Quick Review: Suitable Flesh

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Suitable Flesh is a 2023 adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s tale The Thing on the Doorstep of a body-swapping wizard and the pair of friends entangled in the madness.

Shudder Films

Scriptwriter Dennis Paoli has gender swapped the leads roles with Heather Graham playing Dr Elizabeth Derby, a psychiatrist who through a troubled patient, Asa Waite (Judah Lewis) comes to the wizard’s attentions and Barbara Crampton playing Elizbeth’s best friend and fellow psychiatrist Dr Daniella ‘Dani’ Upton. Directed by Joe Lynch in a manner to recall the bonkers insane cinema of Stuart Gordon Suitable Flesh ultimately fails both as a horror film in its own right and as a pastiche to Gordon’s movies of the 80’s.

The script’s greatest weakness, and it has more than one, is that the story is told from the wrong Point of View. Centered on Graham’s Dr Derby the story is flat because Elizabeth is a reactive character, responding to events around her and not driven the narrative forward. Dr. Upton would have been a far better choice for the film’s point of view as she would have had a mystery to solve, a fantastic truth to uncover, and a dear friend to save. The second largest mistake is telling the story though the device of a flashback. The framing of a film as a flashback can be a powerful tool see Double Indemnity as an example, but it required a skill beyond Paoli’s current talents, draining the movie of all tension and suspense.

In addition to the weakness of the script, and I did not list all the ways I thought the writing needed further works, the film is hampered by lackluster performances. With the exception of Barbara Crampton and Judah Lewis every actor feels as though they were simply sleepwalking through their parts, presently nothing that felt like real live-in characters. The flat performances ultimately undercut the attempt to pay homage to Stuart Gordon’s films such as Reanimator where the actor give grand expansive presentations of arch characters.

While I had looked forward to this movie arriving on streaming for months, Suitable Flesh, screening on Shudder proved to be a disappointment.

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More Series Impressions: Monsieur Spade

AMC Studios & Studio Canal

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It is the early 1960s and private detective Sam Spade (Clive Owen) is a rich retired gentleman living in comfort and ease on an estate in the south of France. Spade had come to France’s Mediterranean coast delivering a young girl to a family that denied her paternity and ended up in a place where he believed he might finally find peace. However, with the return of a renowned troublemaker Same is thrust into the middle of a grisly mass murder and once again must prove himself the master detective.

I have been a fan of The Maltese Falcon since I was exposed to its brilliance in a film class back in the early 80s. I own a copy on Blu-ray disc and of course I have read the novel. When I heard that Scott Frank, the creator and showrunner for The Queens Gambit, was creating a series about a retired Sam Spade my interest shot up like a rocket.

Monsieur Spade, much like The Queens Gambit, reveals its story by use of a fractured timeline, covering both Spade’s arrival in the small French town and his comfortable life a few years after. One does not need to have seen or closely remember The Maltese Falcon in order to enjoy this well-produced series, but having such information fresh or well-recalled will enhance your viewing experience as characters and locals from that classic film and novel are referenced. The events of the adventure may yet play a major role in the unfolding mystery but as of the 90-minute pilot episode they provide color for the character.

Owen makes a very credible Spade. That are moment when the costuming, hair, make-up, and framing recall Bogart’s interpretation of the character quite strongly. The episodes were produced in France and utilizes a number of that nation’s actors helping cement a realism about the time and place of the tale. The premier episode, while carrying the heavy load of establishing characters and their history, and there is a large number of characters with interlocking backstories to follow, manages to be compelling drama in its own right and has hooked me for the rest of the series.

Monsieur Spade streams on AMC and AMC+.

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An Interesting Barbie Theory

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This will be quick.

Warner Brothers Studios

Warner Brothers

A lot of ink, electrons, and noise has been spilled over the fact the fact that Barbie was nominated for ‘Best Picture’ by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences but its director Great Gerwig did not receive a nomination for Best Director. Some have suggested that this is misogyny which sorts of proves the theme of the film, some have advanced the idea that as a comedy the films struggles against a bias, but that doesn’t seem to explain no Best Director but still getting Best Picture. Yesterday I heard an interesting theory.

