By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week was a bit of a smorgasbord of post-Sundance randomness, although I did check off one that was in person-only there.
107. Knock at the Cabin
While this in some ways is M. Knight Shyamalan’s most straightforward film in some time- if you’ve seen the preview you get the gist of the plot (it is indeed about a gay couple and their adopted daughter trapped in a cabin by four people who inform them they must choose one of their family to die in order to save the world)- it’s also hands down his best in forever, and in my opinion in the conversation be ranked his best, period. Each actor gives their all to their roles, and Shyamalan manipulates the tension like a maestro. When the man’s on, he’s on. Two Beers.
108. Slippin’ Jimmy
The promotional team behind Better Call Saul have been known to get creative in the past- see their series of Employee Training Videos starring Kim or Mike- but this short animated series takes it to another level. A young Jimmy McGill gets into trouble all around Chicago, in a movie-homaging way that doesn’t have a ton to do with the series at large, but is fun enough to spend the time on nonetheless. And while I’ve covered the series before, yes, Better Call Saul nailed the landing in my estimation, cementing itself as the best of Vince Gilligan’s oeuvre (so far). Three Beers.
109. Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press
How your opinion changes with the times. I remember when the Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) vs Gawker media case first hit the news, I was pro Hogan (still not sure a dodgily acquired sex tape played in full is news and thereby protected speech, honestly). This documentary breaks down the complexities of the case, though, as once questions as to how a broke former wrestler could pay the kind of legal fees necessary to take down an entire news organization were answered by the reveal that eccentric tech billionaire Peter Thiel was bankrolling the thing behind the scenes, because he wanted Gawker permanently gone. Not so great for Freedom of the Press, right? A fascinating case gets a fascinating rundown here. Two Beers.
110. Jung-E
Train to Busan‘s Yeon Sang-ho has a good thing going with Netflix, as this is his first movie for them after already debuting two shows on the platform. Unfortunately, he’s not really done anything terribly quality since that film (Hellbound had its moments). This one is a sci-fi melodrama about a cloned supersoldier forced to fight her last battle over and over again and her now adult daughter who has been overseeing the project (which ain’t helping her mommy issues). There’s some interesting world-building here about space colonies fighting a generational war, but a lot more time is spent focusing on those mommy issues. Four Beers.
111. Flight/Risk
Yes, I know that Netflix already put out a pretty exhaustive examination of the Boeing 737 Max tragedies and the company’s shady practices leading up to and after the crashes, but Amazon’s, with the benefit of several months more time to develop it, may be even more shocking. Here we see and hear evidence that made it clear that at minimum certain Boeing employees knew exactly the risks associated with cutting costs by not requiring training on their new aircraft, and even celebrating talking an airline out of training their own pilots on the changes that would prove fatal. The filmmakers also make the case that the failure wasn’t only training + software, but that there was a hardware issue as well with a sensor that still has gone unaddressed. A shocking display of corporate greed and cowardice. Two Beers.
112. Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution
This Netflix documentary makes the shocking, I know, case that kids these days have a lot of casual sex, especially at Spring Break. The filmmakers do capture some interesting interviews, and shed light on how dangerous it really is to be a girl at a raucous bacchanalia like this, but strangely fail to really depict modern sexuality outside of such an obviously sexually charged yet generally unrepresentative place and time (cell phones and dating apps merit very little mention). Four Beers.
113. Alice, Darling
Anna Kendrick stars here in an apparently at least somewhat autobiographical story of a young woman with a psychologically oppressive and abusive boyfriend. When she lies to him about a work trip in order to join her childhood friends on a week at a cabin up north (this is a distinctly Canadian film, even though Kendrick is actually from Maine), she’s not sure what will happen- she just knows it won’t be good. Kendrick is impressive as a woman who has been next to brainwashed, and when her friends notice, even struggles against them as they try to help. The end-game is a bit pat and even clichéd, but everything else rings tragically authentic. Three Beers.
