Summer movie season is upon us! And a summer movie that has all the appearance of peaking real damn early, though compared to 2015, I find it much easier to be excited about several of the tentpoles. There is, of course, no Mad Max: Fury Road in the wings, and the first blockbuster movie season in the wake of Fury Road was always going to seem a bit empty.
6.5.2016
Fingers all crossed for Captain America: Civil War, since for me at least, it's the last of the many upcoming Marvel movies that I'm actually excited to see (I am in principle persuadable that both Black Panther and Doctor Strange will be good, but the teaser trailer for the latter deflated my expectations considerably). Part of this is rank optimism: the Captain Americas have certainly been my favorite mini-franchise within the greater Marvel octopus, and if indeed this is a third Captain America and not an Avengers in CA drag, I will be at least somewhat satisfied. The ad campaign is promising something overstuffed and pandering - and the brief shot of Spider-Man is unabashedly terrible - but maybe, hopefully, also something a bit more somber than the usual MCU adventure, without the gaudy melodrama of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Anyway, it's the tentpole I'm most excited about this season, so we'll know pretty soon if the summer of '16 is doomed or not.
If you live someplace that I don't live, this is the weekend you'll get to see A Bigger Splash, reuniting director Luca Guadagnino and star Tilda Swinton of I Am Love. It's basically the art house version of an Avengers spin-off.
13.5.2016
As will happen, the big studios have left the weekend essentially barren until the Marvel film burns off some demand, with the 100% generic looking horror movie The Darkness and the grim-faced financial thriller Money Monster, starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and a perverse lack of fun, meekly wandering into wide release.
The limited NY/LA releases, though, now that's a god-damned treasure trove: Jacques Audiard's Palme d'Or-winning Dheepan hits the United States just before it's one-year birthday, as does the magical-realist romantic drama The Lobster, the first film in English by Yorgos Lanthimos. Whit Stillman, beloved chronicler of talky upper-class types, adapts an obscure Jane Austen novella with Love & Friendship, and Britain's genre film whiz-kid Ben Wheatley takes on J.G. Ballard, in High-Rise. 2016 surely isn't going to produce a more succulent quadruple feature than that! For the record, I'm most eager to see the Lanthimos, but each and every one of these is on my top ten most anticipated for the rest of the year.
20.5.2016
The Angry Birds Movie is... in existence. God, I don't know. What's the sport in making fun of it, even? It missed its window by two years, because that's how long it takes to make an animated feature, and now it really just makes me sad more than anything.
Elsewhere, I would not have said that 2014 Neighbors, in which Zac Efron's frat makes Seth Rogen unhappy, needed a sequel, but I would do pretty much anything to spend more time in the presence of Rose Byrne's character from that movie, so Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising looks like a pretty safe bet to me. Lastly, and easily most importantly, Shane Black directs Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in the private eye comedy The Nice Guys, and while I can't shake the feeling that something seems whiffy about the whole affair, the last time Black made a detective picture - eleven whole years ago now, with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - the results were transcendent. Feeling cautious optimism here, maybe not even all that cautious.
27.5.2016
There is something deeply upsetting about the fact that Disney is extruding a sequel to the intensely repulsive Dark & Gritty Alice in Wonderland, home of the ugliest Wonderland in the annals of cinema, six years and change after the fact. But here we are, with Alice Through the Looking Glass. Fair's fair, it looks maybe better? The trailer suggests something closer to L. Frank Baum's Oz books than Lewis Carroll, and that really can only help. But I think we should still pencil this in as a likely candidate for the worst film of the summer, and be depressed in advanced that it's going to be the last released project featuring the late, lamented Alan Rickman.
The year's fourth big superhero movie - and it's only May! - can't help but feel like an anti-climax, but X-Men: Apocalypse has a few points in its favor: it's coming off of the rejuvenating X-Men: Days of Future Past, and it's directed by Bryan Singer, who has been responsible for the three best X-Men movies to date. Also, Oscar Isaac is Apocalypse, and Isaac is a good luck charm. That all being said, a big part of Days of Future Past's charm was pulling back the franchise's first ensemble cast alongside its weaker second ensemble, and there'll be none of that here, plus Singer's storytelling instinct has always been to double-down on Wolverine, and this will not be happening here. So probably best not to get too excited, but if it does end up being better than Civil War, that won't be, like, an astonishing twist.