Best Director is a nomination that is determined by directors not the Academy at large and the suggestion is that directors really dislike it when actor come along and ‘usurp’ the director’s chair. The person advancing the idea presented as evidence that Ben Affleck was not nominated as director for Argo despite the film being nominated and winning Best Picture, nor was Bradley Cooper nominated for his direction even though A Star is Born was nominated for Best Picture.

Of course, with ten nominations open for Best Picture but only five for Best Director it is a given that each award cycle is going to have films nominated for the top prize without their directors being recognized. Was it bias against women, against comedy, against actors, or perhaps no bias at all that kept Greta Gerwig off the nomination list? We will never know, and people will believe the explanation that in all likelihood conforms to their already held beliefs.

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Inconvenient Inspiration

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So, last night I went to bed and started drifting off to sleep. Somewhere I had heard or read that in order to sleep your heartrate has to drop below 60 beats per minute and mine was slowing, approaching that moment when cognitive systems shut down and slumber would take over.

As I drifted my minds began recalling carious Tabletop Role Playing Games in the horror genre I had run for my friends. When I run a horror themed games I like to do it as a ‘one off,’ just that set of characters and events. Horror repeated becomes adventure. One of the games I recalled had been a massive game made up of several sessions instead of the customary single night of game play. I had borrowed the structure of the classic film Citizen Kane with the characters investigating aspect of someone life searching for the key that would unlock the nature of their life.

My heartrate shot up from the gentle slowing and sleep fled from my presence.

I hadn’t thought about that game in years and years now grasped a new purpose for it, a novel.

Now that particular story, much of which I do not recall, but the structure. That would make a fine way to approach a horror novel that would be both grand in scope and focused on a single character. Much more of what the plot might entail flooded into my brain like a river washing away the Black Riders chasing after Frodo. Even more concepts fell into place. I adore the five-act structure and each act could encompass one of the historical aspects of the investigation; a character introduced in the epilog of my werewolf novel could be the point man in this one.

It took quite a while for my thoughts to cease racing, for my heartrate to once again begin to slow, but that sudden inconvenient flash of inspiration still burns this morning.

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Series Impressions: Masters of the Air

I am calling this post an impression because I do not feel I and anyone can fairly review any piece when it remains incomplete. I may return after the series finishes its run and give my opinion on its totality.

Apple TV+

Masters of the Air is the third limited series production from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg about the Second World War. The first series, Band of Brothers followed ‘Easy Company’ an Infantry Regiment during their combat in the European theater while the second, The Pacific followed Marines during their island campaigns against Imperial Japan. This show follows the 100th Bombard Group, the ‘Bloody 100’, flying B-17s into occupied Europe on dangerous and costly missions. The Group earned their nickname after suffering extremely high losses in the first few months of the deployment into action.

The story focuses on a pair of friends Gale ‘Buck’ Cleven (Austin Butler) and John ‘Bucky’ Egan (Callum Turner). Writing advice would tell you not to created characters with similar names but history cares not for your rules of writing.

The first pair of episodes, released together, covers the Group arrival in England, illustrating that now dangers come from active combat missions as faulty navigation and mechanical failures can be as deadly as well, through the first mission pair of combat missions into the continent and the Norwegian coast. Along with Buck and Bucky the audience is introduced to a number of characters, Harry ‘Croz’ Crosby (Anthony Boyle) a navigator that suffers from airsickness, Curtis Biddick (Barry Keoghan) a fellow ‘Fort’ commander, and others.

The characters of the series are in general likeable and differentiated enough as to feel like distinct people. The production values are topflight with perhaps the best depiction of ‘flak’ anti-aircraft fires I have seen. Anti-aircraft artillery is ground based cannons firing shells into the flight path of the aircraft timed to explode at the target’s altitude, throwing up a curtain shrapnel in an attempt to damage or destroy the planes. It’s tell-tale sign are the sudden black clouds that appear in the air when the shells detonate. In previous films and shows the deadly black clouds are nearly always all that you get but with modern visual effects and utilizing On-Set Virtual Production, such as has been employed by The Mandalorian and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, can the terror and helplessness of the bomber crews can truly be recreated.

While I had little interest in following group troops through their horrific ordeals in Europe and the island hoping campaign in the Pacific, I look forward to the remaining seven episodes of Masters of the Air.

Masters of the Air streams on Apple TV+.

