Historical Anomalies
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)
Rosaline (Karen Maine) rated PG-13 96 min.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): As I’m still attempting to dodge COVID (successful so far) by avoiding places like movie theaters for the present, I find I wouldn’t have missed too much anyway (except the few recent openings I’ve noted in these past few Opening Chatter postings), although I do want to see the racism-confrontation-drama dealing with the horrid lynching of a Black teenager in Till (Chinonye Chukwu)—deserves a lot bigger response than it’s gotten but hopefully will build nicely as it spreads to considerably more venues (opened on just 16 screens)—however, if my goal is to avoid indoor crowds (especially as mask-wearers are on the wane), I’d have needed to stay away from Halloween Ends (David Gordon Green) with its massive $57.2 million global debut ($40 million of that right here in northern North America) as Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) supposedly finally finish off this long-running series (although the current movie’s actually part of a recent trilogy, essentially ignoring most everything before, with the first of that set, just called Halloween [Green, 2018], as a sequel to the original [John Carpenter, 1978], even using the same direct title [then Green had Halloween Kills in 2021]); lucky for me, after seeing Carpenter’s inauguration of this franchise I haven’t felt the need to visit any more of them anyway, so, yes, while I could have streamed it on Peacock as it simultaneously debuted on the big-screen (seems OK with Universal, but theater owners didn’t care for that decision as they felt their take could have been even higher without the home-video-competition) I chose not to. Content with whatever my streaming options might be I came across an intriguing concept in Rosaline (on Hulu and Disney+; free with monthly subscriptions) where a character briefly mentioned in Shakespeare’s version of Romeo and Juliet (1597) now takes center-stage in her attempts to regain the interest of her former love, a story that I found to be quite charming (and funny), well worth your consideration.
Next, I came upon a rare object, a Marvel/Disney story that clocks in at just under an hour, a self-standing-narrative called Werewolf by Night that doesn’t spin off from any previous Marvel screen-work nor does it (so far?) lead into some ongoing-series, yet you’ll find it’s intended to fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe so there may well be more to come of this hairy character. This one’s free also with a Disney+ subscription, so Walt’s legacy corporation has full command of what I’m offering this week with the main event technically from 20th Century Studios, now a Disney property, while a Werewolf …’s streaming platform, Hulu, is part of Disney’s empire too (pure coincidence here; I get nothing from them—except a monthly bill, soon set to increase—should you choose to watch either of my suggestions). Also, here are links for the schedule of the cable network, Turner Classic Movies, which gives you a wide selection of older films with no commercial interruptions and the JustWatch site offering their own wide selection of options for streaming rental or purchase. If you want to see what all reigned at the domestic (U.S.-Canada) box-office last weekend, go here.
Here’s the trailer for Rosaline:
(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: We open in the fair city of Verona, Italy (northern part of the country, on the Adige River) “A Really Long Time Ago” as an opening graphic tells us, where young Romeo (Kyle Allen) of the Montague clan (one of the 2 rival groups pushing for command in the city) climbs up to the balcony of his love, a young woman of the rival Capulets; however, we quickly know we’re not fully in the narrative of Shakespeare’s famous play because: (1) This Capulet is Rosaline (Kaitlyn Dever), Juliet’s cousin; (2) When Romeo attempts to woo Rosaline with poetic flattery she brushes off his flowery language, making it clear this dialogue will be from the 21st century, not the Bard’s prose (back then people didn’t speak in iambic pentameter either)—both of these new aspects of this tale indicate this version will be played more for comedy than romantic drama. Obviously, Rosaline can’t let her family know she’s secretly seeing Romeo so she has to suffer her father, Adrian Capulet’s (Bradley Whitford), constant attempts to match her up with a suitor, all of whom (mostly many years her senior) she easily rejects, including dashing Dario (Sean Teale) who’s slow to take “no” for an answer, so he convinces her to take a short boat trip with him on the day of the huge Capulet masked ball that evening. Due to unexpected problems with the weather, they’re out on the water much later than intended so she’s furious, finally gets to the ball too late, not able as intended to quietly meet up with Romeo. She’s even more upset when she learns Romeo, unable to find Rosaline (even under the masks), suddenly became intensely-enamored with cousin Juliet (Isabel Merced) who’s now his secret paramour (in those days if you were young, rich, handsome, and popular your love-interests could turn on a dime; oh, wait a minute, that’s still likely the case in high school today I guess [it has been a few decades since I was part of that constantly-traumatic-scene—not that I was considered rich, handsome, or particularly-popular—but I bet little’s changed]).