114. Infinity Pool
The Cronenberg name is alive and well with Brandon totally ready to take over the mantle, not that David’s going anywhere soon (and don’t sleep on Caitlin, who’s set to make her directorial debut this year). Here he makes an even freakier, darker film than Possessor, in this story of a vacationing couple in an unnamed maybe Eastern European, maybe Muslim, maybe one of the Stans country, who venture off the resort at the prompting of a sexy mysterious couple and end up committing a crime and are quickly arrested and sentenced to death for it. This country has a loophole, though – it will create a living clone of you to die in your stead, if you pay up, that is. A descent into unhinged excess with a lurid, fucked up visual style that can only have come from a Cronenberg, kudos are also due to Alexander Skarsgaard playing both sheep and wolf (or a sheep who’s baring its inner wolf) and Mia Goth playing the sociopath who sets him on this path. Two Beers.
115. What We Leave Behind
This short, sad documentary is on Netflix now after playing a few festivals. It follows a old Mexican man, Julian Moreno, who makes a 17-hour bus ride every month to visit family in El Paso, Texas. He’s a salty character, at least at first, set in his ways but clearly a lover of friends and family. He’s also 89 years old, so as time passes the inevitable encroaches, and we follow along until the unavoidably bitter end. Three Beers.
116. Room 2806: The Accusation
This Netflix docuseries shows the fallout of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, in which he was accused of sexually assaulting hotelroom cleaner Nafissatou Diallo in New York at a time many thought he was on the cusp of becoming the President of France. The filmmakers here cover every angle of the case, even the conspiracy theorists, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the man’s entitlement and disrespect for sexual boundaries (it was not the first time he was accused). More surprising are all the otherwise well-educated and enlightened French folks (the majority women) who chalk it up to “well, he’s a French man” and consider any pushback on that kind of behavior to be American-style Puritanism. The Patriarchy is a strange and persistent animal, no? Two Beers.
117. Free to Play
Another release from about the same time (2014), this documentary is about the rise of online gaming as a sport right as it was about to go supernova. It’s main focus is the first international, million-dollar prize tournament of its kind (playing DotA), and does a good job of digging into the lives of the sport’s players, striving for recognition from their families and peers that this is a legitimate career path. I confess I’ll probably never be a spectator of this particular sport, but I can see why it should be categorized as one. Three Beers.
118. Zen: Grogu and the Dust Bunnies
HBO’s bitch ass pulled the rest of the season two weeks before the end of the year, which is when they announced they’d pull it. For the first time ever, I’m actually considering dumping a streaming service. There are other ways to stream, after all, which is how I finished out this penultimate planned (yes, they refused to give the creators the last season they had planned from the beginning as well) season. It was a bit of a reset, and probably their strongest since the first, but there’s no denying this one got much more convoluted than it probably needed to over the years. I suppose there was something karmic about all of the deaths and rebirths constantly fighting the same fights and the world-building was never anything less than impressive. Three Beers.
119. You People
This Netflix comedy is about a white Jewish guy (Jonah Hill) who proposes to his black girlfriend (Lauren London) only to run into a host of predictable comic issues with their respective parents (Eddie Murphy & Nia Long and Julia Louis-Dreyfus & David Duchovny). This is a comedy of embarrassment, and a not particularly original one nor a particularly incisive one on race relations, but it is pretty consistently funny one in my book, and that’s what matters most. Three Beers.
120. Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story
This exuberant, music-filled documentary immerses you in all things Jazz Fest, a week-plus celebration of all things New Orleans and influenced by New Orleans- from music all the way from street acts up to megastars like Katy Perry or Pitbull to a dizzying array of delectable cuisine to cultural touchpoints like the second line bands. It’s quintessential New Orleans packed into a single event, and I now want to go so bad. Two Beers.
121. Shark: The Beginning
This Korean film is set in a youth prison where a meek bullied kid who finally snapped seeks to learn how to properly defend himself from a young MMA champ who was sent to prison for killing the intruders who murdered his family. In some ways it’s a classic setup, but each of the actors does an excellent job of selling their roles, particularly Kim Min-seok as the wallflower turned ass-kicker, Wi Ha-joon as his mentor, and Jeong Won-chang as the bully who Kim took the eye of to put in prison, and who is biding his time until he gets out to wreak his revenge. Two Beers.
