Comic book movies and emotional age
So I'm sort of a film buff. I never really think of myself as one. I think of all my other hobbies, vocations, and compulsions first. I'm a writer, comic, circus performer and bettor, gambler, alcoholic, addict and mentally ill before a film butf. I'm rarely watching movies because I rarely watch nonfiction movies, instead watching more documentaries and news/comedy podcasts but I'd say I like a really good movie that will make you think and feel. I like serious drama films by Lars Von Trier, comedies by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, and screwball comedy by Taika Waititi. The last great movies I saw were Shame, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Palm Trees And Power Lines and Margaret. I would classify all these as art.
That said I like a good X-Men or Avengers movie just like everyone else but they don't raise to the same level. I really like Black Widow because Scarlett Johansson can shine.
In an interview Martin Scorcese shrugged off Marvel movies as not being art. I thought of this in the middle of watching Dark Phoenix which was universally oanned and is a clunky, simplistic and melodramatic tale of Jean Gray. I got to thinking that it may not be possible to do an ensemble movie with the emotional depth necessary for the subject matter involved. Either we get the deeply personal tortured past of Jean or we get served up the good times we're used to from X-Men or The Avengers. The standout prequels with psychokogical and emotional depth that are far and away better than all of the others are Logan and Joker. In the end though I feel like those movies are more simplistic than often is noticed. Logan is the tortured hero who saves the children and Joker is the tortured villain made evil by society. These are simplistic narratives from serialized kids' books of course. When I see The Dark Knight I don't see an award winning performance from Heath Ledger. I see a bunch of stigmatizing bullshit. At least Joaquin Phoenix can dance like a madman and really sell the character.
I may be a pretentious, underachieving fuckwit who knows a lot about movies for someone who claims he doesn't watch many, but at least I believe in humanity and am not a misanthtopic thousand-yard-stare havin filmmaker like Todd Solandz. I wrote a bunch of dark depraved fiction too and had the balls to call it comedy. I'm glad I'm not the same person I was in my 20s. I think it's interesting to view film through the lens of emotional age. I'm damn sure the childish among us have more fun saving the world.