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) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
“You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
Nope (Jordan Peele) rated R 130 min.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): Again I report some convergence to you between actual cinematic releases in movie theaters (as best I remember what they look like, how they operate)—which I’ve been avoiding because of COVID-Omicron and its sneaky variants—and the wide world of streaming where I’ve been keeping up with what’s available on my home screen. Last week there was Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., which opened publically but also streamed on Peacock; this week I get to discuss with you 2 major releases from last July, Jordan Peele’s Nope and Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder. In the former, siblings (Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer) run a horse ranch north of L.A. to provide these animals for Hollywood productions, while their neighbor (Steven Yeun)—a former TV child star—runs a small western-theme-park, where he ends up buying most of the horses as the siblings’ fortunes continue to sour until something mysterious and deadly comes upon all of them; in the latter we have the latest adventures of the Avengers’ Thunder God, this time taking on a father grieving for his dead daughter, swearing to kill all the gods using an enchanted sword allowing such destruction, with the great surprise (assuming, like me, you haven’t read Marvel’s Thor comics for several of the previous decades) of the return of his former lover, Jane Foster, who now commands the powerful Mjolnir hammer, calling herself the Mighty Thor (I’ll leave it to them and you to figure out how they both come to terms with this shift in their fortunes). Nope’s still playing in theaters but can be rented for $19.99 to see on streaming via Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and other platforms; Thor …’s also still on the big screen along with streaming on Disney+. Also, here are links for the schedule of the cable network, Turner Classic Movies, providing a wide selection of older films with no commercial interruptions and JustWatch which offers a wide selection of options for streaming rental or purchase. If curious what reigned at the domestic (U.S.-Canada) box-office last weekend, go here.
Here’s the trailer for Nope:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
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: Nope begins with a Bible verse: “I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile and make you a spectacle” (Nahum [one of the Hebrew minor prophets] 3:6) as well as an animation of Eadweard Muybridge’s Plate 626 Gallop: thoroughbred bay mare Annie G. (where the horse is named but not the Black jockey, an absence serving as a silent metaphor for some overall implications of this film), a series of 16 photos of a running horse which viewed in quick succession give the illusion of motion, basis for the phenomenon/technology leading to our cinema industry/art form in the late 19th century.* The quote becomes relevant as events of this story unfold, yet little is explored about the galloping horse except for a main character early on noting this unnamed jockey is her great-grandfather, a man named Haywood. This woman, Emerald “Em” Haywood (Kiki Palmer), and her brother, Otis “OJ” Haywood Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya), help their father, Otis Sr. (Keith David), run their long-established-horse-ranch in the mountainous/desert Aqua Dulce area north of L.A., providing equine services for movies, TV shows, and commercials, but early scenes in this film are quite disturbing as we open with 1998 images of a TV show set where chaos seems to have recently occurred while a chimp with bloody fingers and mouth looks over what seems to be a dead human (the show was called Gordy’s Home after the name of the primate; a child actor, Ricky “Jupe” Park [Jacob Kim] was spared from the chimp’s wrath). Then we’re in present-day where Otis Sr. is upon a horse but is suddenly killed by a nickel that mysteriously shoots from the sky into his eye/brain (a key also embeds in his horse; we do get to see a bit more of him later in various short flashbacks). Six months later, finances are tight at OJ takes their prized-horse Lucky to shoot a commercial, but he suddenly bucks, scares the actress, OJ and Lucky are quickly fired. So, OJ has no choice but to sell Lucky, as he’s had to do with most of his other horses, to adult Jupe (Steven Yeun) who now runs Jupiter’s Claim, a western-mini-theme-park (where he dresses in flashy Roy Rogers-type-attire, tells his audiences about the tragic day with Gordy), but OJ hopes to buy back all of his horses soon. Jupe counters with a desire to buy the ranch; Em’s ready to do that, but OJ isn’t.
