Gen Z Frenzy

Movie: Bodies Bodies Bodies

Mild spoilers, but nothing big spoiled in this review

Directed by Halina Reijin, written by Sarah DeLappe, and based on the story by Kristen Roupenian (the woman who wrote the infamous "Cat Person" short story, and also wrote a delightfully fucked up short story collection You Know You Want This), Bodies Bodies Bodies is one of the best movies I've seen so far in 2022. It's hilarious, it's tense, it pokes fun of Gen Z but not in a cringey way. It also pokes fun at rich people (always a cool thing to do) and the human condition in general.

A group of friends in their early 20s gather at what can only be described as a "mansion" for a hurricane party. The mansion belongs to David's (Pete Davidson) father. In addition to David, there is David's girlfriend, Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), Jordan (Myha'la Herrold), Alice (Rachel Sennott), and 40-something Greg (Lee Pace), a guy Alice met on Tinder a few weeks ago. Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) also shows up with her girlfriend of 6 weeks, Bee (Maria Bakalova). Very quickly, we learn that Sophie is the "prodigal friend"--she went to rehab and dropped off the face of the earth. She did not tell anyone she planned to come to this party and certainly didn't tell anyone she was bringing a girlfriend.

Part of the fun of this film is figuring out the friend dynamics at play here. In addition to the drama around Sophie, David and Emma have serious drama since a friend who is not present, Max, confessed his love for Emma in front of David. David also doesn't like Greg and feels threatened by Greg's "coolness" (how cool is a guy in his 40s hanging out with a bunch of barely legal adults anyway?) and looks. Right from the get-go the audience is aware of seething resentments, ever-shifting rivalries, and snark dressed up as humor. 

After doing a million shots and recording some TikTok dances (Gen Z!), the group decides to play Bodies Bodies Bodies, more commonly known as Mafia or Werewolf. They draw slips of paper and the one who gets the paper with a marking on it is the killer. They turn off the lights and the killer touches people on the back to "kill" them, and every time someone finds a body, the group gathers together and tries to decide who the killer is. Within one round of the game, people are crying and accusing others of "gaslighting" them (Gen Z!).

I won't spoil who it is, but you can probably guess that during the course of events, someone actually dies. Unfortunately, the power has gone out, including the WiFi, so they can't call 911. The one car available to the group has a dead battery and, besides, they're in the middle of a damn hurricane. So they gather back inside, terrified that the killer might still be among them...and predictably descend into paranoia and accusations.

Bodies Bodies Bodies combines the classic "locked room mystery" genre with the age-old trope of "people in a desperate situation turn on each other instantly" and adds the more modern phenomenon of using the language of mental health and abuse to accuse others and to excuse one's own bad behavior. This is made obvious in the trailer for the movie with scenes of the friends accusing each other of "being toxic", "triggering me", "gaslighting me", etc. I saw this movie with a friend of mine (also a Millennial) who teaches college students and confirms that there is a bit of a trend of younger people using mental health as an excuse to refuse to hear constructive feedback.

I just want to pause for a moment and say that this is not just a Gen Z thing and, as we know, the idea of generations being solid, distinct groups of people who behave in distinct and similar ways is not accurate. The trend of using the language of mental illness and abuse as a way of avoiding owning one's own bullshit is really just the most recent trend in human beings being assholes. Humans have always been assholes just trying to weasel their way out of consequences and avoid anything that might deflate their egos the tiniest bit. 

So, Bodies Bodies Bodies is making a little bit of fun at Gen Z's expense, but really it's mostly making fun of selfish, self-centered people who have never had to face significant consequences for their actions, mostly because they're all very rich. The other thing I like about this movie is that they immediately call each other out when they do this. So Emma accuses David of "gaslighting" her and David responds by telling her that the term "gaslighting" is so overused as to be meaningless. Later, when someone calls someone else a "psychopath" and another person says "that's so ableist", the first person sharply retorts "fuck off and die", earning a belly laugh from me. The absurdity of (highly questionable) accusations of ableism in a life or death situation or using a term like "triggering" when one literally has a weapon in one's face is part of the humor of Bodies Bodies Bodies. 

