"She Ra" With Spoilers

I finished "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power," (the 2018 Netflix series, not the one from the '80s) which was a thoroughly enjoyable action-adventure series aimed at girls.  In lieu of one of my usual top ten lists, I'm going to write up a spoilery wrap-up post to talk about some of the elements of the show that I thought were particularly novel and worthy of attention.  The best episode was "Princess Prom," by the way.

I don't think I've ever seen a kids' show where the villains aren't only well-rounded characters, but they have roughly equal narrative emphasis as the heroes.  I really enjoy Adora, Glimmer, and Bow, but all the standout characters in "She-Ra" are the ones who spend most of the series on the opposing side: Catra, Scorpia (Lauren Ash), Entrapta (Christine Woods), and Double Trouble (Jacob Tobia).  They do just as much growing and learning and maturing as any of the good guys.  Major baddie Hordak gets a redemption arc.  We even get a whole episode devoted to Lonnie (Dana Davis), Rogelio, and Kyle (Antony Del Rio), the three Horde soldiers who grew up with Adora and Catra, and mostly appear as background characters in the rest of the show.

The message is clear.  You can't write people off just because they do bad things or follow the wrong leaders.  A simple good/bad dichotomy doesn't account for the misguided, the confused, and the complicated.  Entrapta, for instance, is operating with an entirely different moral compass than the rest of the cast, valuing technology and information over human relationships.  With her prehensile hair and neurodivergent coded behavior, she's one of the show's most unique creations.  Muscle-with-a-heart-of-gold Scorpia is one of the sweetest characters and dearly values her friends, but all her friends are members of the Horde.  And of course there's Catra, who has made a habit of dealing with her trauma and expressing her insecurities in very destructive, unhealthy ways.  And it turns out that every single one of them can become a  friend and ally.  It just takes Adora a couple of extra seasons to win them over, or for them to make the decision to defect on their own.  There are also characters who stay firmly on the sidelines, only governed by their own self-interest throughout, who can still be appealed to and reasoned with. 

It's very impressive that the show manages to raise its stakes every season, to the point where the whole universe is at risk by season five.  While the violence is very mild and the relationships are kept PG, the show does go to some dark and upsetting places emotionally.  Catra spends most of the show working her way up the ranks of the Horde, and it's always ambiguous whether or not you should be rooting for her, because her villainy is so entertaining.  Then she finally finds an enemy who completely outclasses her, who she's not going to be able to manipulate, and it's time for reform.  N.D. Stephenson, who also created "Nimona," does a great job at exploring the fraught emotional lives of her characters, both bad and good, while putting on a rousing adventure show.  The only one I'm a little disappointed with is Glimmer, who becomes much more reckless and aggressive after her coronation, coming close to crossing some lines thanks to Shadoweaver's influence.  She self-corrects very quickly when the plot needs her to, and she and Bow feel a little shortchanged in the last seasons compared to Catra and Adora.

I've seen some comparisons to various anime series with similar fantasy settings, but "She-Ra" is very much a Western cartoon that is careful to serve its younger audience.  I appreciate that there's plenty of humor and fun, even in the more intense episodes, and the storytelling can provoke some big emotions without ever getting too traumatic .  For instance, while Adora and Catra are having one of their more desperate duels, Entrapa is off on a side quest, making friends with a Horde Prime (Keston John) clone she thoughtfully names "Wrong Hordak."  There are a couple of deaths that are handled very well, though this being a fantasy show, I suspect they may not be gone for good.  

This is one of the better transitional programs I've seen for middle grade kids and preteens, the ones who love cartoons but are ready for more substance to chew on.  There are not a lot of these shows, so I greatly value the ones that we've got.  And "She-Ra" is one of the best I've seen.  

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"Beef" Year Two

So, Netflix's "Beef" is going the anthology route.  The newest eight-episode season tells an original story about more desperate people in conflict, with no connections to the first season.  Showrunner Lee Sung Jin continues to explore themes of the Asian-American diaspora and misplaced rage, this time through a story about three couples in three different socioeconomic categories.

The Monte Vista Point Country Club is managed by Josh (Oscar Isaac) and his wife Lindsay (Carey Mulligan).  They have money troubles and their marriage is on the rocks, despite their lavish lifestyle and the lofty company they keep.  One of the employees of the club, Ashley (Cailee Spaeny), and her fiancée Austin (Charles Melton), catch Josh and Lindsay in the middle of a violent fight one night, and manage to film it.  This gives them the leverage to potentially escape their own stalled lives in low-income purgatory.  However, there's another wrinkle.  The club has a new Korean owner, Chairwoman Park (Youn Yuh-jung), a very rich and influential businesswoman who has a habit of playing favorites.  Her husband, plastic surgeon Dr. Kim (Song Kang-ho), is in the middle of a potential scandal, and Chairman Park is eyeing the club as a potential way out.   

Like the first season of the show, all the main characters are people who do terrible things.  Some are driven by money or ambition.  Some act badly due to being in relationships that enable their worst behavior.  Some are bad because their circumstances or upbringing seems to give them no other choice.  Nearly everyone turns out to be redeemable, but hardly any of them choose redemption in the end.  The show follows all the players as couples and as individuals, having some episodes focus only on one or two characters at a time.  A noticeable difference from the first season is that there isn't a simple inciting incident that pits two or more characters directly against each other.  The character dynamics are much more complicated, and the intra-couple hostilities are just as important as the ones between the different couples, especially when the lines start to get blurry.

The high level of acting talent involved means that there are all kinds of subtleties and shadings to the characters that are exposed as the show examines them from different angles.  This is very much a black comedy, so while there's some tugging at the heartstrings, the characters have a tendency to turn on a dime.   You might be rooting for someone in one episode, and rooting against them in the next.  For instance, Ashley starts out as the most vulnerable character with the least amount of power, and seems perfectly nice and sweet.  It's understandable that she decides to try the blackmail scheme when she discovers a medical issue and needs health insurance fast.  However, behavior that just seemed quirky and innocent when she was at the bottom of the ladder becomes more and more distasteful as she moves higher up, and starts getting used to wielding her privilege.  We see her at her best and her worst.  In one episode she's utterly sympathetic as the hapless victim of systemic forces arrayed against her.  In another, she's a nightmare of a selfish, social-climbing shrew, who doesn't hesitate to take advantage of Austin's tendency to be a doormat.  

