Biscayne NP

Biscayne National Park is something like 90% water and there's no actual access to it on land so you have to have a boat, rent one, or sign up for some kind of trip. We took a sailing trip out captained by this really chill and knowledgeable sailor named Byron. Really vast and calm and incredible.

Once we sailed across the bay and got to the keys/mangrove islands we got out for a paddle. Byron took us to a lagoon where there were hundreds of cassiopeia jellyfish, these jellyfish there are buried like upside down in the sea bed, really bizarre and cool.

On the way back Nicole got to sail the ship for a good half of the trip which was a huge thrill.

You Ain't Free

You buy because you're conditioned to buy
You work because it is the only way to buy

You go to Broadway shows or get drunk at the beach

because these are prescribed vacations

that necessitate additional consuming

there's a script you adhere to

when you're a cog, when you're a sheep

boxes to check, marks to hit.

Most people aren't free.

Key Largo

On our way to our second stop Key Largo stopped at Long Key for a hike, the first real one of our trip, felt great. There's not a lot of sweeping scenery because everything is so flat but the lush forest/jungle/wet lands with mangroves everywhere is really powerful and alive. The sea spreading out in every direction, the sound of the water, really peaceful. It's a place where you can really feel the life, the growth.

The place were staying at in Key Largo had some kayaks you could use so we went out for a paddle, Nicole's first, to practice a bit for Biscayne and The Everglades. Really nice to get on the water. Growing up my family canoed a ton and it felt great to get back into the rhyme of it and Nicole took to it like a duck to water.

Like Key West, not a whole lot going on in Key Largo(unless you want to get drunk at the beach or on a boat) although thankfully there was a bit more elbow room. Our place had a great view of the sunset.

Asynchronicity

A constant hum of construction,
lawn work, scooters, bicycle bells,
crowing roosters, groaning drunks,

and squealing children contrasted

with an utter and complete lack of intent 

a pervasive lackadaisical tropical lethargy

a laid back, take it as it comes unflappability

I can see the appeal

like a grown-up theme park

without the price of energy

a more spacious and sedentary cruise

just not for me- blood's too thick, mind's too quick.

Key West

First stop on the honeymoon is Key West. We were trying to hit all three National Parks in Florida but our first, The Dry Tortugas is a no go, didn't buy tickets for the ferry far enough in advance, got up early to try to get on stand by but not early enough. We got up at 5am, the couple the ended up getting the only two available slots got up at 2am, woof. But hiked over to a state park with a beach which was nice.

The park has an old fort on the grounds.

There's a lot of stuff to do in Key West but most of it is inside, the only thing we did was go to the butterfly sanctuary, which was really moving and cool actually.

We walked by the Hemingway house and Truman's "Little White House" and got a lot of great take out but overall Key West just isn't our speed, tons of tourists, and most of the people here just pretend COVID doesn't exist. Not terrible, we had a nice relaxing couple days but without the Dry Tortugas there wasn't much for us to do. Key West is an odd place, part Bourbon Street part Vegas, very crowded and noisy, probably a great fit for some but not a great place for a nature lover who's not a diver.

Powerful Medicine

Call it mojo
Call it juju

Call it medicine

Call it intuition if you must

or magic if you can

whatever you call it

it behooves you to heed

that feeling when it comes

that feeling that says "yes" or "no" or "run"

that feeling when the vibe is right

but more importantly when the vibe is wrong

because despite our modern cacophony

our fashionable skepticism and unbelief 

some old hoodoo remains

passed down from the old ones, the wise ones

gone but not lost.

Happy Holidays

Off to Florida to spend the holiday with Nicole's parents, then dove tailing the trip into our belated honeymoon. Stay safe and celebrate well!

Walgreens Pharmacy

Waiting for my COVID booster
watching the harried pharmacists

and the variety of bumbling customers

picking up their prescriptions

as the minutes tick away

where I should be working

I begin to smolder, to seethe

then suddenly

this cool comfort

drops over me

like a blanket

a profound acceptance

swaddles me

and I realize

I am content to wait here

as long as it takes

and the idea

that this could take some time

that I could be ignored or forgotten

relegated to the back of the line

some complication may arise

gives me no trouble whatsoever

I let go

I am where I am supposed to be

and it will take

as long as it takes

and that is not only OK

it is correct

it is as it should be

and I sit, waiting

liberated from my worry

as holiday stresses

flow around me.

'Being The Ricardos' A Review

 Being The Ricardos is a biopic written and directed by Aaron Sorkin about one fictitious week in the life of Lucille Ball(Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz(Javier Bardem) where Ball's communist ties are called into question, Arnaz's infidelity becomes public, and the two clash with the CBS brass on including Ball's real life pregnancy in her(their) legendary show I Love Lucy. Seems unbelievably fortuitous all these things would converge and resolve at the same time, you bet!

Bottom line Kidman and Bardem are miscast, they are wonderful actors but they are primarily wonderful dramatic actors. And they simply do not have the comedic wattage required to pull of their characters, it doesn't help the overall the tone of the movie is bizarrely dour and melodramatic. There is so much glowering, so many pensive silences, so many arguments, this juxtaposed with what we know of Ball as a person, I Love Lucy in general, and with the look of the production itself(glitzy, smooth, old Hollywood), taken together it simply doesn't work. The support cast fair much better, particularly staff writers played by Alia Shawkat and Jake Lacy who are actually allowed to be funny, but even then there's an over-seriousness about the whole thing that renders it boring. It attempts to make comments about politics, marriage, and feminism and fails across the board while at the same time not doing legendary comedian Lucille Ball much, if any, justice. Sure those are big shoes to fill but no shit. There's so much about the casting and script itself that seem not properly thought out.

It has the same overly slick look of Sorkin's 2020 directorial effort Trial Of The Chicago 7 and has the same issues, it tries to do too much(both in theme and story) and in so doing renders it's characters two dimensional, it slots famous non-US born actors in famous historical/cultural figures of the US and not that there's anything inherently wrong with that(Daniel Kaluuya was excellent as Fred Hampton in Judas And The Black Messiah) however it is certainly more complicated than simply slotting whatever A-list actor you can. This is bolstered up by the wide reported news that both Kidman and Bardem attempted to exit the movie prior to production once they discovered the massive and profound impact both Ball and Arnaz had/have on US culture. Not that they fail completely but their performances are overly studied, impressions, without that hot cord of energy that Ball and Arnaz possessed.

If there's one thing Being The Ricardos does succeed in it is creating a desire to watch I Love Lucy.

Currently in theaters and streaming on Amazon.

Don't See It.

'Spider-Man: No Way Home' A Review

 Spider-Man: No Way Home is a superhero movie, that latest in the MCU saga and the third installment for Tom Holland's Spider-Man. Following the events of Far From Home Peter Parker aka Spider-Man(Holland) grapples with the public backlash of his unmasking. As a result he, his girlfriend MJ(Zendaya) and his friend Ned(Jacob Batalon) are not accepted into MIT. In order to try to make things right Peter enlists Doctor Strange(Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell of forgetfulness on the world, this goes wrong(no surprise there) and causes a collision with the multiverse.

Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon all deploy their charm and chemistry which we've become accustom to, and it's just as fun and engaging as ever but because of the big "reveal" of the movie and all that that entails the focus is much more split than in previous movies. Some of these surprise performance, which it would be a spoiler to reveal, are very good, very fun, and surprisingly resonant. There's one particularly effecting scene, one of the best of the year, where Holland's Spider-Man encourages and is encouraged by two of these mystery guests. It's surprisingly potent.

After the somewhat melancholic drudgery Far From Home this is a return to, perhaps, a more standard Spider-Man flick but certainly a more enjoyable one. It has the standard slickness that one can expect from Marvel, it looks great, it moves relatively quickly, the action sequences are engaging, and there's emotion and humor in equal measure. It is a great movie? No. But it is a classic, highly effective, extremely entertaining superhero blockbuster. Retains some of the magic the MCU seems to have lost since Endgame.

Straight, main-line fun, with the most successful deployment of nostalgia to date.

Currently in theaters coming soon to VOD.

See It.

Tis The Season

The holidays can be an odd time
an inbetween time

both a doing time and a waiting time

a running errands time

and a treading water time

a waiting for the new year time

a hoping for a change time

a happy time and a stressful time

a together time and a lonesome time

a yearning time

a grieving time

and also a joyful celebratory time

tis the season for all this and more time

smiles, but not only smiles, also cries

a happy time but a complicated time

'Procession' A Review

Procession is a documentary that follows six survivors of abuse by Catholic clergy as they collaborate with the director Robert Greene as well as a drama therapist in order to create scenes, which they then produce and film, depicting/influenced by their trauma(ranging from literal to metaphorical) in their on going search for peace.

Through talking head interviews, archival footage, but mostly simple fly-on-the-wall documentation of the filmmaking process the stories, personalities, and truth of the six collaborators is revealed. In Greenes typical style(Actress, Kate Plays Christine) the film is a melding of both a classic documentary approach as well as a highly theatrical/magical realism type of staging that harmonizes beautifully, tragically here and is a perfectly imperfect mechanism for the six men to attempt to process their past.

The production itself is crisp and fluid and much of the nuts-and-bolts of the process are depicted- location scouting, scene construction etc. which the six men actively participate in. The abusers, although named, are not depicted and little to no time is spent on them. And although the six men share parts of their stories the actual particulars of the abuse are not depicted or particularly discussed. What is the overarching focus is compassion, the fellowship and strength these men share as survivors, how they feel, how they struggle to have their stories heard, their attempts to elicit some kind of satisfactory response from the Catholic church hierarchy, how they cope, how they(to greater or lesser degrees) have moved through and beyond.

Its incredibly powerful and the conceit of the documentary fundamentally gives power back to the six survivors. They struggle, they discuss, they disagree, they make mistakes, they triumph, and although it is clear Greene, as an established director, facilitates much of the productions minutia the men themselves are the ones that make the decisions. And this is what separates Procession from a more conventional documentary where someone simply and directly relays an individuals story. It is not an investigation of the facts of abuse, that is taken for granted, what it depicts is the lives of the people that abuse effected and how they are actively working to transcend it. 

Tough but not brutal. Intimate without exploitation. Perhaps sad but the courage, strength, and emotion displayed is ultimately divine.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't Miss It.

Having A Catch

Tossing a novelty Green Bay Packers football
with my dad and 1 1/2 year old nephew

it is not quite Norman Rockwell

in its quintessential Americanness

as we are inside and my nephew 

can't exactly throw or catch per-say

but there is something resonant

in this simple game of catch

three generations playing

in this fundamental way

a connection that deepens 

the moment we all share

and links us back and back and back

I imagine myself as a toddler

playing peek-a-boo or roll-the-ball

with my father and grandpa Irv,

I imagine my dad as a kid

throwing a baseball around with Irv

and great-grandpa Mart

on and on

into the past.

This pattern is not dispiriting but affirming,

connected as we are by blood 

and time.

'The Rescue' A Review

 The Rescue is a documentary about the Thai soccer team trapped in a flooding cave in 2018 and the titular extraction. Archival footage, talking-head interviews, and reenactments make up the bulk of the doc with a few animated maps detailing the space and scale of the cave. The film focuses on the predominately UK based cave diving team which, due to their expertise, executed the bulk of the diving portion of the rescue. The survivors themselves aren't heard from as the rights to their story were sold separately to Netflix.

Edited and scored similar to The Cove the film has the pacing and dynamism of a thriller, with mysteries, close calls, a pumping score. It's an edge-of-your-seat ride even though most will already know the outcome. The subjects- mostly the cave divers but some Thai officials and military- all have a startling clarity and magnetism. The cave divers particularly are these odd, gangly, loners who have this uber-specific somewhat bizarre past time which makes them, in essence, the only ones who can do this particular job. And you get the sense in interviews as they talk a little bit about their interest in cave diving that there is some, if not outright spiritual perhaps cosmic, turning of the wheel happening here that put them in that cave. This is underscored and echoed by some of the spiritual connections the Thai people have to the cave itself and the surrounding mountains as well as a fortuitous visit from a holy man. This is not made particularly overt by the filmmakers but it is certainly there and it is quite powerful. There is a sense as the movie rolls along of Purpose. But that aside the simple mechanics of the endeavor are quite fascinating and just the succinct relaying of that story through people that were there is incredibly impactful.

Absolutely thrilling, unquestionably inspiring, and ultimately the celebration of international community(the Thai government and military ran the rescue operation but had many of their citizens volunteer as well as assistance from multiple countries in various capacities).

Currently streaming on Disney+.

Don't Miss It.

'C'mon C'mon' A Review

C'mon C'mon is a black-and-white drama about radio producer Johnny(Joaquin Phoenix) who agrees to take care of his nephew Jesse(Woody Norman) while his sister Viv(Gaby Hoffmann) attempts to help her estranged husband Paul(Scoot McNairy) who struggles with mental illness.

Phoenix is more relaxed and less mannered than some of his more recent credits, which is refreshing, he's charming and low key and effective, he's got great chemistry with Norman who also gives a believable if somewhat gratingly precocious performance(although that is mainly a result of the script). Hoffmann is in a class unto herself, as she always is, absolutely magnetic and entirely comfortable on screen. McNairy doesn't actually have lines and the character, unfortunately, is utilized mainly as a plot device. But all-in-all the three leads are all quite real and charming if hamstrung by the scripts lack of addressing the privilege afforded by the characters obvious class.

