A Chastain & Isaac Extravaganza: The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Card Counter, Scenes from a Marriage

This post is for anyone who is a fan of Jessica Chastain and/or Oscar Isaac. Which should be all of humanity really, since they are the two finest actors we have on the planet. Over the past few weeks, I have gotten to watch them star in a bunch of things, and while none of these projects are for the faint of heart, they are an excellent acting showcase of everything these two talented people have to offer.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye: Jessica Chastain stars in this biopic of Tammy Faye Bakker, a woman, who along with her husband Jim (played by the marvelous Andrew Garfield) became a famous televangelist in the 1970s. I was not familiar with the Bakkers and went into this movie completely cold, except I did have friends with very strong anti-Bakker sentiment who were perplexed as to why I even wanted to see this film. Well, that central Chastain performance is all the reason I needed.

Written by Abe Sylvia, based on the documentary of the same name, this is a standard birth-to-death biopic and the beats are fairly familiar. But directed by Michael Showalter, who I ordinarily associate with raucous comedies, like Wet Hot American Summer, this movie has a strangely upbeat and comic tone, even as it deals with serious themes. Chastain and Garfield do an excellent job of capturing the religious fervor of this couple as well as their sly marketing prowess and growing greed for the good life. Spoiler alert, but they were eventually caught up in an enormous scandal of misusing charitable funds to build their empire, but the movie does a fantastic job of following these characters down that slippery slope. Most of the blame is placed squarely on Jim, with Tammy blithely following along and assuming her husband was handling the finances just fine. The entire movie is very sympathetic to her, and I’m not sure if that’s something we should take issue with, but I was simply entertained by viewing this as a piece of fiction.

The hair and makeup department deserve all the kudos, doing wonders to Chastain’s face as Tammy gets older and more obsessed with her image and public persona. The lady’s face is positively shellacked in makeup and she almost doesn’t need to act - her eyeshadow can speak a thousand words. But of course, Chastain does still act and what a powerhouse performance. She has to do that weird Betty Boop voice that can sometimes be cringey and sometimes pathetic. She has to sing her heart out, praising the Lord and leaning into her inner theater kid to portray this woman who so desperately wanted the chance to captivate an audience. Her eyes brim with gorgeous tears at all the right moments, and no matter how you feel about the real-life Tammy Faye, there’s no denying that this onscreen version is a fascinating character. So give this movie a try. It is surprisingly funny and frenetic, and also has a lot to say about the rise of evangelical Christianity in America and how it all got tangled up in politics and hypocrisy. Are you not intrigued?

The Card Counter: OK, so right off the bat, I have to be clear that I am NOT recommending this movie. The people I saw it with yelled at me right when we left the theatre and I had to remind them that we all went to see this because it starred Oscar Isaac, and there was no coercion on my part. However, because this movie was written and directed by Paul Schrader, I secretly knew there was a good chance this film would be an absolute dud. A few years ago, my friend Peggy and I saw another Schrader movie, First Reformed, and to this day, Peggy yells at me about why I made her watch that film. So the streak continues. 

That being said, the movie had such a compelling cast, with Oscar Isaac playing opposite Tiffany Haddish, who is wonderful in a dramatic role that is very different from anything I've seen her in before. Isaac plays William Tell (I know), a minor grifter who goes from casino to casino across the United States, racking up modest wins by counting cards, always leaving the premises right before he makes too much money and has to be escorted out by the casino bosses. Haddish plays La Linda (yes, I know), a woman who wants to serve as his backer and enter him into tournaments where she can then take a cut of his winnings in exchange for fronting him the entry fees. But William has a shadowy past and was previously in prison, and the whole movie unfolds to be about something completely different that I won't spoil here. Suffice to say, "The Card Counter" is false advertising in terms of what this movie is about.

The only thing I loved about this movie was the costume design by Lisa Madonna. Haddish always looked amazing, and Isaac's suits were tailored to perfection. But boy I didn't care for anything else. Schrader's writing made me groan - the dialogue between characters was so incredibly stilted, and the movie was so ploddingly paced and dull. The soundtrack was awful, repetitively bring up this dirge-like song that always took me out of the movie every time it came on. And each scene felt like it existed solely because Schrader found some set or location he really liked so he decided to film there, but nothing ever seemed to come together into a cohesive whole and remained unsettling and weird. The impression I get from most critics is that they absolutely love Schrader, think he's an "auteur" and visionary, etc. Sadly, I'm not one of those people. So check this movie out only if you want to argue with me about my poor taste in cinema, but otherwise, despite it featuring a soulful and tormented Isaac performance, spare yourself.

