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What I’m Watching: November 2022

What I’m Watching: November 2022

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Still reading and writing about Numenor, and Khazad-dum, for upcoming essays, so Talking The Rings of Power takes the week off. The Downfall of Numenor, the new book put together by Brian Sibley, is pretty good. The narrative flow works, and Alan Lee’s sketches are really nice. If you liked his Sketchbooks for The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit, you’ll definitely like the volume and quality of these sketches.

And, I switched gears a little bit and I pulled Tolkien’s The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun off my shelf. I’d not read any of his ‘epic poem’ books before. The lecture in the front, from one of his Oxford classes, was quite interesting.

So, it’s another What I’ve Been Watching. And along with some stuff with my son, I’ve been jumping around – good and bad.

TULSA KING

Gonna start with a brand new show. Episode two aired just last night, and I haven’t even seen it yet. Sylvester Stallone is a NY gangster who just finishes a 25-year prison term in the show’s opening scene. He ‘took one for the team,’ as it were. And he’s rewarded by being sent off to set up a mob operation in Tulsa. Which is basically like being banished to Siberia. I really didn’t spoil anything for you. This is the opening setup of the show.

Stallone is TERRIFIC in the part. I had not expectations either way, and he hits a grand slam. He’s a NYC lifetime mob guy, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yeah… There is a ton of funny in this show. Not stupid, Adam Sandler ‘funny.’ But humor within the context of Stallone taking over the town.

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Goth Chick News: Winnie-the-Pooh Has Had It with You Kids…

Goth Chick News: Winnie-the-Pooh Has Had It with You Kids…

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It was 1926 when author A. A. Milne (1882-1956), wrote the children’s classic Winnie-the-Pooh followed two years later by The House at Pooh Corner. Now, as we approach the 100-year anniversary of the creation of the cuddly, inspiring bear of our youth and his little pink sidekick, two things have happened. First, according to US copyright law, Milne’s creations became public domain when they turned 95 years old and two, Milne is spinning in his grave like a rotisserie ham.

Though Pooh and friends were officially licensed by the Walt Disney Company in 1961, resulting in films and merchandising, all that went straight out the window earlier this year. A British, indie-film production company called Jagged Edge pounced on the newly instated public domain decree to reimaging all the characters in a wholly different and definitely “adult” way.

Welcome to Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.

And no, this isn’t a joke.

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Talking The Rings of Power: Harfoots :-(

Talking The Rings of Power: Harfoots :-(

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I eagerly tuned in a couple weeks ago to watch the Georgia – Tennessee game. Having beaten Alabama in one of the most exciting games of the season, the Vols were ready to establish themselves as the new kid on the block and hit the College Football Playoff like Mt. Vesuvius exploding. Yeah… I’ve always liked the phrase, “The moment was not too big for him.” This was the biggest moment in Tennessee football since Tee Martin took them to the 1998 national championship. I liked Martin and I wish the Steelers had kept him longer as a backup QB after drafting him.

Anywhoo…the moment was WAAAAY took big for Hedron Hooker (and the rest of the Volunteers). That game was over midway through the first quarter. Tennessee simply was not ready to deal with a focused Georgia team, on the road. They got spanked. I’ve got over a thousand words on Numenor for this series. But I still can’t get it shaped and dialed in. So far, Numenor is too big for me. So, I will keep working on it (the reading alone is taking hours) for another week.

Which leaves me on Sunday morning searching for a new topic. I’m gonna get the harfoot thing out of the way. Following the proper format, THE GOOD was going to be that they killed a harfoot in the season finale.

THE BAD was everything else about them being in the series.

My hardback copy of the Silmarillion is 311 pages (including Tables). The book proper ends on page 304. And the ONLY reference to hobbits in the ENTIRE book is on page 303. That’s it, except that it continues to the first paragraph of page 304. Harfoots and hobbits had nothing to do with the First and Second Ages. But here they are, dead in the middle of the Rings of Power. For those of us who don’t like hobbits, their presence is the worst part of the show. And TOTALLY unnecessary.

