From the Couch Hole: I’m Trying to Tell You Something ‘Bout My Life

Previously on FTCH, the Minions & Monsters unleashed the Mummy against the bear. Citizen Kane had peace of mind because happiness is a warm blanket, or sled. This week the days of July drag on with work and this crap weather. I miss my July break of Comic Con. This week saving Private Ryan was an odyssey that you can (not) redo. It was closer to fine than the Zygon inversion of the hot honey pizza Doritos. Remember, we’re FTCH and we don’t FTCH around.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• The Odyssey (2026) (Directed by Christopher Nolan): “Who doesn’t understand thunder? Fire? A child’s smile? A good harvest?” – Athena. This is what you get with an all-star cast. There are scenes with Batman, Catwoman, Spider-Man, and the Violator all on screen at the same time, and yet it’s Matt Damon who does his best Hawkeye imitation. For all of these superheroes, it’s amazing how much time in the movies there’s someone yelling “Run away!”
  
  The most important theme of the film isn’t about “coming home.” It’s about how we tell our story. The film is essentially a series of different characters telling their stories or in the case of Odysseus, remembering his story, until the Third Act. We start with a storyteller telling the story of the Trojan War, to bring to mind Homer. Odysseus (Matt Damon) fills in much of the exciting bits of the story while remembering how he got to the island with Calypso (Charlize Theron). Some of my favorite storytelling comes courtesy of Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) telling the story of the Trojan Horse (albeit from The Aeneid). Technically, it’s the best film in years. It’s a fun experience. I might quibble with the random order that the scenes are constructed, that don’t serve the overall dramatic rise and relief. In the end, it’s the rare film that I’m looking forward to seeing theatrically again before the run ends.

Buy Doctor Who: The Complete Ninth Season

• Doctor Who – “Zygon Inversion” (S.9 E.8) (BBC) (2015): “You’re not superior to people who were cruel to you. You’re just a whole bunch of new cruel people.” – The Doctor. I’m up to the Twelfth Doctor in my complete run through the series. It’s odd that I know I watched all of this Capaldi run as it came out, but this season in particular all feels new to me. This is the second episode of what are mostly two-part stories this season. It’s my favorite of the Capaldi run, and it’s definitely the fan favorite of this era. You get a fun role by Ingrid Oliver playing Osgood; Jenna Coleman in good/evil roles as Clara and Zygon leader, Bonnie; and the incredibly written anti-war speech by the Doctor. It’s not the most consistent season, but episodes like these are a nice reward.

Buy Indigo Girls

• Indigo Girls – “Closer to Fine” (from Indigo Girls) (1989): “Well, darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable / And lightness has a call that’s hard to hear.” It’s not important, but interesting that when I looked up to confirm the release date, etc. of this song, Google defined the band as “Americana,” and I always considered them an offshoot of folk. I have been a fan of the band since this release (their second album), and I thought it captured that “don’t take life so seriously” message of the transition into the ’90s. It even won them a Folk Grammy in 1990. Then they fell off the cultural map until becoming an integral part of Barbie (2023). This certainly belongs on your road-trip playlists.

• Saving Private Ryan (1998) (Directed by Steven Spielberg): “This Ryan better be worth it. He’d better go home, cure some disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb or something.” – Capt. Miller. This was my first time seeing the film on the big screen. Undoubtedly, the theatrical experience of the beach landing is best experienced in the theater. My main criticism is the same for Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993) and Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers (2006), the instinct to bookend the film with current-day footage, doesn’t link us to the story, it takes us out of the story.
  
  The film has aged well. We haven’t had more than a handful of WWII films that even come close to this one. Spielberg and Oliver Stone are the only two directors that come to mind who do a great job at portraying the chaos of the battlefield without losing the thread of the story. I don’t rewatch this whole film often because of the length. I am struck in the theater setting at how long the Third Act, after they find Private Ryan, feels in terms of pacing. The film leads to Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) and his speech about who he was back home. It’s the emotional climax of the film, and it’s a strong thematic speech that symbolically applies to many situations in life (sacrificing to help others in order to get yourself closer to home). I recommend sitting through this again if it plays near you.

Buy Saving Private Ryan

• Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo (2012) (Directed by Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki): “Nobody told me anything! How am I supposed to do anything when you won’t tell me a thing?!” – Shinji. The title might be a hedge by the creators. This film vaults fourteen years into the future and feels like a completely different concept. At my very best, I’d have trouble explaining much of the mythology even when the first two films in this series were a reimagining of the series (essentially a third retelling of the story). This hard left turn leaves me a little cold and confused. It’s like you know the characters but what you thought you knew before doesn’t matter any longer. It’s beautiful animation, if that’s enough to get you through a whole film. I don’t think it’s so complex that watching multiple times will make it any clearer to me. It’s just a narrative mess that can’t end the trilogy. We’ve got one more.

