Seth Harris

Movie Review – Diane

Diane (2019)
Written & Directed by Kent Jones

We all know someone like Diane. From the moment they wake up to the moment they go to bed, these women are shuttling friends & family to and from the doctor, dropping off casseroles, and volunteering at their church. They live in a perpetual state of being a servant but neglect their own self-care at a substantial cost. There’s a lot about Diane that could be depressing if you refuse to look beyond the surface. The film exudes communal warmth despite its icy rural Massachusetts setting.

Movie Review – Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Written by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
Directed by Jonathan Frakes

With a sleek new Enterprise, the Next Generation cast set out on their second film, fully realized as a big-screen product. While the budget is bigger and the stakes are higher, something is lost in the process. It’s that distinct sense of a family. The focus is narrowed to Picard and Data, while the rest of the crew become supporting to minor players in these characters’ stories.

Short Film Showcase Christmas Special 2019

Here is a over-sized serving of Christmas-themed short films from Disney to Wes Anderson. Enjoy!

The Snowman (1982, directed by Dianne Jackson)

This classic animated special features gorgeous animation, a wordless story, and haunting music. It’s a British favorite and one that always adds some magic to the holiday season.

Movie Review – The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower (2017)
Written by Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, Anders Thomas Jensen, and Nikolaj Arcel
Directed by Nikolaj Arcel

The Dark Tower is based on a series of novels by Stephen King and existed in development hell for a decade before finally being made. The three phases of development are the JJ Abrams phase, the Ron Howard phase, and the “we give up, just make the damn movie” phase. Because the script went through so many rewrites, it has ended up a continuation of the books instead of an adaptation. Thus the story is incomprehensible to someone who hasn’t read the books. This is one of the strangest decisions I’ve ever seen a studio make when adapting a book.

Movie Review – Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Written & Directed by Céline Sciamma

For the majority of the film’s runtime, we do not see a single male character on screen. In the third act, when a man is found eating breakfast in the kitchen, it is a jolt to the system, signaling that whatever has come before is over. The expectations and duties of these women must be resumed, and the life they were able to experience for a brief time is over. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a subdued and even unsentimental look at a relationship between two women in a time where they had no future where they could stay together.

Movie Review – Star Trek: Generations

Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Written by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
Directed by David Carson

Star Trek: Generations is not a film that is going to bring new viewers into the franchise, it exists as something for fans of the series. That said, even if you don’t know who these characters are and the legacy bits are lost on you, the story is still comprehensible. It’s a story about regret, how time goes back so fast, and you find yourself thinking about the other life you could have had. Generations is the perfect companion piece to “All Good Things,” the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They both focus on Picard, his sense of aging, and confronting the life not lived.

Comic Book Review – Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows

Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Max Fiumara

This kicks off a marathon of reviews for Jeff Lemire’s World of Black Hammer comics over at Dark Horse. I started reading the series three years ago and like to revisit it every so often. This particular comic is profoundly inspired by James Robinson’s Starman comic that was published during the 1990s/early 2000s. The main character, actually named Dr. James Robinson, was a Golden Age hero of Spiral City. He constructed a device that allowed him to harness the power of distant stars and set off on a lucrative career fighting alongside his contemporaries.

TV Review: Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation Part 11

All Good Things Parts 1 & 2 (original airdate: May 23rd, 1994)
Written by Brannon Braga & Ronald D. Moore
Directed by Winrich Kolbe

We live in an age where the future is a blur, hazy, and unfocused due to so many dire circumstances. The clash of ideologies with fascism gaining a sort of traction that it hasn’t had in a long time. The screaming threat of climate change, setting off klaxons, and demanding our immediate action. The existential crisis of the soul that has come about from two decades of war. The hypernormalization of a system that is collapsing. Star Trek posits that one day this human strife will end, and we will ascend into new enlightenment, a socialist utopia where our species unites with the galaxy. It’s hard to see that while you stand in the middle of the burning forest but I hope this show is correct.

TV Review – Castle Rock Season 2

Castle Rock Season 2 (Hulu)
Written by Dustin Thomason, K’naan Warsame, Scott Brown, Obehi Janice, Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murray, Vince Calandra, Daria Polatin, Michael Olsen, K. Corrine Van Vliet, and Scott Brown
Directed by Greg Yaitanes, Phil Abraham, Anne Sewitsky, Mark Tonderai-Hodges, Loni Peristere, Craig William Macneill, and Lisa Bruhlmann

This season of Castle Rock has brought me through a series of varied emotions but ultimately ended with a stunning finale that did justice to the character of Annie Wilkes. Along the way went through a middle section that I drifted away from. There was definitely a good story there, but it didn’t always feel like progress was being made in character arcs every episode. Often Annie felt like she was going in circles to fill out the episode order. The evil force at work in the series was kept in the background just a little too long, but when they were revealed, the episodes shined.

Movie Review – Uncut Gems

Uncut Gems (2019)
Written by Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, & Bennie Safdie
Directed by Josh & Bennie Safdie

Josh & Bennie Safdie first came to my attention with Good Time, which presented its seemingly simple story with such stylish confidence that it left me stunned. They have a much deeper film career than I realized, and I have also seen Heaven Knows What, which does a similar job of telling a naturalistic story with an evident personal aesthetic. I plan on delving deeper into their filmography in 2020, but for now, I want to look at their latest release, Uncut Gems.