Tag: Kat Dennings

What If…? (2021) s01e07 – What If… Thor Were an Only Child?

I was surprised when Chris Hemsworth showed up for this episode, but even more surprised when Academy Award winner Natalie Portman’s named came up on the titles next. Especially since the part is entirely a girlfriend role, even more than I remember her part being in the first Thor movie. They’ve also got Tom Hiddleston and a bunch of other actors. There are some very notable recasts, however. For example, the title just as well could be “What If… Thor Was an Only Child and His Mom Was an Afrikaner.” Josette Eales is in for Rene Russo, which is a bummer because the Mom role is prominent in the episode, and Russo and Hemsworth’s reuniting in Avengers: Endgame could’ve used a post-script. The other significant recast is Alexandra Daniels in for Academy Award winner Brie Larson. It’s a big deal because the episode’s about Thor wanting to party all the time and Captain Marvel being a serious Buzz Killington.

It turns out Odin not keeping Loki as a hostage child meant an entirely different Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not just one where Loki isn’t teaming up with Thanos, but a generally more peaceful, friendly intergalactic bunch of party animals. All thanks to Thor not having to deal with Loki’s conniving. It’s also unclear if there’s an Iron Man or whatever. But apparently, there’s not a Starlord, but it’s thousands of years of Earth history changed. The episode doesn’t acknowledge any of those changes, instead relying on sight gags, cameos, and general good humor.

And it works. I mean, Kat Dennings is a major supporting player for the first half. Right up until she, Portman, and Cobie Smulders get together for a girl talk and flush Bechdel down the toilet.

It’s unclear what’s up with Hydra because Frank Grillo’s guy is played for laughs here. So presumably, some aspects of World War II went differently in this reality.

Speaking of realities, Jeffrey Wright has very little narration this episode. It’s great.

There are some other amusing cameos and in-jokes. And it’s fun. Being fun helps. Hemsworth’s good at the humor, enough it helps Portman’s phoned-in performance. Literally phoned-in? Possibly, based on her differing audio quality. Maybe they told her Larson did these cartoons too, and then she found out they suckered her.

Oh, and Seth Green’s finally Howard the Duck long enough to confirm… he’s not good. Though the scenes are still funny tJhanks to the costars.

Maybe “What If” should just lean on its strengths, like being amiably sophomoric. The narrower its swings, the better.

WandaVision (2021) s01e09 – The Series Finale

Not even halfway through “WandaVision,” it became clear the show’s pass or fail was going to be how well it treated lead Elizabeth Olsen by the end of it. Despite top-billing, she was secondary to Paul Bettany for a while because he was the viewer’s angle of entry. Once it did get to centering on Olsen, the plot violently twisted around itself in order to make it seemingly impossible to unravel without demonizing Olsen. It forecast it wouldn’t—even making Josh Stamberg’s entire character motivation about the fair of that demon (maybe I should’ve gone with witch)—but as things got more and more entangled, even as Olsen got better and better material, culminating in last episode’s “Secret Origin of the MCU Wanda,” it seemed almost impossible they—director Matt Shakman, show runner Jac Schaeffer, brand guru Kevin Feige—would be able to pull it off without a monumental cop out. And such a cop out would throw Olsen under the bus. Or the car. Or the house from Kansas, as it were.

So, while there are a handful of loss ends a narrative should’ve tied if it weren’t part of a billion dollar umbrella franchise, some glazed over intensely tragic, dramatic moments, way too little for the supporting cast who sold the show while Olsen was subject and oddity, not to mention a (not really but they had to know it’d remind of it) concerning return to a self-exile location—Ed Norton knows that cabin, just saying—“WandaVision” passes. Succeeds. In many areas excels. Olsen’s gone from being the sidekick in the C plot to the only actor who’s gotten to do actual character development in the Marvel movies. Turns out the best way to do character development for characters made for many part serialized installments is to do many part serialized installments, utilizing different narrative styles and distances to do it. The thing about the Marvel movies—the (entirely commercial) magic—isn’t their comics accuracy in the costumes or origin stories, it’s their ability to translate the experience of reading the superhero comic to watching the superhero comic. They pull it off with “WandaVision,” complete with epilogues reminding you to pay attention to the next limited series to buy or maybe you’re supposed to head over to Avengers.