Speaking of Austin, with the cast pretty well balanced between Korean and non-Korean actors, Austin is the lynchpin character narratively, a half-Korean, half-Caucasian former sports star who is an aspiring personal trainer.  He's gone for most of his life without much connection to his Korean heritage, and suddenly he's around all these Koreans, including the lovely interpreter Eunice (Seoyeon Jang), and his ethnicity is unexpectedly seen as an asset.  The new opportunities mean new temptations to avoid and new expectations that he struggles to meet.  I found one of the best moments in the whole season is the revelation of how fluent in Korean Austin actually is, during a pivotal moment.  Charles Melton was absolutely the highlight of the show for me, along with Youn Yuh-jung getting to be more of a villain for once.  

Isaac and Mulligan are probably the most familiar names in the cast, but Josh and Lindsay strike me as broader characters who aren't all that interesting, and their actors really have to do some heavy lifting to keep them engaging.  They're the characters who are the most caught up in schemes and stratagems against everyone else, and are done the most disservice by the twisty nature of the plotting and a relatively straightforward disintegrating marriage storyline.  There are class and race issues that could have been explored in their pairing that just never materialized, and the glimpses of their happier past together weren't enough to make it feel like there were real stakes to their conflicts.  Issac and Mulligan are two of my favorite working actors at the moment, so this was the major disappointment of this season of "Beef" for me.  

I'm still glad they're here, and I enjoyed the season overall, but this is a step down from the first season.  However, I'm still rooting for the show, and I'd be happy to watch a third installment of "Beef" somewhere down the line.    

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My Top Ten Episodes of 2007-2008

Below, find my top ten episodes for the 2007-2008 television season below, in no particular order.  A few spoilers lie ahead, including the ending of "The Sopranos."

Pushing Daisies, "Pie-lette" - Barry Sonnenfeld and Bryan Fuller joined forces to bring us one of the most beautiful television series ever created, this hyper-stylized fairy tale world where a lovelorn pie-maker has the ability to bring the dead back to life.  The cast is great, and writing is fun, but the production design and cinematography are what make this premiere especially memorable.  The rest of the show, sadly, never quite lived up to it.  

The Sopranos, "Made in America" - I nearly picked "Heidi and Kennedy" for Christopher, but the impact of "Made in America" helped to burnish the show's reputation in a way that keeps it in the public consciousness to this day.  What happened after the screen cut to black?  Is Tony dead?  If so, who got him?  In the end it doesn't matter.  Whether Tony survives this outing or not, the pattern of his life and his inevitable fate are already set in stone.

30 Rock, "Rosemary's Baby" - As a "Star Wars" fan, I'm as glad to see Carrie Fisher guest starring as anyone.  However, it's useless to claim that this episode isn't here because of one specific scene - Jack Donaghy taking over Tracy's therapy session with a glorious "Good Times" inspired rant that gives him the excuse to say "chifforobe."  Is it racist?  Is it in bad taste?  Absolutely, but it's so sensationally done, all I could do was marvel at its existence.

Mad Men, "The Wheel" - The Carousel pitch is one of the high points of "Mad Men," putting Don Draper's talent for dream-building and self-deception on full display.  Meanwhile, his marriage is in trouble, his family is on edge, and it will shock you how much "this never happened."  The first season of "Mad Men" is still one of the best seasons of television ever made, and "The Wheel" is a great exemplar for why it resonates so deeply.

South Park, "Britney's New Look" - "South Park" was really good at occasionally delivering social critique in a way that made the message stick.  So it goes with the incredibly dark episode where Britney Spears attempts to commit suicide but survives with most of her head blown off.  This doesn't dissuade the paparazzi or the media apparatus at all.  And the boys learn that modern pop stardom is the new form of ritual human sacrifice, because of course it is.

The Wire, "-30-" - I love that epic ending montage that checks in with so many characters, but what I find so striking about the final episode is that so much is left unresolved.  Many fates are left up in the air and the only real resolution is that the cycles of crime, poverty, corruption, and institutional dysfunction will go on with a new generation.  There's some hope offered, but little justice.  I'd love another season, but no ending will be more fitting.

The IT Crowd, "The Work Outing" - It may not be the best episode of "The IT Crowd," but it's the one that everyone remembers.  Generally gay panic themed media hasn't aged well over the past two decades, but this one is still a lot of fun.  I'd call the depiction of "Gay!: A Gay Musical" over the top, except that the satire is pretty spot-on, honestly.  Roy and Moss's antics at the theater are exactly what they should be, with a perfect comeuppance.

Breaking Bad, "And the Bag's in the River" - I picked the third episode of "Breaking Bad" over some of the more famous entries because this feels like some of the most interesting character turns for Walter White happen here.  Forced into a life-or-death situation with Krazy-8, Walt takes his first major steps toward becoming the villain Heisenberg.  I also love the thriller elements and fight scenes, including a truly jawdropping reveal.

John Adams, "Part I: Join or Die (1770-1774)" - HBO's "John Adams" miniseries remains a favorite.  The premiere covers Adams' stint as defense counsel for the soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre, demonstrating his moral forthrightness and sense of duty.  It also sets the precedent for his involvement in the American Revolution, which requires long absences from his family and cultivating a reputation for obstinacy with the founding fathers.  

Late Night with Conan O'Brien, "February 4, 2008" - Do you remember that time that Jon Stewart at "The Daily Show," Stephen Colbert at "The Colbert Report," and Conan O'Brien had a feud over a Mike Huckabee interview?  And the climax was all three of them throwing down in a hysterical mock fight over on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," set to an Arctic Monkeys song?  I still think about this a lot.

Honorable mention:

Jimmy Kimmel, "February 1, 2008" - Speaking of feuds, Sarah Silverman's special birthday video for Kimmel,  is still easily the best thing to have ever come out of the long-running Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon hostilities.

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"Song Sung Blue" and "Rental Family"

"Song Sung Blue" is easily mistaken for a musical biopic about Neil Diamond.  It's actually a musical biopic about a Neil Diamond impersonator, or "interpreter," named Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman).  Based on the documentary of the same name by Greg Kohs, "Song Sung Blue" follows frustrated musician Mike as he falls in love with a Patsy Kline impersonator named Claire (Kate Hudson), and forms the fabulous performing duo of "Lightning and Thunder" with her.  Both have children from prior marriages, including Claire's hostile teen daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) and son Dayna (Hudson Hensley), and Mike's daughter Angelina (King Princess).  Despite finding great fulfillment in performing, Mike and Claire's lives see dramatic ups and downs over the years, and their love is tested in many ways.

