Bugonia: Not Good Science Fiction, Because It Isn't Really Science Fiction, But--

I just watched Bugonia (a movie) on Peacock.  It's billed as two conspiracy theorists kidnap a CEO because they believe she comes from the Andromeda galaxy, and now I'll warn you about spoilers...

For most of the movie, it surely seems as if the kidnap victim is as human as you and me, and the kidnappers, also human, are out of their minds (actually, one of them, brilliantly played by Jesse Plemons, much more than his sidekick).  This part of the movie is lifted by Plemons' acting, but has little else to commend it.  I don't especially enjoy narratives about psycho conspiracy theorists, and never less so than nowadays, when we have them running our government.

The big twist in the movie, which comes near the end, but I guessed as soon as I read the description, was that the CEO was indeed someone from distant outer space.   And this might have made, could have made, a good story, except that the plot was like a grade B movie made a century ago.   Who knows, it might have been a great silent movie, and I certainly wouldn't have objected to less screaming throughout.

As it is, we're treated to lots of blood and gore, and the ending, in which the interstellar overlords decide to kill the entire human race, was so ridiculous, I can't say it even qualifies in this century as science fiction.  Its morality was high, or attempted to be, and its science close to nil.

But I guess we're in increasing need of morality plays, as we struggle with this increasingly immoral government that we find in our nation these days.  A movie that jokingly or otherwise offers the thesis that conspiracy theorists are sometimes right is certainly not the answer.

Zero Day: Thrilling Enough, But Not That Much Like Today

I binged the six-episode Zero Day that went up on Netflix.  Herewith my thoughts, with no major spoilers to warn you about [except in the very last paragraph].

First and foremost, the acting was outstanding.  I mean, with Robert De Niro, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, and Connie Britton in major roles -- not to mention Matthew Modine and Angela Bassett with slightly less screen -- how can you go wrong.   From the point of view of the acting, every scene was a real pleasure to watch.

As to the story ... well, I've heard this limited series touted, in more than one place, as strikingly similar to what we've been seeing and hearing on our cable news stations, laptops, and social media these days.  Of course, any plot about a terrorist attack that kills lots of people, and the government veering towards fascist tactics to find the culprits, and stop this from happening again, resembles our times.  But actually, it resembles what George W. Bush and the Congress did with the Patriot Act after September 11 (mentioned in Zero Day) far more than it resembles today.  And that's because our current swerve towards fascism has nothing to do with a terrorist attack.  It stems from the voters of the United States electing to office a President whose every other pronouncement is out of Joseph  Goebbels's handbook.   So yes, although high-tech digital prowess and at least one billionaire are part of the action in Zero Day, the heart of the story is something else.

And that heart, which we've also seen in other movies and TV series on various screens, is a pretty good narrative, with affairs, difficult family relationships, politics reminiscent of what Jack Bauer had to deal with in 24 and prevalent in House of Cards, all done up nicely with a few real newscasters, a house on the Hudson, and of course the nation's capital.   So, if you're looking for a thriller brought to you by flat-out great acting and a decent-enough storyline, I'd recommend Zero Day.  But don't expect anything searingly relevant to what's actually going on today.  De Niro's character is named Mullen, and he gives a report to Congress in the last scene.  A nod to Mueller and the report he gave to Congress in Trump's first administration, right?  But that was long long time ago, in terms of the speed with we've slid and are still sliding into fascism right now.

Antlers: Neo-Retro Horror

I figured, with Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons in the lead roles, and for that matter, Graham Greene in a supporting role, how could you go wrong with a horror movie like Antlers on HBO Max?  And I discovered: you can't.

But let me also tell you, this neo-horror movie (I'm not really sure what neo means, and indeed Antlers also has retro elements, going back to the silent-movie era), is not for the faint-hearted and weak-stomached.  It has a scene or two with cannibalism, and other scenes will outrightly shock the bejesus out of you.

