Ready Player One and Short Takes on Blockers

       The Kids Are Alright (eventually)

                                            Reviews by Ken Burke

                 Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg)

                           

“Executive Summary” (no spoilers): The world of 2045 has evolved into a miserable place (except for the rich) so most of the populace spends as much time as possible absorbed into the vast Virtual Reality experience of the OASIS where our hero, Parzival (the avatar of Ohio teenager Wade Watts), is on a quest to conquer 3 challenges that will then unlock a door where he’ll receive a Golden Egg bequeathing enormous wealth and full control of the OASIS, as specified by its eccentric founder, James Halliday, who died a few years prior.  Working with a team of 4 other avatar buddies, including dynamic female Art3mis (Samantha Cook in the sordid real world), Parzival uses the library archives of Halliday to find essential clues in his difficult goal of acquiring the 3 keys necessary to win this fast-moving, all-absorbing game he’s within, all the while being opposed by oppressive CEO Nolan Sorrento who wants all of this treasure for himself.  You’ll just have to see the movie, read the book it's adapted from, or—much easier—consult the spoiler-filled-details below if you're interested in what happens next, but you at least need to watch the trailer to get a sense of the visually-dazzling-computer-based-graphics in this entertainment extravaganza.  In truth, for me the structure was a bit too flamboyant for the mildly-delivered-payoff; however, I realize that in both age and fascination with the cyberworld already too complex on the Internet for a septuagenarian like me I’m not a central member of the target audience.  Still, if you want a great diversionary audiovisual ride for a couple of hours, Ready Player One can be a lot of fun to watch along with attempting to catch the dozens of pop-culture-references embedded in its many scenes.

Here’s the trailer:  (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate that same button on the full screen’s lower right or your “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but as this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film—or want to save some bucks—to help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

                  

What Happens: We’re in 2045 Columbus, OH where much of this overpopulated city (just like the rest of Earth) looks desolate, epitomized by our protagonist, 18-year-old Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), orphaned but living with his aunt in a stack of old trailers piled high on metal scaffolding, seemingly with no future to look forward to in this miserable world.  However, Wade doesn’t spend much time in the actual environment he inhabits; instead, he—and seemingly most of the planet’s population—lose themselves in the amazing counter-existence of the OASIS, a massive Virtual Reality cluster of video games where you can accumulate digital currency by accomplishing various tasks which then allow you to purchase items to enhance your actions (and successes) in this alternative VR experience where virtually anything you could imagine will be found somewhere in its vast resources; however, you can also find yourself indebted to Innovative Online Industries (IOI), makers of the VR technology, if you should lose your stash.  Players don’t come into this environment as themselves, though; instead, they create avatars with chosen names and physical characteristics—Wade is Parzival, blonder and slimmer than his actual appearance, often aided in his adventures by Aech (voice of Lena Waithe, connected to a huge robot-like-character who’s a master mechanic) along with his Asian buddies Daito (Win Morisaki) and Sho (Philip Zhao).  OASIS activities took a major turn away from the standard daily routine of escapism and minor-wealth-accumulation, though, with the death 5 years ago of oddball reclusive OASIS creator James Halliday (Mark Rylance) who left behind a video challenge that anyone who can accomplish the tasks of meeting 3 trials, thereby gaining 3 keys along with vital clues, will be able to find a hidden Golden Egg which will bequeath to the winner $500 billion plus sole ownership of the entire OASIS.

