Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

HIGH WATER

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Based on real historical events, HIGH WATER (Netflix) is a Polish series depicting the catastrophic flooding of a major city in Poland. Part disaster movie and part comedy of errors, the series incorporates venerable tropes into a story of bureaucratic bungling, hubris, and heroism that feels real and lived in.

In 1997, massive flooding impacted Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic due to a cyclone. In Poland, 40,000 people lost everything, and the city of Wroclaw, a city of some 600,000 people, was devastated by rising waters. Based on this historical event, HIGH WATER focuses on Jasmina Tremer, a hydrologist and recovering addict, and her efforts to save the city. When her report warning of flooding is read by government officials, they invite her to join a task force to deal with it. Unfortunately, everything the government tries to do either fails or backfires until the inevitable occurs.

We have a lot of familiar disaster tropes: a brilliant but hotheaded hero haunted by a dark past who warns of a public danger but is attacked for it or marginalized, veteran scientists who relentlessly attack the hero, government bungling, and an epic disaster engulfing a major city. Tremer is so hotheaded, in fact, that she often undermines her own cause by saying screw you guys and storming out of the room.

The show goes a lot farther than the familiar, however, by making it, well, even more familiar, but from real life. Lived in, I mean. Mundane. When the Army screws up because they’re using outdated maps, or the heroic farmers battle the cops to save their lands and let the city save itself some other way, or politicians point fingers at each other when the shit hits the fan, you think, yeah, that’s pretty much how it’d go. The same goes even more for the disaster response. The people need saving, but it’s not up to the hero, it’s up to everyone working together. I loved seeing the Poles trapped on the upper floors of buildings breaking out the vodka and making a party of it, while everyone else chips in as a community to help the worst off.

So overall, HIGH WATER is your basic disaster movie set in Poland and produced as a TV series, but it immediately stakes its own engaging identity by feeling real and featuring deep, likable characters. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

THE MENU (2022)

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THE MENU (2022) is one of those rare surprising movies like Cronenberg’s CRIMES OF THE FUTURE that comes out of nowhere and makes me love film all over again. It’s a great film.

In this film, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy, who I already like in almost everything she’s in) joins Tyler (Nicholas Hoult, who is really growing on me lately) on a date to a private island whose sole purpose is to house an upscale restaurant catering to the super wealthy. The clientele include a snobby food critic and her editor, a fading movie star, obnoxious tech bros, and others. Chef (Ralph Fiennes), however, has a very special menu planned for these curated guests, each course becoming more sinister.

I can’t go farther than that, as really, there’s so much fun in discovering this film as raw as possible. Suffice to say there is an economic theme in how the haves feed off the labor of the have-nots without appreciating the time, energy, and effort that goes into what they consume so carelessly. But for me, really, this was about humans who consider their work art and face a lifetime of unappreciated work and intense pressure finally simply saying, screw it, I’m done. (As a writer, I can imagine a similar horrific book reading where a writer invites certain reviewers, including that reader who requested a free review copy for a book, read only few pages of it, and then trashed it with a 1-star review on Goodreads without any care for the enormous amount of creative work that went into it). My advice is to put all that in the back of your mind, though, and just enjoy the story of a man hitting a breaking point in a delicious way.

Otherwise, pretty much everything about THE MENU worked for me. The set is understated and elegant, the acting terrific–particularly Fiennes–the food exquisite, the script tight and packed with sharp dialogue, the comedy black as night, and the message provocative. Highly recommended.

THE PALE BLUE EYE (2022)

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In THE PALE BLUE EYE (2022), a weary constable is called to solve a series of murders occurring at West Point military academy, teaming up with cadet Edgar Allan Poe during his investigation. The performances–notably Christian Bale, Harry Melling, and Toby Jones–and an emotionally powerful ending make this a standout Gothic film.

Based on the novel by Louis Bayard, the film is essentially Gothic horror, though it mashes up prominent thriller and mystery elements to make it modern and more engaging. The 1820s atmosphere is suitably dreary, dark, and cold, reflecting not only the inhospitable winter but also Constable Landor’s inner emotional landscape, as he is grieving. Everything comes together properly in the story, and the final reveal is surprising and delivers the goods with a real punch.

That being said, well, it’s just me, but Gothic stories tend to either be bad or at best pretty good for me. They’re slow burners leaning heavily on an overly familiar atmosphere, and as a result I find them a bit of a test of endurance. THE PALE BLUE EYE, however, is pretty good.

The acting, however, is fantastic. Bale conveys his emotions with incredible nuance and subtle power, Melling pretty much inhabits what I think the real Poe might have been like in the flesh, and Toby Jones always delivers as one of the best character actors in the business. The final scenes are riveting.

So overall, this one is a solid film and a standout in the genre, an easy recommendation for fans of Gothic horror.

THE GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (2022)

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In THE GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (2022), the world’s great detective Benoit Blanc returns to solve another mystery, this one rich with sharp social commentary. Overall, I liked it more than I thought I would, as it’s fun and playful and over the top, though I’m not sure about that ending. Let me explain.

