STREAMING SF FILMS ON TV: CHOOSE WISELY

It seems like forever since I’ve posted here in Spacefreighters Lounge and a lot has been happening. But unless you’re a regular listener of my screen review podcast My Moviehouse My Rules, you’ve probably missed my recent takes on some big SF films available for streaming on your home television screen.

Let’s start with the film causing the most excitement, WONDER WOMAN 1984, directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. (By the way, this review contains spoilers, so if you hate reading the details of a film’s plot, you may want to skip out now. But I’m about to save you some money on HBO/HBO Max and two-plus hours of your time so you might want to read on.)

So much was wrong with this movie I hardly know where to start. How about with the premise? An ancient artifact is unearthed which acts as a kind of Alladin’s lamp for all who touch it, granting the greatest desires of their hearts. 

A failed businessman (Pedro Pascal—GAME OF THRONES, NARCOS) steals the artifact from the museum where Diana (Wonder Woman) works and proceeds to use it to take over the world, but not before both Diana and her insecure colleague Barbara (Kristin Wiig) have wished upon the “Dreamstone” without thinking things through.

Diana’s heart’s desire, of course, is to have her greatest love, Steve (Chris Pine) returned to her. The problem is he must take over the body of some poor shlub to make that happen. (As my daughter said, “What the Quantum Leap is going on here???”) Barbara, on the other hand, desires only to “be like Diana.” Only she doesn’t have the core values that we see instilled in the young Wonder Woman early in the film on her home island of Themycira.  Barbara ends up as the supervillain Cheetah, an “apex predator” to rival the superheroine she once admired.

In the meantime, the businessman, Maxwell Lord, believes he’s found a way to outsmart the consequences of using the stone, which always exacts a price from those who wish upon it. He becomes the stone itself—yeah, I know—and people wish on him. He becomes ever more powerful until the story comes to a head when he gains access to a worldwide broadcasting system which allows him to have everyone in the world wish at once. As you might imagine, contradictory wishes make for chaos. Wonder Woman must save the day!

But, oh, no! The stone has demanded the price of Diana’s superpowers in return for granting her wish. She is gradually growing weaker. (And if you watch any superhero movies at all, you know this is a theme. Love, attachment to a mate, is a sure way either to get that mate killed or to lose yourself as a hero. Something about sex draining your energies. Who thinks up this stuff anyway? Oh, yeah, right! 40-year-old virgin fanboys.) So, she and Steve must give up their dream of being together—again. (If you remember, Steve had to die in the first Wonder Woman movie.) Diana renounces her wish, gets her powers back, kicks Cheetah’s ass, then finds a way to use the worldwide broadcast network to get everyone to renounce their wishes and stop the chaos.

It even works on Maxwell Lord. The sight of his son, lost and alone in a world gone crazy, is somehow enough to bring him around and he renounces his wish and lives happily ever after. Really? There are no consequences for him? It was bad enough this character was so derivative—echoes of WALL STREET’s Gordon Gecko or a recently twice-impeached high official or any other soulless loser you’d want to name—but that he was so easily redeemed and left unpunished went against my grain. What are superhero movies for if the bad guy doesn’t get his just desserts?

And no consequences for Steve and Diana hijacking that guy’s body for a week? We see the guy on the street later; he seems fine. Just a Goldilocks and the Three Bears moment—somebody’s been sleeping in my bed (and wearing my clothes and taking my body for a spin)?

Then there were the mistakes of moviemaking that made this film hard to watch. Jenkins apparently thought the 80s represented “the height of Western civilization and society” and wanted to give Wonder Woman a chance to deal with the villains of that time. Seriously? I lived through the 80s and I can’t think of anything to recommend that era. The hairstyles and clothes were awful; with a few exceptions the music sucked; fueled by conservative politics, individual greed, unemployment, and interest rates were all sky-high. In this movie we’re forced to relive all of that, including and especially the spectacle of Chris Pine in horrible 80s clothes.

