Fun Stuff
Recommendations and The Bat
I tend to drown myself in work throughout the week.
At times I feel like it’s an addiction, but hey, at least it’s a good addiction, maybe in the same vein as someone saying that they're addicted to exercise. But when I do attempt to relax after a long day of work, I scour the streaming services. Here’s a few of my found gems.
Things I’ve Watched
Titane is a French movie recommended to me by a good friend. At its core, Titane is an extreme arthouse film that uses shock and surrealism to convey its seemingly grounded message. If you take the film at face value, you’ll at the very least get a wild ride unlike anything you’ve ever seen. It’s a very mature movie, so beware. This one is streaming on Hulu.
HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones is a riot. While season 2 wasn’t as great as season 1, this show manages to hit the perfect stride of hilarity and crime while offering an entertainingly hyperbolic take on the mega church industry. It stars Danny Mcbride, so you’ll already know if it’s your brand of humor or not.
The Book of Boba was divisive to say the least. While it may have not been the best Star Wars ever, it was good, fun Star Wars. Yes, there is cheesiness, yes there are numerous conveniences, but c’mon, have any of the critics ever seen the original trilogy? The plot did feel pretty disjointed at times, but I digested the episodes as bite-sized “adventures” for our main characters, which was more than enough for me as I was getting wonderfully realized sci-fi (practical effects!) delivered to my TV every week. I’d say take a shot on it if you’re a SW fan, but don’t take it too seriously. And perhaps The Book of Boba Fett wasn’t the best name choice.
Thoughts on The Batman
Lastly, there was a little film called The Batman that came out last week. I’m sure most of you reading this have already seen it, but I just wanted to give my quick thoughts now that I’ve had a few days to think about it.
This movie was basically mind-blowing. Admittedly, I’m a huge fan of the neo-noir genre, so the film had me from the jump. The acting was incredible. Zoe Kravitz captured the true sexy-badassness of the Catwoman that I always read in the comics, Paul Dano’s Riddler was as maniacal as you’d imagine, and Robert Pattinson shows us a silent, thoughtful, and hauntingly brilliant Batman, so much that I couldn’t take my eyes off of him when Bats was on screen. It was such a different yet inspired choice. Oh, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin was fucking awesome. I didn’t expect that.
Matt Reeves directed and shot the hell out of this movie. I should have known he would as he previously did two of the three new Planet of the Apes movies, which are part of one of my favorite trilogies of all time. From creating atmospheric dialogue scenes to using harsh visuals to convey unsettling moments to capturing dynamic action – the man did it all. There were classic noir moments that were perfectly love lettered to films of the 40s, and when coupled with that gloomy score, they were literally transportive. There was a shot towards the end of the film that involved a flare torch that has been tattooed on my brain ever since I walked out of the theater. Being that I’m a comic book creator, cinematography speaks to me loudly, and The Batman had so much food for thought. I’d love to breakdown some of my favorite shots in another post.
I never thought that we would get this kind of Batman movie. I knew it was always possible given the source material (the comics have always celebrated Batman’s detective skills) but I never thought that a studio would allow for a dark, twisted, non-action focused murder thriller. Sure, the Nolan movies were closer to this than Tim Burton’s eccentric take, but The Batman leaned ALL the way into the doom and gloom of Gotham, just as Frank Miller did in the 80s. I’m happy to see that a creative like Matt Reeves was granted full authorship in which he could create his entire vision. It reminds me of what DC Comics did when the Vertigo line was introduced to the industry. Comic book writer Tom King once said that Marvel has always had the most historic runs in comics whereas DC’s forte has always been the masterpiece graphic novels (Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns). It’s quite ironic that we could be seeing the same pattern with modern comic book movies – Marvel has these epic sagas or “phases”, and DC seems to be focusing on making stand alone, more auteur-driven films (Joker, The Batman). It’ll be interesting to see what paths each of these companies take. Whatever they do, I only hope that they and their audience remember where the truest forms of these characters reside, and that’s within the comic books.
It’s inspiring when I get to see a project like The Batman come to life, and I truly can’t wait to watch this three-hour long murder epic on repeat.
Thanks for your time,
Nico