Michael May's Blog, page 61

Fairy Tale Friday | Fables, Part 4: A Two-Part Caper

Picking up the Fairy Tale Characters in Other Genres format again, Fables #12-13 contained what it called "a two-part caper." The arc itself didn't have a name, but the individual issues were titled "A Sharp Operation" and "Dirty Business."

The plot is that a newspaper reporter has been watching the Fables community and thinks he's figured out their secret. He threatens to expose them, but when he presents his evidence to Bigby Wolf (hoping to get more details in an interview), it's clear that he's on the wrong track. He knows the community is immortal and has some kind of supernatural abilities. He assumes they're vampires.

Either way, Bigby isn't taking chances on a story getting out that will bring unwanted attention to the community. So he assembles a heist team to steal the reporter's evidence and make sure he has nothing to write about.

The team consists mostly of characters we've already met: Prince Charming, Jack, Bluebeard, Little Boy Blue, and Flycatcher (the Frog Prince). But in addition to them, Bigby adds Briar Rose, aka Sleeping Beauty, for a particular gift she possesses. I won't spoil how it goes, but it's a fun caper and raises tension by having Bluebeard strongly disagree with Bigby's methods. There's an intense confrontation; I'll just leave it at that. Repercussions are foreshadowed.

Sadly, Snow sits this one out as she's still recuperating from the events at the end of the "Animal Farm" arc.

Filthy Horrors | Dracularity

Darla, Jess, and I get Dracula-ed out discussing Bram Stoker's novel and the many movies, TV shows, comics, novels, and board games it's inspired.

Fairy Tale Friday | Fables, Part 3: Bag O' Bones

Fables #11 was a departure from the multi-issue story arc format as well as from the genre-hopping nature of the series. Rather than put fairy tale characters in a non-traditional genre like a murder mystery, the single-issue tale goes back in time to retell a couple of trickster stories from the Civil War. Fables has mashed them together and cast them with Jack as the "hero," but it's still straight up folklore.

Not that that's necessarily a problem. If you're familiar with these kinds of stories, Jack's 19th century adventures feel authentic if also not exactly original (because they aren't). The issue's an entertaining diversion with its personifications of the devil and death and Jack trying to outwit both, but I remember being eager to get back to present-day New York for more with Snow White, Bigby Wolf, and their neighbors.

Hellbent for Letterbox | A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Guest Evan Hanson returns to help Pax and I survey Seth MacFarlane's Western comedy. I skipped this in the theater because it didn't look funny to me, but my more recent love for The Orville made me want to go back and give it a try.

The Fairy Tale Project | Fables, Part 2: Animal Farm

The second story in Fables takes a hard turn away from the murder mystery of the first story. Having established the human community in New York City, the series moves upstate to visit the remote farm where all the talking animals and other non-human fairy tale characters live. And since it's literally an Animal Farm, what better genre to explore than a political allegory a la George Orwell?

The story has Snow White going to check on the farm, because its human overseer hasn't reported in a while. And since the events of the previous story revealed a catastrophic rift in Snow's relationship with her sister Rose Red, Snow takes Rose along with her so that they can talk. Upon arriving at the farm though, they quickly learn that all is not well and that the farm's inhabitants are extremely dissatisfied with the human government of the fables community. Like, full-on revolution dissatisfied.

As much as I enjoy the mystery of the first story, the talking animals in this one are even more my bag. The Three Pigs, Three Bears and Goldilocks, Reynard the Fox, and the Jungle Book characters are all major players in the drama. This was the story that completely hooked me on the series back in the day.

Fourth Chair Army Invasion | Rambo

Talk to me, Johnny! Adam from SequelQuest and William Bruce West join me to rap about Lt. John J Rambo’s adventures in Washington, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and maybe even a little with the Force of Freedom. What are the high and low points of the series? Does it deserve the attention it’s received? And what expectations does it create for the upcoming Rambo: Last Blood?

Filthy Horrors | But You Know It's Still Grimm

Darla, Jess, and I embrace the dark side of some of our favorite fairy tales: "Sleeping Beauty," "Little Red Riding Hood," and "The White Snake." And if you're not familiar with "The White Snake," don't worry. We'll read it to you!

Also up for discussion:
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Would You Rather (2012)
Jaws (1975)
Crawl (2019)
What the Folklore podcast
Mythos podcast

And things we're looking forward to:
It Chapter Two and Ready or Not

Mystery Movie Night | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Grease (1978), and Johnny Dangerously (1984)

Dave, David, Evan, and I are joined by Christian Nielsen ( The Atomic Geeks ,  Pop Culture Retrofit ) to talk about gangsters, greasers, and group therapy.

