We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
WISDOM (1986)
I was very young when I first saw Wisdom. I'm not sure exactly what age, but definitely still in the single digits - and for some reason, things about that viewing stuck with me for thirty years, even though I never went back to watch Wisdom again at any point as the decades went by. I knew I really liked the movie, even though it seems odd for a little kid to get so much enjoyment out of a twenty-something couple going on a cross-country crime spree to burn up home loan and mortgage records stored in filing cabinets at banks. That's all John Wisdom (Emilio Estevez) and his girlfriend Karen Simmons (Demi Moore) are doing at those banks, burning paperwork to free people of their debts, like a modern day Robin Hood and his Merry Woman. They don't rob these banks, they're just helping people, in their own unique way. A way that wouldn't work if this movie were made any later that it was, since the mortgage information would be stored in computer systems instead of on paper. Even in '86, John admits that this isn't going to solve the problem, he just hopes it might buy people some time.
John sets down this path after finding it very difficult to hold employment because he made the drunken mistake of stealing a car the night he was celebrating his high school graduation, years earlier. He was convicted of a felony, and since society insists on branding him a criminal for life, he decides to live up to the label. "A criminal for the people, not against them." And Karen comes along for the ride.
Estevez didn't only star in the film, he also wrote and directed it, and there is a sense that he felt he was making something Very Serious and Important by dealing with this sort of subject matter, but that feeling doesn't hinder the enjoyment of the movie, he didn't forget to make this entertaining while making a point. Wisdom is fun to watch most of the time, but it's also the sort of movie that has a building dread throughout, because we know that this endeavor is not going to end well for John and Karen. Estevez cuts away to the authorities on their trail from time to time, just to let us know that the good times are not going to last. At some point, the criminals and the cops are going to cross paths.
It doesn't help that Karen manages to mess things up in a major way in one particularly shocking, infuriating scene. It was the later scenes, after Karen's mistake, that I remembered most from my childhood viewing, mainly because I was so disappointed with how things went in this movie that I liked.
Revisiting Wisdom after thirty-plus years, I found that it still holds up as a solid crime movie. This was a good directorial debut for Estevez, and I still like it, even though things don't turn out the way I wanted them to and the ending is strange.
COBRA KAI: SEASON TWO (2019)
While I love the first season of Cobra Kai, the TV series continuation of the Karate Kid franchise, from beginning to end, there are portions of the second season I find difficult to sit through - and that's not a negative strike against the show. It's actually due to the fact that the show is so successful in getting me emotionally invested in what's going on that parts of season 2 bum me out.
The first half of the season is especially rough. I hate watching the kids of the Cobra Kai dojo bask in the glory of their victory at the All Valley karate tournament, a win achieved by fighting dirty against Miyagi-do student Robby (Tanner Buchanan). I hate watching them descend further into douchiness, as they're corrupted not only by the misguided lessons taught by their sensei Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) - who didn't mean to corrupt them, and was actually disturbed by their actions at the tournament, especially since Robby is his estranged son - but now have an even worse influence in their lives. Johnny's sensei and the biggest villain of the entire franchise, John Kreese (Martin Kove). Johnny thought Kreese was dead, and for the sake of the other characters in the show I wish he had been. But he's alive and well, and has resurfaced after hearing of Cobra Kai's tournament win to start manipulating his way back to Johnny's life, and back to the front of the dojo. I hate seeing Miyagi-do, the newly opened dojo headed up by the "karate kid" himself Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), struggle to get off the ground as Cobra Kai expands. It really gets to me that Cobra Kai students, with out-of-control nerd-turned-bully Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) in the lead, smash up the Miyagi dojo and steal Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor. This is difficult stuff for me to get through, even when we have things like Johnny figuring out how to use his first computer to lighten the mood.
Thankfully, some hope starts to enter the picture along the way, and the second half of the season is more to my liking. I like seeing Miyagi-do gain more students, including Hawk's incredibly nerdy former friend Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo), who can be annoying but is still one of my favorite characters. I like seeing a sweet relationship develop between Robby and Daniel's daughter Samantha (Mary Mouser). I like knowing that Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) still has it in him to be the good kid of the Cobra Kai dojo, even if he has a questionable new love interest in Tory (Peyton List). The idiocy of Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser), Cobra Kai's oldest student, is amusing. It's great whenever Johnny stands up to Kreese and tries to steer his students in a better direction.
In one of my favorite episodes, most of Johnny's friends from the original Karate Kid - Rob Garrison as Tommy, Ron Thomas as Bobby, and Tony O'Dell as Jimmy (Chad McQueen's Dutch is said to be in prison, since McQueen had scheduling issues) - get together for a motorcycle trip into the wilderness. These guys are former Cobra Kai students themselves, and they're not exactly enthusiastic to hear that Johnny had brought Cobra Kai back and is dealing with Kreese again.
As in the first season, my top favorite thing in season 2 is when Daniel and Johnny are able to momentarily set aside their differences and actually be somewhat friendly toward each other. This time around, they're forced tolerate each other when Daniel and his wife Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) end up on a date at the same restaurant Johnny has taken his neighbor / Miguel's mom Carmen (Vanessa Rubio) to. Until this show, I never knew how badly I wanted Daniel and Johnny to be friends.
Season 2 doesn't take place over an entire year, so this isn't a build-up to another tournament, but it does build up to a spectacular fight between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-do students. Given the venue of this fight, it's a bit over-the-top, but it's also quite entertaining to watch. The entire season overall is quite entertaining to watch, even with that rough stretch in the first half. Cobra Kai is an awesome show, and it's great to be able to spend time watching its characters.
THE LOVE WITCH (2016)
The Love Witch was largely a one-woman show behind the scenes, as Anna Biller not only wrote and directed the film, she also produced it, edited it, composed the score, and handled the production design, set design, set decoration, and costume design herself. Shot on 35mm film by cinematographer M. David Mullen, it's incredible to look at, as it's meant to be a tribute to the Technicolor films of the '60s, and Biller and Mullen managed to capture the look and feel of that time perfectly. If someone were to catch sight of The Love Witch at pretty much any random moment, they could be forgiven for believing that the movie was actually made in the '60s or early '70s, the tribute is so convincing. It's only betrayed by the occasional appearance of a modern vehicle or a cell phone, at which point the characters look anachronistic in their own world.
The film centers on Elaine (Samantha Robinson), the love witch of the title, who is desperately looking for love after the death of her beloved Jerry. She tries to find new love by casting spells on the men around her, but that doesn't go well for anyone. The basic story is interesting enough and Robinson and her co-stars are pitch perfect with their throwback performances, but Biller allows the film to meander with lengthy scenes of people going on and on about witchcraft and gender roles.
Biller put so much into making The Love Witch, it makes sense that she was a bit too self-indulgent when she got into the editing room. The movie is 121 minutes long, but easily could have been cut down to a running time closer to 90 minute - and would have made for a much more enjoyable viewing experience if it had been. As it is, I would recommend checking it out just to see how Biller and Mullen were able to replicate that '60s/'70s style, but I would also warn any potential viewers that they're going to have to show The Love Witch some patience, because it does go on for too long.
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