Oppenheimer (2023)

 "You are an American Prometheus."

This is, of course, a superb film. I was expecting it to be exactly that, given its reputation, its cast and the fact that it's a Christopher Nolan film. It's a triumph. Yet, in many ways, it's also not really what one might expect.

This is, I suppose, broadly comparable to Lawrence of Arabia. It's a three hour epic (I'm not one for long films, but both films just fly by) based on the biography of one man in the context of his time, with lots of big themes to chew on. 

And this... isn't really the sort of film that Christopher Nolan has ever made before. Oh, there's a certain non-linear narrative structure ("fission" and "fusion"), but there's none of the clever structural trickery of a Tenet or an Inception. Instead, Nolan's directorial flair is used to illustrate theme and character, often showing us Oppenheimer's own imaginings of a nuclear blast.

The themes are huge. This American Prometheus has unleashed the power of the atom, with all that implies for the safety of the world. We also deal with the unfortunate consequences of having been in any way Communism-adjacent in one's past, and meet so many huge figures of the twentieth century during the course of the film. Yet the film, in its very structure based on two enquiries, one in the colourful past and the other in the monochrome "present" of 1959, focuses on both Oppenheimer himself and the mercurial Lewis Strauss, with both Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr giving extraordinary performances, both of them literally Oscar-winning.

Deeply clever. A massive blockbuster. Really cleaned up at the Oscars. Simultaneously popular and acclaimed, something that just doesn't happen in these post-COVID times where, let's face it, cinema as an institution seems to be in slow but real decline. But, while films like this remain possible, perhaps there's some degree of hope.

Lot No. 249

 "Your filthy Egyptian tricks won't answer here in England!"

I must have missed this, last year's offering from the excellent Mark Gatiss in his highly impressive run of Christmas Ghost Stories on BBC 4. I'll be blogging his offering for this year closer to Christmas, as well as a number of older such stories, but watching this little gem tonight was an absolute joy.

I'd never read, or indeed heatd of, the original short story by Arthur Conan Doyle which seems to have been highly influential in shaping the Eyptian mummy subgenre of horror, but Gatiss really evokes the Victorian setting here, and has it oozing with atmosphere. Kit Harington is superb as Smith, our lead, but it's Freddie Fox, chewing the scenery with aplomb, who steals the show as the sinister and dastardly Bellingham.

Gatiss has a real ear for the dialogue of the time, which adds a great deal of verisimilitude. He can't, of course, resist the temptation of including a certain irresistible cameo but, well, the cameo is irresistible, after all. And I like the subtle dialogue link to the Elephant Man.

I suspect the budget for this was tiny, but it certainly doesn't look it. The BBC can do Victoriana with one arm tied behind its metaphorical back and darkness works wonders. But ultimately it's the script and the performances that make this a thing of beauty.

Wish (2023)

 “It didn’t work. When does the magic happen?”

It’s the Chrimbo Limbo, it’s raining all day, time for a spontaneous cinema visit with Little Miss Llamastrangler. And… well, she enjoyed it. So did I, to be fair. The film is fine. It’s just… well, generic Disney.

Of course, the animation is superb, in a style that is at once classic and modern. The voice acting and facial animation are excellent. It’s just that the plot and the characters are… just ok. Next to other modern Disney animations, your Frozens, your Tangleds, it falls short. It’s a very linear plot, with characters that aren’t going to stand out next to previous Disney protagonists. And for a film meant to commemorate Disney’s centenary… well, that’s a problem.

Still, as I say, it’s fine. Little Miss Llamastrangler liked it. It’s perfectly serviceable and technically excellent. Chris Pine is a great baddie, and he gets the best song. This isn’t a dud. But it’s no classic, either.

The Marvels (2023)

 "Do you just add the word 'quantum' before everything?"

I don't usually watch films at the cinema because it's a faff finding a showing with subtitles... but I made an exception today, for this film. There seems to be a massive wave of negativity around The Marvels, not for any reason to do with its content, but because certain pathetic incels and male supremacist far right wankers are having a bit of a mardy. So I went to see it during the opening weekend just to throw my two fingers up at said little boys.

And you know what? I LOVED it. And not only because I'm a cat lover. Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and especially Iman Vellani are superb, giving us a likeable and charismatic super team. Crucially, the writing is superb absolutely in the Marvel tradition, balancing humour, humanity and cinematic action.

Spoilers, in case it needs saying.