The first Wonder Woman movie introduced us to a thrilling heroine with a fight choreography all her own. Diana has little opportunity to do any of that in this movie. The action scenes are few and far between, giving Gal Gadot no chance to show us what she can do. Even the big fight scene with Cheetah is disappointing. Mostly, Diana is reduced to saving kids, and in one laughable scene she nearly squashes some tykes getting them out of the way of an armored vehicle they should easily have seen coming miles away down a dusty road. Couldn’t mom have just yelled, “Hey, you kids, get out of the damn road!”

But I guess you get the picture. I wouldn’t waste your time on this one unless you just have nothing else to watch. This one’s a No-Go.

 Jones and Clooney in THE MIDNIGHT SKY

For a better SF home night at the movies try THE MIDNIGHT SKY. This Netflix Original film is directed by George Clooney and stars the usually drop-dead gorgeous actor as a haggard, bearded astrophysicist waiting out the end of the world in an isolated research station in the Arctic. The scientist is suffering from terminal cancer (much like the world, which is being swallowed by radiation from some unnamed disaster, likely a nuclear war). His one last remaining task is to warn off a spaceship returning from a successful mission to explore a previously unknown moon of Jupiter where life has miraculously been found. (Okay, that requires a leap, but why not? Let the CGI guys play.)

Clooney calls the movie a cross between GRAVITY (the Oscar-winning space film by Alfonso Cuaron in which he himself starred) and THE REVENANT. (You know, the one where Leonardo de Caprio is almost murdered but survives by hiding in a dead bear. Mark L. Smith wrote the screenplay for both THE REVENANT and THE MIDNIGHT SKY.). But to me it has more parallels with an old-school film someone is shown watching part-way through this one: ON THE BEACH, starring Gregory Peck. In that film, the U.S. and Russia have let loose the nuclear dogs of war and the last outpost of life is Australia, waiting while a cloud of deadly radiation makes its way around the globe toward it. That film’s director was the redoubtable Stanley Kramer, and it provides some of the most unforgettable science fiction images of the Cold War. I think Clooney doesn’t do such a bad job with the same emotional feels here—the isolation, the fear, the despair—both as a director and as an actor.

THE MIDNIGHT SKY has some plot twists that give it extra interest, including flashbacks utilizing actor Ethan Peck (Gregory’s grandson, known for playing Spock in CBS All Access’s STAR TREK: DISCOVERY) as a younger version of Clooney’s character. But it does require some suspension of disbelief to think we have a hidden treasure trove of lush life on an as-yet-undiscovered Jovian moon out there just waiting to rescue humanity. Even if that humanity’s Adam and Eve would be David Oyewolo and Felicity Jones. (Yes, the supporting cast is great—it also includes Kyle Chandler, Demian Bechir and newcomer Caoilinn Springer as Iris, a young stowaway on the Arctic research station. Clooney can command just about anyone he wants when he’s making a movie.)

The film might be a little slow—all the weight of SOLARIS without the “scenery” if you take my meaning—but it is atmospheric and thought-provoking, like the best SF films should be. You’ll like it if you like Clooney, Peck, any of the rest of the stellar cast or post-apocalyptic SF in general. Definitely a Go.

Check out the rest of my podcasts (New Screen Reviews with Old School Attitude) here, or on my Facebook page for My Moviehouse My Rules with new posts every Wednesday!

Cheers, Donna

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOKER: WHO'S THE CRAZY ONE?

As I write this on October 10, it is World Mental Health Day. The two lovely fellows you see below (musician Ed Sheeran and Britain's Prince Harry, in case you’ve been living on another planet), preface a serious message about caring for and supporting your friends and neighbors with some light-hearted banter about the abuse they’ve suffered as “gingers” (redheads). You can see the Instagram message here, and go no further if you’d like. I won’t hold it against you.

