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‘KINGDOM’ Proves the PLANET OF THE APES Saga Has Lost None of its Vitality
A pun-free review of the newest film in the long-running franchise
Photo courtesy of and © 20th Century Studios. With the “Caesar Trilogy” concluded, I had assumed that the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise had run its course. It was a surprise that snuck up on me to learn that a new film, directed by Wes Ball, was set to drop.
For more than half a century, the long-running franchise has proven its legs: a rare series with tremendously consistent quality despite having great variety, uniqueness, and sometimes considerable budgetary constraints among its many entries (even the oft-maligned Tim Burton remake has its charms, which we’ll discuss in our upcoming Two Cents Film Club revisit).
Taking place some generations after the Caesar arc, the new Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes us further from contemporary reality and further into a world becoming like that of the 1968 original film, with humanity in decline and most having devolved to a more animalistic state, having lost the power of speech.
Photo courtesy of and © 20th Century Studios. This is a world being reclaimed by nature, and if you know director Wes Ball, that’s been his calling card from the start. His 2011 post-apocalyptic short film Ruin, set in a crumbling urban sprawl being overtaken with green vegetation, caught the attention of Fox and put him in the director’s seat for the Maze Runner films which had a similar aesthetic.
Chimpanzee Noa is a member of a peaceful tribe of intelligent apes who occupy a small village, and the son and heir of its chief. When his village is raided and abducted by another warlike tribe of aggressor apes, Noa must journey to find and rescue them.
On his journey he encounters new companions – Raka, an orangutan who is reverent to the memory of Caesar, and a human girl whom the pair dub “Nova” (a callback to the original films).
Photo courtesy of and © 20th Century Studios. As the trio journey and learn more about each other, they learn that the apes who attacked the village are part of a growing empire attempting to unite ape-kind by force (not at all unlike human empires), and lorded by a cruel and vengeful king, Proximus Caesar.
Proximus keeps among his advisors a simpering William H. Macy as an intelligent, literate human who remains a keeper of the knowledge of humanity’s civilized and technological past – a past which Proximus hopes to take possession of to further advance his kingdom.
Photo courtesy of and © 20th Century Studios. The tale becomes a race to the MacGuffin as Noa and his companions work to beat Proximus and his army to the secrets held in an impenetrable human vault.
Kingdom maintains the social conscience that’s inherent to the entire series, but has the distinction of being, in my opinion, the most action-packed entry. Many action setpieces pepper the film, including treacherous climbs, numerous battle sequences, chases on horseback, ambushes, and even a flood, but the tale still maintains the beating heart of the franchise, using ape characters to champion the better elements of humanity like trust, understanding, and compassion – over brutality, cruelty, and xenophobia.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is one of the best films in a franchise that I love, and I think an improvement over the last couple of films (which I really like!).
Having proven himself as a capable director, I hope director Wes Ball will get the opportunity to tell stories outside of this particular arena and become, like George Miller, more than just “the post-apocalyptic guy”, but for now I’m glad he’s flexing his muscles for this spectacular adventure on the Planet of the Apes.
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PLANET OF THE APES (1968): CinAPES is a Madhouse – Roundtable Reviews [Two Cents]
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20th Century Studios Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
The Pick: Planet Of The Apes (1968)
With Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes launching in May of 2024, our team curated a selection of titles from one of cinema’s greatest and most enduring franchises that we most wanted to discuss! We’ve gone full CinApes (and they told us never to go full CinApes). Join us for our Revisit of the Planet of the Apes! We’re excited to discuss these titles together thanks to the Two Cents movie club format.
The Team
Ed Travis
I don’t really remember a time when the Planet of the Apes films weren’t a part of my life. I don’t vividly remember when or how I experienced the original 5 film series, but I believe my Dad and I watched them together after renting them from our local video store when I was still quite young. Regardless, the series is simply one of my very favorite franchises and it all began with 1968’s Franklin J. Schaffner directed, Rod Serling and Michael Wilson scripted Planet of the Apes. And you know what? Every damn element that makes this series great is there immediately in the very first film. It’s probably best known for that incredible twist ending, which is perhaps the most spoiled twist ending in all of history by this point. But well before that masterful ending you had powerful science fiction tropes so abundant it seems almost impossible they could all be in the same movie. There’s space ships and time travel, there’s religion and philosophy, there’s an undercurrent of racial and generational strife, there’s groundbreaking special effects work, and a phenomenal cast. It’s lightning in a bottle that combines a rollicking sci-fi action/adventure blockbuster mixed with the richest (and most pessimistic) cultural commentary imaginable for a major studio tentpole.
A few specific thoughts include how patient and methodical the opening sequences are. We really odyssey with our lost astronauts for quite a while before they become ensnared and enslaved by the titular apes.
And immediately upon being enslaved (or, in the case of Taylor’s (Charlton Heston) companions, stuffed and lobotomized), we’re introduced to one of cinema’s all-time great antagonists: Dr. Zaius. Our Apes, evolved as they may be, suffer many of the same shortcomings as we modern day humans do, and there’s a palpable tension between the scientific question askers (Zera and Cornelius), and Zaius, the keeper of their laws and religion. The dynamic of heroic scientists embracing Taylor and simply seeking the truth, versus the establishment bastard ready and willing to suppress the truth to maintain the status quo will forever be salient and lifts this entry to the top of the franchise for me. I root so hard for Taylor, Zera, and Cornelius (and even Nova) because the film isn’t afraid to root for the underdog and question power structures. It’s a bold studio film unafraid to use groundbreaking imagery and wild world building to call into question our own societal shortcomings. Zaius is cold, oppressive, and full of fear. But he’s also undoubtedly brilliant and cunning. He’s a fantastic foil to our heroes and emblematic of so many of the issues I personally take with any authority figure who makes it their mission to stamp out truth in favor of safety.
Also hot damn that make up and production design and score… just the aesthetic vision here was such a huge swing and risk and I adore that the risk everyone involved took was rewarded by an audience who has supported this series to TEN entries over 50+ years. It’s a madhouse, and I’ll willingly commit myself to it no matter how many times the studio finances another one of these things, so long as they forever infuse them with powerful societal commentary that’s often as bleak as it comes.
(@Ed_Travis on X)
20th Century Studios Julian Singleton
This film, the Burton remake, and the more modern Caesar trilogy form my cultural knowledge for all things Ape Planet-related, and admittedly, the last time I saw this OG 1968 version was when I was 11 and far too young to really grasp what Schaffner, Wilson, and Serling were really going for. While its cinematic cousin 2001: A Space Odyssey celebrates the limitless potential of the human race in spite of its self-destructive flaws, Planet of the Apes boldly literalizes anxieties towards racism, technological upheaval, and an invasion of religious belief or denial into the secular worlds of politics and science to create a broad-minded yet wholly devastating cautionary tale.