The basic story -- based on the short story ("The Quiet Boy") by Nick Antosca, who also helped write the movie -- is about a malevolent spirit in Oregon that craves human flesh and invades humans and turns them into horrendous deers with big antlers who continue eating humans and ripping them apart.  Russell is a grade school teacher.  The father and younger brother of one of her students have had first-hand experience with the antlers.  Plemons is the town sheriff.  Greene is the retired sheriff who knows all too well about the creatures with antlers.

As I said, the movie both feels like it was made in the 1920s, and has a hipness, especially regarding the power of women.  As a supernatural horror movie it has zero elements of science fiction, and indeed is drenched with dark fantasy.  So, if wanting a rational explanation is your thing, Antlers will most decidedly not be your cup of tea, or any civilized fluid.

But Scott Cooper (who also co-wrote for the screen) did a good job directing, the plot is tight, and not completely predictable (and, hey, I don't think I've spilled any spoilers), and if you're a secret or public buff of horror, I'd give antlers a shot.

 

Windfall: Hitchcock's Shoelaces

Checking in with a review of Windfall, a consciously Hitchcockian movie -- especially through the opening credits and music -- just up on Netflix a few days now.  I'm a big fan of Hitchcock's work, so I don't mind anything that does a good job of capturing his ambience, which Windfall admirably does.

The other distinguishing characteristic of Windfall is that it has just three stars, all playing unnamed characters, and a fourth character, a co-star, billed in the credits as gardener.  And that's ok, too, because the characters are all memorable.  They would the very rich husband (Jesse Plemons) and wife (Lily Collins), the man who breaks into their home (Jason Segel), and the aforementioned gardener (Omar Leyva).  And the last thing I'll mention before I warn you about spoilers is that there's a touch of black comedy lurking around a lot of this story, and the character with the most charm is that the man who breaks in.

Ok, that's two things, and here's your warning:  [Spoilers ahead ... ]

Actually, all I want to talk about is the ending, in which the wife kills the burglar, as he stops to tie his ever-loose shoelace* and leave with the satchel of money, and then goes on (the wife, that is) to shoot her husband to death.  Now, I get why she kills her husband.  She's put up with his self-absorption for two days -- the burglar and his presence throwing an ugly spotlight on that -- and she's been revealed to her husband (by the burglar) as taking birth control pills even though he wants a baby.  So I get why, after all she's been through, she wants to set herself totally free by killing him.  *I've long thought life is too short for shoelaces -- I wear crocs -- and it struck me as notable that shoelaces ended this burglar's life.

But what gets her to first kill the burglar?   I see two possible reasons:  1.  She doesn't want him to abscond with all of her and her husband's money (which, if she had any inkling that she would then kill her husband, would soon be all hers).  Or, was it:  2.  She was afraid that the burglar, after walking out the door with the money, was going to turn around, walk back in, and kill her and her husband?  He had indeed left, or been on the verge of leaving, and then turned around and walked back into the house, many times already.

Or maybe both of those motives came into play.   What's clear is that her burst of lethal energy, whether born of greed or self-preservation, was a suitably shocking conclusion to this narrowly drawn criminal drama in a sunny California orange grove.  Hats off to director and writer Charlie McDowell, and writers Jason Segel (yes, the burglar) and Jason Lader.

The Irishman: "It's What It Is"

"It's what it is" was an oft-repeated phrase in this three-and-a-half movie about who killed Jimmy Hoffa, and how.  And what this movie by Martin Scorsese certainly is, is something extraordinary, in the story it tells, and in the way it was directed by Scorsese, and acted by Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and, for that matter, everyone else in the movie.

One big question is how true is the story Frank Sheeran tells us in the last days of his life.  Part of this story is how Sheeran killed Joey Gallo in 1972 in Umberto's Clam House in New York City.  Up until this movie, based on  Charles Brandt's 2004 book, I Heard You Paint Houses (which I haven't read), I had thought that four other gunmen (not Sheeran) had killed Gallo (see the Wikipedia entry on this). Since I wasn't there, I can't with certainty know who killed Gallo.  But if Sheeran did not kill Gallo, why should we believe that he killed Hoffa?

