What I Done Did In April
Ah, the first full month in Quarantine. I haven’t really gone out to do stuff so I done did a lot. Looking back at my notes I can’t believe that some of this happened this month. Time seems interminable now. It’s also come to my attention that some do not like what I’ve titled this series…. Anyways onto the things that I done did! Now with 300% more videogames!
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (2018) — Dir. Barry Jenkins
A lot of what could be said about Barry Jenkin’s previous film, Moonlight, could be said about Beale Street. Both are very beautiful representations of love and the sobering distance that reality forces onto us. I really enjoy the single shots that Jenkin’s does of individual people. It’s not an uncommon type of shot in the film but I can’t put my finger on why but they do feel like an old school portrait but in motion. Unlike Moonlight this movie got a lot less attention which is a shame. I do enjoy Moonlight more though because it was more plot-heavy. Not really much happens in Beale Street. Most of it is a family grappling with injustice. A lot of it is just people talking. Not that is a criticism of it. I just felt more of a personal connection with Moonlight.
THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG (2019) — Dir. Justin Kurzel
When I first saw the trailer for this, I was entranced by the muddy rock paired with strikingly cooky visuals. Oh, its made by the director of the Michael Fassbender Macbeth? And it has George MacKay? I liked him in 1917, I guess. Sure! I will watch what I expect will be a very fun wild romp that will help me learn a lot more about the Kelly Gang. It’ll totally not make me very disturbed and sad. Oh, wait it did. The True History of the Kelly Gang is an adaptation of the 2000 book of the same name. Despite their shared name, they’re both fictional. A sort of folk tale that takes liberties with the source material. One of the changes has the gang wear dresses when they’re doing their gangyness. The movie as a whole tries to make some sort of commentary on masculinity. I’ve got some vague ideas on what that message might be. The film focuses mainly on Ned’s pre gang life. His troubled childhood, troubled upbringing, troubled adulthood yeah all that fun stuff. It’s definitely not the film that was advertised or was expected but I still enjoyed it for what it is. I really enjoyed the thermal vision of the final shootout. The figures in the distance almost appearing like ghostly apparitions reenacting mid-2000’s war footage you might have seen on the Nightly news. I feel like I might need to rewatch this in the future.
YESTERDAY REWATCH (2019) — Dir. Danny Boyle
When I first saw this trailer I thought to myself oh that’s sure to be a cute and enjoyable film. And it was! What really surprised me is that Danny Boyle directed this. Yes, the same Danny Boyle as the one who directed classics such as 28 Days Later and Trainspotting. A straight forward rom-com isn’t really something that he normally makes. The big gimmick of this, the whole everyone forgot about the Beatles thing, is used just to set up a rise to stardom plot. It’s hilariously used for comedic effect several times in the movie. But it doesn’t really tackle any questions that you might have surrounding its gimmick. Things like oh well are we sure that if the Beatles came out today that they would be popular? I saw this on a lot of worst 2019 films lists which I don’t really agree with. It’s just very generic which to me is very average. I prefer this to them actually doing the average music biopic-fare ( I propose the term musopic for these movies). If you’re a fan of the music you should at least get some enjoyment from Yesterday.
IN-LAWS (1979) — Dir. Arthur Hiller
There’s something about Peter Falk’s Columbo character that makes me want to add him to everything. The way he just stumbles around a plot seemingly figuring out things as he goes but ultimately has it all together. Arkin plays a really funny straight man. I just really enjoy watching him react to the absurdity of a dentist thrown into an international crime caper. I highly recommend watching this even though the beginning is a little slow and dry by modern standards.
KNIVES OUT (2019) Dir. — Rian Johnson
A very delicious mystery with many twists and turns. When I first watched it in the theater (remember those?) I hid behind my beanie a lot. I was on the edge of my seat. This time I watched it with my family and was really glad that they enjoyed it because it's really hard to recommend a film that they’ll all like. I was I really do love many things about this movie but talking about them directly would be a bit spoilery. Chris Evans has a nifty sweater. And Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc is the best. I highly recommend this movie.
