KWIF: The Bad Batch (+3)

Kent's Week In Film #2
The Bad Batch - 2016, d. Ana Lily Amirpour - Netflix
Alice, Sweet Alice - 1976, d. Alfred Sole - Xumo
Red Sonja - 1985, d. Richard Fleischer - DVD
The 39 Steps - 1939, d. Alfred Hitchcock - SilverScreenClassics

After watching Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night I was intrigued by her bold, confident style, and her deep and very broad genre interests, only to find that she was also the creator of The Bad Batch, a film I'd been very intrigued by back when it came out in 2016, but never got around to watching.  I don't think I ever knew the premise, just the strong imagery of desert scenes, a one-armed woman, and a pair of yellow cutoffs with a smiley face on the ass.  I thought it was a post-apocalyptic scenario, but it's even more genrefied than that.

The unwanted of American society, the troublemakers, the mentally disturbed, the illegal, the criminal are scuttled into a no man's  land outside the Texas border, a desolate space with no laws and nobody watching.  Anything goes.  We follow Arlen (Suki Waterhouse), an uneducated southern twentysomething, as she's tattooed and entered swiftly into the gates.  She sets off with virtually nothing and is quickly found by the bodybuilding cannibals, aka the Bridge People.  They take her arm and her leg, but after a time she manages an escape, to be accepted into Comfort, a civilization within the outcasts, where there's commerce, housing, comfort and calm, and a border to protect them. But all of this is thanks to The Dream (Keanu Reeves), who has managed to find luxury amidst the shit, in part thanks to his aptitude for making drugs, giving back to the people, and generally running a cult.  He clearly has a pipeline into the outside world.

Jason Momoa is MiamiMan, one of the beefy cannibals who finds a stoned Arlen in the desert while looking for his missing kid, and knowing she might be in Comfort, charges Arlen with the task of helping recover her.  There are sparks...very confusing sparks. 

The film ambles, often quietly (there's not a lot of dialogue for the first half of the movie) allowing the viewer to take stock of the environment of this very open prison, to get a sense of the people within it, and not everyone is what they seem.  The curious choice Amirpour makes is we never really get to know Arlen  We don't know what she did, we don't truly know what kind of person she is.  Ultimately she's a survivor, and so is MiamiMan, which may explain the connection.

It's an unconventional film with an unconventional narrative, a real sense that anything could happen.  In other hands it may have accelerated into something action-oriented, or even more horrific.  The opening moments of the film are filled with utter dread, but when the worst basically happens to Arlen in the first five minutes, there's not really anywhere else to go, terror wise.  It probably could have used a little more action, or horror, or something just to elevate its blood pressure.

At one point, the film starts positioning itself as a revenge thriller, and then completely abandons it.  Amirpour is savvy in knowing the cinematic language and using it against the audience.  Sure, it subverts expectations but it needed to deliver then in other ways.  In the end it's a curious outlier of a film, not really fitting into any specific genre, but weaving through many, yet never fully embracing them.  It's also a surprisingly star-addled affair, thought you might never know it.  Outside of Momoa, there's an unrecognizable Jim Carrey, an unmistakable Keanu nailing a no-pressure performance, and Giovanni Ribisi as a mentally trouble townsman, plus Diego Luna almost completely obscured as a DJ.

Amirpour knows her lenses, and while her song selection isn't as tight as A Girl Walks Home... she still adeptly uses those needledrops throughout, but the film struggles to find its narrative function.  I love world building, and it's clear Amirpour does as well, but it also needs to be populated with interesting characters (which she has) and a story to drive it.  The ending of The Bad Batch is virtually the same as that of A Girl Walks Home..., just the angle of approach to getting there is different.

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A recommendation from the Quentin Tarantino/Roger Avery "Video Archives" podcast as part of their look at "American Giallo". Once you get past the awkward timing of nearly every scene in Alice, Sweet Alice, (aka Communion) there's a rather gripping murder-mystery/suspense thriller.  It starts with a child's murder for which another child is blamed.  Kind of daring. I knew going in that Alice wasn't the murderer, but I think if you went in cold, it would only be the first act, at most, where you would suspect Alice of the crime. There wasn't a long-term plan here to deceive the audience. 

