Month: February 2025

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Captain America Brave New World

Captain America: Brave New World

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From what we see at the outset of Captain America: Brave New World, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has made great strides since he accepted being Captain America four years ago.  His contacts in Wakanda have outfitted him with Vibranium wings, which emit a purple energy blast when he slams them on the ground.  He’s also become proficient wielding his shield, so much so that the speed and complexity of the ricochets boggle the mind.  I wished the movie had included one of those training montages that were mandatory in all superhero movies.  I really would have appreciated seeing how Sam learned how to fling it so that it caroms off of walls, people and everything in between until it circles back like a gleaming frisbee.  Where did he train?  How did he become so adept at playing the angles?  Did he start out by mastering billiards, or perhaps bowling?  Did an elderly Steve Rogers train Sam à la Mr Miagi just before he checked out permanently?  (No, Chris Evans is not in this movie.)

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Anora

Anora

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According to writer-director Sean Baker’s Anora, working as a stripper is just another job, albeit an unusual one.  First there’s the disorienting atmosphere of the club, with its loud, thumping music and rotating colored lights.  Then there’s the job itself, which involves coaxing payments to pay for a few minutes of fake intimacy with a semi-nude woman.  Although it certainly helps to be a good erotic dancer, as Ani (Mikey Madison) is, it’s even more important to convince patrons that she likes them.  If they don’t believe her initial performance, they won’t pay for her services.  Being a successful stripper is about the art of pretending, convincing others that illusions are real and that dreams can come true–for a price.  It’s a theme that reverberates throughout the movie, reaching beyond its transactional origins to produce consequences both expected and unexpected.

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Companion

Companion

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Science fiction often tells us that robots want to be human.  The twist in Companion is that Iris (Sophie Thatcher), the robot at the center of this story, believed she was human right until her owner threatened to shut her off.  In an instant, she not only learns that she’s not alive, but that her boyfriend is a total creep.  Considering how humans behave towards her throughout the movie, it makes perfect sense that she embraces her robot existence in the end.  It certainly beats the vastly inferior alternative.

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Presence

Presence

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Presence is an atypical ghost story, in that it’s a first-person narrative told exclusively from the perspective of the ghost.  As such, the movie camera doubles as the ghost’s “eyes”, zooming around the suburban home setting like a hyperactive drone.  That’s because the camera actually is a drone, operated by Academy Award-winning director Stephen Soderbergh.

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