Based on John le Carré’s spy novel of the same name and adapted by David Farr (Hanna), The Night Manager is a six-part series produced by The Ink Factory, BBC and AMC.
Over 6 million of British viewers tuned in yesterday for the premiere of The Night Manager and it was met with mostly positive reviews. The premise, very simple:
A night manager of a European hotel is recruited by intelligence agents to infiltrate an international arms dealer’s network.
The execution, fantastic. Danish director Susanne Bier shows how a classic spy story can become engaging – successfully bringing together smart writing, compelling acting, beautifully constructed shots and scenery, and the right music (composed by Víctor Reyes). The first episode of the series isn’t a mind-blowing start as it feels like it’s going to be more of a slow burn, but hopefully satisfying and definitely intriguing.
The cinematography (by Michael Snyman) and natural landscape stand out. It looks like the series will freely take advantage of the astonishing locations it was filmed at, such as Marrakech, Palma de Mallorca and Switzerland. Apart from that, something that became attractive was the fact that it relays heavily on close-ups in a way to make certain shots more engaging, not distracting.
It’s also not surprising how Tom Hiddleston shines in his lead role as Jonathan Pine, opposite Hugh Laurie as Richard Roper, who we don’t actually see much of in this first episode. The few brief scenes they have together showcase the subtle but surely present tension between their characters. We can look forward to seeing more of these two interacting and Laurie’s full potential as a villain.
Alongside them, Olivia Colman, Tom Hollander and Elizabeth Debicki complete the main cast, offering solid performances, especially Hollander, who’s given a fresh, sarcastic, dominant role among Roper’s posse.
The Night Manager has barely scratched the surface of its story, even though the viewers actually need to pay attention in order to follow it fully. It would be good for it to become more and more complex and especially for it to take risks, as well. For the moment, it hasn’t failed at capturing an audience for its first hour, but perhaps it isn’t powerful enough to draw everybody back in for a second episode… Only time will tell.
Pine’s personal involvement in a matter which apparently doesn’t concern him should come with more than a few consequences and a greater sense of danger. We need to see more of that, and I hope we will.
The Night Manager premiered on February 21 in the UK and will air starting April 19 on AMC.
Lena Dunham and her company of twisted friends resumed their misadventures Sunday evening with the season five premiere of Girls on HBO. This episode was a shift from the melodramatic and more towards the character driven comedy that fans have grown to expect.
The episode opens with a stressed bridezilla Marnie Micheals (played by Allison Williams) and her wedding to musician Desi. For those who may have forgotten, the fourth season ended with Desi’s proposal to Marnie.
At first, it seemed that the episode was going to be like last season, full of melodrama and lacking in any comedic spark. It’s hard to forget the listlessness that was the whole Hannah in Iowa as well as the sheer tedium that was the whole long distance relationship storyline between Hannah and Adam.
However, this newest episode reintroduced to each character in all their flawed glory. Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) managed to take one of the biggest days of her friends life and make it about her by refusing to allow the makeup artist to do her job. Jessa Johansson (Jemma Kirke) managed to use some of the wedding prep time to make out with Hannah’s ex-boyfriend Adam Sackler (Adam Driver). Shoshanna Shapiro managed to turn every single topic about the wedding into how great living in Japan is (remember she relocated to Japan last season). Even Ray Ploshansky (Alex Karpovsky) managed to turn the day into his feeling of loss as he still has feelings for Micheals.
It was quite refreshing to see Lena Dunham get back to what has made Girls so acclaimed for so many years. Fans clamor to the show each week not because Hannah wants to be a writer (which was a big storyline in season 3) but to see how she was going to screw it all up. What bridesmaid refuses something the bride wants to occur before the actual ceremony? What bridesmaid goes out into a parked car and hooks up with her boyfriend an hour or so before the big moment? Only Hannah! What bridesmaid makes out with your friends ex-boyfriend outside a window where her friend could see them? Only Jessa! The characters on Girls are delicious trainwrecks just full of bad decisions. This episode was the most entertaining episode that I’ve seen in a year.
