Superman, Standardized Patients, and the Ol' Slow Ball
Lori Felker's Patient tonight at ArtLitLab, Eephus at Bartell on Saturday, and my preliminary thoughts on Superman.
Click here for Now Showing in Madison, July 15–July 21, 2025
Tonight! Lori Felker presents short Patient at Arts + Literature Laboratory, 7pm
Arts + Literature Laboratory welcomes filmmaker Lori Felker to present her short film, Patient (2023). The film will be followed by a discussion on empathy and healthcare between the director and members of the cast. Listen to Lori discuss the short film and her planned feature length version in the WORT-FM 8 O’Clock Buzz archives.
Carson Lund’s Eephus at the Bartell Theatre, Saturday, July 19, 5:00pm
The film programming at the Bartell Theatre continues to evolve. Eephus and the short film Deuce (Margo Budzyna, 2025) comes to the big screen in Madison on Saturday. Update: Read Rob Thomas’s review at his Substack.
Stay tuned for more as I catch up on past events (like Rachel Seed’s visit with A Photographic Memory) and look ahead to future events in a planned video edition of Moving Image Madison.
If every Superman film were super, then none would be
The greatest strength of James Gunn's Superman is that it does not even try to reach Superman’s potential as modern myth, pop culture icon, or whatever. It’s a good film, which the franchise needs right now more than a great film.
Let’s skip Superman’s origin story. Let’s skip the origin stories for other superheroes (or metahumans) in the film. While we’re at it, let’s skip Lex Luthor’s origin story, and just understand he is the ultimate evil tech bro with limitless resources. Okay, are we all on the same page? Go.
This approach was a relief, and it produced an entertaining if not perfect film. Superman does not offer much in terms of story beyond providing the expected superhero tropes. But writer/director James Gunn brings a kind of joy to the storytelling that has been lacking in many superhero films (especially the “Snyderverse” films). And he brings out performances from the cast that always seem to hit the right pitch.
The spectacle of the film (action sequences, special effects) is okay, adequate, sufficient, z’allright. I wasn’t particularly thrilled or inspired by any action sequence. One scene presents a microcosm of how I responded to the action sequences as a whole. In one emotional scene with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Superman/Clark (David Corenswet), the other “Justice Gang” superheroes fight some kind of floating kaiju in the background against the Metropolis skyline. (This is a variation on the comic premise of the opening credits of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2). It kind of doesn’t matter how the background fight works out. It doesn’t matter that much more when the fights are in the foreground.
This ends up not being fatal for the film, because everything just keeps moving along. What could have been fatal for the film was the introduction to the most boring element in the Superman universe, Kryptonite, which keeps Superman out of the action for much of the middle third of the film. Luckily, the narrative momentum is maintained (and the film is perhaps saved) by Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) who takes over while Superman is out of the action. Despite being a “Superman” film, Mister Terrific is the most interesting character, and Gathegi brings a more other-worldly quality to him than the actual alien Kal-El/Clark/Superman. Gunn essentially repeats the trick that he pulled off with Guardians of the Galaxy: take a lesser known character from the comic universe canon, who don’t carry any weight in terms of audience expectations, and do what you want with them.
When a screenplay depends so thoroughly on tropes and conventions, you really need to bring things to life with character detail. Gunn attempts to squeeze in some techniques that recall Star-Lord / Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Prime example: the use of the faux pop punk band “The Mighty Crabjoys” to fill in quite a lot (relatively speaking) about Clark Kent’s world before moving to Metropolis. This is still a short-hand approach to character development, but the repetition and variation on the motif is more nuanced than many superhero films.
While the Lois Lane / Clark Kent relationship cannot be called innovative, the chemistry between Brosnahan and Corenswet is fun to watch. And again, when you don’t have much depth in the screenplay, success often depends on the details that can be brought out by the actors. So that chemistry really trumps analysis. What can I say . . . I enjoyed watching them bring these somewhat underdeveloped characters to life.
I think I’ll set aside a deep dive into the socio-economic and political underpinnings of the film for another time. I’m not particularly interested in any of the “woke” arguments floating around on social media (and the film’s joke about trolls on social media is one of its few mis-steps). But I do find two other topics raised by the film very interesting. The film takes the “Capitalist Villain with Endless Resources” trope to a very interesting extreme. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, who is also fun to watch) not only has any technology available to him, he also has an apparently endless stream of unquestioning employees who share an interesting corporate culture. I mean, all of the civilian employees (not the jackboot thugs) at the camp where the arrested Superman is taken all wear the same Hawaiian shirts. Is this Luthorcorp’s take on team building? And employees in his control room seem to gleefully follow his orders regardless of the consequences for the world that they live in outside the control room. There’s a lot to unpack there.
The other trickier topic is in regards to the military conflict at the center of the plot, between faux countries Bovaria (bad guys) and Jarhanpur (good guys). Bovaria and Jarhanpur share a border, but Bovaria seems to be an Eastern European or Balkan country, while Jarhanpur seems to be a fusion of Middle Eastern, Asian, and perhaps African. The Balkan leader is played by Croatian-Danish actor Zlatko Burić, and I interpreted his casting, due to his unique looks, as an attempt not to look like any contemporary political leader currently involved in a military conflict. And the border does not make any sense, so it can’t obviously be taken as a parallel to any current conflict. But I anticipate some interesting discussions and interpretations about possible contemporary parallels. And Superman’s ability to quickly stop a war, the controversy around him doing so, and his association with United States (he insists he acts on his own, not as an agent of the United States) all are fodder for interesting discussions about parallels to American foreign policy.
