What I'm Watching: Mosquito Coast, Girls5Eva, Mighty Ducks, New Girl, The Monkees, Psych

Mosquito Coast (Apple TV) (through two episodes)-Based on a novel in the 1980s that was adapted into a Peter Weir film starring Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix. The protagonist, Allie, was inspired by novelist Paul Thoreaux's self-reliant father (who would often take his kids dumpster diving) along with American cult leaders like Jim Jones and Joseph Smith (father of Mormonism and all-around wild and kooky guy) who wanted to take what they viewed as the American ideal and create that utopia with it somewhere else. 

Fortunately, Allie does not want to kool-aid a thousand people to their deaths or marry dozens of women. He has a family and just wants to live off the grid in Central America where he can test new societal theories or something or other. That's all in the book, which I didn't really read or in the faithful film adaptation (which, coincidentally, I haven't watched yet).

In this series, Allie (played by Paul's nephew Justin coincidentally) isn't so much wanting to leave as he happens to be the most wanted man in America based on how many federal agencies are after him. Why he and his wife are on the run isn't revealed, which is perhaps the smartest adaptational move. We're left guessing how severe their transgression must have been if cops and feds must care about them so much. In the tradition of "Lost", it's always nice leave the audience piecing a puzzle together. The series is well-paced and the family dynamic keeps this story above the level of a standard narrative thriller.  

Girls5Eva (Peacock)-This is more in the "what I'm giving a chance to" thread but will soon quit if I don't see some results. This take on 90s girls groups juxtaposed with current times is well below the level of the Fey/Carlock creations Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 30 Rock, Mr. Mayor. I'm trying but it's not grabbing me even though it's kind of an interesting cast (Paula Pell, pop singer Sara Bareilles, Eliza from Hamilton, Busy Phillips). Perhaps, it's just that shows about entertainers making a comeback are stale.

Also, maybe it's time that Tina Fey stop leaning so heavily on Fey's husband music director Jeff Richmond for his trademark boinkiness. It's ok, Tina, let him down gently. 

I instead recommend the Comedy Central Show "The Other Two." 

Mighty Ducks (Disney Plus) -It's in the tone of the 90s film and it's more of a pre-teen drama than a teen drama which is an interesting dynamic that evoked nostalgia for the 10 year old me who watched this in the movie theater. In other words, it's a capable reboot if you can put yourself in the shoes of the audience. The show mostly works on the dynamic between Lauren Graham and Emilio Estevez. As original coach Gordon Bombay, Estevez begins his narrative arc pretty far down at the bottom of the well. He appears to have PTSD'ed out of the sport. Graham, like Zooey Deschanel or Kristen Bell, is all-purpose sitcom gold. She brings a spunk and energy that has worked in everything she's been in so she's a welcome infusion here.

The End of the F***ing World (Netflix)-A British high-concept show about two teenagers who are both uniquely disturbed. James considers himself a psychopath who feels like he needs to kill someone to come of age. Alyssa's the epitome of a goth girl. What she lacks in outer appearance (eye shadow, black ensemble, ripped stockings, etc.) she makes up for in top-notch bluntness and a vocal timbre that's as varied as a barnyard cow. Alyssa wants to run away and takes James with him and the two form an awkwardly pubescent Bonnie and Clyde with no real idea where they're going or what they're doing.  Highly recommend.

New Girl-(Originally ABC, now Netflix)-I've been re-watching the first season and impressed how the show is so low-concept. Jess Day being "new" or a "girl" isn't really much to build a show around. The concept is basically "let Zooey Deschannel go full Zooey Deschannel" and her outlandish personality is hilarious enough  in an absurdist way to carry the show. The three other leads--Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, and Lamorne Morris--all got a big boost visibilitty-wise from this show but they are mostly replaceable archetypes of fun-loving single guys. Although the show has a different creator (Elizabeth Merriweather), this show seems to be a commercial successor to "How I Met Your Mother" in that some of the humor comes from the characters inside jokes (or at least that's what the dialogue aims for).

The Monkees (originally NBC, then MTV, now YouTube)-This is an extremely charming 60s series that was made to emulate the success of the Beatles 1964 film "A Hard Day's Night" (a comic film in which the Beatles played themselves getting into exaggerated hijinks at a tour stop) with four goofy guys trying to make a living as a rock band. As someone who has seen "A Hard Day's Night", I can certifiably say this improves on the original. Rater than have the band just be naturally goofy in a cute "they don't take themselves too seriously" winky way, the Monkees are full-throttle anarchy akin to the Marx Brothers. Being defiant of authority and order is intrinsic to who they are, far more than being handsome me who want to seem relatable. Reality-breaking tricks like fast-forwards a la Keystone Cops, over-the-top musical cues and the gang breaking into song (the reason that the group existed) cements the comic climate that this is a world where anything goes. It also helps that A) the band was not famous in-universe or at the start of the series and B) the four have distinct personalities. Davy is the love-struck front man, Peter is most child-like, Mike is aloof, and Mickey is the silly one.