Even the wedding itself was in true Girls fashion. It stumbled through cringeworthy drama. One couldn’t escape the idea that perhaps the wedding symbolized change and growing up for the crew. That notion disappeared as we witnessed Marnie getting Shoshannah to tell Hannah that her boyfriend needed to leave. As Hannah said in the episode “It’s like an appalling rom-com that’s really obvious and not funny.” In short, the more things change, the more things stay the same.
So the episode left a ton of unanswered questions. Will Marnie and Desi make it as husband and wife? Will Jessa and Adam let the world know their true feelings? Will Hannah break Fran’s (her new boyfriends) heart? Will Ray and Marnie commit adultery? Will Shoshanna ever stop talking about how great Japan is? Judging by the tone of the first episode, fans will get to see a majority of these questions answered in what promises to be an excellent fifth season of Girls.
The 90s may have given birth to Deadpool at Marvel Comics, but the decade also gave a rebirth to Lobo at DC Comics, and it appears the latter will make a small screen appearance in the near future.
The Lobo character was created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen, and first appeared in Omega Men #3 (June 1983). Lobo is an alien and works as an interstellar mercenary and bounty hunter. Lobo was introduced – although initially rarely used – as a hardboiled villain in the 1980s, and remained in limbo until his revival as an anti-hero biker with his own comic in the early 1990s.
A few days ago CBS released a sneak peek at this week’s episode of Supergirl, and the conversation between Martian Manhunter and Alex Danvers sounds like they’re talking about Lobo, and they’ve dealt with him before.
Martian Manhunter: “We could be dealing with an interstellar bounty hunter.”
Alex Danvers: “You don’t think…”
Martian Manhunter: “No, no… if he were in town, we’d know.”
The conversation takes place at the .38 seconds mark of the clip.
What do you think? Is Lobo coming to town and if so, will it be this season?
Just when you thought you were passed the crazy marketing campaigns of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you get run over by a Jeep Renegade promoting Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Watch as Ben Affleck tries to look as manly as possible in the tiny Renegade. Every time I say, Renegade, in my head I think of Lorenzo Lamas. Boy, the 90s on the USA Network were brilliant.
When everyone runs, a hero has the bravery to move forward, but only the Jeep Renegade “Dawn of Justice” Special Edition has the fearlessness to get them there.
The Renegade “Dawn of Justice” Special Edition goes on sale at the end of February and costs $26,250.
About Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice
Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, violent vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting the world in greater danger.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice stars Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jason Momoa, Ben Affleck, Jesse Eisenberg, Gal Gadot, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Diane Lane, Ezra Miller, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Michael Shannon, and Laurence Fishburne.
Unlike 2012’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which didn’t even try to adapt author Seth Grahame-Smith’s reverential approach to honoring genres while at the same time mashing them, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies attempts to retain its source material’s light touch in blending zombie horror with Austenian romance. The synthesis doesn’t work as smoothly on film as it did in prose, but enough of it works to provide plenty of bloody good fun for fans of both.
What’s it about?
Exactly like the original 1813 Jane Austen “novel of manners’ from which it liberally borrows, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is set in early 19th Century England. Only this England and its living human population face the daily threat of zombies roaming the countryside, with once genteel, well-mannered neighbors and landed gentry turned into brain-devouring monsters with a single bite from someone infected with the unstoppable zombie plague.
In this version of the story, the Bennet sisters — Jane (Bella Heathcote, Dark Shadows), Elizabeth (Lily James, Cinderella), Mary (Milly Brady), Kitty (Suki Waterhouse) and Lydia (Ellie Bamber) — had as a part of their “proper” English education training in shaolin kung fu as well as bladed weapons and firearms as means of defending themselves against the undead. Their martial skills are a point of pride for their father, Mr. Bennet (Charles Dance), who wishes only to see his daughters made as capable of survival in the world gone to hell as possible.