However, Rosaline, despite her anger about being so quickly dumped by Romeo, is determined to get him back, working on advice from Nurse Janet (Minnie Driver). Rosaline’s further frustrated by no response from letters she sends to Romeo so she takes revenge by hiding letters he’s instead sending to Juliet. Rosaline then ups her scheming-anti first by convincing Juliet to “sample at the buffet of life” rather than settle so quickly for an available man, then convinces her gay friend, Count Paris (Spencer Stevenson), to court Juliet, which shocks and annoys her when the Capulets are supportive, then comes to understand Rosaline’s maneuvers. Romeo’s persistent, though, plans a wedding to Juliet which Rosaline finds out about so she and Dario sneak into the Montague quarters, intending to stop this union, only to barely escape the estate’s guards (so the marriage takes place), at which point Dario decides to return to the navy, getting no sense he has any future with Rosaline.
Rosaline finally decides she doesn’t love Romeo (fickleness has never been confined to any specific gender, chronological age, or time-period, of course, as with Romeo previoiusly), attempts to send his Juliet-letters back to her, but they’re confiscated by hotheaded-Capulet-kinsman Tybalt (Alistair Toovey), ultimately leading to Romeo accidentally killing him in a duel (as we eventually get back to Shakespeare’s version for a bit), so the clans are now ready for all-out-war. ⇒Rosaline and Dario come to tell Juliet they’ll smuggle her and Romeo to safety, but she’s already had her dose of the sleeping potion to fake her death so her body’s taken away from the Capulet estate, but when Romeo arrives (unlike in the original story) he knows about the fakery from Dario’s revelation so even when she awakens they both pretend to be dead, allowing Rosaline to chastise both clans, send them all away. As this story wraps up, Romeo and Juliet sail away as Rosaline and Dario kiss so all seems to end well for everyone; however, in a mid-credits scene we find our famous lovers on their boat, already squabbling a bit, trying to find some common interests, leaving us to wonder how long this rewritten-love-affair will last or, maybe, if they would have been better off dead after all.*⇐
*When I saw this ultimate finale, I couldn’t help but think of the ending scene in The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) where the Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross characters make a dramatic escape from her wedding, get away by hopping on a city bus, go to the farthest rear seats, giddy with their brazen act, slowly staring at the camera (as Nichols caught them off-guard by not saying “cut” in this final shot, leaving them both looking perplexed as the soundtrack finishes off with a repeat of Simon and Garfunkel’s haunting “Sounds of Silence”). Further, I imagined how this ending (fantastic as it is) might have been even more specific and could be tied in even further to Rosaline if that film had been made much later with the end song instead being Talking Heads’ "Once in a Lifetime" (from the 1980 album Remain in Light), especially with the lyrics of “Same as it ever was” and "You may say to yourself ‘My God, what have I done?’ " (one of the last things you probably ever want to say).
So What? If what you’d like to see on screen is a lauded, traditional approach to an adaptation of the famous play, Romeo and Juliet, then you’d surely appreciate this version by Franco Zeffirelli (1968), using the original title and dialogue, starring Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey (won Oscars for Best Screenplay, Costume Design, nominated for Best Picture, Director; streaming rental on Apple TV+ for $3.99). If, instead, you prefer the structure and dialogue of the original but want to see it put into a contemporary setting then you should probably explore Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996; also available for a $3.99 streaming rental on Apple TV+ or free on HBO Max if you’re a subscriber) with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles (OK, nobody plays Shakespeare in this version, so just focus on the young lovers please) set in Verona Beach (seems to be southern CA or FL) where the Montagues and Capulets are feuding gangs so it’s now pistols instead of swords. (Of course, if you're up for a musical adaptation there's always either version of West Side Story). However, if you’re willing to be aware of the narrative of the foundational play but accept how a character who’s barely mentioned in that original* becomes the lead in a more-freewheeling-adaption** then I think you’d find a lot to enjoy with Rosaline's story.
