'Masters Of The Universe' A Review

Masters Of The Universe is a science fantasy based on the Mattel toy line and subsequent cartoon. In Eternos, the capital city of the planet Eternia, young prince Adam struggles to meet his father's expectations when the city is attacked by Skeletor(Jared Leto) and Adam is forced to flee to Earth. He returns 15 years later to reclaim his throne and free Eternia's people.

Nicholas Galitzine as Adam aka He-Man struggles to put forth much of a coherent character, he's asked to do an impossible task oscillating wildly from (relatively weak) comedy to shining hero. He does his best to make some sense of what's on the page and synthesis it into something coherent but no matter who was cast it's not something that could have worked. Leto's vocal performance(and maybe his physical performance, it's unclear) are fun and effective, there seems to be understanding of what movie he's in. The supporting cast otherwise is filled with talent- Idris Elba, Morena Baccarin, Camila Mendes(in bizarre blue contacts), Sasheer Zamata, James Purefoy, Alison Brie, and on and on. But from the script to the direction the tone, the vibe, just doesn't come together. Is this for kids? For adults? Is it a comedy? Is it an action/adventure? There's so much packed in, so many ideas and references, its more a shotgun blast of a flick rather than a cogent story.

Visually it looks pretty good, they didn't skimp on the CG, but some of the action sequences and shots are straight-up lifted from relatively recent Marvel and DC movies(there's a lightening-trailing leap right out of Thor: Ragnarök, there's a classic Zack Snyder slow-mo punchathon finale etc.). The score is this whimsical retro hair mental explosion. The costuming is near exact to the action figures. Clearly made with a ton of fan passion taken as a whole you struggle to understand who this is supposed to be for and why a studio would cough up $200M for it. In how much energy and time and interest went into this compared to how large of a miscalculation it is it's reminiscent of Warcraft.

Middle-aged men's passion for a toy(or cartoon) in search of an appropriate vessel.

Currently in theaters.

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Daily Living

In its momentum
its roiling
is the living itself
the relentless
biological working
the inevitable mundanity
life
in all its exquisite
simplicity
in all its punishing
propulsion
this litany of moments
each akin to the other
beloved

in their vibrance

'Obsession' A Review

Obsession is a cringe horror set in an ambiguous time about a group of ambiguously aged friends. Perpetually hang-dog borderline-pathetic incel-presenting Bear(Michael Johnston) consults his frat bro cliche friend Ian(Cooper Tomlinson) about confessing his feelings to Nikki(Inde Navarrette) their friend who is very transparently only interested in Bear as a friend even though Sarah(Megan Lawless) the 4th in the friend foursome very much is. Bear balks when he gets his opportunity to be honest with Nikki, makes a wish with a knick-knack he bought that Nikki love him and then she does but it's weird!

Navarrette is the clear star and standout putting in a captivating layered performance both physical and emotional. The whole movie hangs on what she's able to do and all the menace as well as all the pathos comes from her. Both Johnston and Tomlinson are miscast, neither demonstrate much in the way of range presenting the same emotion and facial expression in virtually every scene. It's especially startling in contrast to Navarrette and to a lesser extent Lawless(who just has less screentime), who come across as real actors conveying characters that resemble actual humans. 

Visually the film is rich, stylized and effective, the score equally so. The production design, shot mostly on location LA, is evocative. The main issue is mostly with the script, the ground covered feels very derivative, monkey paw 101, and the story isn't taken in any new or unique directions, it's basically just that classic premise played out over almost two hours, it feels more like a short than a feature. Without Navarrette's performance the whole thing would really stall.

It's impossible not to compare this with the other Gen Z youtube creator directed box office scorcher right now Backrooms. Both stumble in terms of narrative but Backrooms has the captivating location to really hold interest. Obsession has Navarette but she can only do so much and ultimately the themes are immature and simple, the characters thinly drawn, and the overall impact is more pedestrian.  But both have really got the Gen Zers to the theaters and regardless that is a huge success. Part of the box office issue was not only the pandemic disruption but that disruption coming at a pivotal time for the 18-34 demo, historically hugely important to the box office, but slowly but surely they are coming back and it's important they have movies that speak to them from creators that are their contemporaries.

A Christmas Carol for an incel.

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First Summer Eve

The heat
in its closeness
illicit the same
from all the people
reveling
in its pleasures
families lined up
for their inaugural
ice creams

murmurs

populate the evening

contentment

the backing track

innocuous chit-chat

replacing the thrum

of the dormant cicada

adherents

to their own rhythms