Scenes from a Marriage: At last we get to the real meat of this post. A five-part limited series where Chastain and Isaac get to face off each other as Mira and Jonathan, a couple that have been happily married for years...until they aren't. In five tense episodes, we follow the saga of their crumbling marriage, subsequent divorce, and then life post-divorce that seems even messier than the crumbling marriage. Hagai Levi and Amy Herzog adapted this show based on the original 1973 Ingmar Bergman series that aired in Sweden and is thought to have contributed to rising divorce rates across Europe. Each episode essentially consists of the two actors talking to each other, fighting, and/or having sex and fighting again. Filmed during the pandemic, there is a very intimate, stripped-down feeling to this show, and it actually features scenes at the top of most episodes showing the masked crew preparing the set and readying the actors before they launch into the world's most dramatic and exhilarating acting exercise. 

Watching this show is like watching a play. I was constantly reminded of the fact that both Isaac and Chastain went to Juillard and are dramatic theatre kids at heart. Here, they get to face off each other and chew the most spectacular dialogue and indulge in heightened and draining emotions. Each episode is an emotional trainwreck, with each person finding new ways to be cruel or get hurt. It's a psychological minefield, showcasing just how confused and illogical human beings in love can be. I'm glad it was released in weekly installments so I could watch one episode a week and then recover for the next six days before the next bruising episode was out. 

It's important to note that this is also a story about a very rich and privileged couple. Mira is a corporate executive who makes a ton of money, and Jonathan is a philosophy professor who has the flexibility to take care of their daughter and still excel at his job. There's a lot of tension around gender roles, with Mira feeling like she'd a bad mother, and around the fact that Jonathan used to be Orthodox Jewish and still has some hang-ups that are a remnant of his upbringing. There's a lot of backstory that these characters mine over the course of five episodes, and it's a rich and compelling portrait of humanity. But boy it isn't a pretty portrait. This is an absolutely excellent show and Chastain and Isaac are guaranteed some awards love for their passionate performances in it. But if you're in need of happiness and light and don't want to be wallowing in drama? Do yourself a favor and don't watch this show. 

Squid Game: Join the Global Binge

Like everyone else on the planet, I bingewatched Squid Game last week. And when I say "everyone else on the planet," this is no exaggeration. In the middle of this binge, I was having my weekly game night with friends and one of them mentioned that she had started watching it. The next game night, she and another friend were halfway through, while I had finished. And then during my weekly therapy session, my therapist went, "have you seen Squid Game" and he started telling me his theory and I had to casually go "oh ok" without excitedly declaring "OMG yes, that is correct, how did you guess that" and spoiling the whole show for him. So yeah, maybe writing this blog post is a bit pointless if every reader has seen it already. But in case you're one of the few people who have yet to be persuaded, here you go.

First off, this is a Korean show, and I am a purist who prefers subtitles over dubbing, so that is how I recommend watching. Yes, you may not understand the words, but the tone is just as important a part of the acting and you need to hear how the original words were spoken, even if you need the subtitles to then translate them. This was particularly important for me because one of the characters is a Pakistani immigrant living in Korea, Abdul Ali. Played by Indian actor, Anupam Tripathi, this was the first time I had seen a South Asian person speaking in Korean, but at the same time, I could tell he was speaking it with a desi accent. It was kind of mindblowing and is definitely the aspect of the show that resonated the most with me. But in the grand scheme of things, this is not why the whole world is bingeing the show, so let's get to the actual plot.

The show is mainly focused on Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a chauffeur with a gambling addiction who is in massive amounts of debt and of no use to his poor mother who is just trying to keep them all afloat. When he is approached by a stranger and given the opportunity to participate in a game for a big cash prize, he takes the bait. He and 455 other players are all transported to an undisclosed location where they are corralled together by mysterious masked men being led by a mysterious masked Front Man. The players are told the rules: they will play six games, and any players who win all six games get to share the prize money. Everyone else is eliminated when they lose a game. Seems straightforward enough. Except when they start to play the first game and discover that getting "eliminated" means that you quite literally are killed.