PSYCH S. 1- 8 ( 2006 -2014) Dir. Various
So to wrap up my very brief video on Psych, if it wasn’t clear, I like Psych. It’s a really goofy murder mystery show. It’s fun. I did allude to both liking and not liking the Twin Peaks episode of Psych. I liked it mainly because it had a lot of references for the fans and remixes the plot in a fun way. It's really nice seeing a lot of the old cast brought back together. On the other hand, the whole point of Twin Peaks was to criticize the casual nature of violence on tv, mainly murder mysteries like Psych. Twin Peaks showed how one death rippled throughout a community. Doing a tribute episode of Twin Peaks is an inherently troubling idea, even though I prefer that Psych actually did it instead of not doing it. The musical episode was pretty funny. Jamaican Inspectorman is a great number. The first movie would have been great if I hadn’t binged the whole series before. It really serves as a reunion for the show. This really makes it sad that Timothy Omundson wasn’t able to be a bigger role in it due to his stroke. Apparently the 2nd movie is going to revolve around him. Also, the gang goes back to Santa Barbara so that would be nice.
COLOR OUT OF SPACE (2020) Dir. Richard Stanley
Nicolas Cage’s delivery of the line what the fuck are you talking about is what really sells this movie for me. I was really worried that I wasn’t going to like this in the beginning (the editing felt off to me) but it starts to come together towards the middle. I really like the visuals of the glowy neon pink that bathes the landscape in this movie. Your mileage might vary on what you think about Nic Cage’s performance in this movie. You’ll either think that it’s very inspired and creepy (as I do) or you’ll think it's just creepy and out of place. The body horror of this really terrified me. This same production company distributed Mandy and while they are very different movies I feel like if you liked that movie you should totally check this out.
KIM’S CONVENIENCE S4 (2020) — Dir. Various
I’m not going to lie when I first watched this show 2 years ago I was really put off. At first, I wasn’t really sure what it was going for. The first episode, called Gay Discount, seemed to me at first as if it was going to be a lot meaner. But it turns out its a nice heartwarming show. It has those standard misunderstandings and goofs that sitcoms typically have where the parents are trying to adapt to modern life. For some reason, I still really enjoyed it. Oh yeah, and Gerald is great!
MELANCHOLIA (2011) — Dir. Lars Von Trier
So I watched this mainly because it was recommended by Amy Nicholson on the Unspooled podcast. Then a worldwide pandemic turned this movie into a complete mood. I’ve normally avoided Lars Von Trier movies mainly because of their reputation for being soul-crushingly depressing. This one was kind sort of but also really therapeutic. Jack Bower is a big meanie in this movie. Probably the most notable thing about the movie I’d say is how small in scope it is. Most movies dealing with impending world-ending destruction tend to zoom out from the main characters, checking in on how the rest of the world is dealing with the fact that everyone is going to die. But this movie never leaves the location of the huge isolating estate that this movie takes place in. Thus it's able to focus on the emotional state and reasoning of its small cast. I really enjoyed it but it’s not really a movie I’ll readily recommend to people. I guess I should go ahead and check out Trier’s other movies.
BALLAD OF NARAYAMA (1953) — Dir. Keisuke Kinoshita
Thanks Criterion Collection! Saw this because I borrowed it from my library before it shut down so now I’m stuck with it till they reopen (which is a good thing). I really like a lot of the colored spotlights and transitions that they were able to do in this. The whole plot of a society that treats their elderly feels very current to this day. The grainy shot of the mother and son on the fog swept mountain and the son just sobbing is heartbreaking. All in all really glad I saw this. I should totally steal some production ideas from this. I do wonder what a modern interpretation of the Kabuki style of cinema would look like.
DOOM ETERNAL (2020) — Dir. Hugo Martin
So consider this my pitch to SEGA for a new Shadow the Hedgehog game. Just reskin this game (make it less gory of course) and boom new Shadow the Hedgehog game. He moves fast and shoots a gun badda bing badda boom. Hire me SEGA. You know where to find me. So I was really excited for this game from the moment that it was announced. After playing what was a kind of disappointing demo last year I’m pleased to say that I was completely wrong. This is completely the type of game that doesn’t demo well. It’s like a chess match that as you progress and start to gain new mastery of your skills the game starts to add new pieces to the puzzle. Jumping in the middle of the game makes for a very incoherent mess. I’m not sure if that when I return to previous levels if the game is easier to me because I’m better at the game or because I’ve upgraded myself to be able to deal with that level’s challenges. In interviews, Hugo Martin wanted to get players into the fun zone. In the last game, it was very easy to just carry yourself through the whole game with one weapon but this one since you have limited ammo and weapons that do more damage to certain enemies you’re encouraged to make more decisions on the fly. The pistol is removed, probably to encourage a more aggressive play. When one runs out of ammo a player needs to run out and chainsaw an enemy to find more. It’s just all very sublime. The music really gets you into the mood to rip and tear. Which makes it really disappointing that Mick Gordon won’t be returning to make anything else for Bethesda. The game caters to different playstyles kind. You still have to be very aggressive still but you do have agency as to which weapons you use for each enemy. Since ammo is kind of scarce you might not have any ammo for your go-to weapon so you might use something else and find out it's pretty effective. Much criticism has been pointed at the maurader. I think he’s completely fine. I really enjoy fighting in what often feels like a duel. What I don’t like are the blood totems and archvilles that respawn high-level enemies infinitely until you find them. The level design of this feels a lot like character action games such as Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. There are even special challenge areas that you could find. The lore was very hard to get a mental grasp of. The main plot of Doom 2016 was very simple and easy to understand (the background lore not so much). But in Doom Eternal that background lore is at the forefront. It’s all really cool and awesome. The devs here are clearly having the times of their lives. I do find it interesting how different Doom handles its plot to say the new Wolfenstein games. They could have easily been handled the same way but they both have a distinctive flavor to them. I really like how they’ve both established themselves in different ways. Doom Eternal has cemented itself as one of my favorite FPS games of all time. I could see myself 100% ing the singleplayer sometime.
