ELVIS: Heartbreak Toilet

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Writers: Baz Luhrmann, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, Jeremy Doner

Cast: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Kelvin Harrison Jr., David Wenham

Runtime: 159 mins.

2022

Surprise surprise, the racial politics of Elvis are reprehensible. One can hardly expect a Hollywood film to damn him* for stealing the music of Black musicians who trailblazed Rock N' Roll without recognition, but the gall of proclaiming Elvis's innocence is made all the worse by the Black characters, actors, and extras all being treated as props. We flash back to a kinetic church revival tent so that the Black congregation can lift a besotted Elvis-child atop their shoulders. We see young adult Elvis drawn to Beale Street, eyes glimmering with wonder. B.B. King shows up just long enough to tell the rising star that he's the only one who'll be allowed to make any money off these songs, so he may as well take them. It's cynicism masquerading as community.

*The film also slickly glides over his grooming of Priscilla Presley, who was 14 when they met.

That cynicism comes to the fore in the character of Col. Tom Parker, Elvis's ultra-predatory financial manager. He is brought to life in one of Tom Hanks' worst performances (although a bad Hanks performance is still pretty good on balance). The film is quite shrewd to anchor the narrative in this old roach's perspective. An impossible needle is threaded thusly: Parker's moustache-twirling villainy becomes the root source of all exploitation, making Elvis himself an entirely passive figure. Austin Butler's portrayal is competent but anonymous; The movie must keep the King at arms' length to protect his mythos. The end result is an Elvis absolved of agency, upon which the audience may project anything they please, be it bitter resentment or starry admiration. So much for this botched opportunity to revise the Elvis legend for the 2020s.

MOONFALL: Positively Lunatic

Director: Roland Emmerich

Writers: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Spenser Cohen

Cast: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, John Bradley, Charlie Plummer, Wenwen Yu, Michael Peña, Carolina Bartczak, Eme Ikwuakor

Runtime: 130 mins.

2022

I've done the public service of jotting down Actual Quotations from the feature film Moonfall:

"If the moon really is what you think it is, we're gonna need a megastructurist."

"I hope the moon holds together, at least for a little while anyway."

"I got a lot of my own problems down here." "And the moon falling to Earth isn't one of them?!"

"Sonny, the moon is going to help us!"

"We scanned your consciousness. You're part of the moon now."

These are the quotations of a movie besotted with saying the stupidest shit imaginable about the moon. This is also a movie very much in love with Elon Musk, from which I'll invite you to draw your own conclusions.

NOPE: Nope Man's Sky

Director: Jordan Peele

Writer: Jordan Peele

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Steven Yeun, Wrenn Schmidt, Keith David

Runtime: 130 mins.

2022

Jordan Peele: Idea Man. This reputation crystallized after his premier feature Get Out, an allegory for racial trauma, microaggressions, and fetishistic performativity, complete with sci-fi thriller trappings. Peele distills the miasma of racecraft into something sharp and familiar. Peele's preternatural skill as a director is what elevates the film to iconic status. We may trot out the well-observed "I would have voted Obama for a third term" line regularly, but it's the off-kilter delivery of "no no no no no no no" and the clinking, sinking sensory nightmare of the hypnotism that we remember most deeply. Indeed, it is 'Idea Man' Peele who undermines his second film Us, a queasy, slanting audiovisual achievement that falls apart when the script butts in to explain everything with dotted Ts and crossed Is.

So, Nope. OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) inherits his father's (Keith David) horse training business after a freak accident in which loose change shrapnel falls from the sky. The family ranch has been a mainstay in Hollywood since the original motion picture: the infamous jockey, OJ's great great great grandfather, riding on a horse. OJ's sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) drops by from time to time to leverage her charisma for the good of the ranch, but they both have the sense that their legacy is slipping away from them. A series of terrifying encounters with an alien object in the clouds inspires them to grasp for legacy once more, in the form of documented extraterrestrial evidence.

RRR: !!!