“WandaVision” is the Marvel movies biggest success—conceptually—since Infinity War, which was putting the two-part Marvel Graphic Novel to film. “WandaVision” proves the limited series on film. Well, streaming video—also, have to say, it’s really great to see a TV-first project not afraid to use lots of extreme long shot in their superhero fights. Even if some of the medium shot composites during the witch fight could be better. The episode does a nice twist on the Marvel movies super-people throw digital fireballs at each other thing to make up for it.

But it takes Olsen, who’s always been in these movies as someone else’s plus one–she’s been someone’s sister, someone’s girlfriend, someone’s problem employee, someone’s protege, someone’s wife, someone’s mother—combines the best of those things and drops the unimportant ones. Well, it drops the ones it can’t possibly cover. Like, we can guess the weight of killing civilians because of Olsen’s, you know, acting, but “WandaVision” can’t cover it. One assumes Disney+ knows most parents don’t know how to lock by ratings. So they skip the biggest “adult themes.” Particularly with kids Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne, who the show keeps starting to leverage because they’re good and fun—they could’ve done five more minutes hanging out with Teyonah Parris but the episode can only really handle two superhero fights, not three—but then has to hit the brakes on because Hilliard and Klyne need to be handled very delicately, without raising too many questions. Much like Kat Dennings going from trusted, leveraged B plot sidekick as protagonist, to maybe an Argyle nod from Die Hard (definitely a nod to something, but I’m not a hundred percent it’s Die Hard). There’s not room for her, there’s not room for Randall Park. Because it’s Olsen’s show.

It’s a big superhero origin story and it’s all Olsen’s. The episode makes the most room for Bettany, because he’s Olsen’s dude—the superhero-sized melodramatics are appropriately affecting and glorious—then Kathryn Hahn because she’s in a thirty minute superhero fight with Olsen, then in a distant third, Parris. Other than Olsen, Bettany gets the best material; he gets his Superman III junkyard fight with his evil clone, but with a very Bettany Vision resolution—Schaeffer clearly loves the sound of his voice. But she’s just as enthused when he gets to talk all soulful and deep to Olsen. The show’s able to get away with a lot thanks to Olsen, Bettany, and Hahn. Lesser productions would be, well, Supergirl: The Movie.

Hahn’s victim to a few more bad special effects composition shots than anyone else, but she’s still a mesmerizing villain. The show does well in not doing an alter ego thing for her and Olsen; I think the superhero fight banter off between them has to be the best acted one as yet to put film. Runner up is Bettany versus Bettany. The character development behind it all, “WandaVision” and beyond, adds depth, but also it’s just Hahn and Olsen are really good.

Like, the scene where Olsen toggles to leading her superhero family from cosmic witchery? Awesome. She’s also able to imply a lot of the dark the show can’t explicitly describe during the many set pieces in her fight with Hahn.

Overall, the show hinges on Olsen, Bettany, Olsen and Bettany, and Hahn. The final episode lets Hahn off the hook a little because she’s “just” the bad guy at this point and not being an alter ego with the hero… she only plays into so much. Everything she does is a delight, of course. Though I do remain unconvinced on the eyeshadow.

It’ll be at least two years before the standing “WandaVision” questions get resolved—it’s off to the big screen for a couple of the cast members (the timeline’s Covid-permitting)—and who knows what they might bring up again even later. It would’ve been nice to know Marvel movies could do this kind of longer form project either—especially in the years it seemed Olsen and Bettany were utterly wasted—but “WandaVision” portends a successful Marvel movies streaming show future. It does seem unlikely we’ll get to see performances of Olsen and Hahn’s caliber on a regular basis, but it turns out Olsen being singular in the Marvel movies is kind of the point.