Directed and written by Craig Brewer, the movie is utterly charming from the opening frames.  I love biopics about people who are more adjacent to fame rather than very famous, so we don't have to worry so much about the audience's existing relationship with a celebrity.  The Sardinas are a fairly ordinary couple who live ordinary lives and have the problems that ordinary people have.  However, since they're impersonators, we still get the benefit of hearing Jackman and Hudson perform lots of catchy Neil Diamond songs.  You can tell how much the filmmakers genuinely love Thunder and Lightning, because they always look fabulous onscreen, in spite of the kitschy stage outfits and goofy played up personas.  The performances are very good, with Jackman and Hudson selling the love story, and keeping the Sardinas very human as they face major challenges together.    

 

I'm not a Neil Diamond fan and I admit that "Sweet Caroline" is one of only three Diamond songs that I know.  However, I had a very good time with this film.  I think the actual fans would like it too, because the Sardinas love Neil Diamond as much as anybody.  Mike is initially reluctant to assume the role because he's worried that it might be disrespectful, and when he does he displays a very protective attitude towards Diamond's music throughout.  After listening to the songs for two hours, I still don't think the music is really to my taste, but I enjoyed watching Jackman and Hudson as the Sardinas so much, it didn't matter.

On to "Rental Family," which is a dramedy about the Western and Japanese cultural divide, from director HIKARI, but in a more interesting and nuanced way than I expected.  Brendan Fraser plays an actor named Phillip Vanderploeg, who has lived in Japan for several years since starring in a popular toothpaste commercial.  He's adapted to life in Japan very well, but his career has stalled.  Unexpectedly, he gets a gig with "Rental Family," a service owned by a man named Shinji (Takehiro Hira), who hires out actor stand-ins for personal and social situations.  Phillip is called on to play a groom for a sham wedding, a mourner for a fake funeral, and a reporter to conduct a fake interview with a forgotten filmmaker, Kikuo (Akira Emoto).  However, his most challenging assignment is to play the father of a little girl named Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman), who isn't supposed to know he's just an actor.

Companies like Rental Family are real, having originated in Japan in the 90s.  As a very Japanese phenomenon with very particular cultural nuances, it's a great angle to illustrate how Philip still thinks like an American, and hasn't quite figured out how to fit in Japanese society.  Casting Brendan Fraser for this was a wonderful choice, since he's so physically out of place wherever he goes in Japan, and dwarfs all of his co-stars, especially little Shannon Mahina Gorman.  The concept of hiring people to play loved ones has great comedic and dramatic potential, but "Rental Family" chooses to be very gentle, heartwarming, and sincere.  Regarding less savory aspects of the business, there's only a brief subplot involving one of Philip's co-workers, Aiko (Mari Yamamoto), who specializes in playing fake girlfriends to deliver apologies to wives who've been cheated on.   As a result, there's a very old-fashioned feel to "Rental Family," and the comedy is extremely nice in a way that's becoming very rare.

"Rental Family" reminds me a lot of "The Farewell" in the way that it deals with Western and Eastern approaches to personal difficulties, and love is shown in very different ways that seem to be contradictory.  This is a very sanitized and idealized depiction of the rental family concept, but I admire the impulse to make a movie like this, more than I like the movie itself.  "Rental Family" is a pleasant watch that I'd happily recommend to those who might need a comforting feel-good movie, but the resolutions are all a little too pat and tidy for me.  People's emotions are treated very carefully, but the more morally troubling aspects of the rental scheme are largely sidestepped or dealt with superficially.  Everything may look fine, but everyone in this movie still needs a ton of therapy.  

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"Death By Lightning" is Illuminating

At some point, a few years ago, I wrote up a post on this blog about the dearth of American costume dramas, wondering if we'd ever get more media about the less well-known periods of American history.  "Death By Lightning," the Netflix miniseries about the eventful presidency of James A. Garfield, America's twentieth POTUS, is exactly the kind of program I was talking about.  It may not be the most historically accurate dramatization of the events of the 1880s, but I'm very glad to have it.  

Created by Mike Makowsky, and directed by Matt Ross, we trace the lives and careers of several men over the four-episode miniseries, primarily President Garfield (Michael Shannon), and his eventual assassin, Charles J. Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen).  Initially a Republican Congressman, Garfield is the surprise nominee for the American Presidency, who has to deal with a doubtful running mate, Chester A. Arthur (Nick Offerman), jealous political rivals James Blaine (Bradley Whitford) and Roscoe Conkling (Shea Whigham), and a worried wife, Lucretia (Betty Gilpin).  The other half of the narrative is taken up by the troubled grifter Guiteau, who sees politics as a potential pathway to the success and renown that he seeks.  He makes multiple attempts to ingratiate himself with Garfield's campaign, and later his administration, becoming less and less emotionally stable as time goes on. 

Clearly this is a very fictionalized take on history, which paints Garfield as a great man, who reluctantly accepts a presidency that he doesn't want, and inspires the best in those closest to him.  From what little I've read about Garfield, in real life he was a much shrewder operator whose non-campaign was a deliberate ploy for the presidency from the beginning.  The script also offers modern profanity in abundance, modern attitudes toward class and race relations, and modern views on a slew of issues from immigration to industry.  However, we still get a very entertaining and enlightening look at how politics functioned during the Reconstruction era, with rampant corruption and political machines in operation, affecting every stage of the election.  I was especially impressed with the first episode, where the nominating convention shows the various groups and organizations and processes in action, and reveals that there's still the opportunity for surprises.  

And if you don't care about any of this, "Death By Lightning" is still a great watch for the performances.  The show presents a bonanza of excellent character actors delivering memorable, colorful performances.  MacFadyen is the standout as the weaselly, deluded and yet perpetually hopeful Guiteau, who exudes a nervous energy every time he's onscreen.  I disliked him immensely, but he always held my attention.  Conversely, I loved Nick Offerman as Arthur, a jovial cog in the political machine who is happy where he is, but eventually is encouraged to become more.  Shannon is more constrained by having to be presidential, but he gets plenty of opportunities to play big moments.  The dialogue is full of shouting and colorful invective, and this was the era of epic facial hair, so you have truly never seen some of these actors the way you will see them here.  I mistook Matthew Macfadyen for a different actor for the first two episodes, because he looks completely different from the guy  in "Succession."  

