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'The Batman' review: You’ve never seen the Dark Knight like this before - Inverse

Engulfed in blue smog with a front grill glowing red, the Batmobile of Matt Reeves’ The Batman looks and moves like a terrifying demon.

Its rear muscle car spoilers evoke devils in medieval paintings, and the fiery blast of its engine roars like a biblical dragon. Behind the wheel is someone equally otherworldly: A fully transformed Robert Pattinson brings a freakish spin to an enduring DC superhero. You’ve seen gritty Batman before. But you’ve never seen gritty Batman like this.

Operatic, simmering, and replete with a smoky noir atmosphere, The Batman is an enthralling package of contradictions. It is in many ways the ideal amalgamation of Batman and his 80-plus years of history; it’s a movie where his vengeance doesn’t negate the camp fun of a climax set in “Gotham Square Garden,” a gag practically ripped from the Adam West era.

In other ways, it’s subversive of popular notions of what the Dark Knight should be. See Bruce cake on black eye makeup, his leaner physique, and his royal botching of a dramatic escape. What’s been subtext in analyses of Batman — a calculating sociopath whose wealth can’t buy him resolution — is now all on the surface. And it’s the first time that Batman has ever felt dangerous.

The Batman will go down as another game-changer, with its unique take on an iconic hero that is more of a feral vigilante than a crusader.

Robert Pattinson stars in the title role of The Batman, a new interpretation of the DC Comics superhero from director Matt Reeves.Warner Bros.

The Batman is set in its own universe. From the jump, Reeves pushes back against the superhero industrial complex to leave out needless universe-expanding Easter eggs. In this canon, “The Batman” is a known entity with unknown capabilities. He has been a folk legend at work for two years. When his signal is in the sky, criminals shudder in dark corners and darker alleyways out of fear they’ll face the fury of the vigilante.

“I can’t be everywhere,” narrates Pattinson in the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman as he journals. With a straight face, he remarks, “I am the shadows.” Fear is an effective deterrent.

But Bruce Wayne suspects his efforts have done little to lift Gotham City from its apathy. What’s worse, he lacks the trust of Gotham and its people. Walking into a crime scene, he’s gawked at with suspicion by the police. Batman’s despair that his work’s been for naught is proven right by a string of high-profile murders, committed by cryptic mastermind Riddler (Paul Dano). The Riddler — whose eyes pop behind translucent glasses and whose first appearance is one of the scariest intros ever in a superhero movie — provokes Batman to seek the truth to his family’s legacy.

“What lends The Batman an air of danger is how eccentric its hero is.”

Joining Pattinson and Dano is Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, a lieutenant in the Gotham PD who risks his badge by working with Batman. In makeup, an unrecognizable Colin Farrell plays the Penguin, a gangster club owner, while John Turturro is slick mafioso Carmine Falcone. Andy Serkis is the paternal Alfred, and Zoë Kravitz is bewitching as Selina Kyle/Catwoman.

It’s deceptively easy to dismiss The Batman at first blush. Thirty-five years after Frank Miller’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns, 17 years after Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, and six years after Batman v Superman, framing Batman through the gritty filter is hardly ingenious. What’s more, The Batman’s obvious comic book inspirations, from The Long Halloween to Hush to recent tales by Scott Snyder and Tom King, all tap into the same well of “dark.”

Matt Reeves’ specific modulation feels more lateral to that than progressing forward. But like the visible stitching on Pattinson’s cowl, Reeves’ potent impact as an artist is in the details.

The Batman stars a more animalistic Batman than past iterations, with Pattinson inhabiting his role like an eccentric vigilante rather than a noble crusader.Warner Bros.

Reeves’ vision of Gotham City is textured, not sprawling; the story unfolds over just a handful of locations, which lends The Batman an unusual feeling of containment. It’s a place soaked in rain, as though nature itself wants to wash away the grime. Here, the most famous city in comics sits between Nolan’s sleek Chicago and Tim Burton’s gothic graveyard, once described as “hell erupted through the pavement.”

In The Batman, Gotham City isn’t hell so much as it is purgatory. It’s a damned place crowded with bodies and empty of ambitions. Even the more benevolent politicians have ulterior motives, and they’re always in someone else’s crosshairs. (The Batman also sports one of the most regionally specific Gothams ever put to screen, with its large ensemble of characters speaking in various New York accents.)

“Pattinson may be the steamiest Batman yet.”

Reeves’ film is noir through and through; the movie is sandwiched with narration, and for once, Batman conducts real detective work, not simply sitting behind a beefed-up gaming PC doing all the work. But what lends The Batman an air of danger is how eccentric its hero is.

In defiance to previous Batmen, who rendered Bruce Wayne’s playboy lifestyle into an aspirational male fantasy, Pattinson plays things rough, jagged, and ascetic. This Batman isn’t living the old origin story, but he’s still young and angry. Pattinson is most evocative of Michael Keaton, whose approach to Bruce Wayne as a social recluse in Burton’s 1989 film was innovative and the least replicated.