Though, you know, beware that cabin.

WandaVision (2021) s01e07 – Breaking the Fourth Wall

I’m going to be very basic about “WandaVision” and the reveals in this episode. The show’s been very subtly leveraging one of the cast for a big turn—with this alternating intensity device—and it works and it’s the only easy out I’d be okay with. It was rumored a few weeks ago but I didn’t pay attention, even though apparently it’s very comics accurate. At least per a little bit of Googling. I hadn’t realized there was a comics accurate thing they could do, figuring they’d just, you know, do House of M a little different. Bit smaller.

But it does certainly foretell a not particularly deep conclusion to the series. While my knee jerk is it’s Disney, what were they really going to do, I do have sympathy. I did once scream “are you <insert expletive here> kidding me” at Vanilla Sky. So I get it.

Now I just want to bask in the tone-shifting glory of “Breaking the Fourth Wall.” Their sitcom riff this episode is what I assume is “Modern Family;” single camera, interviews with the characters as asides, occasionally risqué jokes run through a couple filters. Elizabeth Olsen spends some of her part of the episode reflecting on the previous one—we don’t get a resolve to the cliffhanger, picking up the next morning—and while she’s doing absurdist pastiche, she’s really good. Not as a “Modern WandaVision Family” mom caricature, but as her character trying to reason through it. It just occurred to me during the episode we’ve never determined how she’s experiencing life in the Hex either, outside the instinctual controls.

I’ll bet the series is going to rewatch well. Though I’ll also bet the scene where we find out Kat Dennings somehow has seen Avengers: Infinity War so she can tell Paul Bettany how he died in the movie plays just as shrug. Like… was it broadcast? Can they establish it? It goes on for so long it’d have worked better if Dennings had turned to the camera, winked, and reminded us we could watch it on Disney+ whenever we wanted.

Otherwise, Bettany and Denning are fantastic together. We’re in the endgame of “WandaVision” now and Bettany knows something’s really wrong and knows he can’t leave the Hex, so he’s impatient and confused but still in a sitcom. It works out. And Dennings can easily handle this comedy stuff. Her timing’s wonderful.

Meanwhile, we get some big developments on Teyonah Parris’s arc, including a perfectly eighties—perfectly Marvel Comics—sequence in a superhero origin story, complete with affecting Captain Marvel sound clips. It’s awesome bigger scale superhero stuff confined quite naturally to a TV screen. Really cool.

Other regular cast members are gearing up for duty in the rest of the series presumably, with Josh Stamberg not learning anything and starting to concern his subordinates as his secret plan becomes clear, Evan Peters getting a part-time job subplot (though you have to wait through credits to find out what, so make sure to stick around), and then Kathryn Hahn babysitting Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne while Olsen does her mindfulness sitcom mom thing. Hahn’s so good. Just so good. She gets to do a lot of winking at the camera thanks to the format and it’s incredible.

“WandaVision”’s got two more (I thought it was eight, it’s nine) and it seems very likely they’ll get it done inventively and successfully. They could tank it, sure, but they’ve ably weathered their biggest reveal and have come through fine.

WandaVision (2021) s01e06 – All-New Halloween Spooktacular!

I’m not going to write it but there’s a very good academic paper called “The Blipped Hero: Why Marvel Can’t Do a Heroic Age, in Comics, Film, or Streaming.” Also this would be the perfect time for Sentry to do the hero stuff, because then Randall Park can do an “Agents of Atlas.” More than anything else so far in the Marvel movies… “WandaVision” is getting to the verisimilitude. And it’s actually incredibly impressive. This episode’s really impressive for a number of reasons, but the way this episode in particular addresses the “reality” of the Marvel stuff… Josh Stamberg’s able to do a person as a caricature as a person and it covers a whole lot.

