Post by klep on Apr 19, 2021 12:36:38 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/19: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
UPGRADE WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
For certain characters, your first exposure to them shapes your perception. Obviously, these are the characters who are repeated—Sherlock Holmes, for example, or Superman. My own first exposure to Spider-Man was the comics in old issues of Electric Company magazine, and the way I remember the difference between stalactites and stalagmites is that Peter Parker told me. Now, my kids have seen a bit of Tom Holland as Peter Parker as Spider-Man, because they're growing up in a Marvel household, but to them, Spider-Man is mostly Miles Morales.
Miles (Shameik Moore) does not start as an ordinary kid; he starts as a very smart kid who attends Brooklyn Visions Academy, a boarding school aimed at kids like him. He would rather stay in his neighbourhood, where he feels at home, but his parents have hopes for him. His father, Jefferson Davis (Brian Tyree Henry), is a cop; his mother, Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Velez), is a nurse. Miles likes hanging out with his Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali), who encourages his art with graffiti. Obviously, his father is less encouraging of this. While down in the subway tunnels, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider, and for well over half a century, we've known what that means.
Where things really get weird is that Miles encounters Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Chris Pine), looking for guidance, and is there when he is killed. He is trying to stop Kingpin (Liev Schreiber, who has now played two Marvel heavies) from building a machine that will do a thing. It turns out it opens portals in dimensions; some days later, Miles meets Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), a slovenly Spider-Man from another dimension. They go to visit Aunt May (Lily Tomlin). Already there are Peter Parker (Nicolas Cage), a B&W private eye from the gritty 1930s; Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), a chipper girl who was bitten by a radioactive spider so she could control the spider-robot/suit her father made; Peter Porker (John Mulaney), a spider who was once bitten by a radioactive pig; and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), who Miles knows from school. Together, they will stop Kingpin from building the thing.
In the years since the movie came out, there has been much talk of what versions of the character will appear in the sequel. (Personally, I'm hoping for 1602 Spider-Man and newspaper comic Spider-Man.) Because that is one of the wonderful things about certain characters—their flexibility. You can have all sorts of different versions of Peter Parker, and anyway Spider-Man doesn't have to be Peter Parker. There are certain aspects built into the character—something to do with spiders, for example—but once you meet the basics, you can do whatever you want. You won't always succeed, but you sure can try.
In the "you won't always succeed" territory, Steinfeld once played Juliet in a movie. Don't worry if you haven't seen it. She's good; the movie's terrible. They tried to bend Shakespeare in the wrong way. (What's the point of a period version that doesn't use the original language but mostly uses someone's version of the original language?) As Gwen Stacy, though, she's a Spider-Woman who works. She brings something new and interesting to the character, and if my son was once disappointed at a Spider-Man blind bag because it had Gwen Stacy in it, well, that's because he was hoping for Miles. Gwen's fine, he told me, but he likes Miles better.
Oh, not all fans are as adaptable as my son. See also the outcry when Miles debuted. Because there is no such thing as a fandom with no bigots in it, much as certain fandoms would like to claim otherwise. Now, I happen to believe that a lot of those bigots are operating on a fundamental failure to understand the genre—let's remember that Captain America got his start punching Nazis, for instance—but I won't say they're not "true fans," because that's a debate that's not going to end well. But centering the movie around Miles, even if they also gave us three Peter Parkers and are likely to give us several more in the sequel, was still a clear stance that those fans are wrong.
Centering on Miles also gave us an origin story that we haven't seen dozens of times before. Yes, they cast a great Aunt May, but it seems likely that we'll spend more time in the Davis/Morales household in the sequel and develop Miles further as a character. Miles may hate the moment where his father makes him say "I love you" in front of the entire school, but it's a moment that helps sell the heart of the movie. It's also a pretty movie, but you don't need me to tell you that.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/26: Safety Last!
TALL BUILDINGS WEEK!
For Tall Buildings week we'll be visiting an unforgettable film featuring a hair-raising climb up the outside of a tower. That's right, we're watching the Harold Lloyd classic Safety Last! Come join our discussion of one of the silent era's finest comedies next week! Safety Last! is available on YouTube, HBO Max and Criterion Channel and for rent on iTunes and Prime Video.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 4/20: Nobody
One of our favorite character actors stars in his own old man action movie in the focus of next week's podcast, the Bob Odenkirk vehicle Nobody. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of Nobody, available for (expensive) rental in the usual places starting 4/16.
