Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

YESTERDAY (2019)

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YESTERDAY (2019) is a tough movie to judge, an odd mix of strength and weakness, which I overall liked for its charm and love letter to the Beatles, though it didn’t live up to its engaging premise and fell flat at the end with its typical Hollywood reach for convenience.

Directed by Danny Boyle, YESTERDAY begins with Jack Malik (played with great sympathy by Himesh Patel), a struggling British musician whose only real fan appears to be Ellie (Lily James), his manager. Realizing he’s at a dead end and may not be good enough to go further than where he is, Jack is about to hang it up when a mysterious global event occurs. When it’s over, Jack appears to be in an alternate reality in which the Beatles (along with other things) never happened. When he plays a few of their songs, he suddenly finds himself with a music career, but his stardom comes with impostor syndrome, as his own songs get rejected and only his Beatles songs become loved.

There are elements of this film I really liked, kind of liked, and didn’t like much at all. The elements I really liked were the love and puppyish enthusiasm for the Beatles and Jack’s rise to stardom. These scenes really shine and invite viewers to experience the Beatles’ most popular songs as if for the first time. There are some interesting ideas explored, such as would the Beatles be instantly accepted today as a great band, or were they a product of their time? There’s great comedic scene of Jack playing an iconic song in a coffeehouse in which nobody is paying attention. Some reviewers lamented the film didn’t go deeper into these ideas, but I was okay with their treatment. The film wasn’t about that but instead Jack’s artistic struggle with wanting to bring these songs to the world but feeling like a fraud doing it.

One element I kind of liked was the romantic tension between Jack and Ellie. They have real chemistry, though they end up at odds in Hollywood nonsensical-if-convenient fashion, suddenly turning the film into a typical rom-com. Another is Kate McKinnon’s portrayal of the greedy music industry executive, who talks with complete honesty that comes across for a while as hilarious but quickly gets tired and grating. The main element I didn’t like at all was the conclusion, which wrapped everything in a cathartic moment that didn’t really make sense, and allowed every plot problem to easily and conveniently unravel. Part of the problem, I think, was Jack is thoroughly likeable and sympathetic throughout, so while he may correct a misbelief (which is entirely justifiable, given the circumstances), he doesn’t really undergo any real change, and his correcting the misbelief reaps him great reward but no real consequences. For a fantastic indie film about music and creativity in which the character undergoes a very real and fundamental change, check out the wonderful film FRANK.

So in the end, I liked YESTERDAY–I liked it a lot, in fact, from the great acting to the wonderful direction and music–but it lacked cohesion and could have been great if it didn’t jury-rig key elements of the movie seemingly in typical Hollywood pandering.

MARIANNE (2019)

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MARIANNE, a French horror web TV series now airing on Netflix, is one of the best horror stories I’ve ever seen on a screen, pushing every element of visual storytelling and every advantage of the medium to the max to deliver a superb horror experience that never feels cheap or unearned.

The story introduces us to Emma, a brusque and selfish literary star promoting the final book in her Lizzi Larck series about a girl entangled with an ancient witch. A childhood friend visits her and tells her that her mother is possessed by the very witch she’s been writing about. This leads Emma to return to Elden, her hometown, and a duel with a very real Marianne. Did her writing produce Marianne, or did Marianne influence Emma to write about her?

Along the way, we meet her long-suffering assistant, childhood friends, and estranged parents, along with a quirky police inspector and an irascible priest. Through Emma’s interactions with these people, we learn the source of her past trauma and pain that led to her becoming who and what she is. She gains support from them in her fight with the witch, though they’re weakly matched for what they’re up against, as is she for the most part.

While some lighter moments and mild touches of humor are seeded into the fast-paced narrative, the horror rarely flags, and it’s almost always effective. Not a single punch is pulled. Very clever camera work, effects, and spooky situations provide genuine scares without cheap jump scares and other tricks. The acting, particularly among those influenced by Marianne, is terrific. An enormous care and not a little artistry went into every scene to create just the right effect here, the right transition there, the right pacing, atmosphere, and level of tension.

Overall, I liked it far better than most American horror shows. While the ending suggests a second season is in the offing, I don’t think the show needs it. It’s excellent just as it is, and I ended the first season completely satisfied with the story.

THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood

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Margaret Atwood returns to the bleak dystopian world of THE HANDMAID’S TALE with THE TESTAMENTS. While not iconic nor an instant classic as its predecessor was, it’s a powerful sequel that in its own way is far more hopeful, delivered with Atwood’s trademark literary style.

The novel begins some years after the events of THE HANDMAID’S TALE and follows three women, two living in the Republic of Gilead and one living in Canada. At least two will be recognizable as having a connection with the book and TV series. Their lives will intersect in an act of resistance.

