I’m out here at Sundance, practically bathing in movies and everything media 24hrs a God day in this little bubble, and out of nowhere I get the weirdest email. About….Dundee? I ignored it at first, too busy racing around Park City to really read anything. But later on I circled back out of curiosity. Surely this isn’t about Crocodile Dundee, is it? The iconic Paul Hogan character the world fell in love with in the ’80s?
And sure enough, it IS about Hogan’s character. The “That’t not a knife. Now THAT’s a knife” guy. And it’s being revived, in a sense, by Danny McBride in Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns home, which co-stars legit Aussie Chris Hemsworth. I mean, nobody had heard of this thing before. Is this a real movie or an elaborate hoax? We’re nearing the Super Bowl so maybe these are teasers for an upcoming commerical? Honestly, I have no idea, but I see one stick-up-the-butt writer at The Guardian already has his panties in a twist, and that makes me happy.
Watch the two teasers below for yourself, and let me know what you think. I think these are all McBride setting us up for something.
Sundance might want to watch out or they’re liable to get a reputation. After Patti Cake$ spit fire all over the screen last year, the festival hosts Joseph Kahn’s fierce battle rap comedy, Bodied, featuring another white boy rapper with the sick rhyme flow. Given that Eminem is on board as a producer, the rags to rap superiority tale should come as no surprise, nor should the film’s antagnoistic take on racial dynamics in the hip hop world.
As a black man who grew up embedded deep within the rap culture, the questions Bodied poses are nothing new to me, and I chuckled listening to the mostly-white critics here at Sundance act as if they were. But I dig that Kahn, along with co-writer an legit battle rapper Kid Twist bring edge, phat rhymes, attitude, and a deep respect for the game that not everybody understands or gets to see.
Like a rap version of Rudy, this underdog story features scrawny, PhD literature student Adam (Calum Worthy), who slaughters his foes in the underground battle rap scene while working on a thesis about the use of the N-word in battle raps. If Eminem had no street knowledge he might look something like Adam, who drags his PC vegan girlfriend Maya (Rory Uphold) into what looks like the setting of Fight Club to witness his hero and reigning champ Behn Grymm (Jackie Long) destroy another opponent. “Just assume everything is a gun metaphor”, he tells Maya who is confused and disturbed by the fussilage of racist, sexist, mysogenistic, fat shaming, slut shaming lyrics.
Grymm agrees to help Adam out with his thesis while constantly challenging him on the need for it in the first place, “It’s because they really want to say nigga” is the usual rationale for discussion of the word’s use by non-blacks. An impromptu parking lot challenge by a fellow white rapper finds Adam spittin’ bars he never knew he had, much to Maya’s chagrin. And just like that, Adam is the new hot battler, joining forces with Grymm and a United Nations of fellow rappers: Korean-born Prospek (Jonathan “Dumbfoundead” Park), Che Corleone (Walter Perez) from Ecuadaor and the afro-puffed black female rapper, Devine Wright (Shoniqua Shandai). “What is this, a Captain Planet reunion?” snipes one opposing rhymer.
The battle raps are the constant highlight, with Kahn’s energetic camera whirling around the battlefield, weaving in and out of the hyped onlookers. A particularly devastating insult might be super imposed with powerful comic book letters, or emboldened with the visual rat-a-tat-tat of verbal gunfire. If the film is overlong at two hours, the matches themselves never grow old, and I found myself forgetting that they were fictional and not taped footages of actual fights.
But Kahn isn’t interested in just the act of it; he recognizes that there is an art to battling. While Adam’s whiteness is always his Achilles heel, race, gender, physical appearance, religion, they are all fair game and the trick is to tear down your opponent with style. Does saying the word nigga in a rap battle make it okay? Does saying such vile things to defeat your opponent make you a terrible person? The script is a little all over the map when trying to decide. Adam goes through a stretch where his take-no-prisoners lyrics, a combination of vicious word play and liberal politics, causes him to lose everything he holds dear. At some points it’s tough to tell if he’s the hero of this story or the goat, and I don’t mean G.O.A.T. like LL Cool J.
Bodied is sure to offend just about everybody with its politically incorrect takes, but it holds particular venom for privileged white liberals who don’t recognize their biases. To win, Adam has to embrace that part of himself, while someone like Maya says what sounds right without recognizing the content of her words. And that may be the ultimate answer to the question that dogs Adam. The vile, nasty words he destroys opponents with don’t matter as much as who he is as a man. It’s only when the verbal assaults get personal that a clash has gone too far.
