Originally published March 7, 2019 at Cinapse.co.

Captain Marvel is something of a miracle. It somehow took the most massive franchise in cinema history almost a decade to star a female superhero, as well as let a woman co-direct, and after all of that fervor there was almost no way it could live up to what it needed to be. As a sequel to the previous films in the series, it needed to be funny, look like a Marvel Movie, have a franchise-relevant MacGuffin, and feature a beloved actor as a villain. To adequately tell a story for female fans of the series, it couldn’t just be unique because it starred a woman, it needed to address this, but also show her as a strong hero independent of her gender. As a response to all of the children on the internet who couldn’t handle a female superhero, it needed to — well it didn’t need to do anything, but it would be nice to poke fun at them. Thankfully, it succeeds on all of these levels, and though it bears the flaws of most Marvel movies, isn’t that kind of the point?

Brie Larson takes the title role as Carol Danvers (aka Vers), who begins the film as some sort of alien super-soldier on the alien planet of Hala, home of alien race The Kree. Though The Kree were the villains of 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, they’re just people in their own civilization here, ruled by a being known only as The Supreme Intelligence. Gifted with the power to shoot weird beams of power from her fists, he works together with a team that basically functions as a Kree answer to the Guardians of the Galaxy, led by their very own Normal White Guy, Jude Law’s Yon-Rogg. Yon-Rogg and the rest of the Kree, in their own Jedi Order-like way, insist that emotion is the enemy, and the only way to properly control her power is by suppressing it. The first act is full-on space-fantasy, focusing heavily on the Kree’s war with the Skrull, a villainous, shape-shifting race. It takes a surprisingly dark tone that is sure to turn some people off, as it’s a bit of a break against form for the franchise, but it works quite well — we’re introduced to the mostly brutal life of a soldier in space, and then the whole thing starts to unravel.

Inevitably, the war leads Carol to Earth, a place she’s seemingly never been, but it awakens dormant memories of life as a normal human. Everything takes a hard turn in the second act, as directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck shift everything on its head, pairing Carol with a young Nick Fury (Samuel C.G.I. Jackson). This wildly fun midsection swings fully into Jason Bourne-meets-Shane Black, as they try to decipher her past whilst slinging banter and fighting enemies. The visual effects that make Jackson look like the 90s version of himself are pretty astounding, miles ahead of Michael Douglas’ rubbery face in 2015’s Ant-Man. Jackson works brilliantly in the role again, convincingly naive but still the cynical character we know as an adult. As we see him start to understand his own place in the larger universe, Jackson is probably the best he’s been as Fury since first putting on the eyepatch 11 years ago. He plays brilliantly against Larson, who herself delivers a powerful performance that embodies the uncertainty and courage of a super-weapon learning to become a superhero. Her stoic demeanor at the beginning starts to fade away as she becomes a sort of fun-loving cornball, impressed with her own powers.

Basically every performance in Captain Marvel rules, but Boden and Fleck’s greatest success is the film’s always-interesting, frequently shifting tone. The very dark, war-heavy opening is a great way to introduce the person who Carol is at the film’s start, but it transforms just as she does. As she (and filmmakers Boden and Fleck) clearly starts to become more comfortable, the movie embraces a sense of fun. It’s not a joke factory, the way your Ant-Mans and Iron Mans are, but the jokes have a wickedly high success rate. The filmmakers are even able to milk some hilarious moments from the villainous Skrull Talos, played tremendously by Ben Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn adopts a variety of accents for his many forms, each more ridiculous than the last, but always keeps a humorously aloof face, even under pounds of prosthetic makeup. He’s also not the only one to mine facial humor, which seems to be a style choice by Boden and Fleck — basically everyone in this movie delivers odd, perfectly timed bits of physical humor, and it’s a great departure from the MCU’s typical quip-based humor.