Shot in a lush black-and-white with a melodic fluid score, the production design is beautiful and understated the weaves pitch perfect with the performances. The issue, which may not be an issue for some, is with the script and it's sheen of upper-middle class white obtuseness. The film asks us to be interested in these relatively small problems of these characters that are insulated by their socio-economic position. And that position is never addressed, not that it needs to be necessarily, but the unspoken tone and implication of the film is that these are regular people which they most assuredly are not. That's the disconnect. Whether this is a detriment to viewers or not is the question, for me it most definitely was, but even so there is a certain heart-warming easy twee charm to the film that's undeniable even while the same quality prevents it from reaching any real emotional height.

A breezy relatively benign emotional drama if left uninterrogated.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Stream It.

'Spencer' A Review

Spencer is a psychological drama about the Christmas weekend Princess Diana decided to leave her her husband and the Royal family. The movie opens on Di(Kristen Stewart) driving by herself in the countryside attempting to locate the estate the family is to celebrate at, which happens to be next to the manor where she grew up. She eventually makes it to the estate where tensions between her and the staff grow as her mental health seemingly deteriorates. 

Stewart makes a valiant effort but the performance is more full of breathy half sentences and facial ticks than real emotion or depth of character. Perhaps a fault of the script Diana is portrayed here as a mentally unhinged, somewhat spoiled, naïve victim without much variation. Regardless if that is the truth or not it doesn't make for a particularly compelling or sympatric lead. The supporting cast are all very assured but aside from half a dozen brief actual scenes(a great one with Diana's children played by Jack Nielen and Freddie Spry, one with Prince Charles played by Jack Farthing) the majority of the movie is taken up with solo scenes with Stewart where she breathes loudly and is fragile, it simply doesn't add up to much.

The cinematography is crisp and there are number of long, sweeping, beautiful tracking shots. The costuming is impeccable, the soundtrack effective in its evocation of claustrophobic dread. There is simply not enough meat on the narrative bone to match the expert production.

Compared to director Pablo Larraín 2016 offering Jackie, which has a similar tone and focus, it fails to grab perhaps because Stewart is unable to bring the electricity that Natalie Portman did or perhaps because the focus of Spencer is far too narrow and the character, as written, is far too weak.

Currently in theaters and available to rent on VOD.

Don't See It.

'Nine Days' A Review

Nine Days is a spiritual drama about Will(Winston Duke) who is an arbiter of perspective souls. When one of his former selectees, who he monitors via multiple television screens, passes away a group of newly formed souls comes to him in order to be evaluated for a chance at life.

Duke gives an incredibly restrained, thrumming performance. Compassionate, repressed, emotional, paternal, maternal, the whole gambit. He slowly, deliberately builds this utterly compelling, totally magnetic character without any flashy acting, just patience and honesty. It's really astounding and culminates in one of the best scenes of the year. The support cast, all with challenging roles as they are in essence pre-gestational beings, are all wonderful with a kind of uniform simplicity and naivete that works but doesn't distract or prevent them from differentiating their various characters. Zazie Beetz, Bill Skarsgård, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz all play the perspective souls and though Beetz and Skarsgård have more of the focus the others contribute equally. Hale brings a necessary and breezy humor, Rysdahl is the over-eager student, and Ortiz the romantic. It all inexorably weaves together into a real surprise that packs a punch.

Visually striking if again, simple. Will's home is in the middle of the desert and that is pretty much where all the action of the film takes place. Even so its very beautiful and very effective. Particularly a number of practical theatrical sequences used to impart an experience to perspective souls, these moments look incredible and are almost magically transportive. The soundtrack is eerie and emotional without being overwrought or indicative. The 90's set dressing make the house pleasingly tactile but also appropriately out of time. For the bigness of the idea its all very remarkably assured.

Inspirational, moving, and emotional with an award worthy performance from Duke. The premise itself may be a barrier of entry for some but it is well worth the commitment.

Currently available to rent on most VOD platforms.

Don't Miss It.

Josh Pitts

Once in grade school
I missed the bus
so had to walk home

my buddy Josh

always walked home

because he only lived

a couple blocks away

and so we walked together

just him and I

and as we walked

some strong emotion

took control of his face

which was completely

out of character

usually a very funny

happy-go-lucky kid

he was clearly pained

so I asked him

"Is something wrong?"

and he began to weep

uncontrollably

and through his tears and gasps

he simply said

"It's excruciating."

at ten it was not a word

I'd ever heard

not a concept

I recognized

but in the moment

within the context

I understood

"Is something going on?"

I asked

he just kept crying

"I get sad sometimes"

I said

"But it passes. It'll be better tomorrow."

he shook his head

at his house

I walked him to his door

"I can play-uh-hang out if you want."

we were at that age

but he said "No, thanks."

tears still shining in his eyes

and closed his door.

I walked the rest of the way home

thinking about that word

excruciating

and the absolute sincerity

in which he used it.

We never spoke of it

and I never saw that side of him again.

'tick, tick...BOOM!' A Review

tick, tick...BOOM! is an autobiographical musical written by Jonathan Larson starring a fictionalized version of himself, the movie directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is based on the stage musical of the same name. In the early 90's Jonathan(Andrew Garfield) is an aspiring musical theater composer, workshopping a project, working at a diner, and self-destructing his relationship. A workshop performance of Jonathan performing the titular musical is used on and off as a narration device adding to the(ineffective, insufferable) meta-meta element.

Garfield is commendably committed, he and the cast are all saccharinely sincere in a very authentic if bafflingly dated 90's musical theater way. They are all competent, with some decent musical and dance talent but no one particularly wows. What is most startling is the white self-absorbed entitlement of Jonathan the character, the mythologizing of the narcissistic "committed" "starving artist". There are countless times in the movie where characters tell Jonathan how great and talented he is which is somewhat difficult to buy given what we see on top of the fact he's very clearly a selfish asshole. Is this an inherent flaw of the source material or a deficiency in Garfield's performance, its unclear.

Much like Miranda's other 2021 offering In The Heights the material is dated, doesn't hold up, and in this instance begs the questions why now but more importantly who cares. It is well performed but the music has the kind of generic musical theater sound that Miranda himself moved beyond with Hamilton. Ultimately this may simply come down to taste, to me, it is soup to nuts confusing and unengaging.

Appealing perhaps to the Gen X musical theater crowd but most likely offers little to none beyond that small demographic.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' A Review

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a supernatural dramedy, a sequel to 1989's Ghostbusters II that also functions as a soft reboot of the franchise foregoing the unfairly critically maligned hard reboot Ghostbusters of 2016. The movie opens on Egon Spengler(body doubled/CGI'd in a posthumous appearance by Harold Ramis) who battles an unseen spirit in rural Oklahoma. Cut to his estranged daughter Callie(Carrie Coon) and her two kids, Trevor(Finn Wolfhand) and Phoebe(Mckenna Grace), being evicted from their apartment. They travel to the rural farmhouse which they've inherited only to discover there was more to their reclusive father/grandfather than they thought.

