Photo: Steve Dietl
Our weekly thought-starter asks you (and us) a simple question each week: What pop culture did you consume this weekend, and what did you think of it? If you have suggestions for AVQ&A questions, big or small, you can email them to us here.
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Based on how scattershot much of the series felt, I wasn’t expecting in a single installment. The show was imperfect, but it managed the rare feat of ending on a high note. I don’t know if it’s an ending that Garth Ennis & the late Steve
Dillon would’ve liked, but I found the episode written & directed by
Sam Catlin to be surprisingly satisfying.
We Have Always Lived In The Castle finally came to Netflix. It’s a solid Shirley Jackson adaptation. I appreciate that the entire family in this Gothic horror is loony. Now I have to read the book.Speaking of which, Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway is exquisite cogpunk!
So I finished Derry Girls and it’s certainly the best Graham Linehan show that was not made by Glinner, which is great because it doesn’t have the transphobia and homophobia of Glinner’s works. It does feel more like an Irish version of The Inbetweeners as well, and you’ll have a few Father Ted cameos in both seasons of course. I’d recommend this to anyone craving more British and Irish comedy.Like I’ve said last week, the lack of TV shows about The Troubles will always confound me. It’s the most fascinating period of Irish history that I think needs more cultural depictions in the silver screen. Yes, there’s a lot of movies and I do want something like China Beach or Babylon Berlin set in Troubles-era Northern Ireland. Derry Girls did a great job with portraying the latter era of The Troubles but I do want to see something like the 1980s in Northern Irish history.Also, I finally finished The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine and now it is my duty to own, tease and make fun of people who watched and liked Game of Thrones (even those who tolerated Season 8) because of how superior The Witcher 3 is as high fantasy in comparison to Game of Thrones particularly in the later seasons.Find me a story in A Song of Ice and Fire that is as enjoyable as Blood and Wine. Hell, nothing in “Westeros” or “Kings Landing” will look as pretty as Toussaint. Maybe D&D should’ve just played Witcher 3 and actually learn how to make a good fantasy sequel instead of coming up with the shit that resulted in Seasons 7 to 8.I don’t hate Game of Thrones as a series, but I certainly hated the overhype and fanboy culture for a series that I didn’t even liked even when it was a novel series, and I’m familiar with both The Witcher and ASOIAF even when they were just obscure fantasy books and I always prefer Sapkowski’s writing over GRRM. Hell, I’ll be blunt and say that I’ve always hated American high fantasy books and I think The Witcher being an European fantasy series written by a Polish man instead of an American neckbeard adds more to my bias though. I’ve yet to see an American high fantasy series that will be as good as The Witcher and Lord of the Rings except for maybe Dark Crystal. However, I’d love to see Terrence Malick, David Lynch or Wes Anderson create their own fantasy series. I’d read, watch and play that.One thing though is also based on how the series is the closest there is to a Left-Wing High Fantasy series. Fantasy stories are very conservative in its delivery. A lot of it is worship of kings and queens and attaining the status of royalty as a goal despite the monarchies being the major problems of such societies. One thing great about both the books and the games (and hopefully the series) is how the concept of kings and queens are deromanticized and it’s fucking refreshing to see how Geralt can turn its back on royalties altogether. In fact, Geralt’s goal in the games is to live a simple life instead of aiming for the top seat of a monarchy. You can even convince Ciri to reject an Imperial lifestyle for something that she wants. It makes sense being a series written during the later periods of Communist Poland, and I think that more aspiring fantasy authors and writers should look up to The Witcher series as a whole in how to approach a subject like monarchy in the 21st century. Another thing to own Game of Thrones is how the series ended up upholding the status quo of the monarchy despite the original selling point of the show and novels being the flaws of monarchies in fantasy settings.Yeah, my suggestion is to sell those Game of Thrones DVD/Blu-Ray Collections and pick up Witcher 3 Game of The Year Edition, especially with the Netflix series coming soon later this year. I have no high expectations of the Netflix series but I will certainly enjoy it more than what was presented in Seasons 7 and 8 of Game of Thrones.
I’m genuinely fascinated by your bizarro, zero-sum world in which someone must choose one of Game of Thrones/Witcher 3 to love and one to loathe.
Your collection of hand-painted lead figurines must be absolutely immaculate.
Despite knowing zip about Witcher, which keeps popping up on my mental screen as “Witchard,” upvoted for noticing GoT disemboweled itself thematically to pay tribute to the Goldman-Sachs theory of Bron-ism. Anti-monarchism, yes. But, seriously dude, whining about neckbeard? The personal grooming of authors only matters if you pick books to read because you’s screw the author. Which, by the say, supposedly the rule used by a book editor who had a lot of bestsellers….maybe it does work?
