The usual link dump of interesting stuffs from the depths of ye olde internets:
Project 4K77 – Fans attempting to rescue the original Star Wars movie by doing a 4K scan of an original 1977 35mm Technicolor release print. We all know about the special edition changes and edits like Han shooting first and whatnot, but one thing that becomes glaringly obvious is that recent official releases have also darkened the screen considerably. This sort of digital color correction is a recent trend in cinematography and seems to be bleeding over into home video releases of older stuff as well. I cannot wait for this to end – they make everything look like muted, murky sludge.
Steven Seagal’s “Strut” – Seagal released an album in 2004 in which he sings in a fake Jamaican accent. His first line in the song “Strut” is “me wan da poonani.”
The LLMentalist Effect – Are AI language models demonstrations of actual intelligence, or are they just replicating the mechanisms of the psychic’s con?
Coin Boys – Teacher complains of students’ new thing. Good for them.
The newest thing here is a flock of self-proclaimed “coin boys” who carry a quarter on hand at all times and constantly flip it. They have their entire personality revolve around coins, coin flips, and chance. When we went around doing an ice breaker, 4 or 5 of the kids said some variation of “I live by the coin and die by the coin” as their fact.
Just about an hour ago, when I assigned the first assignment of the school year, one of the coin boys was bold enough to say “heads I do it, tails I don’t.” I told him if he flipped the coin he would be getting a call home on the first week of HS. He flipped it anyway and it came up heads (thank god for that at least).
But then the other coin boy in that class flipped his coin and it came up tails. He said the coin has spoken and he’s not doing it.
An Interview With Wanksy – An English guy starting putting graffiti around potholes so that the city council would clear them up faster. He calls himself “wanksy” because his graffiti looks like a penis.
John Neal – A 19th century author most famous for coining the phrase “son-of-a-bitch”, which he did in an 1823 novel called Seventy-Six (about the American Revolution). Naturally, the novel was criticized at the time for its profanity.
Continuing my way through a resolution to watch 50 movies from 50 different countries this year (lots of caveats and rules for what qualifies, as enumerated in that introductory post.) I’m currently at 30 movies, which is a little ahead of the game, but I’ve only covered 18 on the blog, so I am still behind on the reviews, which is why we’re all here now. More 50 From 50: [Intro | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV]
India – Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India – You wouldn’t think that a nearly four hour long Bollywood musical about cricket and the agricultural taxes imposed by colonialism could be this riveting, but this movie would prove you wrong. Sure, it is somewhat leisurely at times, but it’s never boring and it gets stronger as it builds towards a rousing climax.
I saw someone on Letterboxd describe it as Seven Samurai meets The Bad News Bears, which is surprisingly apt, though obviously a bit reductive. That said, the underdog sports tropes are all present and accounted for, even if I still don’t really know much of how Cricket functions. Recruiting the team, learning the sport, training montages, discovering talents, finding unexpected allies, experiencing cruel betrayals, and underhanded villains, it’s all there. And because it’s Bollywood, there are musical numbers sprinkled throughout. I’m not a huge musical fan, but something about this worked a lot better than usual.
I’m sure the Indian cast is full of stars, but my relative lack of exposure to Indian cinema prevents any detailed rundown. That said, Aamir Khan plays the lead well, both as the defiant kid challenging British colonials and as the clueless love interest for a rather odd love triangle (er, quadrangle?) Westerners like myself will no doubt recognize Paul Blackthorne, a consummate “that guy” you’ve probably seen in a dozen tv shows and movies. Here he plays the smarmy British captain who challenges the poor Indian farmers to a game of Cricket – if they win, no taxes for two years; if they lose, triple taxes (the title of the movie, Lagaan, essentially translates to “agricultural tax”). A suitable sports movie villain for sure. The movie looks great too, fantastic cinematography and landscapes, plus it captures the action of Cricket pretty well (even if you don’t know the sport, you can follow along pretty well).
It still a very long movie, but it genuinely doesn’t feel as long as it is (though I did end up having to watch in two sessions, as I didn’t realize it was going to be quite so long) and it’s a very well told story. Available on Netflix. ***1/2
Poland – Ashes and Diamonds – On the eve of victory in World War II, various factions struggle to secure their vision for the future of Poland. We mostly follow a couple of rebels set to assassinate a local Communist leader. When their initial attempt fails, the leader becomes suspicious while our rebels try to figure out a backup plan. Along the way, they find themselves wrestling with their actions and potential futures.
An arthouse flick that certainly leans into that wrestling with morality and purpose more than the action or violence at the heart of the story. On the other hand, the aesthetics almost resemble film noir. Stark black and white photography, meticulous compositions, and crisp camera movements all contribute to that noir-esque feel. Of course, the subject matter and Polish origins are atypical for this sort of thing, and this film leans much more heavily into the crises-of-conscience and self-reflection of our heroes than the violence they inflict or the inevitable tragedy they endure.
The symbolism is perhaps a little heavy handed (there’s a famous shot in an old bombed-out church involving an inverted crucifix) and the romance that prompts soul searching is perhaps a bit rushed and cliched, but it all comports itself well enough as these sorts of things go. Your mileage may vary, and it requires some context, but it’s quite well done for what it is. Available on Max and Criterion. **1/2
Belgium – Man Bites Dog – I distinctly remember visiting my brother’s dorm room in college once and seeing the poster for this movie. No idea if they still do this sort of thing now, but there was always a sorta decoration sale the first week of school where you could buy stuff to hang up in your dorm room, and a popular choice was movie posters or, in this case, post-card sized movie posters. No one had actually seen this movie, but it’s a striking and memorable poster for sure:
Now, decades later, I’m finally watching it… This movie takes the form of a mockumentary, with a film crew following around a professional serial killer named Ben. As things escalate, the film crew start to participate in the antics themselves. Made in 1992, it’s an early example of the form, and it’s going for an arthouse vibe with shock value thrown in for good measure.