Because of this perfectly executed tone and a cast packed full of lovable, smaller characters that I won’t spoil in this review, the 124-minute runtime flies by. This is a very good thing, but it makes it easy to overlook some of the issues that arise when looking back on the film. When you piece together the story and look at everything as a whole, there isn’t anything too uncommon about the story itself. Deftly handled subtext aside, it’s just another Marvel story with a forgettable villain and a simple, a-to-b-to-c plot. Additionally, there’s an unfortunate fact that most Marvel fans don’t care to admit, but has always been true: these films are usually ugly. Aside from outliers like Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy, they usually lack any sense of visual style. Grays dominate most of these movies, with wide shots and backlit environments making every moment clear and easily-accessible, but devoid of personality. Captain Marvel is sadly not an outlier, mostly retaining that same color palette and lighting technique. If anything, some moments are even worse, burying key story moments in a cloud of darkness. This is a problem Marvel needs to fix, but the question is how? Is the issue that Feige keeps too tight of a leash on his filmmakers. To paraphrase fellow film critic Sam Banigan of the Welcome Back podcast, will the next phase of Marvel films be a slog to sit through, or will Feige finally allow filmmakers like Edgar Wright (who was fired from Ant-Man) to make something weird in the universe?

Though the look and general narrative feels stale, the six credited writers still do a brilliant job and one of the toughest tasks — addressing the character’s importance in her universe, but also our own. Over these last 11 years, Marvel Entertainment has produced a whopping 20 movies, the longest continuous story in film history. Though it undoubtedly took Feige far, far too long, he’s finally taking steps forward, in just the last 16 months delivering Thor: Ragnarok (the first directed by a person of color), Black Panther (one of the first predominantly black casts in a blockbuster film, and a groundbreaking step forward for black representation in cinema), Ant-Man and the Wasp (the first to feature a woman as the co-lead). Captain Marvel understands its groundbreaking place in this line of films, and expertly uses the platform to tell a story about being a female-presenting person in modern society. Whether Carol is dealing with Kree, humans, or the sci-fi embodiment of cultural norms, people continue to find reasons to tell her she can’t do something. When we finally see her overcome that and become Captain Marvel, it’s a breathtaking, powerful moment, one that stands up to anything else in the Marvel Universe.

Throughout the MCU’s first 20 entries, six have been origin stories. Boss Kevin Feige kept a high focus on hero-creation narratives in the early days of The Marvel Cinematic Universe, but has pared down in recent years, instead focusing on sequels and fully formed heroes in their own right — to mixed success. Where Ryan Coogler found success with this formula by beginning Black Panther in a world where T’Challa is already a hero, Spider-Man: Homecoming faltered. John Watts briefly flashed past Uncle Ben’s death and turned Peter Parker into a generic, quippy child, devoid of the motivation and buried tragedy that defines the character. With Captain Marvel, Boden and Fleck wisely go back to the origin story, allowing us to meet Carol Danvers before she inevitably groups up with The Avengers. Through a masterful grasp on tone, a bevy of strong performances and a hell of a moving climax, it bypasses every origin since we first saw Tony Stark break out of a cave with the first Iron Man suit. And now, 11 years later, we only have to wait two months before Captain Marvel becomes the one to save him, and connect fists with with the Universe — and her fists with Thanos’ face.

Originally published October 21, 2018 at CBR.com.

From its opening scene, Halloween (2018) plays with the viewer’s expectations. Director David Gordon Green clearly knows what franchise die-hards expect, and has absolutely no intention of delivering on it, instead opting to take the movie in a new, exciting direction. His ability to breathe subversive life into a 40 year old franchise is one-of-a-kind in our nostalgia-focused culture of remakes, reboots and Legacy Sequels, save for one exception: Rian Johnson’s breathtaking Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

The new Halloween begins in a chess-like checkered courtyard, as two podcasters (it is 2018 after all) confront the imprisoned Michael Myers in a mental health institute. Though the continuity of the film ignores all entries in the series save the first, it expects you to know what happens next: The Shape will rise, murder the ones harassing him and escape.

Instead, Green and co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley turn the script on its head and Michael does nothing. Try as hard as they can, even bringing out the infamous mask, the podcasters only end up disturbing the other prisoners, and the film’s intro is unceremoniously over.

