Jason Schwartzman | Peggy at the Movies

I know I’m supposed to love this “SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE UNIVERSE” and be drooling all over this film directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, because everyone is, as well as hailing it as the greatest movie ever. Now those, as we like to joke are, ‘fightin words’ and something that just cannot be uttered by me – not for this film at least. And yes, I know I will probably get crucified for not agreeing. But then again, following and loving something just because the crowd does, has never really been my forte’. As well, I’ve always been pretty good in standing my ground and here will be doing just that and also noting that it’s okay to have differing opinions. It keeps things like movies interesting.

Now first off, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Across the Spider-Verse way more than I thought I would, but I mean who knew there were so many Spidermen besides Tobey Maguire Andrew Garfield & Tom Holland. Well I just found all this out in Spider-Man:Across The Spider Verse that there are a vast amount of them – and it took over two hours to do so. That I was not ready for and my initial question was why? And then I answered it myself by noting “this is what comic books are” a fantasy world, in this case, universes – then it also became clear that that is literally the point of showing all those comic book stills inbetween. So while I still had that unsatisfied feeling when I realized I was watching the first half of a really long movie, I feel like I understand it a lot more after thinking about it. Doesn’t mean it’s in my wheelhouse, but sometimes, getting out of said wheelhouse is what needs to be done.

Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and his daughter Mayday in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animations SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE.

Having not seen the first one, I picked up pretty quickly what was happening in this new web-slinging, multiverse-traveling adventure. It clearly takes place a year or so after the events of the first one – ‘Into the Spider-Verse’; and sees Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) back. Having been Spider-Man for about a year now after being bit by a mutant spider, his parents still have no idea, even though his father, Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry), is a cop who frequently works with “Spider-Man” to stop other villians with super powers. He is once again teaming up with Spider-Girl Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), trying to fix something he clearly thought had been fixed before that wasn’t fixed properly. Included in all this is a whole lotta other Spider-People of this multiverse (that I’m trying to piece together and understand), for a big high stakes mission. This time around, the Spider-People face off against villian The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), whose powers threaten the stability of the entire this Spidey multiverse as he is able to move through spots he creates from one place to another, very quickly and simply. Issues are amplified when Miles and the Spider-People, led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), disagree on how to best deal with this new threat.

Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) take on The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE.

A lot of this moves at a pace that is zip-flash fast so keeping up is key. The parts that probably worked the best for me as a first time viewer were the family ones. One of the most effect scenes on an emotional level is Miles’ relationship with his mother Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Velez), as he wrestles personally with the idea of revealing his superhero Spidey-alter ego to his parents, a decision that creates great conflict within his family. Watching Miles’ struggle to come out as Spider-Man in a particularly moving scene with his mother that is so heartbreaking and is bound to resonate with many who have struggled to reveal things of themselves to others, whatever it may be. Meanwhile, Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy also has some intense family matters lll for her character, especially as it pertains to her relationship with her father Captain Stacy (Shea Whigham), regarding her suposed murder and loss of her Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), (whose animated character looks surprisingly a lot like Jake Gyllenhaal). Intially thinking Gwen was a lead character and the films focus would be on this, as she has a pretty extended opening focusing on solely on just her, but then with it doing a round-about and not going that direction was confusing at times, but as they say ‘All’s well that ends well”.

The animation is incredible, especially during a long intro scene in a different universe, along with the action and soundtrack. There are so many different styles and techniques. Some again, took time of afterwards for processing if you don’t know the stories, to digest and make logic of. As well, some of the dialogue gets to be a bit too corny and tries to hard to be quirky and fast-talking, which seems to be a Marvel staple now. My other issue is that the story felt a little messy and all over the place, and there were moments that felt weren’t really necessary to the plot of the movie itself. That plus the fact it was almost two and a half hours, which was a longer than it needed to be, only then to realize at the end it’s only essentially half of a movie. So now we’ll have to wait an see how the second part pulls it all together or the five parts which are sure to follow that one. Which leads me into my “Think about your favorite movies”; now imagine that when you saw them for the first time, someone cut it off halfway through and made you wait a year for the rest. A truly great movie needs to be able to stand on its own. Also, no post credits so no need to stay after this two hour plus run time.

Spider-Man/Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animations SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE.

So for those in the back who feel differently, I am saying that it was a good movie, but it wasn’t the greatest one and to call it that just seems so out of place for me. I did have a good time watching it and it’s by no means a bad movie, just not the “Masterpiece” everyone is building it up to be and is certainly not, “The Greatest Animated Movie Of All Time”. I think you have to be a BIG DC Universe fan or comic book one to understand why alot of it is happening to be sure. A lot of it just didn’t resonate to me and the windup into it started to really drag in the middle, all to just to get to a point where they basically said “see ya next time”.

And yeah, I will go see the next one in two years – hope you will too as who knows, maybe it will be the one to reveal all.

