What Are You Watching in June 2022?

What's on your TV?

Yesterday I went to a movie theater for the first time in over 2 years.
We saw Downton Abbey: A New Era. (1920s) Great!

>2 nrmay: Hope you thoroughly enjoyed yourself and ate lots of buttered popcorn.

>2 nrmay: I want to see that!

The Bee Gees - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart DVD
Wonderful documentary on The Bee Gees and covers them from childhood till the end of their careers. Barry is still alive - but I am not sure if he is still performing. Highly recommended!

Mostly watching sports & the Jan. 6 committee hearing. Browsing streaming services. HBOMax: episode 1 of Irma Vep. This a re-make of director Olivier Assayas’s 1996 movie of the same name, itself a sort of interpretation of Vampires, originally a silent movie serial total ca. 7 hr. from 1916 created by Louis Feuillade, an early pioneer of the cinema. Either Vep is a fictional “making of” a remake of the original Feuillade flick, & the HBOMAX series is at the same time a remake of the director's own 1996 film (got that?). Key character is Mira, a presumably American actress (Alicia Vikander, who is Swedish, does a credible enough American English) who is supposed to be playing Irma Vep. I haven’t seen the 1996 film in some time (featured international star Michelle Yeoh as the actor playing Irma Vep. From what I recall of the 1996 movie, Mira will go all out method & “become” her character in a catsuit, creeping around in the dead of night as such to what end I don’t remember. A number of scenes from the original Feuillade are screened. It’s not a supernatural horror movie or thriller, more like Truffaut’s Day for Night, but with a more satirical/cynical take on movie making today. It takes place in Paris, so there is a lot of language switching between English & French (with subtitles). Mira is a celebrity star whose usual job is playing a heroine in Marvel type blockbusters, trying to remake herself as an actor in a modestly budgeted international film. The initial episode has her dealing with her co-actor ex, who has brought his wife along but the wife is the former personal assistant of Mira. Worse, the wife is the former lover of Mira (21st century spin; don’t recall that in the 1996). Total 8 episodes; HBO is doling out each episode on Mondays, so it will be going on most of the summer. If you liked the Truffaut movie, you may like this one. I’ll continue watching.

Also on HBOMax, Colossal from way back in 2016, directed by Nacho Vigalando (smh). Has the look of an indie film if it was financed by a Korean conglomerate. Indeed, it goes back & forth from small town upstate New York (just a guess) to Seoul, combining Pacific Rim’s kaiju with a Jason Sudeikis comedy, & indeed we see Ted Lasso turn into one of the 2 toxic males in this menage a trois. In the FX series Archer, the intrepid hero’s mother expresses her worst fear: that he will get into a relationship with a girl with bangs. Anne Hathaway plays Gloria with bangs throughout the movie. She’s been mooching off her British boyfriend for months, ostensibly looking for a job; he throws her out & she goes back to her old home town to find herself (apparently she was left an empty house by her parents). Association item: the HBOMax series Somebody, Somewhere. Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) is her childhood friend secretly in love with her. With that in mind he hires her as a waitress in a bar he owns, whose only customers seem to be two of his friends. But the viewer will keep in mind that in the pre-credit shocker, a Korean toddler is the first person to register the appearance of a gigantic city destroying Godzilla type monster some 25 years ago. As more of Oscar’s personality starts to surface, it brings Gloria’s emotional turmoil to a high pitch, & she goes to her safe space, a small children’s park, along with her laptop. She checks out a news channel & sees a gigantic monster who has appeared in Seoul. She notices the monster scratches the top of its head, something she does when she is in turmoil. As an experiment she scratches her head & the monster does as well. Gradually she figures out: that the monster appears in Seoul whenever she is hyper at 8:05 AM in the park; the monster is a super metaphor of her personality made manifest. She demonstrates her discovery to Oscar & his 2 bar buddies. By accident Oscar learns that when he is paired with Gloria at 8:05 in the park, he manifests as a giant robot, destroyer of cities – well, Seoul anyway. While the basically amiable Gloria has her manifestation become friendly with the Koreans, Oscar's drinking, & the appearance of Gloria’s ex has him manifesting as a robot of chaos, threatening to destroy the city when he has a tantrum. Eventually there is a showdown of Oscar & Gloria & their manifestations, similar to the movie that has Godzilla vs Kong. One can read all sorts of interpretations about how our subjective states appear to us when we dig deep enough; the sleep of reason births monsters or something like that & that the monsters can be rather silly.

On the Peacock streaming service, watched Ambulance. Was just going to watch a bit to come down from the earlier NHL semifinals game, but stayed on to the end. It’s a Michael Bay film, so lots of cars crashing all over the place. More of an audience pleaser than Vep, of course, but sprinkled with humorous bits that you don’t see in the usual Bay film, especially the character Danny Sharp (Jake Gyllenhall) who persuades his brother from another mother Will (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to help him rob $32 million from a bank across the street from LA Police Headquarters. Probably sold as the bank robbery in Heat meets Speed. Not original then, but edge of the seat once the robbery takes place. Danny & Will ambulance-jack a vehicle with EMT Cam (Eiza Gonzalez) on board once the robbery goes south. Danny & Will have wounded Zach, a cop while trying to escape. They get him on board so they won’t get the Bonnie & Clyde treatment by LA’s finest, though in the course of the chase they are responsible for the deaths of countless cops. One preposterous scene after another as the chase develops. Cam turns out to be a key figure in the film, though her Stockholm Syndrome at the end was a bit much. Using a relatively unknown woman actor as the focus among the big names in an action film was similar to Copshop, where Alexis Louder as the deputy outshines Gerard Butler.

On Amazon Prime, the latest James Bond film, rather ironically titled No Time to Die (2021). Apparently Daniel Craig’s swan song. I’ve heard some complaints that it wasn’t as good as the earlier Craig/Bond movies, but it was quite entertaining enough for me, with Bond forced to show his vulnerable side, & from the first explosion there seems to be non-stop action; the women, in contrast, (Ana de Armas as Paloma; Lashana Lynch as Nomi – both MI 6 agents) are the least emotional killers for the good guys. The loss might be that the raised eyebrow wit of Bond seems to have been soft pedaled to bring out his emotional softer side, though my dim impression has been that Craig wasn’t very good at that part in any case. Even Bond’s romantic interest (Lea Seydoux) shows her pistol packing skills at a young age. Some viewers thought Rami Malik, the villain (playing Lyutsifer Safin – hard name to spell) was a come down from Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) who has a small part, but being less campy, Malik gave a quite serviceable performance, also motivated more by emotion – but what a plan, though not all that different from some Twitter comments I’ve been seeing every once in a while. Seems a bit self-important that British MI 6 came up with the doomsday device rather than the CIA or the KGB. For your comedy villain, see the mad scientist Obruchev.

Nostalgia 2018

Lovely film about exploring the love and loss of family members. I enjoyed it. Great cast!

Tina
This film takes a look at Tina Turner's life and career. I enjoyed it.

Nine Days
Interesting film about a being who picks out the next human to be born after someone dies on Earth. He interviews souls to see if they qualify to make it to the next step. I enjoyed it.

>12 JulieLill: Sounds good.

Strange Magic
This is an animated feature by George Lucas. "Goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion." from IMDB I enjoyed this film but I especially loved the soundtrack and bought the CD. Yes, I know - I am probably the only one who still buys CDs.

>14 JulieLill: Oh No. You are not alone. I buy CDs also.

>15 Carol420: Oh, good!