🌼 "Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking."
This week: X-Men, The Devil Wears Prada, In the Mood for Love, and more.
I could have written this newsletter in time to get it out yesterday, but I was very busy looking at WandaVision memes and fan theories.
Anyway, before we get to the reviews … check out the latest episode of Follow Friday, where I interviewed FANTI co-host Tre’vell Anderson about who they follow online, including a superstar journalist who’s still under the radar and an envelope-pushing performance artist. And if you like the show, please give us a review at LoveThePodcast.com/followfriday. Thanks!
“You picked the wrong house, bub.”
I finally finished my rewatch of the MCU movies this week (see below), and promptly moved right along to the early-2000s X-Men movies, which helped start our current superhero craze.
The first X-Men is certainly an important film in the history of blockbusters, but it pales in comparison to the many films it inspired. Everything about the movie is just fine: The characters, the villains, the script. The editing is frequently janky, and I had a hard time actually caring about most of the characters, but it’s an OK start to better things that would follow.
The first of those things is the much more assured X2: X-Men United, which features action scenes that are light years ahead of the first movie and a darker, more interesting story, anchored by Brian Cox (aka Logan Roy from Succession) as the main antagonist, William Stryker. If you’re not a completionist like me, you can read a plot summary of the first movie and just watch this one.
However, the second half of the movie isn’t as strong as the first, which ends with Stryker’s raid on Professor X’s school. And the very end of the movie, which I won’t spoil here, is … pretty stupid. The various attempts to make the film’s political subtext more explicit are also frustrating, because they don’t have enough layers to be valuable to the whole audience; they’re good for the dumbest people in the audience, and wasted time for everyone else.
I can see why, for fans of Marvel comics back in the days when superhero movies were rare, the X-Men films were a revelation. And I’m not looking forward to rewatching the third movie, which even those fans hate. But hey, after that, we get First Class and Days of Future Past, which I remember really enjoying.
X-Men ★★★ - on Disney+.
X2: X-Men United ★★★½ - on Disney+.
Other stuff I’ve watched recently
In the Mood For Love ★★★★ - My first Wong Kar-wai film, and I can already see why he is so adored by cineasts. The framing, color, lighting, and editing in this movie are impeccable, the kind of artistic filmmaking that really takes full advantage of the medium. The story, which inspired later films such as Lost In Translation, is simple and moody; if it were a bit more complicated, I could see myself buying this film to watch it over and over, but even on one viewing, I was entranced. On HBO Max, the Criterion Channel, and Kanopy.
The Devil Wears Prada ★★★½ - Finally saw this one. A good story about being a young person in media, led by an outstanding cast — Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt — and with several memorable scenes. I see why people loved it in 2006, but I think the abuse Hathaway takes from Streep’s character is way less funny now than it was (or was intended to be), and I found most of the character turns predictable and unconvincing. Available to rent/buy on digital.
Hands on a Hardbody ★★★½ - Get your mind out of the gutter. This is a low-budget documentary from 1997 about a competition to win a hardbody truck in Longview, Texas. It’s a bit rough around the edges, with some bad edits and audio and shaky camera work, and felt a bit padded for time, but I still enjoyed it. There’s a deep river of sadness under the quirky surface, and I couldn’t help but be invested in the competitors. Available to rent/buy on the film’s website.
Spider-Man: Far From Home ★★★ - There’s a bunch of things I like about this movie — the characters are still funny and adorable, the idea of the villain is pretty good, and there are some beautiful and creative CGI shots. But: Oh man, this one really needed a meaner script editor. The stakes are WAY too big for the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and the absence of other heroes is conspicuous and distracting. On Starz.
P.S.
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Leave your reactions, questions, recommendations, and Meryl Streep filmography rankings in the comments below.