Paul and Elgin share their picks for
across all of screendom in the past 12 months.
The final edition of the annual screenies awards before we go on indefinite hiatus.
We bid you a bittersweet goodbye.
Thank you, all, for listening over the past five years!!!
We really appreciate your attention and time.
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BlacKkKlansman.
Elgin and Paul review #BlacKkKlansman:
BlacKkKlansman, directed by Spike Lee and written by Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz, and starring John David Washington and Adam Driver. We share our takes on Lee’s latest joint–and they’re both against the critical consensus.
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Crazy Rich Asians, with briefer takes on Mission: Impossible–Fallout, Howard’s End on Starz, Wild Wild Country, and How to Make It in America.
Paul and Elgin review #CrazyRichAsians:
Crazy Rich Asians (35:35), directed by Jon M. Chu from the screenplay by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim, based on the novel by Kevin Kwan, and starring Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, and Henry Golding. We give our takes on the first major motion picture with a nearly all Asian cast from a Hollywood studio since The Joy Luck Club (1993).
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A Very English Scandal.
Paul and Elgin review A #VeryEnglishScandal:
A Very English Scandal on Amazon Prime (originally on the BBC), written by Russell T Davies, directed by Stephen Frears, and starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw. This three-part minseries tells the stories of Jeremy Thorpe (Grant), a Member of Parliament, and Norman Josiffe/Scott (Whishaw), a stable hand (and later a model). The former tried to have the latter killed in order to ensure their past relationship would remain out of the public eye. Thorpe was put on trial for conspiracy and incitement to murder, and while he was acquitted, his political career was ended. We talk about the two leads’ performances, the pacing of the three nearly hour-long episodes, and what the series says about gay life and British politics and society in the 1960s and ’70s.
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Sharp Objects, plus some chit-chat on the 2018 Emmy nominations.
Paul and Elgin review #SharpObjects:
Sharp Objects on HBO, created by Marti Noxon and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn, and starring Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson. An eight-episode prestige drama (and Vallée’s follow-up to Big Little Lies), Sharp Objects tells the story of journalist Camille Preaker (Adams), who goes back to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, to investigate the murders of two young girls. While back home, Camille must also deal with her haunted past, involving her mother, to whom she’s estranged. We focus on Vallée’s aesthetic choices (especially his editing) and Adams’s and Clarkson’s performances.
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Sorry to Bother You, with briefer takes on Kim’s Convenience, Something in the Rain (밥 잘 사주는 예쁜 누나), First Reformed, and Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
Paul and Elgin chat about #SorryToBotherYou:
Sorry to Bother You (36:00), written and directed by Boots Riley and starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer. A hit at Sundance, Riley’s debut feature centers around Cassius “Cash” Green (Stanfield), a down-on-his-luck black telemarketer, who by donning an absurd white voice rises through the ranks to handle the accounts of a corporation owned by tech bro titan Steve Lift (Hammer). Set in Oakland, California, this film is packed with ideas about race, class, and the meaning of work in contemporary capitalist America, among many, many other topics. Does the story hold together despite (or maybe because of) the multitude of ideas it tries to juggle? And how about that ending?!
We also take a long, hard look at the performance of Steven Yeun (whom we both knew before he became famous) in this film, as well as Asian American acting more generally.
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Succession.
Elgin and Paul chat about #SuccessionHBO:
HBO’s Succession, created by Jesse Armstrong (with executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, among others) and starring Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Alan Ruck, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, and Hiam Abbass as the Roys — a rich, powerful New York family that runs a global media empire.
Does this latest prestige drama from HBO say anything new about privilege and dysfunctional family life, especially in our present age, with the Trumps and Murdochs taking center stage?Already deemed successful enough, Succession has been renewed for a second season. But we question whether that decision was a wise move, given all the choices the creatives have made thus far (including the character development and the documentary shooting style).
