Tag: cheers

New Fiction 2019 – December

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003)

I’d had this novel sitting on my shelf since about January, and finally picked it up to read during my holiday flights. It breezed along quite quickly for a book in which the protagonist dwells on maths and physics. It was interesting to see an autistic character’s point of view and I was glad to read that Haddon had personal experience working with autistic individuals. The mystery aspect was a nice way to bring the reader along on a journey about how difficult it is for some people to fit into the structure we’re all required to be a part of. There were times when I identified with the protagonist’s feeling of being overwhelmed by everything. I dug the book.

“The Geranium” by Flannery O’Connor (1946)

These first few stories from the late forties by O’Connor were hyper-focused on realistic portrayals of the relationships of African-Americans with their communities and with the white people that still held little respect for them in the South, which feels like it might’ve been revolutionary at the time. There’s also liberal use of the word “nigger” which is an extremely loaded word that makes one uncomfortable each time the eye passes over it. We can think it was more common and acceptable at the time, but I don’t particularly care if it was acceptable then, because it shouldn’t have been. This story’s white protagonist doesn’t so much confront his racism as he is gently guided toward it.

“The Barber” by Flannery O’Connor (1947)

If the last story was a rebuke of old Southern white guys, this story is a rebuke of the white guy academics who were in debate club and thought that was enough to learn how to convince people that they’re shitheads. It turns out they don’t really want a rigorous academic debate.

“Wildcat” by Flannery O’Connor (1947)

I took this as a contemplation of old age and its perils, but my gut says there was more there. Like a professor would give me that look right about now, the one that asks, “Okay, but what else is happening? What does the character’s experience tell you about the time and place?” It’d be something like that and I’d give up the floor for someone else to elucidate.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D dev. Grezzo (2015)

I hesitated with considering this as new fiction since I’ve played and loved the game multiple times before, but this re-release on 3DS had so many changes and additions that it was different enough from the past versions. I liked it again and appreciated all the quality-of-life improvements, such as more save points. The notebook used to track quests was also much more informative. I like its implementation of what is essentially an itinerary for every meaningful character in the game, but I can see why it turns off some players. Repeating the same period of time can certainly wear one down.

21 Bridges dir. Brian Kirk (2019)

The mystery becomes evident pretty quickly, so you’re waiting for the protagonist to catch up. Fuck the police for sure.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale dir. Jalmari Helander (2010)

This was fucking awesome. It’s fun horror and certainly evokes the gritty stuff from the eighties. I mostly remember waiting impatiently for the title to make sense.

Jumanji: The Next Level dir. Jake Kasdan (2017)

Speaking of eighties, Kasdan hit on that same energy with these movies. I’d skipped the first and was surprised at how enjoyable the sequel was. I think the best assessment I read is that these movies succeed because they lean into the body-swap comedy, a type of comedy I hadn’t thought to much about.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle dir. Jake Kasdan (2019)

The first one is also good, but I think watching the sequel first made me like it more than the original. I also dug the nods to the original movie because, you know, cinematic universes.

Richard Jewell dir. Clint Eastwood (2019)

I was sorry to see that this bombed because it’s a good portrayal of the way the government and media can fuck up someone’s life.

Frozen II dir. Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (2019)

Oh god, so many songs. And my niece sang them every time she was in proximity to people. I know Disney animated stuff is built on music but… ugh. Watch Moana instead.

The Long Kiss Goodnight dir. Renny Harlin (1996)

What a bizarre piece of nineties action cinema. The characters and plot are fine, but the action is so over-the-top and weird that it sits in sharp contrast to the rest.

Fractured dir. Brad Anderson (2019)

I’m glad I can’t see twists coming because I think movies like this wouldn’t be watchable if one could see what’s coming.

The Lake House dir. Alejandro Agresti (2006)

My mom’s love of Keanu Reeves rivals that of the Internet, and so she sat us down to watch this. I dug the supernatural/weird stuff, but the schmaltz was heavy.

Imagine That dir. Karey Kirkpatrick (2009)

I had no idea that Eddie Murphy had taken on these Jim Carrey-esque family comedy vehicles where he’s a dad with a strained relationship to his kids. This one you can skip.

