Tag: Catherine Keener

Like a Spandex suit on a man traveling faster than a speeding bullet, the rumors of an affinity with Ayn Randian ideology have tenaciously clung to the Incredibles franchise. Given that critical backdrop, what are we to make of the thematic muddle that is Incredibles 2? Not being a mind reader, I couldn’t tell you what role, if any, the accusations of objectivist thought against Bird—which he seems sensitive to—played in the making of Incredibles 2. Perhaps he thought a film that didn’t say much at all would be best; perhaps he tried to say something and it got lost in the movie-making process. Whatever happened behind closed doors at Pixar, the result is a sequel that tries on political views like outfits, only to discard them when they’re no longer relevant to a scene at hand. Faced with her first emergency, a runaway train, and equipped this time with a camera in her suit that will give voters a front-row seat to her derring-do—a possible reference to police body cams that, like so much in this film, is never further explored—Elastigirl has no problem saving the day. Evelyn wants to make sure that superheroes stay underground forever because she believes that people’s faith that someone else will make the world a better place for them makes them complacent. While it’s not completely clear to what extent Evelyn agrees with the Screenslaver or is simply using the villain as a puppet in her false-flag operation, Brad Bird, at least, agrees that the Screenslaver is “not wrong” that we’d all benefit from staring less at our phones and TVs and computers. Does that mean Evelyn was right? Or does her own devious plan end up proving that superheroes are necessary, since it’s ultimately they who risk their lives to stop her from hurting the residents of Metroville?