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dweemeister · 6 years ago

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My alternative 91st Academy Awards

As always during 31 Days of Oscar, I partake in an annual fantasy. What would the Oscars look like if I stuffed the ballots - choosing every single nomination and choosing every single winner? It always would look a lot different. Fans of Black Panther and Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice? Come at me.

91st Academy Awards – February 24, 2019 Dolby Theatre – Hollywood, Los Angeles, California Host: None Broadcaster: ABC

Best Picture: ROMA

BlacKkKlansman, Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Jordan Peele, and Spike Lee (Focus)

Burning (KOR), Lee Joon-dong and Lee Chang-dong (Pinehouse Film/Now Film/NHK/CGV Arthouse/Well Go USA Entertainment)

Eighth Grade, Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, Lila Yacoub, and Christopher Storer (A24)

The Favourite, Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, and Yorgos Lanthimos (Fox Searchlight)

Mission: Impossible – Fallout, J.J. Abrams, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, and Jake Myers (Paramount)

Roma (MEX), Alfonso Cuarón, Gabriela Rodriguez, and Nicolas Celis (Netflix)

Shoplifters (JPN), Matsuzaki Kaoru, Yose Akihiko, and Taguchi Hijiri (AOI Promotion/Fuji TV/GAGA/Magnolia Pictures)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Avi Arad, Ami Pascal, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Christina Steinberg (Columbia)

A Star Is Born, Bill Gerber, Jon Peters, Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips, and Lynette Howell Taylor (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Warner Bros.)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Morgan Neville, Caryn Capotosto, and Nicholas Ma (Focus)

Wholesale changes in this category compared to real life. The best three films of 2018, to me, were Burning, Roma, and Shoplifters -- none of these were in the English language. Films I tossed for Best Picture were Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, and Vice. I don’t think any of those four films have any business being in this category. In their place are the likes of Eighth Grade, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and one of the most technically marvelous action films in decades in Mission: Impossible -- Fallout. Yes, an M:I film (superb editing, setpieces, and audacious style that finally wakes the franchise up).

But I’m going for an unexciting pick according to some with Roma. To use an oxymoron, it is an intimate epic -- one crafted beautifully, daring to comment on relations between ethnicities and the sexes at a certain time in Mexico.

Best Director

Lee Chang-dong, Burning

Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Hirokazu Koreeda, Shoplifters

Christopher McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Paul Schrader, First Reformed

If you’re scratching your head, yes... Paul Schrader was nominated for Director in my ceremony, but First Reformed is nowhere to be found in Picture. I tend to do this for one Best Director nominee every year.

Best Actor

Christian Bale, Vice

Ryan Gosling, First Man

Ethan Hawke, First Reformed

Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

Yoo Ah-in, Burning

The real-life Best Actor category this year is the most dire slate in a while. So here is your palate cleanser.

Best Actress

Yalitza Aparicio, Roma

Glenn Close, The Wife

Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade

Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born

It is not so much acting, as inhabiting. And, as a non-professional actress, Yalitza Aparicio has it. And I believe that, in my alternate Oscar universe (yes, I’ve drawn up and thought about it for many ceremonies past... I’ll reveal those some day), Aparicio would be the first indigenous woman to be awarded an acting Oscar.

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Josh Hamilton, Eighth Grade

Tim Blake Nelson, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Steven Yeun, Burning

Ali is good, don’t get me wrong. But, compared to the movie Moonlight and his performance in it, it looks like he is about to get a second Oscar for a far worse movie and a lesser role. Ali is fourth or fifth in this lineup for me. Grant is fantastic in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Best Supporting Actress

Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Emma Stone, The Favourite

Marina de Tavira, Roma

Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

Michelle Yeoh, Crazy Rich Asians

This comes down to the fact I couldn’t separate Stone and Weisz’s performances in their saucy movie. Nor could I find the argument to give de Tavira or Yeoh the Oscar. This is a bit of a default choice, I hate to say.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman

Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk

Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini, Leave No Trace

Spike Lee would have at least one or two Oscars in my alternative universe by this point! The difference between the screenplays for BlacKkKlansman and Can You Ever Forgive Me? is far slighter than you think.

Best Original Screenplay

Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade

Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, The Favourite

Paul Schrader, First Reformed

Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Hirokazu Koreeda, Shoplifters

Not even a contest if you asked me. This category is something else if I consider The Favourite and Roma bringing up the rear. But Koreeda’s drama about a found family that does what they can to survive is the culmination of what he has done in his career thus far. This is his Oscar.

Best Animated Feature

Incredibles 2 (Pixar/Walt Disney)

Night is Short, Walk On Girl, Japan (GKIDS/Toho Company)

Ruben Brandt, Collector, Hungary (Mozinet/Sony Pictures Classics)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Columbia)

Tito and the Birds, Brazil (Bits Produções/Shout! Factory)

Longtime followers know that I have unorthodox opinions about animated features. The only Animated Feature Oscar I’ve handed to Pixar/Walt Disney Animation Studios since beginning this tradition in 2013 was for Inside Out. I thought Ralph Breaks the Internet was a painful addition to the Disney animated canon, so it is not here. Nor is Wes Anderson’s culturally insensitive Isle of Dogs or Mamoru Hosoda’s sloppy Mirai. At the end of the day? No boat-rocking this time, except in some of the other nominees.

Best Documentary Feature

Free Solo (National Geographic)

Hale County This Morning, This Evening (The Cinema Guild)

Minding the Gap (ITVS/Kartemquin Films/Hulu/Magnolia Pictures)

Three Identical Strangers (CNN/Channel 4/Neon)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus)

Shoulda been nominated! Shoulda won! But in the spirit of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, these are all great documentaries. Minding the Gap is a close #2.

Best Foreign Language Film

Burning, South Korea

Capernaum, Lebanon

Cold War, Poland

Roma, Mexico

Shoplifters, Japan

Best Cinematography

Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Caleb Deschanel, Never Look Away (GER)

Rob Hardy, Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Matthew Libatique, A Star Is Born

Łukasz Żal, Cold War

Best Film Editing

Barry Alexander Brown, BlacKkKlansman

Jay Cassidy, A Star Is Born

Tom Cross, First Man

Eddie Hamilton, Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Yorgos Mavropsaridis, The Favourite

Best Original Musical*

Julia Michels, A Star Is Born

Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Mary Poppins Returns

Sia, Greg Kurstin, Scott Walker, and Margaret Yen, Vox Lux

*Best Original Musical – known previously as several other names – exists in the Academy’s rulebooks, but requires activation from the Academy’s music branch. To qualify, a film must have no fewer than five original songs. This category was last activated when Prince won for Purple Rain (1984).

Best Original Score

Michael Giacchino, Incredibles 2

Justin Hurwitz, First Man

John Powell, Solo

Alan Silvestri, Ready Player One

Brian Tyler, Crazy Rich Asians

The Star Wars universe is in good musical hands when John Williams leaves after Episode IX!

Best Original Song

“All the Stars”, music by Kendrick Lamar, Sounwave, and Anthony Tiffith, lyrics by Lamar, SZA, and Tiffith, Black Panther

“Nowhere to Go but Up”, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Mary Poppins Returns

“The Place Where Lost Things Go”, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Mary Poppins Returns

“Shallow”, music and lyrics by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt, A Star Is Born

“When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings”, music and lyrics by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Best Costume Design

Alexander Byrne, Mary Queen of Scots

Ruth E. Carter, Black Panther

Sandy Powell, The Favourite

Sandy Powell, Mary Poppins Returns

Mary E. Vogt, Crazy Rich Asians

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Cindy Harlow and Camille Friend, Black Panther

Göran Lundström and Pamela Goldammer, Border (SWE)

Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher, and Jessica Brooks, Mary Queen of Scots

Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin, Solo

Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe, and Patricia Dehaney, Vice

Best Production Design

Hannah Beachler, Black Panther

Nelson Coates, Crazy Rich Asians

Fiona Crombie, The Favourite

Nathan Crowley, First Man

John Myhre, Mary Poppins Returns

Best Sound Editing

Benjamin A. Burt and Steve Boeddeker, Black Panther

Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan, First Man

James Mather, Victoria Freund, and Nina Norek, Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl, A Quiet Place

Richard Hymns, Gary Rydstrom, Cameron Barker, and Doug Winningham, Ready Player One

Best Sound Mixing

John Casali, Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin, and Niv Adiri, Bohemian Rhapsody

Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis, First Man

Chris Munro, Paul Munro, Lloyd Dudley, and Mark Timms, Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Michael Barosky, Brandon Proctor, and Michael Barry, A Quiet Place

Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, Jason Ruder and Steve Morrow, A Star Is Born

Best Visual Effects

Daniel DeLeeuw, Jen Underdahl, Kelly Port, Matt Aitken, Dan Sudick, Avengers: Infinity War

Christopher Lawrence, Michael Eames, Theo Jones, and Chris Corbould, Christopher Robin

Paul Lambert, Ian Hunter, Tristan Myles, and J. D. Schwalm, First Man

Roger Guyett, Grady Cofer, Matthew E. Butler, and David Shirk, Ready Player One

Rob Bredow, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan, and Dominic Tuohy, Solo

Best Documentary Short

Black Sheep (Lightbox Entertainment/The Guardian)

End Game (Netflix)

Lifeboat (Spin Film/RYOT Films)

A Night at the Garden (Field of Vision)

Period. End of Sentence. (Guneet Monga)

My omnibus review of this year’s nominees is coming soon (check this space later).

Best Live Action Short

Detainment (Twelve Media)

Fauve, Canada (H264 Distribution)

Marguerite, Canada (H264 Distribution)

Mother, Spain (Apache Films/Caballo Films/Malvalanda)

Skin (New Native Pictures/Salaud Morisset)

My omnibus review of this year’s nominees is coming soon (check this space later).

Best Animated Short

Animal Behaviour (National Film Board of Canada)

Bao (Pixar/Walt Disney)

Late Afternoon (Cartoon Saloon)

One Small Step (Taiko Studios)

Weekends (Past Lives Productions)

My omnibus review of this year’s nominees can be read here.

Academy Honorary Awards: Cicely Tyson, Lalo Schifrin, and Marvin Levy

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award: Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall

MULTIPLE NOMINEES (24) Eight: The Favourite; Roma Seven: First Man; A Star Is Born Six: Mission: Impossible – Fallout Five: Black Panther; Burning; Mary Poppins Returns Four: Crazy Rich Asians; Eighth Grade; Shoplifters Three: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs; BlacKkKlansman; First Reformed; Ready Player One, Solo Two: Bohemian Rhapsody; If Beale Street Could Talk; Incredibles 2; Mary Queen of Scots; A Quiet Place; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; Vice; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

WINNERS 4 wins: Roma 2 wins: First Man; Mary Poppins Returns 1 win: BlacKkKlansman; Black Panther; Border; Can You Ever Forgive Me?; Cold War; Crazy Rich Asians; First Reformed; If Beale Street Could Talk; Marguerite; Mission: Impossible – Fallout; Shoplifters; Solo; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; A Star Is Born; Weekends; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

19 winners from 25 categories. 39 feature-length films and 15 short films were represented.

#91st Academy Awards #Oscars #31 Days of Oscar

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 6 years ago

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What other fandoms are you familiar enough with to use as an AU prompt? Pokemon Trainer AU? Homestuck AU (they'd still probably die but at least there are lots of ways to come back to life)?

I’m not that familiar with Homestuck, definitely not enough to do an AU. I read the novelizations of the Pokemon show as a kid but never saw the show or played any of the video games. I did play the super-obscure Pokemon board game, but most of my trading cards were printed in Japanese (I had a strange childhood), so my experience there is, uh, probably not quite overlapping with everyone else’s.

Anyway, if you want list of all my fandoms… Boy howdy. I don’t think I can come up with them all. However, I can list everything that comes to mind between now and ~20 minutes from now when I have to end my procrastination break and go back to dissertating. So here it is, below the cut:

Okay, there is no way in hell I’ll be able to make an exhaustive list. But off the top of my head, the fandoms I’m most familiar/comfortable with are as follows:

Authors (as in, I’ve read all or most of their books)

Patricia Briggs

Megan Whalen Turner

Michael Crichton

Marge Piercy

Stephenie Meyer

Dean Koontz

Stephen King

Neil Gaiman

K.A. Applegate

Ernest Hemingway

Tamora Pierce

Roald Dahl

Short Stories/Anthologies

A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

Dubliners, James Joyce

Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes

Who Goes There? John W. Campbell

The Man Who Bridged the Mist, Kij Johnson

Flatland, Edwin Abbott

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison

To Build a Fire, Jack London

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bier

At the Mountains of Madness/Cthulu mythos, H.P. Lovecraft

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle

The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

Close Range: Wyoming Stories, E. Annie Proulx

The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

Bartleby the Scrivener (and a bunch of others), Herman Melville

Books (Classics)

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Secret Garden, Francis Hodgson Burnett

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

The Secret Annex, Anne Frank

Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut

The Stranger, Albert Camus

The Call of the Wild, Jack London

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Atonement, Ian McEwan

1984, George Orwell

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

The Iliad/The Odyssey, Homer

Metamorphoses, Ovid

Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne

The Time-Machine, H.G. Wells

The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Hamlet, MacBeth, Othello, and The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Thomas Stoppard

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

Books (YA SF)

Young Wizards series, Diane Duane

Redwall, Brian Jaques

The Dark is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Diana Wynne Jones

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix

The Giver series, Lois Lowry

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Uglies series, Scott Westerfeld

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin

Song of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle

Unwind, Neal Shusterman

The Maze Runner series, James Dashner

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede

Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Louis Sachar

Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

Coraline, Neil Gaiman

Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi

Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

Poppy series, Avi

The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

Tithe, Holly Black

Life as We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer

Blood and Chocolate, Annette Curtis Klause

Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

Haunted, Gregory Maguire

Weetzie Bat, Francesca Lia Block

Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White

East, Edith Pattou

Z for Zachariah, Robert C. O’Brien

The Looking-Glass Wars, Frank Beddor

The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Homecoming, Cynthia Voigt

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

The Landry News, Andrew Clements

Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson

Bloody Jack, L.A. Meyer

The Boxcar Children, Gertrude Chandler Warner

A Certain Slant of Light, Laura Whitcomb

Generation Dead, Daniel Waters

Pendragon series, D.J. MacHale

Silverwing, Kenneth Oppel

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Define Normal, Julie Anne Peters

Hawksong, Ameila Atwater Rhodes

Heir Apparent, Vivian Vande Velde

Running Out of Time, Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Keys to the Kingdom series, Garth Nix

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken

The Seer and the Sword, Victoria Hanley

My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George

Daughters of the Moon series, Lynne Ewing

The Midwife’s Apprentice, Karen Cushman

Island of the Aunts, Eva Ibbotson

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, Nancy Farmer

A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray

A School for Sorcery, E. Rose Sabin

The House with a Clock in Its Walls, John Bellairs

The Edge Chronicles, Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

Hope was Here, Joan Bauer

Bunnicula, James Howe

Wise Child, Monica Furlong

Silent to the Bone, E.L. Konigsburg

The Twenty-One Balloons, William Pene du Bois

Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters, Gail Giles

The Supernaturalist, Eoin Colfer

Blue is for Nightmares, Laurie Faria Stolarz

Mystery of the Blue Gowned Ghost, Linda Wirkner

Wait Till Helen Comes, Mary Downing Hahn

I was a Teenage Fairy, Francesca Lia Block

City of the Beasts series, Isabelle Allende

Summerland, Michael Chabon

The Geography Club, Brent Hartinger

The Last Safe Place on Earth, Richard Peck

Liar, Justine Larbalestier

The Doll People, Ann M. Martin

The Lost Years of Merlin, T.A. Barron

Matilda Bone, Karen Cushman

Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

The Tiger Rising, Kate DiCamillo

The Spiderwick Chronicles, Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

In the Forests of the Night, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

My Teacher is an Alien, Bruce Coville

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, Julie Andrews Edwards

Storytime, Edward Bloor

Magic Shop series, Bruce Coville

A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket

Veritas Project series, Frank Peretti

The Once and Future King, T.H. White

Raven’s Strike, Patricia Briggs

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy, Gregory Maguire

The Wind Singer, William Nicholson

Sweetblood, Pete Hautman

The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White

Half Magic, Edward Eager

A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L'Engle

The Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan

Maximum Ride series, James Patterson

The Edge on the Sword, Rebecca Tingle

World War Z, Max Brooks

Adaline Falling Star, Mary Pope Osborne

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi

Parable of the Sower series, Octavia Butler

I, Robot, Isaac Asimov

Neuomancer, William Gibson

Dune, Frank Herbert

The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth

The Martian, Andy Weir

Skeleton Man, Joseph Bruchac

Comics/Manga

Marvel 616 (most of the major titles)

Marvel 1610/Ultimates

Persepolis

This One Summer

Nimona

Death Note

Ouran High School Host Club

Vampire Knight

Emily Carroll comics

Watchmen

Fun Home

From Hell

American Born Chinese

Smile

The Eternal Smile

The Sandman

Calvin and Hobbes

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

TV Shows

Fullmetal Alchemist

Avatar the Last Airbender

Teen Titans (2003)

Luke Cage/Jessica Jones/Iron Fist/Defenders/Daredevil/The Punisher

Agents of SHIELD/Agent Carter

Supernatural

Sherlock

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Angel/Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Firefly

American Horror Story

Ouran High School Host Club

Orange is the New Black

Black Sails

Stranger Things

Westworld

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Movies

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Jurassic Park/Lost World/Jurassic World/Lost Park?

The Breakfast Club

Cloverfield/10 Cloverfield Lane/The Cloverfield Paradox

Attack the Block

The Prestige

Moon

Ferris Bueler’s Day Off

Django Unchained/Kill Bill/Inglourious Basterds/Hateful 8/Pulp Fiction/etcetera

Primer

THX 1138/Akira/How I Live Now/Lost World/[anything I’ve named a fic after]

Star Wars

The Meg

A Quiet Place

Baby Driver

Mother!

Alien/Aliens/Prometheus

X-Men (et al.)

10 Things I Hate About You

The Lost Boys

Teen Wolf

Juno

Pirates of the Caribbean (et al.)

Die Hard

Most Disney classics: Toy Story, Mulan, Treasure Planet, Emperor’s New Groove, etc.

Most Pixar classics: Up, Wall-E, The Incredibles

The Matrix

Dark Knight trilogy

Halloween

Friday the 13th

A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Descent

Ghostbusters

Ocean’s Eight/11/12/13

King Kong

The Conjuring

Fantastic Four

Minority Report/Blade Runner/Adjustment Bureau/Total Recall

Fight Club

Spirited Away

Disturbing Behavior

The Faculty

Poets

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Marge Piercy

Thomas Hardy

Sigfried Sassoon

W. B. Yeats

Edgar Allan Poe

Ogden Nash

Margaret Atwood

Maya Angelou

Emily Dickinson

Matthew Dickman

Karen Skolfield

Kwame Alexander

Ellen Hopkins

Shel Silverstein

Musicals/Stage Plays

Les Miserables

Repo: The Genetic Opera

The Lion King

The Phantom of the Opera

Rent

The Prince of Egypt

Pippin

Into the Woods

A Chorus Line

Hairspray

Evita

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Fiddler on the Roof

Annie

Fun Home

Spring Awakening

Chicago

Cabaret

The Miser

The Importance of Being Earnest

South Pacific

Godspell

Wicked

The Wiz

The Wizard of Oz

Man of La Mancha

The Sound of Music

West Side Story

Matilda

Sweeney Todd

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Nunsense

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown/Snoopy

1776

Something Rotten

A Very Potter Musical

Babes in Toyland

Carrie: The Musical

Amadeus

Annie Get Your Gun

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The Final Battle

Rock of Ages

Cinderella

Moulin Rouge

Honk

Labyrinth

The Secret Garden

Reefer Madness

Bang Bang You’re Dead

NSFW

War Horse

Peter Pan

Suessical

Sister Act

The Secret Annex

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Disclaimer 1: Like a lot of people who went to high school in the American South, my education in literature is pretty shamefully lacking in a lot of areas. (As in, during our African American History unit in ninth grade we read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn… and that was it. As in, our twelfth-grade US History class, I shit you not, covered Gone With the Wind.) There were a lot of good teachers in with the *ahem* Less Woke ones (how I read Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Bluest Eye) and college definitely set me on the path to trying to find books written/published outside the WASP-ier parts of the U.S., but the overall list is still embarrassingly hegemonic.

