Cozy Apocalypse

I think I queued up Love and Monsters (2020) because of another monster movie that was announced around the same time. I'll note that when we watch it, but I'll stick to this one for now. 

We were a little apprehensive going in because we were afraid it was going to be excessively Disneyfied. It turned out to be kind of kid-friendly, but in a nice way.

It stars Dylan O'Brien as a young man who lives in an underground bunker with a small group of survivors. There was a disaster, illustrated in cartoon form, that cause cold-blooded life to mutate into giant monster who killed 95% of the world's population. Seven years later, everyone left lives in underground colonies. With everyone else in his colony paired up, and going on dangerous supply runs, O'Brien is kind of out of place. He tends to freeze in dangerous situations, so the rest of the colony is kind of protective of him. He dreams about when he was in high school - he was on a date the day the disaster happens and is still in love with the girl, Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing). He has recently gotten in contact with her via radio, and longs to be with her in Jenner, 85 miles away.

When the colony is attacked (and he freezes again), he decides it's time to go for it, and heads out into the world above to find his love. At first it isn't so bad, but he eventually gets attacked by a monster. Fortunately, a dog rescues him and takes him back to a school bus. There O'Brien figures out that the dog's name is Boy, and that his mistress is gone. All the god has left is a red dress that he takes everywhere. When O'Brien leaves, the dog accompanies him. 

The dog helps him survive, but when he falls into a pit of sand gobblers, he can't do much. But a couple of hardcore survivalists can. Michael Rooker and the pre-teen Ariana Greenblatt seem to be doing very well, and they help him hone his survival skills, which are terrible to begin with. One thing they teach him is that some monsters are nice - you can tell by the eyes. But they are heading for the mountains and he is heading for the coast. 

After tripping out from swamp leech bites and losing Boy, he finally gets to Jenner, and meets Henwick. She's a little distracted, because a yacht full of survivors have shown up to take her colony somewhere safe. The captain. Dan Ewing, is a friendly, capable, handsome Australian, and everyone loves him, except O'Brien, who hates him. You can guess what happens.

But you might not guess that Henwick as a maiden in distress can rescue herself, then fight off the whole Australian crew while letting O'Brien take care of their pet monster crab.

This is sort of what you call a cozy apocalypse. There is incredible danger and a huge deathtoll, but our hero does all right. Almost everyone he meets on his journey is kind and generous. He even finds a robot on its last minutes of charge, who shows him a picture of his parents and comforts him. He even gets to like some of the monsters (my favorite trope of "Loving the Alien"). 

All in all, a fun and easy-to-swallow romp, possibly aimed at young teenagers (the 20-something leads seem to be arrested at high-school age). But fun for the whole family. The most frightening thing may have been the town our hero started out from - he lived in Fairfield, which is really 85 miles from Jenner. But we do see a sign for Paradise CA - site of a very real apocalypse. 

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Goes Wrong

Recently, we watched the Goes Wrong Show (2019), a very silly British TV series. The premise is that a regional theater company puts on an original play each episode, and it Goes Wrong. The set was specified in inches, but built in centimeters. An actor steps through a door and into a painted scrim. A character is playing one legged with the other leg tied up behind him, and it keeps coming untied. It's very funny, with a lot of physical comedy (pratfalls), stock situations and clever wordplay. Unfortunately, there are only 6 episodes. But it got us in the mood - so we watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990).

It's not quite the same thing - it's Hamlet from the point of view of two minor characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, played by Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. Even they aren't sure which one is which. As minor characters, you see, they don't have much back story. In fact, when Roth asks Oldman what his earliest memory is, he ... forgets the question.

In fact, they ask a lot of questions. On a tennis court, they play Questions, where you must answer a question with a question. Make a statement and you lose the point. When they meet up with Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet, or others, they can recite their lines properly, but they don't know what's going on. And they are afraid to ask - what if they are sent back?

At first, it seems that their purpose is to bring in the players, led by Richard Dreyfuss. He is not my favorite actor, but great in this role: a combination of hammy, sinister, seductive ("times being what they are") and meta. Of course, the whole movie is very meta.

