Reviews

Not a great movie but not at all a bad one, either. Well produced, solidly directed and very good acting all around. Only real issue for me is the story, which doesn't really take you much of anywhere. The most compelling, interesting part of the story is how Damien learns of his true identity and struggles with it at first. Or at least for one scene. Had the main plot of the story been about Damien's journey of self discovery and acceptance, I think that would have been much more interesting. The young actor who plays Damien, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, proves himself to be quite a good actor and I think could have handled it. Instead, he's mostly a passive, only occasionally active participant in his slow and steady march toward Satanic domination. So by the time you get to the end (SPOILER), except for the Lee Grant thing, which I kind of saw coming about half way through, you're kind of left to shrug at a feeling of inevitability, which I didn't find very compelling. But all in all, it kept me engaged, and I thought it was pretty good. Certainly better than I expected.

Soapdish has a few scenes that are generally funny but all in all it falls flat. It actually starts with some good, promising satire, with ridiculously good looking people getting cast as a rabble crowd of homeless people, and scenes about the casting couch. And Kevin Kline playing Death of a Salesman in bad dinner theater in Florida. Genuinely funny stuff. But it very quickly gets lost in a very uninteresting story about failed attempts to derail Sally Fields' character's career (attempts that, despite the hyped up acting, never has any real teeth or even sense of high stakes) and her triangle relationship with her supposed niece and Kevin Kline's character. So much wasted talent here! Kathy Najimy, a brilliant comedic actress, is completely wasted in a throwaway role as a costumer. Even worse with Carrie Fischer! She gets one hilarious scene, making me want to see more of her and her character, and then she basically disappears for the rest of the movie. So disappointed. But the worst for me was the end, which relies on a horrible and very offensive transphobic joke.

The best satires are grounded in some version of reality. Part of the fun is recognizing the truth in even the most ridiculous of situations, since the truth itself is often ridiculous. The Soapdish producers seem to have felt that if you just mix in a few jokes with an otherwise uninteresting story, you'll have good satire. Instead they settled for a few cheap laughs. What a waste of a talented cast.

Watched the documentary Kid 90 on Hulu last night. The premise - Soliel Moon Frye, aka Punky Brewster - explores her experience of moving from child to teenager to adult during the 1990's by diving into her vast collection of of surprisingly intimate and personal homemade videos and journal entries. It includes clips of many other teenage actors and celebrities at the time - her co-hort and community - and contemporary interviews with those who made it to adulthood. Tragically, a number did not. It promises to be really interesting, personal, vulnerable and insightful. Unfortunately, it ends up being only minimally any of those things. Personal? Yes, absolutely. But not particularly insightful. It manages to be vulnerable and superficial at the same time. Like a Hollywood map of scars. I got this scar from the time that this happened and that scar from the time that that happened (oh my god we were so effed up but it was so amazing), and coming up next on the right...

It's too bad because she touches on so many things, so many deep veins that deserve exploring, so many things that I was willing to spend time exploring with her. But she never seems interested in exploring, just pointing things out. It's frustrating.

Toward the end, thinking back on the friends who tragically took their lives, she talks about how much she sees now that she missed twenty years ago. What she doesn't say is that she missed so much because she couldn't see very far outside herself. By the end I was left with the impression that she still can't.

Rather than exploring someone's journey with them, I instead just spent the last 90 minutes with someone while they waxed nostalgic over their old photo albums. And I still haven't gone grocery shopping.

I was a fan of the original 1970's TV series Wonder Woman when I was a kid, even when it got to be ridiculous. I remain a fan of the current Wonder Woman but unfortunately, WW84 also got to be ridiculous. There are parallels, both good and bad.

I am a sucker for super hero TV shows and movies, particularly (and this was especially true when I was a kid) those with women super heroes. Also, Linda Carter so perfectly embodied Wonder Woman that I would have watched her play Wonder Woman in anything and enjoyed it, even if it was really bad, just because of her. In the first season's original 1940's setting in WWII era America, the story and character seemed grounded and had a clear reason for being, even as it occasionally embraced a kind of self-conscious campiness. When it transferred to "modern-day," 1970's America, its reason for being got lost, the modern-day setting seemed arbitrary, the story lines became more and more ridiculous, and it lost its campy mojo. And it introduced head-scratching new Wonder Woman outfits, such as the full body swimsuit and the Wonder Woman skateboarding outfit, complete with helmet and elbow and knee pads (a perfect example of a lost opportunity for camp or self-conscious humor. Had the elbow and knee pads deflected bullets, it would have been SO MUCH BETTER). But it still had Linda Carter, so I was in all the way.

With Wonder Woman 1984, Gal Gadot continues to perfectly embody the character, imbuing her with a deep sense of integrity, warmth, strength and, despite Wonder Woman's god-like nature, humanity. I am a fan. The story itself is honestly a mess. However, she keeps the central theme of the movie grounded - that a hero's strength is not defined by winning but is rather built and strengthened by one's willingness to accept loss and move on. For me, that was enough to see me through and keep me interested. But there's a lot to get through.

I enjoyed Kristin Wiig as Barbara Minerva / Cheetah, and I really liked the story that started to develop between her and Diana Prince / Wonder Woman. I wish theirs had been the primary focus. Unfortunately, it's another character named Max Lord who serves as the primary foil for Wonder Woman's character and story arc. His similarities to a certain US President are unmistakable. He's a deeply insecure megalomaniac who is motivated to attain increasingly immeasurable power to fill a gaping hole in his soul. His special power springs from his charlatan nature of telling people what they want to hear and, eventually, empowering them to realize their deepest, darkest desires, regardless of consequence. As an idea, it sounds great. As executed, it's uninspired and boring, which makes the secondary focus on Cheetah all the more disappointing.

Then there's the somewhat tangential story arc with Chris Pine's Steve Trevor. I like Chris Pine as an actor and I like him as Steve Trevor. But while the character plays an important role in Wonder Woman's story line, too many of the scenes between them are superfluous and silly. So when he gets to the point where he realizes, yeah, you don't need me here, I'm just getting in the way, I thought, yeah, I was there about 40 minutes ago.

And there is a strange new costume that's not quite as bad as the full-body swimsuit but close. And there are a couple of new super powers that are introduced (including one that's introduced by something that feels like a last-minute special effect idea. I thought, "Oh, yeah, Sookie Stackhouse on True Blood had a similar special effect." Or was it intended as some kind of homage to the magical costume change light burst from the original series?). The super powers, btw, are not new; they come from Wonder Woman lore. Still, they felt a little odd for some reason in this context.

But like I said, it still has Gal Gadot, so despite everything, I'm still in. In all likelihood I will watch it again. I will also likely be the only person in my house to do so.