NFLX2019 December 26th: The App

The App. Elisa Fuksas. 2019. ☆☆☆★★★

Hey! It’s Italian! I think this is the first Italian Netflix Original I’ve seen in this blog series?

Perhaps it’ll be wonderful!

Hm… that’s a lot of mobile phone screen caps… In portrait mode…

Well, that’s harsh…

But what does he really mean?

Well, I can see why people hate the movie. It’s (partially) about every filmmaker’s favourite subject: Making movies. People hate watching movies about making movies. But so far (I’m just fifteen minutes in when pausing to type this), it looks pretty good to me. It’s got that empty hotel feeling going, and the actors seem genuinely fantastic, and I’m intrigued by the seemingly-nonsensical “experiment” (which I assume must result in a reveal at some point).

The shots of people typing on laptops is a harsh indictment of Apple screens, though:

Look at how much reflection there is on Apple laptops! It’s a disgrace!

What I’m trying to say is that the movie loses tension and cohesion as it goes on. It’s a bit frustrating: They’ve almost god a pretty good movie here, but it’s just slightly off. I mean, I’m totally there for the mysterious plot and the great sets and pretty perfect cinematography, but it somehow seems clunky. I’m not sure why. Perhaps the nondescript music “bed” under most of the scenes punctuates the tension?

Good use of that er Neil Halsted? Mojave 3? Or whatever the band was called at the time? music, though.

This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.

The Best Albums of 2019

Here’s the best music of 2019, according to Emacs, which has carefully tallied what I’ve been listening to:

Sam Amidon

I See The Sign

Meat Beat Manifesto

Opaque Couche

Coil

Swanyard

Various

Third Noise Principle (Formative North American Electronica 1975-1984)

Brigid Mae Power

The Bones You Keep Close

Lucy Roleff

Left Open in a Room

The Volume Settings Folder

Laguna

Various

Nigeria 70 (No Wahala: Highlife, Afro-Funk & Juju 1973-1987)

Afrodeutsche

Break Before Make

Christoph de Babalon

Hectic Shakes

Kronos Quartet

Terry Riley: Sun Rings

It’s a bit difficult to do a play-based ranking this year, because I’ve just bought way too much stuff, so there just hasn’t been time to listen to everything…

There wasn’t really any single stand-out new album this year (except the Amidon album), just a bunch of new music that’s good and interesting and stuff.

Here’s the best old albums I’ve bought in 2019, and once again Bright Phoebus by Lal and Mike Waterson won, because I bought a new version of it: This time the vinyl version that had to be withdrawn because the copyright holders demanded it be destroyed. But I got a copy from ebay! Hah!

Haxors’r’us.

Lal & Mike Waterson

Bright Phoebus

Sam Amidon

All Is Well

Various

Oscarsongs

Blue Iverson

Hotep

Joe Jackson

Live 1980-86

Mia Doi Todd

Pink Sun EP

New Order

Movement: Remaster

Various

For Discos Only

A Certain Ratio

acr:box

Don Cherry

Brown Rice

NFLX2019 December 24th: Como Caído del Cielo

Como Caído del Cielo. José Pepe Bojórquez. 2019. ☆☆★★★★

A Mexican movie? I think this is the first one I’ve seen in this blog series?

So the plot is that a dead guy’s er spirit gets to take over a dying guy’s body. Hilarity should ensue, but doesn’t really. Instead they go right to the new guy trying to fuck the dead guy’s wife (without her knowing, of course), and it all starts seeming kinda rapey and creepy.

But then… it kinda swerves around that point and becomes kinda sweet. It’s wildly uneven, though.

The performances are fine, and it’s well-made, but it just kinda… just keeps rolling along without finding purchase.

OK, it’s pretty bad.

This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.

NFLX2019 December 20th: The Two Popes

The Two Popes. Fernando Meirelles. 2019. ☆☆☆★★★

Oh, fuck. This is that Catholic propaganda movie?

Gah.

OK, perhaps it’s watcheable anyway? I mean, the Riefenstahl movie was pretty good. This is also one of the few Netflix movies that has gotten some attention in the media, so it’s a movie Netflix has pushed hard, I guess.

While typing this, I’m five minutes in, and it seems like it’s made in a typical mockumentary fashion…

I’m shocked that the movie isn’t in English. Perhaps that’ll change once they get past the preliminaries?

OK, this is pretty funny. I was totally prejudiced to loathe this movie somehow, but the first fifteen minutes, at least, is pretty fresh.

Oh right, this isn’t The New Pope:

Ooops.

Like I guessed, when we get past the fun opening, and we get to the scenes where the two popes talk to each other, they switch to English… and things become tedious as fuck.

I think you’d have to be religious to enjoy this dreck.

I’ve seen reviews gush about how marvellous the actors are. Hopkins is sleepwalking through it all, while Pryce is doing a Fantasy Wonderful Pope thing (very well). It’s Catholic fan fiction.

I don’t want to spoil the plot, but *shock* it turns out that Ratzinger was kinda a dweeb, but the new pope, Bergoglio, is totally cool.

No! Really! You don’t say!

But he’s a good director. He even manages to make Bergoglio’s behaviour during the Junta seem like personal travails and not cowardice. It’s a magnificent feat, and I guess that for many people that’s what makes this movie something other than two boring people talking to each other about boring stuff.

But that’s what it is. It’s ten minutes of extremely talented emotional audience manipulation, and nine hours of boredom.

Pryce is great, though.

This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.