Two Nights At The Movies

Pauline Kael I ain’t

It feels safe enough to start talking about the new Spiderverse movie, because I’ve seen it - which means literally everyone else in any dimension, spacetime bubble or alternative universe saw it weeks ago. I’m going to be moderately careful about spoilers anyway, but not obsessive.

It’s very good. I mean, really really very very good. Not just as an animated movie but as any movie. Like its predecessor, it’s visually sumptuous (to the point of overwhelming, actually, if that’s not your thing - it is very much my thing, so I had my mouth open for 80% of the show, trying to taste the wonder) and appallingly emotionally intelligent. I watched it with my kids, and in a global first we were all satisfied - delighted - by the parent-child dynamics. Everyone accurately represents the (more properly “an”, but I was bullseyed at almost every turn) underlying experience of their role and everyone behaves truthfully, comprehensibly and even - some of the time - wisely. I think it will actually head off or heal future family rows by showing each side the heart of the other, or at least, by modelling how to show these things. Yes, it’s simultaneously real and massively idealised, but it feels less fairytale and more like the characters get it together to function in their best selves when it counts, even if belatedly. I’m looking at you, Lieutenant.

Anyway: strong story, strong characters - some old, some new to the movies - and, obviously, brilliant visuals. My only complaint is that ep 3 won’t be out until 2025 or so, which feels like forever.

It’s moderately interesting that while a lot of chin-scratching movie journalism is currently devoted to how superhero movies have totally taken over film and ruined the medium, animated film and tv is fizzing away, producing modern myths and fairytales full of vibrant artistic and human verve and technical innovation. I remember going to an early screening of Persepolis (which I also liked a lot) and hearing the guy next to me complain that animation wasn’t really a suitable venue for a real story. I thought it was weird then, and it’s even weirder to me now. Nimona, Rebels, Kipo, Spiderverse, Owl House… all superb. And I’m a tediously mainstream watcher - I’m sure there’s more indie stuff out there that’s spectacular too.

I also saw The Flash, which, well. Plenty’s been said about it already. One of the things I loved about Spiderverse was a willingness to change fate; no “star-crossed lovers” need apply. I have a pet peeve about the moment in legend-level narratives where a hero who has previously been willing to defy gods and monsters for the sake of love finally “learns” that some rules have to be followed - usually meaning that they renounce divine power and immortality in order to be with their friends, or occasionally vice versa. Subtext being, by the way, that pinnacle/rulership is incompatible with agape and eros, which probably explains a lot about the world.

Flash is determinedly deterministic: a narrative about crushing the youthful folly of love, represented as “that’s just the physics, bud.” Sure, why not? A guy who can run so fast he travels in time, who flatshares with a goddess and a post-mortal alien, and whose central narrative attribute is that he declines to accept defeat when it would otherwise claim the whole world: what you need to do with that person is bludgeon them down with the club of immutable destiny. Make them more like us. Why? Notionally: because otherwise they’re not relatable. But every time I see one of these primary colour divinities come to heel, I feel a bit further from them. Do they have no sense of their own possibility? They exist in the space beyond rules like gravity, death and entropy, but they kneel to banality?

It’s not them, of course. It’s the Imp Of The Continuity in the background, the true Evil One of all franchises, saying “don’t rock the formula”. Which perfectly defines the difference between the stories - Flash accepts that it will have limitations on the narrative and that there are places it can’t go. Spiderverse does not; while the movie is about Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales, it belongs to Hobie Brown. It’s interesting: the only criticism I’ve heard of the film is that it’s “too much”. I can see how that would be a reaction, but to me it’s the reverse: an appetite whetted, and (SAG-AFTRA and Sony permitting) more to follow.

Anyway: I have work and so do you, so let’s be about it.

Notes for this week:

Elden Ring - somehow finally got into this a bit, though I still find it irritatingly downbeat.

NYT Spelling Bee - apparently this is “a middle-brow game” and at the same time I don’t take it seriously enough. I have no regrets.

I may or may not be going outdoor swimming this afternoon. I am somewhat alarmed.

I bought a jacket in a style I already have because I’ve put on some muscle in the shoulder. Then I returned it because they’ve changed the design in the latest iteration and the new form factor looks like I’m wearing a lampshade. This always happens to me with British menswear because, while the industry believes all men in the UK are essentially ellipsoids, I’m a Victorian-pattern iron streetlight. (Generally more the Napier than the Brighton, but I’ve been working out on the regular recently and there’s a definite impact.)

Still in the plotting stages of the book I’m writing, some complexities there, but I’m very happy with how it’s going. Little fragments of narrative are cropping up in my Ulysses folder for the project, and the whiteboard notes are getting more and more structured and consistent. Status: proceeding fine.

Until next time :)