Luke Cage: heavyweight disappointment

I've been a big fan of Netflix's Marvel line-up.

Daredevil was excellent. Jessica Jones was even better in a lot of ways. Iron Fist (hopefully) will be good...

Luke Cage, however, has been a bust... Part of that is (probably) due to source material, but I can't say for certain. All I've seen from Luke Cage as far as comics go was one or two guest spots in a Daredevil comic, and he didn't exactly impress. The outfit is goofy as can be, his catchphrase "Sweet Christmas" is groan-inducing, and there's just not much particularly interesting about him - super strong, invulnerable - kind of a black, flightless Superman.

The show improves on some of these things... Thankfully, the costume is done away with after a brief origin scene. He does say "Sweet Christmas," as well as "Sweet Sister," and probably a couple other "sweet" things... but there's really only so much that can be done.

Cage's "super power" is that he is unbreakable. Nothing can hurt him. Bullets, fists, blades - nothing. So most "fight" scenes are him walking through a storm of bullets and/or knocking people away with a flick of his wrist. Not very interesting. He does come up against some skeletons from his closet that exploit his weaknesses, but there's never any tension that Luke could actually be seriously harmed. Boring. And he doesn't exactly have a winning personality, either. He's big, quiet, will stand up for himself and others... And that's basically it.

The creative forces behind the show Luke Cage did the best they could - trying to ground Cage in reality, make him less ridiculous, more believable, more relatable - but those very forces aren't exactly potent either. I commend the show creators for tying into politics and current events (hoodies play a very big part in the show, as well as police-minority tensions), but this is a boring, prosaic show.

The best that can be said about Luke Cage, even at its best, is that it's competent. The action scenes are mundane, the direction pedestrian, the cinematography flat and uninspired... The music is excellent throughout, but that (honestly) is the best thing about the show. Which is a shame. Netflix and Marvel had made quite a formidable team - delivering numerous seasons of high-quality, cinematic television that reinvigorated a flagging brand after diminishing returns from multiple box office efforts, as well as a steep drop in quality.

Here's hoping Luke Cage was a fluke, and that Iron Fist will get them back on top.

Year-End Round-Up

This will be shorter than my typical "best of" posts from the past. With work, family, hobbies, obligations, there really just wasn't a whole lot of time for media consumption... There are a number of movies I didn't see that I would have loved to have seen, but it's already the end of January, so I'm going to go ahead and throw out what I've got, and if there's something exceptional I see on disc, I'll address it then...

MUSIC

The Satanist (Behemoth) - This CD is a couple years old at this point, but I've listened to it a lot this year, and there wasn't anything else that topped it. A masterful piece of metal, it grabs you by the throat and pummels you through the aether. Ridiculously fast, hard-hitting - the very definition of brutal - but there are moments of grace and beauty in the depths as well. One of the best metal albums I've ever heard.






BOOKS

The Familiar: Vol. 3 - Into the Forest (Mark Z Danielewski) - At times, it's understandable and even agreeable why Danielewski's latest could be called a big pretentious slog. But there's such beauty here, such power, such insight... if you give it a chance, the book will confuse you, entrance you, and even inspire you.






MOVIES

Swiss Army Man (dir. Dans) - Literally the most artsy-fartsy movie you could ever see, I loved almost every minute of it. Weird, unpredictable, touching, poignant... Swiss Army Man is at its best when it's free-wheeling between humanist angst and scatological absurdity; it drags a bit at the end when it tries to anchor itself in reality, but just about everything else about is a joyous celebration of life, love, lust, loss... Can't recommend it enough. My favorite this year.





Everybody Wants Some!! (dir. Richard Linklater) - This "spiritual sequel" to Dazed and Confused is at times more like an 80s-inspired remake... but it still never fails to deliver. A smile on my face from the opening song, Everybody Wants Some!! doesn't have the same ingenuity as Dazed and Confused, but it is more mature and polished. This comes a more confident filmmaker.

The whole Trump thing (no, not that one - the recent one)

Considering the sheer number of ridiculous statements the man makes, this may become a continuing entry, but for now...

I don't understand the outrage over Meryl Streep's speech at the Golden Globes. Once you get past the "look at us privileged people from humble beginnings" introduction, the content is quite elegant and hard to argue against.

(1) Primary message: be empathetic and compassionate to others, especially if you are in a position of power and the other is not.

(2) Secondary message: the press is accountable to the truth only, not to authority.
(3) Tertiary message: diversity matters.

