From the Couch Hole: And All My Words Would Just Fall Out of Line

Previously on FTCH, Wolverine and Deadpool were the children of dune and together in electric dreams. It was the night of the Sentinels in 2008 when the Star Wars Oreos dropped from the sky. This week was a return to the full week grind and the heat of mid-July. I’m mentally on to Comic Con prep and working my schedule with those days off as my goal. This week we found the kinds of kindness that come straight from the heart in a quiet place. Logan met the Bear and was thunderstruck by Meltamors. Remember, FTCH is recorded in front of a live studio audience.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Kinds of Kindness (2024) (Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos): “Open your eyes, and look clearly at what’s going on around you. We might all be in danger.” – Daniel. It might be three hours of your day, but you leave thinking, “I paid for one film, but I got three.” This Yorgos is closer to the one I remember from Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). I’ve spent a couple of days trying to pull together a single theme that ties the three together. I can link A to B, A to C, or B to C, but Yorgos has rather deliberately undercut the ability to put your arms around the three stories all with the same group of actors playing different characters in each piece. Do three stories that don’t have an overall theme constitute a film? I could argue that point from either the positive or the negative. The first and the third stories are the strongest, and their takes on identity, fate, and self determination are the best arguments for an overall theme. The second story is my least favorite and it muddies my thinking about the film. It’s a good film for sitting around with a whiskey afterwards and talking themes. This won’t have a huge following, but when awards come around Jesse Plemons might deserve three nominations for his characters.

Buy Poor Things Blu-ray

• The Bear – “Children” (2024) (S.3 E.5) (HULU): “You can’t put me in a box.” – Neil Fak. Coming off two great episodes of “Doors” and “Violet”, this episode starts off in a church and remains quiet. It’s a little off-putting. Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) talking on the stoop is one of the more tender moments that you will get in this show. It also proves why Marcus is the nicest guy on television. Neil and Ted Fak bring the humor to the show, Marcus and Sydney bring peace, and the rest of the cast brings chaos. The show keeps getting back to mothers. Marcus and Sydney are part of the Dead Mothers Club. The episode began with Natalie in a church to the strains of “Dream, Little One, Dream” from The Night of the Hunter (1955) (a movie with a murdered mother), continues with Van Morrison’s “Purple Heather” after Carmy and Richie find out about the closing of Ever (Chef Andrea Terry being a mother figure to them and having a funeral at the restaurant), and the episode ends on “Mixed Emotions” by the Rolling Stones as Carmy pulls out a picture of him with his mother. The episode will be criticized for the John Cena appearance which is definitely out of tone with the rest of the series casting, but it’s a welcome quiet moment until Richie and Carmy start battling again.

Buy Bryan Adams Anthology CD

• Bryan Adams – “Straight from the Heart” (1983) (from Cuts Like a Knife): “I could start dreamin’ but it never ends / As long as your are gone we might as well pretend / I’ve been dreamin'” Bryan Adams was on his third album, and it didn’t look like stardom was in the cards for him. This single changed that path, and when it was followed with “Cuts Like a Knife” as an MTV staple, his future was guaranteed. The pleasant piano sound along with a raspy voice singing about love, set the tone for the mid-’80s mainstream songs from REO Speedwagon, Styx, and their ilk. I wasn’t a huge fan of this tune in 1983, but it’s funny how time taps away in your brain. This is a guaranteed sing-a-long at every play these days.

• Logan (2017) (Directed by James Mangold): “Nature made me a freak. Man made me a weapon. And God made it last too long.” – Logan. Director Mangold manages to do something that has eluded almost every superhero film director (except maybe Christopher Nolan). He creates a noir deconstruction of the genre that only exists in the best comic book stories. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Logan chose life from death. In the future of 2029, Logan chooses death from life. John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Gary Cooper, Al Pacino, and more have managed to have final acts. This film partially succeeds because it isn’t fixated on setting up characters and stories for the future. This is a film with an actual ending. This has all the trappings of a western as the old gunslinger (Hugh Jackman) teams up with an even older mentor (Patrick Stewart) and a young, more accomplished gunslinger (Dafne Keen). The action is more condensed and organic than the usual films. It takes time to breathe and examine what being a super-powered mutant really means in life. This is a game-changer in how it expanded the genre, and it lays the groundwork of how you can bring a story to a conclusion.

• A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) (Directed by Michael Sarnoski): “It’s good to have been back.” – Samira. It could have been called Fear of the Quiet Place. When The Walking Dead needed a sequel, they just started over but didn’t add any more explanation to the genesis of the Walkers. After Part II, this franchise had little room for moving forward and so it moved backwards. It’s unfair to call it a prequel because a prequel suggests giving the viewer more information about what led to the events in the first two films. I don’t feel any more informed about the aliens, their reasons for coming to Earth, and their plans for returning to their planet than I did in previous films. Being quiet served a point in the first films as a metaphor for the family’s inability to communicate with each other, including a deaf daughter who also thinks of herself as “alien” to the family. Director Sarnoski did a great job with Pig (2021), but he had Nicolas Cage to carry the film too. Here, he’s counting on a cat. It’s a long journey for the franchise to reach the end, and while a decent way to spend a hot afternoon, hopefully someone realizes that this is how it ends.