Alas, it comes off as insufferably smug, or, at least, the main subject of the film does. He’s almost immediately unlikeable, and not just because he’s murdering people left and right. Even when he’s eating dinner and quoting poetry, he’s just miserable to be around. This is the point, of course, and watching him drone on and on about banal subjects, you can’t help but wonder why he (or the film crew) thinks this is worthy of documenting. Indeed, you get the feeling that he thinks his inane musings are more important than the murder shenanigans. This sort of thing takes on added meaning in the age of social media, with everyone putting their narcissisms on full display all the time, so perhaps there is something a little prescient about this movie. (Naturally, there is some irony in the fact that I’m writing this here, and indeed, this blog is a testament to my banality, but I’m not a murderer and hopefully not that much of a bore either.)
The film crew’s complicity and participation in the mayhem also remains quite relevant, if not even moreso. Their actions start small, but gradually become more and more flagrant. So there’s plenty to sink your teeth into here and lots to talk about, but the actual process of watching it is a bit dull. There’s a few genuine surprises and shocks, but despite the short 96 minute runtime, it feels a lot longer. I don’t love this and find it hard to recommend, but it’s got interesting subtext and could be of interest to people with the right mindset. Available on Max and Criterion. **1/2
Brazil – Elite Squad – When I went to Fantastic Fest (sheesh, well over a decade ago), I actually caught the sequel to this film, but never went back to watch the original. Like the sequel, this film is about police corruption in Brazil as told through the eyes of a burned out captain in BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion – basically the eponymous Elite Squad). He’s on the verge of starting a family and seeking a replacement that he can promote into the role, but the pickins are slim, and the intractable corruption of the various police and political institutions aren’t helping. Add in a visit by the Pope that will necessitate increased police presence in cartel-controlled slums, and a new recruit who gets mixed up in a charitable organization with ties to the cartel, and you’ve got a interesting soup of elements to sip from.
Like the sequel, this film might raise your political hackles at times. The film doesn’t leave anyone out of its crosshairs though. The liberal-coded students and charity workers are portrayed as hopelessly naive and ill-informed, while the police themselves are portrayed in the grip of a deeply corrosive corruption emerging from police leadership, government, and cartel influence. This is all a simplification and it does raise some suspicions (the film doesn’t truly present any solutions, though you could argue one way or the other), but it’s clear that this film is fed up with the status quo.
The film features stylistically effective use of handheld cameras during the action sequences, and well established geography of the various slums contributes to the effectiveness. The use of voiceover and intercut narratives is perhaps a bit less successful, and there are times when the tone feels a bit inconsistent, it ultimately manages to harness it all into an effective package.
Director José Padilha would go on to make his Hollywood debut with an ill-advised remake of RoboCop. After revisiting this Elite Squad series, I do find that Padilha is a rather interesting choice for the task, even if it was doomed to failure before it even started. This is certainly not a perfect film, but it’s thought provoking and well made nonetheless. Watched on Amazon Prime. ***
Finland – Nokia Mobile: We Were Connecting People – This is a documentary about the rise and fall of Finish cell-phone maker Nokia. It’s mostly just a talking heads documentary with some archival footage mixed in, but the story is an interesting one that remains relevant to this day. A small technology company experiences sudden, massive success and struggles to maintain its success-creating culture in the shadow of growing pains and calcified leadership. As one of the commentators puts it, “no conspiracy, just business.”
The most eye-opening bit came when a Finnish inventor shows his touchscreen phone, made several years before the iPhone. The elements of the iPhone were all there years earlier, but never really caught on, perhaps due to Nokia being addicted to maintaining their success, or some such. Perfectly cromulent documentary that doesn’t exactly break new ground, but covers an interesting subject. There’s apparently a 60 minute cut that aired on the BBC, but the one on Tubi is the fill 91 minute cut. **1/2
So there you have it, I’m now only 7 movies behind in terms of reviews, and we should be able to close that gap soon enough…
Continuing my way through a resolution to watch 50 movies from 50 different countries (lots of caveats and rules for what qualifies, as enumerated in that introductory post.) I’m currently at 29 movies, which is a little ahead of the game, but I’ve only actually covered 13 on the blog, so I am way behind on the reviews. Let’s rectify that, shall we? More 50 From 50: [Intro | Part I | Part II | Part III]
Spain – Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – Pedro Almodóvar represents an embarrassing blind spot for me, so this was the perfect opportunity to rectify that situation. A woman, upset when her lover leaves her, whips up a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho and resolves to kill herself. It’s a comedy! And despite the dark premise (which is more subtext than I’m making it sound), it actually is funny.
It takes some time setting up the various players and it doesn’t hit madcap levels until the midway point, it’s quite satisfying when the seemingly chaotic series of melodramatic events starts to converge. Excellent performances all around, including frequent Almodóvar collaborator Carmen Maura and a very young Antonio Banderas. The usage of the drugged gazpacho as a sorta Hitchockian time bomb (i.e. the audience knows about the sleeping pills, but most of the characters do not) is a neat trick.
Comedy is one of those things that sometimes doesn’t translate well across cultures, and there might be some of that lost-in-translation stuff here, but it actually worked pretty well for me. A nice balancing act going on here, and it gets stronger as it goes. Available on Freevee. ***
Israel – Big Bad Wolves – A police detective who doesn’t play by anyone’s rules but his own (and sometimes not even those) and a suspected child murderer cross paths with a grieving father of one of the victims out for revenge. It’s also a comedy! Indeed, this is one of those movies whose subject matter is so dark that it’s hard to believe how funny it becomes.
Another balancing act, this movie really rides the razor’s edge. The comedy keeps it from feeling oppressive while somehow not minimizing the tragedy at the heart of the story. Great performances from the three leads and careful framing and blocking certainly help maintain the tonal balance required to make a bleak farce like this work so well. It’s not for the faint of heart (especially with that ending), but it surprised the hell out of me and I loved it. Available on Amazon Prime. ***1/2
China – Cliff Walkers – Director Zhang Yimou takes on a twisty espionage thriller about four Communist Party agents trained in the Soviet Union coming back to Japan-occupied China during World War II. It’s the sort of government-friendly story that allows for a bigger budget, but doesn’t feel entirely like slick propaganda either. Impeccably appointed, meticulously crafted, and incredibly convoluted, this isn’t a Bond-esque action flick, but it’s not quite a staid, talky John le Carré type story either. It has its lurid action or torture sequences, betrayals and double crosses, and so on, but it never feels over-the-top.