Disclaimer 2: There are a crapton of errors — typos, misspelled names, misattributions, questionable genre classifications, etc. — in here. If you genuinely have no idea what a title is supposed to be, ask me. Otherwise, please don’t bother letting me know about my mistakes.

Disclaimer 3: I am not looking for recommendations. My Goodreads “To Read” list is already a good 700 items long, and people telling me “if you like X, then you’ll love Y!” genuinely stresses me the fuck out.

Disclaimer 4: There are no unproblematic faves on this list. I love Supernatural, and I know that Supernatural is hella misogynistic. On the flip side: I don’t love The Lord of the Rings at all, partially because LOTR is hella misogynistic, but I also don’t think that should stop anyone else from loving LOTR if they’re willing to love it and also acknowledge its flaws.

#literature #fandom #booklist #about the blogger #long post #long ass post #books #nothing to do with animorphs #Anonymous #asks

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xfilesnews · 7 years ago

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Is this The End? - XFN talks with Chris Carter about "My Struggle 4"

We sit down for a very long conversation with Chris Carter, a boxing match, if you will. XFN’s Avi Quijada talks with Carter about William, Scully’s pregnancy, some actual truths about periods (we’re not kidding) and what the merger between FOX and Disney could mean for the future of the show. And much more. There’s a lot to dig through, settle in, grab a drink and read here.

“’Now though I want to ask you… let’s go back to the pregnancy question.” He says. “Okay,” I say cautiously.

“When you knew she was pregnant, how did that make you feel? Knowing that she’s 54 years old…What did you say to yourself about that?” I didn’t sign up for a therapy session, nor being interviewed by Chris Carter, but hey if you don’t do wild things while you’re able, when are ya?

“About the possibility?” I try to buy myself some time to form an answer that isn’t ‘Are you effing kidding me?’”

ETA: If the link wasn’t working try again, tumblr wants to fight me tonight, apparently

#The X-Files #XFiles #Season 11 #Chris Carter

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bananahotels · 2 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior 2/18/22 - UNCHARTED, DOG, THE CURSED, TOO COOL TO KILL, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, TED K, THE AUTOMAT, and More

It’s President’s Day weekend, which means that a lot of kids and government workers get another Monday off… lucky them! I don’t have a job so no day off for me!

As partially expected, this past weekend was a rather weak showing for movies with the #1 movie not even making $13 million. It’s a little hard to believe that the box office is in worse shape now than when NYC and LA movie theaters reopened last March. Spider-Man: No Way Home seemed to point to a recovery, but I guess that was only for that one specific movie. There has just been too many other options on television and streaming over the past few weeks, including the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl this past weekend. We’ll have to see if now that those are both over, we can see a few movies break-out, and this weekend, there is a movie that could maybe do slightly better, even if The Batman is likely to be the big winner up until the summer box office kicks off in May.

This week’s most high-profile release is the first video game movie of the year, and it’s a doozy, as the long-in-development action-adventure UNCHARTED (Sony) comes to theaters, starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. Mind you, while I am not much of a gamer, I also haven’t had a Sony Playstation console since the very first one, and “Uncharted” has always been a Playstation exclusive game, created by Amy Hennig, beginning in 2007 with “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” on the Playstation 3. The main reason I even know about it is that my old boss at ComingSoon.net was an avid fan, and I’ll be really curious to see what he thinks of the movie once he sees it.

Otherwise, we’re looking at a 9-game series, the biggest seller being “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End,” which sold over 15 million copies in 2016 with the series looking at almost 42 million copies sold, so it’s probably no wonder why Sony has spent almost 15 years trying to develop a movie based on it with Spider-Man producer Avi Arad developing it. So many directors and writers and actors have come on board and eventually moved on, but it finally came down to Sony vet Ruben Fleischer of Zombieland and the first Venom movie being brought on board to make it happen.

Attaching Tom Holland was probably a big step to making the movie since Holland had starred in two previous Spider-Man movies that did very well, and this was before his most recent movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home became one of the top three biggest movies ever made. (That movie is close to passing James Cameron’s Avatar for third place all-time, as I write this.) Holland is playing a younger version of Nathan Drake, the popular protagonist of the puzzle adventure game that I imagine is a bit like a male Tomb Raider. Uncharted. It’s going to be the real test whether Holland can be shifted to A-lister status or can be considered a box office draw, since his last movie, Chaos Walking, with Daisy Ridley from the “Star Wars” movies, no less, bombed in March 2021, being released before theaters were fully open in NYC and L.A. Holland’s previous movies, Cherry and The Devil All the Time, were on streaming, and then he had a few voice roles, teaming with Chris Pratt for Disney/Pixar’s Onward, which was also hobbled by the pandemic, and a few months earlier, Holland teamed with Will Smith for a voice role in Spies in Disguise. In between was a voice role in the delayed Robert Downey Jr. vehicle, Dolittle, which actually did better than both animated movies. It’s not looking great for Holland to make Uncharted a good follow-up hit franchise for Sony, but you never know, because many of the younger fans of Holland’s Spider-Man will be older and possibly ready for a PG-13 movie.

The next step was to get Mark Wahlberg on board as Victor Sullivan, offering a bit of older support for the young star, though Wahlberg’s recent career has been spotty. His most recent action movie, Infinite, went straight to streaming, while his drama Joe Bell tanked after getting decent reviews out of the Toronto Film Festival. Wahlberg’s last big hits were the Daddy’s Home movies with Will Ferrell, and in between he starred in Michael Bay’s Transformers: The Last Knight, which grossed $602 million worldwide but was a disappointment compared to the three previous movies in that franchise. But then, Wahlberg also starred in Seth McFarlane’s hugely successful comedy, Ted, and its lower-grossing sequel. Either way, Wahlberg has become a legacy actor, one who may do a couple movies a year but never wears out his welcome. His pairing with Holland seems to be a wise one, at least on paper. Uncharted’s cast is rounded out by Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas as the primary villain, though neither having played the game or seen the movie (as I write this), I’m not sure if he’s playing a character from the games or not.

Either way, video game movies have been spotty at the box office with 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog being one of the rare recent hits, grossing $146 domestically despite opening just one month before the pandemic shut down theaters. The 2021 reworking of Mortal Kombat made only $42 million after a $23.3 million opening, but that was also hobbled by the fact it was released day-and-date onto HBO Max. Still, the three biggest video game adaptations were Sonic, the Pokemon: Detective Pikachu movie released a year earlier, and then the first Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie, starring Angelina Jolie, which made $131 domestic way back in 2001… that’s right. Over twenty years ago.

This puts a pretty big onus on Uncharted, especially with so many moviegoers transitioning to at-home viewing due to the pandemic. Still, God (and I) love Sony for continuing to mostly release its movies in theaters only, which definitely paid off big time with No Way Home, and having this trailer in front of that movie can only help Uncharted bring in some of Holland’s growing fanbase from that MCU-related franchise.

Reviews out of the UK came out late last week and they were generally terrible, at about 44% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, but they’ve gotten better with American reviews. (You can read my review of Uncharted here.) Terrible reviews may have done more damage to Uncharted than anything else, but getting mixed reviews might mean it can give the box office a nice-needed bump.

Even with the 4-day weekend, I’m not sure if I’d go as high as $40 million when predicting the movie’s box office, but I think it can fare well with roughly mid-$30 millions including Monday, and then it has smooth sailing right until the release of The Batman in two weeks.

Channing Tatum continues his big comeback as the star of DOG (MGM)... with an actual dog as his co-star. It’s Tatum’s co-directorial debut along with his long-time production partner, Reid Carolin, who wrote Magic Mike and has been involved as a producer on many of Tatum’s movies going back to Stop-Loss in 2008 (for which he was an associate producer). This is a big return project for Tatum since he hasn’t had a major role in a movie since 2017’s Kingsman: the Golden Circle and Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky. Tatum did have a small but key role in last year’s box office hit, Free Guy, though, playing a video game avatar opposite Ryan Reynolds, which seems like a fun bit of irony. (Only because his directorial debut is going up against an actual video game movie.) Tatum will also be appearing in the April release, The Lost City, opposite Sandra Bullock, which should continue the roll he seems to be on.

In this one, Tatum plays Briggs, a former Army Ranger who brings the army dog Lulu on a road trip down the Pacific Coast to get to a fellow soldier’s funeral. It looks cute but it’s also not the PG family film some might be expecting from the ads and trailers. (It’s actually PG-13.) Other than Tatum and the dog, the rest of the cast includes former wrestler Kevin Nash, who also appeared in Magic Mike, and Q'orianka Kilcher, who some may remember from her starring role in Terrence Malick’s The New World. Others will remember for how it is to remember how to spell her name during awards season.

Bearing in mind that Dog isn’t PG, it’s still a movie that will appeal to dog-lovers as much as to Tatum fans, and on the recent side of things, we got A Dog’s Purpose, which opened over MLK weekend in 2017 with $19.2 million and grossed $64.3 million domestic and $138.7 million overseas. Its thematic sequel, A Dog’s Journey opened two years later with just $8 million and $22 million domestic and $56 million overseas. Of course, we can’t forget Marley and Me, which was also based on a bestselling book, which opened over Christmas in 2008 and grossed $247 million worldwide with an insane $36.7 million opening weekend. Of course, that was also PG, benefitted from being a family movie over the holidays, and of course, it had Jennifer Aniston. Maybe that’s a factor? Who knows, but those are all very specialized factors, though ones that show the appeal of the dog genre, which should still be in play even with any effect COVID might have on Tatum’s latest.

Unfortunately, reviews are embargoed until Thursday evening (including my own), so it’s hard to tell whether critics will like this movie or whether it will even matter. It’s a little weird that there is this embargo considering that the movie had previews on Monday aka Valentine’s Day, presumably to bring in the date crowd of dog lovers. Even so, Dog also could be fairly review-proof, although we’ll have to see if Channing Tatum can still bring people into theaters or whether he’ll have a similar opening as JLo had last week i.e not great.

I think Dog should be good for somewhere in the $10 to 12 million range this weekend and might get a nice bump from Monday being a school holiday, but it’s hard to really tell whether a movie like this can do well in such a soft market. Still, if it’s good enough to get sneaks and reviews aren’t too terrible, it could have decent legs at least next week and maybe even as counter-programming to The Batman come March. While I can't review the movie just yet, I can predict that this will get an "A" CinemaScore, making it the first movie of the year to do so.

Mini-Review: I went into Dog slightly skeptical, because it seemed like a rather cutesy family-friendly film about a guy and a dog, and something we’ve seen quite a few times previously. Maybe I was a little dubious of Channing Tatum and his production partner making their directorial debuts with such softball material, but boy, was I wrong.

Tatum plays Army Ranger Jackson Briggs, who is itching to get back into the field even though a head injury he’s sustained has made him too much of a liability. Instead, he’s given an assignment to drive a Belgian Malinois named Lulu – whose handler and Jackson’s friend, Riley Rodriguez, recently died – to his family funeral in Arizona. Briggs is damaged goods but so is Lulu, and they try their best to get along on the days-long drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, although Briggs definitely doesn’t have the patience for Lulu’s demands and antics.

Dog is a movie that’s warm and funny pretty much from beginning to end. While a lot of both elements come from the relationship between Tatum and his highly-trained dog co-star, it’s also just a really well-written and realized story that finds some new directions to go with what’s otherwise a fairly simple road trip dramedy.

I was very impressed with Tatum in his latest role as a soldier, making it evidently clear that being more involved in the filmmaking process along with regular collaborator, Reid Carolin, gives the actor the venue to do some of his best work. Obviously, a lot of credit has to go to Lulu’s handler/trainer, but the film’s two stars contribute so much to each other’s performances as well.

Even though so much of the movie focuses on just Tatum and Lulu, one of my favorite scenes involved Kevin Nash (of the famed WCW group New World Order) and Jane Adams as a hippy couple they meet on their journey, the latter being able to create a bond with Lulu almost immediately, much to Briggs’ consternation. There’s also some solid shenanigans teased in the trailer of Briggs pretending to be a blind vet to get a hotel room – really, it’s for Lulu – but in general, there are as many moments that are humorous and fun as there are more dramatic ones.

Maybe it’s no surprise that the duo were able to get the likes of Newton Thomas Sigel behind the camera and Thomas Newman providing the score, but I especially liked the choice of songs put together by music supervisor, Season Kent (who has done a similar role for a lot of Soderbergh’s movies, as well as Magic Mike XL, directed by Dog producer Greg Jacobs). Any director will tell you that the three most important parts of making a good movie is having a great script, a great cast, but also great collaborators, and Tatum/Carolin do pretty well with their first movie as directors.

I’m not afraid to admit that the film did get me quite teary towards the end, because it’s really a wonderful story with a terrific message about how two broken creatures can help each other recover. Dog is just a wonderful film, an impressive emotive directorial debut from Tatum and Carolin, as well as the definition of a feel-good crowd-pleaser.

Rating: 8/10

British filmmaker Sean (Cashback) Ellis’ new movie, which premiered at last year’s Sundance under the title “Eight for Silver” is now being given a wide release into about 2,000 theaters as THE CURSED (LD Entertainment). It stars Boyd Holbrook (Logan) as pathologist John McBride, who arrives at a French village in the late 1800s to investigate a couple grisly murders by seemingly a savage animal. As he digs deeper into the murders, McBride starts thinking that this might be another case of lycanthropy i.e. a werewolf!

I had to do some actual research to tell you the last time we had a Gothic horror movie akin to The Cursed, the only ones I can think of being 2018’s Winchester, starring Helen Mirren, or 2012’s The Woman in Black, which starred Daniel Radcliffe, and its 2014 sequel, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, which didn’t. The Women in Black probably was the most successful of these, opening with $20.8 million and grossing almost $129 million worldwide. Its sequel opened slightly lower but only made about half the original did domestically. Released by CBS Films, Winchester did less than both those movies, opening with $9.3 million and grossing $25 million domestically.

I highly doubt The Cursed will open as well as either of them, being that Holbrook is the film’s biggest name star, having played a major role in Logan as well as in 2018’s The Predator, written and directed by Shane Black. He’s followed maybe by Kelly Reilly, who had a supporting role opposite Denzel Washington in Robert Zemeckis’ Flight, as well as a small role in Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes and its sequel. She’s also appeared in TV series like True Detective, Britannia, and Yellowstone, so maybe she’s a bigger star than Holbrook, but she has a smaller role in Ellis’ movie. The movie also stars Alistair Petrie, who you’ve seen on TV and in many movies (like the most recent Hellboy and Rogue One), but I certainly didn’t recognize him.

Horror is a genre that has generally done well during the pandemic, but I’m not sure that LD Entertainment has really been able to get this one out there with the marketing to let the younger audience who would thrill at this movie’s scares and gore to know about the movie’s existence. In some ways, this has about as much awareness as the January releases, The King’s Daughter and Redeeming Love, although at least the latter did pretty well without big name stars.

This is a brilliant movie – read my review below – and it’s a shame that it’s not being released by a much bigger studio, so this is very much the weekend underdog… or wolf… (Apparently, NEON is involved with the film’s distribution or marketing in some form? Who knows? I cannot keep track of this stuff.) Either way, I don’t see this making more than $2 million, and that’s over the four-day weekend, so it might just squeeze into the Top 10 but remain on the lower side.

Incidentally, I have an interview with Sean Ellis done out of Sundance last year over at Below the Line, which I hope you'll check out after seeing the movie.

Mini-Review: To think on how long it’s been since there’s been a decent werewolf movie and realize that it was probably Brotherhood of the Wolf all the way back in 2001, also makes me realize partially why I enjoyed Sean Ellis’ entry into the genre so much. Like Brotherhood, this is a gothic horror film that doesn’t skimp on the gore or the scares, while also feeling a little more of a prestige film in terms of filmmaking than we normally get from studio horror films.

In fact, it takes some time before you may even realize that’s where the film is going, because it begins by showing a group of village elders who are dealing with a protesting band of gypsies about land they claim is theirs. The elders get together a group of men to scare the gypsies off the land which instead turns into a bloodbath. (This raid on the gypsy camp is a 90-second single shot from a distance that’s absolutely breathtaking, like something we might expect from an Alfonso Cuaron or Allejandro Inarittu.)

Anyone who has seen The Wolf Man knows one very important rule: YOU DO NOT FUCK WITH GYPSIES. Sure enough, these ones have cursed the men who have done these horrendous deeds, burying a set of sharp teeth made from melted-down silver coins. This curse begins with the kids of the village experiencing nightmares, and then the son of Seamus (Alistair Prete), a prominent and wealthy village leader, simply vanishing. Other kids aren’t so lucky and their mangled bodies are found just as a pathologist, John McBride, played by Boyd Holbrook, arrives into town looking into a situation that sounds eerily like the one that took his wife and daughter years earlier.

I feel like I shouldn’t say too much more about the plot other than that, but I do feel it should be noted that there are scenes in this movie that are so horrifying and possibly triggering, I’m not sure this movie won’t cause a few viewers to have actual nightmares. At first, this seems to be Ellis’ commentary on the xenophobia and racism that has struck much of the world, but we’re then fully brought into the world of gothic horror with so many terrifying scenes, just one after the other.

Either way, if you’re a fan of Brotherhood of the Wolf (or if a little older school, going back to Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves), Ellis’ The Cursed is a truly satisfying entry into the genre offering gore and bonafide terror. Rating: 8/10

Here is how I have the four-day box office looking:

1. Uncharted (Sony) - $35.3 million N/A

2. Dog (MGM) - $11.2 million N/A

3. Death on the Nile (20th Century/Disney) - $9.8 million -26%

4. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony) - $6.5 million -14%

5. Marry Me (Universal) - $6.4 million -19%

6. Jackass Forever (Paramount) - $5.5 million -31%

7. Sing 2 (Universal) - $2.8 million -7%

8. Blacklight (Briarcliff) - $2.2 million -36%

9. The Cursed (LD Entertainment) - $2 million N/A

10. Scream (Paramount) - $1.9 million -33%

This week’s “Chosen One” is Xing Wenxiong’s stylish period crime-comedy, TOO COOL TO KILL (Well Go USA), which will remind some of the films of the great Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer). The movie has already grossed over $200 million in China in its very first week in theaters there! It stars Wei Xiang as Wei Chenggong, an overzealous, overly-confident and quite hammy actor with high aspirations of being a leading man. He gets his chance when a famous actress named Milan (Ma Li) casts Wei to play the assassin “Killer Kang” in a fake movie, essentially to fool a mob boss threatening her and her director brother.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this one, but I was immediately tickled when I realized this was a period piece taking place on an island, and that the director had created a miniature of this entire city on that island, which pretty much sets up what is going to be an incredibly stylish film where the production design is almost a character in itself. I feel like I should be more familiar with the main actors in this, but they’re actually a fairly new breed of Chinese actors from the last decade who haven’t been in many films that have travelled over here.

But almost as soon as the film began, I was on board with its mix of comedy and stunts that is the mainstay of Chow, one of my favorite Chinese actor and filmmakers, so much so that I had to double-check that this wasn’t a film he made to follow up the excellent, The Mermaid. Wei Ziang is a terrific comic actor and he’s paired beautifully with Ma Li in a high-concept premise where he takes on the role of his career as an assassin facing real-world criminals while only he seems to think he’s actually making a movie. It’s a concept that allows for all sorts of zany and hilarious humor that’s so unique and original, although eventually Milan realizes things are getting too real and dangerous to not tell Wei the truth. (There’s a nice pseudo-romance that grows between the two, just one of the many wonderful aspects to the film.)

I have to be honest that I haven’t laughed this hard watching a movie in a very long time, and I just loved every minute of Too Cool to Kill – including its out-of-nowhere tribute to “Singing in the Rain.” Even if it does get somewhat morose in its third act, it ends on a great note by really playing on its truly meta storytelling. I personally can’t wait to see what Xing Wenxiong does next.

