Directed By Women: The Marvels (2023)

Marvel Studios

By Andrea Thompson

Just when I thought I was out, Disney pulls me back in.

I thought the superhero fatigue was real for me, so much so that I completely opted out of “Blue Beetle.” But Disney does what it does, and since it insists on continuing its now sprawling universe, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by “The Marvels.”

How could it be otherwise? “The Marvels” is a concept that’s still relatively rare for a Marvel Cinematic Universe offering that doesn’t go straight to streaming - it’s about a superheroine who gets backup from not just one, but two others in supporting roles, each with their own rich history and complexities. 

Teyonah Parris gets some needed development as Monica Rambeau, who finally gets to sort things out with Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), currently hanging out in space with Nick Fury (a very much missed from the big screen Samuel L. Jackson). 

But one of the most radical turns “The Marvels” takes is to make their story a continuation Kamala Khan’s (Iman Vellani), who has only recently taken up the Ms. Marvel moniker. Her miniseries of the same name is what is required viewing, not to mention the first Marvel product in a while to make me not only tear up, but reminisce at what it’s still possible to accomplish within corporate guidelines.

The Marvels” actually picks up where “Ms. Marvel” left off, with Carol finding herself transported to Kamala’s room, much to her confusion. This development is both central premise and running gag, with Carol, Kamala, and Monica switching places with each other whenever one of them uses their powers, which is justified by the sciencey explanation that it’s all because each of their abilities make use of light.

Marvel Studios

Either way, Iman Vellani is a standout, with her fangirling over Captain Marvel proving to be even more adorable than when Tom Holland’s Spider-Man first met Iron Man. In a time where the Marvel universe and multiverse and prequels and sequels seem to be on the verge of becoming an exhaustive, never-ending sprawl, Vellani might prove to be its savior. 

She is already its heart, since the movie is aware that Kamala is a package deal, with her family already proven to be so central that matriarch Muneeba Khan (Zenobia Shroff) is the one who creates her daughter’s on-screen superhero look, and patriarch Yusuf Khan (Mohan Kapur) is the inspiration behind his daughter’s decision to choose an alias that fuses her history and hero worship.

The Khans are the ones who emphasize how the simple act of trashing a house has serious consequences in a movie about traversing space and different realities. When Captain Marvel shows up, one of their first questions is whether she’s pressuring their daughter, and they are a centering influence even when they’re whisked from Earth to Fury’s base of operations.

So who cares that the actual plot of “The Marvels” is actually kind of a mess, with a premise that could be lifted straight from “Spaceballs”? With very few exceptions, it’s the heroes that are icons in this franchise, so Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) follows the usual pattern of being rather lackluster in comparison to the good guys, plotting to steal the atmosphere and suns of other worlds in order to revive her homeworld, which has been stripped of much of its wealth and resources. It’s so old school that the only development which veers slightly into originality is the climax involves a big beam of light in space rather than the plain ol’ sky. 

Thing is though, “The Marvels” is also old school in another, more unfortunate way, sticking to a thin veneer of heteronormativity to the point that Monica’s admission that she was just a kid who wanted her…aunt brings the kinds of tears that we can all see for what they really are. Because right, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were cousins, and Xena and Gabrielle were merely best friends. 😉

Marvel Studios

You wouldn’t think such pretense would be necessary in these times, but Captain Marvel is a heroine so queer-coded she brings her cat into space with her. Hell, “The Marvels” might actually be the closest thing the MCU has gotten to a queer party, with Tessa Thompson showing up for a Valkyrie cameo fabulously attired in a suit, and the central trio journeying to another planet where the language is based in song, and sees Carol dancing with a gorgeously androgynous prince.

If it seems like the movie ricochets in all kinds of directions, that’s because it does, and the result is a gorgeous mess that never loses its sense of fun. In that sense, it bears a passing resemblance to “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which saw communing with ants as the key to saving the universe. But that has nothing on one of the later developments of this movie, where otherworldly kittens prove to be the key to saving lives. Whoever thought of that particular development was either high, a genius, or possibly a combination of the two.