03 May 2016
15 comments:
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"The ad campaign is promising something overstuffed and pandering - and the brief shot of Spider-Man is unabashedly terrible - but maybe, hopefully, also something a bit more somber than the usual MCU adventure."
ReplyDeleteI've seen it - the film could reasonably be accused of being overstuffed, by dint of the sheer volume of characters. But it is absolutely, irrefutably more sombre, and it comes by it honestly and with integrity. It's the test of the bonds that hold the Avengers together in all the ways Age of Ultron wasn't.
"...if indeed this is a third Captain America and not an Avengers in CA drag..."
ReplyDeletePrepare to be disappointed
Its totally an Avengers movie
ReplyDeletebut
its also the BEST Avengers movie
and there's a climax that's very personal and small scale instead of being yet another giant CG thing falling from the sky/big portals everywhere that brought down Winter Soldier.
I'm guessing the reason Marvel doesn't consider this next one an "Avengers" film is because Thor and Hulk are nowhere to be found (we'll see what they're up to in the next Thor movie), even though just about everyone else is in this. Still, I think it's the best of the MCU films so far and it's probably the film that's most rewarding to anyone who has been loyal to these films up to now, since a lot of what happens in the film becomes incredibly satisfying because of how well we've come to now RDJ's Tony Stark and Chris Evans' Captain America, as well as all the side characters that typically tag along for their adventures.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I look forward to your thoughts on that one.
You gotta gotta gotta see Green Room. I know it's only May but I'm having a hard time seeing anything knocking that out of my #1 of 2016 spot.
ReplyDeleteTim, have you seen Svankmajer's 1988 ALICE? If you thought Burton's was ugly...well, Svankmajer's was supposed to be ugly. I'd like to see you review it.
ReplyDeleteMichael- It's in Madison now! I'm hoping to make it out on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteMadelyn- Seen it, loved it with feverish love, imported the BFI Blu-ray with the original Czech language track so that I'd have it on hand to review it for Blockbuster History in a few weeks. Sh, don't tell anybody!
I feel like I'm the only one getting more and more hyped for Apocalypse. But every teaser, trailer, and pic just excited me a bit more.
ReplyDelete"since for me at least, it's the last of the many upcoming Marvel movies that I'm actually excited to see" You're not looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy 2? Everyone on the last one is back again.
ReplyDeleteAlso are you persuaded by the possible good of Taika "What We Do In The Shadows" Waititi's Thor: Ragnarock? Or Captain Marvel written by Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve of Inside Out fame?
About Civil War: I'd split the difference: it's kind of like the "real" third act of The Winter Soldier after that film's titular character was shunted rudely out of his own movie, inflated to 150 minutes by a lengthy parenthetical setting up the titular fight (which boils down to a single, desperately generic action scene) and resolving it well before the actual plot begins winding down. Generally speaking the "Captain America" parts of it are somber and thoughtful and compelling, and the "Civil War" portion is jokey and badly-plotted and dull, making this by my reckoning the third of three Captain America films where the parts pertaining to the subtitle are the worst and most hamfisted part of the movie.
ReplyDeleteAbout The Lobster: I have no idea how this made it to country Australia nearly a full year before US screens, but I've seen it twice and it's a total delight, and I hope you get the chance to catch it before long.
Seriously what is going on with the X-Men franchise and posters? I thought Days of Future Past with its rocket-wheelchair was as catastrophically bad as you could summarize a film in an advertising image, but Apocalypse, with its shiny bald centerpiece, lens flare armpits, and characters that look like slightly miniaturized versions of other characters is giving it a serious run for its money.
ReplyDeleteNo mention of Finding Dory? It will probably be a dud, but...
ReplyDeleteFinding Dory comes out June 17th.
ReplyDeletePlus, I'm reasonably sure Finding Dory will not be a dud, commercially or critically. All signs are pointing to another smash hit for Disney/Pixar this year.
ReplyDeletethe teaser trailer for (Doctor Strange) deflated my expectations considerably
ReplyDeleteReally? I liked it a lot. (Of course, I'm a sucker for Matrix/Inception-type stuff...)