Daddy Daycare dir. Steve Carr (2003)

Farts, farts everywhere! I’d watch this one over the previous listing if you’re curious what Eddie Murphy was up to in the aughts.

Eat Pray Love dir. Ryan Murphy (2010)

I’m into the journey of self-discovery, but she ends up with someone who seems just as shitty as the bad men she left behind.

The Angel dir. Ariel Vromen (2018)

I felt real dumb watching this. The protagonist’s actions are meant to broker peace between Egypt and Israel… but it’s like he’s playing multi-dimensional chess and I was processing it all as a game of checkers. I still don’t quite understand how his actions helped with the peace process but it really happened. I’d be a real terrible spy.

Klaus dir. Sergio Pablos (2019)

Holy shit, this looked amazing. I hope it wins all the awards. It reminded me of “The Backwater Gospel” but, you know, it won’t traumatize kids.

Dolemite Is My Name dir. Craig Brewer (2019)

I watched this in Spanish audio which may have ruined the intended effect, but I liked it. I knew nothing about Moore or his work so it was a good (and maybe more watchable) introduction.

Cats dir. Tom Hooper (2019)

My brain almost broke. And look, it eventually becomes clear what these characters want, but the funky terminology really slows things down. It’s all weird and I think I chose to focus on minutiae. Jennifer Hudson’s the best part.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker dir. J. J. Abrams (2019)

I ranked this fourth out of eleven on my obligatory Star Wars movie list but the more I dwell on the issues that I saw in the theater, the more I dislike it. Their disrespect toward Rose Tico is the more egregious problem. It’s another Return of the Jedi, i.e. a bad conclusion to a trilogy. Time will dull most of it but it feels like it’s gonna fall lower on the list.

Uncut Gems dir. Josh Safdie & Benny Safdie (2019)

Jesus christ, this movie moves so fact and at a pace that definitely made me anxious. It’s great. Watch it.

A Nightmare on Elm Street dir. Samuel Bayer (2010)

The “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” parody from The Simpsons now makes more sense. It’s also more enjoyable than this movie. Watch that instead.

Death Becomes Her dir. Robert Zemeckis (1992)

This is so fucking weird. I like it. I should go watch more Goldie Hawn movies.

Casino Royale dir. Martin Campbell (2006)

I should also go watch more Bond movies… but they’re not all like this, right? I feel like the previous ones wink at you constantly. This one just has a real boring take on Bond as a Serious Man. It’s hard to watch when I just saw Daniel Craig goofball it up in Knives Out.

Unbelievable (2019)

I watched this at the end of November and forgot to include it, which is messed up because it’s a great series. Well, like Richard Jewell, it’s based on real people and events, and those events are fucked up. But it’s great as a story worth telling.

Cheers – Seasons 5-11 (1986-1993)

This show somehow gets better after Shelley Long left the show. It takes them a while to figure out Kirstie Alley’s character, but once they do they’re off to the races. The writing gets better, the jokes are funnier, and the episode in the kitchen during a wedding is a comedic masterpiece. They also dare to equip their characters with more flaws. The ending is the gut punch that countless people have described. I’d certainly watch this series again.

The Mandalorian (2019)

It was nice to close out my Star Wars viewing with this after the slog of The Rise of Skywalker. It has the same space western vibe as Firefly, which is one of my favorite shows (in spite of its creator’s exposed shittiness). The universe feels more suited to series anyway, so here’s hoping for more characters getting the episodic treatment.

New Fiction 2019 – December

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003)

I’d had this novel sitting on my shelf since about January, and finally picked it up to read during my holiday flights. It breezed along quite quickly for a book in which the protagonist dwells on maths and physics. It was interesting to see an autistic character’s point of view and I was glad to read that Haddon had personal experience working with autistic individuals. The mystery aspect was a nice way to bring the reader along on a journey about how difficult it is for some people to fit into the structure we’re all required to be a part of. There were times when I identified with the protagonist’s feeling of being overwhelmed by everything. I dug the book.

