Rutherford Falls: A Fresh Sitcom Perspective

I decided to watch Rutherford Falls because it was co-created by Mike Schur. He was a writer on The Office and subsequently went on to create Parks & Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place, so this is a man I trust when it comes to excellent sitcoms. However, while he is the reason I started watching the show, co-creator and showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas is the reason I bingewatched all ten episodes over two days. This is a show that proudly places the focus on indigenous people, both in front of the camera, and behind it (the writing staff on this show is half indigenous). Over the course of ten episodes, you’ll get a hilarious and searingly empathetic look at what it means to be Native American today, and how exhausting it can be to deal with white people, whether they are well-meaning or not. 

The show stars Ed Helms and Jana Schmieding as Nate and Reagan, childhood best friends who grew up in the town of Rutherford Falls. Nate’s full name is Nathan Rutherford: his ancestors founded this town 400 years ago after coming to a "peaceful" settlement with the Minishonka Nation who lived on the land and he now runs a museum celebrating the history of the Rutherford family and this town. Reagan is Minishonka, though she is considered a “city Indian,” who doesn’t speak the language and doesn't live on the reservation. Nonetheless, she is proud of her heritage, and after getting a Master’s degree in Museum Studies, she is pursuing a dream of funding a proper cultural center to educate the public about the Minishonka. Unfortunately, for now, all she has is a room in the local casino run by Terry Thomas (Michael Greyeyes). 

Much like Parks & Recreation, which kicked off with everyone being obsessed about a pit in the middle of the small town, this show kicks off with everyone being obsessed with an inconveniently-placed statue of the founder, Lawrence Rutherford, in the middle of the town. There are calls to pull down the statue because it keeps causing accidents, but Nate defends it, saying it’s not like all the other statues of white men being pulled down across the country. The initial focus is on his struggle and attempts to rally support. But the focus soon shifts to Terry and Reagan and the chain of events that are set into motion with the Minishonka Nation as things quickly boil over into chaos. Not to mention the arrival of Dustin Milligan as an NPR journalist who wants to do a podcast about this town and stirs up some additional trouble.

This show is trafficking in serious themes, but the delivery is earnest and sweet and splendidly funny. There aren’t many villains here, just people in need of an education. Which is reflective of us as the audience. Oftentimes, we get extremely stereotypical portrayals of Native people in our pop culture, but this show is righting that wrong. There is a scene where Terry tries to explain something to Reagan by referencing mystical folklore, and she goes, “that only works on white people.” I love how the Native characters talk to each other when they’re alone as opposed to when they’re with non-Native people, because it is so reflective of the freedom minorities have to express themselves in their own community without having to explain themselves. Turns out that while this show is shining a spotlight on indigenous people, it still contains some universal truths that all minorities can relate to.

I imagine my recommendation is clear at this point, but watch Rutherford Falls. It is smart, endearing, and entertaining, and also features a boppy theme tune that I couldn’t stop humming for days afterwards. The production design is stellar and reminiscent of the creativity and vibrancy of The Good Place set, and I wanted to move to this town right away. As always, the casting by Allison Jones is spot on, and every single actor on this show is doing remarkable work. I haven’t even mentioned that the town’s mayor is a Black woman, played by Dana L. Wilson, and there is a brilliant dynamic between her and Terry as they butt heads but have to grudgingly respect each other for the obstacles they both have overcome as minorities who have succeeded in this town. It’s so clever and poignant and hilarious, and seriously. Just watch this show. It’s the greatest.

And the 2021 Oscar Goes To...

Another year, another Pop Culture Scribe Oscars post. This year's is a bit later because awards season got pushed out (thanks Covid!). I also did not get to watch these films in a theater (thanks again Covid!) but they still amazed me and certainly served as a lifeline during an otherwise brutal year. I started this blog eight years ago because movies and television were the things that always kept me going in difficult times, and never has that been more obvious than during a global pandemic. These movies were emotionally resonant, inventive, sensory delights, but as always, some movies and performances were more riveting than others. So, as is tradition, let's delve into my Oscar hopes and predictions!

