Relationship Spotlight: Zatz & Maya (Maya and the Three)

*Some Maya/Zatz-related spoilers.*

Another Maya and the Three Relationship Spotlight! Maya’s friendship with the three prophesied warriors is utterly lovely, as I’ve said, and her dynamic with Zatz is really neat too. Even though it becomes clear pretty early on which way things are going to go with that relationship, the journey of watching them get there is terrific.

Maya and Zatz have… well, it’s the opposite of a meet cute. He interrupts her coronation for her fifteenth birthday, crashing the party in a spectacular way. Riding his skeletal steed, Zatz, Prince of Bats, shows up from the realm of the gods in full armor. He announces that 1) Maya is actually the daughter of the goddess of death, 2) the god of war wants to increase his power by sacrificing her, and 3) if anyone tries to prevent that, he’ll lay waste to their kingdoms. Cheery message, right? Happy birthday, Maya!

Needless to say, this positions Maya as decidedly not Team Zatz. The next few times she sees him, she’s ready to trade accusations, blows, and/or blades. She views him as an underling of the gods and is already way over this whole “let’s sacrifice Maya” thing. So it doesn’t really register for her that Zatz never actually tries to capture her and bring her to Lord Mictlan. He refuses to fight her father when he’s injured, noting that it would be without honor, and when Lord Mictlan kills someone close to Maya, Zatz brings her their weapons as a gesture of sympathy.

Because even though, for a while, he’s still ostensibly on the side of the gods (if only to avoid Lord Mictlan’s wrath,) Zatz is already falling hard for Maya. I love that, when he returns to the underworld, he immediately tells his father that Maya is courageous, loyal, and beautiful, in that order. It reminds me of Aladdin, when Aladdin is gushing to Genie about Jasmine and begins by telling him how smart and fun she is—it’s only at Genie’s prompting that he brings up her beauty. If you’re into guys, get you a guy who appreciates all your qualities!

So it’s only a matter of time before Zatz fully demonstrates to Maya that his allegiances are changing. He intervenes when his goddess girlfriend goes after Maya (making it clear they’re through, hehe,) and he ultimately rejects Lord Mictlan and joins Maya’s quest to fight him. Before it’s all said and done, he’s comforting her in a moment of grief, and they’re fighting alongside each other as Lord Mictlan arrives with all the forces of hell behind him.

The enemies-to-lovers thing is a trope, but when done well, it can be really good, and this one is. I love their clash in the middle of the series, where they have the most chemistry-fueled fight this side of Xu Wenwu and Ying Li. They both have such light in their eyes as they cross blades. When they do finally get together, they’re too cute, with Zatz announcing, “I missed you,” as they reunite for the final battle and Maya planting a huge kiss on Zatz, just in case it’ll be their last chance. Throw in their mutual respect for each other, the way they have each other’s backs, and the way both of them are determined to fight for what’s right, and you’ve got a real winning combination.

Also, Zatz’s repeated use of, “Be well, Princess Maya—I’ll see you soon,” has such “as you wish” vibes. You love to see it.

The Book of Rannells: Big Mouth: Season 5, Episode 2 – “The Shane Lizard Rises” (2021)

A fun episode, featuring the return of the Shame Wizard and a wide variety of ways kids bodyshame themselves and each other. I like the way everything comes together here.

The Shame Wizard has been trying to get his groove back since the end of season 2, and when he finds out Coach Steve is about to start the swimming unit in gym class, he decides it’s his time to shine. Putting all the kids in bathing suits makes them focus on their perceived worst features: Nick’s small penis, Jessi’s leg hair, Andrew’s pubes, Missy’s bacne, Jay’s uncircumcised penis, and Lola’s camel toe. Needless to say, everyone starts spiraling out and contemplates “fixing” themselves.

This episode is super relatable, and while bodyshaming is especially potent in middle school, I like that the episode ultimately branches out to include a much wider population—the shame may begin in youth, but that starts a cycle that can continue indefinitely. Putting all the kids in bathing suits is an immediate recipe for self-esteem disaster. Kids freak out that their imperfections are on display in front of their crushes, and mean kids are all too willing to zero in on the things that others are insecure about—“Women have to support other women by pointing out their flaws!” Devin exclaims.