But I’ll save those discussions for another time . . .
Update 7/18/25: We’ll it didn’t take long for political commentators to take up what I thought was the most likely political interpretation of the Bovaria–Jarhanpur conflict: as an allegory for the Israel-Gaza conflict. When I said that the border did not make sense, I meant that there’s no Eastern European country bordering an Arab or African country. But there is, of course, one contemporary conflict where the the colonizers (to use a hotly debated term in this conflict) share a border with the colonized. Reading Bovaria-Jarhanpur conflict this way depends in part on your use of the term colonizers in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
You can read more about the debate floating around, from both Pro-Palestinian and right-wing media sources, in a summary that appeared in Variety on Wednesday, July 16.
Now Playing In Madison: July 15 to July 21, 2025
Wisconsin Union Directorate Film
DO THE RIGHT THING 7/21
CREED 7/28
Arts + Literature Laboratory
PATIENT (short), with filmmaker Lori Felker in person, Tuesday, July 15, 7:00pm
Visit Arts + Literature Laboratory website for details.
Cinesthesia, Madison Public Library Central Branch
DOUBLE INDEMNITY, Wednesday, July 16, 6:30pm
UW-Cinematheque
Cinematheque programming will resume on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays June 25 through August 1. All screenings begin at 7:00pm
SCARECROW 7/16
HAPPY NEW YEAR 7/4
THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING 7/18
Really looking forward to this one!
MULHOLLAND DR. 7/23
The second visit from producer, editor Mary Sweeney
Bartell Theatre
EEPHUS (with short DEUCE) Saturday, July 19, 5pm
Read Rob Thomas’s review.
AMC Theatres, Flix Brewhouse, Marcus Theatres
28 YEARS LATER (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
ABRAHAM'S BOYS: A DRACULA STORY (2025) at AMC.
Read Rob Thomas’s review.
AMC SCREAM UNSEEN: JULY 21 at AMC.
BALLERINA (2025) at AMC.
BOSS BABY, THE at Flix.
Flix Faves series.
DEEP SEA 3D (2006) at AMC.
IMAX educational film.
DON'T LET'S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT (2024) at AMC, Point.
South African drama, based on Alexandra Fuller’s 2021 memoir about her White Zimbabwean family’s experiences following the Rhodesian Bush War.
Read Rob Thomas’s review.
EDDINGTON (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
This seemed to divide viewers and critics at Cannes. If there were ever a time we needed an insightful satirical black comedy about contemporary American seen through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the time. I’m not sure if I trust Ari Aster to bring that kind of insight. We’ll see!
ELIO (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
F1 THE MOVIE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (2020) at Flix.
Flix Faves series
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
This one brings back Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze, Jr., as survivors of the 1997 Southport massacre. This can’t be any worse than bringing back Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic World: Dominion. Or can it?
JUMANJI (1995) at Flix.
Flix Faves series
JUJUTSU KAISEN: HIDDEN INVENTORY / PREMATURE DEATH - THE MOVIE (2025) at AMC, Point, Palace.
Contemporary anime.
JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
KUNG FU PANDA 4 (2024) at AMC, Point, Palace.
Interesting overlap between AMC and Marcus kid’s summer series.
LIFE OF CHUCK, THE (2025) at AMC.
LILO & STITCH (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
MAALIK (2025) at AMC.
Indian Hindi-language gangster action drama.
MATERIALISTS (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point.
M3GAN 2.0 (2025) at AMC, Flix.
MIDSOMMAR at Flix.
Flix Faves series
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point.
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO - STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 2025 at AMC, Point, Palace.
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKO'S NEST 50TH ANNIVERSARY at Point, Palace.
ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS at AMC.
Musical comedy from 1948, featuring the film debut of Doris Day. Part of the Silver Screen series for retirement communities, but general public can also attend. Wednesday, July 17, 1:30pm.
SAIYAARA (2025) at AMC.
Indian Hindi-language romantic drama, starring Aneet Padda and introducing new male lead Ahaan Panday. Produced by Yash Raj Films, usually a mark of reasonably consistent quality.
SKILLHOUSE at AMC, Point, Palace.
SMURFS (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE at Point, Palace.
SUPERMAN (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
See review, above.
TANVI: THE GREAT (2025) at AMC.
Indian Hindi-language drama about a 21-year-old woman on the autism spectrum who wants to follow in the footsteps of her father and join the Indian Army. Bollywood is not known for the most nuanced representations of neurodiversity, but then again neither is Hollywood.
WILD ROBOT, THE (2024) at AMC.
Looking Ahead:
Rooftop Cinema, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
THE CATHEDRAL OF NEW EMOTIONS 7/31, 9pm (after sunset)
SUGARCANE 8/7
I-BE AREA 8/14
MILWAUKEE EXPERIMENTAL FILMS 8/21