Wolfhand and Grace are the real focus of the movie and are up for that responsibility. Both give incredibly grounded, committed performances, with emotional arcs, humor, and charm while still maintaining their youthful credibility. It's a fine tight rope to walk but both do it with surprising grace. And this focus is very refreshing and necessary for this kind of nostalgia based sequel/reboot. It is clearly a Ghostbusters movie but it is far enough removed and unique to feel different, a distinction many of these types of 80s/90s franchise continuations seem to miss. Phoebe's friend Podcast played by Logan Kim and Trevor's love interest/friend Lucky played by Celeste O'Connor also contribute to this revitalizing quality. Coon is decent but not given much to do, the same with Paul Rudd the kids teacher and Callie's love interest. But that's OK, even correct.

Tonally a bit more straightforward than the original movies, more emotional and less overtly comedic, but it works and just further serves to differentiate it successfully. Visually crisp and evocative, effective but not overly done CGI, much of action blessedly in the day time so it can actually be seen. An eerie transportive score and enough homage/references/echoes to the originals to feel connected but not beholden. Towards the end of the movie it does veer into a bit of transparent nostalgia mining but even that has one highly impactful element. Overall the rocky ending is forgivable.

One of the few successful, fun, maybe even fresh nostalgia properties resurrected for the 21st century.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

See It.

S.A.D.

overcast
frosty air

gloom descends

winter's scare

hunker down

pack the freezer

plug the drafts

busy beaver

good humor

recedes a fraction

the price of

holidays distraction

'The Power Of The Dog' A Review

The Power Of The Dog is a western, based on a novel of the same name, about volatile rancher Phil(Benedict Cumberbatch). Phil is domineering, repressed, narcissistic and anti-social and takes offense when his brother George(Jesse Plemons) takes up with a widow in a neighboring town Rose(Kirsten Dunst). Rose's son Peter(Kodi Smit-McPhee) is waifish and bookish and as a result is the recipient of Phil's ire until the two seem to connect, perhaps as a result of ulterior motives.

Cumberbatch puts in considerable effort which is commendable, and he's unquestionably talented, but he is horribly miscast here. His accent is a bizarre flat mid-Atlantic which doesn't match with the genre or setting, his posture is ramrod straight and although he clearly learned many skills for the role(braiding, banjo, riding etc.) they are all performed with a robotic repetitiveness that more clearly evokes the Terminator rather than a human cowboy. And the story seems to call for his character being intimidating or scary and that is simply not born out in the performance. Plemons and Dunst don't have much to do which is a shame but what they have to do doesn't land near much reality. Dunst's character particularly turns into a simpering, melodramatic caricature of an alcoholic seemingly in the span of weeks which doesn't work and is baffling. Not a fault of her's more the script. And Smit-Phee has some interesting moments but he's mostly sidelined until the third act. Much of the tension between the characters seems a result of their simple inability to communicate which is not particularly sympathetic or cinematic. All in all, despite the talent, it just doesn't work, none of the characters have much dimension or reality and as a result there's nothing to really hook into or care about.

Beautifully shot, evocative score, authentic costuming all make for a great production. But the narrative, either by virtue of the adaptation or the source material itself, is bloated. There's too many threads that don't come together and as a result of their number no single one is properly developed. There is so much hinted at, feinted at, but never actually addressed. And one of the major knots of the story is Phil who is, perhaps closeted or the survivor of sexual abuse or some combination of both, but this isn't given proper attention and that aside it doesn't have nearly the compassion, focus, or truth in this regard as Brokeback Mountain which came out sixteen years ago. Not that there can't be more than one gay cowboy movie with different takes, there absolutely can, but if you're going to do it, do it. So on many levels it all begs the question, what's the point?

Talent in front of and behind the camera fail to come together. More award season signaling than compelling narrative.

Currently in theaters streaming on Netflix 12/1.

Stream It.

'Eternals' A Review

Eternals is a superhero movie, the latest in the MCU saga. A race of aliens known as Celestials are the creators of the universe, their efforts to foster life are opposed by Deviants, the Celestials enlist Eternals(a group of superpowered humanoids) to fight the Deviants on planets where life has not sufficiently developed to do it. Earth has been protected by a group of ten Eternals since 5000 BC. This is their story!

A mostly impeccable cast is squandered mainly because it is simply too big. Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie are all given little to nothing to do and given virtually no screen time in which to not do it. You have a wide dearth of talent there with varying strengths- comedic, action, drama- but none are given a chance to exert any of their not inconsiderable talent. The movie is stuffed with so much overly complicated and unnecessary plot and exposition it allows no character to differentiate themselves in anyway. They look different and have individual names and powers thankfully because that's the only way to tell who is who. The two defacto leads Gemma Chan and Richard Madden come across as flat and uncompelling, as result of performance, script, or direction it's hard to tell. Regardless it all kind of categorically doesn't work.

Director/co-writer Chloé Zhao has here a virtually impossible task, not only because of the number of characters that have to be introduced and the amount of story the bloated run time has to cover but, presumably, having to do so under the gaze and restriction of the MCU brass. The result is simply too many characters, too much plot, not enough time. Eternals is easily two or three movies worth of content and because of that, it's not unwatchable it simply has no depth as far as character and emotion and not much of a pay off as far as thrill.

Meandering and mostly toothless despite the considerable talent behind it.

Currently in theaters coming soon to Disney+ and VOD.

Stream It.

India House

We went to India House
for the first time in 1997
for my mom's birthday
it was one of the first

(if not the first)
Indian restaurants in Rockford

It was the first time I had crispy poppadoms

the first time I had tangy chutney

the first time I had fluffy naan

samosas, tandoori, curry

ghee, aloo, paneer

vindaloo, masala, kofta

mustard seeds, fennel, turmeric

a cornucopic, transcendent, cascade of spice and flavor.

At first, tentative

I picked and nibbled

then revelatory, ravenous, I devoured

broken, battered, decimated

lay my pre-teen fidelity

to Hot Pockets and frozen pizza

revealed was my naiveté 

my narrowminded prescriptive palette

and from this ecstatic epiphany of a meal

grew a hunger to taste it all

a willingness to try 

when before it was only reticence, only fear

there gestated a courage, culinary and otherwise

to, at the very least, be open

to the possibility of the new, the unknown.

Mrs. A And The Amazing Technicolor Sound System

Mrs. A was head of the dance department, such as it was, at my high school and did most of the advanced level teaching. I never had her for dance, had her for this one-off class called CAPA Internship which I'll get into. My freshman year dance teacher and my favorite of all time was Ms. Conley, coincidently the sister of Ms. Johnson my middle school dance teacher who I also really liked. She was great but she didn't stay on, I don't think the school had the budget for a third full time dance teacher so goodbye Ms. Conley. I had Ms. Krishmanya(lot of people just called her Ms. Krish) sophomore year and again junior year by some stroke of scheduling luck. Senior year when I knew I couldn't dodge the Mrs. A bullet I took my PE waiver for playing soccer, something I had never bothered to do previously because although I'd never say it to my friends who weren't in CAPA(which stood for Creative And Performing Arts, the arts program in our district) I liked dance quite a bit and I was, if not necessarily good, at least surprisingly passable at it.