Seeing how badly the kids dislike parts of themselves can be hard to watch (precisely because it is so relatable,) but Big Mouth naturally brings the funny along with the heart. When Nick tries to Google solutions to his dick size, I love that one of the autofill suggestions is, “What to do if my penis is too fast too furious?” There’s also this great exchange between Jessi and Connie over her dad’s old, nasty razor: “I can’t believe this is the only razor in our house.” “It looks like someone killed a possum with it!” And the cold open between the Shame Wizard and Coach Steve might be one of my favorite scenes featuring either character. While I like how the Shame Wizard functions within the show and the effect he has on the characters, I haven’t always enjoyed him as much in his own right, and I’ve definitely been on record that less is more with Coach Steve. But in this scene, both of them are really funny, and the show takes it to an absurd place that’s delightful to watch.

Matthew gets in on the shame stuff, but not from a bodyshaming standpoint. Instead, similar to Missy’s plot in episode 1, he has some unexpected fantasies based on something he sees in the locker room. The Shame Wizard castigates him for it, making him feel bad for thinking about another boy while he’s making out with Aiden. In another display of Maury’s surprisingly lovely support of Matthew, I like when Matthew despairs to the Shame Wizard, “You’re right, I’m the worst,” and Maury immediately responds, “No you’re not, you’re just a horny kid!” A lot of the other kids seem to have dealt with their shame for now (they’ve always been rife with body-image issues, though, so it’s only a matter of time before they bubble up again,)  but Matthew’s plot is left unresolved, which makes me wonder if we’ll see more of this from him.

This is an okay plot for Matthew, and Andrew Rannells continues to bring his trademark blend of withering disdain and frantic insecurity that Matthew is barely keeping a lid on. I especially like his perversely-fascinated reaction to an unsettling interaction between Maury and the Shame Wizard, asking, “Jesus Christ, what’s that say about me psychologically?” That said, I kind of wish Matthew had been in on the main bodyshaming stuff. He’s often so put-together compared to the other kids, and I’m curious about what parts of his appearance he might be secretly sensitive about. What worries him about wearing a swimsuit in front of his classmates, and what comments from another kid might rattle him? We already know about a lot of the other kids’ pressure points regarding their bodies—what are Matthew’s?

Spider-Man: No Way Home – Spoilery Thoughts

*What it says in the title—spoilers ahead!*

Like week, I went in depth on my favorite spoilery aspect of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is, of course, the three Peters. Today, I want to talk a bit more about my reactions to the rest of the film, a.k.a. everything that wasn’t about making all my Crisis on Infinite Earths-style spider-verse dreams come true.

When it comes to speculated appearances, not everyone who was rumored pops up. We don’t see Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane or Emma Stone’s Gwen, and unless you count Venom in the mid-credits scene, we stop one villain short of a Sinister Six. But in addition to the villains from other universes – Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, the Lizard, and Electro – we do get that much-rumored cameo from Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock. While I still don’t think that role required a sighted actor, Cox has always been very good as Matt, and it’s fun to see the MCU proper finally welcoming in characters/actors from the Netflix shows. Matt is great in his short scene, mostly lawyer-focused with one quick bit of Daredevil mojo for the viewers who’ve been waiting for it. Like I said last week, I’m glad I went into the movie without confirmation on any of those casting rumors—I might’ve been all but certain that we were going to see Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, but I was a lot less sure about Charlie Cox, so it was a delight to see Matt make the jump to the big screen.

As I said in my review, the villains are mostly used well. The story never feels crammed, and the dawning realization that they were all pulled out of their universes shortly before their deaths sets up a realistic conflict for Peter, who of course is a good kid who wouldn’t want to just send them back to die. At the same time, it’s understandable why that puts him at odds with Doctor Strange. Strange isn’t as unfeeling as he sometimes presents himself as, but he’s quite a bit more mercenary than Peter when it comes to focusing on the big picture, and as long as the villains’ presence in the prime universe prevents him from being able to end his misfiring spell, they’re putting reality at risk. I completely get why Doctor Strange would be all, “too bad, so sad, send them back,” just as Peter naturally doesn’t want to do that.