Debuting to a raucous reception at lat year’s TIFF, Bodied was just picked up by YouTube and screened here at Sundance for a select group. I’m not sure the progressive white crowd in Park City was the right audience, but I’m more curious to see how it’s received to a wider audience. Bodied can definitely get the crowd pumped like the world’s best hype man, but it’ll be interesting to see if it offends so many that nobody is left in the crowd to be moved.
We need to talk about Lynne Ramsay, I think. The Scottish director behind Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar, and We Need To Talk About Kevin doesn’t make a ton of movies. She’s exceedingly choosy; even when she does choose a project she doesn’t always see it through, like the recent western Jane Got A Gun. So when she does follow choose and then follow through it’s a special kind of occasion because, clearly, the film has special merit in her eyes. One can see why she would set her gaze on You Were Never Really Here, which presents itself as just your run of the mill revenge thriller, but as a character study of a killer it is anything but run of the mill.
Adapted from the book by Jonathan Ames, the film is led by an exceptional Joaquin Phoenix who is simply firing on all cylinders right now. Joe, with his heavy beard, bodily scares, and thousand yard stare, looks like walking death and that’s a pretty apt description of him. Ramsay knocks us off balance right from the beginning with a series of images, quick flashes, each more disturbing and confusing than the next. It’s a technique she will return to frequently to flesh out Joe’s backstory; we come to learn he’s a military vet who went through some seriously bad stuff as a child. Now he’s a contract bruiser, or killer if that’s what is called for, and he specializes in finding and rescuing young girls from perverted freaks. Joe’s got issues. He still lives in his childhood home with his ailing mother, and makes frequent attempts to suffocate himself.
This guy isn’t happy, and when he’s on a job committing gruesome acts of violence they only force a recall to his past trauma. Joe’s latest job finds him tracking down a kidnapped girl (Ekaterina Samsonov) with ties to powerful political forces, and when the job is done a conspiracy comes crashing down on his head that threatens everyone he cares about.
You Were Never Really Here is a lean, intense, beautifully edited and acted film that goes far beyond its simple plotting. Ramsay plays with our sense of time and space to keep us disoriented and in the shoes of her wary antihero. Phoenix barely says a word but he doesn’t need to. The depth of sadness and emotional fatigue are written all over his face, just as visible as the scars etched over his bulky frame. Along with Ramsay’s technical precision, it’s Phoenix’s performance that elevates this beyond just another vengeance tale. Watching him as a character this tortured yet driven for retribution, it reminded me of Terrence Stamp in The Limey, another great, economical movie following similar story threads. Jonny Greenwood’s electric, ultra-violent score is the perfect accompaniment to the brutality on screen. The poor girl next to me, far too young to be attending tonight’s Sundance screening, was either covering her face or plugging her ears throughout.
If there are missteps it’s only in that I could have done with fewer callbacks to Joe’s troubled past. The flashes of murder and domestic violence that constantly race through his memory are more confusing than informative. The film works best when stripped down to its barest essentials, and in the case of Joe’s past less is definitely more.
You Were Never Really Here is a knockout film and a welcome dose of art-house flair to the vengeance movie genre. Here’s hoping Ramsay doesn’t keep us waiting quite so long the next time.
All of you Three Billboards haters better toughen up, because like it or not that film is the current Oscars frontrunner for Best Picture. At tonight’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, Martin McDonagh’s…I hesitate to even call it controversial, drama led the way with wins for Best Ensemble, Best Leading Female for Frances McDormand, and Best Supporting Male for Sam Rockwell. As much as I hate to say it, Willem Dafoe’s performance in The Florida Project has fallen behind as Rockwell’s really surged at just the right time.
Full list of winners is below:
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, Motion Picture Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Motion Picture Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series This Is Us
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Claire Foy, The Crown
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie Alexander Skarsgard, Big Little Lies
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, Motion Picture Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, Motion Picture Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Veep
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series William H. Macy, Shameless
Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture Wonder Woman
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series Game of Thrones
If you know the name Boots Riley then you know his rap group, The Coup, and the pro-black anti-establishment message that became one of their hallmarks. Riley brings that same attitude, and The Coup’s funky baselines, to his bizarre, overly-stuffed satire Sorry to Bother You, which is like Livin’ Large, Hollywood Shuffle, and Putney Swope all rolled into one.
Plus an army of genetically altered horse people.
