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

PREACHER Season 4

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PREACHER Season 4 again failed to match the humorous whimsy and wonder of its first season, but with a hard stop to the series at the end of the fourth, it didn’t meander but instead came to a strongly coherent and powerful finish, complete with a bittersweet denouement.

In this season, Jesse wants to stop God and his agent, the Grail cult, from bringing about the apocalypse. He is in full command of his Genesis power but refuses to use it against God, whom he believes he can convince to not destroy the world if he proves his devotion. This leads Jesse on a spiritual journey of trying to do the right thing only to fail repeatedly, along with a visit to the afterlife where he is tempted. God is the season’s antagonist, demanding and cruel and narcissistic and otherwise the full-fledged Old Testament God, while we see Hitler representing Hell and Jesus representing Heaven in divine negotiations over who gets what souls when the world ends. In all the silliness and outrageousness, there is a genuine poignancy that comes through about the nature of humanity and its relationship to the divine.

Overall, I enjoyed PREACHER’s realization on the screen. I didn’t love it the way I did better shows like THE WIRE and GAME OF THRONES, but it was a fun ride, overall solid, and it ended as well as it began.

LINCOLN (2012)

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Directed by Steven Spielberg but without the usual heavy-handedness, and based on the book TEAM OF RIVALS: THE POLITICAL GENIUS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, LINCOLN (2012) is an amazing film about the final four months of the iconic president’s life, emphasizing his efforts to both end the Civil War while getting the thirteenth amendment passed in the House of Representatives. With a star-studded cast led by the great Daniel Day-Lewis, who shreds every scene while embodying the wit, strength, and humanity of Lincoln, this is an amazing film that treats its audience as intelligent adults and presents an insider look at how the institution of slavery legally ended in America for all time.

As I grow older, I find myself fascinated by sociological storytelling, in which a system is the main character, around which we have an ensemble cast of people acting within that system. THE BIG SHORT, GAME OF THRONES, the FOUNDATION series, and THE WIRE are all great examples. These stories don’t have villains so much as different individuals who find themselves in conflict with each other within a particular system. LINCOLN is one such story, as much about a major historical event than Lincoln himself, however instrumental he was in that event. They say lawmaking is similar to sausage making in that you really don’t want to know what goes into the sausage, but in this case, the sausage making makes for tense, fascinating storytelling–and provides a real appreciation for the tightrope Lincoln had to walk between the different factions: Democrats and right-wing, moderate, and left-wing Republicans.

Overall, I highly recommend LINCOLN if you like history, incredible acting and world building, and sociological storytelling.

JOKER (2019)

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JOKER (2019) was for me one of those movies I had to take some time to process before I figured out what I thought of it. After Heath Ledger’s performance in THE DARK KNIGHT, I’d thought there wasn’t any portrayal of the character that could compete, but I was wrong. Drawing from THE KILLING JOKE graphic novel along with films like THE KING OF COMEDY and TAXI DRIVER, JOKER presents the grittiest superhero film yet, a thoroughly brutal character study of the creation of a villain. Overall, I liked it a lot, though the process felt like hard work. And while I love superhero films that take a gritty, more realistic approach such as LOGAN, I wished Joker had been a little more grand than self-aggrandizing. Let me explain…

It’s Gotham City in 1981, not a nice place as income inequality brings the working class to a boil, a garbage collection strike leaves the streets piled with garbage riddled with large rats, and budget cuts are decimating welfare programs that previously kept one Arthur Fleck, a professional party clown living in borderline squalor with his mother Penny, on the right medication to manage his mental illness. Arthur wants to make people laugh and be happy and fantasizes about making it as a professional comedian, but he has three things going against him. First is his humor is simply not funny (he’s ends up being the joke) and often is hateful, he has a condition where he suffers fits of uncontrollable laughter when he’s anxious, and everything in his life either lets him down or outright brutalizes him.

As the harsh world slowly crushes him, Arthur finds release in going off his meds and eventually in violence. His fantasies degenerate from positive to negative into full-blown self-aggrandizing narcissism. The symbolism in the film plays along, such as repeat shots of him trudging up a long staircase as Arthur but dancing down it in costume as the reborn Joker, or the gnarled contortions of his body that gradually unfurls into an expressive if awkward dance. Also seemingly in reflection, one of his acts of violence is portrayed in the media as a political act against the rich, further fomenting unrest, and Thomas Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, calls the average people of Gotham a “bunch of clowns,” a label they defiantly take on right down to wearing clown masks at demonstrations (a seeming nod to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment about right-wing Americans). The city becomes more violent as Arthur does as he transforms into the Joker, a man who has embraced his inner demons and increasingly gives in to his impulses of narcissistic rage.

The result is an engaging character study, though not particularly pleasant. It’s a very cynical film. At the end, I didn’t see reality shifting to glorify Joker as a leader but rather a deeply mentally ill man incorporating current events into his fantasies. As a result, nothing really elevates Joker except in his own mind, and he comes across far more as pitiful and pathetic than sympathetic and inspiring in any way. In this, JOKER shows up poorly compared to THE DARK KNIGHT, where the Joker was psychotic but had a clear philosophy that was engaging and thematically set up his battle with Batman (and the world) in a compelling way. So going into it, I was hoping for FIGHT CLUB but ended up with something far more like FALLING DOWN.

On its own terms, however, JOKER is remarkable, a brave reinvention of a classic comic supervillain and casting him in the real world. I loved it for its gall and artistry and grit. In the end, however, it was hard to shake the bad taste in my mouth. I am hoping for a sequel that will give Joker a little more of a guiding philosophy rather than a mentally ill man who wears a costume while he murders people out of narcissistic rage. The Joker is not supposed to be a good guy, but he is supposed to be cool, the philosophical antithesis of Batman who makes Batman all the greater for it.

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 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.