"The Lost City" (2022) and The Triad of Silliness
I Really Love Fun Films
At this point we’re all inundated with those super serious films that have plots stacked on plots and Easter eggs galore when it’s not even April. We’ve been spoiled with movies that give two shits about the story they’re trying to spin and are willing to spend the precious screen time to craft characters we can jig and jive with.
Splash a dash of comedy and maybe the one-off romance and we have a general formula for most films made in the past decade. Most, if not all action films pull this off to varying degrees of success and it’s a tried and true method studios are happy to vomit out more of.
Adam and Aaron Nee’s The Lost City is not one of those super serious films that makes you question life and cry yourself to sleep in an existential crisis fabricated by beloved fictional characters.
But it is funny as heck and thrives in the genre that I surprisingly love and find great comfort in: The RomCom.
Here we have Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock), a bestselling novelist known for her hot and steamy archaeology based romance books [I mean we don’t get to read any bit of her work but the covers we see are reminiscent of those raunchy dime paperbacks you accidentally pick up at an airport convenience store. Gives me Indiana-Jones-but-horny kind of vibes]. Enter Dash McMahon (Channing Tatum), the cover model for her novels who is hopelessly and adorably in love with the reclusive author and we have the premise for a classic romcom, miscommunications and awkward advances galore.
In a sadistic but somewhat believable twist of fate, Harry Potter— ermh, Abigail Fairfax (played by none other than Daniel Radcliffe) kidnaps Loretta because he’s a bad-guy treasure hunter and wants her to use her superior archaeology skills to find a missing ancient tomb.
Loretta has morals and a deep-seated desire to live in spite of her woeful appearance in the opening credits so of course she has qualms about helping while simultaneously trying to guarantee her survival. All this happens while Dash and the best friend (Beth, played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph) attempt to find and save her themselves.
Why trust the police to solve a kidnapping when you can have it in the capable hands of a sexy book cover model, a literary manager, and the mercenary friend the former met at Pilates class?
I say nothing can go wrong in this scenario whatsoever.
And if you don’t believe me, I dare you to watch it and tell me something different yourself.
Dope Tropes
Tropes are the bread and butter of a genre like a RomCom. The unrealistic and stupid plot becomes familiar when you sprinkle in some well-known tropes to spice things up while also challenging the characters in their own unique ways.
These get a little repetitive, but it’s how you play with your bread and butter that makes it interesting and potentially memorable.
Here are a few of my favorites from this movie:
Unlikely love- the jock and the genius/Love Triangle: There is a love triangle for all of about 5 minutes before one is tragically and violently killed off.
The incompetent one is surprisingly competent in what matters: Even though Dash can’t add 2+2 and doesn’t know the first thing about survival in a jungle, he brought all the things that would make Loretta more comfortable once he found her.
Stuck Together: Once the one competent character gets killed off, Dash and Loretta must stay together to ensure their survival.
One bed (sleeping bag): A popular WattPad experience, the main characters are forced to be awkwardly intimate because they only have the one sleeping arrangement
Shirtless scenes: Aaand a fully naked scene but those kind of fall into the same category.
Quirky best friend: Beth provides additional comedic relief whenever we cut to her and she is trying her absolute best to find her client turned friend.
Second chances: IDK, this one’s pretty self-explanatory so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Happy Endings
Well I’m not gonna exactly spoil this for you, go enjoy (or suffer, it’s your prerogative) this movie on your own time.
What I will say is that this is a classic story of the happy ending. Everyone important that we end up caring about reaches the good ending of their story and we can more or less smile about their happily ever after.
Like most stories, the characters are unhappy and they’re seeking happiness in their own way and that propels the story forward a little bit (crazed billionaire also making a guest motivational appearance and catalyst to events lol). The main characters are actually kind of depressing at the beginning. It’s understandable and Loretta is still processing her grief over her husband’s passing but instead of growing from the sadness, she’s wallowing in it. It’s been over 6 years of this and she has no plans to move herself forward.
I find it compelling from one writer to another, is that with all the stories and all the possible endings in the world, Loretta the writer couldn’t seem to write a happy one for herself. Life really is about creating something worthwhile for yourself and watching Loretta not seize it when she’s already established herself as a writer and holding herself back from being happy made me think:
We’re our own worst enemies.
Doesn’t matter what we do or where we are in life; we will always find a way to self-sabotage or hurt ourselves. The imposter syndrome is strong, but the guilt from succeeding or being happy when you don’t think you deserve it is crippling and oftentimes catastrophic.
Seize the day! Fake it till you make it! Don’t let your own pre conceived notions about who you are or who you were stop you from competing to be the very best version of yourself!
This movie was a lot of nonsense, but its emotional journey really had me going.
It’s okay to move on. It’s okay to find yourself a new adventure when the one you’re on no longer speaks to you. And most of all, it’s okay to find your happiness in the little things and in new things.
It’s okay to be happy :)
Cameos
A friend of mine is convinced that Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Brad Pitt were making this movie around the same time that Bullet Train was being made and after or during filming what have you, they all just giggled and hopped onto the Japanese inspired action-thriller set.
The cameos are great and glorious and oh so fucking funny. Though it’s not as in-depth and satirical as Bullet Train and Brad Pitt’s character actually has some purpose [though short-lived and violent as it is], the fact that all 3 of these fabulous actors were in the same movies released in the same year to some degree has me drinking my cup of tea and raising my eyebrows at them.
And oddly enough, I enjoyed both of these films the trio have acted in. I have an interesting love/hate dilemma with Bullet Train, but nothing a good couple shots of tequila and some warm, buttery popcorn can’t easily placate.
They’re both silly and super fun films that refuses to take themselves seriously. And in an age of cinema where every movie needs to have moody lighting and a franchise to stay relevant, the comedy and lightheartedness of these films really appeals to my hipster, I’m-not-like-other-kids side.
Sometimes it’s good to just watch a movie and have an absolute blast. Which is oddly contradictory for a newsletter about movie analyses, but sometimes we have to laugh. Sometimes a good story is no story, just a feeling and a chuckle.
And if you like something in spite of how “low-brow” or simple it is? Then I’ll be damned. That’s still a good story.