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Godzilla Minus 1.0; the Best Godzilla Movie

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It is quite a feat to dethrone Gojira that King of Godzilla and Kaiju features but in my personal opinion that is exactly what 2023’s Godzilla -1.0 achieved. To justify this position I will have to spoil some of each feature.

Toho Studios

1954’s Gojira, known in the US primarily by the 1955 re-edit Godzilla; King of the Monsters, is an outstanding piece of cinema ruminating on the atomic age and the trauma of the atomic warfare unleashed on Japan and its civilians. (We will not discuss the moral, ethical, military, or political aspect of the twin atomic bomb attacks. That is not the purpose of this essay.) From its opening scene with the hapless fishing trawler blasted by the unseen Gojira, deliberately reminiscent of the ill-fated tuna boat Lucky Dragon 5 and the terrible radiation poisoning its crew suffered from the first hydrogen bomb test, to the film final moments depicting Godzilla reduced to a skeleton by another monstrous super weapon, Gojira is about the atomic age and its ramifications. Co-inhabiting the film with this theme is the story of a love triangle between two men, Ogata and Dr Serizawa and the woman they love Emiko. There simply isn’t enough screen time to develop the triangle into a powerful story line nor does it tie in directly with the theme of the film. Only Serizawa’s research and development of the ‘Oxygen Destroyer’ which provides the means to end Gojira’s rampage provides thematic connection and resolution to the separate storylines.

Gojira (1954) is an amazing feat of budget constrained film making that invented a new genre and that remains thematically relevant 70 years later. It is a great film and until 2023 rules undisputed as the best of the franchise and the entire Kaiju genre.

Toho Studios

Godzilla Minus 1 opens with our main character, Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot who has abandoned his suicidal mission. Landing on Odo island with ‘mechanical troubles’ he witnesses the first appearance oof Godzilla and along with a single mechanic, Tachibana, survives the monsters rampage but earn the wrath of Tachibana. With the war’s ending Shikishima returns to a Tokyo destroyed by firebombing and the contempt of his neighbors for having survived the war. Years later, still suffering from survivors guilt for not pointlessly dying in the war and with an assembled found family, Shikishima’s life is thrown into chaos when Godzilla reappears, even larger than before, and devastates the area. Drawn into the plots and plans to destroy the monster he sees the opportunity to ‘fulfill’ his kamikaze mission in the intricate plan to deal with Godzilla. Reunited with Tachibana to restore an aircraft for the attack Shikishima receives absolution from the mechanic for his action on Odo island and ‘permission’ to live.

Throughout Godzilla Minu 1.0 the theme is about survival, the waste of lives in war, the importance of the government to respect the lives of its people. Shikishima’s emotional arc is tied directly to the ‘war’ against the monster. At its heart this film is the story of one man, his terrible burden surviving where so many others did not, and his finding of peace, love, and absolution. A powerful story with a single compelling character to drive it make Godzilla Minu 1.0 simply the best Godzilla movie ever.

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The End of the Non-Primary?

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Today as I write this the first votes in the first primary for the 2024 presidential election are being cast. Last week was the Iowa caucuses in which, braving truly terrible weather, Trump’s supporter gave him a victory with massive margins. Today it is likely that in New Hampshire Trump’s only remaining opponent, the ethically chameleon Nikki Halley, to his dominance will be swept aside. OH, there is a small possibility that Nikki will squeak out a tiny number of votes more than Trump. The state is notorious for knifing the winner of the Iowa contest, the electorate there is made up of much greater numbers of the politically moderate and it is a contest where it is easy for people to cross over and vote in the primary that does not match their political party. Clawing each and every vote from these non-Trumpist could possibly push her just barely ahead of Trump, but that is meaningless.

For one, Trump never loses. He is only the winner, or he is cheated. A GOP electorate that has been trained and fashioned to accept charges of ‘rigged’ on trump’s behalf means that a marginally victory is no victory at all. If she fights that she actually won it sinks her utterly with the base and if she doesn’t fight, well, then she loses.

It is also meaningless because there are no other states in the primary where she can replicate even such a tiny victory. Any sort of ‘victory’ here only prolongs the terminal state of her campaign. She’s a dead pol with only an illusion of life.