What I loved so much in this viewing was just how patient this film was. For the first third of the film, it’s just three astronauts exploring a desolate landscape, positioning the audience for a meditative survival drama. With the arrival of the amazing-looking Apes, we’re thrust into a dystopian courtroom drama where Ben-Hur must fight to affirm his sense of personhood in a world whose survival depends on seeing him as anything but sentient or feeling. There’s tons of moments ripe for comedy amid such existential crises–specifically the centerpiece tribunal where Schaffner cheekily turns his panel into a “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” tableau.
For as much as this series pivots its focus into Ape-on-horseback action shenanigans, what lingers after this viewing is just how much it focuses on the moral incentives behind active denial. It makes for what must have been a chilling parallel to the belief backflips of those skeptical of the Civil Rights Movement or Vietnam protests back in 1968–and it certainly feels all too resonant today as students and faculty on College campuses fight to affirm the rights and safety for citizens in Gaza against those seemingly dead-set on turning a blind eye to their suffering. No matter the era we revisit it in, Planet of the Apes’ cracked lens on a world gone mad never seems to lose its cynical counter-cultural edge.
(@gambit1138 on X)
20th Century Studios Justin Harlan
I know I’ve seen this classic film before, but I expect it’s been so long that it makes sense that I remembered little to none of the main beats. While I know there are tons of things I could say about the film, its influence, and its long-standing imprint on pop culture, I have two main points that I wish to spend my brief entry on today.
First, the film itself is surely an entertaining one and one that was cutting edge for its time in its style and execution. Notably, I genuinely love the costuming and effects. The humanoid ape creatures are so wonderfully designed. Their look is so unique and well crafted that they honestly make so many modern films look like garbage. Modern film, notably the sci-fi genre unto which this film belongs, relies so heavily on computer generated visuals that practical effects and costuming are sometimes a seemingly lost art. This film has such a great look and feel due in large part to the effects of a bygone era. I simply love the way this film feels and I attribute that to both an affinity for late 60s and 70s genre film and the fantastic costuming/effects of this 1968 gem.
Second, I love the commentary this film is making, beginning with the statement that Heston’s George Taylor concludes his opening monologue with:
“Tell me, though. Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother? Keep his neighbor’s children starving?”
The entire film is a commentary on humanity. It forces humanity to look at itself in a mirror. It’s heavy handed at times, but this era is defined by such heavy handedness so that’s not a deterrent – in fact, as I am a big fan of this era’s genre film, I probably consider that a feature. It’s not lost on me that Heston himself became the very type of human that several of his earlier sci-fi films seemed to be warning against – but alas, that doesn’t take away from the power of the messaging in the film itself.
As a novice to this series, I’m excited to try to monkey around with the team each week in this month of CinAPES… and I hope to eventually dig into all of the films in the series, beyond just the four we’re highlighting. So, thanks to our personal lead ape, Ed, for pushing me to watch these films… so for it’s been as fun a a barrel of monkeys.
(@thepaintedman on X)
20th Century Studios For a film that feels really familiar and beloved, I’ve only really seen Planet of the Apes a couple of times. I’m rewatching the entire original series and one of the wildest things about these films is that most of them were Rated G despite having some nudity, violence, and rough language, not to mention overall themes of oppression. Pretty wild, as I think these same films would probably merit PG-13s if submitted today.
One of the things that I’d kind of forgotten is that Charlton Heston’s Taylor starts out as a very strong personality, ribbing and even bullying his astronaut compatriots. He’s not necessarily a jerk, but certainly someone accustomed to having a natural sense of authority, if not a smug superiority. Which makes it all the more of a shakeup to suddenly find himself at the bottom of the evolutionary chain in a society that has no use or respect for him.
As a kid I knew the film for its more adventurous, science fiction aspects, and grasped only its most basic allegory of racial prejudice. It’s hard for me to fully understand the context of the film’s 1968 creation, but as an adult I can appreciate that there’s a lot more under the surface here, touching on that zeitgeist. Most notably a not-at-all subtle indictment of religious mania and fascism embraced by Dr. Zaius, a character who’s both the Minister of Science and defender of the faith – and far more interested in control of information than serving any objective truth.
What a terrific film, and imbued with terrific effects and a strong social conscience, both of which would become the hallmarks of a still-ongoing franchise.
Anyway, closing with a true story: On this viewing, while I was watching this my kids came home, pretty close to the beginning of the movie but without seeing any context, menus, or explanation beyond knowing Taylor was an astronaut who had crash-landed on an unknown planet. There’s a scene where the humans are suddenly spooked right before the apes show up, and I asked them to guess what the aliens would be like. Silas (7), trying to be funny: “HUNKY MONKEYS!”
(@VforVashaw on X)
Upcoming Picks: CinAPES, aka Revisit Of The Planet Of The Apes
Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
And We’re Out.
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EVIL DOES NOT EXIST: Silence Speaks Volumes in a Chilling Reflection on Human Nature
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to Drive My Car is a tense meditation on environmental devastation
Stills courtesy of Sideshow & Janus Films. Takumi (Hitoshi Omika) is a woodcutter and local odd-jobs man who lives with his young daughter Hana (Ryo Nishikawa) in a village tucked away in the Japanese mountains. The villagers prize their seclusion and untouched natural resources–all of which become prime selling points for a Tokyo talent agency seeking to establish a tourist “glamping” site so they can take advantage of diminishing pandemic subsidies. When it’s clear just how much construction will pollute the village–and how ignorant the talent agency is to these effects–the tension between the villagers and these urban intruders threatens to reach a breaking point.
Originally conceived and shot as a dialogue-free short film, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning Drive My Car treasures the ambiguous space between words and action. Early on, these silences allow viewers to carefully immerse themselves in the echoing quiet of the mountainous countryside–until the blaring of villagers’ chainsaws shatters the illusion. In a tense first meeting between villagers and hapless company reps (Ryuji Kosaka and Ayaka Shibutani), the blunt honesty of the citizens’ questions resoundingly clashes with the reps’ polite yet bumbling half-truths. In moments of stillness, there’s the capacity for sudden outbursts of connection or violence. But that disturbing quiet–between a singular action and endless reactionary possibilities–is where Hamaguchi mines the complexity of this moving and beguiling film. It exemplifies humans’ endless choices regarding our lasting impact on the environment, and how each decision, no matter how small, leaves an impression that resounds far beyond it.