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The Frighteners: A Re-View in 3 Parts, Part 3: I See What He Did There

The Frighteners: A Re-View in 3 Parts, Part 3: I See What He Did There

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The Frighteners 15th Anniversary Blu-Ray

Read Part I: The Real-Life Inspiration, and Part 2: Humor & Horror Examples + A Recap.

When I sat down to write about The Frighteners, I found myself writing around the “problem/s” with the movie. At first I thought it didn’t have enough plot, but it has plot points galore, and while every character seemed to be a trope or stereo-type, there were lots of hints about the depths of these characters and their relationships. I deleted a fair bit of what I wrote, after I realized that I wasn’t finding the problem. So I watched it a third time. It was like scales fell from my eyes. I think I understand Peter Jackson’s formula for the film, and having clued into that, I liked it ever so much more.

The Frighteners is two films sharing the same celluloid, but paying little or no attention to the other. The scary ghost story is unaware of the broad comedy, and vice versa.

In this world, average humans and average ghosts share the same locations and space, but are generally unaware of each other. The living are busy with their stuff, and the ghosts are tightly focused on their own problems (like avoiding bully ghosts). There are a scarce few ghosts, and even fewer humans, who are aware or care about what’s going on with the denizens on the other side of the veil, even if they’re standing physical elbow to ghostly jowl on the street corner waiting for the light to change.

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Goth Chick News: Mrs. Torrance Goes Back in Front of the Camera

Goth Chick News: Mrs. Torrance Goes Back in Front of the Camera

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Shelley Duvall, 1970

By now it’s no secret that filming The Shining took a serious toll on Shelley Duvall. Calling this my number one favorite horror movie while acknowledging this fact takes some of the joy out of watching what is an incredible performance on Duvall’s part. Her vulnerability and frailness alongside her emotional bully of a husband, played by Jack Nicolson, is a big part of what Stephen King hated about director Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation of King’s work. If you’ve ever read the novel The Shining, then you know Duvall’s character Wendy as a much different person. But it is the performance Kubrick wrenched out of Duvall that really makes the film. She personifies the horrors happening around her, which are etched on her face in nearly every scene.

And before you say that perhaps Duvall was already mentally fragile when she went to work on the film, and Kubrick’s isolating, task-master tactics was him just being a brilliant director, I invite you to watch the documentary filmed by Kubrick’s daughter. Vivian Kubrick was 17 when she filmed and directed The Making of the Shining for the BBC, alongside the actual filming of the movie. The short film eventually appeared on DVD editions of The Shining. But it wasn’t until 30 years after its making, and a lot more enlightenment about mental health issues, that the documentary generated articles and conversation about the mistreatment of Duvall by Kubrick which was evident throughout.

I found The Making of the Shining in its entirety on YouTube if you want to see for yourself…

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Buccaneers Three

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Buccaneers Three

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The Buccaneer (USA, 1958)

Pirates were a popular subject in midcentury Hollywood — but piracy, not so much, because it was obviously committed by bad people who would take all your stuff, given the chance (and maybe do worse). Thus the common cinematic usage of the term buccaneer, which sounds like it just describes a gentleman adventurer with an attitude rather than someone who would casually cut your throat and throw your corpse over the side. Aye, call your pirate movie a buccaneer’s tale, and even theatrical markets in the iron grip of the Legion of Decency will smile and let your film be shown at Saturday matinees to audiences full of kiddies. All keelhauling is to be conducted offscreen, if you please.

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Talking The Rings of Power: Miriel

Talking The Rings of Power: Miriel

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Talking The Rings of Power continues; wherein I look at something good, and something bad, about one element of the show. Then I talk a lot more about Tolkien’s actual writings about it. THIS SERIES IS FULL OF SPOILERS – related to the show, and Tolkien’s writings. You have been warned!

I’m still working on the Numenor entry, as that Middle Earth version of the Atlantis story is a favorite. This week, I’ll look at Miriel, a tragic figure in The Silmarillion. Hurin, Thrain, Beren, Fingolfin, Miriel – lot of tragic characters in that book.

