Seth Harris

Book Review – Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier

Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier
Flatiron Books, 2017
Written by Mark Frost

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The final piece of Twin Peaks, for the time being, has been released. This comes in the form of co-creator Mark Frost’s meta-novel The Final Dossier. The Final Dossier continues the investigation of Tamara Preston from The Secret History of Twin Peaks. In the previous volume, she is pouring through an archive of documents about events in the Twin Peaks area dating back to the time of Lewis and Clark. In The Final Dossier, she has remained behind in the town after the events of the finale to debrief Director Gordon Cole on what has become of the townspeople and her own thoughts on what exactly happened. Beneath the surface, I read this as co-creator Mark Frost’s personal interpretation of the series. David Lynch is known for creating incredibly enigmatic art that he wants everyone involved from the actors to the viewers to interpret for themselves. It’s not too big of a jump to assume even though Frost contributed to The Return he may have different readings of what happened in the show.

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Movie Review – Bone Tomahawk

Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Written & Directed by S. Craig Zahler

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A strange drifter finds his way into the small town of Bright Hope. He arrival is followed by the murder of a stable boy and the abduction of two citizens. All that is left behind is an arrow with a head made from bone. A local native explains this belongs to a tribe of men who are not “Indians” but from some other breed of man. Sheriff Hunt takes off with a trio of men, each with their own reason to follow the trail, to rescue their fellow townspeople. They encounter the hazards of the wilderness along the way not knowing that an ancient horror awaits them in the Valley of the Starving Man.

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Movie Review – Logan Lucky

Logan Lucky (2017)
Written by Rebecca Blunt
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

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Jimmy Logan is the latest in a long family history of bad luck West Virginians. He’s just been fired from his job working as part of the crew patching sinkholes under the Charlotte Motor Speedway and finds out his ex is moving out of state with their daughter. Jimmy can’t afford a lawyer to get partial custody, so he devises a plan. With the help of his brother, sister, incarcerated explosives expert Joe Bang, and a few others Jimmy is going to steal millions right out from underneath the Speedway, that is if the Logan family curse doesn’t get in the way first.

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Movie Review – Justice League

Justice League (2017)
Written by Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon
Directed by Zack Snyder (with reshoots by Joss Whedon)

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Superman is dead, and the world is awful. A bad guy who looks lifted from a video game shows up looking for three MacGuffins, so Batman goes around to some people and asks them for help. They get together and punch stuff really hard, fight hordes of enemies that look suspiciously just like the enemies in The Avengers, and win. All the while other movies are set up without actually making sure this one is good.

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Movie Review – Paint It Black

Paint It Black (2016)
Written by Ed Dougherty and Amber Tamblyn
Directed by Amber Tamblyn

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Set in the late 1980s, Paint It Black follows the story of Josie (Alia Shawkat) in the wake of her boyfriend’s unexpected suicide. These traumatic events put her at odds with his mother, Meredith, who believes Josie is responsible for what happened. The two women clash in an increasingly dark and strange series of encounters. Josie becomes more dependent on self-medication to cope which makes her increasingly vulnerable to Meredith’s manipulations.

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Small Screen Scares: American Horror Story, Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories, and Channel Zero

Small Screen Scares: Horror on Television – American Horror Story, Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories, and Channel Zero

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In the last few years, horror on the small screen has seen a boost in popularity. There have always been some representations of the genre on television (Tales from the Crypt, Night Gallery, Masters of Horror) but I have personally found the real sense of horror in these productions to be rare. Tales of the Crypt was often a blend of horror and comedy, and Masters of Horror was a very mixed bag when it came to writing. The horror currently gracing our screens is not always top notch either, but there have been some programs or episodes that have surprised me with how dark and existential they are in their exploration of the genre. We’ll be taking a look at American Horror Story, Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories, and Channel Zero: No-End House.

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Movie Review – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Written and Directed by Luc Besson

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Major Valerian and his partner, Sergeant Laureline are sent on a mission to recover an essential piece of technology and return it to the former International Space Station, now Alpha (the titular City of a Thousand Planets). Valerian has a sense he is connected to this artifact and that the police force onboard Alpha is being less than honest about the nature of this thing. He and Laureline become embroiled in an increasingly complex and byzantine plot aboard the melting pot called Alpha.

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Comic Book Review – New Super-Man: Rebirth Volume 1

New Super-Man Volume 1: Made in China
Written by Gene Yang
Art by Viktor Bogdanovic

Kong Kenan is a high school bully in Shanghai, China when through a chance encounter he accidentally drives off notorious super-villain Blue Condor. This draws the attention of spunky young reporter Laney Lan and Dr. Omen, the director of the Ministry of Self-Reliance. Kenan is imbued with part of the life essence of the New 52 Superman and becomes China’s answer to the Man of Steel. He’s paired up with the Bat-Man and Wonder Woman of China who find Kenan to be an incredibly immature brat with very unreliable powers. Kenan’s father, Kong Zhongdan is an aging political activist who comes at odds with his son’s new direction in life.

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Movie Review – Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost
Directed by Taika Waititi

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Since the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor the God of Thunder has been traveling across the Nine Worlds and the universe in search of the Infinity Stones with no luck. Meanwhile, his brother Loki has been posing as Odin since Thor: The Dark World. The two siblings are confronted with a significant change to the status quo in Asgard. The results of this shake-up send them hurtling across the universe to Sakaar, a junk planet run by The Grandmaster, the host of the Contest of Champions. Thor finds himself reconnecting with an old friend and discovering that another lost Asgardian has made their way to this strange corner of the galaxy. It will be up to Thor to gather a ragtag group of heroes to reclaim his home. Or, will the prophecy of Ragnarok, the death of the gods, come to pass?

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PopCult Book Club November ’17 Announcement

J-R The book up for this month is one I started last month because I knew I would need extra time to finish it. The book is JR by William Gaddis, written in almost entirely dialogue with no scene breaks or chapters, and coming in at 726 pages. Published in 1975, JR tells the story of Edward Bast, a composer working as a school music teacher. He befriends 11-year-old JR Vansant. JR appears to be an economic savant, and without Bast realizing it he is pulled into the young man’s capitalist machinations. A novel that feels like the cacophonous and biting satirical work of filmmaker Robert Altman.