By: Henry J. Fromage –
The second week of 2022, which sure doesn’t look like it’s trying to be an improvement on 2021 or 2020, was pretty eclectic watching.
13. Loki
Yes, I finally got around to this, and yes, I found it to be pretty darn interesting scene-setting, and pretty darn funny to boot (Alligator Loki is welcome back anytime). It’s somewhat fascinating how lode-bearing Marvel is making these shows, and how arguably it’s starting to do its most interesting work here. They mythology and world-building here are difficult to undersell- our new Thanos very likely has been introduced here. And Tom Hiddleston + Owen Wilson is a treat. Two Beers.
14. Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan
I may have been halfway through this Netflix documentary series before realizing – wait, Billy Milligan was totally the inspiration for Split, wasn’t he? Kudos to the show for not even really bothering to explore that angle- the story of this likely sociopath, certain rapist and criminal, and possible bearer of multiple personalities who became a cause célèbre of the psychology community is plenty interesting enough on its own. The first time you see the creepy picture he drew of his personalities, though… well, somebody should probably be asking about some royalties. Three Beers.
15. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Yeah, I knew exactly what I was going into here, and it still managed to annoy the hell out of me. This is ‘member berries filmmaking at its absolutely most craven, with a healthy dollop of “let’s steal from this other popular thing” (Stranger Things much?) and on top of it all one of those digitally resurrected celebrities that’s totally not the most macabre thing you can do with millions of dollars of sfx budget, right? Not a second of it feels uncalculated. Five Beers.
16. Guimoon: The Lightless Door
I’m also catching up on 2021’s Korean film industry output, and this short horror film starts quite promisingly indeed. As The Wailing taught us, shamanistic rituals can be creepy as fuck, and the scene at the beginning of this one is a great one, as is the idea of the evil spirit in question accosting characters across two timelines twenty years apart simultaneously. Unfortunately it flubs the third act badly, going all low-rent The Grudge, but maybe these talent here will get it right next time. Four Beers.
17. The Tragedy of Macbeth
Joel Coen goes solo for the first time, and probably earned his DP and production designers Oscars here- this film is never less than stunning to look at. The acting is also utterly superb, but for the first act it feels a bit like the familiar impenetrability of the original Shakespeare would keep this from rising above the many other handsomely staged adaptations out there. Once the blood-letting and wits-losing begins, though, Coen’s sensibility really starts to shine through, and the ending is probably the most exciting and interesting approach to the material out there. Bravo. Two Beers.
18. Shades of the Heart
This Korean indie is certainly handsomely shot and staged- enough to give it a place in MUBI’s somewhat randomly assembled website (it’s never clear whether the movies that aren’t actually watchable there are ones they had, intend to have, or just an attempt at some kind of compendium of independent and international film of note). Anyway, it’s basically a series of largely morose conversations that a writer has with various people in his life and adjacent to it, and while the acting is good, man, it’s a bit of a slog for a 80-odd minute flick. Four Beers.
19. The Unforgivable
This latest Netflix Sandra Bullock-starrer sees her deliver a stripped-down, often blank-faced and tentative performance that certainly qualifies as a change of pace for her. While the reviews were mostly blah, and there are some conventional choices made and an overall dour tone here that is what it is, I actually think it was a far more interesting performance (and surrounding film) than folks gave it credit for. Three Beers.
20. LuLaRich
I did a bit of TV catchup this week, especially docuseries about true crime and entertainingly evil businessfolk, which I’m blaming the pandemic for hooking me on. This one examines the just literal, unmistakable pyramid scheme that was/is women’s clothing line LuLaRoe, which rode a too successful for its own good business model to a ridiculous valuation and far larger size than this largely Mormon family-run C-suite could handle. This probably could have been a really entertainingly tight documentary feature instead of the slightly schlubby four-episode series it is here, but if schadenfreude is what you’re looking for, then this has it. Three Beers.
21. The Tender Bar
George Clooney may not be a terribly good director. He’s not really a bad one, either, just kind of painfully, disappointingly middle of the road, and his latest is pretty much that. Ben Affleck does interesting work as the very Long Island bartender uncle of the erstwhile protagonist of this true story, a boy with a less than ideal but not actually terrible family situation (except for his absentee radio DJ father) who wants to become a writer (played well by Tye Sheridan when he grows up). Just a solid, unspectacular, occasionally intriguing adult drama like they don’t make too many of anymore. Three Beers.
22. By Quantum Physics: A Nightlife Venture
Another Korean flick, this time an energetic yet perhaps a bit too twisty for its own good gangster flick costarring a couple of familiar faces from Squid Game. Everything is pretty damn slickly shot and the action is good when it pops off- despite the all-too-common ridiculously overwrought title and a few feints at melodrama, this is as good an example of the type of quality mainstream entertainment the Korean film industry churns out year after year as any. Three Beers.
23. Hard Hit (Unknown Caller)
Sometimes, though, Korea really outdoes itself in producing a piece of top-notch genre entertainment that is too powerful for, to paraphrase Bong Joon-ho, the two inch borders of subtitles. I don’t know if this film will be a hit the likes of Train to Busan, say, but it probably should be. Jo Woo-jin stars as a businessman taking his kids to school who receives a phone call informing him there are bombs under his car seats, and unless he pays a staggering amount of money, they’ll go off when he or his children try to exit the vehicle. The film sets off on a breakneck pace from there, marking popular action film editor Kim Chang-ju as a new directorial name to watch. Two Beers.
24. Murders at Starved Rock
I went to Starved Rock and nearby Matthiessen State Parks many, many times throughout my childhood years without ever knowing each were the scenes of notorious crimes. Starved Rock remains the more famous park and historical crime scene, though, and David Raccuglia, who happens to be the son of the prosecutor who put away Charles Wegner for the 1961 triple homicide that made him the longest-serving Illinois prisoner, examines every facet of the case he can. I think his personal connection of the case is actually an asset, not a liability, but his structuring of doubt and doubt of the doubt was a bit too clearly contrived for my tastes. Still very interesting subject material, though. Three Beers.
