INDIANA JONES and THE DIAL OF DESTINY (James Mangold, 2023)

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(Directed by James Mangold from a script by Jezz Butterworth, John Henry Butterworth, David Koepp, and Mangold; starring Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, and Boyd Holbrook. Released 30 June 2023; watched 2023w50 via 4k)

If I learned anything from this entertaining-enough trip down memory lane, it's that Spielberg is as integral to INDIANA JONES as Harrison Ford is under the fedora: Mangold is one of the best, most competent storytellers working today with a panache for finales (LOGAN, I mean... damn) and DIAL is a competent, occasionally thrilling exercise in old-school adventure filmmaking, but for DIAL to truly feel like the farewell to one of the best, most iconic franchises of the last 42 years that it was intended to be, it needed more than competence: it needed Spielberg's unabashed heart and Spielberginess. His decision to not direct DIAL, to "pass it on to a new generation" – perplexing, considering that that's something you would do if the series was continuing which this clearly isn't (P.S. the only actor working today I could see convincingly playing Indy would be Ryan Gosling) – will, I think, go down as the greatest tragedy of the series – yes, even more so than CRYSTAL SKULL which, for all of its LeBeouffery and vine-swinging with monkeys and nuclear-explosion-survival-via-refrigerator excesses, nonetheless wore those excesses proudly and in the best spirit of the series's Saturday matinee / Republic serial inspiration. I'll stick with THE LAST CRUSADE as the farewell, with CRYSTAL SKULL and now DIAL OF DESTINY as wistful and flawed approximations of memories in a family photo album.

between

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This whole "I'm finished for now with one project and don't have another except things I started a long time ago" space is weird. I know it would be the space that Rick Rubin would call the seed gathering phase (or something like that) and I've got them percolating around and about, but it's been a long time since I've been here. Not sure I particularly want to revisit those things I had started long ago, before my grandfather's death (or even, in some cases, before my mother's death more than a year and a half ago): I'd rather find something new to play with. On the other hand, I do feel like I can't get on with this next chapter of my life (and my work, perhaps) until his house is empty and out of my hands; anything else would be in the "before times" and I want whatever I write to be of the moment (which would be this slightly maddening "between"). Think I'll consider the best I can do right now to be to show up and write something and will duly consider this to be that something until something else pops up.

victory(!?)

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One of those (pleasantly) surprising (and rare) mornings: think I just finished MainFictionThing, the feature for the second issue of PRESS (A) TO START. Hopefully it heralds the dawn of a faster, more pulp/punk ethos of creation: that was always the goal with it – though this one took a lot longer than I expected (or hoped). Current plan is to hold off on putting the second issue together until January, until after my grandfather's house is empty and in the hands of the new owners (read: no longer my problem), and spend my mornings working on new things through at least the end of the year, then do the final pass in the typography and design of the issue itself. Very excited to send this one out into the world. I'll happily notch the victory.