Though the episode also starts the deep dive in Elizabeth Olsen’s headspace, thanks to guest star (or new cast member) Evan Peters. While husband Paul Bettany is way too busy being suspicious about the whole suburban paradise thing, Peters is cool with it (as in cool with Olsen having apparently engineered the whole thing) and he’s there to give Olsen a sympathetic ear.

But the episode doesn’t open with the resolve on Peters’s surprise appearance in the previous episode’s cliffhanger—instead there’s a “Malcolm in the Middle”-esque (I think) opening titles sequence, quickly centering on the antics of twins Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne. The episode opens with them trying to figure out what’s up with their weird slacker uncle Peters while mom Olsen and dad Bettany get agitated with one another and try to mask it for the children’s sake. Hilliard and Klyne only have to run the episode for a while but they’re really good. The script—credited to Chuck Hayward and Peter Cameron—does an excellent job with the kids, particularly at the beginning, particularly since the episode delays any resolution at all to Peters.

It’s Halloween, after all, and everyone’s getting ready for trick-or-treating. Except Bettany, who’s got neighborhood watch duty even though Olsen doesn’t want him to go but isn’t willing to have a free will conversation with him. Of course, it’s going to turn out Bettany isn’t on duty and he’s instead investigating their strange suburban paradise, finding its uncannier cul-de-sacs and avenues, where Olsen apparently can’t keep the Matrix running at full power and the mind-controlled people just stand in place. It’s an excellent sequence, with Kathryn Hahn’s (sadly) only scene being the capper. There’s some excellent acting this episode from Olsen and Bettany, but nothing really compares to Hahn’s sequence. The episode relies heavily on Hahn for haunting and disturbing and she does wonders.

There’s also all the stuff with Olsen and Peters, where he talks to her plainly about the situation—Olsen seemingly mind-controlling a whole town, not to mention resurrecting first a dead Bettany, then a dead Peters (umm, with an asterisk I’m not sure “WandaVision” is ever going be able to address but at this point skies the limit)—and it gives Olsen a lot of excellent dramatic acting gristle. This episode is the one where I’m getting much more confident “WandaVision” knows all its doing. It’s just doing more than Marvel movies have ever done so… brave new worlds and all that.

I haven’t even gotten outside—literally—to Stamberg’s military operation to take out Olsen and save the day. Though apparently he’s more concerned about getting Bettany back because then they won’t have to buy vibranium from Wakanda or something. There’s a little lot for Teyonah Parris, Randall Park, and Kat Dennings to do—including some forecasting about Parris’s (potential) superhero future and the promise of another guest star next episode—as they have to rebel against Stamberg. After Parris and Park sort of running the subplot, Dennings gets the emphasis and is quite good in a very different setting.

“WandaVision” has taken it up another notch (there’s also a whole thing with the Halloween costumes, including a very appropriately cringe-y look into the kinks of Olsen and Bettany as nineties sitcom parents) and it hasn’t just easily surpassed its source material, it’s refined them into something real and good. For the first time, I’m confident they’re not going to screw Olsen over by the end of it (which I also realize means I could end up extremely bummed).

But no spoilers.

WandaVision (2021) s01e05 – On a Very Special Episode…

There are a couple moderate surprise choices in the episode—first is when Randall Park (who gets some really good moments even though the action thriller aspect of the episode is very secondary) makes a Captain Marvel mention and it gets a reaction from Teyonah Parris, which is the first acknowledgement of her being the little kid from that movie grown up and there being something going on they’ll need to put a pin in until the sequel and then when Elizabeth Olsen breaks the fourth wall to confront Parris, Park, and the rest of the action thriller team. They’re only surprises in being flexes; with Parris it’s some character development we don’t need in “WandaVision” (or do we) and with Olsen it’s some agency we’ve been sorely missing. And a return to the Sokovian accent she’s been missing for a few movies. The show’s taking some big bites and showing off it can chew them without any milk.

But then there’s the finale one and it’s such a big, weird bite, such a multi-layered flex… I’ve been worried about how “WandaVision” is going to do what it’s doing and get to a satisfactory resolve and not to a proverbial refrigerator but… this episode ends with an exceptional, singularly possible gotcha moment of the show all of a sudden winking at the audience and saying, “Guess you rewatched the wrong movies.”

