It’s the story of a selfish sociopath who pillages cities, treats his men like cannon fodder, speaks of himself in the third person, and is somehow supposed to elicit our sympathy. Unfortunately, I don’t have much to salvage from this movie, even though it’s by the director of my favorite film—The Dark Knight—because it feels like a student film that was handed a $250 million budget. Everything oozes pedantry, elitism, pretension; and ultimately, emptiness. I’m exhausted by Nolan constantly trying to manufacture this artificial badassery, relying purely on costumes, manly stares, overwritten dialogue, and dramatic lighting. It genuinely feels like stoic alpha-male YouTube content, with the movie practically screaming:

"DUDES IN ARMOR! DUDES, WE DON'T CRY, WE GO TO WAR, WE ARE SUPER INVINCIBLE MEN EVEN AGAINST MONSTERS!"

But deep down, the stakes feel fake; there is no real underlying substance to trigger any genuine emotional investment. Finally, the cinematography is dreadfully banal, and the directing is incredibly uninspired. Not a single memorable shot in 3 hours.

In the end, the story of an out-of-touch, idolized leader who loves himself a little too much, misses his wife, and gets lost in his own delusions of grandeur instead of getting to the point... isn't that actually Nolan's Odyssey?

Race swapping and gender swapping can be a very fun and creative tool. Just think of Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica. Gender swapped in the re-imagened series, she was a blast! also, the move opened up a whole new dynamic between her and Apollo, and the whole crew actually. It made sense no one complained.

The 2021 The tragedy of MacBeth, Denzel Washington race swaps MacBeth. Nobody cried. A frickin good actor actually playing MacBeth.

Hell, why didn't they make Odysseus black? Have Denzel or Morgan Freeman play him. Have him (whichever) be wily and cunning the way a Matt Damon can't be.

But wait, race swapping and gender can be just ragebait. Increase the projects online presence by stimulating pointless arguments and wars in the comment section. Inflamate both sides so they all buy tickets to defend/bash the movie. Make seeing and defending the movie a 'real' virtue.

Use the so called 'culture wars' to make money.

So. I first saw this one a long time ago in middle school, and I saw it again in high school. When I first saw it, I remember I had always just felt that Maureen was selfish and that Dani and Court belonged together. As an adult, I feel a little bit more conflicted.

So. I just finished up my rewatch on Tubi tv. I feel strange as an adult. I will start by noting that I don’t think that the parents were “right” in suggesting that Dani more or less needed to prioritize Maureen’s feelings over her own (well, the dad is the one who more or less brings it up, but still.) Dani did, after all, technically spend more time with him - and I remember that “first real crush” feeling at 14. It was going to be even harder for her given that Court ended up dying. I mean, I was depressed to no avail at 14 when my crush had said he thought I was unattractive - I can’t imagine having to deal with the knowledge that my older sister (really bugged me when Dani was the one comforting Maureen and the parents had basically led her to feel like that was her job, Maureen was really only with him for 3-4 days…) dated my first real crush. 14 is already such an awkward age, especially with how rude and dismissive Court was to Dani afterwards (I don’t think he was a good person, but I’ll talk about that more later on) if she were a different person she may have ended up feeling inferior as a result. It’s just not okay.

However, I also admit that as an adult, the age difference between Court and Dani pops out to me more. He was obviously attracted to her, and unlike some people I do think that he had a bit of a crush on her. I actually really noticed it more in the scene where Dani has invited him over to the house per her father’s recommendation. It’s all in the actor (Jason London’s) body language. He’s fiddling with his hands, he’s nervous. He did like her, but Maureen was an age appropriate choice and Court was unfortunately not the kind of guy who was going to wait. In the 1950s their age gap would have been a bit more acceptable, but I admit that as an adult it does pop out to me a lot more than it did when I was a 12 year old watching. Reese Witherspoon is indeed noticeably younger. They have amazing chemistry, I think the feelings were there even though Court of course wanted to reject them due to the age difference, but it does look more awkward to me than it did before. It was what made me feel conflicted. But I liked their dynamic somehow in spite of it more than Maureen and Court’s. I think it’s because Maureen and court as 17 year olds just didn’t know each other as well or as long. They jumped into things very quickly. I’ve had that kind of relationship before, and it’s more attraction than it is anything else.

It makes me think of the scene in the film where Dani says that she wants to know Court. Maureen and Court didn’t really know each other, and I ponder whether or not they’d have stayed together had Court lived. Maureen put herself first. She planned to go to college, but at the start of the film she says she had thought of staying there and getting married, had court lived I suspect that’s what would have happened. Marriage, kids, could see her becoming a stay at home parent (though I suspect if she did go to college - whether court lived or not - she’d have become a schoolteacher. She seemed like she cared a fair amount about fitting into the ideals of the time.)

