3 Short Paragraphs: Mortal

 2020, André Øvredal (Trollhunter) -- download/Amazon

Sometimes I feel I need to rewatch certain movies just so I can put a post in here, to remind myself how much I enjoyed a flick or two.  I recall really enjoying Trollhunter but I don't actually recall anything about the plot, but that it was found footage and there was a giant (and I mean, giiiiiant) troll. Mortal is his most personal feeling movie since that one (i.e. non Hollywood), once again set in Norway and dealing with Norwegian myths.

Eric is  an American backpacker who came to Norway seeking his roots, but all led to tragedy as the family he connected with died in a fire he believes was caused by himself. It was. Eric has weird elemental powers, fire and electricity and water, which he cannot control. It leads him to connect with Christine, a young, beautiful, blonde psychologist who is trying to protect Eric from the authorities, Norwegian and American, seeking to take him. He's killed people; it's understandable, and one vastly powerful confrontation on a bridge frightens everyone including Christine. And then people on the Internet start connecting Eric with Thor, God of Thunder and Lightning.

On the cover, this is just another of the movies since MCU became popular, exploring people with powers and the impact they would have in the "real world". But something has been itching at me since I saw it, the connection to Thor, and the recent rise of ties to "white power". Eric is American, where this racist ideal is very very loud, and he comes to his European roots to take that power as his own, to an almost welcoming (very white) support, as they begin to believe he is a God. The woman standing in his way, the "agent" from the US Embassy is brown, and she controls the shadowy American government forces that want fail to control Eric. While my brain cannot seriously think Øvredal intended this, I can easily see how certain radical groups would embrace the "writing between the lines" they find. And it ended up overshadowing, in my mind, a small story that wanted to connect ancient beings with power to the superhero trope.

T&K Go Loopty Loo: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

 [Toast and Kent love a time loop. We love watching them, thinking about them, wishing we were in one...Maybe we ARE in one, just one that lasts the length of our entire lives, and we come back with only a barely intact sense that we may have done all of this before. Maybe by the end of (this time round) we'll have deconstructed what it is that actually makes a good time loop versus a bad one...? Who knows. Maybe we do. But probably the next loop.]

2021, Ian Samuels (Sierra Burgess is a Loser) -- Amazon

How did the Loop Begin?

[Toast] Well, that would be giving things away wouldn't it. Let's just say we join the movie with Mark deep in his loop. Deeeeep. Deep enough to wander around his typical teenage summer morning, repeating the lines his sister gives, helping his Dad with the crossword (perfectly) and eating just whatever the fuck he wants, because we as time loop fans, know it just doesn't matter. Mark's been in this loop for a while. A long while. But not long enough to get to know the girl he fancies. But not long enough to make it succeed.

[Kent] There's no secrets here Toasty, we've both seen the movie...and if anyone is reading this who hasn't seen the movie... well...watch the movie first.  These aren't spoiler free reviews...they're more exploring the subgenre with recaps.

The loop begins, we find out, because Margaret willed it into existence.  Apparently.  We don't rightly know if there's something more technological/scientific at play or if it's just a cosmic event that happened to coincide with Margaret's trauma.  

I'm still trying to decide if I prefer a Time Loop story that starts in media res or if I prefer a character discovering that they're in a loop.  It's interesting that 12:01 PM, ostensibly the first Time Loop story, also starts this way.

[Toast] At this point in my loopy viewing habits, I do rather like the in media-res, as we the viewers already know it is one, so we might as well have some fun with the concept, which they do.

Oh crap, I think that means you might have to watch Boss Level which is very much about starting mid-loop, with him narrating where we are and how he feels about it. I will re-watch with you. I guess they cannot all be great movies, in fact I expect a good number of them will not be.

What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?

[Toast] Given that we join him mid-loop, we don't know. But he has adjusted rather well. Sure, he has bouts of philosophical instability, which he unloads on his ever-losing-the-Boss-battle best friend but for the most part, he seems well adjusted. But there is that waking wistful look at his mom going to work, which we later learn is due to him not seeing her again before the loop ends, and therefore not having seen her for a long long time.

[Kent] So, again, advance spoilery talk...but Mark is the main character for the first two acts until he realizes he's not the main character of this story, Margaret is.  And then we follow Margaret for the final act.  We don't get to see either of their first reactions to the Loop.  

Mark noted that it took him time to notice the loop had happened, he said from the fact that there was "no new Doctor Who".  For Margaret, although not explicitly said, it's likely that it was her mother (who passes away each evening during the loop) is still alive.

[Toast] While I do think the whole "who is the real main character" is rather clever, when we are presented with the movie, Mark is definitely our main. I didn't catch that he took a couple of loops to catch on, but yeah that is so on track for being a teenager in the summer.

It must have been quite the shock for Margaret to awaken that looped morning to find herself the only one grieving her mother's loss. Might have even taken the call from the doctor (her brother IIRC ?) to alert to as to her wish coming true.

WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?

[Toast] Despite having this as  a template question, I gather that very few of these stories will involve being able to manually manipulate the confines of the loop. In this case Mark has no idea why he is in the loop. While he has put some thought into it, fueled by his knowledge of other time loop movies (meta awareness is key here) but he really has no idea. He's a teenage boy, after all.

[Kent] Such a teenage boy.  Of course his initial focus is to kind of try to "meet cute" a young woman with a British accent who intrigues him...

[Toast] But then Margaret shows up, interrupting one of his usual interactions. 

[Kent] But then Margaret shows up... and like a teenage boy, his affections shift on a dime.

[Toast] Margaret is also in the loop, and after some initial chase given, the two connect. It is now assumed Margaret has been in the loop for as long as Mark, likely years, considering his "thousands of times" comment.

As for why Mark is in the loop, well blame Margaret. I absolutely love love love this topsy turvy timey wimey play on Main Character vs Supporting Character. Mark thinks he is the main, when it turns out he is just the supporting cast. Margaret created the loop through a massive amount of grief generated by this being her last day with her mother. And she is still deeply caught in the grips of said grief, despite learning to enjoy the earlier part of the day with Mark, wherein the two build the titular Map of Tiny Perfect Things. 

That thing is a wonderful idea of finding those perfect moments in a given day, such as seeing the janitor take a brief break and play the piano beautifully, such as an elderly couple enjoying her win at solitaire, such as being there for an eagle's swoop & take of a fish, such as the moment the kids turn on the lights in their treehouse. There are so many perfect moments in a day, but they last but a moment never to be seen again. Mark and Margaret get not only to find them, but see them again and again.

[Kent] I love [love love] it too, especially that once he realizes it, the film switches perspectives.  I mean it very much withholds a lot of Margaret's life, her secret phone call at the same time every day.  It tries to imply another guy in the picture, but I knew it HAD to be more important than that.  I had assumed [correctly] a dying parent.  Margaret wants to hold onto the day, to say goodbye to her mother but never for the last time...and yet in the process, she needs to find something to move on for... and  I really liked that Mark wasn't that thing. Instead, together, they find the thing worth making life worth moving forward... tiny, perfect things... and Mark (an aspiring artist) starts creating a map of them every day.  (As a former artist, I can only imagine how frustrating it is to create the same thing over and over again every day only to have it erased from existence... like when I would write a block post for an hour or put hours into a book chapter and then something would happen with the computer and the whole post would be gone...I mean, the next iteration is usually always better, but, yeah, so frustrating...but I guess you get accustomed to the non-permanence of things).

I loved that the message of this film is about finding the small random joys of life AND taking time to appreciate them.  The thing about a Time Loop is it slows you down, restores time to a chaotic life...allows you to learn new things, to breathe, to look at people and the world differently.

[Toast] Just connecting on that musing about losing your art everyday. Funny, I do my little flash fictions but I rarely actually reach back and re-read them. It's more the act of writing out the story from my head that I enjoy, as opposed to actually doing something with the story. So, my art is preferred as transitory.

How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?

[Toast] From about 7am-ish to exactly midnight, the amount of time it takes for Mark to wake up, right to the end of the day. I am assuming it actually starts earlier, but Mark always joins it waking up. And we can assume Margaret's mother passed away moments before, every night, for thousands of nights. And Margaret's wish for this last day to never end affects her entire universe plus one.

The movie never gets dark enough to explore the idea of death resetting the loop, so we can never do anything but assume it does.