A somewhat lesser but still significant question is why Sheeran's daughter Peggy had such deep misgivings about her father, to the point of never talking to him again after Sheeran (presumably) killed Hoffa?  Why did she have those misgiving all those years?   Why her and not her sisters?  Based on the movie, the only answer I can think of is that Peggy had almost a sixth sense about her father, which is not very satisfying as even a component of such a momentous story.  (There was the scene of Sheeran crushing the hand of the man who pushed her in the grocery store - with Peggy looking on - but this doesn't seem sufficient for her life-long, growing abhorrence of her father.)

But there's an old saying to the effect of, though it may not be true, it's still a great story.  And that is manifestly the case for The Irishman.  And a lot of the story does make a perfect kind of sense.  Why did Russ (played by Pesci) talk Sheeran into killing Hoffa?  It was to protect both Sheeran and Russ, as Russ later explains to Sheeran.  If someone else had killed Hoffa, the mob would have been concerned, very concerned, that Sheeran might seek some vengeance.  As we heard early in the movie, being very concerned is a state that everyone takes very seriously.  With Sheeran pulling the trigger on Hoffa, the mob didn't have to be concerned about vengeance because, who could Sheeran take vengeance on, himself?

As for the acting, tour de force doesn't do justice to the three main players.  De Niro was absolutely masterful in voice and expression.  Pacino was the same - the way he says "phone" in his first conversation as Hoffa with Sheeran is just the right tone to establish Hoffa as a character in a world of his own.  And the same for Pacino's expression when Russ (Pesci) tells Hoffa that he may not be showing proper "appreciation".  Pesci delivers that line with a quiet strength and mob wisdom that typifies his character.  All three acted their characters over decades - the "de-aging" process enhanced this, but their acting brought the ages home.  My recommendation: all three actors should split the Oscar for best performance this year.  The supporting roles in the movie might be too short for supporting Oscars, but they were all memorable, ranging from Jesse Plemons as Hoffa's son Chuckie to Harvey Keitel as mobster Angelo Bruno.  (And shoutout to the inimitable Logan Crawford who plays a reporter.)

I have to also talk about the music.  I used to sing "In the Still of the Night" by The Five Satins with my doo-wop group in the late 50s/early 60s (I was just a kid), and it was great to hear that song at least three times in The Irishman.  The other music was right on key for the movie, too.

Scorsese is already lauded for Goodfellas and Casino, movies about the mob that were so good they come in just below The Godfather trilogy.  I'd put The Irishman just above those two, and I'm going to keep thinking about it.

I should also mention - it's one thing to see a movie on Netflix that would never be in a movie theater.  It's quite another to see a movie on Netflix, by one of the world's leading directors, with all-time great actors, that is playing in theaters in New York City right now.  The streaming revolution continues apace.

 

It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

El Camino: Flashbacks and Onward

El Camino, aptly described by IMDb as "a sequel of sorts, to Breaking Bad," is nothing but a success, unqualified.

The "of sorts" does amply to El Camino's status as a sequel, and one of the key reasons, perhaps the key reason, why it is so satisfying.  Walter (Bryan Cranston), Mike (Jonathan Banks), and Todd (Jesse Plemons), none of whom survived the original series, each appear in El Camino in flashback scenes that we haven't seen before in Breaking Bad.  Todd's was much better than Mike's, and Walter's was sheer magic, but all three in-and-of themselves make El Camino eminently worth watching.

Robert Forster, whose character Ed survived the original series, made a crucial and winning appearance in El Camino.   He was one of my favorite actors since the groundbreaking Medium Cool, and everything subsequent from Jackie Brown to even Heroes, and had the rare ability to be perfect in every disparate part he played.  In a tragic irony which somehow also is in line with Breaking Bad, Forster passed away on the day El Camino debuted on Netflix.  RIP, truly.

