Asteroid City plus Short Takes on Stephen Curry: Underrated along with some other cinematic topics

 Weird and … Fascinating (?)

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

                                Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)

                                       rated PG-13   104 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

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

What Happens: In this weirdly-surreal film we’re in 1955 as a host (Bryan Cranston) for a live TV drama* addresses a small TV studio audience and the at-home-broadcast-audience, introducing this presentation of Asteroid City, an existing play by legendary-playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton)—we get graphics along the way informing us which of the 3 acts and related small cluster of scenes we’re about to watch—and members of the large cast.  All of this—and any scenes that shift back to this opening premise or ones like it (that also take place on a stage with a small live audience watching) are presented in black & while in the old 4X3 format that was the standard for television in its early years (as well as film for decades before that, although by the 1950s color and widescreen were making their way into frequently-growing-use in an attempt to lure audiences back into theaters after the impactful-advent of TV).  When we get into the broadcast, though, the images are now in color and widescreen (impossible for 1955 TV) with sets and backgrounds (shot in Spain) that look to me like they could almost be computer graphics (also not possible in 1955 so we’re aware immediately what a strange environment we’re in here, with more head-scratching to come as with the vast desert locale which couldn't have existed on a TV studio stage).  The play takes place in (fictional) Asteroid City, located somewhere in the desert near where Arizona, California, and Nevada come together, named that because eons ago the Arid Plains Meteorite slammed into the ground there creating a huge hole so it’s now a (very) minor tourist attraction,** but for our purposes it’s the site of the annual Junior Stargazer and Space Cadet convention, run by 5-star General Grif Gibson (Jeffery Wright), where 5 teenagers will receive awards for their science-based-inventions.

*Inspired by such TV fare in the 1950s as the highly-respected, often-awarded Playhouse 90 (CBS, 1956-’60) where later-noted film directors such as John Frankeheimer, Sidney Lumet, and George Roy Hill, screenwriters like Rod Serling and Horton Foote were involved with projects including original versions of Requiem for a Heavyweight, Days of Wine and Roses, Judgment at Nuremberg.

**This part of the story may have been inspired by Meteor Crater, near Winslow, AZ where there is a huge desert-displacement caused by an extraterrestrial impact some 50,000 years ago.  Back in 1964, as i'm returning to Texas with my parents after a whirlwind tour of Juarez, Mexico, Disneyland, Pacific Coast Hwy 1, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon we stopped briefly at this “destination,” which at the time was a big hole in the ground (maybe it’s a bit more exciting now [?]).

 One winner is Woodrow Steenbeck (Jake Ryan),*** accompanied by his father, Augie (Jason Schwartzman) and 3 young sisters, Andromeda, Pandora, and Cassiopeia (actual sisters Ella, Grace, Willan Faris)—Augie’s wife is dead, but he hasn’t told his kids yet although he did bring along her ashes in a small Tupperware bowl.  Another oddity is while this family’s in a local café we see an atomic bomb detonation in the background which causes nary a stir among anyone on screen.  Complications arise for the Steenbecks, though, when their car develops major problems, forcing Augie to call (former) father-in-law, Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks), to retrieve them after the ceremony’s over; Stanley begrudgingly agrees (never liked Augie), soon arrives, as do the other winners with (as best I caught it) 1 parent apiece, including Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), an unhappy actress miserable with current directions of her career, and her daughter, Dinah (Grace Edwards)—there’s also a busload of young children along with their tense teacher, June Douglas (Maya Hawke).

 Then, for no clear reason, we cut away from the color flow of the play back to the B&W setting similar to how we met the narrator but now the small audience is watching on stage what we’d have to interpret as a flashback of how Earp auditioned actor Jones Hall (Schwartzman) for the role of Augie, an event ending with the 2 men kissing.  OK, now we’re back to the color version of the play in progress where the 5 teens (all of whom are quite intelligent) engage in a memory game where they sit in a circle, each one adds a name to the ongoing flow all of them are expected to remember even as names pile up; then we see Augie and Midge talking across the small space between their small cabins as she presents a short scene for him, ending with dropping her robe so he can see her in the nude through her window.  By this time, Augie’s told his kids about Mom so the girls want to bury the Tupperware bowl there in the desert, but Stanley wants to take it to his home near a golf course for a proper burial; the 5 honored teens have now gotten their awards with the whole group down in the crater at night where Dr. Hickenlooper (Tilda Swinton) wants everyone to observe some distant lights from the cosmos (although they all have to put cardboard boxes over their heads for proper viewing), when suddenly a spaceship descends into the crater, with a tall, thin alien (Jeff Goldblum, though there’s nothing recognizable about him) taking a ladder down to the surface, where he removes a chunk (or maybe all that’s left) of the long-ago meteorite, then flies away again.

