My Favorite Things This Week #83

The Friday High 5: I Was Surprisingly Moved By 'Deadpool & Wolverine'

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Every Friday I share 5 things I enjoyed this week. Also, high fives are inherently cool, and I think we can all agree Friday is the bestest day. Hence the Friday High Five. 🙏🏻

I’m not really a Deadpool fan.

I see the allure. And yes, the movies are hilarious. I just find the character’s schtick a bit tiresome. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds, perfectly cast) seems like a character custom-made for teenage boys by someone who still identifies as such. I’m not like, super mature or anything. He’s just a little too “look at me,” and I guess I don’t like being told what to do.

Still, I was interested in seeing Deadpool & Wolverine, because Deadpool and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, just perfect). I’ve been a Wolverine fan going back to my comics-reading youth. And Hugh Jackman regularly kills it as the grizzled mutant.

If you’ve seen a Deadpool movie, you know what to expect. This is easily my favorite entry, and not just because of Wolverine. I wouldn’t call it a great movie, even by the standards of the genre, which is a long way of saying it’s no Logan. Deadpool & Wolverine feels a bit by-the-book. The surprises that arise come not from character moments or even the plot, but from the delicious cameos. Because the story is only so-so, your personal enjoyment will probably be based on if those characters mean anything to you or not.

It worked for me. Oh buddy, did it ever.

Deadpool’s running meta-commentary frequently references Disney’s purchase of Fox and therefore his MCU initiation via the magic of capitalism. Without spoiling anything, several characters from the Fox roster make appearances in the film. There are multiversal forces at play because that stupid box won’t stay closed now that Marvel has opened it. But here at least it makes sense, and it works to bridge disparate cinematic neighborhoods into the broader universe.

There’s a thrill in seeing certain faces again that was delightfully unexpected. I actually choked up a bit when a certain someone walked on screen. I can’t even say why. It just happened.

To say more would risk spoilers. I’ll just say if you loved the 2000-era Fox superhero films, you’re in for a treat.

Wolverine is the star and the main attraction. Deadpool is the protagonist. He’s a hero, legitimately, but even when he plays it straight, it feels like he’s .3 seconds from making another dick joke. There’s emotionally-stunted, there’s under-developed, and then there’s Deadpool.

In contrast, Wolverine isn’t all unbridled rage and disinterest. Pathos is as much a part of his kit as adamantium claws and all that facial hair. He grounds the film emotionally, as well as counter-balances all of Deadpool’s casual chaos. It’s really too bad we’re only getting this team-up now. The entire trilogy would’ve been better with their bad-cop, worse-cop dynamic.

But the film is at its best when it surfaces familiar faces looking older than we remember but just as cool. Call it fan service, call it nostalgia porn, I call it awesome. Your mileage will vary wildly on this sort of thing because many of the cameos don’t even merit a line of dialogue. There are some deep cuts, and plenty of characters I don’t remember. But if you’re familiar with the Fox-era superhero films, you’ll definitely recognize many of them.

It’s like the Island of Misfit toys but with spandex.

Archival behind-the-scenes footage from the Fox films plays during the end credits. I was strangely but strongly moved by it. Part of that is probably the surprise reaction of seeing actors suddenly de-aged 20 years. Everyone is so joyously young. Everything is still in front of them: success, failure, heartbreak.

I’ve been there for all these movies. Their past is my past. It’s something I can’t say even about Star Wars. Star Wars predates me. It was a found thing, something I was adopted into. But I was there for all these movies.

I think what I was responding to was the passage of time. Day-to-day, it moves so slowly as to be imperceptible. To fool us into thinking we can live forever. But looking across the chasm at those familiar faces was also a glimpse at my own mortality.

There’s no escaping the fact that Hugh Jackman looks a bit old in this movie. He looks amazing! There’s a scene where his shirt literally rips off that will make every man in the audience insanely jealous. Dude is ripped. But he’s also clearly in his 50s. He’s no longer a young guy, and neither am I.