I mean, come on. How can you not be hooked by that premise and immediately decide to invest your time in the next nine episodes? The first half of this show is exquisitely scripted, giving you just enough backstory about Gi-hun and then the key players he starts to ally himself with in the game, but then throwing you into the insane mechanics of this deadly tournament. It has impeccable and inventive costume and production design, creating this eerie and dystopian world that all these players are trapped in that is colored so cheerfully to resemble a child's playground but ultimately is the site of such dark and terrible trauma. The episodes are propulsive and end with these nailbiting cliffhangers that meant I had absolutely no choice but to insist on watching the next one. And the actors are absolutely fantastic, each one portraying their character with a slightly different level of world weariness, cynicism, or painful hope that keeps diminishing as they play each game and start to realize just how low their fellow playmates will go to win all this cash. 

The second half, however, felt like the gimmick had worn itself out. There were some massive twists towards the end, but they were somewhat predictable, so you either already saw them coming, or if you didn't, they still weren't fully fleshed out and were mildly unsatisfying. The finale left me feeling like I had more questions than answers, which honestly, might be fine, since we'll likely all just be bingeing Squid Game 2 next year. I don't know how Netflix does it, but every once in while, they manage to get this collective momentum going around some random show and for a brief shining moment, the globe feels united in our single-minded obsession with this one piece of pop culture. So watch Squid Game to revel in the collective glow of humanity, even as the show ironically is based on a concept that demonstrates humans are absolutely vicious. You'll quickly find out if you're an optimist or a pessimist based on how you react to this show, but overall, if you just want to be entertained and thrilled, this is an excellent way to spend your weekend. 

No Time to Die: Daniel Craig's Final Farewell

Watching No Time to Die on an IMAX screen in the movie theater with my best friend and my boyfriend was a surreal experience. Yes, we were all wearing masks and had to show proof of vaccination when we got to the theater. But finally getting to see this movie that has been delayed from release so many times because of the pandemic felt like maybe, just maybe, we were finally seeing the light at the end of this goddamn Covid tunnel. Oh and also? It was an incredible movie. So yeah, run to the theater (if it's safe for you and your community, natch), and watch Daniel Craig take his final bow.

Oh you want more details about the movie? Fine, let's get into it. It's a Bond movie, but it's Craig's fifth and final outing as Bond, James Bond, so it's both a classic Bond film but also a classic Craig film. That means it's stylish and sweaty, brimming with panache and pugilism. My absolutely favorite element in any Craig Bond film is how he will step out on screen immaculately dressed in a tailored Tom Ford ensemble, and within five minutes, something will have exploded or someone will have punched him in the face, and now he's covered in dust and blood. He is such a brutish Bond, gorgeous to behold yet absolutely thuggish in a fight. And this movie celebrates that aesthetic for nearly three hours straight, with an absolute plethora of action sequences in jaw-droppingly stunning locations that are consistently inventive and entertaining. 

Yes, there are car chases in tricked-out vehicles, and the occasional use of a fancy gadget to kill someone when things are getting down to the wire. But the majority of the time, Craig's Bond relies solely on guns and his fists to take down the enemy. More importantly, this film sees him team up to fight people a lot more, and more precisely, he teams up with a lot of women, which elevates this film to a whole other level. Traditionally, women have only been sex objects or love interests in Bond films, but lately, they've started to have a lot more agency. And in this movie, we have the ultimate joy of seeing Lashana Lynch, a brilliant Black actress, actually take on the title of 007. Not to spoil too much, but the idea is that Bond retired from active duty, and when Nomi (Lynch) was recruited by MI6 into the 00 program, she was assigned 007 as her number. So there are a lot of jokes about the competing 007s but it's also a welcome nod to all the hoopla around the role of James Bond that has always been played by white men when really, anyone could do it. And when you watch Lynch show off her 007 skills in this iteration, it really does make you wonder why we can't just call it right now that she's going to be taking over from Craig. Credit is probably due to Phoebe Waller-Bridge who was hired as a screenwriter to punch up this script - it certainly worked for me. 

Apart from Lynch, Lea Seydoux is back as Bond's love interest, but rest assured, she isn't some simpering heroine. Lady gets to wield a gun and defend herself alongside our hero, though she then also gets to make out with him, so win-win. But a true highlight is one action sequence featuring Ana de Armas. No spoilers, but she shows up looking like the kind of lady we're very used to seeing in Bond movies, but then proves to be an excellent badass. She isn't in the movie for very long, but boy I would like to rewatch her segment a few times just to admire the stunt choreography and the gorgeous dress she is wearing as she executes it. It's over-the-top and magnificent, which is basically the hallmark of every good Bond movie. 

