What's To Watch? - Jan 6 - Now & Then, and Again

 

  

   Last week I thought it might prove to be a brief column, though it fleshed out over the course of that Friday. This week, though, it may stay lean, at least in terms of the number of items. The return to work in the new year had the added challenge of key personnel getting sick, eventually testing positive for COVID just as the holiday was wrapping. So, another week where plans were up-ended and I'm running ragged. Something has to give, and entertainment's a soft and likely target.
     I did get around to seeing a few things since last time, though.
     One of them was a sci-fi drama from 2009, one that made a bit of a splash globally, but appeared to take several years to make it to the U.S. If I'd heard about it, it quickly slipped from memory, which is actually a little funny with respect to the theme of the film.
     Written and directed by Belgian director, screenwriter and playwright Jaco Van Dormael, he decided to write and film the project in English, claiming that that's how the story came to him. Nevertheless, the film was financed by a combination of Belgian and European sources, and so took a long while to get around to U.S. distribution.
     Starring Jared Leto and Sarah Polley, it tells the life story of Nemo Nobody, an 118 year-old man who in 2092 is being celebrated both as a bit of a mystery, and as the last mortal on Earth. The rest of humanity has benefited from a process that makes cell renewal an open-ended process - presumably needing to have been initiated at an earlier point in life such that the aged Nemo missed the window of opportunity. Nemo's memories are a confusing tangle, primarily of events for him at the ages of 9, 15, and 34, along with snapping back to his 118 year-old self in 2092. Authorities are confused, because they can find no clear record of the man.
     At first his condition was more than a little evocative of Slaughterhouse Five's Billy Pilgrim, who had become "unstuck in time", and was snapping back and forth to different times in his life. The 2092 sequences where he's being interviewed also reminded me of the story-framing mechanic for the 1970 Dustin Hoffman film, Little Big Man, though Hoffman's Jack Crabb had a linear, distinct recollection to draw on.
     The complicating factor, and its a serious complication, here is an underlying mythology to the story

in this film: In a Heavenly before-life, the souls of those who are yet to be sent to their mortal lives possess full knowledge of all possible paths their lives might take. Before they are sent to Earth, the Angels of Oblivion place a silencing finger, vertically, on the child soul's lips, which erases that knowledge. In the case of Nemo, the angels missed him, so he had a unique power of informed decision - though it proved a tough one to properly learn to use.
     Physics, string theory in particular, is also invoked as a window into understanding how things work, at least suggesting that Nemo might actually have the ability to move freely up and down along the timeline.
     Regardless of the mechanism, as a consequence, Nemo is in possession of all the possible paths for his life, which he can travel at will. Each one is as real as any other. If a given path leads to a bad or unsavory end, he can will his mind backwards on that path, and make a different decision. Each branches into a different life path, which also has its own choices, each leading to other, branching, possibilities. With a practical infinity of choices to be explored, it's no wonder that a 118 year-old man who has lived countless variations of that life, finds his memories to be terribly muddled. It also makes for great confusion in 2092, both for Nemo's psychiatrist (who has resorted to hypnosis to help Nemo recover memories) and a journalist who's used a personal connection at the hospital to get him unofficial access to interview Nemo.

     The first major point of branching in Nemo's life was at age 9, when his parents separated over an infidelity, and he was forced to decide which parent to stay with. A similar cluster-point of divergences happened at age 15, along each of the two, mom or dad-choosing timelines. Then again another concentration at age 34 along each of the many, many branches that were a consequence of all of the previous decisions. Drastically different outcomes from each choice. Utterly different lives. Different relationships. Different marriages and offspring. 

    The farther down these paths, the flakier he often became to those closest to him, because all of the other, contradictory memories continued to pile up. Life was increasingly becoming an extremely confusing simulation, him playing it like a game in search of some optimal outcome. Ultimately, how real could anyone really be to him? Adding an extra layer to this, in at least one pathway he also wrote science fiction, including a tale of being part of a colonization project to Mars. Was this pure fiction, or a set of more extreme paths included in Nemo's infinite repertoire of possible lives?
     It's an engaging film, one that plays at one's perspectives and sympathies, as Nemo is both a victim and eventually a victimizer, subject to the self-serving whims and decisions of others, while also doing much the same to everyone he knows because he has every option in the world.
     It's Mr. Nobody (2009 R  141 m), its theatrical cut currently streaming free for Amazon Prime users, or otherwise available to buy or rent.

     It's a thought-provoking film.

