By My Lights: A December 17 Surprise Package

The Muppets are coming back to remind us of joy and human decency; Mountain Goats rock Colbert again; Spielberg’s new sci-fi thriller; and the return of The ’Burbs

The Muppet Show returns . . . again.

Disney+ released a teaser for Seth Rogan’s revival of The Muppet Show. That’s not good enough to make me subscribe. I’m going to have to see Disney doing more to make a meaningful, moral difference in these last, dark days of democracy before I support them again. And I never fully committed to the last, misguided attempt at a Muppet TV series on ABC, which aspired to a more “adult” brand of humor (that is, crass jokes and cultural commentary that would make a lot of families uncomfortable).

But I’m hopeful that Rogan and Company will honor the spirit of Jim Henson by bringing back my all-time favorite television series. (I’ve devoted a chapter to honoring Henson in my new book, Lost and Found in the Cathedral of Cinema, which arrives this May.) Everything the American Antichrist and his Trump-vangelical supporters are advancing contradict the teachings and example of Jesus’s teachings, where I’ve never seen Jim Henson promote anything but freedom of the imagination in the service of loving our neighbors and assisting vulnerable and needy populations.

I hate to say this, but I’m keeping my expectations low, hoping to be pleasantly — maybe even joyfully — surprised.

Mountain Goats climb onstage at The Late Show

This week, Stephen Colbert welcomed back one of his favorite bands to The Late Show stage, just a couple of weeks after I saw them live in Seattle promoting their new album Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan.

A lot of bands rock The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. But how many have so inspired their host that he joined in on the performance? That’s what happened in July 2019. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve played this video (below) just for the joyful catharsis.

Something doesn’t look right with Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day

Of course I’m excited that Steven Spielberg has a new film on the way. And Disclosure Day seems to have an intriguing presence. This teaser has some sharp hooks. But I gotta say — the digital animation in this trailer looks so unfinished, utterly unworthy of anything from the director who made me believe in Jurassic Park dinosaurs, and who made me kick dust off my shows and the footage is so glossy and digital, it just doesn’t feel like cinema. I feel like I’m being fried by bright fluorescent lights in a Target after I watch this, and I need to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark just to remember what real movies can look like.

I said this about the new Muppet Show. I’m saying it about this as well: I’m keeping my expectations low, hoping to be surprised.

Back to The 'Burbs

Whenever people get around to questions about the best Tom Hanks performances, I get funny looks for my pick: Joe Dante’s bizarre 1989 ensemble comedy The ’Burbs. That film struck gold with Hanks, as he devolved from bored to anxious to unhinged, imploding in the midst of an inspired cast who all made indelible impressions: Carrie Fisher, Brother Theodore, Henry Gibson, Bruce Dern, Ric Ducommun, Corey Feldman, and Dick Miller.

I’ve always assumed that this movie was flying too low on the radar to attract attention for sequels or reboots. And anyway, who could possible achieve anything like the singular tone and reckless spontaneity of the original?

Well, somebody’s decided to try. The involvement of Keke Palmer (so good in this year’s One of Them Days) and Mark Proksch (the best part of TV’s What We Do in the Shadows) has me curious.

But . . . yes . . . I’m keeping my expectations low, hoping to be surprised.

Kogonada and Haley Lu Richardson, together again with zi

While I didn’t think A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey was quite the disaster that many critics claimed it was, it didn’t feel much like a Kogonada film. And that was largely due, in my opinion, to the fact that he didn’t write it. The Kogonada films I love — Columbus and After Yang — are clearly visions from the same perceptive, contemplative, poetic imagination.

And so I’m thrilled to learn that we’ll get another film from him as soon as January — one that he wrote and directed, and that reunites him with his muse, the irresistible Haley Lu Richardson.

Here’s the description from the Sundance site:

In Hong Kong, a young woman haunted by visions of her future self meets a stranger who changes the course of her night — and possibly her life.

Kogonada plays with — and returns to — form in this sensitive cinematic poem. Held within a stylish jaunt through the streets of Hong Kong, zi is a film with soul and a wavelike confidence that commits to recursivity as a mode and central theme. Kogonada regulars Michelle Mao, Haley Lu Richardson, and Jin Ha carefully portray transitory misfits, grappling with a clever fusion of existential anxiety, romantic misgiving, and personal memory.

Somewhere between sci-fi and supernatural, a deep, easy warmth takes root. Following Columbus (2017 Sundance Film Festival), After Yang (2020 Sundance Film Festival), and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Kogonada crafts a decidedly contained film, exploring a pervasive sense of unmooring, yet cultivating an unrelenting sense of peace. Through the igniting/smoldering embers of relationships lost/forming, zi is an invitation to surrender to Kogonada’s truly indie world of temporal fragmentation. — CA