"You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today"
— Pink Floyd

Friday, February 7, 2020

Pop Culture Favorites of 2019


I'm pretty much socially dead online, and it feels great. After years of being too scared to disconnect from Twitter, I gave it up after I got back from my honeymoon last October. I realized I hadn't been on it in a week and I didn't miss it. I took advantage of that, deleted the app from my phone and haven't looked back. I don't even know if you can permanently delete your Twitter account, but I would refrain anyway, if only because I have nowhere else in the world to place these damn lists I feel compelled to do. Truthfully, the only compulsion comes from having done them for nine years now. I suppose it's the one thing I don't want to completely abandon online. Even if no one reads them, I enjoy considering everything I see in a year within the measurables I started for myself in 2011. Now let's finish out the decade:






The Pretty Damn Goods of 2019






"Daisy" by Pond

Massive Tame Impala fan that I am, I’ve tried to find everything Kevin Parker has been associated with, and there is nothing better his Aussie buddies’ band Pond. Perhaps they tire of Kevin’s name perpetually existing alongside every mention of their band, but Pond’s psychedelic rock material stands on its own as quality material. The third single from their most recent album, Tasmania, is “Daisy”. It was released just days into 2019 and nothing came to top it for my favorite song of the year. From its soft, sweet-sounding opening to the thumping shift into full-on pop track, “Daisy” is a joy start to finish.






Under the Silver Lake 

This movie is basically a fever dream. It's arguably entirely nonsense, but it was engrossing in a way I seldom encounter. It feels like an old '40s noir, one man's odyssey into the unknown, complete with the old-fashioned matte painting landscapes in the distance. When it was over, I wasn't entirely sure what had just transpired over the previous two and a quarter hours, but in the months since, I find myself thinking about it repeatedly. Under the Silver Lake is certainly divisive, and it's not prestige cinema or "Oscar worthy" by any stretch, but it made a lasting impression. Some movies don't work for some people. Some do. In this case I'm the latter.






The Watchmen soundtrack

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross began the last decade composing one of the all-time cinematic scores for The Social Network. In the years since, they have established themselves as one of the premier sonic mood creators in the business, all while sprinkling in new music and tours with Nine Inch Nails. The Watchmen series itself was a fascinating exercise in storytelling, but I often became distracted focusing on how perfect the musical mood was. I’ve found myself pulling up the soundtrack on YouTube just to have it going in the background while I’m doing other things. The compositions work on their own as great pieces of music to listen to anytime, but when they accompanied the show itself, everything fit like a glove.






The end of Doctor Sleep
(mild spoilers)

Both Doctor Sleep the book and movie are worthy successors to The Shining. As fans of the material well know, both The Shining the book and the movie differ a great deal, so much so that Stephen King himself has a notorious dislike for the movie. Both movies have similar running times, but The Shining moves at a much brisker pace than Doctor Sleep. At some moments it becomes a bit sluggish, but I’ve said many times if a movie that struggles finishes strong, that’s all I ever hope for. Man, does Doctor Sleep stick the landing. The final stretch of the movie combines elements of both books, The Shining and Doctor Sleep. As someone who’d read and seen all the material to that point, I realized that’s what was happening in the middle of it, and I was awestruck. To my mind, there’s not been any situation where an adaptation has done something like this, and writer/director Mike Flanagan deserves all the credit in the world for nailing it.  






Ford v Ferrari

At some point toward the end of watching Ford v Ferrari in the theater I said to myself, “I think is one of the most entertaining movies I’ve ever seen.” Months later, I still feel that way. It’s a long haul of a running time, but, man, it is never once dull. From the craftsmanship of creating such a seemingly difficult movie by James Mangold and his team to the lived-in performances of Damon and Bale, Ford v Ferrari can appeal to just about everyone who loves a thrill. Whether you’re a gearhead or not, there’s plenty to be invested in while watching this superb movie.






Favorites of 2019






10. "405 Method Not Allowed"
Episode Five of Season Four of Mr. Robot

Mr. Robot never made things easy for the viewer. In its four seasons, it really was all over the place. Maintaining the frenetic pace of the first season was unattainable in hindsight, but knowing that creator Sam Esmail always had the series ending in mind made runs like the majority of season two a little bit easier of a pill to swallow. By season three’s end, the show got its groove back, and season four may well prove to be the show’s greatest achievement. It certainly had the series’ greatest technical achievements, with every episode directed by Esmail himself. Some of the episodes were genre experiments, such as an Agatha Christie parlor room mystery and episode five, which was essentially a dialogue-less heist movie. Season four was an incredible homestretch to an iconic series, and television does not come in a more thrilling package than Mr. Robot's fifth episode this year.






