We try to find the absurdity in the end of the world with today’s choice

Plus we consider the ripple effects of Universal's announcement today

Why do we constantly make and watch movies about the end of the world?

Right now, I’m not sure I can handle any realistic takes on viruses and zombies and the collapse of civilization, but even I recognize that it’s just as crazy to avoid something completely as it is to wallow in it. So if I’m going to watch the world burn, I want to do it with my tongue firmly anchored in my cheek, and if that’s the case, then there’s really only one way to go.

I love Mars Attacks!, or as I like to call it, Tim Burton’s Assholes From Space. I love so many things about the movie that it seems impossible to list them all. I love the absolutely ridiculous production design by Wynn Thomas. I love Peter Suschitzky’s garish pop-neon photography. I love the cast and how crazy most of the casting is. I love that Jack Nicholson plays dual roles, like the weirdest Strangelove riff ever. I love Jack Black’s haircut. I love Sarah Jessica Parker’s demented love story with Pierce Brosnan.

But most of all, I love those little green jerks.

Maybe that should be a whole genre of film, because I love both of the Gremlins films as well. This feels like the most perfect expression of the genre, though. There is no purpose to the Martians here beyond being total assholes to everyone they encounter. I love their awful little language. I love that they lounge around their ship in sparkly bikini underwear doing pointless experiments.

The film’s so strange. You can feel the studio notes reminding them that they’re making a “real” movie, and you can feel how determined Tim Burton and his various collaborators are to utterly ignore those notes. By the time they reveal how to kill the Martians, the film is so delightfully and utterly absurd that the mayhem that unfolds all remains funny.

If you’re looking for something that features a little less “people being turned to ash for laughs,” then Netflix is streaming Tootsie right now, and Tootsie is one of those films you can watch with pretty much any movie-aged audience, young or old. It is as smart and funny now as it was when it came out, and that opening half-hour might be one of the funniest half-hours of anything on Netflix.

It’s getting weirder by the day out there. If you haven’t seen the news yet, Universal is the first studio to make the jump to releasing current-to-theaters films at home during this crisis. As soon as Friday, they could have The Invisible Man, The Hunt, Emma., and Trolls World Tour all available. They’ll be on pretty much any on-demand streaming platform you can name, including iTunes, Amazon, and AppleTV. The press release states they’ll be available as 48-hour rentals for $20. That’s a game-changing moment, one that studios have been talking about for years. No one wanted to do it when theatrical was healthy, but now that this industry-wide pause button has been pressed, it’s time to see how this brave new world feels. My guess? You’ll see the other studios follow suit, especially if this is going to last until July or August. And once something been working for that long, it’s going to be tough to get the audience to switch back.

We are going to have a different world in many ways in three or four months. We are just starting to see the early indicators of just how weird it’s going to get. And during this time, I will be doing my best to maintain some kind of normalcy here in the newsletter. It’ll help me, and maybe it’ll help you.

For now, get some laughs, stay home, and stay healthy.

Mars Attacks! is available for rental from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, and Google Play. Tootsie is streaming on Netflix and available for rental from all the usual suspects as well.

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Image courtesy Warner Bros Pictures