film
First Epic Films
Firsts for DC and Captain Underpants By Br yan VanC ampe n Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins; Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, directed by David Soren; both playing at Ithaca Stadium 14.
T
he superhero genre is undergoing gold rush fever right now, but it’s mostly been a sausage party. My Facebook friends and I could only come up with a few female-driven comic movies: Supergirl (1984), Red Sonja (1985), Witchboard (1986), Tank Girl (1995), Barb Wire (1996) and Elektra (2005). Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman isn’t just the highest-grossing opener for a female-directed movie, but it’s also a rip-roaring, fun and touching adventure. Everything that Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice got completely wrong, Wonder Woman gets resoundingly right. To be fair, Wonder Woman did have her own TV series in the ’70s, a 2009 DC animated feature and two great seasons of the animated Justice League, but the sheer scale and size of the new film is truly impressive. Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) man-
ages to work out her origin story on the female-only island of Themyscira, introduce stranded spy pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) as a love interest and this sends her on her first outing into the real world to help Trevor fight in WWI. So as a bonus of sorts, we get two fish-outwater stories: Trevor is utterly out of place in her world, and she’s utterly out of place in his world. Pine knows comedy, but Gadot reveals a sweet light touch as Wonder Woman (disguised as Diana Prince) discovers 20th century items like women’s clothing and the taste of ice cream. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the story. This is a great popcorn entertainment that features a strong, resilient heroine, hissable Nazi bad guys headed by the great Danny Huston, great supporting characters and the kind of femaleempowerment tale that resets the gender pendulum in a new direction
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I wasn’t familiar with the Captain Underpants books by Dav Pilkey when I took in a screening of Captain Underpants: The
First Epic Movie. I guess I was expecting a goofy kids’ comic book movie that would pair up nicely with Wonder Woman, but it’s really about two hyperactive fourth-grade best friends (voiced by Kevin Hart and Thoma Middleditch) and the Captain Underpants comic books they make together. I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie as zippy and ADD as this one. The story rushes through all manner of visual styles, from the old textbook flip-books some of us doodled during detention to the boys’ homemade markers-and-Sharpie comic book panels to a sequence where the boys are rendered as sock puppets. There’s a headlong momentum that’s almost dizzying; as the kids hypnotize their angry high school principal (Ed Helms) into thinking that he’s the real Captain Underpants, an evil genius inventor (Nick Kroll) posing as the school’s new science teacher invents a ray gun to stop all childrens’ laughter because he has the unfortunate name of Professor Poopypants.
Wonder Woman in action (Photo provided)
About that: I’m not sure when toilet humor started to infiltrate family films. Some slip it in here and there, and most aren’t that funny. I think I can safely say that Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is the apotheosis of bodily function gags, and they pile it on with no apology. There’s even a giant robot toilet reminiscent of the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. This may not be parents’ cup of sludge, but I’ll admit that I laughed a lot and was reminded of something a studio executive once said to Mel Brooks regarding Blazing Saddles: “Mel, if you’re gonna go up to the bell, ring it.” •
SIT DOWN YOU’RE ROCKIN’
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SIT DOWN YOU’RE ROCKIN’ THE BOAT
SIT DOWN YOU’RE ROCKIN’
MARCH412-- 18 APRIL 2 JUNE
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“A powerful AGES 16+ meditation on social responsibility and personal redemption.” ~Ithaca Times
SIT DOWN YOU’RE ROCKIN’ THE BOOOOOAAAAAT!
BY LAURA EASON
Green Fairy Fennel 40” x 60”, Acrylic on Canvas
DIRECTED BY RACHEL LAMPERT
Resilient Nature
L a u r e L H e c H t Pa i n t i n g s Unique Vision of Nature OPENING June 9, 5:00-8 pm, June 9 – June 30, 2017 Community Arts Partnership, CAP ArtSpace Center Ithaca, 171 The Commons, Ithaca, NY 14850
STARRING:
BE THERE.
DARIAN DAUCHAN* BY BRIAN DYKSTRA
JUNE 7 - 28
MERRY-GO-ROUND PLAYHOUSE AUBURN, NY
1-800-457-8897
FINGERLAKESMTF.COM Th e
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LEEANNE HUTCHISON* DIRECTED BY MARGARETT PERRY** *Member AEA with Brian Dykstra*, Vince Gatton*, and Lori Prince*
Central New York’s *member, AEA **member, Off-Broadway Theater SDC TICKETS: 607.272.0570 WWW.KITCHENTHEATRE.ORG 417 W. STATE / MLK JR. STREET /
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