Yeah, that’s right. Genetically altered horse people are a thing in the oddball reality Riley has created. It’s like the freakazoid cherry atop a satirical sundae of racism, gentrification, capitalism, slavery, and good old fashioned selling out to the man. Lakeith Stanfield plays Cassius Green, an Oakland native who we meet as he’s trying to bullshit his way into a much-needed job. If it were anything else the lies he’s caught telling would get him thrown out, but it’s only a telemarketing gig. “You have initiative, and you can read”, he’s told by his new boss. Cassius doesn’t care about the super low expectations, he just needs the work. He’s living out of his uncle’s (Terry Crews) garage along with his activist/artist girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), who ekes out a living twirling signs on street corners.
Cassius sucks at his job, though, at least in the beginning. With every cold call he gets a quick hang-up, which is no way to make money at a commissions-based job. Plus, there’s the promise of becoming a Power Caller, the elite big money earners who sit atop the corporate structure. They even have their own elevator. Everything startst to turn around for Cassius when a veteran caller (Danny Glover) tells him to use his white voice. “Not Will Smith white”, he says. It’s about projecting confidence, and that Cassius’ white voice sounds a lot like David Cross (because it is David Cross) seems to work because soon he’s racking up sales and becoming a Power Caller.
All of this comes at the chagrin of Detroit and Cassius’ buddies who are trying to force his employer to give them better wages. In essence, the film is a simple story of a guy selling out his friends and everything he holds dear for the promise of wealth and power. But did I mention WorryFree yet? Riley’s commentary on slavery and capitalism involves WorryFree, a company that promises three meals a day and a place to live (“Three hots and a cot”) for a lifetime of employment. They’re all the rage and CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer, in gonzo territory) is one of the most powerful men in the country. He takes a liking to Cassius and helps him rise up the corporate ladder, which leads to other bizarre occurrences. As Cassius slips further into becoming an Uncle Tom, a hilarious bit has him forced by Lift into rapping, to which he entertains the all-white crowd with a chorus of “Nigga shit!!” to rapturous ovation. This after Lift tries to entice Cassius to tell gangsta stories because all black people must have them.
Anyone who has heard The Coup’s lyrics knows Riley has a lot to get off his chest, but he unloads too much of it here. I haven’t even gotten to his commentary on the media and our YouTube generation, which finds Cassius going viral when an activist’s soda can hits him on the head. The most popular TV show is ” I Got The Shit Kicked Out Of Me” which is exactly as the title suggests. And still we haven’t come close to those horse/human hybrids. There’s just so much to wade through that the film doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, stuck as Riley gets sidetracked with a brand new observation.
For his debut feature, Riley already has more creativity and style than directors with ten times his experience. In an early scene, as Cassius is failing miserably to make sales, each of his calls finds him magically transported into the homes of those he’s disrupting. And of course he’s calling at the worst times; a couple having sex, an older woman dealing with her husband’s cancer diagnosis. Riley peppers each scene with enough sight gags and visual cues to warrant a second viewing, and they help set up a crackpot world where we aren’t completely shocked by the sudden introduction of horse/human hybrids into the narrative. Why and how they exist is something best discovered on your own because it’s just another notch on the wacko scale.
Sorry to Bother You shows Riley to be a filmmaker with a ton of promise. He has a point of view, something to say, and a distinct way of saying it. What I’m torn about is whether or not he needs to narrow the focus to make clearer points. As long as Boots keeps being Boots I’m going to be intrigued to see what his future as a director holds.
1. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle– $27M/$316M
Talk about staying power. A month after release the remake of the classic early 90s Robin Williams vehicle remains in the top spot and has officially broken $300M. More proof to that old adage, don’t judge a remake by its pre-release chatter!
A less then stellar debut for the Chris Hemsworth starring actioner about the first boots on the ground in Afghanistan. I honestly thought we’d see a bigger debut for this one based on Chris Hemsworth star power and the track record of war movies in January.
The other major new release of the weekend came in just short of its competition. The Gerard Butler starring heist film got a solid 3.5 out of 5 from the PDC but it looks like that popularity didn’t carry it to an impressive open. Don’t count it out yet though, flicks like this tend to do amazingly on VOD.
4. The Post– $12.1M/$45M
5. The Greatest Showman– $11M/$113M
6. Paddington 2– $8.2M/$25M
Not exactly the showing from the film that has just officially become the best reviewed movie on Rotten Tomatoes. The Studio Canal sequel to the classic children’s story is sure to get a boost over the next few weeks as the original film is available on Netflix (and is a really fun watch!)
7. The Commuter– $6.6M/$25M
8. Star Wars: The Last Jedi– $6.5M/$604M
The divisive, but still amazing latest entry in the Skywalker saga has officially dropped out of the top 5. It doesn’t look like it’s going to enjoy the numbers of the nostalgia/hype drive ‘Force Awakens’ but $604 million bucks is nothing to laugh at!
9. Insidious: The Last Key– $5.9M/$58M
The last key looks like it will be the last entry in the series if diminishing returns have anything to say. Don’t forget though, $58 mill is a HELL of alot of money when you’re film only costs $5 million to make….a lower return for usual Blumhouse faire, but still a hell of a lot larger profit margin then 90% of films will ever see.
The Catcher Was A Spy has a great story to tell. Mo Berg was a veteran Major League Baseball player who, after he finally retired, somehow became a spy fighting for our side during WWII. It’s certainly intriguing to see how Berg could go from catching fastballs to hunting a German scientist, but despite a promising cast led by Paul Rudd, Paul Giamatti, Mark Strong, Guy Pearce, Jeff Daniels, and Sienna Miller, the film misses the strike zone by a wide margin.
Berg was more than just a baseball player for the Red Sox; he was brilliant man with multiple degrees and spoke many different languages, which made him something of an ambassador for the sport. He also had his share of secrets and was pretty good at keeping them, like his relationship with Estella (Sienna Miller), a woman he clearly has feelings for but keeps at arm’s length. Rumors persist that Berg is secretly a gay man, and one teammate actually seeks to expose him, but it’s a plotline that is quietly dropped and never seen again.
Berg’s baseball career is basically just a footnote, and director Ben Lewin (He was here a few years ago with The Sessions) and screenwriter Robert Rodat focus on his being assigned by the U.S. military to assassinate Werner Heisenberg (Strong), a physicist they believe is developing an atomic bomb for the Germans. Sadly, the retelling of that story is pretty bland and lacks any urgency whatsoever for what amounts to a race to win the war. Lewin seems out of his depth as a director of espionage and action, even while Howard Shore’s able score plumbs the shadowy depths of intrigue the film so readily wants to be.
But not only is Lewin unsuitable as a director, so is Paul Rudd badly miscast as Berg. He’s simply not the right actor for the kind of rugged film noir hero the role demands. Now if this were a parody or a WWII satire then Rudd would be your guy. And since he’s in every scene the entire movie topples and there really is no way to recover. Not even the supporting cast can do much to save it. All are fine, but that’s all…they’re just fine. The only ones I would say are badly misused are Guy Pearce and poor Sienna Miller, relegated to yet another thankless role as the forgotten woman beside an interesting man.
The Catcher Was A Spy does no favors to Mo Berg’s story, which is ready made for the big Hollywood treatment if put in the right hands.
Gus Van Sant is one of those filmmakers we are constantly told is one of the greats, in fact at today’s world premiere of Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot he was introduced as such. But more often than not it isn’t remotely true and the last ten years have been especially grim. Sea of Trees, anyone? But when Van Sant hits, he can be one of the greats. He just needs the right material. Milk was the right material. To Die For was the right material. Don’t Worry, which finds Van Sant reunited with To Die For‘s Joaquin Phoenix, is also the right material, and despite a few cliches from the “triumph of the human spirit” rulebook, he’s delivered a crowd pleasing movie with two potentially awards-worthy performances.
In the works for years, and once with Robin Williams eyed for the lead role, Don’t Worry centers on controversial Portland cartoonist John Callahan and his triumphs over alcoholism. Actually, it’s more than that, John must also triumph over being a quadriplegic, and from being abandoned by his mother at a young age. All of these life hurdles make up just a fraction of the massive story Van Sant aims to tell, broken down into mixed-up timelines that follow him as a hardcore alcoholic, to getting into a nasty car accident with his buddy Dexter (Jack Black), to learning to overcome it through the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-Step Program, and finally his career as a cartoonist.
Most of the narrative goes through John’s AA meetings, as he recounts his tale of woe to his sponsor Donnie (Jonah Hill), and the group’s other members, referred to as “piglets”, and not in a way that is derogatory by any means. And these folks won’t take any of John’s crap, nor will they just sit back and listen to his sob stories. Udo Kier, the fantastic Beth Ditto, Kim Gordon, and Mark Webber make up the core members of the group, and the film is at its best when everything is set up through these scenes.
