Seth Harris

Movie Review – Elena

Elena (2011)
Written by Oleg Negin & Andrey Zvyagintsev
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Elena has been married to Vladimir for two years, having met him when he was hospitalized, and she was his nurse. This isn’t the first marriage for the two, but it is a comfortable, content one that can see them into their twilight years. Elena lived on the lower economic fringes of Moscow, and so entering Vladimir’s posh upper-middle-class lifestyle has been a blessing. However, Elena has a grown son with a family living in a decaying tenement. Her grandson Sasha has reached the age where, if he is not enrolled in university, he’ll be faced with compulsory military service. Elena implores Vlad for money she can give to her family, but he sees the whole lot as shiftless layabouts. Elena worries further when Vlad’s estranged daughter Katya comes back into his life. A moment will happen when she takes drastic action, but can she live with what she does?

Movie Review – Alps

Alps (2011)
Written by Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

The Alps are a secret society of four weirdos who provide a strange service for people. If someone has lost a loved one a member of the Alps will learn everything they can about the deceased and recreate them for a fee, acting out moments from their life. One member, The Nurse has been spending time playing the role of a lighting shop owner’s wife and has crossed a line of intimacy while still playing her part. At her day job, she meets a young girl who was injured in a car accident. Eventually, the young girl dies and The Nurse volunteers to play her for her parents, while not informing the rest of the Alps of what she is doing. The Nurse becomes absorbed in this life, experiencing a kind of family she did not have and even becoming intimate with the dead girl’s boyfriend.

TV Tryouts – Mr. Robot

Mr. Robot
Season 1, Episode 1 – “eps.1.0_hellofriend.mov”
Written by Sam Esmail
Directed by Niels Arden Oplev

There is so much television I hear I should watch and with 24/7 streaming services abounding it can quickly become overwhelming. To finally get a taste of all these great shows I will start doing TV Tryouts. Each month I will watch a couple of pilot episodes of series I have been hearing rave reviews about and see if that first episode can hook me to keep watching. Now, an argument you might make is that you have to view the first six or entire first season before a show “gets good.” To that, I say, “I just don’t have the time.” A television series should be well written enough that it’s characters, dialogue and plot naturally compel me to keep watching. If it doesn’t then that’s ok, plenty of shows for everyone.

Movie Review – A Separation

A Separation (2011)
Written & Directed by Asghar Farhadi

Simin and Nader’s marriage has reached a turning point. Simin wants to leave Iran while her husband wants to stay because of his ailing father, suffering from Alzheimer’s. Simin is adamant that their daughter Termeh be given opportunities that cannot be provided for her in Iran. As an act of protest, Simin separates herself and lives with her family waiting for Nader to at least allow Termeh to leave with her. Nader is forced to hire a housekeeper and nurse for his father during the days and settles on Razieh, a deeply religious young woman with a daughter. Razieh becomes distressed when she must change Nader’s father after he soils himself but keeps coming into work because her husband is in significant amounts of debt. One day a series of events transpire that lead Nader to believe Razieh stole money from his bedroom and left his father tied to a bed. An argument ensues with tragic consequences that will resonant within the lives of all people involved.

Comic Book Review – Justice League International Volume 5

Justice League International Volume 5
Reprints Justice League International Annuals #2-3 and Justice League Europe #1-6.
Written by Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis (with William Messner-Loebs)
Art by Bart Sears, Bill Willingham, Mike McKone, & Tim Gula

We open with an earlier tale of the Justice League taking on the classic Batman villain Joker. The Joker has been hired by the dictator of Bialya, Rumaan Harjavti to assassinate the JLI. The collection is capped with a team-up of the two Leagues as they visit their various embassies to get to know the staff and bond. This goes off the rails when they meet an ambassador from KooeyKooeyKooey, a rather industrious island nation that wants the League to make their land a protected embassy. In between these two over-sized annuals, we get the opening arc of the Justice League Europe as they experience an incredibly rough introduction to Paris. A Nazi war criminal dies on their steps and soon after they learn members of the now-defunct Global Guardians are out to get them.

Movie Review – Modern Romance

Modern Romance (1981)
Written by Albert Brooks & Monica Johnson
Directed by Albert Brooks

Robert has decided it’s time to break things off with Mary. They have just drifted apart so it would be in their best interests to move on. This isn’t the first break up they have experienced, and as the movie unfolds, the audience realizes there will be more break-ups in their future. Robert tries to start a new life, seesawing between unbridled enthusiasm and wallowing in self-pity. He tries to take vitamins and pick up jogging but ultimately goes back to obsessing over Mary. Mary isn’t above it all though and keeps falling back into the same patterns. These two are comfortable in their co-dependent misery.

Movie Review – Velvet Buzzsaw

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
Written & Directed by Dan Gilroy

Morf Vanderwalt is a dissatisfied art critic searching for something that will bring inspiration to him both personally and professionally. His relationships with other members of the art community are all transactional leaving him even more hollow. Josephina, a lover of Morf’s and an agent in the art world, discovers a neighbor has died, and his home is full of hypnotic, unsettling artwork. Ventril Dease is the deceased artist and no matter who glimpses his Goya-esque paintings they seem enthralled. Art gallery owner Rhodora Haze sees a long term market for Dease and decides to squirrel away most of the thousands of pictures to trickle them out slowly over time. This is when the strange deaths begin, and Morf starts to realize that there is an evil presence surrounding this artwork.

Comic Book Review – Justice League International Volume 4

Justice League International Volume 4
Reprints Justice League International #23-25 and Justice League America #26 – 30
Written by Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis
Art by Kevin Maguire, Ty Templeton, Mike McKone, and Bill Willingham

The world is in the midst of the alien Invasion! led by the Dominators. The Justice League has been stranded in the South Pacific where they attempt to get a Khund vessel up and running which leads them into the path of the Injustice League, an equally second-tier group of villains. Max Lord develops telepathic powers as a result of a Dominator gene bomb which causes him to seek out the artificial intelligence that has manipulated him. The League decides to expand its ranks and has a membership drive that brings together dozens of DC’s heroes and can only lead to more hijinks. After the new Justice League Europe forms and seen off to Paris, the American branch must deal with Blue Beetle’s brainwashing from his time in Biayla at the hands of Queen Bee. Batman meets the new Huntress and seeks out help from Amanda Waller and Kent Nelson (formerly Doctor Fate).

Movie Review – Black Swan

Black Swan (2010)
Written by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, and John J. McLaughlin
Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Nina is a ballerina working in a New York ballet company with aspirations of maybe becoming the lead dancer one day. Her chances arrive sooner than she realizes when prima ballerina Beth, aging and bitter about what the director has made her do over the years, is pushed aside for Nina in the lead role of Swan Lake. Thomas, the company’s director, is growing increasingly frustrated with what he says is Nina’s constraining inhibitions. While technically perfect she lacks the passion he wants to see and uses new company member Lily as an example of real emotion in the work. Nina’s mother doesn’t help things by creating a perpetual childhood in their apartment, treating the young woman the same as she did when Nina was a girl. All of this pressure begins to show the cracks in Nina’s psyche as she glimpses a shadow-self, a doppelganger wandering the streets living a life parallel to our protagonist. What is real and what is in the life of the mind begin to blur and dissolve.

Author: Seth Harris