Best Picture: Oh where to begin? This is a great crop of movies, there isn't a Joker in the pack (yes, I'm still hurting from last year's Joker nomination). All eyes seem to be on Nomadland to snag the big prize this year, and that would be fine by me. It seemed to capture the essence of 2020 as it spoke to the perils of Americans not being able to rely on a social safety net, as well as the beauty of this country and our collective longing to wander through the great outdoors instead of hunkering down in our homes. Beautifully shot, directed, and acted, it's a worthy winner. However, we all know that the nominee that brought me the most joy this year was Promising Young Woman. I still periodically think about that film and am hoping it might be playing in a theater once I feel safe to go back so I can marvel at it all over again. That movie packed a punch in every possible way and my brain is still reeling all these months later. My runner-up in terms of visceral cinematic experiences would be Sound of Metal, a film that made me appreciate my ears and continue my appreciation for Riz Ahmed. After that we have The Father, which is a narrative wonder and emotional rollercoaster. There's Minari, a movie that is even more poignant these days with all the focus on how we treat Asians in America and their representation in Hollywood, and then Judas and the Black Messiah, which sadly continues to be poignant as the unrest around police brutality and #BlackLivesMatter never ceases. And then finally we have The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Mank, the two movies that fall into the category of "old school Oscar nominee." They are both perfectly fine movies, but they are traditional stories. The Trial of the Chicago 7 has some overlap in terms of time period and characters with Judas and the Black Messiah, and for my money, Judas is the far more compelling tale as it gives us the rarer story of the Black men involved in the fight for justice rather than the white ones. And Mank is your classic "hurrah for Hollywood!" that would ordinarily be the Oscar frontrunner. But thankfully, this year, with the Academy's increased focus on diversity and representation, they've moved on from the classic fare and served up a cinematic feast that makes me much more excited to go to the movies again. 

Best Director: Last year I was bemoaning the fact that Greta Gerwig wasn't nominated for Best Director. And now this year, for the first time ever, we have two women nominated for Best Director at the same time! And it's also the first time a woman of color has been nominated! Yay! But also, what pitiful milestones to be achieving in 2021. I can't wait for the day we have five women nominated in this category, but until then, it's very exciting to have both Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennel in contention for Nomadland and Promising Young Woman, respectively. It's particularly impressive than Fennel nabbed this nomination for her directorial debut, but Zhao is the favorite to win. We could have had three women nominated if Regina King had made it in for One Night in Miami, but she was bizarrely ousted by Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round, which...ugh. That movie was fine, but it very much felt like it was playing to an audience of old white dudes, so no Thomas, no award for you. The other nominees are Lee Isaac Chung for Minari (I think it's a record to have two Asians nominated in this category, so hurrah!), and David Fincher for Mank. I'm happy for Chung and ambivalent for Fincher. But they will have to wait, because the ladies deserve the stage this year. 

Best Actress: This race seems wide open, featuring incredible performances from five women in movies that were either also incredible or uplifted solely because of their leading ladies. Obviously, I'm going to be biased towards Carey Mulligan for Promising Young Woman, but I wouldn't quibble about a win for any other woman. Viola Davis was sweaty and sublime in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Frances McDormand was quiet and extraordinary in Nomadland, Vanessa Kirby was a freaking powerhouse as she gave birth and then gave in to grief in Pieces of a Woman, and Andra Day was the only astonishing thing about The United States vs. Billie Holiday, literally destroying her body and voice for that performance. I'm excited to see these women in ALL. THE. THINGS. Let's just call a five-way tie and be done with it. 

Best Actor: This is set to be awarded posthumously to Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and who's going to argue with that? I still can't quite believe he is dead and that we will never see him on screen again. So this award is in recognition of a great performance in that film, but also in recognition of all the movies he gave us and the future movies we have now lost the opportunity to see. Anthony Hopkins' final minutes in The Father wrecked me, Riz Ahmed's bewildered confusion and anger was crushing in Sound of Metal, and Steven Yuen's resolute striving for the American dream was heartbreaking in Minari (his nomination is the first for an Asian in this category, which is both good and startling news), but this is Boseman's award this year. And yes, Gary Oldman is also nominated for Mank, which in a classic Oscar year would be considered a frontunner, but in this year, was...meh.

Best Supporting Actress: Do not give this award to Glenn Close for Hillbilly Elegy please (she's a fine actress, but the Oscar for that performance should be for Makeup & Hairstyling, not Acting). The universal favorite for this category is Yuh-Jung Youn for Minari and I would be thrilled if she won. She has such an intricate and complex role in that film as the grandmother who comes over from Korea to keep this family together, and the evolution of her relationship with her young American grandson is a masterclass. Of course, an upset by Maria Bakalova for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm would be kind of bonkers and amazing, and would be a worthy reminder that comedies can be Oscar-worthy too. Olivia Colman already has an Oscar, so while she is perfect in The Father, I won't be too upset by her losing out in this category. And again, Amanda Seyfried is perfectly fine in Mank, but that movie was the least exciting thing to come out of Hollywood in 2020. 