The GOP is truly and utterly Trump’s party. Policy doesn’t matter, principal doesn’t matter, laws do not matter, the only goal is Trump’s goal, and he serves only himself. I fervently hope that he never returns to any sort of political power, that the GOP is crushed in November to such an utter ruin that it is forced to rebuild and perhaps be reborn a saner party.

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TV Review: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Apple TV+

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Set in the American Kaiju-verse, (Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla vs Kong (2021), the series by use of a split timeline narrative, explores both the founding of the Kaiju hunting organization Monarch and the bureaucracy that had become ossified over the decades.

The founding storyline centers on Keiko, a Japanese scientist, Bill, an American Cryptozoologist, and Lee Shaw, an American Army officer assigned as security to Keiko. Together that discover the threat of the Kaiju, which the series names ‘Titans’ and battling the headwinds of racism and national security driven paranoia establish Monarch.

The ‘current’ storyline follows Cate, a traumatized survivor of Godzilla’s battle in San Francisco and granddaughter of Bill and Keiko, Kentaro, an artist from Tokyo and another grandchild of the founders of Monarch, May, a computer scientist on the run with a mysterious past. The siblings, along with May, search for their missing father with the aid of an elderly, but with an unexplained vigor, Lee.

To bridge the twin timelines with the character Lee, the producers cast actual father and son actors Kurt Russell as the elder Lee and Wyatt Russell as the younger version of the character.

The series does a decent job of balancing the doubled plot threads, though the choice to tell the historical timeline out of narrative order can lead to some confusion as that cotemporary timeline, aside from a flashback or two, is presented in a standard linear fashion. The characters and performances in both threads are decent and engaging with more Kaiju action presented that what might be expected from a television series. The big man himself, Godzilla, is not held back for a guest appearance in the series’ finale but is utilized, sparingly, as needed throughout the first season. The show has enough mystery and character to carrying interest without ever forgetting that this is set in a world where gigantic monsters exist. If you are looking for non-stop Kaiju wrestling then the series is likely to disappoint but I found it fun, entertaining, and with just enough character to make it worth the watch.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters streams on Apple TV+

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Three Years Two Months

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The pandemic started in March of 2020, and I have worked hard diligently avoiding contracting COVID-19.  My sweetie-wife and I have kept our home as a vaccinated only zone and until last week my streak remained unbroken.

After two home testes that came back negative but with a worsening respiratory issue I contacted my doctor’s office, concerned that my immuno-suppressant arthritis medication might be interfering with the simple assay. They ordered a proper PCR test on Thursday and Friday morning I awoke to a positive result. I had contracted COVID-19.

Immediately my doctor suspended all my arthritis medication. It’s unwise to suppress your immune system when you are fighting an infection and the dedicated COVID team at Kaiser put me on the 5-day Paxlovid therapy. Which, due to drug interactions, caused them to suspend my cholesterol medication.

I can report that my COVID infection has proven to be quite mild. The flu I contracted in July laide me out more than this did, but I have maintained the self-isolation directive, spending this long weekend at home, and not seeing Gojira on the big screen with 50 or 60 friends.

Paxlovid Mouth, a side effect where someone on the therapy reports an intense bitter ‘bad’ taste in their mouth did indeed strike me. If you have ever bitten into an orange rind and had the citric acid squirt into the back of your throat, that is was it tastes like. If comes out of nowhere and repeats throughout the course of the therapy. Luckily, breath mints and throat lozenges are sufficient to mask the taste.

Today I return to work only a little sniffly and with a mild irregular cough.

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Quick Novel Update

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So, 3 out of 5 acts have been proofed so I am nearing the point where I will be looking for beta readers for ‘The Wolves of Wallace Point.’

I often hear about writers who detest their first drafts, but I am not one of those. Sure, sometimes the draft fails, and I didn’t get to my target. But it’s never detest or I can’t stand reading it as I edit and revise. This novel was no different even though it was written without an outline. There were elements that need minor adjustment because as things became clearer to me near the end earlier scenes had to be adjusted to ensure a consistent continuity.

As I wait for my sweetie-wife to complete her pass on the final two acts I have begun actual writing on the next horror novel. I may need to put something else as the opening scene however as this sequence is so dark and troubling it may be more of a turn off that an enticing opening.

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