***The family surname probably refers to the professional-cinematic-device most used for editing actual strips of celluloid in the bygone hands-on days before computer editing had become the norm.

 Once again, the TV play’s interrupted as we’re back to a B&W scene where we meet the director of the play, Schubert Green (Adrien Brody), then return to the play where Gen. Gibson’s informed Washington, D.C. about the alien so the President orders a complete quarantine of the Asteroid City area, although with no public information about what happened there, nor can the detainees make any contact with the outside world.  Pushed together for an indefinite time, connections begin to develop between Augie and Midge, Woodrow and Dinah, June and a cowboy singer, Montana (Rupert Friend), whose band was brought in to entertain at the ceremony.  Finally, Ricky (Ethan Josh Lee), one of the teen-award-winners, manages to get access to the pay phone, calls his school newspaper about the alien event, so it’s quickly known internationally.  The angry general’s about to lift the quarantine when the alien comes back, returns the meteorite fragment to the crater, leaves again, so the quarantine stays in place, bringing about a revolt from the incarcerated inhabitants, who defeat their military keepers, leading to an influx of our curious public (but no more alien visits).

 Another interruption comes as we’re in a B&W scene where actor Hall leaves the play’s stage (although he’s still on that same small one containing the vast desert vista [?], with an audience) to seek out director Green, telling him he doesn’t understand his role, thinks he’s not doing it right, only to be told to keep moving forward with it, not to worry (we have to assume this occurred during the play’s actual run in a Broadway-type theatre rather than the TV theatre in that Hall’s been playing this role long before it became a TV event), but he keeps walking (as the stage grows larger) through a long panning shot (there are several of them here) until he comes out onto a small balcony overlooking an alley; on the other side, also on a balcony, is a female actor (Margo Robbie) who was originally supposed to play his (now dead) wife in 1 scene, but it was cut.  Hall doesn’t seem to remember it so “the wife” recites all the lines for him.  ⇒Then we return to the narrator who tells us Earp died during the first 6 months of the play’s run, followed by yet another flashback scene where Earp, Green, and famed acting teacher Saltzburg Keitel (Willem Dafoe) are now speaking to an audience of acting students who begin to chant “You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep,” with most of the play’s actors cast from within this group, including Mercedes Ford (Johansson) as Midge.  Back to the TV play, where all except Augie’s family have left; Woodrow got the scholarship given to only 1 of the award-winners; Stanley agrees to bury the Tupperware in Asteroid City to pacify the Steenbeck girls; Midge has given her address to Augie; credits then roll over the desert backdrop.⇐

So What? Yes, I realize I’ve gone on forever with the plot details of this most-unusual-film, but given how strange it is I felt that—especially for those of you who haven’t yet seen Asteroid City or don’t plan to—such extensive recitation of this wacky narrative is necessary to give you a proper sense (notice I didn’t say “allow you to make sense”: that might be asking too much) of what goes on here because it’s quite a challenge to sort it all out when you’re watching it.  In fact, if you’ll take the time to see this video (24:08 [ad interrupts at 17:50]) from the Mort’s Garage site you’ll find an equally-extended-argument that you should watch this film twice (as he’s done) to be able to fully appreciate it as “a poetic meditation on the meaning of life” (a quote from some review, not his original assessment) because he sees it as being in the same vein as Holocaust survivor (Auschwitz no less; Nina and I visited there about 13 years ago, an extremely brutal and sobering experience) Victor Frankl’s psychiatric-life-lessons and famous boo known as Man’s Search for Meaning (1946).