Or should I say, the whole play? It is of course based on the 1966 play by Tom Stoppard, who directed this movie. Even though I only visited New York once or twice in the 60s and 70s, I was well aware of this play from seeing the title on the tops of New York cabs. So glad I got to see it, and with such a great cast. 

Up the Yin Yang

I think I've mentioned before that sometimes Ms. Spenser doesn't want to spend all night watching movies. Strange, I know. Sometimes she has to get a little work in, as well. Also, she doesn't especially care for Asian martial arts movies. That makes them perfect to watch on streaming while she's taking care of email, etc. They aren't distracting because they aren't in English. That's how I found myself watching The Yin Yang Master (2021).

It starts in media res, with Qingming (Chen Kun) accused of killing the guards and stealing the Scale Stone, an object of power. So he runs away. Seven years later, we find Boya (Qu ChuXiao) guarding a shipment of tribute for the emperor. He is attacked by a demon with three expressionless faces and four arms. After a big fight, he rips one of the faces off, and it's a mask - the demon is actually three weasel-demons in a coat (with three masks and four arms). That's when this movie had me. 

I won't go into the rest of the movie in any detail (partly because I don't remember much - I tend to let these things just wash over me). Qingming is half-human-half-demon, but a good sort. Boya is a bit of a dry stick, but can't bring himself to go after Qingming full force. Woman Warrior Baini (Zhou Xun) can, however, making her a formidable opponent. 

But the real fun comes from the demons. Some are evil, some just goofy, all are fun to watch. It looks like this was made for the Chinese market, but got bought by Netflix for streaming. I liked it so much, I started the prequel/sequel Yin Yang Master: Dream of Eternity (2020).

PS: I finished the YYM:DoE, and it reminded me of something about the series (aside from how bonkers it is). The series seems to focus on the concept of the Spirit Guardian, someone who has your back in the spirit realm, I guess. A demon can be the spirit guardian of a human, a man for another man, a man for a woman, etc. The bond seems to be intimate and sacred, and can lead to trouble if you pledge to guardianship to someone doomed or unworthy. As a plot device, it works sort of like romantic love, which is interesting.

Also, I note that one Spirit Guardian in the sequel is a winged ape name called Snow Hound, who at least has snow powers. Vermillion Bird, on the other hand, is Boya (I think), with black wings. He rides his sword like a surfboard as it slices up a giant snake. Bonkers, I tell you.

Hand Over Fist

I queued up Archenemy (2020) because Paul Scheer from How Did This Get Made is in it - he wouldn't say much about his role, but assured us we'd like it. He did give us a hint - it's about a bum who claims to be superhero.

But more, it's about a black brother and sister. She, Zolee Griggs, deals meth for a guy called the Manager (Glenn Howerton). She is pretty together, a little ambitious, and hopes to move up in the crime world. Her brother is Skylan Brooks, a wannabe viral vlogger and video journalist. He tries interviewing a street dealer, and takes it to a video website, where everyone is cool, drinking espresso and playing foosball in the office. The cute editor offers him a gig if he brings back something good.

Brooks runs into Joe Manganiello, as Max Fist, a grizzled drunk and street bum. His story is that he was a superhero in another dimension. To stop his archenemy (and ex-wife?), he punched a hole in the universe and got stuck on Earth. He lost his powers and the only thing that sustains him is booze and crank, which are necessary for life on this planet. 

The Manager tells Griggs to meet up with Paul Scheer, and out of town dealer, and get the money he owes. He is a freaked-out tweaker, played by Scheer in BVDs with a shaved head and facial tattoos, waving around a pistol. He makes Griggs play Russian roulette, and when she wins, he's so amused, he accidentally kills himself. So it isn't a big role, but a fun one.

Griggs takes the money and plans to take off with her brother, but the Manager sends his goons for her. You know they are bad news, because one has a copy of Nihilism for Beginners that he has been reading. Brooks comes home with Manganiello, who beats the hell out of them - not because he has superpowers, but because he surprised them and beat them to a pulp. So Brooks and Manganiello set out to rid their city of crime, or at least of the Manager.

Manganiello is great in the role - he had sort of the look of a Jason Mantzoukis and the voice of Jeff Bridges. They keep you guessing about whether he comes from another dimension until near the end. They don't show his past in flashback, but in comic book animation. 