Ed Sheeran and Prince Harry: Gingers for Mental Health

Because the real subject of today’s blog post, dear readers, is JOKER, Todd Phillips’ latest redefinition of the DC Comics villain and Batman’s nemesis, played to the mesmerizing hilt by actor Joaquin Phoenix. It’s appropriate that I undertake to review this controversial film on a day devoted to mental health, not only because Arthur Fleck, the man who becomes the Joker, is obviously insane, but also because the point of the movie is our society is slowing moving in that direction as well. What we ignore in the least sane of us becomes a problem for the community at large—mass shootings, terrorism, drugs, extremism, even just apathy and isolationism.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Writer/director Phillips (whose experience is primarily with comedies like OLD SCHOOL and HUNGOVER) shaped his film as an origin story for the villain that faces off against the Batman of Christopher Nolan’s DARK KNIGHT films. That Batman was tormented, haunted by the death of his parents and unable to escape the darkness within himself. Heath Ledger’s Joker was similarly tortured by his abusive past, but Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix take that step further, implicating not only the personal circumstances that led to Joker’s “creation,” but also Gotham’s role in it.

Arthur Fleck had a horrific childhood, much of which he doesn’t remember, but which has left him damaged. One of the symptoms of his mental illness is an unfortunate compulsion to laugh uncontrollably when stressed or fearful. He’s bullied by just about everyone, even at work in a clowns-for-hire company. If he’s not bullied, he’s avoided for his emaciated looks and “weird” behavior.

Incidents pile up, increasing the pressure on the fragile structure of fantasy he maintains to get through the day. When he intervenes as several drunken young businessmen harass a woman on a subway, the men turn on him and proceed to beat him down—until he pulls out a revolver a coworker has given him after a similar mugging and starts shooting, still in his clown makeup and laughing hysterically all the while. The fact that he saves the woman (and himself) is quickly forgotten. Innocent Young Men Murdered by Manic Clown becomes the headline, but Gotham’s unemployed and exploited see another lesson in the clown’s act of desperation. They make the altercation a wider example of the poor and downtrodden fighting back against the bullying rich. 

Other old assumptions are turned on their heads. Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas, always portrayed as a good-guy philanthropist in every other version of the Batman story, is cold and even cruel in JOKER. Arthur believes Wayne to be his father, based on lies told by his mother (for whom he serves as caregiver). But when he confronts the rich businessman, Wayne debunks that myth by telling him a devastating truth without benefit of sugarcoating. Arthur’s castle of illusion begins to sink into the sand of deception on which it was built, leading to chaos and increasing violence in the last third of the film.

Oddly, the chaos is not in Arthur’s mind now. The more he inhabits “Joker,” the more confident and less delusional he becomes. For example, he longs to be a standup comedian, and, at the midpoint of the film, he’s given his chance to perform onstage at a little club. It’s a disaster; the jokes are unfunny, his stage presence bizarre, and, worst of all, the stress brings out his inappropriate laughter. 

Later in the film, his idol, late night show host Murray Franklin (Robert de Niro in a brilliant piece of casting—the actor has no discernable sense of humor himself), runs a video clip of the performance on his show and mocks him. Then Franklin’s assistant calls Arthur to invite him on the show. But by now Arthur has almost completely attained Joker status. He is no longer the frightened, abused, child-like being he once was.

**SPOILER ALERT**

And when he arrives on Franklin’s stage, he is in full Joker mode—makeup, burgundy suit, green hair, confident, full of intention. (In fact, before the show, he asks Franklin to introduce him as Joker, because that is what the host called him on the air when mocking him earlier.) He says he knows Franklin has only invited him to make fun of him. Then he openly admits his crime in shooting the men on the subway, shocking both host and audience. Finally he asks a question (he calls it a joke): “What do you get when you take a mentally ill person and ignore him all his life? You get what you deserve.”

I won’t tell you what happens next. Perhaps you’ve heard; perhaps you can guess. The act on the stage precipitates the end of the film—rioting in the streets, an attempted rescue of Joker by his demented “followers,” his eventual incarceration in Arkham Asylum. If you are a DC Comics fan, you know this isn’t the end of his story; it’s the beginning.

The Joker celebrates his birth.