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Dietland
Paul and Elgin review #Dietland:
Dietland on AMC, created by Marti Noxon, based on the novel by Sarai Walker, and starring Joy Nash and Julianna Margulies. This show is a dark satire about dealing with the beauty industrial complex during the #MeToo era. We discuss Nash’s central performance as Alicia “Plum” Kettle (the show’s plus-size protagonist, who ghost-writes an advice column for her Miranda-Priestly-type boss played by Margulies); the complicated plot lines involving several supporting characters and multiple feminist groups vying for Plum’s attention or allegiance; and the show’s debts/homages to Fight Club and Mr. Robot. Do all the key performances, complex story lines, and formal pyrotechnics add up? We discuss.
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Pose, with briefer takes on Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Incredibles 2, and MoviePass (user experience, plus upcoming changes and competition for the service).
Elgin and Paul review #PoseFX:
Pose (22:00) on FX, created by Steven Canals, Brad Falchuk, and Ryan Murphy and starring Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore, and Ryan Jamaal Swain, along with Evan Peters, Kate Mara, and James Van Der Beek. Set in late ’80s New York, against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis, Pose follows the lives of three main protagonists — Blanca, Angel, and Damon — in and out of the downtown ball scene. Cast with actual transgender and gay actors, this show chronicles and dramatizes a part of New York life we’ve rarely seen on mainstream television. What did we take away from watching the first few episodes?
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The Letdown.
Paul and Elgin review #TheLetdown:
The Letdown on Netflix, created by Sarah Scheller and Alison Bell (originally for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and starring the latter as Audrey, a woman facing the challenges of being a new mom. A dark-ish half-hour comedy about the pressures of modern-day motherhood (and fatherhood), this new show tackles some topics rarely covered on small or big screens anywhere (though Jason Reitman’s Tully recently came out too).
We talk about Bell’s and the support cast’s performances; why it matters that women have penned the scripts; and the contrasts between the relatively quieter, perhaps more sensitive handling of dramatic plot points of the show and how they may have played out differently on an American program. The show was a bit of letdown for one of us: Guess which one.
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Cobra Kai.
Elgin and Paul chat about #CobraiKai:
YouTube Red’s Cobra Kai, created by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg and starring William Zabka and Ralph Macchio. A sequel set some 30 years after the events of the original The Karate Kid, the hit dramedy has already been renewed for another season on YouTube’s paid streaming service.
We discuss the tone, performances, and the original characters’ relationships with each other and the new generation of characters (played by an ethnically diverse cast, including Korean American Jay Seo). We also chat about the fan service the show clearly provides, as well as the long legacy of the Karate Kid film franchise.
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Fahrenheit 451, with briefer takes on Dear White People (season 2), The Handmaid’s Tale (season 2), The New Girl (the final season), Avengers: Infinity War, and director Hiro Murai’s work on Barry and Atlanta, among other topics.
Paul and Elgin review #Fahrenheit451:
Fahrenheit 451 (29:30) on HBO, adapted and directed by Ramin Bahrani and starring Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon. Based on the 1953 novel (of the same name) by Ray Bradbury, this latest adaptation, starring big-name Hollywood talent, must not only compete with the futuristic dystopias depicted in several recent dramas but also address the technological advances (including the rise of e-books and cloud computing) of our present time. Do Bahrani and his creative collaborators succeed in updating the source material to make a compelling piece speaking to contemporary attitudes toward literature, mass media, and critical, nuanced thinking? We explore that central question and also discuss the state of the TV network-originated movie more broadly.
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The Last O.G., with briefer takes on Pacific Rim: Uprising and The Lost in Space reboot on Netflix.
Elgin and Paul chat about #TheLastOG:
TBS’s The Last O.G., created by John Carcieri and Jordan Peele and starring Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish. After a terrible auto accident in 2014, the controversial SNL alum Morgan returns to the small screen–this time on basic cable–to play Tray Barker, a Brooklyn man who’s just finished a 15-year sentence for selling drugs. In modern day, gentrified Brooklyn, Tray tries to win back the woman he lost, Shay (who’s played by Haddish), while getting to know the two kids he didn’t know he had. We discuss what this show, which by turns is raucous, poignant, silly, smart, and potentially offensive, offers fans of the “Tracy Jordan” persona and others less familiar with Morgan’s previous work.
