Black Widow
Natasha Romanoff’s (Scarlett Johansson) first and last solo adventure is the epitome of passable, neither great nor bad enough to evoke strong feelings either way. Considering Nat’s fate in Endgame and Yelena Belova’s (Florence Pugh) upcoming role in Hawkeye, the film fails to establish any real stakes during their journey. Much of what Black Widow has to offer has been seen before in Bourne, Bond, and otherwise better movies.
The familial chemistry these characters have, including their parental figures played by Rachel Weisz and David Harbour hamming it up as Red Guardian, is the best thing the film has going for it. The villains, on the other hand, Dreykov (Ray Winstone) and Taskmaster, are lackluster even by Marvel’s standards and can be placed among the MCU’s pantheon of underwhelming antagonists.
Black Widow‘s narrative touches on some interesting issues involving the subjugation of women, but it’s merely a footnote amidst all the action and setup for the future of the MCU, although seeing Pugh as Yelena again is a tantalizing prospect.
6/10
The Suicide Squad
James Gunn’s take on DC’s team of incarcerated supervillains turned reluctant antiheroes is bold, brazen, and a bloody blast. Just like he did with Guardians, Gunn plucks some of the most obscure characters from the source material and turns them into lovable novelties: Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone) to name a few of the most pivotal players. Gunn brilliantly juggles all these wacky personalities, with not one of them ever feeling underdeveloped. Elba and Robbie are great as always, and Cena is surprisingly effective as the unredeemable jingoist, Peacemaker, who cherishes peace with all his heart and will kill without discretion in order to achieve it, one of the many examples of the film’s not-so-subtle humor.
The Suicide Squad begins with a beachfront massacre akin to Saving Private Ryan, but with stylized violence reminiscent of Tarantino. Unlike its 2016 predecessor, Gunn’s version never feels scrambled or aimless, as he maintains the relentless forward motion of these characters’ mission, but the film would be nothing without its emotional undertones which come to the forefront during Task Force X’s final battle against Starro (a laughably absurd kaiju that somehow functions as a critique of Reagan-era foreign policy, though it never seems soapboxy on Gunn’s end).
This volatility and irreverence is the perfect antidote to superhero fatigue brought on by Marvel’s family-friendly offerings, but all its outlandish violence and humor aside, the film ends up being a rousing rally cry for the world’s forgotten misfits, its final scene bolstered significantly by John Murphy’s beautiful score. The result is one of the most entertaining comic book movies in recent years that unexpectedly tugs at the heartstrings.
9/10
The Green Knight
By all accounts, writer/director David Lowery’s riff on the ubiquitous Arthurian legend is what they refer to as a slow-burn, but it never feels like it, even for a second. Lowery’s latest work very much follows in the footsteps of his previous esoteric drama, A Ghost Story: introspective, existential, and rueful. Right from the film’s opening long shot, The Green Knight engulfs you with its visual delights. Every frame is a painting and at times, quite literally. Lowery heavily leans on an old-fashioned VFX technique that involves using glass matte paintings to enhance landscapes, just one of the many ways the film is brimming with cinematic artistry.
Since the source material alludes to, but never explicitly describes the adventures and battles that occur during Sir Gawain’s (Dev Patel) journey to the Green Chapel to see the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson), Lowery sees fit to fill in his travels with an encounter with a wonderfully creepy scavenger (Barry Keoghan) and supernatural elements like the ghost of Winifred (Erin Kellyman), pale naked giants, and a talking fox, all of this unfolding at a hypnotic pace. In doing so, Lowery updates the poem by challenging modern-day expectations regarding masculinity and courage, demonstrating how brilliantly this story functions as a character study—a perilous voyage of self-discovery.
For those who know this 14th-century chivalric romance or have seen adaptations before, Lowery’s unique interpretation and puzzling ending provide an entirely new artisanal experience that maintains many of the original work’s core themes and motifs, but with new atmospheric and metaphoric splendor.
9/10
CODA
As its titular acronym indicates, CODA is the story of a child of deaf adults—a 17-year-old high schooler named Ruby (Emilia Jones) who has dreams of pursuing music. A huge hit at Sundance, Apple reportedly paid $25 million to acquire the film, but was the record sum well spent?
Ruby is the only hearing person in a deaf family, including her mother played by Marlee Matlin, who owns a small fishing enterprise in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Though CODA is largely a predictable teen drama, it deftly avoids cliches, and it’s hard not to get swept up in the uniqueness of this family’s conflict. It’s an endearing coming-of-age indie drama that invites viewers to live in this family’s shoes for a little while, which is ultimately what the cinematic experience is all about.
8/10
Petrified Fountains of Thought 