NFLX2019 January 4th: Lionheart


Lionheart. Genevieve Nnaji. 2018. ☆☆☆☆★★

OK, we’re off on The Journey Into Netflix Originals.

This is the first thing I’ve actually watched on this setup: I’ve only done debugging, so far, and of course problems are showing up, so my concentration on this film is far from 100%.

I’ve got the Apple TV set to “auto” mode, so it’s supposed to take care of all the HDR/SDR details. And, sure, it’s sending an HDR signal to the TV, even though the movie is SDR.

But… it’s doing something… not quite optimal? Visually, on the screen, nothing except the letterboxing is black when I’ve got HDR on: Everything else is washed out.

When I switch the Apple TV to SDR, the letterboxing goes gray, but the movie itself is less washed out? I think? A bit? But the screenshots look a lot better in SDR, that’s for sure.

Fiddling with these settings takes so long that it’s difficult to compare directly…

Frustrating. The things I go through to watch movies! Incroyable!

Anyway!

So this is a Nigerian film that Netflix picked up for distribution. It was shown on some movie festivals first…

Nigeria is, of course, a powerhouse in the African film industry, but this is the first Nigerian film that Netflix has picked up.

I can see why: It’s a fun movie, well made. The acting style isn’t something I’m familiar with: It’s slightly stylised, with every reaction to anything going on is a bit over the top. I mean, it’s not a parodic WHAAAAAT? thing. It’s just a slightly bigger-than-reality thing.

It’s fun to watch.

It’s a story about a plucky woman trying to save the plucky family business (which is a bus company), and the plot is about what you’d expect, with lots of twists and turns and complications.

It’s funny! I LOL-ed out loud several times.

This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.

NFLX2019

I’ve recently been watching mostly old movies, so I thought it was about time for a complete turn-around: What’s going on in movies today?

And the freshest movies available (outside movie theatres) are on Netflix: In particular the “Netflix Originals”. Some of these have a brief limited theatrical release, but arrive on the screens pretty soon after that.

So I thought it would be fun to watch all movies released by Netflix in 2019 and see whether they’re any good.

I’m not quite sure what a “Netflix Original” is: Some of them seem to be produced by Netflix directly (i.e., Netflix supplied the money for making the movies), and some are picked up for exclusive distribution by Netflix.

In any case, last year there was about 80 of these, and it looks like we’re getting a similar number this year: There’s been about 30 released so far. So it’s not going to be too strenuous to watch all these movies, but I’m starting late, and I’ll have to catch up to watch the rest of them in real time.

And I’ll be blogging as usual, although this required some new hardware.

Ssh!

CCCB: The Ticket That Exploded

For this week’s cake I’m making something called “tropical aroma”. I know you’re thinking “pineapple and mango?” now, but this is an old-school chocolate cake, and the tropical ingredients are cinnamon, nutmeg and coffee.

And possibly the chocolate. That’s tropical too, right?

I’m not a coffee drinker (I guzzle tea by the gallons), but I bought this coffee grinder for a cocktail project the other year and never used it, so I thought I’d give it a grind. I mean, go. It’s… a workout?

And then I used a press can. As I don’t really make coffee otherwise, I figured that was a safe option.

That’s… a very strong coffee? I think? It tasted OK, though, and the recipe called for strong coffee, so I think that should be fine. Possibly.

The cake batter is the normal stuff… Butter and sugar…

And then whisk in some eggs and flour and stuff.

The recipe calls for a teaspoon of nutmeg, and I started grinding away manually until I remembered that I have a Kenwood.

So I ground up a nut, and that was a teaspoon. I thought that was an insane amount of nutmeg, but I checked five different recipes and they all said to use that much.

After mixing everything together, I separate into two bowls, and add cocoa powder to half the batter.

Then… layer.

But very roughly and poke at it with a spoon to allegedly get fun patterns. I don’t quite understand why, but let’s go with it.

It has arisen!

The icing is just the normal stuff: Powdered sugar, butter, cocoa powder. And coffee.

Hm, it’s sunk a bit in the middle? Tsk.

Oh. That’s not very… patterney. Looks like the chocolate batter has just blended with the non-chocolate batter pretty thoroughly while baking.

Decoration time! I should get a job in a pastry shop, eh? Eh? As a scullery maid, you say? What? Rude!

OK, when you cut the cake, it’s less undifferentiated.

Quite moist-looking.

But now I have to pick a book! Quick! I want to taste the cake!

It’s slim pickings among the oldest, unread books now… and, man, what a lot of dust.

So I choose The Ticket That Exploded by William Burroughs, the second in this blog series.

I think this may be the oldest book in the collection: From the indicia, it may have been printed in 1986 (or sometime later), and the price tag has a somewhat oldee fashionee look.