*Muybridge began his extensive series of people and animals in motion in California in 1878 to help Leland Stanford verify his contention that at one point in a gallop, the horse has all 4 hoofs slightly off the ground. Muybridge accomplished his proof with a series of 12 still cameras set up parallel to a race track with trip wires connected to them so as the horse ran by each camera took a single shot; when the group is processed and viewed you can see Stanford was correct (photos 2-4 just above). The Plate 626 imagery is from a large group of motion studies done by Muybridge at the University of Pennsylvania, 1884-'85. Muybridge also created in 1879 a device called the zoopraxiscope which combined the much-earlier-invented-devices of the cylindrical zoetrope (early 19th century, where a series of hand-drawn-images were put in order around the inner circle of the instrument so when it was turned by a crank a viewer could look through the flow of small slits to see the illusion of motion) and illumination from the light source of a magic lantern (used for centuries to project still images painted on glass slides) so that the now-use-of-photographs could be shown in “motion” projected onto a screen. Many call these projected-photo-series the invention of motion pictures—rather than the accepted/disputed recognition given to the Thomas Edison labs in 1889—but I still go with Edison in that the Muybridge images are limited to what was produced by a small series of individual cameras rather than the strips of photographic film (from George Eastman of Kodak fame) shot by one camera which allowed the potential of more than one action to be shot at a time (although the earliest films were simply that, running for 10-15 seconds [or less]), then the editing of various strips to create varying content and points-of-view, which is what I understand has been the foundation of cinema as we know it since the very early 1900s, although Muybridge does get credit for pointing the way to “moving pictures” as we know them with these early motion studies.
Following upon the Haywoods’ notice of a cloud on the horizon that never seems to move, one night their power fluctuates, horses run off, then are sucked up by a small tornado into a saucer-shaped-UFO (which they assume has been hiding in that odd cloud), followed by bits of inorganic matter thrown back to Earth, with the siblings’ assumption such a random discharge is what accidently killed their father. In hopes they can get lucrative-footage of this alien presence they go to a local (now-defunct, but it made shooting in an empty store easy) Frye’s Electronics where they get technician Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) to set up 2 surveillance cameras but rebuff his entreaties to work directly with them on this project. He’s clandestinely monitoring whatever they see anyway, except one camera’s useless because of UFO electrical interference while the other one’s blocked by a praying mantis. Meanwhile, over at Jupiter’s Claim we find Jupe’s aware of this alien presence, has been using horses as bait to study its movements, has Lucky in a cage so the UFO will appear again for the pleasure of a few dozen customers in the grandstands listening to Jupe’s chatter, but when the saucer arrives instead of just taking the horse it swoops up every one of them, leading OJ to become aware of this tragedy, decide what they’ve seen isn’t a spacecraft but a shape-shifting-predator feeding on every animal in their vicinity. He dubs the creature “Jean Jacket” (in reference to a horse Em didn't get as a girl, Otis Sr. having other plans), brings in noted cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), who uses a hand-cranked IMAX camera to avoid any electrical interference.
⇒As they await the alien’s presence they’re bothered by a TMZ reporter on an electric motor bike, Ryder Muybridge (Get it? [played by Devon Graye]), but he becomes the next victim of the alien. Holst gets this on film but then pursues the beast until he’s sucked in also, with OJ, Em, and Angel quickly leaving, the former on Lucky, Em on the motorbike, Angel wrapping himself in tarp and barbed wire to be less-digestible (it works as he’s sucked in, then spit out, at which point the monster takes on what seems to be its true form which reminded me of a beautiful [but deadly] flower). Em heads to Jupiter’s Claim where she unties the large mascot balloon which the alien attempts to eat, all the while she’s using a camera in a well to capture a large print of the alien which seems to die when the balloon explodes. Emerald gets her print but is aware TV crews are nearby (as is OJ on his horse) so the film concludes with lack of clarity about whether her photo and testimony will be financially rewarding or will the reporters’ coverage nullify any value she might have for this story.⇐