Rating: 8/10

Another cool movie worth seeking out is Lisa Hurwitz’s doc THE AUTOMAT, which will open at New York’s Film Forum on Friday and then will open in L.A. at the Laemmle Royal and Encino on Friday, Feb. 25. If you lived in New York City pre-1990s... then you’re probably as old as I am… but also you may have heard or even been to the Horn and Hardart Automat, of which only one was remaining until being shut down in the early ‘90s. I was lucky enough to go there in 1988 to attend the 40th anniversary of PIX 11, and it was a great New York tradition, although there was also one in Philadelphia, apparently. The idea was that people would go in, get their dollars exchanged for nickels, and they’d use those coins to get a sandwich or a nice piece of pie or maybe a hot cup of coffee, long before the existence of Starbucks. (As we learn in the film, the Automat was an influence on Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, kind of a funny moment when he’s talking about how it inspired his desire for “storytelling and romance,” neither things I’d ever associate with Starbucks.) Hurwitz fills the movie with everyone from Mel Brooks (who provides an original song, no less), Elliot Gould, and both the late Colin Powell and Ruth Bader Ginsburgh, sharing their personal memories of the Automat. Sure, some might see what was done by Horn and Hardart as a precursor for fast food, but it’s always stressed that they always tried to provide the highest quality of food, even if the Automat became a safe haven for the homeless during its latter days before shutting down. This is a a really fascinating doc at a quick and bouncy 79 minutes that keeps you interested with all the history being shared, and anyone who sees this will definitely understand why it was so sadly missed by those who had so many joyous visits to it.

Sharto Copley stars in Ted Stone’s TED K (Super LTD/NEON), which premiered at Berlinale a year ago, and will get a limited release this week. It tells the story of Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, who terrorized North America during the ‘90s with his deadly mail bombs, threatening to kill more people unless major newspapers published his 35,000 word manifesto, which The Washington Post did.

This movie really hit me like a ton of bricks, because after the announcement at the beginning that this film was shot on the same Montana location where Ted holed up with his brother before Ted began his terrorist crusade that killed many people, we get to watch Copley give one of the most inspired performances of his career. But the way that Stone tells this story, beginning with a beautiful shot of snowmobiles racing through the Montana woods… before we see Ted breaking into the owner’s house and taking an axe to those snowmobiles. If you aren’t briefed on Kaczynski, he had a thing against technology, but he was also one of those always-angry cranks who was constantly writing letters of complain. In this case, those snowmobiles were just annoyingly noisy and disturbing his piece in the cluttered shed he calls home.

I wasn’t quite sure how this movie would play, because Kaczynski is clearly quite crazy, but he also reminded me of Charlie Hunnam’s character in the recent Last Looks. It’s hard to deny that watching his day-to-day is endlessly fascinating, whether it’s watching him awkwardly riding a bike down the street or just, you know, building bombs.

What’s particularly eerie about this film is that even though it’s beautifully-made and very artsy – reminds me a bit of Spencer in that sense – it’s often hard to watch, because you know there are real people out there like Ted, possibly even building bombs. In fact, some who watch this might think that Ted reminds them of some of the Trumpsters that invited the Capital on January 6, 2021. Maybe they’ll even think that Ted K is an answer to that horrific event, but in fact, the movie was done well before that for it to have played Berlin in February last year.

The other thing that makes Ted K quite effective is that you might find yourself wondering if you could ever feel so disaffected and alone that you might be driven to some of what Ted does. You also might find yourself wondering why he wasn’t caught sooner, and how he was able to get away with as much as he did.

Stone really finds a great way into Kaczynksi’s mind, not just through the terrific performance by Copley but also the film’s mix of reality and fantasy, the narration taken directly from the famed manifesto, and the terrific musical choices – just really interesting songs as well as an equally-effective score by Blanck Mass.

Ted K is a deeply disturbing film at times, which makes it hard to watch but also hard to fully recommend as well, but if you want to see Copley give his career-best performance in such an endlessly fascinating character study, then Ted K is definitely worthwhile.

Rating: 7.5/10

Speaking of Berlin, a movie that premiered at Berlin TWO years ago finally was released into theaters last week, as Andrew (Lullaby) Levitas’ MINAMATA (Samuel Goldwyn), starring Johnny Depp, was quietly released into theaters. Based on true events, it stars Depp as war photographer W. Eugene Smith who travels back to Japan in the early ‘70s to document the effects of mercury poisoning on coastal communities. It also stars Bill Nighy as Life (or maybe Time?) editor Robert Hayes, and a couple Japanese actors we’ve seen in everything, Hiroyuki Sanada and Tadanobu Asano. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet to share a review, but just thought it was an interesting subject for a movie that sadly seems to be getting buried due to Depp.

Lao-based filmmaker Mattie Do’s THE LONG WALK (Yellow Veil Pictures), her third film, will be the first film from her country released in the United States, and it will be opening on Friday at the Metrograph (in theater and digitally) as well as a few other theaters around the country ahead of its digital and on-demand debut on March 1. It’s pretty amazing that this year, we’ve already gotten a great film from Bhutan (the Oscar-nominated Lunana*) and from Chad (Lingui: The Sacred Bonds), and now we get a rare film from Lao. The Long Walk is a quizzical film that involves elements of science-fiction and the supernatural while keeping things within a fairly simple village setting. It involves an elderly man in a society where people have bar codes in their arm that keeps track of their money, but the film involves a mysterious mute woman, a young boy, and a sick woman, who seems to be the old man’s mother, and it also involves time travel, of sorts.

Okay, I’ll be honest that I didn’t fully understand what was going on in this movie, at least not at first. This is nothing new, and also not merely to do with this particular movie this week, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like this, and Mattie Do certainly offers a rather unique voice to world cinema. But once I did start to follow what was going on, I really found the interesting mix of genre storytelling in a setting that one wouldn’t normally see in genre kept me quite fascinated.

I’m not going to spoil too much of the movie since there are a few interesting twists, especially in the third act, but the time travel aspect of an elder man being able to travel back in time in an effort to save his dying mother gave me Looper vibes, but it more reminded me of the movies of Benson and Moorhead, like The Endless and Synchronic.

Despite the simple setting, Ms. Do does a fine job directing this intensive thriller that doesn’t overemphasize the sci-fi elements but never forgets about them either. I particularly liked how her movie used sound design and a high droning tone to create more tension, which makes the viewer not confused so much as on edge, trying to figure out how these different characters relate to each other.

Still, Mattie Do is another fantastic discovery filmmaker from a rare place for cinema, and I’m glad it’s playing at Metrograph. Hopefully, it will do well enough that maybe the Metrograph will try to get Mattie Do’s other two films released over here as well.

Rating: 7/10

*Incidentally, my “Chosen One” from a few weeks back, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom not only got nominated for an Oscar in the International Feature category but it’s returning to some theaters, including New York’s IFC Center. It’s only playing one screening a day at 6pm there, but if you want to catch a really enjoyable film from a part of the world we rarely get to see films from (Bhutan), do make an effort to check it out.

Also, the Metrograph is kicking off a new series this weekend called “Lowlands ‘70s & ‘80s,” looking at the “provocative and boundary-pushing film from Belgium and the Netherlands. Not sure how much of that will be available via the theater’s digital subscription.

Film at Lincoln Center is kicking off a Jonas Mekas Retrospective, running from Feb. 17 through 23. Although I’m familiar with Mekas by name and his involvement with the Anthology Film Archives (which is not too far from me), I really haven’t seen any of his movie. This program showcases eight of his features and two shorts programs, scattered across the next week.

Netflix’s big streaming release this week is the new version of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (Netflix), written and produced by Fede Alvarez and his long-time collaborator Rodo Sayagues and directed by Austin, TX filmmaker David Blue Garcia (Tejano). This “requel” brings Leatherface back after 50 years of hiding to terrorize a new group of young people who disrupt his remote Texas town. Unfortunately, reviews are embargoed until Friday at midnight (ooo… scary) so I probably won’t be watching this until after this column goes live.

Mini-Review: I’ll freely admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of the original Tobe Hooper Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as much as I recognize it as a groundbreaking horror classic. It’s never really been my type of horror, but when it comes to genre, I fully trust Fede and Rodo of Don’t Breathe fame to create something that pays homage to the original but offers something new as well. Honestly, it’s a little bit of a drag that this is going directly on Netflix since these things just work so much better in a theater.

This is a full-on “requel,” as described in the most recent Scream, which we learn when the murders of the 1973 film are relayed on a television set just before we meet this film’s protagonists: famed chef Danté Spivey (Jacob Latimore), his fiancé Melody (Sarah Yarkin), and her sister Lila (Elsie Fisher of Eighth Grade). They’re travelling to the ghost town of Harlow, Texas in order to create a cultural mecca for Millennials, apparently, but after an issue with an old woman living there, they inadvertently wake the murderous tendencies of her son… who we quickly learn is Leatherface (as played by Mark Burnham). No, I could not tell you if this is the same guy from 50 years earlier or just a new guy inspired by him. I’m also not sure it really matters.

To be fair, it would be hard for the filmmakers, including director David Blue Garcia, not to make a movie than the horrid 2006 prequel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, but it didn’t take this one long to remind me whey I always had issues with the overall premise. In this case, we’re not even given a chance to like any of the characters before they’re systematically slaughtered in true gory fashion.

The entire point of this movie is probably to bring back Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré), the sole survivor from the first movie, to get her revenge, taking on a role not too dissimilar from the one Jamie Lee Curtis plays in the recent Halloween movies. The problem is that like any true “requel,” it tries to modernize things to make it relevant for the kids, including Danté having to deal with the inherent racism of the area. It basically comes in the form of a confederate flag on display, but that’s about it. Jordan Peele this is not.

But when it comes down to it, it’s all about the slaughter, and this one goes as violent and gory as any of the filmmakers’ previous movies. Maybe I’ve just gotten too old for this kind of thing, because it’s really hard to get excited about a movie that shows how little innovation can be brought to the premise other than having Leatherface slaughter anyone he encounters.

To be fair, the movie looks great, and it’s suitably gory with all the expected body parts and innards flying everywhere, but it makes it far too clear that Leatherface just isn’t a particularly inspired “villain” compared to the Blind Man in the Don’t Breathe movies. I hate to be THAT guy, but there’s really no reason for this movie to even exist.

Rating: 5.5/10

Iko Uwais (The Raid) and Lewis Tan (Mortal Kombat) star in Roel Reiné’s FISTFUL OF VENGEANCE (Netflix), which hits the streamer on Thursday. The film takes place in Bangkok, and it’s a strange movie to say the least. I mean, the martial arts are just fine, but there’s just so much being thrown at the viewer that I’m not even really sure where to begin in describing it.

Listen, I’m not one to knock a cheesy martial arts movie if the martial arts are well-done, and this movie definitely has some fantastic fight choreography and work by the actors. The problem is that the story is just such a complete mess that it really feels like the writers (Cameron Litvack and Yalun Tu – I’m not going to let them off the hook without being named) were just throwing everything they could into the mix to make it more interesting. The fact you can watch this whole movie and the most memorable moment is an oddly choreographed and entirely unnecessary sex scene just tells you what you’re in for. What really kills any chance of this being good is that the generally decent fight sequences are marred by the filmmakers wanting to throw in a supernatural element and some mystical powers that come and go along with cheesy VFX to go with them.

At the heart of the story is Jason Tobin (who played a busboy in the cheesy kung fu classic Beverly Hills Ninja in 1997!) as William, a man trying to get revenge for the murder of his wife Jenny. In fact, it’s pretty much all he talks about. He meets up with the other characters, including Iko Uwais, who says so little in the movie, you kind of forget he’s there, and Lewis Tan, who is just one of a number of characters who are quickly introduced with very little fanfare before they start fighting. When they’re not fighting, they sit around eating food and talking about… you guessed it… Jenny.

This very much just looks like another international filmmaker trying to make a Hollywood-style movie complete with the cheesy hip-hop soundtrack we see in way too many bad American movies, and it’s clearly inspired by the Fast and Furious movies (complete with a BBQ and a toast to family at the end, no less!)

At the heart of this generically-titled martial arts movie is some absolutely horrid almost incompetent filmmaking of the highest (or rather, lowest) order from Reiné – who oddly, like the director of The Cursed, is his own DP. There are many great fight sequences, but that’s about it, because it’s pretty much unwatchable otherwise.

Rating: 3/10

Netflix also will be debuting Season 2 of Space Force, starring Steve Carell, but I never got around to watching Season 1 so [shrug emoji].

If you’ve been reading my column for a while (that’s presuming anyone is reading this at all), then you know I like a good mountain climbing or skiing movie, just anything with mountains, so in that sense, there’s Eric Crosland’s doc LA LISTE: EVERYTHING OR NOTHING (Red Bull Studios, Adventure Entertainment), which is now available on VOD. It follows free skier Jérémie Heitz, who back in 2016 made a list of the most daunting peaks in the Andes and then set to freeride down them at record speeds, making his name as the fastest free-skier in the world. The movie follows Heitz and his friend Sam Anthamatten, who set off to create a new list of some of the most amazing mountain ranges in the world for Heitz to free ride. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to watch this one so that I could include a review in this week’s column, but I hope to get to this and write something more soon.

And then, on the other side of the mountain equation there is…

Howard J. Ford’s thriller THE LEDGE (Saban Films/Paramount) stars Brittany Ashworth as Kelly, a young woman who is in Italy to tackle a steep rock face with her best friend Sophie (Anais Parello), but when they encounter a group of four rapey bros and something bad happens, Kelly finds herself trapped on a ledge high above the ground with those guys threatening to kill her from above her.

I’m not even sure where to begin with this one, but as soon as I watched the trailer, I realized, “Yeah, I gotta review this one, because there’s no way this is going to be any good.” And I mostly was right… as I usually am. The general premise is that these four young people encounter each other while on a mountain-climbing expedition in Italy – not that you would know that other than the fact it’s mentioned a few times. As these things happen, they begin partying, things go wrong and then things go very horribly wrong as Kelly finds herself on the run with a video tape of the incident. The ring leader of the male group (and definitely the cause for most of the problems) is Ben Lamb’s Joshua, an alpha male who clearly has done wrong and gotten away with it before. Anyway, Kelly ends up free climbing up the face of the mountain, completely ill-prepared for such a climb, and the men follow with Josh taunting her the entire way.

And that’s pretty much the movie, although so much of the movie looks like it was filmed on a stage even with some of the impressive establishing shots that make it seem otherwise. Although Brittany Ashworth isn’t bad, the rest of the cast is pretty horrible (I mean, as actors, not just the character they play) and the script for this movie is just absolute garbage. But really, the worst of all is Lamb, whose character Josh is such a piece of work, constantly crowing at “Kelly!” from above her and clearly not one to let anyone escape this misadventure. In some ways, this reminded me of a much MUCH worse version of the movie Donkey Punch from a few years back. That’s all counterbalanced with these flashbacks to Kelly being trained in climbing by her dreamy European boyfriend, who apparently died in a climbing accident… that obviously didn’t appear a bunch of attempted rapists and murderers.

The film’s cast is made up of actors, who have been working and doing a lot of stuff but nothing you might have heard of, and actually, you can say the same for Ford, who seems to have been making movies since 1994 but not that you could tell from this one.

While clearly, there are worse movies out there – even this week – this is just a particular bad thriller that never quite recovers from its inept attempt at creating thrills from a really shoddy premise.

Rating: 4/10

There are a few movies for which I've received screeners but just didn’t have time to watch and review, so maybe I’ll get to some of the below when I have a chance.

Having played at Toronto and Fantastic Fest last year, British filmmaker Ruth Paxton’s A BANQUET (IFC Midnight) stars Sienna Guillory as Holly, a widowed mother whose teen daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander) has a strange eating disorder in which she says her body is “in service to a higher power” and though she stops eating, she doesn’t lose any weight, and that’s about all I can say about this right now until I have time to really focus on it enough to write a review. (I will say that having recently seen Todd Haynes’ early film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, it’s weird to see a more modern genre flick that’s an obvious allegory for anorexia and other eating disorders.)

Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney’s surrealist sci-fi film STRAWBERRY MANSION (Music Box Films), which premiered at Sundance in 2021, is finally being released this Friday. It takes place in the year 2035 where dreams are used for product placement and follows taxman James Preble (Audley) as he arrives at a house of an elderly woman named Bella (Penny Fuller) who records her dreams using headgear that records her dreams onto VHS tapes. As James audits her dreams, he starts to fall in love with her younger self (Grace Glowicki), and that is probably all that I can say about this movie other than it’s a very, very, very, very weird movie that reminds me of David Lynch at his most bonkers or like this movie The Greasy Strangler, which I absolutely loathed. There was part of me that appreciated how weird the filmmakers got, but honestly? I could barely get through this movie, so if I have problems recommending Ted K, a movie I generally liked, I’m not sure who I could possibly suggest this movie to… and sleep with myself at night (which I normally do anyway). In other words, Strawberry Mansion is weird almost to the point of being unwatchable.

Jason Isaacs and Levi MIller (Pan) star in Tyson Wade Johnson’s coming-of-age family drama STREAMLINE (Blue Fox Entertainment), which will open in select theaters and on VOD this Firday. Also starring Jake Ryan and Laura Gordon, it’s based on the true life of 15-year-old swimmer Benjamin Lane (Miller) who is getting ready for the meet that might qualify him for the Olympics, pushed by his coach and mother Kim (Gordon). When his estranged father is released from jail, Benjamin’s struggle to attain Olympic gold becomes even tougher.

Emile Hirsch stars with John Cuasack in “Skiba’s” action-thriller PURSUIT (LIonsgate), Hirsch playing Calloway, a hacker in search of his wife, kidnapped by a drug cartel, until he crosses path with Detective Breslin (Jake Manley) who has to team with a female cop (Elizabeth Ludlow) to reclaim Calloway after he escapes. Cusack plays Calloway’s crime-boss father. Yeah, this also has reviews embargoed until Thursday, so we’ll see if I feel like writing a review and adding it later or not.

Next week, it’s the last weekend of February and finally, after many delays, people are going to finally have a chance to see Joe Wright’s Cyrano (MGM), hopefully wide? Maybe? Also, the Foo Fighters made a horror movie called Studio 666.

All box office data provided by The-Numbers.com.

#The Weekend Warrior #Uncharted #Movies #Reviews #Box Office #Dog #The Cursed #Ted K #Texas Chainsaw Massacre #The Ledge #The Long Walk #Too Cool to Kill

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songedunenuitdete · 7 years ago

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Toc toc c’est moi ! Je ne vais pas vous faire attendre, je vous sens affamés de découvrir ce que j’ai vu !

Je n’avais pas trop envie d’aller au cinéma, surtout que je suis tombée malade pendant mon AVP de La fête des mères. Et je me suis rappelée que Le film de la semaine #10 serai ma 50ème chronique. Rooooh comment procéder ? Hou ! Je sais ! Je vais chroniquer mon Disney préféré ! et… Il se nomme…

Kuzco, l’empereur mégalo de Mark Dindal

Création de : Mark Dinbal Année de sortie : 28 mai 2001 Nationalité : Américaine Genre : Animation, Musical Durée : 79 minutes

Synopsis

A la tête d’un royaume mythique se trouve Kuzco, un jeune empereur aussi capricieux que méprisant. Secondé par la perfide Yzma qui rêve de lui ravir le trône, il projette de bâtir une somptueuse résidence d’été sur une des plus jolies collines de l’empire. Il fait d’ailleurs venir le chef du village, l’imposant Pacha, pour le prévenir qu’il aura le grand honneur de voir sa maison détruite. Kuzco congédie Yzma. Folle de rage, la diablesse élabore un plan délirant et fatal. Flanquée de son sbire, Kronk, elle se prépare à éliminer le jeune empereur et à régner. Yzma invite son neveu à souper. Kronk est supposé verser du poison dans le plat de Kuzco, mais il se trompe et verse une potion qui transforme le prince en lama. Se rendant compte de leur erreur, Yzma et Kronk assomment le jeune souverain avec un vase et le balancent dans la charrette de Pacha qui part hors de la ville.

Mon avis

Ah ! Boom bébé !

Il y a un peu moins d’un mois, un fidèle lecteur de Songe d’une nuit d’été m’a dit qu’il n’avait jamais vu ce Disney. J’ai eu la réaction suivante…

J’espère que tu as une bonne excuse !

J’adore ce Disney parce qu’il ne met pas en scène une princesse qui tombe “bêtement” amoureuse d’un homme qu’elle connaît à peine. Ce n’est pas non plus une histoire émouvante qui peut faire pleurer. Là si vous pleurez, c’est plus de rire ! Même si il n’y a pas d’âge pour les Disney, celui-là, il peut être découvert à tout âge de l’âge adulte. Il est dépourvu de mièvrerie, ce qui en fait un film d’animation qui n’est pas forcément adapté à toutes les périodes de l’enfance.

Le scénario narre l’aventure de Kuzco, un jeune empereur de tout juste 18 ans qui ne supporte plus sa conseillère qui veut régner sur l’empire à sa place et décide de la virer. D’abord choqué puis en colère, Ysma se rend dans son labo secret avec son fidèle bras droit Kronk, où elle concocte un plan pour se débarrasser de Kuzco. Mais les choses se compliquent quand l’empereur devenue un Lama disparaît dans une foule. Bien qu‘Ysma ai le champ libre, l’Empereur en vie reste une menace pour elle.

