Five years ago, the orgy of cameos that was Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with a surprisingly heartbreaking twist. With the help of Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and a CGI budget big enough to fund a microstate, Tom Holland's Spider-Man made everyone forget that he was Peter Parker under the mask, a sacrifice that would save the world from an onslaught of villains from across the multiverse (for reasons), but also damn him to a lonely future without his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best pal Ned (Jacob Batalon). It was also a nuclear-grade factory reset, allowing Sony and Marvel to approach their most lucrative character with a clean slate.
The result is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a back-to-basics sequel that feels as self-contained - and actually driven by emotion, plus something approaching "a plot", rather than just a ton of random character appearances - as Marvel movies can get. And thank God: finally, some good fucking food. The film picks up with Spidey having launched into his work as New York's premier spandex-clad crimestopper, swinging around, beating people up, and bringing the city's crime rate to a historic low. A new director has also stepped up in the form of Shang-Chi's Destin Daniel Cretton, and his über-stylish mark is apparent from the off: we get killer POV shots of Spidey soaring through the streets (call it Spider-Man: Maverick), and, more broadly, the most inventive visual approach since the halcyon days of the Sam Raimi movies.
Still, Spidey is lonely as hell, both battling the trauma of having lost his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) - killed by the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) in No Way Home, in case you could forget that movie's biggest gut punch - and pining for his old friends, watching them go through college without him via Ned's Instagram. He could reach out, as he once promised, but he knows it would put them at risk; he blames himself for May's death, and couldn't live with them also being hurt. Wanting to protect the ones we care about, even if it means enormous self-sacrifice, is something we can all understand. That the film resultantly feels so grounded and heartfelt despite being obviously shot on a bazillion green screens is really quite impressive.
He does, eventually, reunite with MJ and Ned, pretending to be a "friendly neighbour" at their post-uni flatwarming. Turns out that Ned is the city's biggest Spider-Man nerd, having built an entire app made to track the webslinger in real time. MJ remembers meeting Spider-Man countless times, but can't exactly place why. Though Peter stops short of revealing his identity at this point, and he is effectively playing a stranger, having the three on-screen together again is a reminder of how essential their dynamic has been to the Holland Spidey movies. They're having a great time together, and it makes for a great, heartwarming hang, especially in the inevitable scenes in which the mask finally slips.
There is a bigger plot surrounding all of this personal conflict, and other Marvel characters make their obligatory cameo appearances, though they make more for fun additions than shoe-horned distractions. Jon Bernthal is killer as a 12A-muzzled (but still pretty sweary) version of TV's The Punisher, an unlikely frenemy who contrasts Spidey's boyish charm with grizzled, nihilistic grit, giving their scenes the vibe of a classic buddy comedy. While tracking down the big villain, Spidey consults with another major name from the Marvel new gen in her "office", which turns out to be a grimy Russian bathhouse. (A highlight: her mention that weirdos on the internet are making gay Spider-Man porn. Just like real life!) Mark Ruffalo turns up as Bruce "The Hulk" Banner, and you're never going to say that a movie needs less Ruffers, are you?
That's all good, and I'd be very game for some more Spidey-Punisher team ups. But all of the best stuff in the film comes from the emotional conflict echoing from that No Way Home cliffhanger. Peter is torn apart - and quite literally transformed, his arachnid DNA mutating because of his heartbreak - by the pain of having to hide himself from his old friends, giving Holland the platform to do some of his most affecting work yet (in anything, let alone a Spider-Man film). And when the reunion finally comes, it hits like a bittersweet kick to the teeth. Lemme tell ya: that half-decade was worth the wait.
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The Odyssey should've been gayer
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PRIME VIDEO
THE LONG WALK
At Comic-Con this past weekend, Industry alum David Jonsson was announced as the next Black Panther. It's a crazy good choice - and his talents are front-and-centre in this gnarly Stephen King adaptation about a group of American boys in a dystopian near-future who take part in a deadly game show.
HBO MAX
WEAPONS
A twisty horror-mystery from emerging genre master Zach Cregger, in which a classroom full of kids goes missing in small-town America. A lot funnier than that sounds.
NETFLIX
SPIDER-MAN 2
Sam Raimi's second Spider-Man, in which Tobey Maguire faces off against Alfred Molina's maniacal Doc Ock, is still the gold standard in comic-book filmmaking (even if, nostalgia be damned, Maguire is the third-best of the major movie Spideys).
BBC IPLAYER
OPPENHEIMER
It won a ton of Oscars, but if you need the reminder: a chilling three-hour biopic about the guy who invented the atomic bomb, and then felt pretty bad about it, made in the epic way that only Christopher Nolan could. |
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Pretty much everyone I've spoken to about The Odyssey has come away saying the same thing: British arthouse legend Samantha Morton, who has about 10 minutes of screen time as the mythical witch Circe, is the out-and-out cast MVP. GQ spoke to her about how the role came her way; when she met Christopher Nolan for the first time, she was struck by how ordinary he was, given his mystique as a genius filmmaker. "I couldn't believe that he was just so normal in a way, like Paul McCartney," she said. "Like, how can you be a genius, how do you keep coming up with the goods, how do you maintain that level of sincerity, and focus, and commitment to your craft, and retain your feet firmly on the ground?" |
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FABIEN FRANKEL IS OBSESSED WITH... ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN |
"I'm such a massive Bourdain person - just obsessive, to be honest. [But I] watched Roadrunner two months ago, and I was just blown away by it." |
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