I’m gonna continue calling GRRM a neckbeard until he stops fucking around with From Software (aka the most neckbeard game studio there is) and start actually finishing his next novel.
Well, when you put it that way…I’ve told my librarian I’m not reading any of the books til Martin finishes. And that I think he or I will go first.
Another thing to own Game of Thrones is how the series ended up upholding the status quo of the monarchy despite the original selling point of the show and novels being the flaws of monarchies in fantasy settings.
Wow, just… wow. The ending really did go completely over your head. Game of Thrones is the story of how we as a civilization slowly got rid of the most destructive aspect of monarchy, that of absolutist rule. It realistically depicts human progress as slow and certainly not happening overnight, but not any less meaningful or profound.
Sure, incrementalism is a great message for a fantasy series but when it’s a series that influenced people to name their babies “Daenerys” then it gives out a horrible message against changing society as a whole.Slavoj Zizek said of this exactly as it is: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/game-thrones-season-8-finale-bran-daenerys-cersei-jon-snow-zizek-revolution-a8923371.html
it gives out a horrible message against changing society as a whole.
No, you’re exactly wrong. It gives out a perfect message cautioning against radically changing a society as a whole, at least without carefully thinking things through. Positive change always came from millions of people doing and being allowed to do their jobs and working tirelessly to make the world just a bit better place. Positive change never comes from conquest, ideology or absolutist rule. The only thing these bring is persecution, death, destruction and abuse. Thousands of power-hungry despots have come and gone throughout history all under the guise of promising great positive change if only they received absolute power. Revolutions don’t ‘have to’ go wrong, but they do far more often than not. And this is where Zizek is wrong also. Dany’s cohort may have been multiethnic, but they were all uniform in their thought patterns, because even though they were ‘freed’ by Dany, they never learned any life other than pure obedience, so they never truly valued or even understood what freedom meant. And neither did Dany, for that matter. Neither of them understood that freedom also meant the freedom to say ‘no’ to Dany. Dictatorships are often a tragic case of blind leading the blind.
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My movie nights this week, and for the rest of the month, will all be spoooooky because of Halloween. This week I watched The Long Hair of Death and Mystery on Monster Island. Long Hair of Death was first rate Italian Gothic. The cast and crew had anglo pseudonyms that all read more or less as Charles Andrew Devonshire. Mystery on Monster Island stunk. I’ll recover Halloween momentum next week.Frankenberry cereal has once again returned for Halloween, but the boxes have gotten comically small. They’re like Glosettes boxes. Another few years of shrinking and all that will be left is the barcode printed on a single Frankenberry.
I intended to watch a horror movie a day because Halloween but then I decided that I should just start watching Slasher instead so I did. So I’m watching Slasher, soccer, Mission Impossible Rogue Nation, Love Death And Robots and a bunch of other stuff.
In non-pop culture related news I got an offer to teach English in China which I accepted for a shade under £21,000 per annum.
Porn and depression. Also starting my big mouth season 3 binge and yeah more depression.
Sour Patch lollipops. Thank me later 😉
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I’ve begun watching, but haven’t finished, Insidious as I rev up for Halloween. It’s October, so gotta start watching the scary movies. I like it so far even if the more it goes on the more it seems like a Poltergeist retread–albeit an effectively put together retread, which I’m fine with. It’s pretty freaky what with the little out of place elements that show up in the scene without the characters even realizing it at first. Probably the most unnerving credits sequence I’ve ever seen.
I Am Not A Witch: This was really good. Social norm breakers in rural communities are ostracized and turned into unpaid/slave labor by those who need the labor but don’t believe in the reasons for the ostracism.Tristram Shandy: Liked it better the second time. Still, it’s a movie that builds up to a few minutes of improv’d Pacino impersonations. (Which aren’t as good as the famous competing Caine impersonations.) All the details about how frustrating it is to be a person with thoughts in the group-yet-dictatorial effort that is a movie set are great though. Liked the PA who has opinions about Fassbinder and gets embarrassed spouting them but is also oblivious that this isn’t that type of film, and the unusual realistic outcome to her adulterous flirtation. I wish Winterbottom and Coogan aimed higher, it should have built to something a little more forceful. I still relate to Gillian Anderson’s nonplussed reaction to being brought in as a late solution to a production’s flagging energy, then getting completely removed from the final cut.Beloved: Only got about 20 pages left. Reminds me of Cormac McCarthy in that sometimes I can’t tell what a sentence is talking about when it starts or when it’s over, encourages close reading and re-reading which I don’t have time for. Focuses on what it would be like to be enslaved, mentally, the effect it would have on you. Super depressing and sad but as the inscription points out, happened (still happens) to millions.Wots Uh The Deal: Very calm song by Pink Floyd that I drank in with coffee this morning.I Don’t Want It: Ween. Also pleasant, Jon Snow-themed.