Much like his earlier films like Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Hamaguchi eschews bombastic dramatic turns or brazen sentimentality in favor of giving his characters a stoic, meticulously-constructed reservation that can’t help but erode over time. In the context of Evil Does Not Exist, there isn’t an erosion of communication between urban corporate stooges and well-intentioned rural villagers; rather, Hamaguchi carefully fosters an inevitable, chaotic eruption that breaks through the fragile social niceties that bind them from just slaughtering one another. Neither capitalist nor conservationist seems capable of or interested in changing from their long-held natures–instead, Hamaguchi knows that Nature itself will force something to give.
The exquisite cinematography by Yoshio Kitagawa and mournful score by Eiko Ishibashi finds its home nestled in between barren trees ready to bud and driven snow pockmarked with animal tracks or footsteps: an environment that, despite its desolation, is always changing, evolving, adapting. The only thing that can’t are the seemingly wholly evolved creatures that call it home. Instead, humans remain on a tenuous scale of awareness regarding how much they eat away at their environment. While the villagers have prized a “take what one needs” mentality in direct contrast to the city-dwellers who want to profit first and ask questions later, there’s no denying all of them make a registrable negative mark on their environment–defined by whatever they take for their survival. While Takumi is methodical in his conservation, that act is still defined by its gradual yet present act of consumption. On the opposite side, these seemingly soulless corporate reps do have their human qualities. They want to feel fulfillment beyond their jobs, whether that’s living in nature or finding love on a dating app. While they recognize how much they take from the world, that instinct competes with their drive to give something of themselves elsewhere. Hamaguchi’s silences remove anything that might distract from the ways that humans are constantly consuming in this film–eating, smoking, shooting, chainsawing, what have you. There’s no room for delusion or self-rationalization, as reflected by the film’s wry title. Given such time and presence to reflect on this habitual self-destruction, there’s an earnest hope that such a break can give as an opportunity for our less-cancerous better angels to give back and adapt to Nature rather than force our environment’s contributions to be so perilously one-sided.
Some of Evil’s most beautiful moments exist in this moment of awareness–specifically in a moving scene where Takumi has the returning corporate reps help him gather water from the very spring their camp would pollute. While the end of the scene reveals one rep’s altruism to be wholly performative, Hamaguchi majorly focuses on how the other rep falls into a contemplative rhythm shared by woodsman Takumi. It’s a moment of respite from the brightly doleful unease Hamaguchi’s fostered until then, brimming with the hope of a possible new harmony between taker and giver. As mentioned, however, the moment is fleeting–as the recurring echoing gunshots break yet another silence full of potential.
While I am curious to see Hamaguchi’s film in its more truncated form (a short entitled Gift), Evil Does Not Exist feels so deliberate in its pacing and rhythm that to take away from its meditative stillness seems to risk evading the point behind such lengths of silence. By shifting its focus away from our ability to speak and act, Evil Does Not Exist removes humanity from the center of its own narrative. It forces us to reflect on and reconsider our actions before we enact further change–and determine whether we can extend such labels of good and evil beyond our own self-interest.
Evil Does Not Exist is now playing in limited release from Sideshow and Janus Films.
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THE CROW: Seminal 90s Classic Hits 4K [30th Anniversary]
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Paramount Pictures Pre-Revisit
Goth didn’t quite exist in my suburban town in 1994, when The Crow took 14 year old me by storm.
If it had existed, I would have been pretty tempted to be a goth kid. This is evidenced by the fact that for Halloween, I went as The Crow not once, but twice. There’s only so many Halloweens one can experience on this earth, and there’s only so many characters or costumes you’d put on more than once. So what I’m trying to say is that The Crow is indelibly linked to my coming of age. And that can cut in a couple of different directions.
On the one hand, The Crow, for better or for worse, is simply a part of me. It’s a not insignificant piece of my identity that came at a crucial time of self discovery.
On the other hand, art that spoke to you when you were 14 can sometimes be the most cringe worthy of all things upon adult reflection.
The Crow exists somewhere in the middle for me. Comic creator James O’Barr did spend almost a decade of his life creating the deeply personal work out of a place of mourning the loss of the young love of his life. And it’s a therapeutic work he created to emerge from his own trauma and depression. I will always respect that authenticity. And of course the film is this singular pre/early goth vision crafted by an incredible team of artists, and starring Brandon Lee, who tragically died on set after being shot by what was supposed to be a blank round. All of these things lend an air of grounding, realistic tragedy to this bleeding-heart, mythological tale. Yet it is so stylized and unsubtle, so music-video-like in its visuals, so wholly embracing of the teen angst aesthetic and comic book trappings, that it falls short of feeling like a true dramatic work.
I revisit it surprisingly often as the years go on, and the advent of a new 4K UHD disc felt like the right time to once again “fire it up” and see where I land this time around.
Post-Revisit
I sometimes take an earnest “fuck The Crow” stance. Without this film, perhaps Brandon Lee would still be with us, after all. I adore all of his other action cinema output, not to mention revere his father as well. The tragic loss of Brandon Lee haunts this film forever, and in the end I’d say The Crow just wasn’t worth it, overall, if one could somehow trade the life of Brandon Lee for the existence of this film. But that’s not how life works. And when I do revisit it, I see the meteoric star Brandon Lee giving the breakout performance of his life that forever (if tragically) cements him in legend. I see just another movie that was swinging for the fences and nailing an artistic vision that would be eternally aped and referenced from that point on. I see what attracted Brandon Lee to the project in the first place, and I respect and appreciate that we’ll always have this piece of grimy romantic revenge.
Paramount Pictures The tragic tale of Eric (Lee) and Shelley (Sofia Shinas), meant to wed on Halloween night, but instead murdered by a marauding crew of gangsters on “Devil’s Night” in Detroit, is one inextricable from its music. Eric himself was the lead guitarist in a rock band and over the course of two nights (the next Devil’s Night after their passing), when the crow who led him to the land of the dead brings him back to set the wrongs of their deaths right via bloody revenge, Eric finds time to crush a few angry rooftop guitar solos. In the film itself a club is central to the goings on and several of the artists featured prominently in the (equally seminal) soundtrack perform on screen amidst all the gangster machinations of the crew that killed Eric and Shelley. O’Barr modeled many of his drawings off of 70s/80s icons like Iggy Pop and David Bowie. It’s a property and film forever linked to pop culture and the music that made it.
