And the 2019 Oscar Goes To...

Where do the years go? This is the sixth annual Pop Culture Scribe Oscars post. And I managed to watch everything nominated for the major categories in the nick of time, despite there being some real curveballs in there. If you haven't seen everything (or anything), never fear, I've got you covered. Let's do this.

Best Picture: It seems like the frontrunner this year is Green Book, and that is going to make everyone very angry. I thought it was an old school crowdpleaser that failed to focus on the actual character of note, so if I was handing out statues, this would get a hard pass. Instead, I would give the Oscar to the true crowdpleaser, and the only movie I saw twice in theaters, Black Panther. But we know that ain't happening. This nomination is a nod to audiences and popularity, but popular films don't win Oscars. So then my next favourite would be, The Favourite. Starring three actress I can never get enough of, directed by a director who makes bizarre and wonderful films, telling a crazy and hilarious tale of the English monarchy, I loved this film. But this is entirely too quirky a choice for the Academy. So then we have A Star Is Born, which was both popular but arty - seems like a no-brainer for the Academy. But nope, this movie premiered in September and quickly lost all its hype after. It's a wonderful film, featuring terrific performances, but ultimately, turned out to be a flash in the pan. Does this mean Roma might have a shot? I adored this movie, the cinematography alone is worth it, and it seems like Oscars catnip. But it also is a Netflix film, and the studio bigwigs don't seem poised to reward that little upstart. They have businesses to run. So seems likely this will win Best Foreign Film as a consolation prize, but not the big one. Which leaves us with BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Vice. BlacKkKlansman is a fine film with an uneven tone, Bohemian Rhapsody is a medicore film with an incredible lead performance, and Vice is complete garbage. For those who are counting, out of the 8 nominated films, I would be fine with 4 winning the Oscar, but it's probably going to be awarded to the movie that caused the most outrage and is a faux Hollywood celebration of diversity. 2019 FTW! Also, this is reminding me how outrageous it is that Crazy Rich Asians or Eighth Grade weren't nominated for anything. Come on Academy, throw us a bone.

Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron probably has this locked up for Roma, but a win for Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite would make me oh so happy. For now, I'll settle for just being happy about his nomination. Spike Lee winning for BlacKkKlansman would be perfectly acceptable, though it would largely be a win for his other work rather than this particular film. Cold War is a gorgeous movie, but it didn't get a Best Picture nomination and I would rather award its cinematography than director, Pawel Pawlikoski. And Adam McKay for Vice? Hell no.

Best Actress: Glenn Close appears to have this in the bag for her performance in The Wife, which I cannot argue with. She was the best part of that movie, and the lady deserves an award after all her years in the industry. But I would die happy if Olivia Colman somehow snuck in and won for The Favourite. It's never going to happen, but the fact that kooky British comedienne is now a serious and world-renowned Oscar nominee is the most happy-making set of circumstances ever. Similarly, a win for Melissa McCarthy's delicious performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me? would be very welcome, but this seems like another performance meant to be nominated but not awarded. Yalitza Aparicio's nomination for Roma was another delightful surprise, and I wouldn't begrudge her a win at all, given that she carries that movie on her shoulders despite it being her very first acting job. And likewise, Lady Gaga blew me away in A Star Is Born, so she can win the Oscar too. Overall, fantastic job, Academy. You got this category completely right.

Best Actor: Rami Malek seems poised to win for his sweatily energetic portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. If you had told me last year that the twitchy kid from Mr. Robot would be an Oscar nominee, I would have been startled, but I guess it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. He is an excellent actor, and he completely owned this film from the first frame to the last. I love Viggo Mortensen, but that Green Book performance doesn't deserve an award, and I hated At Eternity's Gate and don't think Willem Dafoe should be winning, no matter how good a job he does playing mad Vincent Van Gogh. I loath Vice but that Christian Bale performance was quite impressive - still, have I made it clear that movie doesn't deserve to win anything? And finally, we come to Bradley Cooper. I've had a soft spot for him ever since he was Will in Alias, so I wouldn't mind seeing him grab an award for A Star Is Born, particularly since he was "snubbed" for Best Director. But overall, Malek is certainly the more deserving.