This opening sequence, while full of Halloween’s trademark dread, proves massively unconventional for the series. By introducing a familiar situation but bucking the trend in its resolution, the scene creates far more questions than answers, and makes a clear statement: this is still Halloween, but not like you know.

In last December’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Johnson broke ground by weaponizing expectations in the same way, but for the George Lucas’ acclaimed sci-fi franchise. In The Last Jedi, Johnson sets up common Star Wars scenarios, like a rebel assault on an enemy base or a secret plan that will surely save the day, and perfectly subverts the way these typically pan out.

RELATED: Listen to the Halloween Reboot Soundtrack in its Entirety

Johnson, knowing that the rebels always get away and that poorly hatched schemes always work out, grounds his film with legitimate consequences. When Luke Skywalker barely considers snuffing out a padawan, he creates one of the greatest villains in the series. When Poe Dameron ignores orders, he destroys half the fleet of The Resistance.

Though the Star Wars franchise has had great moments in the last couple of decades, The Last Jedi brought back the propulsive energy of uncertainty the series lacked since Return of the Jedi.

The two films, released only 10 months apart, mark a huge step forward, not just in the history of the franchises, but in blockbuster filmmaking. Today, there is significant uproar about the idea of “nostalgia” as it affects the film industry. Studio executives vie for any property they can, because they know audiences will pay for the fuzzy feelings nostalgia can provide.

RELATED: Halloween Works Best When It’s About Female Empowerment

Ready Player One and Wreck It Ralph, for example, throw audiences back to their favorite “retro” experiences, but wrapped up in new stories; the idea of the ‘80s makes an appeal in Stranger Things and It (which doubles as a remake); and dozens of dormant franchises found revival both on TV and in theaters. For some reason, someone remade The Mummy. But the tendency to retread has grown old and worn, leading to art that feels stagnant and a wave of movies that are just “fine.”

But the brilliance of The Last Jedi, and now Halloween, lies in the practical path forward that they present. When a franchise shifts too far, audiences will reject it, like they did Halloween III: Season of the Witch, an entry which ditched Michael Myers altogether and failed miserably at the box office.

Though it still has a devoted group of fans, the left turn was too radical for the series, almost ending John Carpenter’s franchise in the process. But Johnson and Green introduce a new idea to reinvigorate their franchises: invest in recreating the atmosphere and basic story beats of the series, but use the crowd’s comfort to catch them off guard.

The last act of each film illustrates this perfectly, mirroring a specific series moment before unleashing all hell on the audience. Just as Kylo Ren betrays his master to join Rey, calling back to Darth Vader’s throne room turn in Return of the Jedi, Johnson reveals that it was out of selfish ambition rather than a selfless desire to save anyone else. Then, everything shifts and the story focuses on Luke’s helpless regret, and the small light of hope for the future.

On the flip side of that, with 30 minutes remaining in the new Halloween, it seems like Green is setting up a shameless re-do of the original’s last act. But as Allyson Strode follows in her grandmother’s footsteps, fleeing from Michael Myers to a neighbor’s doorbell, the neighbor actually answers the door and saves her life. Rather than take audiences back into a climactic cat-and-mouse showdown, the movie goes absolutely nuts.

RELATED: Rian Johnson Confirms His Star Wars Trilogy is Still Coming

The therapist, dubbed by Laurie as the “new Loomis,” adorns Michael’s mask and murders a police officer. Another officer’s head is used as a jack-o-lantern. In the end, the Strodes’ battle with Michael almost feels like a horrific version of Home Alone. The two movies go absolutely wild at their very ends, but not without first luring viewers into a false sense of security.

However, one thing that can’t go ignored is the fan response to these films. Time will tell how viewers respond to Halloween, but The Last Jedi had a very peculiar reception. The narrative a few months after release was that the film proved highly divisive among hardcore Star Wars fans, but recent studies have cast suspicion on that conclusion.