So What? From the time I saw Get Out (2017, for which screenwriter-director Peele won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay; review in our May 11, 2017 posting), followed by Us (2019; review in our March 27, 2019 posting), I was easily convinced Jordan Peele is clearly one of the most important filmmakers of our time due to his unique, invigorating approach to cinema—along with his no-holds-barred-attitude toward calling out entrenched racism in our society. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait too long from July 22 of this year with the theatrical release of his latest unpredictable-approach to where his storyline will evolve until just last weekend when it became available on streaming. During the wait I didn’t explore the background on it too much because I wanted to delay the research process until I’d had a chance to see the film, so—due to reviews that remained restrained on plot points so as not to give much away about how the narrative continues to move in unanticipated directions—I wasn’t even able to get a clear sense of what the title meant (especially because the titles of his previous features become so emphatic to the stories once you’re aware of the intended connections)—so I kept on pondering “nope," which is a most-intriguing-word
Others pondered too, but as they had the advantage of actually attending a theatrical screening months ago, they had something more concrete to speculate on, which led to some pronouncements that these letters meant “Not Of Planet Earth.” However, that’s shot down by this article in Screen Rant by Andy Tolsky where he says: “Much like that of his first movie Get Out, the title of Nope is meant to reflect what the audience is thinking [in terms of audiences wanting characters-in-crisis to get far away from the horrors of identity-capture regarding Get Out, says I, KB], then quotes Peele: ‘When you tell people it’s a scary movie a lot of the time they say NOPE. So I want to acknowledge those people with the title and bring them in. This is about the person who thinks they don’t love the horror movie. To show them that maybe they do.’ ” Further, you can also watch this short, funny video (3:31) where Peele and some of his cast mess around with what the title means, as he also says he imagines Black viewers watching the first part of it, then when given hints it’s truly about a UFO, they’d likely reply “Nope!” Beyond ruminations on the title, though, there’s a lot more going on in this film than you might pick up on upon first viewing, so, if you’d like more background, here some explorations into 25 things you might have missed (16:13), which I found highly informative (although be aware of an ad interruption at about 11:00, along with those usual Spoilers, of course).
Then, if you’d like to probe deeper into some of the implications/speculations about the end, here's another short video for you (11:42; Spoilers as well, plus ad interruptions at roughly 2:48, 8:00). Finally, regarding what’s said to be here vs. what you’ll actually find, some descriptions offered for Nope call it variations on “a neo-Western, science fiction, horror” film which for me relies too much on surface appearances rather than being accurate to what’s actually on the screen. As I see it, the only marginal aspect of the “neo-Western” concept is the setting in a rural area that does evoke the landscapes of many a Hollywood tale of the Old West, but rugged locations and horses (along with Jupe’s flashy outfit, more appropriate for a C&W musical show of the 1950-‘60s [look at some of these Porter Wagoner and Patsy Cline photos from then, though Patsy evolved into mainstream imagery] than a true western) are barely the beginning of what a true neo-Western might look like (for that, I’d suggest No Country for Old Men [Ethan Coen, 2007; this blog hadn’t started then, but that film would rate 5 stars if I’d ever review it] and Hell or High Water [David Mackenzie, 2016; review in our August 26, 2016 posting]). Regarding horror movies, I see nothing in Nope that truly leans in that direction, as I’d call the whole thing Outer Space Sci-Fi (in this case where an alien [or aliens] comes to Earth, sometimes in a full-out-assault like in Independence Day [Roland Emmerich, 1996] or a Nope-ish singular threat as in Prey [Dan Trachtenberg; review in our August 10, 2022 posting]—there are also ones where we go confront extraterrestrial-trouble: Alien [Ridley Scott, 1979], Star Trek [Robert Wise, 1979], or any of their many sequels, even if what we encounter are monsters; that to me isn’t enough to call something a horror movie which I think has either a psychotic or a supernatural base). Yet, however you wish to label Nope, the important thing is the creativity it shows in its conception, the surprises artfully worked in as it flows effortlessly along, the complicated-but-ultimately-connected-Harwood siblings-relationship, plus the unanswered questions (unless a sequel’s in consideration): Are there more Jean Jackets awaiting us out there (wherever “there” is for these creatures)? If so, do we have enough huge hot-air-balloons to protect ourselves?