 As a ferocious Gunter (short for “egg hunter”), Parzival’s determined to conquer this quest, along the way gaining the respect and friendship (soon a romantic attraction) with Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), a female adventurer who makes Tomb Raider's (Roar Uthaug) Lara Croft look like a middle-aged-bank-clerk.  The first challenge is an auto race into a virtual Manhattan, but the entrance is guarded by King Kong (the OASIS is crammed with pop culture references, far too many for me to recognize, let alone recount here* except for Parzival racing around in a DeLorean car in a clear reference to the Back to the Future trilogy (Robert Zemeckis; 1985, 1989, 1990)—with a great majority of the trivia elements scattered throughout the OASIS being 1980s memorabilia (seemingly a passion of Halliday’s based on a time when he was more satisfied with his life before a falling out with original partner Ogden Morrow [Simon Pegg] partly over Halliday’s shyness, inhibiting him from following through on his strong attraction to Kira [Perdita Weeks], who eventually married Morrow), although Spielberg consciously refused to include anything he directed but accepted the DeLorean because he only co-executive-produced those Back to the Futures.  However, Parzival and Art3mis explore the OASIS Halliday library where they can watch video simulations of events in the inventor’s life, helping them find strategies to gain access to those vital 3 keys, constantly trying to stay ahead of a small army of Sixers (so-called due to their 6-digit identification numbers), avatars of those indebted to IOI, sent out on their own quest by victory-obsessed IOI CEO Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn).

*If you like, you can watch Easter Egg explanation sites #1 (7:54 video with 138 references noted) and #2 (a 34:17 video claiming to explore over 300 such “buried treasures,” but, honestly, I didn’t invest that much time in seeing what this one has to offer, despite having been delighted in other such investigations by Erik Voss;someday soon with some time to spare I'll give it a complete look).

 Parzival and Art3mis’ first victory—eluding the mighty Kong—comes via understanding the meaning within the OASIS of an old Halliday statement leading our heroes to a subterranean road into NYC, gaining them a clue as to how to acquire the next key.  Wade’s growing interest in Art3mis proves to be dangerous because by revealing his real name to her that info is intercepted by a grim bounty hunter, i-ROk (T.J. Miller), passing it on to Sorrento who meets Wade in the real world, makes him a generous offer to join IOI but the kid refuses.  In retaliation, Sorrento sends his deadly henchwoman F’Nale Zandor (Hannah John-Kamen) to attack Wade’s trailer stack, killing Aunt Alice in the process although the intended target wasn’t home at the time.  Instead, he's taken by Art3mis’ friends to her real-life, corporate-opposition-hideout where she’s revealed to him as Samantha Cook, a bit shy about her appearance although its of no consequence to smitten Wade.*

*How these characters completely lose themselves into Virtual Reality is purely fictional (so far), but if you’re interested in exploring tangible aspects of scientific research into out-of-body-experiences, VR, and the merge of these into something called Virtual Embodiment (much like a primitive version of the OASIS) here’s a lengthy article from Joshua Rothman in The New Yorker on exactly that topic.  I thank my frequent film-going-companion, Michaele O’Leary, for passing this info on to me.

 Another visit to the Halliday archives leads to figuring out a clue involving Kira (along with Parzival winning a bet with the Curator, who gives him winnings of a quarter) leading them to a recreation of The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) where after surviving meetings with those creepy little Grady twins, the murderous ghost in the bathtub, and the bloody elevator shaft among other horrors our group of intrepid warriors (calling themselves the High Five) gain access to the second key/clue, telling them the final unlocking must occur in Castle Anorak on Planet Doom which has now been sealed off by Sorrento’s avatar using a magic force field to protect the many Sixers inside this huge globe who’ve been assigned the task of solving the third mystery—in the Atari room—where eventually it’s learned the old “Adventure” game must be played but the winners keep being destroyed rather than gaining access to that all-important-key.  ⇒Earlier Art3mis allowed herself to be captured so Parzival could escape, so she’s now one of the enslaved-debt-workers, but communicating by remote audio with Parzival (who’s now called forth all the vast OASIS players to rally with him in his quest to enter Castle Anorak, with a huge battle occurring between them [aided by the Iron Giant] and the IOI army [plus the mighty Mechagodzilla]) she escapes her captivity, manages to unlock the barrier allowing Parzival to enter the castle* whereupon Sorrento destroys all inhabitants, including Parzival who survives because that Curator quarter grants him an extra life.⇐

*Sort of like the ploy of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) shutting down the tractor beam so that the Millennium Falcon could escape from the Death Star in the original Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977).

