Ian Thomas Malone

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Friday

9

June 2023

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Classic Film: Cold Water

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There’s a certain timeless angst to the toils of youth. Puberty floods the body with a sea of hormones few individuals are equipped to handle. An enhanced sense of freedom shields the broader panopticon from view, a lot of ideas for the future without many means to execute them. Set in the 1970s, the 1994 French film Cold Water (original title L’eau froide) captures teenage angst through a series of seemingly inconsequential yet powerful moments in its characters’ lives.

The film largely deploys a stream-of-consciousness approach centered on its two leads, Christine (Virginie Ledoyen) and Giles (Cyprien Fouquet). The two have an easy sense of chemistry, united by a common love of mischief. When Christine takes the fall for a shoplifting exercise gone wrong, her parents send her to a mental institute, her newfound sense of freedom promptly snatched away.

Director/writer Olivier Assayas centers the emotional anchor of his narrative at an abandoned rural chateau, which becomes the site of a small teenage rave. Utilizing a soundtrack powered by Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Nico, and Alice Cooper, the film captures the relatable essence of being a teenage free spirit, alongside its shortcomings that would be lost of the youth, but not necessarily the audience. It’s easy to feel free when the drugs are flowing and the music’s blasting. Possessing actual agency is a far different story.

Ledoyen and Fouquet are fun to watch together, each carrying their fair share of the film’s emotional weight in an otherwise sparse narrative. Assayas keeps things tight with a 92-minute runtime that doesn’t overstay its welcome or allow the audience’s sympathies to shift to the more reasonable adults in the room. As its title suggests, most grand ideas of youth could do with a bit of cold water splashed to buff them out.

Assayas delivers a timeless slice of youth, powered by two emotionally raw performances from his young actors, as well as a killer score. Cold Water doesn’t necessarily reinvent the genre, but it’s a compelling narrative to spend time with. Many adults can relate to the passions exhibited in the film, even if we might cringe a bit from seeing too much of ourselves on the screen.

Thursday

8

June 2023

0

COMMENTS

Pride Film: Weekend

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LGBTQ people often have a tendency to develop extremely close bonds with intimate partners in short periods of time. For a community that knows ostracization and stigmatization all too well, the high of a new crush can supersede any concerns for the longevity of such passion, a mandate to live in the present without worrying about a tomorrow that brings almost certain doom. “No day but today” is less a mantra than a steadfast rule for survival.

The film Weekend follows one of those casual, curiously intense encounters between two homosexuals on very different life trajectories. Russell (Tom Cullen) is a lifeguard with many reservations about his sexuality, preferring the anonymity of a gay club to more flamboyant, public settings. He meets Glen (Chris New), an artistic free-spirit, who keeps a collection of audio recordings of all of his hookups in an effort to unpack the difference between the people they are, and the individuals they aspire to be within the world of hookup culture. Glen’s imminent emigration to America puts a speedy timetable on their courtship, the two spending most of the weekend together partaking in the expedited bonding ritual that LGBTQ people know all too well.

Director/writer Andrew Haigh crafts an intimate portrait of Nottingham queer life that already feels like a bit of a time capsule barely a decade down the road from its 2011 release. The script’s stream-of-consciousness execution carries a degree of authenticity that any LGBTQ person would recognize. Cullen and New possess a keen sense of chemistry that works well for the film’s intentions, two people who don’t need to be perfect for each other in the long haul when the next 48 hours will suffice.

The narrative does spend quite a bit of time on the nature of the closet, often at the expense of a much more interesting examination of gay hookups as a whole. Haigh produces one of the best defenses of the fleeting temporality that often defines gay relations, a film that captures the joys of hookup culture alongside its many real tropes. People who live existences defined by repression naturally find euphoria through the release of the pressure valve. Gay relationships are often way too intense right from the start, but that’s also part of the magic of finding someone who sees you, for you.