*See Stephanie Zacharek's TIME review of Rosaline for a bit more on this Capulet's stage origins.
** Another comedic adaption of Shakespeare along these lines is Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, focusing on 2 minor characters from Hamlet whose unknown set-up for betrayal of the “Mad Prince” ends in their own (offstage) demise, after which they're made into primary characters, first in a theatrical version (Tom Stoppard, 1966), then in a much-later-cinematic-adaptation (Stoppard, 1990, starring Gary Oldman and Tim Roth; once again, available on Apple TV+ for a $3.99 rental—maybe they’re having a special on Shakespeare-related-material. Just for curiosity, I also checked a couple of versions of Hamlet, found the same streaming platform, same rental price [although free to HBO Max subscribers] for both the Laurence Olivier version [1948; won Oscars for Best Picture, Actor {Olivier}, Art Direction-Set Decoration – Black and White, Costume Design – Black and White, along with noms for Best Director, Supporting Actress {Jean Simmons}; runs 155 min., cuts out much of the dialogue, nothing about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern] and the Kenneth Branagh version [1996; complete text so it runs 242 min., but R & G are in there, for the mild comic relief they’d originally intended to be, giving a correct foundation for how they sort of wander into the play territory of Waiting for Godot {Samuel Beckett, 1963} at times in their own film from Stoppard]; some Oscar noms for Branagh’s version, no wins [there'd be 5 stars from me if I'd ever review it, though]).
Rosaline features a welcome condensed running time so it flows along in an easy manner without dragging in all of the large cast from Shakespeare’s play, the main ones here being Adrian Capulet, Tybalt, Count Paris (not gay in the original) and the Nurse, with quick appearances by a few others so you don’t need a program to keep up with the players (even though you wouldn’t find Dario in such a listing as he’s an add-on to connect with the enormously-expanded-role of Rosaline). There’s lots of effective humor here, along with the surprise ending which seems to take a hint from the revised (more acceptable) history of the Charles Manson-led-murder-attempts from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019; review in our August 1, 2019 posting). Ultimately, like Romeo + Juliet, Rosaline may provide a useful strategy to get Shakespeare-phobic-potential-viewers into some level of interest in the original version, then have something to discuss at length with friends about these somewhat-parallel-tales of star-crossed-lovers, given that in our sometimes-more-tolerant-contemporary-societies there are still unnecessary, unhealthy objections by various groups—or, at least, bigoted individuals within those groups—who refuse to respect, interact with, find common ground with people they oppose for no good reason except inbred-prejudices, family orientations toward such hate, or the easy persuasions of our “in-crowd” manipulations now so easily spread on social media. Maybe the humorous rejection of a lot of these attitudes in Rosaline could be helpful in shining a needed light on such ignorant dismissals as these characters may dwell in a time centuries before us, but they continue to act, think, and talk in ways we should quickly relate to.
Bottom Line Final Comments: The CCAL largely backs me up, as those surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes give Rosaline 75% positive reviews while the others at Metacritic are lower (as is often the case) with a 61% average score (which for them means “Generally favorable reviews” as they frequently don’t get into even the 70s range for their evaluations I’m aware of). As examples of what value some of the folks find in Rosaline here’s Tomris Laffly of Variety who says: “Considering countless modernized costume dramas and TV shows in the vein of ‘Bridgerton,’ ‘Dickinson’ and Lena Dunham’s nifty medieval coming-of-ager ‘Catherine Called Birdy’ [none of which, I admit, I’m familiar with, but I’ll take her word for it] — not to mention iconic ’90s flicks like ‘Clueless’ and ‘Cruel Intentions’ that transposed classic texts to the present day — Maine’s likeminded outing might not render as instantly original. Still, her film succeeds at heartily seizing the timely idea at the core of those titles, displaying a feminist and feminine understanding of young women with desires, fears and preoccupations […] Perhaps Rosaline can have it all, and become both a cartographer — her vocational ambition — and Dario’s lover as she wishes. Not necessarily for as long as they both shall live, but as long as her feral heart desires.” Then there's Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter who offers: “Rosaline, which premieres on Hulu on Oct. 14, joins the handful of works (Sharman Macdonald’s play After Juliet, Shonda Rhimes’ ABC drama Still Star-Crossed) that redirect the spotlight, making Romeo’s first love the protagonist. […] Anachronistic pop music choices set a convivial mood and underscore that Shakespeare’s tragic romance was really about horny and impetuous teens. […] Love is the major force rippling through Rosaline, one in which our protagonist comes to understand over the course of the film.” It's obvious; I'm on board with these perspectives.
