"Drop" and "Death of a Unicorn"

I couldn't stop thinking about the new Blumhouse thriller "Drop," but not for the reasons you might think.  Meghann Fahy stars as Violet, a single mom and domestic abuse survivor who goes out on a first date with photographer Henry (Brendan Sklenar), who she's been messaging on a dating app.  Their date keeps being interrupted by alerts on Violet's phone from a stranger - who is suddenly in Violet's house and threatening to harm her young son (Jacob Robinson) unless Violet does exactly what he says.

There is something about Meghann Fahy and Brendan Sklenar onscreen together that pings as very female-media-coded in a way that most movies in this genre don't.  Specifically, "Drop" often displayed the aesthetics of an older breed of Lifetime made-for-TV movie.  Fahy's not an actress I'm familiar with, but it didn't surprise me that she got her start in soaps, or that Sklenar recently appeared as the blandly hunky ex in last year's Blake Lively melodrama, "It Ends With Us."  The target audience for "Drop" seems to be midwestern white moms.  I specify white, because I have never seen a whiter post-1980s film set in Chicago.  Seriously, the only minorities are the African-American bartender, a barely glimpsed onscreen therapy patient, and the gayest gay waiter I've seen in years.  Was this on purpose?  Was director Christopher Landon aware of what he was doing?  The possibilities haunt me.

The fact that I was thinking about these sorts of details and not about the likelihood of this kind of situation ever happening to me tells you what I think about how effective "Drop" is as a thriller.  Sadly, the title only incidentally refers to anybody plummeting from great heights.  Instead, poor Violet is being harassed by a series of iPhone AirDrops that her blackmailer uses to communicate with her.  "Drop" is a great looking movie that does a lot of fun things with the various text messages from the blackmailer, and features a beautiful restaurant in a skyscraper, Palate, as its primary location.  However, the characters are paper thin, a lot of the plotting makes no sense, and the action beats are so tropey and silly that it completely took me out of the film.  If the tone were campier, the dialogue zippier, and the romance less Instagrammable, this might have worked better.   Well - I'm being meaner than I should. Fahy does a perfectly fine job, and original films are rare enough as it is.  However, it's really hard to call "Drop" original, because it's so generic and borderline campy in all the wrong ways.   

On to "Death of a Unicorn," a film with better actors and worse special effects.  I wasn't expecting much out of this movie, since it came and went from theaters very quickly, and there was no real discussion of it among the movie nerds whatsoever.  Like "Drop," this movie also feels like a genre flick making a play for female audiences, though in this case it's a creature feature instead of a thriller.  Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega star as lawyer Elliot Kintner and his college-aged daughter Ridley.  They're headed for the remote home of the Leopolds - father Odell (Richard E. Grant), mother Belinda (Téa Leoni), and son Shepard (Will Poulter) -  who head a pharma company, so Elliot can close a deal to do more lucrative work for them.  And en route, Eliot hits a unicorn with the rental car.

After watching the trailer, I was expecting "Death of a Unicorn" to be very satirical, like "The Menu," or any of the other recent films about rich people being terrible.  While "Death of a Unicorn" does belong in that category, the movie I kept finding myself making comparisons to was "Cocaine Bear."  A significant chunk of this movie is a very broad horror-comedy where the characters are getting killed off left and right by big monsters, often in absurd and gruesome ways.  The buildup to the carnage does have plenty to say about respecting nature and the privileged being terrible, but the writing is on the weak side, and it takes forever for things to escalate.  Still you can't put Grant, Leoni, Poulter, and Anthony Carrigan (as a put-upon butler) in a movie together and not walk away with a few genuine laughs.  Unfortunately, this leaves Selena Gomez to play it straight as our lead, and Paul Rudd is in the absolutely thankless role of '90s dad who cares about his job and financial security.  They're good enough actors to pull through, but it's by the skin of their teeth.

First time writer/director Alex Scharfman has some great ideas, and I appreciate that he really goes for it with the CGI fantasy creatures in this film, despite clearly only having a limited budget.  The most impressive thing about "Death of a Unicorn" may be its $15 million price tag.  I feel the film got its act together by the finale well enough that I'd recommend it as a fun piece of silly horror comedy, especially for younger viewers.  It's got glaring flaws, but it's good enough that I hope Scharfman gets more chances in the future to improve on this. 

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"Freaky Tales" Pays Homage

I love how many movies there have been set in and around Oakland, California over the past few years.  Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck  have chosen to cash in their "Captain Marvel" blank check to make an anthology film of strange, freaky little urban legends set in Oakland, in 1987.  Though it takes some influences from movies like "Creepshow," "Heavy Metal," and "Scanners," "Freaky Tales: isn't properly a horror or science-fiction movie.  Instead, it takes place in a very hyperstylized comic-book universe, where reality can get warped.  Characters keep spotting a mysterious green light that appears when something is about to get wild - from a wronged man using psychic powers to punish some scumbag murderers, to a pair of newbie female rappers about to throw down against a pro.

Each story is from a different genre and spotlights different subcultures, but all four take place adjacent to each other, roughly at the same time.  In the first, a group of punks defend the Gilman, a beloved East Bay music club, against attacks by neo-Nazis.  The leads are youngsters Travis (Angus Cloud), and Tina (Ji-Young Yoo), whose romance blossoms as the hostilities heat up.  Next, comes the showdown between the rap duo Danger Zone, featuring best friends Barbie (Dominique Thorne) and Entice (Normani), and West Coast hip-hip legend Too $hort (DeMario Symba Driver).  Third is the tale of a debt collector named Clint (Pedro Pascal), who intends to quit the sordid business until his wife Grace (Natalia Dominguez) becomes a victim of a revenge plot gone wrong.  Finally, beloved Golden State Warriors basketball player Sleepy Floyd (Jay Ellis) is obliged to take matters into his own hands when he's targeted in a robbery orchestrated by a crooked cop (Ben Mendelsohn).  This involves an extended action sequence with a katana and throwing stars.        

I love how "Freaky Tales" looks, with its comics-inspired framing devices, stylized characters and some old fashioned special effects.  Even the titles have been tweaked to add VHS artefacts.  The basketball game in the last story is done with traditional animation clips and the action showdowns are wildly over-the-top, Grindhouse-style clashes that are a whole lot of fun to watch.   It's a little surprising to spot actors like Pedro Pascal and Ben Mendelsohn in this movie - not to mention the old guy playing the sage video store clerk - but they're all clearly enjoying themselves.  Mendelsohn is so good at playing a real mustache-twirling villain who we all know is going to get it in the end.  And that end is suitably epic in a very '80s way.  Jay Ellis as Sleepy Floyd, however, is the one most likely to show up on T-shirts in the future.  In short, for a fan of 80s B-movies, there are a lot of nostalgic joys to be had.  I don't know what a mainstream audience is going to think, but this movie has all the earmarks of a future cult favorite.       

"Freaky Tales" was shot on location in the East Bay for the most part, and uses real people and events for additional authenticity.  The real Sleepy Floyd and Too $hort make cameo appearances, along with several Bay Area landmarks.  At the same time, there are some touches that highlight that this is an idealized fantasy of the past, a vision of the way things might have been if attitudes had been a little different.  The four segments are of varying quality, and there are some significant ups and downs and rough spots with the plotting.    The debt collector story in particular feels fragmentary and not thought through enough.  Still, the spirit of the enterprise won me over, and there are so many little moments that made me downright gleeful.  This is so clearly a love letter to this place and time and community - and no surprise that Oakland is Ryan Fleck's hometown.  