You will need to pay attention and puzzle out some of the various plot machinations, but I like that sort of thing in a spy movie (your mileage may vary). The snowy backdrops provide plenty of contrast for Zhang’s visual prowess, which is on full display here, and the film looks gorgeous. It’s sometimes hard to track down Zhang Yimou movies, but they’ve been showing up again on various streaming rental services and this one is actually on Freevee (as is Raise the Red Lantern, which is also highly recommended). Someday one of those enterprising physical media companies will give his filmography a nice HD or 4K upgrade, and I’m here for that. ***
Mexico – Tigers Are Not Afraid – A modern fairy tale about street kids surviving amidst drug cartels and a generally unforgiving world. This is not a comedy! Which is not to say that there is no levity here, just that it’s mostly a bleak experience. Featured on The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder, I’m glad it got the added attention and Joe Bob’s commentary provides insightful background.
A movie like this really depends heavily on child actors, which can sometimes be a kiss of death, but the kids are amazing here. Naturalistic and entirely believable, it’s not just the performances but also the writing, which is allegorical but sharp. Another deft balancing act going on here, this is recommended. Available on Shudder (with or without Joe Bob). ***
Philippines – The Muthers – The second part of a Last Drive-In double feature with Tigers Are Not Afraid, this blacksploitation flick about pirates rescuing women from a coffee plantation has some unusual qualities. Don’t get me wrong, this is totally trashy, lots of cheap action and silliness, but it feels like there’s at least something simmering underneath the surface. It’s hard to apply labels like “feminist” to this given its trashy nature, but there’s absolutely something transgressive about a group of black women rescuing their sisters from a plantation prison while consistently thwarting male advances from every direction.
I don’t know, maybe I’m making too much of that, because this is more exploitation than anything else. We’ve actually seen director Cirio Santiago before during the 1978 Project, as he directed a bonkers flick called Death Force. The Muthers perhaps has more subtext, but they’re both trashy exploitation to their core, and worth watching if that’s your thing. **1/2
Progress! Still far behind in reviews, but I should be able to catch up soon enough.
The 2023 Hugo Awards finalists were announced last week, so it’s time for the requisite celebrations and/or bitter recriminations. I participated in the Hugo voting last year (after a year off), but I didn’t submit a ballot this year and wasn’t planning on participating. There are numerous reasons for this, chief among them was the fact that I didn’t really have anything to nominate. I generally like to have something to champion going into the process, and for whatever reason, I didn’t get that this year (it doesn’t help that of my two main nominations last year, only one made the ballot and that one came in dead last – I’m clearly out of step with the current throngs of Hugo voters).
Best Novel
The only nominated novel I’ve already read is The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi, a book I enjoyed but did not think of as “award worthy” and indeed, described as “clearly middle tier at best” with “clumsy worldbuilding.” Scalzi is one of the few authors whose books I look forward to and immediately read as they arrive, so I’m grading a bit on a curve against the rest of his work (i.e. the “middle tier at best” is mentioned in comparison with his other work, not SF/F as a whole in 2022). As usual, I’m not in step with the rest of the awards community, as Kaiju has won the Locus SF award and was nominated here, and I’m happy to see Scalzi recognized.
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia stands out due to its horror-adjacent genre status. For whatever reason, the Hugos tend to shy away from anything horror related, though this spin on the famous H. G. Wells novel with some historical flare thrown in perhaps helped its chances. From what I can tell, this is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s first nomination, but she’s been on the novel longlist a few times, so it’s not entirely surprising (though I would have expected the much more famous/popular Mexican Gothic to have garnered a slot a few years ago). It’s always nice to see a new name on the ballots though.
Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir represents the third book in a series about lesbian necromancers in space. I read the first book in the series and it was one of those “I should like this a lot more than I actually do” sorta experiences. Lots of fun elements that just never connected with me. Happy to see her continued success though, even if I probably won’t be reading the sequels.
Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree is another one that wasn’t really on my radar, apparently about an orc who wants to retire from battle and set up a coffee shop in town, which sounds like fun, escapist fare. Not the sort of thing I tend to expect from the Hugos, but I suspect the strain of the last few years has gotten people more into escapist literature than heavy, dense meditations (another thing in favor of Scalzi’s entry as well).
Nettle & Bone, by T. Kingfisher ne Usula Vernon, a regular fixture on the Hugo ballots. I’ve always liked her work well enough and she always came out near the top of my short fiction ballots (when I participated). This one seems to be more of a fairy tale sorta story than what I’ve read from her before, but that could be good.
The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal appears to be a take on The Thin Man set in space. I haven’t heard a lot of buzz about this, but it has a fun premise. But on the other hand, I have not loved Kowal’s work in the past (even when they have a good premise). That being said, she’s clearly popular with Hugo voters, so its not entirely surprising to see this nomination.
Overall, an interesting list. Only one real Science Fiction entry, though you do get a horror-adjacent nominee (maybe even two, as kaiju stories are traditionally classified under horror – even if Scalzi’s novel is clearly not horror). Still, it does seem like a fantasy heavy list.
Short Fiction
Not a lot to mention here. Some familiar names, a lot of Tor novellas, and owing to this year’s Worldcon being held in China, you do see more Chinese authors than usual, especially in the Short Story category. I might actually take a swing at the short story category this year, though I’m almost inevitably disappointed by the Hugo short story category.
Best Dramatic Presentation
The long form list does have some of the usual Disney blockbuster fare, but it’s nice to see Nope make the list (again, horror-adjacent movies don’t tend to fare well here). The only real surprise is Severance Season 1 being included in the Long Form. It’s been on my radar as something I might like, but I tend to focus more on movie watching than TV watching. The idea of including an entire season of TV in the Long Form category makes a certain sort of sense, but it’s always struck me as somewhat awkward logistically. That being said, I will probably catch up with that show. At least this year doesn’t contain a WTF nominee like last year’s Eurovision…
As already mentioned, I haven’t watched many of the TV shows nominated in the short form, but it’s nice to see some variety (only one show with multiple episodes nominated). Actually, now that I take a closer look, I apparently have watched 3 of the 6 finalists, so maybe I watch more TV than I think.
Other Categories and Assorted Thoughts
Congrats to all the 2023 Hugo Awards nominees, it seems like a very good list this year.