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Barry, with briefer takes on High Maintenance (HBO’s season 2), screen supremacy for Sunday night (the latest seasons of Showtime’s Homeland and Billions versus HBO’s and AMC’s past offerings), and Atlanta (season 2 on FX, a.k.a. Robbin’ Season, with a focus on the episode “Teddy Perkins“).
Paul and Elgin review #HBOBarry:
HBO’s Barry (27:05), created by Alec Berg (who’s also an executive producer on Silicon Valley) and SNL alum Bill Hader and starring the latter as the titular Barry, a contract killer who gets the acting bug while on a job in LA. Does this half-hour mashup of two well-worn genres (crime drama and Hollywood satire) sizzle or fizzle? What’s the tone here–and does it work? And does Henry Winkler, as an acting guru to Barry and other wannabe actors, give another performance as memorable as his turn as the Fonz?
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Killing Eve, with briefer takes on Netflix potentially buying a movie theater chain, the impact of MoviePass, and Ready Player One.
Elgin and Paul review #KillingEve:
Killing Eve (29:30) on BBC America, adapted for the small screen by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (of Fleabag fame) from the Villanelle novels by Luke Jennings and starring Sandra Oh (as the titular Eve Polastri, a MI5 analyst) and Jodie Comer (as Villanelle, a professional assassin). Does this cat-and-mouse drama (dark comedy?) bring us something fresh besides having two women at its center? Though Eve is white in the novels, the TV role was written for Sandra Oh. What does casting Oh, a Korean American, do for the narrative? And what’s with the odd tone of this show? Does it work?
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The Looming Tower.
Paul and Elgin review #TheLoomingTower:
Hulu’s The Looming Tower, based on the 2006 nonfiction book of the same title by Lawrence Wright., stars Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Peter Sarsgaard. This ten-episode drama explores the failures in the U.S. intelligence community (most of them having to do with the rivalry and differences in strategies between the FBI and CIA) in the years leading up to 9/11. Does this dramatization bring us any new insights into real-life events (as other fairly recent shows like The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story have)?
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Ugly Delicious.
Elgin and Paul check out #UglyDelicious:
Ugly Delicious, a new documentary series from Netflix, produced by and starring Momofuku chef David Chang and New York Times food critic Peter Meehan. Rather than covering a single place, as do so many other food and travel shows, this one focuses on a particular type of food (such as pizza, fried chicken, or fried rice) and delves deeper into how it’s thought about, prepared, and consumed across the globe.
Featuring several culinary luminaries (such as Mark Iacono of Lucali, Roy Choi of Kogi, and René Redzepi of Noma) and on-screen celebrities (such as Aziz Ansari, Steven Yeun, and Ali Wong), the show explores and deconstructs our notions of authenticity, high and low cuisine, and cultural culinary fusion and appropriation. In many ways quite personal, Chang and Meehan’s new series doesn’t shy away from tough issues surrounding food and racism even as they celebrate how cross-border migrations can transform culture and cuisine. We share our deeply personal connections to this dear screen stuff, and Paul points out some of the blind spots the creators may have.
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Annihilation, with briefer takes on The Darkest Hour, Brad’s Status, and The Only Living Boy in New York.
Paul and Elgin review #Annihilation:
Annihilation (21:01), written and directed by Alex Garland and starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac. Veering away from Jeff VanderMeer’s novel of the same name, Garland’s follow-up to Ex Machina tells the story of Lena, a biologist and former soldier, who sets off with four other women into a mysterious scientific anomaly called the Shimmer, or Area X, from which her ill husband has returned after going missing for a year. We discuss the distinctive sci-fi world building and imagery (perhaps some of the boldest since 2001: A Space Odyssey), the performances by Portman et al., Lena’s backstory and those of other characters, how the film does or does not organically come together, the critical reception, and the movie marketing here and overseas. WARNING: We do spoil parts of the movie’s plot and warn you before we do, but don’t feel this film can really be spoiled (it’s more about setting a mood and playing a thematic key repeatedly, with some twists, than about executing a plot).