Best Supporting Actor: This is a lock for Daniel Kaluuya's masterful performance as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah and should be the first of many Oscars to come. His co-star, Lakeith Stanfield, was also great, but there's no winning against that Kaluuya performance. In terms of a runner-up, I would probably go for Paul Raci in Sound of Metal, who had so much authenticity to lend to this script as he is actually the child of deaf parents. Talk about perfect casting. Sacha Baron Cohen was great in The Trial of Chicago 7 but that was a performance that felt like "acting" rather than inhibiting a role, unlike Leslie Odom. Jr., who perfectly captured Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami but still can't quite compete with Kaluuya.

Best Original Screenplay: This is where Emerald Fennel could get her Promising Young Woman Oscar and I will be rooting for her with all my fingers and toes crossed. But there are other worthy nominees here: Lee Isaac Chung for Minari, Darius Marder for Sound of Metal (I imagine this screenplay looks very complex as most of the characters are deaf and need to communicate via machines or sign language), and Shaka King for Judas and the Black Messiah. They are all first-time nominees and they wrote elegant and riveting scripts that told unique and powerful stories. The only outlier is Aaron Sorkin for The Trial of the Chicago 7. Listen, it's a good script that plays with narrative in compelling ways and gets you invested in all the myriad characters populating the story. But it's also peak Sorkin and he already has an Oscar, so step aside for the new kids, OK? 

Best Adapted Screenplay: Chloe Zhao is the frontrunner for her Nomadland script and as someone who has read the book that the movie is based on, I was wowed at how she took that source material and manipulated it into this movie. She added the fictional Frances McDormand character while also recruiting some of the real-life folk mentioned in the book, which gave the film an authenticity and tone that was truly impressive. Meanwhile, I'm not particularly keen on the other nominees. It's funny to see Borat Subsequent Moviefilm here, but it shouldn't be winning for its script since improv and the ability to roll with the reactions of the unsuspecting participants is so crucial to that film. The Father and One Night in Miami are both based on plays, and they do take advantage of the freedom afforded by cinema to expand the worlds of their characters a bit more, but there's still a stagey and dialogue-heavy quality to these scripts that remind you of their origins. And The White Tiger was a perfectly acceptable film, but the script wasn't a very revolutionary adaptation of the source material, so no points for innovation there. 

Those are my thoughts for the major categories. Some other predictions/wishes: Soul would be my pick for Best Animated Feature Film and I might need to watch it every few months to combat my periodic bouts of existentialism. Joshua James Richards ought to win for Best Cinematography for Nomadland as no other film has ever made me yearn to visit South Dakota. Alexandra Byrne's costumes for Emma were the last thing I saw on the big screen before the pandemic so I will sentimentally be rooting for her to win Best Costume Design. And Sound of Metal needs to win Best Sound because...I mean, come on. 

So that's it for another year at the movies. It's been a strange one, but these films transported me to new places and times and introduced me to people I had never met before. During a time of social isolation and lockdown, movies gave me a sense of freedom and broadened my figurative horizons when my literal ones were very much limited. Here's hoping that I get to go back to the movie theater soon and marvel at the magic on the big screen. 

Cobra Kai: The High Stakes of Karate

I had heard a lot about Cobra Kai when it was initially streaming on YouTube Red. Then Netflix acquired it in June, which meant it got that sweet pandemic boost, and when the third season premiered in January, my Twitter timeline was filled with even more people squealing about the show. Well, I finally binged my way through 30 episodes over the past few months and it was quite the adventure.

The show picks up 30 years after the events of the 1984 movie, The Karate Kid. In that film, it was very clear that our hero was the scrappy Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), who was trained in karate by the wise Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita, who is sadly deceased so can't show up on this show except in flashback) while the villain was the rich high school bully, Johnny Laurence (William Zabka), who was trained at the Cobra Kai dojo by the aggressive John Kreese (Martin Kove, who ends up playing a major role in this show and is about as psychopathic as it is possible to get). But as this show unfolds, we get the story from Johnny’s point of view, and turns out our villain may have been a tad bit misunderstood. Let’s not kid ourselves, he’s still an alpha male douchebag, but he is reluctantly dragged into the 21st century, and as his rough edges get softened up a bit, you’ll find yourself rooting for Johnny as he tries to re-establish Cobra Kai and become a functioning member of society.