Best Series continues to be a strange category, especially when a series shows up in both the Best Novel and Best Series categories (as happens this year, though at least only once).
Not sure why the 2023 Hugo Awards finalists were announced so late in the year (we’re normally getting close to closing the voting at this point in the year, so we’re several months behind the usual schedule), but congrats are due again to all the nominees. I probably won’t be participating this year, but I will keep an eye out for the winners when they finally get announced.
To celebrate a July 4 weekend (eh, close enough), we take the usual spin through the depths of ye olde internets for interesting links:
Goncharov – This is a nonexistent 1973 gangster film directed by Martin Scorsese with the tagline “The greatest mafia movie ever made”. It was conceived on Tumblr in 2022? Wow, I thought Tumblr had pretty much grown into complete irrelevance, but this is pretty funny. This fake movie has a pretty elaborate set of details like posters and superfans that make it feel real. (I discovered this on my phone many moons ago and kept forgetting to include it in one of these link dumps, so I’m way behind the curve here, but still…)
The city put out a ‘Potty Poll’ to name its new public bathrooms and Philly did not disappoint – These sorts of polls are always a bad idea from the perspective of the people running them (see also: Boaty McBoatface), but lots of fun for everyone else. Some Philly highlights: “Wee the People”, “Porta Jawn”, “Phlush”, “Wooder-Closet”, “Leave Turds, Go Birds”, and “The Dallas Cowboys”. All well and good, but my personal favorite remains: “Kite and Pee”
Back to the Orifice – Interesting take on how “work from home” has changed things and why many “back to the office” pushes are unsuccessful:
The problem with the post-pandemic “back to the office” push is that companies now want three different things from white-collar office workers:
Spontaneous in-person teamwork.
Virtual worldwide collaboration.
Individual productivity.
It’s easy to create to a workspace that supports any one of these three modes of work. It’s hard but possible to create a workspace that supports two. But no workspace can support all three at once because they make radically incompatible demands.
What the Sports Culture War is All About – Evenhanded portrayal of the way politics and sports interact that comes down right around where I do. Many culture war battles are exhausting because they force people to take sides that aren’t especially relevant to them or to what they’re talking about, which is one reason the current battles in sports are so annoying:
What the subsequent generations aren’t getting as much, what the leagues are confounding in their efforts to woo them, and what activist groups are hamfistedly attempting to channel, is of a transcendent nature. Sports is a surrender, and that’s what makes them great. To notice that so many people sign up to be hypnotized together is less to identify a problem than it is to identify the need it’s addressing. Also, sports is more mirror than mover of the zeitgeist, always a time capsule of conventional wisdom. It remains valuable ad space due to optics and scale, but it’s hard to truly harness towards propagandistic ends. Why? Because the fan communes with the game specifically not to be focused on anything else.
Baseball player looks for the “and 1” foul – Speaking of sports, this is a very funny baseball play that draws on basketball for the joke. It’s also on Twitter, which is a disaster right now, so I apologize.
Apparently you’ll need to be logged into Twitter to view this, and even if you are, you will be rate limited on the amount of tweets you can view. For the record, this is worth being one of the 600 tweets you’ll be able to view right now. Anywho, I’m thinking Twitter is pretty much toast at this point. There are competing explanations for this weekend’s woes, in part because all of them stem from stupid decisions and are thus manifestly believable.
Explanation the first: Musk wanted to limit viewing twitter to users of twitter. On its face, this seems stupid, but it’s not unheard of for social media, most of which limits what you can see if you’re not a member. But then, one of the things I liked about Twitter was that you didn’t need to be logged in to see it, and sharing it on text message chains was easy, etc… Anyway, the thought is that this change to limit viewership was made quickly by a depleted development team that didn’t foresee a cascade of issues arising (some dev on Mastodon speculated about Twitter DDOSing itself because when the site suppresses tweets, it thinks something is broken, so it keeps sending the request, which keeps failing, ad infinitum.)
Explanation the second: By why was Musk trying to suppress viewership? Don’t they make money on ads? Well, he mentions bots and crawlers and whatnot, and with the AI evolution that’s going on right now, it’s certainly possible that there’s been an uptick in bots and scrapers. This makes a certain sort of sense, but obviously the execution is either broken (and thus impacting all users, not just ones not logged in), unless:
Explanation the third: Apparently Twitter was negotiating their cloud hosting contract with Google, which had a deadline of June 30. So basically, these problems started happened right then. The conspiracy here is that maybe Twitter is out of money and can’t pay hosting fees, so they’re trying to stem the bleeding. Kinda plausible, even if it feels like we’re watching Twitter self-destruct. Not sure anyone will truly miss it.
TCM Creative Structure Set – We’re going through a weird period of time right now where every major corporation seems to be self-sabotaging right in front of our eyes. Obviously TCM is a niche market, but Warner Bros Discovery, which had built up cred with movie dorks by supporting stuff like TCM and filmmakers and HBO, has been doing everything in their power to destroy what they’ve built. This is the third big corporation mentioned in this post alone that has made dumb decisions that are not working out well for them (also of note: Reddit is imploding because of boneheaded tech decisions as well). Anyway, the backlash to TCM changes was big enough to garner some minor concessions, which is something, I guess.
I think that’s enough for now, have a great July 4…
Just a series of quick hits and tasting notes on my media diet (and sometimes, uh, regular diet) of late:
Television
The Mandalorian – I really enjoyed the first couple of seasons of The Mandalorian, but the further it went, the more franchise baggage it accumulated. One of the bigger problems the show faced in season 3 was that you had to watch The Book of Boba Fett series to know what was going on (the Fett series was… not great, but one episode was almost entirely a Mandalorian episode and changed a bunch of things that happened in the season 2 finale – it was a decent episode, but it didn’t belong in another series.)
