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cjlasky7Happy holidays everybody!
Three very different, very entertaining and/or thought provoking pop culture nuggets for your perusal:
American Fiction (written for the screen and directed by Cord Jefferson)
I have to give it up to the screenwriter/director. Given the premise--"serious" novelist pens sterotypical ghetto tragedy potboiler as a joke and winds up with runaway best seller--this could have been a wild, uninhibited farce with our protagonist squeezed into ever more embarrassing situations and parodic scenes from the novel filling up the movie.
But Jefferson does something interesting: yes, some of the farcical elements are here, as Monk (Jeffrey Wright) slams head first into a white-dominated media world that only seems interested in black suffering. But he deliberately undercuts the farce with more grounded scenes with Monk as he deals with his troubled family and his own conflicted self-image.
As a result, the movie is less about white liberal hypocrisy or even black family life, and more about Monk's growth as a character; how his serious novels (based on updates of Ancient Greek drama) and his elitist views of literature reflect his own detachment from the forces that shaped him, and how his "joke" novel allows some of those conflicts to seep out.
The movie never settles into easy answers to Monk's issues. There are no pat resolutions to the family drama--and even the "sellout" author who provokes his vicious parody (played beautifully by Issa Rae) is given the chance to state her case.
Some critics wanted a more caustic satire, more like the original novel or in the vein of Spike Lee's Bamboozled. But Jefferson isn't as didactic as Lee. Character comes first--and in that, he has the perfect partner in Jeffrey Wright. I think Wright is one of the best actors on the planet and this movie has done nothing to change my opinion. Thelonious "Monk" Ellison could have been an abstraction; Wright makes this very difficult character feel real and he holds the center of the movie.
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (written and directed by James Gunn)
As I am not blessed with a Disney+ subscription, I missed out on this seasonal treat a few years ago; so I was delighted when FX picked it up for holiday viewing.
A GotG Xmas special sounds weird, but fans of the franchise know this is right up James Gunn's alley: an absolutely sincere tribute to the cheeseball Xmas specials of holidays past, with just enough of an acknowledgement of their absurdities.
Wedged in between the second and third GotG movies, the plot is simple: Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is depressed, and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) wants to cheer him up with a present for that strange Earth holiday called Christmas. But what to get him? Drax (Dave Bautista) has the perfect gift idea: why not bring Quill that great warrior he keeps blabbering about...
Kevin Bacon?
So Drax and Mantis warp down to Earth and kidnap Kevin Bacon.
Yeah, it's every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, but Gunn fires off some great comic riffs as Drax and Mantis bounce across Los Angeles like a pair of demented Christmas elves, photobombing the tourists, partying at the club, and terrifying poor Kevin Bacon (who just wants to sit quietly at home until Kyra Sedgwick and the kids come back from New York).
But once the silliness subsides and Kevin chills out, Gunn flips over to the sentimental side of these specials and it fits nicely into Guardians lore: Drax tells Kevin that Footloose inspired the Starlord dance moves that saved the galaxy; and Mantis gives Quill the best Christmas present of all--the sister he never knew he had.
It's not an all-time classic, but it goes down pretty smooth, and for devoted Marvel maniacs, it's an essential piece of the GotG story. (I will say, tbough, that the, um, unusual take on the legend of Santa Claus by the alien rock and roll band should be a perennial.)
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (co-written and co-directed by Nick Park)
For a Wallace and Gromit fan, there is a feeling of happiness and reassurance from a simple trumpet fanfare. That familiar theme music tells you that you are back in the Claymation world of Nick Park and Aardman animation and you are safely in the hands of a master.
Vengeance Most Fowl is the first W&G movie in nineteen years, but Park and his team haven't missed a step. In fact, the backgrounds seem to be packed with more detail than ever before; the gags are even more exquisitely timed; and the supporting characters are better than ever in adding depth to Wallace and Gromit's world.
Thankfully, Wallace and Gromit themselves haven't changed at all. Wallace is still the model of dotty, kind hearted British eccentricity, tinkering with his gears and tubes and springs to the silent exasperation of Gromit, his ever loyal canine companion. (Ben Whitehead, taking over the voice of Wallace from the late Peter Sallis, is nearly flawless.) One of Wallace's inventions goes awry/falls into the wrong hands and Gromit has to dig in his paws and save the day.
The big improvement over the previous W&G movie is the return of the series' greatest villain: Feathers McGraw, the silent, beady-eyed penguin mastermind from The Wrong Trousers. One of the pleasures of the movie is watching McGraw's machinations slowly unfold. His plan to escape his prison (the local zoo, of course), get revenge on Wallace and Gromit, and complete his final theft is almost as detailed as the animation itself.
I could spend another ten paragraphs listing the great gags in this movie, from the terrifying antics of Wallace's automated garden gnome to the climactic barge "race"; but you should just see it for yourself. (Vengeance Most Fowl is in limited release in movie theaters, and debuts on Netflix in early January.)
