Tag: Carl Lumbly

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) s01e06 – One World, One People

Turns out forty-five minutes is the just right length for a Falcon and the Winter Soldier, even if Sebastian Stan gets startlingly little to do in the final episode of a show where his character’s name is in the title. Stan ends the series with less of a character arc than either extremely shallow villain Erin Kellyman or murderous Captain America Wyatt Russell (it’s really bad but I think Chris Pratt’s better than Russell, who manages to be worse with less than dialogue than with more here).

A lot of the episode is Anthony Mackie’s, which is fine and good and maybe even great, if it wasn’t all a bunch of respectability politics for the Black guy in the end and failing upward for the white one. No real spoilers but let’s just say there’s a Don Cheadle-sized hole in the episode, which seems to be more about setting up casting in subsequent Disney+ Marvel shows than resolving anything for the protagonists.

There’s a bunch of action; most of it’s really bland superpeople fighting in cities at night stuff—though I guess there are some cool flying sequences—before there’s a big warehouse fight section. The warehouse fight section, which involves a reveal I called last episode, is fairly bad. I was actually expecting it to be good—director Kari Skogland did what I thought was a Welles homage a couple episodes ago but I think it must’ve been a mistake. The action directing this episode wouldn’t fly on an Arrowverse show.

Good acting from Mackie, which is all that matters (mostly because no one else has enough dialogue for it to matter), and it’s nice to see Carl Lumbly but the resolution on him is peculiar.

Everything about the show, however, ends up being a cop out. There’s no significant character development—the entire cast (so Daniel Brühl, Adepero Oduye, Emily VanCamp, even Julia-Louis Dreyfus) pops up in the epilogue to remind viewers they were on the show (in Oduye’s case) and they can return for future MCU ventures (everyone else).

Last episode I thought Falcon and the Winter Soldier would’ve worked better as a movie, but not anymore; not with such a nothing finish.

There’s some cool technology special effects (who doesn’t want to see Iron Man-tech but from Wakanda) but it’s barely in it and doesn’t get a good showcase because Skogland’s really bad at the action scenes here.

Again, no spoilers, but there is no Poe and Finn get girlfriends at the last minute—even though there’s a threat—but there’s also no real resolve to Stan and Mackie’s character relationship arc because Stan’s not in the episode enough for them to do one. He and Mackie have like two and a half scenes together and I’m being generous counting one of them. The half is because there’s no dialogue just music for a montage. And the generous one is one of the boring action scenes.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier seems to be promising something more interesting will be coming for everyone involved—except Oduye (oh, wait, I don’t think she gets any dialogue here)—which is never a great way to end five hours and forty-five minutes.

Stay for the end credits if you want a whiff of a “surprise.” No wonder they ran WandaVision first.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) s01e05 – Truth

A couple things real quick. First, given how much this episode’s opening resolve of the cliffhanger feels like the actual dramatic beat—and is a brutal (in a good way) fight scene—it really seems like the best version of “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is a two and a half hour movie and not a six hour limited series. Especially given how badly the Erin Kellyman arc goes this episode. There was no reason to spend so much time on it just for her to do a Batman & Robin villain team-up arc. Though I suppose there’s a potential twist with one of her allies (for next time, because after the opening action, there’s no more action this episode).

Second, Wyatt Russell is a rather bad actor. Admittedly, if he were any better the show might all of a sudden be making a lot of statements about what it means to be a United States soldier out in the world, but, wow, he’s bad here. He seems to have learned tough guy acting from watching his dad in Tango & Cash.

On to the actual episode, which has Anthony Mackie going to Carl Lumbly’s house to have a heart-to-heart about what it means to be a Black Captain America. It’s an all right scene, mostly because Lumbly’s great and Mackie works well with him, but there’s no actual character development to the sequence. It’s just to give Mackie a reason to go back to the U.S. (also because the MCU has “Star Trek” teleporter technology to get the cast around the globe—most of the present action, if they weren’t cheating, would be people on airplanes).

After Mackie sees Lumbly, he goes back to sister Adepero Oduye’s to resolve that story arc from the first episode. It’s very much “fix the house to fix the relationship” stuff, albeit very amusing once Sebastian Stan shows up to help. Oduye gets to do a bit of emotional labor for Mackie and she’s good, but she never gets to have much fun in the series. Outside grinning at Stan, who turns on the charm to flirt with his new best friend’s sister.