His ultimate plan, to “cure” the villains before returning them home in the hopes that it will allow them to change their futures, might be a little hokey, but I appreciated the sentiment behind it. In 2022, it’s nice to see a superhero film where the answer is to try and help/rehabilitate the baddies rather than kill them or throw them in jail. Yes, it’s a fairly simplistic solution, but it works for me, and it jives with what Spider-Man is all about. Plus, this is the aspect of the film that took my general multi-Doctor-special impression and turned it specifically into “The Day of the Doctor,” which amuses me. As the three Peters make plans to divide and conquer in order for cure the villains, which could lead to some more compassionate conclusions for Tobey and Andrew’s old foes, I could practically hear Matt Smith saying, “This time, there’s three of us!”

By the way, this is the sort of tactic that can just work if you squint when it comes to the Maguire and Garfield Spider-Man franchises. In those days, villains were mostly flawed but non-evil people who completely lose it after a botched experiment and/or falling into a big vat of something. In those cases, if you remove whatever technology has fused to them and interfered in their brain, or reverse the biological reconstruction that’s polluting their thought processes, they can regain control of their faculties and might make better, non-villainous decisions. That’s not really something that works with modern MCU villains. While not all of them are uniformly well-executed, they tend to be people driven by motives rather than baddies “created” by botched experiments. You couldn’t “fix” Killmonger or Hela with a handy syringe to erase their trauma and remove their rage.

Aunt May’s death is disappointing to me, but I do think it stops short of being a classic fridging. Peter Parker’s story has always has this element of trauma and regret, and although the MCU Spider-Man films have made a few very vague allusions to the idea of Uncle Ben, they never showed that loss or Peter’s part in it. I would’ve argued that we just didn’t need to see that origin story again, since it’s still plenty fresh in our minds from the Maguire and Garfield franchises, but transposing that story onto Aunt May works too. What I find interesting about this plot is that, even though it involves the famous, “With great power comes great responsibility,” line, Aunt May’s death shakes out in a very different way. In Spider-Man’s traditional origin story, Uncle Ben is an unexpected casualty when Peter ignores his advice and stands aside when someone is in trouble. But here, Peter has already taken Aunt May’s advice to heart—it’s at her urging that he realizes he has to try to help the villains instead of just sending them back. She dies, not because Peter has a moment of selfishness, but because he’s being selfless, and things go very wrong as he tries to help. Because of this change, the line takes on a different meaning. As Peter holds the dying Aunt May, he’s not cursing himself for not listening to her, as Tobey and Andrew did with Uncle Ben. Instead, as he blames himself, she weakly insists that trying to help others is still always worth it.

The one plot point that really doesn’t work for me, though, comes at the end. Because the spell has gotten out of control and sending the “cured” villains back is no longer enough, Doctor Strange has to cast a new spell, one that causes everyone to forget Peter (Strange and Peter’s goodbye is really nice and feels more earned than I would’ve expected for those two characters.) Before MJ and Ned forget Peter, he swears to them that he’ll find them and tell them who he is, and they’ll be able to rebuild the relationships they once had. MJ is freaked, terrified that something will go wrong and they won’t find their way back to each other, but Peter promises they’ll be together again.

So, of course, that doesn’t happen. He finds MJ and Ned, with a speech prepared explaining himself and their past, but when he sees how content and uncomplicated their lives are without him, he makes the decision that they’d be better off not knowing. And look, I get that he’s trying to protect them. But that’s not his decision to make. He knows how upset they were when he said goodbye to them, and he knows that they wanted to be told the truth again. It makes me mad that he took that choice away from them, and if there’s a fourth movie in this franchise, 1) I want that remedied quickly, and 2) I want MJ to take serious issue with how Peter directly opposed her wishes here.

Other Doctor Lives: His House (2020)

Jordan Peele didn’t invent the “social thriller,” but he definitely popularized it, which allowed more space for other filmmakers to explore overt social themes through horror. While I know this has meant some projects hitting the market that do this in a lazy way, less creative and more capitalizing on Black trauma as entertainment, His House uses horror to examine the refugee experience in a way that’s captivating and compelling

By the way, Matt Smith is our Doctor of the day, so he’s got the picture here, but I am going to include a more representative image from the film at the end of this post. It just feels like it would be weird to talk about this horror film about refugees from South Sudan and only show a picture of the white dude.

