2022 Media Roundup: Film
Dec. 26th, 2022 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabby As in previous years, I didn't watch a ton of movies, but there were a few notable films, including one standout last-minute entry.
Everything Everywhere All At Once: I don't have a lot to say about this one. If you like that kind of thing, you've probably seen it a million times. Personally I found it bloated and overlong, with a troublingly uneven tone that held some nasty implications about fatphobia and mental illness. But on the plus side it had a lot of Michelle Yeoh, and I will take an ambitious hot mess over the vastly inferior Marvel equivalent, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which was shit other than every moment that Wong was on screen.
Day Shift: This was a movie I did not actually expect to be any good at all, and that I forced my friends to watch after we watched The Invitation (which was also a 2022 movie about vampires and race and class, and also highly enjoyable) for two reasons, and two reasons only. There is a third, and a fourth, unconfirmed reason to watch it, but let's talk about the movie first. It stars Jamie Foxx as a down-on-his luck vampire hunter who must re-ingratiate himself with the vampire hunting union so that he can get enough money to pay for his daughter's braces before his wife leaves him. The first reason to see it is that the union that organizes the vampire hunters is the IWW. It's really a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo but if you think the online left cares that it's only there for a split second, you haven't met the online left. The second reason is that one of the other vampire hunters is played by Snoop Dogg, who is absolutely hilarious in it. Anyway turns out it's good, actually? The vampires' evil plan is gentrification and it's part of a growing number of horror movies, and vampire movies in particular, that have working class Black leads and monsters that are metaphors for white supremacy and capitalism. The third reason to see it is that the soundtrack slaps. The fourth, unconfirmed reason is that apparently it's an adaptation of Night Watch and Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, which I enjoyed in their translated and subtitled versions respectively. At the very least, it shares the bonkers sensibility of "let's play urban fantasy tropes completely straight."
RRR: This was, up until last night, going to be my movie of the year. It's a Tollywood (Telegu language) movie that's an absolute fucking masterpiece. Before I get too far in, there are some problematic politics about it that would probably be better analyzed by someone who is actually from India. I'm coming at this with as a white Westerner who knows slightly more about the early Indian Independence movement than the average white Westerner because I read some really horribly translated Marxist books about it.
Anyway, RRR is about two revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, who never met in real life and did not actually have superpowers and also never demolished the British in a dance-off in the 1920s. But look. It would have been better if they had. You know it would have been. There are musical numbers and CGI animals and imperialists get absolutely pwned and it's a delight that's manages to get some solid politics and heartfelt drama into a spectacle of a movie that is relentlessly entertaining for its entire 182-minute run time. Both of the leads are charming as all fuck. There's even a shout-out to my favourite Indian revolutionary, Bhagat Singh, at the very end.*
So that was going to be my pick as best movie of the year but yesterday I saw Women Talking, which is going to live rent-free in my head for the rest of my life.
I haven't read the Miriam Toews book that it's based on but I've read some other work by her, and Sarah Polley is a hell of a director so I went into it with no idea what it was about but figuring it would be great just based on who was attached to the project. Given the bleakness of the subject matter, the title almost feels like a bit of a joke or at least a play on the Bechdel-Wallace Test. Which, obviously, it passes with flying colours; there are two men with speaking roles in the film and they're both confined to the margins of the narrative for different reasons.
The film takes place on an isolated Mennonite colony in 2010. The women of the colony learn that for years, their husbands, brothers, and sons have been drugging them and violently sexually assaulting them in the middle of the night. The elders of the community not only participate in the coverup, but eventually take almost all of the men to town to post bail for the attackers and insist that the women forgive them. The only men left behind are the schoolteacher, who has only recently returned to the colony after his family was exiled, and a trans man who is in charge of supervising the children.
In the absence of the men, the women vote on a course of action with three options: do nothing, stay and fight, and leave. Doing nothing is ruled out by almost all of the women, but staying and fighting and leaving are tied. Two extended families are appointed to debate between the remaining options, while the schoolteacher takes minutes because none of the women can read or write.
What follows is nearly all dialogue and silences, which nonetheless manages to be visually captivating as well thanks to Polley's direction, the incredible acting, and an understated, heartwrenching soundtrack. The debate encompasses faith and theology, pacifism and nonviolent resistance, family, and female solidarity. The subtle use of light creates a gripping tension and urgency—the autumn day never feels long enough to grapple with the enormities facing these women. Every character is beautifully brought to life with a compelling viewpoint and poetic dialogue. And if you thought "Daydream Believer" was not a song that could ever bring you to tears, well.