MARIO ODYSSEY (2017) — Dir. Kenta Motokura
There’s something about the gag of putting Mario’s mustache and hat on things that will always be hilarious to me. This was just a ton of fun from start to finish. I don’t normally play platformers but I could totally see myself 100% this. The platforming on its base level is not too difficult, only if you want to get those really hard to get moons it might be. I just really love this game. Fun. Fun. Fun.
DETECTIVE PIKACHU (2019) — Dir. Rob Letterman
Ok, I’m not really sure how I feel about the Pokemon in this. Like all the fuzzy ones are really cute and adorable but then there’s some that are huge nightmare fuel. Speaking of nightmare fuel, I don’t think Ryan Reynolds was used well in this movie. Look, Look I really like Ryan Reynolds most of the time but he’s one of those actors when he’s not in the right role everything just feels off. Mainly his surprisingly adult jokes just don’t feel like they belong in this movie. I’m not sure. I can’t put my finger on it really. Also I kind of have a huge spoilerish gripe with the movie. But all in all, I enjoyed this more than I enjoyed the Sonic the Hedgehog movie so um yeah. An actually good videogame movie. Huzzah!
LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (1988) — Dir. Martin Scorsese
So in watching this I completely realized that I wasn’t as familiar with the story of Jesus. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Sunday school. Knowing the history of when this film came out I was surprised it wasn’t as controversial as I thought it would be? I’m not that religious so I didn’t really see what was so upsetting about it? Harvey Kietel, Harry Dean Stanton, and David freaking Bowie being in this were huge surprises. All in all, not my favorite Scorcese movie. I didn’t feel for it much mainly probably because of the subject. I do enjoy the craft of this though.
RABBIT (2018) — Dir. Luke Shanahan
So in a cheeky attempt to have an easter double-billing the day after Easter I thought eh Rabbit I could pair this with the Jesus movie that works I guess? And I’m going to be very honest. I’m not 100% sure what happened in this movie but it was pretty neat. Being that this is a kind of obscure Australian film there seems to not be a synopsis of it online (it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page). I really did enjoy a lot of the almost Lynchian visuals. It feels like a dream at times. A very dreadful one. The synthy soundtrack is pretty spooky. So um yeah I’m not really sure what to say about it else except I might need to see it again?
TIGERTAIL (2020) — Dir. Alan Yang
The other Tiger related thing on Netflix (Actually tiger tail refers to a dragon fly I think). I mainly watched Tigertail because it came from the co-creator of Master of None, Alan Yang, and I typically watch these types of movies I guess. I enjoyed this mainly because it's a bit different from the normal children of immigrants try to come to understand their parent's plots. Mainly because it focuses mainly on the father and doesn’t really revolve around the child that much. A lot of those pieces of media sort of say hey if you make the effort to connect they’ll reciprocate but from personal experience that really hasn’t been the case for me. I do feel like this movie might be missing a scene such that its emotional weight carries home more but alas it's still a pretty enjoyable film that I recommend.
GOOD EATS S. 15 and S.1 of Reloaded (2019) Dir. (???)
So being that I’m stuck at home I’ve decided to watch a lot more cooking stuff. A lot of it on youtube and one of the channels that I stumbled on was Alton Brown’s channel. I do really enjoy the informative nature of his videos. When I found out that he had a long-running show on the Food Network I decided to try out the Youtube TV free trial that they were pushing. I think his show is probably one of the best shot and highly produced ones I’ve seen. The ways he explains things going on in the food and your body with props and diagrams really help the audience gain an understanding of why the recipes are made that way. He also does this thing where he has an overhead shot of what he’s cooking but when he wants to explain something instead of cutting to another camera a mirror pops up and now you can see his face. I don’t know why but its a more interesting way than cutting from the food shot. I do like his reloaded series. He remakes and revises his old episode making points about how he cooks has changed but also how he presents has changed. Its really nice seeing other people’s process of looking at their work and figuring out what does and doesn't work. I highly recommend either checking out the Good Eats shows or just watching him on his channel. Now that’s some good eats.
TALES FROM THE LOOP S.1 (2020) — Dir. Various
Sometimes we find things that fundamentally vibe with us when we’re the most depressed. Tales from the Loop is a sci-fi anthology series about a town that live above a scientific research facility called “The Loop”. What one might expect to be one part Twighlight Zone and one part X-Files, Tales from the Loop is something completely different. It’s not as moralizing Rod Serling’s classic show was nor is it as conspiratorial as the X-Files. What appears are loving vignettes. People struggling with belonging, safety, love, death. Each episode helps you not understand the world that these people inhabit but the individuals themselves and how they connect to each other. A father who might be a minor character in one episode might have a whole episode to himself the next. Probably the episode that broke me down the most was the 4th episode that deals with a Grandfather trying to get his grandson to understand his upcoming demise. I watched this after a death in the family and after finding a dog that I took care of was going to be put down. A lot of the show typically gives you a warm fuzzy feeling at the end even though there are some major tragedies that occur. I really like the direction of this series. Also, the final episode of this was directed by JODIE FOSTER! There’s also a random Shane Carruth appearance and I’m surprised film twitter didn’t explode over this. The Modern Ocean when Shane? WHEN!?!?!?!
GET OUT REWATCH (2017) — Dir. Jordan Peele
So I watched this with my dad since he hadn’t seen it yet and he only said the N-word 3 times. Huzzah! Progress! What was really remarkable for me on this watch was how much it reads like a comedy the second time through as you understand the film’s biggest twist.
PEANUTS (2015) — Dir. Steve Martino
Sometimes you just need a nice cute movie to cool off. When I first encountered Peanuts growing up I didn’t really get their appeal but then I became a teenager and understood the existential dread that these kids have. For kids, they really have some deep thoughts. With a lot of modern animated adaptations of classic franchises come out as a flop or very disappointing it was refreshing to watch the Peanuts movie. It really felt like watching an old Peanuts animated cartoon. The plot was surprisingly smaller scope than I expected which was nice. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or anything but its nice and adorable so it's got that.
MIDNIGHT GOSPEL S1 (2020) Dir. — Pendleton Ward
Watching this made me wish I still knew someone who could get me all the drugs. I felt high watching this. There is something magical about these ridiculous situations that Clancy goes through with very little concern. He’s more interested in interesting conversations. I wish there was an edit of this that cut out the plot stuff and just left in all of the podcast parts so I could just put this on in the background (the visuals are very nice and I like to listen to people talking while doing other things for some reason). Anyways I recommend watching this with a nice cup of tea before going to bed.
RESIDENT EVIL 3 (2020) — Dir. Kiyohiko Sakata, Yasuhiro Seto, Yasuhiro Anpo, Yukio Ando
I need to not let myself get carried away with criticizing this game. While I’m very disappointed in this I have to admit I had a ton of fun playing this. Also, I went into this not with the highest of hopes. Resident Evil 3 is my least favorite of the original 3 Resident Evil games. The biggest criticism is that this really feels like Resident Evil 2 Remake DLC. Highly polished and good DLC. It doesn’t innovate as much as you’d like it to. Just like the original Resi 3. It feels quick and breezy. It makes sense why they cut out the things that they did but they should have found new things to replace them with. I miss things like the choice system from the original or the scene where Brad gets killed by Nemesis. Nemesis in the remake is 10 times less scary than Nemesis in the original. Him saying STARS is almost indistinguishable from his growls. It was always very predictable when he’d appear because the autosave icon would appear. Unlike the past 2 Resident Evil remakes, this one does not redefine the original. It doesn’t feel like its own unique piece of media. I feel less compelled to replay this than any other Resident Evil.
VICE (2018) — Dir. Adam McKay
I’m not too sure what went wrong with this one. It kind of felt very aimless. Christian Bale disappears into this role and the movie is kind of funny. Maybe it was too soon for a film like this to resonate? The thesis that Cheney’s use of Unitary Executive Theory paved the way for the abuses of power that we see today. Worth watching for…. I’m honestly not sure.
