DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Review

A movie made so specifically for certain people of a certain age that there are bound to be as many who can’t contain their smiles as there are those who won’t be able to do the same with their confusion. That said, give or take Endgame and No Way Home this might be the greatest trick Kevin Feige has ever pulled as Deadpool & Wolverine has been marketed as the shot in the ass the MCU desperately needs, the disruptive force this once unstoppable franchise was seeking and while I’m genuinely surprised Ryan Reynolds was able to convince Feige to let him get off a few of the zingers he does here, in reality, as soon as the credits roll it’s more than apparent which universe this chapter in particular has the most impact on and maybe more telling…which one it does not.

Listen, as a boy who became a teenager in the year 2000 and a kid who watched the animated X-Men series every Saturday morning I was as excited for Bryan Singer’s movie as I imagine he probably would have been to meet me at that time. I essentially matured alongside the superhero genre - going from the infantile experiments that were those first X-Men and Spider-Man films to entering my twenties with the likes of The Dark Knight and of course, the birth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper. This makes the natural evolution of where we currently sit with franchise entertainment disappointing if not completely unexpected. There had to be a fall in order for there to be a reclamation. What’s odd is that Feige and co. would position this film as such when it feels very evident Feige and Marvel Studios have no real intention of allowing Deadpool to screw around with their sacred timeline. Sure, Deadpool can now be used to save some face and comically course correct certain methods of storytelling going forward while abandoning others without going through the trouble of actually eating crow, but Wade Wilson should be offended…not because he minds being used, but because he and his trademark fourth wall breaking are more or less being abused.

LONGLEGS Review

A completely surreal style a la the isolation of characters and staging of settings that writer/director Oz Perkins manages to merge with the expectations of a procedural; allowing the story to boil in the tedium of its case gone cold before the unexpected convictions of its characters come to light - revealing the true intent of the piece. Key to this intent is the understanding that the world we're being presented is largely dictated by the perspective through which we're seeing it. Longlegs doesn't always sustain itself on the intrigue of its mystery yet continuously gets under the skin with the disturbing if not sometimes heightened ideas it has around real-world difficulties. That isn't to say the central conceit of the film as a crime thriller doesn't work but more if that's all one takes away from it then they are missing the point. In essence, Perkins has put together a cautionary tale of sorts, regarding the trappings of mythologizing both regular human beings who choose to do terrible things as well as deities, demons and whichever side you affiliate with in terms of worshipping them. 

Perkins, who is presently the father of two teenagers, is also if not more interested in the ideas of the extent and severity to which parents go to not only protect their children but ensure the purity of their life experiences for as long as possible than he is said procedural aspects. Alicia Witt turning in a genuinely chilling performance in support of such. Yes, Longlegs features the titular character played as extravagantly as one would expect Nicolas Cage to play a creepy serial killer who looks like Tiny Tim and Powder's lovechild but for as effectively (and memorably) as Cage portrays this doll-making witch doctor what echoes for days after seeing the film is not the actions of the character of Longlegs, but more the credibility he lends his beliefs based off nothing more than intuition and furthermore, how far he was willing to follow them.