{"id":70,"date":"2015-09-13T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-13T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/2015\/09\/13\/42movies-day-3-we-can-be-heroes\/"},"modified":"2015-09-13T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T16:00:00","slug":"42movies-day-3-we-can-be-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/2015\/09\/13\/42movies-day-3-we-can-be-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"#42Movies, Day 3: We Can Be Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Finding your favorite cover of <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Tgcc5V9Hu3g\">the Bowie tune<\/a> is left as an exercise for the reader. Meanwhile, let&#8217;s talk about&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><b>The Specials (2000)<\/b><br \/>and<br \/><b>The Incredibles (2004)<\/b><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1wMvv924Gks?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/><small><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/1wMvv924Gks\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/1wMvv924Gks<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eZbzbC9285I?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/><small><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/eZbzbC9285I\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/eZbzbC9285I<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<p>Astute readers will notice that, like <a href=\"http:\/\/hotsheet.snout.org\/2015\/09\/42movies-day-2-in-not-too-distant-future.html\">yesterday<\/a>, I&#8217;ve chosen to feature two relatively recent superhero movies. Again, this is not because I don&#8217;t love older superhero flicks, like Richard Donner&#8217;s <i>Superman<\/i> or Tim Burton&#8217;s <i>Batman<\/i> or even Sam Raimi&#8217;s <i>Darkman<\/i>. (Seriously, <i>Darkman<\/i>. Check it out.) It&#8217;s because I have more specific thoughts right now about these two films.<\/p>\n<p>I first saw <i>The Incredibles<\/i> at Pixar headquarters in Emeryville&mdash;which, as you might expect, has an amazing all-digital theatre, and in 2004 (ten years before all American cinemas went digital), it was stunningly beautiful. I was singing with <a href=\"http:\/\/richterscales.com\/\">The Richter Scales<\/a> at the time, and one of our members who worked at Pixar got us into a private screening. One of the best moviegoing experiences of my life, both in terms of presentation and content.<\/p>\n<p>Full disclosure: I&#8217;ve loved Superman (the character, not any particular incarnation) for as long as I can remember, and perhaps largely because of that was drawn more to DC than Marvel, comics-wise. The good news is that meant I was right there in 1986 when <i>Watchmen<\/i> changed the world. My original bagged-and-boarded issues are probably still in my parents&#8217; garage somewhere.<\/p>\n<p><i>Incredibles<\/i> deals with a lot of the same themes and issues as <i>Watchmen<\/i>, but in a less gruesome and more modern way, and is way more overt about the tropes it&#8217;s playing with&mdash;and I like a good <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/InJoke\">inside joke<\/a> almost as much as I like <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/JustForPun\">terrible puns<\/a>. I also love that director Brad Bird is able to swing the mood from ridiculously funny all the way over to deadly and back again. It&#8217;s not quite as deft as <i>It&#8217;s a Wonderful Life<\/i>, which often does both in the same scene, but it&#8217;s still remarkable.<\/p>\n<p>On a smaller scale, <i>The Specials<\/i> also deconstructs what it means to be a superhero, and because it&#8217;s a low-budget independent film (written by and co-starring James Gunn, who would go on to direct <i>Guardians of the Galaxy<\/i>), it&#8217;s mostly the characters talking to each other about stuff. You know, like normal people. Except their concerns and anxieties are just a little off-kilter, because of who they are.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s funny, it&#8217;s a little dark, and it&#8217;s the first time I can remember seeing a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2015\/07\/judy-greer-effect-every-single-line-summer-movies\">Judy Greer<\/a> performance (and being instantly charmed by it, of course. Go read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ISBN=0385537883\/curtiscchensfree\">her memoir<\/a>. Or, better, yet, get <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ISBN=0804149151\/curtiscchensfree\">the audiobook<\/a> and have her tell you stories like she&#8217;s your best friend. And then get <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ISBN=0345806735\/curtiscchensfree\">the paperback edition<\/a> which has an extra chapter about <i>Archer<\/i>). It&#8217;s also the only place you&#8217;ll see Rob Lowe and Jamie Kennedy compare how tight their pants are. Really. You want to see this movie.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike my friend <a href=\"http:\/\/kplusb.org\/#bryan\">Bryan<\/a>, I&#8217;m not yet burned out on superhero movies. I&#8217;m still enjoying the Marvel flicks, and cautiously optimistic about the upcoming DC slate. Just don&#8217;t screw up <a href=\"https:\/\/thedoubleclicks.bandcamp.com\/track\/wonder\"><i>Wonder Woman<\/i><\/a>, guys. Though honestly, I&#8217;m more psyched for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.supergirl.tv\/\"><i>Supergirl<\/i> on TV<\/a>. (It&#8217;s Supergirl! Every week! SQUEE)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/snout.org\/HotSheept\/CKL.jpg\" alt=\"Curtis\" title=\"Curtis\" border=\"0\" height=\"32\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finding your favorite cover of the Bowie tune is left as an exercise for the reader. Meanwhile, let&#8217;s talk about&#8230; The Specials (2000)andThe Incredibles (2004) https:\/\/youtu.be\/1wMvv924Gks https:\/\/youtu.be\/eZbzbC9285I Astute readers will notice that, like yesterday, I&#8217;ve chosen to feature two relatively&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[46,13,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-42movies21days","category-movies","category-video"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}