Batman and Chocolate and Nazis, Oh My: Movie Reviews for January-June 2024

Hi, guys. It's me. I'm alive.

"I'm back" would be a bold thing to say, since I always say that and then disappear for another several months; but here's the thing: I'd like to be back. 

And here's the other thing: I've seen a lot of movies this year.

And many of them were very good movies.

And I'd like to talk about them.

Hence this post. Movie reviews, in no particular order. 

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
being the classic 1960 Western about seven gunslingers who come to the aid of a besieged farm town

Because of course I had to expose my current household to The Magnificent Seven.

You haven't lived until you've been exposed to The Magnificent Seven.

Jk. 

Kinda.

Anywho, Chico remains an endearing idiot with an excellent character arc, Bernardo remains my favorite (on an equal footing with Chico), and the whole film is just a masterpiece.

Also: Vin.

I finally appreciate Vin.

(And Harry was a lot more likeable for me this time around. I'd go so far as to say I like him better than The Guy With the Knife. And maybe even better than Lee as well. He's funny, you see.)

NEWSIES
being the cult classic musical about newspaper boys starting a union in turn-of-the-century New York City

I'd seen this back in high school, when it was the musical of the moment among my peers. My roommate and I had to watch it because she'd never seen it and we'd just watched the Dark Knight trilogy (more on that in a moment). And coming back to it was a lot of fun.

The turn-of-the-century vibes are so much fun; New York is a reliable setting; turn-of-the-century + NYC = classic combo. And the music is so fun. So is the dancing. It holds up.

The character work holds up, too. I'd forgotten (or never noticed) what a dynamic character Jack Kelly is--he starts out looking after his own interests, chiefly, and to a rather annoying extent. But by the end he's so preoccupied with thinking about how his actions will affect others that it's his sense of responsibility for everyone else that causes problems. Come to think of it, this movie is all about found family; it explores what happens when a lonely, love-starved, street-smart kid finds a role in a group of people looking out for one another. It's a story with good solid bones. No wonder it's a cult classic.

SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS
being a Dreamworks film about a piratical scamp who learns he might just care about other people sometimes after all

When I saw this one several years ago, I thought it might just be my new favorite movie. This is the first time I've seen it since. And while I wouldn't call it my favorite movie, I see why it struck me as a masterpiece. It, too, is solid.

Sinbad is like Jack Kelly in that his rule of life is "look out for #1." He takes it to criminal extremes, though. Stealing from his once-best-friend is all in a day's work. Saving said once-best-friend? Mm, maybe not.

Proteus, the once-best-friend, is who I'm REALLY here for. I wish he were in the movie more. But he kind of can't be, since the whole story revolves around him taking Sinbad's spot on Greek-myth-inspired-fantasy Death Row. He really has to stay behind for the plot to work. But I still miss him.

Marina, the love interest, is cool. And I admire the basic restraint which is an important plot point for the romance. It's basic, yes. But I admire it.

The fantasy world is cool, the animation is fun, the jokes are chuckle-worthy. 

Rat is a thing of beauty.

I think Eris is an accurate reflection of the devil, the themes are both moving and cohesive (and not-often-explored and TRUE--morality is a choice, not a personality trait), and the climax is quite well-done. Sometimes when you have a theme of self-sacrifice the climax either falls flat or gets melodramatic, but this one avoids both pitfalls with elegance and poignancy.

So, overall: me like. Me like muchly.

THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY
being the superhero movies that everyone had seen but me

So THIS is what the Batman thing is all about. I get it, now. I get it.

Quick hit ranking of the films, in my opinion: 

The Dark Knight is my least-favorite, on account of it's Just So Dark; 

Batman Begins is pretty good, 

and The Dark Knight Rises is by far my favorite. I love well-done endings, and I do think this ending was well-done. Also: Cat Woman. I never thought I'd say this, but Cat Woman is kind of the best. Her and Alfred. Oh oh also Robin. Yes, there are characters to be excited about in the Batman world and I am ashamed ever to have doubted it.

It is very nice to have a feel for Gotham now, too. I was always like "grunge but with circus clowns?" and now I'm like "yeahhh grunge with circus clowns." It's still WEIRD. But it's a very intentional vibe and I'm ok with it. 

I was also always confused by how Jack Kelly could possibly be Batman.

And now I see: Jack Kelly doesn't really have to be Batman. But he makes a phenomenal Bruce Wayne.

(Bruce Wayne reminds me of Percy Blakeney and I am Here for It.) 

WONKA
being the backstory of Roald Dahl's famous chocolatier

What to say about Wonka.

My dears, I love this movie.