This is written and directed by one Adam Egypt and I don't really know anything about him but his name (hard to forget). It pretty much falls into that interesting genre of low/mid-budget indie movies about ordinary hard-luck people, usually people of color, encountering superpowers. It's a little more of a comedy than, say, Fast Color, but it still fits. 

Personal Problems

I knew of Personal Shopper (2017) pretty much as an Olivier Assayas, starring Kristen Stewart as a personal shopper - that's it. Didn't sound like my thing. When Netflix pushed it as a supernatural thriller, I figured I'd try it on Ms. Spenser.

We meet Stewart going into a spooky old house. She is going to spend the night and try to contact the spirit of her dead brother. We learn slowly over the first act that the woman taking her to the house is her widowed sister-in-law, who wants to sell the house to friends of her and the brothers' but only if the spirit is ok with it. The brother, Stewart, the friends are all into spiritualism. The night at the house showed that there was a presence, but nothing definite.

Stewart is staying in France working as a personal shopper for an actress, Nora Waldstatten. As she tells a shopkeeper when picking out some dresses, she's a busy person who doesn't have time to do nornal human things. It's a dead end job with a lot of aggravation, but she wants to stay near where her brother died. She has a boyfriend, doing an IT contract in Oman, who wants her to join him. But she is still looking for closure.

She meets Waldstatten's lover, Lars Eidinger, who is being thrown over. Shortly after this, Stewart starts getting mysterious texts - at first she thinks they are coming from her brother on the Other Side. (but it's really Eidinger). The texts encourage her to do dangerous things, like wearing Waldstatten's clothes and going to a certain hotel room. But when she does, she finds Waldstatten's bloody corpse. 

So this low-key art-house ghost story becomes a murder thriller for a little while. But this wraps up fairly quickly and undramatically. That isn't what this movie is about.

It ends with Stewart going to Oman, and being followed by the ghost. The cinematography is beautiful - the rest of the movie has been in somewhat drab and rainy France and London, but Oman is ancient and sun-drenched. But it doesn't solve Stewart's problem - the problem must be within her. (Spoiler.)

Assayas is a sort of late son of the French New Wave - I loved his Irma Vep. He's made an interesting, unusual and spooky movie here. Strangely, he has made one other movie about Stewart in relation to an older actress - Clouds of Sils Maria. But I don't think it has any ghosts in it. 

Wonder Years

I'm a little nervous about writing my post about Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). I've been ignoring reviews, but I can tell people didn't like this - and not just people who can't stand the idea of a woman like Patty Jenkins directing a superhero movie. But I thought it was great.

It starts on Themiscyra, with little Diana (Lilly Aspell) competing in a big Amazon decathlon/Gymkata with all the big girls. It's a great action scene with tons of practical stunts - and Aspell did a lot of her own. It really serves no point, except to give Robin Wright a chance to spout a Life Lesson. I didn't care - I enjoyed the spectacle.

Fast forward to 1984, a mall, filled with mallish stores, people in 80s fashion, women in leotards doing aerobics. I expected to see Beethoven trying out the keyboards at the organ store (Bogus Journey reference). Some bad men rob a jewelry store, going for the black market antiquities in the back room, like you find in most malls. Wonder Woman shows up to save the day, but disables the video cameras and tells one kid to keep it a secret, so nobody will ever figure it out. There's a funny scene where one of the robbers takes a little girl hostage, and even the other robbers are like, too much man.

Anyway, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) has been lying low since she lost the love of her life 70 years ago. She works in the Smithsonian, where she meets new hire Kristen Wiig, a clumsy, unattractive, neurotic gemologist. She has been brought in to identify the black market stuff recovered from the mall robbery. One piece that she and Gadot dismiss as worthless is a big citrine crystal with some Latin on it's holder - something about wishes. A passing scientist touches it and wishes for some coffee, and someone brings him a cup. Thoughts pass through the minds of Gadot and Wiig. 

Not really believing it, Wiig wishes to be more like Gadot. Gadot wishes she had her Steve back. 

Then Pedro Pascal shows up at the Smithsonian - He's been on TV touting an oil-based Ponzi scheme. As a big donor, he gets a tour of the premises, where he chats up Wiig, and a big party that Wiig and Gadot attend. Wiig is getting her wish, and becoming glam, and guess who shows up at the party? Chris Pine.

