Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) review

(Disclaimer: I apologize in advance, folks, but due to the nature of this being the first MCU film after Avengers: Endgame, I will have to address what is easily the biggest of that film’s spoilers. I have the feeling that most of you reading this have already watched the film (it did just become the highest-grossing film of all time, after all…), but in the slim chance that you haven’t seen it yet, all I can recommend at this point is that you watch Endgame first.)

When we last left the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it had just reached the culmination of its legendary run up to this point with Avengers: Endgame. It goes without saying that the film was a true epic in every sense of the word, effectively providing the franchise’s dedicated fanbase with a satisfying conclusion to what has now officially been designated as ‘the Infinity Saga’. However, as it turns out, it ultimately wasn’t going to be the final installment of this saga. Instead, that honor goes to the follow-up to 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home. As most of you know, Spider-Man’s inclusion in the MCU ultimately came courtesy of a deal between Marvel Studios and Sony. While the latter has held the character’s film rights for the past several decades, the lackluster performance of the Amazing Spider-Man reboot series led to this deal that would see both parties working together to develop a new iteration of the character, who made a phenomenal debut in Captain America: Civil War. Thus, just like Homecoming, Far From Home is an interesting release in terms of its distribution because while Marvel Studios is currently under the Disney banner, both Homecoming and Far From Home are officially Sony productions. And yet, because of Kevin Feige and co.’s involvement in the production, it’s still technically an MCU film at the end of the day, with Homecoming director Jon Watts returning to direct along with most of the main cast from the previous film. And because of this, Far From Home is yet another superb outing for the MCU that brilliantly handles the ramifications of the epic, emotional finale of its immediate predecessor while also giving us a taste of what’s to come for this legendary franchise.

Not long after the events of Endgame, teenager Peter Parker (Tom Holland) returns to his hometown of Queens to resume his duties as the friendly neighborhood web-slinger, Spider-Man. At the same time, though, Peter has struggled to overcome the death of his mentor/father figure Tony Stark. Thus, when Midtown High organizes a summer vacation to Europe, Peter signs up for it, eager to take a break from the superhero lifestyle and hopeful that this trip will give him a chance to reveal the blossoming feelings that he has for his classmate Michelle AKA MJ (Zendaya). Unfortunately for Peter, his superhero life quickly follows him to Europe, and he ends up being approached with a mission by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). The two inform him that due to the cosmic implications of ‘the Snap’, four creatures from another dimension known as the Elementals have arrived on Earth and have caused mass destruction wherever they go. Luckily for them, they have gained a new ally in Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), an illusion-based superhero who is also from the Elementals’ dimension and is promptly given the nickname ‘Mysterio’ by the media. Thus, as Peter now finds himself struggling once again to balance his responsibilities as Spider-Man with his desire for a stress-free vacation, he must also grapple with the biggest question of them all; can he live up to the expectations that have been set upon him and become ‘the next Iron Man’?

In the past, I’ve noted that Marvel Studios does a great job when it comes to the kind of films that they do right after the big ensemble pieces that are the Avengers films. The original Ant-Man followed the grand spectacle of Avengers: Age of Ultron with a refreshingly small-scaled affair (no pun intended) while Ant-Man and the Wasp allowed for some well-earned levity after the devastating finale of Avengers: Infinity War. The same situation applies to Far From Home, but in this case, its effectiveness as the immediate follow-up to Avengers: Endgame stems from the fact that the events of Endgame’s finale directly affect this film’s plot. Simply put, the death of Tony Stark is felt throughout, right down to the fact that tributes to him can be seen in practically every European country that Peter visits. Without spoiling anything from the plot, this film is all about Tony’s legacy and how Peter must now work to maintain it, and as one can only expect from an MCU film, this is where the franchise’s phenomenal sense of emotional poignancy comes into play because of how closely tied the MCU’s version of Peter has been to Tony. Another key aspect of this film is its European setting since Far From Home is the first main Spider-Man film (not counting Spidey’s trip to Germany in Civil War since that’s a Captain America film) that’s not primarily set in New York, and because of this, the new locales offer some fantastic imagery that’s even more amazing when viewed in IMAX. All this helps to bolster everything else that you’ve come to expect from an MCU film; I would elaborate on what that stuff is further but, let’s be frank, I’ve already done that in my previous MCU film reviews.  