This is an 80s throwback, but at the same time "Freaky Tales" feels like an original - or at least the kind of film that doesn't come around too often anymore.

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"Novocaine" and "Neighborhood Watch"

We've seen a lot of Jack Quaid in the first third of 2025, with "Companion," "Novocaine," and "Neighborhood Watch" all being released within a few weeks of each other - the last premiering on VOD.  Notably, all of these titles are original IP, while most of Quaid's notable work up to this point has been in franchises - "The Boys," "Scream,"  "Star Trek: Lower Decks," and the recent animated "Superman" series.  I take it as a good sign that he's taking some risks, and that the studios are starting to look at him as a leading man.  We really need more leading men in his age range that aren't immediately synonymous with superheroes, so I'm rooting for him.  I like Quaid as an everyman type, especially since he's got a decent amount of range, can do comedy, and has played villains a few times.  So, with that in mind, let's look at his two most recent films where he has a starring role, "Novocaine" and "Neighborhood Watch."   

"Novocaine," from directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, is a self-aware action comedy that has a unique take on the unstoppable one-man-army character.  Quaid plays Nathan Cain, a man with a condition that causes him not to feel pain.  This means he lives a solitary, carefully controlled lifestyle where he subsists on a liquid diet and sets timers to go to the bathroom, for fear that he'll accidentally harm himself if he takes even minor risks.  However, after a date with a coworker, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), he gains the confidence to start breaking out his shell.  And when Sherry is taken hostage by bank robbers, led by a sadistic criminal (Ray Nicholson), Nathan decides to use his inability to feel pain to thwart the baddies and rescue her himself.  Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, and Jacob Batalon also get involved in various supporting roles I won't spoil.

 

I really like the first half of "Novocaine," where we actually spend enough time with Nathan and Sherry to get to know them and to get invested in their relationship, which not enough films do.  The actors' chemistry is good enough that I would have been happy if "Novocaine" had just been a romantic-comedy without any of the chases and fisticuffs.  However, the action sequences are good - very inventive and absurd.  It's incredibly cringey to watch some of the fights, where Nathan is doing horribly damaging things to his body, but persists because he can't feel a thing.  I would not recommend this film to those who are sensitive to blood and gore, even if a lot of it is played for laughs.  The filmmakers do a pretty decent job of putting together absolutely ridiculous scenarios, like one of the robbers booby trapping his house with elaborate weaponry, while also snarking on the usual tropes of mindless action films.  We get something closer to real-world consequences for the carnage than usual, at the end of the film, which I appreciate.

As for Jack Quaid as an action hero, he does a good job.  A lot of the comedy is based on his panicky reactions to being in common action movie situations, or sight gags involving his total nonchalance at being grievously injured.  He's definitely better at the comedy than the action, which distinguishes him from most of the male leads who have been showing up in this genre lately.  Now, what I haven't seen Jack Quaid in too often are straight dramatic roles, so I was especially curious about his appearance in "Neighborhood Watch," where he plays a paranoid schizophrenic named Simon, trying to save a kidnapped girl.  He shares top billing with Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Ed Deerman, a retired security guard who lives next door to Simon and his sister Dee Dee (Malin Akerman).  Simon insists he saw a girl being forced into a van, but he suffers from visual and auditory hallucinations, and nobody believes him.  However, after multiple attempts he's able to convince Ed to help him.        

I'm worried that "Neighborhood Watch" is going to be overlooked, because it's a smaller indie film that hasn't gotten much buzz and only middling reviews.  However, I found it very enjoyable.  Directed by Duncan Skiles and written by Sean Farley, it's a very grounded, occasionally very sobering story of a pair of mismatched losers who struggle in their daily lives and unexpectedly bond over this fool's errand.  We're operating in the realm of neo-noir, with the action set in and around a college town in Alabama.  Simon can't find work because of his history in institutions and his constant battles with his symptoms.  Aging Ed can't let go of his old role as a security professional - the closest he ever got to being a real cop -  and the kidnapping gives him an excuse to use some of his acquired investigative skills.  And intiially, Nathan and Ed are both terrible at being detectives.  They don't fool anybody, get called out immediately by almost everyone they meet, get beaten up, threatened, and are warned off multiple times by the actual police.    

From the trailers, I originally expected "Neighborhood Watch" to be more comedic, similar to something like "The Kid Detective."  While "Neighborhood Watch" does have some wryly funny moments in it, I was happy to discover how much of the film is played straight.  Simon's delusions in particular are always deeply unnerving, and his meltdowns and outburst are never treated as laughing matters.  This is the first underdog story I've watched in a while where the leads actually feel properly downtrodden and out of their depths.  Morgan and Quaid both turn in strong performances - Quaid gets the showier part, but Morgan comes off better, and they pair together well.  And a few overly convenient little plot beats aside, I liked the way that "Neighborhood Watch" came together in the end.      

As idiosyncratic little indie movies go, this one is a keeper.

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A Film "Afire"

I've now seen half a dozen of Christian Petzold's contemplative melodramas, and it's remarkable how consistent they are.  His latest, "Afire," is set in the present day, but has a fable-like, portentous quality to it, similar to his previous "Undine."  Far too topical wildfires are a major thematic element, threatening the small tourist town on the Baltic Sea, where our story takes place.     

I'd classify "Afire" as a romance, but the film is really more of a character study of the protagonist, Leon (Thomas Schubert), a young writer in crisis.  He's agreed to come to the seaside, at the invitation of his friend Felix (Langston Uibel), intending to spend time working on his latest novel.  They arrive at Felix's parents' holiday home, only to discover that they'll have to share it with someone else - a young woman named Nadja (Paula Beer) is already living there for the summer, and frequently has her boyfriend Devid (Enno Trebs) over at night.  Felix is happy to cohabitate, but Leon finds this situation unbearable.  

I think everyone has met someone like Leon before.  Some of us have even been this guy.  He's one of those socially awkward, deeply insecure types who is constantly making excuses not to socialize.  His physical appearance and his background clearly have something to do with it, but the matter is never addressed directly.  The one thing Leon can do is write, which he uses as a justification to be arrogant and ungenerous, imagining himself as better than those around him.  He's so self-centered and thinks so much of himself that he inadvertently says hurtful things, gets jealous over anyone else getting attention, and fails to notice what's going on with the people closest to him.  All of the other characters around Leon are in the middle of stories we only get glimpses of, because our POV stays with Leon, and Leon isn't paying attention.  

However, that begins to change as Leon takes an interest in Nadja.  Self-reflection is not an easy process, and Leon flounders mightily before he starts to make an effort to recognize both what's wrong with his writing and what's wrong with his own way of seeing the world.  Nadja is perhaps kinder to him than she should be, but that's mirrored by the attitude of the whole film, which sees something in Leon worth reforming.  I greatly enjoyed Thomas Schubert's performance, which gives Leon a childishness and a sadness that keeps him sympathetic, even in his worst moments.  Paula Beer is lovely and enigmatic.  There's a fine balancing act going on between how Leon sees her, and the woman she actually is.  It's wonderful to gradually learn about her background and her situation - things that Leon is too dense to ask her about in a straightforward way.  

