Seth Harris

Movie Review – The Conformist

The Conformist (1970)
Written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Time and again, people in the States seem to conflate fascism with iconography. Yes, that is undoubtedly a piece of the ideology, but its believers are clever enough to know that continuing to wear swastikas and black leather while goosestepping isn’t going to sow seeds anymore. The danger of fascism is how much like the mundane & ordinary it can appear. This is where “I was just following orders” emerges from. You can be a mild-mannered civil servant, just signing the papers across your desk and filing them correctly. Nothing wrong with that, right? If those papers are in connection to greenlighting death camps or murdering political dissidents, then it doesn’t seem like you are “just doing your job.” You are carrying water for a type of thought that seeks to annihilate every last atom of humanity in us.

TV Review – Kingdom: Exodus

Kingdom: Exodus (Mubi)
Written by Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel
Directed by Lars von Trier

I just can’t hate Lars von Trier. I think he’s a massive asshole, and he often has a horrible sense of humor. However, I find his work enjoyable…mostly. He’s frequently on the cusp of a breakthrough but then misses the point. While David Lynch’s Twin Peaks inspired the Kingdom series, I do not think this comes close to that masterpiece. Part of this is Lynch’s willingness to grow and change as an artist. Von Trier, instead, has entered his grumpy old man phase, and Exodus puts much of that on display. It’s eye-rolling & annoying. He has such a cynical viewpoint in the way he ends this story. Lynch wrapped up Twin Peaks: The Return with a dark ending, but it’s clear he doesn’t see things as hopeless.

PopCult Podcast – Love Lies Bleeding/Drive-Away Dolls

As Billy Eichner once said, “Let’s go, lesbians!” On this week’s sapphic episode we look at a two lesbian neo-noirs with two very different takes on the genre.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Carcosa Part Two

Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation
Written & Designed by Heinrich D. Moore
You can purchase it here

Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Carcosa
Written & Designed by Heinrich D. Moore
You can purchase it here

In our first part, I focused on the Guide to Character Creation and its incredibly robust tools that lead to unique player characters every single time you go through the book. Now, we get the adventure with the Guide to Carcosa. For the unfamiliar, Carcosa was originated by Ambrose Bierce in the short story “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” (1886) where a character described the city in hindsight after its destruction. Nine years later Robert Chambers would borrow the name for stories featured in his eerie fiction collection The King in Yellow. From there, authors who wrote in the cosmic horror vein of Lovecraft would fold Carcosa and The King in Yellow into the Cthulhu Mythos associating the king with the deity Hastur.

Comic Book Review – Starman: The Cosmic Omnibus Volume One

Starman: The Cosmic Omnibus (2020)
Reprints Starman #0-42, Starman Annual #1, The Shade #1-4, Starman Secret Files #1, and The Power of Shazam #35-36
Written by James Robinson (with Jerry Ordway)
Art by Tony Harris, Teddy Kristiansen, Kim Hagen, Bjarne Hansen, Christian Højgaard, Guy Davis, J.H. Williams III, Gary Erskine, Steve Yeowell, Craig Hamilton, Dusty Abell, Jerry Ordway, Ray Snyder, Matthew Smith

James Robinson walked so Geoff Johns could run. In 1995, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC Comics rolled out Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time. By the end of the mini-series, things were more or less the same with a few tweaks. Part of the changes was the rollout of a handful of new titles: Extreme Justice and REBELS continued storylines started in the pages of Justice League America and LEGION, respectively. Manhunter and Fate introduced new characters using legacy names. Primal Force was a magic title, while Xenobrood was about human-alien hybrids, seeming like a play on some of Image’s popular books. None of these last very long. There would only be one book post-Zero Hour that would go the distance and run for 81 issues, Starman.

Movie Review – Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

I remember when this film came out, and a significant part of the discourse was how annoying the main character was. In revisiting it, I didn’t find that to be true. Oh yes, Poppy is very positive, but she reminded me of the Kindergarten teachers I worked alongside as an elementary teacher. Her seemingly endless cheeriness serves a purpose in Leigh’s story. It’s a protection against the nihilism of the world around her, which I think we all can admit is easy to sink into. I know that in real life, I probably would feel overwhelmed and overstimulated being in Poppy’s presence for long periods. The mistake many characters make, and I suspect it is the same with the audience, is that because Poppy is so cheerful, she must be a fool. And that is not true in the slightest.

Movie Review – Vera Drake

Vera Drake (2004)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh’s second foray into historical drama takes us back to the early 1950s. The UK is still healing from the wounds of World War II, and people get on with their lives. It’s also the first of his films that I don’t think quite hits the mark. There’s a very potent moral space to be explored with Vera Drake, but Leigh and his acting collaborators seem to avoid it. That would be the more interesting place to go than where we do, which is a fairly bog standard story. If you have even the slightest experience with cinema, then you’ll likely know where this film is going the minute you learn about Drake’s side gig and the volunteer work she does for her community.

Movie Review – All or Nothing

All or Nothing (2002)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh doesn’t cast people that meet the Hollywood standards of “beauty,” but damn if his performers are not always beautiful & captivating. They reveal that actual beauty is not a series of symmetrical physical features on the face or a toned body but in the ability to capture moments of the human experience. We often must rush past these moments in our daily lives because the systems that rule us demand we go faster. Within a Leigh film, the actor can sit in a moment, examine & explore it, and find the truth within it. Leigh’s films are all about the reality of what it means to be a human being alive in these times, seeking connection & meaning.

Movie Review – Topsy-Turvy

Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

Following the success of Secrets & Lies, Mike Leigh got more financial backing for his next project. It would be his first foray into making a historical film, and of course, it would focus on something closely associated with the British. In this case it was the comic operas of Gilbert & Sullivan. While critics loved the picture & it won two Oscars for design, audiences did not show up like they did for the last one. Topsy-Turvy failed to make back its budget, but this would not be the end of Leigh’s exploration of England’s past. In the meantime, he gave us a very different style of historical film that doesn’t try to hide some of the uglier aspects of the time.

TV Review – Calls

Calls (Apple TV+)
Written by Timothée Hochet, Fede Álvarez, Nick Cuse, Aidan Fitzgerald, Noah Gardner, and Rodo Sayagues
Directed by Fede Álvarez

Apple TV+ has been called the platform with lots of good shows that they never make an effort to promote. I had never heard of Calls until stumbling across a TikTok post. The series was released in 2021, and if not for this horror fan sharing it with the world, I would have continued unaware. Calls is a science fiction/horror anthology, a structure I always find a mixed bag. In this instance, all the stories are connected in the same universe…well, sort of. By the final two episodes, we get a conclusion that wraps things up. What makes Calls such a success where other anthologies falter is how the story is told.