Week 10
4th March – 10th March 2019
Capernaum
Director: Nadine Labaki
Writers: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwany
The Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin
My god this film - it pure breaks you. I went to see this with my sister, Grainne, and she needed a proper hug after.
This is similar to Andrea Arnold’s American Honey - a modern real-life dystopia. We are so obsessed in Western culture with dystopian, post-apocalypse stories ... but take away the zombies and the aliens and those ravaged, survival-focused lives are a reality for so many people in our world today.
And like The Walking Dead, things just get worse and worse for the characters in Capernaum and while there is connection and love, it’s not enough to stop bad things happening.
But I’d also argue that while there are lots of people in this who do terrible things, the only character who comes close to a “villain” is the forger/trafficker who exploits the misery and hopes of desperate people for profit.
But for the others ... The film takes pains to create understanding for the parents being sued by their son, even the man who takes an 11-year-old bride - the wider society and broken system is what is on trial here. Intergenerational poverty and a desperation to survive shapes the actions of everyone - even our protagonist, Zain, who must choose between letting himself and the 1-year-old in his care slowly starve to death (despite heroic efforts) or selling the child to a man who claims he will him a better life.
We shouldn’t live in a world where a story like this believable.
But I don’t know what we can do to change it.
Labaki captures some amazing moments between her actors and early, I noticed how little sky she captured in her wide shots of Beirut - because her characters view is so obscured and crowded by the slums they habit. When Zain escapes to the seaside area, we have sky, we have blue - for a while there is the hope of something more ... but this disappears for us and for Zain.
I am glad I watched this film but I will never watch it again - it’s just too draining despite its accomplishments.
Captain Marvel
Directors: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
Writers: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Geneva Robertson-Dworet
Vue, Liffey Valley
Brie Larson is an amazing actor - her Oscar win for Room was totally justified and in Short Term 12 she was exceptional too. But here - she’s a little stilted. Maybe it’s because in contrast to the BIG performances going on around her, her dry, subtly, sarcastic wit doesn’t quite fit - like contrasting Daria with Ferris Bueller. Maybe it’s also cause some of the dialogue is so perfunctory and a bit crap.
But I did enjoy this - unlike Wonder Woman, which I thought was one of the most boring films I have EVER seen - I had tried to fall asleep during only two films in the cinema - the other was Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
Captain Marvel I like more the more I think about it - how she rejects the mores of a society and refuses to play their games - and the Indiana Jones homage that displays this. How the most important relationships she has are with her best friend and niece, how she is pushing against sexism on intergalactic levels, how her mentor was a woman, how there is no love interest. How it comes down on the side the refugee searching for a home rather than imperial powers - there is lots to like here. And it’s fun - lots of nods to the 90s and Nick Fury’s origin story too.
It’s great to see a Marvel movie headed by a lead female character - and with a writing/directing team that is two-thirds women. I think on a script level it means you get a lot of the above elements and there’s a good gender balance character-wise and from a directing perspective we get very few “she’s so sexy” shots and a costume that’s actually quite practical (no heels!!!). These things seem small but they matter.
And the soundtrack is full of 90s female-fronted grunge bands, so that’s pretty epic too.
Isn’t it Romantic
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Writers: Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox & Kate Silberman
Netflix
No. No, it isn’t romantic. It’s just a load of romantic clichés and stereotypes crammed into a film - with maybe one or two laughs. And there’s no real satire, there’s no real commentary - and I’m sorry but Adam Devine is just not a viable romantic lead for me. Not in this and not in that other time-travel thing on Netflix that I can’t be bothered to look up.
I liked Rebel Wilson - and I want her wardrobe (apart from the Pretty Woman outfit) but by god her apartment was disgusting ... and she was supposed to be an architect, not a cupcake designer.
There’s a little bit here about how invisible fat women can be in the workplace and to certain men BUT according to this film, it’s our own fault and all we need is a bit of confidence to overcome society’s issues with overweight people. Yay - if only I’d known.
I had low expectations for this - and it didn’t disappoint or surprise. Watch The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Rom-Com episode instead - or in fact the whole damn series if you want an intelligent deconstruction of the genre
What else?
I have also been watching Fleabag and Derry Girls but I’m going to wait a do a full series recap as both are only six episode runs.