Filmmaker Alex Proyas imbued The Crow with much of its stylistic sensibilities and he famously went even further down that gothic road later with 1998’s Dark City, which was perhaps the culmination of the vibe The Crow birthed. And beyond the music, Proyas infused the film with wonderful comic book iconography like our hero running across rooftops as he stalks his prey, taking swan dives off of buildings simply to bounce right up and dance off into the moonlight, and several cool-as-hell R-rated action sequences that hint at the martial arts and physical capabilities of Brandon Lee (even if films like Rapid Fire and Showdown In Little Tokyo do an even better job of that).
Paramount Pictures What hit me most upon this revisit is that perhaps The Crow simply reflects back at you whatever you project upon it. I’ve seen the film dozens of times and it’s not something that makes me cry. It’s tragic, but it doesn’t feel personal. Yet I’ve had a rough couple of months personally, and the empathy and kindness that the semi-orphaned teen Sarah (Rochelle Davis) displays, and the loyalty and humanity that Ernie Hudson’s sympathetic cop character Albrecht demonstrates, hit me this time around and I did find a tear or two running down my cheek. The iconography and score (Graeme Revell) just hit me like a time machine and made me feel at home in my teen angst.
Neither masterpiece nor cringe, The Crow lives eternal as a work of abject earnesty.
The Package
The visuals are The Crow. And while I am rarely the best person to assess what the “upgrade” really looks like from a technical or process point of view, I’d say the 4K UHD presentation looks pretty fantastic. It maintains grain while offering deep blacks (important for The Crow) and incredible sharpness.
You’ve also got 2 commentary tracks (my old Blu-ray only had Proyas, but I don’t believe the producer commentary featured here is “new” either), a great 30 minute interview with James O’Barr in his basement that has been on past releases but which I adore as a vulnerable and earnest insight into an artist. The most significant new entry here beyond the 4K restoration is the documentary “Shadows & Pain”, which is essentially an extended interview with production designer Alex McDowell. It’s a sturdy home video package, though it’s worth noting that you only get a single 4K UHD disc here, so no Blu-ray here. There are a couple of versions being released with identical scan and bonus features, but different packaging. This review is of the Steelbook edition.
Paramount Pictures (From the press release)
Shadows & Pain: Designing The Crow – NEW!
Angels All Fire: Birth of the Legend
On Hallowed Ground: The Outer Realm
Twisted Wreckage: The Inside Spaces
Sideshow Collectibles: An Interview with Edward R. Pressman – NEW TO DISC!
Audio Commentary with Director Alex Proyas
Audio Commentary by Producer Jeff Most and Screenwriter John Shirley
Behind the Scenes Featurette
A Profile on James O’Barr
Extended Scenes:
The Arcade Bombing
The Funboy Fight
The Shootout at Top Dollar’s
Deleted Footage Montage
TrailerThe Crow hits 4K UHD Steelbook May 7th, 2024 from Paramount Pictures.
And I’m Out.
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THE FALL GUY, Genre Mash-Up Delivers Sloppy Love Letter to Stunt Performers and the People Who Dig Them
As of late, pressure has been steadily growing to add an all-important category to the yearly Academy Awards: Stunts and stunt choreography. Part of that push has come from The New Yorker’s entertainment site, Vulture, and its now annual stunts-related awards. Whether that push succeeds in convincing the Academy’s voting body to add a new category is anybody’s guess, but with the release of the David Leitch-directed The Fall Guy, a delightfully sloppy love letter to the semi-anonymous stunt performers who’ve brought kinetic, physical action to audiences since the dawn of film, the chances are better today than they were yesterday,
Loosely based on the mostly forgotten ‘80s TV series created by uber-producer Glen A. Larson (Knight Rider, Magnum P.I., Battlestar Galactica), The Fall Guy centers on the aptly named Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling, in magnetic movie-star mode), a professional stunt man and smug, self-entitled action-star Tom Ryder’s (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) preferred action double, and Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), a camerawoman eager to move up the production ladder and direct a feature film of her own. They’re also more than co-workers. They’re romantic partners on the verge of taking their relationship from casual to serious, from undefined to exclusive.
Career and romance fall headlong into the figurative and metaphorical ground when Colt, a stuntman through and through, trained to suppress emotion, feeling, and even physical pain, suffers a grievous injury on-set, leaving him bitter, frustrated, and incapable of sharing any part of his rehab with anyone, specifically Jody, who he not so promptly ghosts, leaving two unhappy people, an expensive movie shoot Down Under, and an earnest, star-driven rom-com plot that just might bring them back together. If only The Fall Guy’s over-convoluted central storyline would let them.
Colt has work to do on himself, but that’s put on the back-burner when he receives an unexpected call from Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), the executive producer behind Metalstorm, a big-budget space cowboy flick and Jody’s first film as director. Gail claims Jody wants Colt back as Ryder’s double and needs him within 24 hours. With an offer he can’t refuse and hope in his newly reopened heart to rekindle his romance with Jody, Colt agrees, only to find everything’s a lie: Jody doesn’t know he’s coming to the Australian set, he’s not slotted in as Ryder’s stunt double, and in reality, Ryder has disappeared and Gail wants him back on set before anyone notices.
That particular development sends The Fall Guy haltingly into neo-noir territory: Colt, hardly a detective, private or otherwise, let alone a bounty hunter like his long-gone, hazily remembered TV predecessor, scrambles for clues as to Ryder’s whereabouts. In short order, Colt finds a body on ice, interchangeable, mean-mugging thugs on the menu, and his body bruised, battered, and slightly torn from a handful of increasingly chaotic, frenetic, stunt-heavy fist fights, car chases, and at least one or two seemingly death-defying jumps and/or pyrotechnics.
Part rom-com, part action-com, and part neo-noir, The Fall Guy feels engineered to be an all-quadrant, demographic-wide crowd-pleaser, probably because that’s exactly what it is. Haphazardly cobbled together from multiple genres and tropes, The Fall Guy often lurches from one major plot line to another, dropping quips and meta-references of variable quality along the way. A good number of screenwriter Drew Pearce’s (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Hotel Artemis, Iron Man 3) jokes fail to land with regularity. Recognizing that the Ryder disappearance plotline doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, Pearce smartly signposts the strain put on the other “legs” of the film (romance and action).
Former stunt-choreographer-turned-director David Leitch (Bullet Train, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Atomic Blonde), however, fully understands that The Fall Guy’s strengths lie not in the script, but in his stars, specifically Gosling and Blunt and their off-the-astronomical-charts chemistry. They not only make the changing parameters of their off-again, on-again romantic relationship believable, but every painful bump, obstacle, and stall along the way to reconnection they both want but can’t see or find beyond their own own hurt, anguished feelings.