Pattinson spends most of the runtime in costume as Batman. It’s a creative choice of Reeves, who argues that Batman is the true identity, and Bruce Wayne is the mask. That’s not a terribly original thesis — that was Batman Begins’ theory too — but how Reeves tells it is no less compelling.

Evocative of Tom King’s Batman, The Batman features Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz in a budding romance pregnant with tension and eroticism.Warner Bros.

Despite the absence of an active love life, Pattinson may be the steamiest Batman yet. Though there is nothing explicit, The Batman’s abundance of leather and moisture oozes eroticism within the boundaries of PG-13. Reminiscent of the “Bat/Cat” romance seen in Tom King’s comics, Kravitz and Pattinson are magnetic as a couple, their bodies close but their principles islands apart.

Like its subject’s gunslinger-like gait as he strides towards the camera, The Batman is methodical and deliberate. It wields the might of a thermonuclear detonation in the delicacy of a poison needle. The movie boasts some of the most exciting action set pieces ever constructed, plus plenty of tense and euphoric moments. Nevertheless, it is a movie that focuses more inward than outward. Even the movie’s stirring climax, powered by a literal shot of adrenaline, underlines its core idea: This Batman is totally unlike any iteration of the hero you’ve seen before.

The Batman is many things — gripping, funny, and scary, as well as overlong and overly plotted — but it is primarily a complete reinvention of an icon that, through sheer will, shows why this character Batarangs back to our screens the most.

The Batman opens in theaters on March 4.

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Here's definitive proof this Republican senator is afraid of Donald Trump - CNN

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(CNN)Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton appeared on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. The Republican had this exchange with host George Stephanopoulos on Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Russia:

Stephanopoulos: You've been stalwart in your opposition of Vladimir Putin. The same cannot be said for the leader of your party, Donald Trump. Last night, he finally condemned the invasion, but he also repeated his praise of Putin, calling him smart. Earlier in the week, he called him pretty smart. He called him savvy. He said NATO and the US are dumb. Are you prepared to condemn that kind of rhetoric from the leader of your party?

Cotton: George, you've heard what I had to say about Vladimir Putin. That he is a ruthless dictator who's launched a naked, unprovoked war of aggression. Thankfully, the Ukrainian army has anti-tank missiles that President Obama would not supply, that we did supply last time Republicans were in charge in Washington. That's why it's so urgent that we continue to supply those weapons to Ukraine.

Stephanopoulos: Why can't you condemn Donald Trump for those comments?

Cotton: George, if you want to know what Donald Trump thinks about Vladimir Putin or any other topic, I'd encourage you to invite him on your show. I don't speak on behalf of other politicians. They can speak for themselves. I speak on behalf of Arkansans, who I talked to this week and who are appalled at what they saw in Ukraine and they want me right now to fight in Washington to support those brave Ukrainians.

Stephanopoulos: You're a senior member of the Republican Party. Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. He said last night again -- suggested that he would be running for president. When Fox News asked him if he had a message for Vladimir Putin, he said he has no message.

Why can't you condemn that? I feel quite confident that if ... a Barack Obama or Joe Biden said something like that, you'd be first in line to criticize him.

Cotton: Again, George, if you want to talk to the former President about his views or his message, you can have him on your show. My message to Vladimir Putin is quite clear. He needs to leave Ukraine unless he wants to face moms and teenagers with Molotov cocktails and grandmothers and grandfathers with AK-47s for years to come. I'm speaking on behalf of all Arkansans who want me to send that message to him.

What Cotton would like Stephanopoulos -- and you -- to believe is that because he is not, in fact, Donald Trump, he is unable to offer any opinion at all on the former President and his praise for Putin as "smart" for invading Ukraine.

By that standard, Cotton would never be able to comment on anything he hasn't said or done himself because, well, he is only one person. He wouldn't be able to criticize Democrats because he isn't one of them. (Somehow, of course, it seems Cotton's policy doesn't apply to the other party.)

What's really going on here is simple: Cotton, like virtually every other ambitious Republican, is afraid of Trump and the Trump base.

There's a zero percent chance that Cotton, among the most hawkish of politicians when it comes to Russia and other foreign adversaries, agrees with Trump's praise of Putin. None.

But he also knows that if he wants to run for president -- either in 2024 or 2028 -- he can't risk upsetting the former President and his devoted supporters. So Cotton hedges -- "I don't speak on behalf of other politicians" -- in hopes that he can thread the needle between not being seen as vocally opposed to Trump, while also clearly disagreeing with him.

(If you don't think Cotton wants to run for president, ask yourself why a senator from Arkansas would keep making trips to states like Iowa and New Hampshire.)

This is, of course, the opposite of leadership. For an example of what that looks like, consider what Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said of those, like Trump, who praise Putin amid the Ukraine invasion.

"It's unthinkable to me, it's almost treasonous and it just makes me ill to see some of these people do that," Romney said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

See, Sen. Cotton, that's how you do it.

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The MLB-imposed deadline to end the MLB-imposed lockout is here - McCovey Chronicles

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Good morning, baseball fans.

