Category: Movies

Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… – AFI

Afi sbtbs cover 1500px.jpg.

 

In many of Davey Havok’s interviews for this record he described the album as AFI’s first “mood record”. I didn’t quite understand what that meant prior to listening to the album, but I do now. The entire record is really well-layered and coated in shimmering guitars with chorus and flanger effects. I’m genuinely surprised by how much I’ve liked this record. I didn’t care much for the lead single “Behind the Clock”, in part because I don’t understand anything about the characters from David Lynch’s work. I liked “Holy Visions” more, but it is still a very weird song from AFI in isolation. The context of these songs within the record really makes me appreciate them. In the same way that “Holy Visions” is an odd song for AFI in isolation, so too is the record itself within the bands discography. It’s just a left turn. Thats not meant to be a judgement – I do after all love this record.

Glass Onion

What a fun movie. Both this movie, and Knives Out are awfully fantastical, but in truly the best way. The way Rian Johnson weaves together multiple story lines, frequently changing the meaning of words between the first and second time you witness a conversation, is just magical. The plot of both films feels a little absurd at times in some twists, but if you allow yourself to suspend your disbelief, they really are a fun ride.

Similar to Knives Out, the film revolves around its fantastic ensemble cast. The only returning character from Knives Out is Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc, the protagonist and a world renowned detective. I don’t recall the characters in the first film being tied so deeply into modern discourse, however this film certainly is. For instance, Kate Hudson plays a clueless model that simply can’t help making offensive and racist remarks; however, she thinks she is simply saying what everyone else is thinking. Similarly, Dave Bautista plays a mens’ rights activist that we are introduced to as he rants about the “Breast-ification” of America. Edward Norton’s character is somewhere between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg on the narcissistic-tech-billionaire spectrum, which makes his bullshit instantly recognizable to the audience, while still fun and new.

Lastly, the cinematography in this film is just as great as Knives out. The colors and lighting are always fantastic, and really immerse you in the scene. There’s one particular moment, which I won’t spoil entirely, where Edward Norton’s character is leaning into a darkened foreground as you can see a perfectly lit Benoit Blanc in the background. Really fantastic stuff, given what will be revealed later in the film.

Hereditary


My wife and I saw Hereditary when it was released in theaters in 2018. I recall enjoying it – it definitely had a few great shocking and spooky moments. However, I didn’t “get” the ending. It felt like the last 5 minutes took a hard left turn.

We rewatched the movie a week or so ago, and wow is that movie better the second time around. Given that we had a year gap between the first and second viewing, the surprising moments still had a bit of a punch, but we also had a completely new perspective on the characters and their motivations. Great movie.

Thoughts on Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi

*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***

Now that I’ve had some time to let the latest installment in the Star Wars saga to sink in, I thought I’d share some thoughts on the movie. Overall, I loved this movie. I think most of the criticism of the movie places the bar unattainably high. The two criteria for a good Star Wars movie are:

1) Making it fun for the general audience, while not abandoning the overall feel of the previous movies.

2) Ensuring the movie will captivate children, like the original trilogy did for my generation of fans, while not burdening the movie with vapid slapstick characters to get a cheap laugh (e.g. Jar-jar Binks, and to a lesser extent, Ewoks).

Rian Johnson, Kathaleen Kennedy, and company nailed these.

Regarding point (1): if your heart didn’t drop when (a) Poe Dameron turns on a time to get behind those tie fighters in the first scene, (b) when Vice Admiral Holdo sends her cruiser through Snoke’s ship, and (c) when it’s revealed that Luke is only an apparition in the final fight scene against Kylo Ren, you are truly lost. I accidentally said “cool” out loud in the theater during that moment with Poe.

Regarding point (2): They put a lot into this movie to sell the franchise to the next generation. That can be further bifurcated into things to captivate children today, and things to build the Star Wars universe for more films (thanks Disney!).