I went to see it with my siblings over Christmas break, because it seemed like a fine thing to do. Also, I was curious whether Hollywood could make a movie of a Roald Dahl character without botching it.

You see, I quite love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the book. It's such a charming mixture of serious and hysterical. The antics of Willy Wonka and the Oompa Loompas as they teach four greedy children lessons The Hard Way are delightful; but what really sold me the story was Charlie, poor sweet little Charlie Bucket with his selflessness and starvation and gnawing desire for CHOCOLATE. It's whimsical and exaggerated, but in a way that cuts to the core of the human condition. Everyone is Charlie, starving in sight of the world's most magical chocolate factory. A movie inspired by this book needs to be funny; but it also needs to take itself seriously; and it also needs to be sweet--to touch on the sorrows of its zany characters with true sympathy and tenderness. 

Anyway, I was dissatisfied with both the Gene Wilder movie and the Johnny Depp movie. Largely because of the way Wonka's character was handled. Gene Wilder's Wonka struck me as too subdued. In the book, Willy Wonka comes out of the factory turning cartwheels and whooping for joy. Gene Wilder's Wonka doesn't do that; and neither does Johnny Depp's. Both of them are very sad Wonkas.

I was starting to think it's impossible to be both zany and profound onscreen. 

Then came Wonka. And even though it is a prequel and not an adaptation of the book, I am satisfied. I can see this Willy Wonka bounding out of the factory to shake hands with a starving orphan named Charlie Bucket. It would work; it would have all the breathless ridiculous energy of the original scene. They got it right.

SO Wonka pleases the bookworm in me. But it also delights me as a movie. The aesthetics, the music, the motifs, the dialogue, the characters--I mean really the characters boil down to Willy and Noodle (and Willy's mother), but that's enough. It's a dead simple story about what happens when one person decides to love another person who has never been loved before. It is the story we all have heard before and want to hear again and again, the story that never gets old. 

Only this version has flamingos and a giraffe in it. 

And chocolate, of course. We can't forget the chocolate. 

 CABRINI
being the inspiring true story of a little Italian nun who asked the pope to send her to China and got sent to New York City instead

I saw this in theaters and was rapt the entire time. The scenery. The MUSIC. (There is opera.) The deep immersion into the plight of Italian immigrants in New York City circa 1900. The ORPHANS and the NUNS WHO JUST WANT TO LOVE THEM. 

It was a pretty dire movie, and Mother Cabrini herself comes off as a pretty stark woman. I don't know how accurate this is; of course, she suffered intensely ("You have to suffer to be holy" - Cordelia Flyte), but also "Saints are not sad!" so it might have been overemphasized? In any case the film is definitely NOT a spiritual romance, not the story of Frances Xavier Cabrini's love affair with God. It never tries to get into that part of her heart--which is the only thing that really could have driven her work. Instead, it focuses on the externals of her mission. 

Overall, it wasn't perfect, but I dug it. It has the soul of New York City in it. 

THE GREAT ESCAPE
being about Allied soldiers digging their way out of a Nazi prison camp to thwart the German war effort and maybe get home safe

FINALLY. I HAVE FINALLY SEEN THE GREAT ESCAPE. All the way through, I mean. (Minus about 10 minutes towards the end.)

What a grand movie.

A grand, serious movie. 

But truly grand.

It's about LOVE, guys. Philia-love, the love of brothers, brothers-in-arms. And how greater love hath no man, than to lay down his life for his friend. 

I love how they go in pairs at the end. Hendley and Blythe got me, man. So did Willie and Danny. And Mac and Roger, I guess. But Hendley and Blythe. 

Also it's a great time seeing so many familiar faces from The Magnificent Seven.

And James Garner looked familiar but I think my brain refused to make the connection between Support Your Local Sheriff and such a...serious movie. Lo and behold the Sheriff can be serious. And The Great Escape needed some of his shenanigans. 

Not that he's the only comic relief. There was a lot of it to mark the triumph of human hope over Nazism. 

I think the greatest escape in the movie is not the literal escape from the POW camp, but the healthy escapism that orchestrating the escape gave the POWs. By using their wits, wills, and hearts for freedom, they reclaimed the truth that they were free--free creatures with intellect and the power to choose, a great capacity for virtue, a great capacity for love. Even those who didn't make it out in a physical sense DID make it out in a spiritual sense.

It's beautiful.

And it's such a good movie. 

A HIDDEN LIFE
being the inspiring true story of Bl. Franz Jaggerstatter, who also had to deal with Nazis

Quality stuff, this. Mountains and sheep and potatoes and marriage and martyrdom. 

Not to spoil it for you or anything. 

