Hello and welcome to another edition of Five Cool Things, where I talk about all the fun, interesting, and yes, cool things I’ve discovered since the last time. This time I’m talking about a fun mystery comic, a very French neonoir, a very weird Willem Dafoe drama, Tatiana Maslany’s new TV show, Godzilla, and the late, great Sam Neill. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Hobtown Mystery Stories Volume 1: The Case of the Missing Men
Last week, we went to Kentucky to visit my wife’s family. They are good people, and I always have a nice time, but it is boring. They live in a tiny town, and there is nothing to do. The closest thing is a slightly larger small town about 20 minutes down the road. It has some shopping, a movie theater, and a lovely little indie bookstore. We’ve gotten to where we always stop in there whenever we visit the family. They have a surprisingly good selection of books and a nice little collection of manga and comics. I bought a few of the Akira manga last time.
Buy Hobtown Mystery Stories Vol. 1: The Case of the Missing MenThis time I chose the first Hobtown Mystery. I’d never heard of these books before, but a quick perusal through their pages and I was hooked. I read almost all of it sitting just outside the bookstore in a swell little chair while my wife did some more shopping. It is set in a small town where nothing seems to ever happen. A group of high-school students has formed a Teen Detective Club, which is officially registered as an after-school program. They investigate silly things like missing cats and burned-down sheds because, again, nothing really happens in this town.
Except when it does. Like the town in Blue Velvet, the kids find that if you dig just below the surface, you’ll find all sorts of strange, mysterious, horrible things. A new kid comes down with a real mystery – his dad has gone missing. Soon enough, they realize other men have gone missing. They’ll discover secret tunnels under the town, occult rituals, and even murder. That David Lynch reference is apt, as this story is like a cross between the Hardy Boys and a David Lynch movie. Things get weird. And creepy. And wonderful. I can’t wait to read the next one.
Deadly Circuit
An extraordinarily French neo noir. A private detective known as “The Eye” (Michel Serrault) is hired to locate the son of a rich couple and the girl he ran away with. He finds them both, then watches as the girl, Catherine (Isabelle Adjani), kills the boy. He doesn’t call the police but continues to follow her. He watches her as she regularly seduces rich men and then murders them. He starts to believe that Catherine is his long-lost daughter. So instead of turning her in, he begins to help her cover up her crimes without her knowing.
Buy Deadly CircuitMost of the film is this weird sort of cat-and-mouse game where she keeps killing dudes, and he keeps following her around, mumbling to himself as if he were her father. The film follows things from his perspective, so we mostly see her from a distance. Adjani is still mesmerizing. Catherine isn’t necessarily evil, but broken. She is a desperate, lonely, lost soul. He follows her around like a wounded puppy dog looking for a master.
The film takes its time explaining what actually happened to his daughter. He tells us that his wife took her when they divorced. He hasn’t seen her in years. He has one photograph of her as a young schoolgirl posing in her uniform with her classmates. He isn’t even sure which girl is his. He doesn’t necessarily believe Catherine is his daughter, but as he’s gotten older, he feels that loss deeply, and he’s looking for something to ease his pain.
It is a weird movie, and it doesn’t always work, but I love that it’s doing something so different with the genre, and it is doing it in such a decidedly French way.
The Souffleur
Speaking of weird movies. Willem Dafoe stars in this drama that’s like Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel if the hotel was less exotic, the characters weren’t quirky, and hardly anything at all happens. Defoe plays Lucious, the manager of a grand old hotel in Venice. He’s worked there for 30 years and loves it dearly. He’s just learned the owners plan to sell it to an Argentinian developer who plans to tear it down and build a new, shiny hotel in its place. Lucious is angry and sad at this news, but there is nothing he can do about it. Well, almost nothing; in the film’s most humorous scene, he states his case in front of the city’s building board with ridiculous results.
The film is more of a mood piece than anything. There are multiple scenes in which we watch some sort of pastry bake in the oven. Another one shows us water freezing into ice. We’ll watch nature and cityscapes and characters talk about mundane things, or playing tennis. I’d call it “boring,” except I was spellbound by it. Dafoe is one of my favorite actors, and he’s brilliant here. And heartbreaking.
