Monthly Archives: August 2021

Quick Hits

 

Just a few unrelated thoughts and observations this morning.

 

COVID-19: Well, this is fucked. We could have been well on the way to controlling the pandemic in the US and then turning our considerable resources to helping the rest of the world, but no, our fascist-adjacent party insists on throwing their tantrum modeled upon their orange god-king and screwing it up for everyone.

 

New Novel: I’ve started act break work on my new novel about alien ‘non-contact.’ I’m hoping within a week to have an outline and to be ready for actual scene writing.

 

Marvel’s What if …: the new series an anthology of animated alternate versions of MCU stories, the premier being what is Agent Carter got the super solider serum instead of Steve. It worked but I wasn’t blown away.

 

 

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What Happened to My Mask Tolerance?

 

Last year when it was recommended that everyone wear face masks when out in public, I adopted the habit straight away. While many people complained about the discomfort of wearing that cloth over your face, I never found it all that troublesome.

Oh, there were issues learning the correct placement to keep it from fogging the lenses of my eyewear but actual, ‘I can’t breathe’ or ‘This is stifling’ reactions I simply did not have. Not in the spring nor in the heat of the summer. And I went out a lot in those masks. I was one of the few people at my day job that remained an in-office worker carrying out essential tasks that could not be completed remotely. (My choice, management made it very clear if I wanted to work from home like the rest of my team I could. No pressure, no inducement. It was entirely up to me.)

This year, this summer, I have found that I have very little tolerance for my masks. Short trips in the summer heat to my car and from the car to the officer are barely tolerable, causing me to rip the thing off and get air blowing across my face as quickly as possible.

I still wear it. The Delta variant is dangerous and highly contagious so even with my vaccinated status I am taking every possible precaution. But still I wonder, where did my tolerance for masks go?

 

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The Cohen Brother Film

 

Sorry for no posting yesterday, eye exams and a general malaise robbed me of motivation. Good news is I have now fully recovered from my cataract surgery, and all is well with my eyes.

The brother Ethan and Joel Cohen have been responsible for some entertaining, irreverent, and darkly cynical films everything from the fable and silly The Hudsucker Proxy to the grim examination of the human condition in No Country for Old Men. What these films had in common was the team of Joel and Ethan a cinematic team that seems to have reached their end.

Ethan has of late been writing short stories, plays, and directing live theater and apparently have fallen in love with the live stage world. Joel is remaining in the cinematic arts and luckily, I have seen no reports that this spilt represents animosity between the brothers but solely a differencing of artistic desires.

The question is just how much like a Cohen Brothers film is there is only one present? Christopher and Jonathan Nolan often but not always work together and when Jonathan is part of the project the storylines turn darker and more cynical. It will be interesting to see what, if any, detectable tone shift arrives by the departure of Ethan. We shall have a chance soon. Later this year will see the release of Joel Cohen first truly solo direction feature film The Tragedy of Macbeth. (One thing I can say is that it seems Joel does not share superstitions about ‘the Scottish Play.’ An A24 release, a studio I have come to admire for its bold commitment to artistic films, and my favorites play by the Bard, there is no doubt that I am there for this feature.

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Movie Review: The Suicide Squad

 

In July 2018, the happy before times when we knew nothing about the coming pandemic, James Gunn having provoked the ire of Trump supporters was fired from his position as the director of the 3rd installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, the first two under his writing and direction had clear more than 1.5 billion at the box office, when Disney panicked over a faux twitter outrage generated by said Trump supporters fixated on Gunn’s years aged and already apologized for shock and bast taste humor on that platform.

Meanwhile Warner Brothers Studios licked their wounds from the critical disappointment that was their feature release Suicide Squada superhero film where the featured characters were in fact villains pressed into government service in a dangerous mission to save the world. Wb desperate for a win compared to the juggernaut that is Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, a license to more money than many countries, they wasted no time and hired Gunn for the sequel to their villains turned heroes series and thus was born The Suicide Squad.

If you are expecting a clone of Guardians in tone, humor, or even needles drops, then you may be disappointed by The Suicide Squad. The humor is darker and more cynical, the action more violentand quite graphic compared to Marvel’s generally bloodless combat and the music ques trend to more modern selections in contrast to Guardians favor for classic rock.