The film unfolds slowly, but deliberately, first acclimating us to this seaside community under the looming threat of disaster, then establishing all of the characters and their relationships, and then following Leon as he muddles through his attempts to connect with Nadja and work on his novel.  Petzold is always so adept at capturing these elliptical encounters, where things almost happen, or are about to happen.  The visuals are so evocative and their significance is so clear, even if the symbolism is murky.  The absence of someone has just as much impact as their actual presence.  The tone of "Afire" is more humorous and tragicomical than I was expecting, because Leon is such an exasperating mess of a person.  However, I don't think that Petzold is ever making fun of him for his pretentions, remaining remarkably empathetic to Leon throughout his bumpy journey to enlightenment.  

Finally, I want to take issue with some of the marketing I've seen for "Afire," which has erroneously described it as a gay romance or some kind of apocalyptic disaster story.  These elements are important parts of the film, but "Afire" is a thoughtful drama about a struggling writer, first and foremost, and the actual romantic relationships are largely happening in the background, along with the forest fires.  And this is a film that is so good at being what it is, I feel oddly defensive about it being mistaken for anything else.     

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"House of the Dragon," Year One

Spoilers for the first two episodes ahead.

"House of the Dragon" may not be the best show on television right now, but it's definitely one of the biggest as far as ratings, acclaim, and cultural impact.  After the disappointing ending of the original "Game of Thrones" series, the stakes and expectations were high for the spinoff, a prequel series set in Westeros, hundreds of years earlier.  Fortunately, showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik were able to put together a compelling set of characters and conflicts, drawn from George R. R. Martin's work.  In some ways it's more accessible than "Game of Thrones," and certainly more straightforward - following the royal Targaryen family during a succession crisis.

King Viserys (Paddy Considine) decides to name his daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock as a teenager, Emma D'Arcy as an adult) his heir after the tragic death of his wife.  He remarries to Rhaenyra's best friend Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey as a teenager, Olivia Cooke as an adult), the daughter of Hand of the King, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), creating a rift between the girls.  Viserys and Alicent have several more children, complicating the succession.  Another potential heir is Viserys's brother Prince Daemon (Matt Smith), a highly unpredictable, war-loving troublemaker.  Then there's ambitious Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), from a different branch of the Targaryen family tree, married to Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best), Viserys's cousin, who was arguably cheated out of the Iron Throne.

What I like about "House of the Dragon" over the original "Game of Thrones" is that it's more of a grounded court intrigue story than a typical fantasy narrative.  Many of the characters are dragon riders, and there are plenty of gory battles and deaths, but almost all of the main conflicts are the same as what you'd find in a historical melodrama like "I, Claudius" or "Wolf Hall."  Characters are constantly worried about allegiances and family legacies.  The legitimacy of a child can have huge implications.  This introductory season is full of time jumps in order to set up all the players and their histories, sometimes skipping years at a time, so characters you see as teenagers in one episode, can be grown and married, with their own children in the next.  There's a lot to keep track of, and multiple POV characters, but the bigger picture is much easier to see unfold from week to week.  

I also appreciate that "House of the Dragon" is set up to revolve around two women - Rhaenyra and Alicent.  Rhaenyra is who everyone is rooting for from from the outset, because she's fighting against deeply ingrained sexism to be the first woman on the Iron Throne, because her private life is subject to a deeply unfair level of scrutiny, and because she's willing to push against convention in ways that unsettle everyone around her.  However, you have to feel for Alicent, a deeply loyal and dutiful woman, who is constantly being told by her father and his allies that the moment Rhaenyra becomes queen, Alicent's life and her children's lives are over.  Their world is a brutal place, and the recurrence of excruciating birthing scenes (I count at least four) hammer home the danger and the uncertainty these women face, simply existing in it.  

 

The focus on relationships and alliances also creates more opportunities for richer, deeper characters.  There are a lot of good performances in this season, but the real showstopper is what Paddy Considine does with Viserys, who gets progressively more decrepit and compelling as the season goes on.  It's also a joy to watch Daemon evolve over the years as his priorities change, and to watch all the kids mature and develop their personalities.  You can track the progress of the hostilities as time passes and the families grow.  All four of the actresses playing Rhaenyra and Alicent are great, but Milly Alcock is my favorite, for her remarkable poise.  

For those who prefer the more spectacle-driven elements of "Game of Thrones," "House of the Dragon" features lots of good warfare and combat, and many dangerous dragons onscreen.  However, in keeping with the more character-driven nature of the show, the most dramatic fight turns out to be one between resentful children.  There are still a few mysterious prophecies floating around, but far less time is spent on the mystical and supernatural business that "Game of Thrones" got so bogged down in.  And it's to "House of the Dragon's" benefit.

My biggest complaint about the show is that too many of the characters have similar names, or simply the same name (I count at least four Aegons).  Otherwise, this has been a fantastic season of television that far exceeded my expectations.  I'm looking forward to more soon.  

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"Marry Me" and "I Want You Back"

It feels like an annual tradition now that I set aside a post every year for romantic comedies, which is a little depressing since this is honestly a genre I enjoy, but have little opportunity to write about.  They've declined to the point where you only get three or four good ones a year.  The highest profile romantic comedy of 2022 so far has been "Marry Me," which is notable for having two recognizable stars headlining together.  This is so rare these days, "Marry Me" feels like a throwback.  

Pop superstar Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) is all set to marry her beau Bastian (Maluma) on live television, as part of a publicity stunt to promote their new single, titled "Marry Me."  Of course, right before the big moment she finds out that Bastian was cheating, so on the spur of a moment she finds a random man in the audience and marries him instead.  This is math teacher and single father Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson), who was only at the concert to accompany his daughter Lou (Chloe Coleman).  John Bradley plays Kat's agent and Sarah Silverman plays Charlie's fellow teacher and gal pal.  

As someone who is still miffed that Jennifer Lopez didn't get an Oscar nomination for "Hustlers," it's good to see her headlining.  However, the movie is dull, and the character of Kat Valdez is fairly empty.  The plot is essentially the same as "Notting Hill," except dumbed down and mostly devoid of charm.  I like Lopez and Wilson just fine, and they know how to handle this kind of material.  We've seen them do this so many times before.  The only wrinkle is how much more invasive and unpleasant the media scrum is in the age of social media and 24/7 news coverage.  It's immediately apparent why Charlie would have reservations about putting himself and his kid in this kind of environment.  The "Marry Me" song performed a few times during the movie is also not very memorable.  If you're the kind of fan who enjoys gawking at JLo's outfits, however, there's plenty of opportunity for that.

Now, on to "I Want You Back," which stars Charlie Day and Jenny Slate as an unlucky pair who have both just been dumped by their significant others for different partners.  Peter (Day) has been left by his longtime girlfriend Anne (Gina Rodriguez), while Emma (Jenny) has been left by Noah (Scott Eastwood).  Peter and Emma work in the same building and meet by chance, commiserate, and decide to help each other break up their exes' new relationships.  Emma will seduce Anne's new boyfriend Logan (Manny Jacinto), while Peter will befriend Noah and steer him away from new girlfriend Ginny (Clark Backo).  And you can probably work out what happens from there.

"I Want You Back" is not one of the better romantic comedies out there, but it's written and directed well, by people who clearly care about the comedy, and it has a lot of personality.  Logan is a middle school drama teacher, and a lot of the storyline with him and Emma involves staging a junior production of "Little Shop of Horrors."  At one point, Jenny Slate has to get in the Audrey outfit and belt "Suddenly Seymour."  Meanwhile Noah is a personal trainer, and Peter is forced to get into the best shape in his life to try and keep up with him.  I was constantly being caught off guard by clever little moments, like Peter tentatively asking if Emma wants to go out for a drink, and he doesn't even get the whole sentence out of his mouth before we smash cut to the two of them plastered and singing karaoke together later that night.  It is genuinely funny stuff.   