 ⇒Parzival solves the third mystery by finding the “Adventure” game’s own Easter Egg within its structure rather than winning its programmed challenge (because Halliday was more interested in discoveries than rules).  Upon unlocking a gate with his final key (entering what resembles the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica), Parzival passes another test by not signing an offered contract, then meets Halliday’s avatar (seen previously as the game’s Anorak) who gives him the long-sought OASIS Golden Egg, with Wade having also survived attacks onto Aech's van in the real world (we learned awhile back “he’s” actually a Black woman named Helen) from F’Nale (in a manner reminding me of real-world-intrusions on the dreamscapes of Inception [Christopher Nolan, 2010] which almost ruined that intricate plot), ultimately leaving us with some ambiguity as to whether Halliday’s really dead or not.  All of this wraps up with Sorrento and Zandor arrested (she could have fired on the 4 inhabitants of the van but chose not to as her previous blind loyalty to her boss faded), the other High Five members sharing Wade’s victory (thanks to their vital help in getting him through the various trials) by taking over OASIS while eliminating the endured-servitude-policy of IOI but then shutting down OASIS on Tuesdays and Thursdays to force people to deal with their own actual lives to some degree, and, finally, a growing romance between Wade and Samantha.⇐

So What? How you respond to Ready Player One might depend on: (1) how invested you are in video games (which aren’t that interesting to me, especially the ones based on non-stop-violence where your sole objective is to kill every attacker coming at you from all sides or the ones where you’re driving at break-neck-speed through some series of obstacles; I dabbled a bit during the 1970s-‘80s in the primitive versions of Pong and Pac-Man but never got into anything more sophisticated so I’m a complete Luddite where such technology’s concerned); (2) how much you care about pop-culture-citations, especially from the 1980s (I have a passing interest in such unnecessary knowledge—I once won a game of Trivial Pursuit by luck of the dice-roll in getting to 12 landings in a row where I knew the correct answers—but I’m much better with/more attached to ephemera from the 1960s-‘70s, such as Parzival and Art3mis at the Distracted Globe nightclub recreating a dance routine from Saturday Night Fever [John Badham, 1977], although essentially in mid-air rather than on a crowded dance floor; when searching for something to listen to on my local radio stations I sometimes turn to an “all 80s all the time” option but it’s usually not my preference [except for the occasional Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, or Elton John tunes], although non-Sirius-satellite-stations for my demographic don’t seem to exist anymore as Baby Boomers have largely been abandoned as a target audience except for medical products); (3) fascination with role-playing in a cyberspace location (I’m not even swayed by the constant branding-of-self that drives many social media platforms of the Internet having never indulged in Twitter, Instagram, or the like, mostly using Facebook—even before its current problems—just as a means of promoting this blog, although it's fascinating to see such things as beautiful photos of Scotland where a friend’s now touring [but I don’t need to know what anyone’s having for lunch or dessert, no matter how much it costs]).  So, while I’m impressed with the technological mastery demonstrated in Ready Player One I can’t say the constant adrenaline-rush of this movie's structure was truly all that appealing to me.