Best Supporting Actress: Please give it to Regina King for her lovely work in If Beale Street Could Talk. As mentioned, I love Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone's work in The Favourite, but unless they can somehow tie and win joint statuettes, I'm not willing to pick just one. I adore Amy Adams, but nope, not giving anything to Vice. And the Marina de Tavira performance in Roma was brilliant, so would not be upset by a win for her, but still. This is King's to lose.

Best Supporting Actor: We have two men who have already won (Mahershala Ali, who is the best part of Green Book, and Sam Rockwell who is a fab George W. Bush in...Vice, ugh). Then we have first-time nominee Adam Driver, for a very good and fun performance in BlacKkKlansman. And then we have two first-time nominees who are veteran actors. Personally, I would love to see Richard E. Grant win for Can You Ever Forgive Me? where he does some lovely work. And he would give such a grateful and endearingly British acceptance speech. But a baritone Sam Elliott speech for his work in A Star is Born wouldn't go amiss either. Plus he was the influence for Bradley Cooper's character, so he almost deserves it for two characters, not just one.

Best Original Screenplay: Maybe this is where The Favourite gets its win? Have I mentioned how much I want this movie to win something? Alternatively, would be fine with a win for Roma. But if the Oscar goes to Green Book, Vice, or First Reformed (a movie with a lot of critical praise that I simply could not wrap my head around), I shall revolt.

Best Adapted Screenplay: This should go to Barry Jenkins for If Beale Street Could Talk. All the other movies nominated in this category are good films that I enjoyed, but if we're talking about awarding the skill needed to adapt something from another medium to the big screen, Beale Street had the highest degree of difficulty. Based on James Baldwin's novel, Jenkins somehow manages to take that angry and lyrical prose and transform it into something cinematic and evocative. He transforms Baldwin's words into something visceral that can grab an audience's attention, and for that, the Oscar is much deserved.

That's it for the major categories. I think Best Cinematography is a showdown between Roma and Cold War, the two black and white masterpieces that are stunning to look at. And scrolling through the list of nominees, I'll give a shout out to A Quiet Place for Best Sound Editing, because surely that is the kind of movie this award was designed for? Sandy Powell deserves her umpteenth Best Costume Design Oscar for her mesmerizing work in Mary Poppins Returns, and while I haven't seen many of the Best Animated Feature nominees, I'm in the tank for Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, because that is an unprecedented type of animation that is going to change how these movies get made for years to come.

So onwards to Sunday night! And please send soothing messages my way if Vice wins anything. Blergh.

Cold War: A Doomed Romance

The final movie for my Oscars watch was the black and white Polish film, Cold War. Now, I'm always a sucker for anything shot in black and white, so let's get this out of the way: this movie is swooningly gorgeous. I was watching it because writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski was nominated for Best Director, but my main takeaway is that cinematographer Lukasz Zal fully earned his nomination for Best Cinematography. Though of course, he will have to battle it out with Alfonso Cuaron for my other beloved black and white contender, Roma.

Cold War is the story of music director, Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), and the young singer, Zula (Joanna Kulig) that he selects to be a part of a troupe that celebrates Slavic folk music. If you're worried that a black and white foreign film set in post-World War II Europe is going to be long and unbearable, do not fret. This movie is only an hour and a half long, yet packs quite the wallop in terms of emotional drama. It is essentially one long romance, about a couple that face numerous obstacles owing to the time and place they have chosen to fall in love. The specter of communism always lurks in the background, there's their petty jealousies and whims, and no matter what they do, their timing is always a little bit off.

