the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On “Loki” as an American Riff on “Doctor Who”…

Posted on June 26, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist today. Following the latest episode of Loki, it has become very clear that the show is an interesting American counterpoint to Doctor Who, specifically the version of Doctor Who overseen by showrunner Steven Moffat.

Loki carries over a lot of the imagery of Doctor Who, often with an interesting specificity – the purple world from Mindwarp, the fugitive pulled out of time to face trial for meddling with the timeline from The Mysterious Planet, the exploding moon from Kill the Moon, the former villain encountering different gendered versions of themselves from The Doctor Falls, the notion of “Volcano Day” from The Doctor Dances. It’s interesting to see such a major property drawing so directly from an eccentric British television show.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: america, doctor who, loki, steven moffat, time lords | Leave a comment »

240. Fargo (#176)

Posted on June 26, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, with special guests Rioghnach Ní Ghrioghair and Stacy Grouden, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo.

A routine kidnapping case spirals into something far more sinister and unsettling in an isolated corner of Minnesota. Arriving to the scene of a brutal roadside murder, Chief of Police Marge Gunderson finds herself embroiled in a complicated and chaotic story of greed and violence with horrific consequences.

At time of recording, it was ranked 176th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: capitalism, coens, corruption, ethan coen, evil, fargo, good, greed, joel coen, laziness, marge gunderson, minnesota nices, moral hygiene, peter stormare, podcast, Rioghnach Ní Ghrioghair, Sloth, stacy grouden, steve buscemi, The 250, the coen brothers, the coens | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “F9” is All “Family” and No Heart…

Posted on June 25, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of F9: The Fast Saga this weekend, it seemed like an opportunity to take a look at one of the paradoxes of the movie.

The Fast and Furious is a franchise about “family.” It is woven into the fabric of the franchise, and very directly into the plot of the latest film. This makes it all the more frustrating that F9 is completely lacking any humanity. With changes to the cast and weird structural choices, F9 has lost touch with the central appeal of the franchise and cut itself off from the warmest members of the ensemble. F9 is a strangely heartless movie about family.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: f9: the fast saga, fast and furious, Paul Walker, the fast and furious, the rock, Vin Diesel | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “A Marvelous Escape” – Loki – “Lamentis”…

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Darren

With a slew of Marvel Studios productions coming to Disney+ over the next six months, The Escapist has launched a weekly show discussing these series

This week, I join KC Nwosu and Amy Campbell to talk about the third episode of Loki, streaming on Disney+.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: doctor who, lamentis, loki, streaming, Television | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: F9 – The Fast Saga

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Darren

They say “start as you mean to go on.” So it seems appropriate that F9: The Fast Saga opens with a car crash.

The ninth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise arrives at an interesting time in the run of the series. Vin Diesel has announced that it might be time to retire the franchise, following a closing trilogy worthy of the characters. After much internal drama, two of the franchise’s core characters have spun out into their own franchise with Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw. The series is also still coming to terms with the passing of Paul Walker, who was the glue that held the franchise together. After all, what are Roman and Tej doing on the team now that Brian is gone?

Back in the ‘burgh.

Perhaps understanding that this is a tumultuous time for the Fast and Furious series, F9 makes a number of obvious plays for safe and familiar ground. Justin Lin returns as writer and co-director, a veteran of the franchise who helmed the four films between Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast and Furious 6. Lin directed Fast Five, which is probably the best film in the franchise, existing at the perfect intersection between the series’ origins as a gritty urban western and the bombastic blockbuster behemoth that it would become.

F9 clearly and repeatedly attempts to recapture some of the magic of Fast Five, but only serves to demonstrate that the franchise can’t go home again.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cars, fast and furious, film, john cena, Movie, non-review review, Paul Walker, review, soap oepra, the fast and the furious, Vin Diesel | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “F9: The Fast Saga – Review”

Posted on June 22, 2021 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute film review of F9: The Fast Saga, which is releasing theatrically worldwide this weekend.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: f9, fast and furious, john cena, the fast and the furious, Vin Diesel | Leave a comment »

239. BloodRayne (-#32)

Posted on June 19, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Billie Jean Doheny, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, Uwe Boll’s BloodRayne.

