The two shows today talk about family life from different ends of the spectrum. Ms. Marvel on Disney+ is light-hearted, fun, and smartly made, even if it’s for a primary teenage audience. Bergman Island, on the other hand, dissects a marriage imploding, creative differences within a relationship, and how it can be resolved.
Ms. Marvel (Disney+) - A 6 episode Limited Series, I would rank Ms. Marvel, along with WandaVision, as the more successful of content created by this streaming giant. And I’m talking quality, concept, and execution, not how many eyeballs watched the show. My beef with the channel, especially when it pertains to Marvel and Star Wars content is that they try too hard to be child-friendly, and it’s obvious, and diminishes the IP’s equity. Here with Ms. Marvel, the heroine is a 16-year-old Muslim Pakistani in an American high school, so the producers don’t have to dumb down the show. Instead, they’re secure in the context of it being primarily a teenage audience, and then go creative and imaginative within that context. And it works!
The series mixes animation with live action in a manner that suggests SpiderVerse and Mitchells vs the Machines, but with live action as a new element. The choice of Iman Vellani to portray Kamala/Ms. Marvel is also an inspired choice. She has soulful eyes, grounded acting, and fits into the role like a glove. That she’s a minority representative adds to the inclusivity aspect of the show, and it is a brave piece of casting. Critics have responded favorably, and I can only hope that audiences love the show as well. For this is one show that truly deserves to find its audience. It’s charming, it’s pithy, and it still very Marvel - a distant cousin of sorts to the Tom Holland Spider-Man we’ve enjoyed through the years - a blend of high school life and superhero issues.
Bergman Island (Video on Demand) - Here’s a film that from its title alone can mean so much more if you’re a fan of Ingmar Bergman’s films; but thankfully, it doesn’t require that kind of fan worship or even having watched any of Bergman’s films. It’s enough to know that he casts a long shadow in the history of film. Set in Farö Island in northern Sweden where Bergman shot several of his seminal films, this is Director Mia Hansen-Løve’s dissection of a relationship, while providing commentary on the nature of marriage vis-à-vis Art, and how both intersect with real life. At the film's center are Tony (Tim Roth), a noted film director, and his wife, screenwriter Chris (Vicky Krieps, who you may remember from The Phantom Thread).
The constant mention of the Bergman films such as Persona, Cries & Whispers, and Scenes from a Marriage do serve as a reminder that his films were among the first to really go deep into relationships, to explore what made them tick, flower, or wither and die. There is a film-within-a-film exposition as we see Chris’ screenplay come to life, starring Mia Wasikowska as Amy, and Anders Danielson Lie as Joseph. The screenplay closely parallels what’s going on in the marriage of Chris and Tony, and the idea of how Art mirrors Life is unmistakable. Beyond the fact that both Chris and Amy have daughters, it’s interesting to note that our director Mia Hansen-Løve is herself a single mother, after her much publicized break up with fellow director Olivier Assayas in 2017.