Otherwise it becomes a little bit of a mess because Van Sant just has too much to say. He also explores Callahan’s relationship with Annu (Rooney Mara, given nothing to do), a flight attendant who just drifts into the hospital one day and becomes his lover for some reason. There’s also Callahan’s quest to find his real mother, the one who left him an orphan, and whose mystical presence he attributes to his decision to quit drinking once and for all. There’s actually a lot more going on, too, while somehow Van Sant finds tons of time to show Callahan racing around town in his wheelchair just goofing off. Like tons of time. Too much. Taking a page from American Splendor, Van Sant intercuts cartoons featuring many of Callahan’s most notable pieces, almost as signposts to each stage of his life.
It gets unwieldy, but when that happens Van Sant turns to the performances by Phoenix and Hill to hold everything together. Phoenix has never been better, wonderfully capturing John’s evolution from reckless drunk to sober-but-divisive cartoonist, all while never losing his biting sense of humor. I would say the script, penned by Van Sant himself, does John a disservice in the early going. All we see of him is being a fall-down stupid drunk and not much else. It’s hard to see what makes John special. But as he begins to grow into his own, with the help of the 12 Steps, we finally get to see why so many people seem to be rooting for him to succeed.
At this point it’s not fair to call Jonah Hill a revelation every time he has a strong role. He’s been so go so often that we should be used to it, but I think his performance as Donnie is the best he’s been. Portraying the flamboyantly gay Donnie could have led to a misguided stereotype of a character, but Hill never slips into caricature. Of the many characters that arrive to help John in his many moments of need, Donnie leaves the most emotional impact.
You can see Van Sant’s admiration of Callahan in every frame. There’s just so much that he wants to share about Callahan that he can’t bear to let anything go. And while that prevents Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot from being great, Van Sant will have audiences cheering (and crying) in tribute to Callahan’s life.
All due respect to the many Nicolas Cage movies that find him going unhinged, they’ve got nothing on Mandy. This deranged horror/revenge thriller from Panos Cosmatos, the director behind the bizarre, cultish Beyond the Black Rainbow, will appeal to fans of the filmmaker and of Cage, with everyone bursting into applause each time the actor lost his grip on sanity.
Which is often.
Cage, channeling a little bit of the rugged luberjack he played in Joe, takes on the role of Red in the 1983-set film. Red lives in the Shadow Mountains with the love of his life, Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), off in their own little world, a calming, peaceful existence that is just the two of them. She’s into reading macabre, supernatural horror novels, and talking about the universe. Red, he just seems happy to be around Mandy. She is his everything.
It can’t last. A chance encounter with a roving band of demented religious extremists leads to Andrea becoming the obsession of their leader, Jeremiah (Linus Roache). Blowing on some extra-dimensial horn, a foursome of leather-clad biker goons attacks Red and kidnaps Andrea so she can be inducted into Jeremiah’s odd little band of circus freaks. When tragedy strikes, Red is forced to embrace the darkness within himself and go primal on the “hippie religious freaks.”
Fans of Cosmatos will recognize what is becoming his signature style, luminous but ominous colors that transport you into an unrecognizable abstract world. Heavily influenced by rock musicals, Cosmatos uses the film’s soundtrack to drag you deeper into the abyss from which his characters exist. The first hour of the movie belongs to Roache, whose Jeremiah is like all of the worst cult leaders rolled into one, then given an extra dose of crazy juice. As he rants and raves about higher powers and otherworldly realms, most of what he’s going on about will fly over your head. It’s enough to know that he’s not exactly playing with a full deck, and will put his wacko beliefs into action.
But he’s got nothing on Red. The second half of the film is all Cage as it transforms into an Army of Darkness-esque splatter fest. Proving he can go full gonzo as well if not better than Bruce Campbell, Cage unleashes madness like nothing we’ve ever seen from him. Armed with a vicious crossbow dubbed “The Widowmaker” and a nasty bladed weapon he forges himself (not unlike what we’ve seen from Bruce Campbell’s Ash), Red shows no mercy and it would be impossible to do justice to the level of face-melting carnage on display.
For all of the violence on display Cosmatos and Cage combine to make a movie that is actually pretty funny, if you have a seriously sick, demented sense of humor. In what i think is the film’s funniest, pure Cage moment, Red locks himself in a bathroom, howling with rage, anger, and grief. Covered in deep, bloody wounds, Red grabs a bottle of vodka and begins to chug. Between gulps his howls continue, growing louder as he pours the liquor over his shredded body. The scene goes on for minutes, and with every swallow it gets more ridiculous. Only somebody like Cage could pull it off.