Like Homecoming, Far From Home primarily revolves around its younger cast members to great effect. Of course, it’s all headlined by Tom Holland, who continues to be a wonderful iteration of Spider-Man. Not only does Holland perfectly embody the combination of Spider-Man’s wisecracking persona with Peter Parker’s endearing awkwardness, but he also brilliantly handles all the emotional turmoil that Peter’s been going through since Tony Stark’s death. He also continues to have excellent camaraderie with Jacob Batalon as Peter’s best friend Ned, who gets his own little subplot via a budding romance with their classmate Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), as well as some wonderful chemistry with Zendaya as the MCU’s ‘MJ’. As alluded to in the plot synopsis, the film begins to develop a relationship between the two that, in turn, does allow Zendaya to have a larger role this time around. After that, there’s the always reliable supporting characters like Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, and Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders as Fury and Maria Hill. Finally, there’s quite arguably the most anticipated addition to the cast, Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio, and sure enough, he is fantastic in the role thanks in large part to the excellent camaraderie that he forms with Holland. Now for those who are aware of Mysterio’s traditional role in the comics… yes, this film goes exactly the way you think it does when it comes to his overall characterization. Still, the way in which it translates this to tie him into the MCU’s lore is a brilliant method of subverting expectations.

Marvel Studios has been on a roll as of late when it comes to producing sequels that are superior to their already excellent predecessors. That was the case with films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Ant-Man and the Wasp, just to name a few. And sure enough, that trend continues with Spider-Man: Far From Home, which has quite possibly become my new favorite Spider-Man film. Now don’t get me wrong, Spider-Man: Homecoming was a terrific outing for the web-slinger that perfectly encapsulated the character arc of the MCU’s rendition of the character; a young kid who wants to join the Avengers but quickly has to grapple with the reality that he’s still just a kid in a much larger universe. But then you have Far From Home, which takes everything great from Homecoming and amplifies it even further with better action sequences, better visuals, and a tightly-written script which sees Peter Parker now having to face the burden of proving exactly why Tony Stark made him an Avenger. In other words, while I’m sure that I’ve said this plenty of times before when it comes to the MCU, this truly is one of those films that is a pitch-perfect representation of everything great about this franchise. Thus, it ends up being a perfect epilogue to Marvel Studios’ ‘Infinity Saga’, which is quite arguably the most impressive run that any franchise has had in the history of film. And considering all the exciting films and TV shows that Marvel Studios announced at Comic-Con this past weekend, it’s undeniably clear that they’re not even remotely done yet.    

Rating: 5/5!

Demolition (2016) review

(Note: The following is a full review of one of the films that I had previously covered in my ‘2016 SXSW Film Festival Recap’ post. For a quick refresher on what I said in that post, click Here. But for now, here’s my review of my favorite film from this year’s festival, Demolition).

I’ll admit that when I first went down to SXSW a few weeks ago, initially I wasn’t sure if I was going to see Demolition there, the newest film from Jean-Marc Vallee, the director of recent award-winning hits Dallas Buyers Club and Wild. However, on the second day of the festival I went to a panel featuring Jake Gyllenhaal that was moderated by director David Gordon Green, who’s working with Gyllenhaal on a film called Stronger centered around a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombings. During this panel, Gyllenhaal talked a bit about Demolition and even showed the trailer for it. And it was in that moment when I decided to finally see the film, which premiered that very same night at the Paramount Theater. And I’m glad that I did because it ended up being my favorite out of all of the films that I saw while at SXSW. On that note, I’m fairly surprised that this film has only been getting mixed reviews from critics. At the moment, it has an even 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. So in other words, this is definitely one of those cases of a film that I believe is way better than what that rating suggests, though at the same time I do recognize that it won’t work for everyone. Demolition is quite a fascinating film as it somehow manages to be a well-balanced dramedy despite the fact that, on the surface, its overall execution makes it seem like it wouldn’t. While the overall plot of the film is serious in nature, director Marc-Vallee injects a solid amount of humor into it by means of the crazy shenanigans that the main character gets into after the accident that changes his life forever. And ultimately it does work, resulting in a story that is both funny and emotionally poignant when it needs to be.

