Roger Deakins had better fucking win this year!

Not a whole lot went on this weekend … other than lots of movies (not all of which I am going to talk about)!

I finally got to see Strike a Pose, the 2016 “where-are-they-now” documentary about the backup dancers that were featured on Madonna‘s Blonde Ambition Tour (and documentary Truth or Dare). As a young, closeted gay man, Truth or Dare (and the dancers) made a big impression on me. It was great (and sometimes heartbreaking) to see what where life has taken those dancers. I recommend this for fans of Madonna and Truth or Dare.

I was expecting Only the Brave to sledgehammer you with sentimentality. But it didn’t. This movie tells a compelling and tragic story without getting overly manipulative. Yeah. I knew what was going to happen and I still cried at the end.

I saw Black Panther yesterday. It’s a pretty good comic book movie. While not the best Marvel movie, it’s certainly near the top of the list. The best part, for me, were all the kick ass female characters. I could watch a whole movie of just Nakia, Okoye. and Shuri. They rocked!

And, I got to spend $$ on a new power adapted for my Macbook Pro. Something tells me that I shouldn’t be using the old one. Yikes!

We saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi on Monday night. I liked it … with a few caveats.

I liked that The Last Jedi has a more complex take on the characters. It’s not all “black and white,” as characters variously struggle with loss of faith in themselves, fear about how their actions have affected and will affect future events (for the worse), issues about trust, and issues about ego and hubris. There are lots of shades of grey. I would argue that The Last Jedi is a directly informed by the self-obsessed/Trump-ian times we live in.

The action in this movie is really well done. The centerpiece lightsaber fight is spectacular and quite possibly the best one in the series. AND .. there’s a moment involving Vice Admiral Holdo that is visually the coolest thing I have seen on a movie screen all year.

And, yes. There were some things I didn’t like. There’s a moment involving Leia that comes out of nowhere and is very “WTF?!” that I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around. Maybe it was more execution that made it weird. Finn’s subplot seemed a little like a detour just to give the character something to do. I understand what they were going for, it just seemed to eat up a lot of screen time for the “message” that results from it. The first moments with Luke in the movie is problematic in the way it is staged. Again, I understand what is being gone for but the execution robs this moment of any gravitas. It plays like a cheap joke (and maybe that is what they were going for).

Past that, I think The Last Jedi is pretty damn solid.

It’s been interesting to see fan reaction to this movie. The way some people are reacting, you would think Rian Johnson had personally murdered their mother. It’s all about subverted expectations. I guess I am a little less invested since years of abuse by George Lucas have somewhat deadened my excitement for all things Star Wars. Personally, I was happy to see Johnson do something unexpected with the story/characters. Otherwise, The Last Jedi would just be a retread of themes we have already seen in (at least six) other Star Wars movies.

And now … my (self-obsessed) ranking of the Star Wars movies.
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope | Rogue One
3, The Force Awakens | The Last Jedi
4. Return of the Jedi
5. The Phantom Menace | Attack of the Clones | Revenge of the Sith