An ancient evil stalks the landscape. The evil vampire lord Kagan casts a long shadow. The only hope of humanity lies with his daughter Rayne, who aims to avenge her mother and slay her father. However, she also has to reckon with the secret Brimstone Society, a human organisation that might have its own agenda.

At time of recording, it was ranked 32nd on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: ben kingsley, billie jean doheny, Billy Zane, bloodrayne, filming, germany, lawsuits, meatloaf, Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriguez, Movie, Romania, tax avoidance, tax evasion, tax law, uwe boll, vampires | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Mythic Quest” Understands the Creation as a Collaborative Process…

Posted on June 18, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With Mythic Quest wrapping up its second season next week, it seemed like a good time to take a look at what is quietly one of the best shows on television.

Mythic Quest is a workplace sitcom about a video game studio. It is also one of the most insightful studies of the creative process ever made. A large part of this is down to the fact that Mythic Quest understands that creation is an inherently collaborative process, that it does not happen in a vacuum and that it involves lots of people working together towards the same ends. It’s a very mature reflection on how creativity works.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: art, collaboration, creation, creative process, in the frame, it's always sunny in philadelphia, mythic quest, the escapist | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: In the Heights

Posted on June 18, 2021 by Darren

When it premiered, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights was a radical piece of work.

Miranda had begun working on the musical when he was in his sophomore year of college, producing an eighty-minute version of the play in 1999. He would take a prototype of the completed musical to Waterford, Connecticut in 2005. The show would move Off-Broadway two years later, and would open on Broadway in February 2008. It was a move that very much announced the arrival of Miranda as a serious talent, and would serve as a springboard to his later success with Hamilton.

“There’ll be dancing…
Dancing in the Street…”

In the Heights is set against the backdrop of Washington Heights, a neighbourhood on the north west side of Manhattan. Inspired by Miranda’s own experience as a Puerto Rican immigrant, the musical follows the inhabitants of the neighbourhood as they navigate a changing world. The story is told through the eyes of Usnavi, the young owner of a small bodega who dreams of returning to his home in the Dominican Republic, but who needs to find a way to express his feelings for Vanessa, who is considering a move of her own to the West Village.

Miranda wrote In the Heights as a very pointed response to traditional staged musicals like West Side Story. It’s no small irony that, more than twenty years after it premiered, the film adaptation feels as much like a traditional musical as any of the classics that Miranda had railed against.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: corey hawkins, cynicism, film, gentrification, in the heights, lin-manuel miranda, Movie, musical, non-review review, nostalgia, obama, optimism, review, trump, washington heights | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Luca

Posted on June 18, 2021 by Darren

There’s an appealing low-stakes gentleness to Luca. In fact, Luca might be Pixar’s first hangout movie.

The film tells the story the eponymous sea monster. The young boy lives off the Italian Riviera, tending to the local fish and dreaming of the world above the surface. One day, following a chance encounter with a more adventurous boy named Alberto, Luca discovers that he can change form when dry. Outside the ocean, Luca and Alberto can pass as human children. Against his family’s better judgment and aware of what might happen if he is discovered, Luca decides to make the most of life above the waves.

“I wanna be where the people are…”

This description makes Luca sound like a retread of The Little Mermaid. That’s not an entirely unfair point of comparison. Both Luca and The Little Mermaid are stories about young characters who dare to dream of a life beyond the underwater world they know. However, Luca has a very distinct mood and ambiance. Luca is not really plot-driven. It lacks a central villain like Ursula or stakes as overt as the terms of Ursula’s spell. Instead, Luca is much more interested in the smaller details that mark a wonderful childhood summer.

Luca is undeniably minor Pixar, but that doesn’t mean it’s especially shallow.