Aquaman

Last night I got to see a Thursday preview of Aquaman, the latest installment in the DCEU.  I have really been looking forward to this movie for the simple reason that it stars Jason Momoa and two and half hours of looking at Jason Momoa on a big screen is pretty much awesome!  The movie begins with the backstory of how Arthur Curry's father Tom (Temuera Morrison), a lighthouse keeper, finds Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), a queen from the lost civilization of Atlantis, washed up on shore.  They fall in love and have a son named Arthur who grows up to become the anti-hero (Momoa) that we met in The Justice League.  Meanwhile, in the kingdom of Atlantis, Arthur's half-brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson) is trying to unite the seven underwater kingdoms, either by an alliance or by force if necessary, to become Ocean Master so that he can wage war on land to punish humanity for polluting and militarizing the ocean.  King Nereus (Dolph Lundgren) has formed an alliance with Orm but his daughter Mera (Amber Heard) wants to avoid war.  She asks Arthur to take his rightful position as king by challenging Orm but he is ultimately unsuccessful.  Mera believes the only way Arthur can defeat Orm is by finding a lost trident wielded by an ancient king of Atlantis which will give him control of the sea.  They go on a quest to find it but Arthur must also contend with a pirate, known as Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who has been given Atlantean technology and blames Arthur for his father's death.  The movie concludes with an epic confrontation between Arthur and Orm for control of the ocean.  This movie has some flaws but it is quite the spectacle and I really enjoyed it (Did I mention that it stars Jason Momoa?).  It sometimes feels overlong and repetitive and there is some truly cringe-worthy dialogue but the world-building and visuals are amazing.  The underwater battles are incredibly dynamic with 360-degree camera work, fast-paced action sequences, psychedelic colors, and fantastical creatures (my favorites are the armored seahorses).  Arthur has a nice character arc as a reluctant hero who learns what it means to be a king and Momoa imbues him with a wisecracking charisma that is a lot of fun.  Again, there are flaws but I think this movie is awesome (Did I mention that it stars Jason Momoa?)

Mary Poppins Returns

I have been anticipating Mary Poppins Returns for what seems like forever (it stars Lin-Manuel Miranda, after all).  I had the chance to see it last night and not even a theater full of crying and disruptive children could dampen my enthusiasm for this wonderful movie!  I absolutely loved it!  It is twenty years after the events in Mary Poppins and Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) still lives on Cherry Tree Lane with his children John (Nathanael Saleh), Annabel (Pixie Davies), and Georgie (Joel Dawson).  He is assisted by his incompetent housekeeper (Julie Walters) and his activist sister Jane (Emily Mortimer).  However, tragedy has struck the household because Michael's wife has recently died and the family home is about to be repossessed by the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, now being run by William Wilkins (Colin Firth).  It's Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) to the rescue when she retrieves Georgie's kite and returns to Cherry Tree Lane.  She and Jack the Lamplighter (Miranda) take the children on adventures in the bathtub ("Can You Imagine That?"), in a Royal Doulton bowl ("A Cover is Not the Book"), in a Fix-It Shop ("Turning Turtle"), and in the London fog ("Trip a Little Light Fantastic") before helping the Banks family find their mother ("The Place Where Lost Things Go") and save their house ("Nowhere to Go But Up").  I had a huge smile on my face the whole time I was watching it because, while it is a new story, it is just as whimsical and charming as the original.  Blunt and Miranda (sigh) are absolutely delightful, the children are adorable, the songs are a lot of fun, the choreography is spectacular (especially in "Trip a Little Light Fantastic" which is my favorite number because it reminds me of all of those old fashioned Hollywood musicals), and the visuals are stunning!  It is a heartwarming story and I may or may not have been openly weeping when the children sing a reprise of "The Place Where Lost Things Go."  I loved all of the cameos including Meryl Streep as Mary's eccentric cousin Topsy, David Warner as the Admiral who lives next door and Jim Norton as his First Mate, Dick Van Dyke as the Chairman of the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, and Angela Lansbury as the Balloon Lady.  This movie is practically perfect in every way and I highly recommend it, especially if you are nostalgic for the original!