 I don’t know anything about Mort (except he notes the 3 Steenbeck girls in the film are actually his daughters, so I guess he’s Mort Faris, but a Google search turned up only Mark Faris, whom you might be interested in if you need a real estate agent in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada [just north of Toronto—totally irrelevant to this review yet in keeping with the spirit of Anderson’s film]), but he’s truly enthusiastic about what’s he’s seen on screen here, which he says is fundamentally about grief (with the quarantine referring to COVID-19, which forced the cast to work closely together in isolated circumstances, was responsible for dropping Bill Murray from the film who did finally join the group in Spain but had been replaced by Steve Carell as the local motel manager when shooting began) so that the chant is about sinking into your grief (accepting it, as if sleeping) then coming out of it (“waking up”); Mort (I guess) further speculates about how this story is focused on not only the play's actions but also on the actors who bring it to life, with the insight that we’re all actors in our own lives.  (Hmm, where have I heard that concept before?  I don’t think it was from story concoctors Anderson and Roman Coppola/scriptwriter Anderson; maybe it was a guy in Renaissance England in some play called As You Like It, whaddya think, Mort? [Of course that English guy also said “Brevity is the soul of wit”—Hamlet {1599-1601}—so I probably shouldn’t be quoting him so much.])

 Whether you might agree with Mort’s interpretation or not (he swears he got no insights from Anderson or Coppola, despite his daughters [effectively] being part of the production [they’re quite charming in their brief scenes]), I'll agree with anyone (there have been many) who say if you like Anderson’s films (where you’ll find things to celebrate—Rushmore [1998], The Royal Tenenbaums [2001], Fantastic Mr. Fox [2010]—or maybe argue about—The Darjeeling Limited [2007], The Grand Budapest Hotel [2014; review in our April 3, 2014 posting], Isle of Dogs [2018; review in our April 5, 2018 posting]) you’ll likely be fascinated with Asteroid City, whereas if you don’t care for his work or don’t know much about him you probably won’t find a lot to celebrate with his latest endeavor.  I, however, experienced Asteroid City as marvelously weird, unpredictable, delightfully cast with lots of familiar faces even in minor roles, and an intriguing (if not easy to interpret upon first viewing) exploration of the methods by which art—especially that of the theatre—comes together even when it may seem to be spinning apart.  And, while I can’t comment much on Barbie (Greta Gerwig) yet until I see it (when crowds ease off from that monstrous opening [$162 million domestically {U.S.-Canada}, $356.3 million worldwide]), Asteroid City may rival it somewhat in terms of a colorful palette and intriguing visuals if you might find those qualities any reason to explore it (or Barbie)  further.  It’s not an easy film to even just try to casually flow along with due to those B&W interruptions, but if you’re willing to explore something off the beaten path, this could well be a good opportunity for you.

Bottom Line Final Comments: Asteroid City’s been around for about 6 weeks now (opened domestically on June 16, 2023 in only 6 theaters, then made its way to a maximum of 1,901 after that), but hasn’t had much of a box-office impact with only $27.3 million domestic gross, $44.6 million globally; you can still find it in 294 venues, yet it’s disappearing fast so if you do want to check it out your best option at this point is likely to be streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Vudu, and other platforms, although that $19.99 rental fee might give you pause if the various descriptions of this oddball offering seem a bit pricy to justify a curious look.  The CCAL won’t be a clear help either as the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are just at 74%, while the Metacritic average score is the same for a (radical) change, also 74%.  The Observer’s Rex Reed minces no words: “[…] Anderson [is] the preposterously overrated writer-director who churns out the kind of whimsical cinematic jabberwocky that appeals to millennial movie audiences that applaud anything they don’t understand. They call him visionary, which gives new meaning to the old word pretentious. Still, I go to each new Wes Anderson concoction determined to give it a fair shake, and I always end up in more agony than it’s worth […] it is enigmatic, artificial, infuriatingly self-indulgent and irrevocably pointless.”  Get the picture?  (Well, not this picture,  in Mr. Reed’s opinion.)

 For a completely different point of view, I’ll turn to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mick LaSalle (a local guy for me, whom I might disagree with but am glad to showcase when we’re on the same wavelength): “The purest distillation of what this director brings to cinema, it’s beautiful to look at, surreal, nostalgic and funny in a weird, distanced way. It feels as if Anderson is making up the movie as he goes along, like he has no idea where he’s heading from one scene to the next. Normally, that would lead a director into self-indulgence, but Anderson finds a way to make every scene interesting. […] Often the most exalted of filmmakers - like Terrence Malick, Ingmar Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock - have the ability to communicate their consciousness, so that you get the feeling that you’re inside their head, or they’re inside yours. Anderson has come close to doing that before, but this time he really does it. [¶] For that reason, ‘Asteroid City’ is his best movie.”  Maybe I won’t go as far as LaSalle (I still have fondness for The Royal Tenenbaums), but I certainly enjoyed Asteroid City more than most anything else I’ve seen this year, possibly just because it’s so quirky, so unexpected as it moves through situations.  (To be fair, though, my wife, Nina—a woman of usual openness to all things cinematic—declined to even finish … City’s last half-hour ["too confusing"] nor has she yet decided about reading Mort’s defense of the film [I’ll see later if she deals with that or not] so I think she’d certainly be in your corner if your attitude toward this Anderson offering is just “Why bother?”)

