Unnatural Comforts - Friday Video Distractions with Mike Norton

 

      Reminders of mortality have been heavy hereabouts since last time. I stepped into the gateway to summer holiday weekend with news that a friend of well over thirty years had died weeks earlier. Byron had been dependent on dialysis for well over a decade, and had been medically abused several times too many by a barbaric, profit-driven system. Now I'm ending this week with the death of the youngest of the family pets, due to a congenital condition that's eerily similar to my own. So, a paucity of happy thoughts this week to balance sadness, frustration, and largely undirected anger.
     The most direct consequence to the blog post is that I don't have any TCM tips and notes this time.

     As noted in last week's post, HBO's seven-part Mare of Easttown wrapped this past Sunday. It's rife with potentially triggering themes, which I continue to avoid enumerating because that would give some plot elements away, but it's well-written and acted, and I found it worth the time.
 

    The latest simultaneous release to theaters and HBO Max is The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, a title which triggers Flip Wilson memories for those of us of a vaguely certain age.
     While this is the third film under the Conjuring banner, I see this is the eighth film set in the "Conjuring Universe", which is to say based on the supposed case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, self-professed "paranormal researchers" and general bullshit artists. (That's not a comment on the field of paranormal investigation, which deserves some attention, but on the Warrens themselves, who were in it for careers and fame, not any serious attempts at investigation.) Still, tales of spirits and demons, of hauntings and possessions, can be entertaining with or without a campfire.

     The film opens with an effects-laden exorcism, which then sets up the premise for the remainder of the movie. Be aware that it may open with its best material. It only went live as of 3AM Eastern, so even my insomnia's meant I've only seen that opening section.
     Running 1 hr 52 minutes, rated R primarily for violence. As with the other HBO Max 2021 concurrent releases, it'll be available on the streaming service for 31 days.
     On Netflix today is an 8-episode fantasy series set in a timeline where the Earth is swept with a devastating pandemic, and in its wake there's a wave of animal/human hybrid births. Uncertainty as to whether or not these new human variants are a further danger - possibly even the source of the initial pandemic - leads to them being hunted by many, resulting in most going into hiding. The story primarily follows a hybrid deer-boy named Gus, who circumstances lead out of a decade of hiding in large forest.

     It's based on Jeff Lemire's DC/Vertigo comics fantasy series of the same name. It's executive produced by Robert Downey Jr and his wife Susan, and the series narrated by James Brolin.
     Landing on Amazon Prime today is the 8-episode first season of a Brazilian crime drama Dom.

     Set in  two time periods -1999 to 2005, and 1969-1986 -  it follows Victor, a police officer and military intelligence agent who had been committed to the war on drugs - specifically cocaine - who goes to recover and redeem his son, Pedro, who has not only become an addict, but one of the most wanted criminals in Brazil, the titular Pedro Dom.
     Coming to Paramount+ on June 10th (next Thursday) is a new Mark Wahlberg, action fantasy vehicle playing on the idea of reincarnation and recovering memories of past lives. Infinite (106 minutes  PG-13 for violence, language and brief drug use) centers on Evan Michaels (Wahlberg) a schizophrenic who learns that his hallucinations are memories from past lives, and that they can be fully unlocked.

     One piece of information I almost wish I hadn't seen is that this was originally intended to star Chris Evans (until recently, Marvel's Steve Rogers/Captain America), though he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with his Apple+ miniseries Defending Jacob. That's going to make Wahlberg just a little harder to take, as I'll likely keep slipping into imagining a better movie. Still, as ever, your mileage may vary.
     As an action film it should be entertaining, though I'm not clear on what the driving threat will be. It should be good for the scenery, with filming having been done pre-pandemic in the Alps, Cardiff, Guanajuato, London, Nepal, New York City, Scotland and Thailand.
     Scheduled and then rescheduled for theatrical release multiple times during the pandemic, Paramount finally scrapped plans for that back in May, deciding instead to send it directly to their streaming platform. The calculus involved is unclear, weaving between a lack of faith in it as a big screen entry (which no one involved would ever have reason to admit) or simply wanting to sweeten their streaming platform's pot as the competition for subscribers continues.
     Turned out to be just about as baseline simple and action movie trope-packed as one could imagine. There's no coyness in connecting the audience to the core premise, as it's done as a voice-over during the opening car chase and gun fight. It's not mindless, but it's not likely to be difficult to grasp even at its most elaborate. While it's wholly different in mechanics, and lacks the winnowing away to a long victor theme of the Highlander movies, it's trying to appeal to many of the same elements. There's better material to be mined here, especially looking more deeply into how individuals grapple with an endless existence, paused briefly for death and rebirth. If it finds an audience, the reincarnation aspect will make it easy to essentially recast roles, providing one doesn't mind jumping years or more ahead in time... unless one wants it to become a series of adventures for precocious, skill-rich, violent toddlers.

     Something I'm looking forward to is the next step in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is next Wednesday's (June 9th) premiere of Loki on Disney+.

     The trailer re-established the premise set up during Avengers: Endgame, where a Loki from an earlier point in the timeline got hold of a means of escaping, and so setting up divergent timelines. What we thought of as the original Loki died in the previous movie, Avengers: Infinity War... at a later point in the timeline. Trying to follow the folding lines of causality leads to paradoxes, and either correcting or managing such things is the jurisdiction of the Time Variance Authority. While whimsy, almost by definition, can be fun, I'm hoping they've reined it in thoughtfully. We'll see.
     Note: This still has the original Friday, June 11th date. They changed that a month or so back, most likely with the expected lifting of pandemic restrictions meaning a return to big screen premieres, not debuting new streaming material on Fridays means they're not directly competing with themselves. The Mouse hasn't taken over three fifths of the world by being a big dummy.
     That's all I have the time and energy for this week. I've much else to do, and likely much less time in which to do it than I think.  Take care, and I'll hope to see you back here next Friday. -- Mike