Compared to the glitz of "Marry Me," "I Want You Back" is much more grounded and realistic, with two leads who resemble normal, schlubby people who exist in a better approximation of the real world.  That isn't to say that there isn't still an element of fantasy wish fulfillment involved here, or there aren't plenty of old tropes trotted out.  However, it does them well, with impeccable timing, and lets its imperfect characters earn their happy ending.      

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"The Spine of Night" and "Cryptozoo"

American animation for adult audiences is still a rare thing, though we've been seeing more indie projects in recent years, thanks to improvements in filmmaking technology.  2021 saw the premiere of two of these films, both low budget, painstakingly animated fantasy films with a lot of violence and a lot of nudity.  

"The Spine of Night" is the more familiar project, with visuals clearly influenced by "Heavy Metal" and Ralph Bakshi's fantasy films of the 1980s.  It's an epic story of sorcerers, witches, and warriors clashing over the control of a magical plant and the terrible power that it unleashes.  This is the world of barbaric savagery and cosmic horror, with many images that could grace the cover of heavy metal albums.  Characters with names like Tzod, the Guardian, Falconhawk, and Mongrel inhabit a harsh land that gradually morphs over the centuries from a rinky-dink medieval kingdom into a nightmarish empire of darkness.  

I want to emphasize that this is definitely a film for adults.  The violence is bloody, and the most prominent female character, the witch Tzod (Lucy Lawless), mostly appears nude throughout.  However, she's not built like the usual Frank Frazetta bimbo that you'd expect, but is instead a tough old broad who refuses to be intimidated.  In fact, there's a refreshing lack of the kind of titillating material aimed at sex-obsessed teenage boys that this kind of high fantasy is usually rife with.  All the characters are a little ugly, and a little weird.  Animator Morgen Galen King and writer Philip Gelatt let their saga of horror and woe play out seriously.  While there are moments of humor, it never strays too far into camp.  

The visuals, however, are the main event.  The excellent rotoscoped animation pays homage to Ralph Bakshi, but it also improves significantly on his output.  It often feels like "The Spine of Night" is a movie that Bakshi or his imitators would have made forty years ago if it weren't for budget and technology limitations.  The hardcore ending in particular, full of glorified images of death and destruction, embraces the most macabre side of animation with everything it's got.  It feels like "The Spine of Night" should have a soundtrack featuring every hard rock musician who ever threw demon horns, and my only real complaint about the film is that its score is not nearly as kickass as it could be.  

Then you have Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski's "Cryptozoo," which imagines a world where mythical creatures are real, but very rare.  Facing constant threats from traffickers, a group of cryptozoologists decide to try to put together a Cryptozoo as a sanctuary for the cryptids, despite serious misgivings from various participants. Most of the story follows Lauren (Lake Bell), a cryptid finder trying to track down the dream-eating Baku, with the help of a new partner, a gorgon named Phoebe (Angeliki Papoulia).  A subplot involves a naked hippie couple scaling the cryptozoo's fence and causing mayhem and destruction when they come upon the cryptids unawares.

"Cryptozoo" has some interesting concepts, the Cryptozoo being a thinly veiled allegory for the deeply troubled Utopian movements of the 1970s.   Phoebe is a great character, a cryptid who tries to pass herself off as human and hopes that social equality might be possible for her kind one day.  The visuals, however, are a mixed bag.  The painted, collage-style designs look like something out of a picture book by Eric Carle, the people all slightly grotesque, and the cryptids all vaguely familiar.  There are unicorns, dragons, griffins, and many more creatures, and most of them become involved in instances of gory violence.  The high degree of stylization helps keep some distance between the viewer and the worst of the upsetting content.  However, it also keeps the animation very static and I don't find it too appealing. 

Like "The Spine of Night," "Cryptozoo" is a fascinating film for the way it manages to conceptualize some of its ideas, and how it breaks so many of the taboos we associate with animation.  However, also like "The Spine of Night," it has a third act full of mayhem and destruction that leaves far too many of those interesting ideas by the wayside.  "The Spine of Night" was more of an exercise in aesthetics and could get away with it, while "Cryptozoo" doesn't come out quite so well.  I still enjoyed the film, and think it's worth tracking down for its highly unique approach, but it never won me over as much as I wish that it did.   

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"House of Gucci" is a Memorable Mess

I wasn't originally going to write a review for "House of Gucci," because it's not good enough or bad enough to get worked up about.  However, the more I think about this movie, the weirder it is.  Just the talent involved demands some attention and scrutiny.  At the top of the list is Ridley Scott, who can add this picture to his growing collection of films about wealthy people being horrible to their family members.  The cast is boggling, with Adam Driver playing young Gucci scion Maurizio, Lady Gaga as his wife Patrizia, Jeremy Irons as his disapproving father Rodolfo, Al Pacino as his uncle Aldo, and Jared Leto as cousin Paolo, truly one of the most unfortunate abuses of latex seen on the silver screen in a while. Jack Huston and Salma Hayak also show up in minor roles.

Now, I understand why the film made money, because the trashy soap opera antics of people with famous last names, combined with a little true crime intrigue will always attract a certain amount of interest.  However, this is such a terribly ineffectual telling of a story that should have way more entertainment value than it does.  It's two and a half hours long, and doesn't do too badly setting up the characters and all of the stakes and positions and alliances, with all the expected camp and ridiculousness that the ads have suggested.  However, when we get down to the business of the actual criminal undertaking, suddenly the perspective shifts almost totally away from Patrizia, the central figure in the story up to this point, in favor of Maurizio.  I don't begrudge him the attention, but it means the complete sidelining of a major player for an unacceptable amount of time.  As a result it loses track of the emotional throughline of the major conflict, completely fails to build any tension up to the climax, and speeds through the third act to arrive at the ending with a thud.      

Some of the performances are so good that it's easy to ignore the film's flaws for a good long while.  Lady Gaga is fabulous as the hot-blooded Patrizia, and it's fun to watch her navigate the Gucci family's complicated dealings, 1980s fashions trends, and her own emotional well-being.  Pacino and Irons are dependably strong, and Adam Driver does a lot with a role that is very half baked.  All of these actors are playing broad caricatures of Italians, using accents that can be charitably described as cartoonish, but one can still suspend disbelief enough to accept them as human beings.  The same is not true of what Jared Leto decides to do with Paolo, which is to don a fatsuit, adopt a Super Mario speech pattern that seems to be picking a fight with the entire notion of being Italian, and gnaw on the scenery with everything he's got.    

"House of Gucci" has been dinged from other corners for being tonally inconsistent and playing up the buffoonery of the Gucci clan.  My biggest problem with the film is that it's woefully unbalanced, oddly edited, and badly written.  The movie is about the Gucci company more than it is about any of the Gucci family members, which is great if you're making a movie about a big success in the fashion world, and not so great when you're making one about family betrayals, fraud, and murder.  It's a very bad sign when it feels like the film just kind of skips over the motivations of the killer, who clearly has very complicated feelings about the whole endeavor.  I would've loved to see what some of the actors were really capable of with these roles, especially Driver and Lady Gaga.   