But as in the original, Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips) has in mind to see her daughters wed to wealthy husbands of excellent social standing, thus ensuring their own security and prosperity, as if the world wasn’t falling apart with flesh-eating monsters popping up everywhere. To that end, Mrs. Bennet engineers an opportunity for her daughters to attend a lavish party at neighboring Netherfield Park hosted by the house’s new tenant, the handsome Mr. Charles Bingley (Douglas Booth).
While at the party, Bingley and Jane enjoy an immediate mutual attraction, while at the same time Elizabeth finds herself reluctantly getting to know Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy (Sam Riley), Bingley’s aloof and haughty best friend. In this world, Darcy is also Colonel Darcy, a well-known and feared zombie hunter of renowned skill and devotion to his duty, which often translates to him having little time and patience for social graces and niceties.
The party is interrupted by — what else? — a zombie incursion, and it’s during the ensuing battle that both Darcy and Elizabeth see firsthand just how skilled they each are at dispatching the “sorry stricken.” And so begins their difficult courtship, full of many of the same complications and subplots that make it such a classic in Austen’s zombie-free original, but peppered with the occasional zombie getting its head chopped off or blown off by a musket.
Faithful to the source
Chances are that if you enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies the novel that you’ll at the very least appreciate the effort by director/screenwriter Burr Steers (17 Again, Igby Goes Down) to faithfully bring to the screen many of the novel’s signature moments and dialogue. What was key to the novel’s delight is also key to making the movie work at any level: to retain as many of the familiar plot beats of Austen’s classic while blending in lots of bloody zombie mayhem as well as samurai and martial arts genre elements.
Steers’ script does deviate from Grahame-Smith’s novel in terms of delivering a different third act crisis, but it’s a justifiable deviation in terms of how it delivers a more action-packed, suspenseful climax, as well as an opportunity for characters audiences will want to see confront one another do so on-screen, as opposed to in the novel, where their resolution is told, rather than shown.
Casting makes it work
Also key to making any adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, mashup or not, is the casting of Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennet. Originally, Natalie Portman was to play this role, but she stepped aside, retaining a producer credit for the film, and the production went with Lily James, who wowed audiences last year in Kenneth Branagh’s rendition of Cinderella. Thanks to that experience, James carries her every scene projecting complete comfort with the more formal dialogue one would expect from a film set in this era.
But what may surprise some is just how well she handles the physicality demanded by the film’s many fighting and swordplay scenes. Granted, the sword and martial arts choreography isn’t as acrobatic or aerobatic as, for example, the Resident Evil films or Chinese wuxia films where fighters are flying in all directions on wires. But there’s still enough in what the fight choreography demands here for James, as well as all the actresses playing the Bennet sisters, to shine and kick serious butt.
The casting of Sam Riley as Darcy also works, although he’s not given nearly as many opportunities to show off the swordsmanship for which Darcy is supposedly feared. If Pride and Prejudice and Zombies does have a flaw in regards to its delivery of action, it’s that the purportedly superior Japanese martial arts wielded by more privileged aristocrats like Darcy and his haughty aunt, the one-eyed zombie killing legend Lady Catherine de Bourgh, played with stylish and steely verve by “Game of Thrones” own Lena Leadey, gets short shrift. A little more Misumi Kenji and Zatoichi would have gone a long way toward granting this production some serious samurai swordplay cred.
Not entirely seamless
All this is not to say that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is the best film you’ve ever seen from either genre. Its script has serious holes, and leaves plot threads that felt important throughout the film curiously unresolved. Watch for the Four Macguffins, err, Horsemen of the Zombie Apocalypse and where that particular plot thread goes for perhaps the most egregious of the film’s script failings.
It should also go without saying that if you have no patience at all for the sort of romantic plot lines and social commentary that characterize Austen’s work, then you may find yourself put off by seeing them play out here, even in the midst of katana swords clashing and zombie heads being blown off. If you prefer your zombie horror stories less arch and pastoral, stick to “The Walking Dead.”