Director: S.S. Rajamouli

Writers: Vijayendra Prasad, S.S. Rajamouli

Cast: N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Olivia Morris, Shriya Saran, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody

Runtime: 187 mins.

2022

"American movies could never."

The refrain of our viewing party. Every time a scene of physical extremity was shot with clarity and true impact. Every time an intimate moment was played with blistering sincerity. Every time our heroes worked towards uncompromising anticolonial revolt. Every time the fun was maximized, and then maximaximized.

American movies could never. Is this true? You would have to peer back a few decades in blockbuster history to a specimen like Con Air, or Speed. Mile-a-minute insanity used to be acceptable for a big budget four quadrant movie. Desirable, even. Something poisonous has happened to the blockbuster since then. The movies are risk averse. The studios are afraid. Fun must be ironic, characters must be flawless, consequence must be forestalled, the audience's indulgent power fantasy must escape intact. Although it is not true that American blockbusters never could, perhaps it is now true that they could never.

RRR isn't a blockbuster... it's a ballbuster.

A NEW LEAF: May Flowers

This review was requested by Nate Biagiotti. Many thanks to Nate for supporting Post-Credit Coda through our Patreon.

 

Director: Elaine May
Writer: Elaine May

Cast: Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Jack Weston, George Rose, James Coco, Doris Roberts

Runtime: 102 mins.

1971

Between 1949 and 1979, fourteen feature films were directed by women. That's 0.19% of all films released. Before A New Leaf, Ida Lupino was the last woman to be given a directing contract in Hollywood, and the lion's share of her work was in the early '50s. Dorothy Arzner, Ida Lupino, Elaine May: the only three women to be inducted into the Director's Guild of America for decades.

The irony is that May stumbled into this gig somewhat accidentally. Having found fame in an improvisational comedy duo with (soon-to-be-great filmmaker) Mike Nichols, Elaine May merely intended to adapt A New Leaf from a Jack Ritchie story and sell the script off. Her agent pulled for her to direct, for which she was paid a paltry $50,000. She resisted the studio's preference of Carol Channing for the female lead because she felt the story belonged to Walter Matthau's character and wanted the actress to 'disappear.' Instead of allowing her to select her own lead, Paramount made an ultimatum. May could star in the film if she acted for free.

A fitting backdrop for a story of slimy exploitation. Matthau plays Henry Graham, a trust fund parasite who has been blithely squandering his wealth for no reason beyond shortsightedness. It turns out being broke comes along with a neverending onslaught of unpleasantness. Graham concocts a plan to marry a wealthy woman on a brisk timetable, pay off his debts, then matter-of-factly murder her so that his lifestyle may continue. A New Leaf is a tale of the colossal effort a man will go through to maintain his behavior.

Top Ten 2021

In 2021, film limped back. Pandemic-blighted productions relearned how to bring a movie into the world. Movie theaters opened their doors one by one, except those that had been permanently shuttered. High profile releases oscillated between streaming service and big screen. The theatrical experience struggled for relevancy; the very definition of cinema shifted beneath our feet. Folks who hadn't been to the theater in a year deliberated about when it was safe enough to experience the medium in its finest form.

Yet the art perseveres, as it always does, as it ever will.

THE PRODIGAL SON: Only in Appearance

This review was requested by Arthur Robinson. Many thanks to Arthur for supporting Post-Credit Coda through our Patreon. Check out other reviews in this Martial Arts Retrospective.

Director: Sammo Hung

Writers: Sammo Hung, Barry Wong, Jing Wong

Cast: Biao Yuen, Ching-Ying Lam, Frankie Chan, Sammo Hung

Runtime: 100 mins.

1981

[Note: I watched this movie with subtitles. I peeked in at the dubbed version afterwards. I'd go so far as to say that it's so bad, it makes some of the more subtle scenes of the movie actively offensive. Sometimes it's fun to enjoy trash kung fu movie dubs, but this should be experienced in its original form if you can help it.]