I wish that the series was longer and some of the secondary characters a little better flushed out.  I enjoyed some of the brief looks we got of the earlier, formative chapters of the protagonists' lives, such as Guiteau spending time in a free love utopian religious sect, and Garfield's time fighting in the Civil War.  However, it's probably better that the show left me wanting more.  "Death by Lightning" was constructed from the outset as a true crime story, focusing on everything that led up to the assassination.  However, it's also a great entry point into this particular era of American history, and I hope that the creators find their way back to it one of these days.  And that other creators will take inspiration to get a little more historical.     

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"No Other Choice" and "The Secret Agent"

It brings me no pleasure to tell you that both of the major foreign language contenders in this year's award season, "No Other Choice" and "The Secret Agent," didn't work for me.  I don't know why, as I've liked previous movies directed by Park Chan-Wook and Kleber Mendonça Filho, but I'm going to use this post to try to tease some of the answersout.

"No Other Choice" was one of my most anticipated films of last year, about an unemployed family man Yoo Man-su, (Lee Byung-hun) who figures out who his likeliest competitors are for getting a specific job, and decides to eliminate them.  Son Ye-jin plays Man-su's wife, and the targets are played by Lee Sung-min, Cha Seung-won, and Park Hee-soon.  Park Chan-Wook wrote and directed the film, based on a Donald Westlake thriller, "The Ax," examining his protagonist's obsession with getting his perfect life back, and what he's willing to do to make it happen.  "No Other Choice" has plenty to say about the merciless state of modern-day capitalism, and how a man's morals can be warped by desperation.  The filmmaking has a lot of fun visual flourishes, and I like Lee Byung-hun's performance.  However, it takes forever for the action to get going, and once it does the movie is overlong, repetitive, and lacking in much tension.  

I appreciate that "No Other Choice" is much more restrained than some of Park Chan-Wook's other films, and doesn't feature any extreme content.  However, this means that as a comedy it's not as much fun as I was hoping for, and as a thriller it's not nearly as exciting.  I was never quite onboard with the story either - Lee Byung-hun makes Man-su a compelling tragicomic character, and his targets all turn out to be reflections of different aspects of himself - but there was never a sense of real urgency about his quest.  The worst casualty of the job loss is only Man-su's ego.  The wife is downsizing their lives, but otherwise seems fine with the state of affairs.  One of the clear messages is that the stakes are only so high in Man-su's own mind, and whatever advantage he might gain isn't worth all the madness that he puts himself through.   I was frustrated with Man-su for his pig-headedness more than anything else, especially since he's confronted with his own hubris repeatedly.  I derived the most enjoyment from watching his schemes unfold in unpredictable ways.  Well, until they wore out their welcome.

On to "The Secret Agent," a political thriller which has several secrets, so I'll have to discuss the film more obliquely.  I liked this one more than "No Other Choice," as the storytelling was better able to hold my interest, despite a similar running time, and I found the characters more enjoyable.  The year is 1977, and a man named Marcelo (Wagner Moura) arrives in the northern Brazilian city of Recife during carnival season.  Political turmoil means that the atmosphere is dangerous and uncertain, and Marcelo is being targeted by two men of dubious intentions.  Information comes slowly about Marcelo's identity, but we learn he has a young son who lives with his grandparents, an extremely helpful landlady, and many neighbors and acquaintances who have their own secrets.  The film's title promises intrigue and excitement that it does deliver on, but not in the way I expected.

There is a very strong sense of time and place in "The Secret Agent."  Marcelo spends much of his time settling into Recife and meeting various characters, some who only show up for a single scene, like a WWII vet played by Udo Kier and a political resistance member played by  Maria Fernanda Cândido.  We see recreations of '70s apartments, government buildings, a movie theater, a barber shop, a gas station, a university, crowded streets, bridges, parks, and many, many glimpses of lives being lived out by a variety of people.  All of them together contribute this wonderfully eclectic, lively setting for an old fashioned political thriller in the vein of Alan J. Pakula and Bernardo Bertolucci.  I was enjoying myself until the abrupt ending, which left me clutching at straws. 

Still trying to avoid spoilers here, I think my issue with "The Secret Agent" is the same as my issue with last year's "I'm Still Here."  The film is too fragmentary to be narratively satisfying for me, even though its messages about living under an oppressive regime are well conveyed.  Also, I still don't know enough about South American history.

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"One Piece," Year Two (With Spoilers)

Spoilers ahead for the second season of the live action series, and the manga/anime up through the end of the Alabasta arc.

So, first things first.  Charithra Chandran is fantastic as Vivi.  Her switch from assassin to princess was note perfect.  I like Lera Abova as Robin so far, but since she hasn't dropped the Miss All Sunday persona yet, it's hard to know how she'll stack up long term.  I've never been much of a Chopper fan, but I have no complaints about Michaela Hoover, or the efforts of the VFX team bringing the cute reindeer doctor to life.  However, what I'm really impressed with is the characterization of the minor characters like the surprisingly loyal Mr. 9, a Twiggy-inspired Miss Valentine, and the menacing Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek (Sophia Anne Caruso).  They actually feel like real people instead of cartoon caricatures, which helps the show immensely.  

I'm not as invested in the "One Piece" arcs where the five main crewmembers aren't as involved, and I was pretty cool on this run of episodes in the anime.  The live action version does a much better job of keeping the crew front and center.  I was very happy that the show's creators gave us more character moments and crew interactions, like Usopp befriending Brogy, and Luffy connecting with Vivi.  Adding some foreshadowing for the later arcs, like Sanji talking about his mother, was also a good way to use the source material more fully.  I really like how these versions of the characters are progressing, and that they're allowed to be more human and well-rounded.  Zoro is probably the most improved from last year - the third episode is entirely devoted to his 100 enemy showdown - and he's allowed to smile and be friendlier.  Usopp is more heroic and less prone to being relegated to easy comic relief.  I was worried that Nami being sick during Drum Island would put her in the damsel in distress role, but that's not the case.  

The weaknesses of this season mostly have to do with the awkwardness of trying to adapt a bunch of shorter manga arcs that introduce a lot of characters, some much more interesting than others.  The story is more incidental and still building up to the next big storyline that we won't see until next year.  Wapol (Rob Colletti) is a comic villain who isn't very formidable, and not a great choice for the climactic baddie of the season.  While the action scenes have generally improved, they've also been uneven.  While Luffy had a few good fights this year, he's also noticeably less effective than we've seen in the past.  He gets rescued or assisted multiple times by other characters, and doesn't get the kind of big dramatic moments that some of the others do.  This should be fixed in the Alabasta arc where he gets more of the spotlight, but in this season it means Luffy often feels a little lost in the shuffle with so many other characters in play.       