And even though the first half of the movie is much funnier than the second half, the humor remains throughout the film and even in its darkest moments. Likewise, the film manages to be incredibly tense and high stakes, especially for a comedy. 

Bodies Bodies Bodies will be especially fun for people who don't mind "unlikeable" characters and very dark humor. This is a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't want you to either. Perhaps it's the Millennial in me who enjoys finding the humor in nihilism--I mean, people are so absurd, you just gotta laugh sometimes, right?

Filled with really good acting, tons of laughs, and nail-biting tension, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a must-see. 

Grade: A-

Ranking All the A24 Films I've Seen

In anticipation of seeing Bodies Bodies Bodies tonight (review to come soon), I decided to rank all the A24 films I've seen! Instead of ranking them from best to worst, I'm ranking them by tier and there are five tiers: Best of the Best, Very Good/Enjoyable, Not Bad Not Great, Meh, and Worst of the Worst. Since I've seen 44 films and I don't want this blog post to be forever long, I'll just give a 2-3 sentence impression of my thoughts about each movie.

What are your favorites and least favorites from A24?

***

Best of the Best

Green Room--Tight, thrilling movie where a punk band faces off against Neo-Nazis after witnessing a murder. I could watch this one over and over.

The Lobster--If Wes Anderson directed a horror movie. People are not allowed to be single/unpartnered and will be changed into an animal if they fail to find a mate.

Lady Bird--Coming of age film set in 2002-2003, which means that I am basically the same age as Christine "Lady Bird" MacPherson. Very relatable, funny, and bittersweet.

First Reformed--An alcoholic pastor discovers a new fire in his belly after a troubling interaction with an environmental activist. Hauntingly beautiful.

Hereditary--Painfully intense horror movie with a shocking twist. This is the movie that made people start to pay attention to A24.

Midsommar--My favorite A24 film, hands down. Impeccable film--beautifully shot, brilliantly acted, surprisingly funny, with a "good for her/uh-oh for her" ending. 

The Lighthouse--Two lighthouse keepers descend into insanity. The definition of folie a deux. 

***

Very Good/Enjoyable

Tusk--A man gets surgically altered into a walrus. Yeah, you read that right.

Room--No, not The Room! A woman is kidnapped and kept for years in her captor's soundproof shed. Can she escape for her young son's sake?

The VVitch--Set in 1630s New England, a Puritan family has a witch hunt of their own. Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?

Moonlight--Gorgeously shot coming of age film that follows a Black boy through three stages of his life. Heart-wrenching, beautiful.

The Disaster Artist--The story about the making of the film The Room (no, not Room!). What happens where a man with a mysterious past, zero taste, and seemingly endless funds decides to make his dream project come to life?

The Florida Project--Warts and all portrayal of the lives of children living in a motel in Florida. At times funny, at times cringey, it has been criticized for being "poverty porn", even though it evokes much empathy in viewers (or should).

The Blackcoat's Daughter--A young woman at a boarding school falls under the spell of something sinister. This is a deeply depressing movie.

Gloria Bell--One of those instances where a director remakes his own film, but in another language. Gloria Bell is a vibrant woman in her 50s who falls for a seemingly nice man. 

In Fabric--A dress magically fits everyone who wears it. But unlike the sisterhood of the traveling pants, this dress kills people. A funny, incredibly strange horror films by one of my favorite directors.

Uncut Gems--More like Uncut Anxiety. A jeweler with a gambling addiction attempts to pay his debts before they catch up to him.

Saint Maud--A young woman's religious fervor is her undoing. The final image will haunt you forever.

Zola--Based on a Twitter thread. A young woman travels with a new friend on a "hoe trip". Things don't go as planned.

The Green Knight--A medieval knight seeks a shortcut to honor and glory, but will he lose his head in the process?

X--An adult film crew attempt to secretly film a porno at the rural bed and breakfast they're staying at. Will the old farmer who owns the place and his wife fuck them up before they can get to the fucking?

