Sean’s Sad Superhero Sundays: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

We gave up a lot of things in 2020 and that sucked. One thing that maybe actually needed a break was the superhero genre, which has dominated cinemas for more than a decade now. Last year, only DC managed to release anything (Birds of Prey and WW84) unless you count the final season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, which was probably only watched by me. Well, now it’s 2021 and we’re coming back and we’re all super depressed. Over the next few… however long this takes me, I’m going to review all the sad new superhero shows and movies of 2021 leading up to Black Widow‘s release in July. Come wallow with me!

What does it mean to be “Captain America” after World War II? Outside of war propaganda, it’s pretty weird to cover yourself in the stars and stripes. The comics have been wrestling with this issue since the character was revived during the Vietnam era, sometimes with embarrassing results. In the MCU, Steve Rogers ultimately gave up his alter ego, sidestepping the issue until he made the surprising choice to pass the mantle on to Sam Wilson. Then he disappeared into another timeline(?) and left his two sidekicks to pick up the pieces. Sounds like a funny buddy flick right? But it’s 2021, so let’s make sure to have some real bummer stuff in there too.

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2021 Albums I’ve Liked So Far, Pt. 1

My prediction for 2021 was that it would be an off-year for music, not unlike 2020 was for movies. While music is a medium that (especially now) can be produced by one person at home, it typically thrives on collaboration, which we didn’t have much room for in 2020 or early 2021. So it was hard for me to imagine that a lot of artists would be able to go into the studio and record new music while also abiding by covid protocols. While this does seem to somewhat be the case, considering there haven’t been nearly as many hotly anticipated albums as there were last year, 2021’s still been no slouch.

Some of this has been due to the fact that a few high-profile albums that were already gestating for a while got released this year after delays. But also, music is just such a vast, universal art form that there’s always going to be good stuff to discover. I would say this has been the theme for my 2021 listening, as I’ve definitely ended up listening more to artists that I either hadn’t heard of or had somewhat ignored for a while. I’ll admit that Spring/early Summer is usually the time when there seems to be a new great album from an artist I love coming out every week, and that isn’t quite the case this year. But again, there’s still been some good stuff coming out recently in addition to the other discoveries that have made this year worthwhile so far.

Also, since streaming has made it rare that I end up spending much time with albums I don’t like these days, I’ll forgo using star ratings for these albums in exchange for arbitrary “like”-ness ratings. Continue reading →

The People’s Albums #11: Boston

Holy crap, we’ve almost reached the top 10. Though because the rankings of the top 50 best-selling albums in the U.S. has shifted since I started doing this countdown, the math has worked out that less than 39 albums have been written about. To remedy this, I’ll start doing some bonus entries to make sure I round this out to an even 50. I know, that may sound insane to give myself more work for a project that’s taken me years to finish, but we gotta do this right.

Album: Boston
Artist: Boston
Release Date: August 25, 1976
Copies Sold In U.S.: 17 million Continue reading →

Sean’s Sad Superhero Sundays: Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Zack Snyder’s Justice League

I’m thankful that I’ve had enough time for a whole other Zack Snyder streaming movie to come out before writing about Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Because I still haven’t quite figured out how to feel about this “movie.” And I have to admit, in and of itself, that is a failing of my personality. I’d much rather be the kind of guy who never thinks about Justice League at all. Not just because I’m an adult man in my thirties and this is a movie about superheroes beating up demons – sorry parademons – but also for what this release represents. The Snyder Cut is just as much a victory for passionate fandom over bad corporate decision-making as it is another alarming sign about the toxic power of butthurt nerds on the Internet (RIP The Rise of Skywalker, another Chris Terrio joint).

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The 5th Annual Criterion Month Draft

And we’re back with our first podcast in quite some time! Just as the NFL draft happens each Spring, a far more important draft also happens this time each year, where we pick what movies we’ll be reviewing for Criterion Month. Like every year, it’s an odd exercise in talking about movies we haven’t seen yet while there isn’t much competition as to whether one of us will steal each other’s pick. Still, the boys find plenty of arty movies to look forward to seeing in a summer that should actually see the return of theater moviegoing and possibly a newfound appreciation for this medium that we already know and love. Continue reading →

Sean’s Sad Superhero Sundays: WandaVision

WandaVision Season 1

In retrospect, it’s pretty funny that the creators of WandaVision wanted to make a show about how even superpowers can’t protect you from the pain of loss and we were like “I can’t wait for her to fight the devil.” Until the pandemic happened, this was going to be the fourth release of the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following Black Widow, The Eternals, and the planned first Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. But Disney refused to release their biggest cash cows exclusively on streaming and the Captain America twins had their production halted, so the red-headed stepchild got called up to lead the charge in January. Which was a real blessing, because it ended up being a wonderful showcase for all the benefits and drawbacks of dragging the MCU into this format.

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Oscars Fortnight Day 15: Minari

Minari (2020)

The 93rd Academy Awards (2021)
Nominations: 6
Wins: 1

I wanted to close out our fortnight with something from this year’s batch of Best Picture nominees, and since Colin already reviewed Nomadland, it really had to be Minari. This has been a long time coming, as Minari has been on my radar since is debuted at Sundance way back in January 2020. Typically I’m able to see the “big deal” indie movies at least sometime in the December-January awards catch-up season, but given the on-going situation this movie wasn’t something I could see until it hit virtual cinemas in February. That was such a long time to spend listening to critics hype it up that I almost resented it and dragged my feet to finally watch the movie. But boy am I glad I finally did.

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