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The Alienist.
Elgin and Paul check out The #Alienist:
TNT’s The Alienist, a crime drama based on the 1994 novel by Caleb Carr, stars Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning. This ten-episode thriller (which has nothing to do with space aliens and much to do with the early days of criminal psychology and forensics) follows three protagonists who are chasing a serial killer in late nineteenth-century New York City. Does TNT’s attempt at prestige drama offer a fresh take on the serial killer mystery? And how are the show’s pacing, acting, costumes, cinematography, and set design? Are they strong enough to compel us to keep tuning in (despite the material’s familiarity)?
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The Chi.
Paul and Elgin check out #TheChi:
The Chi, a new Showtime drama from Lena Waithe, starring Jason Mitchell, Alex R. Hibbert, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, and Jacob Latimore. Set on the South Side of Chicago, this sprawling series has already been renewed for a second season. But should you bother trying to get through the first? Is the storytelling compelling or confident enough to sustain us? The shadow of HBO’s The Wire (which many critics have compared The Chi with) looms large. Does the show offer anything fresh?
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Black Panther, with briefer takes on SMILF, Altered Carbon, the Winter Olympics and positive Asian (American) representation on TV, the latest seasons of various reality TV shows (including Top Chef, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Queer Eye), and the non-app version of Mosaic on HBO.
Elgin and Paul review #BlackPanther:
Black Panther (35:05), co-written and directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, and Angela Bassett. Set largely in the fictional African nation of Wakanda (with a notable side trip to Pusan, South Korea), this latest box office blockbuster is not quite like any other film from Disney’s Marvel Studios. We discuss this superhero movie’s multiple layers, including its strong action set pieces and the real-life African and African-American history that’s intelligently and poignantly interwoven into its themes and narrative. WARNING: We do spoil parts of the plot toward the end of our chat (58:10).
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The End of the F***ing World [WARNING: adult language in audio clip], but before that quick takes on All the Money in the World and Baby Driver.
Paul and Elgin check out #EndOfTheFuckingWorld:
The End of the F***ing World, a UK dramedy from Channel 4, available on Netflix. It’s written by Charlie Covell and directed by Jonathan Entwistle and Lucy Tcherniak, and stars Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden as two alienated British teenagers, James and Alyssa, who run away from home on a long road trip across England. The problem: James may be a psychopath who wants to kill her.
Based on a graphic novel set in the U.S. and clearly influenced by American road movies, this film can be quite odd in its tonal shifts. Do the filmmakers and young actors have the chops, as it were, to pull off something fresh? We get into spoilers late (30:35) in the review.
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Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams.
Elgin and Paul check out #ElectricDreams:
Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, a new anthology series from Channel 4 and Sony Pictures Televisions and available through Amazon Prime. Based on the short stories of Dick, the hour-long episodes feature many well-known actors, including Bryan Cranston, Juno Temple, Janelle Monáe, Greg Kinnear, Steve Buscemi, Anna Paquin, Terrence Howard, and Vera Farmiga.
Many have said this is Amazon’s answer to Netflix’s Black Mirror. Is it really? We also talk about this series in the wider context of anthology series, present and past.
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Phantom Thread, with briefer takes on Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, Girls Trip, Call Me by Your Name, The Florida Project, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and I, Tonya.
Paul and Elgin review #PhantomThread:
Phantom Thread (37:25), written, shot, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, and Lesley Manville. It’s one more period piece from PTA featuring DDL, this time set in London during the ’50s. What does their second collaboration yield? We weigh in on what, at first, appears to be yet another dramatic film about a difficult male genius and his female muse. Does the oddness of the film draw us in or repel us (something we also asked ourselves when we saw Aronofsky’s mother!). Warning: We get into spoiler territory late (56:23) in the discussion.