 In fact, when watching this movie, then thinking further about it, I’m reminding of when I first got into graduate school in 1970 with one of my classes being 8mm filmmaking.  For one of my projects I edited together some footage of obvious metaphors about lustful human sexuality (a churning cement mixer, the phallic U. of Texas at Austin main building tower) in response to a bitter breakup with a girlfriend of the time (if I’d been Congressional-testimony-star Mark Zuckerberg I might have invented a multi-billion-dollar industry in response to such an event; in my case I made a lousy little film since disappeared into the wastebasket of irrelevance) that my instructor said looked like I’d constructed a freight train to carry a teacup worth of message.  I felt insulted at the time (although I now easily agree) but wonder if Spielberg ought to be burdened with a similar evaluation for … Player One.  Yet, he could counter with the financial response to his latest work, a $395.2 million worldwide haul ($98.1 million of it from domestic [U.S.-Canada] venues) after only 2 weeks in release which clearly shows broad audience acceptance.  (By chance, a couple of days after our screening my wife, Nina, and I were at brunch sitting next to a woman and her young son who was reading the Ernest Cline novel [2011] this movie’s adapted from; he’s enjoying the book quite a bit but his Mom’s concerned whether the cinematic version would be appropriate for a 9-year-old, given it’s rated PG-13 [probably for the intensity of the action in the speedster, … Shining, and final battle scenes, reminiscent of the huge army clashes in Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King {Peter Jackson, 2003} or The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies {Jackson, 2014}].  As we told her then, with my elaboration now, children [and teenagers, along with anyone else still seeing themselves in the mindset of such age groups] are the perfect audience for this overdrive-story, which largely left me in the dust).  There are useful social messages here about perseverance in the face of mounting adversity—as well as forcing yourself away from the seduction of the digital world (challenging people in our actual existence who are being constantly drawn into images and snarky remarks on their smartphones)—but it’s like climbing through the multiple layers of an exhausting video game (appropriate for this content, I must admit) to finally arrive at such enlightening-wisdom.

Bottom Line Final Comments: “These days reality is a bummer” says Wade in his introductory voice-over narration, which clearly sums up what Ready Player One’s all about, encouraging the global escape into the OASIS, even as critical response for Spielberg’s been notably better than that attitude with some reviewers praising this filmmaker for his amazing array of digital imagery, effectively returning to his successful-thrill-ride-roots of fare like Jaws (1974), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)—and its sequels—Jurassic Park (1993), Minority Report (2002)—although compared to how high-energy each of those movies are … Player One’s more like a constant severe-drop/high-loop roller coaster in its visual intensity, with certain segments such as the initial race against King Kong just seeming to go on forever while the critical consensus is more reserved with 74% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, a 64% average score at Metacritic (more details in the Related Links section farther below) despite Spielberg’s impressive résumé overall, with directorial Oscar wins for Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998).  For those who are somewhat less-impressed with … Player One (expecting more than our enthusiastic colleagues) perhaps Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly says it best (in perfect tune with the ‘80s references permeating this movie, using Michael Jackson to make his point): “[…] Ready Player One is pure Thriller until you eventually look at your watch [140 min. running time] and want to Beat It.”* 

*If you’d like to explore other memorable lines (or clusters of dialogue) you can click through this site of "Movie Lines That Were Never Meant for the Final Cut" about notable on-screen-quotes improvised rather than being part of their original scripts.  I don’t know how many of them are contained here as I stopped clicking after 70, even as there seem to be many more to be explored.

 It's hard for me to top that pithy EW comment (accordingly, Nashawaty writes for an enormous national [actually, international, I'm sure] magazine/website while I don’t—although I’m still very proud of my global cluster of readers, about 41,000 of you over the last month according to the Google accountants [although I’ve gotten up to around 80,000 at recent times, with my ongoing thanks to all of my worldwide readers, regular or cursory]), so I’ll just conclude my Ready Player One comments via a short focus on my usual wrap-up-tactic of a final reference from the perspective of the aural arts with my Musical Metaphor, this time taken directly from the first song played under this movie’s extensive credits, Daryl Hall and John Oates’ “You Make My Dreams (Come True)” (from their 1980 album Voices) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EErSKhC0 CZs (official music video for the song), but to truly honor Ready …’s 1980s vibe here's another version possibly from a 1983 concert at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theatre (but a reply to this video says that performance wasn’t until 1985, so this one’s supposedly at Montreal’s Forum in 1983; does anybody out there have confirmation from an actual attendance?) featuring Hall’s big hair from that long-lost-era while the lyrics embrace Wade’s passion for Samantha even on nights “when bad dreams become a screamer […] ‘cause I ain’t the way you found me And I’ll never be the same.”