     During that final holiday weekend of the year, I opted to start a trial for the premium access of Peacock, the streaming platform. This way all the content there was unlocked. They don't seem to have an annual rate option, so it's a monthly affair for me, which has the advantage of my more easily cutting it off at any point, and giving me more of a reason to actively ask myself if it's worth it to me month to month. Aside from just poking around in there again, reacquainting myself, I went for one of the more recent items that's streaming fairly exclusively (oh, one could buy or rent it elsewhere, to be sure): Jordan Peele's neo-western, horror/sci-fi outing Nope (2022 R 2h 10m)

     A solidly Peele film, this time managing to channel some Spielbergian dynamics, as something alien and dangerous comes to threaten a family that for generations has primarily trained horses for movies and tv.
     A fairly small cast, which continues to work well for Peele.
     I ultimately enjoyed it more than many I've spoken with, and think in part I may have benefited from watching it at home, rather than in the rigid timeframe of a theater seat. Having the advantage to pause it once or twice to take care of some other things, and let it settle in my mind a little more before proceeding, helped it gel better for me. Retroactively processing some of the criticisms I'd heard while it was in theatrical release, I came to the conclusion that some people really hadn't thought it through, or were looking for a simpler story in which all events were more directly linked. In listening to several people I got the impression they wanted some disparate story elements to be connected, apparently missing the point that the main connection to the tragic story of a chimp was simply one about animal behavior.
     It worked well for me.

     As of this past Tuesday, arrived on HBO Max is a dark comedy horror/thriller from Searchlight that's been out in theaters in the U.S. since November 18th. Ralph Fiennes stars as celebrity chef Julian Slowik, who invites a select group of guests to his exclusive restaurant on his private island. We hardly need the shade of Agatha Christie to let us know this wasn't just an invitation for a nice meal.
  It's The Menu (2022  R  1h 47m)

     Starting this Sunday on AMC is the start of the next project coming from the network's contract with the estate of gothic novelist Anne Rice. This past year saw the first season of Interview With the Vampire, and this Sunday begins The Mayfair Witches.

     Episodes air on AMC Sunday nights at 9 Eastern, and are also available on AMC+. While they will rerun a bit on the channel, AMC has very much become a feed channel for their streaming platform. They will continue to miss almost no opportunity to remind you that not only can you rewatch anything there at will if you subscribe, but that you'll immediately be able to go there and watch next week's episode, too.

     The next to last of the Greg Berlanti, "Arrowverse" shows on the CW, adapting DC comics characters to the screen, to bow out was Stargirl. It finished its third and final season in early December, leaving only The Flash (set to return for its ninth and final season next month) as the last of those shows on the recently-sold CW.
     Stargirl was a series that focused on legacies, set on a world where the Justice Society of America is no more, seemingly forgotten by most, all members believed to have been killed in the final conflict with their opposite numbers in the - keep in mind these names go back to the 1940s - Injustice Society.

     A young girl, Courtney Whitmore (played by Brec Bassinger) finds herself surprisingly in possession of the cosmic staff - which has a mute consciousness of its own - of deceased JSAer Starman, and finds herself tugging on threads that end up connecting the past to the present and the future. Her new stepfather is an integral part of the mesh, too, as are some major players in Blue Valley, the small, midwestern town they've moved to.
     The core vibe of the show is an optimistic one, best represented by Courtney herself, who sees the best in everyone and cultivates it by compassionate action and example. One by one, she eventually wins over most, including some who seemed very unlikely converts.
     The show's first season was on the now-defunct DC Universe streaming platform, its remnants folded into HBO Max, where episodes were first aired there and then released on the CW for a broader audience. Seasons two and three were moved primarily to the CW. Each of the three seasons were 13 episodes, which worked well for the series.
     Comics writer Geoff Johns, who created Courtney for DC comics, wrote multiple episodes throughout, especially the opening and closing ones of each season.
     Today, that third season of Stargirl joined its first two on HBO Max. This is in contrast to, I believe, all of the other Arrowverse shows, which thanks to earlier deals ended up over on Netflix.
     Even if nothing else is ever done with these particular versions of the characters, they created a fun, watchable series that is pretty nicely self-contained. Is it formulaic? Sure. Might the inevitable pep talk speeches wear a little on the nerves from time to time? Likely. On the whole, it was a successful venture. It had heart, spirit, and optimism. It's there, open, for anyone to step into and take a ride on its 39 episodes. Here's the trailer for season one.

     That's as much as I have time for this week. I still have to do battle with Friday, complete with too, too much uncertainty about what I'll be dealing with Monday... though I remind myself that certainty about future events is always an illusion. In the end, there's only so much I can get done Friday, so if I'm left short-handed again Monday... I'll deal with things then. Next week we'll have some bigger premiers coming into view, and that's just what I'm remembering now. In the meantime, I hope the new year is treating you well so far -- though I do seem to know too many people who have come into it sick. -- Mike