Rami Malek is a perfectly fine villain, and his plot to destroy the world is as convoluted as expected. The film does devote a LOT of time to explaining this complex bioweapon, but thankfully there are so many action sequences interspersed between the exposition that it doesn't get too boring. And ultimately, the nature of this weapon serves a rather crucial plot point. Along the way, we also get to revisit all the Bond regulars, with Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, and Naomie Harris getting their chance to interact with Bond as Q, M, and Moneypenny, respectively, and do their usual shtick. Bond movies are expressly comforting because you know exactly what you're going to get from these supporting characters, but the joy is in seeing how we might get a little more evolution and depth to their interactions with our hero. I don't know if any of these actors will return in the future, or if a new Bond will require a completely new supporting cast, but they've been a delight. 

Directed and co-written by Cary Joji Fukunaga, No Time to Die is also an aesthetic marvel. I love his films and am always particularly captivated by how they are shot, so together with cinematographer Linus Sandgren, the man has created yet another gorgeous movie that is brimming with light and color. The score by Hans Zimmer does its job, but nothing particularly stood out besides the iconic Bond score that hit the sweet spot in my brain and automatically told me to sit back and enjoy the ride. This is the 25th Bond movie, and shouldn't we be getting tired of this formula by now? Well no. Turns out that formula has stood the test of time for a reason. And I sincerely hope the next Bond can take on this mantle and keep the franchise going. Because as Craig has showcased during his time as Bond, you can take a a classic, iconic character and imbue him with enough complexity to both respect the traditions and create something completely contemporary and fresh. He is certainly my favorite Bond, but the joy of these films is that the next person may end up becoming your favorite instead. Thank you for your service Daniel Craig, but I genuinely can't wait to see where we go from here.

Poldark & Superstore: Get Away to Cornwall...or Cloud9

There are a lot of shows I haven't watched during their original runs that I've subsequently avoided because they aired too many episodes and I felt intimidated by the prospect of catching up. Then, the pandemic happened, which meant I had a lot of time to catch up on things. This past year, in between all my regular movie and TV watching, I got caught up on two VERY different but VERY entertaining shows. One's a sweeping British period drama, the other's a modern American workplace sitcom. So as we head back indoors for the fall and debate if we should get our boosters, why not delve into these shows and re-acquaint yourself with your couch and your TV? 

Poldark: This show aired on the BBC (and Masterpiece Theatre on PBS in the US) from 2015 to 2019 for five seasons. Based on a series of historical novels by Winston Graham, this is the story of Captain Ross Poldark (played by the gorgeous, and occasionally shirtless, Aidan Turner) who comes back home to Cornwall in 1783 after fighting in the American Revolutionary War, and must rebuild his tattered fortunes and broken heart upon discovering that the woman he loved married his cousin while he was away and presumed dead. This is the kind of period drama I eat up with a spoon, but somehow it completely passed me by until this year when I gorged on the first season in a few days and then doled the rest of the seasons sparingly out to myself in an effort to make them last longer. 

Even if you don’t watch the whole show, I must exhort you to try out that first season because it defied every expectation I’ve ever had about period dramas. I was expecting a slow pace and a very slow-burning romance as Ross tries to move on from his first love, Elizabeth (Heida Reed). Instead, what I got was an insanely twisty plot, and by the end of the third episode, I had furiously texted my friends in disbelief. The show basically hit the equivalent of ten season finales in the course of those first few episodes, delivering epic and sweeping storylines that would have taken any other show at least a few seasons to deliver. For someone who was feeling bored and stultified in isolation, it was such a joy to take this wild ride with Ross and his family.

Naturally, the subsequent seasons couldn’t quite keep up the pace and the plots became tangled in a lot of politics and history. But the love triangle between Ross, Demelza (the stunning and excellent Eleanor Tomlinson), and Elizabeth, was always full of surprises and unique tangents. And as much as I was compelled to watch this show for its storylines, I stayed for the aesthetics. Set in Cornwall, you will be treated to wild and heartbreaking scenery, with crashing waves on the beaches, and clouds scudding past dramatic cliffs. The costume design is also excellent, demarcating the wardrobe of the haves and have nots, with the production design similarly indicating to us how the rich live while the poor of this region scrape by. 

