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Another worthwhile small film you may not have heard of that I would like to praise is "Avengers: Endgame" which I re-watched last night with my infant son. (He wakes up and cries every ten minutes, I'm not going to watch "Ikiru.") Spoilers, but c'mon, now.
I generally like the MCU movies -- they're all extremely well made, well acted, and most of all, smart. For the most part, they solve the biggest problem with comic book adaptations, ie: comic books are essentially stupid.
(I love comic books! But people solving problems by dressing up in tights and punching other people is pretty stupid. For evidence: see any comic book movie made before, say, 2000.)
But there are touches in Endgame that make it not just an excellent entertainment but a really fine film. To wit: its emphasis on grief and trauma. Cap's support group, Barton's psychosis, Thor's dissolution, etc.
The way it emphasizes character along with action. The scene between Tony and his dad is as well written and acted as anything in a "serious" movie. Even Tony's farewell letter at the open is strong, adult stuff.
But primarily, it features something that most popular movies don't dare: actual sacrifice. First Natasha, then, quite powerfully, Tony. Think of all the movies you've seen in which the hero/ine gives up everything for someone else... but gets it back. (Eg, Jerry Maguire.)
But neither Tony or Nat come back. As Barton says, "It doesn't work that way." Not in real life, and for once, not in a fantasy. Hell, even Tolkien didn't have that courage and brought back Gandalf. (Although of course, he was a devotee of resurrections.)
The "Avengers... assemble" moment is the one you keep seeing memed On Here and it's great, powerful and satisfying and fun. But "I... am... Iron Man" is actually moving. And I love that those are his final words: no big Death Speech.
If you listened to our final "Nerdette Recaps Game of Thrones" podcast, you know I felt that epic should have ended the same way: with Jon sacrificing himself to save everyone else. "Endgame" provides the punch -- and the satisfaction -- I think they might have conjured.
And then there's a final sacrifice: Cap giving up his life as a superhero to live happily, and we presume quietly, without tights or punching people. In a genre which started and thrived as a fantasy of power for the powerless, giving up power voluntarily is revolutionary.
So bravo to the filmmakers and I hope they get to do something splashy next.
(Ooh, nobody hates this so far. Yay! And if you're a fan of comic books and haven't yet read Michael Chabon's "The Adventures of Kavalier and Klay" re-arrange your life so that is no longer the case, ASAP.)