In the meantime, Daniel has been living a charmed life. He is happily married, has two kids and runs a successful auto dealership with his wife. But when Johnny comes back into his life, the old rivalry resurfaces, and this time their kids are dragged into the maelstrom. This show is one TV trope after another, with the sins of the fathers revisiting the children, and there are frequent flashbacks to the events of the original movie that help us draw parallels to the current events. It’s delightfully executed and so much fun, and this show is about as meta as it is possible to get.

I wasn’t a massive fan of The Karate Kid and barely remember the movie, so don’t worry if you haven’t seen it. This show will easily catch you up on the salient points, and the rival styles of Cobra Kai vs. Mr. Miyagi’s much more zen-like approach to karate. As the show progresses, however, the karate ceases to be very peaceful and the violence escalates to an insane amount. By the time we got to the third season, I didn’t understand why every high schooler on this show wasn’t dead because none of their fights looked survivable. This show has the best stunt choreography and you will have to massively suspend your disbelief, but it’s certainly fun to watch it all unfold onscreen. In particular, I do enjoy that the teenage girls on this show do not pull their punches and get as bloodied up as the boys. I am not advocating for violence, but I'm all about equal opportunity mayhem.

Cobra Kai is a solid piece of popcorn entertainment. It’s a witty nostalgia watch that both reveres and mocks the original movie and builds on its characters in interesting ways to reflect the changes wrought in the past thirty years. These men are still stuck in their 80s rivalry, and the soundtrack is certainly chock-full of reminders of where this all began, but it is also brimming with modern humor and self-referential teasing. It definitely has a tendency to go off the rails and the storylines are getting increasingly melodramatic, especially when the focus shifts to all the teenage drama among the students in the competing dojos. But at its core, this is a funny show about two men who still have some growing up to do and how they need to rewrite the stories they told themselves about their past in order to properly embrace their futures. So settle in on your couches and get ready for a kick-ass time. No mercy!

The Father: Devastatingly Empathetic

I knew The Father was about Anthony, a man with dementia (Anthony Hopkins), and his daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), who is his primary caregiver. I knew it had gotten excellent reviews, was nominated for several Oscars, and I love Olivia Colman, so I was fairly certain I was going to like this movie. What I didn’t know, however, was how devastated I would feel at the end of it.

Directed by Florian Zeller, and based on his play of the same name, this movie has a wonderfully twisty narrative structure that plays with time and characters and leaves you all muddled up and confused. Which is the point, because Zeller is trying to put you in Anthony’s shoes. This movie is short, barely over 90 minutes long, but at the end of it, you will feel shaken up and bewildered, and have a much better understanding of what it must be like to suffer from dementia and feel like you’re slowly losing your grip on reality. It is such an effective and empathetic portrait of the confusion and anger you can feel as the world around you ceases to make sense, and Anthony Hopkins' performances will wring your heart out by the end.

Anthony Hopkins is magnificent in this film. At this point in his career, no one needs to be told that the man is a great actor, but it is still wonderful to see him in this role where he gets to deploy his extraordinary abilities. There are moments when he is effortlessly charming and rakish, other moments when he is threatening and scary, and other moments when he is petulantly childish or completely helpless. And Olivia Colman is superb as his daughter who has to put up with this ceaseless whirl of personalities and emotions. She is stoic and trying to cope, but oh man, when that lady's eyes start to well up with her classic Colman tears, you know you're going to lose it at any second. 

The rest of the supporting cast is stacked with stalwarts that should be familiar to anyone who is a fan of British television or Masterpiece Theatre. We've got Mark Gatiss, Rufus Sewell, Imogen Poots, and pleasingly, Olivia Williams (who at one point is playing a bit of a dual role with Olivia Colman, so you can understand why poor Anthony might be confused between the two). They all drop in and out as a rotating cast of characters that get increasingly hard to keep track of until the final scene when everything is devastatingly tied together. The background score is also by one of my favorite composers, Ludovico Einaudi, so every element of this film certainly ganged up on me to provoke a visceral reaction. 

The Father is a deft but emotional film that sneaks up on you and knocks you over the head with its insights on dementia and the toll it takes on your sanity and independence. It is certainly not an easy watch if you have elderly relatives that you might have to take care of some day, but it's a good film to watch right now so that you are more prepared when you eventually have to deal with someone who is going through this horrific experience. The actors are impeccable, the script is spectacular (Christopher Nolan could take a lesson on how to portray the intricacies of time from this film rather than going through all his machinations in Tenet), and by the end, you will be both glad and sad you watched it. 

Weekend Oscar Watches: Another Round, News of the World, Wolfwalkers

If you are headed into a long weekend, perhaps you're in need of some entertainment. Behold, I've watched more movies that are nominated for Oscars in random categories that may pique your interest!