Everything Everywhere All at Once--A woman mourns for all the lives she could have had, but realizes that she's right where she needs to be.

Men--Men...they're all the same, am I right ladies? 

***

Not Great, Not Bad

While We're Young--Gen Xers and Millennials fight. The Boomers win.

Slow West--It takes place in the American West, but I don't remember much else.

20th Century Women--Three generations of feminists and one teenage boy. Hijinks ensue.

It Comes at Night--You think it's going to be a zombie movie, but the real monster are the friends we made along the way.

Under the Silver Lake--A young man searches for a neighbor who goes missing and meets many, many strange people in this wacky neo-noir.

False Positive--Pregnancy brain makes you crazy...or maybe they really *are* out to get you?!

Lamb--A couple decides to raise an unusual lamb as their own child. But what happens when the lamb's parents want her back?

***

Meh

The Bling Ring--Rich chicks steal shit from other rich chicks.

Enemy--The ending of this one is just fuckin' weird.

Under the Skin--A beautiful alien seduces men. Like the alien, the movie is beautiful, cold, and empty.

Locke--A man has a conversation as he drives. That's it, that's the movie.

Obvious Child--A woman has a one-night stand that ends in abortion...and maybe love?

Ex Machina--A man is hired to have conversations with a sexy lady robot. Will he forget that she's not human?

Climax--Dancers dance, the punch gets spiked, people go crazy. Very frenetic film--don't watch if you get nauseous easily.

The Hole in the Ground--A young boy discovers an enormous hole in his backyard and comes back...different...after exploring it.

A Ghost Story--Casey Affleck is dead and he walks around with a sheet over his head the whole movie. I'm not even kidding. Also a woman eats a whole pie in one take.

High Life--Pretentious, boring. Criminals in space being used for tests. There's a room in the spaceship called the "Fuck Box". 

The Last Black Man in San Francisco--Didn't hate this one, just felt "meh" about it. A man tries to reclaim the house he grew up in.

***

The Worst of the Worst

Life After Beth--I don't remember anything about this movie except Aubrey Plaza is undead and it was boring.

Swiss Army Man--Daniel Radcliffe plays a farting corpse, which seems like something I'd be into, but this movie made me actively angry. Manic Pixie Dream Corpse.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer--More like the killing of two hours of my life I can't get back. INSANELY pretentious and awful. 

The Souvenir--There is a man in this movie who is the WORST and the only good part of the movie is when he dies.

***

That's all I got for you! There are still a ton more A24 movies I need to see. Feel free to recommend some to me!

Moments in Time

A few weeks ago, I watched a mini-series called The Good Lord Bird, which stars Ethan Hawke as abolitionist John Brown. Even though Hawke looks like a batshit insane old man in that show, it sparked an interest/horniness in me re: Ethan Hawke. I've seen a lot of his movies over the years, but never really appreciated him. Also, he was (is?) kind of a dick--he cheated on Uma Thurman and then apparently gossiped negatively about her afterward in some very public ways. So, I pretty much ignored his existence...until now. 

I decided to watch some of Hawke's other movies, and I found myself revisiting Richard Linklater's transcendent "Before Trilogy". These three films: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight follow the relationship between Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) over the course of 18 years. To say that the films are, collectively, one of the greatest love stories ever committed to film, is not quite right. There is something bigger, grander, and more existential than a "love story" here. These films are about the passage of time and about the struggle to not regret choices made and not made. But...it's a pretty great love story too.

The film is Before Sunrise, the time is the mid-1990s, the place is Vienna. Jesse and Celine, both in their early 20s, meet on a train traveling through Europe. They strike up a conversation and when Jesse reaches his stop in Vienna, he invites Celine (who is headed for Paris) to get off the train with him and spend the night walking around the city. Jesse has a plane to catch to take him back to America in the morning and since he doesn't have the money for a hotel room, his plan was to just wander around all night. Celine agrees and they spend all night talking and drinking and falling in love.

