Mad Max: Fury Road (5/5 Stars)

The main criticism that well regarded movie critics have thrown at blockbusters from time immemorial is their lowest common denominator nature. As products intended for the masses the big corporate studios (only people who can afford to make big blockbuster movies) dumbed down and sanitized the product in an effort to have it appeal to the broadest audience possible. In recent years there has been a welcome shift away from that mission plan. The causes are not completely known (although for my money I would give much credit to the silent digital revolution in movies which makes them a lot cheaper to make) but the effects can be perhaps perfectly exemplified in the movie “Mad Max: Fury Road,” a great blockbuster that is definitively not for everybody. It is what I will call (and I am coining a phrase here, (Watch Out!) a “niche blockbuster.” Its appearance was foreshadowed by the delightfully kooky yet still rather tame blockbuster  “Guardians of the Galaxy” last year, but here it has fully come of age in the grotesque apocalyptic vision of Mad Max land. To say that “Mad Max: Fury Road,” is merely a reboot of the cult B-movies of the 1980s does not do it justice. This is a new type of movie and one that should give hope to all those that care about movies. We are going through a rather intense revolution in how media is consumed right now and the local movie theater will not be spared from change as well. If George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are to be believed (and why not they should know something) we may very well be on the verge of only having very expensive blockbusters in movie theaters and everything else being delegated to the ever expanding cinema realm of one’s living room. The pessimists then have predicted a future where one’s local cineplex no longer shows anything interesting, strange, or weird, (i.e. original), but that does not seem to be happening at least not entirely. As the biggest blockbusters get ever bigger the lesser blockbusters are becoming more targeted in their subject matter, tone, and intended audience. It is of great surprise and relief and wonder that Mad Max: Fury Road has retained the look and feel of the original movies. This shows great gumption in the studio heads that bankrolled the big budget because the original movies were cult movies for a reason. They were unapologetically focused on car chases in the unforgiving desert wasteland between inarticulate anti-heroes and the grotesque caricatures of really bad really ugly men. This is essentially the same in “Mad Max: Fury Road,” the main exception being a desire to expand the audience beyond the average teenage male gearhead and allow women in on the fun. But women are allowed in only on Mad Max terms of course; the main female character Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron channeling her inner badass) has only one arm. Why? Well times are tough in the future and if women want to be part of the gang they have to be tough too. I think this movie may have broken the record for gun-toting biker grannies.

It will not take too long to summarize the plot of the movie. Mad Max (Tom Hardy) is taken prisoner by Immortan Joe, a terrifying slavemaster. As Mad Max is hanging down from the ceiling with his blood being drained out of him into a War Boy named Nux (Nicholas Hoult), news comes that Immortan Joe’s five harem sex slaves have been emancipated by one of his great warriors, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Immortan Joe sets off after her with the help of his evil allies in Gas Town and the Bullet Farm (The two main economies of what is left of the world). There are also wild bandits. You can tell these guys apart because of their distinctive cars. They chase Imperator and then chase her some more. In between all of this Mad Max frees himself and teams up with Furiosa. That’s the movie essentially. Given that the original movies were no more complex this is exactly how complex the reboot should be if it were being faithful to the original material. The point has never been the screenplay. It is what is on the screen. 

And boy what is on the screen. First it should be mentioned that the world in “Mad Max” is a fully realized apocalyptic fever dream. Much like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ it would be entirely acceptable if the movie got Oscar Nominations for Makeup, Costumes, and Production Design. I cannot imagine those three things being any better in this movie. If I were to sum up the tone of the movie I would single out one of the main bad guy’s cars. Stationed on top of this large eighteen-wheeler is an electric guitarist backed by ginormous speakers, clad entirely in red leather and suspended in midair by multiple bungee chords. When he hits the climax of a particularly intense solo the guitar doubles as a flamethrower, which spews flames out of the top. A Whole Lotta Love right there in the production design.

The performances are exactly what they should be. Tom Hardy seems to get it. He speaks as little as possible and only in gruff monosyllabic mutters. The bad guys seem to come entirely from the World Wresting Federation. Imperator Furiosa is steely and resolved and totally resourceful. And then there is Nicholas Hoult’s Nux who is completely insane. The War Body army is a group of Albino Berserkers entirely convinced that death in battle is but the beginning of a paradise in Valhalla. They throw themselves in and around the cars in these battles with an extraordinary lack of self-preservation. Hoult’s performance is perhaps the best and most original performance in the movie. Thankfully, he sticks around much longer than one thinks possible and his presence is never less than interesting. I looked him up and was astonished that he is the kid from that Hugh Grant movie “About a Boy.” Incredible what he has grown up to be capable of. What is perhaps most important is that between all the great car chases we have still scenes that do not weigh down the story with melodrama or pretentiousness. There is an emotional core here that works even though it is not required to work all that hard.

The fights and car chases are essentially theatrical wrestling matches. There is no way in hell that cars can continue to function in any of these situations (particularly with all the desert dust going around) and no way in hell that men can take the kind of beatings they do here without any type of blood or bruises. But the action is well done. The physics are within the realm of the suspension of disbelief. And the viewer is never all that confused as to where and what everybody is doing. There is no Oscar nomination for Stunt Direction but when you see a movie that does it so well like this one does you can really grasp the injustice of such an omission. Next year I will certainly include such a category in my own Oscar picks. This movie would make a great video game by the way.

I think one more note can be said about this movie’s feminism. I’ve seen enough movies now to not be all that surprised by the prospect of a woman toting a gun or engaging in something else that is traditionally masculine. There is a tendency though for movies to really pat themselves on the back for their progressive views. That is getting a bit tiring. I think from now on just give the girls their guns and spare me the speeches about how daring the movie is being. It was daring when Ridley Scott and James Cameron did it in the 1980s. I was born in 1986 and don’t really remember a time when the movies weren’t feminist. Hell, Titanic came out when I was eleven and it took me at least a decade to actually see what old movies James Cameron was giving his pro-woman finger to (cough ‘Gone With the Wind’ cough cough). I’m not saying that ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is all that speechifying. It isn’t. But when you’ve got an army of gun-toting grannies in a major motion blockbuster franchise that is, if anything, defined by its testosterone, I think we can start giving the special treatment a rest. I’m not so impressed by the dog walking on its hind legs or even walking on its hind legs well anymore.