[Kent] Right. The loop is 24 hours but since Midnight to 7am-ish Mark was sleeping it just goes on as usual without him.  I always wonder if someone in a loop is ever able, with an aware brain, to force themselves to wake up earlier.  I also wonder...when they're sleeping, are their brains dreaming the same thing every time... OR is it that the Loop is literally only from the time they wake up...but then both Mark and Margaret can't be waking up at the exact same time...right?

Anyway, there's a couple of flirts with death, but no, neither actually die to force the reset.

But something you said Toasty, mentioning "death resetting the loop" immediately after mentioning Margaret's mother passed away makes me wonder...did the Loop happen because Margaret's mother died?  Was Margaret's mother's death the cause of the Loop (like how in 12:01 how Barry maybe electrocuted himself at the same time the particle accelerator fired...).. is death the key to Time Loops?

[Toast] Ooooo, this might bring upon another trope that many of them draw upon. Will have to make note on the forthcoming watching to see if we can head-canon it.

How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?

[Toast] Its been thousands of days for Mark, so I would say at least a couple of years. A lot changes in a couple of years in the brain of a teenage boy, and girl, but he does not seem affected all that much. Nature vs Nurture analog, in the aspects of immortality? Is our age reflective of our environment or, especially when bodies are young, reflective of chemistry and biology? I always felt Margaret showed more the effects of years locked in grief passing, and it imparted a sort of maturity, one that Mark never caught. It is his lack of said maturity that actually allows her to begin enjoying the day(s) again. Not until Mark becomes a boy spurned of his first love, do we see any major emotional change in him. And not until she breaks from her own emotional loop, does she get to experience some growth.

[Kent] Absolutely Toasty. It's that concept of how you feel physically on the day of the loop can affect how you approach the loop.  Like Mark is a young and vital teenage boy, and he's full of vim and vigour.  And even though his brain has theoretically aged a few years, he still thinks like a teenager...his brain hasn't finished developing yet.  His skills are improving...but...here's a question on Time Loops where your body stays the same but your brain advances... is "muscle memory" a brain function or literally a body function?  Should Marc be able to draw better, play the tuba well... should someone be able to learn the piano, when their body is reset every day.  You could do nothing but go to the gym every day for a thousand days in a time loop, but it doesn't mean the body you wake up in after a thousand days would be stronger than the body you were in on day one...

[Toast] Can you imagine what it would be like it you continued to age as the loops happened? Eventually someone would go, "Isn't your hair significantly longer than it was yesterday?" But I truly think they just don't want to deal with the metaphysics of mind vs brain.

[Kent] Margaret is full of grief and sorrow, but she seems grateful to be in the loop, and even though she does certain things, her reason for being in the loop is to spend more time with her mother on her death bed.  She has purpose in the loop.  Mark doesn't...until he realizes that the purpose of the loop is to support Margaret through her grieving.

[Toast] There was also that bittersweet moment when Mark's "annoying sister" points out he just doesn't pay attention to anyone but himself. Sure, he thinks he's the main character, but he doesn't even seem aware of the truths in his own family, that his sister is rather astute, that his father's midlife crisis is not as stereotypical as it seems. Is Mark growing? Not because of the loop, but because of people in the loop.

[Kent] I loved that scene of discovering self awareness (like Scott Pilgrim... +1 life!).  And that's a great point that it's when he finally starts paying attention to the other people in the loop, that they start reacting differently and the Loop starts changing for the better and he realizes thinking less about himself can have an even more positive impact. Mark when we first encounter him seems like a good kid...as he has this perfect Pee Wee Herman-esque routine in the morning of helping everything, but his whole objective is to wind up at the pool for a meet-cute with the cute British girl...only to have a completely other meet cute fall upon him.

And yeah, it's not even Margaret that changes him, but his kid sister.  Love that.  The soccer game moment was my first teary moment.

What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware?  Does anything happen if they become aware?

[Toast] Nobody is aware. Mark tells his gaming buddy every day, but that's as far as he goes in sharing. There are hints that he wants to share, but I gather he tried that earlier on, and is just not on the ball enough to build the list & order of details that would allow someone to catch on quicker.

[Kent] I just get the sense that Mark, by the time we meet him, is completely over trying to tell people about the Loop, so he only bothers when it's necessary context for the story he's telling or the thoughts he's trying to work through.  Margaret on the other hand, she has her own purpose for being, and I get the sense that before Mark she was just filling time between the moments that really mattered to her.

What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?

[Toast] This is teenage romance light fare, so I can safely assume Mark thinks of everyone as real people despite his awareness of lack of consequences. He really loves his family, despite his self-centeredness, and he really does interact with his community, helping out and making their days lighter.... to a degree. Once Margaret appears, she becomes the center of his world. But both of them do see the world they live in, and its people.

[Kent] I do like the conversations that Mark and Margaret have, which are a lot like these exchanges you and I have about Loops, thinking through the Loop and what happens in them and about whether they should do anything that would be absolutely terrible for them should the Loop suddenly end.  But there is a specific mention of being gods among all these people.  But their attachments to the people in the Loop still matter to them...and they try to be, generally, kind to the others around them.  They're good kids.  I'm waiting for the story where an utterly deplorable person gets stuck in a Loop.

Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?

[Toast] The school gym moonscape. Entirely unrealistic as it means Mark spent days if not weeks, preparing what he was going to do and then spending every waking minute building the bloody thing, up until he presents it to Margaret. And that tells us that they don't spend every loop with each other, once they catch onto each other's presence. Good days and bad days, lonely days and full days. While not explicitly said, there are a number of events that tell us they sometimes just don't connect, and take entire loops working at other things. But that moonscape and the MST3K style entrance dungeon made of cardboard is just lovely, almost like the set designers from Dave Made a Maze found new work.

[Kent] Ah! I thought the same thing, BUT, Mark does explain that he bribed some art class or department to create it.  It's still far fetched logistically, but makes more sense that he paid other people to do it quickly rather than do it  all himself...but then he could have played it out a couple dozen times over to get it optimal (he did mention that he'd practiced the water bottle tossing trick to catch the closing door that gets them inside the school).  But yeah, there's many "the logistics of this are improbable" moments, but why not go along with them for fun... so I do.

I liked them demolishing the "model home", just utterly wrecking this not-so-perfect perfect thing.  I also liked the moment of the petite girl skateboarder showing up all the other skater punks.  And taking a plane to Tokyo and when he hit midnight, going against the spin of the earth it reset.  Some comic book logic happening there.  A lot of little things I liked.

[Toast] I said this when I was watching the scene, but I don't appreciate the destruction of the model home as much as I would have when I was a teenager. I wonder if its a peculiarity of teen years, to have that fantasy of destruction as I had it very strongly for years. But now, not so much.

How does this stack up in the subgenre?

[Toast] I think this was a fine, if not perfect example for the collection. Like Palm Springs it assumes a viewer awareness, if not fondness for the subgenre. And while it does play on one of the stronger tropes (perfectly interacting with the day) it takes that idea one step further in the titular map. I also love the very mystical vs science explanation of the loop vs most other movies. All in all, I love this one.

[Kent] Me too.  It's not without its flaws, and yes, Palm Springs having released last year does sort of cast a shadow over it, it's a Time Loop movie that understands Time Loops, as well as introducing a second aware person in the loop (see also Russian Doll).  While Palm Springs showed a sort of animosity towards the Time Loop, this one approaches it as a gift, which I really don't think we've seen yet, one where people just embrace the Loop as something positive.  Oh to be young.

I went into it kind of dreading what a teenage romance time loop would look like, but I didn't catch on to why I knew the screenwriter's name until I had already bought into the film.  Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians, is one of Adj's favourites in recent years, so whatever it is about that tale of magic and fantasy that she keys into seems to also be injected in this film.  I'm guessing a thoughtfulness and respect for the genre. (Funny that the first example of the subgenre was based off a short story, and the latest is also based off a short story... if we were tackling these in order, we might think we were in a loop).

I thought the "Map" would wind up making this... too cute, like the film would be only about teens and their cutesy adventures, but the map is just a device, sparingly used and has larger thematic resonance (as well as a crucial story purpose).   This one I worried about its white male entitled-ness at first, but I like that it's part of the story, of learning to be less me-centric.  We need more stories of people learning to be less me-centric.

