Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

WHITE LOTUS, Season 1

by Leave a Comment

Jonesing for something to watch, I finally decided to give THE WHITE LOTUS a try. It didn’t seem like my thing, but I’d heard a lot of good things about it, so why not. I liked it, finding it an interesting drama about power–who has it, who doesn’t, and what that means–which gave it some nice darker overtones. That and the fact it starts with a dead body.

Welcome to the White Lotus, an upscale hotel in Hawaii built on lands taken from native Hawaiians, where they now work catering to predominantly rich whites coming from the mainland. At the hotel, we have Armond (the manager), Belinda (the spa manager), and various workers. On the guest side, we have a family complete with spoiled teens, midlife crisis dad, and workaholic mom; a needy, fragile woman come to dispose of her mother’s ashes; and a couple on their honeymoon. We follow them on their respective vacation experiences.

The show plays out like an episode of the old TV show FANTASY ISLAND stretched out over six hour-long episodes. A group of people show up wanting something, only to leave with what they need. Honestly, almost none of them are very likable, and we see many of them affected in some way by exploitation or a power dynamic from which they’re abused or the abuser, even if the person they’re battling is dead, a dangerous version of themselves, or some off-screen group. They all get what they need but not what they deserve, some of them having left considerable damage in their wake, particularly anyone who tried to change the present power dynamic to their advantage.

As for the acting, it has a terrific cast that includes Alexandra Daddario, Steve Zahn, and more, with Murray Bartlett, who plays Armond, really impressing me; the guy chewed every scene he was in. Another thing I’d like to point out about the show is the directing. It’s a beautiful show. The hotel setting, landscape, and music were all quite beautiful, which along with the darker tone and human ugliness elevated what was again a stretched-out FANTASY ISLAND.

Overall, I didn’t fall in love, but it was fun enough and I liked it–a good turn-off-the-brain kind of show–enough to start the second season.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (2022)

by Leave a Comment

Part horror movie and part war movie, the first German adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s best-selling novel, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, is a devastating portrait of warfare in the Great War, in the process making a definitive antiwar statement.

The movie begins with an incredible sequence showing how the war has become a meat grinder, endlessly cycling young men through it. Back home, Paul, a student, hears the strident call to defend the fatherland from annihilation and eagerly signs up along with his friends. Soon, their romantic ideals about the war are shattered as they are forced to fight in muddy, rat-infested trenches and endless seesawing battles that employed new horrific weapons including tanks, howitzers, flamethrowers, and machine guns. As the war winds down, so does Paul’s circle, and we see him going from fighting to win to merely survive and then finally because there is nothing else, a hollowed-out man who lost faith he is ever going home.

The battle sequences are just incredible in this, more horror than war film. You can feel the hopeless resignation even before the whistles blow to charge, and then when things get going, it’s one horror after another until men are slashing each other hand to hand with trenching tools, showing a war in which industrialization stripped away the last vestiges of humanity in it, while also making it incredibly intimate–men killing each other looking into their eyes, feeling horror and remorse while they do it. This a war movie where the gore isn’t horrifying, it’s the meaning invested in it. How pointless it all was.

As an anti-war statement, it’s all here. The old goading the young into battle with romantic notions, the young losing their innocence in horror. The hubris of commanders who fail to see the soldiers as men but instead chess pieces exchanged for a final bit of national honor. The national humiliation at the end that some historians believe seeded the next war. The breakdown of hope and humanity to a level where the soldiers don’t feel like they will ever get home or will know how to go on living with themselves even if they do.

Overall, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is a distinct, powerful, and utterly savage movie providing a fresh reminder that war is hell.

THE NIGHT HOUSE (2020)

by Leave a Comment

In THE NIGHT HOUSE, a grieving woman suspects something is haunting her, maybe her dead husband, maybe something very sinister. Overall, I liked the execution a lot, though I enjoyed it more for its intriguing possibilities than where the story ended up going.

Beth is grieving the loss of her husband Owen. She appears to be in control, though hollowed out by coping. At night, strange occurrences begin to add up around the lakeside home he built for them. A suggestion of another house, another life. As she explores it, she begins to wonder what exactly is haunting her and what it wants.

Overall, there’s a skillful slow-burn execution to the story; the pacing is slow but doesn’t drag, at least it didn’t for me. The acting is solid, notably Rebecca Hall (whom I liked in THE LOOP) who is well cast as Beth, with a shout-out for Sarah Goldberg (who plays Sally in BARRY). Goldberg’s role is small and one note, essentially the friend who offers a sounding board and somebody for the lonely protagonist to talk to, but she gives the otherwise flat character as much life as she can breathe into it.

As the story builds, the horror element is well done, startling and occasionally eerie but not particularly overtly scary, as this is more psychological horror. Another factor here is Beth is rarely terrified, and this has an excellent explanation for why she reacts the way she does and doesn’t flee the house screaming: Grief has sucked almost every bit of emotion out of her, and she is completely out of f**ks to give. She doesn’t care about anything except answers about her husband. The “other house” stands more as metaphor as meaning anything else, and the monster is okay for me and probably good for many, particularly in some really well-done artistic effects to make it both something and nothing. While it’s all solid in this film, I just couldn’t help but wish the story of the other house ended up more complex the way it’s suggested in the trailer, leaving me a bit hungry.

So overall, THE NIGHT HOUSE is a solid horror film, recommended for those okay with a slower burn and seeking something that is deeper and that isn’t the usual fare.

NOPE (2022)

by Leave a Comment

Jordan Peele’s latest horror film, NOPE (2022), tells a UFO story in a clever and engaging mashup of sci-fi, horror, and Western tropes. I’ve really grown to admire Peele’s contributions to the horror genre. The man has something to say, and he always explores new territory.

In this film, OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Em (Keke Palmer) struggle to maintain their father’s ranch and business training and handling horses for film and TV productions. They make quite a pair, as OJ is taciturn and introverted while Em is flamboyant and outgoing. When they see signs of a strange flying object in the area, Em hatches a plan to capture it on film and make a financial killing. While this is going on, Jupe Park (the always delightful Steven Yeun), who grew up a child actor and was a survivor of a tragedy in which an ape goes on a rampage on set, going on to set up his own Wild West entertainment center, seems to know something about it. The object, however, is hungry and hunting, and it isn’t something to be trifled with.

What I liked: the general weirdness with odd touches of humor throughout, the ape losing it during a TV shoot, the landscapes at the ranch, and the fun characters, who when confronted by threat often say “nope” and go in the opposite direction. I liked seeing Keith David and Michael Winscott again, doing what they do best. The characters are all pretty likable, and there is a nice dynamic between OJ and Em. The climax is compelling. Immediately, you get the sense this is a Jordan Peele production, not your average horror film, and as usual he presents his material that is economical about taking itself seriously.

That being said, I felt like I would have cared a whole lot more about what happened and who it happened to if Jupe had been the main character. His backstory of the TV show that ended in tragedy is really compelling and offered a great deal of depth to a character who doesn’t have much of a role to play in this movie. Of all the characters, he had the closest thing to a character arc, only it went unfinished, and the main protagonists, who again are likable enough, don’t really have a character arc at all. If the story had been told from his point of view, I think NOPE would have been truly great.

Overall, I liked NOPE one as a polished horror film that offered something new to the genre and was a lot of fun to watch.

HIGH WATER

by Leave a Comment

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)

by Leave a Comment

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.