This interpretation of the Joker character has ignited a firestorm of controversy and a corresponding ashfall of dissatisfied reviews. Most of them center on the idea that this is some kind of apology for Joker’s evil-doing. It is no such thing. This is not justification for murder and mayhem on a large scale; it is explanation, which I think we could all use. Phillips does not ask us to root for Arthur Fleck (and by extension Joker) so much as understand him. The suggestion is that if we understand, we can do something to divert others like him.

Joaquin Phoenix’s astounding performance can only be viewed in this context. You cannot look away from the pathos and eerie fascination of the character he has created onscreen, a character fully formed out of the writers’ backstory and Phoenix’s artistry. Arthur Fleck is a human being with an eternal soul, which he eventually trades for survival in this world—as the newly invented Joker. The transformation is stunning to watch.

But the real message is for us. With every new mass shooting, every new act of terrorism or extremism, we ask: Is it the guns? Is it mental illness? What can be done? And in the end, we throw up our hands and answer, Nothing. Nothing can be done.

It’s interesting to me that Joker wreaks all his havoc on Gotham with a six-shot revolver that was given to Arthur Fleck. Arthur hardly knows what to do with it at first and tries without success to give it back or get rid of it. But he hardly needs an AR15. The people around him all his life and the citizens of Gotham give him all the help he needs to become an agent of mass murder. And as we leave the theater after witnessing his final act of violence, when we’re certain Arthur has disappeared and only Joker remains, the strains of Murray Franklin’s theme song follow us up the aisle:

Frank Sinatra’s That’s Life.

Cheers, Donna

EIGHTY YEARS OF THE MAN OF STEEL

Happy birthday, Superman! It may be a little early, but what the heck. At 80 years old, you deserve the cake and balloons, you big hunk of red and blue! 

Hard to believe it, but DC Comics just released Action Comics #1000 this week, 80 years after the Man of Steel debuted in June, 1938. And, as James Whitbrook notes in his post on 109.com, the writers/artists used the occasion to give Supe’s well-known origin story a few new twists.

You know the tale (and if you don’t, where have you been hiding?): the infant Kal-El is placed aboard an Earth-bound spaceship by his parents to save him from the destruction of his birth planet of Krypton. The spaceship crashes in a cornfield in Kansas, where it is found by Ma and Pa Kent, who raise the Baby Kryptonian as their own darling Clark, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, outrace a speeding bullet, yada, yada.

Up to now, the various depictions of the destruction of Krypton have all pretty much blamed natural causes (geological instability/solar expansion), war, overweening scientific arrogance or some such. But the new prequel TV show Krypton, set in Kal-El’s grandfather’s time, offers another explanation for Krypton’s destruction. A villain familiar to Superman fans—Brainiac—turns up in a much more menacing form here, threatening to swallow the planet whole. The hero of the show, Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe)—Supe’s young grandfather—must find a way to stop the creature (while fending off a barrage of lesser threats).

The show allows Superman fans like me a chance to explore the planet and culture of Krypton in a way we’ve never been able to before. We meet the scientific caste, which at one time included the El family (and will again) and the military caste, which includes the Zod family, villains of the future. We even get an eyeful of the original Fortress of Solitude. And we’re introduced to DC Comics’ time-traveling Adam Strange, who comes to warn Seg of what he must do to protect the future.

By contrast, the comic writers and artists in charge of Action’s Man of Steel have chosen to take the destruction of Krypton in another direction, Their approach gives them leeway to follow dramatic pathways in Supe’s present here on Earth—not a bad thing, really. I won’t spoil it for you in case you want to run out to your nearest comic book store and see for yourself. But Whitbrook is not so constrained in his post, if you just can’t wait to find out.

In the meantime, lift a glass for the original superhero today and Look! Up in the Sky! It’s Superman!

Cheers, Donna

Information for today’s post taken from “Action Comics #1000 Honors 80 Years of Superman with Another Wrinkle in His Origin Story,” by James Whitbrook, io9.com, April 18, 2018. https://io9.gizmodo.com/action-comics-1000-honors-80-years-of-superman-with-an-1825366834