Whew, it's Friday. Praised be jeebus. Okay, so, a lot to talk about. So keep reading for a review of Woody Allen's latest, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. But first, a quick rant:
- So, some big entertainment news today out of Warner Brothers - they intend on rebooting the Superman franchise, Hulk-style, as opposed to doing a sequel to Bryan Singer's SUPERMAN RETURNS. To this I say: thank you lord. Singer's Superman had few qualities worth bringing back for a sequel, and it's overall approach to the character was just frustratingly wrong-headed. That being said, this is still the same WB that greenlit Superman Returns in the first place, and I'm not confident that they know what they're doing when it comes to Superman or in terms of DC Comics in general. People point to the Dark Knight as a positive sign, but remember: Batman Begins also seemed like a positive sign, and then came Superman Returns. The fact is - WB got lucky with Christopher Nolan and Batman. All it takes to realize this is to listen to Zack Snyder talk about how he came to be the director of WATCHMEN. From the way he tells it, it sounds like Warners was primed and ready to give the reigns of the biggest comic book adaptation ever to any number of lesser directors until Snyder stepped in, deciding that if WB was deadset on doing the movie, he might as well make sure it was done as well as humanly possible. Warners got lucky that it found someone in Snyder with that kind of passion and feeling of responsibility towards the movie. Hopefully it can get that lucky again with Superman. I know there are all kinds of pitches out there - Mark Millar made a lot of noise with his proposed take. Apparently Geoff Johns has a treatment out there. All it takes is a look at what Johns has done of late on ACTION COMICS to see that Johns might just be the man for the job to script the definitive Superman film. Granted, he is unproven as a screenwriter, but Johns is more than proven as someone who gets DC's characters better than almost anyone, who knows how to meld the history and mythologies of these characters with a cool and modern take. Whoever does end up handling this movie ... I can only hope they have that same ability. If nothing else, it's high time for a Superman movie that wasn't brooding, meditative, or cute. It's time for a Superman movie that is, for once, a HUGE and EPIC adventure, with universe-spanning storylines, gigantic villains, classic supporting characters ... and YET, the notion at its core that despite the grandeur of his adventures, Clark Kent will always be a Kansas farmboy at heart because of how he was raised. That means no creepy-stalking of Lois, no illegitimate love-children, and that when he's punched, he will by-god punch back. It means that Lex Luthor is EVIL and GENIUS and NOT a smarmy schemer with a real-estate crime-of-the-week. It means that Lois Lane is one of the great female characters, crusading reporter, tough as nails, yet amazing enough that she can win over Superman's heart. Please lord, SOMEBODY get this right. Come 2010, I want Superman battling Darkseid in the heart of Metropolis in an epic movie that redefines the term blockbuster. Make it happen, WB. Make a film worthy of the world's greatest Superhero.
- By the way, great article on WATCHMEN over at The Onion AV Club. Check it out:
http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/better_late_than_never_watchmen
- Alright, onto the big movie review of the day:
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA Review:
- For all the relative acclaim that Woody Allen has received since he began his recent cinematic tour of Europe, there's no doubt that his latest, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, is the prolific director's best overall effort in many years. The movie is just a pleasure to watch and get lost in. On one level, it is visually astonishing, capturing the scenic Spanish settings with a real eye for detail and atmosphere, and capturing its leading ladies with the same sort of care. On another level, the script is strong - a meditative examination of the futility of love - and the performances, from Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, and Penelope Cruz, are all universally great.
The film follows two New York natives, Vicky and Cristina, who travel to Spain to spend a few months living with Vicky's aunt in Barcelona. Vicky, played by newcomer Rebecca Hall, is set to marry an agreeable if not somewhat bland New Yorker. She is a planner and slightly neurotic. You might even say a little bit snobby, a little bit cold. Cristina, meanwhile, played by Johansson in her third Woody Allen flick, is a free spirit and a bit of a lost soul - impulsive, wannabe-artsy, and never quite content. It's that last point that Vicky and Cristina have in common, but while Vicky hides her anxieties under an air of always being in control, Cristina is pretty open about always searching for something more.
Both of their worlds get turned upside down when the pair meets Juan Antonio, played by Javier Bardem. At first, he seems like a run-of-the-mill Spanish ladies man, bluntly and amusingly propositioning Vicky and Cristina. But the more we get to know Juan Antonio, the more we realize he isn't quite what he originally seemed - and yet he remains symbolic of this whole idea of an exotic "other" - a bohemian artist who carries with him the promise of escape from a normal life, a gateway to some idealized, alternative means of life and love. I won't get too into the twists and turns the plot takes beyond that, except to mention Penelope Cruz's great turn as Juan Antonio's crazy ex-wife, Maria Elena. Cruz enters the picture late in the film, but she is a total firecracker from the first moment she's seen on-screen. Her love/hate relationship with Juan Antonio is alternatively hilarious and disturbing, and the eventual three-way relationship the couple enters into with Johansson's Cristina is actually handled by Allen with a lot of interesting and thought-provoking perspective. I don't know if Cruz will be in the running for Supporting Actress come Oscar time, but she is so good in this role in such a relatively short time that I could see it.
But getting back to the film's fatalistic look at relationships and romance, it really is kind of a thought-provoking work by Woody Allen, who of course has always come back to this theme again and again in his films. Here, he kind of looks at how love needs both stability and spontaneity to survive, and since relationships tend to be build on either one or the other, most are doomed to leave all parties ultimately unsatisfied. In this respect, I felt like VCM, for all its aesthetic charms, had more to say than any Allen movie I've seen in recent years.
Now, there are bound to be some complaints about Allen's trademark dialogue quirks infiltrating what is, in most respects, a very non-Allen-tinged movie. Personally, I didn't mind Allen's trademark dialogue, peppered with excessive "you know's" and out-of-place expressions like every character saying "make love" in every other sentance. In its own way, to me, it all fits here. It's not like Anything Else, where there was a clear disconnect between the modern setting and the characters who talked like they were in, well, a 1970's Woody Allen movie. Here, the movie kind of exists in its own little universe, so the Woody-speak didn't bother me, and in a way it almost lends itself to the movie's sense of humor. These characters all exist in this quirky, romance-novel world, so it fits that "making love" would be their go-to euphemism for sex. But this is a well-written movie, unquestionably, with a real wit and charm to it that is trademark Woody. It also helps that the actors pull off the dialogue with just the right amount of winking and nodding at the audience when necessary. Javier Bardem in particular is probably one of the few actors who could pull off the Juan Antonio role without becoming obnoxious or goofy. Scarlett Johannson really does some of her best work in these Woody Allen movies - she absorbs a bit of Allen's fidgety neuroses though the Scarlett-as-Woody-proxy is very much toned down here compared to, say, SCOOP. Instead it's Rebecca Hall who is the uptight, overanalytical one, and she really did a nice job in the role. And like I said, Cruz is just great and steals many a scene.
Are there times when the movie has that somewhat anachronistic feel to it? Sure - there are certain conversations that simply don't feel authentic to characters who are supposed to be New Yorkers in their twenties. But that kind of thing goes with the territory - remember, this is all coming at us through the 70-something Woody Allen filter. But this is the kind of movie that's so refreshing to see, because they don't make a lot of movies like this, and really, few others have ever quite done movies like Allen's. This one was a film that invited you to sit back, relax, immerse yourself in the scenic Spanish setting, and then, in true Allen fashion, to ponder the hopelessness of it all.
My Grade: A-
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