“The Geranium” by Flannery O’Connor (1946)

These first few stories from the late forties by O’Connor were hyper-focused on realistic portrayals of the relationships of African-Americans with their communities and with the white people that still held little respect for them in the South, which feels like it might’ve been revolutionary at the time. There’s also liberal use of the word “nigger” which is an extremely loaded word that makes one uncomfortable each time the eye passes over it. We can think it was more common and acceptable at the time, but I don’t particularly care if it was acceptable then, because it shouldn’t have been. This story’s white protagonist doesn’t so much confront his racism as he is gently guided toward it.

“The Barber” by Flannery O’Connor (1947)

If the last story was a rebuke of old Southern white guys, this story is a rebuke of the white guy academics who were in debate club and thought that was enough to learn how to convince people that they’re shitheads. It turns out they don’t really want a rigorous academic debate.

“Wildcat” by Flannery O’Connor (1947)

I took this as a contemplation of old age and its perils, but my gut says there was more there. Like a professor would give me that look right about now, the one that asks, “Okay, but what else is happening? What does the character’s experience tell you about the time and place?” It’d be something like that and I’d give up the floor for someone else to elucidate.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D dev. Grezzo (2015)

I hesitated with considering this as new fiction since I’ve played and loved the game multiple times before, but this re-release on 3DS had so many changes and additions that it was different enough from the past versions. I liked it again and appreciated all the quality-of-life improvements, such as more save points. The notebook used to track quests was also much more informative. I like its implementation of what is essentially an itinerary for every meaningful character in the game, but I can see why it turns off some players. Repeating the same period of time can certainly wear one down.

21 Bridges dir. Brian Kirk (2019)

The mystery becomes evident pretty quickly, so you’re waiting for the protagonist to catch up. Fuck the police for sure.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale dir. Jalmari Helander (2010)

This was fucking awesome. It’s fun horror and certainly evokes the gritty stuff from the eighties. I mostly remember waiting impatiently for the title to make sense.

Jumanji: The Next Level dir. Jake Kasdan (2019)

Speaking of eighties, Kasdan hit on that same energy with these movies. I’d skipped the first and was surprised at how enjoyable the sequel was. I think the best assessment I read is that these movies succeed because they lean into the body-swap comedy, a type of comedy I hadn’t thought to much about.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle dir. Jake Kasdan (2017)

The first one is also good, but I think watching the sequel first made me like it more than the original. I also dug the nods to the original movie because, you know, cinematic universes.

Richard Jewell dir. Clint Eastwood (2019)

I was sorry to see that this bombed because it’s a good portrayal of the way the government and media can fuck up someone’s life.

Frozen II dir. Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (2019)

Oh god, so many songs. And my niece sang them every time she was in proximity to people. I know Disney animated stuff is built on music but… ugh. Watch Moana instead.

The Long Kiss Goodnight dir. Renny Harlin (1996)

What a bizarre piece of nineties action cinema. The characters and plot are fine, but the action is so over-the-top and weird that it sits in sharp contrast to the rest.

Fractured dir. Brad Anderson (2019)

I’m glad I can’t see twists coming because I think movies like this wouldn’t be watchable if one could see what’s coming.

The Lake House dir. Alejandro Agresti (2006)

My mom’s love of Keanu Reeves rivals that of the Internet, and so she sat us down to watch this. I dug the supernatural/weird stuff, but the schmaltz was heavy.

Imagine That dir. Karey Kirkpatrick (2009)

I had no idea that Eddie Murphy had taken on these Jim Carrey-esque family comedy vehicles where he’s a dad with a strained relationship to his kids. This one you can skip.

Daddy Daycare dir. Steve Carr (2003)

Farts, farts everywhere! I’d watch this one over the previous listing if you’re curious what Eddie Murphy was up to in the aughts.

Eat Pray Love dir. Ryan Murphy (2010)

I’m into the journey of self-discovery, but she ends up with someone who seems just as shitty as the bad men she left behind.

The Angel dir. Ariel Vromen (2018)

I felt real dumb watching this. The protagonist’s actions are meant to broker peace between Egypt and Israel… but it’s like he’s playing multi-dimensional chess and I was processing it all as a game of checkers. I still don’t quite understand how his actions helped with the peace process but it really happened. I’d be a real terrible spy.