Today is the day in which Major League Baseball has dictated that an agreement needs to be reached in order for the season to start on time. You know, to end a lockout that they instigated, followed by weeks of no attempts to negotiate from them, followed by an absolute unwillingness to actively negotiate with the MLBPA.

If you’ve got a subscription to The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal wrote an absolutely scathing rebuke of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the owners group. It’s an absolute must-read if you can. I’d just like to share this part:

...the league has shown such bad form that any negative portrayals of the players’ side are not even relevant to the conversation. The owners are so intent on a zero-sum victory, so cavalier about the possibility of missing games, they do not even care how fans might interpret their actions.

Rosenthal goes on to show the ridiculous disparity between the negotiation tactics between the two sides, showing the players submitting realistic requests and making actual concessions to try to move the needle, and MLB basically just responding with a loud fart noise.

So remember this when your Uncle Jim starts talking about how the players are entitled whiny rich people (and then almost immediately start simping for the owners). The players aren’t responsible for the lack of baseball. They are not on strike. They are the only side actually negotiating in good faith.

There’s only one side actually trying to start the season on time and it isn’t the owners. I’m fully on board with the players walking away at this point, since they’re basically negotiating with a brick wall, and letting the owners remember that they have no product without them. Craig Calcaterra put it best, I think:

The owners are willing to sacrifice a month or maybe more of the season in order to break the union. I suggest taking them up on that invitation -- specifying expanded playoffs are now off the table -- and seeing how their debt holders and gambling partners feel about that.

— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) February 26, 2022

Anyway, as of the this is being written (Sunday afternoon), no progress has been made. If anything, things have gone backwards. So it’s hard to imagine that anything will change in time to avoid a delay to the start of the season, but I guess anything can theoretically happen. We’ll keep you posted.

---

How many days has it been since the owners locked out the players?

90 days, and it looks like we might as well start hunkering down for another 90 days.

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SAG Awards 2022 Winners: See the Full List Here - Vanity Fair

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The stars of the biggest TV shows and movies of the moment have gathered in Los Angeles for the first major in-person awards show in months. 

By Katey Rich

February 27, 2022

In what turned out to be a huge night for nascent streamer Apple TV+, CODA and Ted Lasso were the biggest winners at the SAG Awards 2022, taking home the top ensemble prizes for feature films and TV comedy, respectively. With a drama ensemble win for Sucecssion but two individual acting awards for Squid Game stars Hoyeon Jung and Lee Jung-jae, the television drama categories offered a welcome dose of suspense, while longtime awards season favorites like Will Smith (for King Richard) and Ariana Debose (for West Side Story) had the chance, at long last, to give the televised acceptance speeches most awards watchers have been expecting. 

 Below find a list of all of the SAG nominees, updated live as the show goes on with the winners indicated in bold. For Vanity Fair’s winner predictions, go here, and check back to Awards Insider and VF.com for much, much more SAG Awards coverage, from the red carpet to the best acceptance speeches.  

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE

Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look up
House of Gucci
King Richard

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick…Boom!
Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Lady Gaga, House of Gucci
Jennifer Hudson, Respect
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Ben Affleck, The Tender Bar
Bradley Cooper, Licorice Pizza
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Jared Leto, House of Gucci
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Caitríona Balfe, Belfast
Cate Blanchett, Nightmare Alley
Ariana Debose, West Side Story
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Ruth Negga, Passing

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE IN A DRAMA SERIES

The Handmaid’s Tale
The Morning Show
Squid Game
Succession
Yellowstone

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Brian Cox, Succession
Billy Crudup, The Morning Show
Kieran Culkin, Succession
Lee Jung-jae, Squid Game
Jeremy Strong, Succession 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show
Hoyeon Jung, Squid Game
Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale
Sarah Snook, Succession
Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE IN A COMEDY SERIES

The Great
Hacks
The Kominsky Method
Only Murders in the Building
Ted Lasso

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method
Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso
Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building
Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Elle Fanning, The Great
Sandra Oh, The Chair
Jean Smart, Hacks
Juno Temple, Ted Lasso
Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

Murray Bartlett, The White Lotus
Oscar Isaac, Scenes From a Marriage
Michael Keaton, Dopesick
Ewan McGregor, Halston
Evan Peters, Mare of Easttown

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

Jennifer Coolidge, The White Lotus
Cynthia Erivo, Genius: Aretha
Margaret Qualley, Maid
Jean Smart, Mare of Easttown
Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A MOTION PICTURE

Black Widow
Dune
The Matrix Resurrections
No Time to Die
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES

Cobra Kai
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Loki
Mare of Easttown
Squid Game

Content

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More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

— Oscar Nominations: The Biggest Snubs and Surprises
— Remembering Jonathan Larson—And Coping With His Legacy
— The Making of Cher’s Oscar Revenge Dress
— Could Dune Actually Win Best Picture in an Argo-Style Twist?
— 16 Oscar-Nominated Movies You Can Stream Right Now
— Sign up for the “Awards Insider” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage.

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Here’s what the CDC’s new masking guidelines mean for Massachusetts - Boston.com

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