February Movies

 Here are the movies I watched in February

• Apollo 10 ½, A Space-Aged Childhood (2022): A Richard Linklater photo-realistic animated movie about one kid, his family, and the mission to the moon in 1969. Much of the movie concerns the life of 10 year old Stan and his experience of childhood and family life in Houston, Texas, 1969. It is presented as an idyllic time to be a kid, with all the space-aged wonders at their finger-tips. A huge amount of setting is covered, from backyard baseball to classic television, music, drive-in theatres, Astro World, school discipline, and more. Vietnam, protests, and inequalities are mentioned, but they are seen as through the confused and narrow vision of a child. The real story dominating everyone’s imagination was the mission to walk on the moon. But in this story, NASA comes to Stan’s school and recruits him to actually be the first person to walk on the moon (because they built the first lunar landing module too small). So his mission becomes Apollo 10 ½, a secret mission that he can’t tell anyone about. The story is narrated by Jack Black, and is classic Linklater in its nostalgia, its true sense of the wonder of childhood, and its day-in-the-life storytelling and aesthetic. One of the themes of the movie, made explicit right near the end, is about the nature of memory. Even if we slept through an event, we will remember it as if we saw it all. This is a clue as to how Linklater is self-aware about how he is remembering the 1960’s of his childhood. A fun, sweet, gentle movie. 

• Phantom Thread (2017): A majestic and troubling movie from P.T. Anderson, starring the always magnificent Daniel Day Lewis as Woodcock, and the equally remarkable Vicky Krieps as Alma. Set in post-war England, Lewis is a famous dress-maker named Woodcock, who dresses the rich and aristocratic. He is viewed as a genius, and his life is kept in a strict routine of self-centred control. Living with him is his sister, also unmarried, played with frosty perfection by Lesley Manville. She manages his life and business, and also arranges for his lovers to be removed from his sight when he inevitably tires of them. When Woodcock meets the waitress Alma in the country he is smitten. Her body dimensions are perfect to his mind, because they allow him to shape her in his dresses. For her part, she brags that nobody can stand as still and for as long as her. (As an aside, while much of the film is a difficult watch because of the awkward, understated social interactions, I think I would pay full price just to watch Day Lewis make measurements. He is a superlative actor.) The movie seems to be about Woodcock’s “genius”, which is really made possible by the army of women around him who receive no credit: his sister, Alma, his models, and all the seamstresses who make his drawings reality. Woodcock is a fragile man-child, and everyone knows it, but Alma is the only one to call it out (except for his sister on one memorable occasion). A recurring theme throughout is Woodcock’s dreams and memories and visions of his mother. He longs to be a child again, tender and helpless, cared for by a maternal figure. And this is precisely what Alma arranges to happen. It is the most toxic of relationships, though both seem to be getting what they want from it. Certainly a worthy viewing.

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• Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022): Wow. Of course Weird Al would make a biopic about himself that was actually a parody of his life. From the trope-filled oppression of childhood dreams; to the alternate reality in which accordion’s are the devil’s plaything and the envy of all teenagers; to the instant rock success; to the real authorship of “Eat It”; to the drunken binges and murderous rampages; Weird makes fun of Weird Al’s real life, making it way more sordid and stereotypical than it actually was. Daniel Radcliffe is brilliant as Weird Al, and Rainn Wilson and especially Rachel Evan Wood are phenomenal as well. I don’t want to ruin any surprises, but there is a surprise twist about two thirds in that really amps up the crazy. All I will say is, I can’t imagine that either Madonna or Pablo Escobar are too pleased with their depictions in the movie. And the estate of Michael Jackson might be a little upset as well. But hopefully everyone has a good sense of humour about it all. The final credits are worth sticking around for.

• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: I may not have even seen this one in theatre, but went with a few friends. Ant-Man has been a bit hit and miss in the MCU, and this one was, well, hit and miss. There were some funny moments; Paul Rudd is always entertaining, and the rest of the cast are good as well; the CGI was quite believable; and Kang is a legitimately menacing villain. But the melodrama was pretty forced; the whole thing felt like just another big set-up for what will happen later; and the ants once again become a pretty silly deus ex machina. On the subject of MODOK, I’m torn. Feels like a bit of a waste of a character, and the face didn’t really look right. But then again, he is a big floating murder-head, and he had some very funny lines. So let’s call it a draw.