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| Frame from BBC's Neverwhere (1966) |
This Static Age’s spotlight goes to the peculiar British 6-episode miniseries Neverwhere (1996) devised by Neil Gaiman (who also penned the same-titled tie-in novel) with Lenny Henry, and originally aired on BBC 2. It concerns an urban fantasy twist on London, called ‘London Bellow’, in which the protagonist (Gary Bakewell) finds himself trapped into. The series may be lacking a bit on the budget department (resulting in mediocre video photography and occasionally poor design), but the strength of the material is such, that it has become a cultural phenomenon among fans of 1990s U.K. television, spawning a graphic novel and several stage plays.
And now, let’s
switch our focus towards some recent series…
Yellowjackets - Season 2
The 2nd
season of Yellowjackets (2021 –
present) finds the titular 1990s high school team of female soccer players
alumni, having to work together in order to cover up murder, but this is a
piece of cake compared to the pagan cult conspiracy they are up against.
Featuring once again, non-linear editing, as well as stunning performances by
all involved, especially Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, and Christina Ricci,
this is a landmark season that perfectly balances between the macabre and the
humorous.
Midnight Mass - Season 1
Netflix’s horror
mini-series Midnight Mass (2021),
created by renowned filmmaker Mike Flanagan is about the problematic isolated
community of a secluded island, which has its balances shaken upon the arrival
of a new priest. Full of cinematic imagery that includes technically staged
one-shots, this is terror television at its best, always effective and
atmospheric.
The 2nd
season of The Punisher (2017 – 2019)
has the titular vigilante (Jon Bernthal) meeting a new love interest in the
form of gorgeous barwoman Beth (Alexa Davalos), but it will prove hard to keep
his life in track, as a mysterious girl (Giorgia Whigham) is in some serious
trouble and Frank will resort to violence in order to protect her, while an
enemy from the past is also preparing a comeback. Netflix managed to produce
the most edgy and powerful material ever to be based on Marvel material, but it
was so violent, bloody, and gritty, that the famous comic book owners were not
very satisfied in the least.
The Terror - Season 2
Executive
produced by Ridley Scott, the 2nd season of The Terror (2018 – 2025) is set in WWII California, where a
community of Japanese migrants is facing racism. Slow, quiet, and with nothing
really going on in terms of plot, this lacks any sense of importance to its
proceedings and aims to salvage itself with generally good photography and some
atmosphere, but fails.
The 4th
season of Westworld (2016 – 2022) is
set seven years after the demise of Rehoboam, and under its sci-fi wrapping it
raises relevant questions about free will and the power of technology, without
ever becoming preaching or technophobic. It is a strong genre show, with
elegant cinematography and good performances, and an overall exciting series
finale.
Frame from Fargo - Season 5
The 5th
season of Fargo (2014 – 2024) takes
us for one final time deep in Minnesota, where a group of dorky and peculiar
trigger-happy characters get involved in a mysterious case of kidnapping and
murders, all under the watchful (even if not very much so) eyes of the law and media.
It perfectly captures the tone of the original film that inspired the series
and delivers 10 well-made and exceptionally entertaining episodes, resulting in
outstanding television.
Slasher - Season 5
The 5th
season of Shudder’s Slasher (2016 –
2023) is a period piece set in Toronto, where the street’s scumbags as well as
the upper class johns are terrorized by a mysterious figure in black that is
employing a fancy knife to kill pimps, prostitutes, clients, and their ilk, in
what is the series most boring outing. It seems like it was made with an A.I.
algorithm programmed to satisfy the wettest dreams of political correctness, as
we are introduced to a bizarre cast that includes a Rastafarian detective, a
Black female doctor, a lesbian journalist, a transsexual brothel manager, a
pimp with a heart of gold, all in the expense of historical accuracy and common
sense. Probably nobody will be offended (which seems to be the aim here) but
nobody will be entertained either, that’s for sure.
Much more fun
and energetic than the couple of previous tired outings, the mere eight
episodes of the 4th season of The
Boys (2019 – present) has the evil ‘sups trying to maintain their dominance
of power abuse and filthy deeds, but it is met with the strong resistance of
the opposing side that includes former superheroes that are disgusted by the
conquerors corrupted empire. Kinetic and full of stunning gore scenes, this is
a splattering adventure that will not fail at entertaining you. It also
benefits from a strong cast (that includes Karl Urban and Jeffrey Dean Morgan)
and a cool soundtrack (that includes tunes from The Sex Pistols and Nirvana).