This is one that was worth seeing in theatres because the cinematography is jaw-dropping, and worth watching multiple times because there are layers upon layers in a film that's 95% a group of women having a debate in a hay loft. Utterly brilliant.
* What's that you say? Not everyone has a favourite Indian revolutionary? What's wrong with you people?
Everything Everywhere All At Once: I don't have a lot to say about this one. If you like that kind of thing, you've probably seen it a million times. Personally I found it bloated and overlong, with a troublingly uneven tone that held some nasty implications about fatphobia and mental illness. But on the plus side it had a lot of Michelle Yeoh, and I will take an ambitious hot mess over the vastly inferior Marvel equivalent, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which was shit other than every moment that Wong was on screen.
Day Shift: This was a movie I did not actually expect to be any good at all, and that I forced my friends to watch after we watched The Invitation (which was also a 2022 movie about vampires and race and class, and also highly enjoyable) for two reasons, and two reasons only. There is a third, and a fourth, unconfirmed reason to watch it, but let's talk about the movie first. It stars Jamie Foxx as a down-on-his luck vampire hunter who must re-ingratiate himself with the vampire hunting union so that he can get enough money to pay for his daughter's braces before his wife leaves him. The first reason to see it is that the union that organizes the vampire hunters is the IWW. It's really a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo but if you think the online left cares that it's only there for a split second, you haven't met the online left. The second reason is that one of the other vampire hunters is played by Snoop Dogg, who is absolutely hilarious in it. Anyway turns out it's good, actually? The vampires' evil plan is gentrification and it's part of a growing number of horror movies, and vampire movies in particular, that have working class Black leads and monsters that are metaphors for white supremacy and capitalism. The third reason to see it is that the soundtrack slaps. The fourth, unconfirmed reason is that apparently it's an adaptation of Night Watch and Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, which I enjoyed in their translated and subtitled versions respectively. At the very least, it shares the bonkers sensibility of "let's play urban fantasy tropes completely straight."
RRR: This was, up until last night, going to be my movie of the year. It's a Tollywood (Telegu language) movie that's an absolute fucking masterpiece. Before I get too far in, there are some problematic politics about it that would probably be better analyzed by someone who is actually from India. I'm coming at this with as a white Westerner who knows slightly more about the early Indian Independence movement than the average white Westerner because I read some really horribly translated Marxist books about it.
Anyway, RRR is about two revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, who never met in real life and did not actually have superpowers and also never demolished the British in a dance-off in the 1920s. But look. It would have been better if they had. You know it would have been. There are musical numbers and CGI animals and imperialists get absolutely pwned and it's a delight that's manages to get some solid politics and heartfelt drama into a spectacle of a movie that is relentlessly entertaining for its entire 182-minute run time. Both of the leads are charming as all fuck. There's even a shout-out to my favourite Indian revolutionary, Bhagat Singh, at the very end.*
So that was going to be my pick as best movie of the year but yesterday I saw Women Talking, which is going to live rent-free in my head for the rest of my life.
I haven't read the Miriam Toews book that it's based on but I've read some other work by her, and Sarah Polley is a hell of a director so I went into it with no idea what it was about but figuring it would be great just based on who was attached to the project. Given the bleakness of the subject matter, the title almost feels like a bit of a joke or at least a play on the Bechdel-Wallace Test. Which, obviously, it passes with flying colours; there are two men with speaking roles in the film and they're both confined to the margins of the narrative for different reasons.
The film takes place on an isolated Mennonite colony in 2010. The women of the colony learn that for years, their husbands, brothers, and sons have been drugging them and violently sexually assaulting them in the middle of the night. The elders of the community not only participate in the coverup, but eventually take almost all of the men to town to post bail for the attackers and insist that the women forgive them. The only men left behind are the schoolteacher, who has only recently returned to the colony after his family was exiled, and a trans man who is in charge of supervising the children.
In the absence of the men, the women vote on a course of action with three options: do nothing, stay and fight, and leave. Doing nothing is ruled out by almost all of the women, but staying and fighting and leaving are tied. Two extended families are appointed to debate between the remaining options, while the schoolteacher takes minutes because none of the women can read or write.
