By: Henry J. Fromage –
The week I got back to TV series, both fiction and non-, but you know me- there’s always a bunch of randomness afoot.
42. Disclaimer
This Apple TV+ series, as is usually the case, has some serious pedigree. Alfonso Cuaron wrote and directed every episode, with the DP power team of Emmanuel Lubezki and Bruno Delbonnel shooting and Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville, and more in front of the camera. Unfortunately, the subject doesn’t quite play to the combined strengths of this group, instead coming across as a flashy but shallow airport thriller. It’s an engaging time-hopping mystery that’s well set up, but no more provocative than you’d expect it to be after that. Three Beers.
43. Oddity
This Shudder original takes a bit of time to really get moving after it’s disturbing and disorienting beginning, but once you have a good handle on who all these characters are (a husband who’s lost his wife, his perhaps too soon new one, his deceased wife’s blind clairvoyant sister) then it all comes together devilishly. Why does the sister bring along the creepiest damn wooden man you’ve ever seen on the anniversary of her sister’s death to their former abode? You’ll see. Two Beers.
44. Cold Eyes
This Korean thriller from 2015 follows an elite police unit and it’s newest recruit, a young woman with photographic memory, as they try and track down a violent but extremely competent group of bank robbers, who seem to disappear after their crimes. It’s got a propulsive, procedural energy that carries you along despite a plot that otherwise doesn’t stray far from many of the tropes of this kind of cops & robbers fare. Three Beers.
45. Rap World
This 55-minute, YouTube-hosted documentary about a bunch of losers trying to record a rap album over the course of one night in their native Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania surprisingly showed up on more than one Best Of 2024 list I read. You may recognize Conner O’Malley from his significantly more over-the-top personal YouTube videos, but otherwise it’s a lo-fi ode to doing dumb shit in parking lots in the middle of the night in the middle of the country that will be instantly recognizable to those of us of a particular generation and a particular social class. Three Beers.
46. Happer’s Comet
Honestly, I’m not sure what to make of this MUBI-hosted short film, which features no dialogue nor recognizable throughline outside of its nighttime suburban setting. There’s a lushness to the visuals and cricket-specked sound design that envelopes you as you watch, but that’s pretty much the whole of the experience. Four Beers.
47. The Target Shoots First
Documentarian Chris Wilcha’s nostalgic self-portrait of a life in music was an unexpected delight last year, and one takeaway was I needed to track down his debut, this 1999 autobiography of his time working at Columbia House (yes, of the infamous Record Club for all you older Millennials out there, here explained in gloriously extinct detail). This has real How To With John Wilson vibes- maybe it’s the vintage cheap digital video camera or the New York setting- and I wish there were more like it. Two Beers.
48. The Pike County Murders: A Family Massacre
This Peacock true crime documentary series delves into the shocking murders of 8 members of the same family in a quiet Ohio county where nothing like this ever happens. At first the police consider whether this may be drug cartel-driven, since some of the slain are involved in marijuana growing. However, the family of one daughter’s ex starts to appear to be prime suspects, and the only question is how many of them were actually involved in the well-planned and large-scale crime. Three Beers.