T&K Go Loopty Loo: 12:01

 [Toast and Kent love a time loop. We love watching them, thinking about them, wishing we were in one...(better that than a zombie apocalypse, amiright?). Ahem. The subgenre has basically exploded over the past decade, so we thought we would take a guided look at as many of them as we can. Maybe by the end of it we'll have deconstructed what it is that actually makes a good time loop versus a bad one...? Who knows. Maybe we do. Tomorrow.]

1993, d. Jack Sholder [The Hidden, Nightmare on Elm Street 2]

How did the Loop Begin?
[Kent] A particle accelerator...science!

[Toast] Yeah, one of my favourite examples of pop-culture science, the other being cold-fusion, which has dropped out of fashion of late. And like in the short, something has caused a Bounce, a side-effect of the particle acceleration that the Weirdo Scientist predicted might happen. BUT but ! But how did it happen, as the project was supposed to have been shut down! Duh duh duhhhh....

What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?
[Kent] Barry Thomas is basically the same guy as the lead character from Office Space - a disaffected office worker just done with his job (white privilege at its finest, people...[hey I resemble that comment]) just didn't understand what was happening after first the first time bump. When he wakes up and the a news report on morning TV is the same as yesterday (informing that the government is shutting down the particle accelerator test) he's confused.  When the flower pot he broke the night before is back in its usual spot, and his jacket is somewhere other than where he left it, he just thought he drank too much the night before.  When he witness the same car accident on the way to work as yesterday (because drivers are staring at the same woman in the same tight skirt...the '90's everyone!) he begins to suspect something is up.  When conversations and events in the office repeat themselves, Barry checks a helpful newspaper article that he noticed earlier warning about the possibility of a time bump.  It's called a time bump in this film.

[Toast] Bump or bounce? Loop will always have my heart. I like how quickly Barry catches on. I find one of the later examples of the trope is that the person seems to shrug off the repeating circumstances the first time or two. Some think they are misremembering, some think they are going nuts. Barry only briefly thinks he is just hung over and then begins catching on. But dude, one look at the newspaper should tell you everything you need to know. Only at the end of the day does he look at his dayminder and catch the date. Doofus. 

No wonder his boss hates him. Sure, your low level HR (*cough* Personnel... we recently replaced HR with People & Culture) job sucks but you are still responsible for it. But tying into the short, Barry is drinking his way through life, stuck in a rut he knows he needs to get out of. But at least he is somewhat capable of human interaction, unlike Myron.

[Kent] Haha, stupid Kent brain.  It's totally called a "time bounce" not a "bump".  I was writing this literally just after I watched it and I already forgot it was "bounce". 

WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?
[Kent] He got shocked by his lamp at the precise time the accelerator engaged...and died maybe?  It's a little vague.  But I think he died. Toasty, what do you think? Was it him dying at the same moment that triggered the loop?

[Toast] I actually thought he just got a nasty shock, but dying makes more sense. What happens to the consciousness at the moment of death, especially if someone has been fucking with the constants of the Universe. 

I still find it rather amusing that we as humans think we can affect the entire Universe by actions in a single lab in southern California. I like to envision it has a bubble of effect, that probably only encompasses the planet, maybe the solar system, and the extra terrestrials have never visited because we have been quarantined as a 'Time Anomaly - No Fly Zone'.

How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?
[Kent] 24 hours, resetting at 12:01 AM every day. It's the time the accelerator is engaged in the story. 
We do learn that, yes, death can reset the time loop. 

[Toast] Yup, fine example of forced reset through death. BUT I still wonder if his consciousness gets to "live" out the rest of the day, with a somewhat brief moment of being aware of an Afterlife before he is tossed back into his body. Alas, not in this movie.

How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?
[Kent] There are about 6 or so "time bumps" that Barry experiences.  He witnesses Lisa Fredericks, a scientist who he's had crush on for years get shot at the end of the work day the day before the first time bump.  When he realizes he's in a time bump bounce he sees it as a second chance to both get to know her and save her.  He doesn't succeed until the third time bump bounce. And in the fifth loop they both get killed. So really, Barry's motivation is getting together with Lisa, making sure she doesn't get killed, and maybe figuring out why she's being killed... in that order. His priorities are kind of messed up and selfish.

[Toast] Wuv, truuuue wuv. Not really; true infatuation with the work crush. It is only somewhat heroic that he focuses on the bounce in order to save her, not understand what is going on nor actually break the loop. I am somewhat disappointed that the movie, in the efforts to be a 90s light-thriller, focuses more on the 90s tropes instead of loop tropes. But it was a new subgenre, so forgiven.

I do like that he writes things down, and does soon grab some pertinent details in order to guide him in later loops.

That said, Barry does get some confidence from his iterations. He seems sort of lost and confused early on, but as he becomes more motivated and aware he has some impact, he also becomes rather confident he can save her. Also, one night of "getting lucky" can do wonders for a boy's self-confidence.

[Kent] Right, I think Barry certainly found some kind of resolve in himself going through the time loop.  I have to think that after repeating time over and over again, you start to feel your actions don't have any real consequences and therefore you feel emboldened to do whatever you want.

What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware?  Does anything happen if they become aware?
[Kent] The people in the loop can be made aware of the loop but Barry is the only one who retains his memories.  When people are made aware they kind of think Barry's talking nonsense (I like in the first loop how he wasn't paying attention the day before so he can't point out to Lisa anything that happened to exemplify that he's been in the loop before. That would be me.)

[Toast] I really like how easy he found it to convince Not Bad Guy Denk that they were in a loop caused by the particle accelerator firing when it should have been turned off. While we know he is a stooge for the Justice Dept, and a bit of a dick, he must be pretty on the ball. Once Lisa clues in, she also starts catching on pretty quickly that Barry feels more connected to her, than she is to him. I know this is 90s style romance, but in today's climate, it all feels a bit heavy handed and creepy. Leave her alone Barry, she doesn't feel the same way despite the nookie you got in previous iterations.

[Kent] It's interesting to compare Lisa's reactions to finding out that her and this stranger had sex in a previous loop, versus Sarah in Palm Springs.  There's definitely a violation as well as a sort of power dynamic that comes into play.  Genre movies until recently vary rarely took into account the woman's perspective on a situation, instead just using them as party to the male wish fulfillment. I like that Palm Springs finally examines that dynamic.  I just really love Palm Springs.

[Toast] Ooooo nice catch. I walked in on Marmy (re)watching Palm Springs the other day and watched a bit of it, before going back to the desk to work, and yeah I really like it as well. It was that lil snippet that inspired me to ask us to do this feature.

What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?
[Kent] I guess, Barry's really only fixated on Lisa and everything that revolves around her, so unless they tie into her murder or the conspiracy around it, he doesn't really pay too much attention to them.  Like poor Denk, who gets murdered in the final bump, then Barry and Lisa stop the particle accelerator from engaging and ending the loop.  I mean, they could have tried again, maybe, you know, saving him too?

[Toast] Yeah, I was pretty shocked with what they did to Denk as well. Dude, let yourself get shot just before the loop ends and save Denk before he gets shot. Sure, it might take a few loops to find out he was assassinated in the parking garage, but c'mon give the guy a chance -- he sure had your back!

[Kent] Do you think that, were this a theatrical or DTV movie that didn't have to adhere to TV movie length run-time, do you think they would have had another loop/bounce/bump/montage to save Denk?

[Toast] Beyond that Barry doesn't really think of other people as not real or worthy his attention but he's a pretty self centered guy to begin with. Does he ever do anything about Ted (was it Ted?) getting coffee spilled on him every single loop. Also, while his boss is a bit of a dick, she doesn't deserve the abuse he heaps on her. Be the bigger man Barry. And do your fucking work.

[Kent] The office scenario is so...not great.  His boss is a jerk to Barry because he's a bad employee.  His white male entitlement thinks this b* should just lay off.  I mean, she repeatedly calls him "one of the cute ones", which is, yes, highly inappropriate, but I think she really kind of likes him romantically.  When the tables turn in the one loop, and Barry pats her on the ass (wrong!), does the film insinuate that she kind of likes it despite being surprised by it?  It's all pretty yucky.

[Toast] Oh man, that slap on the ass. I forgot that and I literally cringed when it happened. Oh, 90s boys will be 90s boys. As for a montage scene for Save Denk? Probably not, as they probably wanted to toss the heroics onto Barry, where Justice League Dept Denk would have probably bopped Weirdo Dr. Moxley in the nose while Barry cringed behind Lisa.

Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?

