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Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra get into the documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, streaming on Netflix, which looks back forty years to the recording of “We are the World” and everything behind the scenes to which Eighties audiences were not privy — such as Paul Simon scoping the room full of stars and dead-panning a line to the camera that one will not repeat, as it’s so murderously funny. Yes, Dave, it was a mistake to get rid of your Netflix account.
On to other matters:
- Argylle, directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, and Samuel L Jackson, has received mostly dismal reviews, and Schulz agrees with their conclusions of cruminess. Schulz isn’t a fan of Vaughn and his Kingsman series, calling them “obnoxious, hyperactive, and dumb” — bad news for any moviegoer who appreciates those very qualities. Those who can withstand, if not actively crave, a certain degree of kineticism, however, are in for a let-down, as Argylle is sluggish compared to the Kingsman movies, with two otherwise hyper-charged (and bonkers) set-pieces arriving some two hours into the film. Other than that, the whole affair is an unfortunate waste of time and talent, with plenty of plot-twists to leave a viewer less invested in the narrative than they were before the last revelation, and a cat whose very existence on-screen is a glaring distraction. (Is it CGI? Is it a real cat? Is it real until it becomes CGI?) Considering that Vaughn had big plans for this film, with two sequels in the works, the fact that the first installment has so far made $40.4 million against its $250 million budget suggests that “in the works” is where those follow-ups may remain. By year’s end, the only sound Vaughn will be heard making will be “AAAAAARG!-ylle.”
- The Zone of Interest, written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, and starring Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Ralph Herforth, Daniel Holzberg, Sascha Maaz, Freya Kreutzkam, and Imogen Kogge. The film is a domestic drama whose background happens to be the Auschwitz concentration camp, and whose foreground protagonist is Rudolf Höss (Friedel), whose responsibilities as camp commandant interfere with his roles as an emotionally-present father and husband. Sounds like Schulz will see it again, as he thought initially that Glazer had run the concept into the ground in the first fifteen minutes, leaving him another hour and forty-five minutes to go. Upon sharing notes of his viewing with his sister, who was of the same mind about Zone, they both realized there were scenes that had made a profound impression upon them — moments of horror that implicate the viewer along with the protagonists who behave as if the extermination of whole populations means they might have to work an extra weekend. “I think it’s genius, even though I didn’t care for it the first time” has to be praise for the ages; so, too, is, “I don’t know exactly what I’ve seen, but I’ve got to see it again.”
- Scrambled, directed by and starring Leah McKendrick, also features Ego Nwodim, Andrew Santino, Adam Rodriguez, Laura Cerón, and Clancy Brown. Schulz went into the film not knowing who Leah McKendrick was or what was her deal and walked out in love with her and considerably better-versed in the whole process of egg-extraction for the purposes of in vitro fertilization. The film manages to be hilarious and sober about the whole process, and McKendrick turns in an indelible serio-comic performance. “I wish more people knew about [the film]” is Schulz’s conclusion. Can’t wait to see it.
As for other films one might be impatient to see:
- Lisa Frankenstein, written by Diablo Cody, directed by Zelda Williams, and starring Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino. Deemed “a coming-of-rage story,” it sounds like a more American take on Poor Things, which, naturally, was based on Frankenstein
- The American release of Out of Darkneess. Released in the UK in October 2022 as The Origin, the film, described by director Andrew Cumming as “a paleolithic horror film” (the protagonists are what was used to known as “cavemen”; see 1966’s One Million Years BC), stars Safia Oakley-Green, Chuku Modu, Kit Young, Iola Evans, Luna Mwezi, and Arno Luening and concerns how stone-agers deal with a mysterious, possibly unearthly antagonist.
“The Zone of Interest,” “Argylle,” “Scrambled,” and “The Greatest Night in Pop”