"House of Gucci" looks great at least, playing up the big hair and fashions of the 1980s, and showing off the Guccis' wealth.  This is a film with a fairly high budget, and is proof that Ridley Scott still has the clout to get things done his way.  Unfortunately, despite the high class production, the film feels ill-conceived and sometimes almost incompetently put together.  No matter how juicy the material is, or how colorful the characters are, a melodrama still needs to be properly dramatic, and "House of Gucci," for all its fireworks and eye candy, never managed to put down a solid enough foundation to sustain its operatic aims. 

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Scrutinizing "A Hero"

I regret that this is the first Asghar Farhadi film I've written about, though I've seen several.  His films are about ordinary people in Iranian society, who face difficult ethical quandaries exacerbated by their religious and social realities.  Seemingly clear-cut situations and simple plans tend to go awry and become complicated very quickly.  His best films are essentially morality plays, specific to the modern Iranian milieu.  "A Hero" is his latest, currently in the middle of a plagiarism scandal. It's about a debtor temporarily granted leave from incarceration, who hatches a scheme to stay out of prison.

Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi) decides he'll play the part of a hero, taking a bag found by his girlfriend Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldoust), and returning it to its owner instead of using the gold inside to pay off his debt.  The publicity from being a good Samaritan initially brings Rahmin attention, job offers, and monetary help.  However, his unhappy creditor, Brahman (Mohsen Tanabandeh), isn't convinced by the story.  Soon Rahmin is put in the position of having to prove his version of events to an investigator (Ehsan Goodarzi), and dragging other people into the messy situation, including Farkhondeh, his sister Malileh (Maryam Shahdaie), and his young son Siavash (Saleh Karimai).    

The cultural context needed to parse all the different relationships and obligations in play here is a little daunting at first.  I struggled with how to describe Farkhondeh, because she's the woman Ramin "intends to marry," not technically a fiancee, and the term girlfriend feels inadequate.  Brahman's grudge doesn't just have to do with the debt, but with how it was handled by Rahmin, resulting in the loss of Brahman's daughter's dowry.  However, once Rahmin gets the ball rolling with his little scheme, and the media flurry begins, the themes of "A Hero" are immediately very universal.  Rahmin painting himself as a hero invites scrutiny that he didn't anticipate, soon finds the fickle public opinion turned against him, and considers increasingly desperate measures to get everyone back on his side.  In the process, Farhadi asks his audience to consider the nature of altruism.  Does it matter that Ramin initially wanted to keep the money?  Or that it may have been returned to the wrong person?  Or that he chose to publicize his act?       

The actors are all very good, Amir Jadidi in particular.  Farhadi's leading men tend to conform to a certain type, and Jadidi bucks this image a bit because Rahmin is a very slippery figure who is creative with the truth.  Though he does display a good amount of moral fiber, and there's plenty to admire about him, he's not trustworthy in the least.  This makes Rahmin fascinating to watch as he tries to squirm his way out of his lies, and keep his house of cards from falling.  I appreciate that as Rahmin's story starts to unravel, it allows him to show his good side as much as it shows his bad side.  Nothing is simple in this universe, least of all the hero of the piece.          

Farhadi's filmmaking is simple and straightforward, but is very proficient at capturing many different viewpoints and the involvement of many different characters.  There are many minor, but vital figures, including the woman who heads a charity duped by Ramin, and Brahman's protective daughter, who have a significant impact on the story.  Siavash is present for many scenes, and registers as a major character even though a speech impediment keeps him from saying much.  And more importantly, Rahmin's awareness of Siavash in these scenes becomes key to his decisionmaking as the situation gets more unstable.    

It was a relief to find "A Hero" this year, after failing to connect with so many other films.  Its lack of frills may feel old fashioned at times, but its construction is flawless and its aims are compelling.  Farhadi tells a very familiar story, but one that's never felt more timely or more necessary.  Whether it's actually his story or not, it's as good a place as any to start with his films, which I really haven't shown enough appreciation for.         

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There's Lots to Like About "Licorice Pizza"

I was not looking forward to Paul Thomas Anderson's "Licorice Pizza," which for a long time had the unappealing working title, "Soggy Bottom."  It takes place in 1973 and 1974 in the San Fernando Valley, and follows the relationship that develops between a fifteen year-old boy, Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) and a twenty-five year old woman, Alana Kane (Alana Haim).  There's been a lot of grumbling from various corners about the significant age gap, and some Orientalist nonsense involving a restaurateur, one of the many, many people that Gary and Alana encounter during their adventures.  

I haven't had the best time with films set in this time period.  Especially ones made by directors who are nostalgic for their high school days.  Especially when they involve teenage boys getting into teenage boy antics.  What caught me off guard about "Licorice Pizza" is that the narrative is pretty even split between Gary and Alana, and despite the age gap, they're on about the same level maturity-wise.  Alana starts out as a photographer's assistant who is still living with her protective parents.  Gary, on the other hand, is a rapidly aging child actor who is used to fending for himself, since his mother Anita (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) is frequently away on business.  During the course of the film, Gary starts up multiple businesses on his own, including a successful waterbed retailer staffed by his own circle of friends.  He's also the one who approaches and pursues Alana from the opening scene.  

This isn't to say that the age gap isn't acknowledged and doesn't cause problems.  Alana immediately nixes anything romantic, but she likes hanging out with Gary and his friends, and really struggles to get her head around the idea that she likes hanging out with Gary and his friends.  She tries a few different jobs, including being an actress and working for a political campaign, trying to navigate her own path into adulthood.  Gary, meanwhile, knows what he wants from the start, but is often tripped up by his own immaturity.  However, his earnestness and confidence are great assets, and it helps that Gary isn't the typical horndog movie teenager with sex as his ultimate end goal.  To my surprise, aside from a couple of funny salacious moments, the romance is actually very sweet.          

 

For a film nerd, the film's secret weapon is its showbiz cameos.  Gary's experiences are based on the life of producer Gary Goetzman, and many of the people in the film are based on other celebrities.  Thinly disguised versions of a cranky Lucille Ball (Christine Ebersole) and self-obsessed William Holden (Sean Penn) appear.  Alana's campaigning work is for Joel Wachs (Benny Safdie), and there's a hysterical waterbed delivery encounter with a very intense Jon Peters (Bradley Cooper), known best as Barbara Streisand's boyfriend at the time.  And in spite of the star power, the very average-looking Haim and Cooper have no trouble at all carrying the film and holding their own.  I especially like Alana Haim in this film, who has a very appealing presence and vibe. 

Paul Thomas Anderson creates an immersive world, as always, full of little details.  It's great to watch the characters just get lost in the beautifully laid out environments, like the long tracking shots traveling through a high school gym or a convention where you can spot Herbie the Love Bug and John C. Reilly cameoing as Fred Gwynne.  The soundtrack and the film grain are era appropriate, of course, but what impresses me most is that Anderson is so good at making his characters feel like real people, and eliding the artifice of their construction, even when he's being as self-indulgent as he obviously is here.  I love that Alana Haim's parents and sisters are recruited to play her fractious family in the film, adding that extra little touch of authenticity to their interactions.

There's plenty of era-appropriate bad behavior going on - smoking, unsupervised children, ignorant racism, and predatory behavior by some of the adults - but most of it is used critically, often to show how ridiculous the people involved are.  One of the bits that has caused the most fuss has been about that awful restaurateur played by John Michael Higgins, who only speaks in horrible mock Japanese to his Asian wife, who speaks no English.  You're meant to cringe at the sheer absurdity of the situation, and Higgins really commits to it, which I respect.