And after all, where else can you see flying sheep thirsty for blood?
Narcos: Mexico - Season 2
The 2nd
season of Narcos: Mexico (2018 –
2021) takes deep into the history of the titular country, with a focus on the
influence of the drug cartels, and continues with the story of kingpin Felix
(Diego Luna) who upon celebrating his 40th birthday, has to rethink
of his allies and enemies. If gangster epics with narcotics float your boat,
you can’t do much better than this outing from Netflix.
LGBTQI+ icon
Ncuti Gatwa is the new Doctor in the 1st season of the fresh Doctor Who (2023 – present) and Ruby
Sunday (Millie Gibson) is his sidekick. Together they get themselves involved
with several exciting adventures that include snot monsters and a maestro who
wants to leave the world without music. With episodes ranging thematically from
folk horror to technophobia, this is a pure winner.
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Thank You, Goodnight...
The documentary
mini-series Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon
Jovi Story (2024) – now available on Hulu – takes on legendary glam rock
band Bon Jovi’s tremendous career of rock ‘n’ roll success and excess. But
despite their conventional approach, the four episodes manage to go deeper into
friendships and relationships as well, resulting in a very interesting end
result for dedicated fans of the group’s music and newcomers alike.
The
ambitiously-titled Porn King: The Rise
& Fall of Ron Jeremy (2022) had me wishfully thinking of a desired
in-depth look at the notorious actor’s actual rise to fame, but instead the
two-part documentary mini-series is focusing on the titular man’s recent rape
and assault trial and even at that it doesn’t offer too much aside from the
regular talking heads, the vast majority of which are expectedly from the adult
film business, with some of them taking the side of the accused and others the
side of the accused. With such an interesting real-life story that is swinging
between the world of entertainment and the true crime genre, this can only be
viewed as a missed opportunity and plays like an average lengthy newsreel.
The ill-named
‘art-house’ genre or whatever you would like to call this pretentious kind of
film is an area I tend to steer clear from as much as possible. But for some
bizarre reason, in the last few months I convinced myself to sit through a few
of them, and here are my thoughts…
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The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Based on the
previous year’s same-titled novel by John Steinbeck, and turned into a
screenplay by Nunnally Johnson (who also produced, with Darryl F. Zanuck),
director John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath
(1940) is set during the Great Depression and follows a group of Oklahoma
farmers that are forced to migrate to California. With a stellar cast that
includes Henry Fonda and John Carradine, this is considered one of the greatest
social dramas ever made, but even its lavish production (it was distributed by
20th Century Fox) is not enough to save the boring proceedings.
Rome Open City (1945) directed
by Roberto Rossellini (who also wrote the screenplay with Sergio Amidei,
Federico Fellini, and Alberto Consiglio) is set during WWII occupation of the
titular Italian city and focuses on the story of Resistance leader Giorgio
Manfredi (Marcelo Pagliero) as he tries to escape the Nazis, without causing
the harm of his comrades. It is a very human story and it benefits greatly from
the fascinating cast that includes Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi. This is the
first installment of the auteur’s ‘neorealist trilogy’ and it won the Palme
d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Paisan (1946) poster
Featuring six
stories, director Roberto Rossellini’s Paisan
(1946) is an anthology film and it is focusing on the interactions between
Italian locals (mostly of the South) with soldiers (mostly Americans) during
WWII. As it is expected by a film from the neorealist ‘movement’ that was
cherished by several International Film Festivals that praised it with
supposedly prestigious awards, endless boredom is guaranteed.
The problems young
and poor boys are facing in the Allied-occupied Berlin are the concerns of
director Roberto Rossellini’s Germany, Year
Zero (1948), which rounds up the WWII neorealist trilogy he made in the
1940s and presumably had many political issues to discuss, yet it only managed
to engage audiences with endless and torturous boredom.