I didn’t expect to walk out of this movie burdened with such heavy thoughts and deep feelings.

---

Become a paid supporter for $3 a month!

Supporters gain access to an ever-growing list of exclusive articles.

---

Real Steel

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Oh look—another Hugh Jackman movie.

Real Steel has been on my radar for a long time. I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday, but I can recall with unerring accuracy the names of movies someone somewhere said was good. My antenna is wired to pick up certain signals and disregard all others.

Real Steel is good. Heartwarming, entertaining. Family-friendly. Imagine Rocky with Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, produced by Disney.

In the future, boxers have been replaced by robots because audiences craved more carnage in their bloodsport. Checks out.

Hugh Jackman plays a former boxer who’s down on his luck and has turned into a bit of a shyster. He’s also an absentee dad and a bit of a scumbag. But because he’s played by Hugh Jackman, you can’t really hate him. We all have our crosses to bear.

I don’t rate movies because whatever, but I’ll give this an arbitrary 7 out of 10. Solidly good.

Dumbing Down My Smartphone

Photo by author

I try to maintain good technology habits, but lately I’d noticed I’d fallen back into mindlessly scrolling Reddit. Eventually I decided to do something about it… after I’d stumbled onto this video while mindlessly scrolling YouTube.

I took two of the suggestions from the video: installing Dumbify, a widget app that makes your phone a lot less appealing, and ScreenZen, which allows you to set schedules for certain types of apps. Between those two, I’ve reduced my time on Reddit from around 10-12 hours a week to about 2. YouTube is even less.

I didn’t uninstall anything. All the apps are still there. But when I pick up my phone, the minimalist screen disrupts the habit. If I legitimately have a few spare minutes, I spend that time in the Kindle app. Reading has become my default form of entertainment.

I’m also finding I’m more focused and productive. Highly recommend!

Jon Bernthal Learns to Play D&D

Full disclosure: this video is a scant 8 minutes long and they don’t really play D&D.

Deborah Ann Woll—actress and incredible Dungeon Master—explains the game to my-guy Jon Bernthal. And Jonny Boy is into it! I doubt he’ll ever actually play, and doubt even harder that a camera will be on-hand to record the momentous occasion, but that almost doesn’t even matter.

Today, Jon Bernthal played D&D. As the poet Ice Cube said, today was a good day.

House of the Dragon: Season 2

HBO

We tend to “save” the finale of our favorite shows for special occasions, by which I mean those times when we aren’t exhausted from a long day. That usually means a Saturday night. Often a snack of some kind is involved—popcorn, chips and homemade guac, brownies, margaritas.

The downside to this “savor the TV” mode is that sometimes we finish a show a week or two later than everyone else. Which is why I only just finished House of the Dragon, even though I’m a Westeros OG from way back. I read A Game of Thrones in 2006, five years before Game of Thrones debuted on HBO. I knew about the Brackens and Blackwoods beef before it was fashionable.

I don’t know why I feel the need to clarity my credentials. I guess I feel a little self-conscious about not finishing House of the Dragon sooner.

I loved season 2, but would’ve loved it even harder if it’d been 2 episodes longer. Getting only 8 episodes after waiting nearly two years for the second season does not feel like a just exchange. I know, I know—the Hollywood strikes, and all that. I’m just saying. Season 2 didn’t leave me feeling exactly satisfied.

It feels like we’ve been building toward the dancing dragons for a really long time now. We’ve been waiting for the other shoe to fall. We know it’s gonna fall. There’s no question—this shoe is coming down, and is gonna make a mess of things when it does. But it’s still up there, hovering contently overhead.

I do appreciate that HBO has rediscovered the art of build-up and foreshadowing, but like, also stop teasing me already. The pieces are on the board and they are moving. Let them interact a bit already.

---

That’s it for this edition of the High 5. What are you digging at the moment? Drop a comment and let me know!