Captain Marvel

Score:  C+

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelssohn, Jude Law
Running time: 124 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Captain Marvel introduces a major new superhero into the well-populated MCU, just in time for the concluding Avengers chapter.  Larson is a fine choice in a role that seems Marvel's answer to Wonder Woman, but unfortunately the character's development is stunted by its having to compete with an overly intricate alien plot and generous helpings of action.  It ends up failing both the MCU's overall story and its efforts to develop a more diverse family.  Still, it is pretty good fun and this is my perspective: give it a try for yourself.


A young alien woman on a planet far, far away is having bad dreams.  A powerful new member of a battle squad, Vers (Larson) is mentored by her commander Yon-Rogg (Law), who urges her to improve her focus in order to master her powers.  During a mission to rescue a fellow operative, the squad is ambushed by a team of shapeshifting aliens called Skrull.  Vers is captured, and taken along with the Skrulls to their next destination, backwater planet C-53 (also known as Earth, circa 1995).  The place is strangely familiar to Vers, who, with the help of a local security force known as SHIELD, tries desperately to round up the camouflaged Skrull.  Before long, though, Vers realizes that it's not just the Skrull whose appearances are deceiving.

Captain Marvel, like its MCU kin, boasts an impressive cast including both familiar characters as well as new stars in new roles.  Brie Larson is great as the lead, Vers aka Captain Marvel.  While Larson's talent is proven, having won an Oscar in 2015, she's also relatively unknown; I've only seen her in a handful of small roles myself.  This lack of a preconceived notion of how she'd play the character, the final and one of the most important in the MCU, is good.  The thing is, even after seeing the film, it's still a bit hard to define how she plays the character, due to the story (more on this later).  What I can say is that Larson has a great, assured presence - in that she is not pushing too hard to squeeze herself into the immense MCU.  She has a nice swagger and set of distinct physical mannerisms (wonderful eyebrows!) that give her a place right alongside the Tony Starks and Thors of the world.  I only wish we had gotten to see even more.  Samuel L. Jackson is fun, and has great chemistry with Larson as essentially the sidekick here.  However, for those familiar with the MCU, he is joltingly different, too - this younger version is far more gregarious, replacing gruff sidelong glances with cooing over kitties.  I wasn't ready for that - but it may grow on me later on rewatch.  Ben Mendelssohn is the villain as the leader of the Skrulls - he's a tremendous actor, but I'm afraid his talents are somewhat wasted.  In a smaller part, Jude Law as Vers's mentor comes out better.

**Significant spoilers ahead!! Sorry, but I couldn't provide my full thoughts without doing so**

Captain Marvel plays several specific roles underneath its ostensible status as yet another superhero movie - and its level of success depends on why you're seeing it.  What the hell does that mean, you ask?  See the next paragraph.  First, I'll try to evaluate it on its own terms.  When you do that, what you'll find is a pretty typical superhero adventure, one that relies on the early naivete of its main character (and audience) before making sense of it all with a major twist at the end.  It's a familiar tactic, and necessary here in slowly unveiling Vers's human origins.  It also provides a great template for really digging into a character's history.  Unfortunately, the filmmakers are seduced by action - particularly in the crucial first and last sections - and so for all the latent focus on character, it gets reduced down to one scene in which Carol DanVERS receives her powers.  Even the twist with the aliens, transforming the Skrulls from vile, shapeshifting spies to persecuted refugees, simply takes up far too much time (yet also not enough to be done properly).  At a more granular, but important, level, the script is just OK - not nearly as sharp as most in the MCU, the dialogue often defaulting to more generic fare both in humor and Drama.  The pacing is good, though, at right around two hours and there are plenty of the usual blockbuster thrills.  Still, the main thing holding it back is the incomplete exploration of Vers, and this is where the other aspects of the film come in.

For us MCU fan(atics), this is the penultimate film of the franchise as we know it, with Avengers 4 - coming in less than two months - promising a conclusion of some kind.  Captain Marvel the character likely plays a large role in it, yet audiences are only being introduced to her now.  Second, and applicable to a wider audience, is Captain Marvel's presentation of a major female superhero, with all its inevitable comparisons to Wonder Woman.  While the details of Captain Marvel's origins are interesting, the more important role for Captain Marvel in the broader MCU was to show us who she is as a character, her raison d'etre - something that Stark, Rogers and company had the advantage of multiple films to figure out, but Marvel had to cram into one film here.  This was unfortunately crowded out by the convoluted story and obligatory action.  The MCU has had a near perfect record in choosing just the right way to tell different kinds of stories, but it failed here by going too broad.  You can make a similar criticism of the film's handling of the gendered aspect of its new hero.   Having neglected a fuller development for Vers, we get a rushed montage of her struggling and failing, yet keeping on trying, as a replacement that feels slightly pandering.  Wonder Woman, by comparison, works on its character's growth steadily and clearly (though not heavy-handedly) throughout the film.  For all the "emotion" Yon-Rogg criticizes her for, there's little to support it.