 As you might know (or, if not, stick around and become a regular Two Guys reader), my reviews normally finish with some form of a Musical Metaphor to take one last look at the subject under consideration from an aural rather than purely verbal (with photos of course) perspective, so for Asteroid City I’ll turn to The Beatles' (probably all John Lennon, though) “Strawberry Fields Forever” (on the U.S. version of the 1967 Magical Mystery Tour album; the … Tour tunes were just on an EP version in Britain with “… Fields” as a single paired with Paul McCartney’s “Penny Lane”) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtUH9z_Oey8 (an early version of true music video), chosen because as a pop song it’s as unconventional as this film, open to all sorts of interpretation (“Nothing is real / And nothing to get hung about […] Always, no, sometimes, think it’s me / But you know, I know when it’s a dream /I think I know, I mean – er – yes, but it’s all wrong / That is, I think I disagree”) although it’s merely inspired by a Salvation Army children’s home in Liverpool.  However, given that I’m open to Mort’s explanation of Asteroid City as a search for life’s meaning (and the convoluted paths we may take to find it), I’ll toss in another Metaphor, a quasi-Beatles one, George Harrison’s “What Is Life” (from his 1970 solo debut album All Things Must Pass after The Beatles breakup) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiH9edd25Bc (a video made by Brandon Moore, Oakland, CA, winner of a contest by Olivia [widow] and Dhani [son] Harrison, features San Francisco Ballet dancers Emma Rubinowitz and Esteban Hernandez, filmed in the San Francisco Presidio) where he explores: “What I feel, I can’t say / But my love is there for you anytime of day / But if it’s not love that you need / Then I’ll try my best to make everything succeed.”  Maybe you’d rather listen to these albums than watching this movie (although you could do both), but if you’re willing to risk those 20 bucks on seeing how it works out in practice, I (along with LaSalle) encourage you to do so.

              

SHORT TAKES

                  Stephen Curry: Underrated (Peter Nicks)

                                   rated PG-13   109 min.

Here’s the trailer:

 I had intended to review only 1 film this week, but then some extra time slipped in so I’ll add some quick comments on this sports documentary (no Spoiler alert here because everything in it is either known fact, archival footage, or the result of recent interviews, mostly about past events; however, my originally-chosen-title doesn’t connect that much with … Underrated, but I kept it as is anyway because it speaks so appropriately to Asteroid City so just bear with me).  Certainly one reason that Nina and I are interested in this biopic is that we’ve been watching Curry lead the Golden State Warriors National Basketball Association team (first in Oakland, then to a costly new arena in San Francisco) for most of the last 9 years (slacked off in our viewing when Steph and others were injured, resulting in a horrible season during that stretch, although they bounced back quite well), so it was useful to see so much video of him in his college years/early NBA career when he had to work through his own version of “You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep,” going from a guy who was almost dismissed in his NBA draft year as not worth the investment as he was too short (although he’s 6’ 2”), too skinny (well, he has added some notable extra muscle recently), reflecting his even-earlier-years when he wasn’t considered all that likely for a high-school squad either; yet, despite all of this early adversity he kept working at his craft, finding ways to elude bigger, taller opponents, and bringing new attention to his success with the longer-distance-3-point-shot (the film opens with the 2021 night in NYC when he set the NBA record for most 3-pointers, one he just keeps adding onto).