Klaus dir. Sergio Pablos (2019)

Holy shit, this looked amazing. I hope it wins all the awards. It reminded me of “The Backwater Gospel” but, you know, it won’t traumatize kids.

Dolemite Is My Name dir. Craig Brewer (2019)

I watched this in Spanish audio which may have ruined the intended effect, but I liked it. I knew nothing about Moore or his work so it was a good (and maybe more watchable) introduction.

Cats dir. Tom Hooper (2019)

My brain almost broke. And look, it eventually becomes clear what these characters want, but the funky terminology really slows things down. It’s all weird and I think I chose to focus on minutiae. Jennifer Hudson’s the best part.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker dir. J. J. Abrams (2019)

I ranked this fourth out of eleven on my obligatory Star Wars movie list but the more I dwell on the issues that I saw in the theater, the more I dislike it. Their disrespect toward Rose Tico is the more egregious problem. It’s another Return of the Jedi, i.e. a bad conclusion to a trilogy. Time will dull most of it but it feels like it’s gonna fall lower on the list.

Uncut Gems dir. Josh Safdie & Benny Safdie (2019)

Jesus christ, this movie moves so fast and at a pace that definitely made me anxious. It’s great. Watch it.

A Nightmare on Elm Street dir. Samuel Bayer (2010)

The “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” parody from The Simpsons now makes more sense. It’s also more enjoyable than this movie. Watch that instead.

Death Becomes Her dir. Robert Zemeckis (1992)

This is so fucking weird. I like it. I should go watch more Goldie Hawn movies.

Casino Royale dir. Martin Campbell (2006)

I should also go watch more Bond movies… but they’re not all like this, right? I feel like the previous ones wink at you constantly. This one just has a real boring take on Bond as a Serious Man. It’s hard to watch when I just saw Daniel Craig goofball it up in Knives Out.

Unbelievable (2019)

I watched this at the end of November and forgot to include it, which is messed up because it’s a great series. Well, like Richard Jewell, it’s based on real people and events, and those events are fucked up. But it’s great as a story worth telling.

Cheers – Seasons 5-11 (1986-1993)

This show somehow gets better after Shelley Long left the show. It takes them a while to figure out Kirstie Alley’s character, but once they do they’re off to the races. The writing gets better, the jokes are funnier, and the episode in the kitchen during a wedding is a comedic masterpiece. They also dare to equip their characters with more flaws. The ending is the gut punch that countless people have described. I’d certainly watch this series again.

The Mandalorian (2019)

It was nice to close out my Star Wars viewing with this after the slog of The Rise of Skywalker. It has the same space western vibe as Firefly, which is one of my favorite shows (in spite of its creator’s exposed shittiness). The universe feels more suited to series anyway, so here’s hoping for more characters getting the episodic treatment.

New Fiction 2019 – October

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening dev. Grezzo (2019)

I was uncertain if I could count this as new fiction, but it’s a complete remake and I haven’t had qualms with including remakes of other media. This is the essential Link’s Awakening experience complemented by the expected visual and sound upgrades for the Switch, as well as a few new characters and areas to fill out the new world. I still choked up when I heard the new rendition of The Ballad of the Wind Fish, which I was afraid would somehow be negatively affected by the changes. It sounds just as good, a new version of Kazumi Totaka’s original music that still evokes the sense of ephemeral friendship and loneliness brought about by the game. There’s also a version with lyrics that’s okay, but I prefer to listen to the music without the words. This cover with vocals but no lyrics is great. I had forgotten that the revelations at the end of the game are not revealed suddenly, but in trace amounts. It’s not even subtle in the lead-up to the end and that somehow makes it all the more sad. The player may choose not to proceed and merely exist in the world as it is, but I suspect few players make that choice.

Scream 3 dir. Wes Craven (2000)

I watched the first three Scream movies. I’d seen the first two before and they were nostalgic and strangely self-aware to my modern eyes, more than I remember them being when I first watched them in the 90s. This third movie has the inevitable problem of being too self-aware, going so far that it becomes a bad parody of a parody. I saw one comment that said we may as well go watch Scary Movie and I understood their point.