UPGRADE WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
For certain characters, your first exposure to them shapes your perception. Obviously, these are the characters who are repeated—Sherlock Holmes, for example, or Superman. My own first exposure to Spider-Man was the comics in old issues of Electric Company magazine, and the way I remember the difference between stalactites and stalagmites is that Peter Parker told me. Now, my kids have seen a bit of Tom Holland as Peter Parker as Spider-Man, because they're growing up in a Marvel household, but to them, Spider-Man is mostly Miles Morales.
Miles (Shameik Moore) does not start as an ordinary kid; he starts as a very smart kid who attends Brooklyn Visions Academy, a boarding school aimed at kids like him. He would rather stay in his neighbourhood, where he feels at home, but his parents have hopes for him. His father, Jefferson Davis (Brian Tyree Henry), is a cop; his mother, Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Velez), is a nurse. Miles likes hanging out with his Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali), who encourages his art with graffiti. Obviously, his father is less encouraging of this. While down in the subway tunnels, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider, and for well over half a century, we've known what that means.
Where things really get weird is that Miles encounters Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Chris Pine), looking for guidance, and is there when he is killed. He is trying to stop Kingpin (Liev Schreiber, who has now played two Marvel heavies) from building a machine that will do a thing. It turns out it opens portals in dimensions; some days later, Miles meets Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), a slovenly Spider-Man from another dimension. They go to visit Aunt May (Lily Tomlin). Already there are Peter Parker (Nicolas Cage), a B&W private eye from the gritty 1930s; Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), a chipper girl who was bitten by a radioactive spider so she could control the spider-robot/suit her father made; Peter Porker (John Mulaney), a spider who was once bitten by a radioactive pig; and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), who Miles knows from school. Together, they will stop Kingpin from building the thing.
In the years since the movie came out, there has been much talk of what versions of the character will appear in the sequel. (Personally, I'm hoping for 1602 Spider-Man and newspaper comic Spider-Man.) Because that is one of the wonderful things about certain characters—their flexibility. You can have all sorts of different versions of Peter Parker, and anyway Spider-Man doesn't have to be Peter Parker. There are certain aspects built into the character—something to do with spiders, for example—but once you meet the basics, you can do whatever you want. You won't always succeed, but you sure can try.
In the "you won't always succeed" territory, Steinfeld once played Juliet in a movie. Don't worry if you haven't seen it. She's good; the movie's terrible. They tried to bend Shakespeare in the wrong way. (What's the point of a period version that doesn't use the original language but mostly uses someone's version of the original language?) As Gwen Stacy, though, she's a Spider-Woman who works. She brings something new and interesting to the character, and if my son was once disappointed at a Spider-Man blind bag because it had Gwen Stacy in it, well, that's because he was hoping for Miles. Gwen's fine, he told me, but he likes Miles better.
Oh, not all fans are as adaptable as my son. See also the outcry when Miles debuted. Because there is no such thing as a fandom with no bigots in it, much as certain fandoms would like to claim otherwise. Now, I happen to believe that a lot of those bigots are operating on a fundamental failure to understand the genre—let's remember that Captain America got his start punching Nazis, for instance—but I won't say they're not "true fans," because that's a debate that's not going to end well. But centering the movie around Miles, even if they also gave us three Peter Parkers and are likely to give us several more in the sequel, was still a clear stance that those fans are wrong.
Centering on Miles also gave us an origin story that we haven't seen dozens of times before. Yes, they cast a great Aunt May, but it seems likely that we'll spend more time in the Davis/Morales household in the sequel and develop Miles further as a character. Miles may hate the moment where his father makes him say "I love you" in front of the entire school, but it's a moment that helps sell the heart of the movie. It's also a pretty movie, but you don't need me to tell you that.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/26: Safety Last!
TALL BUILDINGS WEEK!
For Tall Buildings week we'll be visiting an unforgettable film featuring a hair-raising climb up the outside of a tower. That's right, we're watching the Harold Lloyd classic Safety Last! Come join our discussion of one of the silent era's finest comedies next week! Safety Last! is available on YouTube, HBO Max and Criterion Channel and for rent on iTunes and Prime Video.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 4/20: Nobody
One of our favorite character actors stars in his own old man action movie in the focus of next week's podcast, the Bob Odenkirk vehicle Nobody. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of Nobody, available for (expensive) rental in the usual places starting 4/16.