 You get plenty of Curry in this film with his present-day-thoughts for the camera plus voiceover regarding some of the rest of what we see; a little bit of interviews with Dad Dell, Mom Sonya, and wife Ayesha; a good bit of reminiscence from his Davidson College (Davidson, NC) coach Bob McKillop, and a few others; but you know this is all about Steph when there’s barely mention of his All-Star/other-future-Hall of Famers-teammates Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant or current Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr (here’s a 12:22 video with him [ad interrupts at 4:20]), despite the also-necessary-contributions of those folks in the Warriors winning the NBA title 4 times in the last 9 years, making it to the Finals twice more in that span.  Not that Curry presents himself or is made to look like the most outstanding star on the planet, but this doc stresses how he overcame adversity, rejection, and self-doubt to contribute mightily to Davidson’s appearances in the NCAA postseason (although lost in the first round in 2007, then again in the 2008 Elite 8), followed by the 4 NBA titles, his honor twice as the league’s Most Valuable Player (by unanimous vote the second time, a never-before-achievement), and his Finals MVP honor upon the Warriors' 2022 title victory.

 Curry was willing to be the focus of this film, though, for whatever it could do to help anyone—kids to adults—who are underrated/undervalued/overlooked overcome such social dismissals.  There’s also the encouragement he gives to students to persevere in that in 2022 he finally finished his undergrad Sociology degree after having left in his senior year at Davidson for the 2009 NBA draft.  However, maybe it’s because I’ve seen/read so much about him for a near-decade that I don’t feel there are any great insights here, just a lot of college footage, not so much on NBA games (the Kerr video noted above makes up for some of that) so I’m hesitant (maybe too much so) in my rating.  Still, for a doc that’s supposed to be about how Curry was undervalued we see a lot on screen here about his triumphs even in those years, which you can get extensively-more-details on at this site.  Nevertheless, this film is free to Apple TV+ subscribers, so if you are one (or want to use a 7-day-free-trial or pay $6.99 for at least 1 month) consider checking it out, with uneven agreement from the CCAL, as the RT positives are 86% but the MC score is 69%.  I’ll leave with the Musical Metaphor of the Contours’ “Do You Love Me” (written by Motown’s Barry Gordy Jr., on the 1962 Do You Love Me (Now That I can Dance) album at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loHOhxsglKI for all the obvious reasons based on the song’s catchy lyrics if you'll just shift “dance” into basketball prowess.

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

           

(1) How actors' strike talks broke down; (2) Early thoughts on 2024 Best Picture Oscar race.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny plus Short Takes on some various other cinematic topics

 Indiana Jones, Take Five*

*As I chose this title, I couldn’t resist using Dave Brubeck's jazz classic, "Take Five," composed 

by saxophonist Paul Desmond, on the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out album (1959).

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

                       Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

                    (James Mangold)  rated PG-13  154 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

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

What Happens: We begin in 1944 when Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford)*—disguised as a German soldier—and his Oxford colleague Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) are trying to retrieve the Lance of Longinus (supposedly the spear a Roman soldier used to piece the side of crucified Jesus Christ to show he was already dead) which Nazi soldiers had in a train headed for Berlin along with other ancient artifacts, possibly with supernatural properties for Hitler’s delight.  Both Jones and Shaw are captured separately, but Jones escapes, jumps onto the Nazi train, frees Shaw, and, finding the Lance is a fake they instead take a truly valuable object, half of Archimedes’ Dial, a device which—in the plot of this movie—can show the location of cosmic wormholes, allowing time travel. (This is based on an actual ancient true analogue computer, the Antikythera mechanism, used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses; however, in this new narrative famed mathematician/inventor Archimedes found the device to be so dangerously-powerful he broke it in 2, hid both halves, but somehow this part ended up being found, taken by the Nazis.)  German astrophysicist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen),**also on the train, knows the Lance is a fake but is excited about the Dial, confronts Jones and Shaw, they all end up in a dangerous trek atop the train cars, dodging low tunnels, until Jones and Shaw take a deep dive into a river just before Allied forces bomb the train and the bridge; they survive the fall, walk away with their portion of the Dial; Jones entrusts to Shaw, who then has a life-long-obsession both with finding the other half of the device as well as destroying it because of the dangers it represents (we see in a flashback how he was about to smash the part he had, instead gave it to Indiana for destruction, though Jones merely hid it in a  college storeroom).

*For these scenes Ford’s face and voice were put through an expensive computer-based-de-aging-process to take 40 years off his appearance, described a bit further in the final section of this review.

**In a link in this review's next section it’s noted Voller is somewhat modeled on German scientist Wernher von Braun, a leading designer of the V-2 rocket, a guided missile used in 1944 by Nazis to kill thousands of military and civilians in London and other European cities, yet von Braun and other German scientists/engineers were brought to the U.S. after WW II to develop the American space program, leading me to think of Tom Lehrer’ caustic, satirical song, "Wernher von Braun" (album That Was the Year That Was, 1965), where this man doesn’t care whom he works for/what he does.

