By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week was a mix of airplane flicks and getting back into some Korean flicks both new and old, plus one of the odder TV shows this year.
130. The Last Dolphin King
The Netflix documentary examines the story of famous Spanish dolphin trainer José Luis Barbero, who went from being perhaps the most successful and famous man in his field to a pariah when videos that appeared to show him abusing his charges were released by PETA. This story would ultimately go darker places, and remains a knotty and complicated one. Three Beers.
131. Oxygen
This single-setting escape thriller from Alexandre Aja sees Melanie Laurent wake up in some sort of medical pod not knowing where, when, or even who she is. There’s a bit too much reliance on desperate panting and screaming for my tastes in her performance, but if you like this kind of thing, this one goes some pretty far out places by the end. Three Beers.
132. Unicorn Town
This Christian McCaffery-produced documentary follows American linebacker and aspiring director Nick Alfieri as he accepts an offer to play football (the American kind) in the small German town of Schwäbisch Hall, a perennial powerhouse in the league despite playing against much better funded teams in much bigger cities. This is an interesting portrait of how team culture and leadership can inspire a level of success even beyond a team’s individual talents. Two Beers.
133. Lou
Allison Janney gets her own Liam Neeson-style actioner in this Pacific Northwest set story of a loner who gets drawn into defending a single mom and her kid when her crazy ex finds them. It kind of just makes sense, Janney has that gravitas and one-liner-spouting badassery down pat, and she uses her tall frame to sell action prowess in much the same way Neeson does, and just as believably. Wouldn’t mind seeing her do a few more like this if she liked it. Three Beers.
134. The Pez Outlaw
Netflix now has this Tribeca-debuting documentary about, well, The Pez Outlaw, Steve Glew, an odd fellow who found a unique way of making money- travelling to the Eastern European factories where Pez dispensers were manufactured to bring back ones not available in the apparently insanely lucrative U.S. collector’s market. His years-long battle with the American Pez company is indeed a twisty tale worth telling. Three Beers.
135. Unlocked
This inventive and nasty little serial killer thriller just debuted on Netflix and announces an intriguing new directorial talent in Kim Tae-joon. It stars The Wailing‘s Chun Woo-hee as a young woman who loses her phone- and when it’s serendipitously returned via a repair shop she doesn’t know that it’s been cloned by a dangerous young man, who already has a police officer on his tail who thinks his son is the one behind the series of disturbing murders that’s just been uncovered. An inventive and hold-your-breath tense thrill-ride from start to finish. Two Beers.
136. Paul T. Goldman
The Nathan Fielder school of documentary filmmaking has a new entry in this crazy in several different ways story of, by, and starring Paul T. Goldman, a middle-aged Floridian man who married a woman he found online before a quick and contentious divorce that he wrote a series of unhinged-sounding online novellas about. Jason Woliner, who directed 3 episodes of Nathan for You as well as Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, gives him a professional cast and crew to tell his story, and the result is something like, well, Nathan for You starring Neil Breen. It’s compulsive watching, and like its forebear packs in some surprisingly poignant moments as well. Three Beers.
137. The Policeman’s Lineage
This Korean flick stars Parasite‘s Choi Woo-shik as an idealistic legacy cop who goes undercover in the team of another cop who doesn’t let the law get in the way of his pursuit of justice. Cho Jin-woong does a masterful job of wrapping Choi and the audience around his finger as who exactly is the bad guy gets a lot greyer than it at first seems. A quality acting two-hander with some good action. Three Beers.
138. Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield
This Korean film from 2003 caught Ken’s eye as he’s currently listening to lectures about Asian history and just covered the Silla Dynasty. There aren’t a lot of movies covering this time in Korean history, but this one is about the battle that helped change the course of it in a bit of a comedic register. What’s fascinating about it is some of the more bizarre episodes in this battle have a foundation in what really happened. An interesting mix of goofiness and pathos with an honest history lesson all mixed in. Three Beers.
139. Dead for a Dollar
Walter Hill returns to the Western in an apparent old to low-budget, high-brawn Western director Budd Boetticher. For good and ill Hill replicates both sides of that coin, shooting on cheap-looking digital despite otherwise quality costuming and sets and the presence of an A-list cast. Still, the brawn is there as well, as this is a good old-fashioned oater which particularly benefits from Willem Dafoe and Christoph Waltz and their steely gazes. A must for fans of the genre. Three Beers.
140. Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm
Aqua Teen Hunger Force made up a not insignificant chunk of my college years entertainment, so I’ll never pass up another opportunity to hang out with Frylock, Master Shake, Meatwad, or especially the pride of New Jersey, Carl Brutananadilewski. This installment sees them all out on their own after Frylock finally stopped carrying their dead weight and got a job in IT at Amazon… err, Amazin’. Tech bro shenanigans, a plant-based apocalypse, and a showdown with the Mooninites ensues. They’ve still got it, folks. Two Beers.
141. The Art of Silence
This documentary is about legendary French mime Marcel Marceau, and while it’s an undoubtedly good-looking one full of interesting voices (including 108-year-old cousin and Resistance collaborator Georges Loinger, who is a treat), I can’t get past the fact that I just can get on board with mimes. Maybe they’re too close to clowns, and there’s no disputing Marceau’s mastery of the form nor the effect he had (he’s credited with inspiring Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, for one), but miming just ain’t for me. Three Beers.
142. Do Revenge
This high school mean girls film in the vein of Cruel Intentions (Sarah Michelle Gellar even plays the headmistress here) with the pastel plaid fashions of Clueless has perhaps a bit more on its mind than some of its brethren. Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke star as a pair of high school girls running in different social circles who each desire revenge on another student for pretty good reasons, and make a pact to do each other’s. The two hour runtime belies there’s a twist or two coming, though, and it does a lot more interrogating of the nature and worthwhileness of revenge than you’d expect. Three Beers.
143. Hot Blooded: Once Upon a Time in Korea
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.