Best of the Rest

• This was no “Total Eclipse of the Heart” for Bonnie Tyler even though it was the flip side to that single. Both Bonnie and Bryan have that raspy voice that is effective for this song. I just can’t take it seriously here with the wall-of-sound instrumentation. That guitar goes straight to my nerves. Love you, Bonnie, but this wasn’t good. Released the same summer as Bryan Adam’s version, he can chalk up the victory on this one.

• When big sporting events come around, I usually count on Nike to come through with the iconic ads. Adidas dropped a pretty beefy effort for the UEFA European Championship. Why the need to auto tune or whatever has been done to Paul McCartney’s voice, I don’t understand. I will ignore that for the wonderful combination of footage and song to create an emotional reaction at the end of the two minutes. Bravo, Adidas.

• This is that time of year where I’ve burned through most of the films that I “knew” were coming out in 2024 at the end of 2023 (there are still two left on my “most anticipated” list – Joker and Nosferatu). It’s great to catch a trailer that gives you excitement. The return of Hugh Grant to top form is something I have wanted to see for years. This looks excellent.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• On the Sunday Morning Tuneage from 1/11/2009, I was back after a few weeks of driving back and forth to Michigan and some movies. The exciting new Roku Netflix player was now adding all of the Amazon films and television shows. My #41 Favorite Film of All-Time was American Graffiti (1973). This George Lucas classic is rated way too low for my liking. I had probably boxed myself in at this point with choices in the earlier numbers. This is definitely a Top 25 title in my book today. One of the best film “last shots” of any films that isn’t The Graduate (1967). The new episodes of television shows hadn’t kicked in yet, but I was enjoying Star Wars: Clone Wars (Toon). The Top Ten list of the week was an interesting choice, and I wonder if I even have any other choices in mind.
• BEST AC/DC SONGS OF ALL-TIME (2008)
  • 10. “Mistress for Christmas” (from The Razor’s Edge) (1990): “I can hear you coming down my smoke stack.”
  • 9. “TNT” (from T.N.T.) (1975): “I’m dirty, mean, and mighty unclean.”
  • 8. “Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap” (from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap) (1976): “I lead a life of crime.”
  • 7. “Thunderstruck” (from The Razor’s Edge) (1990): “Went down to Texas, yeah Texas / And we had some fun.”
  • 6. “Ride On” (from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap) (1976): “Got another empty bottle / And another empty bed.”
  • 5. “Whole Lotta Rosie” (from Let There Be Rock) (1977): “She ain’t exactly pretty / Ain’t exactly small.”
  • 4. “Jailbreak” (from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap) (1976): “She was down and he was up.”
  • 3. “Back In Black” (from Back in Black) (1980): “Cause I’m in a bang / With a gang.”
  • 2. “You Shook Me All Night Long” (from Back in Black) (1980): “She told me to come, but I was already there.”
  • 1. “Highway to Hell” (from Highway to Hell) (1979): “Going down, party time.”
• BEST AC/DC SONGS OF ALL-TIME (2024)
  • 10. “Shoot To Thrill” (from Back in Black) (1980): “Shoot to thrill, play to kill.”
  • 9. “T.N.T.” (from T.N.T.) (1975): “T.N.T., I’m a power load.”
  • 8. “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” (from Back in Black) (1980): “Forget about the past / It’ll always be us.”
  • 7. “Hells Bells” (from Back in Black) (1980): “You’re only young, but you’re going to die.”
  • 6. “Who Made Who” (from Maximum Overdrive Soundtrack) (1986): “Who made who, ain’t nobody told you?”
  • 5. “You Shook Me All Night Long” (from Back in Black) (1980): “She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean.”
  • 4. “Highway to Hell” (from Highway To Hell) (1979): “Nobody’s gonna slow me down.”
  • 3. “Thunderstruck” (from The Razor’s Edge) (1990): “Broke all the rules / Played all the fools.”
  • 2. “Back in Black” (from Back In Black) (1980): “They’ve got to catch me if they want me to hang.”
  • 1. “Ride On” (from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap) (1976): “And I ain’t too old to cry / When a woman gets me down.”
    • The list isn’t significantly different upon further examination. It reflects the two albums that I listen to the most – Back In Black (1980) and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976). If they have had better songs since 1990, they haven’t made an impact on me. This Top Ten would make a great Road Trip mix and/or let’s have a few PBR’s at a dive bar with these on the juke, finishing with “Ride On” is perfect for closing time (if I’m not playing Skynyrd).

1974 in Review

• July – Marvel Two-in-One #4 (Marvel): Written by Steve Gerber. Art by Sal Buscema and Gil Kane. Time-travel stuff with the Badoons that I never understood. It’s fun to see Cap, Sharon Carter, and Ben working together.
• July 5/6 – Chris Evert beats Olga Morozova (6-0, 6-4) to win the Women’s Wimbledon Singles. The next day Jimmy Connors defeats Ken Rosewall (6-1, 6-1, 6-4) to win the Men’s Singles. Evert and Connors are to be married in November, although it will later be cancelled.
• July 1 – Great Adventure amusement park opens in Jackson, New Jersey. It will become a Six Flags park in 1977. The Ferris wheel called the Big Wheel was once the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. Located between Philadelphia and New York, it is still in operation.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“Tell me we can make one more start
You know I’ll never go-as long as I know
It’s coming straight from the heart” – Bryan Adams

Stay Hard

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