I think if you showed somebody a transcript with the name removed, or even just talked about the actual content of the speech, they would be hard-pressed to say those are controversial messages.

So... why the "controversy"?

She never mentioned Trump by name, and I don't think anyone could justifiably call what she said "an attack"... There was no defamatory statement about Mr Trump. She said she was disgusted by his flagrant mocking of a disabled reporter, and that led into the statement on empathy. Again... why the controversy?

There's this implication that Hollywood is out of touch with "the common man," that liberal elites should "shut up and [do whatever they're paid to do]" rather than comment on politics... but Hollywood has been out of touch for a long time, so that's not the issue. And telling someone to not talk about something because you don't like what they're saying is just a childish thing to say - they can say anything, just as you can say anything in response.

One of the pillars of our democracy is that nobody is above scrutiny. Obama caught a lot of flak over his eight years - some of it deserved, some of it not. Would you have been just as outraged if Streep had been talking about him? If so, then you should look at your own biases.

What's more troubling in my mind is Trump's response... Because, really, who cares what Meryl Streep has to say? Even if she had outright insulted him or gone on this lengthy tirade, her statements are not going to affect anybody or anything. They're getting attention, but they'll be forgotten soon enough. Trump, however, will soon take office as the most powerful man in the world, and what was his response? To belittle her directly, and then go on the defensive to justify himself as right about months-old statements referring to a story about 9/11, all of which have proven false.

So, if Streep bugged you that much, or you're just generally outraged by the Hollywood elite, some suggestions...

(1) Take a breath. There are a lot of outspoken liberals involved in the movie-making process. But there are conservatives as well. It's everyone's right to say whatever they please.

(2) Boycott Meryl Streep. If it's that big a deal, don't watch her movies.

(3) Boycott Hollywood. Again - if you feel so strongly, do something about it. If you hate uppity liberal Hollywood and how much money they have and blah blah blah... then just don't give them money. Done.

For the Record (cue: needle drop)

We've done this song and dance before, you and I...




It's been (apparently) about eighteen months since my last entry (itself about eighteen months after its own previous entry), and I've got that itch again...


As it so often does, the keyboard calls for action.



After my first major break from writing, I started this blog and wrote a couple (what I hope were good) short stories. I can't guarantee the same will happen this time - but I've got the call again, and I'm hoping to answer it justly.




Goals for the New Year
(1) Write - at least a little bit - most days of the week. This will, likely, devolve into my insipid opinions on movies, books, or whatever media I've just consumed, but hopefully there will be at least a few nuggets of substance sprinkled in there somewhere. And even more hopefully, I'll be able to write something new.

(2) Finish a two-year-old story... No details, but I was cruising for a while on a story that had some really nice individual pieces, but then hit the inevitable road block, and it's been sitting untouched ever since. The hope is that the physical act of writing more will get me back into the rhythm, so I can find and complete the rest of the story.

(3) Other stuff - more mundane. Saving money, raising a happy healthy child, living healthier, all the other usual stuff people say at the start of the year.




Good luck to you and yours. I hope you'll wish the same to me and mine.

Patriot, Unrelenting: Thoughts on American Sniper

Last year, American Sniper did what no other movie about the Iraq war managed to do: it made money. With mostly positive reviews (72% on Metacritic) and enormous box office success ($350+ million in the US alone), the film was nevertheless a lightning rod of controversy. Some decried the story as hero worship, lauding Chris Kyle to near-messiah status; some felt the tone too jingoistic for such a complex situation. (There were other, more extreme opinions, but I'd rather spend time on the points that have at least some degree of merit.)

No matter the criticism - or perhaps even in spite of it - American Sniper became a rallying cry for conservative America. Pundits pointed to the film's financial success and lack of award status (ie, one minor-category Oscar with three major-category shutouts) as some sort of proof of Hollywood's "liberal agenda," or at the very least of being out of touch with the average moviegoer. (Um, duh - they're even out of touch with the artsy movie-goers.) For some reason, it became unacceptable to a huge number of people that a successful, popular, well-reviewed movie not be anointed "the best," even though box office darlings rarely take home Best Picture (or any Oscars, for that matter).

I did not see the movie when it came out. I had interest - I thought the trailer was strong - and I love a good film controversy, but there simply was not enough time/money/resources to see something that seemed most surely to be overrated, when there were so many other worthy films on my "to-watch" list.

So I waited until disc, and now I've finally seen it. And for what it's worth - now that the waters have calmed a bit from last winter - here's what I thought...