The chemistry between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy is B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Everything about it is so natural and unforced. They keep looking at each other when the other isn't looking. It's obvious that Jesse is smitten with Celine from the first moment he sees her, but Celine is more skeptical and cautious about Jesse (a dynamic that continues into the second and third films). Hawke plays Jesse as, like, 10-20% a creep. He sometimes tries to steer the conversation towards sex, he looks at Celine like he wants to eat her--that kind of thing. But because he's charming and, frankly, hot, it doesn't come off as too creepy. But it's just enough to help us understand why Celine would be a little skeptical. 

Director Linklater co-wrote Before Sunrise with a female screenwriter, Kim Krizan, in a conscious attempt to make sure the film felt equal between the sexes and it really is a very egalitarian film. Both Jesse and Celine have flaws and quirks. They come together in a beautiful way where neither one pushes the other too quickly. Linklater continued this approach with Before Sunset and Before Midnight, which are both co-written by Delpy and Hawke. Heck, the movies even incorporate some details about Hawke and Delpy's real lives, such as their star signs. This teamwork really gives each film a sense of intimacy and realism you don't often see in romance movies. 

After a night of possible lovemaking in a park (the movie is ambiguous about whether or not they have sex), Jesse and Celine part ways at the train station and promise to meet again at that very platform in 6 months...

...cut to 9 years later. The film is Before Sunset, the time period is early 2000s (post 9/11), the place is Paris. Jesse is married with a son and is a successful author. He is on tour for his bestselling novel This Time, which is inspired by his night with Celine. During his final book signing in Paris, literally an hour before he has to leave for the airport, he spots Celine watching him. She sought him out, knowing he would be in town. She, too, is in a relationship.

Since Jesse has an hour or so to kill before heading to the airport, the two walk to a cafe and talk about their lives. The film, which is 80 minutes long, takes place in real time. The more they talk, the more they open up to each other about how much they regret not meeting again at that train platform in Vienna six months after the night they met. Turns out, Celine's grandmother died and the funeral was on the very day they were supposed to meet. At first Jesse says it's not big deal because he didn't show up either...but soon confesses that he did indeed fly from America to Vienna to meet Celine...only for her to not show up. And since they didn't exchange phone numbers or even last names, there was no way to get in touch.

These confessions culminate in a scene in car where both Jesse and Celine reveal that they are not happy in their relationships. It's both cheesy how much they romanticize the other, but also gut-wrenching. The "Before" trilogy does an amazing job of capturing the ridiculous ideas we humans have about relationships (e.g. that soulmates exist, that in a happy relationship nothing will ever go wrong, etc), but also showing how those "ridiculous" ideas can tear us apart and cause genuine pain.

Before Sunset has an ending to make your knees weak: Celine and Jesse go up to Celine's apartment and she makes tea for him and he puts on a Nina Simone record. As she dances to the music, Celine says "Maybe you are gonna miss that plane" and Jesse says "I know"...

...cut to 9 years later. The film is Before Midnight, the time period is 2013, the place is southern Greece. Celine and Jesse have been together for years and have twin daughters. It's their last day of vacation in Greece before they travel back to Paris. Jesse puts Hank, his 13 year old son from his previous marriage, on a plane back to Chicago, where Hank lives with his mother. It's clear Jesse hates that he can't be closer to his son, especially since it will only be a few more years before Hank is grown up and at college. 

Jesse and Celine are living the life of a married couple--squabbling, reminding each other about small chores and daily life maintenance. Even on vacation, they find it hard to relax--Celine especially since she's considering a career change and feels that Jesse is subtly pressuring her to move the family to Chicago. After a meal with their friends, Celine and Jesse walk to a hotel--they've been gifted a room for the night away from the group they are vacationing with and, crucially, their kids. 

As things start to get sexy, Hank calls Celine (whom he opens up to more than his own father) just to let her know he's landed in Chicago, which leads to an argument between Jesse and Celine. The argument snowballs into a list of resentments the couple doesn't hesitate to air to one another. But unlike many movies in which couples argue, there is still a sense of love and respect between the two lovers. Again, it's obvious that Jesse is 100% crazy about Celine and always has been, where Celine seems resentful and angry at Jesse. However, her resentments are legitimate and understandable--especially to anyone who is a mother. It would be easy to see Celine as the "bad guy", but having watched these movies, we know that Jesse is no walk in the park either (even though they did, in fact, walk--and fuck--in a park). 