THE GOOD

Miriel is the Queen Regent of the mighty human nation of Numenor. Her father, Tar-Palantir, is a bit brain-addled and she is ruling in his stead. He dies in the final episode, which will formally make her queen. Though, she’s on a boat, coming back to Numenor, blinded from evil doings in the Southlands.

Cynthia Adddai-Robinson does a pretty good job as Miriel. Miriel is merely Tar-Palantir’s daughter and does not rule at all in The Silmarillion. So, the RoP folks are once again playing pretty free with the storytelling; but not quite fast as usual.

Miriel is haughty, intelligent, thoughtful, and we see her nobility of character. Kind of snotty, which befits a Numenorian, but also representative of the ‘good ones.’ They became a rather bad lot, and I’m sure we’ll see the opposite side of the coin, in Pharazon.

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The Frighteners: A Re-View in 3 Parts, Part 2: Humor & Horror Examples + A Recap

The Frighteners: A Re-View in 3 Parts, Part 2: Humor & Horror Examples + A Recap

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The Frighteners (Universal Pictures, 1996)

Read Part I: The Real-Life Inspiration here.

I hadn’t seen The Frighteners since it was in the theaters in 1996, until I watched it again last week. Twice. I had drastically different reactions between the second and third viewings.

After my first 2022 re-view, I came away thinking the movie was mainly just paying homage through pastiche to a lot of things. While it had interesting vignettes with diverse tones and styles, it never fully gelled into its own thing. It’s as if it went to a Halloween costume shop, tried on and modeled a dozen different outfits, then later said, “What did you think of my costume?” It was more a fashion show than a full narrative arc.

It was equal parts horror and humor. Often, an equal ratio doesn’t work well. It comes off as a split personality, or two different films sharing a movie reel. This is especially true when the humor isn’t a coping mechanism for the protagonist or an emotional vent for the audience. The humor was there, but it never really served a purpose in the way humor normally does when mixed with horror. The two parts seemed at odds.

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I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Andor

I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Andor

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“Doctor, I’m at my wit’s end with my husband. He’s – changed. It’s like I’m in one of those paranoid movies.”

“I must repeat, madame, lie back. Take a deep breath. Tell me about it as if you are speaking to a trusted friend.”

“Well, it’s this show. Andor. It’s a Star Wars thing. My husband watches it every week. He’s anxious all Monday and Tuesday about it lately.”

“Ah yes. Tony Gilroy is the showrunner I believe.”

“I think so. At first it was just little things. So easy to dismiss. He’d be looking through his old Star Wars books, these sort of technical manuals, and when I asked him about it he said he was trying to figure out if the ship in ‘Kassa’ was an old BTL-B with the engine housing still on or something like that. He asked our son if any NERF guns looked like Cassian’s blaster.”

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The Frighteners: A Re-View in 3 Parts, Part One: The Real-Life Inspiration

The Frighteners: A Re-View in 3 Parts, Part One: The Real-Life Inspiration

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Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate are not familiar household names, unless you’re a true-crime or serial-killer enthusiast, or, perhaps, a Nebraska history buff. While they’d received lurid national news coverage at the time of the killings (Dec. 1957-Jan 1958), I’d never heard of them when my then-fiancé, Barry (now husband), first played the Bruce Springsteen song “Nebraska” for me. Those sparse but chilling lyrics are spare enough that you wouldn’t necessarily realize it was about a real, serial, spree killer and his teenaged partner-girlfriend just by listening to the song.

The song was on a 1982 album of the same name. Though MTV debuted in the summer of 1981, the slow, melancholy song featuring a mournful harmonica throughout, was not viewed as a contender for a music video to run on the manically upbeat and cheerful MTV.

But I got to see a music video of it. One put together by my TV news producer husband and one of the anchors at KMTV in Omaha. It was broadcast to homes throughout the country that were tuned into Lloyd Dobyns and Linda Ellerbie’s show, NBC News Overnight.

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