Another Round: Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, this movie snagged Denmark a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, and then surprisingly, snagged a Best Director nomination. After I watched the whole thing, I was terribly conflicted as to how I felt about it. This movie seems to be such a critical darling, but my takeaway was that it reflected the overly white male voting body of the Director's Guild, because who else would fall so hard for this film? It's about four teachers at a Danish school who are going through mid-life crises and are bored with their lives. At a 40th birthday party (so on the nose) they discuss a theory by the psychiatrist Finn Skarderud that humans should maintain a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05 to be at their best. So Martin (played by the fab Mads Mikkelsen, who is certainly the best part of this movie) decides to take this advice and starts to day drink. The rest of the group follow and soon they are delighting in how wonderful it is to be slightly tipsy all the time and what an improvement it has made in their lives.

However, boys being boys, they can't just stop at a BAC of 0.05, and as they push the boundaries of their little experiment, things quickly go haywire. Ultimately, this is a beautifully shot movie that made me long for pre-pandemic fun times at bars, but the actual story left me a bit cold. This very much feels like a movie about men and their inability to deal with their feelings when they get older, and as a lady, my reaction was YAWN. It is definitely an entertaining, darkly comic film, and a wonderful escape during lockdown. But do I think this movie deserved this much awards buzz? No. 

News of the World: Given that this movie stars Tom Hanks and was directed by Paul Greengrass, I was surprised it didn't get more love from the Academy. Then I watched it and understood why it only snagged nominations in more technical categories. This is a gorgeous movie, and fully deserves recognition for Best Production Design and Best Cinematography. The sweeping vistas were stunning, and a lot of care went into recreating the American South in 1870. But I simply could not find myself to care too much about this film's story, which is based on the novel by Paulette Jiles. 

Hanks stars as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an ex-Confederate Army soldier from Texas (i.e. he was on the losing side but has gotten over it better than most) who now roves across the country to read out newspapers to folks and tell them what's going on in all the distant reaches of the land (like Pennsylvania!). On his travels, he stumbles across a young girl named Johanna (Helena Zengel) who has had the misfortune of being orphaned twice - her parents were German immigrants and were killed by a band of Kiowa Indians who then took Johanna in and raised her; but then the Kiowa were killed by soldiers and she lost her adopted family too. Now she only speaks Kiowa and Kidd cannot communicate with her, but he discovers she has some surviving relations and decides to take her to them. Along the way, they have many adventures with miscreants and ruffians, there are gunfights galore, and it all just felt very repetitive. Hanks and Zengel are delivering great performances, but ultimately nothing kept me compelled. Maybe on the big screen I would have been captivated by the scenes of them riding across the desert, or camping at night, or encountering a vicious sandstorm. But this story plodded along and I was not that invested.

It's a perfectly fine movie, but ultimately forgettable. And given the current focus on diversity in Hollywood, it is truly a shame that the only people speaking Native American languages in this movie are white. Meanwhile, all the hostility about Reconstruction and white Southerners feeling injured after the War felt a bit too real given our current political climate. As well as what a difference it makes when they get some news from the North instead of a steady diet of whatever Southern news has been fed to them. Apparently things haven't gotten much better for us since 1870. Sigh. 

Wolfwalkers: Nominated for Best Animated Feature, this movie is a treat for your eyeballs. Directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, it tells the story of Robyn Goodfellowe, a young English girl who has moved up to Kilkenny, Ireland in 1650 with her father, who is a wolf hunter. He has been summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, to rid the local forest of a pack of wolves, but when Robyn slips off on an adventure, she encounters Mebh, a young girl who is a wolfwalker, and can control these wolves. Despite initial misunderstandings, the two become friends, but of course, Robyn cannot get her father to understand the non-violent methods he could employ to get rid of the wolf pack. There's lots of family drama, and plenty of villainy from Cromwell, who wants all these wolves dead no matter what.

Every scene of this movie is exquisite, whether it's the beauty in the backgrounds, or the visceral gorgeousness of Mebh's wild red hair. The voice actors are all wonderful, though at times you may need subtitles to cut through some of the more heavily Irish dialogue, but this is a fun and captivating movie that will keep you guessing till the end. There are a ton of fake-outs, and you are constantly making bets as to who is going to die when, but at the end, you will likely be satisfied with the outcome. It also features a lovely soundtrack, so your ears will get as much of a treat as your eyes. Overall, this is a worthy weekend watch and a perfect diversion for those days when you really need to escape the present.