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Summer with Monika (1952)
Based on the
same-titled 1951 novel by Per Anders Fogelstrom, Summer with Monika (1952) directed by Ingmar Bergman is about the
titular sensual young lady (Harriet Andersson) and her relationship with a
boyfriend (Lars Ekborg) that is doomed to fail for a variety of reasons. The
film itself didn’t quite fail though as despite being a pretty conventional
romance drama, it also contains some revolutionary – for the era – scenes of
nudity featuring the female lead that caused a sensation with audiences. It is
now regarded as one of art-house cinema’s crown achievements, but in reality it
is a pretty boring picture.
Directed by
Laszlo Benedek and starring Marlon Brando as the titular outlaw biker, The Wild One (1953) is – simply put –
an iconic film that marked a generation. John Paxton’s screenplay (the
provocative question ‘What are you rebelling against?’ that received Brando’s
well-deserved answer ‘What you’ve got?’ is one of the greatest line exchanges
of 1950s cinema) was based on Frank Rooney’s pulp Cyclists’ Raid short story (it was originally published on Harper’s Magazine and became more
popular when it was anthologized in The
Best American Short Stories 1952), which in turn was based on the true
story of the 1947 American Motorcyclist Association rally that briefly became a
news sensation due to some brief criminal activity that media couldn’t get
enough of. However, contrary to mainstream film critics’ beliefs, the actual
fact is that in terms of cinema this wasn’t the film that started it all for
the biker exploitation subgenre, as a certain 1966 film by Roger Corman was
much more influential.
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And God Created...
And God Created Woman (1956), directed by Roger Vadim (who also penned the screenplay, with
Raoul Levy) is set in St. Tropez and is about a young promiscuous woman (the
impossibly beautiful Brigitte Bardod, in the sensual role that made her a
household name overnight) that is perceived as a ‘wild animal’ that ‘cannot be
tamed’ and therefore becomes a threat to local men and the village’s society in
general. Very daring for its time in terms of visual content but also very
groundbreaking in terms of what it has to say, this is an important piece in
the history of provocative films.
Written and
directed by Ingmar Bergman, Wild
Strawberries (1957) is an existential drama about nothing in particular. It
is featuring an aging Victor Sjostrom who is playing a professor that is reflecting
on his past and a young Max Von Sydow. It won several awards and it is widely
appreciated by the art-house crowd, but the sheer boredom of watching it is
undeniable.
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The Seventh Seal (1957)
Ingmar Bergman’s
historical thriller The Seventh Seal
(1957) is set in Sweden (the country of production) during the Black Death era,
and it tells the story of a knight (Max Von Sydow) who places a bet on his life
with a game of chess against Death himself (Bengt Ekerot). The film is
considered a classic, but I almost died of boredom. At some point death is
asking the knight if he lost interest, and before he could answer, I was
screaming that I did!
Based on a
Swedish folk ballad from the 13th century and turned into screenplay
format by Ulla Isaksson, director Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960) is set in medieval times and is focusing
on the rape of young girl by a trio of peasants. Endless boredom ensues, but
the Academy must have seen something in it as it won its ‘Best Foreign Language
Film’ award. In 1972 a certain Wes Craven remade it in the form of a New York
roughie, which accidentally turned into a horror movie and became a ‘rape and
revenge’ phenomenon; you’re better off seeing that film.
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Accattone (1961) poster
Written and
directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Accattone
(1961) is about the titular pimp (a perfectly cast Franco Citti) who is pimping
poor girls in the outskirts of Rome. Despite some very interesting skid row
locations and the strong subject matter, the execution is flat and boring.
Written by
Vladimir Nabokov (and based upon his own same-titled hit novel from 1955 – the
adaptation nominated him for an Academy Award), director Stanley Kubrick’s
seminal classic Lolita (1962) is
about the titular young lady (Sue Lyon – who was only 14 when this was filmed)
who has a middle-aged professor (Peter Sellers) falling in love with her.
Touching the overtly taboo subjects of child sexual seduction, grooming, and
abuse, but presented in dark comedy manner, this is a daring film and it
wouldn’t fly today in any form.
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Band of Outsiders (1964) poster
Based on a novel
by Dolores Hitchens, writer/director Jean Luc Godard’s Band of Outsiders (1964) is homage to old Hollywood pictures (it is
dedicated to Monogram) and pulp books (several references can be spotted
throughout the film’s entire running time). It tells the story small-time
crooks Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur) that persuade a young
student (the breathtakingly charming and otherworldly stylish Anna Karina) to
perform a robbery. Godard found his perfect muse in the face of Karina, and the
French New Wave circle found its most meaningful and enjoyable film – the
notorious dance sequence is worthy of the admission price alone, and is
deservingly recognized as one of cinema’s most important moments.