The real crowning achievement of Weekend is that it genuinely feels like a gay movie made for gay people. Despite its fascination with LGBTQ-101 mainstays like the closet, the film also earnestly unpacks the natural baggage that comes with trying to find yourself amidst a world that constantly encourages queer people to partition off parts of ourselves for the comfort of the world around us. Haigh doesn’t look away from the vibrancy of that reality within his narrative, but he works without the constraints of straight comfort oozing from the finished product either.

Weekend is some of the most effective lived-in LGBTQ storytelling presented on film. You may not want to emulate the courtship of Russell and Glen to see the appeal in these fleeting encounters that often mean the world to gay folk. You don’t have to spend forever with someone to feel the weight of their presence in your life. Sometimes, a weekend is more than enough.

Wednesday

7

June 2023

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COMMENTS

Trans Fetishization

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Ian unpacks a question that she was asked by a Grindr date last week. Is there anything wrong with going out with guys who fetishize trans women? Like many trans femmes, ITM is not a fan of being objectified, but she tries her best to unpack the reality of how trans people are seen in this vast dating realm. 

Monday

5

June 2023

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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a gorgeous sequel that’s firmly rooted in comic book lore

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Much of the superhero canon relies on throughlines developed decades ago, a lush if not rigid tapestry that’s defined the framework of storytelling that can draw newcomers in without alienating longtime fans. You don’t need to read hundreds of Batman or Spider-Man books to know that both heroes carry on their crusades in service to vows taken in the wake of dead relatives, just as The Man of Steel defines his life’s mission by his family’s creed that “The S stands for hope.” Part of what’s refreshing about newer heroes like Miles Morales is that the younger generation lacks such strict parameters, granting them more freedom to define their own journeys.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse largely succeeded off of its ability to bring a genuine sense of awe and wonder to the most over-saturated genre in the entire film industry, along the way winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Nearly five years later, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse finds itself amidst a sea of multiverse-related movies, none quite achieving the visual splendor of its own predecessor. The endless variety that the very concept of a multiverse suggests creates certain lofty standards to deliver material that challenges its audience’s very definition of reality.

Across the Spider-Verse is quite possibly the most beautiful animated film ever made, a powerful testament to the sheer might of blockbuster filmmaking in possession of more than an iota of ambition. The innate appeal of a comic book likes in its ability to illustrate new worlds or fresh perspectives in every passing frame. No more has ever felt more like a comic book than Across the Spider-Verse, a sentiment that certainly applies to its less-than-earth-shattering premise.

The film largely picks up about a year and a half after the events of Into the Spider-Verse. Miles (Shameik Moore) is struggling to balance his scholarly ambitions with his extra-curricular web-slinging endeavors, along with an overbearing mother (Luna Lauren Vélez) who thinks New Jersey is too far away from Brooklyn for college while simultaneously allowing her son to board at a high school across the borough. On Earth-65 Gwen Stacy (Hailee Stenfield) remains at odds with her police officer father (Shea Whigham), joining up with the multiverse-hopping group the Spider Society, led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) and Jessica Drew (Issa Rae).

The bulk of the narrative centers around familiar comic book territory, namely Miles’ place in the larger Spider-canon, as well as the effect of his secret identity on his broader life. Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson juxtapose their fairly straightforward story with a non-stop barrage of breathtaking sequences, the kind of animation that makes you not want to blink for fear that you might miss something. The film pays homage to every single era of Spider-lore without ever coming across like it’s pandering to nostalgia.

Peter Parker’s presence looms large over the film, even if the characters and his many variations largely take a backseat throughout the narrative. Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) barely appears, Across the Spider-Verse is firmly caught in the original spider’s gravity, an awkward if not understandable dynamic. The film’s gargantuan 140-minute runtime covers plenty of plot without ever feeling like it’s overstuffed, a feat almost as impressive as its ability to keep a steady barrage of trippy animation that never gets old.