Bol and Rial have fled their war-torn home, walking and running and riding in dusty truck beds and braving open waters in a raft. They’ve been allowed into England and given housing while their asylum case is reviewed. After moving into their dilapidated new home in a bleak housing estate, Bol is forcefully cheerful in his efforts to fit in and prove their worth to their new neighbors, while Rial struggles to adapt. But despite their differing approaches to life in England, it soon becomes clear to both of them that there’s a force lurking in their house, something they didn’t anticipate. As Bol frantically tries to cut it out or chase it away, Rial suspects that it’s something that followed them from South Sudan—an apeth, a night witch that needs to be reckoned with rather than denied.

One thing I like here is that, while there are certainly elements of racism and xenophobia in the story, this isn’t a “the real horror is racism!” film. Instead, the horror has both a supernatural aspect grounded in tribal lore and a psychological/internal aspect derived from the appalling things that Bol and Rial have suffered as refugees. One of the manifestations of the apeth in their house is in the way they see gaunt, haunted figures peering out at them through the cracks and holes in the walls, people who weren’t able to escape. There’s horror, there’s survivor’s guilt, there’s regret and grief and so many feelings tied up in that, and Bol and Rial react to these specters in different ways. It’s at once creepy/frightening and deeply personal/mournful. The effects for showing these horror elements are mostly practical, and it comes off really well.

I’m not familiar with Sope Dirisu, who plays Bol, but he’s very effective in the role. Rial certainly emerges as the more sympathetic character, but even as Bol’s behavior leaves me shouting at him sometimes, I can fully understand why he acts the way he does. After everything they went through getting out of South Sudan, he’s terrified of being sent back, and he feels it’s up to him to hold their new life here together. So he puts on a happy, assimilating face and isn’t about to let a little thing like ghosts in the walls scare him off. He thinks the way to shake the apeth is to lose everything they used to be, to get rid of everything they brought with them from Africa and fully commit themselves to life in England.

This puts him at odds with Rial, beautifully played by Wunmi Mosaku (she recently shone in another social thriller, the HBO series Lovecraft Country.) As much as they suffered under the war, Rial still misses home, still longs for those left behind. She clings to the few items they brought with them and holds to their traditions, bristling when Bol gets on her to speak English, eat with utensils, or wear Western clothing. Although she craves safety like her husband, she doesn’t view England as a promised land and doesn’t let the English make her feel inferior. Halfway through the film, she delivers this masterful speech: “This is what they want. They like to see us crazy. Makes them feel like big men. They don’t want to be reminded it is them that are weak. How poor and lazy and bored they are.”

Matt Smith plays Mark Essworth, Bol and Rial’s liaison from the refugee office. He’s the one who sets them up in their house and explains the rules of their situation as they wait for their asylum claim to be processed. Mark is the sort of guy who probably thinks he’s doing a lot of good in the world but is just terribly overworked. In essence, though, he functions as something of a “good-cop” figure—upbeat and friendly (even as he’s showing you around your garbage-strewn new home with a door that’s falling off its hinges,) but there’s always just this undercurrent of warning. “Make it easy for people,” he encourages when he moves Bol and Rial into their new neighborhood. “Be one of the good ones.”

He makes these racist/xenophobic insinuations with this air of an arm’s length. “Make it easy for people.” The neighbors, the asylum board, whoever—the general “people” who are out there poised to judge Bol and Rial if they’re found wanting in their new country. When Bol comes to him in distress over the house, Mark makes it clear that he can help move them into a different house if that’s what Bol really wants, but it won’t look good. “People, not me,” he emphasizes, “people are gonna ask why he’s biting the hand that’s feeding him.” I like how this is played, and Smith navigates it well. It’s never that blatant, out-in-the-open racism, it’s these little remarks with just enough distance for plausible deniability, those constant implied suggestions that Bol and Rial need to earn the right not to be sent back to the war-ravaged home they fled.

Accent Watch

London. The accent is fine, but Smith is one of those actors who kind of screams “posh” to me. So even though there’s nothing wrong with it, I still feel like it sounds a little weird, like the voice doesn’t match the face. (I’m the same way with Benedict Cumberbatch, for example.)