The fear of a
potential Cold War with the nuclear threat between the Soviet Union and the
United States of America is satirized in director Stanley Kubrick’s dark comedy
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to
Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1966) which is featuring Pete Sellers in
three roles – all of them from different political standpoints and parties. It
was nominated for four Academy Awards and it is still quite funny, despite its
settings that may alienate younger audiences that are not familiar with the
then-current political agenda, because the madness behind situations such as
these are unfortunately timeless.
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Cul-de-sac (1966) poster
Two wounded
gangsters find solace in a secluded house run by a peculiar couple in Roman
Polanski’s first English-speaking film, the crime comedy Cul-de-sac (1966), which has a great cast that includes Donald
Pleasence and Jacqueline Bisset, but not much else for my exquisite taste.
Possibly the
only film that Ingmar Bergman directed and I find remotely interesting, Persona (1966) is about a young nurse
(Bibi Andersson) that takes care of a famous actress (Liv Ullmann) who was
recently muted after a suspected psychotic episode. Avant-garde in its
aesthetical approach but verging on the horror film tonally and thematically,
this deep film explores themes of insanity and duality, but most importantly it
raises questions about what is a person (hence the title) and what is identity.
Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic theories were quite popular at the time, and this
thoughtful work fits just right to the subject discussed.
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Blow-Up (1966) poster
Set amidst the
mod subculture explosion of the Swinging Sixties London, and based upon a short
story by Julio Cortazar from 1959, director Michelangelo Antonioni’s landmark
classic Blow-Up (1966) is about a
fashion photographer (David Hemmings) who believes he has caught a murder with
his camera. Featuring stunning ladies (including Vanessa Redgrave) and a
bombastic soundtrack (that includes a track from The Yardbirds) this is
aesthetically stunning (even if it doesn’t have much to say, thematically at
least) and won the Cannes International Film Festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or.
In The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), a
vampire hunter (Jack MacGowran) and his assistant (Roman Polanski, who also
directed – and wrote the screenplay, with Gerard Brach) travel to a secluded
mountain village in order to discover vampirism, but what they find instead is
lame humor and the filmmaker’s late wife Sharon Tate. Well-made but absolutely
dated, this horror comedy is unable to generate laughs or even a barely good
time for its audience.
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If... (1968) poster
Lindsay
Anderson’s If… (1968) starring
Malcolm McDowell as the leader of a revolutionary group that takes direction
within the grounds of an oppressive college is a remarkable satirical political
drama that came at the right time in History, just around when the uprising of
May ’68 was taking place in France. But by so perfectly depicting the misery of
the English schooling system, the result is a miserable film as well. However,
the finale is brilliant and rewarding.
Robin Shea (a
stunning Rebecca De Mornay, long before she became a household name) is trying
to figure a clever way out of prison (as escaping plans didn’t go very well)
and is manipulative enough to acquire the aid of a staff member (Vincent Spano)
and a local politician (Frank Langella) in Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman (1988) – which is a remake of the film
tackled above in name only – a remarkably meaningless affair that ended up
being the final theatrical outing of the auteur, but looks as conventional as
the TV works that ensued.
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Lolita (1997) poster
With Jeremy
Irons taking the role of Professor Humbert who is sexually attracted to teenage
girls and Dominique Swain taking the titular role in Lolita (1997) – the second adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s
notorious book – along with an excellent supporting cast that includes Melanie
Griffith and Frank Langella, this opus directed by Adrian Lyne is far more dark
and provocative than Kubrick’s classic, but it somewhat feels flat and overall
average. Ennio Morricone did the soundtrack, but it doesn’t rank among his most
memorable works.
And it is here
that we wrap this peculiar entry of Static
Age (which turned out to be the lengthiest yet), with a final note that
bizarrely for my taste I also enriched my bookshelves with the following
fiction additions: Stephen King’s Christine
(1983), David Grann’s The Wager: A Tale
of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder (2023), and three classics by Neil Gaiman
[Good Omens (1990), Neverwhere (1996), and The Graveyard Book (2008)].
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