What follows is nearly all dialogue and silences, which nonetheless manages to be visually captivating as well thanks to Polley's direction, the incredible acting, and an understated, heartwrenching soundtrack. The debate encompasses faith and theology, pacifism and nonviolent resistance, family, and female solidarity. The subtle use of light creates a gripping tension and urgency—the autumn day never feels long enough to grapple with the enormities facing these women. Every character is beautifully brought to life with a compelling viewpoint and poetic dialogue. And if you thought "Daydream Believer" was not a song that could ever bring you to tears, well.
This is one that was worth seeing in theatres because the cinematography is jaw-dropping, and worth watching multiple times because there are layers upon layers in a film that's 95% a group of women having a debate in a hay loft. Utterly brilliant.
* What's that you say? Not everyone has a favourite Indian revolutionary? What's wrong with you people?
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Date: 2022-12-26 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-26 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-26 06:23 pm (UTC)re: Women Talking, interesting title for a fiction film. I think I saw it on a festival program & assumed it was a documentary (which, no hate to documentaries but was feeling more in a feature mood). Good lesson for me to actually read the description!
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Date: 2022-12-26 06:46 pm (UTC)Anyway, this union is also not very much like the Wobblies and very bureaucratic, much like my current union. It's still funny though.
Women Talking is based on a real thing that happened but quite fictionalized.
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Date: 2022-12-26 08:00 pm (UTC)Women Talking sounds amazing and I don't know if I can bear up under it right now.*makes a note*
Snoop Dogg as a vampire, bee
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Date: 2022-12-26 08:05 pm (UTC)There are some graphic scenes in Women Talking but I think they done in like, the least objectifying and least traumatizing way you can depict sexual violence on screen. Like it's very clear what happened but they don't dwell on it. It was all about the strength and defiance and agency of the women involved, right down to the fact that the faces of their abusers are never shown.
Snoop Dogg plays a vampire hunter who is also a cowboy for some reason. Did I mention that he's a cowboy? And very tall. I think I didn't realize how tall he was before. Anyway he is an absolute delight.
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Date: 2022-12-27 04:46 am (UTC)But I stand by what I said about Wandavision all the same.
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Date: 2022-12-27 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-27 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-27 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-27 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-27 01:36 am (UTC)(This post is top notch. Mostly I popped in to say that, and the rest is trivia that valorizes my taking up space here.)
Agree about EEAAO -- I was like "this is fine. Why did everyone say this was amazing?"
I read a longform article about the Women Talking case at the time of the coverage, and then, semi-randomly, an interesting critique of Toews' portrayal of the community (I guess not very accurate to the original community but rather more like Toews' own) -- but I love Polley and I didn't know there was a trans character and will see this, thanks.
And RRR is at the top of my list.
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Date: 2022-12-27 03:50 am (UTC)Haha please take up all the space.
Agree about EEAAO -- I was like "this is fine. Why did everyone say this was amazing?"
It was one of those films where everyone was talking about how radical and groundbreaking it was and I was just annoyed that it's another narrative about a girl who becomes too powerful and destroys the world, and about how we must learn to tolerate The Gays but it's mere toleration, and it's toleration that's not extended to The Fats. And also physical abuse played for laughs. And Be Kind, which I am currently on a vendetta against. We cannot solve even a single one of the world's problems by Being Kind.
I came out of it wondering if I saw the same movie as everyone else, even though I admired its scope and ambition.
I read a longform article about the Women Talking case at the time of the coverage, and then, semi-randomly, an interesting critique of Toews' portrayal of the community (I guess not very accurate to the original community but rather more like Toews' own) -- but I love Polley and I didn't know there was a trans character and will see this, thanks.
I think I may have read the same critique which like, missed the point of it being fiction. They seemed to want Toews (and Polley) to grapple with a different question than the one that they chose to grapple with. A story about the original case would be very interesting but that's not the story they were telling.
The portrayal of the trans character was fascinating and I think quite deftly done. It was an interesting complexity because he was more accepted by the community than I'd expect, even as a lot of them had a hard time with learning not to misgender or deadname him. He's not a major character in it but he plays a vital role, along with the schoolteacher character, of depicting a different and non-toxic mode of masculinity that's vital to the film's moral framework.
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Date: 2022-12-27 04:42 am (UTC)Maybe I missed something, maybe it's because it felt like that movie I have not seen where Will Smith(?) teams up with Orc Police?
