TOKYO VICE, s2 (2024)

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If the narrative and temporal catch-up to Jake and Katagiri's meeting with Tozawa's right hand from the (MIchael Mann-directed) pilot in one of the last episodes of this season is any indication, I'll be more surprised if there's a third season than if there isn't – but what a fantastic ending to a great, underrated show and/or season: more amped up than the first, a steady, pulpier unfolding with great characters (this season belonged to Show Kasamatu's Sato and Rinko Kincuchi's – still one of my favorite actors, her role in Rian Johnson's THE BROTHERS BLOOM being a favorite – Emi and, to a slightly lesser extent, Rachel Keller's Samantha) whom I'll miss – yes, even Engelgort's Jake, whom, like nearly every other character at one point in the show, I wanted to punch (Engelgort's still the weak point of the show; I wish they had kept Daniel Radcliffe in the role from the unproduced film version) – dearly. Great show: if you didn't watch it, give it a binge. (**** / *****)

KIMI (Steven Soderbergh, 2022)

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(****+ / *****) :: Nothing quite like Soderbergh putting on his genre hat – THE LIMEY, OUT OF SIGHT, and OCEAN'S 11 – and paying homage to his influences / inspirations while exploring modern (and timeless) themes in tight, taut, 90-minute packages: in the case of KIMI, Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW, De Palma's BLOW OUT, and Coppola's THE CONVERSATION (which I really, really need to revisit). Zoe Kravitz is exceptional and, until her turn here, I never imagined Rita Wilson as a company line corporate shill. More like this, please.

TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY (2024)

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(****+ / *****) :: Brilliant return to form (though I'm not among the legion that loathed season two, I can't remember much of anything about season three, other than Mahershala Ali being, unsurprisingly, excellent) courtesy of a director whose work I now need to devour. Should the series continue, would love to see it take the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE pre-McQuarrie route, a different writer/director taking a swing at a season/series (Barry Jenkins, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Lynne Ramsay, Jordan Peele, and Werner Herzog (see: BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL – NEW ORLEANS, great underrated film) being the first that spring to mind; would've included Jane Campion but she did it with TOP OF THE LAKE and Nicolas Winding-Refn but same with TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG and COPENHAGEN COWBOY). Will miss seeing the Ennisians on our Sunday night visit – I would've gladly spent the remainder of the long night with them (hanging with Rose would be brilliant) – but I'll especially miss Danvers's latest weekly variation on "fuck." Corpsicle FTW.

THE LOBSTER (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)

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Input trend of "catch up from the last 10-80 years and finally explore" – see: Cassavetes, The Safdies, Chester Himes, et al – continues with Yorgos Lanthimos (the cinematic Gogol?) and this gem: darkly hilarious in its exploration of the stupidity of extremes (no one here is immune – everyone seems to have the emotional capacity of schoolchildren at recess (which, when it comes to love, I suppose we all do), to wonderful – and horrifying – effect) and far more moving than its weird would lead one to believe. All of Lanthimos’s work duly added to the "must-watch" list.

corpsicle

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Fantastic read via Polygon on how Issa López and crew made the show’s already-legendary ice-rink thawing corpsicle. Found this bit, on the influences behind it, of particular interest:

Among the influences they ultimately pulled in: 

  • “A shrunken head where the skin has started to pull back and reveal this mouth that’s been dislocated or disjointed” (a work by Phil Hale, a López suggestion)
  • Berlinde De Bruyckere, a Belgian artist who sculpts “really violent sections that you have cutaways through, and you can see this kind of skin draped and stretched, and you’re not quite sure whether it’s part of a body you’re looking at” 
  • Ringu — specifically “a reveal where they open a cupboard” (if you know, you know) 
  • The eternal anguish of Francis Bacon (the painter, not the lord chancellor of Britain)
  • A photograph of a baroque underwater dance to lend the whole thing a “sense of movement,” as if this pile of bodies was merely paused in panic."

BLUE BEETLE (Ángel Manuel Soto, 2023)

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(Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto from a script by Gareth Duner-Alcocer; starring Xolo Maridueña, Belissa Escobedo, Bruna Marquezine, Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Trujillo, George Lopez, and Susan Sarandon. Released 15 August 2023; watched 2023w47 via Max )

Blue Beetle hovers above Earth.

If you'd've told me ten years ago that the best film in the DCEU would be BLUE BEETLE, I wouldn't have believed you. Yet here we are - and it is, by far, the best: a perfect balance of heart, humor, and thrill. A shame it was lost to the box office undertow of the end of the DCEU and its (much-needed) rebirth into the Gunn/Safran DCU, but hopefully BEETLE finds the audience it deserves in streaming (ironic, given its origins) and physical release. Relief, too, that Xolo Maridueña will continue as Jaime in the new canon; here's hoping for his return sooner rather than later. Wonderful film.