Poldark is a riveting and superbly crafted show. Every hour feels like a brand new adventure, and given its penchant for cliffhangers, you won’t be able to stop yourself from bingeing periodically, even as you try and savor the show in more manageable chunks. Every time I heard the beautiful sweeping score play over the opening credits I would feel a frisson of excitement, and I was so sad when I heard the theme tune play for the last time over the finale's closing credits. So treat yourself to a nice little bout of escapism and indulge in some British romance and high adventure. 

Superstore: Eventually becoming a staple of NBC’s Thursday night comedy block, this show aired from 2015 to 2021 for six seasons. Again, this show is something I would have eaten up with a spoon but it fell off my radar because of all the other "prestige" TV I was watching at the time. However, after rave reviews from friends (thanks Laura!) and podcasts, I decided to add it to my binge watching rotation and oh dear God. I giggled so much and often.

The show is set in St. Louis and follows the employees of a big-box store called Cloud9. I could start listing out all the characters in this show, but if we did that, this would turn into an encyclopedia of every single employee, their insane quirks, and why I love them so. There really isn't a dud in the bunch. Over the course of 113 episodes, there are a number of supporting characters who gain increasing prominence, and they are all such a wacky and incredible group of lovable weirdos. The joy of watching a long-running show is seeing how these characters grow and evolve. Or sometimes, just stay exactly the same, while everyone else barely tolerates them (yeah, I'm talking about you, Justine). 

Created by Justin Spitzer, who worked as a writer on The Office for seven years, you can see that show's DNA all over Superstore. There's a very Jim-and-Pam romance that has a slow and satisfying burn over the seasons and made my heart very glad. There is Glenn Sturgis (Mark McKinney doing a high-pitched voice that I'm amazed he maintained for six seasons), the relentlessly positive store manager, who can be problematic because of his religiosity but is also insanely kind and a pushover about absolutely everything. There's the Dwight-esque Dina (the incredible Lauren Ash), the assistant manager who is obsessed with store security, suffers no fools, and is all about abiding by the Cloud9 guidelines. But she too has a gooey center that you get to see emerge slowly over the years. 

The setting also means this is a show with a very diverse cast that can address a number of interesting issues with a deft comic touch. There's a series-long plotline about Mateo (the wonderful Nico Santos) and his immigration troubles, which are contrasted to the Syrian refugee, Sayid (Amir M. Korangy), who had the most brilliant line when the store switched to using paper straws to be more eco-friendly: "These things have no structural identity. Why did I even leave Syria?" This is also emphatically a show about the working class. These employees are mostly minimum-wage workers, who don't get great benefits (their attempts at unionizing drive many storylines over multiple seasons), and their struggles and joys all reflect that reality. There are discussions about family leave, salary negotiations, and healthcare that all reflect the very terrible reality of this job. The final season was a particular revelation because it was filmed during the pandemic, and the writers did a remarkable job of capturing the insanity of how we all praised "essential workers" in these stores but then didn't give them any PPE and generally treated them like garbage. The show handles these storylines with incredible comic finesse that mines tragedy for its hilarity, and throughout all six seasons, I was never bored of the pitch-perfect writing.

Superstore is a real treat. If you need more laugh-out-loud moments in your life, whip-smart dialogue and non-stop jokes, and characters who are weird, warm, and wonderful and make you both giggle and beam with delight when things go well for them, this show is everything you want and more. It also boasts an incredibly nostalgic soundtrack, comprised mostly of the songs from the 90s and 2000s that now serve as Muzak in these kinds of stores. And there are so many throwaway bits and one-liners, whether it's the in-store announcements, silly signage, or the interstitial cuts that are like silent films where you get to watch customers do something outrageous in one of the store aisles before we move on to the main plot. You simply can't tear your eyes away from the screen for a second because you will definitely miss something good. So plant your eyeballs on Superstore. It's a gift that keeps on giving. 

September TV Watch: Reservation Dogs, The Chair, Wellington Paranormal

As ever, there has been too much TV over the past few months, and somehow I've still attempted to watch it. If you're looking for some new shows to add to your repertoire, I can offer up a spooky Kiwi cop comedy, a dramedy about campus cancel culture, and a poignant sitcom about reservation life in Oklahoma. Yeah, variety is the spice of life.