Zawe Ashton is also great as Dar-Benn, a typical Marvel baddie. Yet there's real heart behind the theatrics. We learn that Carol caused Hala to start to die as an eventual result of killing the Supreme Intelligence, and the reason she didn't come back to see Monica was, essentially, shame. Kamala Khan is the perfect Spider-Man type teenage superhero, and her relationship with her family is utterly wonderful. Then there's Nick Fury, and the fact that it's cats who essentially save everyone by eating them with tentacles. And yes, that's a sentence I rather enjoyed writing. Then we have all the little Marvel details- Quasar's Quantum Band; quantum entanglement, like Mar-Vell and Rick Jones in the comics; lots of harking back to Ms Marvel and WandaVision.

The end is quite something, with Monica (my generation's Captain Marvel!) stuck in a different reality after fixing a hole in the multiversal fabric. She's in the X-Mansion! We see Kelsey Grammer as the Beast! "Charles" is mentioned. And... her alternate mother is there, this reality's Captain Marvel, except this time in Carol's old comics guise of Binary. This is awesome. And that's before we even consider the fact that Kamala, echoing Nick Fury, is going around assembling a team of young superheroes, starting with Kate Bishop. 

This is good, proper, old-fashioned MCU fun, just solid superhero storytelling. This is one of the finest MCU films in recent years, right up there with the best.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 (2023)

 "I was stabbed, you extraordinary phallus!"

James Gunn is back at Marvel, presumably just this one and... yeah, this was never going to not be awesome, was it? Gunn doing Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty much guaranteed to awesome. It just is. And, ironically, the success of this Marvel film, at a time when Marvel needed it, may bode well for DC.

And yet it's not based on the most promising material from the comics. Sad though Rocket's origin was, I had a reaction of pure geeky joy to see some of the other animals from that Rocket Raccoon limited series from the '80s that my eight year old self read as a back-up story in Transformers. Yet this is hardly classic Marvel material. Neither is the High Evolutionary stuff, and certainly not the Counter-Earth stories from the early '70s issues of Adam Warlock in those dark days before Jim Starlin, shown here in very 1970s fashions as a tribute..

This, then, is not promising material for a film. Yet the end result is a triumpjh. The characters, the actors, the cast, all are exquisite. The directing, too, is extraordinary, with some particularly impressive set pieces.

It's a good choice to have the High Evolutionary- Chukwudi Iwuji is superb- as an unambiguous villain, and I enjoyed the way Adam Warlock was played for laughs, and seems to join the team. And that's what it's all about, the team. Every character is likeable. Every character has depth. They are a true family. Heart, humour, awesome direction... how could this film possibly not be amazing?

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

 "How many holes do you have? I'm sorry, is that a personal question?"

I hear this film is not so well-liked as some Marvel films. I rather suspect that this may be connected to the fact that this film is utterly bonkers. I, for one, say that this is no bad thing.

Where to start? I'll briefly observe, with the MCU fifteen years in, that it offers a fascinating contrast with the comics in that there can be no equivalent of Marvel time: actors age. Even, at last, Paul Rudd. Even Michelle Pfeiffer, sixty-five and sexy. Even Michael Douglas, an action grandad living his best life as a Hank Pym in his late seventies. And, yes, Cassie is an adult xennial, part of that awesome generation that won't tolerate oppression and will save us all.

Then there's the wildness of the quantum realm. It's CGI, and obviously so, but it's perhaps the most out there science fantasy madness ever to be given to us by a mainstream Hollywood offering, full of trippy, utterly and deliciously insane visuals.

But... Kang. Wow. I'm aware of the... issues surrounding Jonathan Majors at the moment. And how, indeed, the Kang arc may be affected. With the post-credits sequences really leaning into Kang as a massive thing, too: Immortus, Rama-Tut, a proper Council of Kangs, all played by Jonathan Mayors. But damn, he's such a good actor- charismatic, believable as a villiain who is a cross between Einstein and Alexander the Great from a thousand years in the future. He comes across as psychopathic, yes; charismatic, yes; but a three dimensional person, with wit and a penetrating intelligence. Everything he says, one feels, contains a subtext that goes over one's head. He's quite the villiain, a triumph of both script and acting. He has both the eccentricity of a scientist and the believable threat of a man who can and will conquer for the intellectual challenge.

I haven't even mentioned the excellent humour, or the heartwarming daddy/daughter stuff between Scott and Cassie, something which this doting and denied daddy just gobbles up. Little Miss Llamastrangler will be just as brilliant. Then there's the love between Hope and Scott, Scott's insecurity as the man who talks to ants vs. his heroism, the glorious heroism of Janet and Hank, old people who kick arse. 

And, yeah, super-evolved, socialist ants. Although, you know, perhaps they should read a bit less Marx and a bit more Beveridge, and Lloyd George without the temperance. But I digress. The point is, the critics are wrong, This is one of the finest Marvel movies of this decade.