By the end of the film, the two make up tentatively. One wonders whether they'll "make it" or if they will be split up by the next time we check in on them (which, sadly, might not happen...especially since 2022 is 9 years since the last film. I feel like that window of opportunity is closed). I like to believe that they'll make it work, but that's the romantic in me. I have to wonder if the combination of their passionate first meeting and the agony of their years apart followed by their *extremely* passionate reuniting (they mention in Before Midnight that after Jesse missed the plane in Before Sunset, the two had sex for a week straight and never left the apartment) created enough momentum to push them together for a lifetime. Or, alternatively, if the passion and longing of the first 9 years only served to make the second 9 years pale in comparison. I guess it all depends on your perspective.

A review of the trilogy I watched said that Before Sunrise is about "what could be", Before Sunset is about "what should be/should have been" and Before Midnight is about "what actually is". At the climax of their fight in Before Midnight, Celine tells Jesse she doesn't love him anymore. But later, Jesse tells her "if you want true love, this is it. It's not perfect, but it's real." The mature among us know that love isn't just a feeling--it's an action. But the romantic among us know that the feeling of love is, well, kind of important. You can be completely devoted to someone, but if you feel nothing--or worse, feel contempt--for them, your relationship is dead in the water. Actions be damned. 

Taken together, the Before trilogy is a beautiful meditation on time--how it's both short and long--and on how we change and don't change throughout our lives. It's also about relationships and both the power that love has, but also the power that love doesn't have. The films offer no easy answers about love or how to avoid having regrets...and I think that's what makes the trilogy so good. Time, change, and love are concepts that don't have easy answers. The Before trilogy is honest enough to face that fact, but gentle enough to show that maybe it doesn't matter if we ever figure out the answers. Maybe just embracing the moment and embracing love is enough. Perhaps, in the end, it doesn't matter if Jesse and Celine stay together or break up: the fact that they loved and were loved is all that matters.

Before Sunrise: A+

Before Sunset: A

Before Midnight: A

Stuff I watched in...July, 2022, pt. 2

Thor: Love and Thunder

I'm not a huge superhero movie person, and honestly, keeping up with Marvel is exhausting. I would have never seen Thor: Love and Thunder, if it wasn't for my friend who asked me and a bunch of other friends to see this movie with her for her birthday.

And you know what? It's wasn't bad.

The movie of course has a HUGE assist in director Taika Waititi, who is known for his excellent sense of humor and generous, optimistic outlook on life in his movies and TV shows. That humor and optimistic attitude are present in T:L&T which makes the film pretty enjoyable. It also has a good villain. Gorr, played by Christian Bale, loses his daughter after wandering in a desert, praying for rain. After his daughter dies, Gorr comes across an oasis where he meets his god, Rapu, who it turns out is a dismissive asshole and laughs at Gorr for thinking there will be an eternal reward for his loyalty. Driven into a rage, Gorr becomes the owner of the Necrosword--a sword that is capable of killing gods. Gorr then declares that he will kill all gods.

Dude, Gorr is rad as fuck! Of course, he must be stopped. Ugh. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) gathers a small team of superhumans and regular humans: King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi), and Thor's own ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman)--to go on a quest to seek the help of Zeus (Russell Crowe) and the other gods of Omnipotence City. But when Zeus and the others basically tell Thor to bugger off. Thor's group steals Zeus' lightning bolt and decide to stop Gorr themselves. 

While they survive? Or will Gorr make it to Eternity will he will be granted one wish (and will presumably wish that all gods die)?

Are you following? Because I sure as fuck wasn't! Look, there's a lot going on here and having not seen any other Thor movies and barely any Marvel movies, I was basically shrugging my shoulders the whole time going "why not?". Luckily, the movie explains everything that's going on. Like, a character will say, "I'm sure Gorr won't make it to Eternity" and another character will say, "what's Eternity?" and then someone will explain what it is and why it will be bad if Gorr makes it there. So even the dum-dums like me can follow along. 