 The rest of the story's in 1969 where Jones has (why unknown to us) left his job as Associate Dean (seen briefly at the end of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [Steven Spielberg, 2008]) at (fictional) Marshall College (Bedford, CT) to relocate to Hunter College, an actual unit of the City University of New York.*  As we shift to this story’s present, Jones is on the verge of retirement (as bored as his students are, even when he’s lecturing about the innovative weapons devised by Archimedes to stall the Roman invasion of Syracuse, Sicily in 213-212 BC), saddened by the death of his son (a major character in … Skull), Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), in Vietnam, who seemingly enlisted as a rebuke to his father and the resulting separation-pending-divorce from wife Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), whom he had married in 1957 (also seen at ... Skull's conclusion).

 While Jones’ life has become a slog, NYC is about to have a major parade in celebration of the returning Apollo 11 astronauts from their journey to the moon, a feat made possible by Voller, who now works for NASA as “Dr. Schmidt.”  Jones’ life is perked up, though, by his long-unseen-goddaughter, archeologist Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Basil’s daughter, who wants to continue Dad’s obsession with the Dial, so Indiana takes her to its hiding place only to be confronted by Voller, his thugs, and CIA agents working with him, not knowing the real reason he wants to use the Dial—to go back to 1939 where he can kill Hitler, take command of the Reich, win the war, and impose his twisted vision on the world.  After a grand chase through NYC streets, ultimately Helena makes off with the Dial, Indiana’s aided by his old friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies)—now a city cab driver after Jones helped him and his family immigrate—followed by Indiana learning Helena’s actually an antiquities smuggler/black-market-auctioneer (possibly in retaliation to how much Dad devoted to his profession instead of her), so he’s off for Tangier to thwart her illegal sale of the Dial.

*From late August 1972 to late December 1973 I was an audiovisual administrator at another CUNY campus, Queens College, maybe ventured over to Manhattan sometimes to Hunter.  Wherever Jones may have gone in the City after his retirement I never ran into him (nor did I encounter 2 of Queens’ most famous men, Archie Bunker and Donald Trump—I can only wish the latter were as fictional as the others, although his actions seem more unreal than reasonable for much of the time).

 He’s successful, but Voller and his thugs show up again, grab the Dial, and we’re away on another chase with Jones, Helena, and her teen accomplice, Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidore), after Voller, but there’s also the need to avoid a group of local Moroccan bad guys who are after Helena for other reasons.  Ultimately, the CIA troops stop Voller but are killed so he gets away with the Dial, leading Jones’ small team to follow them to Greece (due to notes from Basil about where the other half of the Dial might be buried offshore).  Jones and Helena go on a deep dive with Indy’s old friend, Renaldo (Antonio Banderas), find a useful item which steers them to Archimedes’ grave in Sicily, but Voller’s gang catches up, kills Renaldo, follows the Jones group once again.  Ultimately, they all end up at the grave where the other half of the Dial resides in the coffin; Voller wounds Jones, reconnects the Dial's parts, heads off in his small plane with Jones and Helena as captives (Teddy steals another small plane, follows them), but when he uses the Dial to locate a time-fissure he doesn’t realize the Dial’s not compensating for continental drift over the centuries so when they all come out of the wormhole they’re not in 1939 Germany but at the 212 BC Siege of Syracuse.  ⇒The battling armies bring down Voller’s plane, killing everyone on board (Indiana and Helena parachuted out), Teddy lands safely.  Jones’ group is taken to Archimedes (Nasser Memarzia) where they learn the Dial was intended only to bring travelers to his era for his own interest.  The time fissure’s collapsing so the 21^st-century folks need to leave fast in Teddy’s plane, but Indiana wants to stay, feeling he has nothing to live for back in the future.  So, Helena knocks him out; when he wakes up in his NYC apartment, Helena and Teddy are there, but so is Marion, who’s ready to reconcile (encouraged by Helena, who seems to have abandoned her anti-archeological-ways in pursuit of a higher calling).⇐

