Benjamin Bratt – Tripping Through Gateways

Miguel comes from a family that has erased music…and their great, great grandfather… fro the collective memories. But Miguel loves music. He wants to sing like his idol, the late Ernesto De La Cruz. On the Day of the Dead, Miguel decides to take to heart De La Cruz’s motto of seizing your moment by performing a song at the talent show that evening.

When his grandmother discovers him with his guitar, she smashes it, angering Miguel. He discovers that his unknown great great grandfather is actually De La Cruz and so, after being unable to obtain a guitar from other musicians, he tries to borrow the guitar from his great great grandfather’s crypt. Suddenly, he finds himself invisible to all around him…until he runs into skeletal beings…who seem to recognize him. Miguel finds his relatives who have died have come to visit the land of the living for the celebration of the Day of the Dead.

He is brought back to the Land of the Dead, where his family works to get him back to the land of the living. His Great Great Grandmother Mamá Imelda was held back by by their being no picture of her set out for the Day of the Dead. When they find out that this is the fault of Miguel, she gifts him the blessing to return…but with the condition that he never seek to play music again. Miguel cannot help himself and ends up back in the Land of the Dead. But instead of accepting his Mamá Imelda’s blessing again, he refuses and seeks to find his Great Great Grandfather De La Cruz, certain he will give him the blessing he so needs, without condition. A con artist named Hector offers to help Miguel get to him in exchange for bringing his picture back to the land of the living and setting it out for the Day of the Dead. But they are racing against time. His family is trying to find him both in the Land of the Dead and the Land of the Living, and if he does not get back before sunrise? Miguel will be stuck in the Land of the Dead forever.

One might gripe that there is little about this story that is new. Many, many times we have seen the story of the young kid or character who is out of step with their family or society in general. Pixar and animated kid movies have capitalized on this notion of the kid (or kid at heart) who has a dream and it really falls on the family (or society) to learn how wrong they were. And there are elements of that here. His family reasons for erasing the existence of his Great Great Grandfather are understandable. He walked away from the family…from his wife and daughter…never to be seen again.

But Coco has a much greater lesson for both Miguel and his family. Miguel must learn how important his family truly is to him. Both Hector and Mamá Imelda express a disdain for musicians, and yet harbor beautiful talent. We find both have been hurt by the musician’s life.

The infusion of music to the film is an infusion of emotion and life (I honestly cannot picture another artistic love for Miguel that would feel quite as powerful here). The songs connect us to Miguel, Mamá Imelda, Hector and De La Cruz.

Visually, the Land of the Dead is so celebratory and vibrant, it pulls you in, and the character designs allow for the quick adjustment to the fact that Hector is surrounded by decorative skeletons that are fun to watch.

Coco is a wonderfully beautiful fest for the eyes that is full of heart.

Every now and then, Marvel Studios opts for a riskier venture for their tent-pole pictures. In some cases, such as Thor, the risk is levied by the Avenger’s Connection. But sometimes, that connection is much thinner. Guardians of the Galaxy and now Doctor Strange.

And what we have here is another Guardians of the Galaxy result. Doctor Strange is an exciting, emotional, funny trip of a film. Benedict Cumberbatch carries an arrogance early on in the film. Stephen Strange is a truly prideful man, but he has very carefully crafted an image. When that is all taken away, at the end of his rope, he finds a man that had, similarly faced bodily destruction and appeared to have fully recovered. He is pointed towards Katmandu and a place called Kamar-Taj. There he encounters the Ancient One who, with her followers Mordo and Wong, begin to train Strange.

Meanwhile, the rebel Kaecilius and his disciples are trying to for ever alter reality. Doctor Strange finds himself in the “New York Branch” which leads to battles with Kaecilius and his minions. With Strange Mordo and Wong coming to a final fight with Kaecilius.

The movie manages to skirt the line of seriousness, but an undercurrent of humor. The humor is dryer than other Marvel films, but it works, as often Strange finds his attempts at humor falling flat with Wong. There is a fun payoff with that one.

It is hard to ignore the impressive visuals. Early trailers made things look like it was ripping off Inception. But Derrickson and his team actually gave us much more. The film brings to life those trippy multidimensional visuals that Steve Ditko drew in the 60’s with a beautiful and lush feel.

There has been a lot of controversy over the issue of Tilda Swinton playing the Asian One. In the comics the character was Asian. And yeah, it was a pretty blatant “Mystical Asian” stereotype. Which is what resulted in the choice to cast Swinton. The film does overcome this. But as written? They easily could have cast and Asian actor in the role. There are not a ton of major roles for Asian actors. Avoiding stereotypes is done in the script and performance. And I believe this film would have successfully avoided the stereotype, without making one less role for Asian actors. I do not believe racism was at Derrickson and his casting teams heart. I suspect it was an attempt to avoid the very issue of racism. I think they made a choice I would not. But Swinton is entertaining in the film.

Doctor Strange is one of Marvel’s strongest entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is certainly yet another origin story, but it is handled so very well. It also has no requirement that you be familiar with the character. You can enter the film with zero knowledge of the character and fully enjoy this film.

Tag: Benjamin Bratt

To Not Be Forgotten (Coco, 2017)

Something Strange Going On That Wasn’t Here Before (Doctor Strange, 2016)