Frankly, the Drum Island Arc didn't hold my interest.  It's where the limitations of the special effects and the unreality of the anime aesthetics were the most apparent.  Everything involving Chopper and Hiruluk was fine, and the Chopper backstory flashback episode was a highlight of the season.  However, similar to the Arlong Park episodes, the more extreme characters like Wapol and Dalton (Ty Keogh) were very difficult for me to take seriously  because they were buried under so many prosthetics and weird gimmicks.  Wapol and his monster army just looked silly, and the stakes never felt very high, so the whole finale underwhelmed.  I expect that it's largely an issue with the material in this arc in particular, though.  A stronger villain like Crocodile (Joe Manganiello) should help considerably.

Fundamentally, there are parts of "One Piece" that just aren't going to work in live action, no matter how high the budget is.  I like that the series is trying to push the boundaries and use more of the manga's visual language, but sometimes it just looks terrible.  There are also still translation and cultural gaps that result in awkward names and dialogue, things that probably could be fixed if the show weren't so adamant about catering to existing fans.  Still, the little details don't matter as long as the creators are getting the bigger things right.  So far, they're doing a pretty good job, and I'm looking forward to more "One Piece" to come.   

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"One Piece," Year Two (Without Spoilers)

With "Stranger Things" wrapped up, I expect that Netflix's next major event series will be "One Piece."  It has a huge existing fanbase thanks to the long-running manga and anime, and the Netflix series is one of the few live-action manga/anime adaptations that has been received well by both critics and fans.  Netflix has increased the budget significantly this season, which means bigger fights, crazier enemies, and a couple of full CGI characters in the mix.  

The show is shifting gears from a relatively self-contained first season to being an ongoing series, so there's a lot more setup and a lot less payoff this year.  The second season can be roughly divided into three smaller arcs.  The first is about the Straw Hat crew getting started in the Grand Line and setting up the new enemies.  There are a pair of new Marine antagonists, Captain Smoker (Callum Kerr) and the sword expert Tashigi (Julia Rehwald).  However, the main villains are the agents of the assassin group Baroque Works, who are code-named after numbers, days of the week, or holidays, like Miss All Sunday (Lera Abova), Miss Wednesday (Charithra Chandran), and Mr. 9 (David Lasker).  The second arc brings everyone to the prehistoric jungle island of Little Garden, where they meet giants Brogy (Brendan Murray) and Dorry (Werner Coetser).  The third takes them to the snowy Drum Island, the home of Dr. Kureha (Katey Sagal) and her student Chopper (Mikaela Hoover).  By the end of this season, Luffy and friends have new crew members and are on their way to confront a much bigger threat than anything they've faced so far.

If you thought that the first season of "One Piece" was cartoonish and over-the-top, the second season doubles down on every front.  The stunt sequences are more elaborate and involved.  The Devil Fruit superpowers are even stranger, with Miss Valentine (Jazzara Jaslyn) changing her body density at will so she can fly, Mr. 5 (Camrus Johnson) throwing explosive boogers, and Mr. 3 (David Dastmalchian) creating wax out of thin air, which he uses to turn his enemies into wax art.  Fully CGI characters like the whale Laboon and the critters at Little Garden appear more frequently.  However, the main cast stays pretty grounded in reality, and are super charismatic and entertaining as an ensemble.  I like the little personality tweaks that have been made, so Zoro is more easygoing and Usopp is more empathetic, even if his first instinct is always to run away.  

There are some stronger actors in the cast this year, who add some interesting shadings to what were previously pretty one-note players.  "One Piece" has a lot of minor characters who are only around for an arc or two, which means that bigger names like Katey Sagal and David Dastmalchian can guest star for a few episodes without it being too much of a commitment.  Mark Harelik as Chopper's mentor Dr. Hiruluk features in only one extended flashback episode, but is the standout of the season.  I really like Charithra Chandran and Lera Abova as two of the Baroque Works agents who end up at odds with each other.  Iñaki Godoy is probably the only one who feels a little underwhelming, and that's largely because Luffy doesn't get many big moments in this part of the story.  I expect this will change next season when he becomes more central to the plot again.  

And we already know that there will be a next season, which is important.  I didn't enjoy this set of episodes as much as the first because of the more open-ended nature of the source material, but there have been big improvements in the pacing, characterization, and adaptation choices which are going to greatly impact the show going forward.  You can tell that the creators are more comfortable in this universe now, and have a better understanding of what the audience will accept, so they're willing to take more risks.  Compared to the anime adaptations of these stories, I vastly prefer the live action version.  However, there are still a few elements that I feel could be improved.  I'll get more into that in the next post, where I look at this season from an existing fan's perspective, with all the spoilers, and how the rest of the series appears to be shaping up.    

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Trailers! Trailers! 2026 Summer Edition

Here is a quick sampling of some of the recent trailers that came out in the last few weeks.  I'm focusing on the smaller titles from later in the summer and early fall that I haven't had much opportunity to comment on yet.  

The End of Oak Street - This is David Robert Mitchell's film, previously titled "Flowervale Street," that was delayed from last year.  The trailer does a good job of setting expectations - this looks like it's going to be way more of a crowd-pleaser than I was expecting.  It's like to get some interest just by positioning itself as a dinosaur movie in a summer with no "Jurassic Park" sequel.  

Street Fighter - I like the look of the casting and the costuming, which is a lot closer to the original video game than any of the other adaptations I've seen.  Alas, the sight of David Dastmalchian as M. Bison can't help but make me a little sad that it's not Raul Julia.  I initially mistook this for the new "Mortal Kombat" film, because I got some of the characters confused, which should tell you something about the tone that they're going for.  

Forgotten Island - Asian girl led animated features have gotten really prominent since "KPop Demon Hunters" broke out last year.  Dreamworks' latest involves two Filipino besties who go to a magic island that threatens to take away their memories.  This seems like a tough sell to kids, so I'm not expecting it to do well.  However, I'm impressed that "Forgotten Island" got made, and by the same team that did "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish."