You’ll just have to see it to believe it, and it’s a kick to see a movie that proves Nia DaCosta is still the director of the excellent, woefully underseen “Little Woods” after the dismal experience that was the new “Candyman,” with “The Marvels” also written by women. It shows, and it also explains the exhaustively predictable backlash this one is earning. If you do give it a watch though, you might just get excited about what the MCU has in store for the first time in a very long time.

52 Films By Women: Eve's Bayou

By Andrea Thompson

Perception is everything, and “Eve's Bayou” is very aware of how the stories we tell our ourselves shape, and sometimes destroy, our lives. It seemed fitting that the first film I watched for Black History Month was also a delicately beautiful exploration of personal history.

It's no accident that many of the reviews and think pieces about “Eve's Bayou” also begin with the film's opening lines. They're thoughtful, insightful, and...startling, to say the least. “Memory is the selection of images, some elusive, other printed indelibly on the brain. The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old.”

How and why would such a thing occur? It first seems unlikely, or even unthinkable, as such developments often do. In their prosperous 1960s Louisiana Creole community, Eve's family stands out, in all the right ways. Her father Louis (Samuel L. Jackson) is a prominent, respected doctor, with a beautiful, loving wife Roz (Lynn Whitfield). Eve also has two other siblings, the teenage Cisely (Meagan Good), who is clearly her father's favored child, and a younger brother, Poe (Jake Smollett).

But the facade comes crashing down when Eve accidentally witnesses her father having sex with another woman. At first, it seems as if Louis is able to smooth things over, but things deteriorate as Eve discovers more evidence of Louis's constant unfaithfulness. Cisely refuses to believe any of it, leading to more conflict between the sisters and Cisely and Roz. This conflict becomes less surprising as we learn more about both mother and daughter. 14-year-old Cisely is eager to grow up and embrace her womanhood, and she is her elegant mother in miniature. She idolizes her father the way Roz once did.

“When I first met Louis, I watched him set a boy's leg who had fallen out of a tree,” Roz muses. And I said to myself, here's a man who can fix things. He's a healer, he'll take care of me. So I leave my family, and I moved to this swamp, and I find out he's just a man.”

With such turbulence at home, Eve natually searches for a safe haven, which she finds with her aunt Mozelle (Debbi Morgan). Mozelle has the gift of sight, which allows her to see everyone's future but her own, with all three of the men she loved having died. Her abilities are unquestionably real, magic being a regular part of the film's unique setting. Not all of it is benevolent, and it is to the less benevolent forces that Eve turns to after Cisely reveals that Louis tried to molest her one night, deeply traumatizing her. Eve then turns to a local witch to put a fatal curse on her father, which she soon regrets and tries to undo. Less easy to reverse are the hints she drops to the husband of the woman Louis is seeing.

Even in the midst of a vibrant time for black cinema, “Eve's Bayou” stands out for its compassion, and the riveting performances that make the stories of people's lives, in which love, sex, violence, and death are constantly interwoven, far more than sheer melodrama. Debbi Morgan is the film's standout, with Mozelle revealing herself to be as passionate as she is vulnerable, particularly when a new man brings love into her life, and she fears that their marriage would be the death of him. Writer-director Kasi Lemmons has become primarily known for her work as an actress, and watching her feature film debut, it feels like a loss. Lemmons imbues her story with a strong sense of Southern Gothic, effortlessly fusing the town's history, which claimed to be founded by a freed slave named Eve and the man who freed her, to the family at the film's center, who are their descendants.

The real tragedy of “Eve's Bayou” are Eve's realizations that the supposedly stalwart adults around her are just as frail and human as she is, especially her father, who has a different story about what happened between him and Cisely. He is no villain, merely a man with a deep need to be a hero, and to be seen as a hero to those around him, which ultimately proves his undoing. When our protectors, our trust, and even our memories, prove so unreliable, perhaps the only thing we can truly rely on is love, even if our loved ones are just as flawed and unsure as we are. The film ends with Cisely and Eve realizing that they may never truly know what happened, but they can nevertheless always find a kind of peace in the loving bond they share.