Mrs. A had a dominating type of presence and Ms. Krish wasn't a push over exactly, great dancer/choreographer, good teacher, but never very assertive so she took a back seat most of the time, at least when I was there. Mrs. A was the kind of person who wanted to be the friend of her students as well as their teacher. I never gossiped with her but I know people who did and I overheard her a couple times pumping kids for info. She was also the kind of person who wanted to appear to be in charge, appear to be doing new and innovative things, without necessarily having the follow through or willingness to do the actual work. You could tell the intent of some of her "close" relationships with some of the more talented students was that she was betting some day they'd get notoriety or fame and cite her as inspiration. I don't know how she was as a dancer or dance teacher(I imagine relatively good) but I can tell you she was, generally, low grade mean. So I avoided her as much as I could, when the spring dance concert would come around I made a point to always go through Ms. Krish if there were any issues. 

Senior year I signed up for this new class that sounded cool, CAPA Internship, where we would be paired with local artists to get some real world experience. Come to find out on the first day of class this was Mrs. A's idea, she was the teacher, and that's what it mostly was, an idea. It was just a fuck around class, Mrs. A talked a big game but she had zero actual internships lined up for the 15 or so kids that were in the class and after the shine of having launched a new class wore off she mostly checked out. She was "too busy". It was still fun and to be fair we did do some interesting stuff and she did eventually connect like three students with gigs. I got to do one day at the local NPR affiliate and go on air to do a newspaper reading for the deaf where I had to spell out Mendota(a town in Wisconsin) cause I froze up and didn't know how to pronounce it, on the whole it was honestly thrilling. Actually for the most part Mrs. A was kinda nice and chummy in the class. So hey maybe I was wrong about her. Or maybe being on the inside of her circle was just better than being on the outside of it.

Second semester senior year she had negotiated with the two theater teachers Mr. Sleger and Mr. Harnish to direct the spring musical Joseph. I never got cast in the musicals, my friend Joey was the triple threat and usually(and justly) got the leads, and I had just played Creon in Antigone the winter play which was a pretty big part so I wasn't sure if I was even going to audition. Mrs. A called me up to her office a week or so before the auditions, which was very odd as we never had the like check-in lets-chat type of relationship, and asked me if I would be the stage manager. I was never very good at or very interested in the tech side of things and my gut reaction was I didn't want to do it. Standing in her office as she sat at her desk the vibe felt wrong and I had heard enough stories about working with her that I knew it would be a challenge at best and extremely difficult at worst. But I'd never been an SM and one of the things Sleger(the teacher I was closest with and learned the most from) always taught, with his actions and his words, is that you should know how to do it all(at least a little bit) and that the techies were just as important as the actors(his specialty was set design, he encouraged the tech kids to do acting stuff too). So I figured it might be a good learning experience but the kicker was it felt like I couldn't say no. Standing there in front of Mrs. A behind her desk next to the Martha Graham mural with Ms. Krish teaching a class outside with the thump of students grand jeteing across the floor, it felt like I couldn't say no. It was a formality, it felt like Mrs. A was doing me the courtesy of asking even though she could absolutely make me. So I said yes. And that was my mistake.

For the most part the process wasn't terrible but it became clear Mrs. A wanted less a stage manager and more a secretary, a lackey, a yes man. Which, not really my thing, but I'd signed up, I'd committed- I'd play the part. It became clear Mrs. A was the type of woman who liked to have boys or young men under her thumb. To control. In a way that you couldn't exactly say was abusive but that you could absolutely say was unpleasant. There's a kind of cold unobtrusive cruelty some women have towards boys, usually as a result of having been abused by men themselves, that I recognized in Mrs. A because I was intimately familiar with it from some women in my extended family. I knew it so I tried to roll with it, the show was finite, I just had to get through it.

If that's all it would have been, the small stuff, the subtle stuff I couldn't identify until years later in therapy, it would have been if not by any definition fun at least negligible. But one big issue popped up the week of the show during tech(that part of rehearsal where you integrate the lights, music, and costumes etc.) which was - the sound system.

The theater had a pair of kinda old, kinda cheap speakers, it wasn't an issue for any other performance because the plays didn't have music and every other musical used the school band or orchestra. Mrs. A ditched the student musicians in favor of an instrumental recording. So at our first tech rehearsal, I'm in the booth working the soundboard, my buddy Hans(a great actor as well as lighting designer) was working the lightboard, Mrs. A decides that the speakers are shit and gets her doof of a husband to bring in her stereo speakers from home which they couldn't run to the front of the theater(where the regular speakers were) so they put them on top of the booth which was at the very back of the house. Immediately we start having issues. If the sound is turned up high enough for the actors to actually hear their back up its deafening to the audience, if its at a good level for the audience the actors can't hear it well enough to sing to it, and me in the booth controlling the volume can't gage it because the sound is emanating right above my head. Mrs. A doesn't agree that there's an issue, her speakers and her set up are perfect and just what she wanted. So we open.

First act of the first show I set the volume at what I think is a good volume, probably low for the actors but appropriate for the audience. Fifteen minutes in or so Mrs. A comes in and tells me to crank it, I say no problem, I'm a yes man. At the intermission I get knocks on the booth door, multiple people coming by to tell me the music is too loud they can't hear the singing, some nice about it, some not so nice, I'm getting frazzled, I know they are correct, I say no problem. Start of the second act I turn it back down, couple minutes in Mrs. A comes in says what's the deal with the sound, turn it up, I say people complained, she says I don't care, I turn it back up. I get a couple knocks during the second act and then after the show I get a couple return customers just to chew me out.

After notes to the cast I convey all this to Mrs. A, her attitude is like it's my problem to solve, that she's put upon, exasperated, irritated I even brought it up, I suggest going back to the old sound system, she refuses, she says, concedingly like she's doing me a big favor, that she'll ask Sleger for a monitor for the stage. 

Next night, next show, we don't know if the monitor works, we go through the same song and dance. I set it low, Mrs. A comes in says high, I get complaints, down, then back up again. I get very frazzled and start feeling really bad. After, Mrs. A is pissed, like why am I fucking with the sound, why am I fucking with her show, and I'm like I'm honestly just doing my best. Her response is disappointment and veiled disgust. I'm fucking wrecked. She marks the sound board for the level she wants and tells me to suck it up and ignore anyone who complains and to without equivocation keep the sound at that level. This feels profoundly wrong to me but I can't quit, there's only one show left and a lot of my friends are in it, and on some level I knew what I signed up for. Standing in front of her desk next to Martha Graham's frozen swan leap and the thundering of the tour jete's I knew then on some level this had the potential of being one bad rodeo for yours truly. But I’d said yes. So I figured- take your fucking lumps Steve-o. 