Of course, if the critical consensus is only about ¾ of the way at best toward full acceptance, then there must be those not so impressed, such as Natalia Winkelman of The New York Times who counters with: “For never was a story of more woe than this — and I’m not talking about the trysts of Romeo. ‘Rosaline,’ Karen Maine’s hapless Shakespeare reimagining, stages history’s most famous romance from the novel perspective of Rosaline, Romeo’s jilted ex. It’s a clever enough gimmick. But in playing out the reverie, the movie epitomizes a du jour Hollywood adaptation style that’s nothing short of agonizing, planting one foot in the source material and the other in a cheeky 21st-century sensibility. […] Shall I compare the screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (‘(500 Days) of Summer’) to the Bard? I’d rather not.” Well, as Rick Nelson and I always remind you at the beginnings of these postings, “You can’t please everyone,” so I’ll leave it to you to decide whether Rosaline (streaming free on Hulu and Disney+, if you subscribe to either) stirs up your interest or not.
While you’re deciding you might want to listen to my usual review-conclusion-tactic of a Musical Metaphor for some final commentary on the cinematic-subject at hand, but this time I’ll give you 2 of some silly relevance to match the movie’s mood. First, we have a more plaintive position from Rosaline toward her lost love, Romeo, with Player’s “Baby Come Back” (on their 1977 Player album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d5y4mzteI8, although you have to switch gender-singers in your mind to have this strong-minded-Capulet-girl pleading with her lost Montague boy: “Baby come back, oh baby, any kind of fool could see / There was something in everything about you / Baby come back, you can blame it all on me / I was wrong and I just can’t live without you.” As the story moves along, though, she begins to see Dario might be a better match—which he felt from the beginning—so she’d be more open to his argument they could be as successful a couple as the cousin and the ex- seem fated to be, as stated in The Reflections’ “(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet” (on the 1964 album named for the song) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycCZX-olchU “I’m gonna put Romeo’s fame / Right smack dab outta date,” although he admits he needs a solid connection with Rosaline or “Our love’s gonna be destroyed by a tragedy,” as least as the original story goes for the famous lovers, yet better options await for all as the events of Rosaline unfold (although Romeo and Juliet may be facing a different type of tragedy, the longer they keep sailing).
SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)
From the pages of Marvel Comics comes this tale of a group of famed monster hunters who are called to kill a deadly beast with the reward being possession of the Bloodstone, which aids in such difficult tasks; the most successful previous hunter teams up with the daughter of the previous Bloodstone possessor with success, until the stone reveals he’s also a monster: a vicious werewolf.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
While I’m generally keeping to my resolution to mostly avoid superhero movies/fantasy streaming series right now (MCU overload, although I insist on some wiggle room with Thor [… Love and Thunder {Taika Waititi; review in our September 15, 2022 posting}], anything new about Wonder Woman or Aquaman, possibly Black Adam [Jaume Collet-Serra] as well sometime after its October 21, 2022 debut) Disney+ streaming keeps drawing me in to watch with Marvel additions given some fascinating premises, so I’ve seen WandaVision last year, Moon Knight, and a couple of episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law this year (really liked the first mini-series, was reasonably-OK with the second, could probably have kept with the third [nicely entertaining, good use of humor] if other autumn-returning-TV series didn’t take up too much time [along with end-of-season baseball leading to the World Series, beginning of fall-season Golden State Warriors basketball] to have room for this impressive green monster, in scenes both in and out of the courtroom), so when the opportunity to watch a short Marvel TV special of under an hour which gets into the horror zone of their stories (which I’m not nearly as familiar with as their superhero tales, but the second item about this entry in Related Links a bit farther below [beware of interrupting ads in this video at 1:00, 5:24] gives you plenty of details not only of how this main character in Werewolf by Night fits into that ever-expanding MCU but also how this protagonist-lycanthrope has a substantial history in Marvel Comics—as do many MCU stories on screen; useful background for me, as I have scant-connection with this huge trove of colorful print material), I decided to check it out, then pass on some reactions to you, especially due to the CCAL’s solid support (RT 90% positive reviews, MC 69% average score).