Candyman dir. Bernard Rose (1992)

I always confused this movie with The Lawnmower Man for obvious stupid reasons, and I’d never seen either one. I’m glad I chose this one when it crossed my path on Netflix. Rose does interesting stuff with exploring the economic disparity between people living in the projects of the time and those that were too far removed to notice. Mirroring the situation by having Helen’s apartment building be a duplicate of those developed for the projects highlights something that I always noticed as a kid. The houses on one block may be identical to houses a few blocks over, but somehow one neighborhood is “nice” and the other is not. The horror elements are pretty light and a welcome introduction to this Candyman mythos that I’m sure was amplified to create a franchise of it.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie dir. Vince Gilligan (2019)

Fucking movie subtitles, I tell ya. I hate it. Everyone knows it’s connected to Breaking Bad! Beyond that, though, I think Gilligan delivered the best possible version of this movie. It’s a long epilogue to the series that finally lets up on Jesse’s torment. Gilligan confirmed in interviews that he had a darker ending in mind for the movie but everyone he consulted more or less asked if he was insane. Jesse’s character, and the audience, needed this movie to be different from the television series. Walt’s dead, good, now wrap it up with Jesse. The trials he faces felt genuine to the material and I just enjoyed its Western leanings.

Ex Machina dir. Alex Garland (2014)

This is a movie where I asked, out loud, “What the fuck are you doing?” when the protagonist makes his choices. It feels like a situation where a normal person would balk at the ideas presented by the antagonist, but then most movies would end quickly if normal people were in the central roles. Isaac did his job in the role of the sociopathic rich guy, but Gleeson and Vikander were an interesting pair. Gleeson’s appearance and the whole thing really made it feel like a long episode of Black Mirror, which is probably something I say a lot when watching science fiction these days. I used to hate robots, and the idea of robots, but now I think it’s inevitable.

Under the Skin dir. Jonathan Glazer (2013)

This was a good double-feature after Ex Machina. Vikander’s role as Ava in that movie is about freeing herself from the confines of her masters (both played by men in the movie) to explore the broader world, while Johansson’s goal is entirely based on her ability to move about the world and hunt men. Both characters use their sexuality to achieve their ends, and while the directors did well with the material, I can’t help but wonder how women in the director roles would have presented these ideas. Glazer’s approach with this movie is to create dread and then make us realize how little it takes to be a human being.

Taking Lives dir. D. J. Caruso (2004)

Another movie about assuming a role and concealing what’s real about ourselves. This movie’s antagonist does what he does as compulsion driven by a desire to be anyone but himself, but they do this at the expense of Jolie’s protagonist. I’m sure it’s meant to punch up the finale by dragging down the protagonist before elevating her, but it wasn’t executed well. The twist in the plot was also telegraphed too far in advance and just drowns the mystery.

Mystic River dir. Clint Eastwood (2003)

Sean Penn is an asshole, yeah? That’s all I could think about as I watched this movie. I recall how much praise the movie received at the time of its release, but all I could think was, “Sean Penn doesn’t have to go far to pretend to be an asshole.” And while you’re sympathetic to his problem (the loss of a daughter, again, which is always a minus for me), he’s still an asshole. Every character around him is meant to bolster the idea that he’s done the best he could with what he got, and what he did with that is become an asshole. Tim Robbins is more sympathetic by design, given his tragic role, and Kevin Bacon is just a by-the-books cop. The movie rhetorically asks, “Isn’t it tragic that life can be fucked up?”

Mandy dir. Panos Cosmatos (2018)

I made the mistake of watching this movie over the course of two lunches, and pausing at the exact right moment to highlight that this is actually two distinct movies. The first half is a surreal and beautiful exploration of life in some out-of-the-way rural part of California, out in the north-east, probably, beyond the valleys and Interstate 5. The kind of idyllic existence I used to dream about. Riseborough shone through as the titular character, although certainly a pixie dream girl. I instantly recognized her from the Black Mirror episode, “Crocodile,” which I’d recommend. The second half of the movie is a revenge and gore tale on par with something from Sam Raimi, and you’d think Cage would be the best choice for the role but he was distracting.

