Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

This was delayed from its normal Monday appearance due to the sheer number of short reviews that needed to be written. So, here is what I watched this past week:

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

There’s something rather static about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All throughout the Avengers series that encompassed phases 1 through 3 (the delineations of which never made logical sense), Disney/Marvel was coasting on its superhero universe without finding new directions for the narratives to go. It was only when they branched out in new directions like the original Black Panther, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings that things started to feel a bit fresher. Returning to the Black Panther well again, although expected, was fraught with potential peril because if there’s one thing Disney’s good at, it’s running a concept into the ground.

What came out of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is something entirely different than expected. Sure there’s the expansion of world building and the connections to MCU’s phase 4/5/?, but there’s also something wholly fresh and dare-say spiritual about this latest incarnation. Part of that is thanks to the opening of the film, which puts us into the Wakandan hospital where T’Challa is plagued by an unknown virus that threatens to consume his life. Shuri (Letitia Wright) is working furiously to try to come up with a chemical compound that can save him. As everyone knows, the original actor to play T’Challa was Chadwick Boseman who died of colon cancer in 2020 at the too-young age of 43. It was inconceivable that this film would not address those issues. A lively debate stirred about whether he would be re-cast like other characters in the MCU or if the mantle would be passed to others. The choice is ultimately revealed in this film.

Director Ryan Coogler infused much of the film with the African tribal custom and designs as he did in the original film, yet they feel significantly more fleshed out with funereal rights and other ceremonies standing in stark relief to anything else in the MCU. Not even Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were given the same kind of parting revelry. What the film also looks at is the passing of a nation’s leader, someone who had engendered support for his nobility in his brief tenure as leader of Wakanda. Those ramifications play into the teetering edge on which Wakanda finds itself with a world in desperate need of their vibranium and the nation’s unwillingness to budge. Taking advantage of this conflict and hoping to divert interest in a sub-oceanic pocket of vibranium, the leader (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) of another sequestered nation, Talokan, seeks Wakanda’s assistance in killing the scientist (Dominique Thorne) who helped develop a vibranium detector.

The film had a lot of parallelism in bringing these stories to the screen. The informal rivalry between Shuri and Thorne’s Riri Williams. The similarities between Talokan and Wakanda. The path Shuri and Huerto Mejía’s Namor take to get to where they are and more. Those dynamics make for a compelling story where one decision can complicate one relationship while making the other stronger. It’s a delicate dance that director Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, who co-wrote the screenplay, have to put forward and it works amazingly well. It’s often the case that the world building necessary in the MCU, once completed, allows for tremendous growth of the character in their second outing and that’s exceptionally true here as the film ends up even better than its predecessor.

Nope

For Jordan Peele’s third film, he once again takes the audience in new directions with his sci-fi/horror feature Nope. The film stars his Get Out lead Daniel Kaluuya who plays the son of a rancher who trains horses for use in television and film. Keith David plays his father and Keke Palmer plays his sister. As brother and sister take over the ranch, they discover a strange phenomenon that only seems to occur over their ranch. Random items fall from the sky while some of their horses also disappear. After a few mishaps, they believe there is an alien involvement, but other events change the course of the film and their belief in what’s happening.

The film also stars Steven Yeun as the owner of a nearby theme park that trades on his fame from a short-lived television series noted for a shocking attack on his castmates by their trained chimpanzee “actor.” Michael Wincott appears as a reclusive cinematographer from whom Palmer attempts to elicit support for their endeavor and Brandon Perea plays a Fry’s Electronics installer who helps them track the mysterious happenings. The challenge of explaining the plot is in not giving away details. It’s a fascinating premise unlike most films in its genre. While the finale begins to stretch credulity, it somewhat fits into some of the themes the film is trying to present.

Peele’s film explores the rewards and risks associated with exploitation and fame. Palmer’s obsession with getting their chance alien encounter broadcast on Oprah, Yeun’s attempts to milk his stardom for all its worth, and the spectacular nature of the film’s events all feed into that notion. As usual, Peele infuses his film with regular bits of symbolism, carefully inserted to have a brief, but pointed impact on the narrative. My favorite is an early scene where one of the Black characters is killed by a falling object, a nickel with the visage of Thomas Jefferson on it. It’s a subtle, but pointed jab at white men who talked greatly about the inhumanity of slavery, but nevertheless partook in it. This one scene sets the ton for the rest of the film and it doesn’t disappoint.

Bros

There have been many romantic comedies that attempted to flip the script about such films over the years and few have managed to delivery something unusual and noteworthy. Bros is another in that long line and while it strikes out in directions that aren’t familiar with most audiences, they nevertheless are. In spite of that, the film still manages to charm the viewer by presenting its premise earnestly and while it might not break a lot of new ground, it does break some very important glass ceilings for LGBTQ+ representation on the big screen.

The film stars Billy Eichner as Bobby Lieber, a podcaster who can’t seem to find a relationship, but insists he’s not really trying to find one. He volunteers his time at a local LGBTQ+ museum that is struggling to find the final $5 million to complete the last wing of the museum. While out with a friend at a local bar, he meets muscle-bound Aaron Shepard (Luke Macfarlane) and forms an immediate attraction, but Bobby suspects that Aaron regular desire to meet and have sex with others built like he is means he’s not really interested, but the ultimately hit it off. Each is stuck in their own mind about who they are and aren’t quite sure that the other is the right fit.

