End Credits - May 9, 2018

This week on End Credits, we're getting really serious. When you're talking about the new movie by Lynne Ramsay, there's really nothing left to do but get really serious because she's a serious filmmaker. So maybe that's why we'll try and balance out those things with a little romance, or lack thereof, in comic book movies. There's also our serious lack of a Black Widow movie, but a new Robin Hood flick is a pretty good consolation prize, right? Maybe it's a good thing we're being serious...

This Wednesday, May 9, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Vince Masson, and guest co-host Jesse Mellott will discuss:

1) Super Power of Love. Last week, we reviewed Avengers: Infinity War, which is still doing boffo business as the box office. Still, the think pieces have begun to come in, and if there’s one thing that many movie writers have decided, it’s that Marvel has a romance problem. The plot of Infinity War hinges on the idea that two characters that have shared about 10 minutes of screen time in 19 movies are epic romantic partners like in a great doomed literary romance, but there’s an overall problem of sexless superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Is this an intentional issue, or a huge oversight on the part of the filmmakers?

2) 65 Directors for 1 Widow. Speaking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there was a scoop this week from a Variety writer that lends hope to all those hoping to see a Black Widow movie in the near future: they’ve narrowed down their pick for director to one of 65 people! This should be easy, right? Scarlett Johansson has been Black Widow in at least six different Marvel movies, and has been the one character fans have been eager to see in her own adventure. On top of that, Wonder Woman proved that female heroes are bank at the box office so what’s the big problem at Marvel that they can’t deliver something everybody wants?

3) Prince of Remakes. As Marvel marches on, other studios are looking to make new superhero franchises out of old characters. In this case, very old. The new trailer for Robin Hood was released last week, and starring Taron Egerton, Ben Mendelsohn, and Jamie Foxx, this movie has some great actors who can put a new spin on a classic. So why this sinking feeling? We’ll talk about how this attempt to rebrand public domain I.P. as hip and edgy smells just like past efforts, and how stupid it was for the studio to release a trailer that looks like it spoils the twist of the film.

REVIEW: You Were Never Really Here (2018). Many people are probably familiar with Lynne Ramsay’s 2012 film We Need to Talk About Kevin, a film so dripping in grief, regret, and sadness that you leave the theatre thinking you’re the mother of a teenage spree killer. Well, now we’ve got Joe, a PTSD crippled New York bounty hunter of trafficked children played by Joaquin Phoenix. You probably know the type, a lone wolf antihero facing the evils of the world with dread and suspicion because it’s the only life he knows, but it’s guaranteed that you’ve never seen that story told like this before.

End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.