Y: The Last Man
This show, based on the comic series by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra, was canceled after one measly season, much to my disappointment. While the show, which chronicles life after a virus kills off every mammal with a Y chromosome (save for two--a man, Yorick, and his pet monkey, Ampersand), was imperfect, I actually really, really enjoyed it.
I just think dystopias where the majority of people still around are ciswomen is an intriguing concept. Not because I am dumb enough to believe that a world without cisgender men would be a peaceful utopia (LOL), but because of all the little things you don't really think about when you think about a deadly event on this level. For example, the gender-segregation of jobs means that if all cisgender men died, there would be 80% fewer truck drivers, severely restricting supply lines of food and medicine. There would also be approximately 95% fewer pilots, meaning national and international travel would become quite limited. And that's just a taste. Never mind the fact that, oh, humanity would die off in a generation. I guess we do need da boyz after all!
While one could make the case that a show where nearly all cisgender men die but we still follow the adventures of one (highly mediocre) man is ironic, we spend plenty of time with many interesting women (and one transman): new president Jennifer Brown (Diane Lane, just a fucking ass competent boss bitch), Jennifer's daughter Hero (Olivia Thirlby) and her friend/maybe more than a friend Sam (trans actor Elliot Fletcher), Agent 355 (Ashley Romans, another competent boss bitch), a secret service member tasked with getting Yorick--who is President Brown's son--to a genius geneticist, Dr. Alison Mann (Diana Bang), for testing to see how on earth he survived. And there are even more plot lines, including Hero and Sam's involvement with a group of women who call themselves Daughters of the Amazons, and a struggle for the presidency when it turns out that a right-wing nutcase in the style of Marjorie Taylor-Greene who was next in line for the presidency and was thought dead is actually alive. So, the show is about a lot more than just the titular "last man" (played by the goofy, yet charming Ben Schnetzer).
Sadly we never find out how Yorick survived because FX canceled the series! Maybe it will get picked up by another channel or streaming service. Maybe I'll just read the damn comic. But I definitely recommend this one. Despite its imperfections and the fact that it ends on an incomplete note, I enjoyed tuning in every week. The characters, good and bad, were fascinating and immensely enjoyable to watch as they navigated the brave, new, limited-dick world.
Grade: A-
***
Lamb
Lamb is a beautifully filmed, dull as dishwater movie. The trailer for this Icelandic film, starring Noomi Rapace, gives away the plot twist, so I'm going to give it away here. So stop reading if you want to go in blind.
Married couple Maria (Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snaer Guonason) own a farm. When one of their sheep gives birth to a sheep/human hybrid baby, the couple take it and decide to raise it as their own child. Although never discussed, it is clear that the two lost a child and feel a deep need to raise one, even if it has, you know, a fucking sheep head.
All is going well until Ingvar's ne'er do well brother, Petur, shows up. Petur doesn't think raising a human/sheep kid (heh, get it...kid??) is not natural and begins to act slightly aggressively towards both the child and Maria.
I can't really say anything else, except the movie is slow and it does indeed answer the question of who fucked this sheep so that it got pregnant with a human/sheep hybrid?? The answer may surprise you! I would say the movie is worth watching if you like artsy-fartsy A24 movies, but I would not recommend paying the big bucks to see it in the theatre.
Grade: B-
***
Dune
As someone whose genre most certainly isn't science-fiction, I really fucking enjoyed Dune! It helped to go in with a basic knowledge of the plot, and I will probably watch it again at home with the subtitles on since I missed some of the dialogue. But I'm really glad I saw it in the theatre since part of the fun of Dune is the majesty of the cinematography.
So basically, there's this planet, Arrakis. Arrakis is a desert planet with giant sandworms that eat people, so it's really hard to live there. However, a drug known as "spice" is harvested there, so Arrakis is a hot commodity. The imperial ruler of ...what, the universe? I don't know how all the politics work. Basically, the head honcho wants to start some shit, so he takes ownership of Arrakis away from House Harkonnen and gives it to House Atreides. Basically, whoever this "emperor" is sets up the patriarch of House Atreides, Leto (Oscar Isaacs) to fail since he knows that the Baron of House Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) is a petty, jealous bitch and is going to send his war machine to kill everyone in House Atreides and take back the planet. Oh, also there are PEOPLE indigenous to Arrakis who are understandably resentful towards all these colonizer assholes.
Talk about assholes!
BUT House Atreides has a card up its sleeve: young Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) has inherited the gift of witchcraft from his mother, a Bene Gesserrit (matriarchal line of witches who can command people to do shit by using "The Voice"). Paul also...might be...maybe...the Messiah?? At least, the Arrakis believe he might be. So, some of them are inclined to like House Atreides since their son might be Jesus or something.
