By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week I finally got around to watching one of the buzziest shows of the last several years, plus documentaries, of course.
349. Euphoria
With the final season airing and practically everyone involved having achieved movie superstardom, I figured now was as good a time as any to check out Euphoria. My main Sam Levinson experience were his terrible collaborations with The Weeknd, and there’s assuredly some of that patina of ickiness here. There’s also some of the most inventively ecstatic imagery of the last decade in TV, plus what’s got to be the best cast ensemble over the same timeframe. Rue is a bit of a charisma vacuum at the center of the show (no shade on Zendaya- she’s good- but the character is just a wet blanket), but there’s plenty enough else going on to keep your attention. It’s a modern soap opera with HBO’s license to ill- the OC with just so many penises and probably provably all of the drugs. It ain’t boring (also, Ashtray 4 lyfe). Two Beers.
350. The Crash
Unfortunately, real life can be so much worse than anything Sam Levinson can cook up. Such is the case of Mackenzie Shirilla, the driver and only survivor in a brutal car crash that killed her boyfriend and his best friend. When the car’s data comes back and it becomes clear that the vehicle, topping 100 as it approached the T-intersection, never once braked, what looked like an accident becomes a murder investigation. Shirilla was a girl with some behavioral issues, a volatile relationship, and little in the way of parental discipline, sure, but was she a murderer? Her tidy amnesia alibi certainly did her no favors, nor do any of the particulars of the accident itself- perhaps a more substantive interview with her in the film would have revealed more, but then again, maybe it wouldn’t. Two Beers.
351. Ladies First
This Netflix drama sees Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike pitted against each other as a sexist advertising executive and their talented yet ignored on the basis of sex employee. The fun part is both get to play both roles, as Cohen hits his head and wakes up in a gender-flipped world where he’d better put a lot more time into his looks if he’s to have any hope of getting noticed in the office, much less of the promotion he’s after. Pike, Fiona Shaw, Kathryn Hunter, and Emily Mortimer have great fun playing boorish alphas steeped in a world that revolves around them, as does director Thea Sharrock in filling it with distaff sexist details. It’s too bad it has to hurry to its moral-learning happy ending when it realize there’s less than a half hour left- this is a film begging for a final comeuppance. Three Beers.
352. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
I’m of as many opinions as as director Daniel Roher is about AI about his film about his opinions about it- namely two. Is A.I. a good thing or a bad thing, and is this film about it good or just kinda meh in its take every side-ism? Roher, to his credit, is upfront about his ambivalence, which isn’t helped by the wide variety of expert opinions he assembles here. You’ll hear that A.I. is the nigh certain death of us, but also maybe what will initiate us into Utopia. It’s clear it’s going to shift a paradigm or two until it most likely plunges us into another post Dot Com Boom-type recession, and also that the absurd lack of regulation on it is likely leading nowhere good. Here’s hoping it doesn’t fuck things up too bad for Roher’s new baby nor us in the near to middle-term future. Three Beers.
353. Deathstalker
My college buddies and I got together last weekend, and when we do shlock of various calibers usually ensues. The Deathstalker franchise is certainly schlock, as is this loving rendered update from Psycho Goreman‘s Steven Kostanski. It’s a Swords & Sorcerers romp full of spectacularly gory creature effects, cheesy quips, superfluous plotting, and Patton Oswalt voicing some kind of short goblin sidekick- what more could you want? You’ll know in the first five minutes if you’re in or if you’re out. Three Beers.
354. Pact of Vengeance
While the previous was a somewhat schlocky ode to schlock, this is the honest article. Len Kabasinski is a Redlettermedia favorite (and a guy who seems to have a great sense of humor about the generally terrible action flicks he makes), and here assembles a mini-Avengers of Best of the Worst stars including a 90-something and not hiding it Leo Fong and John Mikl Thor. This is a cheap actioner of the green screen, strippers-in-speaking-roles, everybody’s a biker- good guys, bad guys, whatever, variety- tailor-made to scratch that overly earnest so-bad-it’s-good itch. Six Pack.
355. Parsifal
One of my buddies is heavily into everything medieval, so this 1912 silent film rendition of the Arthurian legend of Sir Percival was his contribution. It’s actually a German production based on Wagner’s opera on the same subject. There’s definitely some real production value and some interesting camerawork for the time period, but it makes sure to pack the whole plot in momentum-killing multi-paragraph title cards. Three Beers.