Idiots - O'Shea Jackson and Dave Franco doing a "Get Him to the Greek"/"The Last Detail" to get Mason Thames to rehab?  I'm down for that.  This was previously known as "The Shitheads," but that wasn't going to fly with theater owners and marketing people, so "Idiots" strikes me as a decent alt title.  I appreciate that the trailer just offers a taste of the depravity in store, and doesn't explain much.  Leaves me plenty to discover. 

Backrooms - This is what they mean by a vibes based horror movie.  The dread offered by the images of impossible interiors is so effective, I don't think the movie itself is going to be able to live up to them.  Good luck to first time filmmaker Kane Parsons and the wildly overqualified cast - Renata Reinsve's in this?  At least there's already been one horror movie with a similar premise that came out well - Genki Kawamura's "Exit 8."

Masters of the Universe - I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but if there are any unironic He-man fans still out there, at least this looks considerably better than the old Dolph Lundgren movie from the '80s, even if Jared Leto is playing Skeletor.  Travis Knight has a decent track record as a director, and the pictures of Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn currently in circulation are fabulous.  Are the kids going to respond to this though?  That's the big question.

Clayface - This is shaping up to be a full fledged horror movie set in James Gunn's DC universe.  I'm definitely not opposed to that, and the material is certainly ripe for it, but it also worries me that this is yet another DC property aimed mostly at adults.  Then again, the original Clayface appearances were some of the highlights of the '90s "Batman" cartoons.  With a modest budget and no stars, this is going to be an interesting experiment.  

The Invite - One of the big Sundance titles this year was Olivia Wilde's latest film, a remake of a Spanish comedy called "The People Upstairs."  Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton seem like a promising combination, and the timing looks right after the similar "The Drama" cleaned up earlier in the year.  I'm rooting for this, because Wilde needs a win, and I want more smaller scale films like this up on the big screen.  

Minions & Monsters - I secretly prefer the "Minions" movies to the "Despicable Me" movies, and their latest movie looks frickin' adorable.  It's a monster movie pastiche featuring the Minions in 1920s Hollywood, trying to put together their own horror feature.  Does it make any sense with the timeline of the other movies?  Probably not, and I don't care.  The mini Cthulhu voiced by Trey Parker is already a winner.  Bring it on.

Coyote v ACME - It's everything I wanted and more.  I know that most of them are  probably only going to be cameos, but I loved seeing the Looney Tunes gang again in glorious traditional animation.  They all look so great!

Aaaaand… Dune Part Three - This looks very expensive.

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"Eternity" and "It Ends"

Here are two smaller, existential, high concept films that I want to recommend before they slip too far back in my memory.

The more cheerful, life affirming one is a movie about the afterlife.  Directed by David Freyne, and co-written by Freyne and Pat Cunnane, "Eternity" follows an elderly couple who have been married for sixty-five years when they die, and learn that they have to choose where to spend their eternal rest.  The deceased have a variety of different afterlives available to them, and help from "Afterlife Coordinators" like Anna (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and Ryan (John Early) during the transition.  However, in the case of Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), she not only has to choose an afterlife, but who to spend it with - the man she was married to for decades, Larry (Miles Teller), or her first husband Luke (Callum Turner), who died young as a soldier.  

"Eternity" presents a vision of the afterlife that's a lot of fun.  The newly dead arrive in what looks like a 1960s conventional hall, full of salespeople trying to hawk different afterlives, ranging from eternity at the beach, to eternity with no men allowed, to eternity in Weimar German without the Nazis.  Joan and Larry are returned to the age they felt the most comfortable, which is when they were in their thirties, but their neighbor Karen (Olga Merediz) stays elderly.  We also learn that each eternity has an archive for its inhabitants to review old memories of their lives, which also comes in handy for exposition.  The amount of fun little details in the set designs, despite a limited budget, made me think of "The Good Place," though there's more similarity plotwise to something like "Defending Your Life." 

There's a lightness and optimism to "Eternity" which is a little old fashioned and very appealing.  Despite the big concepts, this turns out to be a romantic comedy at heart, where we spend most of the movie with Luke, trying to figure out how to make Joan fall in love with him again.  The performances are warm and winning, with Miles Teller continuing to make the case for himself as a solid cinema everyman, and Elizabeth Olsen being very charming.  "Eternity" hearkens back to much older supernatural films in the tradition of "A Matter of Life and Death" and "A Guy Named Joe," and it easily won me over.  It's currently at the top of my list of films I'd like to watch with older relatives.

Now on to a much less conventional indie film, "It Ends," which starts out as horror and morphs into something quite different.  Four twentysomething friends are in a car together, take a wrong turn, and end up on a road in a wooded area that never seems to end.  What's more alarming is that the foursome never seem to get tired, never need to eat or drink, their phones never run out of power, and the car never runs out of gas.  However, if they stop for too long, people will emerge from the woods to attack the car.  Their only choice is to keep driving.  At least, that's what they think is their only choice at first.  James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson), Fisher (Noah Toth) and Mitchell (Tyler) all ultimately decide to deal with their extraordinary circumstances in different ways.  

"It Ends" is one of those films where the central premise is clearly meant to be treated as a metaphor for something profound, and the audience will take away as much meaning as they bring to it.  From a production standpoint, "It Ends" is a minimal, shoestring piece of work with very green actors and not the best technical bona fides. However, it's got some great ideas, and I like the way that it starts in such familiar genre territory and gradually subverts itself more and more.  It's also very good at capturing the mood of long car trips, and the dynamics of a friend group with a lot of history.  I think it'll resonate the most with viewers in their twenties who are at the same state of life as the protagonists, trying to figure out their path through life, and which relationships are worth fighting for as people in their lives start drifting away.  I had a great time with it.

"It Ends" also has the distinction of being one of the first films distributed by Letterboxd, which is starting to pick up smaller titles in danger of falling through the cracks.  I look forward to their future offerings with interest.

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The 2026 Summer Movie Wager

I am traditionally extremely bad at this, but I still have fun trying to guess how well the summer movies are going to do at the box office every year for the Summer Movie Wager.  Following the rules of the Summer Movie Pool, I'm going to predict the top ten domestic box office grossers of the season. It's not about which movies are the best or the most deserving, but which ones simply bring in the most cold hard cash.  Anything released between May 1st and Labor Day is fair game. Here we go.

1. Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The MCU has been having a rough time at the box office lately, but Spider-man is a marquee hero that is a franchise in and of himself.  We also haven't seen Tom Holland's Spidey onscreen since 2021, so this is definitely going to be an event.  I'm doing my best to steer clear of spoilers, but the new additions are promising, and the news of certain existing characters from the MCU making appearances in this film are even more promising.  