Basically, the movie is Paul, his mother, Jessica, and many other people trying not to die on Planet Arrakis. They are attacked by assassins, nearly eaten by sandworms, betrayed, challenged to duels, the whole nine yards. And this is just part one!
Dune is just a fucking great time at the movies. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's worth seeing in the theatres and, hell, it's worth seeing in IMAX.
Grade: A
***
Only Lovers Left Alive
Jim Jarmusch's tale of hipster vampires is a very calming, very slow, weirdly funny movie. It takes some patience, as most Jarmusch movies do, but the payoff is worth it. Tom Hiddleston plays Adam and Tilda Swinton plays Eve. They have been married for centuries, but Eve currently lives in Tangier and Adam lives in...Detroit. Adam is depressed. If you're a fan of all things vampires, you should know that being immortal is actually a fucking drag because it takes the meaning and joy out of life.
Eve can tell Adam is bummed, so she comes for a visit. The two drink blood and listen to music. But then Eve's messy bitch of a sister, Ava (Mia Wasikowska), shows up to ruin the party. Ava is the vampiric equivalent of an alcoholic: she drinks WAY too much blood, including "the good stuff" Adam hides from her. Hell, she even drinks Adam's familiar, Ian (Anton Yelchin, RIP).
After kicking Ava out, Eve convinces her beloved to come back with her to Tangier, where he shows signs of giving a fuck again, after watching a woman sing in a bar.
That's basically it. The film is short on plot and long on poetry. Hiddleston and Swinton give lived-in performances as people who after hundreds of years have so much wisdom and appreciation for art, books, and music...but still have to find reasons to get up in the...evening. I guess it just goes to show that eternal life is a little easier with your person by your side.
Excellent movie, highly recommended.
Grade: A-
***
Inside
This French extremism film is so over-the-top and batshit crazy that I was actually laughing at parts of it.
MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNINGS: It's about a damn woman that wants to cut a damn baby out of another damn woman's goddamn womb! So, that eliminates about 99% of viewers right there.
Inside is violent as everloving fuck. There are knitting-needle stabbings, brain-blasting shootings, and aerosol-fire face-burnings. If you are squeamish about violence, don't see this fucking movie! Also, there is fetus-endangerment and infant-stealing, so if you're a new mom, and an old mom, or a childfree person who is upset at the idea of someone stealing someone's baby, don't see this fucking movie!
But for the rest of you ghouls and filthy freaks...is the movie worth seeing? Well...I mean, it was ok. It's your typical home invader type movie, including such horror tropes as "victim doesn't just leave the house at the first sign of danger" and "victim is nearly rescued about 12 times, but the bad guy (in this case, a woman wearing a long skirt and corset [???]) kills absolutely everyone who tries to save the victim". So, despite the twist involving infant-stealing, it's still kind of a cliched horror film.
Seriously, the victim in this movie, 9 months pregnant and recently widowed Sarah (Alysson Paradis) makes the mother (HA) of all stupid errors when a mysterious woman (Beatrice Dalle) shows up at her door asking to be let in, and then nearly breaks through a window. Sarah, you dum-dum, GO TO YOUR MOM'S HOUSE!! But nooooo...Sarah calls the cops, who LEAVE THE DOOR STANDING WIDE OPEN as they talk to her (and yes, the woman who wants to steal Sarah's baby creeps in through the open door without anyone noticing), and when they don't find anyone outside, they leave and Sarah stays in the house. The fuck?! If I were 9 months pregnant and a woman tried to break my window, I'd go to my parents' house or a friends house or a hotel like a normal person!
But then we wouldn't have a movie, would we? Sarah awakens to the woman (not given a name) sticking a pair of giant scissors in her bellybutton (NOPE) and she fights off the woman and locks herself in the bathroom. The next hour is a fight for her life that ends with...her dying while the woman performs a C-section and steals her baby. So it's not even a happy ending. Oh, also, there's a scene where Sarah burns the woman's face really badly--to the point where her face is black. And the woman survives this?? What!??
So, Inside is just...it's a lot. It certainly lives up to the genre of "new French extremity" because it's pretty extreme. But the extremeness just took me right out of it. By the time the burned-face woman, who looked like a werewolf, was fighting off a cop that she had blinded, who looked like a zombie, I was laughing my ass off.
I have no plans to watch this movie again. Not because I was offended or disgusted, but because it wasn't an intriguing horror film. I'll watch "torture porn", as evidenced by my willingness to watch all the Saw movies in one week, but they rarely make my rewatch list because so many of them are one-trick ponies.
Grade: C+
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