Bobby is outspoken, confident, and intellectual while Aaron is reserved, uncomplicated, and insular. The two are rather opposite to one another, but both attempt to be what they think the other wants in order to continue the relationship, but as is always the case, it’s their differences that bring them together. The film also chooses this moment to present LGBTQ+ history to the audience. While that falls largely on deaf ears to those outside the community, there’s something passionate and heart-filling to those in it. Bobby acknowledges that he’s a cis white gay male and thus has privileges others don’t and yet, he’s surrounded by people who don’t fit into that hegemony and each of them is given a moment to shine and while everyone in the film who’s LGBTQ+ is open for a little targeted humor, they are also given moments to shine and that’s a pleasing sight.

Tár

Todd Field’s lengthy absence from filmmaking was never felt more heavily than upon the release of another strong film. In only his third outing, he’s managed to deliver a third solid, if not striking effort. The film follows Lydia Tár, a composer and conductor who has managed to shatter the glass ceiling in snagging a gig to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic, showcasing Mahler’s 5th Symphony. As the event closes in, her behavior begins to irk her compatriots until her life starts spiraling out of control with one concerning event after another risking the destruction of her career.

Cate Blanchett stars in the film and brings the full force of her acting talent into the character, making her sparkle in each scene whether she’s berating a student for excluding cis straight white male composers from his studies, caring for her adopted daughter, or lashing out at against her attackers. It’s a tour de force performance that few of her generation could so effectively deliver. The film paints Tár as a brilliant, narcissistic, forceful, exclusionary, and passionate conductor and composer whose voluminous knowledge of music has helped her along her career.

The film also expertly weaves in sexism as an undercurrent to the events. Although Tár is doing no more or less than her male counterparts have for centuries, she’s reaching her zenith in the midst of a social movement that decries the type of behavior that power sometimes elicits. While many of her fellows would have little problem fending off the assault she receives, her gender only helps to amplify the events and erode away at her base of support.

Brilliance can only carry one so far and while other male conductors and composers were still getting away with their exploits, Tár is struggling to avoid being brought down by them. While it would be easy to suggest that the film is significantly anti-woke culture, it makes the case that women and minorities face an uneven playing field where behavior that their contemporaries can get away with, they cannot, which only highlights the challenges faced by these individuals coming to prominence in an era of accountability. It’s a double-standard that makes her an easily disposable scapegoat rather than giving her the benefit of wagons being circled to protect her as they would have for many others.

DC League of Super-Pets

While Marvel comics has successfully defined itself as a broadly appealing work of pop excess, DC has been mired in an universe that is often excessively dark and gritty. Thus, it makes sense that the studio would being trying to slough off a bit of that image with a film like DC League of Super-Pets, the latest animated feature to focus on the DC universe, something that has surprisingly not been occurring over at Marvel. In this film, we meet Superman’s dog Krypto (voice of Dwayne Johnson), a.k.a. Superdog. Having escaped the destruction of Superman’s homeworld along with the infant Kal’El, he has grown up alongside his superhero companion, benefiting from the same sun-powered powerset his companion uses.

After a dastardly plan by Lex Luthor fails spectacularly, a hairless guinea pig (Kate McKinnon) at a local animal shelter named Lulu enacts her plan to use the small sliver of orange Kryptonite to give her powers of telekinesis. The shard also gives powers to other animals in the shelter including Ace (Kevin Hart), a boxer, who gains the powers of super strength and invulnerability; PB (Vanessa Bayer), a pot-bellied pig, who becomes able to change her size both to grow larger and smaller than she is; Merton (Natasha Lyonne), a red-eared slider tortoise, who can travel at the speed of light; and Chip (Diego Luna), a red squirrel, who gains the power to shoot electric blasts from his body. Lulu easily captures the members of the Justice League forcing Krypto to band together with the assorted other animals with new superpowers in order to take her down, but first they must learn how to control them, which requires each to come to terms with their psychological hang-ups and overcome them.

The film has a lot of fun humor and will very easily appeal to young children, but the plot itself is fairly simplistic and the animation is smooth, yet underwhelming. Johnson and Hart are mediocre vocal talents, but the rest of the cast does incredibly well. McKinnon’s sinister portrayal is self-aware and acerbic, a nice contrast to the mediocrity of the two ostensible leads. Bayer, Lyonne, and Luna also deliver excellent vocal work.

Black Adam

The plain simple truth of the DC Extended Universe is that its dark and gritty styles aren’t broadly appealing. Such designs might make the efforts feel realistic, but they are gloomy and that will sell to a certain demographic, but not to others. Warner Bros. has been trying to back off that darkness and grime that Zack Snyder has infused the franchise with for a few years now, but their inability to find a formula that works is more obvious in a film like Black Adam than it ever has been before. Played by Dwayne Johnson, Black Adam is an anti-hero locked away for centuries. In an effort to thwart the theft of a demonic crown, he is awakened and his thirst for vengeance isn’t easily slaked.

Meanwhile, a group known as the Justice Society is hired by Amanda Waller to bring this dangerous threat in and lock him away in her supervillain prison. While the theme of the film is to question what the definition of superhero should be if they aren’t going to thwart all villainy in the world, the producers have shoved the film so full of visual effects and one-liners that its noble intentions are largely crushed beneath the weight of pomp and circumstance.

One of the most notable issues with Dwayne Johnson as an actor is his constant mugging for the camera. When he’s not sufficiently counterbalanced by better actors (such as in the Jumanji films), his performances tend to topple over the edge of tastefulness. That’s largely true of his performance here, which is notably lacking charm and gravitas. Part of this is the writing, but much of it is his looming presence over the film. He’s a “movie star” and the director isn’t able to rein that in sufficiently. Even with actors like Aldis Hodge and Pierce Brosnan in place, there’s little that they are able to do, yet they still come off as more conscionable and appealing heroes even if their concept of heroism is tempered by a need for propriety and societal balance.