Someone on Letterboxd called this the most film festival film to ever exist, and that’s about right. This is a film made for the arthouse crowd, and even some of them will be annoyed by it. But if you can get on its wavelength, there is plenty to enjoy.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
Paula (Tatiana Maslany) is a middle-aged mother who’s going through a messy divorce. She has a demanding job as a fact-checker for a magazine, and she’s a wonderful mom to her precocious daughter. But between the demands of her work, her daughter, and dealing with her ex-husband and his new wife, she has precious little time for herself or companionship. She’s lonely. So she starts private chatting with a camboy. But it isn’t just for sex; she talks to him. She opens up about her struggles, and he seems to care.
But then one evening during a chat, he is attacked. Someone in a mask beats the crap out of him. Paula takes some video of it and goes to the police. They say it is most likely a scam. The attack was fake, and now the camboy will contact her, say that he’s in some kind of trouble, and beg her to send him lots of money to help out. That’s exactly what happens, and Paula doesn’t fall for it.
Then the boy gets murdered. With the help of her two coworkers, she tries to figure out what happened to him and uncovers a big, messy conspiracy. Paula constantly makes terrible decisions, and the show pretty regularly flirts with going off the rails, but Maslany is terrific and helps keep it all together. The finale sets up a Season Two, and I fully expect it to go all Orphan Black on us with bigger and dumber conspiracies, but for now I found it to be an utterly entertaining season of television.
Destroy All Monsters
Originally planned as the final Godzilla film, this kaiju brings in all the monsters for a big, boisterous showdown that’s all kinds of silly and stupid but also a lot of fun to watch. Godzilla and all your favorite monsters have been placed on an island (called “Monster Island,” obviously) where they have all the food and fun they can handle, but they also cannot leave. Until, suddenly, they do. The monsters escape the island and begin attacking Earth’s major cities.
Buy Destroy All MonstersTurns out some aliens known as Kilaaks have found a way to mind-control the humans on Monster Island who were keeping the monsters in, and can manipulate the monsters into destroying the world. The Kilaaks tell the humans they must surrender or be destroyed by the monsters. Shenanigans ensue, and it all ends in a monster battle free-for-all.
Once again directed by Ishiro Honda, the story is utter nonsense, but the effects are terrific, and who doesn’t like watching a bunch of dudes in rubber suits destroy miniature cities and wrestle each other to the ground?
In the Mouth of Madness
The great Sam Neill died earlier this week, and I wanted to pay tribute to him. What better way to do that than to watch his wonderfully unhinged performance in this John Carpenter film?
Buy In the Mouth of MadnessHe plays John Trent, a very good insurance investigator sent to find Sutter Cane, a horror writer (a mix between Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft) who has disappeared just before his latest novel is set to be released. He’s hired by the book’s publisher, who insists that Linda Styles (Julie Carmen) tags along. By taking a bunch of Cane’s book covers and putting them all together, Trent thinks he’s found the location of Hobb’s End, the fictional town Cane’s books are set.
They drive around all night and nearly go crazy in the process, but in the morning they find it. It is a strange place. Idyllic in some ways but populated by weird characters. It is also exactly as Cane wrote it. They find him hiding in a strange church. He believes the town is magic, hiding some ancient evil. It is this that has guided his writing all along. The townspeople get creepier and creepier the longer they stay. It isn’t a spoiler to say that Trent is driven insane by the town, as the film begins with him being put inside an asylum.
This is not Carpenter’s best film by a long way (neither is it his worst). But he makes great use of some wonderfully Lovecraftian special effects, and Neill is having an absolute blast. The scenes of him in the asylum are some of his most thrilling work ever.
Digger
Tom Cruise stars in this Alejandro G. Iñárritu-directed black satire about a super-rich, super-powerful dude who tries to save the world after releasing a disaster that will destroy it. I’ve been saying for years that Cruise has been playing it too safe. There was a time when he starred in films like Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut, and Minority Report – films that were interesting and took risks. Then he started playing it safe, making movies designed to be blockbusters. This is Cruise off the leash, and it looks wonderful.
