A Batman Thesis for Nerds and Normals Alike

An opening along the lines of “Holy book reviews, Batman!” or even “Pow! Zap! A Batman book!” would do this title a disservice, especially seeing as how author and NPR comic-book critic Glen Weldon tirelessly points out how the legion of Bat-Nerds have desperately tried to bury any references to the full-color, high-gloss Batman of the late sixties in favor of the Denny O’Neil comics of darkness and night, and Christopher Nolan’s growling films. Weldon covers this and a whole lot more in his meticulously researched, thesis-in-the-making, THE CAPED CRUSADE, which provides the ultimate pop-culture look at all things Batman.

Weldon’s book, to stay within a theme, hangs between a historical look at the character’s comic book origins, a healthy discourse on the Adam West series from 1966, and a deep cut insider-look at the Burton-Schumacher-Nolan films. All of these insights are heavily intertwined with nerd backlash and fandom praise. Weldon shows the fine balance of acceptance between how Batman plays into pop culture, and how outside events, shaped by various creator control, influence the stories of the Caped Crusader.

Loaded with interviews, quotes, and plenty of subjected barbs at fandom foolishness, THE CAPED CRUSADE is a fun, quick read. Weldon maintains his nerd credentials throughout, but also provides an impartial take on the character to satisfy the reading pleasure for the occasional “normal” who might only be familiar with all things Christian Bale. Or Adam West.   

What Weldon fails to properly show, or doesn’t focus nearly enough on, is the primary reason that most of the silent majority of Batman fans, that is those not taking to the cons or the internet with their scornful posts and rants, are simply Batman fans… because it’s fun. Many fans might understand, or probably just blatantly ignore, the editorial mandate in the comics to replace Batman with an armor-wearing psychotic, or to isolate the brooding tactician from the rest of the DC Universe, or a filmmaker’s decision to give the character a rubber suit complete with nipples. Fans want to be entertained with stories and the legend – both the fantastical and the grounded – of Batman, regardless of Dr. Hugo Strange is ridiculous or Poison Ivy just plain silly. Or if the animated series of the nineties kicks ass in just about every imaginable way.

A great deal of fans already understands some of the inherent foolishness at the idea of a man who mourns the loss of his parents by dressing as a bat – and ignores such dogma. They want metaphor, or fisticuffs, or over-the-top action, or a long-running opera. Batman has survived this long in the public eye and public consciousness because, as Weldon does point out, everyone has their favorite version of the character. And there are plenty to choose from. So enjoy. Dive into the book and perhaps be inspired to revisit, or just plain discover, some of those great, and maybe not-too-great, Bat stories available everywhere.  Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.

As Always,

theJOE

Oscar Rant 2010

The Academy actually had a good idea by expanding the Best Picture category to ten films. Interest, either pro or con, has been garnered with the additions and has, very much so, opened up the race to allow the inclusion of well-received top grossing films – two, count ‘em two(!) sci-fi flicks, a World War II B-film homage and a sappy sports film – along with those few select art house-only hidden treasures – two of which are personal tales of men seeking a destination of sorts, either of which, in a different year, would be a top contender for Hollywood’s Golden Boy but will ultimately lose this year to a film with guns and explosions.

But has the opening of the Best Picture category to include Sandra Bullock films really made the race any more different? Or are there still just the two top contenders along with one possible dark horse making the others – just more of them – as irrelevant as the Mets starting rotation? And can it be that, yet again, those deserving have been overlooked? And for the record, regardless of how many nominees there are, AVATAR definitely gets one of those nods.

This year, the Actor in a Leading Role category is one of the tightest. Jeff Bridges, it can be argued, should have won the Award for his role in 1998’s THE BIG LEBOWSKI (Although was that role really acting? It was certainly a more endearing and lasting performance than Roberto Benigni who won for –excuse me– LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.) and Morgan Freeman’s portrayal as Nelson Mandela is a slam-dunk of a nom. And although Clooney, Firth and Renner are all deserving, perhaps two others should be placed here instead.