I had no time to watch movies or TV. I spent the whole weekend at candlelight vigils for the victims of incel violence.
I threw a party for all those women smart enough not to fuck said incels. I bet I had more fun.
Baffled that Joker isn’t the header image this week, because it’s all about Joker.Joker. (No spoilers)When people want comic book movies to strive for something more, sometimes people think this is what they’re talking about. Joker transcends its genre, by evoking other works, and being challenging (this is good). But its also kind of a headscratcher, that I don’t think fully justifies its own existence (not so good). Scorsese is the main inspiration, but think “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.” It’s moody and lonelier, and sicker and twistier. It could be a hallmark character piece, except something like American Psycho is closer to a take on the world the Joker might have, because Patrick Bateman has got it figured out. Arthur Fleck is a champion for incels.Scream 2. (Spoilers)There’s a nice bit of synergy watching this after Joker; It opens with a theater screening full of stab-happy fans, worshiping cinematic violence, and closes with the bad guy (fresh-faced Timothy Olyphant!) professing he intends to blame movies for his killing spree. Scream 2 was something of a disappointment when it came out (it’s hard to live up to the original), but over time, I think it’s aged well. All the metatext (and there’s a lot) works better than I remember, and the kills are more exciting. The end is still too busy, and the re-writes really show, but as horror sequels go, Scream 2 is stronger than most.
Not much of note this week cuz I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in an asskicking contest, but I did sneak out this morning to see ‘Joker’. I figured Sunday morning would be a good time to avoid any mass shootings, because everyone would have their guns with them at church.Anyway, ‘Joker’. Right.I’ll give the reference to the Batpole from the ‘60s TV show an A+. Everything else, well, I’m not so sure. It offers a fantastic performance from Phoenix that sometimes borders on being an out-of-body experience, but is also frequently in search of a much better movie to be taking place in. If Phoenix receives award nominations for this, his unreliable narrator counterpart that pulls him through scene after scene should too.As broad as the reach of a paint sprayer at times, and honed razor-sharp in others, ‘Joker’ reaches dizzying heights and barrel-scraping lows, quite often in the very same shot. And speaking of shots, that last one is ripped right out of a comic book. Very, very pretty and unnervingly funny in a sick sort of way, as many shots in this movie could be described. This film dances like Arthur himself on the sharpened edge of the gleefully chaotic and forced, borderline silly faux-edginess from beginning to end. Sometimes this film hits just the right notes, sometimes it feels like getting bashed in the face with that ‘EVERYTHING MUST GO!’ sign from its beginning.I most likely don’t need to see it again (much like ‘Shazam!’, oddly enough), but I can’t say I’m sorry I did. And hey, I didn’t get shot!
First full Halloween-movie weekend of the season:Plan 9 From Outer Space: Introduced my teen daughter to this 1959 camp classic featuring the final appearance of Bela Lugosi. She has seen her share of bad movies for fun and found Ed Wood’s signature work pretty amusing. But with about 15 minutes to go she started to say enough was enough, let’s wrap this up. Later, she really freaked out when she found that the Rotten Tomatoes score for Plan 9 wasn’t NA but was up to 67%. In so many words, she asked me why I helped bring her into such a world. I Walked With a Zombie: I Roku-d the Criterion Channel to the family room TV, so after Plan 9 the whole fam gathered to cleanse our cinematic palates with this gem, aka Jane Eyre in the Caribbean. Haunting photography, low-budget sets expertly dressed, solid acting, and I would argue it features one of the more respectful treatments of Black characters for its time (1943). And it’s over much too soon, unlike Plan 9 …Night of Dark Shadows: The second and last film from Dan Curtis based on the Dark Shadows TV series. This one has no vampires or werewolves, just artsy Yankees in 1971 literally haunted by their ancestors’ misdeeds in early 19th-Century Collinswood. Coming from a Mayflower family (second voyage), I can relate. Great use of fish-eye photography to convey disorientation and ghostly possession. The overall tone is also quiet yet sinister. Even without Barnabas, it’s worth watching. Oh, and it features a pre-Charlie’s Angels Kate Jackson.The Corpse Vanishes: For some reason, I needed more low-budget Lugosi. This is one of the struggling actor’s “Monogram 9″ films – named for the poverty-row studio that helped many former A-listers pay their bills during the Depression and WWII. This 1942 cheapie features Lugosi as a mad doctor whose ailing and very prickly wife – played by Val Lewton regular Annette O’Toole – needs regular injections of glands from virginal women to maintain her youthful looks. Said glands are obtained by kidnapping bodies of brides who drop dead at the altar after wearing a poisoned orchid corsage. Good fun.Dead of Night: This 1945 chiller began the trend of horror