AN INTERESTING MOMENT AT THE AMERICAN BOX OFFICE

 

Recently, during the weekend of December 8th-10th, the number one film at the American box office was writer/director/animator Hayao Miyazaki's latest (and perhaps last) film The Boy and the Heron.  While this was in itself no surprise, with Miyazaki's films having been quite popular in the US for decades, what is interesting is that the number three spot on the box office list that week was Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One, which had debuted at number one two weeks earlier.

This means that for the first time ever, Japan had two out of the three top box office movies for the weekend.  While this may just be a coincidence of releasing, with the two films sandwiched by the usual big budget Hollywood releases, I like to think that it also may show that international films may finally be getting their moment in the US.  (Although I suppose I should point out that both films have been shown with both subtitled and dubbed versions, with the dubbing of course making them feel less foreign).

For decades, foreign films were delegated mostly to arthouse theaters in this country, with studios assuming that American audiences just don't like subtitles and aren't interested in stories from other cultures.  Sadly, there seemed to be some truth in this, with foreign films at the Oscars almost always ghettoized by only winning a "Best Foreign Film" award and only big cities showing them on the big screen.  This happened despite the fact that many of the most influential films ever made are foreign films, such as Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (remade twice as the Magnificent Seven) and Frederico Fellini's 8 1/2, which has also been remade several times, while also being turned into a Broadway musical.  

But the fact that Japan did not just see animated films as just children's films lead to Japanese adult oriented animated movies and TV shows (like 1988's Akira) building cult followings in the US, aided by the rise of videotape rental stores.  Another big change was the surprising win for Best Picture by the Korean film Parasite in 2019, followed by the enormous success of the Korean TV series Squid Game in 2021 would seem to confirm this trend.  It would seem that the continuing rate of diversification in the country has lead to an opening for films from different cultures.

But then perhaps I'm being overly optimistic, and that the box office success of The Boy and the Heron and Godzilla Minus One is not so surprising considering that both Miyazaki and Godzilla are both far from obscure in the US. (Considering the recent series of Godzilla films made in Hollywood, that character  has pretty much become as much an  American commodity these days as a Japanese one.)   But as someone who grew up in San Francisco and has sought out and often loved foreign language films almost all my life, I hope that in the future Americans will get over their aversion to sub titles.  At the very least, I hope sometime soon that there is a cable channel available in the US that only shows foreign language films. (When you consider how many versions of ESPN there are, you'd think there'd be a chance!).  

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022)

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE AT ONCE (DIR AND SCR: DANIEL KWAN AND DANIEL SCHEINERT)

 Co writers and directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known as the Daniels) first started wanting to make a movie about the possibilities of a multiverse in 2010.  In the next few years movies like 2018's SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE came out, beating them to the punch premise wise.   Fortunately, they kept at it, directing their first film together (2016's SWISS ARMY MAN) before finally getting the chance to make EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE in late 2020.  And I'm sure glad they did, because they wound up making a multiverse movie that blows away every other attempt at the concept; it's a near perfect blend of martial arts, family drama, comedy and trippy surrealism.  I can't think of any other film quite like it, and I love almost every minute of it.  Obviously I wasn't alone, because the film won a whopping 7 Oscars, with star Michelle Yeoh becoming the first Asian woman to win a Best Actress award.  

Considering the film's length and  how many special effects shot were there, the fact that the film was shot in only around a month and had a budget of  27 million dollars is impressive.  Its release last March saw it winning almost universal acclaim, and it was also a box office hit, making well over a hundred million dollars worldwide.

 Yeoh stars as Evelyn, a middle aged Chinese mother who runs a laundromat with her good natured husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan).  At the film's start, she's in trouble: the laundromat is being audited by the intimidating IRS agent Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), her teenage daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) is often at odds with her, and she's worried about telling her overbearing father Gong (James Hong) about Joy's lesbianism.  On the way to the IRS office, Waymond suddenly starts acting differently, and he explains to her that he is now actually a different version of Waymond from an alternate universe.  And he needs her help in stopping the multiverse hopping  Tobu Tapaki (who looks like Joy) from causing permanent destruction to the multiverse.

My plot description of this film doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what's going on here, and how multiple viewings of this film are really necessary to catch everything. (I must admit, I was bit overwhelmed by first viewing of the film, and my reaction was muted, but with each subsequent viewing I've grown more and more fond of it).  The important thing is that, even when the audience is off balance, the Daniels never are; the movie slyly and swiftly moves from action to drama to comedy without ever losing a beat.  I love all the different looks for the different universes (one looks like a classic martial arts film, another is like the dreamy, gorgeous style of  director Wong Kar Wai), and how, despite all the craziness, the story always sticks with Evelyn and her problems, from the mundane (getting her taxes in order) to the action oriented (fighting off a roomful of baddies with a policeman's shield) to the surreal (living in a universe where all humans have hotdogs for fingers, or another  in which she's merely a rock).  Also, the action scenes are wonderfully choreographed and feature some amusing weaponry (Waymond wields a mean fanny pack!). 

