Name: Top Gun Too
Brand: substack.com
SKU: substack-com-170
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Top Gun Too

preview

SubscribeSign inShare this postTop Gun Tooaudacity.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailJun 15Share this postTop Gun Tooaudacity.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailTop GunTop Gun: MaverickTop Gun: MaverickIt was at this point that several people in the theatre began applauding. One man in particular, tall, muscular, bald, brayed loudly throughout the first half hour of the movie. When Tom Cruise rides across the screen in his leather jacket, hunched over his motorcycle as he cruises the desert, this guy shouted, “Fuck yeah!” This man was very, very drunk and very, very obnoxious and deeply invested in the movie. You could tell he had been waiting so so long for this moment. Sadly, he passed out about half an hour in and proceeded to snore loudly until the tepid applause signaling the end of the movie. Then, he woke up and was positively bereft at having missed the movie for which he had waited thirty-six years. A cautionary tale.As the movie opens, Tom leaves an airplane hangar in the desert where he lives. He rides his motorcycle to work where he flies planes very fast to test them. When he pulls up, his crew tells him that a higher up is pulling the plug. It is never really explained why. All we need to know is that bureaucracy is trying to stifle Maverick’s need for speed. Because Maverick is such a maverick, he decides to take one last flight to break Mach 9 or 10, I can’t remember. Ten or so minutes are given over to watching a speedometer crank up as people in a control tower breathlessly watch, hoping Maverick breaks this speed barrier. He succeeds but then he gets in trouble, of course.His punishment? He gets to return to Top Gun as an instructor to prepare the best pilots in the Navy for a secret mission. His new commanding officer? John Hamm aka Cyclone. The pilots lil nicknames are especially hilarious this time around, very masculine and ejaculatory, because pilots. For whatever reason, Cyclone hates Maverick and mostly berates Maverick as Maverick stands at attention, not a facial muscle moving because they’ve all been Botoxed to Xenu and back. This particular tension is ridiculously manufactured because it’s clear everyone is resigned to making this movie because it must be made and the paychecks will clear.haveAnyway. Among the hotshot pilots is Goose’s son, Rooster who hates Maverick for reasons that are unclear for a lot of the movie. I mean yes, Goose died while Maverick was flying but Rooster’s animosity seems to go deeper than that. Then we learn he’s big mad because Maverick kept him out of the Navy for several years at the request of Rooster’s mother Carole. To protect Carole, Maverick makes it seem like it was his idea. The next hour or so, a very very long hour, is Maverick teaching the youths lessons about flying because the old man’s still got it. They “train” over the course of a week for this impossible mission that makes absolutely no sense. In his free time, Maverick loiters at the local bar, owned by Jennifer Connelly aka Penny, a woman with whom Maverick has “a past.” They have their little rekindled relationship in fits and spurts but they have negative chemistry so the romantic scenes are not only forgettable, they are largely incoherent.There are little intrigues involving Maverick breaking rules and teaching the youths even more lessons. He’s just the best pilot to have ever piloted and haters are gonna hate. Eventually, he’s forced out of the Navy for about ten minutes but then, like in the original, he’s baaaaaaaack. Busy week. Finally, it’s GO time. The gang’s on an aircraft carrier and everyone gets their assignments. The woman pilot, Phoenix, is one of the pilots who gets to shine because feminism and I guess it was great to see but it was a reminder that some people think representation is the mere acknowledgement that marginalized people exist. No nuance is required. Most representation in movies like this is scraps from a table where we are rarely given a seat. We all deserve more and better. &nbsp;But back in the world of the movie, there is some fighting to do. Who is the enemy in this movie? We never ever find out. It is simply a nondescript antagonist in a snowbound country that could be almost any country. This is what happens when people make movies in a laboratory so the project can earn as much money as possible. Rather than offend politicians in countries like China or North Korea or Russia, the enemy is simply unnamed which makes the conflict inoffensive to everyone, quite the diplomatic feat.During the combat, Maverick is imperiled. His plane crashes. Rooster decides to save the day, against orders and he too is shot down, conveniently only like a hundred feet away from Maverick. They reunite and Maverick yells at Rooster but then they kiss and make up and sneak into the enemy base and steal a ye olde plane (F-16 I think) and fly back to safety on the aircraft carrier. But first, they engage in a little more combat showing off Maverick’s incredible skills and mentorship. When the gang returns to base, Penny is off sailing to nurse her emotional wounds but then she comes back and she and Maverick ride into their happily ever after.The most glaring omission in a movie that made a concerted effort to hit every possible nostalgic note was the absence of Meg Ryan and Kelly McGillis. Their absence was a reminder of how men are allowed to age but women over forty should, generally disappear. To be fair, Jennifer Connelly was a reasonably age-appropriate love interest for Tom Cruise. She’s fifty-one but she looks younger—she’s thin and has long hair and she’s beautiful so an exception can be made. I kept wondering where Ryan and McGillis’s characters were and little explanation was provided. It was one of many reminders that this movie was about the men, and everything else was window dressing. I was struck by something Kelly McGillis, who wasn’t even approached about the sequel, noted. "I'm old, and I'm fat, and I look age-appropriate for what my age is. And that is not what that whole scene is about,” she said. It’s such a shame that a woman who has aged normally could not possibly be part of a movie where her peers have chosen to age as unnaturally as possible, not that there’s anything wrong with that.Top Gun: MaverickFast &amp; FuriousTop Gun: MaverickLike this postShare this postTop Gun Tooaudacity.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmail13 CommentsFor your security, we need to re-authenticate you.Click the link we sent to , or .Expand full commentExpand full commentNo posts© 2022 Roxane Gay ∙ ∙ &nbsp;is the home for great writingThis site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please or unblock scripts

SubscribeSign inShare this postTop Gun Tooaudacity.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailJun 15Share this postTop Gun Tooaudacity.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailTop GunTop Gun: MaverickTop Gun: MaverickIt was at this point that several people in the theatre began applauding. One man in particular, tall, muscular, bald, brayed loudly throughout the first half hour of the movie. When Tom Cruise rides across the screen in his leather jacket, hunched over his motorcycle as he cruises the desert, this guy shouted, “Fuck yeah!” This man was very, very drunk and very, very obnoxious...

public

Roxane Gay

A place for independent writing. We make it simple for a writer to start a paid newsletter.

Top Gun Too

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS