Leave the World Behind: Educated Apocalypse

I've seen Leave the World Behind, up earlier this month on Netflix after a limited release in theaters in November, described as a horror movie, and, even more often, said in reviews to be horrible.  I think it's neither.  It's an apocalypse narrative, happening in real time, and based on science and tech.  And I thought it was quite good.

Here's what I most liked about it:

• Clay Sandford (played by Ethan Hawke) is a professor of English & Media Studies.  Ruth Scott (Myha'la) says she never has been able to figure out what Media Studies is.  I'm a professor of Communication and Media Studies (at Fordham University), and I sometimes agree.
• As the apocalypse unfolds, self-driving Teslas are smashing into one another and blocking the entrance to a highway.
• Sandford's daughter Rose watches The West Wing -- but only the Aaron Sorkin episodes.
• The same daughter loves Friends.

Now admittedly none of that has much to do with the plot, but, hey, I believe in getting whatever you can from a movie, and the plot wasn't too bad, either.  Without giving anything specific away (so I don't have to warn you about spoilers), the apocalypse hinges on getting people even more at each other's throats than they already are in our reality today, and the solution is only attainable if they/we learn to work together. That's a crucial lesson, given what's going on day by day in the world around us.

I think the characters worked well together.  They each had a believable story, and one which was well synched to their age.   The acting was excellent.   Every person in the cast, ranging from Julia Roberts to Myha'la (whom I hadn't seen before) put in a convincing performance, not easy when you're playing a character in a story about the end of the world as we know it.  So I say kudos to Mr. Robot's Sam Esmail, who directed and wrote the movie, based on Rumaan Alam's novel.

Homecoming 2: The Perils of Forgetting

Just saw Homecoming 2 on Amazon Prime Video, and I wanted to review it before I forgot what I just saw.

Sorry, couldn't resist, but Homecoming 2 is even more about forgetting than was Homecoming 1.  It features Alex, who wakes up at the very start of the narrative not knowing who she is, and Walter, back from Season 1, sans Julia Roberts' character, still wanting to know who he is, i.e., what he forgot.

The cause of all of this amnesia is some kind of juice from a plant grown on the Geist farm.  When used as cream, it's almost miraculous in helping the skin heal.  When taken internally, either by food or drink, it makes you forget.

Just how long your mind is lost is not clear.  It could be forever.  It certainly is long enough that Alex does not stop her lover and partner Audrey from drinking the red drink with the drug, after Walter and Geist have spiked everyone's punch at the big party.   Alex not only has lost her intellectual memory of the woman she loved, she's lost that lovin' feeling.  I missed hearing the Righteous Brothers sing that great song, with that masterful Phil Spector production, in background.   (But here is it now, if you'd like to hear it.)

Since no such plant with those effects exist, Homecoming, especially this season, is almost as much science fiction as it is thriller, which is always fine with me.  Of course, it's not impossible that I at some point in my life consumed such berry juice, and I've forgotten not only that I consumed it, but such a juice even exists.  Hey, after sheltering in place at home for more than two months, almost nothing would surprise me.

Excellent acting in this second season, even though I missed Julia Roberts.  Stephan James was just superb as Walter, able to modulate from sweet to angry in an heartbeat.  Janelle Monáe was also excellent in the dual role of Alex before and after she lost her memories.   And Chris Cooper was perfect as Geist.

I've always liked narratives about memory - so much so that I wrote The Consciousness Plague - and Homecoming 2 is a most worthy addition to the genre.

See also Homecoming 1: Memory Spliced, in Ten Short Parts

Homecoming: Memory Spliced, in Ten Short Parts

A powerful, unusual, vexing yet ultimately satisfying short series on Amazon Prime - ten 30-minute episodes - created and directed by Mr. Robot's Sam Esmail (with Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz), starring Julia Roberts, with great supporting acting by Boardwalk Empire's Bobby Cannavale & Shea Whigham, and Stephan James, whom I've seen here for the first time.

The plot concerns a government contractor with a plan for PTSD soldiers - treat them with a drug that will make them forget the memories that are unraveling them, with the result that they will be whole and happy again.  Julia Roberts plays social worker Heidi, with a heart and a brain.  Cannavale is her boss Colin, in charge of the project.  Whigham is government investigator Thomas looking into this.  And James is Heidi's patient Walter, beginning to fall in love with her, as patients in therapy often do.

But that's the best of what's happening.  The worst, we soon discover, is that four years later, in 2022 (the present are the Spring months of 2018), Heidi has lost all of her memories of working in Homecoming, and Walter is nowhere to be found.  We're now not only in Mr. Robot territory - one of differentiating truth from lies, what's real from what's implanted - but in Chris Nolan's pathbreaking world of Memento. 

And Homeland delivers, with one of the most memorable performances ever delivered anywhere by Julia Roberts, a storyline that surprises and yet all fits into place, and even an ending that's good for your heart.  Cannavale is suitably megalomaniacal yet vulnerable,  Whigham is aptly dogged and a little clumsy, and James has a winning quality, making it not surprising that Roberts' Heidi has reciprocal feelings for him.   Hats off to all concerned, including whoever came up with the square and letterbox screens, as a way of showing limited and full memories.   I predict that by 2022,  Homeland will become as much a classic as is Memento.

 

Covert Affairs on USA Network

Covert Affairs checked in with a strong pilot on the USA Network last night.   The series stars Piper Perabo - said to be the new Julia Roberts - as new CIA agent Annie Walker.  She does have a lot of Julia Roberts, her beauty and smile, and also something of Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow in Alias, one of my all-time favorite series due to its Chinese box-in-a-box complexity and style.   Bourne Identity producer Doug Liman is producing Covert Affairs, so it also has a lot of the style and pace of that fine movie, too.

The pilot had car chases and pursuits on foot you don't often see with such power and speed on television.   The plot had some good twists and supporting acting, including Anne Dudek (best seen on House) who plays Annie's older sister, Kari Matchett (best seen, at least in my view, on ABC's Invasion a few years ago) who plays Annie's boss, and even Clarke Peters (The Wire, Treme) as Annie's professor.   Christopher Gorham as Auggie Anderson, Annie's bright, young, blind colleague was also pretty good, and the character is refreshing.  No blind detective on television has been as compelling as Longstreet, from back in the 1970s, so it will be interesting to follow Auggie's role on the show.

As Auggie tells Annie early on, the CIA lifted its hiring freeze after September 11, so most of the people at Langley are new hires and young.    They're also often involved with each other - Kari Matchett is problematically married to Peter Gallagher's character, head of Annie's division - because that way secrets can (usually) be kept a little safer, at least not likely to be divulged to a reporter or worse, an enemy agent, during pillow talk.    We'll no doubt see that proposition sorely tested during the series.

Annie's heart was broken right before she joined up - and that was indeed her motive for becoming an agent - but the guy is still watching over her, stalking her, who knows about his ultimate intentions.

More than enough story, color, and action to keep me watching.

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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