Kingsman: The Golden Circle Trailer Analysis

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The genre of “spy movie” has always been an awkward figure in the modern blockbuster pantheon.  The knee-jerk comparison point for this moribund stylistic genre might be Western, but that does a bit of a disservice to the Western.  Both Westerns and Spy movies were the dominant genres in the proto-blockbuster days of the ’50s and ‘60s but the Western has passed through a number of unique stylistic identities and found new life now as a genre for prestige dramas.  Meanwhile, the spy film still feels like the exclusive property of the ‘60s, with almost all modern franchises in the genre like James Bond and Mission Impossible tracing their origins back to that decade. 

Even stuff that’s of the modern era like Bourne or 24 have had a similar feeling of stasis to the ‘60s leftovers- it’s a genre unstuck in time and unstuck in context as a result.  The last time a spy thriller made any kind of grander point it was the private military contractors are amoral, which is up there with “the sky is blue” in terms of meaningful contribution to the broader cultural stew.  There is, however, a recent exception to this particular state of stagnation and hallelujah it’s getting a sequel; let’s talk about Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle. 

Filmland - How to Get Ahead in Advertising

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So, the talk of the Internet this week is an ad by Pepsi featuring Kendall Jenner, one of the extended Kardashian family members, de-escalating a protest by handing out Pepsi to the officers on duty.  It was an incredibly brain-dead commercial, handicapped even further by how incredibly smug and self-satisfied the production of it came off.  

The commercial is brimming with various young, protest-oriented artists all plying their craft and carrying poorly written signs about “joining the conversation,” all completely stopped in their tracks by the power of Pepsi and Kendall.  It’s been maligned from all sides and suddenly makes that Coca-Cola ad of America the Beautiful sung in various languages seem like an Oscar short. 

However, the intrusion of terrible advertising got me thinking about one of my favorite films of all time- How to Get Ahead in Advertising.  Advertising and PR have always been a weird and vexing subject for cinema and television.  I think it’s that these endeavors, though more artistic, are inherently aware of the fact they exist as symbiotes stuck to the side of marketing and media manipulation, all at once repulsed by the concept but also thoroughly aware their own existence depends on it.  

Sometimes that produces thoughtful and character driven meditations like Mad Men or the enjoyable irreverent Thank You for Smoking.  Other times it produces high-concept weirdness like The Stuff or They Live.  How to Get Ahead in Advertising is like some weird, curdled mixture of both sides of the spectrum mixed together with The Thing with Two Heads- let’s dive in. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Update

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Despite the vastness of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the concept of sequels is a strangely sparse and foreign one.  Where this becomes the clearest is that even though the common working knowledge is that Marvel sequels are mostly poor, the actual breakdown is exactly even.  Iron Man 2 was a rush job that did little more than jog in place and remind people of upcoming films, Thor: The Dark World was about on par with its predecessor only with slightly sloppier editing and a more derivative climax, and Age of Ultron had plenty of ambition but lost a good chunk of it in the editing. 

Meanwhile, Iron Man 3 is a thoughtful and well-made revisit of the series core themes in a new context, Winter Soldier complete shake-ups the genre and style of the franchise in an adventurous way, and Civil War stands as one of the best entries in the series.  Now it’s coming time for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and amid the slew of trailers, posters, TV spots, and advertising tie-ins I can’t shake the feeling the brown, drippy lightning that is the lackluster Marvel sequel is gearing up to strike for a fourth time.