Otherwise, it’s hard to say much about the book’s plot, as little is given in the book’s description. This is a little frustrating in the beginning, as we have three testimonies, each told in third person, and with some time passing before we know their names and can figure out who they are. Once things get rolling, everything starts to congeal toward a collision course.

Readers expecting a novel as iconic as THE HANDMAID’S TALE may be disappointed and wonder why THE TESTAMENTS was necessary. For me, I didn’t want an instant classic as much as a story that simply did justice to its predecessor, which I think it accomplishes. In some ways, it’s superior to THE HANDMAID’S TALE in that the protagonists, while living in a world where women are largely powerless, demonstrate a surprising amount of agency that culminates in an act of resistance. An act so decisive it could change everything.

Another thing I liked about THE TESTAMENTS is that it does not overtly moralize. Instead, it simply shows what it’d be like to live in Gilead. From sexual assault to denial of basic rights and freedoms, women have it pretty bad while being indoctrinated about how good they have it and that whatever they get is God’s will. I enjoyed exploring the oppressive theocratic society of Gilead through multiple characters’ eyes rather than just one who is a Handmaid, whose world is very small.

Overall, THE TESTAMENTS is a deserved sequel that does justice to the classic HANDMAID’S TALE while cleverly complementing both the first book and the TV series.

THE DEAD DON’T DIE (2019)

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In Jim Jarmusch’s latest, THE DEAD DON’T DIE (2019), he digs for social commentary with a fresh take on the zombie genre that deadpans rather than bites.

The town of Centerville is dealing with some strange phenomena. Days last longer and night comes suddenly, animals are fleeing into the wilderness, and the climate is changing, with polar fracking believed responsible as it has tilted Earth off its axis. We’re introduced to an ensemble cast led by Bill Murray and Adam Driver as local cops, and including many other greats from Steve Buscemi to Tilda Swinton. While they roll with the big changes, one arrives that truly threatens extinction–the dead are rising with a hunger for flesh.

Two days later, I’m still not sure what to think of this movie. The sum here is definitely greater than the parts. As for its parts, the deadpan delivery doesn’t achieve real wit or charm, the dialogue often doesn’t go anywhere, there are no character arcs (the great acting talent feels wasted), the characters needed to be lovable for this type of film but aren’t, the political commentary panders to its core audience, and the moments of breaking the fourth wall (Adam Driver referring to the fact they’re in a movie) is more irritating than pithy. The film works better on a thematic level, even if the message is bleak: humans live their own scripts, acting out their roles because they must, with none of it meaning much, and with extinction not really changing anything and perhaps being deserved. “This is going to end badly,” Driver monotones, referring both to the zombie outbreak and life itself, but, “We have to give it our best shot.”

So overall, with its artsy director, stellar cast, and that creative playground that is the zombie genre, THE DEAD DON’T DIE had far more potential than it delivers, resulting in a beautiful swing and a miss for me as a viewer. Still, it has its charm–I didn’t hate it, and I actually kind of liked it.

CHOKEHOLD by David Moody

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David Moody brings his HATER series into a spectacular landing with CHOKEHOLD, coming out from St. Martin’s Griffin November 19, 2019.

I first read HATER back when David was self-publishing his zombie fiction in PDFs, and fell in love with it. In this apocalyptic novel, a dormant genetic switch flips in a third of humanity, making them terrified and hateful of the other two-thirds, resulting in a string of homicides that snowballs into an all-out war. The novel has a twist in the last act as powerful as the end of WOOL. After HATER was optioned by Guillermo del Toro, St. Martin’s brought the book to print along with a series that ended up spanning six books.

In the first trilogy, we follow a Hater, while in the second, we follow Matt, one of the Unchanged. CHOKEHOLD follows the fall of nuclear bombs that have turned the UK into a wasteland. In the ruins, the last Unchanged survive in a fortress, while rival armies of Haters head toward them for a final showdown. Matt must navigate all this hate and try to survive on his own until finally making a choice to try to help them all survive.

David gave CHOKEHOLD his best writing in the series, tying all the characters and plots from the previous books together into a satisfying conclusion. Throughout the series, the main characters had their choices made for them by rapidly changing circumstances. In this last episode, they make the own choices, right or wrong, for hate or redemption, and even those who don’t make it expire knowing their death meant something. And for all its bleakness and violence, the series finishes on a small note of hope.

I can’t recommend David’s work enough, whether it’s his groundbreaking HATER series of his powerful AUTUMN series. I’ve stuck with both over a decade, and now I can’t wait to see what David comes up with next.