Psych (USA now Peacock)-I remember watching one episode when it came out and thinking it was over the top and ridiculous. It's in the mold of other USA shows at the time about exiled geniuses who worked outside the system (sidenote: it's incredible that the network built an entire slate of shows with the same exact premise). The protagonist is a guy with a militaristic dad  who, for reasons beyond me (possibly OCD), wanted to imbue his son with the gift of being able to notice things really well when he was young. As an adult, Shawn pretends to be psychic so he can be hired as a police consultant and he drags his friend, Gus (Dule Hill) along for the ride.  I've heard people cite the pair as a great example of BFFs but Hill often comes off as a pushover in relation to Shawn and while the character is supposedly anti-authoritarian in a fun way, he often comes across as annoying. This especially the case when he's theatrically pretending he solved the case. If not for the chemistry between Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) and Juliet (Maggie Lawson), this show is still terribly over-the-top. I could however see the outline of a better show if James Roday Rodriguez was just given some network notes to dial it back 10-20%.

Bless the Harts (Fox)-As good as always. I've reviewed this plenty of times before. The show is on the brink of cancellation so now's a great time to support it and get in on the letter-writing campaigns. 

15 Best Scenes at the Movies 2020

 Out of about 46 movies I saw this year, this list was surprisingly easy to make owing to the fact that there are some great movies I saw that I can’t remember a stand-out scene from months later. Not every film here is among my favorites but I have a clear memory of the scene and continue to look back on these film moments fondly.

1. Borat 2-Rudy Giuliani gets caught with his pants down

Perhaps as an effort to differentiate himself as one of the good guys, Sasha Baron Cohen opted for more staged scenes than trickery with his subjects that could be construed as mean-spirited. One walloping exception? Rudy Giuliani, one of the most hated politicians of 2020, got caught in a compromising position. It was authentic, true to what we’d come to expect of Giuliani, hilarious and damn cathartic.

2. Trial of the Chicago Seven-The List of Fallen

Sorkin’s latest courtroom drama represents a drastic improvement in self-constraint for the bombastic screen writer. Rather than deliver a big soliloquy to close out this nonsensical court case, the Chicago Seven fights nonsense with the perfect counterdose of nonsense. As a closing statement, Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) reads a list of names of fallen soldiers rather than save his neck for a lighter sentence. In reality, the list of names was read throughout the trial but it’s an acceptable break from history

3. 7500-Lifeboat ethics pushed to the limit

With Trial of the Chicago Seven, Project Power and this tightly scripted thriller, JGL batted three for three and elevated a typical genre picture to a visceral film about the difficulty of lifeboat ethics at certain points. Gordon-Levitt plays a pilot who has to face down the demands of a hijacked plane and decide between placating terrorists or letting his pregnant girlfriend perish.

4. Palm Springs-Montage of Hijinks

Palm Springs spoke to where I was this year as it spoke to the fun you can have out of static circumstances (yes, I’m talking to you Covid). Andy Samberg has always been more goofball than actor but it was a joy to which Christine Milioti go toe for toe with him on such fun adventures like stealing a plane and upstaging the bride at a wedding by pretending to be Russian spies.

5. Project Power-Surviving a Bullet to the face

Never underestimate the potential for a good action scene when you have a clever enough concept. In Project Power, a street drug enables the user to have superpowers for exactly one minute. An undercover cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) takes the drug that gives him bulletproof abilities and sets the timer on his watch down from 60 before pursuing a couple of enhanced criminals. When a trigger-happy perp shoots him, he falls to the ground right as his superpower expires and the bullet bounces off his face. Behind the scenes, Gordon-Levitt endured having his face air blasted.

6. Promising Young Woman-“What are you doing?”

If there’s a case for screenwriter Emerald Fennell to get the Oscar (which she won), it’s her knack for throwing twist after twist that shakes up the direction of the story all over the tonal spectrum. None is as killer as the first one where Carey Mulligan’s character, Cassie, looks as if she’s about to be raped before she turns the tables on her assaulter. All Cassie needs to do to establish control of the situation is to add a dash of inflection to her voice.

7. Seberg-A Sincere Apology Too Late

Several films this year entailed roughly the same plot: Marginalized historic figures (most often black) in the mid-20th Century being horrifically conspired against by powerful institutional forces comprised mostly of white men in suits that are governed by wrong-headed beliefs. United States vs Billie Holiday, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Trial of the Chicago 7, Seberg and (from what I hear) Judas and the Black Messiah make up this list. Additionally, they all have an upright figure caught in the middle who’s morally conflicted about it. I wouldn’t call Seberg the best of these films. However, the covert conversation between G-Man Jack Solomon (Jack O’Connell) and actress Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart) at an anonymous hotel bar where he issues a fruitless apology (her life has already been ruined) is certainly a poignant scene.

8. Trial of the Chicago 7-Quote of the Year

Yes, Aaron Sorkin gets blabby as stated earlier but a good courtroom drama needs great dialogue. The characters are lightning quick in expressing their thoughts in ways that the screenwriters get some leeway with since these are characters who have been schooled on how to best use the spoken word. Anyway, this is a doozy:

Judge Julius Hoffman: Mr. Kunstler, I have lived a a very long time, sir, and you’re the first person ever to suggest that I have discriminated against a black man!