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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Elgin and Paul review #MrsMaisel:
Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, with showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, and Luke Kirby. Set in New York in the late 1950s, this gorgeous show (whose period details equal those of Mad Men) focuses on Miriam ‘Midge’ Maisel (Brosnahan), who “accidentally” becomes a stand-up comic after her husband walks out on her and their tony Upper West Side existence. We absolutely marvel at the performances (especially Brosnahan’s), the dialog, and the camerawork and production design while quibbling with some of the unrealistic aspects of the heroine’s success given the times she lived in (and nope, that has nothing to do with her friendship with Lenny Bruce!).
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Runaways and Disney’s purchase of parts of Fox.
Paul and Elgin check out #Runaways:
Hulu’s Runaways, with showrunners Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz and starring the diverse case of Rhenzy Feliz, Lyrica Okano, Virginia Gardner, Ariela Barer, Gregg Sulkin, and Allegra Acosta. Part teen soap opera (in the tradition of The OC and Beverly Hills, 90210) and part superhero team-up tale, the Runaways features a mysterious cult, a pet dinosaur, a magical staff, and parents with complicated pasts who are part of a group called Pride. While lauded in comic book form in the early 2000s, does the TV adaptation have legs (because of or in spite all the elements it has to juggle)?
We also share some thoughts on the repercussions of Disney buying several key parts of 21st Century Fox (19:12). While many fanboys are rejoicing at the prospects of bringing the previously Fox-controlled X-Men, Fantastic Four, and others into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (controlled by Disney), we focus on other creative and business implications of the deal, including the likely battle between an essentially Disney-owned Hulu and Netflix.
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Star Wars: Episode VIII–The Last Jedi, with briefer takes on Lady Bird, Easy (season 2), and Search Party (season 2), plus more discussion on how we plan to (not) consume the art of artists who’ve been accused of sexual assault and misconduct.
Elgin and Paul review #LastJedi:
Star Wars: Episode VIII–The Last Jedi (38:58), written and directed by Rian Johnson and starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Kelly Marie Tran, and Laura Dern. Perhaps the most anticipated film of 2017, the latest installment of the Skywalker saga has divided fans while generally receiving praise from critics. Are we with the fans striking back on Rotten Tomatoes (and social media) or with most critics?
After giving our spoiler-free reactions, we dive deeper (1:02:48). What has Johnson done with the beloved franchise? Can we get behind his plotting and visual choices? And what does Episode VIII imply for what J.J. Abrams might do with Episode IX?
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Mosaic.
Paul and Elgin check out #Mosaic:
Mosaic, directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Ed Solomon, and starring Sharon Stone and Garrett Hedlund, among others. This is a free interactive TV series, available now as an app and later in more traditional form on HBO. Are the “choose your own adventure” format and other features, such as pop-up websites and PDFs and optional flashbacks, revolutionary or just gimmickry? Are the performances and shooting style enhancements or distractions for this ambitious Soderbergh project?
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The Mayor.
Elgin and Paul discuss #TheMayorABC:
The Mayor, created by Jeremy Bronson and starring Brandon Micheal Hall as the aspiring rapper and newly elected mayor, Lea Michele as his advisor, and Yvette Nicole Brown as his mom. Does this single-cam comedy (both a reflection of and rebuttal to the rise of Trump) offer us anything fresh or interesting in form or content?
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Justice League, plus a discussion on watching or avoiding screen stuff involving artists and entertainers recently accused of sexual assault or harassment; with additional takes on Too Funny to Fail and One Mississippi season 2, Song to Song and To the Wonder, Mudbound, and The Paperboy.
Paul and Elgin review #JusticeLeague:
Justice League (42:00), directed by Zack Snyder (and Joss Whedon) and starring Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher. A troubled production, plagued by numerous problems including Cavill’s mustache, this latest installment in the DCEU ostensibly advances the stories of Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman while introducing the Flash, Aquaman., and Cyborg. Does the final product add up? Is this latest superhero team-up tent pole worth a view?
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The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) and Mindhunter.
Elgin and Paul discuss #MeyerowitzStories and #Mindhunter:
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (00:56), written and directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Marvel, and Emma Thompson. Yet another story of family dysfunction, Baumbach’s latest is featured on Netflix and in some select theaters. Does Baumbach ground his actors well enough that their personae don’t overwhelm the movie?
