"Stronger."
Lord in heaven, the hype over AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. Far. Too. Much. Clearly this was a movie made for the fans, for those who have helped build the billion-dollar Marvel film franchise ruling Hollywood now. I don't remember which critic it was who asked if there's even still any point in reviewing this movie, or in saying something bad about it. And yes, it's not a very good movie. It's spread far too thin, even with its twenty-minutes-shy-of-three-hours running time. It's really just a homecoming of sorts, a celebration of all the other Marvel movies that preceded it. For the record, my favorite among those are "Guardians of the Galaxy" (the first one, not the second one, which was bad), "Thor: Ragnarok," "Black Panther" and "Dr. Strange."
I couldn't remember what the first "Deadpool" movie was about, though I do remember being greatly entertained by it. Maybe that's all I'll ever need to say about it. It's one of those fun-but-forgettable movies. Like a great day at a beach that looks just like any other B-rated beach, with friends who're just so-so company. DEADPOOL 2 is a different creature, I think, though don't quote me on that since, again, I don't have a lot of memories of the first one to compare it with. But lord in heaven, the fourth-wall breaking and self-awareness and meta jokes. Far. Too. Much. It's enjoyable at first, but at some point, you just want to tell the movie to get. A. Grip. There's really a fine line between just right and too much, and the makers of this movie don't know that, apparently. By the climax, you can already feel the movie buckle under the weight of its self-confessed cleverness. It's that weight, actually, that made me realize I had a great time during numerous moments. The X-Force's descent into that unnamed city, for one. Hilarious! And whenever Lucky a.k.a. Domino was onscreen (she's really the breakout star of this film, if ever there was one). Landing on an inflatable panda (or was it a bear)? Check. Everybody else dying while she's still gliding closer to the ground on her parachute, smooth as a comet.
There were only eight of us in the cinema last night for an LFS of Mike de Leon's CITIZEN JAKE. I must confess outright that this was only my second Mike de Leon; the first was the restored version of "Kakabakaba Ka Ba?," which I saw during its Trinoma premiere thanks to the invitation of a friend. So I didn't really have much to size "Citizen Jake" up to as far as body of work was concerned. Nevertheless I thought the movie was--foremost--essential. People have to see it, especially given the current political buffoonery plaguing our country, the outright deceit and historical revisionism enabled by this "putanginang" government. As polemic, the movie is compelling. Its anger is infectious, and more importantly, coherent. But then there is also the drama part of this movie, which I thought was its weakness. Philbert Dy's review for Rogue did a better job at articulating my thoughts, and so did J. Neil Garcia's for GMA News. So I'm just gonna say this one thing: the theatricality of this whole film, the language of it, and I mean literally the way it's written--it's jarring, too showy, too bombastic in places that could really use subtlety. Lots of places, really. I came out of the theater feeling like this was the work of someone who, in certain places of the film, just felt tired, like literally tired, and could no longer hear the words he was putting on paper. (Also, Teroy Guzman, hello there, you just reprised this role for "The Kundiman Party," sly bastard, but you were effective anyway.) I don't know about you, but I was baffled by the way the characters spoke many times. We get it: polemics. But hello, "The Normal Heart." So there's that. And also Nonie Buencamino's wig was just awfully done (his roots were showing, for crying out loud!). But still I will recommend this to anyone who asks, because you know, there's also that whole other timely part I mentioned earlier.
I swear, if Jake Gyllenhaal doesn't win an Oscar (or gets at least four more nominations, or five, or ten) before he retires, I will personally write the Academy to tell them they are cancelledT with a capital T. David Gordon Green's STRONGER, less about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing than about the guy in a wheelchair with his legs newly blown off, is anchored on another Gyllenhaal performance that could have been an easy pick for the Best Actor race if it were any other year. (But then we had Daniel Day-Lewis in "Phantom Thread" and fuckin Elio in CMBYN, to begin with, didn't we?) What does the guy have to do to get nominated again, like come on! It's been more than a decade since "Brokeback Mountain," and many of us are still angry about the "Nightcrawler" snub. Here is an actor who has been endlessly fearless with the roles he plays, who isn't afraid to get and look (and probably feel) ugly. The movie has its high notes, meaning it also has its blah notes, but what I will single out is the director's eye for the crowd scenes--when Jeff Bauman's crazy, dysfunctional family enters and fills the picture, and that bravura last-quarter sequence that finally shows us the immediate aftermath of the bombing with Bauman at its center. And sure, Tatiana Maslany got some Supporting Actress recognition for her work here, because yeah she does great work here, but what about Miranda Richardson as Bauman's overbearing mom, huh? Such a waste.
I don't know why I still watch MODERN FAMILY. The first two seasons were great. Season 2's Halloween episode remains one of my tops. Seasons 3 and 4 were okay. But then by Season 5 we were all probably thinking hmmm what the hell happened. And now I just finished Season 9 and it was pretty uneven, just like the past few seasons. I don't even think this qualifies as a guilty pleasure, since sometimes there's very little pleasure to be had with an episode. I'll call this a habit--my "Modern Family" habit. Hopefully it ends with Season 10.
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