Il n’y a pas de chanson qui reste trop dans la tête et qui risque d’énerver les parents. La chanson du début, sa reprise, et un couplet chanté, donc pas trop de risque !

Il n’y a pas beaucoup de personnages, mais les quatre personnages principaux sont vraiment attachants.

Le film est bien rythmé, il n’y a pas de temps mort. C’est un Disney qui tourne beaucoup autour de l’humour, c’est tellement loufoque que je me suis demandée plusieurs fois comment David Reynolds, Mark Dindal et Chris Williams, les trois scénaristes ont eu toutes ses idées. En tout cas, je sais ce qu’ils se sont dit une fois le film finalisé :

“C’est brillant, brillant, BRILLANT ! Du génie à l’état pur !”

En tout cas c’est vraiment un Disney à voir ! Il est tellement drôle, j’ai piqué plusieurs répliques à ce film ! Si vous ne l’avez pas vu, il faut le voir ! En plus, Kuzco est disponible sur Netflix ! Donc pas d’excuses si vous avez un abonnement (NDLR ou du parasite N°2 : où si on squatte l’abonnement d’une copine ?! 😝) !

Le film de la semaine #10 - Orme Étoile | Pour ma 50ème chronique, je me fais plaisir avec mon film d’animation Disney préféré ! Toc toc c'est moi ! Je ne vais pas vous faire attendre, je vous sens affamés de découvrir ce que j'ai vu !

#Dessins animés #Disney #Kronk #Kuzco #l&039;empereur mégalo #Mark Dinbal #Pacha #Walt Disney Pictures #Yzma

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bewitching-elizabeth-olsen · 7 years ago

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Press: Secrets of the Marvel Universe

VANITY FAIR – After a decade of unprecedented success, Marvel Studios is at a pivotal moment: the looming farewell to some of its founding superheroes, and the rise of a new generation. Kevin Feige, the creative force behind the $13 billion franchise and a slew of Marvel stars, discusses its precarious beginnings, stumbles, and ever-expanding empire.

On a sweltering October weekend, the largest-ever group of Marvel superheroes and friends gathered just outside of Atlanta for a top-secret assignment. Eighty-three of the famous faces who have brought Marvel’s comic-book characters to life over the past decade mixed and mingled—Mark Ruffalo, who plays the Hulk, bonded with Vin Diesel, the voice of Groot, the monosyllabic sapling from Guardians of the Galaxy. Angela Bassett, mother to Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther, flew through hurricane-like conditions to report for duty alongside Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brie Larson, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Laurence Fishburne, and Stan Lee, the celebrated comic-book writer and co-creator of Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men.

Their mission: to strike a heroic pose to commemorate 10 years of unprecedented moviemaking success. Marvel Studios, which kicked things off with Iron Man in 2008, has released 17 films that collectively have grossed more than $13 billion at the global box office; 5 more movies are due out in the next two years. The sprawling franchise has resuscitated careers (Downey), has minted new stars (Tom Hiddleston), and increasingly attracts an impressive range of A-list talent, from art-house favorites (Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange) to Hollywood icons (Anthony Hopkins and Robert Redford) to at least three handsome guys named Chris (Hemsworth, Evans, and Pratt). The wattage at the photo shoot was so high that Ant-Man star Michael Douglas—Michael Douglas!—was collecting autographs. (Photographer Jason Bell shot Vanity Fair’s own Marvel portfolio shortly afterward.)

But it wasn’t Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury or even Chris Evans’s Captain America who assembled Earth’s mightiest heroes. They came for Kevin Feige, the unassuming man in a black baseball cap who took Marvel Studios from an underdog endeavor with a roster of B-list characters to a cinematic empire that is the envy of every other studio in town. Feige’s innovative, comic-book-based approach to blockbuster moviemaking—having heroes from one film bleed into the next—has changed not only the way movies are made but also pop culture at large. Fans can’t get enough of a world where space-hopping Guardians of the Galaxy might turn up alongside earthbound Avengers, or Doctor Strange and Black Panther could cross paths via a mind-bending rift in the space-time continuum. Other studios, most notably Warner Bros., with the Justice League, have tried to create their own web of interconnected characters. Why have so many failed to achieve Marvel’s heights? “Simple,” said Joe Russo, co-director of Avengers 3 and 4. “They don’t have a Kevin.”

Before Feige, Marvel Studios wasn’t even making its own films. Created in 1993 as Marvel Films, the movie arm of the comics company simply licensed its characters to other studios, earning most of its money from merchandise sales. (The popular 2002 Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man movie, for example, was made by Sony’s Columbia Pictures.) Feige was part of the team that pushed for the studio to take full creative control of its library of beloved characters, a risky move at the time. “For us old-timers—me and Robert [Downey] and Gwyneth [Paltrow] and Kevin—it felt like we were the upper-classmen,” Jon Favreau, director of the first two Iron Man movies, told me shortly after the photo shoot. “We were emotional . . . thinking about how precarious it all felt in the beginning.”

Feige has never really forgotten that feeling of uncertainty. He confessed that he experiences pangs of anxiety “multiple times” on every film, and told me he often wonders, “What is the movie that’s going to mess it all up?” But, as the vaunted Marvel Cinematic Universe enters its second decade, perhaps the more pressing question is: What’s the movie that’s going to keep it all going?

After Avengers 4, an ambitious multi-franchise crossover movie slated for release in 2019, at least some of the original characters who sit at the center of the billion-dollar Avengers team will be hanging up their capes and shields. That’s partially because the Marvel contracts with the actors who play them—Evans (Captain America), Ruffalo (Hulk), Downey (Iron Man), Johansson (Black Widow), Hemsworth (Thor), and Renner (Hawkeye)—are coming to an end. Meanwhile, DC Comics’ Wonder Woman, one of the top-grossing films of 2017, proved that Marvel doesn’t have a monopoly on beloved superhero icons.

Disney promises that Marvel has at least another 20 years’ worth of characters and worlds to explore—for starters, the studio is finally delivering films with black and female heroes at the core—but declines to offer up any secrets of that ambitious slate. Moviegoers, for now, will simply have to trust in Feige. Luckily for Marvel obsessives, the 44-year-old studio executive is one of them. “At the heart of Kevin is a real”—Scarlett Johansson paused before using the same word everyone does to describe her boss—“fanboy.”

THE FANBOY

On the morning of the premiere of the latest Avengers film—Thor: Ragnarok—Kevin Feige sits in his office on the second floor of the Frank G. Wells Building, on the Walt Disney Studios lot. Alongside a shelf of his trademark baseball caps, some stacked four deep, Feige’s walls and tables are adorned with reminders of the characters, narratives, and modern-day myths he’s brought to the big screen. But when it comes time to tell his own origin story, Feige smiles warmly at me before . . . pretending to fall asleep.

It’s not that he’s told the story too often—Feige rarely talks about himself in interviews—he just finds his own journey deeply uninteresting. Mark Ruffalo thinks this is actually the key to Feige’s success: “The people that I think are great, like Daniel Day-Lewis, don’t make it about them—it’s about the material,” he said. “You don’t see Daniel Day-Lewis trying to show you how fucking great Daniel Day-Lewis is, and he’s our greatest actor. Kevin’s like that.”

Feige obligingly zooms through his biography for me: childhood in Westfield, New Jersey, in the late 70s and 80s, an obsession with blockbusters (Superman, Star Wars, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future), terrible grades in junior high, movies at the local theater every Friday night. Comics were O.K., but movies were his thing. Feige’s grades improved in high school, and he got into the University of Southern California—his goal since he was 11 or 12 years old—only to be rejected from its selective film school five or six times before he got in. All he wanted to do, his entire life, was make films.

As he relaxes in the interview, Feige’s storytelling instincts kick in, and he begins to infuse his own narrative with touches of destiny or, as he calls them, “Can you believe it?” moments.

The first of those moments came years before when Feige landed a college internship working for director Richard Donner and his wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner. Later, when each Donner was looking to hire a full-time assistant, Feige thought the choice was clear. Richard Donner, who directed Superman, was one of Feige’s idols. (“Superman was formative,” he says.) But he ultimately decided to work for Shuler Donner—the busier of the two—and set himself on the road to becoming a producer. Which is how he found his way to Marvel and an important lesson in risktaking.

Shuler Donner was a producer on, and a driving force behind, X-Men, a 2000 Fox film starring Marvel characters. One day on set, Shuler Donner and Avi Arad, then head of Marvel Studios, watched as an exasperated stylist, at Feige’s insistence, sprayed and teased actor Hugh Jackman’s hair higher and higher to create the hairstyle that would become the signature look of the character Wolverine. The stylist “eventually went ‘Fine!’ and did a ridiculous version,” Feige recalls. “If you go back and look at it,” he admits, “he’s got big-ass hair in that first movie. But that’s Wolverine!” The experience stuck with Feige. “I never liked the idea that people weren’t attempting things because of the potential for them to look silly,” he says. “Anything in a comic book has the potential to look silly. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make it look cool.”

Feige’s passion and geeky attention to detail caught Arad’s eye. (He affectionately refers to Feige as a Trekkie.) Arad hired Feige and sent his new employee to studios that licensed Marvel characters to monitor the company’s intellectual property, offer helpful notes, and generally serve as a Marvel ambassador. Feige watched directors like Sam Raimi with fascination and others, occasionally, Favreau noted, in “frustration” in the era of films such as Daredevil, Ang Lee’s Hulk, and The Punisher. Feige’s advice was sometimes ignored, and many of those films became notorious flops. “The answers,” Feige still says, explaining why comic-book adaptations go wrong, “are always in the books.”

By the time Arad had a financial plan in place for Marvel to finance its own films, Hollywood had turned its back on the superhero genre. Even Marvel’s most popular character, Spider-Man, disappointed at the end of his trilogy in 2007. “Some people were giving last rites” to the genre, Favreau said.

Feige downplays it now, but like Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, Marvel Studios bet everything on the first roll. Borrowing money by offering up film rights to its biggest characters as collateral and tirelessly pitching the idea to skeptical foreign buyers, Feige and Arad finally hired three directors to make movies for Marvel Studios: Favreau for Iron Man, Louis Leterrier for The Incredible Hulk, and Edgar Wright for Ant-Man. (Only Favreau would become part of the enduring Marvel legacy.) “People forget Iron Man was an independent movie,” Feige says.

The gamble paid off. Iron Man premiered to rave reviews and a huge box office in 2008, giving Marvel the financial cushion and industry credibility it needed to forge on with its strategy. Meanwhile, as the ranks of Marvel Studios swelled beyond a skeletal operation, its C.E.O. decided to depart. “You can talk to my friends and enemies, and they’ll tell you my weakest point is I’m a one-man show,” Arad said. Not wanting to deal with the infrastructure that comes with launching a major franchise, Arad stepped down before the first Iron Man hit theaters but not before anointing his heir apparent. At only 33 years old, Feige was officially in charge of the first significant independent studio since DreamWorks.

BIRTH OF A UNIVERSE

Marvel’s run as an indie studio didn’t last long. The Walt Disney Company had been looking for a producer of “tentpole” films that could expand its audiences beyond family-friendly fare and the girl-centric princess line. Marvel, with its built-in audience of young men, fit the bill, and Disney acquired the company in 2009 for $4 billion. (Another “Can you believe it?” moment for Feige, who spent annual childhood vacations at Disney theme parks.)

Even with Disney’s deep pockets, Marvel continued to run a lean operation. Up until four years ago, Feige operated out of a series of unassuming offices—one shared with a kite company in West Los Angeles, one above a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Beverly Hills, and one Manhattan Beach office that, even after the success of The Avengers, was “cheap” and “dreary,” as Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn remembers.

On the wall of one of those early, drab offices hung a 1988 Technicolor poster by Marvel artists Ed Hannigan and Joe Rubinstein, crowded to the margins with hundreds of characters from all different story lines with the words MARVEL UNIVERSE emblazoned across the top. Feige would challenge visitors to find the smallest figure in the scrum.

Feige said he had long believed in the storytelling potential of weaving together Marvel’s superheroes and plots—in essence bringing that Marvel-universe poster to life. His hunch was validated by the media coverage around the astonishing $ 98 million opening weekend of Iron Man. Samuel L. Jackson’s brief appearance in that movie as Nick Fury, director of a counterterrorism agency central to the Marvel universe, initially was meant as an Easter egg, a knowing wink, for die-hard fans. “We put it at the end so it wouldn’t be distracting,” Feige said of the post-credits stinger that launched a decade-long trend. But after he saw how audiences—not just devoted comics fans—responded to Fury’s appearance, Feige knew the idea of cross-pollinating characters and movies had legs.

One early challenge was getting actors to sign up for Marvel’s ambitious vision. A character might star in one film, be part of an ensemble in another, and just make a goofy guest appearance in yet another. Jackson signed an unheard-of nine-picture deal with Marvel shortly after Iron Man came out, ensuring his participation in the subsequent Avengers movies and other Marvel properties. Feige found it particularly challenging to secure Chris Evans as Captain America, a character who acts as leader of the Avengers. Evans, who’d previously tackled the comic-book genre as Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four movies, was hesitant to sign a long-term deal that would prevent him from doing other projects. Evans asked for a weekend to make his decision—Feige cited those few days as among the most nerve-racking of his tenure—before committing to six movies. Once Hemsworth agreed to play Thor, another foundational Avenger, Feige’s grand plan was under way. (It doesn’t hurt that Marvel contracts can be supremely lucrative. Robert Downey Jr. reportedly made $ 80 million in 2015, thanks largely to his work as Iron Man.)

Still, it wasn’t until a celebratory night in Rome in 2012, on the Avengers press tour, that the Marvel extended family really understood what its boss had planned. “I’m socially awkward,” Feige said. (“He’s short on kibitz,” Downey likes to say.) “So I talked about what we can do next.” As the hotel staff shushed them and the hour grew late, Feige pulled back the curtain on his master plan—or at least some of it. “I would like to take all of the comics and start to build the Marvel universe,” Feige declared. “We’ll have 15 productions in the next two years!”

THE MARVEL WAY OR BUST

Marvel’s first decade of moviemaking has not been without its misses and heartaches. Neither Iron Man 2, which came out in 2010, nor 2013’s Thor: The Dark World won critical raves. Two prominent directors—Edgar Wright and Joss Whedon—very publicly parted ways with Marvel after squabbling with the studio over artistic control. Wright, who wrote an early draft of Ant-Man but left the project in 2014 before filming began, declined to comment for this story. Whedon, who wrote and directed two Avengers movies and severed ties with Marvel in 2016, did not respond to requests to talk about his departure. But in published interviews both men have said they felt they had to sacrifice their own vision to serve Marvel’s interests.

The exodus of two admired artists (Wright was known for his genre send-ups Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Whedon for creating the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series) was not a good look for Marvel, which until then had enjoyed a fanboy-friendly reputation. From inside the family, James Gunn, Anthony Russo, and Evangeline Lilly, an Ant-Man star, described this period as a messy “divorce” and the tone around the studio as “uneasy.” Some critics argued that Marvel’s success spawned so many big-budget copycats that creativity didn’t stand a chance in Hollywood. Even one of Feige’s childhood heroes, Steven Spielberg, took a public shot at the glut of comic-book movies.

Feige doesn’t deny that directors need to play by a set of rules when they join Team Marvel, especially now that the concept of a single cinematic universe is non-negotiable. “Filmmakers . . . coming in understand the notion of the shared sandbox more than the initial filmmakers did because the sandbox didn’t exist then,” he said.

At the same time the studio seems increasingly willing to let directors be experimental and original in other ways. “Guardians is probably the best example of the audience validating even our more esoteric instincts,” Feige said. The unabashed goofiness of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and the gonzo tone of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok signal a radical departure from, say, the staid bleakness of Thor: The Dark World. Director Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Black Panther movie marks another major shift for Marvel: in February, the studio will launch its first movie with a black actor, Chadwick Boseman, in the lead. Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson in the title role of a female air-force captain with superpowers, opens in 2019. “I can’t think of anybody [at Marvel] that hasn’t directly approached me and had very, very in-depth conversations about Panther,” Boseman told me.

LIFE WITH IKE

It seems like more than happenstance that Marvel’s emphatic inclusiveness coincides with a long-overdue 2015 management re-structuring by Disney that put Feige firmly in control of the studio and quietly sidelined Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, Marvel’s controversial chairman and former C.E.O. Perlmutter is a shadowy but essential figure in the world of Marvel. The 75-year-old mogul helped rescue Marvel Entertainment Group from bankruptcy in 1998, when he merged it with Toy Biz Inc., a company he co-owned. Though Perlmutter endorsed Marvel’s decision to make its own films, he clung to outdated opinions about casting, budgeting, and merchandising that ran counter to trends in popular culture, sources close to the studio said. For example, Perlmutter, citing his years in the toy-making business, reportedly made the decision to scale back production of Black Widow-themed merchandise in 2015 because he believed “girl” superhero products wouldn’t sell.

Director James Gunn chalked up every conflict he had making Guardians of the Galaxy to Perlmutter and the Marvel “creative committee”—a legacy of the studio’s early days—which read every script and gave writers and filmmakers feedback. Said Gunn, “They were a group of comic-book writers and toy people” who gave him “haphazard” notes. The committee, for example, suggested Guardians of the Galaxy ditch the 70s music that the film’s hero loves. (The movie’s soundtrack, featuring retro hits, would later go platinum.) Members of the creative committee declined to comment for the story. Perlmutter also declined to comment, but a person with knowledge of his approach said, “Ike Perlmutter neither discriminates nor cares about diversity, he just cares about what he thinks will make money.”

In August 2015, a few months after rival Warner Bros. earned serious feminist bragging rights with its announcement that Patty Jenkins would direct Wonder Woman, Disney confirmed that it had changed Marvel’s management structure: Feige would report to Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, ostensibly as part of an effort to integrate Marvel into the bigger Disney film family. Perlmutter remains chairman of Marvel Entertainment. An early Trump supporter, he also advises the White House on veterans’ issues.

Critics sometimes forget that Feige announced Captain Marvel and Black Panther in 2014—during the Perlmutter era. Instead they focus on how Marvel missed the chance to make the first female-led superhero movie of the modern era. I asked Feige if he wished Marvel had gotten there before Wonder Woman. “Yeah,” he answered carefully. “I think it’s always fun to be first with most things.” Ever the fanboy, Feige got chills recounting the heroine’s powerful stand in No Man’s Land for me in his office. “Everything’s going to work out,” he said cheerfully. “Captain Marvel is a very different type of movie.”

THE AVENGERS, AND EVERYTHING AFTER

One week before the Marvel 10th-anniversary photo shoot, on the set of Avengers 4, I watched Marvel’s biggest stars lounge on comfy couches under a canopy in the long stretches between takes. Mark Ruffalo scratched Scarlett Johansson’s back, while Johansson, Chris Evans, and several other Avengers hunched over their phones in a competitive game of Words with Friends. I reached for a camera to record the moment—some of the most famous faces in the world lit up by phone screens just like the rest of us—but the ever vigilant Marvel security team had wrapped my phone in layers of protective tape. Later, Chris Hemsworth mentioned that very moment to me. “I thought, Could somebody take a photo of this? We’re all aware that this is going to be the last time we get to hang out like this.”

And yet the actors who have contributed so much to Marvel’s past successes have little doubt about the studio’s future. “I feel a lot of joy for the next generation,” Johansson said. “It’s a bittersweet feeling, but a positive one.”

In true Marvel fashion, members of the original Avengers team will help pave the way for the new guard. The latest Captain America introduced fans to Boseman’s Black Panther while Downey’s Tony Stark mentored Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming—“serving at the pleasure of young Master Holland,” Downey said with characteristic flair. Spider-Man’s return to the Marvel fold is a coup for Feige, who helped orchestrate a hero-sharing arrangement with Sony.

To hear Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger tell it, Marvel’s next wave is just beginning. He notes that the studio has rights to 7,000 characters, who can travel anywhere their creators wish to take them. “We’re looking for worlds that are completely separate—geographically or in time—from the worlds that we’ve already visited,” Iger explained.

Both Iger and Feige hinted at how the franchise will expand into different realms, with James Gunn working in close collaboration to possibly spin off some characters from the extraterrestrial world of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel is “22 movies in, and we’ve got another 20 movies on the docket that are completely different from anything that’s come before—intentionally,” Feige said.

