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Tuesday, October 17, 2023

THE WHALE (2022)

Though hidden behind a morbidly obese 600 lb. man, it’s hard not to see the rather ordinary 1950s-ish dysfunctional-family drama director Darren Aronofsky has immobilized in dingy, claustrophobic Academy Ratio from Samuel B. Hunter’s award-winning play; like something William Inge might have stuck in a back drawer as too retrograde.*  One of those plays where the doorbell rings at regular intervals to bring on the next predigested character and plot point.  Brendan Fraser’s turn in a prosthetic fat suit sold the thing.  He’s good, too, but can’t entirely get past looking like Rodney Dangerfield decked out as Jabba the Hut, congestive heart failure his next cue.  First though, he’ll suffer thru a series of visitations on his way to fatally enlightened redemption: Avaricious teen daughter (quite a nasty piece of business, stung when Dad left home for the boyfriend;* as if half her classmates didn’t come from divorce); no-nonsense nurse, sister of Fraser’s late lover; one fallen young missionary looking for his own salvation; unseen pizza deliveryman to function like one of those classic sit-com characters you hear but never catch a glimpse of; gaggle of writing students who never see Fraser on their Zoom class screen; and the ex-wife who makes a late entrance to chastise, then stays to forgive.  Why was this bow to ‘50s-style ‘Golden Age’ tv quatsch taken seriously?

SCREWY THIOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK: You can learn more about eating disorders watching John Belushi cough up a hunk of chicken on this old SNL skit. https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/comments/jvneu2/john_belushi_as_elizabeth_taylor_11111978/

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  *The structural bones in here really do come out of William Inge.  Mostly COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA/’52.  (But note how what was once gay subtext is now text.)  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/come-back-little-sheba-1952.html

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