Low Key

Efforts by a few fragile fanboys to sabotage "Captain Marvel" completely failed -- but they did succeed in sparking a few fights that aren't worth having. 

Before "Captain Marvel" even opened, trolls targeted it on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb and YouTube, spurring all three to make changes designed to screen out attacks from people who hadn't actually seen the film.

"Captain Marvel" beat the trolls handily, opening to $153 million domestically and $455 million worldwide. It is certain to be one of the fastest films to gross $1 billion at the box office.

Why were some men so threatened by a superhero movie?

Trolls cause lots of problems. But one of the less-obvious ones is the way they drive people to take extreme positions that divide us all. 

In the case of "Captain Marvel," they treated a female-fronted superhero movie as an existential threat to men. That led other fans to celebrate "Captain Marvel" more vigorously than they otherwise might have. And that, in turn, made the film a more attractive target. 

Was it really a game-changer? Was it a perfect embodiment of feminism? Was it flawless in every regard?

Were we really going to have this argument? 

If you're interested in this topic, we strongly recommend Cara Buckley's story about it in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/movies/captain-marvel-brie-larson-rotten-tomatoes.html

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Had a rough week? The cheerfully silly, R-rated weirdness of "Doom Patrol" might be just what you need. The DC Universe show is a little bit "X-Men," a little bit 1950s monster movie, and a lot of lesson-free fun.

"Doom Patrol" follows Brendan Fraser as a lumbering robot man named, uh, "Robot Man," who joins a grimly goofy team of super zeroes who live together in Doom Manor under the guardianship of their "Chief," played by Timothy Dalton. The cast includes Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane, April Bowlby as Elasti-Girl, Matt Bomer as Negative Man, Joivan Wade as Cyborg, and Alan Tudyk as their arch-nemesis, Mr. Nobody.

"Doom Patrol" has drawn many "X-Men" comparisons because Chief, like Professor X, uses a wheelchair, lives in a secluded mountain and leads a team of outcasts. But the first "Doom Patrol" comic actually beat the first issue of "X-Men" by three months, back in 1963.

So turn off your brain and enjoy "Doom Patrol." You'll just laugh, wince, and watch a puff of green smoke emerge from a donkey's butt, one of several butts you'll see in the first couple episodes.

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Stephen Soderbergh's "High Flying Bird" imagines black pro athletes bypassing mostly white team owners to finally reap the profits of their own athleticism. Is it just a dream, or could Colin Kaepernick's fight with the NFL be the start of something like the nascent revolt in the film?

The film imagines what would happen if the mostly black athletes in the NBA discovered a way to profit from their own hard work without white team owners taking a massive cut of the profits. Super agent Andre Holland plays Ray Burke, who uses social media to circumvent the league and TV networks, and gives his rookie client Erick (Melvin Gregg) a potential map toward a future in which athletes, not owners, control their destinies.

Our talk soon turns to Colin Kaepernick's fight with another league, the NFL, and whether it... made any sense. Finally, we discuss "The Revolt of the Black Athlete," the book Zazie Beetz's character starts reading at the end of "High Flying Bird." 

We also talk about Muhammad Ali, O.J. Simpson, J. Cole, and finally, what's really going on with the Lakers.

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Liam Neeson admits that for a time, he walked the streets looking for an excuse to kill a random black man because of his anger over a friend's rape. On this episode, we talk about the deep history of insidious and deadly lies that fed his mindset, and what we can all learn from his admission.

We go from Neeson to Trayvon Martin to Jussie Smollet to why growing up on an island that's 96 percent white might make you susceptible to some backward views on race. And we also talk about some of the ways the media coverage of Neeson's admission could have been better.

Just when we're about to sign off, we instead go into a deep dive about the long, long history of white people using accusations of aggression by one black man to justify horrific behavior against large numbers of African-Americans. If this subject interests you, we'd recommend reading up on Rosewood, Florida and the Scotsboro case, to start.

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We love "Black Panther," but we're kind of stunned it has an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

We want to believe Ryan Coogler's film was nominated just by being great, but as Keith puts it: "Don't give us handouts, Oscars."

Are Oscar voters making up for past snubs of superhero films, like "Dark Knight"? Or past snubs of African-American films? Could it be that Oscar voters simply love "Black Panther" as much as we do?

With nearly a year of hindsight, we also talk the true meaning of "Black Panther." The key figure may not be Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), but rather his antagonist, Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). Does Killmonger symbolize radical revolutionaries, as it might appear at first glance? Or is "Black Panther" really a film about survivor's remorse?

If you like this, please share it with someone else who loves Black Panther. And review us on iTunes to tell us what you think about the Oscar nomination.

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Barry Jenkins' "If Beale Street Could Talk," based on the book by James Baldwin, uses an almost deliriously beautiful love story to show how the criminal justice system unjustly targets black men. This week, Aaron Lanton and Keith Dennie talk about how much the film hit home (and not just because they both grew up in Memphis, the home of Beale Street.)

One scene in particular -- when our hero, Fonny (Stephan James), realizes how easily he could be framed for a crime he didn't commit -- reminded Keith of a horror movie. He says a speech from Bryan Tyree Henry's character, who has just returned from prison, recalled moments in a horror story when someone tells a ghost story that foreshadows something terrible will happen to the lead character.

Aaron adds: "You realize... I keep having this conversation, too."

You should probably see the movie before listening to this episode.

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Was "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" more like a fun "Goosebumps" book? Or a way for a massive corporation to gain insights into your private viewing habits?

This episode, we wonder if "Bandersnatch" will open the door to a future in which entertainment companies will be able to tell not just whether we prefer Frosties or Sugar Puffs, but also our attention spans and tolerance for violence. Just imagine how "choose your own adventure" technology will evolve in an age of sex robots and "Blade Runner 2049"-style hologram boyfriends and girlfriends. Everyone's weirdest secrets will be carefully tracked.

Also, here's a great story about how anyone can track your movements for $300: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunter-300-dollars-located-phone-microbilt-zumigo-tmobile

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"Into the Spider-Verse" is a masterpiece, but it's especially special for black and Latino audiences who've been underrepresented in super hero movies. This episode, we talk about why certain lines and moments in the film may resonate more with Spider-fans of color.

As Ava DuVernay tweeted over the weekend, "You’re the best of us, Miles. You’re on your way. Just keep going.”

If you like us, throw us some stars on iTunes, okay? And happy holidays. We love you.

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The critically acclaimed Netflix hit "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" has been a hit in more ways than one - the streaming giant recently settled in a lawsuit brought by the The Satanic Temple for $150 million for an alleged depiction of the Baphomet statue. We were shocked that the lawsuit held so much merit which caused us to think about the use of Satanic imagery allusions in other American pop culture and its depiction of women as the great threat to male purity.

It sounds haughty but it's a hilarious conversation. Come join us!

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We were pretty skeptical of DC's "Titans" at first. That promo where Robin says "f--- Batman" didn't exactly win us over. But now that the show is live on DCUniverse.com, we think it's actually worth watching, even for a few bucks a month.

"Titans" had a lot to overcome in our minds: a lot of superhero shows feel cheap, and we're kind of tired of the de facto gritty feel of so many comic book projects. But this one somehow works, and on this episode of "Low Key," we talk about why.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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