Reservation Dogs: Created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, this is a look at four Indigenous teenagers (Devery Jacobs, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor, and Paulina Alexis) who have grown up on a reservation in Oklahoma and harbor dreams of leaving that life behind and heading off to California. However, over the course of the first season's eight episodes, you get glimpses into what life on the reservation is really like, and the combination of resourcefulness and frustration that the inhabitants exhibit on a daily basis. There are the folks who fully embrace their Indigenous identity but then become caricatures of themselves, while there are those who are so disaffected that getting out feels like their only option. 

This is the first TV series to be shot entirely in Oklahoma, and is also the first to feature all Indigenous writers and directors as well as a predominantly Indigenous cast and crew. I can't speak for actual Indigenous folk, but I imagine having that kind of representation in front of and behind the camera is powerful and suggests the show is fairly authentic in its representations of "rez life." I recognized some of the slang from Rutherford Falls, but while that show was most often about how Indigenous people interacted with the white folk in their life, this show is almost entirely about how Indigenous people interact with each other - which feels like some sort of Indigenous Bechdel test that we need to get established in the industry. As an outsider, I enjoyed this weird, funny, and periodically very moving glimpse into a hidden world.

The tone of this show can be all over the place. It's a comedy and there were a lot of jokes that I loved (the irony of the Diabetes Awareness Frybread Feast still makes me giggle), but it also deals with the more sobering facts of reservation life and issues that plague Indigenous people across the country. The central four kids are marvels, and they have excellent chemistry with each other but also command a presence in their standalone scenes and episodes. As the show moves from looking at their little gang of "Rez Dogs" and exploring their individual trials and tribulations, it offers up both universal themes of the challenges of adolescence that we can all relate to, but then highly unique themes of what growing up on a reservation has meant to these kids. Sterlin Harjo spoke on a podcast about the jokes on this show and how he tries to poke fun at the Hollywood stereotype of Indigenous people. Well, mission accomplished. After you watch this show, you'll finally be able to relate to some three-dimensional, fully fleshed out Indigenous characters, but also enjoy some magical realism and drama thrown in for good measure. Because don't we always need a spirit guide to lead the way?

The Chair: This is another "comedy" about what happens after Professor Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) becomes the first female (and first POC) Chair of the English department at the fictional Pembroke University. As a Korean-American woman, she feels an obligation to promote more diversity and shake things up in the decidedly white and aged faculty of her department, but of course, her reach exceeds her grasp. Over the course of six episodes, Ji-Yoon has to deal with all manner of personal and professional shenanigans--oftentimes both at once given her increasingly less platonic relationship with fellow professor Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass)--and the results can be either high farce or tragedy.

Overall, this show is a short and sweet and fun binge. It's trying to do a lot and offer up a commentary on a number of things like cancel culture, freedom of speech, Title IX, etc. Everything to do with the college and the issues being raised there feels like something out of the woke social justice warrior's playbook but the show is smart enough to understand the morass of ethical gray areas it is wandering into and not offer up any tidy or neat resolutions. Things are a bit messy, and that's as it should be. Personally, I thought there was a lot more left to explore in terms of Ji-Yoon's family life, where she has an adopted Mexican daughter that she is raising as a single mother, with the help of her elderly father who is worried because he can only speak Korean and his granddaughter won't understand him. There's such a complex story there about identities and family that could be an entire show unto itself, but there simply isn't time to explore all of that in six short episodes.

Ultimately, The Chair's brevity is both a positive and a negative. It's a quick and easy show to watch and ruminate over, but it will probably leave you with more questions than answers. As a former English minor, I did appreciate how these characters had such a love of the English language, even if they vastly differed in their pedagogy, and, no spoilers, the song that plays at the end of the final episode truly delighted me with its whimsy. This show is funny and frothy but then the tone will suddenly flip flop into being much more serious and earnest, and it's hard to ascertain what exactly the writers, Amanda Peet and Annie Julia Wyman, want to say. It shakily walks along that balance beam and it does barely manage to land the dismount, but your mileage may vary depending on what kind of mood you're in when you start watching. So give it a try and see whether The Chair becomes yet another show you cancel this season.

Wellington Paranormal: If the first two shows sounded too tonally shaky to you, never fear. Here is a show that is an emphatically silly and un-serious sitcom. Created by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi (yes, this is quite the Waititi extravaganza today) as a spin-off of their hit film What We Do in the Shadows (which they of course subsequently spun off as its own TV series), the show aired in New Zealand for three seasons before now making its way onto American shores via the CW and HBO Max. Where I proceeded to watch it as a completely mindless and fun romp filled with monsters and Kiwi accents.