It hadn’t even occurred to me the “right” movies would be on Disney+.

End spoiler hints. But it’s going to be exceptional if they can get away with it. Or even figure out what to do with it. All of a sudden “WandaVision” goes from being one thing to being something else, even as Paul Bettany gets to exercise a lot of agency too. He’s realizing he’s not in the right place either and just as he’s going to get some answers….

Well, worlds collide. Whoops, wrong comic company reference.

There’s a bunch of good stuff with Park, Parris, and Kat Dennings as they get together as Team Rational against agent-in-charge Josh Stamberg, who’s turning into a generic dick of an agent-in-charge. Stamberg’s fine at it but it seems like a missed chance. Doesn’t end up mattering.

The episode in the episode—so the sitcom pastiche—is late eighties sitcom, kind of “Family Ties” but, frankly, “Step by Step” crappy. Partially just because of Bettany’s jeans. But it works, especially Kathryn Hahn as the neighbor, who’s updated to late eighties style. Though events are letting Hahn and other “sitcom” co-star Asif Ali do some character development. Marvel Studios has produced a lot of hours of content at this point, but “WandaVision” is the first project where I’m desperately interested in the behind the scenes. Lots of decisions had to be made and I want to know about all of them.

It’s also nice because after foisting Olsen off on a subplot with the twin sons, she ends up with a lot to do in the third act. The kids are fine enough at acting like eighties sitcom kids but it’s rarely interesting without Bettany around because Olsen’s still “in-character.” Even without the big surprise finish, there’d be a lot to resolve next episode, but now there’s even more.

I’m still relatively confident I’ve got “WandaVision”’s ambitions identified but if it’s able to succeed with all the hurdles it’s giving itself… it’s going to be an achievement more than a success. And potentially improbable Marvel Studios on Disney+ is going to be able to surpass it.

If they can pull it off.

WandaVision (2021) s01e04 – We Interrupt This Program

The most important success of this episode of “WandaVision” is not Randall Park not just returning as Jimmy Woo—he previously appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp—but the show “fixing” his character (he was incompetent comic relief in Ant-Man 2), thereby laying the potential ground work for an Agents of Atlas adaptation; it’s probably not even the second most important success. It’s just my favorite one because Agents of Atlas is a sublime comic and Jimmy Woo is a great character in it.

The most important success is also not Kat Dennings coming back from Thor 2 and running the literal show with complete ease. After the episode gets caught up a bit—however the present action of this episode works versus the previous three episodes… some of it’s just going to have to be “well, it’s magic,” or Soul Stone energy or whatever. It’s fine because it means better material for Dennings and Park, but the hinky timeline stuff is just going into a cart with the other potential series problems; this episode, which resolves the previous one’s cliffhanger, does nothing to get the show out of its biggest possible problem (the spoiler-y one I’m not talking about)…

But it’s an excellent lead-up to that big potential problem. Every minute of We Interrupt this Program is spot-on, starting with getting to see Teyonah Parris come back after five years when they un-Thanos snapped everyone. Parris, who’s been fine and likable on the show in a decent but limited part, is a great lead. Parris is playing a character from a previous Marvel movie and they reference all the pieces but it’s never explicitly stated. It’s done in Easter eggs, which is fine. Maybe even appropriate. It’ll depend on what happens with Parris.

But it definitely works.

Parris goes back to work at S.W.O.R.D., which is like S.H.I.E.L.D. but doesn’t have a terrible ABC show dragging the brand down, where she now works for previous underling Josh Stamberg (who reminded immediately how much I like Josh Stamberg). He sends her off on a mission where she has to liaise with FBI agent Park and they pretty quickly find themselves in a major situation, with Parris missing and Park calling in the calvary.

