We’re back from a summer hiatus to bring you one of the most exciting movies we’ve seen in a long time—Wonder Woman! Jeffrey and I have thoughts on thoughts about director Patty Jenkins’ treatment of the most famous female superhero, on Gal Gadot’s utterly charming performance as Diana Prince, and on how Robin Wright is truly a war general for our times. Dive in with us as we go deep on Wonder Woman!

Wonder Woman set records for box office performance by a solo female director, which made us very very happy. Jeff helpfully lays out a bit of history and context about the character of Wonder Woman and her “creator”, William Moulton Marston. His polyamorous partnership with two women certainly informed his creation of a feminist icon, and he shared credit for creating Wonder Woman with his partners Elizabeth Marston and Olivia Byrne. He also created a lie detector test (lasso of truth shout out!). Marston is a fascinating character unto himself, and it’s worth taking a look at his story.

There are definite parallels between Wonder Woman (the character) and Captain America, and further parallels between Captain America: The First Avenger and Wonder Woman. Both of these properties reflect worlds that are dealing with frightening wars, and the characters are two interesting examples of idealized men and women and their ability to shape the world they live in.

Gal Gadot’s performance is the heart of the film, and phew, does she ever nail it. She has the strength of her convictions, plus a strong physical presence that instantly communicates her self-confidence (even as she learns the ropes of being Wonder Woman). Chris Pine does good work as Diana’s love interest, and we appreciated that his character deferred to the actual God he was standing next to.

Robin Wright (!) stole all 7 minutes of screen time she had, because that is what she does. Jeff was particularly impressed with how Wonder Woman accumulated her powers, and the connection she had with her female role model, Antiope.  SHIELD!

A small shout out to Danny Huston’s performance, and an entry in Lauren’s Hollywood Dynasty corner to honour these eyebrows:

A few other actors round out our cast discussion, and we do spend a minute with Lucy Davis as Etta Candy. That character deserves her own show, and in the time since the taping of the podcast, I learned that Lucy Davis was Dawn Tinsley on the original UK version of The Office. Here. For. It.

Wonder Woman capitalizes on its fish-out-of-water premise, and the humour in the film reminded me of 3rd Rock from the Sun. I’M NOT WRONG ABOUT THAT SHOW.