So What? Yes, I know, if I’m actually going to see a movie in a theater for a change the big news last weekend was the debut of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarte), Tom Cruise’s latest blockbuster (pulled in $83.8 million domestically [U.S.-Canada], $239.4 globally in less than a week)—just as I’m sure Barbie (Greta Gerwig) and Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) will be the big-ticket-items as they both open on July 21, 2023, but even though such offerings are the headlines of moviedom I’m still being cautious about COVID-19, so I prefer to wait a bit for the initial crowds to ease off, with the occasional opportunity to also see something recent on streaming, as with Asteroid City (Wes Anderson), out a couple of months now (still playing in several theaters, yet I prefer streaming when I can), intended for my review in the Two Guys posting next week.  So, with all that in mind, my wife, Nina, and I were recently off to an early weekday matinee of … Destiny where we shared a theatre with about a dozen other patrons (I’m sure the … Dead Reckoning Part One auditoriums were considerably fuller) for the finale in this well-known-action-adventure-series (although in Variety’s recent-ranking of The 50 Best Action Movies of All Time only Raiders of the Lost Ark [Spielberg, 1981] from this series was noted [came in at #4; the James Bond series got 3 listings while Mission Impossible has 2, all are lower than Raiders …]).

 Along that line, The Hollywood Reporter has ranked the 5 Indiana Jones movies with Raiders of the Lost Ark at #1, followed by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Spielberg, 1989) at #2, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Spielberg, 1984) at #3, … Destiny at #4,  and …Crystal Skull at #5 (this site provided to me by my good friend/film critic-mentor Barry Caine [although if he ever got the chance to edit my posts they’d probably be a tenth of what they usually are, because he prefers brevity as do most of the folks I know who admit attempting to read my reviews, then get worn out or just give up; sorry, but that's me]); I go along with their top pick, but for me #2 is … Destiny, then … Crusade #3, … Skull #4, … Doom #5 (Nina agrees with this order, plus she was somewhat put off by the level of violence in this last one, as were many in the industry leading to the modification of the PG rating to PG-13 for such movies).  If you’re interested in seeing … Destiny—or already have, but would appreciate additional background on it—you might enjoy this video (10:00 [ads interrupt at 2:24, 5:02]) along with this one (10:01 [ad interrupts at 7:25]); further, director/co-screenwriter Mangold (writing with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp) shares his thoughts on major decisions about this movie and then his concerns about taking over from Spielberg.

 However, if you really want to dive deep into Indy info you should consult this site (10:32 [ads interrupt at 5:14, 7:12]) where the author not only gives you a history of Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery) and Jr. (Ford, before changing his name to Indiana to honor their dog when he was growing up) but also cites many historical events which will work their way into the movie series (the only limitation here is that this site was constructed before … Destiny was released so the additional ancient and current inclusions are missing from this otherwise-remarkable-timeline).  Now, with such massive backstory to consider (or ignore if you’re just interested in the present chapter of this archeology-based-series), what’s my essential response to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (#5 in my ratings of these titles)?  While none of these stories are cinematic masterpieces—except for their technical expertise, truly award-worthy—they all are very lively in presentation, stocked with commendable characters, and ultimately are grounded in aspects of history/well-known-legends so they may even provide something for your consideration of further research into what inspired them.

 … Destiny’s no different in that it offers all of the above plus recognizable connections to the previous episodes (Indy on horseback, even in a NYC subway; graphic illustrations on maps showing the progress of planes or boats; the marvelous end scene, copied from Raiders … where this time it’s Indy asking Marion where he can kiss her that doesn’t hurt) along with those marvelous chase scenes so your eyes/brain can be stimulated just like with your body if you get to experience the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland (which Nina and I have done quite a few times).  If this kind of movie doesn’t match your tastes, I can’t imagine why you’ve even bothered to read this far,* but if you do like this sort of action-cinema then I’d certainly recommend seeing … Destiny, either now in a theater or, if you’re patient, when it inevitably comes to streaming on Disney+.  (Besides, there are not to be any more Indiana Jones adventures, so take this roller-coaster-ride while you can before they shut it down, along with others in the group even if just to refresh yourself on what came before—I’m glad I did that over the past few days because except for Raiders … I doubt I’ve seen any of them again after they first came out, so it was quite useful to put it back into chronological-context.)

*Some may wonder why Disney even went forward with this tale of Indy in his older age (admitting how his life’s taken a physical toll on his body), but when this series started Lucasfilm (now owned by Disney) signed a contract with Paramount Pictures for 5 movies, so this fulfills their requirement.

