As I said in the Strapped post, one of my goals for Pride Month was to review The Matrix trilogy. Sure, it's about a white cisgender guy who falls in love with a white cisgender girl, but the creators are trans women! Well, they are now; Mrs. Lana and Lily Wachowski didn't write and direct The Matrix under those names, but we try not to deadname here, especially during Pride Month. So get ready for a week of trans philosophy! Or really one day of trans philosophy and two of "I think the overall message got a bit muddied as time and sequels went on."
4.5 stars
Near perfect.
Out (2020)
It's Pride Month, and you know what that means! It's time for corporations to slap rainbows on their logos and pat themselves on the back so hard that they'll strain something! And this applies to streaming services, too! Netflix has an LGBTQ section, although it's there year-round and isn't being advertised on the main site as of writing. Tubi actually does have their LGBTQIA+ Pride movies on the front page, but after you click the Load More button (and it's also a year-round thing). And Disney+ has... several TV shows that feature one (1) gay side character, a couple shorts with some gay themes, and a few documentaries. At least it's on the main page, though! That almost makes up for things like their consistent lack of queer representation, their ability to easily remove any overt queerness they do add in order to appease homophobic countries (and their money), and stuff like a gay man suing the company for discrimination due to his sexual orientation. Yay Pride!
What Keeps You Alive (2018)
Happy Pride Month, everybody! June will be dedicated to movies with overly queer content or were made by queer creators (a distinction that will come up later). I'm going to start this all off by doing something different: I enjoyed What Keeps You Alive. It has moments where the story has problems if you think about the implications too hard, but it's a tense thriller that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. That being said, the trailer revealed way too much--they always do--and while not spoiling everything, I'm going to talk a lot about the story in this post. So if you want to see a thriller about a woman discovering what secrets her wife has been keeping from her, go check it out on Netflix. And with that out of the way, let's dive in!
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
I guess I'm a Godzilla fan? But what classifies someone as a "fan" of something, really? Sure, I've seen all the live action Godzilla movies, but I've seen all the Children of the Corn movies and I'm certainly not a fan of that franchise (no one is). The only Godzilla merch I own is a card game that has been collecting dust ever since I picked it up. I own a Gamera DVD collection with 9 or so movies, so am I a Gamera fan? No, but you get the idea. I guess for me, calling myself a fan means that when Godzilla starts glowing red in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I cheered for the reappearance of Burning Godzilla. So I'm a fan in that I'm a huge fucking nerd.
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
The same way that Guardians of the Galaxy followed up the more somber and serious Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we needed something lighter after Avengers: Infinity War. Well, I certainly needed it the first time I saw this in theaters. Remember theaters? Those were the days... Anyway, MCU March continues with Ant-Man and the … Continue reading Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Black Panther (2018)
Black Panther was a game changer. Sure, it's a piece of the greater tapestry that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it barely feels like it. And that's not a bad thing! It broke free, so to speak, from the standard hero template and became its own thing. Which, as it turns out, was widely successful as it's the top grossing movie in the MCU that doesn't have "Avengers" in the title (as of writing). Why was it so successful? Let's dive in with this entry of MCU March and find out.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Once upon a time in the far away land of 1996, Marvel Entertainment was facing bankruptcy. One step of staying afloat was selling the movie rights to their most popular characters--Sony got Spider-Man, 20th Century Fox got the X-Men, and so on. Marvel kept the rights to the B-tier team the Avengers and against all odds successfully managed them into the most successful franchise ever. Over time film rights expired and went back to Marvel, or companies were just bought out. But Sony kept making Spider-Man movies so they kept the rights. Which is to say that Spider-Man: Homecoming is a weird and somewhat unique movie in terms of licensing the character. MCU March continues with the first film in the trilogy of the third incarnation of the live action Spider-Man!
Ant-Man (2015)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe really tries to cover as many genres as it can, all while still sticking with a superhero aesthetic. For example, Captain America: The First Avenger is a war drama, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a political thriller, and Guardians of the Galaxy is a space comedy. So really, it's not that big a surprise that Ant-Man would be a heist movie. And despite some behind the scenes shakeups, this is a comedy that has that that Mr. Edgar Wright humor all over it.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
I know I basically said that Thor: The Dark World was a turning point for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that's more a collection of little details. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, however? This is a huge moment in the franchise, splitting everything into "films before" and "films after." It's also the first MCU film by the directors of several episodes of Community, Mr. Joe and Mr. Anthony Russo. Oh yeah, they both directed the pilot and Joe also directed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, A Fistfull of Paintballs, and For a Few Paintballs More. That probably explains why Abed was working for SHIELD... They also directed Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, so that's probably more relevant to MCU March.
Thor (2011)
I gotta say, I absolutely love that MCU March lined up in such a perfect way that not only do the number of weekdays match the number of movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also that the Thor post is going up on Thursday. Thor's Day? Get it?! Ah, we have fun here at Chwineka Watches... Anyway, let's talk about my favorite film of Marvel's Phase One.
Chwineka Watches 