Past, Futures and Penalties - Oct 1 - Friday Video Distractions with Mike Norton

 

    

October! How can it already be October?!
     The weather's already, suddenly, beginning to run cooler, with my needing to clear the heavy condensation on my car windows in the morning, getting me to wonder how many days it'll be before the first morning I'll find ice in the mix. For now, though, we're enjoying nice weather here in SE Pennsylvania, and I'd happily see it settle into a groove of this as far through the remainder of the year as it can go.
     Today's plans - should they survive contact with eternal enemy Reality - include tending to some overdue matters, and watching Soprano's prequel The Many Saints of Newark, the latter being one of the films I mentioned last week. My intention is to add reaction notes to that post, doing so using a green font so they'll stand out. The above plans, for starters, prompted me to work on this week's piece earlier than I otherwise might have.

   Arriving on Netflix today is the season one collection of Oats Studios Experimental Short Films, from South African director Neill Blomkamp (likely best known for District 9, Elysium and Chappie.) Each of the projects falls into a broad sci-fi genre.
     The collection includes the 22-minute Rakka, starring Sigourney Weaver, about a dystopian future where a band of human survivors aim to fight an alien colonization. I see that that film debuted back in 2017, and has been available on YouTube, though I've still not yet seen it. Along with that, we're to expect Cooking with Bill, Kapture, Praetoria, God: City, Zygote, and Gdansk... each of which I know nothing about save for such clues as come through in the trailer.

     I'm interested in seeing how well these flow, each presumably isolating a core story arc, though I've seen how much can be packed into a well-written half hour of commercial tv, so in 21-23 minutes. I don't know how typical the (just under) 22-minute Rakka is for length in this collection. Ideally these will each work as complete narratives, and not simply story core outlines to potentially be revisited and fleshed out into more commercial-length features. There's a state where they could be both, simply leaving the audience wanting more.
     Also appearing on Netflix today is a new thriller starring Jake Gyllenhall as a 911 dispatch operator.  He tries to save a caller in danger, but gradually finds out that things are not what they seem. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, it's The Guilty (2021  R  90 min)

     A remake of a 2018 Danish film of the same name, the cast also includes Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough (Elvis and Priscilla Presley's granddaughter), Paul Dano, and Peter Sarsgaard.
     Before moving on from Netflix, I want to point out a compelling, 9-part series that landed back on September 17th, but which I didn't get started on until late this past weekend. From South Korea, written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, it's a desperate game of survival: The Squid Game.

     In it, a group of 456 strangers find themselves drawn into a game, lured by a chance at enough money to not only get each out of the desperate financial straits they're in, but to potentially set most of them and their loved ones up for life. Even just a shot at a fresh start would be enough for most of them. Some glimmer of hope.

     We follow perennial loser Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jai), a divorced parent with impulse control and gambling issues, too dependent on his ailing, over-worked mother. His habits have brought him well on the road to estrangement from his young daughter, and whose gambling debts have put him in a desperate corner. If he cannot come up with a huge sum of money in a month's time, he's signed away rights to his organs. At the same time, his ex's new spouse is about to be transferred to the U.S., which will take his daughter very likely beyond his reach forever.

    The games turn out to all be based on schoolyard games familiar to Korean youth, scaled up for adults and with severe penalties for failing. Overseen and supervised by masked guards in a remote location, it escalates into a desperate fight for life. At first it's simply a matter of not violating the rules, but then it becomes more of a direct competition. Each game is entered into blindly, often with choices made prior to the reveal, and some of the results are heart-breaking.
     The nine episodes provide us a full story arc, though it ends in a fashion that potentially sets up a second series. As of this writing no second series has been ordered, but it's still early in the process. If it does happen, we're unlikely to see it before 2023.

     As an aside: On another level, the film is an interesting view into life in South Korea, reminding me that in many ways it's (unfortunately for the people there) very reminiscent of conditions here in the U.S. for a great many people. A general sense of economic despair among a vast block of people, even as so many of them refuse to acknowledge it. A weird, hyper-Capitalist vibe that I'm sure in large part comes from being adjacent to North Korea, with its upside-down mirror world of Socialist Dictatorship. A prideful, warped contrast, as if these two, mad extremes are the only options, and as if allowing any sane socialism (such as national healthcare) would be a nod of assent to the lunatic North. Insanity. There, as with here in the U.S., you can rest assured that a small Some are getting rich off the vast, human misery.
     On Paramount +, a recent arrival is yet another film that had a brief theatrical release (generally so it can be considered by the Academy) before landing on this streamer. Starring Kirsten Bell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Vince Vaughn, Paul Walter Hauser, and Joel McHale, it's loosely based on real-life coupon counterfeiters - it's Queenpins (2021 R 1hr 50 min)

     I'll likely watch it largely because I like the leads, but the reviews, overall, haven't been kind. Even weeding out those who objected on political/belief grounds for some of the jokes that struck them as left-leaning (anti-gun), there's a general sense that it ran longer than it should have and pulled too many of its punches. This is from the writing & directing, husband and wife team of Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly. Reportedly the R rating is simply for language.
     Two Blumhouse horror thrillers land on Amazon Prime today. These are grindhouse-style affairs, so gore, over-the-top violence, and sometimes silly levels of mayhem are likely parts of the mix. It's going to get wet and messy.
     In the barrio of Oak Springs, a group of elderly friends band together to resist the gentrification of their neighborhood. Relentless forces continue to push, however, and the bingo hall that's one of their social centers is about to be sold to forces more malignant than what they thought they were up against. Another turn on Faustian bargains, it's the horror comedy Bingo Hell (2021)

     Next, we shift to a younger group banding together to grapple with vampires seeking to claim the neighborhood, in the action thriller Black As Night (2021  1hr 27min)

    Over on Tubi (free, save for a modest flow of commercials, and if you can see this you can see Tubi) they're about to begin including some original programming. Starting October 6th, Buffy and Gossip Girl alum Michelle Trachtenberg hosts a 13-episode true crime series about people who became their lover's victims. It's Meet, Marry, Murder. I'm a little confused by the scant promotional materials, which seem to suggest that this was a series that has already run in the E.U., perhaps recut to allow Trechtenberg to tape new hosting/framing pieces. This teaser trailer is what's referenced on YouTube.

     It's not generally the sort of thing I'm drawn to, but I thought it potentially worth mentioning for those who do enjoy these true crime shows.
     As it's the first day of October I thought I'd leave you with a horror anthology from 1972: Tales From the Crypt (1hr 32 min). While not my favorite of the Amicus, British horror anthologies of the '60s and '70s, it does have a good cast spread out over its five stories (each adapted from issues of pre-code, EC horror comics of the early 1950s), bookended by a sixth. Here I'm linking to a posting on YouTube, though I'd suggest heading over to Tubi (free, and easily signed up to), where a better quality copy is waiting - albeit with modest commercial breaks. Here (again) is the copy over on YouTube.

     Hopefully the Joan Collins segment doesn't feel like a dreadful rush towards the end-of-year holidays.
     That's enough for this week. As ever, take care, and enjoy the weekend.  - Mike