Mandy will appeal to those who are down with Cosmatos’ embrace of the grisly and grotesque. It reaches such a level that some may not be able to handle a full two hours of it. But the wait is well worth it to see Cage in a psychotic performance that will certainly mark a highlight of this stage of his career.
The Arrowverse took a break over the holidays, which left us off with some interesting cliffhangers. On Supergirl, Kara got dealt with her first official L in the show’s history as she faced off against Reign. Samantha finally revealed her true nature as Reign, and the bringer of Earth’s destruction, and there was little Kara could do to stop her. On The Flash, Barry continued to fall victim of The Thinker and all of his plans. This left Barry is a world of trouble as DeVoe transferred his consciousness into a new body and blaming Barry for killing his “old” body, just as the police arrived for Barry to discover the body. We’re going to have to wait a little while for Legends of Tomorrow to return and see what John Constantine has to offer the group as there’s a new player in the DC CW, Black Lightning (more on that in a bit). Finally, on Arrow, Team Arrow has finally split up as Oliver didn’t trust Renee, Diana, and Curtis. Meanwhile, Cayden James has assembled his own “Legion of Doom” out of foes of Oliver.
So how did the Arrowverse go this week?
Supergirl: “Legion of Superheroes”
Kara fought valiantly against Reign, but it wasn’t enough. When this week’s episode begins, we think all is well as she awakens in her apartment. At first, it seems like all is well. She’s recuperated and everything’s back to normal. Of course, that isn’t the case as soon as we meet a new character. Kara soon meets Brainiac 5, one of Mon-El compatriots from the 31st Century. Brainiac 5 is a member of Mon-El’s “Legion of Superheroes,” half computer, half alien, who Mon-El had to awaken from cryosleep to help Kara as she’s still in a coma.
Kara’s interactions with Brainiac 5 are going on while she is still in a coma, something that he forgot to remind her while they were going on about their conversation. Brainiac, being a “12th Level Intellect,” is able to interact with her in her coma while also dealing with everyone at the DEO in the real world.
But there’s still a world-killer Kryptonian that we have to deal with. Samantha, who doesn’t seem to realize that she’s Reign all the time, is enjoying a nice time with her daughter when she once again gets triggered by a vision and heads to her Fortress of Sanctuary where she receives instructions from her hologram guide. As Reign, she has to install a new sense of “justice” in this world. Instead of being like Kara and stopping criminals in a decent manner, her new task is to enact justice Punisher-style and straight up kill evil-doers. She warns KatCo that she’s her and will instill justice the way she sees fit, and then she’s off to take out the trash.
Superman had the DEO get rid of their anti-Kryptonian weapons way back in season 2 (except for a few weapons), so there’s not much they can do. They ask Mon-El if there is anything he and his team can do. Mon-El isn’t so eager to help out though. He knows that he and his team aren’t a complete match against an angry Kryptonian and they could risk death. Their deaths would have a severe impact on the timeline and would result in more deaths than he would like to be responsible for.
Kara’s body seems to have finally healed. However, she’s having trouble leaving her subconscious. Brainiac 5 (multitasking) realizes that she can’t leave her subconscious because she’s afraid. She’s never been beaten within an inch of her life, and the new feeling has left her afraid, even though she won’t admit it. She’s going to have to figure out a way to overcome her fear if she’s to stop Reign.
Mon-El and the rest of the Legion of Superheroes decide it’s worth the risk and engage Reign in battle. He and Imra activate their Legion Flight Rings and engage in battle while Brainiac 5 operates their ship. Reign seems to be able to hold off against them (as well as Martian Manhunter) for the most part as Brainiac 5 is distracted dealing with Kara in her subconscious as well. She then tells Brainiac 5 to focus on the fight and leave her. Kara then decides now is the time to step up. She focuses on the memory of her cat, who reminds her of herself and she’s able to finally wake up. Kara comes into the battle to tip the scales and defeats Reign (thanks to some Kryptonite) who is able to leave.
Reign wake up later in her Fortress where her avatar tells her that there are more World Killers other than herself, so she now has her own evil team.
The Flash: “The Trial of The Flash”
Boy did Barry step into it this season on The Flash. Finally meeting his match with DeVoe, he’s ended up the one place we never thought he would: outmatched. As stated before, his enemy doesn’t have super speed, he has super intellect. Anything Barry could have thought to do to stop him, the Thinker has already thought of it and was able to counter it. Throughout the season, DeVoe has laid the breadcrumbs for Barry to end up in his current situation.