The Fall Guy opens theatrically on Friday, May 3rd.
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ROLLING THUNDER is a Revenge-O-Matic Masterpiece
I came across John Flynn’s Rolling Thunder like most young cinephiles in the 90s, thanks to Quentin Tarantino, who not only heralded it as his favorite film, but even named his personal vanity distro label – Rolling Thunder Pictures. That sent me on the hunt for a film that was not as readily available as it is today, thanks to Shout Factory who just released a 4K UHD disc that hit online “shelves” recently. The film, written by a young Paul Schrader in 1973 was originally intended to be helmed by George Romero at AIP, after that fell through, Schrader intended to direct, only to lose the film to up and coming director John Flynn, with the film now setup at 20 Century Fox.
This would also incite a script rewrite by Heywood Gould, who would soften some of the rough edges. Not only was the original film much more violent, but Taxi Driver’s own Travis Bickle even makes an appearance in a porno drive-in. As Schrader put it in an interview, Rolling Thunder in his eyes was about “a Texas trash racist who had become a war hero without ever having fired a gun”, which is what was toned down a few notches by Gould.The rewrite also added not only a fractured humanity to the protagonist, but a melancholy to the piece that isn’t simply a revenge-o-matic, that follows a pair of good ol’ boys who take matters in their own hands, and hook.
For those that haven’t caught Rolling Thunder, the film follows Major Charles Rane (William Devane) and Sergeant Johnny Vohden (Tommy Lee Jones) who are returning home after enduring seven years as POWs in a North Vietnamese prison camp. It’s very apparent from the get go, both men are broken after the years of torture, and are unsure about a what a return to day to day life would entail. Charles is almost immediately off to a rough start as he soon discovers his wife has very understandably moved on after she thought her husband was dead, and is about to marry local policeman Cliff Nichols, who has become a father figure to his son. The fact that this relationship with his child is the one that matters most to him and the one he needs to repair when all is said and done, says volumes about Rane.
The trouble starts for Major Rane when at his homecoming ceremony, along with a brand new red convertible, Charles is gifted a box of silver dollars, one for every day he’s in captivity. Soon after a gang of what appear to be hippies show up at his home to rob him. Even after mangling his arm down a garbage disposal, Charles, who’s been hardened by his time as a POW and seems to even find some kind of sadistic pleasure in it, doesn’t give in. But his wife and son come home and quickly give in to their demands and are killed for their cooperation, with the Major left for dead.
Now, where Rolling Thunder cooks is, instead of cooperating with the police, Charles says he remembers nothing and simply gets proficient with his hook and various killing implements thanks to the power of montage. Charlie then calls up Johnny, who is obviously struggling with day to day life and the two decide to go out for revenge at a Mexican brothel and relive their time in ‘Nam. Personally, while it’s hard to forget the vengeance heavy back end of the film, it’s the beginning that really pulled me in this time around. There’s a vulnerability to how both of these men play these characters that could have been simply played much more broad and simply for shock value. Instead there is an introspection at the heart of both Johnny and Charlie who are united by their shared trauma that has bonded the two in a way no normal person would ever understand.
While the previous Shout Blu transfer came from a European release, thankfully they’ve gone back to the original camera negative to strike a brand new scan this time around. The image here is nothing short of breathtaking having seen the film previously on a much more weathered 35mm print, this was a completely new experience. There was a jaw dropping clarity and color in the image, coupled with the grain you’d expect. The HDR also perfectly accentuates the 70s veneer delivering a slightly more broader color spectrum. The film’s sole audio selection is a mono 2.0 DTS-HD track and that’s completely fine. Shout also delivers a new host of extras this time around, so for those that are upgrading, you’re getting more than simply an image upgrade.
Rolling Thunder has Paul Schrader once again examining not only the toll of war on a man, but what happens after he is put out into the world. Vietnam was also an interesting case study, since we as a country were very divided on whether or not this “conflict” was worth the lives it cost and those forced to go didn’t come back to the hero’s welcome they should have. I think that’s what this film represents best is what that emasculation does to a man after risking his life for his country, and how far that can push him. There’s also a vulnerability to the male characters you rarely see in these kinds of films and it’s something that was extremely progressive of John Flynn to show his characters in this light.
Its cathartic, it’s gut wrenching and it’s a film that I am thankful can be more readily seen in the presentation on this 4K UHD. As a revengeomatic few films work better than Rolling Thunder, but it also is a deeply personal story of loss. Not just losing your wife and son in death, they are all but dead to Rane, when they thought he was dead. But losing that relationship with your son that time, those connections to humanity and reality. These are the things that really send Rane on the killing spree, their deaths only give him an excuse and someone to kill. Its easy to see why someone like Tarantino would take the film and elevate it to what it is today. There’s a profound honesty at the heart of the exploitation classic that’s hard to deny and its why it continues to live on.
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MADAME WEB: More Than a Meme, it’s Girl Power with a Side of Vehicular Spider-Slaughter!
A few months ago Sony’s latest edition to their Spiderverse hit theaters and for those not in the know, while Disney/Marvel owns most of their characters, Spider-Man and his rogues gallery of villains, and some heroes are still the property of Sony (For now). The studio luckily bought the rights back in 1999, when comic book films had devolved into direct-to-video fodder and they kicked off a funny book renaissance with Evil Dead’s Sam Raimi at the helm. His take on the Spider-Man, starring Tobey Maguire still stands to this day as one of the best takes on the character, and is a far cry from where the Sony Spiderverse lives today. While they have crafted two animated masterpieces in the form of the Spiderverse films, their live action output hasn’t been able to reach those same heights the Raimi films once occupied.
Since I am firmly of the opinion that you can’t have an opinion on a film, unless you sit through it, that led me to Sony’s latest Madame Web. The film just hit Blu-ray and 4K UHD this week and the cast here is what honestly drew me to it. Dakota Johnson, is one of those actors that’s a bit of an enigma; she really throws herself into an eclectic selection of roles and has made some rather bold character choices throughout her career. Her cosigning this is what made me curious, while wide-eyed Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney really locked it in for me. The film was directed by S.J. Clarkson, who not only had episodes of Jessica Jones and Defenders under her accomplished belt, but Succession as well. So you can understand the potential at the core here, along with the pair of writers responsible for Morbius, which is probably where this project might have gone off the rails, for scripting duties that pair, was pitted against the director and fellow female writer Claire Parker.
