Category: 2017

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 – 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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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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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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Movie Review – The Killing of a Sacred Deer

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The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Written by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

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Dr. Stephen Murphy (Colin Farrell) is a successful heart surgeon in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has a beautiful and talented wife (Nicole Kidman) and two children, Kim and Bob. But Stephen has a secret, a secret named Martin. No one in Stephen’s family or at his hospital know about his secret meetings with Martin at a diner and their walks by the riverfront. Martin seems to have some sort of hold over Stephen. The doctor meets with him out of an obligation and endures a myriad of strange remarks and behavior from the young man. This is all connected to a sin from Stephen’s past and when he finally does get up the nerve to shrub Martin off his entire family begins to surface.

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Movie Review – Brigsby Bear

Brigsby Bear (2017)
Written by Kevin Costello and Kyle Mooney
Directed by Dave McCary

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James (Kyle Mooney) spends the majority of his days absorbed in his favorite television series since childhood, Brigsby Bear. New episodes are delivered in supply drops to his family’s bunker in the desert, and each chapter imparts essential life lessons, particularly in academics. However, James spends almost too much time absorbed in the world of Brigsby, while his parents wish he would spend more of his effort on developing his mind. James has spent his entire life inside this bunker and only communicates with the outside world through his decades-old computer on the Brigsby forums. He even has a crush on the young lady companion of the title bear hero. Then a revelation occurs the upsets James’ entire understanding of his life and throws him into a world he doesn’t know how to fit into. Brigsby seems to the be the one thing that can keep him afloat and help him come to terms with what his life really means.

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TV Review – Stranger Things 2

Stranger Things 2 (Netflix)
Written by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Justin Doble, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Paul Dichter, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock, and Kate Trefry
Directed by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Shawn Levy, Andrew Stanton, and Rebecca Thomas

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It’s almost been a year since the events of Season One that took place in Hawkins, Indiana. Will Byers is settling back into routine everyday kid life with one caveat, he routinely visits with a doctor working at the Hawkins Laboratory. This is part of the agreement Sheriff Hopper made with the lab offscreen at the end of the last season. Hopper also has a significant secret he’s keeping from everyone else. For the last few months, he has been the caretaker of Eleven. After she destroyed the Demogorgon, Eleven found herself in the Upside Down but managed to quickly breach one of the membranes between worlds and return. Hopper eventually finds her, and she becomes a surrogate daughter for the one he lost years ago. In the background of all of this looms a potent threat the dwells in the Upside Down. This many-tentacled shadow entity is moving closer and closer to opening the gate and doing to Hawkins what he has done to the other world.

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Movie Review – The Little Hours

The Little Hours (2017)
Written & Directed by Jeff Baena

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A trio of nuns in a medieval convent gets up to a series of increasingly scandalous and obscene acts. Sister Alessandra (Alison Brie), is the daughter of a struggling merchant who is keeping his daughter in the church until he can marry her off. In the meantime, his charitable contributions are leaving his finances struggling and no dowry coming anytime soon. Sister Ginvera (Kate Micucci) is very sheltered and obnoxious, both wanting to tattle to the head of the convent, Sister Marea (Molly Shannon) while participating in the revelries of her rebellious fellow nuns. Finally, there is Sister Fernanda (Aubrey Plaza) who is always sneaking out into the woods at night only to return at the crack of dawn the following morning. Tossed into this mix is Masseto (Dave Franco), a former servant to a noble on the run after sleeping with the noble’s wife. He befriends Father Tommaso (John C. Reilly), and the priest gives him a job as the gardener at the convent.

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