Thor: Love and Thunder is very enjoyable even if you're not a Marvel fan. Chris Hemmy is hot, the movie is funny and pretty gay. There's a lot to love here. 

Grade: B

***

Elvis

Baz Luhrmann's frenetic biopic of Elvis Presley is another movie I wouldn't have watched if it weren't for someone else--in this case, my dad. He and I went to see Elvis and it turned out not to be as bad as I was expecting. Though I love Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet, Baz's later movies started to go down in quality. His adaptation of The Great Gatsby is forgettable, at least to me (and miscast, in my opinion). His style of filmmaking often overshadows the substance of the film.

Sure enough, Elvis is...a lot. Baz uses so many quick cuts, it's enough to give someone a seizure. It's a lot of razzle dazzle, but not a lot of depth. Austin Butler is excellent as Presley and Tom Hanks is just...weird as Presley's leech of a manager, Col. Tom Parker. Despite being buried under about one hundred pounds of makeup, you just can't not see Hanks. At times, Elvis felt more like a parody of a musical biopic than a musical biopic itself, and Hanks as the mysteriously accented, villainous Parker didn't help matters.

Additionally, Elvis indulges in hero-worship. Whenever Presley makes a bad choice, it's someone else's fault (usually Parker's). His descent into drug use is Parker's doing, the fact that he was wooing Priscilla Beaulieu when she was 14 years old is not commented on, poor and unsatisfying career choices are, again, the product of Parker's manipulations. While some of this is understandable, it can't possibly be fully honest. The film suggests that Elvis was a victim, pushed to and fro by the poor choices and forceful decisions of those around him. And I just can't believe that's the whole story.

Overall, Elvis is not the worst movie ever. Again, Butler is excellent. The music is obviously great. But it's not one I'm going to be rewatching anytime soon.

Grade: B-

***

The Black Phone

I was going to skip this horror film, based on a short story by Joe Hill, because it involves a lot of child actors and I'm not crazy about movies and shows with a lot of kids. However, I kept hearing good things about the movie so I went ahead and saw it and was pleasantly surprised. 

The Black Phone takes place in Denver in 1978. The film does not romanticize the late 70s at all. Kids walk to school by themselves. Refreshing, right? No helicopter parents in sight. Well...the kids also regularly beat the absolute shit out of each other. Bullies gang up on weak kids and beat them bloody. And it's not just kids beating up other kids. The main characters, Finney and Gwen Blake (Mason Thomas and Madeline McGraw, both very good child actors), suffer from the mood swings of their alcoholic single father, Terrence (Jeremy Davies). In one scene, Terrence beats Gwen with a belt as she screams and cries with such raw agony that it's enough the make yours guts get all twisted up. This is not a movie for people who can't stand to see children hurt or in danger.

If the stress of living in a world where bullies rule the playground wasn't enough, boys from the neighborhood regularly go missing. Someone known as "The Grabber" is snatching them, and authorities seem to be incompetent and unable to find clues beyond the remnants of black balloons left in locations where the boys were last seen.

Well, Finney is unlucky enough to be approached by The Grabber (Ethan Hawke, his face hidden behind a series of scary masks) and is snatched in broad daylight. He awakens to find himself in a soundproof basement with a disconnected black phone on the wall. As he waits and contemplates what his fate might be, he begins to receive calls from the ghosts of previous victims of The Grabber who give him clues as to how to escape and not fall prey to The Grabber's sick games. Will Finney be able to escape--or fight back--before The Grabber puts him in the ground with the rest of the lost boys?

There's a lot of implausible stuff in this movie, and I don't just mean ghosts calling on a disconnected phone. The Grabber's plans are somewhat messed up when his brother unexpectedly shows up to stay with him. But even with his brother living in the house, The Grabber still tries to play a game where he leaves the basement door unlocked and waits at the top of the stairs with a belt, prepared to beat the "naughty boy" when he comes up the stairs. Although Finney avoids this trap with the help of the ghosts, how would it be possible to beat a screaming child without your brother hearing? The supernatural stuff I can accept, because it's a partially supernatural horror story, but this plot hole with the brother is waaaay too big to be ignored.

