loved this, particularly when it went weird and slapstick-y (the tentacled baby smashing Smith around and the smartass pug were the highlights). But really, the special effect here is Smith; Independence Day may have set him up for success, but it’s here where you really see his star being born.
Finally, I punted. Mickey wanted something a little scarier. Originally, my plan had included ending with either Arachnophobia or Twister. The problem is, I couldn’t quite remember whether the former was appropriate for his age, and Mickey’s prone to have issues with real-life dangers like tornadoes. Instead, I decided to take a risk and bring him back to Indiana Jones. A little over a year ago, we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, and he’d responded well to it. I thought I’d try to introduce him to the next Indy adventure.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a movie I have a complex history with. Spielberg and Lucas’ sequel is dark, which I have no problem with. But it’s also shrill, exhausting and culturally insensitive (it’s very weird to watch a movie these days where the natives of India are the bad guys and the British colonizers run in to save the day). But it has moments I really enjoy; it’s final hour, which is basically a mad dash out of the temple, is a hoot. Plus, I think it has some of Harrison Ford’s best work as Indy.
I was a bit concerned about how Mickey would handle all the bugs, child slavery and heart-ripping. But honestly, he probably found Raiders of the Lost Ark’s face-melting to be a bit more unsettling. He instantly disliked Kate Capshaw’s Willie, but had a lot of fun with Short Round. I feel mostly the same, but I don’t think it’s Capshaw’s fault; she’s playing the character as written. And the child hero entry and shrill comic relief both set to offset the pitch-black places this movie goes to throughout. Mickey sat through the heart scene with no bad reaction (it helps that the scene is relatively bloodless) but he had more trouble with the scenes where Indy turned evil. The movie’s pretty intense at that moment, and watching Indy smack Short Round a bit can be upsetting. But he was all-in for the roller coaster ride of a finale, and I really can’t wait for showing him Last Crusade down the road.
All in all, a fun little mini-marathon, and I love being able to do this with him every once in a while.
The best movie of the year – and Sonic 2 – opens this weekend
Finally, here’s a link to two reviews of new releases. Both get a recommend, but one gets an unqualified rave. Here’s my link to them at CinemaNerdz.
Everything Everywhere All at Once: Fair note, I’m in love with this movie. I don’t just think it’s one of the best movies of the year; it could be one of the best of the decade. I called it “a crowd-pleasing spectacle, action-packed thrill ride, moving family comedy and deep philosophical rumination, a film where even hot dog fingers can be packed with profundity. It’s one of the best films in years, and it is destined to influence an entire generation of filmmakers.” Read the full review at CinemaNerdz.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2: I liked the first film well enough, even if I do hold a bit of a grudge that it was my last film in a theater for more than a year. This one is more of the same, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Again, I attest that “it’s probably the best movie that can be made about a fast blue rodent collecting rings.” Read the full review at CinemaNerdz.
And that’s it for now. My hope is that I’ll be back later this week with one final Lent reaction. And at the week’s end, Franchise Friday will continue its View Askewniverse revisit with a look back at Chasing Amy. Snootch to the nootch.