Recommend?

In General – Yes, if you have a decent tolerance for horror. I’m far from an aficionado, but while I’d say it’s not the most intense example of the genre, it’s definitely scary/disturbing and mixes that with a strong dose of personal trauma.

Matt Smith – I think I would. Even though Smith’s part isn’t huge, he’s good in it, it’s a different sort of role for him to play, and it’s not a long enough film that it’d be prohibitive to watch for his shorter screentime.

Warnings

Violence (including massacres and war crimes,) disturbing images, language, brief drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements.

Songs 1-4: Encanto

*Light spoilers.*

There’s a new Lin-Manuel Miranda score, which means I have a new album to listen to on repeat. It also means it’s time to break down each song over a couple of posts! Like I said in my review of Encanto, most of the songs didn’t wow me straight out of the gate, but it didn’t take more than a few listens for all of them to earworm their way into my head and my heart.

“The Family Madrigal” – The opening number is a lot to take in, and the first time through, I felt a little overwhelmed. But while it’s not as strong as some of the songs in this score, it improves the more you listen to it, and it’s actually an appropriate introduction to this big, bustling, noisy family. Mirabel breaks down the family connections and gifts for some kids in the village, explaining the different relations and sharing all the Madrigals’ magical abilities. It’s a bright, happy number with Miranda’s signature rapid-fire lyrics, but there are also these wistful hints that clue you in to the coming reveal: that Mirabel is the only one who didn’t get a gift. As much as she loves and celebrates her family, there are these little parts of her that still feel less-than.

Best lyric: “So many kids in our house, so let’s turn the sound up. / You know why? I think it’s time for a grandkid round-up!”

“Waiting on a Miracle” – Every Disney musical needs a good “I want” song. With Moana, Miranda gave us a thrilling anthem in “How Far I’ll Go,” and here, we’re given something fierce and sad. As Mirabel literally stands on the side watching the household take a family photo without her, she admits that she’s not “fine” being the only one without a gift, the only one not blessed by the family miracle. She reflects on who she isn’t and contemplates who she could be if she was just given a chance. The melody is understated but lovely and the accompanying visuals are stunning—Disney’s animators just keep outdoing themselves.

Best lyric: “Always walking alone, / Always wanting for more, / Like I’m still at that door / Longing to shine like all of you shine.”

“Surface Pressure” – There are a lot of emotional numbers in this film, but this is the one that wrecks me. Mirabel’s older sister Luisa, “the strong one,” sings about the crippling responsibility she feels to carry the family, protect everyone, and never show weakness. Multiple lines here just rip me to shreds, absolutely crushing. The very first time I heard it, I couldn’t quite run with the melody of this song, but as I’ve listened to it more since watching the movie, I’ve gotten into the rhythm of it and like the way the upbeat melody belies the heartbreaking lyrics of Luisa repeatedly insisting she won’t break under the weight of all she has to bear, because she feels like she’s the only one who can hold everything together.

Best lyric: Every single “give it to your sister” line in the choruses, but if I have to pick just one, I’ll go with, “Give it to your sister, it doesn’t hurt and / See if she can handle every family burden. / Watch as she buckles and bends but never breaks-- / No mistakes.”

“We Don’t Talk about Bruno” – This moody number about the missing Madrigal uncle has a tremendous groove. Each character/duo who takes part in the song has their own separate part with an individual vibe. No two parts sound alike, but they all complement each other, as the end of the song proves with an excellent entry to the Lin-Manuel Miranda library of overlapping melodies. Beyond the killer melodies, this is a great insight, not into Bruno himself but into the family’s perception of him. Pepa has a story to tell about how one of his apparent prophecies ruined her wedding, Dolores shares the details she’s overheard, Camilo makes Bruno out to be a monstrous bogeyman, and Isabela sings about the perfect life he predicted for her—on-brand for everyone.

Best lyric: I’m gonna have to go with this bit, from Dolores’s rapidfire verse—“It’s a heavy lift with a gift so humbling. / Always left Abuela and the family fumbling, / Grappling with prophecies they couldn’t understand. / Do you understand?”