At its core, I personally think this is a film about a woman realizing that she's losing her daughter to depression and possible suicide, and that she has to start caring about her more and criticizing her less. (Joy needs more joy). Along with that is her dawning realization that her toughness towards her daughter stems from her own father's harshness towards her (her family were never happy with her marrying Waymond).  So she must push herself to, as her husband puts it, "just be kind" to her daughter while convincing her father to do the same.  The movie wonderfully expresses this in both a special effect moment (Evelyn, Waymond and Gong all pull together to stop Joy as Tobu Tapak,i from jumping into the void) and a straightforward dramatic moment (Evelyn finally admits to Gong that Joy is a lesbian).  Although the movie thankfully never spells this out, it's entirely possible that almost all of it is just playing out in Evelyn's head as she daydreams at the IRS office.  Really, all the multiverses could just be thoughts that Evelyn is having about the choices she's made in her life and how things could have played out differently (making this the only martial arts movie I've ever seen that could be influenced by Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film WILD STRAWBERRIES!).  

Originally, Jackie Chan was intended to play the part of Waymond, but I'm glad that he bowed out; having a well known star like Chan would have made this more of a star vehicle for him, when this story really is Evelyn's.  Along with Yeoh winning, Quan and Curtis also won Oscars for their supporting roles, which is no surprise since their is a real joy to all of these performances, as each actor gets to play wildly different versions of their characters.  I love the way that Waymond's change from mild mannered husband to alternate universe warrior is shown by his taking off his glasses, like Clark Kent turning into Superman, or how Curtis at one point gets to play a crazed psycho smashing down a door, not unlike the killers she's run from in her many horror roles.   But even with all the quick character changes, the performances are also grounded; before the multiverse madness kicks in the family chemistry and dynamics between Evelyn, Waymond and Joy feel real and relatable, giving the audience something to hang on to when all the multiverse hopping starts.  Really, if I have any objection to this film winning three awards for acting, it's that I would have given the Best Supporting Actress award to Hsu instead of Curtis.  Oh sure, Curtis is great in the movie, but I think Hsu is even better, showing a wider range of emotions in her character.  But that's no big deal.

SO DID THE ACADEMY GET IT RIGHT?

This is one time that I completely agree with the Academy's choice, really, I can't think of any other movie this year that even comes close.  It's probably the best film in years.

IS "80 FOR BRADY" PROPAGANDA?

 The recent release of the comedy film "80 for Brady" marks an interesting breaking of precedent: while there have been many movies about football going back decades, this film marks the first time that one was made that is aimed squarely at the female viewing audience.  As anyone who has seen the preview for the film knows, it stars four venerable female actors (Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno) and is more about the characters whacky antics as they try to get into the Super Bowl LI than football itself.  Much has been made about how the film is loosely based on a real life group of elderly female football fans, and one of the film's producers is Tom Brady himself, who I'm sure is just fine with a movie being made about fans cheering for his greatness as quarterback.  

The film appears to already be a moderate hit, opening at number two at the box office, but I think the NFL had a little more on their mind than box office returns when they went ahead with this film.  Even someone who isn't a fan of football like me can't help but notice that the sport seems to be reaching out to female fans more and more in the past few years.  In 2015, for the first time ever, a woman was hired as an assistant NFL coach, with more on the way.   Women are also being hired as football TV announcers and referees.  Even the fact that the planes that soar over the stadium this year will all be piloted by women for the first time ever has been widely reported on.  Part of this is just due to more women breaking ground in general in the world, which is obviously a good thing.

But I think there's something else going on here: football in America is in an odd position.  While the game is obviously very popular, its future maybe in doubt.  While scandals like steroid use and players getting away with terrible behavior rocked the league in the past without really hurting the game, the discovery in 2004 that  multiple concussions from on the field play could lead  to severe mental problems, (known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) for the players, hurt the game like no other scandal before it.  The  fallout from that discovery, lead to a congressional investigation in 2009 in which the NFL was openly accused of knowing the potential damage of CTE on its players and covering it up.  Eventually the league paid out a settlement of almost a  billion dollars to retired players suffering from CTE.  And while some attempts have been made to tamp down the brutal nature of the game, pile ons and tackles are such a big part of it that it seems really impossible to make it safe for players.

Recent polls show that the league has something to worry about: a 2018 Gallup poll found that while football remained the country's favorite sport, its numbers were slipping (from 43% saying it was their favorite in 2006 and 2007  to 37% in 2017).  Furthermore,   according to the website FiveThirtyEight,  between 2016 and 2017 there was a decline of 12% in children playing in youth football leagues, and an NBC poll showed an increase in parents trying to discourage their sons from playing football between 2014 and 2018.  And the important number in that poll is that women are more likely to discourage their sons than men are.  

Putting it simply, the NFL's future resides on convincing the mothers of America that football is a safe game for their sons to play.  So the league has been doing damage control by reaching out to female fans (and trying to create more), with  moves like  hiring female referees and coaches, and  green lighting a movie for women about the joys of football fandom like "80 For Brady".  Whether this strategy will work in the long term remains to be seen,  (the NFL certainly has deep pockets to spend on improving its image).  Personally, I'm with author Malcolm Gladwell when he asserts that football is a "moral abomination", but every Super Bowl Sunday, with all the media buildup it gets,  people like me feel like we're, well, whispering in a wind tunnel.