Which has led to his arrest. He “harassed” DeVoe, which got the restraining order against him. He spied on DeVoe’s house, which put his DNA all over the place. Barry’s screwed. No matter how many times he proclaims his innocence which we know to be true, he’s a guilty man. The entire episode focuses on Barry’s trial for DeVoe’s death, and all bases are covered, DeVoe even made Barry’s occupation as a forensic expert for the Central City police department make him seem like Dexter. Hell, I would have convicted him.
Cecile does her best to represent Barry during the trial, but the deck’s not in their favor. The only real defense he could (and should) give is to reveal that he’s The Flash to the world. Barry doesn’t want to do that as it would then put a target n his family and friends’ backs. Barry just has to sit here and eat it all up. DeVoe’s wife Marlize puts on the waterworks against the jury as well. Even when Joe and Ralph discover her kissing Dominic (whose body Devoe now controls), she is able to spin it around as an affair DeVoe already knew about and accepted. There’s nothing they can do to right this ship.
There’s a sweet moment when Iris decides to tell the court who Barry really is. He stops her last minute and the two get caught in their own little “Speed Force Bubble,” moving so quickly that no one else can see or hear them. He tells her not to reveal his identity as he’s doing this to protect her. She says “I would rather run forever with you than stand alone without you.” It’s touching but doesn’t change anything as she doesn’t reveal who Barry is to the court.
With no hope left, Joe ops to frame a guilty person. He has Ralph use his Plastic Man powers to break into DeVoe’s house and plant evidence that Marlize moved DeVoe’s body to Barry’s. Ralph has expertise in this area and gives Joe just the right pep talk to talk him out of doing something that would ultimately destroy his soul from the inside.
Before the verdict is delivered, Barry has the chance to do one last good deed. One of DeVoe’s metas created is exuding nuclear radiation through no fault of his own and threatens to destroy the city. Team Flash tried to stop the man, but would get radiation poisoning, so it’s up to Barry to do this one last deed. He creates a vortex that allows Cisco to send him to an uninhabited Earth and save more people. “The Flash” is given an award for by the Central City police department while Barry Allen is found guilty of murdering DeVoe. The real DeVoe sees Barry and taunts him, revealing that he needed Barry out of the way but wouldn’t say why.
The episode ends with Barry sentenced to life imprisonment at Iron Heights prison as he enters the same cell his father Henry Allen was in for his similar wrongful conviction.
Black Lightning: “The Resurrection”
Legends of Tomorrow won’t make its return for a few weeks, which paves the way for the DC CW’s newest superhero show Black Lightning. The second superhero show featuring a black hero after Luke Cage is very similar to its Marvel/Netflix counterpart as it focuses on a superpowered hero while also bringing forward many relevant issues we face nowadays. If you thought that the show was going to be watered down because it’s on network TV, think again. I’ll just say right off the top, Good God was Black Lightning good!
Although Black Lightning is on the CW, the producers have stated that everything going on will not be a part of the Arrowverse prime, meaning, everything going on in the show is not a part of Earth-1 as the creators want the show to be able to stand on its own and not have to rely on the rest of the Arrowverse characters in it. And that’s a good thing! The tone is much different than the rest of the DC CW show and is dealing with a more mature subject matter.
Right off the top, we’ll be dealing with protests, gang violence, racism, and police brutality. The titular character spends most of his time as his mild-mannered self Jefferson Pierce. Pierce is a former vigilante who hung up his suit for the sake of his family, realizing that he can save more lives as a high school principal than he ever could as a vigilante. But like the Dark Knight, he needs to return. A major gang called The 100 is tearing the city apart. Causing more than 100 killing within a weekend, the episode begins with a protest against them turned into a riot with the police going at the whole community. Pierce’s eldest daughter Anissa was flexing her political protest muscles and got herself arrested. Because Jefferson is “Black Jesus,” he is able to get his daughter let out of police custody, membership has its privileges.
But not for so long. On his way home, Jefferson has to deal with that sobering reality that just about everyone black in America has to deal with: being a “Number One Male” in the eyes of the police. It didn’t matter that he was wearing his fundraiser suit and in his family car, he had to get out of the car and be forced to be humiliated by a police officer who was looking for a black man who robbed a liquor store. After the store owner basically “let him go” he has to go about his business as if nothing’s wrong. His anger briefly manifests and activates his Black Lightning powers, but manages to keep his anger in check.