9. "Volume 5: The Fool"
Episode Five of Too Old to Die Young

Have you ever watched something that you enjoyed immensely but would never think of recommending to anyone in your own life? Like you’d be concerned with putting a friendship at risk by saying, “Hey, give this a shot.” That was Too Old to Die Young for me. It inherently appeals to the slimmest possible audience and is off-putting in more ways than can be counted. It’s full of abhorrent sexual and violent content, even torture. Every single character is depraved. It tests the patience of every single pair of eyes that sits down to watch it. But there’s something about existence of these things in the cinematic world of Nicolas Winding Refn that made me unable to take my eyes off the show. Regardless of what was happening on the screen, even something like the irreparably damaging way episode five begins, I was rapt in the neon world of his creation. Perhaps it’s something about the juxtaposition of the truly awful things happening on screen and the gorgeous aesthetic result of the work. Episode five, “The Fool”, is the apex of this aesthetic achievement. It’s certainly in my top ten episodes of anything I saw this year. If you can envision an episode with everything described heretofore, and Barry Manilow being the most disconcerting thing, then maybe this show is for you. All that to say, I really loved this show… But maybe you shouldn’t watch it.






8. Season One of What We Do in the Shadows

Making a series out of Taika Waititi’s cinematic indie vampire comedy seems like a hyperspecific thing to do, but leave it to FX to adapt pieces of pop culture that no one else is considering and turn them into can’t-miss television. The film What We Do in the Shadows was ripe for adaptation. Done in mockumentary style, it has the interview breaks of classic comedic television comedies like The Office and Parks and Recreation. In the adaptation, a film crew follows a trio of overzealous vampires who set out for world domination from a house in Staten Island. Over the course of the first season, we learn the bizarre and hilarious eccentricities of each character while encountering various entities from each of their pasts. The main cast is flawless, and the supporting players round everything out perfectly. This series has the potential to be an FX mainstay for years to come.






7. Season One of The Righteous Gemstones

In the wrong hands, The Righteous Gemstones, a series about a superstar Christian minister and his insufferable adult children, could have been exactly that for the viewer: insufferable. It could have been unrelentingly scathing, mean and belittling. Granted, there is plenty about the megachurch industrial complex that can be attacked in a fictionally scathing manner, but the millions of people who attend such institutions are not necessarily deserving of the same sentiment. In the hands of Danny McBride, however, The Righteous Gemstones is a hilarious indictment of hypocrites who are also capable of capable of earnest moments. This series is so deftly helmed by Danny McBride and his longtime creative partners, it’s astounding there isn’t one weak link anywhere in the casting. The series is brimming belly laughs and will blindside you, not only with occasionally shocking vulgarity and perversity, with earned moments of sincerity. Like I did, you may think you know what you’re getting into with The Righteous Gemstones, but I guarantee you it isn’t anything like you expect.






6. Season Two of Fleabag

When a show has garnered nearly every accolade and won every award for its second season, there isn’t much else to say about it. Fleabag’s second season is truly a marvel. It’s hilarious, shocking and touching in equal measure. That first dinner episode is one of the greatest pieces of television I’ve ever seen. From just twelve episodes of a half-hour comedy, Phoebe Waller-Bridge has cemented herself as a comedic titan. To end a series at its absolute peak is one hell of a power move, and at this moment in time, Pheobe Waller-Bridge certainly has plenty of it.






5. The Lighthouse

It's a rare occurrence when a movie hijacks my brain and it’s all I think about for two weeks. It’s an even more rare occurrence when I see something that doesn’t definitively mean anything, and thus can figuratively mean anything. Even beyond that, it’s a rare balance when something that is so more aesthetically precious than most multiplex films, something that is so clearly “art”, isn’t insufferably pretentious. I, though, feel pretentious attempting to praise it because it is so unto itself. The movie would not work without world class actors like Pattinson and Dafoe, and they are top-tier in it. The Lighthouse is art made in such a way that each second commands your attention and begs to be scrutinized, much like “the light” itself. Deeply intriguing and unsettling, The Lighthouse is something whose effect on me was immediate and likely everlasting.