Then you have to take into account that this season was mostly not about Mando, but rather the various Mandalorian factions and lore. This sort of stuff works better in the background, and in the process, the things we liked about the series (independent, mostly standalone stories with Star Wars flavor) started to fade a bit. This growth of side characters is sometimes fine, but like Ted Lasso, I felt like something was missing when the focus moved away from the titular character. They’re still taking some chances (the one episode with the former Empire officer was interesting enough) but there’s a lack of cohesiveness, and guest stars don’t really help with that. I’m still interested in this show and will probably check out the Ahsoka show (if only to see Thrawn onscreen), but I’m falling off the Disney+ train of late…
FUBAR – Perfectly cromulent spy thriller show starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that fits with the typical Netflix show mold. In other words, I completely forgot that I watched it. It’s certainly nothing special, but I have a soft spot for Arnold and the show has a decent enough blend of action and comedy. The supporting cast all works too, including Monica Barbaro (from Top Gun: Maverick) and surprisingly, Travis Van Winkle (who I remember as being great in Friday the 13th). It’s derivative, the dramatic bits probably don’t hit as hard as they should, and it’s not going to light the world on fire, but it’s enjoyable enough and I’m actually curious to see what happens next.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – For reasons basically amounting to stubbornness and spite, I have avoided subscribing to Paramount+ (or any of its previous incarnations like CBS All Access or whatever). As such, I have not really been keeping up with new Trek series… and from what I can tell, I haven’t missed much. That being said, I’ve been missing the “science thing of the week” style episodic show, and a friend told me that this is what Strange New Worlds was like… and then it showed up on Amazon Prime Video, so I gave it a shot. Only a couple episodes in, but I like it! There’s a lot of potential here, and I will continue to explore (pun intended!) The only thing that gives me pause is that it’s another series that’s a prequel, which, gah, why do we keep doing this?
Movies
The Flash – Pretty typical DC effort to cash in on a few obvious trends like Multiverses and legacy characters, which is to say, some interesting ideas weighed down by franchise baggage and abysmal overreliance on bad CGI. Like, did these scenes finish rendering? Are the babies supposed to look like soulless, dead-eyed plastic monsters? It doesn’t help that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse came out two weeks ago and features an almost identical story, but in a much more cohesive manner. Ezra Miller is fine, though it’s a double performance and one of the characters was pretty annoying. It’s nice to see Keaton getting a paycheck, but that’s about it. There’s some cameos and bits and pieces that work here or there (though it does include one that’s in pretty bad taste). It’s diverting enough, but it looks awful and it’s weird that they are still putting out these movies when they’re about to reboot the whole DC universe. I suspect there’s a bit of superhero fatigue at the box office these days, but I also think that’s mostly because the quality hasn’t been there lately. All that said, James Gunn has made a bunch of unlikely stuff work, so I’m definitely curious. Anyway, the Flash is mostly just an also-ran rehash of the recent spate of multiverse movies, which are also getting pretty played out.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Alright, I guess I should talk about this one too. It builds on the first movie (which was exceptional and well worth seeking out if you haven’t seen it) in nearly every way. It’s visually spectacular, continuing the trend of visual motifs and animation styles centered around a specific instance of Spider-Man that started in the first film, then seamlessly blending them together as multiple characters interact. This was present in the first movie, but taken to an extreme here. At times, perhaps too extreme and overwhelming, but mostly this is just fulfilled ambition here.
The only really major problem here is that it basically just stops with a “To Be Continued”, which isn’t the worst thing in the world, but I was not expecting that (and it was the second movie to pull this sorta thing in a few weeks – the other being Fast X) and it means you leave the theater on a down note (as opposed to the high note of the first film). That being said, this is maybe the best superhero movie of the last few years? Or, er, the best first half of a movie, because this is definitely just half of a movie. Definitely curious to see if they can stick the landing, as they haven’t quite painted themselves into a corner, but there are plenty of traps they could fall into in the third movie.
Extraction II – These two movies are in the running for best Netflix blockbusters… which is not saying much, but this sequel is a solid actioner with a budget that lets them do some impressive stuff. In particular, there are some well executed long takes filled with action that are very well done (continuing the trend from the first movie). I know there’s a faction of people who don’t like this sort of stitched together long take, but I generally find this thing worth pursuing. Action trends come in waves, and and I like this a lot more than, say, the shaky cam/quick cuts thing that was going on in the oughts and early teens. Anywho, the plot is basically just an excuse for the action and pretty forgettable, but the action is great and Chris Hemsworth does this sort of thing well. I don’t know that there’ll be a third movie, but I want to see Hemsworth do this sort of action thing again. Maybe someday they’ll put it in movie theaters. What an idea!
Brooklyn 45 – Five WWII vets get together immediately after the war, and a troubled friend thinks it will be a good idea to hold a seance so that he can talk to his dead wife. Spoiler alert: it was not a good idea. It’s a nice little single location thriller punctuated by 1940s needle drops, excellent performances, ghostly hands, Germans, and emotional confessions galore. I don’t know that the ending fully holds together well enough, but I respect the grind. As an aside, it was very strange to see the guy who does the Peter Rosenthal reviews for the Onion in this, doing, like, regular dramatic acting. But he was good! Still no Rosenthal review of this yet though.
Books
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad – Set in a fictional South American country, this novel tells the story of a silver mine that gets thrust into disarray during one of the periodic revolutions that plague the country. It’s pretty funny that this highly respected literary novel reminds me the most of… The Lord of the Rings. I mean, sure, it’s a deeply political novel with keen insights into the nature of mankind, but setting it in a fictional country means that Conrad spends a huge amount of time fleshing it out with history and culture, especially as seen through a handful of characters. Sometimes it felt like reading a realistic, non-fantasy version of The Simarillion. Plus, you get a titular character who has several different names (Nostromo, Giovanni, Capataz de Cargadores, etc…), just like the LotR characters (i.e. Strider/Aragorn, etc…) And the treasure from the silver mine? Everyone seeks it out, and it corrupts even those described as incorruptible. Sound familiar? No? I’m just a huge nerd? Yeah, that checks out. Carry on. (I took more notes and may expand this to another post with a more serious dive into the novel, but will leave it at this for now…)
No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfield – Murder mystery following a dead town pariah, her missing husband, a famous social media influencer type, and a detective piecing things together. Perfectly cromulent thriller built on a twist you can probably see coming, it loses its way a few times, but works reasonably well. Not highly recommended, but you could do worse (damning with faint praise? Maybe.)
Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez – A sequel to Delta-v, this one picks up where the first novel left off, but spends a fair amount of time grounded as the political ramifications of the first novel are dealt with. So it’s not quite as breezy, but things get moving a little more as the story progresses and our protagonists get back into space. I like Delta-v and Suarez in general, so I enjoyed this just fine, though it’s not his most memorable story. Will keep on the lookout for more Suarez though, as he occupies an interesting space between Techno-Thriller and Science Fiction.
The House at the End of the World by Dean Koontz – I have a soft spot for Koontz, who got me into reading for fun when I was a youngin. It helped that he was operating at his prime in the late 80s/early 90s and that’s when I started reading his stuff. I’ve periodically tried to dip back into his long catalog of stuff or his newer work, but I always found it lacking a certain spark. It could very well be that Koontz’s tendency to recycle plots and story elements simply got too repetitive for me, but sometimes that can be ok. Still, this newish book is maybe his best since… the 90s? I don’t mean to imply that it’s great or that it doesn’t hit some of his many overused tropes, but it’s a better executed version than I’ve seen in a long time. It helps that the villain is actually kinda interesting and unlike a lot of his more recent work. If you’re a Koontz fan, this might scratch an itch.
The Finer Things
Over at the beer blog, we’re tackling Italian Style Pils, some recent Bourbon purchases, a little non-Alcoholic beer, and a rather odd offering from Fantôme (but then, I repeat myself). I also had an opportunity to visit Asheville, NC recently (which, if you don’t know, is a huge beer city).
That about does it for this round of tasting notes. Moar to come!
In the series finale of Ted Lasso, former journalist Trent Crimm (independent) has given a draft of his book about Lasso’s improbable turn as the coach of the AFC Richmond football team to Lasso (and Coach Beard) for review. Beard’s copy is marked up with hundreds of color coded stickies and notes, but Ted just says he loves it… except for the title. Crimm had named the book “The Lasso Way” and Ted writes something to the effect of “It was never about me.” Which is in tune with the humble nature of the character for sure, but I can’t help but think it’s also speaking directly to the audience (or at least, me) about season 3’s relative dearth of the man himself.
The first season emerged in the midst of the pandemic (during a particularly contentious election year in the US), and its radically nice, wholesome tone was desperately needed. It was a nice antidote for the cynical times we were living in, and it was about as good as a season of sitcom television could be. It was a “fish out of water” story about a fundamentally decent guy beset on all sides by suspicious critics who slowly, methodically wins them over. And it was extremely funny! Season 2 faltered a bit, but even if I didn’t like some aspects, the disruption of the pandemic on the production was obvious and excusable, and while I didn’t love the idea or how they treated him, I respected the heel turn of a specific character to set up season 3.
However, the wheels pretty clearly came off the bus in season 3. It was as popular as ever, to be sure, but complaints and grumblings were more frequent. There’s a clear lack of cohesiveness here, almost like they had a plan, but scrapped it midway through the season to do something else. Introducing new characters and ideas only to unceremoniously drop them with nary a care to resolve them (except in maybe the vaguest of nods, as in Zava’s avocado or Keeley um, hmm, I don’t think they actually resolved anything there.) And the heel turn they so carefully crafted in season 2 was almost immediately backtracked (though this path, at least, represented an arc through the whole season.)
Then there’s this desperate grasping for relevance and a sweaty need to tackle Important Subjects (capital letters), a problem whose roots appeared in season 2, but which has grown into a mighty oak in season 3. It’s not the content itself, it’s the didactic way in which it’s delivered. Look, they’re good at packing the jokes in even as the show declined, but it was like each episode had to stop and do something resembling a corporate training video. Those videos you have to watch for corporate compliance purposes aren’t excruciating because they’re wrong; they’re so brutally didactic and ham fisted because the whole point of such a video is to reduce corporate liability, and trusting the audience to get the point of a metaphor or illustrative example is too vague for such purposes. This is not an approach to emulate for actual fiction, but then, here we are with season 3 of Ted Lasso. Alright, it’s not quite that bad. They are well crafted didactic speeches, but you know, still didactic.
This approach also had the effect of bloating the episodes to absurd lengths. Part of season 1’s charm was it’s economical use of the 30 minute (or so) runtime. This continued into season 2, but towards the end, they started moving towards double-sized episodes. Season 3 started off with a 43 minute episode, but most episodes ran towards the one hour mark, with the finale reaching an almost feature length 75 minutes. In the conversion to longer episodes something was lost. Trung Phan wrote about how great the introduction to Ted Lasso is in the pilot episode; it only takes 157 seconds to introduce the character and establish him as a likable guy. It’s also a perfect demonstration of the storytelling rule of “Show, don’t tell.” One of the reasons season 3 drags is that they’re not content to show, they also feel like they need to tell.
Lasso himself was largely absent from the proceedings throughout the entire season. This sort of thing happens on a lot of shows. They build up an ensemble of colorful side characters who eventually take over. Often times, the main character is the most boring of them all… but not in Ted Lasso. At least, not in season 1. And yes, the “fish out of water” tack can only last so long, but to have your main character sidelined for most of the season was kinda brutal. The last episode does fare better because we do finally get back to Ted, and his story goes basically the only place it could. As much as they might try to inoculate themselves with the “It was never about me” note, it was about him, and they seemed to forget that for a while. Ultimately, I’ve probably spent much more time on the negative here than was deserved. The show was still funny and worthwhile, but it seems undeniable that it lost its edge somewhere along the way there. (Well, this post started as a Tasting Notes sorta thing, but I guess I got carried away with trying to put my finger on what bothered me about season 3 of Ted Lasso so this has grown into its own thing… stay tuned for moar!)
Catching up on quick reviews of movies watched for my resolution to watch 50 movies from 50 different countries (lots of caveats and rules for what qualifies, as enumerated in that introductory post.) I’m currently at 21 movies watched, which is basically on track, but I’ve only reviewed the first 9 of those. More 50 From 50: [Intro | Part I | Part II]
Sweden – Thriller: A Cruel Picture – Early art-house rape revenge flick that earns its subtitle. A young mute girl named Frigga (played by Christina Lindberg) endures abuse at a young age, gets tricked, kidnapped, and hooked on heroin by a suave business pimp who uses her addiction to force her into prostitution. She resists at first, so he pokes out one of her eyes. Weirdly, he’s a sorta hands-off pimp, relying on the heroin addiction to keep his girls in line, but mostly leaving them alone (I guess he thinks he’s clever, but while his approach is obviously cheap, it’s not exactly secure, as the rest of the film demonstrates). Once Frigga saves up enough tips, she goes out and takes classes in martial arts, shooting, and… rally driving!? Once she’s ready, she goes on a glorious revenge spree.