It's a tragic love story, with soul-stirring music, and arresting acting by the two leads. Kot and Kulig have faces that were made for black and white cinema; I simply could not take my eyes off them. And the set design throughout this movie is phenomenal. The short run time means that this movie makes several time jumps, so each scene takes place in a very specific and often elaborate setting as the lovers are reunited. Each time, the background contains something new and wondrous to marvel at - I personally was bemused to see that Yugoslavia looked a lot like the Middle East. Perhaps my favorite scene takes place in a crowded ballroom where the leads are all standing against a mirror, and yet I had no idea that was the case until someone approached them and I could see his reflection.

Cold War swept me away with its visuals and performances. It made me long to go back and watch some Cary Grant or Fred and Ginger movies and delight in the power of black and white cinema. It's not to everyone's taste but taking away color renders all the other elements of filmmaking with much more precision and makes you appreciate the artistry even more. With such fine actors and settings, who needs color? All you need is lights, camera, and action.

Gully Boy: Raps to Riches

I have been desperately waiting to see Gully Boy since the trailer dropped last month. So I headed to the theater on Friday to make my dreams come true. Directed by Zoya Akhtar, the only Bollywood director I trust, this movie did not disappoint. How could it? It's a classic Zoya Akhtar movie, brimming with characters you've never seen before, a setting that most audiences are unfamiliar with, and full of whipsmart dialogue, emotion, and ingenuity.

Set in Dharavi, Mumbai's most infamous slum, this movie is about Murad (Ranveer Singh), a poor, hard-working college student who seems destined for a life of drudgery. His family life is a disaster, with his father bringing home a brand new wife, while his mother has no real position in the household (they're Muslim, this is India, it's not considered bigamy, move on). But Murad has a secret passion - rap. He stumbles onto Mumbai's rap scene when he meets MC Sher (Siddhant Chaturvedi), a fellow Dharavi denizen who is successfully making a career out of DJing and rapping at various events. Under Sher's tutelage, the ordinarily shy and quiet Murad slowly starts to come out of his shell, and dares to dream that he might achieve something more than an office job selling air conditioners in his uncle's company.

Being a Bollywood movie, we must also have a love story, and so we get Murad's childhood sweetheart, Safeena (Alia Bhatt). A radiant, hijab-sporting medical student who aspires to be a surgeon, they have a delicious romance where they both think the world of each other and will never stand in each other's way. But there's a ton of jealousy and family drama owing to their very different financial circumstances, and over the course of the film you'll be treated to the full extent of what India has to offer in terms of restricting its women and their choices. Safeena is a fantastic character, ambitious, a little bit insane, but also extremely constrained by society, and my only regret is that her role in this movie is limited to her interaction with Murad. Perhaps Zoya Akhtar could next do a movie just about a woman like Safeena because Bollywood definitely needs to see more empowered and fabulous female characters like this. 

As good as Ranveer and Alia are in this movie, you can tell that they are struggling with the Mumbai slang and swagger. They are not used to talking like this (the brilliant dialogue is by Vijay Maurya - while Akhtar and long-time collaborator Reema Kagti are responsible for the screenplay, they have wisely let Maurya handle the intricacies of Mumbai dialogue), and occasionally you can see the effort going into maintaining this accent and using certain words. For me, the breakout star of the movie is Siddhanth Chaturvedi. As MC Sher, you don't doubt for a second that this guy is out to be a hip hop mogul - even the way he tilts his head makes you feel like you're watching a rap video every time he comes out on screen. And then there's the music. Akhtar does a brilliant job of weaving in a variety of Indian rap, different beats, different lyrics, different styles. Some are more Hinglish, Murad's lyrics are more poetic (written by Javed Akhtar, natch), some have a classic American hip hop beat, while others have a fusion vibe with Indian instruments woven in. The soundtrack is bursting with Indian rap artists who all have a different take on what it means to be an Indian rapper, and this movie is probably the best sampler of a music genre that doesn't get enough play in the mainstream.