As for the story of El Camino, I don't want to give any of it away, so I won't talk about the plot.  But Aaron Paul does a fine job as Jesse Pinkman, who is appropriately a bit older and wiser and all-around more capable than he was in Breaking Bad.   The movie crackles with sarcasm and satire and all kinds of humor interspersed with bullets flying and other life-and-death situations, and is a good additional (very short) season to one of the most original and remarkable series ever on television.

Is there room for another sequel?   See the movie and decide.

See also my review of Breaking Bad: The Official Book



And see also Breaking Bad Final Episodes #1: Walt vs. Hank ... Breaking Bad Final Episodes #2: Skylar and Jesse ... Breaking Bad Final Episodes #3: The Ultimate Lie ... Breaking Bad Final Episodes #4: Old Yeller ... Breaking Bad Final Episode #5: Coordinates ... Breaking Bad Final Episode #6: The Knife and the Phone ...  Breaking Bad Penultimate: $10,000 for 2 Hours ... Breaking Bad Finale: "I Did It for Me"

Also: Talking about Walter White and Breaking Bad

And see also Breaking Bad Season 5 Premiere: Riveting Entropy ... Breaking Bad 5.3: Deal with the Devil ... Breaking Bad 5.7: Exit Mike ... Breaking Bad Final Half-Season Finale

And see also My Prediction about Breaking Bad ... Breaking Bad Season 4 Debuts ... Breaking Bad 4.2: Gun and Question ... Breaking Bad 4.11: Tightening Vice ... Breaking Bad 4.12: King vs. King ... Breaking Bad Season 4 Finale: Deceptive Flowers



  

The Discovery: Worth Finding

The Discovery (2017, Netflix)  is a strange, edgy, powerfully soft-spoken movie about a scientific attempt to find, map, and understand the afterlife.  As such, it bears some resemblance to Kiefer Sutherland's 1990 Flatliners (coincidentally remade in 2017, but I haven't yet seen it).  The Discovery sports Robert Redford in a quite central role, with Jason Segel, Rooney Mara (House of Cards), Jesse Plemons (Friday Night Lights), and Riley Keough (first season of The Girlfriend Experience) in leading and strong supporting roles.

As for the plot, it's somewhat murky - as I guess befits afterlife stories - and manages to combine the ambience of grade-B 1950s science fiction/horror, replete with a hokey laboratory, more than reminiscent of the Frankenstein-monster set-up, and the more modern retelling of early events and dialogue in the movie, near the end, in a way which makes the beginning make more sense, though it wasn't all that opaque in the first place.

Redford is the scientist who thinks/claims he has discovered evidence of an afterlife. His son (played by Segel) resists this because it's somehow tied up with the death of his mother.   He in turns falls for Mara's character, who has a complex story of her own.  I won't tell you more, lest I give too much away.  In other words, I'd like to see this movie have an afterlife.

All in all, I'd say the best part about it is the at-once jarring, compelling, and subtly controlled way in which the movie was shot, including a long speechless scene with Rooney on camera, thinking about something, sitting next to Segel on the beach, about to tell him a crucial piece of this story.  That kind of pacing is realistic and hard-to-find in science fiction. Kudos to film maker Charlie McDowell.

 

It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

Fargo 2.1: Good to Be Back in the Freezer

Fargo was back for its second season on FX on Monday, with a narrative that promises to be as brilliant, blackly humorous, complex, and altogether in a world of its own as what we saw in its first season.  And other than this story also taking place in North Dakota, this story seems at this point to have only one connection to the first season, which I'll get to shortly   Indeed, whereas the first season took place in the present, this second season is happening in 1979.

Let me see if I got the setup (always a question, when you've only seen an episode of Fargo just once).  There's a criminal family, the Gerhardts.   They need a judge to make a proper ruling.  One of the sons, a hothead with a gun, thinks he can convince her to do what they want.  He accosts the judge in a diner, and ends up shooting her, a former athlete now working there, and the waitress, all to death.   Then he's hit by a car, and carried along on its hood.