Keeping the film’s carnage restrained to PG-13 levels is also a curious choice that may turn off hardcore zombie genre lovers. The difference is most manifest in the lack of blood — while there’s lots of rotting flesh, limbs lopped off and heads separated from shambling bodies, the amount of splatter from all that killing is markedly less than one might expect.
Worth seeing?
If you’re a fan of the novel and mashups in general, absolutely. The effort to keep this adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies true to the original material’s tone and approach alone merits attention and applause. If you’re just a fan of zombie films, it’s also worthy of your time, though not as much as other, more pure and serious ventures into the genre.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Starring Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston, Bella Heathcote, Douglas Booth and Matt Smith, with Charles Dance and Lena Headey. Directed by Burr Steers.
Running Time: 117 minutes
Rated PG-13 for zombie violence and action, and brief suggestive material.
There’s a revolving door of death in comics today. When a character dies, especially a major player, fans expect him or her to return within the year. It’s not a terrible plot device, but it has to be used scarcely and skillfully, like in the case of Barry Allen. Unfortunately, more often than not, it comes off as repetitive and predictable.
Creators have an incredible power over life and death, and with great power must also come great responsibility. Killing a character only to revive them in time for a movie release may not be the best use of that power. Instead, bring back a hero that deserves it:
Richard Rider, the original Nova.
This guy. The badass who defeated Annihilus by literally ripping his insides out. He’s been absent from Marvel Comics since January 2011, when he sacrificed himself, alongside Star-Lord, to defeat Thanos. It was sad, but it was also a glorious death, and one worthy of a true hero.
Then you went ahead and retconned it, bringing Peter Quill and Thanos back to life just in time for Guardians of the Galaxy to hit theaters. Yet, Rider remained M.I.A. without an explanation. When you did finally explain his absence, you desecrated his remains by putting the story in the hands of a man who couldn’t even spell his name correctly.
Nope, because Richard “Ryder” never existed.
Nova deserved better than that.
Sure, maybe he was derived from Peter Parker, with his teenage origin, and his alliterative name, but he was never a rip-off. He was an homage, and he developed into a character all his own, far from his roots. While Spider-Man was flip-flopping sides during Civil War, Nova was leading the charge against the Annihilation Wave to save the galaxy. He managed the entirety of the Xandarian Worldmind, something that had previously driven Nova Corpsmen insane.
Now, you’ve already introduced a new Nova, Sam Alexander. Sam’s great in his own way; he’s an Avenger. His solo title is a great mix of fun and touching. We’re not saying to bench Sam to play Rich, but why not put both in the game at the same time?
Once more, let’s use Spider-Man as a baseline. The end of Secret Wars brought Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-Man, to the mainstream Marvel Universe, where Peter Parker is still alive. So there are now two Spider-Men in the world, but they’re not cramping each other’s style. Peter is dealing with major threats to the world while Miles is handling street level crime.
Always two, there are. A master and an apprentice.
Sam can still be an Avenger and continue to handle Earth’s problems, along with his family drama. Richard Rider belongs among the stars anyway; it’s where he thrives. His best stories were told in the Abnett & Lanning era, between Annihilation and The Thanos Imperative, and he barely sets foot on Earth in that time. This is where he proved himself to be a leader, a warrior, and one of the best characters in the Marvel Universe. Plus, he can always make an Earthbound cameo to serve as Sam’s mentor.
This is our plea. You’ve killed and revived Jean Grey fifty-seven times already (at least it feels like it). Please bring Nova back once.
(Plus, he’s from Long Island. Long Islanders need characters like Richard Rider to prove that we’re they’re not all yuppies.)
This week’s The Walking Dead episode was enjoyable. Not to say the show’s never been enjoyable to watch, but this episode’s energy was totally different than normal. Sure, there was some death and sadness going on, but this episode took a much more lighthearted tone. Every episode treats us to the grime and sadness that the zombie apocalypse has brought to everyday Southern life, but now we get a glimpse into what Rick/“Jesus” were talking about – the next world.
