After watching Wonder Woman last year, I became a little obsessed with the character. I read loads of articles online about her and eventually picked up Jill Lepore’s excellent book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman. It details the characters birth in 1941 in Action Comics and the many changes made to her throughout the years. It also serves as a fascinating biography of Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston. He graduated from Harvard, became a psychiatrist, a professor at various universities, invented the lie-detector test, worked as an advisor to Hollywood studios, was a bondage fetishist, and secretly lived with two woman for most of his life.
After reading the book I thought to myself how they should make a film about Marston’s life. As if the cinema gods were listening one such movie came out shortly thereafter. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women stars Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, and Connie Britton. It is a tiny little indie film that didn’t get nearly the bump it should have from the success of Wonder Woman. It came and went from the few art house theaters it played in but hopefully will see wider success on Blu-ray, Digital Download, streaming services.
The reviews have been good and my continual obsession with the character easily make Professor Marston and the Wonder Women my pick of the week.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Victoria: The Complete Second Season: Jenna Coleman stars in this PBS Masterpiece series about the young Queen Victoria and her rise to the throne at the young age of 18. My wife keeps telling me we need to watch it so maybe now is our chance.
Last Flag Flying: Richard Linklater directed this drama about a group of Vietnam vets who reunite 30 years later when one of their sons is killed in Iraq. It stars Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne. All that star power and it seems to have made no impression on anyone because I’d never heard of it until now.
The Pink Panther Cartoon Collection: Volume 1: When I was a kid, I used to love the old Peter Sellers’ Pink Panther movies. Truth be told, I initially loved them because of the silly cartoons that ran over the opening credits starring an actual pink panther. Those cartoons were designed on a lark as a simple method to draw audiences in, but soon producers realized the cartoons were just as popular as the live-action films they fronted and they started making lots of animated shorts featuring the panther. They made over 124 of them over a 14-year period. This collection brings together the first 20 of them.
Kameradschaft (Criterion Collection): A team of German miners risk their lives to rescue a team of French miners left trapped after an underground explosion.