My family and I watched it on Good Friday and I think I'd recommend it as an appropriate Good Friday movie, if you're not up for The Passion. 

DUNE (Parts 1 and 2)
being...actually you know what, no, I'm not gonna try to explain this one cuz I am just too confused

So, like, I get the hype, I guess? At least, I got it when I watched the first movie. It was weird in a cool way. 

Then I saw the second one and it lost me. I can do weird, but weird + this level of violence and gore is just...it's not giving me enough good things to hold onto, ok? I think I gotta tap out at this point. 

(Part of my problem has to do, doubtless, with refusing to accept Willy Wonka as a ruthless military leader. I can't do it, guys. I just can't do it.) 

THE BATMAN
being another more recent rendition of my newest superhero friend

This one was pretty cool, I think, although to be honest my memory of it is fuzzy. 

Mostly I remember Catwoman and Alfred living up to my expectations. Which is important. 

UNDER THE RED HOOD

being a surprisingly tragic Batman cartoon

I'm glad the friend I watched this with summarized it for me beforehand, because I would not have seen such intense content coming from a cartoon. Knowing the plot ahead of time, I was actually really reluctant to watch it (spoiler: Robin dies and turns evil), but my friend was right: it's a beautifully-made film on both artistic and thematic levels. Just...really heavy-duty. So be warned. 

Nightwing, though. 

Nightwing is great.

THE LONG, LONG HOLIDAY
being a miniseries about the Nazi occupation of Normandy during WWII, from the point of view of two Parisian kids stranded on their grandparents' farm for the duration

OK I AM EXCITED ABOUT THIS ONE. It's a 2015 French cartoon miniseries, and is so incredibly beautiful. It would be wrong to classify it simplistically as a kid's show, because it handles some dark stuff-. 

It's really, really beautiful and really, really gripping at the same time. My friend and I binged it in one day when we were sick at home with fevers and it was the perfect medicine. (Along with frozen strawberries. Frozen strawberries and The Long, Long Holiday got us through that fever. And The Great Escape references, of course.) The artwork is gorgeous (I want to live in the French countryside now) and the CHARACTERS, I love. 

It's one of those shows that it's great fun to watch with others and then compare notes along such discussion prompts as "who are your top 3 favorite characters" cuz there are tons of characters and they all have their good points. (Except for some of the villains.) The only annoying thing is, I can't pick my favorite character. 

But it's really fun to sketch fan art cuz the style is so simple to copy. 

GETTYSBURG
being an adaptation of Michael Shaara's novel The Killer Angels 

A longstanding favorite of mine. It holds up, and that's kind of all I have to say. 

The monologues. Gosh, they're great. 

BULLITT

being a coldblooded thriller about crime-fighting in San Francisco 

The natural result of becoming obsessed with The Great Escape is, you become interested in other Steve McQueen movies. Robert Vaughn is in this, too, so there's a Magnificent 7 interest being fed as well. 

But on the whole, this police thriller does not live up to the legacy of its lead actors. It suffers from late 1960s/pre-1970s smuttiness and cynicism. 

On the bright side, it wasn't a total waste of time. I mean, there was a cool car chase. 

THE SCARLET AND THE BLACK

being the inspiring true story of Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty, who sneaked people to safety in Nazi-occupied Rome

I confess, I was really distracted and Not in the Mood for this one. 

But it's really good so it bears mentioning.

RIO BRAVO
being the classic Western where John Wayne plays the Sheriff and Dean Martin plays the drunk who used to be his deputy (and wherein there is actually a plot, but the friendship between those two guys is all I really care about)

THIS MOVIE, I will always bear a debt of gratitude for the times I watched it as a homesick Midwest girl living in New York.

It's no longer a staple for my mental health. But the cowboys and the soundtrack and the Texas frontier town are an inherently comforting entity, still. 

I'm even willing to be amused by Feathers.

CINDERELLA
being the 2015 live-action remake that I think is much better than the original cartoon

Dude, is it possible I've outgrown this?? Sadness. 

Oh well. It's still a good movie. I just...don't think it's a work of objective GENIUS to the extent that I always have.

I guess it's okay if Cinderella has lost its place on my favorites shortlist.

It would've been bumped off this year in any case.

Because you see.

Who needs Cinderella when you have Wonka?

Have you seen any of these movies? What did you think of them? (I am particularly anxious to know of your opinions on Wonka and The Great Escape.) (And The Long, Long Holiday, if you know it.) Do you like Batman? What setting do you prefer, turn-of-the-century NYC or World War Two in general? (I think I'd have to go with WWII in general, but don't mind me, I'm prejudiced in favor of Roger Bartlett.) And how are you this fine summer day? I've missed you, friends.