It is hard to shake the contrast between Miles’ desire to carve out his own path and Across the Spider-Verse’s insistence that his movie carries around the full weight of the franchise’s baggage. Can Miles ever truly own his own story when fans wait for a glimpse of 1990s relics such as O’Hara or Ben Reilly? The film firmly focuses on the questions of fate and agency, while never truly selling the idea that Miles could actually ever break free of the world defined on Peter Parker’s terms. A movie that tries to please everyone inevitably loses a bit of its own voice in the process.

Across the Spider-Verse is a singular superhero film, one of the few that tries to be a comic book more than a blockbuster. It’s one of the most beautiful sights to behold on the big screen, a triumph of ingenuity at a time when the genre itself is starting to buckle. For its subversive visuals, the narrative does not try to deconstruct the comic book so much as embody its chaotic power. Its narrative may not break the wheel, but it might leave you with a new appreciation for the way the wheel is designed in the first place.

Thursday

1

June 2023

0

COMMENTS

The Innocent offers a fresh take on the heist genre

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The older you get, the more you realize how little of life follows anything resembling a rubric. Time never waits for you to get your feet comfortable in its waters. You can spend all day licking your wounds inflicted upon various grievances, or you can throw caution to the wind and help your new father-in-law rob a caviar shipment in the parking lot of a truck stop diner, as the French film The Innocent centers its eclectic narrative around.

Abel (Louis Garrel, who also directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay) is a sad man. He’s upset that his mother Sylvie (Anouk Grinberg), a prison drama teacher, married one of her soon-to-be released students Michel (Roschdy Zem), another addition to a long list of questionable life decisions. His fairly sterile existence as an aquarium educator is occasionally buoyed by updates on the Tinder adventures of his coworker/best friend Clémence (Noémie Merlant), who serves as both an object of jealousy and a painful reminder of his wife, who died in a car accident while he was behind the wheel. One could argue that Abel has a right to be moody about his life’s circumstances, but the people around him are getting a little tired of his sad sack schtick.

Abel grows suspicious of his mother and Abel’s new flower shop, correctly surmising that Michel has acquired the funds through dubious methods. His shoddy efforts to spy on Michel with Clémence lead to both being wrapped up in the heist required to fund the new floral endeavor. Abel and Clémence are required to stage a dramatic confrontation in the diner to engage the driver long enough for the robbery to take place. Through make-believe, Abel finds an unexpected crash course in agency.

The Innocent thoroughly marches to the beat of its own drum, a tender comedy that finds ample meaning within the simple mechanics of narrative. Garrel commits his film wholeheartedly to the structure of the heist genre, a classic of French cinema, but he uses that space for vivid character studies, a moving commentary on grief and resentment. The four principal characters possess vibrant personalities that shine through a kind of interpersonal conflict with each other that doesn’t lend itself well to taking sides. The screenplay never forces the audience to see matters of right and wrong, but to accept the messiness of life.

Both as the director and in the lead role, Garrel has a knack for bringing out the best in his cast. Grinberg and Zem constantly defy expectations of their characters to challenge Abel’s preconceptions, undoubtedly shared by many in the audience. Merlant elevates the role of Clémence beyond the parameters of the manic pixie dream girl trope she certainly orbits. The abundant zaniness feels oddly grounded, a dynamic it sustains through its 100-minute runtime.

The Innocent is a charming narrative that leaves a strong impression, the kind of story your mind will want to chew on for a while. It doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel of the heist genre, but its offbeat humor and quirky characters are fun to be around. Society is not generally taught to treat criminals with empathy, but Garrel makes a strong case for looking beyond one’s preconceptions.

 

Thursday

1

June 2023

0

COMMENTS

Trans Optimism

Written by , Posted in Podcast

Pride is upon us! It’s a pretty shitty time to be a trans person in America. Ian muddles through a deconstruction of the idea of optimism, trying her best to piece together something resembling a life in this chaotic timeline.

Monday

8

May 2023

0

COMMENTS

The Mister Rogers Test

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Ian returns with a foolish story of how she used to rate suitor’s prospects by whether they stayed to watch Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood with her in bed the morning after. There’s not much point to the episode besides this story that’s already been spoiled. She thinks listening to the whole story would be a waste of time and didn’t want you to suffer. 