However, Gully Boy is not just a rap movie. It's a very Indian movie, also delving into gender roles, family units, societal structures, and most importantly, the glaring divide between the rich and poor. In Mumbai, the Dharavi populace often work for some of the richest people in the country, serving as their maids and chauffeurs, getting exposed to a life they could never hope to have. In one poignant scene, Murad is in a rich woman's bathroom and he counts the square footage of this room that is probably bigger than the cramped house he lives in with his father, mother, stepmother, grandmother, and two brothers (also, they only have a communal toilet). Even the class divide between him and Safeena is significant - I don't know if it's a deliberate choice to have Safeena always take Murad's calls secretly in her bathroom, but again, she HAS a bathroom. That already signals opulence in his world. 

In case I did not make it clear, I loved this movie. Watch it. It is funny, it is moving, and by the time you build up to Murad's earth-shattering final rap performance, you are fully invested in his success. The film has layers upon layers, and even if you are put off by rap music, you should watch it nonetheless. Caveat, if you watch in an American theater, as I did, be prepared for rather hilarious English subtitles, as translating Hindi rap is no easy task. But if you close your eyes and nod your head to the rhythm, you'll be swept into the Gully. 

Russian Doll: Die Until You Get It Right

Last week, the Twittersphere was blowing up about Russian Doll and multiple people were telling me to watch it. Therefore, my friend Peggy and I sat down on Sunday morning to watch the first episode with a cup of tea. Three hours later, we emerged from our cocoon, thoroughly glad that this was how we had chosen to spend our day.

This show is the perfect binge watch: eight episodes, all shorter than 30 minutes. More importantly, it's a perfect watch because it stars Natasha Lyonne and was created by her, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler. With names like that in the mix, you know it has to be good. I was under the impression that this was a drama, but it's actually an incredibly funny show for the most part until you get to the second half when we get to the meat. But at that point, you're hooked, and if your laughter turns a little teary, so be it.

The show is about Nadia, a software engineer who is at her 36th birthday party. The show opens with her in the bathroom. Remember this moment, you're gonna be seeing a lot of it. Because as the night proceeds, Nadia keeps dying in various ways, only to wake up at that bathroom sink all over again. She can remember everything that happened to her, but no one else around her does, and she spends the first few episodes investigating all the drugs she's taking to see if this is all a very bad trip. Eventually though, it becomes clear that there are deeper philosophical, psychological, and existential conundrums to work through. Things get heavy, but any time things are getting too dark, you're guaranteed an ignominious death and reboot at the bathroom sink to lighten things up.

This show has everything I love - intricate plotting and plenty of supporting characters who come and go in interesting ways and start to get interlinked as the eight episodes progress until you realize the point of them all. But anchoring it all is that central performance by Lyonne, a fast-talking, red-headed sorceress who you can't take your eyes off. It's so clear that she has a huge role in writing this show because everyone talks a bit like her and things get very New York (aka stressful, dirty, and unnecessarily complicated). Is the premise essentially Groundhog Day? Sure. But is it so much more than that? You bet.

Obviously I can't give away any details, as Russian Doll is all about the details. There's a fabulous twist at the halfway point (which is where all twists should be if you're a clever showrunner who wants to ensure your premise doesn't get stale), and the final resolution is sweet and perfect. This shows starts strong and finishes stronger. I hope it's only meant to be one season, because this is certainly a perfect story perfectly told, and anything further would bloat it beyond compare. Instead, Netflix, please give Lyonne more money to make a new season of something completely different. I'll cancel all my weekend plans. 

First Reformed: Religious Environmentalism? Or Something?

I'm starting to realize that there's a reason why the few movies I have left to watch for the Oscars were movies I did not watch in the first place. This weekend, I forced my poor friend Peggy to watch First Reformed with me, and I may have irrevocably ruined our friendship. The price I pay for this blog.

First off, I have to acknowledge what a critical darling this movie is. People have been raving about it since it came out, it has featured on multiple Top 10 lists of 2018, and I felt sure I would love it. But nope. It just got too weird, with an ending that meant nothing to me. This is one of those movies you're meant to interpret, and maybe ten years from now, I'll decide to re-watch it and be blown away, but I simply couldn't do it this time around. I didn't want to interpret anything, I wanted a straightforward story. I know, I'm very high maintenance.