With the exceptions of fan favorite Harley Quinn and Colonel Flag, Gunn, given a free hand by the studio, selected a new roster of villains to constitute his world saving anti-heroes, and that line-up to is too extensive to fully detail here but includes; Ratcatcher 2, who inherited tech to control rats from her father, Polka-Dot Man, who throws polka-dots of disintegrating energy, Bloodsport and Peacemaker a pair of high trained, testosterone-poisoned mercenary assassins and of course King Shark, a humanoid barely speech-capable walking super-strong and always hungry shark.

This assorted murderer’s row along with a number of other are dispatched of a fictional island nation of the coast of South America to destroy a facility and its secret project “Starfish” that has landed in unfriendly hands due to a recent coup. Things go wrong and a great deal of curing and violence erupts and the villains are faced with a threat that far outmatches them and one that no all of them will survive. After all it is titled The Suicide Squad.

I enjoyed but did not love this movie. It is fun, it revels in its R rating, and Gunn let the characters be themselves without bogging the pacing down with excessive set-ups. That said there were elements, usually style induced ones that kept rubbing against my suspension of disbelief. For example, instead of a simple title card or subtitle to inform us we were jumping back three day in the story to show us something vital Gunn would place the letters in the scene, such as in foam forming on a toilet seat, or in billowing flames and that was too self-ware for my own tastes.

That said I am glad I watched this in a theater where giant action set pieces played out far larger than life. So, my recommendation is see it, but be aware it doesn’t work for everyone.

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Parsing Empowerment from Exploitation

 

I just saw a tweet extolling the cinematic excellence of the film Revengeand while I am not going to respond directly to that tweet, I have no interest in dumping on someone for something they enjoyed, the movie was one I found lacking and I wanted to quickly compare to a similar film that handled the subject matter so much better, American Mary.

Both movie, Revenge (2017, France) and American Mary (2012, Canada) are centered on attractive young women who are sexually assaulted by older powerful men and the consequences of those attacks.

Revenge is an exploitative movie, fond of the ‘ass cam’ where the lens of the camera follows the woman close and low reducing her to a body part without the benefit of being from a clear point of view. The film utilizes nudity heavily and while it doesn’t film the assault in a particularly titillating manner nor does to capture the character’s full sense of horror and objectification. Following the assault, the movie descends into a series of set pieces of attacks and escape as she takes her revenge all while maintaining minimal or even absent entirely of clothing.

 

 

 

 

American Mary never falls into the ‘ass cam’ mode of cinematography. Its star is equally as attractive as the star of Revenge, young leading ladies are rarely unattractive, but the filmmakers never reduce her to simply her secondary sexual characteristics. The assault also avoids titillation along with nudity and captures the horror, loss of control, and the character’s objectification bur her assault. Following the attack, the character also seeks and gains a measure of revenge but unlike Revenge this is not presented as a sequence of violent murders but something more methodical and more extreme while maintaining a focus on the character’s mental state and her disintegration emotionally. We see the continuing price she pays from the assault and the ultimate hollowness and emptiness of her revenge. American Mary is a more complex and subtle film that explores the lingering harm of trauma and not simply the gratification of vengeance.

Both films are streaming on Shudder. Watch them and make up your own minds on the difference between exploitation and empowerment.

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Crossing The Bridge

 

Last night my sweetie-wife and I finished the fourth and final season of the Swedish/Danish television series The Bridge.

As a season and as a series it reached a satisfying conclusion wrapping up the various threads of both the current multiple murder investigation that drove the season’s plot and the long running character arcs.

Looking back over all four seasons with the exception of a misstep in virology late in season two the series maintained an exceptional level of skill in story, character, and production. The MVP of the show remained from episode one through the final scene Sofia Helin’s portrayal of Swedish homicide detective Saga Noren. Helin’s skills as an actor are tremendous. She fully inhabits Saga and never misses when she’s required to communicate her character’s inner thoughts and doubts non-verbally. Her costars are all competent and talented actors, but it is always clear that Helin is the shows center and its star.

The concept of the series, cross border investigations driven in part by a transnational bridge proved too tempting not to be duplicated and the series spawned reinterpretations set along six national divides including the US and Mexico.

When my sweetie-wife first wanted to watch this series, it was not available on any of the streaming services, and she purchased the UK Blu-ray release as we own a region free Blu-ray player. Now the original series is available on Amazon prime and if you have even a passing interest in Nordic Noir, I can’t recommend the series enough.

 

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Character Wants, Needs, and Growth

 

In fiction writing it is often the case that a character has a want, something that the character is aware that they desire to obtain or achieve and a need which is a psychological element that the character is usually unaware of that they require to become their better self.