The movie begins with a group of influencers receiving a puzzle from billionaire Miles Bron, their financial benefactor who made their careers. We have a governor, scientist, fashion designer and former model, and men’s rights Tik Tok personality. Also attending is Bron’s old business partner Andi Brand, whom he cut out of their business empire and none other than Benoit Blanc himself. The puzzle is an invite to travel to Bron’s Greek island during the pandemic to have a “disruptor” weekend. The plan is for a fake murder mystery to occur, but when a very real murder occurs, Blanc must put his formidable detective skills to the case.

As a mystery, it’s pretty good. Everyone is a suspect, most of the characters are not terrific people and people we wouldn’t mind seeing in handcuffs, and the setting is pretty cool. There’s some good sleight of hand in both the story and the filmmaking technique. I did guess the murderer fairly early, and I usually suck at solving mysteries, so I’m not sure if others found that to be the case for them, but that’s okay, I don’t mind winning one once in a while. As a comedy, it’s amusing enough to have kept me engaged. Nothing laugh out loud for me, as the comedy leans on easy desperate celebrity stereotypes, but it was fun. The cast included great actors, who all delivered great performances.

As social commentary, the film thematically takes aim at the ridiculous myth of the billionaire genius and the corruption of both wealth and how wealth is confused with virtue. Spouting business technobabble and utterly narcissistic and manipulative, Bron comes across as a cross between Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and every other billionaire we put on a pedestal. In the end, he gets his own comeuppance in a sequence that was satisfying for a “tax the billionaires out of existence starting with Musk” guy like me (looking at Bron’s palace, I actually said aloud what ends up happening), but I’m not sure it really fit the movie, it felt a little disjointed.

Overall, though, I liked THE GLASS ONION. That kind of comic ensemble mystery isn’t really my thing, but they make it just fun and engaging enough for me to come along for the ride.

THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT (2022)

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In THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT (2022), veteran actor Nicholas Cage scores the role of a lifetime, playing himself in a comedy offering plenty of gonzo red meat for Cage fans and meta laughs for anyone even remotely familiar with his filmography. I thought it was a ton of fun.

The film begins with Nicholas Cage going through a divorce, unable to connect with his daughter, suffering financial ruin, and feeling creatively unfulfilled. When a rich superfan offers $1 million to attend a birthday party in Spain, he turns it down, only to be forced to take it. This puts him into a strange friendship with the fan (Pedro Pascal), at odds with his ego Nicky (a younger version of him played by himself), and recruitment by the CIA as the superfan is suspected of being a drug kingpin.

What follows is light fare but with plenty of meat, much of it meta but plenty coming from the great performances, particularly the great chemistry between Cage and Pascal, and something of a character arc in which Cage must live up to the legend and channel many of his old roles to save the day in order to take a step back and enjoy life and be a more loving and giving person. In short, the film has a lot of charm, it’s funny in the right places, the meta aspect is played at the right balance, and the plot moves where it’s supposed to go.

I don’t know if I’d call myself a Cage fan, but I’m loving this current phase in his career as he reaches for weird roles and leans into the gonzo persona he’s accrued over the years. THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT is the culmination of this. I’m looking forward to what he’s going to do next.

SAS: ROGUE HEROES

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Based on the book by Ben Macintyre, Steven Knight’s SAS: ROGUE HEROES is a BBC historical drama series about the formation of the British Army Special Air Service during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. Infused with modern elements and plenty of energy, the series is a lot of fun, despite the lack of empathy I had for most of the characters.

In the early days of World War II, Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany, and one of the main theaters of the conflict was North Africa, where General Rommel outclassed the British at maneuver warfare and pushed them to Tobruk, now under siege. When British attempts to relieve the siege fail, British officer David Stirling conceives of a special commando unit that would fight in the enemy’s rear and disrupt supply lines through sabotage and general mayhem. An intelligence effort was underway to convince the Germans the British were doing just that, so populating a fictitious unit with real soldiers seemed a good way to make the intel operation stick. The thing is, the SAS fought well, assaulting multiple airbases and inflicting high losses, resulting in it being recognized as a very real regiment and given broad agency to accomplish its goals by whatever means necessary.

The series is set in a specific period of history, though it feels contemporary, particularly through the use of a heavy metal soundtrack that punches up the action and sets the tone. The war they fight feels lived in and real. The desert landscapes are stunning, the action scenes exciting. As for the soldiers, they’re recruited from among the most violent and cunning misfits the British Army had on hand, men who disparaged regulation and acted on their own initiative. These men were certainly daring, resourceful, cunning, and utterly committed to putting a hurt on Rommel. This makes them a fun bunch to watch in action, though with some reservations, notably that two of the main officers, Stirling and Paddy Mayne, are supposed to be larger than life personalities but act like self-pitying, petulant, and petty man-babies, and while they come across as great commandos, they’re horrible as commanders. Often, they seem to succeed despite trying to fail. Another issue I had with the series is history doesn’t always make great fiction, as characters die or other events happen that nail broadly true events but seem oddly placed in a story.

Overall, I liked the series a lot and look forward to Season 2, which unfortunately from what I hear may not come out until 2024. Mixing a lot of great elements, it offers a historical drama that feels fresh and fun. A perfect diversion after a hard day.