Paul Constant, at Seattle’s Stranger, reviews Guardians of the Galaxy:
Let’s hear it for the cinematic asshole. The last couple decades of filmmaking-by-committee has all but banished the lovable rogue from the blockbuster lexicon. International audiences, conventional wisdom goes, can’t understand heroes and villains unless they’re clearly delineated as such. (Don’t believe me? Consider the total lack of a Han Solo character in the Star Wars prequels for the clearest example that the adorable-bastard heart of adventure films has stopped beating.) A good part of the reason why Guardians of the Galaxy is being so warmly embraced by critics, I’d wager, is the fact that the entire team of heroes in the film are, as one character in the trailer describes them, “a bunch of a-holes.” And you know what? That’s exactly what we like to see in our blockbusters…
… Which reminded me that I wanted to celebrate Eileen Jones’ review of Scarlett Johansson Lucy:
… Scarlett Johansson is, of course, up to the demands of the role. What a star! Lately we’ve had a cycle of films that attest to her amazing beauty, charisma, and aplomb when doing the simplest things: call it the Scarlett Johansson Walks series. As Black Widow in The Avengers, as the alien in Under the Skin, and now as Lucy, we watch her walk, deadpan, bent on some mission of her own…
Under the Skin, the glacially slow, artily erotic sci-fi thriller from earlier this year, took the fascination of Scarlett Johansson Walks as far as it could go, varying it with long sequences of Scarlett Johansson Drives a Van. (The Spike Jonze film Her concentrates on her husky alto voice alone: Scarlett Johansson Talks.) No other female actor working today could have sustained such a filmic experiment. She’s become the go-to star for representing the hypnotic Future Woman at an advanced stage of evolution, her DNA seemingly combined with lethal higher mammals, interstellar space aliens, and the sleekest computer technology…
Necessarily in an action-fantasy film, brainpower improves everything, including physical strength and fighting skills. At a mere 20% Lucy achieves a state of completely centered, focused calm that is perfect for the performance of martial arts and the efficient breaking of an opponent’s limbs. As she moves up the scoreboard her memory recovers everything that ever happened to her, she can hear the thoughts of others, she can see the energy animating trees, and she achieves psycho-kinesis, pre-cognition, and the selective suspension of the laws of gravity.
As these are all personal goals of mine, it’s pretty thrilling to watch…
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Apart from dreaming big, what’s on the agenda tonight?