Mindhunter (23:42), created by David Fincher and starring Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv. Based on a true story (and already renewed for a second season), this new Netflix TV drama set in the 1970s revolves around two FBI agents who advanced criminal science by profiling serial killers, such as Ed Kemper. Does this show bring something fresh to a subject that’s been covered in a myriad of ways since The Silence of the Lambs?
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I Love You, America and Big Mouth.
Paul and Elgin check out #ILoveYouAmerica and #BigMouth:
I Love You, America (02:20), hosted by Sarah Silverman. Here’s a new talk from Hulu (no doubt inspired by the Trump presidency) that aims to bridge the gap between folks in red and blue states while making you chuckle. But are Silverman and her provocative sense of humor the right vehicles for this lofty endeavor?
Big Mouth (22:16), created by Nick Kroll, Jennifer Flackett, and Andrew Goldberg and starring the voices of Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Jessi Klein, Jordan Peele, Maya Rudolph, and Jenny Slate, among others. Described by the creators as a perverted Wonder Years, this cartoon from Netflix certainly pushes the envelope on several fronts. But is it funny? And does it have a heart? We touch on its similarities to and departures from South Park and The Simpsons.
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Star Trek: Discovery and Blade Runner 2049, plus quicker takes on It, Will & Grace revival, Mr. Robot season 3, Vice Principals season 2, and Better Things season 2.
Elgin and Paul review #StarTrekDiscovery and #BladeRunner2049:
Star Trek: Discovery (20:15), created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman and starring Sonequa Martin-Green, Michelle Yeoh, and Jason Isaacs. What does this latest entry into the universe dreamed up by Gene Roddenberry (technically, a prequel to the original series) offer that’s new and different from its predecessors? Is it worth signing up to the fairly new service CBS All Access to watch this show?
Blade Runner 2049 (42:15), directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, and Ana de Armas. Not a reboot, but a true sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic directed by Ridley Scott, this film is a visual and aural experience to be had within a theater. We analyze many aspects of this movie, including its lead performances and the tech within its world, some of which echoes what we saw in Spike Jonze’s Her.
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Disjointed.
Paul and Elgin review #Disjointed:
A new comedy about selling legal weed from Chuck Lorre (of CBS sitcom fame), Disjointed stars Kathy Bates and features a diverse supporting cast, including Tone Bell and Elizabeth Ho.
Does being on Netflix change things enough for this show to escape the conventions of multi-cam sitcoms? We reference Lorre’s recent interview to see what the showrunner’s aims were.
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Columbus.
Elgin and Paul review #ColumbusMovie:
The debut movie by Korean-American director Kogonada, Columbus stars John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson (who also appeared in another recent film with an Asian-American male lead, The Edge of Seventeen).
With a Korean-American lead and with Sundance cred, the film, set in Columbus, Indiana, which has a rich architectural heritage, should be one we both can relate to and get behind, right? Find out.
For an in-depth interview with the director, Kogonada, check out this past week’s episode of Filmspotting (No. 650).
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mother!, plus quicker takes on other screen-related stuff, including pilots for the Deuce and Mr. Mercedes, revisiting The Good Place, Bill Simmons’s The Rewatchables podcast, and season 2 of Insecure.
Paul and Elgin review #mother!:
mother! (31:25), written and directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. Not a chamber piece, not just an allegory, the latest from the atheist auteur–drawing heavily again from the Bible–is not resonating with much with the public (an initial Cinemascore of F). But despite popular opinion, is this visually arresting (sometimes exhausting) film worth your time and money?
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Comrade Detective, What Would Diplo Do?, and the annual Screenies awards (for best scene, performance, and overall work in the past 12 months).
Elgin and Paul review #ComradeDetective and #WhatWouldDiploDo:
A tongue-in-cheek Cold War satire from a communist perspective, Comrade Detective from Amazon Prime stars the voice talents of Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but not their faces.