2. Moana - After "Lilo and Stitch" topped the summer box office last year, it's clear that the "Moana" remake has a massive potential audience.  It's only been a decade since the animated film, but "Moana" has consistently been a favorite on streaming, and Dwayne Johnson isn't getting any younger.  My only concern is that "Moana 2" wasn't very well liked, despite making so much money.  However, the Disney marketing machine will be going full force for this one.

3. The Odyssey - This is where I'm putting Christopher Nolan and Universal's massive gamble on a sword and sandals epic.  Never mind that Matt Damon hasn't had a hit in a long time, or that there have been complaints about the costuming and cinematography.  Nolan is going to ensure that this one is an event, and so many stars are crammed into the film that we're inevitably going to be hearing about it all summer long.  Do I think it will be good?  Does that matter?  

4. Minions & Monsters - Illumination's The "Despicable Me" franchise has traditionally done very well with young audiences, with the last three films all earning in the $300 million range domestically.  In a weaker year this would be higher up in the rankings, but I think that the competition is good enough that a new Minions movie won't be a top priority for most viewers.  I am curious as to whether the Gentleminions will make their return, however, after making a splash in 2022.

5. The Devil Wears Prada 2 - This is my riskiest bet, but women's films have a long history of surprising at the box office, and when it comes to Millennial nostalgia, few movies of this era are as iconic in pop culture as the original "The Devil Wears Prada."  There are already a ton of takes on the fashion glimpsed in the trailers, and the extraordinary cast list.  Is Anne Hathaway going to become overexposed this year?  Absolutely, but it'll be a fun trip getting there.  

6. Toy Story 5 - Ignoring the "Lightyear" flop, this should be higher up in the list, because "Toy Story" generally outperforms "Despicable Me" domestically, even with the long breaks.  There's also been an excellent teaser trailer with a great hook - toys versus screens!  However, my instinct is to be cautious after the audience's reception to PIXAR's last few films.  I'm not counting Woody and Buzz out completely, but I think they have an uphill battle.  

7. The Mandalorian and Grogu - It is very tough to tell what the audience appetite is for more "Star Wars" at this point, but I think there's enough goodwill toward "The Mandalorian" specifically that this should be a modest hit, leaning toward younger audiences.  I'm still seeing plenty of kids with Grogu merchandise.  However, I don't think it'll be a bigger hit without something more exciting to show than Jeremy Allen White playing a new Hutt villain.  

8. Backrooms - I'm guessing this is going to be the big breakout horror film this year. It's based on a viral internet creepypasta and subsequent short film that garnered a huge amount of attention. It's easily got the most hype out of any other horror title this year, especially among younger audiences, and is almost certainly going to make money. However, I doubt it'll be enough of a crossover hit to make it very high in the rankings, so I'm putting it in eighth.

9. Disclosure Day - We are long past the days of Steven Spielberg movies automatically being blockbuster gold.  However, there are occasionally films for older audiences that manage to break into the top ten list, and that's what I think "Disclosure Day" might do if it gets the right reception.  The lack of big stars and Spielberg's diminished presence over the last few years isn't helping any, but I'll always look forward to a new Spielberg movie about aliens.  

10. Supergirl - I really, really want this to do well, but looking at the recent track record of woman-led superhero films and DC films, this is where I have to put "Supergirl."  Maybe Jason Momoa's Lobo will raise some interest, and maybe the reviews will turn some heads, but right now I don't see how the math works out.  Frankly, it's a win that this movie got made to begin with, and it's my most anticipated big-budget film of the summer by far.  

Wild Cards (for extra points if one of them does make it into the top ten)

Masters of the Universe

Scary Movie 6

Mortal Kombat II

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My Top 25 of the Last 25: Out of the Box Casting

This list is going to require some explanation before we get started.  One of the major changes in the media of the new-ish millennium is that over the last fifteen years, Hollywood has embraced colorblind and genderblind casting in a big way.  Sometimes this has been great, opening up roles and opportunities for actors who never would have been considered in the past.  Sometimes this has led to terrible misfires, which I won't dwell on here.  Some have argued that the emphasis on diversity has gone too far, and some think we haven't gone far enough. In any case, this has definitely been a major characteristic of Western media in recent times, and I want to discuss it in the form of a list.  

As with the other Top 25 Lists, this list has 25 entries, but only the top ten get write-ups.  Entries are unranked.  

Hamilton - Theater has always been better about diverse casting than movies or television, and I strongly suspect that the most influential driver of more diverse casting across the whole media landscape was the success of "Hamilton" in 2015.  Suddenly we had black and brown actors playing the founding fathers, turning their cabinet meetings into rap battles, and it was a smash hit.  The now legendary cast was perfect for a show about "America then, as told be America now," and I'm thrilled every time I see any of them in other projects.

Aquaman - It was a long-running joke that Aquaman had the worst powers in the Justice League, because he was an ocean-themed superhero who talked to fish.  However, casting an actor known for playing badasses as Aquaman in the DCEU made Aquaman a badass character.  Jason Momoa looks nothing like the classic version of Aquaman, who is a blond with terrible fashion sense, but ten years after his debut in "Batman v. Superman," it's hard to imagine Aquaman being played by anybody else.  Are we getting that third "Aquaman" movie?  

Starbuck - I didn't watch "Battlestar Galactica" during its initial release, but the controversy over one of the main characters, Starbuck, being gender-flipped from a man to a woman definitely reached my ears.  The new Starbuck, Kara Thrace, is a completely different character whose only connection to the older version is that she's a hotshot pilot with a maverick personality.  And she's one of the clear highlights of the new "Battlestar Galactica," which ended up totally eclipsing the old show and helping to mainstream genre television in the 2000s.  

Death - Several characters in "The Sandman" had their genders and races changed in adaptation, but none were as prominent as Death, who was the most popular character from the original comic, and known for her appearance as a pale-skinned Goth girl.  However, it's difficult to imagine anybody better in the role than Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who totally embodies the warmth and the empathy of this version of Death, greeting every soul under her care like a dear friend.  Her too-brief introduction is the best part of the series by far.  

Elphaba - This is an interesting case, because while the original actress for the Wicked Witch of the West was white, the character herself is green.  Still casting a black actress in the movie version was novel, as the stage production of "Wicked" didn't have its first black Elphaba until 2025.  And I so appreciate that  Cynthia Erivo made wardrobe and styling choices that emphasized her heritage in the film version, making the character her own.  I'm not a big fan of "Wicked," but I am a big fan of Elphaba, and Erivo's version of her in particular.  

