WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE III: SPRING 2022
Hello People of the World;
Well, what do you know? It’s getting warmer out there. Almost as if, spring is amongst us once again. Then, at the posting of this weblog, it is cold and rainy. The weather changes. Can we?
As always: Stay safe. Stay home.
All right, let’s get going:
1:[ This virus really showed how equal we all really are: it exposed how right we all really want to be, while never trying to find the facts….
2:[ Sam Elliot was a hero of mine. Hell, he was a hero of a lot of people, but his homophobia of "Power of the Dog" and should be called out. But what I also find disturbing is his want to defend the western's "Myth of Conquest" and its vanishment of Native Americans. You notice, no one ever criticizes westerns for that?
3:[ The Batman - what did I think? The final verdict: It was pretty good.
"The Dark Knight" impacted me more emotionally, especially with what I consider to be one of the greatest ending montage in film, period.
Matt Reeves constructs a crime caper, which is a style I have wanted since the Batman films restarted in 1989. Reeves plays with shadows more so than past directors and the montage of of the Batman stopping crime with the mere thought that he might be in the shadows was one of the great Batman scenes ever.
Bruce Wayne also comes into his own as a flawed but helpful person, apathetic to all but violently stopping crime. This was also the first time I felt that Bruce was taking his rage and helplessness at his parent's death out on the criminal element. This angle fit this iteration of Batman well and set him up to do better as a person in future films.
Zoë Kravitz was purr-fectly cast as Selina Kyle, though Reeves gave her little to do. Or, at least it felt that way. Paul Dano's Riddler will go down as one of the best movie Bat-villains, I feel. I enjoyed him better than Nicholson's Joker.
The supporting characters, Farrell as the Penguin, Wright as Gordon, and Turturro as Falcone were very good. The cinematography was great and a perfect fit for this Batman, if even it rained a bit too much.
"What about Pattinson?" you ask. He was very good as Bruce and Batman. I was an early supporter of his casting.
Here, a Batman only two years in operation must try to decipher clues The Riddler is leaving on his victims. Selina is working to find the killer of her friend, a fellow worker who is threatened to be forgotten in the scandals uncovered by the Riddler's killing spree. I enjoyed the corruption of the system aspect and I don't think any of the other Batman movies explore this. There are corrupt officials, but none really make changes to the system, they just expect Batman to usher in a renewed faith in the broken system. I hope the Batman of this series looks deeper at systemic issues.
I had no issue with how they handled the Waynes.
Another of my favorite aspects is that Gordon brings the Batman into crime scenes and the animosity of the police toward him. Through the film he goes from being a hated vigilante to a symbol of hope for the city.
If there are some weaknesses: the film was too long. The end scene in Arkham Asylum didn't need to be there. The final ending scene just dragged on too long. There was a logical end point but they didn't use it.
This was the first time I felt that the Batman was a gimmick. A gimmick in the sense that the Batman was a separate thing from Bruce Wayne. I enjoyed that aspect as well. It has me thinking about it and my own filmmaking and while "The Dark Knight" is still my most favorite Batman film, this one I count as a great Batman film.
HIGH RECOMMENDATION
4:[ Music reviewers on the internet: Look, having a degree in Music doesn't make your opinions important, it just lets you proffer your biases with more pretension. Most of these people are mad that music wasn’t like to was in the 80’s or 90’s and it’s pathetic. It’s simply that we are becoming irrelevant. Hip-hop music is popular now because that is why it’s called “Pop Music”, popular music. And trends change with the generations. This is why I unsubscribed from a lot of “music critic” shows on YouTube.
5:[ Are there movies that the more you think about them, the more you like or dislike them after your initial reaction. The latest examples of this for me are “Spider-man: No Way Home” and “Fresh”.
I like “No Way Home” less the more I think of it. It could never really stand on its own. You have to do homework to enjoy it and that sucks. That’s basically what Star Wars has become. It does nothing but validate, once again, the nostalgia of old, white dudes. (Again, much like Star Wars.)
I like “Fresh” more the more I think of it. It upended my expectations at every turn. The way I thought it should go, it didn’t. I don’t mean plot-wise, but in my own male gaze perspective on the genre. I made guesses at how it would go, even guessing the wife to be the real big bad, but was turned on my ear in the result. Fantastic, the more I think of it.
6:[ I have been catching up on my Setsuko Hara films. For the longest time, I watched only the Noriko Trilogy and thought that was the extent of her range. But this was my own expectation of her, informed through those six films she made with Ozu. Through Letterboxd, I have been catching up with her films. A long time ago, I seen her final performance in “Chushingura (47 Loyal Ronin)”. Through the Criterion Channel, I saw two of her films with Niruse, “Repast” and “Sound of the Mountain”, and also “Let’s Hear it for the Young Lady”. I am in awe of her performances in Kuraosawa’s “No Regret for Our Youth” and “The Idiot”.
But in the last three months, I have watched, “Priest of Darkness”, “Pastoral Symphony”, “Sky of Hope”, “Three Women of the North”, “The Blue Mountain” Parts One and Two, and “Tokyo Sweethearts”. Through these films I was able to see how typecast she was in the apex of her career. For me, Kurosawa’s films stand out for how much she broke the mold and stretched her acting chops. I had heard of “A Woman in the Typhoon Area” but cannot find it anywhere. I hope to see her do a completely different role.
Probably my most favorite non-Ozu/Kurosawa/Niruse film of hers I did see, is the long unseen “The Ball at the Anjo House”, where she plays the youngest sister in a rich family who has lost their fortune after the war and decide to hold one final ball before leaving their home. She works to try and help her father make it through this transition.
By viewing these films, I found that the actress Setsuko Hara was working hard to break through this type and do something more. I am working on a video about “Tokyo Story” and her role in it. Anyway, I’m watching more Setsuko Hara films and I am reminded of the limited roles, even the most admired actresses still had to deal with….
7:[ The thing about the anger at trans-athletes is that it’s nonsense. All sports, from In the Womb Fetus Leagues to the professional ranks, is ALL ABOUT GAINING A PHYSICAL ADVANTAGE OVER YOUR OPPONENT. We’re just soooo used to trafficking black athletes, and we want to keep it that way. Besides, what if a coach or sports doctor accidentally takes advantage of a trans-woman? Right? That’s the real issue here.
8:[ We cannot go back to “Normal” all after this: Where people care more about Star Trek being ‘woke’ than about what’s going on in the real world….
9:[ This idea of “the elite”. We seem to have forgotten what it means and use is as an excuse for willful ignorance.
10:[ Honestly, I think BBC should have a steak of thirteen actress straight playing the Doctor on Doctor Who from now on. It’s only fair….
That is it for this month.
As always, I invite you to comment, correct, or contradict anything I write here. I am open to a critical debate. Thanks for taking the time to check out what I write here and I will see you in a month.
Until next time, remember “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
2022 Ernest M Whiteman III
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