Buy Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo

Best of the Rest

• The Brandi Carlile and Catherine Carlile collaboration cover of the Indigo Girls’ “Closer to Fine” isn’t featured in the Barbie (2023) film, but it’s a nice alternate version of the original. Like good covers, the slower and more contemplative feel of this version gives a slightly different interpretation of the lyrics. I haven’t listened to the Barbie soundtrack, so I was only aware of this cover a few months ago thanks to YouTube algorithms.

• With The Odyssey (2026) out of the way, the next IMAX/XD must-see is coming in December with Dune: Part Three (2026). It’s quite a feat to get all three films out in such a relatively short span of time. This looks to be a much bigger departure from where the books went after the initial release. I’m confident that it’s the best decision in the end, because the lack of Paul and the amount of internal monologue in the books would have made it unfilmable. The challenge is making the story still work with the first two parts.

• The likelihood of a trip to China in my near future was low. Knowing that venomous snakes escaped a breeding farm in China during flooding, well that solved it. The fact that they were breeding these is enough for me to know anyways. I think it’s problematic that hundreds of snakes like cobras, king rat snakes, and green pit vipers escaped. It’s even more so when the local expert claims that he’s only seen five or six. That means over 94 on the loose. I’ll stick to this continent.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 8/1/2010, after the “Peanuts Turn 60″ panel on Friday (see last week), I spent time with the Archer (FX) and the first episode of the Second Season. Aisha Tyler had some great stories to go along with it. The dinner that Friday night was Mongolian BBQ, a tradition at the time that I don’t think is still there any longer. We followed it up with “Worst Cartoons Ever.” The Mighty Mr. Titan and Paddy the Pelican are something meant to be experienced in this forum. It’s another tradition that we don’t experience any longer, unfortunately.
  
  Saturday morning was spent on the Con floor. The late morning was all about Room 20 and Family Guy (FOX), The Cleveland Show (FOX) and Futurama (FOX). I left before The Simpsons (FOX) to go to “Behind The Scenes with Sid & Marty Krofft, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears.” Rarely are so many of the heroes of my youth in the same room. Sid and Marty apologized for Land of the Lost (2009) and promised better for upcoming film of H.R. Pufnstuf and Lidsville from Universal (still waiting). Ruby and Spears talked about the creation of Scooby-Doo being a combination of Dobie Gillis and The Archies. I missed Ray Bradbury while waiting for Community (NBC) which I never got into. I finished my Con experience of 2010 with some more television shows, back when they would show whole, or mostly whole upcoming episodes. I worked with people who loved The Human Target (FOX), but I found the cast to even be confused about why there was a new, upcoming season. I was intrigued by Nikita (CW). I thought the first episode looks like a combination between a J.J. Abrams and Josh Whedon show, and I smartly predicted that this show wouldn’t last half a season (it lasted four). I want to go back and see if I think differently now.
  
• Nikita – “Pilot” (S.1 E.1) (CW) (2010): “Home is wherever you stop running.” – Amanda. It was a long journey to this pilot. Luc Besson directed La Femme Nikita (1990) in France. It was remade in Hong Kong as Black Cat (1991) and in America as Point of No Return (1993). It became a well received Canadian television series, La Femme Nikita (1997-2001). That led us to 2010 and Maggie Q. would take over as the titular assassin for the show on the CW Network.
  
  The pilot episode is always going to be a tough call. It’s harder when it follows a film (and two other films and a previous series). The producers need to assume that viewers may be familiar with the concept but also need to present how this will be different. It helps that they have the beautiful and talented Maggie Q. to lead the way. The comparisons I had at the time to Dollhouse (FOX) and Lost (ABC) seem to hold up. There appears that there will be single cases to be solved, but that there’s going to be a deeper mythology. I don’t know why I never watched this when it was out. I’m planning on watching a few more to see how this evolves. I’m glad my initial gut reaction was correct.

Buy Nikita: The Complete First Season

1976 in Review

• July – Action Comics #461 (DC Comics): Cover by Bob Oksner. Written by Cary Bates. Art by Curt Swan. I don’t know if I bought this in 1976, but I remember the cover distinctly. The villain is Krb-Brak who uses some psychology thing to make people believe that Clark Kent is better than Superman. The story didn’t stick with me, but I do love that cover.
• July 20 – The American Viking 1 landed on Mars. It was the first craft to land on the Red Planet. Scheduled to transmit for 90 days, the lander continued to transmit data back to Earth until November 1982.
• July 17-23 – TV Guide. Art by Jim Sharpe. The 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal from July 17-31 was the first one that I followed as a child. Nadia Comaneci, Romanian, received the first 10.0 in Olympic gymnastics (Nellie Kim, Soviet Union would earn two more but was overshadowed). Bruce Jenner would set a record in points while winning the Decathalon. Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Spinks, and Leon Spinks would all win Gold Medals in Boxing.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“Maybe give me insight between black and white
And the best thing you ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously
It’s only life after all, yeah” – Indigo Girls