“The Next World” picks up a couple weeks after last week’s episode, a time-jump that means most everyone’s over the death of the Andersons (Rick especially, but we’ll get to that). Rick and Daryl go out to check for supplies, and maybe get a soda for Denise. Carl has become understandably a bit more authoritative and hopeless, just enough to chase Enid back home. Michonne helps Spencer and his shovel get all the way over Deanna, as it turns out she was zombified before being eaten. Maggie is trying to adopt Enid, Eugene is a big corn guy, and Michonne needs toothpaste. Everyone’s far less concerned with the zombie struggle than they’ve been in the past. They now have a chance to think about regular world problems.
All of these interactions were about the dynamics between the survivors, and how the Alexandrian crew are really starting to mesh more with The Walking Dead’s leads. It’s touching in a new way, as this episode is building up hope. It makes so little sense that everyone survived the zombie attack last week, but now that they have, they all have that hope. It’s what adds more charm to this episode. It’s more like an episode of iZombie this week, with a focus more on finding love and hope, rather than the grim reality that zombies may eat and kill all humans.
As for the comedy? That comes from the addition of Kung-Fu Grip Jesus. Sure, it was funny when Daryl was skeptical of Denise & Eugene & Rick’s radio jams, but it was Jesus who somehow turned a gritty zombie show into a Dukes of Hazzard farce, as Jesus keeps stealing the truck full of supplies. He somehow gets himself on the roof of the van, despite being tied up and left by the wayside. And when the truck ends up drifting into the lake? Classic. Almost Tom & Jerry-esqe. His place in the camp sets up two possibilities – either his goofiness wins over the rest of the survivors, or he turns out to be a twisted henchmen of Negan. Or maybe he’ll be more like Morgan’s captured Wolf friend – he’s certainly got the hair for it.
Then came the big twist of Rick and Michonne kissing. Apparently, the show runners don’t care whether or not we miss Jessie, instantly replacing her as the love interest. I guess that’s part of what the time jump was for – making sure no one, including the audience, cares anymore about Jessie (but still care about Deanna). I’d be more mad about it if it weren’t for the fact I saw it coming for a couple seasons now. The Jessie romance didn’t exactly feel forced, but Rick & Michonne meshed beautifully with the history these two have had. They’ve been tight for years now, and Carl already sees her as a stand-in mother.
The fact that this episode of The Walking Dead feels so different is what really makes it work. We’ve seen a lot of people being sad, walking around in the woods, waiting for another side-character to get chomped on. We get to see characters have legitimate moments of happiness and care for each other. The Richonne moment almost felt like a sit-com, as the mother-father characters talk about their days before finding comfort in each other. It highlights the central conflict of the show – how do the characters of The Walking Dead survive the apocalypse, while retaining their humanity? It’s been a while since we’ve seen an episode highlight this aspect of the show, and it’s a welcome change.
Fasten your seatbelts buckaroos, the DC Cinematic Universe is quickly becoming a reality with today’s announcement that Justice League Part 1 will begin filming on April 11, two weeks after the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
“The idea that we could begin to boot up a Justice League concept was a cool thing. It was a little bit of an ‘about time’ moment, and I don’t blame [the studio] for feeling that way, because it’s a long time coming. But I do feel like it’s a little bit of a creative hurdle. It seems like an easy thing to do at first glance, the idea that, ‘Oh, we just get the rest of the superheroes in there.’ But you have to [establish] a world where they can exist,” said Zack Snyder to EW.
All the members of the Justice League will make cameos in Batman v Superman (Ezra Miller as the Flash, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, and Ray Fisher as Cyborg) as Snyder builds towards a battle with Darkseid.
According to the EW report, Justice League will shoot at the Warner Bros. Leavesden studios in southeast England, as well as various locations around London and in Iceland.