The actual murderer is revealed at the end of the second act, which then spends time with them, givings us some insight into who and why they are. It's a little disjointed from act to act, as the focus shifts from one character to the next, and sadly Alice is pretty much gone from the film's second half, yet somehow it all hangs together quite well. 

There are some surprising attacks and murders, and that great, soupy, bright red 70's blood is put to great effect. This revolves a lot around church, and I don't quite grok the message, but it's obviously not one that thinks highly of Catholicism.  

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Red Sonja. The money is up there on screen, all 17 million dollars of it. The sets and costumes are quite amazing. It's just too bad the direction is so uninspired and the script is as tired as the most generic of Italian-shot sword-and-sandals fare from 20 years earlier, and far less charming. Even the master, Ennio Morricone, seems to be sleepwalking through his score 

What is most surprising his how poorly acted it is. When Ernie Reyes Jr's hammy hyperactive obligatory 80's kid sidekick is the best you got going for you... hooboy. Besides Reyes, only Nielsen really seems to be giving it a real go, it's just she's not a good actress. She can sell the sword fights better than anyone in the movie, and she looks convincingly intimidating 50% of the time, but it's not nearly enough to really sell this character, nor the romance with Arnold (was that Arnold's first ever kissing scene at the end? Hallmark movies are more convincing). And that wig? Moof.

The film tries to be a semi lighthearted adventure, as was the style at the time, but it needed more seriousness, a bit of grit. This needed to be a hard R, with more blood and violence, you know barbarian shit. Nix the kid prince and his not-quite comic relief babysitter, and toughen Sonja up some more... we should never see her smile.  And Arnold... just make him Conan...who are we trying to fool here? 

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What Hitchcock does in The 39 Steps that I absolutely love is he keeps the actors busy, there's movement in every scene.  When there's exposition to get out, the players have other things they need to be doing at the same time, be it making a meal or trying to file off a handcuff or check out the scene outside the window.  It's a small thing, but it makes a huge, huge difference in how a scene plays from just static two heads talking.  What is being spoken at times can be life or death, but the world does not stop for it.  Every scene in the movie is immersive in this way.

Often in the action around the main characters is where Hitch's sense of humour comes out, such as the train sequence where our Canadian hero Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), on the run from the law after being accused of murder, is sharing a booth with two women's undergarments salesmen.  Hannay's anxiety about being found out is just bristling with tension, but it's completely undercut by the men's prime focus, discussions of their trade interspersed with their utter disinterest in the murder they just read in the newspaper.

Hitch perfected the mistaken-identity layman-on-the-run with North by Northwest but The 39 Steps is a pretty damn good prototype.  It's rare for a film from 1939 to have surprises (because if they're any good at all, the good stuff tends to get cribbed and rehashed over time) and yet the story here doesn't follow the traditional layman-on-the-run set up so there are a lot of unexpected deviations, as if Hitch is tired of the genre tropes before they've even really been established yet.  There are a couple of moments bordering on deus ex machina, allowing Hannay an easier escape than likely, but they're not egregious enough to bring down the film's enjoyment.  

I Saw This!! What I Have Been Watching: 2020 Edition: Pt. F

I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Kent(!) or Toasty(¡) attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. But every time I try not to write, bad things happen, very bad things. Somewhere. To someone.

What I Have Been (or Am) Watching is the admitted state of me spending too much time in front of the TV. And despite what I said above, I have been avoiding telling you about what I have been watching. Not that you care. But at least I am not telling you about my character

Pt A is here. Pt B is here. And Pt C. And Pt. D. Aaaaand Pt. E.

Escapism !!

Star Trek: Picard, 2020, CBS

Where do I begin on this but to say, yeah I loved it. How could I not? It's Old School tNG as well as being fresh and new, and occasionally challenging. It has completed the season now, and to be honest, that was enough. We don't need anymore. We got our fill of nostalgia, we got to see what our beloved characters were up to, for better or for worse. We got to romp around the galaxy for a bit and hear Picard say "engage" again. What more could we ask for?