Last night it is ol' Mrs. A's show. I made signs that I put on the booth door that said "Do Not Disturb". I set the volume at the prescribed mark and I let it roll. And it was, without question, too loud. The show was not great. But afterwards Mrs. A is fucking beaming and giving me an I-told-you-so, I-am-vindicated look, holding two dozen roses from her grinning husband and his glistening veneers, giving a speech after the curtain call all performative humility and masked rapture at the attention. It was lunatic. I got the hell out of there and it was done. I survived, good riddance.

The whole circus taught me one, profound, simple lesson. "No" is an option most of the time. If someone asks you to do something- work related, creatively, socially, a favor, what have you- "no" is on the table. I grew up being taught that you said yes to things, you helped out, you pitched in, you did your part, which is great, for the most part its served me well. But there are people who will take advantage of that quality, people in positions of authority need to earn trust and respect, there are situations its better not to be involved in. I needed a couple reminders after that but I got the message eventually, it was a lesson hard earned.

'Love Hard' A Review

Love Hard is a holiday romcom about a LA based modern dating columnist Natalie(Nina Dobrev) who starts a digital relationship with upstate New York man Josh(Jimmy O. Yang). When she flies across the country to surprise him for Christmas she discovers he wasn't using his actual photos and is not who he pretended to be.

Dobrev and Yang don't have much chemistry but to be fair the script doesn't allow them much in the way of space in which to develop it. Dobrev is a bit stiff but passable, Yang is more comfortable and has more facility particularly with the comedy but he too can't get much going. The two have a couple really fun moments that send-up/riff on Christmas movie classics that really work which just brings into stark contrast how much of the movie doesn't. The supporting cast is uneven, Josh's parents and grandma and Heather McMahan as Natalie's friend are all great, but most everyone else is forgettable.

Netflix seems to be attempting to give the Hallmark channel a run for it's money in churning out holiday pictures with a focus on quantity over quality. And although there is a lot of promise and potential in Love Hard it falls victim to this churn.

Numbing, predictable, with a dash of pleasantness.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

'Red Notice' A Review

Red Notice is an action/comedy one part National Treasure ripoff, one part Ocean's 11 wannabe. The movie opens on a title sequences explaining the "history" of Cleopatra's three eggs, priceless antiquities. Flashforward to the present and FBI profiler John Hartley(Dwayne Johnson) is on the trail of international thief Nolan Booth(Ryan Reynolds) who's attempting to collect all three. They soon find themselves on the same side and in opposition to another international thief The Bishop(Gal Gadot) in, you guessed it, a race against time!

Johnson and Reynolds bring their considerable charm and humor to bear, and they are clearly having fun(who wouldn't given the globe-trotting locales), but they aren't able to inject much vitality into the derivative DOA script. It's nice to see Gadot trying her hand at this kind of genre, going for a performance with some significant humor, but she doesn't seem particularly comfortable or confident in it and as a result the performance is pretty stilted.

The production is competent if starkly unremarkable. It all feels very cookie cutter, very stock footage, very check list, and this extends to the script. It's as if a think tank or algorithm created it, it has all the components to be a good popcorn flick(charismatic stars- check, wise cracking- check, elaborate heist sequences- check) but the result couldn't be more lifeless and pedantic.

Netflix has produced some incredibly thoughtful/effective small to mid budget dramas and comedies but its attempts at breaking into the "blockbuster" arena has failed and with Red Notice continues to abjectly.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

'Last Night In Soho' A Review

Last Night In Soho is a horror/thriller about Ellie(Thomasin McKenzie), a naïve aspiring fashion designer that is struggling with mental illness and/or some supernatural ability, moves to London to go to arts school. Her roommate Jocasta(Synnøve Karlsen) is, inexplicably, a caricature alpha 90's mean girl and forces Ellie to seek other accommodations. She rents a room(how can she possibly afford it) which when she sleeps in it transports her back to swinging 60's London, the period she's obsessed with and nostalgic for. In these sequences she inhabits the body of Sandie(Anya Taylor-Joy) an aspiring singer who gets taken advantage of by Jack(Matt Smith). 

McKenzie and Taylor-Joy are both fine actors but are woefully underutilized and let down by a script that has an overly complicated plot, underbaked characters, and failed genre melding. McKenzie gives it her all but the resulting character is a thin, weak, meek, confusing mess. Taylor-Joy is little more than furniture and isn't allowed to any dimension what so ever she is simply the object of protracted abuse. The support cast all function as plot devices and not particularly effectively. Why cast such talented actors if they're little more than pieces on a board?

Co-writer/director Edgar Wright is unarguably an excellent, even inpsired craftsman, there are some striking sequences where Ellie mirrors(literally and figuratively) Sandie and the two swap and swap again, the lighting is stylized and effective, the costumes excellent, the soundtrack transportive. The production across the board, truly top notch. But its rendered virtually pointless by the incoherence of the plotting, the offensive, protracted, and unnecessary use of sexual violence and the threat of sexual violence, bizarre puritanical perspective on sex work, sophomoric implausible rendering of the lead character, on and on.

Although not the most egregious error one that is particularly striking is how undefined the nature of the flashbacks are. Is Ellie dreaming? Is she in the midst of a mental breakdown? Does she posses some supernatural ability? If so what is the nature of it? The reality of what these sequences actually are is never clarified, which may have been OK, but then the visions escalate and begin to encroach on Ellie's reality having real world physical effects. If we are supposed to buy into any of that reality, so that the story has actual stakes, it has to have some definition which is absolutely does not.

An immaculate production fails to elevate a disappointing, juvenile, offensive narrative.

Currently in theaters and available to rent on VOD.

Don't See It.

Something Lurking

Something creeping, crawling, mincing
something petty, minute, minor
a breath on the neck
a trace on the back

a shadow in the periphery

an echo of hostility

not rage nor terror

nothing big, identifiable

but hidden, shuttered

disquiet

yet to be discovered.

'The Harder They Fall' A Review

The Harder They Fall is a western about Nat Love(Jonathan Majors) quest for revenge against Rufus Buck(Idris Elba) after the latter killed the formers parents when he was a child. The movie opens on that scene, then flashes forward to Nat, now with a gang of his own, and the impending jail break of Rufus, with the inevitable confrontation looming.

The large ensemble cast is profoundly stuffed with talent- Elba, Majors, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, Lakeith Stanfield, Edi Gathegi, RJ Cuyler, Danielle Deadwyler- on and on. Unfortunately due to uneven pacing, a lack of narrative focus, and a shockingly encroaching soundtrack none of the actors have much of an opportunity to develop any dimension in the way of character. It is a joy simply to see them all in the same movie but it also underscores the disappointment.