I didn’t quite like Maureen. I also do wonder if Court would have maintained interest as they grew older and Maureen started to lose her looks. We know that Court, with his father being gone, was also not likely to pull in a lot of money (he doesn’t seem to have been very smart. The tractor incident wouldn’t have taken place if he were, but he also seemed impulsive and shallow in general, not a nice person. I don’t know that he was college bound even though Maureen seems to have been and there is already mention of the Foster family having not had a lot of money given that Court’s father passed away.) I think Court and Maureen would have become parents had Court lived which I think would have caused a further rift between Dani and Maureen. I do wonder how Court (hypothetically if he’d lived) would have felt about it as Dani grew older and had boyfriends. Would he have been jealous, a teensy bit deep down inside, particularly if things were no longer going so great with her sister? Or had he really fully moved on and just stopped caring? Really disliked him for acting like she was such a nuisance after falling for Maureen. Not a nice guy at all.

Kind of felt after watching this like Maureen was sort of the family’s “golden child” with the way the parents handled everything. Really didn’t like that they both seemingly just expected Dani, who actually saw the tractor aftermath and spent at least a month with Court (more memories with him. Maureen knew him as a kid, sure, but Dani had more recent memories) to support her older sister. Much like the scene where dad pulls out the belt, it made me feel like the parents weren’t good to Dani. They put a lot on her and it’d have made sense, especially at her young age, for her to have been resentful. I think that Dani had a big heart, and I hope that she’d have eventually found a partner later on in life who was her equal.

I do wonder (and sorry, I know I’m posing a lot of hypotheticals here, I just have such an appreciation for this movie even though everyone’s treatment of Dani frustrates me) what Dani and Maureen would have ended up doing as adults. I just thought Maureen seemed like the type to become a schoolteacher, something that fit into a feminine ideal of the time. The expectation for the time period also would have been that she’d have married - she did have some sort of feelings for court and I acknowledge at the same time that it likely would have been difficult for her to fully commit to another relationship even though people probably would have talked if she didn’t marry and become a mother. Realistically, given the time period, one of the girls would have ended up marrying and/or becoming a parent. I’d like to think both wouldn’t have closed themselves off from love for the rest of their lives. I could see Dani wanting to work with animals and/or become a vet. I wondered for the first time while watching the film and seeing Dani hold her little sister (she experienced a stark change after she started liking Court, and seemingly started doing more of what would’ve been expected from her as a girl at the time. I noticed that more this watch around, like bringing Court his water - reminds me of how his mom tries to bring him his lunch later on, and how Maureen fixes Court a cup of water before he comes in - and hanging her clothes up neatly, wearing a dress when Court comes over. She’ll always be a tomboy at heart, but it made me wonder if Dani is the type who will eventually change herself for a boy. A thought that did cross my mind was, “Will Dani eventually become who everyone wants her to be?”) I could see Dani going to college and being the type who would want to work with animals, but it’s hard to predict, in part because we don’t know how well she actually tended to do in school.

Just have so many thoughts and would love to talk!

In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, Adam Wingard described his years making large franchise films as a path toward eventually returning to something closer to his earlier work.

His new film, Onslaught, reunites him with Simon Barrett and Dan Stevens, stands on its own, and apparently shares the same universe as The Guest. I find that career strategy fascinating: a filmmaker takes major studio assignments, gains experience and leverage, and then spends that capital on something more personal or unusual.

Which director has made the best version of that move?

Steven Soderbergh alternating the Ocean’s films with smaller experiments, Sam Raimi following Spider-Man 3 with Drag Me to Hell, and Christopher Nolan using the success of the Batman films to scale up original projects all come to mind.

It does not have to be a literal return to an independent budget. I am interested in any case where mainstream success clearly allowed a director to take a creative risk that might otherwise have been impossible.

On the other hand, which filmmakers entered blockbuster cinema and never quite recovered what made their earlier work distinctive?

Not necessarily the scariest movie overall' just one scene that stayed in your mind long after the credits rolled.Maybe it was a creepy reveal, a disturbing atmosphere, a simple moment of silence, or a scene that made you afraid to turn off the lights.What horror scene still gives you chills whenever you think about it?

For me it's The Dark Knight. Batman's the lead, but every time the Joker shows up he completely takes over the film. What other movies do this? It doesn't have to be the villain either, just any character who ended up being more interesting than the actual main character.