We learn that the driver, Peggy (played by Kristen Dunst) is a married to a guy, Ed (played by Jesse Plemons), who works for a butcher (the honest kind who sells meat, not as far as we know a murderer of humans).   This serves Ed in good stead, as he has a freezer in which to stow the killer's body (after he kills him, after the bad guy attacks him, because the bad guy wasn't thoroughly dead).  You just know that freezer with the body is going to be opened in some upcoming episode at the worst time.

Meanwhile, the sheriff and state trooper are investigating the three killings at the diner.  Hank Larson the sheriff is played by Tad Danson, always good to see.   The state trooper is none other than Lou Solverson, who will age well and be played by Keith Carradine in Season 1 (that's the one connection).

And just to top it off, and provide a little more sinister depth to this story - always a key ingredient in Fargo - the episode ends with a bigger criminal enterprise in Kansas City set to move in on the Gerhardts in North Dakota.

There nothing else quite like Fargo on television, and I'm looking forward with relish to the rest this second second (maybe some mustard, too).

See also: Fargo Debuts with Two Psychos ... Fargo 1.7: The Bungling and the Brave ... Fargo 1.8: The Year ... Fargo Season 1 Finale: The Supremely Cunning Anti-Hero



A story about another kind of killer ...  The Silk Code

#SFWApro

Reasons to Watch Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights returns for its fourth season on NBC this Friday Night.   This season was already broadcast on DirecTV, and I've seen it and first three seasons via NetFlix.  It's one of the best shows ever in the 60 years of television.   In recent years, this means I put Friday Night Lights in the same league as The Shield, 24, Lost, The Wire, The Sopranos, Criminal Minds, Dexter, even though those shows have much more in common than with Friday Night Lights.  This is because Friday Night Lights is a show about high school football and even more so because Friday Night Lights is a show about much more than high school football.   I don't even care all that much for football - I'm a baseball fan - but I'd watch Friday Night Lights every night of the year if it was on television that often.   My wife feels the same way about the show.   And it was recommended to us by our 26-year old son.

Here are some of the reasons why Friday Night Lights is so exceptional -

• Coach Eric (Kyle Chandler) and Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) are the best married couple I've ever seen on television.   They have about as equal a relationship as you could find - two strong characters who love each other, love their work, have a zest for life.   They have more than their share of problems - as parents, in their work, from the world at large - but the courage and energy with which they step up and combat the bruising world is, well, an inspiration.
• Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) is a refreshing, authentic hero/anti-hero right up there with James Dean and Jeff Spicoli.  Among his memorable activities,  he freely dispenses sage advice to younger teammates Matt, Landry, and J.D.   My favorite line from Riggins: "I always skip Wednesdays," about why he's driving around in his pick-up truck rather than being in school.
• Speaking of Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons), you have a triumph of cool reason and intelligence over almost every obstacle.  He even gets one of the two hottest chicks in the school, and you can believe it.   And he has a not half-bad Christian heavy metal rock band, Crucifictorious.
• Realistic portrayal of racial issues is not unique to Friday Night Lights - The Wire still gets the prize for that - but Friday Nights Lights nonetheless has a perfect bead on the trials of African-Americans trying to break out of small towns via the vehicle of football.  Smash Williams (Gaius Charles) in the first two seasons and Vince Howard in the latest season (Michael B. Jordan - a Wire alum) have stories that you'll never forget.
• Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) is superb in all the seasons.  But he has an hour in the latest (4th) season which, trust me, is a tour-de-force of acting easily worthy of an Emmy.   There won't be a dry eye in the house.
• Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly - Derek Jeter's girlfriend in real life) and Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki) are gorgeous, but far more than eye candy.   They're tough, savvy, vulnerable.  Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden) holds her own, no easy job, sweet but strong, as Coach and Tami's daughter, and grows up beautifully before our eyes.

Friday Night Lights is Peter Berg's creation - based on the movie he made of the same name.  The movie was good, but it was only about football.  The television show is all-time great, because it is about life.  May be the best show ever on television - at least, that's how I feel on Fridays, and sometimes Wednesdays, too.


6-min podcast review of Friday Night Lights


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The Plot to Save Socrates









"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book