portmanteaus that continued into the ‘60s-’70s with Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Tales From the Crypt and From Beyond the Grave. Luis Bunuel was a big fan, as was Rod Serling who was inspired by two of Dead of Night’s stories when writing screenplays for Twilight Zone episodes “Twenty-Two” and “The Dummy.” My favorite story is the girl’s at the Christmas costume party where she encounters Francis Kent (if you haven’t seen the movie, look him up for a spoiler alert). The climactic ventriloquist story starring Michael Redgrave features another forward-facing depiction of a Black character – Beulah, who runs the jazz club where the ventriloquist performs. Essential.The Innocents: Also essential is Jack Clayton’s masterful adaptation of Henry James’ Turn of the Screw. Exquisite photography by Freddie Francis, great “kid” performances by Martin Stephens and a young Pamela Franklin, another Oscar-worthy performance by Deborah Kerr, a creepily memorable score by Georges Auric, hair-raising sound and film editing, haunting location photography and sets … this one fires powerfully on all cylinders. One of the best movies of the decade.Belladonna of Sadness: Not a Halloween movie, but a pioneering work of Japanese animation from 1973 (not shown in the US until TCM starting airing it in 2017). The music and color palette are of its time but still striking. The animation itself is wonderfully trippy and evocative. There is much nudity and many sexual situations, but I wouldn’t call this an erotic film. Main character Jeanne is too used and abused by the church, the ruling class, Satan and her husband to warrant that classification. A feminist film perhaps, although the depiction of Jeanne lacks nuance and dimension – instead it veers sharply between submission and defiance. But I still recommend it.
The Innocents: …
One of the best movies of the decade. I agree, but… other decades too. One of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen, with no special effects or gore – and it is so fun to show to people brought up to think that scary movies have to have those things…
I accidentally stumbled upon Detachment. Wow, what a movie, I thought they didn’t make them like this anymore. Easily one of my favorites of the 2010s. It masterfully subverts the whole ‘good teach coming to the rescue’ narrative. Probably the most damning moment of the movie was the student trying to hug the teacher and him backing away knowing full well in how much hot water he might end up in, which is indeed exactly what happens. In the west, all forms of intimacy through touch have become interpreted through an exclusively sexual lens. Ironically, rules intended to protect the student ended up killing her. Finishing Exhalations by Ted Chiang. Much better than its predecessor. Honestly, I did not like his first collection, The Story of Your Life, the one with the story on which ‘Arrival’ is based. In that story, he profoundly misunderstands some basic concepts in physics and in a way the story also only serves to highlight the sheer absurdity of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
The Fermat principle also simply doesn’t work as advertised. Chiang rather misguidedly, being untrained in physics, tried to attach the whole ‘nature of time’ thing onto it. Classical propagation of light is governed by wave equations and is completely straightforward. The reason for the change of indexes of refraction is due to the light repeatedly getting absorbed and re-emitted by the material which slows it down, so this causes the wave-front to change angle. Only when you zoom out and approximate the wave into a beam, does the wave HAPPEN to behave as if its ‘searching’ for the shortest path if you take two endpoints randomly. But this is only an approximation useful for visualizing the direction of travel of light and NOT an indication that the light’s path is predetermined in any way, shape or form.
Far more interesting is when we get to quantum mechanics and the dual-slit experiment (look it up!) where we really DO get something close to what Chiang was aiming for. You could have easily imagine aliens with a ‘quantum mechanical mind’, i.e. a race that understands quantum causality, while classical causality remains forever a mystery (i.e. opposite of us), though having a conversation with these aliens would be utterly impossible, not to mention them surviving and functioning in the macroscopic world which is largely classical. Those aliens would have to be real tiny.
I have been making my way through Ken Burns’ massive new Country Music series, and playing Untitled Goose game. Both have been a lot of fun.
Saw Ad Astra. (One other person in the theater, what the hell? Am I just late to the party or did the Latin title scare people?) It was really good. I’ve always liked Pitt as an actor and he’s given a lot to do here. There were some batshit crazy scenes, but everything mostly worked. I like that we live in a movie age where, with enough artistry and money, you can make space antennas, moon chases, zero g, and, you know, NEPTUNE… look like you filmed them on location.The script was refreshing: space-opera, fatherhood, philosophy… and all well-grounded, as opposed to, um, Interstellar. Which I liked okay, but come on.(Spoiler: I loved that the last line of the movie was “Submit”…)