I don't often feel compelled to talk about live action movies, I mean I barely talk about anime/manga competently. I guess maybe I'm just waiting for the right movie to talk about and this movie seems to be it. In a World is a horrendous pseudo feminist piece that undermines it's own ideas and crams romance subplots in because women wouldn't want to watch a movie about the struggles of a woman trying to make it in a very male dominated industry. No, we need to know if Demitri Martian gets to stick his boom mike in our lead,Carol. It's insulting in ways that I didn't expect and this is why I was compelled to talk about it: bitterness about having watched this garbage.
I'll start with the good just to prime
you for the bile. Up till the end Carol's struggle to make in the
very male dominated world of movie voice overs is nicely done. From
struggling with having to even break into it after her voice over
father,Sam Soto, kicks her out to be treated inferior for simply
being a woman in the business. It is shattered at the end where she
is picked up for the big movie job over her father and the entitled
jerk,Gustav, not for being the best but because her voice sounds good
for this weird feminist revolution the director is trying to pull.
The work Carol has put in seems to be all for naught,and the straw
feminist director comes off as a massive hypocrite. I'll admit, I'm
not well versed in feminist theory but I know enough to see that this
is complete malarkey that undermines everything the movie was aiming
at and weakens the overall product.
The romantic sub plots that pop up
could honestly be exorcised from the movie and we'd lose nothing.
The first and most prominent focuses on Carol's sister and brother
in law, Dani and Moe and Dani cheating on him. The long and short is
Dani may or may have not slept with a sexy Irish man,implied that
they may have done more than make out as she claims. However she
never directly apologizes to Moe about it,just an indirect tape
recording Carol composes. So she gets off scot free while Moe has to
do the big romantic gesture to get her back. That's like if I killed
a man and then his family invited me to Sizzlers to apologize. This
really has no bearing on the plot and seems to be here for padding
and to get Carol out of the house for her own romantic sub-plot near
the end. When your function in a story could be replaced by busted
pipes, then it's probably not worth putting in the movie.
This brings us to out lead,Carol, who
gets by with being okay. As stated her struggles are very relate able
but she her self is not. She's a bit of a free loader and her
obsession with different accents is what kicks off the aforementioned
romantic plot tumor. She's more a compilation of weird character
traits than an actual person. She also sleeps with Gustav despite
hating his guts,for no real reason. She seems fascinated by this
weird room he has but after the sleep together he's treated as a joke
the rest of the movie. There is no hint of foe yay up till that point
and none after words. It sort of happens and again has very little
plot relevance outside of a minor character moment for Sam later.
Outside of that wall banger,she's mostly forgettable just like her
love interest.
Louis is meant to be her love interest
and honestly it seems mostly one-sided on his part. She does say she
likes him but were given little to no hint about this. She just seems
to like him because she's in a romantic comedy and she need a guy to
fall for. Loius is a big ball of awkward quirks and to be fair
Demitri Martin does manages to give the character some funny moments
but like Carol is forgettable and characterless. He is unique in that
he is one of the few male characters who's not a jerk like Sam and
Gustav.
Sam Soto is the only one to get any
visible character development and it's mostly a reason you suck
speech from his young wife at the end of the film.The wife by the way is treated like crap by
Carol and Dani despite caring about them and being very kind. The
treatment might have been meant to show how strained their family's
relations our but makes the girls come off as petty jerks. Gustav is
a bit of a designated villain who's main crimes are being cocky and
having consensual sex with Carol. There's not much more too him
despite the attempts at hidden depths that make him come off as more
snobby than anything else.
When I started watching this movie I
was actually enjoying it but as it went on the flaws became more and
more apparent. Once the ending rolled around and lost any good will I
had for the movie, it became apparent this was a sinking ship the
whole time and I was in an icy arctic sea of disappointment. It
meanders around avoiding the actual interesting parts,focusing on
romance that has little bearing on the main plot,and insulting the
audience with a terrible understanding of feminism and bland
characters. Also it contains one of the most insulting use of Tears for Fears I've ever seen.
Till Next Time: Stay Positive
Tampopo is a 1985 Japanese comedy that bills it self as the first Ramen Western. It comes to us courtesy of the late Juzo Itami who's films were mostly comedies and satires. It concerns itself with a main plot and a smattering of b-plots with no relation to each other outside of one or two. It flits between the plots with the smoothness of Colt 45 and is all tied together by the concept of food and how it shapes our relationships.
The main plot plays out like a heist movie without a heist as we follow a trucker named Goro and his sidekick Gun,as they help the titular Tampopo build up her dead husband's noodle shop. They start gathering men to help her out including a hobo,a drunk interior designer,and a butler. It's actually pretty fun with a smattering of great jokes and a fun dream sequences that wouldn't feel out of place in West Side Story.
The romance subplot is slightly underplayed and I question why they really brought it up. It's sad because the two leads play very well off each other. The plot comes to a halt bout twice as we go through some subplots:some good,some ok ,one stupid. The ones that work like one about food politics in business is really great,then there is a set of them focused around a white suited man and his girlfriend engaging in literal food porn. Those are really fun and even the mediocre one about two cons is fine. Then there is one that to save myself from ranting(for now, just doesn't work. It's message is heart warming but feels really forced just to make it.
I just have to talk about these transitions as they ultimately make Tampopo work. Every single one of them is marvelous and gives the film a sense of scope that brings home the idea that food connects us all. The only time it does not work is after we've spent a good portion of time on the main plot it abruptly switches to a completely different scene. After that it's back to flowing like something flow-y,but it's jarring compared to everything else and also doesn't help that main plot was ramping up by that point.
Every actor/actress is bringing their A-game and we get some really fun performances from a group of vagabonds. The man in the white suit tends to steal every scene he's in and perfectly sets the tone of the movie with his forth wall shattering opening scene. It's a good thing that he's in his own plot or he would completely overshadow Goro and friends
So yeah it's a great movie that is definitely worth a watch for anyone who loves food or just wants to laugh. It is also really fun to snark at if you're in the right mood. As always, Stay Positive
Sorry for this being a little on the late side,I'll beat myself for it later. See you next week for the beginning of JoJo month.