Bottom Line Final Comments: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has been out for a bit over 2 weeks now, taking in $145.4 million in domestic theaters, $302.4 million worldwide, but that’s considered a flop by some measures in that it cost a reported $300 million to produce (maybe as high as $400 million), plus marketing/distribution costs easily half of that. The previous entries in this franchise—all directed by Steven Spielberg, original story concepts from George Lucas—were considerably more financially successful (although the current one will likely play for awhile, bringing in additional cash so check back at this extensively-informative-site in a few months to see what the final tally might be), with Raiders of the Lost Ark (often found renamed as Indiana Jones and the Raiders …) budgeted at $18 million with global gross of $389.9 million; Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom budgeted at $28 million, grossed $333.1 million; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade budgeted at $48 million, grossed $474.2 million; and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull budgeted at $185 million, grossed $790.6 million (although about $100 million of the current movie’s budget went to the de-aging process on Harrison Ford [5:34] for the 1944 scenes [now, if those high-tech-technicians could invent some process to take actual years off of our lives instead of just wrinkles and hair color from our faces, we’d really have something worthwhile]).

 The CCAL response has become less supportive over the years as well with ... the Dial of Destiny getting 68% positive reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, 58% average score from Metacritic, while Raiders ... got RT 93%, MC 85%; ... Doom got RT 77%, MC 57%; ... Crusade got RT 84%, MC 65%; ... Skull got RT 77%, MC 65%, with all of these (except the MC 57% for … Doom) being better that the critical responses to … Destiny.  If you’d like to catch up on any (or all) of the previous Indiana Jones adventures you can (hopefully) turn to JustWatch to find streaming options for ... Raiders, ... Doom, ... Crusade, and ... Skull, where you’ll find all of them are available for free to Disney+ subscribers (as well as for people using some other platforms), while most can be rented for $3.79 at Amazon Prime Video (and a couple of those other platforms) or $3.99 at Apple TV+ (and other platforms), except for … Crusade is $3.99 on Amazon, Apple, Vudu, along with various others.

 HOWEVER, as a Disney+ subscriber I tried all last weekend to access this cluster via my Roku box but never was able to connect to any of the icons except the trailer for … Destiny (although I could access them all on the Disney+ Web site [?], but didn’t want to deal with the hassle of hooking up a laptop to the TV), so I finally gave up, went to Amazon Prime Video, had no trouble in going the cheap rental route.  (On Monday when I had more free time I contacted Customer Support for my LG TV, in an attempt to link the “smart” aspect of the device to LG Disney+ options; after 2 hours of attempts with 2 different helpers I finally got Disney+ into my LG streaming which also fixed the Roku problem [?]; I’ll  never understand tech procedures if I live to be 100.  [As further proof of that, as I was finishing writing this review I somehow managed to lose the file, which ultimately was retrieved but it only had the What Happens aspects so I had to spend some extra hours rewriting So What? material; maybe I've added a few years in early days of this crazy week, so I need Ford's de-aging!])

 As I’ve noted before, I’d put … Destiny at #2 of the 5 and feel it’s an exciting, well-paced adventure that I’d encourage seeing, especially if you realize these movies are inspired by the weekly action serials produced largely for a weekend-matinee-kids-audience of the 1930s-‘40s, which had such a positive impact on the very young George Lucas, so they’re really more about form than content, although they've managed (so far) to win 7 Oscars (mostly in technical categories where they also got several other nominations, but Raiders … was a contender for Best Picture, Best Director).  However, if you’re a dedicated Indy fan you can further consult that aforementioned Indiana Jones site for the long list of novels, children’s books, comic books, TV series, video games, and other connections to this swashbuckling archeologist.  For now, though, I’ll just leave with my usual tactic of a review-ending-Musical Metaphor which this time will simply be the famed John Williams Indiana Jones theme music (named “The Raider’s March”) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rk cuzafbUc (15:38) with end-credits-versions from all 5 Indy movies, so listen to the subtle variations on this music if you don’t choose to immerse yourself in the much-larger-variations of the narratives.

            

SHORT TAKES

              

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

Some options for your consideration: (1) All the TV shows and movies impacted by the Actors' Strike (this site will be updated as situations change); (2)  SAG-AFTRA strike FAQ; (3) Future of the acting profession may be at stake; (4) Actors and producers disagree over the rejected contract offer: (5) Netflix cuts down on password sharing, adds nearly 6 million subscribers.

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