While Feige refused to reveal any details about the characters and stories Marvel has yet to introduce, he did promise a definitive end to the franchise that built Marvel. Avengers 4, he said, will “bring things you’ve never seen in superhero films: a finale.” This may mean a lot of dead Avengers at the hands of the villain Thanos, who has appeared sporadically and tantalizingly since the first Avengers movie back in 2012. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe will live on. “There will be two distinct periods. Everything before Avengers 4 and everything after. I know it will not be in ways people are expecting,” Feige teased.

“Everything after,” without these Marvel mainstays, will be hard work. The studio constantly needs to cast new actors, develop surprising new narratives, and risk looking a little silly—as Feige did with Wolverine’s hair—all under the harsh glare of millions of fans and detractors watching the studio’s every move. Feige, however, has no worries about Marvel’s longevity, a point he illustrated by quoting one of his personal heroes: “On opening day, when people asked Mr. Walt Disney if Disneyland was finished, he said, as long as there’s imagination in the world, Disney will never be complete.” And as long as people are willing to watch superheroes save the world, Marvel—and Kevin Feige—won’t be done, either.

Press: Secrets of the Marvel Universe was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

#Elizabeth Olsen #Lizzy Olsen #Avengers #Scarlet Witch #Wanda Maximoff #Marvel

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fuck-it-do-it · 7 years ago

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THOR RAGNARÖK : REVIEW

/!\ Subjectivité : 100 % /!\

« Dans Ragnarök, l’humour va être dosé, il n’est là que pour exprimer l’émerveillement et l’héroïsme que les personnages devront endosser face à la déesse de la mort. Leurs actions en seront extraordinaires et mèneront ainsi à d’étonnantes situations. » - Extrait de mon analyse postée le 23/06/2017 après la sortie du premier Trailer de Thor Ragnarök.

C’est avec joie que je vous la transmets ici : http://fuck-it-do-it.tumblr.com/post/163322970891/thor-ragnar%C3%B6k-l-apoth%C3%A9ose-il-est-inutile

A présent, nous sommes le 28 Octobre 2017 et l’heure du verdict a sonnée.

Bien que les critiques eussent une sorte d’envolée Lyrique ; c’est à moi de m’y coller. Vous vous douterez que je suis extrêmement positive et, que, ces phrases à rallonge sont l’expression d’une inaptitude.

Il y a de cela quelque mois, je nommai mon article : L’APHOTHEOSE.

Terme fort, puissant. Même si l’on ne désigne pas exactement son sens, on s’y love, on l’accepte car il s’impose. Rien ne paraît être plus gargantuesque qu’une apothéose ; rien ne promet d’atteindre autant le Nirvana.

Nonobstant, c’est arrivé et je ne m’en remets toujours pas. Vous savez, il y a des instants s’imbriquant en nous à jamais. Au fil du temps, ils s’effacent puis se font remplacer par d’autres. Ce chef d’œuvre là, ce film-là, il mérite d’avoir une place particulière dans le panthéon des réussites et ce, à tous les niveaux.

Sans doute allez-vous dire que j’exagère mais je pèse mes mots ; murement réfléchis après des heures et des heures d’euphorie.

La phase 3 de MARVEL se termine de façon titanesque et je n’ose imaginer le succès de BLACK PANTHER et d’INFINITY WAR. Ces studios et toutes ces équipes élèvent l’art qu’est le cinéma à un stade bien plus avancé. Très sincèrement, il y a tant de sujets que j’appréhendais vis-à-vis du troisième volet : Le traitement du personnage de Loki, la relation des deux frères, Odin et son escapade New Yorkaise, la fin…

Excepté l’humour – seul sujet qui fut soulevé jusqu’alors, tristement – tout partait d’une base bancale : Le second volet.

Répétitif, lassant, Shakespearien à l’extrême …énormément de scènes sonnaient faux alors qu’elles se voulaient sérieuses.

En tant que fervente admiratrice du personnage de Loki citer sa mort en tant qu’outrance scénaristique est de mon devoir. Chris Hemsworth n’a pas réussi à jouer dans la finesse de l’instant ; hurlant comme un cliché ambulant. En plus de ne plus pouvoir apprécier à sa juste valeur la musique de Brian Tyler, personne ne se sentit vraiment transcendé. Ajoutez à cela l’instant comique fâcheusement établit par la suite avec le portable de Jane sonnant soudainement. Sans même respecter la disparition d’un des personnages principaux, le deuil qu’aurait dû avoir Thor ne fut pas respecté.

Passons aussi toutes ces redondances scénaristiques faisant traîner l’intrigue. Par ailleurs, le choix de la luminosité verdâtre fut un parti prit gênant. Loin de moi l’idée de dénigrer ce film qui plut à la jeune Lycéenne que j’étais à l’époque. Toutefois, avec du recul et grâce à Ragnarök, je réalise à quel point il fut médiocre.

Aussi, m’attarder sur ladite piteuse mort de Loki est une ouverture parfaite.

Taika Waititi est un réalisateur de films à part entière, plutôt centrés vers la comédie. A l’heure actuelle, je n’en ai vu aucun ; sa réalisation du film d’Animation Vaiana me prouvant son talent. Ce chef d’œuvre de Disney est génial, les chansons, les couleurs, les messages et les graphismes y sont tout bonnement bluffant. Evidemment, je sais qu’il n’y a pas que notre cher Waititi derrière tout cela mais il en est la pierre maîtresse.

Respectant ses bases et ses envies comiques, cet homme sut exactement où mener le récit. Taika osa ce que d’autres réalisateurs n’auraient sans doute pas fait.

Quelle audace, au sein du film, que de parodier cette mort de Loki en l’incluant au récit !

Apercevoir en toute impunité un frère Hemsworth incarner Thor fut un réel instant de plaisir. Personne dans la salle ne resta de marbre, surtout lorsque le chœur reprit la musique de Tyler dans le plus grand des calmes. Ici, l’aspect comique relevait d’une situation burlesque dans laquelle Loki-sous l’apparence d’Odin- se riait de l’innocence qu’eut son aîné.

On aurait pu s’attendre à d’autres dialogues venant des faux acteurs, mais non ! La représentation suivait à l’identique ce que nous avions supporté dans le deuxième volet. Ce moment, durant à peine quelques minutes, fut jouissif et donna le ton : Les erreurs du passé allaient être réparées.

Outre cette scène alléchante, je suis dans l’obligation de citer l’IMAX avant de m’insinuer dans les détails.

Malgré mes études de cinéma, l’aspect technique m’échappe encore assez. Néanmoins, je détiens des mots très précis pour exprimer tout ce que j’ai pu ressentir. Le film, en lui-même, m’emporta, m’accueillit dans un univers que je désirai follement apercevoir. Le cœur battant, le sourire aux lèvres, la qualité me subjugua, manqua presque de me déboiter la mâchoire :

L’écran incurvé, cette impression de gigantisme digne d’un rêve éveillé…. Juste de part ces grandeurs rocambolesques, on est emporté. La salle entièrement plongée dans la pénombre, nous, assis sur nos sièges, avec nos sacs à nos pieds…Tout cela devient totalement obsolète lorsque la profondeur prend forme sous nos prunelles.

Je dis bien : La Profondeur.

L’Imax nous exprime la réalité et non pas une vague impression d’objets ou de personnages se rapprochant de l’écran. Grâce à cette technologie fulgurante, l’action se déroule comme lorsque nous regardons au travers d’un balcon. Le premier plan est à notre portée mais ne s’évertue pas à nous sauter au visage. Tout reste statique mais la profondeur existe, se fait réelle et palpable.

Je ne pense pas avoir été la seule à sursauter lorsque Mjöllnir dansait dans les airs ou quand Hulk se battait vaillamment. De surcroît, à défaut de la 3D ne fonctionnant que lors d’instants dynamiques, l’IMAX est là tout le temps, vraiment toujours. Jusqu’à la fin. Elle nous immerge, nous invite dans l’histoire plus que jamais.

Nos professeurs nous disent souvent que, ce que l’on trouve magique dans le cinéma, ce n’est autre que l’image qui se reflète. En vérité, sinon, il ne s’agit que de faux éléments assemblés se projetant contre un mur.

A présent, j’ai la possibilité de démentir.

L’avancée technique et technologique permet d’élever ce septième art à quelque chose de plus grandiose, de plus spectaculaire encore. Cette expérience ne fut pas simplement des images en haute définition projetées contre un écran.

Ce fut un voyage, la redécouverte d’un univers que nous, fans de la franchise, avions espéré.

Nous n’avons pas juste vu Thor dans cette planète volcanique face à Surtur ; l’être de Magma. Nous n’avons pas, à peine, aperçut ce plan large et merveilleux du fils d’Odin s’échappant des griffes du Dragon.

Non.

Tout cela, nous l’avons vécu, à ses côtés, le cœur battant, le souffle coupé. Ce fut vrai l’espace de quelques instants.

Les personnages mythologiques nous furent accessibles, les enjeux de tous les protagonistes, même secondaires furent exprimés avec brio.

Face à cette remarque Skurge me vient directement à l’esprit.

Cet Asgardien, en quête reconnaissance eut une évolution exemplaire tout le long du film. Il avait beau être dans l’ombre d’Hela ou des héros principaux, l’on se demandait ce qui allait lui advenir, on se rendait compte à quel point il était perdu, à quel point il voulait avoir la reconnaissance de ses semblables.

Cela ne vous fait-il pas songer à quelqu’un ?

Un certain Loki ?

Voilà pourquoi je vénère ce scenario si bien construit.

Prenons sérieusement un temps pour remercier allègrement Eric Pearson.

Le Dieu de la fourberie, durant son règne en tant qu’Odin, remplaça Heimdall par cette sorte de nigaud simplement bon à ramener des fusils du Texas.

Très sincèrement, cette scène est tout juste drôle sans pour autant exagérer sur ses propos.

« Ça vient du Texas […] Voici Des et Troy. Destroy. »

Tant de sous-entendus en si peu de mots ! Tant de finesse ! Waititi est clairement en train de me réconcilier avec la comédie ; avis subjectif, certes, mais je me devais de le dire.

Reprenons : Pourquoi Loki a-t-il fait cela ? Quel est l’intérêt de Skurge ?

Selon moi, le Jotun a eu ses raisons de ne plus vouloir Heimdall sous le dôme du Bifröst. Depuis le Thor premier du nom, il fut prouvé qu’il y avait bons nombres de chemins de traverse menant à Asgard. De plus, dans The Dark World, l’être capable d’apercevoir toutes les parcelles de l’univers ne peut même pas arrêter un vaisseau gigantesque s’insinuant dans la soi-disant citée impénétrable.

Selon l’esprit agile de Loki – connaissant lui-même beaucoup de raccourcis– autant mettre un Marius à la place d’Heimdall et faire en sorte de ne pas avoir de soucis avec les autres Royaumes. Ainsi, ce Skurge n’allait pas avoir à défendre la cité vu qu’elle n’avait pas de problèmes.

Nous sommes d’accord qu’Odin ne fut pas un bon roi – réalité démontrée tout le long du film – Loki, par contre, le fut.

Cela se voit non ? Asgard se porte bien malgré les quelques petits changements de décoration. Les images de propagandes sont restées mais, au moins, l’évolution s’est présentée.

Skurge fut un personnage intégrant de cette évolution, fil rouge de l’aventure s’alliant à Hela, déesse de la mort, il connut une superbe avancée initiatique.

Tel un anti-héro, il n’attendit que la reconnaissance, faisant des erreurs, suivant le mal malgré lui. Son récit est touchant et beau même si tous savaient qu’il était voué à la mort ; la côtoyant.

L’apercevoir s’emparer, avec ferveur, de Des et Troy alors qu’il s’était lâchement camouflé d’Hela démontre la déferlante de son avancée.

Skurge combattit ses propres démons, ses propres inquiétudes.

Lorsqu’il saute du vaisseau, le plan en contre-plongée sur les enfants le regardant est porteur d’espoir : Si, durant son existence il ne fut qu’un lâche et un pauvre type, son sacrifice restera dans les annales.

D’ailleurs, le Ragnarök aussi ne s’oubliera pas. Beaucoup songeaient qu’Asgard allait être détruite mais que Stephen Strange remonterait le temps. Appréciant cette théorie, je n’espérai pas grand-chose sans m’attendre pour autant à la destruction de la citée.

Ce fut brutal mais, finalement, convainquant.

D’une part, c’est assez inquiétant car même si Disney est toujours derrière, on ressent l’évolution ténébreuse de MARVEL. Petit à petit, on suit encore plus la mythologie et les comics d’origine, on détruit vraiment, on change vraiment. Ces remous dans la léthargie imposée depuis des années sont doux, agissant progressivement sur l’esprit de chacun.

Dans les Gardiens de la Galaxie Vol2, la mort de Yondu fut déjà assez abrupte ; tout comme la discussion des deux sœurs vis-à-vis des atrocités que Thanos leur firent subir.

Homecoming étant une sorte de rayon de soleil bien mérité, Ragnarök déchaîna l’agitation déjà en marche.

Asgard n’est plus.

Vraiment plus.

Cet univers que tous les artistes érigèrent depuis près de sept ans, cette cité qui nous fit rêver tant de fois, n’est plus qu’un souvenir. C’est fini. Pour de bon. Nous assistâmes à sa disparition, rouée par les assauts du monstre de Magma.

De surcroît, cette vague déjà assez difficile à encaisser ne fut que la dernière de quelques autres traumatisantes.

Volstagg, Hogun et Frandal trépassèrent.

Subitement.

Il n’y eut pas de musique, pas d’instant pour les pleurer. Ils sont morts, assenés de coups par la déesse de la mort.

Peu de personnes restèrent indemnes de ce véritable Ragnarök.

Odin s’en allant aussi, son âme disparaissant dans les cieux de Midgard, en Norvège : Terre Natale de leur mythologie.

Il y a eu des morts.

Ils n’ont pas ressuscité.

C’est un parti pris, vraiment.

Le public de MARVEL a grandi, Infinity War approche, il n’est plus question de faire dans les faux semblants. Comédie ou pas, rires ou pas, cela ne change rien à l’échéance.

Tel que fit part James Gunn dans un de ses tweets, le rire, le bonheur, la joie, les peines, les larmes et la souffrance font ce que nous nommons La Vie. Rien ne peut être totalement dramatique ni entièrement joyeux.

Thor Ragnarök représente cette épopée.

L’épopée d’une vie, le grand final d’une ère datant de millénaires.

Plus d’Asgard maintenant, plus de bases anciennes sur lesquelles se reposer.

Bien évidemment, Hela fut l’entremetteuse de tout cela.

Le fait qu’elle soit présentée telle la grande sœur de Thor et Loki ne fut pas si dérangeant. Après tout, suivre exactement toute la mythologie est impossible alors c’est un fait acceptable.

La prestation de Cate Blanchett fut divine, éblouissante. La déesse de la mort fait frémir, on ressent son invincibilité. L’instant où elle détruit Mjöllnir est iconique et le restera pour toujours ; cette idée fut sincèrement fabuleuse. Sans parler de son costume ! Tout dans la finesse et dans la classe, il incarne ses pouvoirs et sa très grande prestance. Cette déesse éternelle est mauvaise et on y croit. Nul besoin de grands discours larmoyants. Elle tue vraiment et elle sait ce qu’elle veut.

En plus, ses désirs sont assez honorables : Etant l’aînée de la fratrie, le trône lui revient vu que le Roi est mort.

Ce n’est pas faux, elle a raison.

Néanmoins, tel que le dit si bien Thor dans un cynisme des plus parfait : « You’re just the worst. »

Là aussi, le Dieu de la foudre ne s’est pas fourvoyé. Passer d’un totalitarisme passif avec Odin à un actif avec Hela n’allait surement pas être la meilleure solution.

Quoi qu’il en soit, s’attarder sur l’aspect politique d’Asgard mériterait une thèse de quelques centaines de pages. Attardons-nous donc plutôt sur le personnage. Pour faire court, l’actrice est impressionnante. A travers ces espaces titanesques, elle se fait grande et imposante. Lorsqu’Hela marche et s’avance, la manière de filmer nous prouve que l’environnement s’incline. Rien ne dépasse la déesse de la mort à part le Ragnarök lui-même.

De ce fait, il est d’une importance capitale de remercier avec ferveur Javier Aguirresarobe qui n’est autre que le chef Photo. Tout est sincèrement magnifique et rien n’est laissé au hasard, que ce soit les détails ou les choix artistiques. Taika s’est entouré des meilleurs pour avoir une qualité optimale ; chose qui n’est pas négligeable lorsqu’on revient aux sources même.

N’avez-vous donc pas ressenti un léger air de Seigneur des Anneaux quand Heimdall entraîne le peuple face à cette faramineuse porte incrustée dans la roche ?

Jamais le paysage Asgardien ne fut exploité avec autant de réalisme et c’est pour dire ! Grâce à la vidéo du B-roll sortie récemment, de nombreux plans aux drones furent produits dans les somptueuses montagnes de Nouvelle Zélande. L’avancée d’Heimdall pour secourir vaillamment les Ases nous fut réelle, inquiétante. Si, au premier abord, l’on ne songe qu’à la force du scénario ou de la musique, l’aspect réel est d’une efficacité capitale.

Se sentir comme sur terre dans ce paysage déjà mystifié tant de fois nous inclus dans l’histoire, on sent presque la terre sous nos pieds, la fraîcheur des rivières. On arrive encore mieux à comprendre ce que ressentent les protagonistes dès qu’une si forte pointe de vérité est apportée.

Cette décision est géniale et le réalisateur l’a dit lui-même :

« Cette partie d’Asgard, c’est un peu comme le Mordor. »

(Je vous conseille toutes ses interviews, de vrais délices.)

D’ailleurs, il est étonnant de savoir qu’il compare cette partie de la cité céleste aux lieux déchus de la terre du milieu. Message subliminal ou bien simple comparaison ?

On ne sait jamais vraiment auprès de Taika Waititi et c’est ce qui fait aussi la force de l’histoire.

Tout est à comprendre entre les lignes, les dialogues ne démontrant que la partie extérieure de l’Iceberg. La relation de Thor et Loki en est la preuve vivante. Ces deux frères traversèrent tant de tristesses, tant d’aventures depuis le premier volet qu’une progression psychologique était obligatoire. Tandis que le Jotun demeurait le frère déchu dans l’ombre, Thor tenta coûte que coûte de mettre à bien un voyage initiatique à travers les mondes, recherchant des réponses qu’il n’eut pas.

Entre le cadet et l’aîné, la notion de voyage est définitivement très présente.

Alors que Loki s’insinua dans les Abysses spatiales dans le 1, le Jotun découvrit d’autres contrées dont même son frère ne connaissait pas l’existence. Ici, je paraphrase ce que dit Loki lorsqu’ils se retrouvent tous deux au début d’Avengers.

Avant même que Thor n’ait quitté son cocon, Loki apprit, souffrit, connaissant Thanos et ses sbires. Se faisant torturer par ceux-ci, il fut poussé à commettre des actes irréparables envers la Terre.

Bien que cette possibilité ne fût démontrée de A à Z, tout est mis en exergue de telle façon à ce qu’on le pense. De plus, Tom Hiddleston expliqua lui-même que son personnage subit des affres bien plus terribles qu’on ne le pensât.

Sujet toute même ouvert à controverses, je ne m’y attarderai pas. Tout ce que je cherche à dire est que l’évolution de ces deux frères se fit en dent de scie. Pendant que l’un chutait vers le bas, l’autre s’élevait à sa manière, tel un Dieu audacieux et reconnu de tous.

L’écart entre Thor et Loki n’a jamais été aussi fort que dans le deuxième volet.

Le premier, fils préféré, choisit pour protéger Asgard et, l’autre, mis en prison avec les pires criminels des neufs Royaumes. Ensembles, ils eurent des moments de combats mais bien peu profonds. Ces deux personnages ne purent sincèrement régler leurs querelles intérieures.

Le scénario y était sans doute pour beaucoup – tel que je vous en fis part – mais ce n’était pas tout.

Contrairement à Ragnarök, The Dark World fut le VOYAGE de Thor. Se battant contre Malekith, détruisant l’Ether, il fut le joyau du long métrage auprès de ses amis humain et de son love interest.

Loki n’a qu’été un arrière-plan ; signe du passé et de tout ce que le Dieu de la foudre ne souhaite pas devenir.