Well, let me tell you, I was hoping for more. That first episode, it gave me not-quite-new-Star Wars-fanfare chills. It felt crisp and fresh and bitingly expository. Picard no longer with Star Fleet, a bitter, resentful old man, with trauma weighing heavy on him. And with good reason! The dialogue in that first episode felt so perfect for what we need now. Alas, as episodes went on and on, we fell into more familiar patterns. Sure they tossed in some swear words here and there, and some rather startling violence, but it still felt like Trek of Olde. Oh sure, I enjoyed the Hell out of it, as I was a big fan of Trek in all its incarnations. But it felt like I lost something before I could even really savour it.

So that's fine, end it with one season. I got some and I am ready for Discovery.

But before I move on, some of the Bestest of Things: Annika the Bad Ass and her quest to protect and re-integrate the ex-Bs, Elnor the Space Elf and Captain Rios of the La Sirena and his menagerie of holograms.

The Letter for the King, 2020, Netflix

From the trailers I thought this was going to be a pseudo-historical story set in Not-England or Not-Europe during some Not-Medieval period, but it turned out to be a generic Fantasy series in an entirely Not-Medieval-Europe world. And despite being a teen centered drama, it was actually rather good, if rather sanitized for adult audiences.

Based on a book by a Dutch writer, the story focuses on the young man Tiuri (sounded like Jury to me; is that how the name is pronounced in Dutch?) from the Kingdom of Dagonaut. Dagonaut supports Unauwen which has been at war with Eviellan for a thousand years. That is, until Prince Viridian took it upon himself to destroy them and end the war. Tiuri was a casualty of that war but was taken north by a kind knight, as raised as the man's son.

On the night Tiuri is supposed to become a knight himself, he is interrupted by The Black Knight with the White Shield, who dies before he can deliver a letter he intercepted, a letter from Viridian to people he trusted, a letter that CANNOT reach his father the King. The dying knight charges Tiuri with delivery and off he goes on mounted on the real hero of the series, Ardweden the horse.

Tiuri has a destiny, or so everyone seems to think when they run into him. There is a prophecy that a darkness will rise and only a child of the light can stop it. Tiuri doesn't really care for the idea of destiny, and it doesn't help that his fellow novice knights are chasing him down. The real story picks up when he gets saddled, literally, with the daughter of a disreputable town mayor on her way to find HER life's goal.

Magic, sword fights, Destiny and black wearing bad guys -- this was the generic fantasy I needed right now. It wasn't as juvenile as it could have been, but not as edgy as it wanted to be -- it was no successor to Game of Thrones. But I don't think it should have tried to be. It did go as expected, except for one wonderful turn of events when Tiuri's destiny turns out a little different.

Zoey's Infinite Extraordinary Playlist, 2020, NBC

Sorry Nick & Norah.

Not yet done with the season, but almost there, is the sometimes uneven, sometimes a little lost, but altogether charming and entirely delightful ZEP, but I might be a bit biased, as Jane Levy's Zoey does make me more than a bit swoony.

In this series, that lends itself to the world that Glee left behind, Zoey sees and hears people's inner most thoughts through song and dance. Basically they break into musical routines right in front of her, but only she can see them. She, along with her Fabulous neighbour Mo, learns more about the roles of this "superpower" and uses it to help those around her, including her father, a man dying from a disease that has him mostly locked-in. Zoey is also the newest Programmer Manager in a very very San Fran software company, so she has many challenges to deal with besides hearing pop songs she really doesn't know and the emotional backgrounds behind them.

The pilot nailed the story & characters down, but then ages later, the following episodes softened them to focus on other elements of her life. But enough of the core plot exists in every episode to carry me on every week. And again *ahem* Jane Levy. She's quirky (her entire trendy decorated apartment is computer references) and amiable, awkward but confident and did I mention charming? Her coworkers and computer software company might not be at all realistic, but we can leave that to Silicon Valley -- this is just a backdrop for her weird coworkers and experiences. In the end, I pretty convinced she has a tumor, but who knows, it might just end up being Modern Magical.