[Kent] Most surprising is that Barry and Lisa just let Denk die so that they could selfishly end the loop. Also, before the loop started, Barry stops his neighbour kid from getting hit by a car when they chase their football into the street (and the ill-mannered kid curses him out when he tells him to be careful) It surprised me that when Barry didn't intervene the kid didn't get hit by a car. That's called lack of payoff.

[Toast] Yeah, this is not one of  those loop movies where the main character settles into the "million little things" aspect, and fixing them. He has one woman on his mind and that's it. 

Poor Denk.

But really the ending was the surprise for me. Sure, Dr. Moxley was a bad guy, but did he deserve to have his particles accelerated all over creation? No, but maybe it was making room for a sequel when the Weirdo Scientist returns to show how he has become a Not Puny God?

[Kent] Oooh, I'd like to see that.  Dr. Moxley whose power is the ability to thrust people into time loop bubbles (like the ones in the Benson and Moorhead movies).

How does this stack up in the subgenre?

[Kent] It's fine.  Very concentrated, self-contained, rudimentary but then it's basically a rushed-to-market made-for-TV movie cranked out to capitalize upon the success of Groundhog Day (as well as try to secure some sort of plagiarism lawsuit against the producers of Groundhog Day).  It's quite watchable even if the music is awful and production values aren't tremendously high.

Jonathan Silverman does what's asked of him, but he's not a very compelling lead...maybe even falling on the side of mildly annoying rather than awkwardly charming. Helen Slater on the other hand is quite good in the role of a scientist who doesn't have time for Silverman's schtick...until he can prove himself to her. 

The office gender politics are rather fascinating -teetering on wrongheaded- as Robin Bartlett, playing Silverman's boss, is both an utter nag, and yet also clearly has crush on him. Jeremy Piven plays Silverman's best friend who is, well, completely the Jeremy Piven archetype. Martin Landau is also here, basically sleepwalking through his role.  There's even and early-ish appearance from Danny Trejo.

[Toast] This was after Groundhog Day ?? That's interesting considering the short came before. 

 

[Kent] Groundhog Day was Feb 1993, 12:01 aired in July '93.

[Toast] I also found it rather compelling, which surprised the heck out of me, as I am having difficulties even watching early 2000s movies without becoming utterly distracted by the times, the politics and the tropes of the age. Yeah, Barry is a dick, I have no fondness for him at all. To me the whole movie felt like an extended version of an episode of a classic 90s scifi show, like Sliders or its ilk.  

 

[Kent] YES! Sliders, exactly!

 

[Toasty] Piven as his own archetype. So... spot... on. Just saw him in a Rock n Rolla rewatch and yep, same guy.

As an example of the subgenre, I have to say, now knowing its after Groundhog Day, it is somewhat disappointing. Groundhog Day did so much to explore the looping, to play with it, to see where it would go and how they would react. This one was so focused on being a light-thriller, it forgot it was a scifi movie. But that was pretty typical of the 90s.

 

[Kent]  I don't know if they MADE this after Groundhog Day or just released it after Groundhog Day.  But I think it was definitely made in reaction to Groundhog Day  (like, they saw the trailer for GD  and said...hey, that's just 12:01 PM, let's do a quick cheap remake/expansion...).  I don't think they had time to absorb whatever GD did.

[Toast] Troo troo.

 

 

T&K Go Loopty Loo: 12:01 P.M. [trial]

 [Toast and Kent love time loop stories.  With this "Loopty Loo" series, T&K explore just what's happening in that film's loop, and maybe over time, they will deconstruct what it is that makes for a good time loop]

1990, d. Jonathan Heap - youtube
Based on a short story by Richard A. Lupoff.  Aired as part of Showtime's 30-Minute Movie anthology. Was nominated for an "Best Live Action Short Film" Academy Award in 1991.

Things to Think About During a Time Loop

How did the Loop Begin?
[Kent] According to a physicist, as reported upon by the newspaper, the matter and anti-matter universes have collided causing time to become a loop.

[Toast] "Saw him on the news this morning; what a weirdo..." How exactly does one come up with a theory like that? Imagine if Myron decided to take the time to absorb the weirdo scientist's (Dr. Rosenblut) knowledge, to better understand the matter-anti-matter connection.

What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?
[Kent] We begin the short with Kurtwood Smith's Myron Castleman standing on a median in the center of a very busy street.  Knowing it's a time loop story going into it, it's clear from Smith's expression "not this again".  He mentions a little later that he's been looped 30 or 40 times already.

[Toast] Cool, it's the dad from That Seventies Show. Yeah, mid-loop as they say, but only about a day and a half has passed. So, not yet into that "bound to go mad" stage and yet... I get, it's a short, so the story telling needs to be condensed, but boy does Myron go through all the feelings during the half dozen or so loops we get to join him for.

WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?
[Kent] No answers are presented as to why Myron is the only consciousness to maintain awareness in the loop.  The story isn't long enough to learn if there are others or if anyone else can be brought into the loop.

[Toast] I don't know, there is something there, something about the dog? The sunset? The couple sitting on the porch laughing? Is this just Myron pondering what he will never get to experience, or did he Do Something or Not Do Something? Also, Myron admits pretty early on that he has been stuck in a rut for 23 years, same job, same desk, no friends, no family, no connections. He is so very lonely. So, there might be a metaphysical connection to him being the one in the loop. Also, being stuck in a rut -- triggered !! And 2020 has not helped me out, but more embedded me into it. *cough*

[Kent] totally on point... actually digging into the metaphor if it all, it is all about being stuck in a rut, with the message being that ruts are inescapable. How bleak.

How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?
[Kent] The loop is 1 hour, pretty exactly.  When the clock ticks over to 1:00 PM it resets Myron to that median in the street at 12:01.  The big climax of the short is that Myron shoots himself in the head, unsure of whether it will end things, but hopeful that it will.  It does not.  He comes back to consciousness standing on that median in the middle of traffic.

[Toast] Myron also seems so hyper-aware of the single hour allotted to him that he gets lost in the minutes, constantly just dribbling the minutes away in thousand yard stares. If one thing other loop movies have taught us, is that eventually you learn to play the loop efficiently. Hopefully one day Myron will get there.

[Kent] Good catch on his vacantly staring minutes away... At a certain point there seems to be a hopelessness or futility in even trying.  It sort of speaks to Myron's character...his passivity, especially that he gets the office receptionist to make his calls for him and he just sits there and waits.

How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?
[Kent] Myron having only lived through the time loop for less than two days is already going a little nutty as a result. He certainly isn't taking advantage of the opportunity a time loop presents to better himself or really learn anything valuable... but then again, as this short effectively demonstrates, an hour isn't a very long time.

Myron starts to break out of his meekness, approaches the woman he's drawn to on the bench which is totally unlike him.  In another loop he stands up for the homeless guy getting berated by douchebage business guy types... "Don't you know what it's like to be alone?!" he screams.  He later becomes a complete a-hole to the secretary, calling her a "stuck up, pretentious bitch" for no reason, and then trashing her desk.  In another loop he declares himself a god, then shoots himself in the head.  So yeah, he's kind of affected by it.  Just a little.

[Toast] I think the sub-text is that Myron has finally realized what he has let himself get into, and it's too late. So, Toast, it's not yet too late. It's only 2021. Here's hoping that shot to the head, and probably quite a few after, are temporary, and eventually he will learn to become the unstuck man he should have always been, when he had the chance.

What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware?  Does anything happen if they become aware?

[Kent] Myron makes two people aware of the loop but their awareness resets at 1:00. They seem to have compassion for his plight if they believe him, but Myron seems cautious about revealing his...affliction.

[Toast] He still has time. 

*cough* 

He can ask Dolores something only she knows about herself, he can present that detail to her, her can start learning details from Dr. Rosenblut, and he can have friends.

What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?
[Kent] I think he wants them to, but kind of comes to the realization that they don't really matter.  Well, he's fully aware that since he's the only one aware of the loop, he's the only one who can affect reality, in essence making him a god.  A puny, puny god.

[Toast] I think part of Myron's issue was that his rut was self-imposed, that he was in a place of condensed space & time already because he didn't really care about people. How many times are you going to let a stranger get pooped on by an overhead bird? How many times are you going to let a homeless man get abused? How many times are you going to let someone lose their groceries before you understand that you can be the effect in their lives? We are all connected? Are we?