Dans ce troisième opus, tout évolue drastiquement vers des chemins jamais empruntés jusqu’alors. Les deux frères ont beau ne pas s’entendre, ils font avec et partagent une véritable aventure côte à côte malgré leurs nombreuses séparations. Thor et Loki se supportent, acceptent les dires de leur père mourant et, ont, finalement, le même but : Secourir Asgard.

L’arc du GrandMaster nous démontre avec parcimonie tous les reliefs et difficultés de leur relation. Ce sont de frères et, comme tels, ils se chamaillent, se haïssent. Le fils d’Odin n’arrive pas à comprendre ce que le Jotun cherche vraiment. Thor ne voit pas plus loin que le bout de son nez et ses quelques répliques dans l’ascenseur le prouvent parfaitement.

Loki, toujours aussi imbu de lui-même, garde sa prestance auprès de son frère même s’il ne peut s’empêcher de revivre des instants fraternels auprès de lui.

Cela fait sourire même si l’on ressent encore cet écart de compréhension.

Au final, ils ne se verrons qu’à la fin de la révolution : Pour la fin du voyage.

Les deux frères devaient absolument se retrouver eux-mêmes, découvrir leur propre intégrité avant d’aller plus loin.

Passant bien plus de temps auprès du Grandmaster, Loki se fit diplomate, essayant tant bien que mal de garder la situation entre ses mains. Appréciant le confort, l’arrivée de Thor lui prouva qu’il ne pouvait se lover dans ses anciennes habitudes.

Découvrant par la suite son frère, tout puissant sans pour autant avoir Mjöllnir le conforta, lui démontra que, lui aussi, pouvait être un sauveur.

Quelle évolution !

Thor se battit vaillamment avec sa propre force intérieure et, Loki, porta secours à un peuple qui n’eut jamais confiance en lui. Bien évidemment, son ego surdimensionné ne disparut pas pour autant, mais cela reste une évolution grandiose.

Un changement encore jamais vu jusqu’alors.

Le Jotun reste le Dieu de la fourberie mais son voyage prit un sens, tout comme celui de Thor, guide de son peuple vers une terre promise : La Norvège.

Avant de citer la fin, sachez que je n’ai pas oublié le personnage de Jeff Goldblum ni même Valkyrie. Cependant, une Review se doit d’avoir ses limites même si elle est totalement désordonnée.

Sachez donc que Goldblum a un jeu d’acteur incroyable. Jamais dérangeant, toujours à point, il accentue l’aspect comique et rafraichissant Ragnarök. A vrai dire, il est même assez effrayant par moments. A force de prendre tout à la légère, son personnage en devient d’une dangerosité sans pareille et c’est là que la force de la comédie intervient : Ce n’est pas parce que le Grandmaster nous fait rire qu’il ne peut pas être dangereux.

Il est mielleux et presque tout aussi fourbe que Loki. Nous, spectateurs, nous doutons très bien de l’enfer qu’il fait vivres aux habitants. Soumis à notre imagination, ce drôle de bonhomme en devient rapidement inquiétant.

Quant à Valkyrie, il va m’être assez difficile de trouver les mots. Tessa Thompson est incroyable, cela va sans dire. Le traumatisme de son personnage est puissant et la scène où elle se souvient est juste un réel tableau ! Ces ralentis, ces chevaux ailés, toutes ces Valkyries s’élançant vers l’aînée des deux frères…C’est puissant.

Le lien qu’elle forme – à son insu – avec Loki, réactivant ses pouvoirs, est bien plus excitant et agréable que n’importe quel autre Love Interest de pacotille

En moins de quelques minutes, on comprend la peur et les angoisses de la guerrière sans pour autant la rabaisser. On assiste à sa merveilleuse déchéance en se sentant à sa place, en acceptant sa défaite face à Hela, cruelle et invincible.

Toujours en ce court laps de temps, on réalise également que Loki n’est pas simplement capable de faire des illusions et que nous ne connaissons pas encore les limites de ses capacités.

C’est fascinant.

Juste en quelques petites secondes, Valkyrie s’est rapprochée de nous. Son caractère évolua au même rythme que sa confiance, ce qui fut rassurant.

Cette femme est parfaitement imparfaite et c’est cela qui fait tout son charme. Ce n’est pas une Jane Foster brillante et sublime en tout point. Valkyrie a des défauts, bois, et ne se laisse surtout pas charmer par le Dieu de la foudre -un peu pataud- ni par son frère, le malin.

Les quelques petites tensions entre elle et Thor ne sont pas allées plus loin et c’est parfait.

Le film n’avait aucune intention de tourner autour de cela, d’autant plus qu’à part les deux frères, le Grandmaster et elle-même, Bruce aussi fut d’une importance capitale. Sans Hulk, cette aventure n’aurait pu se poursuivre.

Ce personnage est attachant et amusant. Néanmoins, je fus heureuse de revoir Bruce bien que son état me fît de la peine. Mark Ruffalo est un acteur sensible capable de faire ressentir l’angoisse d’une manière palpable ; ce qui me chamboula.

Que feriez-vous si vous vous réveilliez dans une planète Alien à des millions d’années lumières ? Comment réagiriez-vous si un Dieu que vous n’avez pas vu depuis des lustres vous fait part de la situation ? De ce que fit vôtre Alter Ego ?

Le fait que Bruce se défende, dise que ce ne sont que des affaires de familles et qu’il n’en a rien à faire, est si humain, si parfait ! A travers cet environnement non familier, on comprend sa réaction, son émoi et son anxiété. On ne veut pas perdre le docteur Banner et tous ses doctorats, même si, pour les grands climax de fin, Hulk est toujours plus utile.

Clairement, tout cela n’aurait été aussi titanesque sans les musiques originales composées par Mark Mothersbaugh. Fortes, impressionnantes, palpitantes, tout le Soundtrack est merveilleux et je suis certaine que l’on s’en souviendra forcément. Cette Vibe des années 80 a fait le plus grand bien à ce film, ce fut une échappatoire méritée.

Décidément, je pourrai m’attarder des heures et des heures sur Thor Ragnarök sans pour autant dénicher le parfait mot de conclusion.

Bien sûr, j’eus quelques désillusions, espérant que l’instant dans New York avec Doctor Strange soit plus long… mais, au final, tout vprend son sens. Le long métrage est monté de façon exemplaire et aucun moment ne dure aussi longtemps qu’on le voudrait. Aussi, l’on reste en haleine et ce n’est pas plus mal.

Aucun personnage ne fut de trop, tous endossant un rôle important ; même les figurants jouaient à la perfection. Asgard prit vie comme jamais juste avant de mourir. Aussi, ce fut bien plus déchirant de voir ces beaux paysages et ces décors se désintégrer.

Ce à quoi nous ne nous étions que vaguement attachés dans les deux derniers films nous tendit les bras durant Ragnarök.

Cette cité, centre d’Yggdrasil, nous accueillit avant de nous être arrachée par Surtur.

Le final est tout aussi tragique, digne d’un grand Space Opera :

Loki et Thor se retrouvent, plus réalisés que jamais dans les tréfonds de l’espace. L’espoir renaît, les sourires s’élèvent. Heimdall et une partie du peuple sont sauvés et peu importe si la cité n’est plus.

« Asgard’s not a place, it’s a people »

Phrase iconique, impactante.

Il est aisé de la retenir, alors on la garde au fond de notre cœur tandis que Korg, l’être de pierre nous fait rire. Nous aussi, nous VOYAGEONS enfin auprès des deux frères conquérants.

Tous les séparaient et les séparera peut-être, mais, à la fin du Ragnarök, l’espoir demeure.

Jusqu’à ce qu’une ombre noire se dessine dans ces limbes étoilés.

Le fléau.

Celui promettant la guerre de l’infini.

______

Voilà, ce que fut Thor Ragnarök : Un grand final, le Point d’Orgue de l’épopée.

#thor ragnarok #french review

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sonyclasica · 5 years ago

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MICHAEL GIACCHINO

SPIDER-MAN™: FAR FROM HOME

El prestigioso compositor Michael Giacchino, ganador de un Oscar por la banda sonora de Up, Sony Music anuncia el lanzamiento de SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) con música del compositor ganador del Premios de la Academia, Globos de Oro, Grammy y BAFTA, MICHAEL GIACCHINO (Up,The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Lost, Coco). Disponible en LP el viernes 23 de agosto, la banda sonora incluye música del éxito de taquilla de Sony Pictures, que se estrenó en julio.

Consíguelo AQUÍ

Después de componer la música de la última entrega de la serie Spider-Man: Homecoming, el compositor Michael Giacchino dice sobre esta nueva película: “Me encantó volver a uno de mis personajes favoritos de Marvel, Peter Parker. Spider-Man: Far From Homecuenta los desgarradores eventos de Endgamey se centra en el problema de Peter para lidiar con el vacío que dejó Iron Man mientras trataba de divertirse como un adolescente. El mundo de Peter continúa creciendo, lo que me permite desarrollar los temas de la última película, y encontrar formas de expresar el equilibrio entre las dos partes de su vida. Y, por supuesto, siempre es divertido aportar nuevas ideas a un proyecto para nuevos personajes como Mysterio".

Continuando la historia de Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man debe actuar para enfrentarse a nuevas amenazas en un mundo que ha cambiado para siempre.

Dirigida por Jon Watts. Escrita por Chris McKenna y Erik Sommers. Basada en el cómic de MARVEL de Stan Lee y Steve Ditko. Producida por Kevin Feige y Amy Pascal. Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Thomas M. Hammel, Eric Hauserman Carroll, Rachel O'Connor, Stan Lee, Avi Arad y Matt Tolmach son los productores ejecutivos. La película fue protagonizada por Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, JB Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, con Marisa Tomei y Jake Gyllenhaal.

LISTADO DE CANCIONES DE SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) 1. Far From Home Suite Home 2. It's Perfect 3. World's Worst Water Feature 4. Multiple Realities 5. Brad to the Drone 6. Change of Plans 7. Night Monkey Knows How to Do It 8. Mr. One Hundred and One 9. Prague Rocked 10. Who's Behind Those Foster Grants 11. Power to the People 12. Personal Hijinks 13. Praguenosis: BAD 14. A Lot of 'Splaining to Do 15. The Magical Mysterio Tour 16. Taking the Gullible Express/Spidey Sensitive 17. Gloom and Doom 18. High and Flighty 19. An Internal Battle 20. Happy Landings 21. Tower of Cower 22. Bridging the Trap 23. Bridge and Love's Burning 24. Swinging Set 25. And Now This…

SOBRE MICHAEL GIACCHINO

El compositor Michael Giacchino ha participado en algunos de los proyectos cinematográficos más populares de los últimos años, entre ellos Los Increíbles, La Guerra del Planeta de los Simios, Ratatouille, Star Trek, Jurassic World, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, y Coco.La banda sonora de Giacchino de 2009 para la exitosa película de Pixar Up le valió un Oscar®, un Globo de Oro®, el BAFTA, el Broadcast Film Critics' Choice Award y dos Premios Grammy®.

Giacchino estudió cine en la Escuela de Artes Visuales de Nueva York. Después de acabar la universidad, consiguió un trabajo de marketing en Disney y comenzó a estudiar composición musical, primero en la Juilliard y luego en UCLA. Dejó el marketing para convertirse en productor del incipiente Departamento Interactivo de Disney donde tuvo la oportunidad de escribir música para videojuegos.

Tras trabajar como productor en el nuevo Departamento Interactivo de DreamWorks, le pidieron que creara la pista temporal para la adaptación en videojuego de The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Como resultado, Steven Spielberg lo contrató como el compositor del videojuego, que sería el primero de Playstation con música de orquesta, grabada con integrantes de la Sinfónica de Seattle. Giacchino continuó escribiendo para videojuegos y se hizo famoso por la música para la serie de videojuegos Medalla de Honor.

El trabajo de Giacchino para videojuegos despertó el interés de J. J. Abrams Comenzando así una larga relación que llevaría a la creación de la música de series de éxito como Alias y Lost y las películas Misión Imposible III, Star Trek,Super 8 y Star Trek: En la oscuridad.

Otros proyectos incluyen colaboraciones con Disney Imagineering en la música para Space Mountain, Star Tours (con John Williams) y la atracción “Ratatouille” en Disneyland Paris. Más recientemente, completó la música para el nuevo Incredicoaster ubicado en Pixar Pier en California Adventure. Giacchino también fue el director musical en la 81er Edición Anual de los Premios de la Academia®. Su música se puede escuchar en salas de conciertos de todo el mundo donde se proyectan las películas Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek Beyond, Ratatouille yJurassic Worldmientras se interpreta la música con toda la orquesta. En junio de 2018, Giacchino estrenó su primer trabajo para orquesta sinfónica,Voyage. Este encargo de la National Symphony Orchestra y la Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, la pieza celebra el 60 aniversario de la fundación de la NASA.

Los próximos proyectos de Giacchino incluyen Spider-Man: Far From Home que se estrena en los cines este verano, y Jojo Rabbit, una nueva película de Taika Waititi.

Giacchino es el Presidente de la Rama de Música de la Academia de Artes y Ciencias cinematográficas y pertenece al consejo asesor de “Educación a través de la Música - Los Angeles”.

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME

Trailer oficial: haz clic aquí.

Teaser oficial: haz clic aquí.

#bso

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stanlee-y-jackkirby-blog · 5 years ago

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MARVEL STUDIOS

Como se fundó Marvel

Marvel Cómics es una editorial norteamericana de cómics. Es conocida popularmente como "La casa de las ideas" por la creación de numerosos personajes emblemáticos del género de superhéroes. Algunos de sus cómics más conocidos son Los 4 Fantásticos, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Capitán América, Los Vengadores, Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine y los X-Men. Desde los años 60 la compañía constituye una de las mayores editoriales de este género. Localizada en Nueva York, fue fundada en el 387 de Park Avenue South, teniendo sus oficinas en la actualidad en el 40th East 10th Avenue.

El 31 de agosto de 2009, la empresa The Walt Disney Company anuncia la compra de la marca Marvel Entertainment por 4.000 millones de dólares cuyos accionistas recibirían USD 30 por acción en metálico y 0.745 de los papeles de The Walt Disney Company, traspasando así, cerca de 5000 personajes al mundo Disney Enterprises, Inc

Historia Marvel Comics fue fundada por Martin Goodman en 1939, con un número constante de cambios de nombre y fracasos de lanzamiento. Originalmente fue conocida como Red Circle Comics, Atlas Comics; aunque el nombre más popular (antes de Marvel Comics) es Timely Comics y su primera publicación importante fue el Marvel Comics #1 (octubre de 1939) y también por el cual recibe su nombre actual, en el que aparecía por primera vez un superhéroe en Marvel: la primera Antorcha Humana y el vilano Namor, el hombre submarino. Ambos personajes se convirtieron en grandes éxitos para la compañía protagonizando casi instantáneamente sus propias series. Otro superhéroe popular creado en esas fechas era el personaje patriótico Capitán América. Durante los años 50, la compañía, como toda la industria del cómic americana, decayó fuertemente a consecuencia del final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. En 1957 Marvel casi cerró sus puertas debido a la bancarrota de su distribuidora. Durante este tiempo la compañía se llamaba Atlas Comics y publicaba historias de monstruos con una ligera ambientación de ciencia ficción.

1960 A principios de los 60 la compañía intentó retornar al género de superhéroes que había sido revitalizado con gran éxito por su rival DC Comics unos años antes. Stan Lee y Jack Kirby crearon entonces Los 4 Fantásticos inspirándose en los éxitos de DC Comics y en las historias de monstruos que Atlas publicaba. Este cómic fue un éxito absoluto revitalizando la compañía que comenzó una larga lista de títulos, el más popular de ellos fue sin duda "The Amazing Spider-Man" (el Asombroso Hombre Araña) creado por Lee y Steve Ditko. 1970 En esta década el mercado del cómic volvió a entrar en recesión. La compañía se adaptó publicando nuevos títulos en géneros como el horror o la brujería. Marvel intentó adquirir DC pero la compra no fructificó debido a que DC quería conservar los derechos de sus personajes más populares Superman y Batman. A finales de los 70 el equipo creativo formado por el guionista Chris Claremont y el artista John Byrne relanzó uno de los antiguos títulos de Marvel, X-Men constituyendo el mayor éxito de la compañía durante esta época. A finales de los 70 los cómics empezaron a venderse en tiendas especializadas. 1980 En los años 80 el editor jefe de Marvel era Jim Shooter. A pesar de su controvertida personalidad, Shooter supo manejar y "curar" muchos de los errores en los procedimientos que sucedían en Marvel (incluyendo finales perdidos repetidamente) y dando una visión de renacimiento creativo en la empresa. Este renacimiento incluyó institucionalizar los derechos de los creadores, comenzando con la imprenta Epic para los materiales dueño - creador del año 1982, y lanzando una nueva línea de marcas (aunque infructuosas) nombradas Nuevo Universo, para conmemorar el 25º aniversario de Marvel, en 1986. Shooter fue responsable de la introducción de la compañía en nuevos y amplios crossover (Contest of Champions, Secret Wars). En 1981 Marvel adquirió el estudio de animación: DePatie-Freleng Enterprises que había creado a los famosos Looney Tunes bajo la dirección del animador Friz Freleng y su socio David H. DePatie. La compañía fue renombrada como Marvel Productions Ltd. y comenzó a producir series de animación para la televisión como G.I. Joe, Transformers e incluso los Muppet Babies de Jim Henson. En 1986 Marvel fue vendida a New World Entertainment, que en tan sólo tres años, en 1988, la volvió a vender a MacAndrews and Forbes, cuyo dueño era el ejecutivo de Revlon, Ronald Perelman. Perelman colocó a la compañía en el mercado de valores de New York y propició un gran incremento del número de títulos de la compañía. Como parte del proceso, Marvel Productions vendió su catálogo televisivo a Saban Entertainment (adquirido en el año 2001 por Disney).

1990 La empresa obtuvo importantes beneficios en los comienzos de la década de los 90 y todo el género del cómic se encontraba en auge tanto en Estados Unidos como en Europa. Sin embargo Perelman fue acusado de malversación y durante mucho tiempo la compañía estuvo en diferentes litígios con varios cambios de propietarios y luchas internas. Finalmente Isaac Pellmutter y Avi Arad se hicieron con el control de la compañía. Las licencias concedidas por Marvel a diferentes estudios de cine permitieron revitalizar la compañía con éxitos como Spider-Man o X-Men. Artísticamente esta época estuvo caracterizada por las numerosas series y crossovers, líneas argumentales alternativas y lanzamientos de miniseries con éxito diverso. 2000 Con el nuevo milenio, Marvel Comics escapó de la bancarrota y de nuevo comenzó a diversificar sus ofertas. En el 2001, Marvel dejó el Código de Autorización de los Comics y estableció su propio Sistema de Escalas Marvel para cómics. El primer título de esta nueva era fue X-Force #119 (Oct. 2001). Esto trajo consigo nuevos formatos de impresión, tales como MAX, una línea dedicada para los lectores maduros, y Marvel Age, desarrollada para audiencias más jóvenes. Además de esto, está el altamente exitoso formato de Ultimate Marvel, el cual permitió a Marvel revitalizar a sus títulos con más ventas mediante la renovación de sus mayores héroes y villanos para que fueran accesibles a una nueva generación de lectores. Esta nueva versión se desarrolla en un universo que es paralelo al universo donde se desarrolla la "continuidad normal" de Marvel, permitiendo a los guionistas y dibujantes libertad para redefinir historias y caracteres de los personajes, de manera que todos estos cambios no afecten a la continuidad establecida. De esta manera ha podido captar una gran afluencia de nuevos lectores que no habán leído comics anteriormente pero si estaban familiarizados con los personajes a través de las películas y las series de televisión. Marvel también ha mejorado su departamento de novela gráfica, estableciendo una gran presencia en las librerías. Stan Lee, que actualmente no ocupa ningún cargo directivo excepto el de "Presidente Emérito", permanece como la cara pública de Marvel. En 2002, Stan Lee demandó una parte de los beneficios proporcionados por las películas y la comercialización, basándose en un contrato entre él y Marvel que data de finales de los 90; de acuerdo con los documentos del juicio, Marvel ha usado "Hollywood accounting" para declarar que esos proyectos no generaron beneficios. Marvel Comics Entertainment (División Filmográfica de Marvel) continúa en la bolsa de Nueva York como MVL. Algunos personajes e historias se han convertido en películas de franquicia, el gran exponente viene siendo las películas de los X-Men, empezada en 2000, y la serie de Spiderman, comenzada en 2002. En 2006, Marvel creó un crossover llamado "Civil War" estableciendo en el universo Marvel un registro de superhéroes, provocando un cisma político y ético entre los superhéroes. Además ese año, Marvel creó su propia wiki. La compañía lanzó una iniciativa online a finales de 2007 llamada "Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited", un archivo digital de 2500 comics editados disponibles para su visualización, a través de una subscripcion anual o mensual. Marvel permanece como una de las editoriales fundamentales del cómic mundial a pesar de la reducción del mercado norteamericano de cómics. La compañía adquiere enorme fuerza fuera de los círculos de historietas mediante las adaptaciones al cine de personajes populares, como X-Men, Spider-Man, Blade, Hulk, The Punisher, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Elektra, Iron-Man o Los 4 Fantásticos entre otros personajes. El 31 de agosto del 2009, la compañía Disney (también dueña de la cadena estadounidense ABC) compró por 4.000 millones de dólares la editorial Marvel, y sus más de 5.000 personajes creados a lo largo de la editorial. El maximo responsable ejecutivo de Disney, Robert Iger, anunció "que dará lugar a expansiones de Marvel" y que "veían una gran oportunidad para crecimiento de la franquicia a largo plazo".