The movie tells the story of Rev. Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke), a priest who is approached by a woman, Mary (Amanda Seyfried), who wants Toller to counsel her husband, Michael (Philip Ettinger). Michael has recently been in prison and is an environmental activist who has strong views about how the world is on a trajectory to doom. Ever since Mary became pregnant, he has become increasingly upset and paranoid about bringing another human being into this world, even urging her to have an abortion. Toller tries to counsel Michael as best as he can, offering up a great deal of wisdom based on his own personal background and faith. But things escalate and then take a turn. It's a thriller, I'll leave it at that.

Ethan Hawke is wonderful (as he is in everything), and the conversations or voiceover narration as he pens his journal are deep and profound. These are topics that I feel strongly about, so ought to have resonated well with me. Unfortunately, the movie goes off the ledge at a certain point and I never quite recovered. I get it, movies aren't meant to mirror reality, so we should forgive them for injecting fantastic elements. But it was too much for me, and overall, I left this film not quite understanding what I had just watched. It is weighty, and clearly making a statement about environmental zealotry, religious fundamentalism, greed, etc. and all of that is great, but ultimately, this story doesn't go anywhere. Instead it's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book that says, "here, you decide what this is about and what happens at the end."

Writer-director Paul Schrader is most famous for his "Transcendental Style" of filmmaking. I guess this is a style that's just not for me. I fully acknowledge that circumstances may have been the culprit and maybe in some other time, I would have loved First Reformed from start to finish. But as it currently stands, I did not get this movie at all, and all I can say is, maybe you all should watch it and then tell me why I'm wrong. 

They Shall Not Grow Old: The Great War Lives On

You may think you know everything there is to know about World War I but I bet you've never seen a tale of The Great War told with as much urgency and compassion as Peter Jackson's documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old. It was only showing in theaters as a special event, but thankfully has expanded to wider release. So if it's available near you, I highly recommend you check it out, because this is a story that can never grow old.

The movie takes a collection of archival British photo and video footage to painstakingly tell the story of the war from beginning to end and the effect it had on its young soldiers along the way. The narration is from the actual men who fought in the war, and while much has been made of the compelling visual aesthetic of the film, I would argue that I was swayed more by the stories of these men, who matter-of-factly recount horrors and trauma for a cause that no one really understood. They were at war so they were going to stand by their country, but as the movie proceeds, we come to understand how nationalism doesn't really trump basic humanity.

The movie begins quite lightly. None of these young men and boys knew what they were getting into; they thought going to war was a bit of a lark. Supplies were terrible and people just wore whatever uniforms and boots were available regardless of size, and set off merrily to war, with no idea of what awaited them on the front. However, once the movies delves into the day-to-day life of trench warfare, the cheery smiles in all the photographs start to fade. Conditions were appalling in those trenches, and yet it's marvelous to hear these soldiers recount the importance of a cup of tea despite their squalid living conditions. Could anything be more British?

The movie amps up to actual warfare and you slowly realize that the lilting background score has morphed into much more somber music until eventually all you have is silence that is suddenly broken by agonizing bursts of gunfire. At this point, you have a soldier say, "They say your past comes up when you think you're about to die but I hadn't got very much past at 19." Indeed, that's the main tragedy of this film - these soldiers were so young, many well below the age of conscription, and after this war, their lives were irrevocably changed. When they got home, they suffered from PTSD (or shell shock as it was then called) but no one wanted to hear about it. The country had no concept of what these men has been through on the front and they didn't think it was important to talk about it. Everyone wanted to move on, and these men were swept along with the tide, many facing unemployment because who wants to give a job to someone who has only ever been a soldier?