The Lighthouse dir. Robert Eggers (2019)

People laughed and sighed through the movie, and I didn’t get why. There were certainly comedic parts but it didn’t feel like a comedy. Then I saw comparisons to Dumb and Dumber and understood it. It does have a strange dynamic where the two characters behave like a comedic odd couple, pushing each other around and poking at the sore spots out of boredom. One aspect that I had issue with is the presentation of the supernatural elements that haunt the characters on the island. Eggers’s previous movie, The Witch, was also heavy on the psychological torture imbued with the supernatural, but the conclusion of that movie is very different from this one. I think I’ll be glad that he took this movie in a slightly different direction, but I’ll need to watch it again.

Cheers – Season 1 (1982-1983)

Season 1 has that distinct hokey quality that I expect from shows with laugh tracks like Friends, although one episode stood out to me. In the episode called “The Boys in the Bar,” a friend of Sam’s comes out as gay, and the way the bar patrons deal with their homophobia by trying to ostracize a group of men they think are gay feels like it sympathizes with their desire to keep gay men out of the bar. It just doesn’t age well. The conclusion of the episode reveals that the gay men they were afraid of were in their midst all along, which feels less about showing that anyone can be gay and that’s okay, and more about fanning the paranoia straight men already felt. Shows like Friends fared no better with the topic ten years later. The writing is solid for a sitcom, however, and it’s becoming clear why the show was a success and how it set us up for the sitcoms we’d see in the 90s and beyond. It’s a touchstone of the genre for sure.

New Fiction 2019 – October

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening dev. Grezzo (2019)

I was uncertain if I could count this as new fiction, but it’s a complete remake and I haven’t had qualms with including remakes of other media. This is the essential Link’s Awakening experience complemented by the expected visual and sound upgrades for the Switch, as well as a few new characters and areas to fill out the new world. I still choked up when I heard the new rendition of The Ballad of the Wind Fish, which I was afraid would somehow be negatively affected by the changes. It sounds just as good, a new version of Kazumi Totaka’s original music that still evokes the sense of ephemeral friendship and loneliness brought about by the game. There’s also a version with lyrics that’s okay, but I prefer to listen to the music without the words. This cover with vocals but no lyrics is great. I had forgotten that the revelations at the end of the game are not revealed suddenly, but in trace amounts. It’s not even subtle in the lead-up to the end and that somehow makes it all the more sad. The player may choose not to proceed and merely exist in the world as it is, but I suspect few players make that choice.

Scream 3 dir. Wes Craven (2000)

I watched the first three Scream movies. I’d seen the first two before and they were nostalgic and strangely self-aware to my modern eyes, more than I remember them being when I first watched them in the 90s. This third movie has the inevitable problem of being too self-aware, going so far that it becomes a bad parody of a parody. I saw one comment that said we may as well go watch Scary Movie and I understood their point.

Candyman dir. Bernard Rose (1992)

I always confused this movie with The Lawnmower Man for obvious stupid reasons, and I’d never seen either one. I’m glad I chose this one when it crossed my path on Netflix. Rose does interesting stuff with exploring the economic disparity between people living in the projects of the time and those that were too far removed to notice. Mirroring the situation by having Helen’s apartment building be a duplicate of those developed for the projects highlights something that I always noticed as a kid. The houses on one block may be identical to houses a few blocks over, but somehow one neighborhood is “nice” and the other is not. The horror elements are pretty light and a welcome introduction to this Candyman mythos that I’m sure was amplified to create a franchise of it.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie dir. Vince Gilligan (2019)

Fucking movie subtitles, I tell ya. I hate it. Everyone knows it’s connected to Breaking Bad! Beyond that, though, I think Gilligan delivered the best possible version of this movie. It’s a long epilogue to the series that finally lets up on Jesse’s torment. Gilligan confirmed in interviews that he had a darker ending in mind for the movie but everyone he consulted more or less asked if he was insane. Jesse’s character, and the audience, needed this movie to be different from the television series. Walt’s dead, good, now wrap it up with Jesse. The trials he faces felt genuine to the material and I just enjoyed its Western leanings.