The show follows Officers O'Leary and Minogue (played by Karen O'Leary and Mike Minogue), two unassuming and slightly incompetent members of the Wellington police force who are recruited by Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu) into the department's top-secret Paranormal Unit after they have an encounter with a woman who has been possessed by a demon. Following that, each episode is another predictable riot where the two cops will show up at the scene, completely oblivious to all the weird paranormal phenomena taking place around them, until it all crescendos in such a fashion that they realize that oops, maybe they need to handcuff that werewolf or take that ghost in for questioning. 

The show will periodically offer up some jump scares, but overall, this is much more of a comedy than a horror and it is a low stakes zany way to turn off your brain and just sink back onto the couch for some light entertainment. Despite the scares, it's rather soothing because you know exactly how each episode will go and hitting the "Play Next Episode" button has never felt more automatic. So if what you really need right now is to just lay there and giggle, and not have your TV demanding too much more input from your brain, this is the show for you. I know that doesn't seem like a rave review, but seriously, given the ongoing state of the world, isn't that the kind of television we are all craving?

Blue Bayou: An American Tragedy

Before we went to see Blue Bayou, my boyfriend asked me if I thought it was going to have a happy ending. Brimming with optimism, I said “Oh yes, I’m sure it will either end well or leave you with the sense that there is some hope for the protagonist!” Welp, spoiler alert. I walked out of that theater in tears. Now I want to make it clear, I thought this was a good and interesting movie and you should see it. But maybe not if you are having a rough week. 

Writer-director Justin Chon stars as Antonio LeBlanc (yes, the name is very on the nose), a Korean man who was adopted by a white couple in Louisiana when he was three and was raised as a full-fledged American. Unfortunately, he is not an American in terms of his paperwork as his adoptive parents never sorted out his citizenship. And now, after a minor skirmish with the law, he finds himself under threat of deportation to a country he had never known, having to leave behind his stepdaughter and his pregnant wife. That wife, Kathy, is played by Alicia Vikander. Who is a wonderful Swedish actress but is flirting with a Louisiana accent in this film with dire results. It really is a testament to what a good actress she is that I was still able to stay invested in this movie despite cringing every time she took her accent out for a spin. Thankfully, the other actors made up for it, though I'm sure if I was actually from New Orleans, I might not feel that way. 

As an immigrant myself, this movie raises compelling questions about what exactly it means to be an American. Since Antonio doesn’t look like a white man, his Americanness is constantly being denied. But then he meets a Vietnamese woman (played by the wonderful Linh Dan Pham) who invites him and his family over to her house for a big cookout. There, he learns how to make a summer roll, and his wife asks him if he’s ever eaten food like this before. He has to say No, and it’s clear that he has never identified himself as being Asian. 

This is a tragic movie about a loophole in US law that allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the infamous ICE) to deport people who were adopted into this country as babies but didn’t formally have the paperwork to become US citizens. While this is a fictional story designed to tug your heartstrings to the max, the premise is fully factual and is one more entry in why America is a terrible place to be if you are poor and disenfranchised. At it's core, Blue Bayou is about a working class family that is managing to scrape by and live some semblance of the American dream. It is beautifully shot by Matthew Chuang and Ante Cheng and the scenes with Antonio on his motorcycle, or carrying his stepdaughter (shoutout to the riveting Sydney Kowalske who must portray SO MUCH heartbreak in this movie) on his shoulders, capture all the freedom and beauty that America promises to us all. That is, until the true American reality of racism, police brutality, and government bureaucracy and cruelty rip away all his dreams. There was a fun scene where Antonio's stepdaughter makes him dye his hair pink. But a few scenes later, we see him sweating with exertion as he's working a dire job to make some money to pay for his lawyer, and that bright pink dye is now dripping down his shoulders. America doesn't let you indulge in fun for very long when you're poor.

The movie piles indignities upon this man and it is insanely over-the-top in terms of how often it keeps pulling the rug out from under him. It eventually felt like an endless storytelling exercise and I was quite numb to the emotion of the entire thing because there was so much tragedy that it all started to feel too abstract. But the final scene hit a crescendo (both in terms of a soaring score by composer, Roger Suen, and an acting extravaganza from Chon and Kowalske) that finally broke me down. I suppose I appreciate the catharsis but damn, that was a lot to handle on a Sunday night. So if you need to purge your soul and enjoy a reckoning with America in all her beauty and despair, head on over to the Blue Bayou. It's gonna be quite the journey.