The end of They Shall Not Grow Old is a stark reminder of how we continue to treat our veterans today. Sure, maybe our awareness of PTSD and the horrors of war is better, but we still let a lot of these brave men and women suffer in silence when they return home. We refuse to talk about their experiences because it would make us too uncomfortable. Instead, this movie humanizes these individuals, stripping away the artifice of war to reveal the scared boys who got roped into a tragedy and barely survived. It's a terrific historic documentary but also a poignant reminder of our current political climate and much more distanced view of what it means to go to war. 

At Eternity's Gate: Vincent van Don't

At Eternity's Gate is a movie I did not know existed until Willem Dafoe got a Best Actor Oscar nomination for it. In my OCD desire to be an Oscar completist, I therefore watched this movie. And promptly wished I could get those two hours of my life back.

It is very clear that a lot of work went into making this movie, and critics seem to think it's great. But I suspect only critics went to see it instead of regular people who expect some kind of entertainment value from their cinema. I found this movie to be a terrific slog, and while I don't go out of my way to write bad reviews, I find myself needing to pen down what I found so insufferable about it, in the hopes that someone who liked it will set me straight (politely). 

First, what's with the language choices in this movie? Dafoe mostly keeps his American accent but will then start talking French in brief snatches. I would assume this is meant to convey his sense of otherness as he goes through mental illness - everyone around him is speaking French, while he's not? Except then Oscar Isaac, who is playing Paul Gauguin, does the same thing. What does it mean? Are the people who speak English kindred spirits while the random people who speak French supposed to signify the people who misunderstand van Gogh and his artistic genius? Or maybe I'm reading too much into it and it's just lazy filmmaking. 

Second, there's no real plot per se. It meanders on about a man who's going through a mental decline and it's never very clear when you're seeing things from his schizophrenic perspective versus when you're seeing actual events unfold. None of it is really interesting anyway; mostly this is a movie that trafficks in a lot of silence and watching van Gogh paint in the great outdoors. There's a LOT of painting in this movie and listen, I love van Gogh, but I don't need to literally watch paint dry on film. 

I'm not sure why Dafoe got the Oscar nomination. It sounds like he did a lot of research and learned to paint, so maybe he's getting props for extra credit, but in the movie itself, I did not find this performance to be particularly moving or compelling. It's a fine bit of casting because he does look a lot like van Gogh, but other than that, I was not floored. The dialogue also felt enormously stilted, clearly written from the perspective of someone in 2019 who knows how beloved van Gogh is in our time. There's a lot of ploddingly portentous, "oh no one appreciates my work, but they will some day!" 

At Eternity's Gate is beautiful to look at and director Julian Schnabel has done a wonderful job in terms of setting scenes in impressionistic landscapes that showcase what van Gogh was drawing from when he painted his masterpieces. However, the camerawork is very shaky and almost Blair Witch-esque for no apparent reason (mental illness again, maybe? If so, we get it, the man was nuts, settle down!) and everything seems a bit shoddy and rushed. Ultimately, this movie is an ode to Vincent van Gogh by someone who really loves his art, but has nothing substantial to say about the man himself. My greatest takeaway from this film was that I wanted to go to the Met and spend a day in the European Gallery staring at van Gogh's paintings. But I have zero desire to re-watch this movie. 

Fyre: Dive Into the Schadenfreude

The Netflix documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, is the most delicious piece of schadenfreude you could hope to experience this year. Curl up on the couch and spend an hour and a half watching a documentary about how a rich, entitled, white dude defrauded thousands of gullible people and exposed how there will always be suckers with more money than sense.

The movie is about the ill-fated music festival that became a social media bonanza after its rich attendees and social media "influencers" were stranded in the Bahamas with none of the fancy food, flights, or accommodations they were promised. Even though you know this festival turned into a raging dumpster fire, there is still such novelty in watching how exactly it happened, with each day leading up to the event bringing fresh horrors and increasingly terrible decision-making. Fyre Festival was the brainchild of Billy McFarland, a random guy from New Jersey whose previous claim to fame was a bogus credit card company, Magnises, that catered to elite millennials who wanted a fancy-looking card with exclusive perks and a clubhouse in Manhattan. The man was all about the image, taking private jets and limos everywhere he went and because of this, he ginned up confidence in rich investors who had no trouble dumping millions into his fraudulent schemes.

