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Social justice warriors argue that "Straight White Male" ought not to be a default setting and they're right - it's a wide & diverse world. Arguably nowhere is this default more set in stone than in superhero movies.
I actually rushed out to see Deadpool this weekend because it promised to be something different in this regard. This, despite no real desire to see the movie since the hard obnoxious sell felt like flop sweat (though it sure as hell worked and no flopping occurred). I didn't end up reviewing the film but this piece I wrote for Towleroad is as close as I got. It's called "Pansexual Antihero or Gaybaiting Joke?" because the buzz surrounding the smart ass mutant's sexual desires is empty.
Here's an excerpt but I hope you'll read the whole thing...
Deadpool fits comfortably in the X-verse, being a mutant, but also by selling the troubled 'otherness' that is the X-Men's chief inclusive draw for moody adolescents and beyond. He's neither hero nor villain, but an amoral guy who discovers he has cancer. His superpowers are unlocked through a sadistic experiment to rid himself of the cancer which leaves him badly disfigured but incapable of being killed. This anti-hero has been described as "omnisexual" by the writer of his comic and the media has consistently referred to him at "pansexual". But is he either of those things, or just a typical straight guy who loves a good dick joke?
Breaking News: Superhero fatigue has NOT set in after all, goddamnit. The extreme negativity that greeted the arrival of Fantastic Four 3ish and Avengers 2 last summer suggested that we were on the brink but along comes Deadpool proving everyone still wants the spandex supers... even B list supers from Fox (!). Warner Bros and Marvel are probably breathing sighs of relief given that Clark vs Bruce and Steve vs Tony are opening soon and have budgets so gargantuan they'll need the continued fervor to sustain them. But more on those later. The crowd I saw Deadpool with seemed really into it but more on that later. More. Later. More. Later. God, it's like a movie trailer in here tonight --- "COMING SOON!"
WIDE BOX OFFICE 01Deadpool $135 new 02 Kung Fu Panda 3$19.6 (cum. $93.9) 03 How To Be Single$18.7 new 04 Zoolander 2$15.6 new 05 The Revenant$6.9 (cum. $159.1) Costumes, Cinematography,Production Design
LIMITED RELEASE excluding previously wide 01 Where to Invade Next$1 new 308 screens Review & 2nd Opinion 02 The Lady in The Van$.5 (cum. $1.9) 130 screens Review 03 45 Years $.4 (cum $2.7) 237 screens Podcast 04 Carol$.1 (cum. $12.1) 141 screens Top Ten List 05 The Danish Girl$.08 (cum. $10.7) 88 screens Interview Alicia
I took in both How to be Single and Deadpool and also emptied my DVR (hey, it was freezing in NYC) so I'm caught up w/ Younger, Teachers, The Fosters, The Flash, and I also sampled SyFy's The Magicians and liked it... and not just because Arjun Gupta is the prettiest.
Gothamist the first look teaser at Martin Scorsese's new HBO series Vinyl starring Bobby Cannavale (just how many tv shows are going to be about the music business post Empire? it seems like there's at least 3 new ones on the way from reports. This, Baz's, and Lee Daniel's second). Speaking of... Coming SoonEmpire Season 2 has a teaser i09 Agent Carter's villain in seaon 2 will be Madame Masque -- and get this... they're modelling her on movie siren Hedy Lamar!
Playbill Shoshana Bean singing "The Wind Beneath My Wings" - she's starring in the pre Broadway stage musical adaptation of Beaches Yahoo "Kirsten Dunst is tired, you guys" THR What if Werner Herzog directed Ant-Man? HAHA FSR 44 Fantastic Foursomes because the Fantastic Four aren't Signs and Sirens has a mean girl astrological note to Jennifer Aniston Variety Josh Trank blames studio for Fantastic Four's abysmal reviews E! Awww, matching foot injuries for Kelly Ripa and Marc Consuelos Coming SoonBlack Mass just got a bunch of character posters Playbill talks to Mamie Gummer about working with her mother and her recent stage appearances THR What if Werner Herzog directed Ant-Man?! HAHAHA
He can lift things 100 times his body weight but what does this achieve but to increase his burden, his capacity for suffering?"
Edward Norton Once Turned Green When You Made Him Angry... He is also angry about Oscar turning green. I know I know. I did not say anything about Edward Norton's rant against the monetization of awards season at IndieWire and surely you expected me too. So here we go.
While there is definitely too much politicking / campaigning and Oscar might do well to cut off a few of its competitors at the knees with tighter rules about campaigning, do we really want to lose a great deal of the Oscar coverage in the world? Again, as a reminder, it's the only time of the year when the media pays attention to films made for adults. I believe that the media frenzy would die down if there were less money to be made. And then were would movie culture be? Superheroes, dumb comedies, franchises and summer blockbusters already hog movie culture for the rest of the year. It's nice to have four months where people think about dramas and dramedies and ambitious auteur vehicles and traditional star vehicles and such. (Some of us -- the craziest ones -- would still obsess without money to be made as we have always... but most outlets would reduce coverage on these films if there were less money in it).
That said, I do understand why actors get frustrated; It's a huge chunk of their year when they would surely rather be acting or vacationing on their private island or whatnot. But there are easy solutions to that one like not showing up at every event but picking and choosing key ones. Everyone seems too afraid to miss anything which is silly because there are only a few essentials. Everything else is like cumulative effect and going to 7 things instead of 10 won't kill people's interest in you or your film or your chances at winning gold. That's my belief at least.
Yes No Maybe So Here's the red band trailer to Deadpool. I don't have the strength for a YNMS but perhaps you do for the comments section? I think I've been burned by Ryan Reynolds too many times and anything originally born from that awful X-Men Origins Wolverine risks being inexcusable from conception but bless him/them/someone for that joke at Green Lantern's expense
Anne Marie here to wrap things up. With SDCC-regular Marvel Studios absent this year and Star Wars: The Force Awakens dominating like the geek culture behemoth it is, the race was on for who or what would take the #2 most buzzworthy spot in San Diego. Chastain showed up for Crimson Peak, Bruce Campbell was groovy in Ash vs the Evil Dead, but the most uncontested winner of second best was... Ryan Reynolds?
Yes, everyone's favorite B+ lister, who we at TFE Posterized just recently, was the antihero fans went mad for in the Deadpool panel. The obscenity-laced trailer for 20th Century Fox's R-rated superhero flick is probably the most universally-lauded moment of the con, drawing thunderous applause and virtually no social media backlash.
Of course, 100,000 geeks are at best a niche market, and, as studios have learned in the past, a standing ovation in San Diego does not necessarily translate into worldwide box office. We'll have to wait a little longer to see the first trailer of the Merc with the Mouth, but until then, do you believe the hype?
Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 8:02PM 
Social justice warriors argue that "Straight White Male" ought not to be a default setting and they're right - it's a wide & diverse world. Arguably nowhere is this default more set in stone than in superhero movies.