The film itself operates almost as a pre-origin-origin story – character-wise, it’s the origin of the circle of friends that would later become this group of crime fighting Spider-Women. Dakota Johnson plays Cassandra Webb, an aloof EMT who after a near death experience can see the bits and pieces of the future, which is thanks to her mom, who was researching spiders just before she died in the Amazon. She was searching for a spider that could grant superhuman healing abilities, and when she found it her colleague Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) shot the pregnant woman and ran off with it. Luckily a tribe of Spider-Man cosplaying natives, who worshiped the spider found her and attempted to use the spider’s abilities to save her, but were only able to save her newborn daughter. The deal here is everyone who gets bitten gets a different flavor of power, Ezekiel has superstrength and some clairvoyance, while Cassandra has full out uncontrollable visions of possible things to come.
How this manifests itself into the plot of Madame Web is Ezekiel has a vision of a group of Spider-Women killing him in the future, and to stop that from happening he is hunting them down before they have their powers to save his future life. Now the weird part is Ezekiel is essentially dressed as the player 2 version of Spider-Man in a blacked out suit and by doing so throws into contention the origin of the spider suit; but let’s not dig too deep. This has Cassandra, who thanks to her visions is operating one step ahead of her mother’s killer essentially kidnapping the teenage girls before he can get to them in a rather impressive subway action set piece that really exemplified what this film could be. From there it’s a plot we’ve seen in countless films, but gender-swapped and way less creepy – the omnipresent reluctant savior (Webb here), keeping the naive and beautiful prey from the predator. Instead of this turning into some Stockholm Syndrome love story though, we have a group of women who forge a maternal trauma bond with Cassandra who reluctantly takes them all under her wing.
That friendship and bond of these women is the awkward heart and ultimate redemption of the film for me. It’s something you can see was very important to S.J. Clarkson, in how the characters all fall into a sort of rhythm in their teamwork, that would pay off in a future film that will never happen. Cassandra, who has zero maternal instincts at the beginning of the film, slowly warms up to the idea of caring for these young girls who are all looking for someone to steer them in the right direction and mentor them, just unlike 99% of these stories it’s not a dude. This story of friendship is constantly smothered however by the superhero nonsense like the fate of fetus Spider-Man and Web’s coworker being Uncle Ben, who met a really swell girl named May. It really muddy’s this film’s intent, but the DNA of that matriarchal thread is still very discernible.
Johnson carries the majority of the narrative channeling the reluctant hero, as we’ve seen in countless comic book films beforehand. Where it diverges is the maternal thread and her lack of romantic tension with her young charges and her villain thankfully. Her dry wit and deadpan delivery works for me and adds a rather devil may care nuance to her character without some of the more heavy handed MCU character work we are accustomed to. Of all the young Spider recruits Sweeney’s shy bookworm is definitely the clear favorite here of the story. It’s hard to deny she’s the only one capable of matching Johnson’s intensity of character on screen and is definitely playing it straight as well, and for the most part it works in her favor. Tahar Rahim however is the biggest unknown, his take is intense as expected and very villain coded, but there are stretches with expository dialog mismatching his mouth movements with some very painfully present ADR to reroute and update the plot, which was very distracting.
I have to say where this film undeniably shines aside from the relationship thread is in the execution of its action set pieces, which found some inventive ways to empower its female combatants, who are mostly without powers, we actually don’t see them in their full Spider-gear until a flash forward in the films final moments. That has this story grounded in some sort of realism, and forces the gals to outsmart Ezekiel in some surprising ways with his super strength and spider-like reflexes. Mostly, this has Dakota Johnson who is the only one with a driver’s license stealing various cars, and then using that to hit this Spider-Man. This happens more than once, and it’s hilarious as it is badass to be honest. It also reminded me of Albert Pyun’s Captain America in the process, since Captain America steals a bunch of cars in that film too and it’s oddly amusing as well. The solid action here more than works and is a bit more even than other parts of the film.
While Madame Webb suffers from uneven performances, plotting and overall narrative cohesion, this is all probably due to obvious studio interference on countless levels. I can however say, like Venom even with its issues, it’s a very entertaining watch. The characters are engaging, the action is good – the film just feels handicapped by what most non Disney Marvel Superhero films fall victim to and that’s second guessing, what appears to be a clear vision. While these films are normally filmmaking by committee, some are a bit singular in their approach and any wavering in that vision can significantly diminish its effectiveness. I feel like Madame Web was meant to explore this new space in the superhero landscape, how does a team of women, not clad in spandex, but who are about to become superheroes forge that team. But out of fear, more action is added, more lore appropriate characters are added and more vague ties to a bigger universe are crammed in an already complete story causing the chaos we have here.
The disc comes with the following special features:
- Future Vision (HD, 7 minutes) – Filming the good Madame’s visions and vision state, replete with cast and filmmaker talking heads and interview clips. Nothing special here.
- Casting the Web (HD, 9 minutes) – It might surprise you to learn casting for Madame Web extended beyond the requisite “looks hot”, but not so much further that I buy into the claim that deep thought was put into each role’s ideal actress. More on-set talking heads ensue.
- Oracle of the Page (HD, 5 minutes) – An all-too-brief look at the comics that inspired the film.
- The Many Threads of Madame Web (HD, 4 minutes) – Easter eggs assemble!
- Fight Like a Spider (HD, 6 minutes) – A look at the movie’s action. Ahem, “action”.
- Gag Reel (HD, 5 minutes)
- Deleted Scene (HD, 1 minute)
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THE FALL GUY Takes Its Punches and Earns Its Laughs
David Leitch’s hilarious ode to filmmaking’s unsung heroes is the stuff the best summer blockbusters are made of
Stills courtesy of Universal Pictures. In The Fall Guy, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) has long accepted his place playing second fiddle to Hollywood megastar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). As the star’s go-to stuntman, Colt jumps into action when Tom’s characters do. Colt leaps from buildings, rolls over cars, and is endlessly set on fire to increase Tom’s star power and win over camera operator Jody (Emily Blunt). An on-set accident wounds more than Colt’s ego and nearly knocks him out of the stunt game for good, but producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) convinces Colt to strap back in for Jody’s directorial debut. However, Colt isn’t just there to help save Jody’s film: Gail needs Colt to find the missing Tom, who’s disappeared mid-shoot. When the cameras stop rolling, Colt tries to balance rekindling his romance with Jody and finding her missing lead in the criminal underworlds of Sydney, Australia.