Apparently, many political figures (somehow including those from Russia) latched on to the progressive themes of the movie, leading an organized campaign to derail the film. Johnson’s film still made over a billion dollars worldwide, but it does have a very vocal minority of fans who cannot stand it. All you have to do is read the comments of any one of CBR’s own posts about Johnson or The Last Jedi to see they’re there.

Whether this is thanks to an aversion to the movie’s politics or a rejection of the way it changes what the series can be is a bit of a mystery, but it could potentially prevent this sort of radical push forward for franchises from coming again.

Hopefully the film industry will see the critical and box office success of these two movies and take note. As the creative sluggishness of nostalgia-mongering has held back so much of cinema in the past decade, these two huge breaths of fresh air have proven massively relieving. If we’re lucky, we might just be on the precipice of an amazing, fresh wave of blockbuster filmmaking.

Originally published at The Daily Texan.

Watching “A Fantastic Woman,” I couldn’t help but think about the comments underneath a recent tweet by The Washington Times.

“Is Caitlyn Jenner a woman?,” the tweet reads. “A growing body of research says no.”

The replies contained a massive pool of insults, with some calling Jenner an “it,” others called her an “alien” and others called her a “monster.”

In this atmosphere, Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” boldly follows transgender woman Marina Vidal (Daniela Vega), who fights every day for the right to be herself. As the film progresses, it reveals itself as both a poignant story of loss and a window into the life of an unrepresented community. Lelio, simply by showing the struggles faced by a trans woman, is making a statement film, pulling double duty and succeeding on both levels.

The story opens with Orlando (Francisco Reyes), a divorced, cisgender, heterosexual man in a relationship with Marina. The two have a seemingly normal, healthy partnership — he works a day job, she waits tables and sings at a club, they go out for drinks and then head home to have sex. Lelio does not objectify or make a big deal out of Orlando and Marina’s sexual relationship. It just feels like another part of living. Their life feels routine, but never unromantic.

Very early on in the story, Orlando dies of a sudden aneurysm, and Marina is left to pick up the pieces of his life. Though not the first movie of this kind, “A Fantastic Woman” is a new take on the grief film, made so much more impactful by the size of the hole Orlando leaves in Marina’s life.

Orlando is survived by a brother, son and ex-wife, each of whom has their own terrible way of relating to Marina. Every member of this family represents a different manner in which society treats trans individuals, starting with Orlando’s acceptance of Marina and slowly disintegrating from there. His brother sees Marina as who she is, but is afraid to stand up to anyone for her; Orlando’s ex-wife sees Marina as a perversion, hurling verbal and psychological abuse at her in every scene; and Orlando’s son is the worst offender, physically assaulting Marina for her own existence. It makes for a brutally difficult film to watch, but a challenging, brilliant work of art.

Vega gives one of the best performances in any film released in the past year, and it’s a shame the film is only nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Through a wide range of nuanced facial expressions and a towering screen presence, Vega dominates the movie. She largely plays Marina as a restrained, quiet individual, allowing glimpses of her grief through small facial tics and body posture. In the few moments where she’s allowed to let loose and show her emotion, Vega shows the tragic pain of a heartbroken, misunderstood human who just seeks acceptance. These moments where her pain surfaces act as punctuation marks on an already brilliant performance, proving Vega as a fully formed performer in only her second film.

It is groundbreaking that Vega is transgender herself, as Hollywood has a history of hiring cisgender men to play trans women, including Eddie Redmayne, Jared Leto and Jeffrey Tambor. But these actors generally tell the same story about a trans woman undergoing her transition, and Lelio has no interest in Hollywood’s vision of trans women. The picture he paints is of a woman undergoing a personal loss, a woman who faces an inordinate amount of obstacles, a woman who may be called “it,” “alien” and “monster,” but emerges fantastic.

“A Fantastic Woman”
Rating: R
Runtime: 104 minutes
Score: 4.5/5 stars

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Originally published at The Daily Texan.

 

Originally published at The Daily Texan.