Bottom Line Final Comments: As previously noted, Nope’s been in theatrical release since July 22 of this year, opening in 3,785 domestic theaters, having taken in receipts so far of $122 million here in upper North America, $166 million globally, but after 8 weeks its income and availability are both falling off so if you’re willing to pay regular screening prices (that is, evening and weekend rates for 2 of you) of $19.99 for streaming you can find it easily on several platforms such as Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and others. The CCAL’s quite eager to encourage such attention to this film with Rotten Tomatoes reviews coming in at 82% positive while the normally-reserved-writers at Metacritic give it a 77% average score (quite high for them; only 5 others have been higher than that of any 2022 releases both they and I have addressed). I can assure you that while humans and horses get eaten in this story, there’s no on-screen-gore, just brief shots of Jupe’s crowd caught, screaming, within the hungry creature, but really nothing to avert your eyes from. Beyond that, there’s an intelligent script, top-notch acting, some wry humor at times, and excellent cinematography (that rental price will get you a 4K version if your home screen’s set up for that; otherwise, I’m sure it will also look good in HD). My only hesitation—unless I’m being dense about something obvious I’m overlooking—is wondering why nothing more than a quick, early reference to the Haywood ancestor as the unnamed rider in the Muybridge horse-gallop-proto-movie isn’t explored more here. What does it matter except it shows an ongoing family connection to horses, although the conscious ignoring of the man necessary for this horse to run properly for the cameras certainly verifies how racism was taken for granted in those days (as if it’s so much better now), but I’m just not really getting the connection between calling this to our attention and the rest of the story, where even the grisly Gordy situation (no graphic grotesqueness there either) and its connection to Jean Jacket in terms of how you never know what to expect when dealing with animals (either supposedly tame or clandestinely-dangerous) seems to be all of a linear flow for me. Nevertheless, the whole experience is another fine offering from Jordan Peele, with so much more to come I hope.
I’ll bow out of these rambles with my usual inclusion of a Musical Metaphor just to give you one last vein of commentary (insightful or silly, as the case may be), this time a tune taken directly from the soundtrack, Sheb Wooley’s “The Purple People Eater” (a huge hit in 1958, on an album from that time of the same name) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jV-E09efRE which Antlers recites in the film as he’s preparing to shoot crucial images of Jean Jacket. While the song’s about a seemingly-scary-monster who also eats people, his real hope is to join a rock and roll band: “Well, he went on his way, and then what do ya know / I saw him last night on a TV show / He was blowing it out, really knockin’ em dead / Playin’ rock and roll music through the horn in his head.” This song’s silly (along with the video)—even includes quick references to other hit tunes of its time—much more so than the overall tone of Nope, but if Poole can use it so can I, and maybe you’ll enjoy it even if this sci-fi film isn’t truly to your tastes; at least you get to share a bit of what pop radio was like way back when I was a lad in Texas of about 10½. (Don’t you feel honored to share such a connection?)
SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)
After hanging around with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor gets back in fighting shape because a man on a distant planet, grieving the death of his daughter with no care from his local god, goes on a crusade to kill all gods so Thor springs into action but shocked to find old lover Jane Foster now has the sacred hammer, calls herself the Mighty Thor, as she’s also on board to fight this deadly butcher.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
This movie debuted in domestic theaters on July 8, 2022, right at the time I stopped attending such places due to the active surge of the latest COVID-19 variants, but now it’s available for streaming on Disney+ (for no extra charge beyond the monthly fee [$8—but that base price for the no-ads version will increase to $11 per month on December 8, 2022, along with a new ads-included-version for $8 monthly, the current no-ads price]) while the theatrical release has tallied $342.5 million domestically, $758.1 million worldwide. Now that I’ve finally had a chance to see it via streaming (after I made the mistake of watching about a half-hour of the original Thor [Kenneth Branagh, 2011] by mistake: the ongoing curse of the full-strength Saturday night Long Island Ice Tea, wondering why they were recapping so much of the first one in this latest episode), I can offer some commentary for those who may not have seen it yet, with an advisory this new chapter in the ongoing-life of the Thunder God stands alone well-enough; however, if you want to get more details on the previous background movies you can read my reviews of Thor: The Dark World (Alan Taylor, 2013 [please excuse the annoying run-on-paragraph layout from this earlier time]), and Thor: Ragnarok (Waititi, 2017) if you wish—the original Thor came out in May 2011 a few months before this blog debuted, but if you want extensive details on that one, you can go here; I did enjoy the first Thor, would likely have given it 3½ stars had I reviewed it, so we’re all even at present. (Yes, Thor’s also been in various Avengers movies too, but let’s not complicate matters any more than becomes necessary.)