                 

(goal was) SHORT TAKES (but almost as long as the review above)

(please note that a few spoilers also appear here)

                

                                Blockers (Kay Cannon)

                  

As 3 teenage girls approach prom night (followed by graduation, then who knows what after high school) they make a pact to lose their virginity, even though for 2 of them it’ll be arbitrary-choice-guys rather than invested boyfriends; through an untended open laptop their parents learn of the plan, then rush to stop them, leading to crude sex-and-bodily-functions-laughs.

Here’s the trailer:

 But this is a Red Band trailer with R-rated language and activities intact so if you’d like something just a little bit more sanitized (although that means you might not want to watch the actual movie because it’s full of such raunchiness) here’s another trailer that’s slightly-less-direct on Blockers’ content (obviously these were shown only prior to other R-rated movies as they're blunt in content):

        Before reading any further, I’ll ask you to refer to the plot spoilers warning far above.

             

 Much is being made of how Blockers (which refers to sex-inhibiting-parents, or “cock blockers,” an intention you can surmise from the poster or even the title in the trailer with a rooster featured prominently in each [although it was removed from broadcast TV ads], allowing the pun to elude some censorship of what the title fully implies) is a female-oriented-version of such male-focused-fare as seen in American Pie (Chris and Paul Weitz, 1999) or others of that ilk (Superbad [Greg Mottola, 2007]) where the focus is on boys ending their teenage years with getting laid, not necessarily as the result of romance but just for the thrill of acquiring that aspect of coming (so to speak) adulthood* (although that’s not always the on-screen-goal of finishing high school—either because the story’s set in a time where restrain on the part of both sexes often resulted in nothing more than longing desires in such tales as American Graffiti [George Lucas, 1973] set in 1962 or in post-“cultural revolution”-times where booze, weed, and probable-sex are part of the landscape, such as in Dazed and Confused [Richard Linklater, 1993] set in 1976).  This current movie’s about how 3 teen girls—Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Sam(antha) (Gideon Adlon)—close friends since childhood make a similar pact, although Julie’s the only one with a boyfriend (Austin [Graham Phillips]) at the moment while Sam’s challenge is bit more difficult because despite feigning interest in Chad (Jimmy Bellinger)  ⇒she knows she’s a lesbian, even though she’s come out to no one else yet⇐  (Kayla simply puts the moves on her chemistry lab partner, Connor [Miles Robbins], who's an attractive-enough-convenience).  Critical response to this actively-R-material has been quite positive (82% positive reviews at RT, 69% average at usually-more-reserved MC; more details below) with a hearty worldwide audience response of $32.6 million ($20.6 million domestically) in its debut weekend, although that pales in comparison to the intense horror movie, A Quiet Place (John Krasinski), also debuting but with a global total of $75.3 million ($54.4 million of that from domestic theaters), a film not yet on my nightmare-avoidance-agenda.

*You can read a bit more here on what director Cannon says regarding such gender-specific-stuff.

