Possession Is Nine Tenths of... Something -- Friday Video Distractions with Mike Norton

 

It's been a week of many distractions for the nation and for me. I've tried to lose myself in entertainments, but it's been more therapeutic to turn myself to other tasks.
   Still, here are a couple things I enjoyed/started to enjoy just this past weekend. It's funny that it's only as I think about it now that I realize they both were comedies concerning the paranormal, as the heroes race to foil evil plans linked to an astrologically-linked ritual.

  Extra Ordinary (2019; 94 min.; rated R for language, sexual content and some horror violence) This Irish horror comedy opened in the U.K. back in 2019, landing in U.S. theaters in early March 2020, just before the world fell apart. One can take it simply as a supernatural comedy, or lean on the notes of a possible romance between two, earnest, very human people who happen to have neglected gifts.

     Maeve Higgins and Barry Ward are Rose Dooley and Martin Martin, two people who've put their lives and special talents on the shelf for years following personal losses. Wil Forte plays one-hit wonder musician Christian Winter, who is trying to use dark magic and an unwilling blood sacrifice to re-ignite his career.

     This was something I just stumbled across on The Movie Channel, and ended up enjoying. While not Irish, I was raised and schooled Roman Catholic and so have come up through life greatly repressed, too, so notes from Rose and Martin resonated with me. No mental heavy-lifting required, it's best to just go with the flow on this one.
     I wish they had a better trailer, as the punch-ups of text fragments from reviews feels a little too much like

trying to convince people something's funny by adding a laugh track. It's a funny film, and a sweet one, too, but not bust a gut funny. I'm guessing they were worried that Wil Forte might be the only name in the cast to catch the eye of potential viewers outside the U.K. Higgins and Ward are generally much more entertaining to spend time with.
  I think my one, quick, laugh-out-loud moment in the film was the very last scene -- the very last burst of dialogue, btw.

  Landing on Amazon Prime a week ago (October 30th) was Truth Seekers. This is the first "television" project to come from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost since they started putting out their own projects. It's a series of 8, roughly half-hour episodes, each of them written by Pegg, Frost, James Serafinowicz (brother of the much more often-seen Peter) and Nat Saunders, and directed by Jim Field Smith. The cast also includes Malcolm McDowell.

     I'm still very early in the series (as mentioned up top, I've been too unsettled to do my usual bingeing this week) but am enjoying it. It's a low-key run of humor. It's also interesting to have so much of it centered on a Nick Frost character - at least so far - as Simon Pegg's role as the head of the internet provider company is more at the level of supporting character. In their other collaborations, while Nick Frost's character would get more attention as the story progressed, each of those wheels tended to revolve around the hub of Pegg's character.      

     Frost plays Gus Roberts, the star broadband installer for SMYLE Internet, a widower who also produces a paranormal investigations show for YouTube. Samson Kayo plays the unfortunately named Elton John, a trainee assigned to Gus. Gus is initially resistant to the idea, but as he finds out that Elton has a reluctant knack for the paranormal he warms to the idea of working with him.  Malcolm McDowell plays Richard, Gus' cantankerous, live-in father-in-law.
   In keeping with these leftover "spooky season" hauntings, Netflix just posted the first season of a new Egyptian show: Paranormal.

   Based on a series of books by Egyptian novelist Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, they center on a doctor (hematologist) with deep scientific convictions who finds his worldview brought into question as he encounters seemingly paranormal events. That - and what was in the trailer - is as much as I know about the project so far. I know it's part of a global content strategy Netflix has been investing in. Reportedly we're going to be seeing much more of this sort of thing (shows and movies from other parts of the world) as they roll into 2021.
     Note: I'd initially thought, based on the trailer, that this had been kept in its original language, and only subtitled for English, but as I've begun watching it I immediately saw that it's been dubbed int English. I want to mention that, because I know some viewers have strong feelings on that one way or another.
     For me, what I'll likely be sensitive to will be whether or not the lead character's stance on the paranormal feels contrived.
     Related to this, while recently revisiting the still fondly-regarded demonic possession film Fallen (1998), it struck me that it was probably the first time I'd watched it in at least fifteen years, maybe closer to twenty. Since that time, I'd caught a Fresh Air (NPR) interview with that film's lead, Denzel Washington, where the subject of his religious faith and fervent belief in a true power invested in Biblical passages came up.

     It was a moment where Washington leaned in in a way I found uncomfortable as I listened, when it seemed he was almost insisting that interviewer Terry Gross agree with him that there was genuine spiritual power in the words of the Bible. It was the key item that stuck with me from that interview, and it had the unfortunate effect of damaging my view of Fallen during this rewatch.
     See, in the film he plays a very moral, ethical and fact-driven police detective who is confronted with the initially absurd-to-him notion that demoniac presences mentioned in the Bible are real. Knowing some of the actor's beliefs and perspectives helped reduce his character in the film to a propaganda mask. The film's still fun and solid, including a great turn by John Goodman as his stalwart partner. Also in the mix in supporting roles are Donald Sutherland, James Gandalfini, and Elias Koteas, who I will likely continue to confuse with Christopher Meloni every time I see him.

 

     Scattered notes on fare that's distinctly different from the above:
         I've been greatly enjoying the HBO miniseries The Undoing. Written by David E. Kelley, directed by Susanne Bier,  starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. Dropping weekly on Sunday nights, we're only two episodes in, but it's been solidly engaging.

     Getting to know these characters, then being forced to revise, then revise again as more information comes to light, has been a big part of the interest -- and, again, that was just the first two episodes. Seeing what appears to be as humanly near to a perfect life unravel with unsavory and dark revelations is part of the dark appeal. Then there are the layers of guilt and culpability, and whether an underlying betrayal becomes more important in one character's eyes than the matter of whether or not a far more serious accusation is true, are becoming issues as we move into the third episode this weekend.

     While I've yet to watch any of it, I still keep seeing recommendations for the 7-part Netflix drama The Queen's Gambit.

     Much as with stories built around a character's dominant abilities at any sport, that aspect is never a draw for me. In this case the central character is a chess prodigy. In any of these things, the sports aspect is something I have to look around, to see the stories of the characters. Competitive sports of any type, active or sedentary, are not only not an attraction for me, they're almost always a barrier, as I don't esteem the endeavor. Fairly obviously this series offers so much more than that, though, and this is fairly high on my current list of "next thing" options.

     I have to laugh a little, too, at seeing once again how the 24/7 connectivity and information flow has so altered how I perceive time. This feels as if it's been here as a neglected viewing option for a long time, when it only debuted two weeks ago, October 23rd.

     Okay, you've suffered enough for one week (we all have!) so I'll wrap this up.
     Take care of yourselves, because it's pretty obvious that a solid half of the U.S. voting population is either indifferent to your existence or even actively hostile to your happiness and well-being. Protect and renew yourselves, and try to watch out for at least one other person who's feeling isolated. - Mike