First time writer/director musician Jeymes Samuel has a wonderful, transcendent even, idea but his music video back ground is apparent in every scene and not in a good way. The soundtrack is a bizarre mish-mash of modern styles and genres interspersed with some(quite effective) diegetic songs and some significantly less effective non-diegetic period ones. Of the almost two and half hour runtime there is probably less than ten minutes that doesn't have a blaring song to accompany it rigidly telegraphing and subsequently undercutting anything the narrative is trying to do. It is beyond distracting, at times the mix of the background track is so loud it is impossible to actually hear the dialogue of the characters. This along with Samuel's penchant for numerous involved cuts with little to no motivation- long overhead shots, long zooms, smash cuts- it is again, very distracting. It is clear Samuel has talent, no question, but either his music video background or lack of feature film experience comes across as a lack of restraint and as a result there is too much going on and it overshadows the good work the actors are most certainly doing.

Stellar cast eclipsed by over done post-production.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Stream It.

Midwestern Hospitality

We may not have the manners

of our Southern fellows

but there is no monopoly

on regional welcome

hearty are our meals

conversation, direct and simple

silence, a comfortable companion

kindness, restrained but instant

working people, guileless people

who'd give you the coat off their back

and stop to help you change a flat

who say what they mean

and mean what they say.

A people who, when trouble comes, they stay.

'Antlers' A Review

Antlers is a horror movie about a small town in Oregon where a malevolent spirit escapes a mine and posses a father of two young boys. One of the boys Lucas(Jeremy T. Thomas) attempts to keep his father and brother safe and confined but his teacher Julia(Keri Russell) notices something as amiss while she attempts to reconnect with her estranged brother Paul(Jesse Plemons).

Thomas gives an impressively grave performance for a kid but is set up by the script as the creepy child trope and isn't able to go much beyond that. Russell is a pro and always a pleasure to see onscreen by the material is too plodding, too predictable, too underbaked for her to do much with. Plemons is given even less and with an actor of his talent and oddness it seems a woeful oversight. Although there are some incredible character actors in the supporting cast- Graham Greene and Amy Madigan- they are given virtually nothing to do.

A wonderful idea, a beautiful landscape, and a solid cast fail to lift what seems to have been a great elevator pitch that never got fully flushed out. There are some questionable choices made, chief among that the story incorporates Indigenous myth while being centered around white people, as well as attempting to draw a metaphorical parallel from the horrific events to abuse. Both ideas are intriguing but are executed so poorly that it comes across as ignorant and offensive. All in all, a mess.

The 2020 book The Only Good Indians covers similar ground with seismically better results on all fronts. Comparatively its a real shame.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't See It.

'Army Of Thieves' A Review

Army Of Thieves is a heist action/comedy a supposed "prequel" to Army Of The Dead, but more accurately described as a standalone spin-off as the zombie outbreak is virtually irrelevant. The movie is in essence an origin story for safecracker Sebastian(Matthias Schweighöfer who also directed). Sebastian is a safecracking obsessive who has no practical experience as he is a nerdy homebody who works in a dead-end banking job. He's recruited by Gwen(Nathalie Emmanuel) an international thief and her crew as they set out to crack three uncrackable safes constructed by master locksmith Hans Wagner inspired by composer Wagner's famous Ring Cycle. 

Schweighöfer's character is just as contagiously charming and funny as he was in his initial appearance, even more so as the tone of the movie is much more playful and comedic than AOFD. Emmanuel isn't asked to stretch much in her role but she's competent and as magnetic as she's allowed to be in the servicable if somewhat underwritten part. Ruby O. Fee and Guz Khan as Korina and Rolph respectively are perfectly cast, but also not given enough to do. The one sour note is Stuart Martin as Brad Cage, the last member of the crew, whose performance is kinda DOA. All in all a solid cast who knows what movie their in and has a blast in it.

Visually competent with some flashes, particularly in the safecracking sequences, of real ingenuity. The movie is, for the most part, a straight-up old-school heist flick and on that basis it's quite entertaining bolstered significantly by Schweighöfer's odd indefatigable energy if not particularly surprising or unique it's got some electricity to it.

Fun throwback movie with a solid mostly unknown cast.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Rent It.

Sports

Never got into sports
not my kinda thing

but even as a child

I understood the appeal

going to White Sox games

Rockford Lightening games

watching Jordan's Bulls on the TV

with my old man

I understood the appeal

when its good, when its really good

there's a rhythm to it

a rightness to it

within the confines

of the court or field

where there are a fixed set of rules

and refs or umps 

that enforce those rules

everything makes sense

everything is simplified

refined, clear, crystal

within these certain set parameters

people can soar

you can get swept up in it

the job, the mortgage, the grind

can fall away

and your left exactly in the moment

the thrill of it, the excitement of it

the sweat of it, the force of it

the immediacy of it

Like I said, I understand the appeal

but I was always more into Zorro.

Darkness

At the camps I went to growing up one of the evening activities was a Night Hike and one of the Night Hike activities was a Solo Hike. You'd be out in the woods at night and at some point one of the two counselors would go down the trail alone for 5-10 minutes and wait. Then each of the campers, one at a time, would traverse that distance alone. Most of the time everyone had flashlights and the counselors would say you could use it or not, suggesting you didn't.

The first time I did it I was 8 and I used my flashlight. All I can remember is fear. That something would pop out of the dark, that someone was waiting to scare me, the night itself, the unknown. The fear was near overwhelming but I plowed ahead and finished. There was a tremendous sense of accomplishment. I had overcome.

The next year I used my flashlight again and it was anticlimactic. The fear had mostly gone, and using it seemed like a cheat, a slight, untrusting. The next year I didn't use my flashlight and that changed everything.

Without the tunnel of my light the night opened, as I slowly walked down the path my eyes adjusted, the moon and stars cast dappled shadows through the trees, it wasn't bright but I could see. The path stretching ahead of me like a washed out ribbon, the woods cornucopic shades of blue-to-black with only patches of true dark where the woods got dense. And it was alive. The leaves rustled, the insects hummed, and occasionally the scrambling of some small creature would bubble up. But nothing threatening, nothing amiss. It struck me, walking alone through the night, this is as it should be, this was right. It thrilled, this trusting of the dark, and I was rewarded.

It became the thing I looked forward to the most, as a camper and then later as a counselor, later still I would sneak into parks after dark with my friends and lead them only by the shadowed moon as we drank or smoked and sometimes tripped. I reveled in it, it was gloriously freeing, the dark.

Some campers hated it, too terrified of the night, too unaccustomed or discomforted with being truly alone however briefly, of the silent noise of the forest unbroken by any voice. But I knew solitude from an early age, had grown up with it, acquired a taste for its bitterness. I realized on that first hike without my light that the darkness wasn't bad, it was simply different. My fear was mostly, if not entirely, in my own mind, of my own creation. The woods, night or day, if paid the proper respect, was benign. And come evening, particularly, when the shadows closed and the world shrank, it was actually comforting, intimate. I became at home in the dark.

As you grow up you realize that darkness isn't always visual, beyond the monster under the bed or in the bushes there are scarier things, normal things that are just part of life. Death, heartbreak, grief. They can be difficult to deal with, overwhelming. And I have no monopoly on healthy processing or satisfying answers to any of life's mysterious cruelties but I do know the dark. Darkness has been a friend for a long time, and I know that it is not good or bad, it simply is. Day and night, life and death, there is a balance to things. It may not make it easier to handle challenges or weather tragedies but I accept them, I don't deny them, I am not surprised when they occur. They are as natural as the forest at night.

