While the kids were at camp a few weeks ago, Chantal and I went on a movie bender. I normally write brief reviews of the films I see as I see them but we saw these in such rapid succession that I couldn’t keep up! The following is my best attempt to grasp our week of cinemania.
The day before the kids left for camp we saw the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ant-Man and the Wasp. Within its own by now self-established genre, this film is excellent. Because not everybody has seen it, I won’t spoil plot points, but I will say that the writing and editing on the film is superb. The movie weaves its own tale while connecting substantively with the larger Marvel narrative. In its course, the story engages the value of familial love, the classic tension between corporate greed vs. social good, and, of course, the virtue of heroic sacrifice. Along the way, the film is also comedic and loaded with characteristic moments of action and adventure. With Ant Man and the Wasp, Marvel adds another layer to the complex narrative it is weaving that, for now, is leaving us all hanging until Summer 2019.
Both Tag (2018) and the Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited (2007), deal with the value and complexity of human relationships. Tag is, of course, lighter fare, built around the heartwarming true story of a group of boys who made a pact to continue an ongoing game of tag from childhood through their adult years. The film heightens the lengths they would go to tag one another and, in particular, the one person who had never been tagged. While the comedy centered on the commitment of the players to the game, the heart of the film (which is admittedly a stretch in plot development) comes around to the rationale of the game itself: friendship. The editing on the last 10 minutes of the film bring this to the fore, connect to the core of the real-life story of this group of boys (now men), and make the film both hilarious and touching.
Darjeeling is one of the most Wes Anderson of Wes Anderson films. The story centers around the estranged family relationship among three brothers and their parents. Isolated on a train traveling across India, the three brothers are forced to seek a connection that appears elusive through most of the film. An unresolved encounter with their mother and a tragedy turns the tables and brings genuine hope of a pathway for a genuine affection and connection between the brothers. It is not until the brothers relinquish their control over their circumstances (manifested in wealth and power) that they find a way beyond their impasse and on to something better, which is a very Hindu as well as Christian insight.
The Coen brothers’ dark comedy Suburbicon (2017) and the endearing documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor offer unflinching assessments of contemporary culture that ought not to be missed. Suburbicon works out of the metaphor and social reality of the emergence of the suburb as a critique of White American protectionism as a way of protecting the White American Dream. The Coen brothers have the cultural realities that created the Current Administration clearly in their sights as this quirky, tragic story unfolds. While Surburicon is an essential watch for fans of these iconic writers and directors, the extremely dark edge of the story and the lengths it goes to make its point pushed this viewer (at times) to a place where it is difficult to stay with the narrative. There is a better film in the text of Suburbicon that could have come to the fore in a more compelling and engaging way with additional editing.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor, on the other hand, is a mesmerizing masterpiece not only as a documentary, but as a cinematic experience. If a documentary were ever to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, Won’t You Be My Neighbor is definitely a candidate. As anticipated, the film explores the life of Fred Rogers as an academic, musician, pastor, father, husband, passionate teacher of children, and highly self-aware shaper of culture. The documentary resolves some of the false cultural mythologies surrounding Rogers (yes, he was all that good, and no he was never in the armed forces), while surfacing tensions in his personality only known to those in his inner circle. Rogers’ meticulous way of harnessing the medium of television to intentionally shape children during the cultural twists and turns of the late 20th and early 21st century forms the heart of this documentary. Rogers saw before many that in the midst of the cultural chaos of the 1960s and 1970s, children were the losers. While adults were in some sense lost in the midst of the collapse of the dominant culture of the 20th century, children were left without a way to engage and comprehend the world around them. Fred Rogers intentionally stepped into this space and became the conscience, nurturer and guide for many generations of children. Using his platform, Rogers boldly addressed issues of racism, sexuality, on his show, speaking head on with a very Christian word of God’s love for each and every person. Simply because Fred Rogers was who is was, Won’t You Be My Neighbor should be mandatory fare for every human along with a strong dose of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Rogers deeply understood the darkness he spoke into from his Neighborhood and he faced it with audacious hope from beginning to end.
Our week of cinemania ended with Oceans 8. At the core of the plot, Oceans 8 is a film we’ve all seen before in the other Ocean films. That said, I enjoyed seeing its all female cast weave this intricate tale of espionage and intrigue as they wielded their sinister talents with sophistication to pull off a heist of which Danny Ocean himself would be proud. With the power of its all female cast, Oceans 8 is a fun ride of a film that won’t be up for any Oscars, but is worth a watch if you simply want to see something light and fun.
The kids are long back from camp and the last days of summer are quickly slipping through our fingers, but our cinematic binge was a blast, leaving me looking forward to the next one!