 

Ian’s article on Mister Rogers that was referenced in the episode: https://fansided.com/2020/03/20/mister-rogers-neighborhood-legacy/

Friday

5

May 2023

0

COMMENTS

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a satisfying, imperfect sendoff

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The MCU has often struggled to define itself in the post-Endgame, post-Snap, landscape. The only films to truly center themselves in the aftermath of the universe-shattering carnage were 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home and 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with the other cinematic and television offerings either focusing on new characters, or doing their very best to move on as if the very fabric of society hadn’t been fundamentally altered by Thanos’ mission. No single hero was responsible for the Snap quite like Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), whose selfish punching of Thanos on Titan allowed the monster to regain control of the situation and defeat the Avengers/Guardians team up.

The fallout of Quill’s behavior and the death of prime timeline Gamora (Zoe Saldana) seemingly laid out a pretty solid narrative rubric for The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to follow, one that might have been at odds with director James Gunn’s vision for the conclusion of his trilogy. The 2018 cancellation/subsequent un-cancellation of Gunn following juvenile tweets put a fair amount of distance between Endgame and Vol. 3 that might have made a direct follow-up a little awkward so many years down the road, squarely in Phase Five of the MCU. Fortunately for Gunn, Marvel found a clever way to put some distance between the Guardians and their last team up, keeping them fresh in the audience’s minds with fluffy appearances in Thor: Love and Thunder and The Guardians of the Galaxy Special.

Vol. 3 picks some peculiar territory to structure its narrative around. The film doesn’t exactly ignore the awkward reality that its Gamora isn’t from the first two Guardians, but rather Endgame’s alternate 2014 timeline. Gamora is both dead and not dead, a dynamic that might have made for an interesting main plot if Gunn hadn’t decided that Rocket (Bradley Cooper) would make a better core instead.

The film’s plot is near-incoherent, mostly centering around the team’s efforts to save Rocket after he was gravely injured in the opening sequence, an embedded kill switch interfering with his treatment. Rocket’s starring role is mostly conveyed through flashback sequences, a peculiar dynamic for the final film in the trilogy, even after putting aside the fact that Rocket and Nebula (Karen Gillan) were the only two Guardians to feature prominently in Endgame.

After the friction of the team in Vol. 2, which carried over into Infinity War, it’s a little weird that Gunn didn’t want to have most of the team intact throughout the narrative here. With Gamora off the team, there’s a lot of strain on Nebula, Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Drax (Dave Bautista), all previously comic relief characters, to carry the narrative. All three actors do admirable jobs pushing against the confines of their comedic tropes, though never quite succeeding in breaking the mold completely. The fact that Mantis and Drax are both coming off one-note starring roles in the Holiday Special doesn’t help their performances here either. Gunn’s comedy is largely childish and pedantic, though occasionally supplying some earned laughs through his script.

Pratt gets off to an extremely wooden start, demonstrating next to no dramatic range in an early scene with Mantis, unpacking his feelings. He does course-correct later in the film, having some touching moments with Saldana that do earnestly engage with the fallout of Infinity War. Gillan and Cooper provide most of the emotionally satisfying moments in the film, displaying both characters’ immense growth throughout the franchise. Groot (Vin Diesel) is largely a non-entity, though Gunn does deserve credit for deploying the fan-favorite tree-humanoid sparingly.

Similarly, newcomer Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), perhaps the best cult character in Bronze Age Marvel Comics lore, is introduced with restraint. Poulter gives Gillan and Bautista a run for their money for the mantle of best comedic timing, but Gunn never loses sight of the reality that Vol. 3 is not really Adam’s movie. That cast is way too big, even with a 150-minute runtime, but Gunn has a way of making things feel grounded amidst all the chaos.