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jevaisciner · 6 years ago

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Bonne Année 2019 !

Je vous souhaite à toutes et à tous une très Bonne Année 2019 ! Tous mes vœux de bonheur, de réussite et de santé. Et de beaux films au cinéma bien sûr.

youtube

Vous vous souvenez en 2017, j’avais vu 135 films en salle. Je pensais réduire un peu en 2018, vers la fin je pensais faire même moins que 2016, mais finalement, j’ai atteint tout juste les 100 films. Je profite donc de ce tout premier article de l’année pour faire le bilan ciné de 2018 et en même temps de vous donnez des petites stats sur les cent de films que j’ai vus.

Voici donc dans un premier temps, mon petit bilan annuel.

Tout d’abord, le Top 3, c’est-à-dire des films où je suis resté scotché, où j’ai été à fond pendant toute la projo, qui m’ont ému et qui véhiculent de bonnes choses :

Films étrangers :

1) Avengers Infinity War de Joe & Anthony Russo (vu en avril 2018)

2) KIN Le Commencement de Josh & Jonathan Baker (vu en septembre 2018)

3) Searching de Timur Aneesh Chaganty (vu en septembre 2018)

Films français :

1) Dans La Brume de Daniel Roby (vu en avril 2018)

2) Le Grand Bain de Gilles Lellouche (vu en novembre 2018)

3) Au Poste ! de Quentin Dupieux (vu en juillet 2018)

Ensuite, mon Top 3 des Films d’Animation, pour ceux qui m’ont faire rire, fait pleurer et qui m’ont fait voyager :

1) Spider-Man : New Generation de Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey et Rodney Rothman (vu une bonne partie non-finalisée en octobre et sinon en décembre 2018)

2) Astérix et le Secret de la Potion Magique de Louis Clichy et Alexandre Astier (vu en décembre 2018)

3) Cro Man de Nick Park (vu en février 2018)

Même si j’ai vu moins de films qu’en 2017, je n’ai pas échappé aux mauvais films ... Voici donc le Flop 3, c’est-à-dire les films qui m’ont ennuyé, tant par l’histoire que par la réalisation et où je n’en voyais ni le bout, ni l’intérêt :

Films étrangers :

1) Un Raccourci Dans Le Temps de Ava Duvernay (vu en mars 2018)

2) Le Labyrinthe : Le Remède Mortel de Wes Ball (vu en janvier 2018 en avant-première)

3) Virus Tropical de Santiago Caicedo (vu en juin 2018)

Viennent ensuite les Déceptions, à savoir les films qui me plaisaient à la bande-annonce ou dès que j’en ai entendu parler, mais qui une fois à l’écran, ne sont pas si bons, voir mauvais :

1) High Life de Claire Denis (vu en novembre 2018)

2) Marie-Curie de Marie Noëlle (vu en février 2018)

3) Casse-Noisette et les Quatre Royaumes de Lasse Hallström et Joe Johnston (vu un extrait prometteur en octobre mais la version entière en décembre 2018)

Mais enfin, j’ai aussi vu des bonnes Surprises, des films dont je n’attendais pas grand-chose ou que je ne connaissais pas ou qui s’annonçait minables, mais qui m’ont bien plu, soit avec la réalisation, soit avec le casting, soit par l’originalité de l’histoire :

Films étrangers :

1) Aquaman de James Wan (vu en décembre 2018)

2) Overlord de Julius Avery (vu en novembre 2018 en avant-première)

3) Robin des Bois de Otto Bathurst (vu en novembre 2018)

Films français :

1) Girls With Balls de Olivier Afonso (vu en décembre 2018 mais à ce jour pas encore distribué)

2) Nicky Larson et le Parfum de Cupidon de Philippe Lachau (vu en décembre 2018 en avant-première)

3) Monsieur Je-Sait-Tout de François Prévôt-Leygonie et Stephan Archinard (vu en mai 2018)

Il y a bien sûr plein d’autres films, j’ai dû en choisir que 3 pour chaque liste. De plus, comme j’ai vu moins de films, je suis allé voir surtout ceux que je voulais voir, c’est pourquoi il n’y a pas de catégorie Flop Français cette année.

À présent, passons aux statistiques. En 2018, j’ai atteint tout juste la barre symbolique des 100 films vus en salle. Mais j’ai pas mal triché, notamment avec les festivals et même des films qui sortiront qu’en 2019. Histoire de pouvoir comparer avec l’année dernière, je prends les mêmes questions qu’en 2017. Pour rappel, il s’agit de 50 questions qui permettent de voir le paysage actuel du cinéma à travers ce que j’ai vu, moi, personnellement. Ne prenez pas ces données comme universelles. C’est parti ! Sur 100 films :

Combien de Thriller ? 15

Combien de Biopic (ou mettant en scène des personnages historiques) ? 14

Combien de Science-Fiction ? 18

Combien de films d’animation ? 16

Combien de Documentaires ? 2

Combien de Romance ? 5

Combien de Drame (non biopic) ? 3

Combien de Policier ? 2

Combien de films en VOSTFR ? Bientôt Disponible

Combien de films américains ? 58

Combien de films étrangers non anglophones ? 3 (3 japonais, d’animation)

Combien de films indépendants ? 14

Combien de films blockbusters ? 17

Combien de films engagés (ou avec des messages de fonds) ? 9

Combien de suites ? 20

Combien d’adaptation (non biopic, suites comprises) ? 23

Combien de remake ? 1

Combien de films avec des super-héros ? 7

Combien de films français ? 19

Combien de thriller français ? 1

Combien de comédies françaises ? 10

Combien j’en ai aimées ? 8

Combien de films d’animation français ? 3

Combien de films étrangers ont des titres français en français (titres traduits inclus) ? 32

Combien de films étrangers ont des titres français en anglais (dont titre original conservé) ? 47

Combien d’avant-premières ? 14 (dont 4 au Grand Rex)

Combien de films vus le jour de leur sortie ? 5

Combien de séances présentées par l’équipe du film ? 12

Combien de festival ? 3

Durée moyenne d’un film ? 1 heure 42 min

Le film le plus long ? 2h36 avec Avengers : Infinity War (que j’ai vu 3x en salle en plus)

Le film le plus court ? 1h13 avec ex-æquo Au Poste! et Tito et les Oiseaux

Acteur le plus vu ? Chris Hemworth (3 films)

Actrice la plus vue ? Claire Foy (3 films)

Combien de film avec un personnage principal féminin (sans partage d’affiche avec un homme) ? 20

Combien de films avec un personnage principal non caucasien ? 17

La salle la plus fréquentée ? 16 séances dans l’indétrônable Gaumont Opéra Capucines !

Combien de Grand Rex (hors concerts) ? 5

Combien de films avec en 3D ? 9

Combien de films en IMAX ? 11

Combien de Grand Large ? 1

Combien de films avec autre technologie ? 2 4DX + 1 ScreenX + 1 Dolby Atmos

Combien de films nazes (où j’avais envie de rentrer chez moi) ? 10

Combien de films de perles (où je n’avais pas envie de rentrer chez moi) ? 20

Combien de films qui m’ont déçu (pour lesquels j’étais pourtant confiant en y allant) ? 5

Combien de bonnes surprises (pour lesquels je n’étais pourtant pas chaud pour y aller) ? 7

Combien de fois j’étais accompagné ? 45 séances

Combien de e-billets ? 13 (dont 2 pour Avengers 3)

Combien de séances avec la carte CinéPass ? 65

Combien de dépense totale (avec le hors-forfait et les suppléments) ? 218 €

En 2018, en comptant les 3 séances d’Avengers 3, la Nuit Nanarland 3 et le Showeb de rentrée, j’aurai donc passé en cumulé environ 8 jours 21 heures et 42 minutes en salle.

Pour comparer avec mon année 2017, c’est par ici ►http://bit.ly/2g4PR3w

2018 a été moins fructueuse car j’ai déménagé et il s’est avéré que s’installer et s’équiper est plus conséquent que prévu. De plus, je suis beaucoup plus loin des cinés parisiens, donc les trajets sont plus fatiguant. Néanmoins, c’est cette année que j’ai découvert les joies des nanars, avec The Room puis avec La Nuit Nanarland, qui m’a valu d’exploser mon temps passé dans un ciné ET dans le Grand Rex, avec environ 13 heures de divertissement d’affilé ! Ça marque aussi mon retour au Festival d’Annecy. Aussi, j’ai pu découvrir le plaisir d’assister à une présentation de line-up grâce à Cheeky lors du Showeb. Enfin, j’ai découvert de nouvelles salles (Gaumont Disney Village, UGC Ciné Cité des Halles, Pathé Wepler, la Salle Môme de la Villette), visité d’autres pour la dernières fois (Étoiles Lilas, Gaumont Opéra Français) et testé de nouvelles techno (Dolby Atmos, ScreenX)

Voilà pour 2018 ! Pour ce qui est de 2019, voici les gros films qui m’intéressent pour le moment (dans un ordre aléatoire) :

Avengers: End Game, Ralph 2.0, Dragons 3, La Grande Aventure Lego 2, Spider-Man : Far From Home, Le Roi Lion, Star Wars IX, Captain Marvel, Alita, John Wick 3, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Joker,…

La prochaine review arrive très vite !

Donc si vous avez envie d’avoir un avis à chaud sans spoil sur les films en salles, gardez JeVaisCiner dans un coin !

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wbwest · 7 years ago

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West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 5/19/17 (Upfronts Edition)

Since this is my 4th annual network TV upfronts recap, we’re doing things a bit differently this week. So, sit back and hunker down, as this is gonna be a long one!

First up, I joined my buddy @ClassickMateria for the Classick Team-Up! Podcast last week, and the episode is now available to download. We chatted about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, recent TV news, and everything else under the sun. Definitely check it out here!

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

Avi Kaplan quit the Grammy Award-winning a cappella group Pentatonix, because he missed his friends and family. I dunno about you, but I think that money could replace them!

Katy Perry has signed on as the first judge on ABC’s American Idol reboot, while there are reports that Idol finalist Chris Daughtry is in talks to join the show

The Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons married his longtime partner, Todd Spiewak

The Flash cast member Keiynan Lonsdale came out as bisexual in an Instagram post

Hamilton‘s Daveed Diggs will star in TNT’s Snowpiercer pilot, based on the film, based on the French graphic novel

Conan O’Brien’s contract with TBS has been renewed through 2022, though no word on whether his show will switch to a weekly format as previously rumored.

DC stays losing, as actor Billy Crudup has left the Flash film, while it’s reported that Sam Raimi has turned down the director job

Power Rangers movie Black Ranger Ludi Lin has joined DC’s Aquaman film in the role of “Murk”, whoever that is…

Fox News personality, and former wife of California Lt Governor Gavin Newsom, Kimberly Guilfoyle has stated that she is currently being considered by the Trump Administration to replace Sean Spicer as White House Press Secretary. Gee, wonder what they see in her…

After 9 seasons, this weekend’s season finale will by Bobby Moynihan’s final episode of Saturday Night Live, as his series Me, Myself, and I was picked up at CBS.

LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 was announced, but it won’t be on the Xbox 360, so it means nothing to me

In the Live Stage Show on TV department, Fox announced that they will air A Christmas Story Live in December, followed by Rent Live later in the season. Meanwhile, ABC will air The Wonderful World of Disney: The Little Mermaid Live in October

I covered a ton of renewals and cancellations that went down last week, but this week was no different, as the networks had to lock in their schedules for the fall. Here’s what’s been canceled/renewed since the last time we talked:

Cancellations

Shots Fired (Fox)

2 Broke Girls (CBS)

Baby Daddy (Freeform)

The Great Indoors (CBS)

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (CBS)

Scream Queens (Fox)

The Odd Couple (CBS)

Training Day (CBS)

Ransom (CBS)

Renewals

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox)

Speechless (ABC)

Fresh Off The Boat (ABC)

The Son (AMC)

The Exorcist (?! – Fox)

Timeless (uncanceled by NBC)

Law & Order: SVU (NBC)

Elementary (CBS)

The Amazing Race (CBS)

Quantico (ABC)

New Girl (abbreviated 8-episode final season, with 3 year time jump – Fox)

Code Black (CBS)

Arrested Development (Netflix)

courtesy of TVLine.com

So, as I pointed out up top, this was Upfronts Week for the major networks, where they unveil their fall schedules to reporters and critics. I’ve got to say that this upcoming season does very little for me. While last year’s presentations had me excited, this year’s stuff just looks like retreads of ideas we’ve already had or obvious film scripts that have been adapted for television. That’s something that you’re going to notice a lot this year: shows that would probably make decent movies, but aren’t something you’d want to check in on a weekly basis. The week started with NBC’s presentation, so let’s start with their new shows:

NBC

NBC renewed a big chunk of their schedule, and they’re holding a lot of their new shows for midseason (for which they didn’t give us trailers!), so there’s not a lot of new for the Fall.

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The Brave – Formerly known as For God and Country, The Brave follows a multicultural team doing what I call “soldier shit”. That’s not to minimize what soldiers do; it’s just that there are certain things, like rescuing hostages, killing terrorists, etc, that are pretty much taken care of mainly by soldiers. Ya know, soldier shit. There are a lot of soldier shit shows coming this season, and this is merely one of them. We’re not necessarily in the most patriotic place right now, so I don’t know how these shows will fair. The trailer gives away the whole pilot, so do with that what you will. There’s an audience for this show, but I’m not it. Airing Mondays at 10, it’ll have a great lead-in in the form of The Voice, and its main competition in the timeslot will be Scorpion on CBS. By all accounts, it should have a fighting chance, so it’s The Brave‘s game to lose.

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Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders – I guess enough time has passed that this case is considered “sexy” now. Back in the early 90s, the Menendez Brothers killed their parents and it was a big deal. The brothers went to jail, where they started amassing groupies like they were in a boyband or something. I��m not even lying! Anyway, this is an anthology series, so it really doesn’t matter how it does. If it does well, we get another installment based on another real life crime. If it flops, then they can just act like it was a One & Done idea, and throw it out like all the other Law & Order spinoffs we’ve had over the years. It’s only 8 episodes long, and the timeslot goes to Chicago Med once it’s done. Anyway, it’s perched atop NBC’s newly rechristened Must See Thursday Night, with This Is Us as a lead-in, so they clearly expect big things from it. Its competition will be How To Get Away With Murder, which is by far the lowest rated of the ABC Shondaland dramas, and Shemar Moore’s S.W.A.T. over on CBS. I think it’ll do just fine.

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Will & Grace – So, this show’s back. Yay? I really loved the show in its original run, but I didn’t need it back. And while I barely remember its series finale, I remember something about Will & Grace not having spoken to each other for 15 years. So, is that out the window now? Who cares, I guess. I mean, if they can bring Roseanne back with all its continuity issues (yeah, I’ll get to that), then they can pull this off. I just don’t really know what the endgame is here. I mean, besides the fact that we’re in the Trump Administration, has the world really changed that much to be reflected in this show? I mean, any rights Will or Jack were granted are basically about to be taken away any day now, but is the show even going to go there? I just don’t see the point of this one. But it’s only, like, 12 episodes and, like all of these revivals, they’ll play it coy on longevity until they see how the numbers look. It’s going up against Grey’s Anatomy, Gotham on its new night, Supernatural, and The Big Bang Theory. Now, from a socioeconomic demographic standpoint, W&G and TBBT are going after different audiences, but I feel like the W&G audience moved on to Grey’s. It’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Let’s talk about some of NBC’s moves. Both Thursday night veterans Superstore and The Good Place are shifting to Tuesdays at 9 and 9:30. Now, they will have The Voice as a lead-in, but I feel like they should’ve stayed on Thursday if NBC really wanted to rebuild that night. I get that This Is Us is the breakout hit of the season, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to move it. It means it’s gonna be an uphill battle for NBC’s Tuesday comedies, as they’ll now be going up against Black-ish on its new night, as well as the Fox combo of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Mick. As far as Tuesday comedies go, somebody’s gonna have to flinch. The Fox shows don’t do all that well, but the NBC shows are kinda precious right now. They need to be nurtured, which is what leaving them on Thursday would’ve done. The Blacklist, meanwhile, moves to Wednesdays at 8, where it’ll go up against the moved Riverdale and Empire. I think they all have different audiences, though, so it shouldn’t take too much of a hit. Thursday got blown up, with Great News getting the post-Will & Grace slot mainly because Tina Fey. And This Is Us on its new night will now go up against Scandal *in its final season*. The balls on NBC! I get that it’s their chance to install a show that could take over Thursday once Scandal is done, but this is a risky move. Meanwhile, Blindspot and Taken are moving to Fridays where they’ll die because they’re both bubble shows that were narrowly renewed in the first place.

Fox

Next up, we’ve got Fox, where a WHOLE lot of shows are moving around. As for their new shows, they all look like interesting movies, but they just don’t grab me enough to want to be a regular viewer. Fox is really good about that. I remember loving Lethal Weapon this season, and then I didn’t watch a single episode after the pilot. I see a lot of that happening this season.

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Ghosted – Wow, where to begin? Two regular guys are kidnapped and recruited by a top secret organization that investigates the supernatural. As for casting, you can’t really go wrong with Craig Robinson and Adam Scott. This show is basically Hot Tub Time Machine 3, with more of a supernatural twist. The problem, however, is that’s exactly what this should have been: a mid-budget theatrical release that later finds its audience when it airs monthly on FX. This isn’t a weekly series, regardless of the fact that Robinson and Scott have fanbases. It’s slotted between The Simpsons and Family Guy, which sounds like a good thing, but that’s where middling comedies go to die. This season alone, that slot killed Son of Zorn and Making History. Now, it doesn’t really fit anywhere else on Fox’s schedule, as its “out there” nature makes it more at home with the animation stuff than, say, with New Girl and The Mick. So, that rules out Tuesday nights, which is the only other place Fox does comedies. Another problem is that Fox Sunday night just hasn’t been strong since they abolished the Animation Domination block. The Simpsons is a decent performer, and they keep it around to break records, while Family Guy is a shell of its former self, yet they don’t want to be the network that canceled it TWICE. Last Man on Earth is constantly a show on the bubble. Sunday nights need a shot in the arm, but this isn’t the show to do it. I don’t see this one having legs.

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The Gifted – This is the one everyone’s got their eyes on. A spinoff of the X-Men films, this show follows a family on the run when they discover that their kids are mutants. It doesn’t help that their dad is a former mutant hunter, so it’s his employers who are after them. I mean, it looks OK, but I didn’t wet my pants or anything. It’ll be really hard to do anything mind-blowing with a weekly TV budget, but the pilot was directed by Bryan Singer, so that’s gonna put butts in seats. Hell, if Gotham is going into season 4 (now on Thursdays at 8), I think this thing can survive. It’s probably pretty expensive, but Fox has been wanting to expand their comic offerings (after all, Black Lightning was originally meant for them), so this will be a good fit for the post Lucifer slot. Speaking of Lucifer, I never thought I’d see the day when a show about The Devil would air during the 8 PM hour (its new timeslot). I wonder how they feel about that in the Bible Belt. After all, I originally said they weren’t gonna let the show survive, and here it is entering season 3. I sure called that one wrong!