After the events of Avengers: Endgame (Anthony and Joe Russo, 2019; review in our May 1, 2019 posting) Thor (Chris Hemsworth) hung around with the wacky crew of the Guardians of the Galaxy (I reviewed the first one of their adventures [James Gunn, 2014] in our August 7, 2014 posting [again, lousy layout], didn’t bother with the sequel [Gunn, 2017], but Thor wasn’t in those anyway, so no loss overall), then toward the beginning of this latest episode of Thor’s life he gets a message from injured Asgardian warrior Sif (Jaimie Alexander) about a disaster in the making so he leaves the Guardians (brief appearances by Chris Pine and the others of that franchise) to take on heroic actions once again after having consciously deteriorated physically and psychologically with the Guardians, then putting himself through a fierce regimen of exercise and mediation to regain his former persona. What he finds is that on a desert planet, Gorr (Christian Bale) is in agony not only because he’s now the last of his race but also because his little daughter, Love (India Hemsworth [Chris’ daughter]), died despite prayers to a local god, Rapu (Jonathan Brugh) that went nowhere.
Gorr drags himself to Rapu’s lush oasis, finds no solace from Rapu, somehow gets command of the god-killing Necrosword, terminates Rapu, then swears death to all gods in his unending grief, leading him on a killing spree. Thor goes to New Asgard (in Norway) where the survivors of his former planet (details in …Ragnarok) have taken up residence, but when he arrives to find his previously-broken mystical hammer named Majolnir (again, … Ragnarok) is repaired and available again, he’s shocked to find it being wielded by his former girlfriend, Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), due to a spell he put on it years ago to protect her. Connection with the hammer has given her god-like-powers, so she now goes by the Mighty Thor while our original Thunder God continues to use his vicious ax, Stormbreaker. The Thors, along with Asgardian warrior Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson)—now king (not queen) of New Asgard—and big, strong rock-man Korg (voiced by Waititi)—you can learn more about both of them also from … Ragnarok—repel God Butcher Gorr, but as he escapes he takes along a large group of Asgardian children, imprisoning them in the Shadow Realm. Thor and his 3 companions then go to Omnipotence City to seek help from other gods, especially Zeus (Russell Crowe), yet none is forthcoming. Ultimately, Thor and Zeus battle, Thor seemingly kills Zeus with his own thunderbolt, Thor's group escapes with Valkyrie taking the thunderbolt. In the Shadow Realm they fight Gorr (who steals the ax), Valkyrie’s injured, Jane collapses so Thor takes her back to New Asgard where he learns her use of the hammer is advancing her stage-4 cancer rather than healing it (this rather short video [9:11, ad interrupts at 4:43, Spoilers] explains why).
⇒While she recuperates, Thor uses the thunderbolt to access Eternity where both Gorr and the children now reside; Thor uses the thunderbolt to give the kids superpowers to defeat Gorr’s monsters, but Gorr’s about to overpower him, which Jane senses, so she grabs the hammer, joins the fight. They manage to destroy the Necrosword, convince Gorr to use a wish in Eternity to revive his daughter which he does. As this all concludes, Jane and Gorr both die, Thor agrees to raise Love, the other children are returned to New Asgard where healed Sif and Valkyrie train them to be warriors, Love now works with Thor to fight off dangers to galactic stability, him with the hammer, her with the ax. As the credits begin, we find Zeus not dead after all but sending his son Hercules (Brett Goldstein) to battle Thor; after the credits we get a brief scene of Jane being allowed into Valhalla.⇐
Certainly, you’ve got to accept all of this mythological/superhero mashup to even begin to enjoy this constantly-in-motion-movie (which I did, even though it’s no great cinematic accomplishment beyond the extensive computer-imagery needed to bring all of these fantastic scenes to life, along with well-directed-action from all of these famous principals who know they’re in a comic-book-inspired-story [much of it taken directly from those pulp-pages for many of us who don’t know that level of background] but play it straight despite some complaints from true-believers who feel Waititi’s being too casual with their “sacred scriptures”). I just found it to be consistently-enjoyable, within a limited sense of importance (the CCAL saw even more limits: RT 64% positive, MC 57% average score), encourage you to see it (unless the whole concept’s just too silly for you), and hope my choice of a Musical Metaphor brings it all together, so please take a listen to Queen’s “We Are the Champions” (on 1977's News of the World) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP808MiJUcM (immediately suggested by my insightful-wife, Nina, when I was having trouble coming up with something; thanks as always for your help) for several reasons: (1) the song’s intended to be a unifying anthem for all who hear and sing along with it, reminiscent of the way Thor and his warrior-mates were determined to collectively bring down a fierce enemy; (2) according to Freddie Mercury, the group actually takes its name for its regal sound, so in a minor way this is my dedication to the most-famous-queen of our time, the UK’s newly-deceased Queen Elizabeth II; (3) this specific version continues the British connection by being from the band’s appearance at London’s Wembley Stadium for the July 1985 Live Aid concert in front of 72,000 fans, just as Thor and his comrades in … Love and Thunder were working mightily on behalf of everyone who faced death at the hands of the angry God Butcher, “But it’s been no bed of roses / No pleasure cruise / I consider it a challenge before the whole human race / And I ain’t gonna lose.” Well, of course they didn’t (do you really consider that a Spoiler where the Thunder God’s concerned?), and, rest assured, the final graphic after the credits tells us “Thor will return.” Until that happens, here’s an anatomy of a scene from this movie by the director.