    

I understand why some viewers would be uncomfortable with this, but it worked for me.  I laughed and I enjoyed myself, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies this year.

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The Power (Ballad) of "Peacemaker"

I have been comparing way too much superhero media to "The Venture Brothers" recently, but "Peacemaker" is one of the most obvious successors to that show yet.  It's about a costumed crime-fighter trying to get out of the shadow and influence of his terrible father, is constantly taking potshots at beloved genre media, and stars a group of damaged oddballs who bond by engaging in gratuitous violence together.  And don't get me started on the reverence for obscure rock music or the sinister butterflies.  

James Gunn spun off "Peacemaker" from last year's "The Suicide Squad," where the character of Christopher "Peacemaker" Smith (John Cena) was introduced as a trigger-happy supervillain willing to kill anybody in the name of peace.  The series, which is entirely written and directed by Gunn, is a direct sequel that sees Peacemaker recruited for a new black ops mission lead by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji).  The team includes no nonsense Agent Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), tech guy Economos (John Agee) and newbie Leota (Danielle Brooks).  Eventually Peacemaker's self-appointed bestie Adrian "Vigilante" Chase (Freddie Stroma), and his actual bestie, an eagle named Eagly, join the fight.  They're pitted against various opponents, but the biggest villain may well be Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), Peacemaker's racist, misogynist, conspiracy theorist father.   

Similar to DC's "Harley Quinn" animated series, "Peacemaker" takes an irreverent approach to superhero-dom, existing in the same universe where Superman and Wonder Woman exist, but focusing on the jerks and the losers who populate the crime-fighting D-list.  All the characters in this show are some degree of scummy, and most of the heroes act like middle school kids who never stopped trying to one-up or trash talk each other.  The difference between this and something like "The Boys" is that characters like Peacemaker and Vigilante are very redeemable in spite of their aggressively puerile behavior.  Peacemaker's arc in this series is realizing that he has been a terrible person, and the ultra-masculine persona that he's so committed to is masking a lot of unprocessed trauma.  He can be an actual hero if he wants to be, and it turns out that he wants to be.  There's also the same "The Suicide Squad" theme of found family and redemptive friendships triumphing over cynicism and apathy.   

I feel I should warn that this show is even more R-rated than "The Suicide Squad," featuring sex and nudity, constant cursing, plentiful gore, and offensive terms being thrown around.  "Peacemaker" might be mistaken for something more family friendly because of the brightly colored costumes and high-quality CGI, and honestly it's got a pretty typical superhero structure underneath everything requiring content warnings, but it's emphatically adult from the opening scene.  However, I appreciate that the dudebro humor is very smartly written and self-aware.  Gunn never misses a chance to dunk on the hate-spewers, and positions characters like Leota, a happily married black lesbian, and a policewoman named Sophie Song (Annie Chang) as the voices of reason.  He's also not afraid of riling up the DC fanbase, regularly mocking more famous superheroes.   

The lynchpin of "Peacemaker," however, is absolutely John Cena, who has become a major comedic force over the past decade, and has clearly found his signature role.  His ability to rattle off obscure pop-culture references, share a genuinely sweet relationship with a CGI eagle, and stay straight faced while wearing a ridiculous superhero getup is a joy to behold.   A major highlight of the show is the opening sequence, which features the cast doing a fabulous dance number set to a Norwegian glam metal song, with Cena front and center.  The rest of the cast is similarly strong, but I want to highlight the work of Freddie Stroma as the weirdly sweet psycho, Vigilante, and Danielle Brooks rocking the normcore energy as Leota in particular.  It's been a while since I've seen a genre show where I really was rooting for everybody to survive in a universe that wasn't afraid of killing people off.

Gunn is growing on me, though I still think his sensibilities aren't a good fit for the Marvel universe.  He's clearly way more comfortable on the DC side, which has been willing to let him get as nasty and filthy as he wants.  I never expected Warners to go all in on adult-oriented superhero media, but here we are, and it's pretty cool.

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A Trip to "Nightmare Alley"

I watched the 1947 film noir version of "Nightmare Alley" starring Tyrone Power a few months ago in preparation for the Guillermo Del Toro version.  I could see why he liked the story, which involves a seedy carnival and a mentalist scam.  There is also clearly a monster, the troubled protagonist Stanton Carlisle, whose ambitions eventually lead to a grotesque downfall.  I found the film entertaining, but also limited by being very much a product of its time. 

The 2021 version is significantly better, though it has its flaws.  For one thing, Del Toro's version is forty minutes longer, and runs into significant pacing issues.  For another, the disjointed storytelling makes it more obvious that "Nightmare Alley" is based on a novel, and runs into trouble getting some of its narrative conceits work onscreen.  However, Del Toro does succeed in adding some depth to the characters.   Stanton Carlisle, played by Bradley Cooper, is a far more fascinating, disturbing lead.  The movie opens on him dragging a dead body through an empty house, which he proceeds to set on fire and abandon.  The specter of this act haunts him throughout the rest of the film.

The story is split into two distinct parts.  In the first, Stan joins a carnie outfit during the Great Depression, run by Clem (Willem Dafoe).  He picks up tricks from the clairvoyant act of Zeena (Toni Collette) and Pete (David Strathairn), and falls in love with Molly (Rooney Mara), a girl with an electrocution act.  The second half involves Stan working as a mentalist a few years later, attracting the attention of a psychologist, Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), who helps him swindle more upper class clientele, including the reclusive Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins).  With a cast this strong and Del Toro's usual lavish visuals, "Nightmare Alley" had no trouble keeping my attention throughout.      

Del Toro fans should keep in mind, however, that this is a film that abides by the parameters of a traditional classic noir film.  While we get some of Del Toro's usual genre flair, with the carnie characters and Stan's mentalist act, he plays the melodrama totally straight.  There's nothing supernatural at work going on here, except in Stan's illusions.  The imagery is heightened and reflects Stan's psychological turmoil - in the second half it always seems to be snowing - but stays firmly grounded in reality.  The horror comes from very lurid, but very human sources, namely the disturbing figure of the carnival geek and Stan's own complicated nature as a con-man and killer.  I was expecting Del Toro to be more subversive and more revisionist, the way he was with "The Shape of Water," but this is a pretty faithful adaptation of the original novel and film.     

I haven't been the biggest fan of Bradley Cooper in the past, but I think the reason "Nightmare Alley" works as well as it does is because I could sympathize with and occasionally root for this version of Stanton Carlisle in a way that I couldn't with the Tyrone Power version.  Those extra forty minutes largely go toward fleshing out Stan and some of the other characters like Molly and Dr. Ritter.  Modern touches are few, but the language and the women are both noticeably stronger.  I like that Stan ambles more reluctantly down the road toward his own predestined doom, and his downfall is generally sadder and subtler.  It genuinely feels like a tragedy when he transgresses, rather than a set-up for the deserved comeuppance.

 

There aren't many directors who can get a passion project like this made, even though the reported budget wasn't outrageous.  I certainly enjoyed this more than something like "Mank," but at the same time I prefer Del Toro's more full throated genre pictures.  Noir is simply not my genre - though it's always a pleasure to see one executed by someone who clearly cares so much about getting it right.

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"Midnight Mass" Outstays Its Welcome

This is the latest miniseries from Mike Flanagan, who you might remember was the man behind Netflix's "The Haunting of Hill House," and various recent Stephen King adaptations.  I was under the impression that "Midnight Mass" was an original feature, but instead it's a seven hour miniseries that presents a slow burn horror story.  It's a rewarding watch, but requires so much patience that I don't think it's going to land very well with the usual horror audiences.