If you haven't seen one or more of the movies we discuss and prefer not to listen to that review (we do talk freely about spoilers), please use the time stamps below to jump to the part of the discussion that interests you.

00:01:30 - Review of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
00:16:22 - Review of Grease (1978)
00:41:54 - Review of Johnny Dangerously (1984)
00:57:12 - Guessing the Connection

Hellbent for Letterbox | Winchester '73 (1950)

Pax and I discuss the first collaboration between director Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart, also starring Shelley Winters and Dan Duryea.

The Fairy Tale Project | The Ice Storm (1997)

Who's in it?: Kevin Kline (Silverado, A Fish Called Wanda, Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Joan Allen (the Bourne movies), Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Ghostbusters, Working Girl, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, Galaxy Quest, The Village), Christina Ricci (The Addams Family, Casper, Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleepy Hollow, Speed Racer), Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings), Tobey Maguire (The Cider House Rules, Spider-Man, Seabiscuit, Satan’s Alley), David Krumholtz (Addams Family Values, 10 Things I Hate About You), Katie Holmes (Batman Begins), Henry Czerny (Clear and Present Danger, Mission: Impossible), and Allison Janney (Miracle on 34th Street, 10 Things I Hate About You, Spy)

What's it about?: Two families in the 1970s struggle with the effects of the sexual revolution over the course of a Thanksgiving weekend.

How is it?: This popped onto my radar because of the fairy tale project I'm working on and a connection the film has to the story of "Little Red Riding Hood." It's not a fun or easy movie to watch, but it's good and thought-provoking. I like it, but it's not something I'll rewatch often.

By coincidence, I watched it closely after seeing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for the first time. That was a cool juxtaposition of themes. Cuckoo’s Nest is a '70s film that documents society's questioning the rules and boundaries of the '50s and early '60s. Jack Nicholson plays a convict who's placed in a psychiatric ward for observation to see if he's actually mentally ill or just acting out. While he's there, he clashes with the head nurse on the ward, a no-nonsense, authoritarian woman who holds tight control over her patients and resents the element of chaos that Nicholson brings to her life. She represents the establishment, Nicholson represents American culture's push back against it, and the film presents both the uplifting and heart-breaking consequences of that conflict.

The Ice Storm, on the other hand, is a '90s film that looks back at the '70s and questions the wisdom of jettisoning all those rules and boundaries without replacing them with something else. The film is primarily interested in attitudes around sex, so the two families at the center of the story all struggle with that in various ways. Some of the adults are questioning the value of fidelity in marriage just as their teenage children are beginning to experiment with each other's bodies. But rather than feeling liberated by their new sexual freedom, the various characters are as trapped and unhappy as anyone in a '50s suburban melodrama.

The film gave me a lot to think about and it's presented extremely well with great acting and Ang Lee's typically excellent direction. I especially love the metaphors. For starters there's the symbolism of the ice storm itself that moves in over the weekend and makes everyone's life more dangerous. It suggests that navigating sex without rules is like walking or driving on ice. It feels exhilarating, but it's also an easy way to get hurt.

But more appropriate to my fairy tale project is that one of the families is named Hood and a couple of the teenage characters (Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood) wear red hoods throughout the film. Of course that calls Little Red Riding Hood to mind with the implication being that '70s America has naively wandered off the path and found itself in deep trouble.

One of my favorite relationships in the film is between Ricci's character Wendy and her dad, Ben, played by Kevin Kline. Ben is having an affair with their next door neighbor (Sigourney Weaver), but is very upset about catching Wendy fooling around with the neighbor's son (Elijah Wood). This strains their relationship and Ben has a hard time figuring out the appropriate way to feel about it. Wendy seems very grown-up and rational and Ben is the emotional one, so how can he parent her under those conditions? Especially when he has no moral high ground to stand on? So late in the movie after a big argument, they're walking home and Wendy intentionally steps in a big puddle just to show that she doesn't care and can do whatever she wants. They argue a bit more and the conversation goes nowhere until Ben asks her if she's cold and wants him to carry her. It's my favorite part of the movie when she agrees and climbs into his arms.

I don't love it because the parent has triumphed over the child. Ben doesn't even think of it as a victory. It's just a sweet, quiet moment where they both pull back from the freedom they've been so eager to explore and allow themselves the comfort of a structured relationship. That can't last forever and they both know it, but it's beautiful in the moment. 

Rating: Three out of five modern Red Riding Hoods