kitty kitty,
meow meow,
purr purr purr,
boyfriend cat in a state of durr.
naughty cat, boring cat,
lazy as can be,
not contributing to his grocery receipt.
typical male, being obscene,
scratching his jam and huffing his feet
like this is the set of his own pornography –
how does someone who keeps licking themselves
on my couch, rent-free,
seem to keep their stinky parts clean?
“Madame Web” is way more watchable than what has been suggested. Omitting the lack of hype, subdued marketing, and languorous comments from its lead star, the movie is mindless, low-impact entertainment, thankfully devoid of any Marvel movie baggage, and anchored by a solid leading lady who has nothing to be ashamed of.
To casual viewers, director SJ Clarkson – a TV veteran whom this is their first major feature – may seem like they’re playing the filmmaking side of things too safe, but I found the frame mercifully non-convoluted with the excess texture that drags most modern superhero movies down for me. In place of your effects-laden Marvel “extravaganza”, Madame Web’s shot structure & editing suggest themes of time & perspective in a refreshingly grounded, fluid, Mike Figgis-esque way (except perhaps including more single CCTV shots). All I was really left wanting was less cutting to the reaction, rather than letting the movement breathe, in the action scenes.
The obvious difference of opinion will be over Dakota Johnson’s insouciant performance. In the Cineplex pre-show, she says she took the role because she was interested in the idea of a woman “whose superpower is her mind.” Johnson’s last big gig was the “Fifty Shades” trilogy, and Cassandra Webb is another empowering role ripe for a feminist performer to tackle. Here, with her strong, self-sufficient interpretation – and looking good with her long, dark hair, red leather jacket, and Levis – Johnson is poised to become some little girl’s role model and a pre-pubescent male comic book film fan’s first female fantasy.
The film is nimbly paced and ends at the perfect point, except perhaps by five minutes, with an epilogue that eludes logic. Sony’s live-action Spider-verse expansion might not happen if Madame Web doesn’t gain more traction through streaming, but the climax isn’t clear enough to foreshadow everything the film throws at us visually in that final scene. It looks ridiculous, but is probably comic-book accurate.
Poster sourced from impawards.com. What do you think? Was Johnson the right casting choice, or did Cassie need to be played by someone with more range? What about Emma Roberts? Considering her minor supporting role here, does an alternate timeline exist where Roberts & Johnson switch characters? Or are you one of the millions on the bandwagon ragging on the poor movie at the moment and you think I must have some ulterior motive for a positive review? Let me know in the comments below!
i can have more
fulfilling conversations
than i ever could
with you
or anyone else
in my head.
sorry.
i can debate me all i want –
fly my freak flag as i ought;
like what i like
and own what i wrought –
without another being judging
whether this connection needs to be dropped.
it’s probably not you
but i hold these truths to be self-proven
over decades of believing i was being suffused
by the bullies & vicarious lifers
we share space with on this moon –
i’m a White guy from Canada,
i know nothing of misuse:
only a sheltered upbringing i use as my excuse
for thirty years of reservations
in feeling removed.
some days,
most without even trying,
i take the easy way out:
i get stuck in my thoughts
and spin out of control
not even paying attention
and soon i’m on my knees in the kitchen
hunched over
trying to differentiate between months-old droppings
and fragments of plastic cheese
from the bag of Tex-Mex i just dropped on the floor
because i would rather simply be
trying to do nothing at all just
laying on the couch but
thinking,
dreaming,
praying of being somewhere else,
anywhere,
in another dimension, off there somewhere
where exists what could have happened –
i’ll have the news on to catch the top stories
but after a few minutes it’s purposeless –
they’re all the same bullet points from yesterday
through a perspection of passing time:
some people died
and one famous about to;
displaced persons from a camp removal;
one’s a terrorist about to be tried;
another one biding to be penalized;
global warming at an all-time high;
random attacks on the rise;
car pile-up on the ninety-nine…
by then all i feel is empty inside:
it sounds like a Saturday night of gaming
than a generation’s place in humankind.
i put a CD i’ve heard a thousand times in the drive
that doesn’t come standard with new models of that type,
because i’d rather hear Morrissey whine
than to face my own materiality of being alive.
when my world ends,
i don’t want it to be from a shot to the head
or an environment that kills me in earnestness
or even just peacefully laying in bed:
