How Come You're Not THAT Guy?

...there were these strange commercials about a year ago for a new film that seemed to have a cameo from every actor on the planet. Even in the trailer, the jokes looked on-the-nose and hacky, but performed by Halle Berry raised an eyebrow. When Movie 43 finally hit the theater, critics universally panned every inch of it. It was called scatological, juvenile and unfunny and it sold itself as such. Still, I was curious. Not enough to throw away $12 and an afternoon, but curious nonetheless.

Recently, Movie 43 appeared on Netflix. No great surprise. Aside from bombing in the theater, I don't think it was a big seller in on DVD either. But Netflix makes even the most universally reviled screenplay as painless to sample as it will ever get. So yes, my curiosity won and I queued Movie 43 up last night. And yes, it is as absolutely terrible as was warned. Seeing Hugh Jackman with a male scrotum attached to his neck wears fast and any sense of irony, absurdity or other is replaced by confusion at best. Still, while the temptation to slam it as this or that, I have to just chalk it up to myself just not being in the target audience.

What makes me kind of sad as it pertains to Movie 43 is that amongst the army of sketch directors lies Griffin Dunne. Many people might not think much of his name. In truth, I have only seen a few of his films myself. Griffin Dunne was Michael Keaton's younger brother in Johnny Dangerously which was great in and of itself. He also was the star of a somewhat forgotten Martin Scorsese film called After Hours.

Somewhere between Raging Bull and The Last Temptation Of Christ, After Hours was Martin Scorsese trying to accomplish something a little different. While still dark in its way, After Hours was a comedy. Without launching into a full blown review, namely due to my not having watched it in awhile, Griffin Dunne was incredibly good in After Hours. It was a one-man journey through a night in New York that no one could ever believe unless they were there. It is smart, weird, dark, slightly uncomfortable and funny. Knowing just these few things makes me wonder how Mr. Dunne went from working with the master to balls on Wolverine's chin.

 

...pulp fiction has a strange distinction of being a mainstream term because of the Tarantino film and its legacy and also rippling in the underground. For the mainstream, the term "pulp fiction" refers to the film and the comeback of John Travolta. For the varying degrees of those who dig, pulp fiction is Jim Thompson, Raymond Chandler, Black Lizard, Amazing Stories, comic books and The Spider. 

In the realm of comics, pulps and noir inform the medium in a massive way. Batman alone is steeped very deep in the pulp cauldron. If you follow the trail backwards, the comics influenced the films that influenced the comics that influenced the pulps and noir and on. Each medium borrowed and elevated the other at all times. Sometimes, something contemporary just goes directly for the origin for a straight homage that feels wholly inventive. Such is the case with Francisco Francavilla's The Black Beetle.

Everything about The Black Beetle is dripping with thick pulpy goodness. From the minimalist narrative writing to the wackiness of the characters on all sides of the divide to the simple, yet completely mesmerizing Mario Bava influenced use of color, The Black Beetle feels like a 1940's action serial in hardcover. An argument can be made that the storytelling is somewhat disjointed and fractured at times. Characters will pop in and out with no apparent reason, sometimes offering no assistance to the story. However, when you examine these knicks from a step back, you get the sense that this was the intent all along.

The book itself is a work of art - a printed hardcover that calls to mind the stills of The Green Hornet or The Crimson Ghost. You knew that this would be larger than life in a purposely ham-fisted manner, but you buy this title for that very reason. The Black Beetle is not read for realism or emotional highs and lows. You buy The Black Beetle because it is far-fetched. It is unrealistic. It is tongue-in-cheek. But mostly, you buy it because it is quite good.

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