***

As you can probably tell, I find Captain Marvel to be quite the loaded film, and probably didn't realize how much until afterward.  I should also say that I look forward to seeing this again in theaters, if only to see how my initial reactions hold up.  The process of writing this review if anything deepened my disappointment in the implications of the film, if not its more explicit qualities (or lack thereof).  Brie Larson did a commendable job, particularly considering all the challenges, but it's a shame that her character is still such a question mark heading into Avengers 4.  And while it's great to see the MCU continue to "diversify" (embarrassingly belated, at that), this is far less successful than Black Panther on that front.  If you haven't yet seen Captain Marvel, I would still recommend that you go see it, as I feel a higher-than-usual likelihood that individual reactions will vary.  Here's hoping for a brighter follow-up for Captain Marvel after a bit of a rough start!




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Fighting With My Family

Score:  A-

Directed by Stephen Merchant
Starring Florence Pugh, Jack Lowden, Vince Vaughn
Running time: 108 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Fighting With My Family is a sports drama based on the true story of a family of wrestlers in England.  Led by the creative mind of funnyman Stephen Merchant, the cast, particularly lead Florence Pugh, creates a genuine family you would go to the mat for.  Don't worry if you're neither a wrestling nor a sports film fan - this is just a really well done, entertaining drama, period.  Recommended for all.


In Norwich, England, body slams are the favored gesture of affection for one family of four.  Parents Patrick (Frost) and Julia (Headey) Knight, having emerged from a rough background involving years of jail time, are enthusiastic community wrestling leaders, and actively encourage their children to join them.  While son Zak (Lowden) jumps into the ring from an early age, Saraya (Pugh) is more skeptical, starting much later.  The family dream is to join the professional wrestling league, the WWE, for fame and fortune, and Zak and Saraya finally get to try out as young adults.  Only one gets the opportunity to continue pursuing this dream, though, leading to a hopeful yet bittersweet split in the family.  While those left behind continue to struggle to make ends meet, the chosen one confronts their own ultimate challenge in the most difficult test yet.

Fighting With My Family is anchored by a strong family core, plus a surprising supporting role.  Florence Pugh, an up-and-coming British star whom I had not seen before, plays the lead as Saraya (or Paige, her wrestling name).  She does excellent work, particularly once she's on her own trying to make the WWE.  The quiet younger sister in a family of big wrestling personalities, Pugh shows her character's impressive physical and mental comfort with the sport.  Yet the film emphasizes just how difficult the process is, and Paige is by no means the favorite: she's both physically small and psychologically vulnerable due to both her isolation and the ruthless nature of the competition.  She pulls you in close with her relatable failures - and her reactions to them.  And her connections to her family, particularly her brother, Zak, are genuine and warm.  The brother is also an impressive character, as played by Jack Lowden.  More confident in his role in the family, he is tested by even more trying circumstances left behind at home, and his bitterness and despair - and later, his hope - are palpable.  Rounding out the family are the parents, played by Nick Frost and Lena Headey.  They get showier roles in support, making them a blast to watch, particularly Frost, but the deep love they have for their children is also touching in quieter scenes.  The last notable part is Vince Vaughn's WWE trainer Hutch Morgan.  I wouldn't have thought him capable of real sincerity in a part like this but he surprised me, both berating and encouraging Saraya/Paige in a crucial role in the film.

Fighting With My Family is one of the best sports films I've seen in years, thanks largely to the unorthodox sport and story and its focus on family drama.  The film comes from the British comedic mind of Stephen Merchant (frequent collaborator of Ricky Gervais), who wrote, directed, and produced.  Thus there's plenty of good humor sprinkled throughout, but the tone is really more a standard drama.  It's based on a true story, after all, and while I can't confirm its accuracy, it makes for a wild and intriguing, yet also affecting adventure.  The first part of the film does a great job capturing the sense of place, in a rougher, English neighborhood, while keeping the narrative going at all times.  The ragtag group of kids who train with the family are fun, including even a blind boy (apparently part of the true story), as they bounce along in a broken down van.  The cast does such a great job of inhabiting this family of wrestlers, highlighted by a hilarious dinner scene with the mortified, upperclass parents of Zak's girlfriend.  Later, as the story's tension rises, release occurs through quieter scenes between Saraya and Zak, or Saraya and her parents.  The brighter, Florida-set WWE training scenes offer a nice change of tempo, while still maintaining the overall tone.  You can feel the sweat dripping in the gym scenes, and easy cliches are chucked aside, particularly in Saraya's female colleagues, former models and dancers who have considerable depth and toughness.  Rather than winning games, the challenge here is two-fold: to survive the intense physical conditioning, and then put forth the most charismatic face possible for the crowd to keep them happy (and the wrestlers employed).  There are no surprises in the ending, but the joys and struggles of the journey are more rewarding than the final, crowning moment itself.

***

Fighting With My Family is one of those pleasant surprises I hope to run into each year at the theater. I had never even heard of it until I saw its impressive 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes; given its unique premise and helming by the funny Merchant, I gave it a try.  Typically I'm not a sports movie fan (I much prefer the real thing), and I'm even less interested in wrestling - but this is more a warm, funny drama that happens to deal with wrestling (admittedly, an intriguing sideshow).  My biggest bone to pick with this movie is in its marketing, which features Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson heavily.  He has approximately five minutes of screen time - his presence is a good one, certainly, but basically a cameo.  But never mind that: the actors and characters that are featured are great, and the story is Rock solid, entertaining and resonant.  Appropriate for a broad audience, I highly recommend it.




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