The film has a complicated history with multiple cuts available at this point. The original cut of 107 minutes was banned by the Swedish film censorship board, and several unapproved cuts later, it was finally released in an 82 minute cut. This cut came to be known as the “They Call Her One Eye” cut and is probably the source of the film’s reputation as an almost fun exploitation romp (and I’m assuming there’s a 20 minute Tarantino rant out there extolling the virtues of the film that also helps – he clearly references this in his work, particularly in Kill Bill). The original cut was released on 4K in 2022 by Vinegar Syndrome and the added footage ranges from interesting (lingering shots, arty slow motion violence) to the completely unnecessary (multiple hardcore sex inserts during the early part of the film – I get what they’re going for, but you don’t need to see that level of explicit violation to get the point, which the rest of the film amply establishes).
Look, this sort of movie isn’t really supposed to be fun, but there’s a visceral yet conflicted feel you get from the vengeance that works well. It’s rare that a revenge film can capture the catharsis of revenge but also the emptiness inherent in the act. I haven’t explored the other cuts on the Vinegar Syndrome release, but I suspect the shorter cuts are significantly more successful than the original Thriller: A Cruel Picture cut. Still, it’s a worthwhile early example of the genre. Watched on Vinegar Syndrome 4K ***
Uganda – Bad Black – When I started this resolution, I knew I had to pick a film from Wakaliwood (a portmanteau of Hollywood and the town of Wakaliga, Uganda). Produced, written, and directed by Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey (aka Nabwana IGG), this is another in a long string of no-budget DIY action flicks that nonetheless manage to capture film dork hearts. And when I say “no-budget”, I mean it. We’re talking cheap nerf-knockoff guns (or guns made of sticks) and cardboard sets (or just shooting on location).
It’s all undeniably crude, but the sense of joy on screen is infectious, and Nabwana IGG has a good sense of action. Frenetic editing that remains clear, some actual martial arts, and of course, the greatest invention of Wakaliwood – the VJ track. When Uganda first began getting movies from the West, they didn’t come with subtitles… so they improvised. A local storyteller would narrate the film and explain what was going on for audiences. This eventually evolved from a “Video Jockey” type of experience into a “Video Joker”, who would inject a little of their own personality into things, resulting in a blend of straight narration, MST3K style jokes, and hype man bravado. So when Nabwana IGG started making his own action epics, he kept the tradition alive, and it’s glorious. Bad Black is narrated by VJ Emmie, who describes himself as a master of “tongue fu”, and he has several memorable one liners (most notably “This doctor needs borders!”)
Look, this isn’t exactly high art and it’s impossible to rate this sort of thing, but it’s hard not to appreciate the sheer enthusiasm and glee on display here. Where else will you see a little kid wearing pink crocks named Wesley Snipes train a doctor from Doctors Without Borders in the arts of ass-kicking commando vengeance? Nowhere. Watched on Amazon Prime.
Senegal – Saloum – Tense genre-mashup incorporating action, adventure, crime, revenge, neo-Western, political drama, and horror rooted in African mythology. A group of mercenaries rescue a drug lord, but need to hide out in a small region of Senegal. While they make preparations to fix their airplane, local mystical forces gather.
This is another low-budget African production, but this is much slicker and utterly gorgeous to look at. The acting is top notch and the genre mashup plot contains many unexpected twists and turns. It’s not perfect and the ending is a bit abrupt, but getting a bunch of disparate characters together and dropping them into a desperate situation that forces them to work together is an effective approach. Despite it’s many influences, it feels cohesive and whole, and well worth checking out if you’re looking for something new and interesting. Watched on Shudder. ***
France – Beau travail – A guy in the French Foreign Legion gets jealous of one of the new recruits. Or something like that, as this is one of those plotless French arthouse flicks that is gorgeously photographed, but has almost no dialogue and is very slowly paced. Lots of angst, ennui, repression and while this was made in 1999, it touches on a bunch of topics that are quite in vogue right now (i.e. colonialism, toxic masculinity, repressed homosexuality, etc…) It’s hypnotically naturalistic and feels like visual poetry, with an enigmatic ending that is beautiful and sad. It’s also emphatically not my thing, and I was bored out of my mind for a good portion of the (blessedly short) runtime. It’s one of several movies I’ve seen in the past few years that feel like parodies of themselves. Like, if you ask someone to come up with a parody of French Arthouse movies, you would get something resembling this movie. Watched on HBO Max. **
And we’ll leave it there for now. I’m still quite a few movies behind, but we’ll catch up soon enough…
Just catching up on quick reviews of movies watched for my resolution to watch 50 movies from 50 different countries (lots of caveats and rules for what qualifies, as enumerated in that introductory post.) At this point, I’m at 19 movies, but I’ve only posted about the first five, so I’m still catching up.
Japan – High and Low – One of Akira Kurosawa’s best films, this is an early police procedural that might as well be the textbook for more modern examples (even if a surprising number of these imitations screw up the details). It’s almost like three movies in one. First, there’s a tale of corporate intrigue, with a rich businessman seeking to take over a shoe company from greedy cheapskates that want to run it into the ground. Second, there’s a kidnapping that’s intended to target the businessman’s son, but mistakenly nabs the man’s driver’s son (the two children were out playing, and the kidnappers got confused). And third, the police procedural as the inspectors assigned to the case attempt to hunt down the perpetrators.
Toshiro Mifune plays the businessman, and he’s obviously the big name in the cast (and a famous collaborator with Kurosawa), but the film really belongs to the police officers, especially Tatsuya Nakadai and Kenjiro Ishiyama. All put in great performances, and the script does an excellent job laying out the stakes, interweaving the various elements, and dropping twists and turns in for flavor. The kidnapping plot is simple but cleverly conceived, and the kidnappers are able to keep the ball rolling even when it’s revealed that they have the wrong kid. The subsequent investigation is also the sort of thing we’ve seen many times before, but that’s to be expected for an early example of the genre; it’s methodical and detailed and everyone involved displays admirable competence, such that it’s never boring, even if you might have some inkling as to where it’s headed. The ultimate motivation does perhaps leave a bit to be desired, but it also fits well with the overall themes of the film.