American Sniper (dir. Clint Eastwood) - 2/5

Chris Kyle was a super-soldier. With over 160 confirmed kills, two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars, and numerous other medals and distinctions, he was an ideal product of the US military. He was efficient, deadly, dedicated, and (with four tours of duty) unrelenting.

One of the big problems in reviewing any biopic, especially of such a lauded figure, is separating the film from the figure. Biopics try to "peel back the curtain" and show us what the subject was actually like. Some succeed, most (in my opinion) do not and simply become checklists of major accomplishments and setbacks. To its credit, American Sniper avoids the typical biopic pitfall: aside from the occasional caption which denotes which tour he is currently on, there is almost no mention of his prowess as a soldier. I cannot recall a moment when the number of honors and distinctions is mentioned, even at the closing credits, when most movies love to extoll the accomplishments of the subjects which had not been covered in the bodies of the films themselves.

The failing of American Sniper, though, is that while it does not fall into hero-worship (though a case could be made for the closing montage), it unfortunately does not reveal much about Kyle as a human being either. Much of the film is simply a collection of Kyle doing various things: here he is in the rodeo, here he is in combat, here he is at home. This can be a winning tactic in the right kind of movie, but American Sniper is not abstract enough to pull off this kind of technique. The movie lacks a narrative drive - there's nothing connecting these scenes other than the fact that Kyle is in each and every one of them.

The film portrays Kyle as an almost idealistic conservative force. His dedication to his principles is unrelenting, such that any sort of cynical and/or dissenting view is met with profound disbelief, or even threats of violence. This single-minded focus serves him well in his military career, but essentially wrecks every other aspect of his life, though he never admits it and the film barely acknowledges it. Bradley Cooper does an excellent job typifying this behavior, and his eyes show the internal struggle he must be going through... but at the same time, this struggle is only shown in Cooper's gestures and facial expressions. Aside from a recurring, opposing sniper trying to cash in a bounty, Kyle faces virtually zero opposition from anyone else in the film. His wife offers some occasional limp protest or incredulity early on, but is largely reduced to a one-dimensional cluster of doe-eyed support. Even when it's revealed late in the film that Kyle has been out of duty for an unspecified amount of time and has not returned home - has not, indeed, even told his wife he was going to be home, what is her response? I think most wives would be pretty angry, offended, and hurt. This was a man who (at least in the film) was basically an absentee father of two and an essentially uncommunicative husband, and yet she simply tearfully wishes he come home. She never raises her voice, never gets angry, never really addresses the deeper issue - that Kyle clearly feels more at home in a war zone than with his family - and that is the end of the scene. I have to say that it plays pretty well, I just found it hard to believe that's how any real, flesh-and-blood woman would react.

This was my other major issue with American Sniper: I never really "bought" any of it. Did it seem based on true events? Yes. Was it a faithful adaptation of Kyle's life and autobiography? Probably. But it just never quite worked. Clint Eastwood's spare, economic direction vacillates with elements of realism, stylism, formalism, and hyper-realism, but never quite finds the appropriate balance, nor does it commit to any one style wholeheartedly. The battle scenes are somewhat convincing, except when they're not - there's an effective, sadistic standoff involving locals, terrorists, and a powerdrill done in a hyper-realistic style, but then there are stylistic flourishes of unconvincing slow-motion bullets and poorly rendered, video game-quality CGI that only pull you out of the experience. I can understand filming certain scenes in a certain style and other scenes in other styles, but the lack of any unifying vision or tone simply highlights Eastwood's mishandling and misdirection of the material.

There are things to like about the movie, however. Bradley Cooper nails the performance as a fierce, terse Chris Kyle, bringing nuance and shading beyond what is present on the page, or even in the rest of the film for that matter. In a Best Actor field that was cluttered with biographical portrayals, Cooper's version of Chris Kyle was the only performance that went beyond mere imitation and provided a glimpse (frustratingly, only a glimpse) into what it was that defined and drove the man. (As a sidenote: Keaton's fearless, soul-baring performance in Birdman was the best of all the nominees, but Cooper's was a more heartfelt and, ultimately, "real" performance than Redmayne's.) The cinematography, while spare and unimaginative, is nevertheless effective. What sinks American Sniper is, in my opinion, the failure to focus on Chris Kyle's mentality and humanity, instead focusing on his actions; and a severe lack of vision and direction of the material by Eastwood.

There's the potential for a good movie here, even a great one, but the only one who rose to the occasion was Bradley Cooper.