THE BATMAN and TURNING RED both shine in different ways

There's some good stuff to watch right now

It’s Saturday, March 12th, and here’s where we are…

I ended up seeing The Batman for a second time before writing today’s review. It’s not that I felt like I couldn’t sort out the narrative. It’s not a difficult film. It’s more that the first time was part of my son’s 14th birthday party and I was taking care of him and everyone else and I was thinking about what had to happen after the movie and it just wasn’t possible for me to sit and really absorb the movie as a movie.

It also just plain felt theatrical, and I presume that’s what sends anyone to the theater repeatedly. I know people who went back and saw Dune a few times in IMAX and it seemed like part of the reason was just to soak in the atmosphere and the technical craft and the aesthetic pleasure of the thing. That’s how I felt about The Batman, and it was almost irrelevant what the film was about because (especially that second time) I just plain enjoyed the filmmaking on display. Matt Reeves seemed like he set out to make something that would physically involve you in the theater. There’s a moment where the Batmobile rumbles to life for the first time that you can feel in the floor and the seats and the air around you, and for me to reproduce that at home would probably lead to my downstairs neighbor punching me in the face.

I can’t say I’m terribly shocked by the news that Shawn Levy is going to direct Deadpool 3. It makes sense. Ryan Reynolds is that franchise. Whatever he wants is going to happen, especially after the money that Free Guy just made for the studio. Levy is going to make Reynolds comfortable. That’s a guy who is going to make the film that Reynolds wants to make, and it’s really going to come down to the script by Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux. I love Bob’s Burgers, and I am open to a softer, sillier Deadpool under the Disney regime. I haven’t seen The Adam Project yet, but I’m real hit-or-miss with Levy as a director. I think he needs a great script, an airtight blueprint. I don’t think he elevates material so much as he executes it, and whatever he does on Deadpool, Reynolds will be the primary authorial voice, as he has been on the entire franchise so far.

If you’ve got the Criterion Channel, I commend you on your excellent taste and I want to urge you to check out the new Pre-Code Paramount series they’ve just curated.

Here’s their description:

Before the enforcement of the Hollywood Production Code, sex, sin, and sleaze were splashed across the screen with abandon, and chiselers and gold diggers were cinematic staples. It was an era when Paramount Pictures stood out for the sophisticated amorality and continental flair it brought to its productions. Among the uncensored wonders that emanated from the studio’s back lots during the early years of talkies were the anarchic antics of the Marx brothers (THE COCOANUTS), the luxuriant exoticism of Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich (MOROCCO), the worldly wit of Ernst Lubitsch (TROUBLE IN PARADISE), and the jaw-dropping double entendres of Mae West (I’M NO ANGEL)—plus forays into quasi-Dadaist delirium (MILLION DOLLAR LEGS), alcohol-soaked experiments in open marriage (MERRILY WE GO TO HELL), crazed zoologists (MURDERS IN THE ZOO), a musical ode to marijuana (MURDER AT THE VANITIES), and Cary Grant as the world’s most irresistible plastic surgeon (KISS AND MAKE-UP). This collection of pre-Code classics and rarities spotlights the delightfully risqué side of a studio that knew how to be naughty while (almost) always keeping it classy.

I love that a lot of these movies are just over an hour long. You can burn through a whole fistful of them at a time, and what makes the series so much fun is just how light so much of it is. These movies were largely designed as pure entertainment, and while a lot of the Criterion Channel can feel like you’re in the deep end of the movie pool, this particular series is just good not-quite-clean fun, and plenty of it.

Hey, did you know you can now read Formerly Dangerous in the new Substack app for iPhone?

With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to, like, say, The Last ‘80s Newsletter (You’ll Ever Need). New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never get cut off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.

The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.

Now let’s get to it. Lots of ground to cover today, starting with Pixar’s latest…