There’s a way too fast resolution to Daniel Brühl’s arc, but he’s just going back into the guest star drawer until the MCU needs him again and he didn’t really have any character development so it’s not too much of a loss. He does manage more subtext in a single take than pretty much anyone else this episode but still… outside Russell, it’s because no one else gets quite the material.

Though Mackie and Stan do get to have a heart-to-heart, which isn’t anywhere near as well-written as it ought to be—credited writer Dalan Musson seems to know what scenes he needs, just not how to write them—before Stan goes off so Mackie can have a Rocky training montage (sadly, even though the episode’s got Henry Jackman’s best music in the series to date, the episode whiffs on a perfect Gonna Fly Now sequence).

Even with the lackadaisical pacing and repetitive exposition dumps, it’s maybe the best episode. Best or second best. Presumably they’ll be able to wrap everything up next time with a big fight in New York City.

Of course, if Michael K. Williams comes back as his Incredible Hulk character it’ll be the best show ever. Kidding. But one can hope.

There is a big fun cameo from Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a shadow villain, presumably setting up future appearances. Though Louis-Dreyfus then does take part in the show’s continued shitting on Gabrielle Byndloss (as Russell’s wife), who’s only there to remind us even though Russell certainly seems to be a white supremacist, he does have a Black best friend and a multicultural wife so he couldn’t possibly be… could he?

Anyway. It’s not impossible next episode will be good, though it’s very unlikely it’ll be good enough to make the first half of the series worth it. Mackie, Stan, and Kellyman deserve better from the franchise, while the audience deserves an apology for the Russell casting.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) s01e02 – The Star-Spangled Man

So I don’t think the new Captain America (Wyatt Russell) is going to be a Neo-Nazi. Though I don’t think his supporting cast of BIPOC friends and loved ones is going to make it through the series because he’s going to need a inciting incident somewhere near episode four or five to send him on a confrontation path with the heroes because right now he’s just a bland, blond, blue-eyed do-gooder. Albeit one working for the GRC (Global Rebuilding Council) and the U.S. government.

“Falcon and Winter Soldier” obviously has a story bible on the deal with the GRC, which has countries trying to revert back to pre-Snap social structures, but they’re just peppering it into conversation.

They should’ve done Jamie Lee Curtis speaking over a wire-frame map.

Anyway.

This episode’s a lot better than the first one. Russell’s fine. Cle Bennett comes in as his partner, which had me remembering them from the comic; at least they don’t call him Bucky but “Battlestar” comes off goofier than it ever did in the comics.

Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan get some of their bicker banter going and it’s magic, whether them just going off one another or during an action scene or during the silly but fun impromptu therapy session with Amy Aquino.

There’s good action direction—albeit kind of boring Bond-ish action set pieces—from Kari Skogland this outing. No more kills for Mackie or flashback ones for Stan. Not sure when we’ll get to restart the body counter (though Russell’s clearly gonna start popping combatants soon enough and not just when they’re heat-visioning tourists). It’s kind of nice not to have one.

Though the villains—the millennial gang known as the Flag Smashers (sure, Jan), who got used to eating avocado toast without xenophobia during the Blip (so post-Snap, pre-I’m Iron Man)—are eighties missing the point bad.

For comic readers, there’s a very big surprise inclusion, involving phenomenal guest star Carl Lumbly, and there’s a chance the show might do something with it. It’s a big door to open without going through.

However… the show got renewed for a second season, which sort of spoils whether or not they’re resolving Who Will Wield the Shield? in the next four episodes.

But it’s a lot better than before. Mackie and Stan are so fun together, though Stan gets all the character work; last episode feels like a tacked-on beginning to give Mackie some extra scenes at this point.

The Bedroom Window (1987, Curtis Hanson)

Given The Bedroom Window was part of my VHS EP collection, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen it. I do know I haven’t seen it in at least a decade and I also know this time is the first I’ve ever wondered about the source novel. The Bedroom Window is very busy; maybe director Hanson wants to distract the audience from where the movie’s going–which he really can’t since “guest star” Elizabeth McGovern gets second-billing–but maybe it’s from the novel. Maybe it’s a really long novel and Hanson, who also wrote the screenplay, had trouble adapting the pace.