I think the reason I’ve avoided reading it for over 30 years shouldn’t need an extensive explanation: I’d read Naked Lunch and enjoyed it, which is why I’d bought this book, probably, but Burroughs is… you know… a bit difficult. The Place of Dead Roads was pretty straightforward, as it turned out, but this is classic Burroughs. Let’s read the first two pages together:

Yup, that’s Burroughs in high mettle.

But you can’t not enjoy sentences like “He had been meaning Sexexcellency Sally Rand cunning Navy pilot Alan B. Weld two acts for three saints in outer space proudly registered in Phoenix was it are you sure that’s right infectious night biter Mo. 18 I’m going to answer the doorbell definitely definitely the first time in thirty years Houston’s outbreak the first time in who said Atlantic City?”

The introduction by John Calder says that Burroughs’ cut-up technique (started in Naked Lunch and developed in The Soft Machine) here was used more extensively. But I wonder whether sections like this is Burroughs just transcribing, verbatim, overheard conversations or snippets from TV, intermingled with the narrative (FSVO) he’s going for.

It’s not all like that, of course, because Burroughs isn’t Gertrude Stein. He’s more easy going.

But how does it pair with the cake?

Hm! That’s… quite a lot of nutmeg. On the first bite I went “this is way way too much”, and then either my taste buds were knocked out, or the coffee icing started complementing the nutmeg, because after getting halfway through the first piece, I thought it was jolly good. Nice and moist and lots of chocolate and coffee flavours.

If I’m making it again, I’m cutting back on the nutmeg, though, and perhaps making the coffee a bit weaker, to allow the chocolate flavour to shine more through.

And it’s perfect for reading Burroughs: Strong and weird.

I think this may be the most abstruse Burroughs book I’ve read… but it’s a fast read nonetheless. It has a certain flow, especially if you read it in Burroughs’ voice, and there’s not really much there to puzzle out. It says what it says.


And you get some footnotes.

Yes. Science. Pure science.

And we get a little essay about cut ups.

The thing is — it’s a miasma of words and scenes, but then you get these sudden flashes of narrative that almost make sense. It’s… pleasant.

Oh, “Miranda Sex Garden”? Is that where the band took their name from? Burroughs also inspired other band names, like Soft Machine… and… er… that’s all I can remember… Uhm… Oh, Spooky, That Subliminal Kid? Is that from here, too? I don’t know.

And then it ends on this note, which makes sense.

And then we get an almost verbatim repeat of that previous chapter where Burroughs was talking about cut-ups, but this time without punctuation and capital letters. And the notes on the last page says that this is by Bryon Gysin?

Oh, well, it makes as much sense as anything.

That Burroughs guy can write, dude. But my eyes did glaze over on some of the more cut-up pages.

4AD 1997

Listen to 4AD 1997 on Spotify.

Listening to 4AD in 1997 is obviously listening to a label shutting down. There are no new artists, but instead there’s the first of many pilferings to come of one of 4AD’s most commercially successful bands of the 90s, Pixies.

And there’s a concerted effort to make Tanya Donelly’s solo career take off after disbanding Belly, but otherwise the label is spinning its wheels: I don’t think there’s any album they released this year that I’ve found myself listening to over the last 20 years. Not even the album by previously reliable act His Name Is Alive, or the Tarnation album, and I loved their first album.

So this is, once again, the worst year in 4AD history.

SO FAR.

What happened? Four years earlier, it seemed like everything was coming up roses. 4AD had the triumphant week-long retrospective/showcase Thirteen Year Itch in London; The Breeders and Belly were topping college label charts in the US; they had a US office; they had a deal with Warners…

Oh right. They had a deal with Warners that meant that Warners would pony up huge bucks in advances for records that 4AD recorded. But that also meant that Warners could, in effect, stop 4AD from signing bands, and could also make 4AD drop “unprofitable” acts.

Spending had gotten out of hands during the Warner years, but 4AD just didn’t have any really popular acts any more, so something had to be done.

Label boss Ivo Watts-Russell had previosly dumped bands that he didn’t want to work with any more, but for the first time, he had to tell people like Heidi Berry, who he liked working with and who was making brilliant music, that she had to leave.

No wonder he wanted to get out of the business, which he would do for good in a couple of years.

I can’t remember whether there are any further things released by 4AD that are worth coming back for in this blog series. Isn’t that exciting?

We’ve got two more years to go, though, so I guess we’ll see.