Louis and Claudia - Many changes were made to AMC's version of "Interview With the Vampire."  Louis de Pointe du Lac now inhabits a different era, profession and social reality as a black man.  Race and status are major parts of Louis' identity and inform his struggle to adjust to life as a vampire, as well as his relationship to Lestat.  Similarly, the new version of Claudia is now a little older, a little smarter, and far more complex.  Her search for other vampires is an extension of her search for answers about her own identity and place in the world.    

The Doctor - We've now had female and black Doctors headlining "Doctor Who," and though the show has had its ups and downs, the Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa versions of The Doctor have never been anything less than excellent.  I especially enjoy Gatwa's very stylish fashion choices and refusal to stick to one outfit.  I also want to point out that we've gotten a superb female version of The Master, played by Michelle Gomez, and a pleasantly hammy one played by Sacha Dhawan.  Oh, and getting Archie Panjabi for the Rani was very satisfying.

Christine Baskets - In case you thought there weren't going to be any straight white men on this list, I would like to remind you that Louie Anderson won an Emmy in 2016 for playing Zach Galifianakis's mom on "Baskets."  Based on Anderson's mother, Christine is a warmly maternal, ever-optimistic woman whose life keeps being thrown into turmoil thanks to the antics of her ridiculous adult son.  Their relationship is the most important part of "Baskets," and Anderson's committed performance is easily the best part of the show.  

Hitler - Depictions of Adolf Hitler have to be handled with care, and Taika Waititi (a self described "Polynesian Jew") deciding to cast himself in the role for "Jojo Rabbit" was certainly a creative choice.  However, it also turned out to be a canny one, setting the farcical tone for his WWII coming-of-age comedy, and getting the audience to completely drop their guard.  Waititi doesn't make for a great Hitler, but you can see how a deeply confused Hitler Youth might have come up with a skewed version of the Fuhrer that acts like this one.

Melanie  - I don't expect that many people have heard of the UK zombie film "The Girl With All the Gifts," or the novel of the same name that it was based on.  However, a major difference between the two versions is that Melanie is fair skinned in the book and dark skinned in the film.  This adds a racial dimension to the story that is both thematically appropriate to the story, and allows for the casting of the excellent newcomer Sennia Nanua as Melanie.  

Tulip O'Hare ("Preacher")

Nick Fury ("The Avengers")

Hedda Gabbler ("Hedda")

Watson ("Elementary")

Ariel ("The Little Mermaid")

Anybodys ("West Side Story")

Fabulous Godmother ("Cinderella")

Michelle Fuller ("Bugonia")

Catwoman and Harlequin (various DC)

Matlock

Valkyrie (MCU)

David Copperfield and Gawain

The Duke of Hastings ("Bridgerton")

Macbeth ("The Tragedy of Macbeth")

The Wiz

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My Favorite Paul Thomas Anderson Film

I'm frequently left slightly off-balance by Paul Thomas Anderson movies.  I enjoy and admire them, because Anderson is one of the best filmmakers currently working, but I'm never quite sure if I get them the way that he means for me to.  Are the elements that I take seriously supposed to be funny?  Am I missing major themes or ideas that haven't been spelled out for me?  Things that are left open to interpretation sometimes make me feel anxious that I'm interpreting them wrong.  Everything is connected in "Magnolia," but I'm almost certain that there are connections that I missed somewhere.

The only Paul Thomas Anderson film I don't feel this way towards is "Punch-Drunk Love," and that's because I enjoy it so much that I don't much care if I am missing anything.  It is unabashedly a movie romance, filled with big emotions, vibrant colors, indelible images, and grandiose expressions of love.  It also stars Adam Sandler, made back in 2002 when Adam Sandler was a movie star known for playing one particular type of aggressive man-child character in his movies.  He's playing a variation on that same character in this movie too, but the difference is that in "Punch-Drunk Love," this is a liability.  The universe does not reward Barry Egan for his outbursts of violence or his juvenile behavior, until he finds a reason to change his life, and turn his worst habits to his advantage.

The Roger Ebert review of "Punch-Drunk Love" is legendary for Ebert changing his negative opinion of Adam Sandler once he saw Sandler in a role that gave him the ability to play a full-fledged human being.  For me, as someone who avoided the early Sandler comedies, it was a signal that Sandler was an actor that I should be paying attention to.  It was "Punch-Drunk Love" that made me a fan of his, and Barry Egan is still my favorite of his characters by far.  In Barry I could see all the loneliness, frustration, rage, and fear that drove his destructive behavior.  And for the first time, I could see and appreciate the sweetness and the wonder mixed in there too.  I shared his delight at finding an abandoned harmonium and the loophole in an airline mile giveaway program.  I rooted for him when he threw caution to the wind and followed the lovely Lena to Hawaii.

"Punch-Drunk Love" is also one of the most beautiful films of its era, thanks to Anderson and cinematographer Robert Elswit.  There's a lot of experimentation going on with light temperature, shape, and silhouette to make the visual contrasts especially bold.  There's a very limited color palette and the major colors are all associated with various emotions and characters - Barry is blue and Lena is red.  The action is broken up by abstract collages of bright colors, created by Jeremy Blake.  Once you start looking, there are stripes and blocks of color all over the place, and they all look amazing.  Even the lens flares look gorgeous.  The recurring aural motif is Shelly Duvall's kitschy "He Loves Me," from Robert Altman's notorious "Popeye" movie, and it's a goddamned delight.  

I've come to appreciate Paul Thomas Anderson's other films, to varying degrees, but "Punch-Drunk Love" remains my favorite, probably because it's so declarative and unsubtle.  We're meant to root for the guy to get the girl and stand up to the evil mattress salesman played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.  We want to see red and blue come together, and for color to chase away the images of blank walls and empty gray streets.  We want love to conquer all, and here it's allowed to.  There are Anderson films with smarter writing, better performances, and more accomplished filmmaking, but "Punch-Drunk Love" has what I love most about movies, which is that it provokes a purity of emotion that you just don't get anywhere else.

What I've Seen - Paul Thomas Anderson

Hard Eight (1996)

Boogie Nights (1997)

Magnolia (1999)

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

There Will Be Blood (2007)

The Master (2012)

Inherent Vice (2014)

Phantom Thread (2017)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

One Battle After Another (2025)

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