Two men arrive on the remote fishing community of Crockett Island - Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford), a recently released convict returning home, and Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater), filling in for the ailing Catholic Monsignor during Lent.  As the two men settle in, various supernatural events take place, and it becomes clear that they are connected to the church.  We meet other members of the community, including the Muslim sheriff, Hassan (Rahul Kohli), Riley's pregnant childhood friend Erin (Kate Siegel), Dr. Sarah Gunning (Annabeth Gish) and her dementia-stricken mother Mildred (Alex Essoe), town drunk Joe Collie (Robert Longstreet), and the self-righteous church lady, Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan).   

For the first chunk of "Midnight Mass," I was with the show.  I was perfectly happy to watch the slow escalation of the supernatural material, and get to know everybody on Crockett Island.  It's a small, insular community where many people have been touched by tragedy.  Riley struggles to get over his guilt and substance abuse issues.  Father Paul is carrying a secret that is deeply tied to his faith.  "Midnight Mass" takes the time to really examine Father Paul's struggles to bring the community together, and is meticulously detailed in its portrayal of all the ins and outs of Catholic liturgy.  The characters have the opportunity to talk at length about religion and belief in a way that you don't see very often these days.  And it's great, up until the point where it clashes with the show's other aims.

Because once the gore and the horror kick in, Flanagan can't quite seem to commit to the heightened, Grand Guignol level of carnage that he invokes.  Bev Keane is set up for the entire show to become a really despicable, power-mad villain, but she never gets to go as big or as ostentatious as she easily could have.  Father Paul's final fate struck me as anticlimactic, and not in a good way.  The finale is weirdly stop-and-go, with an especially egregious pause toward the end so that one of the heroines can have a long monologue about the nature of death.  And you might remember that Mike Flanagan has a bad habit of having his characters ramble on about existential matters to the point of absurdity.  It's fitting for a ghost story, but weirdly out of place in "Midnight Mass," which has jump scares and mass deaths and a familiar creature that nobody ever gives a name to - but we all know what it is.

I enjoyed a lot of this miniseries, but I desperately want to edit it down to something more manageable.  You could easily lose ten minutes out of every single episode, and condense whole chunks of the storyline.  There were so many events that felt like they were playing out at a glacial pace.  I like the way the show pulls off some of its big twists, but it's all so drawn out and lugubrious that it's not much fun.  To Flanagan's credit the characters are better fleshed out than most, and tragedy that some of them meet hits harder than expected.  The actors are very good, especially Hamish Linklater in one of the most showy roles he's ever had.  Flanagan does stick the landing, though it takes a while to get there.  However, I worry that he's becoming afflicted with the same tendency toward indulgent bloat that afflicts Stephen King.  

After this and the recent "Haunting of Bly Manor," I am convinced that Mike Flanagan is one of the most talented people working in the horror genre today.  However, giving him carte blanche with a passion project like this has led to very mixed results.

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"Ted Lasso," Year Two

Minor spoilers ahead.

Sophomore seasons are full of pitfalls, especially when they follow beloved first seasons.  And there haven't been many shows with first seasons as intensely beloved as "Ted Lasso."  The show does some of the sneaky, contrived things I expected it to do, like wrangling certain characters back into Ted's orbit who have no good reason to be there, and unlikely love matches that we all know are doomed from the outset.  However it also does a good job of building on the momentum of year one, and setting up for year three, while being very entertaining for at least eleven of its twelve episodes.

This season is more comfortable with following individual members of the ensemble on their own storylines.  Keeley and Roy are often off on their own, Rebecca's love troubles take center stage a few times, and Nathan has a huge subplot that is one of the best things the show has done to date.  We get one new major player, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles), a sports psychologist who is hired to work with the team after a crisis in the premiere, and proves totally immune to Ted's usual charms.  Nigerian player Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) is also promoted to main character status, and the show does some fun stuff with him.  However, a few characters inevitably get the short end of the stick.  Coach Beard gets an entire episode to himself, a sort of surrealist, "After Hours" digression that I don't think really works.  This is one of the two extra episodes that was added to the season order in light of the show's success, and it feels like padding because it is.     

As for Ted Lasso himself, his mental health struggles really come to the forefront this year, and he's not nearly as much fun as he was last season.  While Ted still has his moments of charm and insight, and Sudeikis is still delivering a fantastic performance, he's deep in personal crisis over multiple episodes, and a good amount of the narrative hinges on how this negatively affects his role as a coach and as a mentor.  He's mostly back on track by the end of the season, but it still feels like Ted is MIA for a long stretch.  I found my attention shifting more toward Keeley and Roy this year, as it's more fun to watch the two of them grow and mature as people.  They currently have my favorite romantic relationship in any form of ongoing media.  And on the flip side, watching Nathan's ambition and inferiority complex turn him into a monumental asshole is absolutely infuriating.  I know Nick Mohammed is doing a great job based on how much I wanted to strangle him by the end of the season.

Individual episodes focus on different characters from week to week, and are best consumed a little at a time instead of all at once.  "Ted Lasso" has been steadily becoming a hangout show for me, where I check in with my favorite characters every week to see how they're doing.  My favorite installment this year is the Christmas special (the other extra episode), where nothing related to the larger story arcs happens, but we just get the various characters celebrating the season, and Hannah Waddingham gets to belt at the end.  The ins and outs of the football season are still present, and we get to look in on different corners of the UK sports industry and culture, but it's not as central to the show as it was previously.  The big game still happens at the end of the season, but it's not nearly as important to the show as the decisions made by various characters about their futures in the closing scenes.

The production looks great.  The show's success means that the "Ted Lasso" crew now have access to more locations, like Wembley Stadium, and more real football figures making cameos.  And as much as I may have my quibbles with particular choices made for particular characters, on the whole the writing and the acting are consistently strong.  "Ted Lasso" could easily keep going like this for another decade, and I'd be happy to watch.  Alas, all signs point to only one season left, and I'm already impatient to see it.      

         

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The Fascinating World of "Psycho Pass"

The anime franchise "Psycho Pass" is the brainchild of director Naoyoshi Shiotani and writer Gen Urobuchi, a cyberpunk thriller set in a dystopian future Japan.  It's a Production I.G. title, and shares many visual similarities with the studio's flagship franchise, "Ghost in the Shell."  However, "Psycho Pass" is a little more down-to-earth and less cerebral, specifically citing the work of Philip K. Dick as an influence.  Like Dick's "Minority Report," "Psycho Pass" takes place in an authoritarian society where nearly all crime has been eliminated, because criminal behavior is predicted by the sinister Sibyl System that is constantly scanning and rating people's psychological profiles - their "psycho passes."  If someone's psycho-pass becomes "clouded" beyond a certain threshold, they're declared a "latent criminal" and shipped off to mandatory therapy, prison, or in extreme cases shot on sight.

In place of the police, we have the Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau, where potential criminals are tracked and pursued by Inspectors and Enforcers.  The Inspectors are essentially police detectives, and the Enforcers are latent criminals who do the more dangerous work under them with significant restrictions.  Being an Enforcer is the only legitimate job that a latent criminal can hold, and there's a disturbing trend of Inspectors being exposed to so much psychic damage on the job that they eventually become latent criminals and Enforcers.  Our central heroine is a rookie Inspector, Akane Tsunemori (Kana Hanazawa), who joins the Bureau and is put in charge of several Enforcers, including Shinya Kogami (Tomokazu Seki), an ex-Inspector who is still obsessed with a particular unsolved case.  Other characters include Tsunemori's fellow Inspector, Ginoza (Kenji Nojima), middle aged Enforcer Masaoka (Kinryu Arimoto), and the female Chief of the Bureau, Kasei (Yoshiko Sakakibara).    

