Did anyone really ask for this?
Author: Chris Burlingame
Gotham City is in Bad Decline in The Batman
With his take on Batman, Robert Pattinson is much darker in the role than we’ve previously seen. If you thought Christian Bale’s performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman was too silly in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, I have just the movie for you. With the possible exception of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker movie, this is the darkest Batman or Batman-adjacent movie I’ve seen.
Blacklight is really dumb, but Liam Neeson doesn’t need, or want, your pity
Liam Neeson is Travis Block, a special fixer for the FBI that serves at the pleasure of its director, Aidan Quinn. Block’s specialty is getting undercover agents out of tricky situations when their cover is blown. It involves kicking lots of villain ass without breaking much of a sweat. He’s like the Wolf from Pulp Fiction in the body of a middle manager. Most of the time, Neeson looks lost or confused or not really sure why he’s here. Same, my dude, same.
At middle age, the masochist reflects on a lifetime of challenges, triumphs, and completely unnecessary groin injuries
The genius (for lack of a better term) of the Jackass extended universe is not that they brought in Francis Ngannou to test whether an athletic supporter can provide adequate protection against his fierce punches, but that it is likely only the fourth-worst way to sustain a groin injury that’s depicted in Jackass Forever.
Pedro Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers is a smart and affecting melodrama
Spain’s greatest cultural export, Pedro Almodovar (no offense, Picasso), returns with another deeply moving and powerful melodrama. It was an emotional experience for me, and I broke down crying in my car when I left the screening.
Chris’s Favorite Films of 2021
Every year there are great films, yes, but it felt like 2021 was a particularly good year for movies. Certainly better than 2020, but what wasn’t better than 2020? These movies below are my favorites, but they were also the ones that provoked responses from me, whether it be enjoyment, anger, befuddlement or some combination of those (and others). There are a few movies I couldn’t make it to before the end of the year, a snowstorm in Seattle right after Christmas did my filmgoing plans no good, but I am confident this is a good representation of the strength of filmmaking in 2021.
Being the Ricardos is a fun, but flawed, trip down memory lane
Being the Ricardos purports to tell the story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz during a particularly eventful week in their lives. The tabloids reported (accurately) that Lucy was a Communist at one time and that Desi (also accurately despite his denials) is a philanderer. They also try to convince CBS to allow a storyline about Lucy’s pregnancy on the show despite the pearl-clutchers in senior management and at primary sponsor Phillip Morris.
Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is spectacular
With his last two films being the perfectly adequate Ready Player One and the wholly unnecessary The Post, I had forgotten how remarkable of a filmmaker Steven Spielberg can be when he’s working on the right project. Remaking a movie musical from fifty years ago that is as close to perfect as a non-Bob Fosse musical can be might seem daunting in a lesser filmmaker’s hands, but nearly everything in West Side Story felt like it hit exactly as it should. Spielberg’s version of this legendary film doesn’t so much surpass the original, a near impossibility, but runs parallel and that pays tribute to and complements its source marvelously.
Julia brings the amazing life of TV’s first celebrity chef into view
Julia Child might have been one of the most unlikely TV stars. At 6’3”, she would have been tall enough to play center in the WNBA (the tallest player on the Atlanta Dream in 2021 was 6’4”), she began her TV career at 51 and she wasn’t exactly the most telegenic presence. But she was a TV star and she was the world’s first TV food personality, and she was amazing. She’s also the subject of a great new documentary called Julia.
Mayor Pete: Portrait of the politician as an ambitious man
Watching Buttigieg seek the presidency in 2020 felt like watching someone molded from a young age to achieve greatness reaching the upper limits of their ambition. I do not mean this as a compliment. He went to Harvard and Oxford, joined the military, and became a consultant for McKinsey before entering public service and serving two terms as mayor, running for president and settling on becoming Secretary of Transportation. And at the time I’m writing this, he’s still two months away from his fortieth birthday. And he’s openly gay.