Doctor Strange, 04 March 2017, streaming via Amazon
What if
House happened in the MCU? What if an executive at Marvel Studios really, really wanted to get a project compared to
Inception?
Strange is a decent enough movie, built according to the Marvel blockbuster playbook, but that also means it’s a story that’s been told many, many times before. Even putting all the whitewashing/Tilda Swinton needing schooling on intersectionality aside, it dazzles with quips and SFX, and pretty much not anything else. (Is Benedict Cumberbatch bored with playing narcissistic geniuses yet? He might need to sit down and have a serious talk with his agent about script selection.)
Seriously, though, I’d watch an entire TV series of Wong and Strange watching movies together.
Tested, 21 March 2017, screening on campus
Tested is a pretty solid exploration of the ways that New York City’s system for secondary education is really, really dysfunctional. (Curtis Chin, the director/filmmaker, did a Q&A for us after the film, and spent most of his responses on explaining how the system works.) Like
Waiting for Superman, the film stacks the deck by zooming in on adorable children who have their hearts set on success, as defined by a standardized test and admission into the top three STEM-oriented high schools in the area. This is mostly a feel-good movie, but it’s the inequities that get stuck in my mind. Parents working 2-3 jobs just so their kid can attend a test-prep program. A young woman deciding not to take the test because she’s convinced she’ll just be disappointed. The revelation that, when other variables (portfolios, interviews, extracurriculars) are folded into the admissions process for a holistic view of applicants, Hispanic and African-American students have
even less of a chance to get into the top schools.
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One, 28 March 2017, Blu-ray
I’d seen this movie once before, in the theatre. (With friend Rohini, I think? I have a distinct memory of her rolling her eyes during one of Gale’s patented friendzone whines.) This might be my favorite of the quartet, if only because of those interstitial scenes showing rebellion in other districts. They make me shiver every time, and get teary-eyed more often than not.
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two, 29 March 2017, Blu-ray
This is, by necessity, pretty repetitive--as pretty much everybody, including the characters, point out, the run into the Capitol is just another Hunger Games. Scenes of random and horrific violence aren’t going to land the way they did in the first two movies. HOWEVER: ughhhh Finn. That was, in fact, more horrifying than I expected.
The coda is silly, but we all knew that beforehand anyway, I expect.
Logan, 30 March 2017, Cinemark 12
While sad, I really liked the sense of post-apocalypse this movie had. (I haven’t watched “Age of Apocalyse” yet, but I suppose that last sentence was more on the nose than intended.) The reveal of mutant attrition built into dawning horror, intensified by seeing, quite graphically, how much that healing factor of Logan’s kept him not just functionally immortal, but functional at all. Every single creaking detail of the scenery, the cinematography, and the performances fed into it, and it was amazing.
Also: X-23! X-23! X-23! I think those scientist caretakers were nonsense for getting all those kids up to the border, and then
leaving them to figure things out on their own was super-dumb. Also, kids, you all have murderous powers and take on ONE dude while X-23 has to battle everybody else? Dick move, super-powered children. Dick move.
Passengers, 01 April 2017, streamed through Amazon
I know it's the least problematic thing in #Passengers, but why wouldn't you ALTERNATE IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION?! GOD.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, 01 April 2017, streamed through Amazon
This was a rewatch for me--my sister and niece hadn’t seen it yet. (Ensuing discussion: my sister remarked that the niece hadn’t seen any Harry Potter yet. The niece responded that she had seen the first one, with me. Which perhaps I had failed to tell my sister about. OOOOOPS.)
In any case, my attention was snagged by Graves’s question, "What makes Albus Dumbledore so fond of you?" Because, well. That makes #FantasticBeasts much more intriguing in hindsight.
Fate of the Furious, 13 April 2017, Cinemark 12
Fate of the Furious, 15 April 2017, Cinemark 12
Yes, I saw it twice. Obviously. It was magical.