That’s all for my critical commentary this week (which usually reminds me of some parting lyrics from Pink Floyd’s "Time": “The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say,” or maybe R.E.M. knows me even better [from "Losing My Religion"]: “Oh no, I’ve said too much / I haven’t said enough”), but whether you agree with any of that stuff or not I’ll offer you one more opportunity to be in unity with an attitude that would benefit all of us, James Taylor’s "Shower the People" (on his 1976 In the Pocket album), because we should “Shower the people you love with love / Show them the way that you feel / Things are gonna be much better/ If you only will.” We’re now sailing through divisive times; it could be a smoother ride if we’d only help each other a bit more.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: Extra items you might like: (1) Remembering French New Wave master Jean-Luc Godard; and (2) Who played Queen Elizabeth II in films and TV?
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
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Here’s more information about Nope:
https://www.nopemovie.ca and https://www.nope.movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjKE0CXKPNI (9:17 interview with writer-director Jordan Peele) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEelJSYvkcU (10:01 exploration of what
really happened with some UFO sightings [ad interrupts at 3:15])
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nope
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/nope
Here’s more information about Thor: Love and Thunder:
https://www.marvel.com/movies/thor-love-and-thunder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv9WiVJvV_Q (2:04 deleted scene between Thor [Chris Hemsworth] and Zeus [Russell Crowe], with a brief appearance by the Mighty Thor/Jane Foster [Natalie Portman]) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLSJS4HmX6s (15:28 exploration of small details you likely missed while watching this movie [Spoilers of course; ads interrupt at
about 5:00, 10:22])
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/thor_love_and_thunder
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/thor-love-and-thunder
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Here’s more information about your “Concise? What’s that?” Two Guys critic, Ken Burke:
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (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-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
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 (quite an eternal while, in fact, but maybe while there you’ll get a chance to meet Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, RIP). 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 (although, as you know, with bar songs there are plenty about people broken down by various tragic circumstances, with maybe the best of the bunch—calls itself “perfect”—being "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" written by Steve Goodman, sung by David Allen Coe). But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion/lover/
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 venue) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes/wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can be raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand" (19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never get tired of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this well). But, while I’m at it, I’ll also include another of my top favorites, from the night before at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song “just a shot away” in my memory (along with my memory of their great drummer, Charlie Watts, RIP). To finish this cluster of all-time-great-songs I’d like to have played at my wake (as far away from now as possible) here’s one Dylan didn’t play at Desert Trip but it’s great, much beloved by me and Nina: "Visions of Johanna." However, if the day does come when Nina has to recall these above thoughts (beginning with “If we did talk”) and this music after my demise I might as well make this into an arbitrary-Top 10 of songs that mattered to me by adding The Beatles’ "A Day in the Life,"
because that chaotic-orchestral-finale sounds like what the death experience may be like, and the Beach Boys’ "Fun Fun Fun," because these memories may have gotten morbid so I’d like to sign off with something more upbeat to remember me, the Galveston non-surfer-boy.
However, before I go (whether it’s just until next week or more permanently), let’s round these songs out to an even dozen with 2 more dedicated to Nina, the most wonderful woman ever for me. I’ll start with Dylan’s "Lay, Lady, Lay" (maybe a bit personal, but we had a strong connection right from the start) and finish with the most appropriate tune of all, The Beatles again, "In My Life," because whatever I might encounter in my Earth-time, “I love you more.”
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