Michael Stuhlbarg for his role as Larry Gopnik in the Coen Brothers’ award-worthy A SERIOUS MAN is an actor in every sense of the word as the range of emotions he portrays, often times silently, totally clues the audience in on the turmoil of his character and proves that this mostly television-role actor can play with the big boys. Didn’t Clooney and Hanks also start on the small screen? Sharlto Copley, the every-day middle management corporate warrior turned Prawn-lovin’ revolutionary from DISTRICT 9, like Stuhlbarg, uses his emotions to totally change and evolve, along with his body, directly on the screen moving from pity to scorn to heroism. Even though the Academy snubbed Copley, Sir Ridley Scott did not and cast the South African in another popcorn shoot ‘em up as one Howling Mad Murdock.

The Adapted Screenplay category nominated the wrong former British miniseries. Instead of IN THE LOOP, STATE OF PLAY should have this spot. Believable political intrigue and honest-to-goodness investigative journalism made this a well-written story that harkened back to the likes of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN. With journalistic movies on the mind, why did THE SOLOIST completely get forgotten?

DUPLICITY, a fast-moving industrial-spy flick with Tarantino-cool dialogue, was also completely ignored. Tony Gilroy, no stranger to awards, will, unfortunately, be eating poppers on his couch in the Hollywood Hills this year as DUPLICITY was not recognized for Original Screenplay or, perhaps, Director. Like with THE SOLOIST, films released in March and April are most often ignored. THE WONDER BOYS, released in February 2000, is a prime example of this, but a season-end re-release garnered the film a Best Song win and an adapted screenplay nom, losing to the very-worthy TRAFFIC.

Another March-released film that, potentially, could have received an Adapted Screenplay nom along with a variety of minor category nominees (such as Costume, Makeup and Art Direction at the very least) is Zach Snyder’s WATCHMEN. Yes, the under-performing hardcore-fanboy gala, although far from a perfect film, was extremely meticulous with look and feel as well as design and dialogue lifting whole scenes directly and pristinely from what is referred to as the greatest Graphic Novel. Although a summertime release might not have generated any more revenue for the film, especially with an already fanboy-heavy schedule including WOLVERINE, STAR TREK and TRANSFORMERS, it might have remained in the thoughts of the nomination committee.

Finally, looking at those indeed nominated, once again those worthy will probably not win due to the Academy’s politics and the money of producers. Vera Farmiga’s character, Alex Goran from UP IN THE AIR, moved from interesting to likeable to betraying and should indeed win. But she’s not the favorite according to most polls and previous award ceremonies. James Cameron will hopefully win for Director. Even though AVATAR probably does not deserve to win for Best Film, as its Dances With Aliens storyline was not the most, well, original, he proved that he is indeed the best he is and what he does, be it here on Earth or out on Pandora, which is a real place, right?! The merging of 3D CGI to ultra-looking reality was as flawless as his craft.

Be it any other year, Henry Selick’s CORALINE would win Best Animated Feature. But damn Pixar and their constant A+ 10-star productions (how dare they!) will win again. Here’s hoping Michael Giacchino’s score for UP wins the award, although, he should rightly win for his not-nominated STAR TREK score.

And who does get the top award, that for Best Film, if not AVATAR? In an AVATAR/BASTERDS/HURT LOCKER-free season, both A SERIOUS MAN and UP IN THE AIR would the neck-to-neck contenders. One, an open-ended Jewish tale was an art-house favorite while the other, Jason Reitman’s slick-yet-familiar airport-themed film, could have proved that the third time is a charm for the young director. Interestingly enough, most films nominated this year all have the potential to win. But it all falls down to what film becomes the media-darling with the most successful word of mouth. What producer will woo the Academy the best? Danny Boyle, for better or worse, was on the upside last year for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. But overall, wasn’t THE WRESTLER the better film? Yet like it’s main character, Randy the Ram, it became abandoned.

Who will be this year’s SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE? An even better question: who will be this year’s WRESTLER?


As Always,
theJOE

Oscar Rant 2009

Sunday marks that high-honored tradition when the elite, the powerful, the rich, the beautiful, the famous converge together to pay and give homage to … themselves. Yes, the Academy Awards, in theory, are to gift those deserving recognition for their contributions to entertainment and pop-culture but, those with real power, those producers and studios complete with the pull of money, ultimately decide what is considered beloved, usually their product, and what is drivel. Just like how many heroic and noble deeds are unrewarded with attention, so too do certain elements of much-enjoyed celluloid get lost in the wind of those Hollywood political airbags.