So the stage is set. I'll skip over the rest of the plot and just hit some high points. First, obviously, Pascal is supposed to be Trump - big conman, fake rich guy, tells everyone he'll grant their wish. This is actually pretty insulting - to the people Trump has hurt or killed. But of course, that's also the 80s, Reagan era vibe, so maybe it's allowable. 

And of course, her final fight with him was her and a bland white guy in a CGI whirlwind, just like the last movie. But at least there's another villain.

Wiig starts out just getting a little too into being smart, strong and popular. Then she goes full-on psycho and wishes herself into the Cheetah (villain name never mentioned as is the custom in these movies), a Cats-level CGI monstrosity. In her final fight, she refuses to back down, and as far as I can tell, isn't killed, so she may get a sequel appearance. 

When I'm writing this all out, I am slowly losing enthusiasm for the movie - maybe I only really liked the first two big action set pieces. But, no, there was one more thing. Although WW is strong and forceful, she is also caring and sincere. She may resort to force, but only as a last resort. And she foils Pascal's plot by appealing to the good nature of basically everyone in the world. And it works. I like that idea.

Also, Gadot striking poses just looks right to me - epic in fact.

And Chris Pine was pretty lovable, all things considered. If you want to know how he comes back to life, remember that the 80s were a prime body swap movie decade. Ms. Spenser noted that the guy he swapped with is more or less dead for the duration, which nobody else seemed concerned about. At least, when WW met the guy after Pine had vacated the premises, she didn't try to date him. That would have been wrong. 

All That Jazz

All Night Long (1962) is pretty high-concept - Othello set in an early 60s London jazz jam session. Patrick McGoohan plays the Iago part. Interested yet? How about if I tell you that Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, John Dankworth, and a pack of British players not only play on screen, but have minor speaking roles? That was enough to sell me.

It's set mostly in a warehouse by the docks, done up as a party pad by rich jazz fan Richard Attenborough. It's going to be a surprise party for hot pianist Aurelius Rex (Paul Harris) and his wife Marti Stevens, on their first anniversary. Attenborough comes in to find Mingus already at his bass, just grooving. Other band members and guests show up - most everyone is a musician so there isn't much distinction. McGoohan is a drummer, Johnny Cousins AKA Cousin Johnny. He comes in with other people carrying his drums, so you know he's going to be a jerk. 

He is in Rex's band, but wants to start his own. He can get backing and booking, but only if he can get Stevens as a singer - and she has retired since her marriage. But he knows she has been rehearsing a song for the party and thinks she might be ready to come out of retirement.

When that doesn't look likely, McGoohan gets cagey. He starts working on Cass (Keith Mitchell), Rex's band manager. He has had trouble with narcotics and is in therapy (paid for by Rex), and McGoohan gets him high on reefer. Then he starts telling Rex that Cass has been meeting with Stevens - but surely it's just for rehearsal. He keeps pushing the idea that there's something between them, in the end even making a tape and editing it to sound like Mitchell talking about an affair.

SPOILER - this movie has a happy ending. Everyone turns on Johnny, including his wife. Our loving couple goes off into the London dawn hand in hand, tested but strong. I hope that doesn't offend anyone.

But the plot, and honestly, some of the acting, isn't really the point. There's some silly jazz slang, and the marijuana cigarettes are pretty powerful, considering they are pin-sized. But the milieu is so cool. There are plenty of hot numbers, including Brubeck and Mingus duetting on a "Raggy Waltz", and Rex playing two Ellington numbers, "Sentimental Mood" and "Mood Indigo". There's a Brazilian bongo number, and some tight British horns. 

There's also some interesting race stuff, as befits a story based on Othello. Rex's wife is white, of course. But also Cass has a black girlfriend, and it just isn't a big deal. I guess director Basil Dearden (League of Gentlemen) doesn't mind putting a touch of drugs or race mixing in his films. Sort of an iconoclast, I guess. 

In conclusion, I saw John Dankworth in college - he gave a concert with his wife Cleo Laine. Laine had laryngitis, but still sounded amazing. She's a contralto with rich "pear-shaped vowels" and an amazing high range. In the movie, Dankworth's line is "Sorry Cleo couldn't make it." We are too.