Well, I\u2019ve started Better Call Saul<\/strong><\/em>. I\u2019m only through five episodes. I watched I think the first three seasons of Breaking Bad<\/em>, hating Walter and sort of myself the whole time. Saul<\/em> is more my speed. The main character is that one character type that will always, always get its claws right into my heart: the dutiful sleazebag. Make somebody both really sleazy and really willing to serve another human being, and I am there for you. (I had some sort of formative experience with Grantaire as a child. The wish-fulfillment version of that trope. Now you know where I get it from\u2026.)<\/p>\n In general the three things I look for in any narrative art object are jokes, sleaze, and repentance. In visual art I also like showy stylishness. I expect to enjoy this show.<\/p>\n Now some movies.<\/p>\n Condemned<\/strong><\/em>: A hideous mix of chemicals in a locked, abandoned building claimed by NYC squatters turns them into ungentrified zombies. There\u2019s a fun \u201980s feel to this, with its ultra-grungy New York still all guns and graffiti, its bright bouncy colors and its gross gooey over-the-top batwingery. It\u2019s also tasteless on every level, stomach-turning, and the kind of movie that\u2019s about gentrification and the marginalization of freaks but also<\/em> our POV character and final girl is the nice middle-class white chick. Throwbacky and sort of demented. I found this very skippable but idk, you might like it. The squatters are very paint by numbers (whoa he\u2019s a Hasid with payess BUT his girlfriend is a black transvestite hooker! man, New York is a weird place!) but the building itself is well-imagined and I did like the opening speech a lot, about how birds become their nests.<\/p>\n Something, Anything<\/strong><\/em>: A rich career woman trapped in a mistake of a marriage doesn\u2019t realize she should speak honestly to her awful husband because she has no decent friends. Also, she considers monasticism and rids herself of worldly possessions.<\/p>\n There are some clever cuts in this movie, especially in the opening montage. (There\u2019s also a shot where the main woman\u2019s boobs walk toward the camera, but okay.) Every woman except one speaks in a terrifying sugary baby voice. I question the decision of the real actual monks of Gethsemane Abbey to appear in this film. I do think the exploration of monasticism is sincere and even low-key preachy, but it\u2019s a kind of unanchored monasticism, a way of expressing one\u2019s sickness of the world and taking on a self-improvement project. Monastic longings as self-expression.<\/p>\n I know it\u2019s hard to make a movie about someone trying to figure out what or whom or Whom she loves, because if you can\u2019t show her loving some specific beloved it\u2019s easy for her to come across as self-absorbed. But why don\u2019t we see what or how the monks love, if they\u2019re going to be such a large part of the movie\u2019s symbolic vocabulary? Why don\u2019t we see what the old flame\/ex-monk\/guy who hits on an unhappily-married woman but he\u2019s conflicted about it so I guess that\u2019s great, loves, other than music and fun?<\/p>\n And sentimental fireflies.<\/p>\n The Objective<\/strong><\/em>: Short weird tale about a CIA man (Jonas Ball, like James Marsden on a bender, I really enjoyed this guy) who takes a team into the wilderness in Afghanistan and confronts something not of this earth. Much more compelling than it had to be, partly because it knows which questions to leave unanswered and partly because it sells you the main character as a guy who is cynical on the outside but genuinely loyal to the Company. Will his loyalty be rewarded? Ha ha ha ha yes definitely, that\u2019s how that works.<\/p>\n Voice<\/strong><\/em>: Korean haunted-school horror. The relationship of best friends Young-Eon and Sun-Min is at the heart of this story, which has sapphic overtones. I loved the use of singing; in general this is a poignant, haunting (!) movie to experience. The plot gets tangly by the end. As I was watching I was really moved by this film, though now that I\u2019m trying to remember it I see that it has faded pretty fast. Definitely worth a watch if you\u2019re intrigued.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, I\u2019ve started Better Call Saul. I\u2019m only through five episodes. I watched I think the first three seasons of Breaking Bad, hating Walter and sort of myself the whole time. Saul is more my speed. The main character is that one character type that will always, always get its claws right into my heart: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1272,263,119],"class_list":["post-10365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-better-call-saul","tag-brass-monkery-that-funky-monkery","tag-horror"],"yoast_head":"\n