DC Comics Cinematic Universe Schedule:
2016
March 25: Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
August 5: Suicide Squad
2017
June 23: Wonder Woman
November 17: Justice League Part 1
2018
March 23: The Flash
July 27: Aquaman
2019
April 5: Shazam
June 14: Justice League Part 2
Robert Eggers’ film, The Witch, contains horrific images, deals with unsettling subject matter and is designed to create moments fraught with tension. All this conforms to create what can be considered a “scary movie”. Right under this surface lies something as insidious as a New Idea. The Witch plays in scares and suspense in order to let the witness dig in and create belief in the bravest of all human endeavors: self-realization and individuality.
[Warning: Major spoilers ahead!]
Set in 1630s New Hampshire, The Witch throws us into a world where the demons at the door are literal and God is as close as the faintest wind. This was the reality of Puritanical society. Those who left England did so in order to practice religion as wildly as they so desired, which is entirely within their right as humans. It’s difficult for a modern audience to directly empathize with the situation but it isn’t unlike many current worries. Instead of witches in the woods testing our temptation, we have Big Brother and his all-seeing eye threatening our right to self. Both of those fears work in very similar ways and construct their own specific set of monsters. In The Witch, the overriding theological society acts as today’s Big Government or so-called “securities” agencies. Both of these groups aren’t uniformly evil but are powerful enough to establish fear in dissenters despite attempting to promote safety. To the film’s William, these particular Puritans are stifling his personal beliefs in safety and freedom. So they kick William, his wife Katherine and his five children, Thomasin, Caleb, twins Mercy and Jonas and newborn Sam out into the wild to fend for themselves.
In reality, William sends his family into the mouth of madness where clinging too tightly to to an unfair standard designed only for himself conjures destruction. William is warned early on their budding farmland when his newborn is stolen right out from under the eyes of his eldest daughter, Thomasin. The child is lost as punishment for putting this person, completely incapable of making a decision for themselves, in such a dangerous situation. For Thomasin, this is the first moment of awakening that the teachings of the father might not hold water so holy. Her mother then blames her for the disappearance, projecting the fear that Thomasin is mature enough to unravel this precarious family.
Then we see that baby Sam is muddled into an infant mojito paste and slathered across a wilting broomstick to send a wretched old crone flying into the night.
This is where the thematic endeavors of a piece of art intertwine with genre. If Puritan society and extremist religion are supposed to be the antagonists here, why is a baby killed by a witch whose beliefs I purport to represent the self-actualized? This is designed to cement the goals of the film as trying to portray the experience of becoming an individual as something that can be truly terrifying. Yes, having a baby brutally sacrificed is horrible imagery but it also establishes the stakes of the film as something tangible and not just spiritual. As a movie, creating this tension is the ultimate goal for a good cinematic experience. When we only have physical stakes of life and death or only the emotional journey of our characters at hand, it doesn’t feel like a fulfilling experience. This is why movies where “it was all just a dream” are such dramatic vacuums. There was a change in our character(s), a moment of self-realization if you will, but there were no stakes. The ultimate “it was all a dream” film, Inception, proves that stakes can be created even if we are only dealing with (maybe) one subconscious by defining the madness that can suffocate its characters for eternity. And movies that are based entirely on the physicality of survival like The Revenant (Leo sure does span the spectrum of cinema) with its two main characters already emotionally realized aren’t also a complete journey.
The killing of Sam at the beginning of the film is simply masterful storytelling.
The downfall of William is, as he admits in the film, his pride. Only, it isn’t God who is punishing him. God has forsaken William, leaving him to the judgment of The Adversary and individualistic life incarnate, Black Phillip the goat*. William is unwilling to part ways with his need to include his family in his tempestuous beliefs. He goes so far as to desecrate the trust of his wife, stealing her silver cup heirloom in order to sell it for goods. The difference when it comes to William is prideful selfishness as opposed to individualism which ultimately leads to his undoing with a good push from Black Philip into his immensely crumbling pile of chopped wood.
Coming at the opposite end of the spectrum is Thomasin, a young woman coming of age sexually and psychologically. Thomasin constantly lays her needs down in order to suit those of her family’s. She is at the distinct point in life where she questions whether all this torture for the benefit of her father’s beliefs is worth it.