Not one minute in, I had to pause the film to watch a sequence again. A camera descends into a freeze frame of a bustling restaurant. The still image then bursts into hubbub. My rewatch confirmed that the still image was actually live action: a dozen actors pack the frame, oh so still, gestures pregnant with motion. An ensemble moment of flawless craftsmanship.

Protagonist Leung Chang (Biao Yuen) is revealed with a fancy umbrella whisked away from his smirking face. He is the local kung fu street brawling legend, boasting over 300 victories. The restaurant burbles around him, including a table of stooges who mean to challenge Chang to a faceoff. They bicker amongst themselves as if deliberating which film trope to use. "Overturn a table," their leader says. "Not this table!" he is compelled to add after a henchman eagerly topples their drinks.

Already the world of the film is so rich. Director (and writer, and costar) Sammo Hung makes sure that each denizen of this restaurant is preoccupied. Whether it's how a customer eats noodles, or how they react to a brawl, every movement is distinct. Another standout blocking moment bifurcates a conversation held at another restaurant-- disembodied chopstick-holding hands pluck lobsters from the center of the frame one by one.

Hung is especially diligent at bringing small details back around. Remember the troublemaking fellows who seemed aware of their own embodied tropes? As it turns out, Chang is an unwitting fraud! His rich father has been paying off the entire village to lose. The self-aware playacting of the goons is thus doubly justified! It's like The Truman Show, but for kung fu.

Signification Overhaul

After an honorable amount of consideration, I've altered my previous rating system to be more coherent and accessible. We now follow a scale of 0-5 BLOBS. Here is what they signify:

5 - Unbridled Masterpiece

4 - Superlative

3 - Above Average

2 - Below Average

1 - Terrible

0 - Unmitigated Disaster

What does it mean to measure in BLOBS? A BLOB is malleable yet taut, singular yet infinite. You cannot pin down a BLOB, but it can pin down you. We measures movies in BLOBS because they do not fit in boxes. A BLOB is gelatinous; its center of gravity shifts. Hail the BLOB, and disrespect the BLOB, accordingly.

GOOD WILL HUNTING: Bad Won't Fishing

This review written with compliments to VideoBlobby's Twitch chat.

Director: Gus Van Sant

Writers: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck

Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Stellan Skarsgård, Casey Affleck, Minnie Driver

Runtime: 126 mins.

1997

The final image of Good Will Hunting is a credit lingering over an endless highway: "In memory of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs." These defining voices of the Beat Generation died the year the film came out. The Beat Poets are stereotypically a young man's fixation, and this is a young man's movie. The Beats' writing is suffused with a palpable yearning, a lust for experience, a counterculture defiance, a tremendous and casual misogyny. Damon and Affleck continue in this tradition by smearing their hearts all over the page, messy in youthful ambition.

They tell the story of a young Bostonian janitor with a preternatural gift for mathematics, which gets discovered when he compulsively solves an unsolvable proof sitting unfinished on an MIT Math Department whiteboard. From there, Good Will (Matt Damon) is caught in a system that clashes with his every impulse as he is made ready to be an Important Math Man.

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE: Metareality Materiality

Directors: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

Writers: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis

Runtime: 139 mins.

2022

everything

What does meaning mean?

Around the middle of the 20th century, the gargantuan impact of modernism was being challenged, as the 'grand narratives' were seeming more and more like an emperor without clothes. Structuralist explanations of the world and its machinations began to feel oppressive, flattening human experience into molds that never quite fit. The tyranny of meaning no longer held court. God is dead, and we stragglers struggle with the plurality of perspective, the unknowability of a quasi-infinite quantum universe. Deconstruction eradicated the clichés, traditions, and beliefs that we had held dear. Everything is relative, you see, and meaning is little more than a comfortable shawl that is bittersweet to part with.

The ramifications of this movement oscillated through every aspect of culture. Here were the early rumblings of identity politics, in which our particularity gives us a unique perspective that is not to be invalidated. Here, too, was the primacy of metafiction: art that is aware of itself as art. If meaning is broken, at least we can still mess around with the frame like a child playing dress-up with glassless glasses.