A rollicking romantic love letter to the stunts that form the backbone of our best blockbusters, The Fall Guy seems reverse-engineered to be a crowd-pleasing summer chart-topper. Newly Oscar-nominated leads fresh from last year’s Barbenheimer frenzy? Got ‘em. A stunts-based director known for bringing out the action star qualities of A-listers? Absolutely. Decades-old IP ripe for an injection of meta-humor? In spades. But David Leitch’s Fall Guy, from a banger script by Drew Pearce based on the ‘80s Lee Majors TV show, doesn’t take its money-printing qualities at face value. Rather, Leitch’s latest draws upon the inside baseball knowledge of its cast and crew to create a wryly tongue-in-cheek skewering of an industry that takes its hardest workers for granted.
Hollywood is built on the broken backs of its stunt community–people who place their lives on the line in the name of entertainment. Yet despite their sacrifices, they’re seen as some of the industry’s most disposable commodities. Stars are happy to take credit for their efforts, an act that’s grown increasingly literal with the advent of deepfakes (itself a key plot point). On the flip side, the nature of stunt doubles’ hidden identities means they can be replaced at the first sign of weakness or injury. Like too many others in Hollywood, stunt players are needed until they’re not.
This combination of industry cynicism and a reverence for the cinematic spectacle born from it makes for awe-inspiring stunt sequences and side-splitting comedy throughout Fall Guy’s breathless two-hour runtime. Already having proven his chops at action (Drive, The Grey Man, Blade Runner 2049) and slapstick/deadpan comedy (The Nice Guys, Crazy Stupid Love, Barbie), Gosling is a natural fit for Colt’s self-effacing mania, capable of blundering his way through sequences equally inspired by Buster Keaton as they are by director Leitch’s previous collaborations with fellow stuntman turned John Wick creative Chad Stahelski. In bluntly winking yet admirable fashion, this A-list star also lends an effective voice to the decades of frustrated stuntmen unrecognized for their efforts–including an extended bit about the lack of a Stunts category at the Oscars. While the film plays into the charming schtick that’s made Gosling a household name, Gosling elevates his star persona by meeting every demand of the physical gauntlet Leitch puts him through. The same can be said of the rest of Fall Guy’s cast–everyone including Blunt, Waddingham, Taylor-Johnson, and memorable turns by Stephanie Hsu and Winston Duke gets their chance to channel their inner John Wick, whether it’s close-quarters combat in a speeding dump truck or some on-set alien battlefield mayhem.
The Fall Guy’s most refreshing approach to its action-fueled meta-comedy, however, is how Leitch and Pearce drive home emotional resonance when you least expect it. The reunion between Gosling and Blunt, in particular, begins as a bit of satisfying revenge by Jody for Colt’s inexplicable ghosting and unexpected return. As the scene goes on, it’s clear that Colt lets himself be set on fire and thrown against boulders out of the penance she demands of him as much as the demands of the job, but also there’s his undeniable golden-retriever optimism that, should he endure whatever she throws at him, she might take him back. Amidst the film’s shady goings-on, it’s clear that Colt’s ego is also just as much of an antagonist as the generic baddies pursuing him. As much as the job goes unrecognized, there’s a pride that comes with being an effective stuntman–and any instance of failure becomes a deep wound. Colt’s reckoning with his shortcomings and failures informs much of Fall Guy’s action comedy–there’s only so much this guy can do, and it’s hilariously riveting seeing how this washed-up pro earns his place as the real-life action star he helps other, more famous people pretend to be on camera.
While The Fall Guy is open about its origins as a reverse-engineered four-quadrant theater packer, its bold willingness to take one on the chin as far as its laughs and dazzling stuntwork earnestly makes it the stuff the best Summer blockbusters are made of.
Now get these guys a damn Oscars category already!
The Fall Guy hits theaters on May 3rd, 2024 courtesy of Universal Pictures.
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Two Cents Film Club – APE-RIL Concludes With a Trip to KONG: SKULL ISLAND
A distinctly different on cinema’s original giant ape
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
The Pick: Kong: Skull Island
It’s been a swell “APE-RIL” in honor of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and we’re finishing out our simian cinema lineup with 2017’s Kong: Skull Island. Unlike last week’s Peter Jackson epic, Kong Island is a radical reimaginng of the Kong lore, as is interconnected with Warner Bros.’ larger “MonsterVerse” franchise, of which G x K is the latest outing. Set against the early 1970s, Skull Island tells the story of a group of explorers who set out to explore the mysterious Skull Island, only to discover far more than they bargained for. Technically part of a larger franchise, Skull Island has the benefit of being easily watchable as its own stand alone story, and one of the stranger entries in the storied Kong legacy.
Featured Guest
Jemarco Shaw
1973.
The Vietnam War rages on, the nation has never been more divided, and as tension arises,
everyone gathers to ask one simple question: What if cool monsters existed?Now granted, Jordan-Vogt Robert’s Kong: Skull Island may not reach the artistic heights of
Peter Jackson’s 2005 epic, but what it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in relentless balls-out
fun.
The story follows Bill Randa (John Goodman) and Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins), two representatives from the super secret monster organization known as Monarch, who assemble a crack team of scientists and Vietnam soldiers to travel to the mysterious Skull Island. The crew includes Sam Jackson as Col. Preston Packard, chewing scenery as he does so well, Brie Larson as photographer Mason Weaver, Tom Hiddleston as James Conrad, tracker, ex-British Secret Service, and the resident badass. Rounding out the group are an assortment of lovable jarheads from Jason Mitchell to the MVP Shea Wingham. Once the journey begins, the gang realizes they are far from alone: This island already has a king. His name is Kong.From the moment the group encounters the big guy, Roberts throws everything at the screen,
seemingly all at once. Helicopters ablaze while Black Sabbath blares in the background, using trees
as baseball bats, and perhaps the greatest “guy getting eaten” transition ever put to celluloid. While
Randa is there strictly for scientific purposes, Col. Packard makes it his life’s mission to kill Kong,
and anyone that gets in his way. Meanwhile, Conrad and Weaver get to hang around John C.
Reilly’s Hank Madow, a soldier marooned on the island, clueless to the world around them.Skull Island is a movie that shamelessly wears its influences on its sleeve, pulling from anime, video
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games, and its predecessors to create something that may not be as thought-provoking as previous
installments, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a sugar rush, directed with the same frivolous glee as a
kid smashing two action figures together. So turn that brain off, grab some popcorn and enjoy the
madness.
The Team
Toho Studios could scarce have realized when first pairing up King Kong and Godzilla in the early 1960s – each at that time with only a couple films under their belts – that these titans would still be box office hits, and coexisting in a shared universe under Warner brothers, some 60 years later.
