Fitter, happier

‘Where to Invade Next’ searches for solutions, 'Deadpool' brings R-rated grit to the Marvel Universe

“America is a country where competition rather than co-operation is praised, where it’s thought that society will benefit from people being set against each other.”
—Harvey Pekar, American Splendor

“Where to Invade Next” is something of a satirical road-trip film. It finds Michael Moore visiting several European countries at the behest of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who have conscripted Moore to see how European-style social democracies have adapted and successfully built upon ideas of governance, both corporate and legislative, that once were American ideals. His mission is to bring them back to the homeland.

In Italy they have more sex, in part because they have more vacation time: paid leave of seven weeks, plus holidays, honeymoon pay, generous maternity leave, and a bonus salary in December because, “What good is a vacation if you can’t afford to go on it?” They’re healthier and live longer as a result, which winds up costing their employers, and society, less.

Beyond good business, part of that philosophy is just about doing the right thing. Motorcycle manufacturer Ducati, for example, offers these benefits and is strongly unionized. The management couldn’t be happier. They simply can’t compute the advantage of being slightly richer at the expense of their employee’s well-being.

In France, school lunches are a multi-course gourmet affair deserving of a Frank Bruni review. Caprese salad. Farm fresh fruit. Scallops and curry and Lebanese lamb kebabs with couscous. Lunch is considered a class on how to eat well and prepare for a healthy life. Water, not soda. Real food, grown locally. Ironically, they spend less per lunch in public school than the U.S., and it’s not just the rich schools that enjoy this treatment. All schools eat this way.

Finland is renowned as the most educated country in the world (earlier I heard Donald Trump assert the same thing at a rally, to the approval of a group of Iowa Republicans seemingly bereft of the concept of cognitive dissonance). This is largely because they shortened the school week, abandoned standardized tests, and don’t assign homework because after school is the time for family, friends, exploring, and creating—you know, time for becoming a well-rounded person. They made tuition illegal, so all public schools have to be the best. Children from different backgrounds can learn to be civil to each other.

The list goes on. The matter-of-factness about Sex Ed leads to fewer teen pregnancies and lowered STD rates, everywhere. Drug decriminalization in Portugal lowered usage, incarceration, and crime rates, costing society less money. The 36-hour work week in Germany results in higher productivity and a more robust economy (and no one can accuse them of being lazy). Iceland prosecuted the bankers behind the 2008 meltdown, instituted strong regulations, and put more women in charge (they being more risk averse). Their economy is thriving as a result. In Norway, prison recidivism rates are amongst the lowest in the world because incarceration is considered rehabilitation, not punishment. The conditions of their prisons are closer to clinics, like the proverbial “Club Fed.” Turns out there’s a societal value in not treating people like animals—an idea that wouldn’t survive the status quo bug zapper of the conservative mindset, where if something isn’t working then the answer is to do more of it. Harder.

Are these places utopian? Nope. Every place has its problems. As Moore says, “My mission is to pick the flowers, not the weeds.” That’s the point of “Where to Invade Next.” This isn’t an incendiary polemic suffering from selective amnesia to prove a point. This is a wry nudge in the ribs. Moore has been guilty of being misleading in his approach in the past, but facts can speak for themselves (and you really don’t need to be a part of Moore’s choir to find these things out). 

His point is a sincerely delivered truth: societies that work together as opposed to dividing themselves along partisan, religious or economic lines are happier and more successful. Even here, we can make those advancements, and with sometimes surprising speed. 

“Where to Invade Next” opens at Circle Cinema February 12.

Ryan Reynolds stars in 'Deadpool'

Visceral, vulgar

Just when I was suffering from superhero burnout, along comes “Deadpool.”

“The Avengers” arc has gone on for almost a decade and we’ve only just entered the phase of Marvel films with characters likely unknown to general audiences. Everyone has heard of Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Captain America. But, franchises like “Guardians of the Galaxy” (which turned out to be a hit), “Ant-Man,” and “Doctor Strange”? Not so much.