1997

 TAD7000
Tarnation — There’s Someone

There’s Someone, I Didn’t Mean It*

 ADD7001
Tarnation — You’ll Understand

Your Thoughts And Mine, You’ll Understand, The Sad Things Behind*, Land That Time Lost*

 BAD CD7002
Gus Gus — Believe

Believe, Oh, Cold Breath ’79 (Craze), Ghetto Belief

 BAD D CD7002
Gus Gus — Believe

Believe (16B Remix)*, Believe (LFO Remix)*, Believe, Believe (Biggomix)*, Believe (Premix)*

 CAD7003
Michael Brook — Albino Alligator

Arrival, Doggie Dog, Slow Town, Preparation, Miscalculation, Aftermath, Tunnel, Albo Gator, The Promise, The City, The Kicker, Exit, Ill Wind (You’re Blowing Me No Good)

 DAD7004
Tarnation — Mirador

An Awful Shade of Blue, Wait, A Place Where I Know, Is She Lonesome Now, Your Thoughts And Mine, Christine, Destiny, There’s Someone, Like a Ghost, Idly, Little Black Egg, You’ll Understand

 DAD CD7005
Gus Gus — Polydistortion

Oh (edit), Gun, Believe, Polyesterday, Barry, Cold Breath ’79, Why?, Remembrance, Is Jesus Your Pal?, Purple

 BAD CD7006
Scheer — Demon

Demon (Mike “Spike” Drake), Obsession, (Green Room) Sex Kitten

 AD7007
Tanya Donelly — Pretty Deep

Pretty Deep, Vanilla (Wally Gagel)*

 BAD 7007 CD
Tanya Donelly — Pretty Deep

Pretty Deep, Spaghetti, Morna

 BAD D CD7007
Tanya Donelly — Pretty Deep

Pretty Deep, These Days, Influenza

 CAD7008
Tanya Donelly — Lovesongs for Underdogs

Pretty Deep, Bright Lights, Land Speed Song, Mysteries of the Unexplained, Lantern, Acrobat, Breath Around You, Bum, Clipped, Goat Girl, Manna, Swoon

 JAD 7009 CD
His Name Is Alive — Nice Day

Nice Day, Drive Around the Clock, Crashed Up on the Corner, Soul Resides in the Horse Barn, Whale You Ease My Mind, Oh Sinner Man

 AD7010
Pixies — Debaser

Debaser (demo), Number Thirteen Baby (demo)

 BAD CD7010
Pixies — Debaser

Debaser (remix), Bone Machine (VPRO), Gigantic (VPRO), Isla de Encanta (VPRO)

 BAD D CD7010
Pixies — Debaser

Debaser (live), Cactus (live), Nimrod’s Son (live), Holiday Song (live)

 DAD 7011 CD
Pixies — Death To The Pixies

Cecilia Ann, Planet of Sound, Tame, Here Comes your Man, Debaser, Dig for Fire, Wave of Mutilation, Caribou, The Holiday Song, Nimrod’s Son, U-Mass, Bone Machine, Gigantic (ep), Where is my Mind?, Velouria, Gouge Away, Monkey Gone to Heaven

 BAD CD7012
Tanya Donelly — The Bright Light

The Bright Light, Bury My Heart, How Can You Sleep

 BAD D CD7012
Tanya Donelly — The Bright Light

The Bright Light, Life on Sirius, Moon Over Boston

This post is part of the chronological look at all 4AD releases, year by year.

*) Missing from Spotify.

AWOB18: Hellraiser: Judgment


Hellraiser: Judgment. Gary J. Tunnicliffe. 2018. ☆★★★★

This is another Hellraiser sequel made for pure reasons:

Several years later, Dimension Films was required to make another Hellraiser film to retain their rights to the series, giving Tunnicliffe a chance to propose his vision to the studio.

Well… it’s… inventive… I guess the idea is to be as gross as possible?

It’s the worst movie in the franchise: No competition. I think the idea is to bore people to death with one tedious scene of people talking at each other about atrocities after another. And then break up these scenes by showing us random gross stuff.

And the endless police procedural stuff! Way to fill some screen time.

But… it’s… inventive… And the writer/director insists that the script was always meant to be a Hellraiser movie, but that’s, frankly, un-believable.

Well, since this is the last post in this blog series, I might as well take a stab at summing up the Hellraiser experience here.

Uhm…

First of all, I’m thankful that none of the movies (I think) lasted more than 90 minutes. And several of them are about 75 minutes long, which makes these movies rather brisk.

I had expected these movies to be really, really bad, and they aren’t. Perhaps sub-basement expectations helped me here: Anything better than total wretchedness is a plus.

It’s weird that movies 5-8 were based on non-Hellraiser scripts: Like, why? It’s not like scripts are expensive in the scheme of things. Movie execs have their reasons, I suspect…

And finally: Clive Barker created a vision that’s more interesting than most horror setups. The whole Cenobite thing is just inherently more interesting than, say, a serial killer like Jason. The Lament Configuration (i.e., puzzle box) is just such a striking and scary image. It, and Pinhead And His Merry Band, are concepts that have legs.

So it’s weird that the rights holders have handled it this way: Trickling out these nickle-and-dime movies instead of trying for mainstream blockbuster success (a la Halloween). But perhaps they think that the Barker thing is just too niche?

Might be correct.

This post is part of the A Weekend of Blood blog series.