It's not Marvel, it's Mar Vell

All I could think about while watching this solid entry in the MCU was the lyric from Outkast "so fresh and so clean clean." I wouldn't call this female-forward entry exactly a re-boot -- after all, it is not a Big Event Avengers movie, with a capital "A" -- but would call it a refreshing take on the 'Chapter 1' films that each character has gotten.

Not the extravagance and heavy philosophical trip that was the first Doctor Strange, but not as relatively light (pun intended) as Ant-Man, Captain Marvel I think strikes just the right chord. And, speaking of music, apparently the MCU is now surveying the decades: where Guardians of the Galaxy brought us back 70s Top 40, the playlist for Captain is, natch, decade-appropriate for a movie set in 1995. Tracks by Garbage, No Doubt and other female-fronted acts seem well matched to the subject matter here. Carol Danvers is "just a girl in the world" but, once she, in typical super-hero fashion, unleashes her powers, that is most certainly not "'all that (they) will let (her) be."

Note: the scene/music video where the fully-fleshed Captain Marvel kicks some Kree butt to the tune of the afore-mentioned No Doubt song is really marvelous.

I read a lot of highbrow film criticism and I know that, while critics take the MCU seriously, they are also pretty exhausted by its, well, corporate-ness. They bemoan the fact that, especially under Disney, it seems to have become something of a monster money machine, replicating itself seemingly for the main purpose of lining the parent company's coffers. I can't totally disagree, which is why Captain Marvel seems like an accomplishment. Especially as it came out right before the Epic Avengers: Endgame.

Here we have the origin story for one of the most powerful Marvel heroes of all. Starting in the present and both flashing back – through a neat trick of memory fragments – and recovering facts about her past, the film shows the present day “Vers” under the tutelage of her Kree special forces leader, played by the always wonderful Jude Law. Of course their mission will take them to Earth and of course it will involve trying to recover an important power source that if you have been following the complex narrative strands of the MCU plays an essential role in several of the films to date.

A series of plot reversals which I won’t spoil for anyone reading this review gets us to the Central Conflict of Captain Marvel: the Kree attempting to capture and wipe out the “terrorist” Scrolls and recovering the powerful power source. Resolving this, transforming Carol into Captain and having her fully unlock her powers is all accomplished nicely in just over two hours. That economy of story-telling should, itself, be cause for celebration.

Add to that the Oscar-winning Brie Larson who seems to really be enjoying herself, along with the usual cast of supporting characters and you have a solid addition to the MCU. Or just fun popcorn movie. Take your pick.

"Rebecca" and "My Cousin Rachel" it is not

I really wanted to like Jamaica Inn, considering that: 1) its Hitch; and 2) the source material is Daphne DuMarier. But, sadly, my second time watching this, Hitch's "last British film" my main reaction was Meh.

I guess I am not as much of a Film Classics expert as i would like to think myself. This is considered by many to be a Classic, and I guess if you really watch a lot of British films from the 30s and 40s, the over-acting and excessively stylized lighting, etc. makes sense. But, after just watching Hitchcock's next DuMarier entrant, Rebecca, and also the under-appreciated My Cousin Rachel i couldn't help but wonder what all the fuss is about Jamaica Inn.

I mean it is good, even great in some places. But, it is also kind of strange. I spent some time with the Criterion Collection DVD Extras for Rebecca, and learned that there was quite a lot of friction between David O. Selznick and Hitch over the initial treatment for Rebecca. Apparently Hitch and his writers wanted to do a lot of free adaptation, including having the opening scene take place on an ocean liner, where "I" and DeWinter actually meet before they spend time in Monte Carlo.

Maybe that explains what is going on here, where a pretty creepy, Gothic story about murderous "ship wreckers" on the Cornish coast is given touches of almost comic relief. The inimitable Charles Laughton, who could play comedy and drama equally deftly, seems to not be sure whether his Squire is a buffoon, or a murderous rich man. One of the early scenes in his dining hall plays like a combination of Downton Abbey and the Mira Nair Vanity Fair. And either the actor playing the "quasi-evil" (to coin a phrase) Jess doesn't seem to know whether to play the character slightly insane, or that was how the character was written. I haven't read the book, so I don't know.

The one really solid, positive point for Jamaica is the great Maureen O'Hara who, here is in her debut role, if you can believe it. But, actors and actresses have killed it in their debuts, as Audrey Hepburn and many others have shown. Weirdly, O'Hara's character falls for one of the smugglers who turns out to be a law enforcement agent (because that makes sense) and their relationship almost makes sense.

Almost.