The Huckleberries Vol. 26 - Spider-Man: Brand New Day & Hadestown: The Musical

     Obviously we want to have an area for reviewing new films here at The Film Encomium, but we want to send a message with our methodology. That message is a simple one: Don’t forget about the fun. 

Yes, film can be transformative, prophetic, and groundbreaking. It can also be none of those things and still be a damn good time, and we want to validate both of those experiences. If you want to see the gold standard of pro-shot theater adaptations, it’s still hard to beat Lin-Manuel Mirand; but if you want to become well-rounded, you should also give proper respect to the contributions of Jon Watts.

It is from the balance of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn that we draw inspiration for the title of this section. Tom is clever; Tom is great. If there were one of those boys we were going to try to get into Harvard, it would be young Mr. Sawyer…but he will always need his Huckleberry. 

We all need our Huckleberries. Art needs its Huckleberries. Sometimes beauty is in the little things and reasoned reflection. Other times beauty is loud, bright, and bold. In the interest of providing our readers with a comprehensive experience, we are not willing to skip The Huckleberries. 

So, with that in mind, here are two exceptional flicks that dropped in theaters recently. The first will take you swinging swiftly into maturity. The second will take you on the long walk to heartbreak. Enjoy!

Spider-Man: Brand New Day -

Okay, folks. First off, sorry it took a while for us to get a review on the newest Spidey flick, but that’s because we have some rather extravagant statements to make about Brand New Day, and it required multiple viewings (including one round in 4DX), as well as some rumination before we were willing to put them out into the universe. Let’s start with the obvious big take: This is the best live-action Spider-Man film that has ever been made.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 stood as the gold standard of Spider-Movies for a long while, although 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home had arguably already dethroned it, and it’s still fair to think that none of the live-action iterations have caught up with Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. The newest entry will be hard to topple in a non-animated format, due in no small part to how intimately it is able to examine the iconic characters included in this adventure. There are intricacies to Peter Parker’s evolution which are easy to let slip between the cracks, and this film excels at bringing together the best common threads of his overarching storylines. 

In that regard, there is really one moment from Brand New Day that stands out to us. Actually, we are willing to go further and make another grand assertion: This scene is one the absolute best examples of character building in the entire MCU. Even though we don’t make any promise to avoid spoilers in these reviews, now seems like an appropriate time to throw in a pretty massive SPOILER ALERT because this would genuinely be an awful thing for someone to know before they see this movie for the first time.

You see, there is a moment in this film where Peter thinks he has rescued and is swinging away with MJ, and although she has actually been possessed by Jean Grey, he won’t piece that together until the end. While they are swinging, MJ is confidently and steadfastly staring down at the ground as it breezes past, despite the fact that we have seen in previous films how she has a severe phobia of the experience. This manages to build three characters at once, and pays off multiversal character development at the same time.

In the comics, Spider-Man is one of the most intelligent human beings in the entire Marvel Universe, yet nearly every single one of his adventures gets set off by him committing a totally bonehead mistake. Failing to notice this established trait is probably the best interpretation of Peter’s particular brand of numbskullery that we have ever witnessed on the silver screen. Furthermore, we have already established that MJ is a badass, even though she isn’t necessarily a badass in that way, which is totally fine. However, it is also important to note that Jean very much IS a badass in that particular way, which gives the audience some insight into her as an incoming character. On top of that all, this interaction gives Zendaya the chance to flex some of the most subtly brilliant acting work of the entire storyline.

A major belief we have at The Film Encomium is that superhero films have to be analyzed twice over: Once as an objective work as cinema, and again as a comic book adaptation. By the standards that the Martin Scorseses of the world judge filmmaking, there have been a small handful of comic movies that surpass Brand New Day. Yet, when dissected as an interpretation of comics, this is as good as any film ever has been. Truly a treat that needs to be experienced in theaters multiple times over.

Hadestown: The Musical -

Pro-shot adaptations of stage plays may be the wave of the future when it comes to adapting Broadway and West End productions into feature films. Over the years, there have been mixed results in the efforts of taking plays and turning them into movie versions of themselves. However, the output has been far more consistent when it comes to live recordings of the performances that have simply been shot for the big screen.

From back in the days of PBS single-camera recordings of the stage all the way up to Disney releasing a pro-shot version of Hamilton twice—once on Disney+ during the pandemic and then again five years later in theaters—this has been a trend that has been growing slowly but surely. The latest success is Hadestown: The Musical, the brainchild of Anaïs Mitchell, who also wrote the Hadestown stage play and corresponding book. Brett Sullivan comes on to direct this iteration, and does as well as any of his predecessors at finding little camera tricks and peeks behind the curtain to give the viewer as authentic an experience as possible. 

As is always the case, the show only shines the way it does because of the outstanding performances at its very core. Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada shine as the central couple—Orpheus and Eurydice. André De Shields and Amber Gray both dance around the peripheries of the storyline, keeping everyone else in line. Oh, and of course we can’t forget Patrick Page who (with the help of a stylishly designed walking boot) battles through a torn Achilles to come in and steal every scene he takes part in. 

Somehow managing to be simultaneously simple and grand, this is an entrancing experience for all fans of the stage. It maintains the magic and grants the audience an authentic interaction with a really touching piece. The theater kids amongst us should rejoice. Not only for another excellent entry into the catalogue of pro-shot adaptations, but also for the encouraging trend that this triumph represents.

~The Film Encomium~