There is a fine balance between accolades deserved on the basis of financial – and popular – success and those of critical. For most instances, these are as separate as Hitchcock and Van Sant’s versions of PSYCHO. Of all of 2008’s winners, the highest box office draw was THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM’s US $227 million. ULTIMATUM won Best Achievement in Editing, Sound and Sound Editing and was not nominated for film, director or actor. And perhaps it should have. By contrast, the award-winning, and quite good, mind you, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, grossed US $61.9 million at the time of the ceremony and took home statues for Directing, Picture, Actor and Screenplay. ULTIMATUM and NO COUNTRY are two completely different movies filmatically (although not, perhaps, in terms of body count), but each equally good on their own and should have perhaps contended against each other.

In 2008, THE DARK KNIGHT grossed US $532 million with a total of more than $900 million worldwide making it the 4th highest grossing film in history (Cameron’s TITANIC still leads the pack by a tip of the iceberg). Runaway hit SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, which has so far accumulated US $88.1 million, and THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – US $122.5 million – far lead their competition: FROST/NIXON (US $16.9 million), MILK (US $26.7 million) and THE READER (US $19.4 million). However, would it not make sense to honor architect Christopher Nolan for his film that has accrued 8 nods, let alone a gross that is almost double of all nominations combined?

The answer, unfortunately, is that genre films do not get respect. Having the haughty Academy recognize the merits of a popcorn film will occur around the same time as total and complete sense is made out of the two PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN sequels. Because of this, HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY will not win the Makeup category even though the likes of entire Troll Market scene out scopes the Creature Cantina from the original STAR WARS (BENJAMIN BUTTON will win).

Comicbook films are not the only ones that are to be singled out here, so let’s include Westerns and Sci-Fi into the genre niche. 2008 did not produce much from either stable but two noteworthy exceptions should have at least made a few of the minor nominations such as editing, cinematography (both of which really should be held in higher regards along with the Top 6), sound and costume. Those films? Ed Harris’ APPALOOSA and J.J. Abrams’ CLOVERFIELD. By comparison, last year’s Academy did see THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES (2 noms, no wins), 3:10 TO YUMA (2 noms, no wins) and TRANSFORMERS (5 noms, no wins). No wins, just like if you are a Thrasher’s fan, means no respect.

Ignoring THE READER, which most of the American cinema-going population did, along, rightly so, with SWING VOTE, then who was slighted? Aside from the aforementioned Christopher Nolan, perhaps Josh Brolin should have been nominated in the Leading Actor role for his spot on portrayal of George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s W. Brolin was able to both lampoon and credit the 43rd President and such acting should not be overlooked. But it was. The family-friendly, and OLD YELLER-ending, MARLEY & ME could not sit, heel or run with Adapted Screenplay and Beyonce Knowles cannot scream, “At Last” for her Etta James casting in CADILLAC RECORDS either.

On very rare occasions, the Academy gets it right allowing style and sense to outweigh the politics of the Hollywood Illuminati. In this Century, CRASH and ONCE rightly brought home Oscar over the heavily-favored BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and not-so enchanting ENCHANTED.

This year, two first-time directors are getting much-deserved recognition and hopefully one of them will be awarded. Danny Boyle is single-handedly responsible for making Ewan McGregor a star (they did three films together, two of which are as slick as Techno), giving heroin a new slang and injecting life into the undead. David Fincher went from directing pop biggest names (Madonna, Michael Jackson, Sting) to giving pop to some of Hollywood’s A-listers (Sigourney Weaver, Brad Pitt (also with a hat trick), Jodie Foster). Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, let’s home this is not the only Red Carpet trip either of these two see.

Not all is lost. Hollywood is the place where dreams can come true and the impossible is all too possible. How else can you explain Uwe Boll’s constant employment? Look at it this way, the Academy even allowed a popcorn movie – and a trilogy at that – to sweep it all it 2004 giving fanboys – and the genre market alike – a little hope and some smiles.

(Side note: supporting actor Sir Ian McKellen was most outrageously snubbed for the first LORD OF THE RINGS installment in 2002 to Jim Broadbent’s performance for IRIS, a film that only grossed US $5.5 million.)

As Always,
theJOE