The basic story here is famed monster-killer Ulysses Bloodstone’s (voice of Richard Dixon) dead, so his widow, Verussa (Harriet Sansom), calls together 5 famous monster-hunters to kill a beast, the winner receiving the magical Bloodstone which helps in these pursuits (no penalties for killing the other hunters if needed). Verussa’s not pleased, though, when her disgruntled-daughter, Elsa (Laura Donnelly), also shows up after a 20-year-absence, insists on entering the contest, where she soon teams up with Jack Russell (Gael Garcia Bernal), the most successful of these creature-killers, with a few of their fellow-contestants soon dispatched after having made the mistake of trying to kill either one of them. Russell soon finds the specific monster they’re after is someone he knows, the Man-Thing—actually named Ted (Carey Jones), whom Jack was trying to find anyway—so his focus is now on helping this huge beast escape rather than killing him. As Ted runs away into the forest, Elsa snags the Bloodstone off of his back; however, at Verussa’s command, Elsa and Jack are soon in a cage as the stone responds actively to Jack, indicating he’s a monster: what, we don't know yet.
⇒To secure their freedom, Elsa uses the Bloodstone to fully release Jack’s vicious werewolf alter-identity (inherited through his father’s bloodline), but she’s safe from him as he recognizes her from his other persona. Jack gets away, Verussa’s about to kill Elsa, but Ted returns, kills Verussa, goes back to the forest, next morning he’s with Jack (in human form again), while Elsa has possession of the Bloodstone and her father’s manor.⇐ While I enjoyed the black & white cinematography, the art direction look honoring Universal Studios’ 1930s horror movies (with some scenes that even evoke the German Expressionist classic Metropolis [Fritz Lang, 1927]—including the face makeup on Jack, which he says is a tribute to his father)—and the occasional intentional humor (“Over the Rainbow” on the soundtrack toward the end; the silly sight of animatronic-corpse Ulysses talking to the assembled hunters), I can’t help but feel this is simply an elongated-teaser preparing us for another Marvel/Disney streaming series (or maybe even a movie that more actively links into the MCU). It’s fun to watch as a Halloween warmup, doesn’t take up much of your time, and is free if you’re a Disney+ subscriber (available since October 7, 2022), so take a look if you like. Otherwise, maybe all you need is my Musical Metaphor which I think could only be Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” (on their 1969 Green River album) at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ALkaW6CTHJA because when the moon (or the Bloodstone) turns Jack into a werewolf everyone, except for Elsa, should know “Don’t go around tonight / Well, it’s bound to take your life / There’s a bad moon on the rise.” However, even as a human Jack’s a dangerous guy if he’s actually killed 100 of his fellow monsters, so I’m a bit concerned by that. Should I visit my local comic-book-store for added research? Maybe I’ll just wait and see if Jack Russell starts prowling around again.
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: Here is the only extra item I could find this week you might like to find out: (1) In November 2022 Netflix will offer a cheaper streaming plan but with ads.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll down to the bottom of this Summary page to see some additional info about you wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
Here’s more information about Rosaline:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1777606/ (best I could find for an official site)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lorpMywtf0 (4:25 interview with actors Kaitlyn Dever and Sean Teale) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUTFPyCZPFY (4:18 interview with actors Isabela Merced and Kyle Allen) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HMQdcVN_Mo (4:21 interview with director Karen Maine)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rosaline
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rosaline
Here’s more information about Werewolf by Night:
https://disneyplusoriginals.disney.com/movie/werewolf-by-night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwUsgdwWiZE (10:30 explanation of this movie fits
into the MCU)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/werewolf_by_night
https://www.metacritic.com/tv/werewolf-by-night
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