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The Orville – I love the idea here, as it’s basically Galaxy Quest: The Series. I mean, it’s clear Seth MacFarlane has an affinity for Star Trek, even if he’s spent more time reenacting the Star Wars saga on Family Guy. I’d love for this show to work, but I’m sure it’s on the expensive side. Now, Seth’s got a relationship with Fox, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they canceled it. It looks like the kind of show Fox loves to cancel. Now, it’s going up against Scandal and This Is Us, but I don’t think they share an audience. However, Arrow has been moved to Thursdays at 9, which I feel is its closest competition, as far as the male 18-49 demographic is concerned. There’s no way it wins its timeslot, so the question is what will Fox consider a “success” as far as its ratings go?

So, Fox’s moves are interesting. Lethal Weapon moves to Tuesday at 8, where it’ll go against The Voice, NCIS, and The Flash. It won’t win the timeslot, but maybe it can take some of The Flash‘s audience away from it. The Mick nows leads into Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as it’s now the stronger comedy, while Nine-Nine narrowly got renewed. On Wednesday, they moved Empire to 8, hoping it’ll be a good lead-in for Star. I honestly don’t think Star is a winner, and I think the only reason it got renewed was because A) it was created by Lee Daniels and B) its initial run was too short for them to gauge whether or not it was a success. For people looking for a nighttime soap as sudsy as Empire, they’re probably gonna choose the Dynasty reboot over on The CW, airing at the same time as Star. Meanwhile, Gotham moves to Thursday at 8, where it’ll go against The Big Bang Theory and Grey’s Anatomy. I think its biggest threat, however, comes in the form of Supernatural, now at 8 over on The CW.

Fox’s midseason bench doesn’t look too strong. I’ll take a quick look at those shows:

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LA To Vegas – It’s a show about the antics of a flight crew that handles the weekend LA to Vegas route. I don’t care who’s producing the thing, this is gonna be just another forgotten Fox sitcom.

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The Resident – Another “young doctor doesn’t play by the rules” show. It’s got Emily VanCamp, so that’s a plus. It could work. It looks very “Fox”.

ABC

ABC didn’t really do anything too drastic, with only a couple of new shows and a few moves.

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Ten Days In The Valley – Kyra Sedgwick plays a workaholic TV writer whose daughter goes missing. So, the show revolves around the hunt, and the fact that she can’t trust anyone around her, yadda yadda yadda. ABC probably feels like Sedgwick was quite the “get” after her critically acclaimed run on The Closer, but I just don’t know about this show. There’s nothing special about it. Sure, there will be twists and turns, but the fact that you can already predict those twists is what’s working against the show. Airing Sunday at 10, its only scripted competition, however, will be Madam Secretary over on CBS. I don’t think Madam is gonna destroy it, but I simply think this show is going to struggle to both find an audience and also keep that audience engaged. And what would a season 2 look like? I don’t think this is a winner.

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The Good Doctor – Fresh off A&E’s Bates Motel, Freddie Highmore stars as a young surgeon with autism. It’s from the creator of House, so you kinda know what you’re gonna get there. Ya know, he’s a miracle doctor who doesn’t do shit by the book. I really like the cast, with Richard Schiff (The West Wing), Hill Harper (CSI: NY), and Antonia Thomas (Misfits). I probably won’t watch it, but it could find an audience. The trick will be whether it genuinely portrays what it would be like to be an autistic surgeon. A lot of special interest groups will probably be keeping a close eye on this one, and I think a lot of people will be talking about it. Scheduled Monday at 10, its main competition is Scorpion and The Brave. I think it’ll do fine.

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The Mayor – A young rapper decides to run for mayor in order to get attention on his mixtape. Then he wins, and has to figure out how to actually be mayor. This sounds terrible. This is the kind of thing that would’ve gone straight to DVD starring fat Anthony Anderson back in 2001. I think the network was just desperate to get into bed with Daveed Diggs because of his Hamilton pedigree. While it will have Black-ish as its lead-in, it’s slotted where Imaginary Mary and The Real O’Neals went to die. Just like Tuesday 10 PM is the Death Slot, 9:30 isn’t much better. This thing simply doesn’t have legs. I just hope it lasts long enough for the rapper and Lea Michele to become a couple.

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The Gospel of Kevin – This looks like a reboot of Highway to Heaven. Jason Ritter plays Kevin Finn, who supposedly “isn’t a good guy”, even though the trailer doesn’t elaborate on why someone would think that. Anyway, one night he discovers a meteor, which actually contains an angel, played by comedian Cristela Alonzo. She’s gonna be his spirit guide, as he travels to country to gain his powers and change the lives of others. Yeah, it’s in the Tuesday Night Death slot, so that’s certainly a strike against it. Typically, new shows in the Tuesday 10 PM slot fail for ABC. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. only survived because it was a veteran, and even it got banished to Friday. Nothing can survive at in that slot, for whatever reason, and I don’t see Kevin bucking that trend. This thing is simply too high concept, and I’m not sure America’s ready for another angel show right now. This one doesn’t have a prayer.

Let’s talk about ABC’s moves. Shark Tank moves to Sundays at 9. I don’t know about that one. I know they’re rebranding Friday nights, but now it’ll be going up against football and NCIS: LA. I think this is only temporary, as it’ll eventually find a new home on the schedule – perhaps Tuesdays at 10? One that’s kinda controversial in my mind is the Minority Block they’ve created on Tuesday night. Things kick off with the struggling Hecks of The Middle, who’re then followed up by the Asians of Fresh Off The Boat, and the Blacks of Black-ish and The Mayor. I haven’t seen something this calculated since the days of UPN. Still, I guess we should just shut up and be glad for the representation. It’s weird because ABC’s Wednesday night is their comedy crown jewel, though they’re clearly trying to take back Tuesday. It’s just a question now of how they’re branding those nights. I get that they don’t want to move Modern Family, but Black-ish benefited from the 9:30 Wednesday timeslot because, even though they were different races, the Dunphys and the Johnsons occupied the same socioeconomic class. That’s got to translate into some sort of data for ad buyers. I guess you could say Black-ish “graduated” if they feel it can survive without Modern Family protecting it, but I hate that its old timeslot was given to American Housewife, which I’m kinda surprised was renewed. On Friday, Once Upon A Time moves from Sunday, while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will take over the 9 PM slot once Inhumans ends its run. A lot of folks feel like this is the death knell for both shows, since a move to Friday is always seen as a death sentence. I’ve never understood that, though, because if nerds truly have no lives, then shouldn’t they be home to watch these shows? Anyway, these shows are still on the air because they perform well on DVR/internationally, so their ratings clearly aren’t the only deciding factor.

Oddly enough, ABC’s most interesting new shows are being held for midseason. Since they won’t show up until January, I’m only gonna do some quick drive-by thoughts on them:

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Alex, Inc – Zach Braff quits his successful job to start a podcast company. This is gonna look so dated when we look back on it, kinda like Selfie (remember that show?). It’s apparently going into the Sunday at 10 slot, so I guess Ten Days In The Valley will have wrapped by then. CBS will still probably have Madam Secretary, but Sunday Night Football will be over, so it’ll be interesting to see what NBC puts against it.

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The Crossing – Steve Zahn is a small town cop who gets pulled into a mystery when a bunch of refugees from the future (!) wash up on his beach. I know I said I don’t like saga shows, but I really liked this trailer, and I can’t wait to see what this show is all about.

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Deception – a cool as shit illusionist helps the FBI solve crimes. It’s SUCH a procedural, and there’s the whole will they/won’t they trope between him and the lady agent, but I don’t care. It looks so slick! I can’t wait.

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For the People – A new Shondaland show about young sexy lawyers doing young sexy lawyer shit. It’ll be right at home in TGIT, especially once Scandal ends and frees up a slot.

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Splitting Up Together – This is a movie, not a show! It’s good to see Jenna Fischer again, and I’ve loved Oliver Hudson since Rules of Engagement. It’s basically about a married couple trying to manage a “conscious uncoupling” while keeping their sanity. And there’s the slight hint that they may realize new things about each other and want to stay together. I have no idea how this is gonna go, but I’ll check it out.

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Let’s revisit that Tuesday night situation, though, shall we? I feel like Black-ish is only keeping that slot warm for Roseanne‘s 8-episode run that debuts in 2018. They wouldn’t use it to kick off the night, as Roseanne‘s blue collar humor doesn’t necessarily translate at that hour, and I hardly see them bumping Modern Family on Wednesday night. So, I could see Roseanne returning to her Tuesday 9 PM roost of yesteryear. By this point, of course, The Mayor will already have been canceled, but Roseanne pairs better with The Middle than with Black-ish. I see a lot of comedy moves coming midseason for ABC.

CBS

CBS is “America’s Most Watched Network”, so they’re not making too many moves. Let’s take a look at their new shows.

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Wisdom of the Crowd – Jeremy Piven, with a fresh set of hair plugs, stars as a software developer who creates a crowdsourcing app to help solve the murder of his daughter. Sounds a lot like Person of Interest, right? I mean, didn’t they have a machine that predicted crimes or some shit? I dunno. I never watched it. I just know it starred Jesus after he couldn’t get any work anywhere. Anyway, you should really watch this trailer because it contains stuff that is totally possible, and I’m not sure that’s such a good thing. It’s probably where society is heading, but the idea of crowdsourcing evidence to solve crimes just sounds like there are SO many things that could go wrong. As you see in the trailer, they’re gonna play the long game with the case surrounding Piven’s daughter, as that takes a backseat to the app being used to help the cops solve other crimes. CBS audiences are older and not very tech savvy. They don’t like when their shows get too “techy”. Sure, Person of Interest lasted 5 seasons, but take a look at Pure Genius from just this season. It was about a young tech billionaire who was gonna use cutting edge technology to cure all the world’s diseases. It was canceled after its initial 13 episode order. I know Piven can be polarizing, so I just don’t know about this one. Luckily, it’s scheduled Sunday at 8, with no scripted competition other than The Simpsons, so it should have room to breathe.

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9JKL – HATE the title. It sounds like text speak or some shit. Instead, it’s about 3 apartments. Recently divorced actor Mark Feuerstein moves into apartment 9K, which happens to be between his parents, Elliot Gould and Linda Lavin, in 9J and his brother and his family in 9L. So, it’s a multigenerational, multi camera sitcom, starring a bunch of folks who tend to star in shows that are canceled. Again, I think the title hurts it, but it’s the kind of show that CBS could take or leave. The Big Bang lead-in should definitely help it, but the true test will be when Bang moves back to Thursday. I don’t think it’ll be a breakout hit, as it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel, but it might end up on the bubble and eke out a second season if CBS doesn’t have a deep bench next pilot season.

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Me, Myself, and I – Oh, boy. Where to start with this? OK, we follow the main character at 3 different points in his life: age 14, when he meets the love of his life, age 40, when he’s newly divorced and trying to put his life back together, and age 65 when he’s reunited with the love from age 14. This show is doing A LOT! The casting is what makes it, though. The kid is a newcomer, but I think audiences will take to him like they did Sean Giambrone as Adam Goldberg. The 40 year old is a hapless loser, played capably by SNL‘s Bobby Moynihan. Meanwhile, the 65 year old is played by Night Court great John Larroquette. Oh, and Jaleel White must’ve spent all his Urkel money, ’cause he plays the 40 year old’s best friend. For me, the casting is what sells this show. I really want it to succeed ’cause I like everyone involved. It’s just going to be tricky to navigate 3 different time periods, and is there some sort of master 7-season plan where everything converges? I’m really pulling for this one, but its quirkiness asks a lot of its audience – especially since it’s going to dance around CBS’s Monday schedule for the first few months.

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SEAL Team – More soldier shit, and this time the team is led by the sidekick from Bones, while taking assignments from Don Draper’s “third” wife. It’s the familiar trope of “They do such terrible shit out there that it’s hard for them to adjust to civilian life when they’re home.” Out of the three soldier shit series debuting this season, however, I think this one has the best chance of renewal based on the fact that it appeals to the NCIS/CSI sensibilities of CBS’s built-in audience. Fun fact: the lead role was originally going to Jesus himself, Jim Caviezel, but was recast when Caviezel left the project over creative differences. He might’ve brought the Person of Interest audience with him, but seeing as how Bones ran for 12 years (and don’t forget Angel), Boreanaz probably has a deeper fanbase.

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Young Sheldon – This is such an interesting experiment: a single camera prequel to an aging multi camera sitcom. I know CBS wants to keep The Big Bang Theory machine chugging along, especially considering it’ll most likely be done in two years. I just always felt like a Sheldon was a Less Is More kind of character. I don’t need to know about his childhood because I get enough of a glimpse from his anecdotes. I feel like the audience that enjoys him actually enjoys Jim Parsons’s portrayal of him, rather than the character himself. On his own, Sheldon is kinda unlikeable, due to his lack of social skills and decorum. Since he’s on the spectrum, however, that’s all forgiven. Now, I think Iain Armitage does a pretty capable job of being a young Sheldon, but he’s also very off-putting to the viewer. I’m not sure anyone is going to root for him. Instead, you kinda feel sorry for the people in his orbit: his family, his teachers, etc. They simply live in a different world than he does. I will say that Zoe Perry does an amazing job portraying a younger version of Sheldon’s mom, played by her real-life mom, Laurie Metcalf. One of the biggest complaints about The Big Bang Theory is that its humor kinda appeals to the lowest common denominator. It might be a show about smart people, but it’s not necessarily a smart show. That said, the single camera format tends to be used for smart shows, i.e. Modern Family, Arrested Development, etc. Will the traditional TBBT audience migrate over to this new show and format? I’ll be very interested to see how this does.

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S.W.A.T. – Ah, the show based on the movie based on the show. I wasn’t sure about this at first. I honestly didn’t see Shemar Moore as a leading man. I mean, he couldn’t even carry Soul Train back in the day, so how could he headline his own series? Anyway, the captain from Stargate Universe shoots a kid, and gets fired (can you believe that justice?!), so his S.W.A.T. unit is handed over to Shemar Moore. Now Moore’s forced to police the inner city neighborhood in which he grew up. There’s gonna be a lot of Black Lives Matter vs Blue Lives Matter stuff going on here. What happens where you’re both? The show is executive produced by Justin Lin (Star Trek Beyond, Fast & Furious 6), but something about this feels like a late 90s NBC show instead of a 2017 CBS series. The same way we may not be patriotic enough for soldier shit shows right now, I’m not sure this is the show that’s gonna redeem cops in a lot of folks’ eyes. It kinda fits CBS’s demographic, but they don’t do so well with the TV shows based on movies (Training Day, Rush Hour). It’s going against How To Get Away With Murder, which is the lowest rated of the Shondaland dramas, but it’s also going against NBC’s Law & Order Menendez spinoff. Even with limited competition, I don’t think this one gets a second season.

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And while this isn’t going on the main network, it’s still a CBS show. Star Trek: Discovery. All I can say is “NO!” “NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!” I don’t know what I wanted, but this wasn’t it. I know some folks are so desperate for new Trek, but I want it to make sense, and I want it to be good. I knew a prequel was the wrong move because technology has come so far, so you can’t help but make it look better than The Original Series, though it should look less advanced due to when it’s set. A lot of people are gonna “cape” for it because it has a strong, Black woman as the protagonist, but those people can’t see the forest for the trees. Everything about this looks wrong to me. It’s funny that so many of us were wondering how we were gonna pirate this show, but after seeing this, I have no interest. It looks like a well-made fan film. Pass.

Looking at CBS’s moves, they really played it safe. On Sunday, NCIS: Los Angeles and Madam Secretary both move back an hour, filling the slot left by Elementary (coming back midseason), and making room for Wisdom of the Crowd. At this point, CBS is the only network with scripted drama on Sunday night, so I think they’ll do fine. Monday is in constant flux, depending on whether or not its football season. When the season starts, The Big Bang Theory will kick off the night, before it eventually moves back to Thursday, ceding its timeslot to Kevin Can Wait (which will start the season at 9 PM prior to the move). Once football ends, Superior Donuts will return to take the 9:30 slot occupied by new comedy Me, Myself, and I (which will shift to 9 PM). Whew! See, that’s CBS’s big problem: they move their “iffy” shows around so much that they can’t find an audience. 2 Broke Girls was all over the schedule this season before it got the chop. Even if folks don’t watch TV live anymore, these moves make them forget a show even comes on anymore. On Wednesday, Criminal Minds shifts to 10 to make room for David Boreanaz’s Seal Team. Thursday and Friday remain pretty much the same. Like I said, other than the Monday kerfuffle, CBS played it pretty safe while introducing more new shows that the other networks.

The CW

Finally, we come to The CW where moves abound. First, however, let’s look at the new shows.

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Valor – More soldier shit, only this time it’s with overacting pretty people and a dash of PTSD. It falls into the category of something I’d watch as a movie, but I just don’t like getting on board “saga” shows these days because they have so many layers, and run the risk of being canceled before answering all, or any, of their questions. If they’re smart, this is a one season storyline, and then they’ll have to reinvent the show for season 2. That said, from what I see, I don’t think they need to be rushing to figure out a second season quite yet. Airing Monday at 9, it’ll probably get trounced by The Gifted over on Fox, as they both seem to be male-skewing shows, and I see Fox winning this round. I also don’t feel like Supergirl is the proper lead-in series, but they seem committed to keeping her kicking off Monday nights.

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Dynasty – I’m too young to have watched the original, but this reboot is The CW’s bread and butter. I don’t know if the characters or plot points are the same, but it’s rich, pretty White people doing trifling shit to each other. And it’s by the producers of The O.C. and Gossip Girl? Yeah, they’ll get a good 4-5 seasons out of this. This isn’t the first franchise The CW has resurrected, as they also did it with 90210 and Melrose Place. The latter didn’t go so well for them, but the former was a reliable staple of their schedule for 5 seasons. I can definitely see the same here.

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Black Lightning – It looks like your standard Berlantiverse show, even if it takes place in its own universe. The question is whether or not “The Community” is going to support it. People always plead for diversity, but then they don’t show up when it’s time. If you put out a Black Lightning comic right now, it would not sell. It just wouldn’t. So, will White audiences want to watch a show about a Black inner city vigilante trying to clean up the streets – especially when there’s no lure of a crossover with the shows they already love? It’s being held for midseason, so maybe it’ll take over Legends of Tomorrow‘s timeslot once it airs its unusual number of episodes (seriously, they have, like 16-episode seasons over there for whatever reason). Here’s the kicker, though: according to the network, the show won’t take place in the established Arrowverse, mainly due to logistics. It will be filmed in Atlanta, while the other shows film in Vancouver. As such, they’re also not planning a 5-way crossover between the shows. That last part makes me kinda glad, as I didn’t really think they tuck the landing with this season’s 4-way “Invasion” crossover. People might come out for this, but they might not. I really don’t know which way the wind blows with this one.

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Life Sentence – This is a movie, not a TV series. A young girl who thought she was dying finds out she’s cured and now has to learn how to live her life. I’d like it to survive, as it’s co-executive-produced by Bill Lawrence of Scrubs fame, but this has as much staying power as this season’s No Tomorrow. Oh, you never even heard of No Tomorrow? It was about a young woman who thinks the world is going to end, so she has to learn to live life to its fullest in the time that she has left. Yeah, kind of the reverse of this. It got canceled after its initial 13 episodes. Anyway, it’s cute and quirky, but I figure there’s enough there for about 90 minutes – not a full season. Anyway, it’s pretty clear why they’re holding this lil midseason.

Now, let’s talk about the moves because they are drastic. Riverdale moves from Thursday to Wednesday at 8, pitting it against Empire, The Blacklist, Survivor, and The Goldbergs. The show has a following, though, so I really don’t think this move will hurt it too much. If anything, it’ll give White folks a sudsy alternative to Empire at the same time. On Thursday, Supernatural moves to 8, while Arrow, ceding its timeslot to Riverdale, now occupies Thursday at 9 – pitting it against This Is Us, The Orville, and the final season of Scandal. Poor fucking Arrow. That is not an enviable place to be, but DVR might help it. If it gets absolutely killed, six seasons was a good run. I think it’ll make it to seven, but this move does it absolutely no favors. On Friday, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend moves to 8, while Jane the Virgin moves from Monday at 9 to Friday at 9. Online buzz is what keeps Crazy on the air, so maybe they’re hoping that’ll be the case for Jane? I know Jane has a fanbase, and Supergirl wasn’t the most logical lead-in for it, but Friday is always such an uncomfortable situation.

Anyway, after all of this, I think ABC has the best new offerings, though they’re holding most of them til midseason. I feel like NBC has the most stable schedule, and they’re taking the fewest risks, but CBS has more new Fall shows that I’m genuinely curious about. So that’s why CBS won the upfronts and had the West Week Ever.

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