 In addition to the focus shifting to self-determined-female-sexuality a further wrinkle in Blockers’ plot is the active presence of parents not as peripheral characters but as active, obsessed guardians of the gate (again, so to speak) but for different reasons:  Julie’s mother, Lisa (Leslie Mann—with an extensive career, possibly best known for The 40-Year-Old Virgin [Judd Apatow, 2005] and 17 Again [Burr Steers, 2007]), doesn’t want her daughter to end up a single mom like herself who never finished college but was abandoned by her lover during pregnancy as he ran off to follow a rock band (other tensions will arise over Julie’s acceptance to UCLA where she intends to go rather than much-closer U. of Chicago where Mom can hover in more easily); Kayla’s Dad, Mitchell (John Cena—known both for various movies in recent years as well as being a frequent World Wrestling Entertainment champ) still sees his daughter as a precious, protected child (despite Mom Marcie’s [Sarayu Blue] attitude their daughter’s old enough to make her own decisions); Sam’s Dad, Hunter (Ike Barninholtz—with a substantial career of his own but to me he looks [at least on screen here] so much like Marc Wahlberg I had difficulty seeing past the resemblance [see the above photo, then go here to decide for yourself how myopic I may be]) has long been out of her life, divorced from Mom Brenda (June Diane Raphael), but instinctively understands Sam’s sexual reality.  Once these parents discover their offsprings’ plans (due to Julie’s laptop left open at home) via Hunter’s decoding of the girls’ emoji-laden-texts, it’s all absurd physical comedy in attempts to locate the kids, then put a stop to their prom-night-plans (although hedonistic Hunter’s ironically the most sincere of their bunch, as he doesn’t want Sam to force herself to act hetero if that’s not who she is).  Along the way Mitchell accepts a beer-chugging-challenge but it’s through his butt rather than his throat (with more hilarity—if that’s how you see all this stuff—as he spews it back into Hunter’s face in a panic as cops arrive to break up this huge-underage-party), Lisa attempts to drive like Vin Diesel only to end up in a ditch perpendicular to the ground,* followed by ending up under Julie and Austin’s bed in a hotel room, quietly-but-difficultly-slipping-out so as not to be discovered.

*Director Cannon provides some insights into her approach to Blockers in this anatomy of a scene (a short video [1:15], explaining the “blocking” of the scene where the parents first wrestle with each other in their attempt to get into a car in pursuit of preventing their daughters intentions).

 By the conclusion of all this horniness, counter-intentions, alcohol and drug overindulgence (Connor laces everything with chemical enhancements leading to the whole teen crew—and their limo driver for the night [Hunter’s gift], Rudy [Colton Dunn]—throwing up [as well as the kids being stoned for awhile]), Chad’s premature ejaculation (preserving Sam’s virginity, allowing her to later connect with Angelica [Ramona Young]), along with Austin’s parents making love all over their house then texting their son about it, Lisa’s acceptance of her daughter’s need for independence (they fight but later reconcile) and Mitchell’s acceptance of Kayla more as a young woman than his little girl,  ⇒we end up with Julie having made love with Austin, worked it out with Lisa to go to UCLA (being driven there by Kayla, Sam, and whichever guy(s) was (were) in the car (probably Connor; maybe Angelica too, couldn’t tell); Kayla making her own decision on prom night not to have sex yet (maybe in a couple of days, though, when she’s gotten a chance to know Connor better); Sam presumably now out to everyone (she finally told her girlfriends who lovingly embraced her); the 3 previously-frantic-parents now resolved with their daughters’ choices, friends as well (Lisa had been avoiding Mitchell because his marriage reminded her of what she’d lost earlier in life; they both accept Hunter as being less of the jerk he always seemed to be, with the revelation Brenda was more responsible for their breakup, which factored in to her known-infidelity).  In the final scene Lisa’s once again (accidently she assumes) in Julie’s chat exchanges where the girls talk of sex and drugs on the way to CA before Julie texts it’s just a final prank before the credits roll.⇐