Grade: B-

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“SPIDER-MAN:ACROSS THE UNIVERSE” FROM SONY PICTURES IS OUT IN THEATERS FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 2023

Review Screening: Tuesday, May 30, 2023 ~ Courtesy of Sony Pictures

“Big Eyes” is the story of the very famous tale of 1950’s art sensation “Walter Keane” (Christoph Waltz), known for painting waifish children with large, eerie eyes, and was scandalously revealed to have been stealing recognition for the work which was actually painted by his wife, “Margaret Keane” (Amy Adams), the whole time.
(Note: Release date for this film is 25th of December, 2014)

2 things of note here: 1. This is not your typical Tim Burton movie. If you want another ‘Beetlejuice’ or ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ type movie, this isn’t it. Maybe a little ‘Ed Wood’, but then no..not really!! It’s a completely off the map of his usual as it’s a biography/drama. 2. Oddly enough I could not get the chorus of the Cheap Trick song “Big Eyes” out of my head while watching this movie. It fit it so perfectly..yeah I know..it’s just me. 😀

This story is narrated throughout by real-life San Francisco Examiner columnist “Dick Nolan” (Danny Huston) many times noting his own personal thoughts/feelings from ‘behind the scenes’ so to speak. Beginning in the what I presume to be the early 1950’s, we see Margaret walk out on her first marriage, with her young ‘muse’ daughter “Jane” (Delaney Raye) in tow. She meets fellow-artist Walter while selling her works and drawing caricatures in the park in San Francisco’s North Beach area. They start dating and she becomes intoxicated by him with his stories of all his travels along with the fact that he’s lived in Paris where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and drew inspiration for his many Montmartre street scenes and was an considered an ‘acclaimed’ artist there though he’s actually in real estate – go figure. In order to keep her ex-husband at bay as concerns about custody rights arise (since single mothers of the era weren’t treated kindly in the court system), she decides to marry Walter, despite the unease of her close friend “DeeAnn” (Krysten Ritter) who is only to aware of his womanizing reputation that proceeds him. A mistake leads to Walter taking credit for Margaret’s work, and before long, it’s a lie they are both complicit in feeding at the beginning.

With a shotgun Hawaiian wedding & honeymoon behind them, we see Walter back to shopping his paintings around town using his talent not only as a salesman, but his adeptness as a showman and self-promoter shopping not only his own work per-se’, but Margaret’s as well. Finally convincing local big-shot club owner “Enrico Banducci” (Jon Polito) to show the paintings at the famous nightclub “The Hungry i” where it seems the patrons finding themselves more inclined towards Margaret’s work rather than his. As all the works are signed “Keane” you see where this story is heading as the lie becomes harder & harder to expose as Margaret’s art is becoming a complete world cultural phenonmenon like nothing ever before seen in the art world. Walter is giving away special originals to everyone from movie stars to politicians & dignitaries and biggest coo of all, Andy Warhol gives him a shout-out compliment. Although all along we can see his true agenda is he just wants to be around the famous and be famous. Before we can blink, we see Walter opening his own gallery across the street no less from a rather hipster-for the time-local gallery curator “Ruben” (Jason Schwartzman) selling prints, posters, postcards..being interviewed on TV explaining the creation process, his ‘motivation’ behind the portraits. All of this is being watched by Margaret as she sits in her studio painstakingly painting away.

As we watch the lie slowly but surely start to unfold, we also see that while Walter is as charming as can be on the outside, his inside reveals what a smarmy character he really is as Margaret finds out about lie after lie he’s told. His whole past is truly just that, one big lie as he was never an artist and seemly stole someone else’s paintings even before they met. Margaret, on the other hand seems almost helpless to stop it as the betrayal is not only shocking to her and her now almost grown daughter (Madeleine Arthur steps in as teenage Jane) who has figured out the big picture here also. But seemingly they are both to frightened of Walter at this point, whose drinking exacerbates his rollercoaster moods, to reveal the true painter behind as her paintings are now monopolized to the tune of a very large enterprise, labeled as “an infinity of kitsch” by new York Times art critic “John Canaday” played wonderfully by Terence Stamp, one of the major influences of the art world at that time.

As Margaret finally runs away again from another bad marriage, she finds herself back in Hawaii painting without an outlet when comes a knock at the door in the form of Jehovah’s Witness ladies. Now I always thought though they were always friendly enough, it just never failed that they came at the most inopportune of moments like when you just poured milk on your cereal & such and were mostly just tolerated. I never though it actually worked as a recruitment strategy, but alas I am proven wrong as that is just how Margaret finally gets the wherewithall to stand up for herself. They move on to an all out confrontation with an over-the-top circus quality type trial lead a bit humorously by James Saito as the judge. In the end it all comes down to a ‘draw-off’ which as we know only Margaret can win and does as she is finally recognized as the true artist behind “Big Eyes”.

The performances are strong here by both Waltz & Adams though not as strong for me as say American Hustle in which she was pure gold in. Though with Best Actress category being rather light this year, I can definitely see Adams getting another nomination for this role.

– Seen on November 14th, 2014 at Academy Screening with Q & A following the screening: Tim Burton, Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Larry Karaszewski, Scott Alexander, Lynette Howell

Grade: B-

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REVIEW: “SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

REVIEW ~ “BIG EYES” (2014)

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