I think I watched The Invitation but I would have to check my list. I recall liking whatever I am thinking of, which was a mix between Ready Or Not and Get Out in my head.
I've seen hundreds of movies since the start of 2020. They blend together.
I'm going to agree that the latest Marvel films feel very messy. When the only reason they added America Chavez was clearly to lay the groundwork for a future Young Avengers film... I can see the string holding everything together.
And while that's also a problem with the TV shows, I did enjoy Wandavision and She-Hulk. The latter has a lot of Wong.
RRR has at least one major cheerleader at io9, so I have been curious (but not enough to look up what Tollywood was), and I was down for watching it, until you mentioned it was three HOURS long, with subs, and musical numbers.
Women Talking seems like one of those films that will hit just right when I am in the correct mood. So that's gone on my list.
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Date: 2022-12-27 11:46 am (UTC)I haven't seen that film, but I heard it was hella racist. I think a big difference is that it's not a "what if Black people but they were orcs???" metaphor but "the vampire is a literal real estate gentrifier" metaphor that is grappling with reality more directly.
I think I watched The Invitation but I would have to check my list. I recall liking whatever I am thinking of, which was a mix between Ready Or Not and Get Out in my head.
That's the one lol.
RRR has at least one major cheerleader at io9, so I have been curious (but not enough to look up what Tollywood was), and I was down for watching it, until you mentioned it was three HOURS long, with subs, and musical numbers.
Yep. Bollywood/Kollywood/Tollywood movies run looong. You're generally expected to take a break for intermission, although there's not a obviously marked one in RRR. But it's about as long as Everything, and Marvel movies are creeping up there.
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Date: 2022-12-27 02:06 pm (UTC)Reminds me of Swiss Army Man by the same filmmaking duo, which I only watched the beginning of bc I lost interest, but then I looked up the plot summary and basically it really felt like... Another kind of boring, straightforward plot, with a lot of silly/fantastical elements layered on top in an unnecessary/superfluous feeling way. I guess at least they have a defined style, ha.
Anyway, still considering making a fanvid for it because I had a good idea for a song match lol. But we'll see.
Women Talking sounds really good and I'm definitely going to try to watch it now. Day Shift sounds fun but I feel less certain I'd enjoy it, maybe the kind of movie I'd enjoy more seeing condensed in vid form heh.
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Date: 2022-12-27 03:19 pm (UTC)(What really bothered me is that while the mother was awkward and shitty about the daughter's girlfriend, it never seemed so extreme that it would have forced the daughter into a suicidal, world-destroying rage. Which of course doesn't matter in the real world because trauma isn't necessarily proportional, but it does matter in fiction where you can craft a narrative that makes sense.)
It has never occurred to me to watch a movie in vid form! Fascinating.
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Date: 2022-12-27 03:35 pm (UTC)But yeah I guess they did give her Jobu version a more explicit "reason why she's like this" (which in that case WAS because of everything her mother put her through, ha). It did end up feeling a lot like ~THIS IS ALL SUPPOSED TO BE A METAPHOR~ but a really clunky metaphor haha. Like the mom in that other universe putting her through all that universe-hopping training was obviously just the pressure of over-expectant parents who want their kids to exceed at everything and micro-manage the course of their lives.
There have been a lot of films I watched really good fanvids of that made me then wanna watch the film, but the actual movie itself left me extremely disappointed and I regretted watching it. 😂 So I've tried to get better at recognizing that type of movie so I can save myself the time and just stick to the vids. I'd say it tends to happen most often with films with a lot of flashy spectacle and shallow plots. The most recent one was "Gunpowder Milkshake" and this excellent vid. I did actually start watching the film in that case, but luckily realized fairly early on that I was not going to enjoy it and the vid already distilled all the things I'd like best about it.
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Date: 2022-12-27 03:48 pm (UTC)It would have worked for me as a black absurdist comedy, which it was in parts, but they went for a Disney "it's all about family" ending that I found incredibly jarring.
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Date: 2022-12-29 02:58 am (UTC)I may have jumped on this soapbox before, but it's a really nice soapbox. I must absolutely recommend "Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai." It's a musical about the death penalty told from a communist (Naxalite) perspective. I have had no luck finding a physical copy, but it's available in digital format for under five bucks.
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Date: 2022-12-29 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-30 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-30 02:11 pm (UTC)