See, 2019-2020, Apple+ TV

On the only recently released Apple company Online Only TV network (cuz everyone has one these days) there was only one pure scifi series -- Jason Momoa's post-apocalyptic series about a world where a plague spread *cough* leaving anyone who survived blind, as well as their ancestors. In this now tribal world, the few with sight are king. Or so the Queen believes, and therefore will stop at nothing to destroy. Momoa is a warrior and tribal leader who takes in a pregnant stranger and ends up raising her children as his own. And in doing so, pretty much destroys his village.

Set in the Pacific north west, like so many other scifi shows, its quite the (ironic, I know) beautiful looking po-ap world, all overgrown and green. Everything about the world is sound and touch. You wouldn't think they could have warriors or ride horses, but somehow, probably hundreds of years after the fall of civilization, they do. I didn't complete the series, as a number of other shiny things appeared, but I will. I am enjoying it, even if it doesn't bring light to my world.
His Dark Materials, 2019, HBO

Pilot Season '16: Son of Zorn

Fox, Sundays @8:30

again with the "awkward family photo"
style poster. Perhaps the best use of it in
a while, but this trend has got to die.
Hell, if people can stop using the
vocorder/digital tuning then surely this
style of promo poster can cease too...

If there's one show I want to love this season, it's Son of Zorn.  It's produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller  (whom astute readers of this blog [haha, astute readers of this blog...like that's a thing] will recognize from reviews of The Lego Movie, the Jump Street movies and even Last Man on Earth) purveyors of askew storytelling and whose every involvement seems to be worth my attention.  (The show's creators, Reed Agnew and Eli Jorné, I'm not familiar with, nor showrunner Sally McKenna). 

The show's premise seems like it was extruded from my own brain... Zorn is an animated a He-Man analogue (voiced by Jason Sudekis) who has been estranged from his son for nearly a decade fighting battles in the island of Zephyria.  He's returning to Orange County (a real, non-animated environment, populated with real, non-animated people) for his son's birthday.  There he reunites with his ex-wife Edie (Cheryl Hines) and meets her new husband, an on-line college professor, Craig (Tim Meadows!), but can't seem to connect with his son, Alan (short for Alanguilan, naturally... played by a seriously aged-down Johnny Pemberton).  Zorn is a warrior, a barbarian, and Alan is scrawny, and a vegan no less, there's not much in the way of common ground.

It's a classic sit-com fish-out-of-water trope, but with added levels.  Having an animated character invade a real-world setting has inherently comedic value, making it a homage to a beloved 80's cartoon (there's some deep-seeded Masters of the Universe references in there that only fans would catch) just steps it up a notch.  But the show doesn't just rest upon its weirdness.  It's attempting to have some substance to its characters while also having more than just (many, many) clever visual gags up its sleeve.  There's dimensions to the comedy, thankfully.

And yet, it's not a success right out the gate.  There's definite potential, but, if anything, it's too reserved in using its conceit, where it should be using it took hook especially in the pilot.  There's not enough foundation to Zorn.  Intrinsically we're supposed to assume the aggressive alpha male, but if he's a He-Man analogue (particularly one satirizing 1980's kid-shows), he should be moralistic and almost gratingly compassionate.  Instead, the show's going more head-on with the violent barbarian angle, like a refugee from Axe Cop.  We should spend more time with Zorn in Zephyria, getting a sense of what his regular life has been like (we get the sense that it's been full-on war, and he loves it, but that seems too obvious).  Hopefully the show will subvert expectations of who Zorn is, as well as who Alan is.  I already love the way the show's subverted the usual "new husband" dynamic with Craig.

Some of the jokes fall flat in the pilot.  I'm not sure if it's the timing, excessive tinkering (as happens with pilots), or just too obvious, but, still, it does end on a strong note, with Zorn presenting Alan with a giant riding-hawk for his birthday, since a boy his age needs transportation.  Edie of course says "no", and naturally Zorn deals with it as a Barbarian would, much to the horror of everyone.  Also, Ellen Wong (Knives Chau from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) is here playing a teenager yet again (she's 30), but she's great, and I hope she's a series regular.

Definite promise, but it could fall spectacularly flat.