[Kent] You're right, I'm taking the short at face value, but it's clear this is a Twilight Zone-esque nightmare scenario. Otherwise I think Myron would have looked more resolved in the final shot rather than even more deflated. It's not hopeful, just depressing. Extending this narrative in my mind, Myron blows up the world somehow...only I don't tjink it can be done in an hour.

Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?
[Kent] Nothing terribly memorable sticks out. I guess shooting himself in the head, or going from meek to raving misogynist?  I think more surprising is how primitive 1990 feels.

[Toast] Well, for a moment there, I thought brief changes were happening to the loop. It was probably bad editing, but in one loop the bag doesn't rip, the guy doesn't lose his groceries, and yet Myron didn't obviously interact with them.

[Kent] I think the bag not ripping was due to timing, Myron moved through the paces faster, so he moved past the scene before the bag ripped.

How does this stack up in the subgenre?
[Kent] Is this the earliest time loop story?  I mean, it certainly predates Groundhog Day by a few years and the original short story it's based on was published in 1973, so it's surprising how many of the tropes of the genre are already here.  But unlike other time loop stories which seem to have an out for the looper, here it ends with defeat, that there is no end for poor Myron.  There's no sense of mysticism or greater forces at play, but it doesn't have a lot of time to explore either Myron or the reality he's found himself in.

As for the production, it's pretty cheap looking, it's not well acted (it's pretty hammy, though Smith does deliver a couple of little nuances that I liked), and for experienced time loop viewers, it's very rudimentary in what it thinks is going to shock us.

[Toast] I liked how much it was a part of the assumed tropes, making me wonder if the early representations of the subgenre come from a single source. Sure, Cause and Effect from ST:tNG was a year before Groundhog Day but there were a few other examples before this short, and the subsequent feature based on it, came out. 

This being a condensed story, it really can only go so far so I rather like what they did with what they had.

 [Kent] Thinking a bit more about it (after watching the TV movie "remake") it's interesting to me that the standard for a time loop is a full 24 hours, and you can do a lot in 24 hours.  A one hour time loop is a nightmare, always emerging hungry even though mentally you know you just ate, never getting any real sleep, hard limits on how far you can go and what you can do. It's genuinely horrifying and I'd like to see someone remake this one hour loop into a longer, horror narrative.

 

Zack Snyder's Justice League

2021, d. Zack Snyder - HBOmax

[Preface - written prior to watching]

I have no love for the Snyder/Whedon hybrid Justice League from 2017, because, let's face it, there's little to love about it.  It's messier than a sloppy joe served on a napkin.  In my review of that release, I said "I don't even like Snyder's vision, and somehow I still kind of wish it were allowed to be completed."

The reality is Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was garbage as a Superman movie, not great as a Batman movie, and incomprehensible as a prologue to introducing the Justice League in what was then an already interminable DC Cinematic Universe.  But at least BvS was interesting in its wrongheadedness, it had a vision it was trying to achieve no matter how utterly ridiculous that vision was.  As such, I've been certain a Snyder cut of Justice League (no matter how much I don't really care if it exists or not) would be better than the hatchet job that came out nearly 4 years ago.

I've been a DC Comics fan nearly my entire life.  I've been waiting for a big ensemble superhero movie that had all the spectacle and grandeur in live action that the comics have on the page.  Justice League 2017 was not it, but I know for certain, without even seeing it, that neither is the "Snyder Cut" (as it's been called, but not actually named).  Snyder, we've learned from Man of Steel, BvS and even what remains of his vision in JL'17, has no idea what makes DC's heroes special.  He has his own motivations and half-baked philosophical discussions he wants to have utilizing these characters, and you know what...fine.  Countless people have had their way with these characters over the years, but it's just weird that, at any time the powers that be at Warner Brothers were like "yeah, sounds good Zack, you do what you want with them, make Superman grimdark and Batman a murderer."  

Since JL'17 we've gotten Avengers: Infinity War which is just about the greatest assemblage of comic book characters on screen that we're ever going to see, and not only that, it's a tight, captivating, fun, funny, epic rollercoaster of an event that ends on one of the biggest cliffhangers of all time, resulting in a follow up film that diverges from spectacle to delve into the emotional... all built on the back of a decades worth of set-up that didn't know what it was leading to.  It's comic books on screen as I've always wanted it to be.  Nothing about what Snyder has done, whether it be Watchmen, Man of Steel or BvS at all feels like comic books on screen.   I still want the DC version of Infinity War, but I don't think it will ever happen, and Zack Snyder is not the one to deliver it to me.  I'm ready to eat crow... but I don't think I will be.

[---Graig watches all four hours of Zack Snyder's Justice League with multiple breaks and one pleasant night's sleep in between---]
Spoilers?

It opens almost where we left off in BvS, as if it were a TV show continuing on from last week... with Superman dying (in slow motion) in his battle with Doomsday and screaming, sending a literal sound wave that's heard around the world.  We follow the sound wave as a device (a little Gaspar Noe Into the Void nod?) to see what's going on around the DC Cinematic Universe at this time.  Hey, there's Luthor in a wading pool with Steppenwolf (the adversary of this film), and Cyborg moping, and Atlanteans and Amazons watching as their hidden Mother Boxes (the macguffins of the film) awaken (it's speculated in the film that Superman's death awakens them but there's never a reason given why it would do that). Snyder's Amazon's are not the bright and powerful figures from Patty Jenkins' film, but rather female versions of his 300 Spartans, all shadowy and grainy with impressively defined musculature and rage faces.  The effects throughout this opening sequence, and much of the film, are not always the best, clearly the 70 million DC spent to let Snyder have his 4-hour epic was spread pretty thin.  An unnecessarily protracted fight between Steppenwolf, Parademons and the Amazons looks about on par with the arena battle in 2002's Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones in terms of how the many many performers handle squaring off against imaginary creatures.  And the subsequent chase on horseback, 90% CGI, is less big screen Avengers: Endgame, more small screen Game of Thrones.

There's a hubris to this production, presented in 4x3 aspect ratio (black bars down the sides) with the expectation of any eventual cinematic presentation being in IMAX (not sure how some of these effects will hold up on that big a screen).  The opening credits roll over a droning JunkieXL score, the camera panning across a desolate Nordic tundra, beautiful but cold and muted (the Snyder filter at its chilliest), following a traveler on horseback putting Bruce Wayne in a Nordic setting looking for the Aquaman.  I remember this scene from JL'17 and it was light, pithy, and full of bad green screen.  This one, not so light, certainly not pithy, but works (and looks) a lot better as it all takes place in a natural setting.  The hubris returns as Snyder pauses on a grateful village singing in their native tongue as Aquaman swims out to sea for a full minute.  Clearly this is a film not indentured to any running time and it's an early warning for laborious things to come.  It also drives home that there will be improvements upon what was done prior, but still not necessarily anything we were clamoring to see.

I still can't get over the empty weight of Superman's death in the previous movie, but the grand importance Snyder tries to imbue it here.  It was a tonal disconnect Whedon's version tried its best to acknowledge quickly, then ignore.  A set piece involving a group of terrorists introduces maybe the fourth and fifth slow motion sequences of Justice League, barely 20 minutes into the film (the first of literally dozens upon dozens of slo-mo shots we'll see over four hours), only to move into some sort of hyper-speed as Wonder Woman's actions against the badguys need to be superhuman.  It doesn't look good, and is unsurprisingly at odds with how we see this same Wonder Woman through Patty Jenkin's eyes in both her films, especially considering the blood splatter, swearing and aggressive violence.  A Justice League or Superman or Wonder Woman movie that can't play to children, and hiring someone whose vision is such, is just an outright mistake.  This is not for kids.  It's a hard PG-13, excessively violent for what it is and laden with swearing. 

An anxious, brooding Batman frantically tries to assemble a team, stating that he "spent too much time trying to divide us, I need to bring us together and make this right."  It sounds like a mea culpa from Snyder...but is it?  It's really not.  He doesn't do well at team building (Snyder nor Batman), considering it's more than 2 hours into the film before there's actually a team, and another 30 or 40 minutes before they resurrect Superman... and then another 45 minutes before Superman actually joins them.  There's a lot of time spent on the importance of Batman building, basically, a flying troop carrier, and when it finally takes flight, it's destroyed within minutes.  It's funny, but not intentionally so.

