Hello and welcome to another addition of Five Cool Things the bi-weekly article where I talk about all the fun, interesting, and yes, cool things I’ve enjoyed since the last time.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
I’ve not really paid attention to anything from George R.R. Martin since the Game of Thrones TV series ended. That horrible finale left a terrible taste in my mouth. I would read the final books in the series if he’d ever actually finish writing them, but other than that, I’ve not had much interest in revisiting that world.
Buy A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Complete First SeasonBut then this new series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, started getting a little buzz from critics I respect, and honestly I was bored this weekend, so I punched play on it. Then I watched the next episode and the next, and before I knew it, I had binged the entire first season.
It is a very different series than Game of Thrones ever was, and from what I can tell, House of Dragons is (I actually watched the first episode of it this weekend too, and will probably watch it all, but definitely not in binge form). Where those shows are expansive, this show is small. Where those tell massive stories encompassing enormous amounts of characters scattered across the realm with very big stakes, this one is really just about a couple of people living inconsequential lives (mostly, and what isn’t inconsequential would constitute a spoiler).
It follows Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), a lowborn hedge knight, as he seeks to enter a tournament where he hopes to win a little money, a little glory, and perhaps a job with some lord or another. Along the way, he meets Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), a young, bald boy who asks to become his squire. There is a little more to it than that, but not much. He’ll cross paths with men with familiar last names like Baratheon and Targaryen, but this really is a small story. It isn’t concerned with the Kingdom or who sits upon the Iron Throne. It is all the better for it. It is funny, and thrilling, and weirdly full of piss and shit. I loved it.
Widow’s Bay
When I came back from my long, extended break from writing these posts, I made a promise to myself. I wouldn’t write about a television series until I’d at least watched the entire first season. Before the break, I found myself watching a couple of episodes of something and then writing about it. But once I had written about it, I felt like I had to find something else to write about, and that meant I’d stop watching those shows. Suddenly, there was a massive pile of shows I’d watched a few episodes of and never gotten back to. So that promise was a way of helping me keep watching.
I’m breaking that promise this week. But I’m only two episodes away from finishing the season, and I can most assuredly promise you all that I will be finishing it.
Widow’s Bay is a delightful new Apple TV series that blends horror and comedy together in the best possible ways. Set on a small island off the coast of New England, it mostly follows Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), the newly elected mayor, as he tries to turn the town into a tourist hotspot. But the locals, especially Wyck (Stephen Root), are having none of that. They believe the island to be cursed.
The series references all sorts of horror, like John Carpenter and Stephen King, but unlike Stranger Things, this doesn’t feel like it was made in the 1980s by those horror icons. It is very modern, and it is doing its own thing while still winking at the past.
Most episodes follow Tom as he’s dealing with some weird supernatural disturbance. A couple of episodes in, I was afraid it was just going to be a “Freak of the Week type” series with each episode ending with some sort of natural explanation for the strange occurrences a la The X-Files. But it quickly moves away from that. One episode flashes back to the past, and the most recent one, “Your Baggage” puts Patricia (Kate O’Flynn), Tom’s awkward and strange assistant, in the spotlight, and it is amazing.
Seriously, everybody should be watching this show.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
I read most of Victor Hugo’s immortal classic while sitting in airports. This was back when I was in college. I was an English major, and it was important for me to read as many “classics” as I could. I was also the editor of the tiny newspaper of our tiny little school. As such, I got a free trip to New York City for some journalism conference.
Buy The Hunchback of Notre DameThere were several flights to get there and back, and it seemed like every single one involved a delay or two. It snowed the day we headed back. So much so that LaGuardia was closed. We had to taxi to JFK. Our first flight was cancelled, and we wound up on a waitlist with a hundred other people. It took us like eight hours to get a flight, and even then it was just to Atlanta, not Montgomery, where the school was located.
That was a lot of waiting around, and I read a good chunk of The Hunchback of Notre Dame sitting there. It is a great book, but also a long one. Hugo fills it with a lot of history and architecture and tiny details of the famous cathedral.
Anyway, this isn’t about the novel, but its cinematic adaptation in 1939. It has been far too long since I read the book to know how faithful this film adheres to it, but it is a great movie. Charles Laughton plays Quasimodo, the deformed hunchback who rings the bells at Notre Dame. He’s under a lot of prosthetics and makeup, yet he still manages an incredible performance. It is angry and sad, full of hurt and longing, and yet lustful and powerful. There is a scene late in the movie where he’s on top of the cathedral throwing boulders and hot oil down at his perceived enemies, and there is such joy on his face while doing it you’d think he was born a soldier.
Maureen O’Hara is Esmerelda, the gypsy woman who is kind to Quasimodo and makes him fall in love with her. She’s wonderful as well. So is Thomas Mitchell as Clopin, the king of the beggars.
The sets look amazing, and director William Dieterle with cinematographer Joseph H. August create absolutely beautiful black and white imagery. It is a great movie. It makes me want to go back and reread the book. But maybe in the comfort of my own home this time.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Robert Mitchum stars in this Peter Yates crime drama as Eddie Coyle, a low-level gunrunner who is about to do a long stint in prison. The film follows him over the course of a few days trying to do anything he can to help his wife while he’s inside and possibly make a deal with the DA to keep him out.
Buy The Friends of Eddie CoyleThe film feels very realistic as Eddie isn’t a hero. He’s not exactly a villain either. More like a loser who doesn’t mind selling some guns to bank robbers to earn a few bucks. But also willing to sell them out if it keeps him out of jail. Everybody in this film is out for themselves. The ATF agent he’s trying to sell out to doesn’t really care about Eddie at all. He’ll listen to him; he’ll take his information and pass on the fact that Eddie is informing for him, but he’s not going to try too hard to keep him out of jail.
Mitchum gives a great performance. He was in his fifties when he made this movie, and you can feel the weight of all those years of hard living come out in his performance. He plays Coyle like a guy who knows it isn’t going to end well for him, but he’s still gonna try to make it work for as long as it can.
I Love Boosters
Boots Riley’s second feature film is just as wild and weird as his first, Sorry to Bother You. This one follows a trio of boosters – thieves who steal high-end, designer clothes and sell them on the street for a discount price. They mostly steal from Christie Smith (a wonderfully unhinged Demi Moore), a billionaire designer who works as a stand-in for the Elon Musks of the world. When she calls the boosters out on television, they decide to make things personal.
It is so hard to talk about this movie because it gets so incredibly strange that you wouldn’t believe me if I explained it. But I don’t want to explain it because it is so much fun watching where Riley takes it. The film runs a little too long, and it has a few too many ideas it is throwing at the screen, but for sheer unadulterated weirdness there is nothing like a Boots Riley film.
Whalefall
Speaking of weird, Whalefall is about a scuba diver who is swallowed by a giant sperm whale, leaving him only an hour’s worth of oxygen before he must escape or die. The trailer looks utterly ridiculous and I’m here for it.