The Mule

Last night I crossed yet another movie off my list by seeing The Mule.  I was very intrigued by the trailer but I found the movie itself to be boring and very forgettable.  It is a character study of Earl Stone (Clint Eastwood), a 90 year old horticulturalist whose business has been ruined by the internet but not before it took him away from his family too many times.  He is trying to make amends with his ex-wife (Dianne Wiest), daughter (Allison Eastwood), and granddaughter (Taissa Farmiga) but they are not making it easy on him, for good reason. A random encounter leads to a job as a mule for a drug cartel which he thinks of as a one time thing to earn money for his granddaughter's wedding.  However, he keeps finding ways to use the money and continues, becoming more and more entrenched.  Despite the fact that Earl is a successful mule precisely because he is unpredictable, a cartel boss (Andy Garcia) assigns him a handler (Ignacio Serricchio) who puts pressure on him to conform to their instructions which, ironically, puts him on the radar of two DEA agents (Bradley Cooper and Michael Pena).  When his ex-wife gets sick, he decides to go AWOL from a drug run to reconcile with his family which gets both the drug cartel and the DEA after him.  There are quite a few problems with this movie, in my opinion.  I did not find Earl to be a very sympathetic character because he is a racist curmudgeon who just smiles when people call him out on his derogatory comments as if he can't be held accountable for anything because he is old.  It really bothered me.  Most of the other characters do not get a lot of development and, after leaving the theater, I struggled to remember their names.  Even great actors like Wiest, Pena, and Cooper can't do much with the material.  I found the portrayal of women to be very off-putting because every character is either a shrew or a sex object.  There are long sustained shots of women twerking and Earl has, not one but two, threesomes with prostitutes.  Ew!  Earl's reconciliation (undeserved, in my opinion) with his family happens very quickly and feels contrived so it doesn't have the emotional punch that this movie needs.  Finally, there are way too many scenes of Earl driving along the highway singing along to the radio and, after a while, I found them to be boring.  There is not a lot of tension in this movie and the final confrontation between Earl and the DEA feels inevitable and anticlimactic.  Meh.  Give this one a miss.

The Favourite

I have a really long list of movies to see in the next little while (it might help if I didn't keep going to see Bohemian Rhapsody over and over) but I crossed one of them off yesterday by seeing The Favourite.  In 18th century England, Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) suffers from gout and is more concerned with playing with her rabbits (which represent all of the children she has lost) than in governing the country which is it war.  Anne's closest confidante, and secret lover, is Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz).  Anne is completely under the control of Sarah, who essentially rules the country through her influence and advocates for more taxes to support the war.  Abigail Hill (Emma Stone), a cousin of Sarah's whose family has lost their place in society, applies to Sarah for a job at court and is employed as a scullery maid.  Abigail impresses Anne when she creates an herbal remedy for her gout and is promoted.  She cultivates an alliance with the opposition in government, Robert Harley (Nicholas Hoult), who encourages her promotion because he wants her to influence Anne to end the war.  She eventually begins to insinuate herself into Anne’s favor which causes open warfare between Abigail and Sarah.  Much like Yorgos Lanthimos' other films, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, this is a scathing and satirical commentary on social norms and, while it is much more accessible than the other two, it is filled with the absurd (racing ducks, throwing pomegranates at a naked man, and breakdancing at a ball).  His movies always make me laugh but feel vaguely uncomfortable!  However, it is just so much fun watching the machinations of both Sarah and Abigail as they compete for power and I never really knew which one I wanted to prevail.  Weisz and Stone give amazing performances but Colman is simply brilliant as the capricious and petulant, yet ultimately sympathetic, Queen who plays both women off of each other for her own gain.  The use of a fish-eye lens, long tracking shots, and the low-angle perspectives all serve to keep the action slightly off-kilter and the use of low lighting emphasizes the intrigue.  The overdecorated interiors and elaborate black and white costumes are a superb backdrop for this biting comedy of manners.  It isn't for everyone but I loved it!

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

I went to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse last night and, not only did I love it, but I had so much fun in a packed theater of rowdy and appreciative fans who laughed and cheered throughout!  It is absolutely fantastic and manages to create a story, about a character that we have seen so many times, that is fresh and original!  Miles Morales (Shemeik Moore) is bitten by a radioactive spider and, after waking up with superpowers which disrupt his life completely, he returns to the alley where he was bitten.  He finds a secret lab with a supercollider created by Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) to access parallel universes in order to bring back alternate versions of his wife and son who died during an altercation with Spider-Man (Chris Pine).  Spider-Man appears in order to disable the collider but, after he is wounded when he falls into it, he asks Miles to destroy it.  This also allows several incarnations of Spider-Man from parallel universes to appear including a down-and-out Peter B. Parker/ Spider-Man (Jake Johnson),  spunky Gwen Stacy/ Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), the cartoon Peter Porker/ Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), a monochromatic Spider-Noir (Nicolas Cage), and Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) a young Japanese girl who pilots a biomechanical spider.  After Spider-Man dies, they help Miles discover his powers and find the motivation to fight Kingpin as well as other familiar villains.  It is so clever and funny but it has quite a few surprisingly poignant moments, as well, and I love the message that anyone can be a hero.  The characters are a lot of fun and are very well-developed.  The animation is absolutely dazzling, unlike anything I have ever seen before, because it looks like you stepped inside of a comic book.  Each Spider-Man character has his (or her) own comic book style (I really liked Peni because she looked like an anime character).  The music is also fantastic, featuring the hip-hop music that Miles listens to, and I especially like "What's Up Danger" by Blackway and Black Caviar.  This movie is so much fun and I highly recommend seeing it on the biggest screen possible!

Note:  There is a cameo with Stan Lee and a post-credits scene.  Both are really great!