Skull Island introduced Kong to the “Monsterverse”, retaining the character and Skull Island mythos – but not the plot – of the classic King Kong tale and its remakes. Even from 1933, the Kong films have been pretty intense for their time, in light of a general family audience, and that trend continues with this treatment, set at the end of the Vietnam conflict and packed with weird monsters and gnarly kills. In my opinion Skull Island does a better job than any previous film in actually feeling the immense scope of Kong and his world – kudos to the digital artists who rendered this all so marvelously.
I feel like director Jordan Vogt-Roberts definitely saw his opportunity to tip his hat to his favorite Vietnam movies and make a tangential film that’s as much about war as it is creature adventure. Most notably with a tortured commander in Samuel L. Jackson’s LTC Packard, a warrior who finds himself without a war and therefore, he believes, without a purpose.
On this rewatch I was particularly taken by John C. Reilly’s character, a downed WWII pilot who was stranded on the island and becomes the group’s navigator. The coda of his story plays out over the credits and I’d forgotten how wonderfully touching it is.
Austin on LetterboxdSkull Island is a movie I have a lot of affinity for, and I truly think a lot of its strength comes from the initial surprise of it. I may not be as versed in all the various Kong variants throughout the history of cinema, but the delightful surprises of how Jordan Vogt-Roberts directing pulls from unexpected influences to inject into Skull Island creates a distinct vision that makes it stand out. In many ways, it feels like an artifact from an alternate reality where Sam Raimi was given the keys to a Kong movie, and that vibe is exhilarating when it fully reveals itself.
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The best part of Skull Island though is the incredible cast. Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson as ostensible leads are passable enough, but it is the supporting cast that elevate this to a true gem of a horror-action romps. Samuel L. Jackson as the post-Vietnam shellshocked Colonel Packard blends elements of Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness to create a truly memorable foil for Kong. John Goodman offers a balance of humanity and sly menace as the conspiracy-nut-proven-accurate. And John C. Reilly serves as the heart of the film, offering a ballast to all of the madness. Each piece of cast settles into place to create an ensemble the gives weight to the mad chaos of action between Kong and his unsettling foes. The oddness of Skull Island being a building block for the larger Monarch franchise doesn’t lessen its magic as one of the stranger ventures into the Kong lore, and certainly one of the most distinctive. I wish some of his zany Looney Tunes energy leaked into some of the other Monarch films, but as a singular object, I still think it’s pretty special.
It should be made clear that Kong: Skull Island is fun. A lot of fun. Anyone going to a film such as this is expecting spectacle, which is exactly what the filmmakers give their audiences from start to finish. The film generously boasts a number of adrenaline-fueled sequences between creatures fighting humans, creatures fighting each other, and virtually everyone fighting Kong. Each sequence is packed with the kind of action-pumped flair that leaves an audience member on the edge with their eyes widened and their jaws left hanging. Not only are the sequences plentiful, but they’re also rather artful, with one stunning frame of monstrous carnage after another on display. Kong: Skull Island also features some of the best camerawork for a film of its genre to come along in decades, making the most brutal and intense action come off as beautiful and almost operatic. This is especially true in Kong’s battle with the most gigantic octopus the screen has ever seen and in the group’s heart pounding first encounter with the big ape himself as he welcomes everyone to the island in his own personal way.
Read Frank’s full review
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Passionate Anime Musicians Tale BLUE GIANT is the Most Expressive Movie I’ve Seen in Ages
Every now and then you happen upon some film you know nothing about, and it absolutely rocks your world. Shout Factory/GKIDS sent me a review copy of Blue Giant, a new anime film that wasn’t on my radar, and I was completely blown away. Within minutes of starting the movie, which is based on an expansive manga by the same name, I already knew this was shaping up to be something very special. I can’t remember the last time I cried this much watching a new film (it might’ve been the French-Canadian movie Starbuck, which was more than a decade ago).
The film follows the story of Dai Miyamoto, an aspiring saxophonist who loves jazz and has decided to do whatever it takes to be the greatest jazz musician in the world. After meeting an extremely talented session pianist named Yukinori, and recruiting his roommate Shunji to accompany them on drums – despite the fact that he’s never played – the upstart band JASS is formed.
This is one of the most sincere, earnest movies I’ve ever seen – when Dai says he wants to be the greatest jazz musician in the world, that might sound like a naive or absurd goal, but he truly means it and puts in the work, countless hours of practice each day, and his genuine fervor is infectious both to the other characters around him, and to the audience. Yukinori, a talented pianist, is more technically proficient but challenged to match Dai’s passion and creative artistry rather than simply try to map out a safe career coloring within the lines. Shunji, a complete novice, likewise decides to pursue his new craft in a manner befitting his more seasoned bandmates. With hearts firmly on sleeves and no pretense, it’s easy to love and root for these guys.
Blue Giant is likely to get overlooked by many viewers simply because it’s about a jazz band, and that’s not the most universally compelling pitch. I’d implore you not to skip it for that reason. It’s actually part of the film’s theme: the trio is pouring their entire lives into a relatively unpopular genre out of pure love and passion for the music, and it’s incredibly endearing. Their approach attracts new fans who’ve never cared for jazz, while older jazz fans realize this new band of teenagers is challenging their perceptions and assumptions of what jazz is and can be.
The film makes use of some amazing stylizations – when the boys perform, the animation style changes to match their moods and intensity – cameras careen and the images warp madly, delivering a dynamic visual force element to accompany the incredible music, the real-life compositions of jazz artist Hiromi. Even though I’m not a huge jazz fan, I can definitely appreciate this incredible diegetic score.
I won’t ruin the film’s narrative surprises, but it’s an exceptionally tender and deeply emotional experience that gets to the heart of what makes an artist tick. It’s the most sincere story of relentless artistic drive that I’ve ever encountered, and I’m completely won over by the pure unfettered passion of this thing.
Unequivocal highest recommendation.
The Package
Blue Giant is new on Blu-ray this week from GKIDS and Shout! Studios. The Blu-ray disc (note, no DVD or digital copy) comes in a standard blue Elite case. My copy included a glossy slipcover.
Special Features and Extras
Q&A with Hiromi – titled on feature as “Interview with Hiromi” – Japan Society interview, with the film’s composer, conducted in English
Trailers (4:30) and TV Spots (0:44) – Two Teasers trailers, two full trailers, and two short TV spots – all in Japanese with English subtitles
A/V Out.
Except where noted, all 16:9 screen images in this review are direct captures from the disc(s) in question with no editing applied, but may have compression or resizing inherent to file formats and web imaging.