REAR WINDOW (1958) — Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
So this was an interesting double billing with Vice. Had I not watched Vice before I might have felt as if Jimmy Stuart’s character was not that bad. Just some old bored guy who makes wrong negative assumptions about people because of what little they see. I’ve had enough of that in my life. Anyways this is probably one of my less favorite Hitchcock films. He still very excellent but he becomes a way better Mastercraftsman later on in his career. Grace Kelly steals every scene she is in. She’s above and beyond my favorite Hitchcock blonde (reportedly she was the only one of his actresses that he didn’t abuse. Its been implied because he wouldn't have been able to control her). This movie really hit home to me on multiple levels. 1. Being in quarantine watching people on social media or outside of your house trying to understand what their deal is (you can never really fully understand a person this way). 2. When I was in high school I came home and tried going through the back yard. Some neighbor down the street apparently didn’t recognize me and came over to see if I was a robber. Fun! 3. In the middle of watching this my power went out and I really felt like Jimmy Stewart’s character in this movie. Stuck at home trying to pass the time.
BLUE VELVET (1986) — Dir. David Lynch
I was really perturbed by the sexual energy of this movie. I mean its David Lynch, of course, you’d be but this one feels different. I find it interesting how Lynch revisits the same themes all the time in his films but somehow they stay entertaining. It’s amazing how well he encapsulates that waking nightmare feel all the time. Dennis Hopper is a very disturbing villain in this. It’s definitely a good movie but I’d recommend that people new to Lynch watch either Twin Peaks or Mulholland Drive.
ADAM RUINS EVERYTHING S2- S3 (2017–2019) — Dir. Paul Briganti, Tim Wilkime, Laura Murphy, Matthew Pollock
So to round out my YouTube TV free subscription I caught up on Adam Ruins Everything. A friend told me semi-recently that they finally watched the show after suffering hearing me reference the show many times and they really didn’t like how corny and cheesy the jokes were. It’s something I didn’t really mind before but all of a sudden I noticed it. The information is still great. Been planning to do a similar type show but hopefully, I won’t be seen as that corny. I need to catch up with his podcast too but I kind of stopped because it became depressing listening to all of what was wrong with the world.
BARRY S1- S2 (2018- 2019) — Dir. Various
Probably the 4 show I’ve seen in 4 months about guys wrestling with whether or not they’re bad people. They make progress in some ways and regress in others. That’s not really a criticism of those shows in specific but it really feels like these socially aware flawed human stories are all the rage now for some reason. I really like Barry though. Bill Hader’s depressed blank stare as he starts to find meaning in life. It’s really nice to see Henry Winkler again. Hank is my favorite thing about this show. His overly friendly Chechen gangster gets into lots of hijinks that’s really fun to see what he gets up to. I also somehow forgot how good of an actor Bill Hader is.
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014) — Dir. Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement
Just a really goofy fun mockumentary. Maybe I should watch the TV show but I kind of feel like it wouldn't be as good as the idea was pretty fully explored in the movie.
HUNT FOR THE WILDER PEOPLE (2016) — Dir. Taika Waititi
Sam Neil learns to love kids again. No not in a weird way. It’s a pretty swell buddy comedy. I would like to see further adventures with these two. I do like What We Do In The Shadows more because it is more unique but this is just a nice fun romp. Nice to watch on a Sunday afternoon or something.
CHEF (2014) — Dir. Jon Favreau
This is very clearly a metaphor for Favreau's career except he left out the part where he goes back to that same huge corporation and makes a ton of money. It’s a nice little film about a dad who becomes a good dad because starts to pursue what he loves. The food in this made me very hungry. I need to cook everything in this.
COWBOY BEBOP S.1 (1998) — Dir. Shinichiro Watanabe
I finally finished it! After what 3+ years trying to finish Cowboy Bebop I finished it (well more if you consider that I remember watching pieces of it as a kid. The intro was seared into my mind as a child)!You might say to yourself oh he didn’t like it. Well I did but I never finished it because Funimation’s streaming was just really bad (that’s where I was watching it). It’s probably the most easiest to watch anime by western standards. It’s also pretty short. I need to track down the movie. But yeah its really good!
Good Hair (2009) — Dir. Jeff Stilson
A pretty good documentary on the black hair industry. Chris Rock is always funny. I don’t really have much to say on this because I was already pretty familiar with the points they were trying to make.
So um yeah. That’s April. This is definitely longer than last month’s so I’ll consider watching less. Though I have nothing better to do really. Sorry that my writing might have been a bit brief towards the end this was getting a bit too long so I just tried to sum up my thoughts in even briefer statements. Ok that’s it. Have a great day and stay safe y’all!