What Would Diplo Do? from VICELAND, stars James Van Der Beek as the EDM star. The former Dawson’s Creek lead also has several writing credits for the episodes.
What do we make of these shows, which probably wouldn’t get made pre-Peak TV?
Elgin and Paul share their choices for the annual Screenies awards (27:20): Picks for best scene, best performance (by anyone), and best work on any screen over the past 12 months.
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Ozark.
Paul and Elgin review #Ozark:
A new drama from Netflix, Ozark, by creators Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams and starring Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, and Julia Garner.
Does the shadow of Breaking Bad loom too large, or has Ozark differentiated itself enough to become a potential classic of its own?
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Logan Lucky, plus quicker takes on the latest season of Game of Thrones; Atypical; Huang’s World; VICE News Tonight’s special report, “Charlottesville: Race and Terror;” and Younger.
Elgin and Paul review #LoganLucky:
Logan Lucky (32:10), directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Rebecca Blunt, and starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, and Riley Keough. What led Soderbergh back to making features after he famously retired four years ago? Is his comeback movie both fun and innovative, like so much of his past work? Or is this just a deglammed heist flick set below the Mason–Dixon line? And, lastly, how do the stars handle a Southern accent? Paul critiques the plotting, while Elgin comments on the shallow depth of field shots and welcomes some faces we haven’t seen in a while on the big screen (e.g., Katie Holmes and Hilary Swank).
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Friends from College.
Paul and Elgin review #FriendsFromCollege:
A new comedy from Netflix, Friends from College, by creators Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller and starring Keegan-Michael Key, Fred Savage, Nat Faxon, Annie Parisse, Jae Suh Park, and Cobie Smulders.
Is this the streaming heir to network classics such as Friends, Seinfeld, or How I Met Your Mother? We discuss its tonal challenges, especially as they pertain to Keegan-Michael Key’s performance.
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The Defiant Ones.
Elgin and Paul review #TheDefiantOnes:
The Defiant Ones, an HBO documentary about music icons (and Beats Electronics founders) Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, directed by Allen Hughes and masterfully edited by Lasse Järvi and Doug Pray.
Not your standard documentary, this four-part series walks us through the rise of both subjects as their lives intersect with musical luminaries from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and the new millennium. We discuss the series’ coverage of the wider controversies of gangsta rap, Interscope Records’ shock rockers, and Napster. And Elgin wonders aloud about what, if anything, the filmmakers are saying by virtually book-ending the work with the $3 billion Beats acquisition by Apple.
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Dunkirk, plus quicker takes on Spider-Man: Homecoming, Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King, The Big Sick, Okja, and episode 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return.
Paul and Elgin review #Dunkirk:
Dunkirk (28:10), written and directed by Christopher Nolan and and starring Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, and Fionn Whitehead, among others, including Harry Styles. What is the effect of the unconventional structure of this film? How about Hans Zimmer’s score? And the IMAX cinematography? We talk about whether all of these facets of the film come together to form a masterpiece or a disappointment.
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Claws.
Elgin and Paul review #Claws:
A new summer thriller from TNT, Claws produced by Eliot Laurence and starring Niecy Nash, Carrie Preston, Judy Reyes, Karrueche Tran, and Jenn Lyon, plus Dean Norris (of Breaking Bad).
This show about nail salon workers laundering drug money in South Florida features a diverse cast, strong female characters (who certainly pass the Bechdel test), and a propulsive plot line involving the Dixie mafia. It’s reminiscent of a lot of prestige dramas on basic and premier cable, but definitely has a distinctive spin (as evidenced by the strippers at a Southern funeral in episode 2). So given its panache, is this hour-long show worth your time?
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I’m Dying Up Here.
Paul and Elgin check out #ImDyingUpHere:
Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here, created by David Flebotte and Jim Carrey, and starring Melissa Leo, Ari Graynor, Al Madrigal, and Andrew Santino, plus Sebastian Stan (a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, in just the pilot).
Is this new Showtime show about the 1970s comedy club scene in LA worth giving a shot? Elgin raises concerns about anachronisms, while Paul focuses on Leo’s mannered performance. Both talk about the comedy sets, which present creative challenges like the musical performances in HBO’s Vinyl did.