The special effects are among the best in MCU history, gorgeous practical sets that are ripe for Gunn’s style of filmmaking. The cinematography isn’t limited by Disney’s clownish love affair with its hideous StageCraft technology. For the first time in ages, watching a Marvel movie on the big screen actually feels like a big deal.

There’s a certain endearing quality to Vol. 3’s inherent messiness, an imperfect sendoff fitting for a team of misfits. The timing frequently feels off. The fact the film is easy to follow doesn’t excuse the incoherence of its narrative. Each Guardians film has been worse than the one that came before, but there’s no denying that this team is fundamentally fun to spend time with.

The first two Guardians had the luxury of existing with a broad degree of independence from the broader MCU. Years removed from their last solo outing, the pacing clearly bristles at the idea that there are any factors to consider beyond those within Gunn’s immediate control, a man overly concerned with reigning supreme inside his own sandbox. Vol. 3 is not a stellar sendoff by any means, but Gunn delivers some of the most ambitious filmmaking of the MCU’s post-Endgame era. Maybe, considering how bad things have been for Marvel lately, that’s enough.

Wednesday

3

May 2023

0

COMMENTS

Transgender: Year Nine

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Estradiol Illusions celebrates its fourth anniversary… a month late. Ian takes a look at trans life nearly a decade in, from the mistakes of her youth to the current heavily anti-trans climate here in the US. She’s not really sure why this show has grown in popularity, but she’s grateful to have you here. 

Tuesday

25

April 2023

0

COMMENTS

Classic Film: All I Desire

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The allure of the American dream has never been super compatible with the realities of agency. The charm of 1950s suburbia, with its white picket fences and heteronormativity, pushed women into their preordained roles, with little concern for any desires contrary to the picturesque image of a happy life. For many, their only true choice was conformity or exile.

The 1953 film All I Desire centers its narrative on a woman stifled by her lack of agency over the course of her life. Naomi Murdoch (Barbara Stanwyck) is a vaudeville actress barely scrapping by in her career. Having abandoned her husband and three kids for a life in the theatre, Naomi faces her dwindling prospects with an understandable disdain for the cards she’s been dealt. A letter from her middle child Lilly (Lori Nelson) requesting her presence at a high school play gives Naomi the chance to go back home, to see all that she left behind for a chance at fame that never panned out.

Based on the 1951 novel Stopover, director Douglas Sirk crafts a subversive family drama that challenges the idealism of suburbia. Naomi’s abandonment of her family put a great strain on her husband Henry (Richard Carlson) and eldest child Joyce (Marcia Henderson) to keep their household together. The close-knit town of Riverdale, Wisconsin is too small for secrets, the ramifications of Naomi’s old affair with Dutch Heinemann (Lyle Bettger) resurfacing a decade later like no time had passed at all.

Stanwyck largely carries the narrative through its brisk 80-minute runtime, bringing a much-needed natural degree of sympathy to the complex protagonist. Naomi is not a very likable person, but Stanwyck never tries to endear her to the audience, instead focusing on the carnage that ensues when people are forced to grapple with pre-programmed existences. You don’t need to like Naomi to understand why she did what she did or feel the pain of someone forced to retrace their steps through hostile territory.

The narrative itself leaves a lot to be desired. Henry and Joyce are both fascinating characters who don’t get much of a chance to shine. Henry’s relationship with Sara (Maureen O’Sullivan), Lily’s drama teacher, plays second fiddle to a more predictable pairing, refusing to muddy the waters of interpersonal conflict. All I Desire could have been a damning indictment on the forced idealism of suburbia, instead conforming to a 1950s audience who weren’t ready to see the dream of the middle class crushed before their eyes.

The film’s overwhelming desire to play it safe undercut what could have been a masterpiece. Instead, All I Desire rests comfortably as a lesser entry in Sirk and Stanwyck’s storied canon. There is some staying power in the themes presented, a contemporaneous indictment against the idealism that is still hoisted up nostalgically as peak Americana. Everyone would be well to remember that the 1950s had plenty of problems too.