Welcome back to Five Cool Things, where I discuss the interesting things that have crossed my path over the last couple of weeks. Are you like me? Did the last two weeks feel like one long, horrible thing after another stretched out into an entire year? I don’t tend to discuss politics in public and this series is all about recognizing the cool things in life, about bringing a little joy into the world so I’ll say no more except that we must somehow keep the faith, my friends. Find what hope you can, wherever you can find it.
Lost Highway
With the loss of David Lynch, I knew I wanted to watch one of his films. (We had been watching Twin Peaks before he died, but I wanted to watch one of his films—I’ll talk about Twin Peaks soon.) I knew that I’d previously watched Lost Highway but I had no memory of what it was about. After rewatching it, I can see why I couldn’t remember what it was about. I still couldn’t tell you with a gun pointed at my head. Like so many of Lynch’s films, the plot is confounding, its many depths and layers completely hidden from me without a helpful guide.
Buy Lost Highway (The Criterion Collection) Blu-rayFred Madison (Bill Pullman) and his wife Renee (Patricia Arquette) begin finding strange VHS tapes on their doorstep. At first, the tapes just contain footage of the outside of their house. Then it shows them in their bed sleeping. Finally, they find a tape that shows a terrible act of violence. Fred is arrested and put in jail. The next morning it is not Fred in the cell but a younger man named Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty). Baffled, the police have no choice but to let Pete out since he’s been convicted of no crime.
At his work at an auto shop, Pete meets Alice, who looks exactly like Renee (and is also played by Arquette). She’s the girlfriend of a violent gangster (Robert Loggia). There is also a creepy mystery man (who is actually called “The Mystery Man” in the credits and is played by Robert Blake). It gets weirder from there.
You can find explanations for everything on the internet (many of the sleuths will call you “stupid” for not understanding the plot because it is “obvious”). I must be stupid because I understood none of it. But I loved the journey it took me on anyway. That’s one of the many things I love about Lynch’s films. They are always up for interpretation.
The Long Shadow
This British series follows the five-year manhunt for the Yorkshire Ripper who attacked at least 20 women in Northern England from 1975 to 1980, killing 13 of them by smashing their skulls in with a hammer and then slashing their torso with a knife. What’s interesting about the series is that it never follows the actual killer around. We never see him or his crimes (until he is caught). There are no grizzly photos of the dead girls.
It does follow the police investigation but its focus is on the women – the policewomen who helped catch him, the women who survived his attacks, and the people who loved the murdered women. It demonstrates in big and small ways how casual sexism, rampant misogyny, and a complete disregard for sex workers (the majority of the victims were prostitutes) allowed the Ripper to get away with it for so long.
It doesn’t shy away from how the police regularly screwed up the investigation either. All too often they concentrated on one possible clue while disregarding so many others. I’m making it sound like a wholly political affair and it isn’t. This is s top-notch crime drama with terrific production designs and wonderful acting from folks like Toby Jones and David Morrissey,
Arcane
Loosely based on the League of Legends video game Arcane, this Netflix series follows the lives of several characters of two neighboring cities. Piltover is beautiful and flourishing while Zuan, which literally sits underneath Piltover, suffers and languishes in darkness and poverty. The focus is on two sisters, Vi and Jinx, both orphans and citizens of Zuan. Within the first few episodes, a tragedy separates them with Vi becoming friends with a Piltover soldier while Jinx is taken under the wing of an underworld kingpin. They will become enmeshed in a political battle over the soul of these two cities.
Buy Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf: A League of Legends: Arcane NovelThe first season is by far the best with a more focused narrative. The second season is more ambitious bringing in several new characters and expanding the use of magic. But it quickly gets confusing and muddled. The animation is top-notch (though I could have used a little less of the video game style fighting) and the voice acting (which includes Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell) is quite good. I enjoyed the series quite a bit but my daughter is obsessed.
Marty
Ernest Borgnine won the Oscar for his portrayal of a middle-aged, perpetual bachelor who has grown tired of the dating scene and would really just like to be left alone. But everyone – his friends, his mother, the guys at the local diner – constantly pressures him to settle down, get married, and start a family. One night, he’s forced by his best friend to go out dancing where he accidentally meets Clara (Betsy Blair) who is plain looking but sweet-natured. They hit it off forming a fast and deep connection, but Marty worries she is too unattractive and his friends and mother might disapprove.
Buy Marty Blu-rayThe film is as unassuming as Marty is. It is a simple, low-stakes story, but told so sweetly. Borgnine deserves all the awards he won, and Blair is just as good. It is a story that surprises you with how uncomplicated it is, and yet deeply moving.
Bob Mortimer on Would I Lie To You?
My wife and I are huge fans of British mysteries. We love Poirot and Sherlock, Prime Suspect and Johnathan Creek. We subscribe to Britbox and Acorn and often ensconce ourselves in murders across the pond. While we have loved British mysteries for as long as we’ve been married, we’ve only recently dived into British comedy. Of course, some mysteries have comedic elements and there was always Monty Python, but mostly we stuck to murders and mysteries.
Over the last year or two, we’ve come to love what the Brits call “panel shows”. These are essentially game shows but with comedians playing instead of contestants. The closest thing we have to that in America is Whose Line Is It Anyways?, which of course was originally a British show.
One of my favorite panel shows is Would I Lie to You. In it, there are two teams of three people. One person reads a statement off of a card. It may be a true fact from the reader’s life, or it may be something completely made up. The other team is allowed to ask questions to determine whether or not the statement is true or a lie. The catch is that the person reading the card has no idea what it says on the card. If it is true, then they must try to make it sound like a lie so the opposing team will guess wrong, or if the statement is a lie, then they must make up answers to the questions that sound plausible.
That sounds kind of dumb, but I assure you it is all kinds of hilarious. The teams change each week, but the team leaders – Lee Mack and David Mitchell – remain the same. Mack is a great improviser and his quick wit allows him to come up with answers to the questions almost immediately. Mitchell is a bit uptight and fussy which makes him great at sussing out the lies.
By far, my favorite guest on the show is Bob Mortimer. The thing about Bob is that he’s had such an unusual life and he’s got such a strange way of telling a story that David Mitchell (and it is always Mitchell’s team that opposes Mortimer) can’t suss out what is a lie and what is the truth. Watching them spar is nothing short of comedy gold. Seriously, I’ve watched these clips half a dozen times and I always find myself gasping for breath, with tears running down my cheeks I’m laughing so hard.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
I have to admit that I’ve stepped off the Marvel Cinematic Universe train. I’m a couple of TV series and at least a few movies behind. I can’t say that this trailer has got me all that excited to jump back on board. But I do love the idea of the Fantastic Four. They were some of the first superheroes I ever learned about as a kid. So I’m holding out hope this will be good.
