Movies
Okay, now I get the cult of Terry Gilliam. I mean, don't get me wrong: I like 12 Monkeys and Time Bandits and Baron Muchausen and the animations in Monty Python and all the rest. But Brazil is where all the charms of those other things merge into a truly compelling whole for me. It's what's transformed Gilliam from an interesting filmmaker into a great one in my eyes. Maybe I should have started with this one. It's a moving, desperate, funny, visually stunning, and utterly bonkers experience that totally justifies the "what if we adapted 1984, but with, like, carnival-inspired imagery" premise. Grade: A
The third of George A. Romero's Living Dead trilogy turns out to be the second best, but only by a hair—nothing's touching the absolute masterwork of the original Night of the Living Dead. The thematic complexity of Dawn has been scaled back a bit, but in exchange, we've got far and away the most stomach-churning gore effects in the series (perversely, I've got to count this a plus—it's a triumph of practical effects, y'all, and come on: who doesn't want to see the villain meet his end in that way?). Also, as much trouble as it's caused the zombie genre over time, I appreciate how much this movie spends dealing with the science of zombies. That scene with all the dismembered zombies is awesome, and it's not just the practical wowee-zowee of the animate body parts. Grade: A-
Some of the sharpest, most emotionally harrowing thriller filmmaking in recent memory gives way to something looser, more ambitious, and frankly less interesting in the film's second half. That's not to say it's bad; the movie is just cut in two, and the transition between both sides is jarring in a way that must have been intended to echo the characters' own feelings regarding what happens to them. I'm being slightly vague because the wrenching tension that ends the first half is just too indelible to spoil. Just know that the movie's linchpin event shakes everything out of place so joltingly that they never quite get back to working as smoothly again. Oh, and is it common knowledge by now that Brie Larson is amazing? 'Cause she is. Grade: B+
Having only a barely working knowledge of the Black Panther party, I found this documentary fascinating. Director/writer/producer Stanley Nelson Jr. has assembled some stunning interview footage, and the absolute best parts are when you can see the subjects still struggling with what they've experienced: retired police remembering collaborating with the FBI manipulation, party members recounting the pulling apart of the Panthers at the seams. But I could see the argument that it's a largely surface-level work. I wonder if there's a longer director's cut floating out there somewhere: it's definitely the kind of movie that would benefit from an hour or two extra, which, yes, I realize is crazy coming from "all movies should be 90 minutes" me. Even at 115 minutes, though, the whole thing feels a bit rushed. Grade: B+
The most egregious artifacts of 2000s "indie" cinema are not, as many have said, quirky dramedies but rather the leftist issue documentary: the children of Michael Moore. For the Bible Tells Me So has a lot of the hallmarks of the genre: manipulative musical cues, clear "bad guys," a snide animated sequence. But it's worth noting that the movie does dodge some of the pitfalls: it's decidedly good-natured and interested in pointing out just how many different ways that Christians respond to homosexuality. It doesn't hurt that I'm also on the doc's side regarding acceptance of homosexuality. Even so, we're still dealing with an issue doc, which means that it's cinematically boring and often tips toward ideologically smugness. Which I guess begs the question of why I keep watching these things. Grade: C
Television
When Fox announced that The X-Files would return, I suppose it would have been reasonable to assume that it would return at the same level of quality that it left us—which was, unfortunately, the show's ninth (and worst) season (or, even worse, the go-nowhere theatrical flop, I Want to Believe). But... I dunno. I had hope. Maybe I was too much of a super-fan to do anything but hope. After all, Darin Morgan was going to be writing an episode! James Wong and Glen Morgan were coming back for multiple episodes! And yet, in the end, what we got was exactly where Season 9 left us: with one true classic (the delightful Darin Morgan-penned third episode), a handful of mediocre monsters of the week, and some truly abysmal mythology arcs. At least we had Mulder this time. Grade: C+
When I snarkily reduced the first season to "terrible people struggle to cope with their flaws until they become sad enough to be sorta sympathetic," I'm not sure that I thought the show's solution to that reduction would be to make its characters slightly less terrible and a whole lot more sad. But that's what they've done, and it's worked reasonably well. Not that You're the Worst has lost its whip-smart comedic edge (there's a lot of mileage gotten out of the "I didn't know it was a school" joke), the show has found its firmest footing in drama, especially the small, crushing drama that comes from picking the scab at supposed domestic content—best evidenced by the stunning mid-season downer, "LCD Soundsystem." It's still a bit sloppier and familiar than I wish it were, but it's definitely not the worst. Grade: B+
Music
Aging musicians putting out late-career excellence is something I never get tired of. Unfortunately, you don't get much of that in prog, since most of the early flagship bands either crumpled at the end of the '70s or morphed into something that paved the way for the Phil Collins solo career. All of this means that I am delighted to find out that my old prog favorites King Crimson have put out some great material as the group slid into old age. Exhibit A: THRAK, every bit the heavy, intricate record you hope those prog grandfathers still have in them. It's maybe not quite up to the lofty standards of the band's '70s work, but whatever. It's still good stuff. Grade: B+
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