A bit player in the Chris Evans era, Anthony Mackie never really found definition as Falcon. Marvel gave him the wings (literally) but none of the personality and individuality he needed to fly. Not that standing out was ever easy among such charismatic company as was the original Avengers. And yet, this is an age of second gos for the MCU. Soon enough, Robert Downey Jr. will return, albeit in a different guise. In the here and now, Brave New World gifts Mackie the spotlight and shield-wielding mantle of Captain America. Boy, does he take to it well. This feels a promising new direction, even if the vehicle itself couldn’t really be justifiably termed ‘brave’.
Oh my, how time flies. Nine years have passed since our last dip into the ongoing diary of Bridget Jones. Said film saw the beloved Brit – invention of Helen Fielding, masterpiece of Renée Zellweger – give birth to a son of two potential fathers. That neither remain a feature of Bridget’s life, despite co-parenting promise, speaks something to the inconsequentiality of film three. The same cannot be said of four, an altogether more consequential – dare we say weighty? – entry. Mad About the Boy pairs Bridget’s jolly brand of japery with a greater ear for sentiment and the nuances of time. Certainly, it mediates rather nicely on what it means to navigate the world as a woman of a certain age…whatever that means in the twenty-first century.
It’s amazing just how involving The Lion King is on stage. The lack of actual, or, indeed, believable, lions on stage matters less in this context than the ability of the actors to speak to the emotional truth of the characters they are playing. Through the abstracted masks and feathers, the circle of life lives. There’s a joke on this matter in the latter half of Mufasa, Disney’s financially viable follow up to Jon Favreau’s 2019 photoreal remake of the original 1994 Lion King. A Billy Eichner voiced Timon snarks his distaste for the show on the basis of his part being played by a sock puppet. That’s the joke. To this there is only one response. Mufasa’s Timon may look exactly the part of the meerkat he is but he hasn’t half the warmth, humour and soul of the sock.
The Film Blog 