Respect & Annette: Movies & Music

I recently watched Respect and Annette, two movies that feature a lot of music. One is a fairly straightforward and not particularly innovative Hollywood biopic, and the other is...lord I don't know what it is. But if you've been feeling like you need some more movie music magic in your life, you could give these a try!

Respect: Directed by Liesl Tommy and written by Tracey Scott Wilson, this is a standard biopic about the life and times of the great Aretha Franklin. The best thing this movie has going for it is the casting of the incomparable Jennifer Hudson as Aretha, because, of course. No matter what else you think about this film, it can't be denied that Hudson takes Franklin's songs and imbues them with all the passion and heart that the circumstances require as we learn more about her traumatic childhood and upbringing. 

Yeah, there's a lot of terrible childhood trauma to unpack here. It's rather sad how the stories of so many of our greatest female icons are accompanied by horrific stories of abuse. As great as Hudson is in this role, my friend Laura and I were blown away by Skye Dakota Turner, the young girl who has to play the young Aretha, who both has to showcase incredible singing chops, but also has to showcase the fact that Aretha got pregnant at the age of 12. Following that, we move on to her first marriage to Ted White (played by Marlon Wayans, who is ordinarily a swoony leading man, but here is an unmitigated asshole), which is marred by all manner of domestic abuse. We also observe her relationship with her father, C. L. Franklin (played by Forest Whitaker), a Baptist pastor who was a celebrity in his own right and is the reason Aretha knew so many great musicians as well as Civil Rights activists, including Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. But, Franklin was also a controlling and domineering man who thought he knew what was best for Aretha, and is the reason much of her early career was stifled. 

Overall, this is a story of an incredible woman and the terrible men in her life - a sadly common tale. But what holds it all together is that music, those songs that are all burned into our psyches and always feel so soaring and triumphant, no matter all the heartbreak and devastation that lay underneath. When that lady takes the stage in her gorgeous costumes, impeccably coiffed and made up, you know you're in for a treat. But I was also impressed at how much time the movie spends in the studio, showing us how Aretha tinkered with arrangements and instrumentation. We all know her voice is remarkable, but I was surprised to see how much work was going on in the background with the music and harmonies to craft these songs into works of art that would stand the test of time. This movie is mostly a sad and harrowing tale, but at the end, Aretha triumphs, rising above her demons and heading for spiritual salvation, taking comfort in the gospel music that propelled her to ultimate stardom. And that's why she deserves our utmost respect.

Annette: Oh where to begin? There are two reasons I watched this movie. One: it stars Adam Driver, and lately I have strived to become an Adam Driver completist because he seems to always do something different and offbeat in each movie he's in (mission accomplished here!). Two: this movie was written by Ron and Russell Mael, the brothers behind the band Sparks. I had never heard of them until I saw The Sparks Brothers documentary in June, which is where I first heard that they were finally getting to make this movie after years of it getting stalled in the Hollywood production machine. Well, now director Leos Carax has made the movie, I've watched it, and I'm...perplexed.

Driver stars as Henry McHenry, a stand-up "comedian" (in quotes because whatever glimpses we see of his comedy are not funny and mostly meant to provoke his audience), who has a whirlwind courtship with Ann Desfranoux (Marion Cotillard, sporting violently red hair), a world-famous opera singer. The unlikely pair get married, and soon Ann gives birth to a baby named Annette. For most of the film, that baby is played by a wooden puppet. I hope that gives you a clue as to the kind of weird ass movie this is. 

Simon Helberg also stars as Ann's accompanist who is in love with her and devastated when she chooses Henry over him. But oh poor Ann, because shortly after the marriage, stories come to light in a #MeToo-esque fashion about Henry's treatment of women and anger issues, and she will come to regret this marriage. In classic fashion, as her career continues to flourish while Henry's flourishes, the relationship worsens, and things take a violent turn.

I seem to have forgotten to mention - this whole thing is an opera. Almost all of the dialogue is sung by the actors, and the songs are exceedingly weird, which is not too surprising if you know anything about the music of Sparks. Honestly, I would recommend watching this film as a double feature with The Sparks Brothers. It will still make zero sense to you, but at least you will have some much-needed context for the insanity that is transpiring on your screen. This is one of those movies that critics seem to delight in, but I am absolutely baffled by. If you like your cinema to be bizarre and offbeat and utterly wild, go forth, Annette is the movie for you. But otherwise, you may want to find something else.