As he carries on his fundraiser, his younger daughter, the “free spirit” one leaves the school since she hates the social pressures expected of her by her father and the school, and she heads to a party at a club. Of course, the club is “Club 100” as all the people at the party are members of the notorious gang. While her older sister gives her a little cover, Jefferson soon learns where she is. She just happens to befriend a local gangster who’s in his own trouble with upper management. Even though she’s not associated with the guy, she soon gets into his trouble. Lucky for her, her father came to the club to get her out of there. Knowing what he’s dealing with, he doesn’t subside his Black Lightning powers as he takes out members of The 100 at the club. In the aftermath, the police arrive and once again, he’s in their crosshairs not for being a vigilante, but for being black. At gunpoint, he’s told to get his “black ass” on the ground, and this time he doesn’t submit. He uses his Black Lightning to take on the police officers and then get home.
This causes commotion within the community as many (including Roland Martin with a shameless cameo) are asking, “Is Black Lightning Back?” This catches the eye of Tobias, who’s sure to be the show’s big baddie. How do we know? Because he gleefully feeds his enemies to his piranhas as well as harpoon them to submit to his will. Jefferson’s friend Peter, who’s his “guy in the chair” tells him he has to come back, and has already started building a superpowered suit for him. Jefferson is still not ready to be Black Lightning. His Vigilante activities cause his wife to leave him, and he wants her back. He instead wants to negotiate with The 100 leadership to stay away from his school and his daughters, but that didn’t hold long as one of them confronted his daughters. While he was able to squash the situation, the guy comes back later to kidnap them.
Now, he needs to get back in the game. Getting a fresh suit, he goes back into action to save his daughters. Black Lighting is more like season one Oliver as “The Hood” and not any of the other CW heroes as he has no problem dispatching members of the gang with his electric powers. He easily kills a few of them in order to save his daughters, especially the guy who kidnapped them. While the pilot episode drops us into a world where Black Lightning already existed, it still is an origin story, just not for the main character. Towards the end of the episode, his eldest daughter wakes up from a nightmare of her kidnapping and in her panic activates her own superpower. Comic book fans know that his daughters operate as “Thunder’ and “Lightening,” so it won’t take long for them to become heroes themselves.
Either way, Black Lightning is here!
Arrow: “Divided”
In the midseason finale, Team Arrow was officially broken up. Because Renee had to basically snitch on Oliver for the sake of his daughter, is set forward a chain of events that led to Oliver spying on the whole team, which led to the team breaking up. In the aftermath of that, not much changed this episode team-wise as they are trying to find a way to work through their newfound situation.
Even as they are fighting each other, they still have a major enemy who is threatening the city. Cayden James and his newfound group of supervillains are still trying to terrorize the city though. His latest plan requires control of the ports, which leads him at odds with one of the local mobsters. While the monster happens to be cousins with The Huntress, he ends up asking the Green Arrow for help.
The rest of Team Arrow is moving on with their lives. Dinah is back to police work and secretly getting cozy with her former partner/lover Vigilante, not knowing he a part of Cayden James’ cabal. Renee, who was fired from working for Oliver after the breakup is focused on his daughter. He does feel guilty about his role in the team’s breakup and wants to try to get rid of the leverage the feds have against him so he won’t have to testify against Oliver. Curtis seems to be the only one still semi-cool as he’s utilizing his scientific expertise to help Diggle fix the tremor in his hand. Of course, things get awkward when Oliver shows up, so Curtis politely leaves.
Felicity and Diggle realize that James has been bugging the Arrow Cave for quite some time. After setting up shop at an ARGUS facility, and quietly working with the local mobster, they learn that James not only has been bugging them, but he has a new group of superfriends. They reach out to the departed members of Team Arrow to reveal the new information, only for them to be upset that they waited 24 hours to tell them. It’s clear that there still is a trust issue among the former team. Diggle recommends to Oliver that they get the band back together, but Oliver still doesn’t trust them.
So he goes alone to confront James and his group. While Oliver holds his own and thinks he has the drop on most of them, when he fights against Vigilante, he isn’t able to defeat them. The mobster is forced to betray Oliver (to keep his daughter alive) and just before he’s about to shoot Oliver, he escapes.
Oliver decides that it’s time to let bygones be bygones and everyone needs to become a family once again. While it seems like the breakup was only going to last one episode, Renee, and the team rebuff Oliver’s request. He, Dinah, and Curtis tell Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle that they would rather fight them on their own. Oliver wishes them luck, but they are for sure broken up. As a means of friendship, Curtis gives Diggle the chip, which heals his hand, meaning that Spartan will be back. Curtis and team take over an abandoned Helix facility and have their own Arrow Cave to operate out of.