 Depending on your interest in sex jokes, parents making fools of themselves on behalf of their children (except Marcie, seemingly the only rational one), some crude physical humor (including Hunter getting his balls squeezed by Austin’s blindfolded mother, Cathy [Gina Gershon]—don’t ask) balanced out by the positive messages that teenage girls are just as valid as sexual beings (not objects) as are their male counterparts even as they can be mature (probably more so than most guys that age [Do I speak from experience?  Take a wild guess.]) about how to handle their hormonal urges (at least these 3 are) within a context of noncontroversial interracial relationships (Marcie, married to Mitchell, is South Asian [probably Indian] with their so-called mixed-race [for those who need to make such distinctions] daughter completely comfortable choosing any partner she has her eye on; Cathy’s [we don’t see much of her after the early scenes of being annoyed at Hunter’s unexpected presence] involved with a Black man, Frank [Hannibal Buress], a relationship also taken for granted with no need for commentary) and expectations that clinging parents will eventually learn to trust the judgments made by their children, assuming they’ve been properly raised to infuse some reasonable considerations into those judgments (not unlike the sentimental messages of lasting friendships, the value of personal needs over material seductions, the sense mature women [who aren’t all that much older than Blockers’ teens in the context of usual lifespans] can independently make needed life choices that emerge after the equivalent-raunch of Girls Trip [Malcolm D. Lee, 2017; no Two Guys review, finally caught up with it last week on HBO] featuring golden showers above a New Orleans French Quarter street, absinthe-fueled-hallucinations, and the infamous grapefruit scene that—along with butt-chugging—could exist only in an R-rated story).

 Wrapping up with a Musical Metaphor for Breakers, though, I think it only reasonable to focus on the sex-drives (and corresponding parental-prevention attempts) that fuel this grossout-with-a-soft-center-narrative so an easy choice is Chuck Berry’s “Reelin’ and Rockin’“ (originally on a 1957 single with “Sweet Little Sixteen,” available on the 1972 album The London Chuck Berry Sessions) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTnoSsaeOn0, a live video from the 1972 Lanchester Arts Festival in Coventry, England (where some portions of that album were recorded), a song whose content should be obvious after a couple of verses, but if you still think it’s about dancing (at least the kind where you keep your clothes on) then Chuck clears it up for you toward the end with “We did it in the kitchen, We did it in the hall, I got some on my finger But I wiped it on the wall” (doubtful those lines were included in the original single version).*  Then, with that English-location-mood established, how about a final Metaphor harking back to this posting’s title, The Who with “The Kids Are Alright” (from their 1965 debut album My Generation) at this link (an old music video from when they were all young—and alive—with the song playing while Pete Townsend smashes various guitars and amps; it also contains the lyrics if you like) or maybe you’d prefer a more recent version (with surviving Who members Townsend and Roger Daltrey, along with Pete’s brother Simon on guitar, Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey on drums) where all the kids we’ve encountered—from Parzival, Art3mis, and company to Julie, Kayla, and Sam to the enthusiastic English audiences (for Berry and the more current Who “Kids …” crowd at the huge 2015 Glastonbury Festival [near Pilton, Somerset, England]) are as “alright” as anyone could ever hope to be, despite whatever travails they had to encounter to get there (I’m including endless restroom lines for those concerts). 

*If that tune whets your appetite for a bit more from the true King of Rock and Roll (in my passionate opinion, at least), you can visit this site for a lively medley of “Bye Bye Johnny” (from the 1960 album Rockin’ at the Hops) and “Johnny B. Goode” (from, among other recorded options, the 1967 Chuck Berry’s Golden Hits album) with a fabulous guitar solo in the middle of the latter.

                      

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

              

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Here’s more information about Ready Player One:

http://readyplayeronemovie.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5xfwllEnPU (25:58 interviews with director Steven Spielberg, actors Tye Sherdian, Olivia Cooke, Lena Waithe, Win Morisaki, Philip Zhao Hannah John-Kamen, Ben Mendelsohn, and screenwriter/original novelist Ernest Cline [plus one other unidentified guy])

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ready_player_one

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/ready-player-one

Here’s more information about Blockers:

https://www.blockersmovie.com (seems to come up with show times for your local area)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEhQUiWHOLg (short [2:11] video statement from director Cannon on aspects of female sexuality in Blockers)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blockers

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/blockers

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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com.  (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews—if that even seems possible—academic articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)

By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile. Ken

P.S.  Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker.  But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"

—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come.

               

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Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month (which they seem to measure from right now back 30 days) the total unique hits at this site were 41,078; below is a snapshot of where and by what means those responses have come from within the previous week: