Movie Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

by Tony Dayoub



After a number of previous attempts at getting the alchemy right, Sony Pictures finally gets its (500) Days of Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Ironic, because not even (500) Days of Summer director, Marc Webb, ever came close in the two Spider-Man movies he directed, starring Andrew Garfield. This time, the financially shaky Sony had to stow its pride and go running to Marvel, the very company it had scooped up the superhero franchise away from back when the roles were reversed, and ask it for help in developing the property. A wise decision as it turns out, because Marvel knows that what fans have wanted to see the most is its iconic hero interact with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I mean, what would DC be like without Superman or Batman, right? Disney without Mickey Mouse? Looney Tunes without Bugs Bunny? Marvel has long been scratching that phantom itch with Spidey, but they've played the long game, first introducing Tom Holland as a high school-age Peter Parker in 2016's Captain America: Civil War. This through Marvel's eminence grise, Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man.

Movie Review: Love Is Strange (2014)

by Tony Dayoub


Sweet, sincere and romantic, if ever there were an LGBT-themed film with crossover potential Love Is Strange would be a prime candidate. Sure, there has been Brokeback Mountain, Milk, The Kids Are Alright and any number of other ones that have struck a chord with audiences, particularly in the arthouse circuit. But there is something sweeping about Ira Sachs' Love Is Strange, something to which everyone in a deep, committed relationship can relate to without the movie betraying its own identity to pander to a straight audience. While "betray" may be too strong a word to use regarding the previously mentioned movies they did play to the stands, so to speak—Brokeback by emphasizing homosexual alienation; Milk by emphasizing its countercultural aspect; Kids by making the story a triangle featuring a straight male figure as a possible point of identification.

Movie Review: Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

by Tony Dayoub

Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) and wife, Emily (Julianne Moore) have just sat down to dinner at a nice restaurant. We know they've been married for awhile because while every other couple at the restaurant is engaged in a lively conversation, Cal and Emily scan their menu quietly, mumbling about its contents to themselves; there's that and their mismatched style of dress: Cal, disheveled and wearing sneakers while sharply dressed Emily fidgets in her heels. When Cal breaks the silence to ask his wife what she wants, Emily announces, "I want a divorce." And so begins Crazy, Stupid, Love., the pretentiously punctuated romantic comedy-drama that cleverly embraces some of its own snootiness in its attempt to impart a bit of wisdom about the current state of love.

Movie Review: The Wrestler, or Jesus, the Other Anti-Hero

by Lissette Decos I had very little time for movie-watching in 2008. A minor detail I should have thought long and hard about before seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Not only did it suck, but it was so long that it left no time for any other movies. I did manage to see Slumdog Millionaire, which was good - but in the way that vanilla ice cream is good. And I prefer my vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips. But now that the Oscars have come and gone my movie dance card is clear once again, and I could finally go see The Wrestler. This movie is great - great in the way that a trip to Italy with enough money that you don’t have to stay in hostels and actually eat at restaurants is great. I saw it two days ago, and I can’t stop thinking about it. And I love movies that make you think. When the titular wrestler, Randy the Ram (Mickey Rourke), is preparing for his big fight it made me think about Rocky and how unlike Rocky he is. When the wrestler has his “pump up/getting ready” montage he doesn’t find the biggest set of stairs in town and run up them. As far as I can see, he doesn’t even own a jump rope. And there are no raw eggs in his diet. Instead, the Ram self-tans, dyes his roots, and injects himself with some sort of steroid. He lifts a few small barbells just to pump up the muscles on his arms. Oh yeah, at one point he stretches his legs a little. Rocky Balboa may have had his faults, but the Ram makes Rocky look like a standup citizen. Randy is a self-absorbed, deadbeat dad with a drug addiction. But that’s where the Rocky comparisons and contrasts ended for me because really the Ram’s more like Jesus or Jesus Christ Superstar. I’m not sure which. I would need to see the latter to be sure. His stripper friend, Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), mentions it early in the film and from that point on it was clear to me. There’s a virgin, a prostitute, and he’s a Ram - which let’s face it, sounds a lot like lamb (as in sacrificial). And the clincher is the major (what I like to call) crucifixion scene, where a crazy nut that looks a lot like Pontius Pilate staples him to the cross. At one point they even go up a ladder as if trying to hang him on a cross, the barbed wire they crash onto looking a lot like a crown of thorns. When he comes out of that bout he has a huge gash on his side, and a medic puts his finger in it. Remember when Judas did that to make sure that was really Jesus? Isn’t there a famous painting depicting this scene? I loved The Wrestler in the way that makes you feel like why in the @$%# did this movie not win an Oscar... or five Oscars!? I loved it in the way that I wish Randy the Ram could beat up Benjamin Button. Put Randy in the ring and have his way with Button. I don’t care if it’s old-but-really-young Button or young-but-actually-old Button! Just get whichever Button you want, throw him in the ring, and have your way with him Ram!

Movie Review: The Wrestler - An Ode to Mickey Rourke

Mickey Rourke triumphantly returns to the screen in the best role he's played since... Marv in Sin City (2005)? Well, that wasn't so long ago. Yet it seems that every time Rourke continues to impress us with a tour-de-force performance, as he does in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, he is hailed as the "Comeback Kid," when in fact, he's never gone anywhere. One look at his filmography confirms this, as he has had at least one film, if not more, released every year since his debut in 1979, except for the years 1993 and 2007. True, they frequently aren't movies you would see in the year-end top ten lists. But like Marlon Brando, the quirky and mumbling Rourke is a performer that never fails to fascinate in any number of variations on the tough guy persona he usually imbues with the soul of a child. In The Wrestler, he plays fading superstar Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a veteran of the sport that though filled with showboat antics, may actually be more punishing than similar gladiatorial displays out there. Robinson moves through his humble life, struggling to collect his cut of the gate; having trouble making ends meet; and deluding himself into thinking he is actually connecting with a stripper, Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), which he frequents. Oblivious to the destructive toll the matches take on his aging body, it is only after a particularly brutal rematch with the Ayatollah (Ernest Miller) that he gets a warning sign. Suffering a major heart attack, he is forced to retire, and it is then that we see what few prospects Robinson has. He lives alone in a trailer park. He has no family save for his now grown daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), who won't talk to him. Is it only a matter of time before he has to risk returning to the ring? Aronofsky's skill as a storyteller continues to grow. Gone is the film-school vibe of his first film, π (1998). The visual gimmickry of his overrated Requiem for a Dream (2000) is harnessed to better use here, as in one scene where he crosscuts between Robinson as he prepares for a match, and Cassidy psyching herself up for her next dance. Both self-destructively chase down the money no matter what the physical or psychological cost to each. The Wrestler expands on the promise the director displayed in the misunderstood The Fountain (2006). Like in that film, Robinson risks all to sustain the connection to someone he loves, despite the inevitability of his self-destruction in doing so. But here the emotional core is not lost in the sci-fi pyrotechnics of the earlier film. The Wrestler is a variation on the film noir subgenre, the fight movie, which only serves to underscore the parallels between Robinson and Rourke. A rising star in the eighties, Rourke's bad decisions, like interrupting his career to venture into the world of boxing, interrupted his ascent. Noxious behavior in his personal life, which included arrests for spousal abuse, and a DUI further illustrate his penchant for masochism. His newfound vigor in returning to acting is evident in his portrayal of Robinson's climactic attempt to recapture the glory he once garnered in the ring. Rourke's iconic performance is both powerful and touching. Like Brando, who was always ill at ease with his handsome looks, Rourke has shown signs of the same. The onetime pretty boy now has a face scarred by reconstructive surgeries after the beatings inflicted in boxing. And Robinson's bloodied visage evokes previous roles in which Rourke has taken safe harbor, away from his looks, like Marv in Sin City, or John Sedley in Johnny Handsome (1989). These ugly bruisers both hid a secret child-like soul, the same way Robinson does. In one scene, Robinson's loneliness prompts him to step outside his trailer home, and invite a neighbor kid to play a wrestling game on an outdated Nintendo. When the child loses and politely decides to leave, Robinson is embarrassed that not even a rematch can entice the boy to stay. The Wrestler should go down as one of this actor's landmark roles, but don't call it a comeback. He's always been around, even if we haven't always been looking. Darren Aronofsky will discuss The Wrestler at 1:30 p.m., Saturday, October 11th, at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, located on the tenth floor of the Samuel B. and David Rose Building, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, New York, 10023; $16 The Wrestler is the Closing Night film at the 46th New York Film Festival, and is playing at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, October 12th, at the Avery Fisher Hall, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, New York, 10023; $40 This entry first appeared on Blogcritics on 10/9/2008. Photo Credit: Fox Searchlight / Wild Bunch / Film Society of Lincoln Center