This is an edition of Tap In, the weekly newsletter featuring the last words from GQ senior associate editor Frazier Tharpe on the hottest online discussions about music, movies and TV. Sign up here to get it for free.
Let’s get this out of the way: The last Marvel movie I watched — like, really dug — was Sam Raimi’s Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The plot is everywhere, sure, but the typical Raimi touches are also there – the horror flourishes, the dark wit, the kinetic setpieces – and they replaced all the other nonsense for me. This will tell you a lot that now I give more importance to these films than all other films. Storytelling that focuses on a weak future, a messy third act, plot holes – these are pretty much par for the course in the MCU. At this point I just want a little personality and flavor.
Conversely, the Phase 4 and 5 films that the public was involved in seemed to indicate that the MCU still has gas in the tank? from lightning (by rote), Fantastic Four: First Steps (Blue), guardians of the galaxy 3 (forced)…they didn’t do anything for me. In fact, I’ve been on the opposite side of all Marvel ideas since then Spider-Man: No Way HomeA lifeless film built around a main gimmick and nothing else.
So imagine my surprise when I walked out brand new Day Charged. It took them four tries, but at least the Feige factory finally made a banger gestures At the peak of Tobey Maguire’s first two appearances. homecoming Cute and I have a soft spot for Jake Gyllenhaal’s craziness far from home But for the most part, despite Tom Holland’s reliably charming performance, the Spidey adventures he’s been engaged in have felt like empty calories. There are always one or three Avengers dancing in the videos; There’s always some overarching MCU business narrative; Jon Watts always directs the action so blandly that it doesn’t even hold up to old video games.
Enter Destin Daniel Cretton, who isn’t Raimi (but who is?) but ultimately managed to give Holland a Spider-movie that’s tactile, moving, and most importantly, has some grit. The latter is a gift courtesy of the last minutes no way homeWhich simply sums up everything that came before it, the Surf Dracula Trilogy, ultimately establishing Tom as the Peter we know and love: broke, love-struck, down on his luck, grieving as a parent, with great responsibility and zero responsibilities. This wasted a lot of time, but there is a lot of potential on the horizon. brand new DayLuckily, it delivers.
What’s interesting is that, on paper, this Spidey-movie should suffer from the same burden that plagued the previous three (and that’s without spoiling a big, increasingly obvious plot twist). This is a Spider-Man movie that makes room for The Punisher, The Hulk, and others who will have a huge impact on the future of this whole Marvel thing. Yet here, it works. The other heroes, particularly the Punisher, feel woven into the fabric of Peter’s New York, and not like Very Special Guests who are crowded around. Maybe that’s because the stakes have never felt higher, or more specifically, realer, for Peter personally. So far, Holland’s Peter has been so lucky and happy to be here that he still feels like a partner in his films too. When we meet him here, he’s almost the only person on the social scale, vowing to remain a monk as penance for Aunt May and keeping tabs on MJ and Ned’s lives via Instagram. That void actually gives Holland more to do and think about, so much so that whoever he has to share the spotlight with doesn’t include him.