The film immediately opens with investment banker Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his wife Julia (Heather Lind) getting into a car crash while they’re driving into New York City, resulting in the death of the latter. This loss ends up being extremely rough for both Davis and Julia’s parents; her father Phil (Chris Cooper), who is Davis’ boss at the company he works for, and her mother Margot (Polly Draper), who wasn’t speaking to Julia at the time of her death. While at the hospital, Davis tries to get some Peanut M&M’s from one of their vending machines. However, the machine ends up malfunctioning on him in that moment. This then leads to him actually writing a complaint letter to the company who manufactures the machines, Champion Vending Company. Ultimately, Davis ends up writing four letters to the company in which he begins to delve more into his life. His letters end up catching the attention of the company’s customer service representative Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts) and the two strike up a friendship, with Davis also befriending Karen’s delinquent son Chris (Judah Lewis). It is during this time where Davis tries to adjust to life without Julia. Initially feeling rather hollow for reasons he can’t explain, Davis soon embarks on a personal journey which sees him beginning to deconstruct the life that he once knew, both figuratively and literally.  

This film pulls off quite the balancing act in regards to being both a drama and a comedy. Now obviously the idea of a film about a guy who loses his wife in a car accident being ‘a comedy’ is one that on paper shouldn’t work in any way whatsoever. After all, the loss of a loved one is no laughing matter. However, somehow, someway, this film manages to make its comedy work because it comes from how Davis initially deals with life after the accident and not from the accident itself. The majority of the events in this film occur just because of one slight incident involving a vending machine that most of us would get over pretty quickly. But Davis gets so worked up over it that he actually writes a letter to the vending machine company. What then follows is a series of crazy shenanigans that Davis gets into, which mostly consist of him tearing stuff apart. But then the film’s third act hits and that’s where the film really starts to delve into the more dramatic and emotional parts of the story. And while it may seem like this shift is rather jarring, it actually isn’t. And ultimately that’s because we’ve been having such a great time watching Davis get into all of these shenanigans that by the time he really starts to cope with the loss of his wife, he does have our sympathy. As a result, the emotional catharsis that he reaches by the end of the film is very satisfying. I mean sure, his ways of coping are pretty extreme and are by no means how most people would react in a situation like this. Still, it is pretty interesting to watch at the same time because it very much goes against the norm.

Now that Leonardo DiCaprio has finally won his Oscar, I’d say it’s about time to give Jake Gyllenhaal an Oscar of his own because he’s been long overdue for one. He probably won’t win it for this film but Gyllenhaal absolutely shines in the role of Davis, arguably one of the best performances of his career. He has great comedic timing for the more humorous parts of the film but when it gets to the more emotional moments of the plot, he shines there too and allows us to sympathize with him even if his coping methods are rather out there. Equally terrific are Naomi Watts and Chris Cooper as Davis’ new friend Karen and father-in-law Phil, respectively. Davis and Karen are very much kindred spirits in a way as both are shown to dealing with some messed-up things in their lives. Gyllenhaal and Watts share a nice chemistry without their characters ever delving into anything resembling a romantic relationship for the entire duration of the film. As for Chris Cooper, he delivers what is quite frankly the most emotional performance in the entire film. He perfectly captures the personal turmoil that his character is going through having just lost his daughter, which very much connects to what happened to Cooper in real life when his son died from epilepsy in 2005. And in the scenes where he angrily confronts Gyllenhaal over how he’s been behaving recently, you really do understand where he’s coming from because even though Davis is the main character, in some ways we can be just as frustrated with him as Phil is. Because yeah, Davis’ ways of coping with his wife’s death are strange… very strange.  

I find that when it comes to dramedies, most of them end up being more dramatic in tone with little to no humor to be found. Demolition is one of those rare dramedies that I feel is perfectly balanced in both genres. Because while there is a good amount of humor in this film, it’s not primarily meant to be a ‘comedy’. After all, you would never consider a story in which a man copes with the loss of his wife a ‘comedy’ now, would you? No you wouldn’t but Demolition actually does succeed in implementing comedy into its story by the admittedly rather kooky ways in which Davis acts following this tragedy. But the great thing about the comedy in this film is that it doesn’t overshadow the emotional drive of the story and the film’s final act wisely does away with the comedy and really gets down to the nitty gritty. And because the film’s more comedic moments allowed for us to like Davis as a character, we very much feel for him when he finally reaches emotional catharsis over his situation. Of course part of that is thanks to Jake Gyllenhaal’s terrific performance in the role, as he too finds the right balance between comedic timing and emotional vulnerability. Thanks to his performance, the equally excellent performances from his co-stars, the strong direction of Marc-Vallee, and Bryan Sipe’s well-written screenplay, Demolition is a fantastic film that succeeds in being both knee-slapping hilarious and emotionally poignant at just the right moments.  

Rating: 5/5!