But the acting in The Black Phone is so good and the suspense so...well, suspenseful...that I'm willing to overlook some silly shit. The Black Phone is nothing more than an entertaining horror movie (assuming you're entertained by children in danger, like me!), but that's all it needs to be. 

Grade: B+

***

In the Heart of the Sea

Based on the book by Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea tells the story of the sinking of the whaling ship Essex in 1820. The tragedy of the Essex inspired Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick. In Nantucket in the first half of the 19th century, whaling was big business. Whale oil was used for lighting and men could make their fortunes by hunting the gentle giants. Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) is given a position as First Mate on Essex and is mad about it, as he was promised by the owners of the whaling company that he would be given the position of Captain. But that honor goes to George Pollard (Benjamin Walker), the son of a prominent family in Nantucket. 

The two men clash immediately, especially when Pollard commands that the Essex sail right into a storm, rather than around it, mostly to make a point to Chase and also to "toughen up" the men. His decision nearly sinks the ship. After months at sea and only a few whale kills, the men stop at a port in Ecuador and hear some stories about "Offshore Grounds" 2,000 miles into the Pacific Ocean where whales are bountiful. But they're warned that an enormous white whale is responsible for killing whalers. This whale is described as "vengeful", suggesting that it is more than an animal--it is a monster. 

The men sail 2,000 miles west of Ecudaor and, sure enough, discover plentiful whales in the unhunted grounds. And then they meet the big guy. The huge white whale destroys their ship, forcing them to use small life boats to sail to safety. The men are at sea for three months and end up resorting to cannibalism before they are rescued. 

I watched In the Heart of the Sea on my not very big (and old af) TV. This is the kind of movie that you need to see on a big screen. It's a fine movie, but nothing I'm going to be thinking about or rewatching it. I'd rather watch a whale documentary. 

Grade: B-

***

The Good Lord Bird

This miniseries based on the book by James McBride stars Ethan Hawke as John Brown, a fiery abolitionist and evangelical Christian whose religious convictions encouraged him to kill slave owners and also lead the raid of Harpers Ferry. Hey, I shit on Christians a lot, but sometimes they get it right!

McBride's book is based in factual events, but he created a fictional character--Henry "Onion" Shackleford (played by Joshua Caleb Johnson)--to serve as a witness to the nearly unbelievable events that led to the slave revolt at Harpers Ferry, which in turn led to the beginning of the American Civil War. Onion is the son of a slave whom Brown frees and brings along with him and his loose "army" of abolitionists on their adventures. 

The Good Lord Bird is an interesting show because it's both really funny and deadly serious. Hawke gives the performance of his career as the wild-eyed, bushy-bearded John Brown who endlessly quotes the Bible and, when called insane, spits back that it is the United States that is, in fact, insane. It's easy to say that Brown was on the right side of history, looking back, however we are still fighting for Brown's ideals to this day and most of us will never fight 1/100th as much as Brown did. 

If you've read the history books, you will know that Brown's raid failed. His men overtook the armory at Harpers Ferry, but since they only had a couple dozen men, they were easily overtaken by the United States marines. Brown was arrested, tried for treason, and hanged on December 2nd, 1859. The Good Lord Bird imagines a scene between Brown and Onion in Brown's jail cell the night before his execution which had me tearing up. 

Frankly, I'm surprised there aren't more movies or shows about John Brown, a rare freedom fighter who didn't hesitate to put his life on the line for the freedom of others. Was John Brown insane? He must have been to some extent--how can someone show so little fear in the face of certain death? But as he points out in the series, in a country that sells human children for profit, perhaps he is "the sanest man you've ever met". I highly recommend this show, especially if you want a little fire put in your belly and a reminder that our bravery and our choices can long outlive us.

Grade: A