4. Season Two of Barry

The first season of Barry had such a perfect and neat ending that it made you wonder if more of the story was even necessary. We know all too well the excesses of television series that go well beyond what they should, but Bill Hader and Alec Berg are really onto something with Barry. The second season has multiple sections (the failed sniper attempt, the entirety of “ronny/lily”) that seemed like immediate iconic moments in comedy. The “ronny/lily” episode was far and away my favorite episode of television last year. Dropping 30 minutes of surreality into a straightforward show was a bold move and it worked wonderfully. While Barry is full of laughs, it is certainly violent. The violence is played to comedic effect many times, but the moments of examining the violent nature of Barry himself are where the lines of balance that the show toes really shine. The writers and creators have clear ideas that are honed in the writing room and it all comes out on the screen. These are expert craftspeople handling Barry, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.






3. Season Two of Succession

There was a period during which I watched the first few episodes of Succession that I resented everyone who told me this show was good. All the characters seemed reprehensible and I didn’t care one bit about the very conceit of the show, being who will succeed Logan Roy to become the next head of the billion-dollar company. I stuck with it and the humor that was peppered into the rest of the season made what I disliked about it a bit more palatable. I finished the first season and waited for the second in ambivalence.

The second season legitimately shocked me with how great it ended up being. It all boils down to the writing and the performances. There is no show I saw last year that gave me as many genuine belly laughs as Succession. Multiple times it nearly had me practically clapping alone in my house. Succession somehow presents an outright hilarious drama that compels you without you necessarily caring about the fate of most of its characters. When the stakes are so high and the characters are so well-written and performed, the entertainment value and investment in whatever ridiculousness comes next is compelling enough. Maybe Succession was this good all along and something changed about me. I won’t know for sure until a rewatch down the line, but as of right now, there is no greater show on TV than the one about spoiled billionaires on HBO.






2. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

It wasn’t until my third viewing of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (henceforth referred to as OUATIH) that I made a connection between the movie itself and Quentin Tarantino’s career. We all know that OUATIH is an ode to the final moments of the Golden Age of Hollywood and that Rick Dalton and his career represent that. Similarly, we know that Tarantino aims to stop making movies after his tenth, which would be his next one. It made me realize how these are basically the final moments of living in a world where we revel in the excitement of a new Tarantino movie on the horizon. The run of these last three decades of film in which Tarantino has become arguably the most influential writer/director in the medium is about to end. It made me see OUATIH in a different, slightly more melancholy light. Rick Dalton wasn’t necessarily an important figure in the fictional Hollywood of the movie, but Tarantino unquestionably is in the real one. The unknown but hopeful way OUATIH ends in terms of where Rick might be headed, what his next chapter in life will be, is how I look at Tarantino. He’ll always be putting something out into the world in one form or another, but his time in this particular medium is almost done. With the '70s on the horizon in OUATIH and a new decade beginning here in 2020, only time will tell his story to come.






1. Parasite
(mild spoilers)

It’s a wonderful feeling at year's end when you finally see something that has been met with universal acclaim the world over and confirm that notion for yourself. I saw Parasite in a cozy 40 seat screening room in a non-profit film center in Nashville, a setting in which I’ve never been. It was the perfect sort of discombobulating ambiance for one of the most memorable first-time viewings of a movie in my life. When it begins, you know you’re in an expert’s hands. This is the perfect example of the take-a-screenshot-and-hang-it-on-your-wall movie. Everything is gorgeously composed, from the pristine quality of the Park home all the way down to the squalor of the Kim's. For as genuinely hilarious as Parasite is, there lurks this insidious feeling that something terrible is going to happen. You think it’s maybe going to be one of a few things, but I will never forget the moment of sheer astonishment and fear I had while in the throes of what transpires while that thing begins to bear out. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know. If not, you will. As any fan of the medium can attest, there’s really no feeling like the one you get when the credits roll on a movie and the people in the auditorium all take a few beats before moving out of their seats. It’s a rare feeling, and everyone with whom I shared that tiny room in Nashville felt we'd just watched one of the great pieces of cinema together. No foreign language film has ever won Best Picture at the Oscars, but I really hope that streak ends with Parasite. It was the best film of the year after all.

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