There's no economy to Snyder's storytelling here.  Points are labored over, and over, and over.  (The Amazons' fight with Steppenwolf ends with Hippolyta noting to send the flare that invasion is coming. We return to Paradise Island two scenes later to witness them sending the flare.  We go to another scene for Diana to learn about the flare's existence.  Another scene later Diana visits the sight of the flare to confirm its existence, which then leads to Diana discovering a cave that tells the story of Darkseid's first invasion.  This is intensely laborious when we got the point so much earlier.)  Many sequences are basically orchestrated to be music videos that maybe deliver tone, but not purpose (Aquaman walking out along a stone pier drinking whiskey for a minute...). Of course Snyder's been given free reign to do what he wants in his editing, as was his deal with Warner Brothers.  He didn't get paid, just free reign.  Without restrictions you get matchstick houses like Zack Snyder's Justice League.  It's 4 hours long, but it's not bloated, as it's not really full of anything.  It's empty and flimsy devoid of any direct purpose.

There are multiple flashback/storytelling sequences in the film which are real momentum killers (were there any true momentum to kill).   At the hour mark Diana shares with Bruce what she just learned of a great battle between the champions of Earth (Atlanteas, Greek Gods, the Amazons, a Green Lantern) and Darkseid's invading forces.  It's a sequence extended dramatically from JL'17, and is superior in it's excitement, but Gadot's voiceover feels phoned in (possibly literally) and it seems completely detached from the scene that bookends it.  It seems like it should have been the entrance point for the film, not Diana's storytime.  Similarly, Cyborg's father leaves him a recording in which he narrates Cyborg's capabilities, his powers over top a montage of images, some of them Lawnmower Man grade, but all of them handled with Snyder's usual subtlety, which is to say not at all. It's bizarre but not in a good way, portentious.

The biggest benefactor to ZS'sJL is Cyborg.  I can see why Ray Fisher was so dissatisfied with what resulted in JL'17 (on top of the behind-the-scenes issues with Whedon).  Cyborg is pretty much a non-existent character in what was released to theatres.  Here he is the only character with a genuine story arc and is the most integral member of the team (despite all the weight given to Superman's involvement this is really Cyborg's show).  Even still, his origin story is told shortly after Flash's introduction (a truly pointless sequence) and features the second car crash in less than ten minutes.  Again, economy of storytelling is not this film's strong suit.

Flash in this movie... well...he's a choice that's being made.  There's no attention paid to how he got his powers (I'm not sure we need more than one origin story in the film) but it's not the "crime lab technician gets doused in chemicals and hit by lightning" origin from the comics because here he's a college kid struggling to even find a job.  His speed powers, as presented in his many scenes, are not consistently visualized, which is maddening as Snyder doesn't seem to care for consistency in presenting how they work, only that they look cool (and Ezra Miller's floppy wristed "running" style still looks just as goofy as it did in JL'17).  So when Flash breaks his only rule late in climactic showdown, it's like...what rule?

This film assumes you know a lot more about this world and these characters that you do.  When JL'17 was released, Wonder Woman had not yet released, Aquaman was still a year and a half away, and planned Flash and Cyborg films still haven't happened.  A Ben Affleck Batman movie went through multiple iterations and directors before being scrapped altogether and there's not been any serious talk of another Henry Cavill Superman movie.  But this film acts like you know all these characters, and know who their peripheral supporting players are and what they might mean to them.  Alfred, Martha and Lois we met in BvS but have very little to do here.  Lois particularly is just a moping void waiting for Superman to return...and when he does...she gives him a hug.  That's what they paid Amy Adams to do...hug Superman (hey, I'd take that job too, but I'm not an Academy Award-winning actress). Commissioner Gordon is iconic enough, but he's not a character here (even with J.K. Simmon's adept mugging).  Martian Manhunter, played by Harry Lennox, is just a head scratcher... does anyone but the die hard fans remember him as the General from Man of Steel?  We don't even see a human face.  Aquaman's supporting cast make no impression unless you've seen the Aquaman film, same with Wonder Woman's cast.  It's putting the cart before the horse, and it does.not.work.  Even in hindsight, Justice League is at odds with what comes after it.

The problem with Justice League wasn't that Snyder was removed from it before it was completed.  The problem with Justice League is Snyder himself.  He's a great visual stylist, but a poor storyteller and a bad editor.  He should be taking photos, maybe shooting music videos, not being given hundreds of millions of dollars to make movies about characters he neither cares for nor understands (Zack, if you want to continue this story, buy some Hot Toys action figures and make photo comics).  Seriously, tell me what the purpose of Zack Snyder's Justice League is (besides an ego trip)?  Story wise, very little happens to advance any of the characters here.  Steppenwolf has no arc, but is at least given a bit more motivation than from JL'17.  Batman has no arc, he ended BvS promising to form a team, so he forms a team.  What did he learn? To be part of a team? Wonder Woman has no arc except she's reminded of a home she can't return to.  And to be part of a team?  Aquaman I guess learned...to go talk to his dad...and be part of a team?  Flash learned to ... be responsible maybe, and be part of a team?  Superman learned to...come back to life and not be a rage monster?  He didn't even learn to be part of a team.  Cyborg has the ONLY character arc here (and I'll admit, it's okay).  

As a film, it nudges forward Snyder's overall "grand arc" story only a smidge.  There's one brief reference to Bruce's Knightmare sequence (from BvS where Superman's gone bad and Darkseid has taken over the world) midway through the movie, and then an extended 10 minute sequence in the very long coda to the film.  The Knightmare sequences indicate a major threat coming but we're now 6 1/2 hours into Snyder's story and we've advanced that plot almost not at all.  The whole Mother Box chase in this film was ultimately irrelevant.  This film's Knightmare sequence (as out of the blue as it is) gives the team and its members (consisting of Batman, Cyborg, Flash, Mera, Deathstroke and Joker) a very specific motivation, and even some unique character motivations.  But in terms of where this film ends, it seem light years away... not even close to the horizon.  And Batman's conversation with the Joker (Jared Leto, in better form here than in Suicide Squad) in that sequence seems like a fan-made youtube video and not something a major studio would produce with it's most valuable intellectual property.

I've waited nearly a lifetime for a big budget Justice League movie.  This is not what I've been waiting for.  I haven't watched JL'17 since seeing it in theatres and will probably never watch it again.  Likewise I don't see any situation where I'll watch this again.  This... is not for me. 
It's the opposite situation as The Last Jedi. An exceptionally well told movie certain fans don't like because it contains scenes and situations that they don't like.  This is a very poorly told movie that certain fans will like because it contains scenes and situations they think are just really cool.
If you're down with it, more power to you, have at it all you want.

[---RANDOM THOUGHTS---]
- My favourite scene - Diana with Alfred.

- "What's your superpower?"  "I'm rich."  Still the funniest line of both cuts.

- Cyborg, looks like a Michael Bay transformer, moves like a Ray Harryhousen skeleton.

- Every time Wonder Woman performs an action the same damn chanting music sting is played.  It gets especially annoying in the final battle

- Martian Manhunter looks awful.  He's a main character on Supergirl and he looks far better there. On a CW show.

- Steppenwolf, supposed to be an intimidating, scary figure, has the most adorable little monkey face. I just "awweed" every time they did a close up. His armor gets a serious upgrade from JL'17, and looks nifty.

- The coda to the film is about 25 minutes, the first third sort of tees up where the heroes might be going to next in their solo features (...but obviously not really...) as well as insinuating Ryan Choi, Cyborg's dad's colleague, has a larger part to play.  Snyder's so bad at storytelling he couldn't even work in a good easter egg about him becoming the Atom.

- One final note on how Snyder just doesn't understand these characters. Superman beats Steppenwolf to a pulp and heat visions off one of his horn-things... you know how Snyder's Superman just loves to maim and disfigure.  Then when Superman punches Steppenwolf so hard he's sent soaring back towards a Boom Tube to Apocalypse, Wonder Woman leaps and severs his head in midair...apparently because Steppenwolf taunted Wonder Woman and said he killed her mother.  Ugh.

 

Tenet

 2020, d. Christopher Nolan - rental

I proclaim to love Christopher Nolan movies, and I do...I think they're pretty rad.  But at the same time, I don't rewatch Christopher Nolan movies.  I think the most I've seen any of his films is three times... The Dark Knight and Memento, I'm pretty sure.  I want to go back and watch them all, I just don't.  While I enjoy his films tremendously as both technical accomplishments and experiments in storytelling, emotionally they're a little hollow.

