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cjlasky7Friday morning. Puttering around the house; basic maintenance work. Vacation is going a little too fast... but I've been busy:
Monday: overlong bus ride to the UA Sheepshead Bay cinema for Zach Cregger's "Weapons." Cregger did the AirBnB nightmare "Barbarians" a few years back, and there's been a lot of buzz over his new one. The premise: one night, an entire second grade class of schoolchildren leave their homes, run off into the dark and disappear. The movie details how this suburban community deals with the disappearance (not well).
Cregger breaks the narrative down into individual character studies, Pulp Fiction like, each chapter relaying new information about the mystery. There are some outstanding performances: Julia Garner as the second grade teacher with severe boundary issues; Benedict Wong as her put-upon principal; and Amy Madigan.... well, I don't want to spoil it, but let's just say she cuts loose in a way you've never seen from her before. She is a hoot.
It's generally very entertaining, and there are some great scares and more than a few laughs. But critics have been talking up this movie as a look into the "dark heart of suburbia," and if that was the intention, I don't think Cregger quite earns it. Strictly speaking, the darkness doesn't come from inside the community, and that sort of kills the metaphor. Besides, once it becomes painfully obvious what's been happening, the tension built up in the first 45 minutes drains away, and the fancy narrative structure can't bring it back.
The climactic scene is brilliantly shot (and nice'n'gory) and I like that solving the mystery doesn't mean a happy ending. (But maybe it would've been better for the movie if the mystery were never solved at all.)
Tuesday: the wife and I go to a special evening preview of Spinal Tap II: the End Continues--with a live Q&A session with the cast after the movie! The original Tap is one of my all time favorite movies, so I was both looking forward to the sequel... and hoping I wouldn't be disappointed.
The big problem with the sequel is that the main satirical thrust of the first movie has been co-opted by the success of the first movie. The cleverly stupid songs of the original Tap have sort of become classics in their own right, and they evoke a warm nostalgia rather than a laugh. When the Tap plays "Rainy Day Sun" (the b-side to "Listen to the Flower People," you know), it's doesn't feel like a mockery of 60s psychedelia; it's a veteran rock band pulling out a deep cut, like the Rolling Stones dusting off a nugget from Their Satanic Majesties Request. It's well played; it just ain't funny.
There is some satire in the movie equal to the original, mostly coming from Simon, the band's new promoter (played by Chris Addison). Simon freely admits to having no feeling or understanding of music whatsoever, and will happily cross any ethical and moral boundaries to ensure the band's big comeback is a moneymaker. (He very casually asks if one--or more-- band members could die during the concert, as it would really help DVD sales.) The movie could have used more of that "sting."
But it's hard to complain too much when Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer still have that same comic chemistry from 40 years ago; and the movie does have a spectacular finish, featuring a wildly enthusiastic New Orleans crowd, Sir Elton John, and ANOTHER catastrophic mishap during their prog rock classic, "Stonehenge."
[That momentum carried over to the Q&A session, where Tap and director Rob Reiner--all in character--fielded questions from movie audiences from around the country. (I thought my question was particularly funny, but they didn't use it. Oh well.) These guys are really good at in-character improvisation, and you wish some of their answers could have been in the movie. It'll probably be a bonus feature on the DVD, if you're interested.]
*********
I'm going to take a break here. My son's first soccer game of the season is in 90 minutes and I have to get ready. I'll be back tonight with a review of Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest and my jaunt around Lower Manhattan afterwards...
Monday: overlong bus ride to the UA Sheepshead Bay cinema for Zach Cregger's "Weapons." Cregger did the AirBnB nightmare "Barbarians" a few years back, and there's been a lot of buzz over his new one. The premise: one night, an entire second grade class of schoolchildren leave their homes, run off into the dark and disappear. The movie details how this suburban community deals with the disappearance (not well).
Cregger breaks the narrative down into individual character studies, Pulp Fiction like, each chapter relaying new information about the mystery. There are some outstanding performances: Julia Garner as the second grade teacher with severe boundary issues; Benedict Wong as her put-upon principal; and Amy Madigan.... well, I don't want to spoil it, but let's just say she cuts loose in a way you've never seen from her before. She is a hoot.