But the novel’s only 200 pages. So it’s Hanson.

A good thriller, not even a great one, needs some fusion between the storytelling and the filmmaking. Hitchcockian means the way the film tells the tricky narrative. Or at least, it needs to have that definition. Because bewildered straight man in trouble isn’t Hitchcockian. It’s pedestrian. In The Bedroom Window’s case, the bewildered straight man is Steve Guttenberg. If it weren’t for Guttenberg’s rather buff physic, it might be funny having Guttenberg do a thriller. But it’s not a spoof, it’s Guttenberg trying.

He doesn’t do well. But he’s affable, surrounded by a lot of good actors, and Hanson is trying just as hard to pull of Guttenberg’s performance. Even though it’s often tedious, The Bedroom Window tries. Well, except when it comes to the composition. Hanson and cinematographer Gilbert Taylor shoot Bedroom Window in Panavision and it doesn’t need it. About the only thing the film’s got going for it visually is the Baltimore locations. Taylor’s photography is pretty flat–even though there are lots of eighties wet streets at night shots–but well-lighted. The city looks amazing and you want to see more of it. It gives Window some slack, which the film always needs.

Guttenberg’s an office guy–he has no responsibilities–who starts schtupping his boss’s wife, Isabelle Huppert in a ludicrous performance in a ludicrous role. Huppert witnesses Elizabeth McGovern getting assaulted, but Guttenberg plays witness to keep the affair a secret. This concept might have worked as late as the early sixties, but it’s just unbelievable in 1987. Hanson’s constantly trying to get away from police procedure, lawyer stuff, because he knows he’s peddling a malarky handling of it.

Instead, he introduces a subplot about Robert Schenkkan’s district attorney–trying rape cases–a complete pig. Only then, almost immediately following a big plot twist, we’re supposed to like Schenkkan again. Why make him a pig? Misdirection. Hanson is not a master. He’s not even moderately adept.

But he’s also ambitious in how responsible he wants to be; he’s trying not to make the film feel exploitative. Though one has to wonder why Huppert, given she and Guttenberg have zero chemistry, other than her willingness to disrobe. When Elizabeth McGovern finally shows up as something other than an object–which, quite frustratingly, isn’t until her second or third scene in the film–she gets a lot of good stuff to do. Even when the content is questionable, McGovern’s performance and Hanson’s handling of her performance are stellar. As much as Hanson wants to sell Steve Guttenberg as Jimmy Stewart, he wants McGovern to have a good part.

He just doesn’t know how. He’s sincere about Bedroom Window, which carries over. You want it to be better. Like the music from Michael Shrieve and Patrick Gleeson. Ninety percent of it is disposable smooth jazz. That other ten percent of it is slightly less disposable smooth jazz. But you still want to hope for it. Like the score will eventually get better. It doesn’t.

Great supporting cast–Carl Lumbly, Wallace Shawn, Frederick Coffin, Brad Greenquist, Maury Chaykin–Hanson uses them for temporary amusement. Actually, lots of people in The Bedroom Window are just “guest starring,” which also leads to it feeling like a two-night TV movie event cut down to one VHS tape.

Real strong editing from Scott Conrad. It occasionally goes bad because of Hanson’s bad ideas, but real strong otherwise. He’s better at editing the dramatic than the suspense.

The Bedroom Window is almost significant for McGovern’s performance. She’s great. But the script’s not there and Hanson’s got too many problems. Instead, it’s a curious bit of eighties popular cinema with some fantastic shots of Baltimore.

1.5/4★½

CREDITS

Directed by Curtis Hanson; screenplay by Hanson, based on a novel by Anne Holden; director of photography, Gil Taylor; edited by Scott Conrad; music by Michael Shrieve and Patrick Gleeson; production designer, Ron Foreman; produced by Martha De Laurentiis; released by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.

Starring Steve Guttenberg (Terry Lambert), Elizabeth McGovern (Denise Connelly), Isabelle Huppert (Sylvia Wentworth), Paul Shenar (Collin Wentworth), Carl Lumbly (Det. Quirke), Frederick Coffin (Det. Jessup), Brad Greenquist (Carl Henderson), Robert Schenkkan (State Attorney Peters), Maury Chaykin (Pool Player) and Wallace Shawn (Henderson’s Attorney).

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