A dear friend of mine who passed away years ago used to argue this point, that Nolan's films lack human connection, and were soulless.  I used to argue back that how do you deny the spectacle of what Nolan is presenting, the sheer thrill of the action he accomplishes and the mastery of his lens.  He's a craftsman through and through.  But, Braz would argue back, that many a craftsman can put together a fine piece of furniture, or a tasty meal or a realistic painting, but they can also be devoid of heart and emotion.

I love these posters. They done
sell the story of the film at all
but they do sell its style

With Tenet, I see that now.  It stares you right in the face and delivers endless lines of dialogue that explain the conceit of "inversion" and "entropic devices" and advance the espionage tale along at a breakneck pace, but there's no warmth behind it, no sentimentality, no personal connection between the players or the audience.

Is there spectacle?  Of course... you're going to get spectacle after spectacle in a Nolan film.  And they're often awe-inspiring, but Tenet is so deep in the weeds in technical logistics, narrative complexities, and mental gymnastics it kind of forgets there needs to be characters at the center of it.

John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) is absolutely a star.  Here as "protagonist", he is the point of view the entire film follows (save for the occasional diversion where Elizabeth Debicki is our necessary POV), and he just commands the screen.  His dad is Denzel, so he's certainly inherited the gift, but he has his own presence and he uses it well.  We don't get to know "protagonist" at all personally, but we learn about him as the movie progresses.  He's not James Bond, he's not suave and horny and pithy or violent and vengeful.  Instead he's dedicated to his mission, no nonsense, comfortable in any surrounding (even if he doesn't blend) but also has a moral ground where he doesn't want the innocent to get hurt.  Unfortunately by using Debicki's Kat to get at her estranged, weapons-dealing husband (Kenneth Branagh) he finds his mission somewhat compromised in putting her in harm's way.

Where a normal espionage film would really lean into a romantic entanglement between it's two leads, Nolan has no time for love, Dr. Jones. There's to much pseudo-science babble to get through.  Instead Washington and Debicki sort of form a respectful alliance (not even really a friendship, but one gets the sense that "protagonist" doesn't really do friendship, at least in the traditional sense) where he looks out for her and she's willing to help him save the world.

That dynamic is the easier part of the equation of Tenet to understand, even if it's abnormal for this kind of story.  The complexities lie in, well, everything else.  Early on in the film Nolan introduces his conceit of "inversion" through some comic book science technobabble.  And less cries of "show don't tell" ring out, he shows you while he's telling you what this all means, and it's still a lot to make sense of.  Things can be "inverted" so that they effectively operate backwards.  Guns catch bullets, a shattered glass puts itself back together.  But there has to be intent to use these inverted objects.  It's a difficult conceit to wrap your brain around generally.  But they're just pieces of a larger puzzle, about a cold war with the future, and a maguffin about a physical algorithm that could end the world.

Once the reverse-entropy is introduced, the film takes on a life of its own which either will engage those with more puzzle oriented minds or put off anyone who shuts down when timey-wimey mental gymnastics come into play.  It helped me knowing in advance that at some point the film would hit a point where it was going to "invert" itself, so I was already looking out for those ideas at play.

Even still knowing what Nolan was *trying* to do, and then attempting to follow along with him and his story proved difficult.  Nolan's always been fascinated with non-linear storytelling as well as temporal physics, and this is past the line of toying with those conceits and getting an audience to engage with it.  I can just see that the WB studio heads were saying to themselves, I don't get it, but Nolan has been money in the bank every other time, so let's see how it plays out. And it's true, in the past his films, though monkeying with time or perception of time or narrative order, have all been huge successes.  But this pushed it too far, and he will no doubt be reigned in next time if he doesn't do so on his own.

Attempting to follow along with say the highway chase (both times) or the end battle (shot and orchestrated far better than nearly every "end battle" in recent memory) proves so difficult because, as the film keeps reminding the audience, you've got to stop thinking so linearly.  But we're built to think linear, to live in our present, to see the future as ahead of use and our past as behind us.  Toy with that, to try to understand that the opposite could be true is a brain breaker, and Tenet lives in that reality, where people can move backwards and forwards through time, and so what we see on screen is often things moving both forward and backwards at the same time.

But even in lack of understanding, Tenet is a huge movie, and Nolan, reteaming with cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Interstellar) delivers another undeniably gorgeous film.  Even in its quieter moments its still just a marvel to watch.  Ludwig Gorannson (The Mandalorian) delivers a score that is as essential to the film as any performance or special effect.  It's pulsating with energy and tension, yet rarely calling attention to itself.  Nolan loves to heighten ambient noises in his movies and they blend with the score to create its own reality...not to mention Gorannson's also playing with music moving backwards through time as well.

Washington, as noted, is already proving to be a reliable performer in any situation, and to bring any life to such a void of a character is largely on him.  Robert Pattinson is easily forgotten because he's so giving.  For such a big name, Pattinson is so very comfortable in supporting roles, and literally supporting the lead. He's appealing but he's never taking away from what others are doing to shine himself up.  Elizabeth Debicki is one of my favourite working actresses.  I love how vulnerable she allows herself to be, while also conveying an intense amount of strength.  Likewise I appreciate how she can slap on three inch heels even further accentuating her stature and Nolan let her loom over Washington and Branagh.  Branagh, for his part, makes a meal out of his role.  Everyone else is so restrained letting Branagh just masticate every line in his broad Russian accent.  He's a beastly cartoon of a bad guy, and it just makes it so apparent that Nolan's truest wish is to just make a Bond movie, but only on his own terms.

I understand completely the chilly reception to this movie.  I don't love it myself, and yet, I liked it quite a bit.  I giggled a lot as I could see Nolan's monkeyshines at work, even if I didn't always comprehend what I was seeing (which was often).  It's going to take a few viewings to really "get" inversion, both how it plays out in the visual telling of this film, but also what it means for the overall setup of the story.  It does feel like an introduction, as if Nolan has at least one more of these in mind, if not a whole trilogy, but at the same time I think he'll be okay if it doesn't come to fruition due to lack of interest (or understanding). 

[Toasty-post on Tenet: we agree fully!]

Wandavision

 2021, d.Matt Shakman - Disney+

[Minor spoilers below]

It was about 1 year ago, mid-March 2020, that we were told to lock down because of COVID-19.  My wife and I had plans to take the week of work (which was also supposed to be March break for the childrens) and just enjoy doing stuff.  Instead of doing stuff, it turned into a blitzed re-watch of all the Marvel movies (we skipped only the Incredible Hulk).  At that time we had no idea what COVID-19 was going to be, how virulent it was, how it would evolve, how it would decimate populations and economies, nor how far away a vaccine or treatment would be.  We didn't know when our next Marvel movie would be, or when we would see the next Marvel feature, Black Widow, which was slated for the start of May 2020 (but is now reslated for May 2021).

We were supposed to get the first Disney+ series in August 2020 when Falcon and the Winter Soldier was originally slated to debut, but the 'rona shut down production on everything for a time and so the Captain America spin-off was held off.  Wandavision originally slated for a November or December release, was shooting in much more controlled, studio spaces so it pick up production much faster and became the first Marvel project on Disney+ instead. 

The last Marvel Cinematic Universe feature was Spider-Man: Far From Home which debuted July 2, 2019, which meant there was 18 months between Marvel releases, easily the longest gap since the nearly 2 year wait from Incredible Hulk to Iron Man 2.  To say anticipation for a return to the MCU was high was an understatement.  There hasn't been a lot to look forward in the past year, but not only did Wandavision fill the hype void, it also delivered on both hugely cultural Lost-style week-to-week mystery deconstruction and a surprising amount of weirdness.

The commercials and advance talk had painted Wandavision as a sort of traipse through the history of family sitcoms, but I don't think anyone expected the first episode to be a through-and-through pastiche of The Dick Van Dyke Show, with Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda absolutely nailing the rhythms and cadence of Mary Tyler Moore and Paul Bettany as Vision acting note perfect in the clueless dad role.  The first episode is scripted and produced with authenticity in mind.  Though shot in black and white they had to colour the sets (and makeup and wardrobe) for B&W contrast as well they actually shot with a live studio audience and utilized classic TV wire and in-camera effects.  The comedy, in all unlikelihood, somehow worked very well, both as pastiche of the comedy of the times as well as character-specific humour.  Though never huge players in the Avengers films, we did see enough of Wanda and Vision to know their basics which is all we need to start out.  The episode ends coming out of its 4x3 frame into full-screen colour to show that they are, in fact, on a TV show called "Wandavision".  The questions begin.