Three very different, very entertaining and/or thought provoking pop culture nuggets for your perusal:
American Fiction (written for the screen and directed by Cord Jefferson)
I have to give it up to the screenwriter/director. Given the premise--"serious" novelist pens sterotypical ghetto tragedy potboiler as a joke and winds up with runaway best seller--this could have been a wild, uninhibited farce with our protagonist squeezed into ever more embarrassing situations and parodic scenes from the novel filling up the movie.
But Jefferson does something interesting: yes, some of the farcical elements are here, as Monk (Jeffrey Wright) slams head first into a white-dominated media world that only seems interested in black suffering. But he deliberately undercuts the farce with more grounded scenes with Monk as he deals with his troubled family and his own conflicted self-image.
As a result, the movie is less about white liberal hypocrisy or even black family life, and more about Monk's growth as a character; how his serious novels (based on updates of Ancient Greek drama) and his elitist views of literature reflect his own detachment from the forces that shaped him, and how his "joke" novel allows some of those conflicts to seep out.
The movie never settles into easy answers to Monk's issues. There are no pat resolutions to the family drama--and even the "sellout" author who provokes his vicious parody (played beautifully by Issa Rae) is given the chance to state her case.
Some critics wanted a more caustic satire, more like the original novel or in the vein of Spike Lee's Bamboozled. But Jefferson isn't as didactic as Lee. Character comes first--and in that, he has the perfect partner in Jeffrey Wright. I think Wright is one of the best actors on the planet and this movie has done nothing to change my opinion. Thelonious "Monk" Ellison could have been an abstraction; Wright makes this very difficult character feel real and he holds the center of the movie.
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (written and directed by James Gunn)
As I am not blessed with a Disney+ subscription, I missed out on this seasonal treat a few years ago; so I was delighted when FX picked it up for holiday viewing.
A GotG Xmas special sounds weird, but fans of the franchise know this is right up James Gunn's alley: an absolutely sincere tribute to the cheeseball Xmas specials of holidays past, with just enough of an acknowledgement of their absurdities.
Wedged in between the second and third GotG movies, the plot is simple: Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is depressed, and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) wants to cheer him up with a present for that strange Earth holiday called Christmas. But what to get him? Drax (Dave Bautista) has the perfect gift idea: why not bring Quill that great warrior he keeps blabbering about...
Kevin Bacon?
So Drax and Mantis warp down to Earth and kidnap Kevin Bacon.
Yeah, it's every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, but Gunn fires off some great comic riffs as Drax and Mantis bounce across Los Angeles like a pair of demented Christmas elves, photobombing the tourists, partying at the club, and terrifying poor Kevin Bacon (who just wants to sit quietly at home until Kyra Sedgwick and the kids come back from New York).
But once the silliness subsides and Kevin chills out, Gunn flips over to the sentimental side of these specials and it fits nicely into Guardians lore: Drax tells Kevin that Footloose inspired the Starlord dance moves that saved the galaxy; and Mantis gives Quill the best Christmas present of all--the sister he never knew he had.
It's not an all-time classic, but it goes down pretty smooth, and for devoted Marvel maniacs, it's an essential piece of the GotG story. (I will say, tbough, that the, um, unusual take on the legend of Santa Claus by the alien rock and roll band should be a perennial.)
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (co-written and co-directed by Nick Park)
For a Wallace and Gromit fan, there is a feeling of happiness and reassurance from a simple trumpet fanfare. That familiar theme music tells you that you are back in the Claymation world of Nick Park and Aardman animation and you are safely in the hands of a master.
Vengeance Most Fowl is the first W&G movie in nineteen years, but Park and his team haven't missed a step. In fact, the backgrounds seem to be packed with more detail than ever before; the gags are even more exquisitely timed; and the supporting characters are better than ever in adding depth to Wallace and Gromit's world.
Thankfully, Wallace and Gromit themselves haven't changed at all. Wallace is still the model of dotty, kind hearted British eccentricity, tinkering with his gears and tubes and springs to the silent exasperation of Gromit, his ever loyal canine companion. (Ben Whitehead, taking over the voice of Wallace from the late Peter Sallis, is nearly flawless.) One of Wallace's inventions goes awry/falls into the wrong hands and Gromit has to dig in his paws and save the day.
The big improvement over the previous W&G movie is the return of the series' greatest villain: Feathers McGraw, the silent, beady-eyed penguin mastermind from The Wrong Trousers. One of the pleasures of the movie is watching McGraw's machinations slowly unfold. His plan to escape his prison (the local zoo, of course), get revenge on Wallace and Gromit, and complete his final theft is almost as detailed as the animation itself.
I could spend another ten paragraphs listing the great gags in this movie, from the terrifying antics of Wallace's automated garden gnome to the climactic barge "race"; but you should just see it for yourself. (Vengeance Most Fowl is in limited release in movie theaters, and debuts on Netflix in early January.)