As the family continues to succumb to the nature of William’s selfishness, Thomasin’s awakening becomes fully-formed. When her brother, Caleb, gives in to his sexual temptation in the form of The Witch, he is punished not for that but for the upholding of his father’s selfish upbringing in lying to his mom about going picking for apples (hence the apple lodged in his throat). In the end, he chooses the realization of God and forfeits his chance at an individual, earthly life.
After having been outed for talking with Black Phillip about nefarious spirituality it is decided the twins are harboring evil and are cast out of the house along with Thomasin to sleep with the goats. Our residential hag makes another appearance in her truly disgusting form (also the form the twins most believe exists which might not actually represent the truth) as Thomasin sleeps and the twins scream in fear as she feasts on a goat in front of them. In the morning, Thomasin awakes to see the twins gone, but two white goats laying dead near her, their throats ripped out. This, I believe, represents the twins being killed for speaking against Black Phillip, spiting the relationship he created with them earlier in the film. Although I also think the movie leaves their actual fates muddled for a reason, suggesting that they could have been given a chance at choosing a life for themselves elsewhere (though, I’m pretty sure the hag split their throats wide because… Good.)
All Thomasin has left to do is embrace the spirit of her individuality, which also comes in the form of destroying her persecutors. In this case, it’s her mother who believes Thomasin to be evil and forces Thomasin’s hand to grab a knife when a fight escalates into a life-threatening situation. The blood of her mother dribbling onto Thomasin’s face is the final sacrifice necessary in coming face to face with Lucifer** who gives Thomasin an enticing choice.
In Christianity, it is the temptation of choice that most believe makes Lucifer evil. The choosing of self over humility to God is a sin and to the Puritans, it is the utmost evil. Regardless of personal religious views, this choice of a humble life in the eyes of God is also one against self-realization and becoming an individual. To choose one or the other isn’t cause for judgment in our world (well, thousands and thousands of years of Holy Wars would tell us different. It’s just more objective in our world, with an obvious choice yet to be decided) but in the world of The Witch, the plight of the individual is paramount.
When Thomasin inevitably signs the Devil’s Book, her soul is given over to Lucifer but her life is now her own. She follows Black Phillip (back in goat form) naked into the woods and onto a witches’ convent; a newborn into a world where anything is possible. The chanting witches at the fire begin to ascend the treetops of the imposing New England forest and Thomasin cackles with joy for her life is now anything she wants it to be. That, I think, is beautiful.
The Witch presents the hardest choices in life at face value. They’re scary! Life is scary! Choosing to overcome those who persecute you and the selfishness of others who try to impose their will upon you is indescribably difficult. Robert Eggers has staged a film that, in the face of deep period with dialogue practically Shakespearean and about a witch in the woods, is a profoundly human and engrossing experience. Here’s to individuality, a free life and signing the Devil’s Book.
*The goat has long been used to symbolize the Satanic and the Sigil of Baphomet has been adopted by groups such as The Satanic Temple and The Church of Satan (groups with wildly different ideology while interpreting mostly the same material).
**The movie clues us into believing it’s Lucifer who is Black Phillip, but it is the pagan entity Baphomet who introduced the symbolic goat figure into Satanism. Baphomet is also not a deity bound to Christianity, which could further complicate the religious nature of the film. It’s all fairly confusing to me and I don’t believe the movie gives us any good insight, so I’ll just go with Lucifer. Just know that I’m not entirely happy with that generalization.
As we inch closer to the release of Captain America: Civil War, the promotion machine starts to churn, and Empire Magazine is usually the first stop.
Empire released some stills of the film in advance of this week’s issue. They give us the best look so far of Frank Grillo’s Crossbones, the wildcard of the movie, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch is also featured.
In the comics, Crossbones plays a pivotal role in Mark Millar’s Civil War.
Check out the gallery below.
Captain America: Civil War is directed by Anthony & Joe Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, Captain America: Civil War picks up where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.
The film stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman, Emily VanCamp, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, and Martin Freeman.
Captain America: Civil War is set for release on May 6.