Dennings is in the calvary—she’s part of the Andromeda Strain scientist crew put together to figure out what’s going on—and pretty soon they’re all sitting around watching the same “WandaVision” episodes we’ve seen. Only they don’t get them on Disney+, they get them over old style low-def TV broadcast.

By the end of the episode, which starts at least three weeks before the previous one’s cliffhanger, all the timelines are in sync and the show’s had a couple big reveals for Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen.

Based on how well they do with this episode, I want to be super confident everything’s going to go fine or better but… we’ll see.

Excellent direction from Matt Shakman again; it was impressive how he did the sitcom riffs and was able to change tone, but his handling this science fiction thriller episode is even more so.

Fingers crossed.

Thor (2011, Kenneth Branagh)

Thor has two problems to overcome. Director Branagh is successful at one of them. The first problem is half the film takes place in mythological Asgard, which is an ancient place, but very modern with all the latest streamlined architecture—think if Art Deco molded with neon, some magical stuff and then inexplicable horse-based transit. For a superhero movie, it asks a lot. One has to believe it. Branagh makes it work.

The second problem is less severe and, by the time it becomes clear, it’s sort of a non-issue. The New Mexico setting for the “on Earth” sequences is boring. There’s this fantastic ten foot tall metal monster thing and it all looks great, but it’s destroying a tiny desert town. It’d be a lot more fun to watch it destroy something bigger. But, by this time, the romance between Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman is going and the movie’s coasting. Plus, the exit from New Mexico’s a nice sequence.

The script’s assured, but again, the acting helps. Tom Hiddleston walks off with the movie as Hemsworth’s brother and antagonist. Idris Elba and Jaimie Alexander are also strong. Anthony Hopkins is fine (one wonders how much they spent making him look so young at times). Hemsworth is ideal in the lead. Portman is just doing the smart girlfriend role—and she has some problems—but she’s good overall.

Great score from Patrick Doyle. Nice composition from Branagh.

Thor’s a lot of fun; it escapes its inherent goofiness.

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005, Judd Apatow), the unrated version

I don’t get it. I mean, I kind of get it–the movie’s cute and funny–but I don’t really get it. Not the critical acclaim. I think it’s actually my first Judd Apatow movie–I don’t remember Celtic Pride though I know I saw it–and I’m disappointed. It’s like a sitcom. Apatow directs it like a lot of unimaginative sitcoms are directed. It looks like an episode of “Joey.” A bad episode of “Joey.”

But the script’s not particularly strong either. It’s really heavy on sentiment and it’s version of gross-out humor (gross-out but heartwarming, something Something About Mary did seven years earlier and more successfully), but it’s not at all heavy on creating realistic characters. I don’t believe in The 40 Year Old Virgin. I believe in them, in their existence, I might even believe Steve Carell’s character is one… but I don’t believe he’s a real person. The film goes through lengths to seem “real,” from the eBay store to the lame jobs, but it’s very… sitcom-like. A lot of that fault is Apatow’s direction, but the script isn’t helpful. The characters aren’t real. I don’t believe Paul Rudd has a close friend who’s been to prison twice.

I am also iffy on Carell as a movie star. He was so successful in this one, he turned it into his character for “The Office.” Laughable but sympathetic.

Some of it might have to do with the joylessness of it all. It felt mechanical.

2/4★★

CREDITS

Directed by Judd Apatow; written by Apatow and Steve Carell; director of photography, Jack N. Green; edited by Brent White; music by Lyle Workman; production designer, Jackson De Govia; produced by Apatow, Clayton Townsend and Shauna Robertson; released by Universal Pictures.

Starring Steve Carell (Andy Stitzer), Catherine Keener (Trish), Paul Rudd (David), Romany Malco (Jay), Seth Rogen (Cal), Elizabeth Banks (Beth), Leslie Mann (Nicky), Jane Lynch (Paula), Gerry Bednob (Mooj), Shelley Malil (Haziz), Kat Dennings (Marla), Jordy Masterson (Mark), Chelsea Smith (Julia) and Jonah Hill (eBay Customer).

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