The second ep, debuting the same day, jumps them into a 60's Mary Tyler Moore Show/Bewitched-style magical sitcom, again with Olsen shifting her style and performance to mirror that of Elizabeth Montgomery.  Small moments in the conventional sitcom start to break the facade, haunting undercurrents of darker emotions start to creep forth from the leads as well as supporting characters.  Little cracks that break the fourth wall start to indicate that there's something magical and mysterious at play.  Little splatters of red, a curious sigil, and a mysterious visitor emerging from the sewers all contribute to serious creepy vibes lurking under an otherwise pitch-perfect 60's sitcom re-creation.  The question still is what is happening and why...as well as who is causing it...and where are they.

The third episode shocks into colour, and morphs the set once again into something that resembles the Brady Bunch.  Vision, still the clueless dad starts to clue into the fact that something is wrong, and attempting to address it with his wife leads to diversions and distractions.  There's no serious on a sit com silly.  But suddenly pregnant, and evolving quickly, Wanda is having a hard time keeping her magic under control and under wraps.  A nosy neighbour (Teyonah Parris) is cast out of town for asking too many questions, questions that threaten to snap Wanda's safety bubble... and its our first glimpse that this fictional construct of Westview, New Jersey, maybe isn't so fictional afterall.

Episode 4 breaks from the sitcom evolution to backtrack and explore just who this character Teyonah Parris is playing.  It turns out she's the now grown-up Monica Rambeau, last seen as a 10-year-old in Captain Marvel.  The episode starts with chaos in a hospital that's kind of the opposite of the opening moments of The Walking Dead or 28 Days Later where characters wake up in a desolate hospital...instead here Monica returns from the snap, along with dozens of others into absolute chaos.  The Snap from Infinity War and the return snap from Endgame are barely addressed in the MCU to date, save for the post-credits of Infinity War, a bit of Endgame and a brief sequence in Far From Home.  This is our first real grounds-eye-view of the return and it's as much of a nightmare as I'm sure the initial snap was.  

Monica's mother, Maria, helped found and run S.W.O.R.D. as a replacement for S.H.I.E.L.D. but has passed away in the years between the Snap and the return, and the new director seems to be very concerned about Monica's intentions.  But Monica is assigned to work with Jimmy Woo (Randall Park, last seen in Ant Man and the Wasp) about Westview New Jersey's sudden disappearance.  This eventually leads to meeting physicist Dr. Darcy Lewis (a return for Kat Dennings to her Thor character) who discovers the signal that gives a view into the not-gone-but-shielded Westview.  

Venturing outside the bubble was both a welcome deviation from the norm but also changed the structure of the show.  I quite loved the fully engrossed pastiche of each episode being an era of a sitcom.  Episode 5 returns with a Family Ties/Growing Pains/Full House pastiche, once again, Olson evolving her personality to fit the times while Vision's dad persona doesn't seem much different.  It's a pointed note, showing how women's roles have evolved while it seems man's role has stayed fairly stagnant...or at least the archetype is.  But it's clear now that we are actually viewing "Wandavision"  (the show within the show) from the outside, along with Jimmy, Darcy and Monica, there's really something wrong here and Wanda is the center of it.  She and Vision (and perpetually nosy neighbour Agnes, played by Kathryne Hahn) seem to be the only one with some sense of self-awareness.  Monica when she was within the "hex" also maintained her awareness it seemed, so is Agnes from the outside too?  What is Monica doing.  

Vision begins questioning his existence and the question is asked whether Wanda is bringing people back from the dead.  Is everyone in Westview dead? Wanda is seemingly in control, but isn't quite aware exactly what it is she is doing or why....but she knows for certain she's not bringing people back from the dead.  And then her brother Pietro (killed in Avengers: Age of Ultron) shows up at the door...only it's not Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but rather Evan Peters who played Quicksilver in Fox's X-Men series.  It's at once a confusing and inspired choice to confound expectations and add even further uncertainty of what's happening into the mix.  Plus, fan circles were going nuts with theories as to what it could all mean.  All of them wrong.  But the idea that it could be toying with the multiverse and be a seedling for the upcoming Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (in which Olsen's Scarlet Witch co-stars) seem to make some kind of sense.

It's this kind of toying, not just with audience expectations, but also with their perceived foreknowledge that is missing with the all-at-once style of season drops on Netflix.  Though week-to-week has remained a thing, it seems like we don't want to engage with most programming on that front any longer.  The need for immediate gratification is where our culture has landed, so it's good to get a reminder of the old ways, and it's only a little surprising that it's Disney that is giving it to us (it's not anything other than a way to ensure continuous subscribership on Disney's part, really).

A wonderful Malcolm In The Middle pastiche leads into Episode 6 and finds Wanda wrestling with what Pietro's "return" means, what it all means, and it's really this episode that we're really getting to the meat of what's happening, Wanda's grief after losing Vision, her brother, her country, her family, not to mention the chaos her powers have caused... it's been a tumultuous time for one Miss Maximoff.  Episode 6 is also the "Hallowe'en Episode" where Vision, Wanda and Pietro dress up in somewhat accurate version of their comic book costumes (Wanda's is note perfect, Vision's is sort of a Luchador spin, while Pietro's is charmingly home-made).  Meanwhile, Darcy, Jimmy and Monica challenge the powers that be on the outside

Episode 7 takes on a Modern Family/The Office confessional-style format which is fabulous in how brutally it messes with the logic of the show, and yet, it allows so much additional insight into our leads and what they're working through.  It's the last pastiche for the show to land on, and really where is there to go.  Not that Modern Family is an outright family comedy, but they're few and far between now where they were once everywhere, so it's hard to see where they could go from here with anything with the same notoriety.

The final two episodes are effectively a two parter that start really deep diving into backstories and how we wound up to where we are now, culminating in a big magical showdown that brings everything home, and while episode 8, which finds Wanda exploring her past, It's A Wonderful Life style, is extremely emotional, episode 9 seems like it's just lasers in the sky and feels like such a standard Marvel house-style battle that carries such little weight or creativity.  I was really hoping for something spectacular that tied the series' themes and its television themes together...it keys sort of into the former but not so much the latter.  But that episode 8 exploration of Wanda's history of trauma puts a lot into context.  Wanda has experienced a tremendous amount of loss, not the least of which was having to kill Vision herself in Inifinity War, only to have time rewound and to watch Thanos kill him instead.  It's no wonder she's kind of unconsciously out of control.

I loved Wandavision thoroughly through it's first half. But once it started mixing its "outside" aesthetic with the inside, we lost some of the stylistic flavour of being fully entrenched within an era-specific sitcom and it felt less audacious.  Once the scripts became more Marvel-flavoured, less sitcom structured, it just didn't seem to connect the same way.  Yet, I admire that they persisted through to the 2000s with the structure, including unique (and absolutely marvelous, no pun intended) theme songs for each era with point-perfect credits running underneath.  As well it still maintained its commercial breaks, and the sort of "in-universe" nods were maybe devoid of larger specific meaning but were fun fanspotting.

[spoilers in the video]

 

This was absolutely a story worth exploring, and if anyone was worried about the star-power of the MCU with Evans, Downey Jr. and Johansson's departures, I think Olsen has proven her undeniable presence here, showing incredible diversity, range and skill.  She holds the bulk of this series on her shoulders and you can't even see her sweat.  

Vision still may not be the most captivating character, but Paul Bettany is just endlessly charming in the role and certainly provided a needed presence.  One can see why Wanda would be so in love with a robotman in the way that Bettany flashes his pearlescent smile, glances with such warmth, and delivers his lines so soothingly.

While the story inside the hex was note perfect, up until the final battle, that is, outside the hex it felt somewhat messier.  Darcy, Jimmy and Monica were doing their own Scooby-gang thing sneaking around and pissing the director off, but it felt pretty ancillary.  There weren't any stakes for them as characters, so it left them feeling pretty hollow at the end.  Of course, Dennings is always a delight, Parris only leaves us wanting more, and Park's Jimmy Woo needs his own show.

In terms of how the show stacks up against its cinematic fare, it's a possible top ten contender.  Though runtime may be somewhere in the range of two long movie's worth of content, it doesn't work as a movie, it's the first MCU-controlled show and comes out demanding that it be presented as a serialized program, and presents a very tough act to have to have to follow.