‘Odyssey’ tells its own story; ‘Supergirl’ is a super flop
The Odyssey: I don’t think anyone really chooses their interests. I think they choose you. I didn’t exactly decide to be intensely passionate about Greek mythology, but here we are.
The first hour of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” (starring Matt Damon) was painful. Nolan butchers the most important scene in the epic. The basic gist of the scene in the original is this: Odysseus cleverly tricks the one-eyed Cyclops by telling it his name is “Nobody” so that it can’t curse him, because it doesn’t know his real name. Odysseus and his crew stab its eye out and escape. But Odysseus is too proud not to take credit, so as he sails away, he taunts the Cyclops by telling it, basically, “I’m Odysseus, and I beat you!” Then the Cyclops curses him. Matt Damon’s Odysseus does none of this. His Odysseus is painfully, brutally stupid.
And yet, by the time I left the theater, I was in a good mood. The last half of the movie was remarkably better than the first. Nolan took an ancient classic and wove in a moral that resonates today. He also evidently did some research, because the Trojan War and the Trojan Horse are only found in sources outside of the Odyssey, including my favorite scene in the entire movie: the sacking of Athena’s temple. This chilling scene, more than anything else, is what made me decide I liked Nolan’s adaptation.
MATT DAMON stars as Odysseus in “The Odyssey.”
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.
It was also the first movie ever shot entirely on 70mm IMAX cameras, so the resolution was incredibly high and the film was visually beautiful. And it co-stars Anne Hathaway. Need I say more?
By Julia Guillen
Supergirl: If there’s one thing I know about myself, it’s that I’ve never been a superhero guy. However, I was pleasantly surprised by “Superman,” last year’s box-office hit directed by James Gunn, and was hopeful going into its sequel, “Supergirl,” directed by Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya,” “Cruella”). Milly Alcock (“House of the Dragon”) stars as Kara Zor-El, an early-20s drifter who drinks too much, has no direction in her life, and happens to be an all-powerful being from the planet Krypton.
Alcock is great. The problem is that her character isn’t. Sardonic and complaintive, there’s no part where she charms the audience. Throughout the film, Supergirl tries to convince young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) not to avenge her family by killing the evil Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts). Supergirl kills dozens of people in her quest to do so, and nobody thinks this is strange.
I saw this with a mixed group of friends. Those of us that aren’t into superheroes were disappointed. Those that knew their superheroes were even more so. The best part about this film? It’s over in less than two hours.
By Jack Brownlee
The Invite: Olivia Wilde’s back in the director’s seat. “Booksmart” (2019) was good. “Don’t Worry Darling” (2022) blew up in a firestorm of scandal. I was skeptical going into her third venture, “The Invite.”
And then I was blown away. Wilde herself performs alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton in this quick, stage-play style feature. In the film, Angela (Wilde) and Joe’s (Rogen) relationship is on the ropes, and an evening dinner with their upstairs neighbors seems the catalyst to an outpouring of pent-up emotions. What follows is a film that is pointed, hilarious, and tense in the best possible ways.
The casting really pops in this one. Rogen is wonderfully jaded as Joe which plays perfectly off Wilde’s incredible, contagious anxiety. Pína (Cruz) is a sexologist I can only describe as incredibly European, and Hawk (Norton) is the most San Francisco-coded swinger I’ve seen on screen. See it in theaters, it’s worth it.
By Jack Brownlee
Category: Entertainment