Leonard Weinglass: Then let the record show that I am the second.

9. The Father-Antony shows a little more kindness to Laura

Just as a film based around a first-person look at dementia is constructed like an enigma, so is Antony. He’s charming one minute and fiercely defensive the next and at one point he’s downright cruel to his new nurse (Imogen Poots). The next day, the two meet for their first session and it’s a sweet moment of connection combined with a deserved apology. This scene also sets up a casting shift later on as Poots is replaced by Olivia Williams.

10. Tenet-Crashing a plane into an airplane hanger

Making no compromises in terms of stunts or production, Christopher Nolan ran up a bill of over $200 million (his second most expensive film) and had the misfortune of having it released during the pandemic. Poor guy. If he’s willing to crash a freaking plane into an airplane hangar for our enjoyment, I’ll give him a slot in the top ten.

11. Troop Zero-Two old comrades share a cigarette

This Southern-fried tragi-dramedy of a spunky girl’s (McKenna Grace) dream to enter a Girl Scout contest and win contact with astronauts isn’t about a triumph of the underdog or the joy of achieving your dreams. It’s a bittersweet slice-of-life drip about the noble struggle in almost making it. Viola Davis plays a beleaguered legal assistant, Miss Rayleen, to Grace’s father who begrudgingly takes over troop leader duties when no one else will take the job and she finds herself dealing with a rigged playing field by a scout administrator (Miss Massey, Allison Janney) who happens to be a childhood friend. A certain amount of racism or classicism is coming into play over what’s holding the pair back but this isn’t a film about the evil of racism as it is just a portrait of what is. At the end of the film, the two colleagues share a cigarette and Miss Massey tells her she should go off to law school implying that she knows life’s unfair in this town and there’s a place where she’ll be more appreciated.

12. Bill and Ted Face the Music-Bill and Ted create the most elaborate avant-garde song yet

One of the best gags of this much-anticipated laugh fest is seeing Bill and Ted going “bigger is better” with an increasingly elaborate song for Missy’s wedding dance. It starts with the traditional guitar and drum set-up before jumping into steel drums, throat singing, bagpipes, and poorly played jazz trumpet while the newlyweds have to figure out how to dance to this atonal arrhythmic mess. Eventually, Ted’s dad pulls the plug on the atonal mess which is a shame because I wanted to know where the song went next. Fun fact, Keanu Reeves learned to play the bagpipes for this scene.

13. My Octopus Teacher-Our eight-legged friend survives shark attack #2

Whether the octopus or shark survives is all part of the food chain — either one goes hungry or one becomes dinner — but this documentary created an unshakable bond between the octopus and audience at the expense of his predator. After losing a couple limbs in round one, the octopus swung around and latched himself onto the shark’s back when it came for him in the second round.

14. I Care a Lot-Two enemies agree to a compromise

For much of its running time, I Care a Lot is a brutally insensitive film that asks us to root for a heroine who commits the horrific act of elder abuse. Her only saving grace is that she’s going up against the mob but it’s a pretty close call who’s worse. I’ve rarely seen a film save itself in the past few minutes, however. When the two bad guys form an alliance at the end, the film morphs from being a misguided fable to a black comedy in which everyone has blood on their hands.

15. Prom-The “Love Thy Neighbor” number

Thank god for the against-type casting for this Broadway adaptation which saw James Corden play the flamboyant gay Midwesterner and Andrew Rannell (a gay actor who often gets cast that way) playing a non-descript Julliard graduate who shines as one of the film’s side characters. His “You Pick and Choose” number shows off Rannell’s effortless showmanship as he dances around a mall food court in a musical number that’s reminiscent of a modern day flash mob (they all take place at malls, don’t they?). His number echoes what most biblical scholars already know: That any condemnations of divorce, homosexuality, or marriage out of wedlock are pretty selective readings of the Christian bible.

Honorable Mention:

Blow the Man Down-Margo Martindale faces down three of her peers who object to her vice

Borat 2-Borat convincing Tutar that every women with a driver’s license they encounter is secretly a man

Borat 2-Borat’s encounter with a Holocaust survivor

The Dig-Lily James and Johnny Flynn get it amidst the psychological ruins

The Dig-Carey Mulligan goes to bat for Ralph Fiennes

Hillbilliy Elegy-Amy Adams cutting through the hospital on roller skates

Kajillionaire-Gina Rodriguez taking Evan Rachel Wood up on her offer of $1000 to say “I love you” and whisking her away from her abusive parents

I’m Thinking of Ending Things-Cut to a janitor who might or might not be Jesse Plemons

News of the World-Tom Hanks’s unusual ammunition

Palm Springs-Andy Sambergs cuts through the dance floor with perfect precision en route to impressing Cristin Milioti

Promising Young Woman-Cassie’s posthumous fail-safe mechanism

Soul-Our first view of the Great Beyond in its multi-chromatic splendor

Unhinged-Russell Crowe making mincemeat of Jimmi Simpson at a diner counter

United States verse Billie Holiday-“God Bless the Child”