The documentary consists of interviews with the people involved in the planning, coordination, and marketing of Fyre Festival. All of these people have the same dazed look on their face as they recount their tale, a look of “how on earth did I not realize what was going on?” People were asked to do insane things in service of McFarland’s stupid ambitions, and they all somehow went along with it, convinced that he was a visionary instead of a lunatic. Each interview is a bit like watching a brainwashed cult member finally see the light.

This is also a very millennial documentary - this entire enterprise was based on social media “influencers” doing what they were told and promoting an event that was not planned or ready in any shape or form. Apart from a snazzy video and a crisp website describing luxury packages with drawings of what the tents and villas would look like, there was no actual substance to this enterprise, and yet people bought into it hook, line, and sinker. In our Instagram-worshipping age, looks matter more than content, and the documentary is an eerie insight into how easy it is to be swayed by a charismatic dumb-dumb who looks like he lives the life you’re aspiring to, but secretly is just an extraordinarily good scam artist.

Unless you’re one of the people who paid to go to Fyre Festival, you will derive so much joy from watching Fyre. It is hilarious and insane, and there’s only one person you feel sorry for in the entire thing: the Bahamian woman who was hired to do the catering for the festival and ended up losing $50,000 of her savings to pay her local workers without ever getting repaid by the Fyre team. Thankfully, she has been amply rewarded via a GoFundMe page. So sit back and enjoy the misery of some rich "entrepreneurs." Watching people squirm has never been so fun.

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse: Feel Your Spidey Senses Tingle

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was not high on my list of movies to watch this year. A cartoon about Spider-Man? Why would I care? I guess I wasn’t paying attention to the fact that it was co-produced by Marvel and therefore would have the whole MCU brain trust behind it. And after I saw dozens of rave reviews online and then rave reviews from colleagues, I headed off to the theater.

The most immediately magnificent aspect of this movie is the animation. It’s brand new technology that Disney is now looking to patent and it is awe-inspiringly good. I can’t quite describe it except to say that everything looks exactly like a comic book - the same cross-hatching and dots with the screen occasionally getting divided into panels with random text boxes or word bubbles. It’s so much fun, wildly inventive, completely unusual, and gives you the odd sensation that you’re both reading and watching a movie at the same time. I never read superhero comics as a kid, but I read a lot of Archie, and this movie made me want to run home and start reading my old comics again.

The next most magnificent part of this movie is the main character, Miles Morales. He is an Afro-Latino teen in Brooklyn who has been granted admission to a highly competitive school where he will board during the weekdays. He doesn’t want to leave his friends and family behind, begging to stay in his usual public school, but his parents gently insist that he take full advantage of this opportunity. This is not the typical New York City kid we see in the movies. Miles and his family are like thousands of families who live in this city and yet we usually never see them on screen - instead we only hear about affluent NYC millionaires or poor people facing impossible struggle. But Miles, with his cop father and nurse mother, is a solidly middle-class and well-adjusted kid. Well, until he gets bitten by a radioactive spider, of course.

I won’t go into details about the plot of this movie because it is the twisty superhero craziness you would expect from a Marvel enterprise. Every frame is gorgeously rendered and there are jokes galore because again, a Marvel movie will never take itself too seriously. And prepare yourself for extreme complications because you are going to meet Spider-characters across the comic book canon, which includes some really zany interpretations of Spider-Man that I had never heard of before. It worked, but it was definitely weird. And glorious.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a fascinating movie and heralds a whole new frontier in animation and film-making. It has an excellent soundtrack, perfect voice acting, is lively, colorful, and So. Much. Fun. We finally got a black Spider-Man and it was worth it.