Kurosawa fully commands the screen with visuals that echo the story. For instance, the businessman lives in a large home at the top of a hill, as if he thinks he’s better than the rabble below him, and the story leverages that fact in several ways. It’s top notch stuff and highly recommended. Watched on HBO Max (but there’s a handsome Criterion disc out there that I may need to invest in during the next sale). ****
South Korea – Decision to Leave – I watched this very early on this year because I was trying to catch up on 2022 releases. This movie wound up making my honorable mentions for the year, and on another day, could very well have made the top 10. As such, I’ve already written a short blurb about this one:
Park Chan Wook takes bits and pieces from Basic Instinct and Vertigo, tosses them in a blender with Korean culture, and you wind up with this pulpy detective story featuring some bittersweet romance and a confounding ending that will leave you reeling. A bit too long with a flashback structure that doesn’t always work (though it’s in line with his previous work), this nonetheless manages to keep things intriguing enough throughout the runtime and it’s visually impressive as well.
I don’t have much to add, except to say that the film has aged well in my head, though I’d probably still rank it on the bottom half of the top 10 or as an honorable mention. Watched on Mubi (though it looks like it’s now available to rent elsewhere) ***
Taiwan – Incantation – Found Footage flick about a mother trying to protect her child from a curse of some kind. Pretty standard and only modestly successful attempts to address the “Why are they still filming?” issue endemic to found footage movies, but it’s at least not super-shaky. The narrative does include lengthy flashback sequences that provide depth to the current day story, but the “rules” of the curse are left annoyingly vague. That said, they do manage to craft several spooky setpieces, a few solid scares, and even work a little body horror into the mix. Clocking in at 111 minutes, it’s a little too long for the story it’s trying to tell, which tends to remind you of lots of other movies. It’s not especially original, but it is well crafted and spooky enough if you’re in the mood for some found footage. Watched on Netflix. **1/2
Vietnam – Furies – Veronica Ngo is a Vietnamese actress who made a name for herself in various action flicks and started to dip her toes into the Hollywood waters with bit parts in The Last Jedi, Da 5 Bloods, and The Old Guard. I have to wonder if the pandemic put the brakes on that progression, but I think there’s a chance she could breakout at some point.
Here, she stars and also directs a pretty standard girl-power actioner about a young woman taken in by a group of misfits training to take on the local sex trafficking gang. Said gang is brutal, so you’re immediately onboard with the vengeance being dealt out here (and devastated when the inevitable tragedy strikes our heroines), and there are several sturdy action sequences sprinkled throughout the film.
However, the relationship between the girls is a little forced and cringe at times, and there is one action sequence that is laughably bad. Look, I get that this is a low budget flick and vehicle stunts are expensive, but that motorcycle chase is just awful. I guess there’s something to be said for trying to find a creative low-fi solution to the issue, but it didn’t really play out well. Ultimately, this is a decent action programmer that doesn’t really stand out from the pack, except perhaps for the female-led cast. I’m still looking forward to see Veronica Ngo’s career progress though, and I hope she gets bigger budgets to work with in the future too. Watched on Netflix. **1/2
I’ll leave it there for now. I’m still 10 movies behind, but we’ll be able to catch up soon enough…
Just the usual link dump of interesting stuff from the depths of ye olde internets:
TV’s Streaming Bubble Has Burst, a Writers Strike Looms, and “Everybody Is Freaking Out” – A pretty accurate sentiment, as I do think we’re about to see some consolidation in the streaming space (after an absurd push for streaming that was never really supported by reality – though I guess the pandemic threw a major curve into the mix), and we’re definitely seeing a return to theatrical releases, but then all of it could be derailed by the writers’ strike (and, to be clear, I’m on the writers’ side on this one – their asks are eminently reasonable and it feels like studios have already lost more money than they would have if they just paid their writers. I seriously don’t understand Hollywood’s outright hostility to writers.)
Netflix’s DVD End Is a Warning Sign for Film Lovers – Of course, streaming isn’t going away… and this is a sad milestone, but one I think we could all see coming. For the record, I did have a DVD subscription because they actually had a deeper library than streaming does (though in recent years, it was thinning out).
Hollywood’s Coming “OS Wars” – This article proposes an interesting idea about the future of streaming: that the real competition will be on home screen aggregators like Roku or Fire. I’m not entirely convinced, but any improvements in aggregation, navigation, curation, and discoverability on streaming can only be a good thing.
Trafficking the News – This review of Ben Smith’s book “Traffic” signals a potential end for online journalism’s absurd push for traffic for traffic’s sake.
Having now worked in journalism for almost 20 years (he typed, arthritically, bones turning to dust at the mere thought of it) and having lived through various cycles of how journalism pays for and propagates itself, I’ve never been more sure of anything than the idea that chasing traffic for traffic’s sake has been disastrous and that cultivating a base of subscribers is the only way forward. But there are dangers there as well.
Star Wars by Wes Anderson – I keep seeing AI generated videos and they’re almost always filled with horrifying grotesques, but this one is almost pitch perfect. It turns out that the approach was to use AI to generate still images in a proposed style, then add some minor motion and sound to them, and stitch them together (at least, I think that’s what they did). It turned out pretty great, though it’s also obviously patterned after the SNL parody from a few years ago. Anyway, the Owen Wilson as Darth Vador “Wow” moment is pitch perfect.
Into Thin AirPods – Have you ever lost an Apple product and wanted to use the Find My app to mete out vigilante justice? A bit anticlimactic, but it’s a fun read.
This is the part where I say I’m aware that everyone—Apple, law enforcement, any friends with good judgment within earshot—strenuously discourages ever, under any circumstances, trying to do vigilante justice with the Find My app. If you so much as mention the possibility, like four people will jump out of the woodwork with stories about someone they knew who was shot or assaulted trying to confront a thief in the act. I’d like to emphasize that I’m firmly on the side of reason, and a steadfast believer that having crime done to me is not an occasion to show off how brave I am.