Here are a couple of examples to illustrate my point. In JawsChief Brody wants to make his community safe, in particular to stop the shark attacks. His need is to overcome his terror of the water. He doesn’t go around in the story saying or even acting like this is a goal, but it is the character growth and evolution that makes the story satisfying. In Back to the Future Marty wants to ensure his parents meet so that he and his siblings will exist, but his need is to gain the self-confidence for his own artistic pursuits. (A need that was ignored the sequels.) Achieving his wants allows him to meet his needs.

It is important to have needs and wants cleanly separate goals. In the musical/fantasy Xanadu Sonny’s need and his want are precisely the same thing. He wants to be inspired to create original art and it is his psychological need as well. In addition to the film’s numerous flaws, this means that there can be no arc, no character growth for Sonny. If a character’s need is the same as their want, there is no change to the character when they achieve it. A static unchanging character is ultimately unsatisfying it is why the final shot in The Hunt for Red October is critical, only by seeing Jack asleep on a plane, having fully met his need to overcome his fear of flying can we appreciate his character’s growth and change.

When you create character to drive your stories think about their wants, the plot, and their needs, the story, are distinct things for fuller richer tales.

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Quick Hits

 

Just a few random quick thoughts before I head out to my day-job.

 

Katla ended well. While one of the characters provided a scientific sounding explanation for the strange events and doppelgangers a few selected shots and sequences I think refute his theory. In my opinion the entire Netflix series is well worth watching.

 

The Republican Party continues its drift towards authoritarianism. I say drift because I believe that most elected pols are not choosing their direction but rather utterly terrified of their base and loses their positions are pushed by the currents that are generated by the most devoted bad actors. At this time nearly the entire party is comprised of invertebrates.

 

Next month is the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival which last year was entirely virtual and this year attendees can choose to be in person or online. I have my tickets and plan to be in person at the Frida Theater in Santa Ana California.

 

 

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Movie Review: The Green Knight

 

People who have heard me talk about story construction know the importance I place on endings. The end of the tale is where theme, plot, and story unify into a meaningful and satisfying whole. It is also where David Lowery’s The Green Knight fails in its quest to be great cinema.

The Green Knight a cinematic adaptation of the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, starring Dev Patel as Gawain, nephew of the king, who I the script is never named, who longs for the honor and respect of a knight but who spends more time in brothers than at mass. During Christmas celebrations the mysterious Green Knight, played in perfect casting by Ralph Ineson, offers up a game to the king and his Round Table Knights. He shall let one of them strike any blow they wish and claim his war axe as their prize but in one year’s time they must seek him out and receive a blow from him equal to the one they delivered. Gawain, desperate for a tale worthy of retelling, steps forward and delivers what should have been a mortal blow but magic is at work and the Green Knight is not killed. Gifting the prize to Gawain the Green Knight departs leaving the young man with the quest to seek him out at the next Christmas and receive his mortal strike. The years passes quickly and at the next Yule Gawain departs to find his destiny with the majority of the film’s two hour run time devoted to his travels, encounters, and adventures under the growing shadow of his doom.

The Green Knight is a lyrical, symbolic, and metaphorical piece of cinema. The cinematography is lush, colorful, and mysterious with every frame a lovely painting of light, hue, and shadow. This is not a film shot to be clear but to be beautiful and in that goal is succeeds beyond measure. The performances, save Patel’s, are not meant as realistic human portrayals but rather expressions of the mythic folklore presented on the screen leaving on Gawain’s as the emotive naturalistic performance. The film takes place in a world of magic, monsters, and mystery but while special effects are utilized in the telling of the tale, they are not the drivers of the experience. The overall mood of the film is contemplative, and it seeks to burrow into the ultimate human condition, knowledge of our mortality, rather than distract with spectacle.

Where The Green Knight falls is in a rewriting not merely a reinterpretation of the legend’s conclusion and in doing so stripped away the myth’s meaning ending on a confusing, ambiguous conclusion that failed to satisfy. The more familiar you are with the original myth the more likely the ending is going to anger you. Subtle establishment of silent characters would lead someone familiar with the tale to expect the traditional end only to have it stripped away.

I enjoyed The Green Knight, but the altered ending spoiled what might have been a masterpiece of mythological cinema.

The Green Knight, released from A24 pictures, is currently playing in theaters.

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