'Dune' A Review

Dune (Part One) is a scifi epic based on the 1965 novel of the same name. In the far distant future Duke Leto(Oscar Issac) is assigned a new fief, sand planet Arrakis(the titular Dune), by the Empower taking over for rival Baron Harkonnen(Stellan Skarsgård), but the arrangement is not as straightforward as it seems. Leto's partner Lady Jessica(Rebecca Ferguson) a Bene Gesserit(space nun), fears the change particularly as it puts her son Paul(Timothée Chalamet), who is manifesting hidden powers of his own, into the cosmic political arena.

Chalamet is the defacto lead, although the film is in essence an ensemble, and he's servicable, he doesn't display any of his "charming" man-child quirks which is a relief but ultimately he doesn't quite have the presence to make the reserved introspection of the character particularly pop. It doesn't really matter as Dune is not a character study but a transportive visual and narrative experience. But aside from Chalamet the cast is near pitch perfect. Issac as the brooding duke, Ferguson as the powerful space nun yet vulnerable mother, Skarsgard as the repulsive rumbling heavy, Javier Bardem as a Freman leader Stilgar(particularly excellent), and on and on. A literally stem-to-stern stacked cast of solid character actors. The cast though is second to the setting and the plot in "Part One" as this is mostly set up, mostly context, mostly mood.

Not surprising coming from director/co-writer Denis Villeneuve the visuals are absolutely stunning and much care is taken with combining practical and CG effects so that the world(s) feel real, have not only visual appeal but are tactile. This is extended/bolstered by the superb costuming and the haunting extraterrestrial score.

Although, essentially, set up the film stands firmly on its own and at two and half hours never falters in its engagement. It's patient, methodical, and takes care not only with the atmosphere, the mood and tone, but with the complicated world building which is vital for any adaptation of the scifi classic. But because of the pacing it doesn't come across that way, we get all the necessary information but in a way that feels organic and much is left for us to infer about the world(s) while simultaneously inexorably moving the story forward with enough action, character, and striking imagery to keep us hooked.

A sumptuous genre feast.

Currently in theaters and on HBO Max.

Don't Miss It.

Fix, Manage, And Control

When you grow up in chaos
in order to survive

you learn how to manage

people, places, and things

as best you can

to mitigate uncertainty

to minimize risk

to protect yourself

the problem is

as an adult

the world, life

cannot be controlled

yet that compulsion remains

having endured the chaos

having emerged from the crucible of dysfunction

the impulse remains

and it distorts

manifests as manipulation

righteous anger

guilt trips

narcissism

perpetuating the same behaviors

seeding the trauma for the next generation.

The cycle can be broken.

It takes work

but above all

a willingness to do the work.

'No Time To Die' A Review

No Time To Die is an action drama, the latest in the Bond franchise, the last to feature Daniel Craig as 007. After the events of Spectre Bond retires with Madeleine(Léa Seydoux) but the two become estranged after an ambush. Flash forward five years Bond is alone in the Caribbean and is brought back into the fold when a secret diabolical weapon is hijacked by a mysterious and scarred villain, Lyutsifer(Rami Malik). 

Craig is a compelling Bond but his tenure has overstayed it's welcome. In this installment they fumbling attempt to inject some pathos but comes across as melodrama. There is little action, which Craig is always competent with, because so much time is taken sewing  up and concluding mostly irrelevant plot threads from Craig's tenure in the franchise. Seydoux and Craig don't have great chemistry and she's mostly phoning it in as she doesn't have much to do on the page. Malik throws himself into the mustache twirling Bond villain mold but the character, backstory, and context are muddled and boring. Ana de Armas shows up as a CIA agent for a brief sequence in Cuba and she's a standout, as she seems to actually be having fun and her character isn't weighed down by ponderous backstory. Lashana Lynch as Nomi a new 00 agent is well cast but she's given virtually nothing to do.

Visually slick but in some ways woefully lacking personality in its kind of generic Hollywood globe trotting sheen, the production is solid but unfortunately the script is very much not. Craig's Bond differentiated itself but its darkness, its focus on action, his Bond more solider/assassin than spy which was pretty effective depending on which of his first three Bond movies you look at but starting with Spectre and continuing with No Time To Die they have drifted away from that attempting to inject some character dimension, emotional complexity, and humor and are roundly unsuccessful. Not to say they can't evolve the character but they didn't do it successfully. The jokes fall completely flat, the "emotional" moments are ineffective because the situations are either overly dramatic or have no stakes rendering it all moot. Craig's tenure began with a focus on "realism" but has since evolved into the same over-the-top world-ending preposterous for which the franchise is known, which is fine, but, the self-serious tone set by Craig's Bond doesn't mesh with that. If you're going to have a preposterously scarred mincing villain who is attempting to cull the world's population with genetically programed nanites there needs to be some awareness that tonally there should be some levity, that that premise is kind of silly.

Plodding, bloated, generic, and all around flat.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't See It.

Franzen

Meh.
I've read better.

'Copshop' A Review

Copshop is an action/thriller about Teddy(Frank Grillo), a mob fixer turned informant, who is being hunted by hitman Bob(Gerard Butler), who are both locked up in a small-town jail by rookie cop Val(Alexis Louder). As Val attempts to get to the truth of her two perps the clock ticks down on the contract on Teddy's life and another contractor, the psychotic Tony(Toby Huss) launches a full scale assault on the titular copshop.

Grillo and Butler have presence but because of the size of the budget and the constrained nature of the script they are mostly hamstrung for the bulk of the runtime, being confined to holding cells and having to do simple straight-up scene work, not one of either of their strengths. Louder fairs much better and  has a bit more mobility, both emotionally and physically, within which to play. But the real star here, the biggest, and perhaps only, reason to see the movie is Huss who gives an absolutely ecstatic performance as Bob's unhinged hitman competitor. He gets the tone perfect, he's funny but menacing, and, as with all his performances, he has an effortlessness on screen, he almost glides through the frame, he's like some weird, lunatic, vaudevillian, dancer. He's truly incredible. For the most part, unfortunately, the rest of the cast, although all around decent, fail to reach his level.

Old school and competent Copshop has a solid, almost classic, set up, with a talented cast but seems to butt up against the confines of the script. Butler is essentially on the bench for the majority of the narrative, a miscalculated choice, Grillo has a horrible distracting wig and the audience is already aware of his situation long before the cops catch up creating an unnecessary and protracted drag in the middle of the picture. Ultimately casting Grillo and Butler, two of the most recognizable, traditional action stars working today, works against the movie when they engage in no action until the last ten minutes. Louder and particularly Huss are great but they don't balance out the inactivity of Grillo and Butler.

Mostly slow, very little burn.

Currently in theaters and available to rent on VOD.

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