"Psycho Pass" is the anime that comes closest to following the usual template of an American crime procedural.  There are some ostentatious character design flourishes, but the style is more subdued than the majority of action anime.  The show also originally aired as part of the Noitamina programming block, and is aimed at adults, so there's little of the zany humor or fanservice that tends to take me out of similar shows.  Each episode brings a new case and a new criminal to pursue, with some thornier season-long mysteries involving serial killers Shogo Makushima (Takahiro Sakurai) and Rikako Oryo (Maaya Sakamoto) playing out more incrementally.  More importantly, there's a big focus on the protagonists' personal relationships, and the show pulls off some decent dramatic twists.  "Psycho Pass" is also a much easier watch than something like "Ghost in the Shell."  It has its share of dense intellectual rambling, and high tech eye-candy, but more human characters and an emphasis on action scenes.  The big showstopper visuals often involve the Bureau's special Dominator firearm, which essentially blows up anything it targets.    

I watched the 22 episode first season of the show, which is  self-contained, and the first theatrical film featuring most of the same characters exploring a different corner of their dystopia. The level of the production isn't as high as some of Production I.G.'s other titles, but "Psycho Pass" comes off as a perfectly serviceable action thriller.  I especially appreciate Tsunemori as a rare young female heroine who stands her ground and gets to be a big part of the action with relatively little male gaze-y material.   She fits into the older mode of sharp-minded "action girl" heroine like Noa from "Patlabor" or Deunan from "Appleseed" that I've missed in recent years.  The rest of the characters are fairly generic types, but the show uses them well, and avoids many of the usual melodramatic pitfalls.  

I'm a little surprised that the remake rights for "Psycho Pass" haven't been snapped up in the U.S., because the premise is such a strong one, featuring a host of interesting science-fiction concepts and themes to explore.  On the other hand, FOX already made a "Minority Report" series a few years ago that didn't do well.  Also, I stopped watching where I did because the show's format reportedly changes significantly from season to season, swapping out various characters.  By all accounts the first season is far and away the best one.  I might come back to the "Psycho Pass" universe eventually, but the original 22 episodes wrapped up so nicely, it feels like the best place to leave it.      

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The First "Lupin" and Ghibli CGI Features

The anime industry has been making CGI animated films for a while, but we've recently seen the release of two major titles that are higher profile than anything we've seen so far.  Studio Ghibli has released their first CGI feature, "Earwig and the Witch," based on the last book written by Diana Wynne Jones, and directed by Goro Miyazaki.  Meanwhile, Marza Animation Planet, which gave us the "Harlock" movie a few years ago, is responsible for the first CGI "Lupin III" feature, titled "Lupin III: The First," and directed by Takashi Yamazaki.

From everything that I'd heard about "Earwig and the Witch," I was expecting a disaster.  Goro Miyazaki had the unenviable task of trying to make a film using an entirely different system of animation at the famously old-school  Studio Ghibli, and he hasn't had the greatest track record as a director.  However, despite a few bumps and snags, I found "Earwig" a perfectly charming, modest little Ghibli movie.  A bratty orphan girl named Earwig (Kokoro Hirasawa), is adopted by a demanding witch named Bella (Shinobu Terajima) and an unfriendly fellow named Mandrake (Etsushi Toyokawa), who can control demons.  They live in a magical house with a lot of secrets.  Though her new guardians initially seem frightening and harsh, Earwig soon takes advantage of the situation, befriends Bella's feline familiar Thomas (Gaku Hamada), and starts learning magic. 

You can tell that "Earwig" is a Ghibli film from its design sensibility, which takes all the familiar visual cues we associate with Ghibli and translate them into CGI forms, sometimes rather awkwardly.  While the lush vegetation and the cluttered interiors are passable, the character designs leave a lot to be desired.  Earwig and her friends are plasticine and stiff, and look about a decade behind, technically, than the other major studios.  The only character who really comes across right is the cat, Thomas, who looks  exactly how you'd want a Ghibli cat to look in CGI.  I appreciate that pains were taken to try and preserve some of the little animation tics and design features that always helped to set Ghibli films apart, but I think that the artists played it too safe.  The camera stays stubbornly static for most of the film, and compositions are clearly still designed for two dimensions instead of three.     

I've heard some complaints about how short the film is, and how it seems to be missing a third act where Earwig finally gets some of her questions answered.  I would have liked a more concrete ending as well, but I found the characters and the story charming enough that I didn't mind that it stopped where it did.  Other Ghibli films like "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" have had similar non-endings.  "Earwig and the Witch" is clearly one of the studio's cheaper, less ambitious features, made by mostly younger members of the staff, and often feels like a training exercise or a test run of the animation technology.  However, I still found it entertaining, and enjoyed spending some time with Earwig and her strange little family.  I think it would have been better if it had been traditionally animated, because Ghibli still has a lot of kinks in the CGI to work out, but it's still a perfectly good piece of work.

"Lupin III: The First," on the other hand, looks absolutely fantastic.  I was a little worried about this project, because the "Harlock" film was so dark and murky, and the character animation wasn't much to talk about.  "Lupin III" is a huge improvement, beautifully translating the cartoon designs and movements of the goofy Arsene Lupin III (Kanichi Kurita)  and his band of merry cohorts into dazzling CGI forms.  All the old physical gags, famous poses, and the most importantly the facial expressions are perfect.  Lupin goofs and blusters and banters in CGI as well as he ever did in traditional animation, and he's as charismatic and fun to watch as ever.  Takashi Yamazaki takes full advantage of the CGI animation, staging huge, complex action sequences, using lots of different environments, and executing plenty of complicated shots.  

Once you get past the fun of the visuals, however, "Lupin III: The First" is a pretty typical "Lupin III" adventure.  A young woman named Laetitia (Suzu Hirose) teams up with Lupin, in pursuit of the famous Bresson diary, a book that will lead them to a mysterious treasure.  Lupin gets help from his usual crew - Jigen (Kiyoshi Kobayashi), Goemon (Daisuke Namikawa), Fujiko (Miyuki Sawashiro), and even Inspector Zenigata (Koichi Yamadera).  The villains this time out are an unscrupulous archaeologist, Lambert (Kotaro Yoshida), who is backed by a Nazi revivalist, Gerard (Tatsuya Fujiwara).  The film is set in the 1960s, and has fun with vintage vehicles and period touches.  It takes its cues from Indiana Jones, Tintin, and James Bond, of course.  Compared to other "Lupin" media, it feels toned down to appeal to general audiences.  The recent traditionally animated Lupin shows and movies have been geared more toward adults.  In this outing, Lupin barely bothers flirting with Fujiko.

I got a little impatient with "Lupin III: The First" toward the end.  The film puts Laetitia front and center as often as Lupin, and her story is pretty bland and predictable.  I don't think we got nearly enough of Zenigata, Jigen, Goemon, or Fujiko, though I was happy with what we did see of them.  There are a few winks and homages for Lupin fans to look out for, but this outing seems more interested in catching the eyes of new viewers.  And there's nothing wrong with that, especially when it's a feature as beautifully put together as this newest "Lupin III" film. 

    

  

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