With the frequency of one or two films a year and the tedium that comes with these never-ending series—Marvel Studios needed to do something different. With “Deadpool,” they did.

The story is straightforward. Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is an anti-social, former special ops soldier who has entered into a life of low-level crime, when he meets and falls in love with Vanessa (“Firefly’s” Morena Baccarin), the proverbial hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold.

Learning he has an aggressive form of cancer, Wilson inadvertently becomes a part of a Weapon X-like program (the kind responsible for Wolverine’s adamantium-reinforced skeleton and trademark claws). Their emissary (Jed Rees) convinces Wilson that they can not only cure his cancer, but make him a superhero.

The agonizing procedure, administered with requisite glee by the evil Ajax (Ed Skrein), indeed does more than cure Wilson’s cancer. It gives him hyper-accelerated healing and regenerative abilities, and incredible stamina. But it also scourges his flesh like napalm (“You look like the inside of other people’s assholes,” observes his best friend, Weasel, played by T.J. Miller) while also driving him slightly (more?) insane.

Wilson, armed with newfound invincibility and a headful of anger, fashions a costume and becomes Deadpool—seeking vengeance on Ajax, the only man who can return him to his former self and consequentially to Vanessa.

“Deadpool” is a bit character from the X-Men universe and Reynolds portrayed him once before in the flagrantly awful “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Here, he’s backed by Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), mutants from Professor Xavier’s school who are trying to recruit Deadpool to X-Men. I hope one day we get an “X-Men” film with Deadpool, if only out of curiosity to see how, or if, they stay true to the character established here while maintaining a PG-13 rating.

The opening title sequence immediately sets the subversive tone by crediting the script to “Two Douchebags,” also known as Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The opening attack on Ajax’s convoy is bloody, brutal, and hilariously narrated by Deadpool’s wise-ass, f-bomb-laden internal monologue as he annihilates Ajax’s henchmen one by one, mostly while airborne in a tumbling SUV.

Stylistically, it’s as if “Deadpool” were a mutant baby birthed of a ménage between Matt Vaughn (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”), Neveldine and Taylor (“Crank”), and Lord and Miller (“21 Jump Street”). The violence is unapologetic. The action sequences are artfully visceral; the fights connect with the viewer like a fork in an electrical socket. The humor, which mostly works, ranges from crass dick jokes to sharp, meta-satirical jabs at its characters and the nature of superhero franchise filmmaking, often delivered through Deadpool’s trademark breaking of the fourth wall.

The story unfolds in elegant onion-like layers, with flashbacks lending the proceedings a propulsive, kinetic pace, though we pretty much know how this manic drama will turn out. Former animator Tim Miller’ direction—this is his feature debut—is breakneck and well-calibrated, stuffing the screen with visual details capturing mayhem while never devolving into the spatially incomprehensible clutter of pixels it could have been.

Ajax is a fairly ineffectual villain, along with his sidekick, Angel Dust (Gina Carano), but most Marvel villains tend to be kind of lame (Thanos needs to stop sitting around on that intergalactic space chair and do some shit already). Unfortunately, Deadpool’s sidekicks are underwhelming, too. Colossus is bungled and Negasonic Teenage Warhead would be better off in in a band of the same name.

I had zero investment going into “Deadpool,” and am not the biggest fan of Reynolds’ smarmy, coked-out persona. But, he’s finally gotten the good superhero movie he’s tried so hard to find and he owns the character, selling the fights with aplomb while being his typically sarcastic self. His swinging for the fences here sells the movie.

“Deadpool” is a lot of fun, which probably has as much to with the novelty of it being the first truly vulgar Marvel movie as anything else. When Stan Lee makes his customary cameo as a DJ in a sleezy, fully nude strip club, you know you’re not at Stark Tower anymore.

For more from Joe, read his reviews of "Carol" and Youth."