It's generally very entertaining, and there are some great scares and more than a few laughs. But critics have been talking up this movie as a look into the "dark heart of suburbia," and if that was the intention, I don't think Cregger quite earns it. Strictly speaking, the darkness doesn't come from inside the community, and that sort of kills the metaphor. Besides, once it becomes painfully obvious what's been happening, the tension built up in the first 45 minutes drains away, and the fancy narrative structure can't bring it back.
The climactic scene is brilliantly shot (and nice'n'gory) and I like that solving the mystery doesn't mean a happy ending. (But maybe it would've been better for the movie if the mystery were never solved at all.)
Tuesday: the wife and I go to a special evening preview of Spinal Tap II: the End Continues--with a live Q&A session with the cast after the movie! The original Tap is one of my all time favorite movies, so I was both looking forward to the sequel... and hoping I wouldn't be disappointed.
The big problem with the sequel is that the main satirical thrust of the first movie has been co-opted by the success of the first movie. The cleverly stupid songs of the original Tap have sort of become classics in their own right, and they evoke a warm nostalgia rather than a laugh. When the Tap plays "Rainy Day Sun" (the b-side to "Listen to the Flower People," you know), it's doesn't feel like a mockery of 60s psychedelia; it's a veteran rock band pulling out a deep cut, like the Rolling Stones dusting off a nugget from Their Satanic Majesties Request. It's well played; it just ain't funny.
There is some satire in the movie equal to the original, mostly coming from Simon, the band's new promoter (played by Chris Addison). Simon freely admits to having no feeling or understanding of music whatsoever, and will happily cross any ethical and moral boundaries to ensure the band's big comeback is a moneymaker. (He very casually asks if one--or more-- band members could die during the concert, as it would really help DVD sales.) The movie could have used more of that "sting."
But it's hard to complain too much when Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer still have that same comic chemistry from 40 years ago; and the movie does have a spectacular finish, featuring a wildly enthusiastic New Orleans crowd, Sir Elton John, and ANOTHER catastrophic mishap during their prog rock classic, "Stonehenge."
[That momentum carried over to the Q&A session, where Tap and director Rob Reiner--all in character--fielded questions from movie audiences from around the country. (I thought my question was particularly funny, but they didn't use it. Oh well.) These guys are really good at in-character improvisation, and you wish some of their answers could have been in the movie. It'll probably be a bonus feature on the DVD, if you're interested.]
*********
I'm going to take a break here. My son's first soccer game of the season is in 90 minutes and I have to get ready. I'll be back tonight with a review of Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest and my jaunt around Lower Manhattan afterwards...
no subject
Date: 2025-09-13 01:49 am (UTC)Also, dark suburbia was done better by David Lynch with Blue Velvet, and Rod Serling's Twilight Zone entries...The Monsters Come to Maple Street. And...various others, I've seen.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-13 04:25 am (UTC)"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" is a perfect counter example--the terror also has an outside impetus, but in this case, we watch as the community destroys itself.
There are some good ideas here. Cregger says the script was partially inspired by dealing with his parents' alcoholism, and you can see that in the character of Alex, the only second grader who didn't disappear. You can see his loneliness as he carries the weight of the horror to and from school every day.
It's not a bad movie--I just wish Cregger could have been as mercilessly cynical as Serling.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-13 05:41 pm (UTC)I'm watching Alien: Earth - which is kind of making a broader statement about how the real monsters are humans. It's doing a better job of it - but it's also by Noah Hawley who did Legion and Fargo.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-19 01:47 pm (UTC)Sort of how some 19th-c writers would make their heroine relatable, but changing fashions have kind of messed it up?
Novel: Amelia was not beautiful—she was thin, and her unruly locks were of a flaming red hue. Also, her lips were full and her cheekbones were sharp.
Modern reader, living in a world where all the above traits are considered attractive, probabaly *because* of romantic novels like this one: wtf??