By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week I caught the major release, but otherwise mostly trafficked in background noise suitable for some serious spreadsheeting (my life is glamorous, folks).
403. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1
At this point Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, and a dependable cast of supporting actors have this down to a science. You know what you’re going to get with a Mission: Impossible joint- a plot whereby somebody is trying to destroy the world as we know it (this time it’s A.I.!), a reason for Cruise and his crew to go rogue against the protocols of the already quite rogue and hilariously named Impossible Mission Force (if you forget what IMF stands for), a few quips that reasonably hit their marks, and over two hours of some of the most pulse-pounding, boundary-pushing action in the business. I’m pleased to report the first part of an apparent two part saga (but very likely not a finale) fulfills all of that in spades. Two Beers.
404. Wild Life
This documentary from Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Vasarhelyi, famous for chronicling mountain-climbing daredevils in the likes of Muru and Free Solo, takes on a different subject- the life’s mission of millionaires Doug and Kris Tompkins to privately purchase a large swath of the utterly gorgeous Torres del Paine area of southernmost Patagonia in order to create and gift a National Park to Chile and/or Argentina. It’s a fascinating look at two folks fighting to make a difference in the way they feel they can. Two Beers.
405. Retrograde
Also on Disney + thanks to coming from National Geographic as well, this covers the very Disney-unfriendly topic of the last days of the American military presence in Afghanistan, in typical Matthew Heineman fashion documented straight from the front lines and in areas where other journalists may not dare go. It’s a damning portrait of an operation that failed at what should have been its most basic objective- evacuating everyone in mortal danger from the Taliban when it became clear they were going to overwhelm the Afghani government imminently, much to the frustration and despair of the American forces who’d fought alongside or worked with many of them for years if not decades. History. A Toast.
406. Burden of Proof
This Hulu true crime series is an interesting bird- ostensibly about a man who’s convinced that his parents had a role in the disappearance of his teenage sister in 1987, potentially up to being responsible for her murder. What at first is presented as a pretty damning array of evidence of just this becomes far more complicated over the years as the original lost cast file is found and his conclusions are tested in more depth. A portrait of obsession and family trauma that is fascinating in some unexpected ways. Two Beers.
407. Jared from Subway: Catching a Monster
This true crime series, however, is way more surface level, largely focused on a woman who took it upon herself to basically entrap Jared Fogle by playing to his clearly criminal predilections over the phone and recording him. How he was actually caught is gone over as well, which actually came about due to the arrest of his enabler and co-pervert Russell Taylor (who actually produced child pornography). It’s an odd choice of focus that plays to sensationalism, but we can at least all agree it’s good both of these fuckers are in jail. Four Beers.
408. How to Create a Sex Scandal
This HBO docuseries examines the case of a kiddie strip club in a small town in East Texas that caused a furor until more scrupulous investigators than the first group start to poke holes in the children’s testimonies that lead them to believe it was actually a scam perpetrated by their foster parents, who it appears realized that kids the state thinks are more fucked up yield more lucrative checks than more regular ones. People… Two Beers.
409. Bo Burnham: The Inside Outtakes
While the reason most of this material hit the cutting room floor instead of being included in Bo Burnham’s comedy special/authoritative meditation on the ways the Pandemic all drove us various levels of insane, there’s no denying that more Inside Out is nothing but a good thing. Cobbled together in a way that’s even more experimental than the final cut we did get, it’s an essential companion piece. Two Beers.
410. Nocebo
This Shudder horror film stars Eva Green and Mark Strong as an affluent couple with a daughter who hire a Filipino housekeeper and nanny who shows up on their doorstep in part to assist Green, who has been stricken by a mysterious illness. The housekeeper quickly ingratiates herself with mother and daughter, treating Green with traditional medicine that makes her increasingly reliant on her. I won’t go into how these people are tied together, but nasty horror ensues with some nifty folk horror elements that take the premise in unexpected directions. Two Beers.
411. Misbehavior
This melodramatic Korean film is about a much taken advantage of contracted schooteacher who feels threatened by a cute new full-timer who she was a TA in university for (and who is the daughter of a superintendent or the like), especially when she learns she is hooking up with the moody young ballet dancing student she’s probably having her own inappropriate attraction to. It’s all quite overwrought and maybe even a touch skeevy. Five Beers.
412. Take Care of Maya
This Netflix documentary examines the harrowing case of Maya Kowalski, a 10 year old who comes down with disturbing but at the time or by all appearances medically unexplainable symptoms that debilitate her- at least until a controversial cure arises that pits her parents against the medical establishment to the point she is removed from them. A shocking and incredibly sad story, but an important one. Two Beers.