Clearly, all the cute and funny animals are there to sell plush toys to children. Disney is going to make bank on Porg merchandise in perpetuity, and things like that are going to make kids lifelong fans of the franchise. With the exception of the Vulptex (the Crystal Foxes), none of them really drive the plot forward, but none of them have enough screen time to really affect how I feel about the movie either (unlike Jar-jar). Thats a fine line, and I think the movie did a great job with it.

The other thing that I love seeing in these movies is the diverse cast. Disney is obviously pushing this to provide everyone (kids especially) with their own surrogate in these movies to empathize and relate to. This is true both in the main cast (e.g. Ray, Poe, Finn, and Rose) as well as with all the kids in the Fathier stables on Canto Bight. I love to think about how this is going to build lifelong Star Wars fans.

Disney and Kathaleen Kennedy also did a great job fitting this Episode within their larger Star Wars cinematic universe, and creating new forks for future movies. For instance, the first scene with the MG–100 StarFortress bombers where Paige Tico (Rose’s sister) falls down the ladder to build suspense to her eventual death, felt very much related to Rogue One. Further, even one of the lesser plots of the movie, Rose and Finn’s adventure on Canto Bight, felt like a clear fork into an eventual arms-dealing Star Wars film, as the franchise begins to explore parts of the star war unrelated to the Jedi and Skywalkers.

Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.

I loved how this film back-handed Episode VII and the (rightful) criticism it was too similar to Episode IV. From the first moment when Luke threw Ray’s lightsaber over the cliff, I should have known the ominous “This will not go like you think” line from Luke in the trailer was to be taken seriously. Rian was masterfully toying with us – I thought for sure Rey was going to have to lift his X-Wing out of the ocean like Yoda did on Dagobah. Further, I think most of the media speculation surrounding this movie focused on Supreme Leader Snoke’s origin, and the identity of Rey’s parents. Clearly, Rian Johnson did not agree. Snokes death really sealed that as if Rian was saying “It doesn’t matter who Snoke is, focus on Kylo and Rey”.

One of my favorite moments in the film was the “mirror scene” with Rey in the cave on Ahch-to. This was obviously meant to mirror (pun intended, clearly – good job Rian) the scene in Episode 5 when Luke goes down into the cave on Dagobah. There, Luke fights then decapitates an apparition of Darth Vader, revealing his face is behind Vader’s mask. In Episode 5, this foreshadows Lukes relationship to Vader and is a metaphor for the classic Father-Son struggle – wanting to fight the transformation of a son into his father. Here, it is so strikingly similar that Rey finds herself in the mirror in the dark side cave, but instead plays off of Rian’s message that the identity of Reys parents don’t matter. Rey matters. Brilliant.

My one criticism of the movie is that basically none of the jokes landed for me. I didn’t care for the “Do you talk or do I?” bit from Poe in Episode VII, and I didn’t care for the prank phone call to General Hux in this movie either. Jokes like that feel too contemporary. The ship-is-actually-an-iron gag falls into this category too. That felt like it should have been in Spaceballs. I don’t think they’re going to affect how most people will feel about the movie in 20 years, but I don’t think they’re going to get any funnier in time and that they’re going to date the movie a little too much instead.

Some other general thoughts:

1) The fight scene in Snoke’s throne room rivals the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan/Darth Maul for the best fight scene in the franchise.

2) I really hope Captain Phasma isn’t dead. The general consensus is she is, and thats obviously bad because her and Finn’s story arc would be a total dud. I think the blaster bouncing off her revealed how strong her armor is, and that she will survive the fire she fell into. I think we’ll see her without her armor in Episode IX, probably missing an eye.

3) Lukes arc from Episode IV through VIII has some strong echos of Anakin’s arc in the prequels. Starting training several years into life, when they understood love and loss, lead both characters major flaw to be their hubris. In Anakin’s case this leads to him thinking he can save Padme from death in child birth, and ultimately to his life as Darth Vader. In Lukes case, its that he can train a new generation of Jedi, leading to the metaphorical birth of Kylo Ren.

4) Crazy old Luke on that island felt a whole lot like crazy old Yoda on Dagobah.

5) I loved the Yoda in this movie. He looked much more like Episode V Yoda than Episode II Yoda.