Ex Machina dir. Alex Garland (2014)

This is a movie where I asked, out loud, “What the fuck are you doing?” when the protagonist makes his choices. It feels like a situation where a normal person would balk at the ideas presented by the antagonist, but then most movies would end quickly if normal people were in the central roles. Isaac did his job in the role of the sociopathic rich guy, but Gleeson and Vikander were an interesting pair. Gleeson’s appearance and the whole thing really made it feel like a long episode of Black Mirror, which is probably something I say a lot when watching science fiction these days. I used to hate robots, and the idea of robots, but now I think it’s inevitable.

Under the Skin dir. Jonathan Glazer (2013)

This was a good double-feature after Ex Machina. Vikander’s role as Ava in that movie is about freeing herself from the confines of her masters (both played by men in the movie) to explore the broader world, while Johansson’s goal is entirely based on her ability to move about the world and hunt men. Both characters use their sexuality to achieve their ends, and while the directors did well with the material, I can’t help but wonder how women in the director roles would have presented these ideas. Glazer’s approach with this movie is to create dread and then make us realize how little it takes to be a human being.

Taking Lives dir. D. J. Caruso (2004)

Another movie about assuming a role and concealing what’s real about ourselves. This movie’s antagonist does what he does as compulsion driven by a desire to be anyone but himself, but they do this at the expense of Jolie’s protagonist. I’m sure it’s meant to punch up the finale by dragging down the protagonist before elevating her, but it wasn’t executed well. The twist in the plot was also telegraphed too far in advance and just drowns the mystery.

Mystic River dir. Clint Eastwood (2003)

Sean Penn is an asshole, yeah? That’s all I could think about as I watched this movie. I recall how much praise the movie received at the time of its release, but all I could think was, “Sean Penn doesn’t have to go far to pretend to be an asshole.” And while you’re sympathetic to his problem (the loss of a daughter, again, which is always a minus for me), he’s still an asshole. Every character around him is meant to bolster the idea that he’s done the best he could with what he got, and what he did with that is become an asshole. Tim Robbins is more sympathetic by design, given his tragic role, and Kevin Bacon is just a by-the-books cop. The movie rhetorically asks, “Isn’t it tragic that life can be fucked up?”

Mandy dir. Panos Cosmatos (2018)

I made the mistake of watching this movie over the course of two lunches, and pausing at the exact right moment to highlight that this is actually two distinct movies. The first half is a surreal and beautiful exploration of life in some out-of-the-way rural part of California, out in the north-east, probably, beyond the valleys and Interstate 5. The kind of idyllic existence I used to dream about. Riseborough shone through as the titular character, although certainly a pixie dream girl. I instantly recognized her from the Black Mirror episode, “Crocodile,” which I’d recommend. The second half of the movie is a revenge and gore tale on par with something from Sam Raimi, and you’d think Cage would be the best choice for the role but he was distracting.

The Lighthouse dir. Robert Eggers (2019)

People laughed and sighed through the movie, and I didn’t get why. There were certainly comedic parts but it didn’t feel like a comedy. Then I saw comparisons to Dumb and Dumber and understood it. It does have a strange dynamic where the two characters behave like a comedic odd couple, pushing each other around and poking at the sore spots out of boredom. One aspect that I had issue with is the presentation of the supernatural elements that haunt the characters on the island. Eggers’s previous movie, The Witch, was also heavy on the psychological torture imbued with the supernatural, but the conclusion of that movie is very different from this one. I think I’ll be glad that he took this movie in a slightly different direction, but I’ll need to watch it again.

Cheers – Season 1 (1982-1983)

Season 1 has that distinct hokey quality that I expect from shows with laugh tracks like Friends, although one episode stood out to me. In the episode called “The Boys in the Bar,” a friend of Sam’s comes out as gay, and the way the bar patrons deal with their homophobia by trying to ostracize a group of men they think are gay feels like it sympathizes with their desire to keep gay men out of the bar. It just doesn’t age well. The conclusion of the episode reveals that the gay men they were afraid of were in their midst all along, which feels less about showing that anyone can be gay and that’s okay, and more about fanning the paranoia straight men already felt. Shows like Friends fared no better with the topic ten years later. The writing is solid for a sitcom, however, and it’s becoming clear why the show was a success and how it set us up for the sitcoms we’d see in the 90s and beyond. It’s a touchstone of the genre for sure.