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Twin Peaks: The Return, plus quicker takes on Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and GLOW.
Elgin and Paul review #TwinPeaks:
Twin Peaks: The Return (21:27) by David Lynch and Mark Frost and starring Kyle MacLachlan (as three characters) and many actors from the original series and/or longtime Lynch collaborators. Is this Showtime series — airing around 25 years after the early ’90s network phenomenon that asked and answered the question, Who killed Laura Palmer?, and its movie prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me — a challenging follow-up from a master or a classic case of an emperor having no clothes? One thing we’re agreed on: It’s not an easy nostalgic revival.
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Mommy Dead and Dearest.
Paul and Elgin review Mommy Dead and Dearest from HBO Documentary Films:
The HBO true-crime documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest, directed by Erin Lee Carr.
This film centers on the events surrounding the 2015 murder of Dee Dee Blanchard — who had subjected her daughter, Gypsy Rose, to unnecessary medical treatments and lied about her child’s health in order to get attention and charity. A victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, Gypsy Rose was sentenced to ten years in prison for her involvement in the murder. We examine the choices the filmmakers made (e.g., using re-created text message exchanges between Gypsy Rose and her boyfriend) in constructing this documentary and then open up the discussion to the merits and foibles of the true-crime genre more generally:
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The Handmaid’s Tale.
Elgin and Paul check out #TheHandmaidsTale:
Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, showrun by Bruce Miller, and starring Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, and Joseph Fiennes.
This new show — perhaps the strongest original programming yet from Hulu — is set in the theocratic dystopia that is the Republic of Gilead (formerly the United States of America). We talk about the smart, deft world-building by Atwood, Miller, and other collaborators, as well as the moving performances of Moss (Offred/June) and Bledel (Ofglen). We also discuss how the show seems to reflect the anxiety experienced by some segments of American society following the election of Donald Trump.
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Alien: Covenant, plus quicker takes on Mikey Chen on YouTube, Desus & Mero, Great News, I Love Dick, American Gods, and the latest seasons of The Leftovers and Master of None.
Paul and Elgin review #AlienCovenant:
Alien: Covenant (35:17), directed by Ridley Scott and starring Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Demián Bichir, and Danny McBride. What does the follow-up to Prometheus (and the latest installment in the Alien franchise) have to offer that’s new or interesting? We discuss the dual performances of Fassbender and the film’s many missed opportunities, such as the character development from this cut scene (not the short film prologue).
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Win It All.
Elgin and Paul check out (and check-raise) #WinItAll:
Netflix’s Win It All, directed by Joe Swanberg and starring Jake Johnson and co-written by them both.
Neither your standard Hollywood fare nor a mumblecore independent film, Swanberg’s latest Chicago-based collaboration with Johnson is about the charming man-child Eddie, who tries to kick his poker habit after falling for Eva, a single-mother nurse (played by Mexican film star Aislinn Derbez). Along the way, his GA sponsor played by Keegan-Michael Key tries to help him out.
We debate the climactic scene (without spoiling it), compare this film with gambling classics such as Owning Mahowny, and consider whether or not going straight to Netflix is good for “small films” like this one.
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The Son.
Paul and Elgin review #TheSon:
AMC’s The Son, based on the novel of the same title by Philipp Meyer and starring Pierce Brosnan (who took over for Sam Neill, who dropped out of the project).
Set in the early 20th century (with significant flashbacks to the mid-19th century), this drama tells the story of the First Son of Texas Eli McCollough (Brosnan) and his family’s struggle to maintain their legacy during the so-called Bandit Wars. It aims to chronicle (and perhaps deconstruct) the ascendancy of Texas as a major power.
We not only pick apart 007’s rather challenged Texas twang, but also examine the show’s depictions of the Comanches, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans. How does this show fare against other westerns (such as Dances with Wolves) that we’ve watched? In the era of peak TV, does this latest effort from AMC have enough for us to stick with it?
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Screen Stuff Podcast 