From the Couch Hole: Slow Down You’re Doing Fine

Previously on FTCH, Logan and the Bear came straight from the heart to the quiet place. They were back in black to sample the Meltamors. This was my last full week of work before a short week and San Diego Comic-Con next weekend. These July days in Texas all seem to run together with the heat. I hibernate and read and watch the shows you read about below. This week Maxxxine goes to Janet Planet to kill them. In Vienna, Tara has s’mores and churros. Remember, FTCH is the one to watch.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• MaXXXine (2024) (Directed by Ti West): ” ‘Cuz I’m a star. Ain’t nobody else like me. The whole world’s gonna know my name.” – Maxine Minx. Even with the multiple Hitchcock references, including the Bates Motel and the Psycho house playing important roles in the plot, this isn’t a Hitchcock homage; it’s an homage to the De Palma homage to Hitchcock. The soundtrack isn’t Bernard Herrmann, but it’s the electronic ’80s version of De Palma using his Hitchcock influences. These layers upon layers end up being what holds this film back from being as good as the previous two. Hitchcock had lead characters who were pulled through the story by extraordinary events. Maxine Minx has been established as an extraordinarily strong survivor in X (2022). The events of this film are just surface like the facade of the Psycho house and the sets on the Universal studio. Maxine deserves more of a conclusion to her story. The film is a pleasure to look at, the acting is good (sorry, not you, Kevin Bacon), but it just needs more depth to the editing. I would have loved to have had Ethan Coen take a run through the script before it was finalized.

Buy X Blu-ray

• Them – “Day 10” (2021) (S.1 E.10) (Amazon): “I see you.” – Lucky. Ti West directs the finale of this horror anthology series. For most of the ten episodes, it plays solidly like an African American cast season of American Horror Story (FX). I don’t know if Ti West and his stylish take on the horror genre was the perfect person to helm the finale. The series had a wonderful mid-third. This episode manages to do a rare thing. It sums up the thematic story well without giving proper due to the actual plot. The show is symbolically about escape and catharsis from the very first scene of the first episode. This episode is about characters finally escaping what has held them back or held them down. That process is not always pretty, and just the act of escaping isn’t a conclusion. I enjoyed this season quite a bit. It shows off the promise that I felt in the early seasons American Horror Story (FX). The supernatural elements are well presented, but they will provide your biggest barrier to having a full understanding of the show. I’m anxious to see where they go with a new story in Season Two.

Buy Billy Joel – The Stranger CD

• Billy Joel – “Vienna” (1977) (from The Stranger): “But you know that when the truth is told / That you can get what you want.” At the time of the release of this album, “Vienna” was a b-side of the “Just The Way You Are” single. A perfectly good song seemed to be just destined to be a deep cut. Fast forward to 2024 and it’s one of the top three or four streamed songs of his catalog. The song resonates with current listeners because it speaks to a life of enjoying what you have and living in the moment. There’s a feeling in the song that you will get where you want to go, but it isn’t that power trip of rolling over everyone else along the way. In quiet moments, this song continues to be in my Top Ten songs by the Piano Man.

• Kill (2023) (Directed by Nikhil Bhat): “Tell them I’m coming for her!” – Amrit. I need to start this by saying that I’m a jaded movie viewer. I love lots of movies, and I see hundreds a year. There are only a handful that leave me with the feeling “That was bananas.” This is the first in a few years. It’s better the less you know. Simply, it’s a love triangle with commando Amrit (Lakshya) boarding a night train to New Delhi to reunite with his true love, Tulika (Tanya Maniktala), who has been promised to another man. That other man isn’t part of the triangle. That would be Fani (Raghav Juyal), our villain. This isn’t the best movie you will see this year. It’s not the best story in a film that you will see this year. What makes it stand out is that it’s a non-stop action film with mesmerizing actors. I mean “non-stop” when I say “non-stop.” The plot is set up within minutes, and there aren’t many opportunities to catch your breath the rest of the way. This is the definition of a Summer Movie that should be experienced in a theater with a crowd. Arrive early enough to have your popcorn and drink ready before the film starts, and then hold on.

• Janet Planet (2023) (Directed by Annie Baker): “Can I hold your hand?” – Lacy. What if a coming-of-age film isn’t about the 11-year-old, Lacy (Zoe Ziegler)? Instead the coming-of-age is by her single mother, Janet (Julianne Nicholson), as seen through the eyes of the imaginative Lacy. Set in 1991 in rural Massachusetts, the film unfolds slowly, but it’s never slow. Neither character is perfect, and in many ways the most illuminating scenes are when Lacy shows off an adult side and when Janet is more of a teenager in love. There are interesting levels of reality and play (as in there are scenes that revolve around characters on a stage performing). The film is composed of three distinct acts that center on Janet’s relationship with different people – Wayne (Will Patton), Regina (Sophie Okonedo), and Avi (Elias Koteas). The distance that is between us and Janet never lets us get a complete hold on the nuances of the relationships other than how Lacy perceives them. By the end, the impact is much more of an emotional journey than you might expect. This is a clever little film.

Best of the Rest

• There isn’t much of an argument that Ariana Grande can sing. A cover like this of the Billy Joel song “Vienna” shows off years of training in vocal control. I like her voice here. It’s different than Joel who has had an “older” voice since he was young. This sounds like a scene from a Broadway musical where a younger character is singing in a club to an older character.

• Want to show that you are the Kings of Fast Food? Let Hollywood do the speaking for you. This 60 seconds of clips from movies and television shows that feature characters talking about McDonald’s is fun and impressive. Well played, McD.

• This headline showed up multiple times in my timeline this week. They are all some version of “Man Caught Smuggling 104 Live Snakes in His Pants“. My favorite line of this version of the story has to be “Upon inspection of his pants…” I can only imagine how the 104 snakes in the pants look, “Sir, excuse me, are your pants slithering?” I am glad the story isn’t that he was trying to beat a world record and that it would encourage the next guy to try for 105 snakes.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• On the Sunday Morning Tuneage from 1/18/2009, I had a single Sunday off of work and then a super busy start of classes ahead of me. I was on year two of wearing my pedometer (a habit that started September 1, 2007 and has continued to today with the Fitbit), and I was averaging 16,000 steps a day during that week. My favorite Chinese Food of All-Time was Kung Pao chicken (it has dropped since) and my #61 Favorite Film of All-Time was Bringing Up Baby (1938). This is a good film but that’s a rating I can’t stand behind any longer. Director Howard Hawks belongs in the Top 100 a couple of times, but this comedy just doesn’t make the cut any longer. I was looking forward to the season premiere of Lost (ABC) and CSI: (CBS) with Laurence Fishburne taking the reins of the team. There was a premiere on Showtime that caught my attention, but I didn’t record it for some reason. It is time to take a new look at a well-received program.
  • United States Of Tara – “Pilot” (Showtime) (2009) (S.1 E.1): ” We? Honey, this Power Puff Boy does not warrant a collective pronoun.” – Tara. The first thing that strikes me is how there’s a comfortable structure to all of the Showtime comedies of this era. The content of Californication, Weeds, and Nurse Jackie might all be very different, but there’s a flow to each episode that includes narration, use of alternative music, and precocious children. I missed this show upon release. It comes with some impressive pedigree. The series is produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Diablo Cody of Juno (2007) fame who was a hot commodity in 2009. What makes it work though is the cast, especially Toni Collette as Tara. The supporting cast like Brie Larson, John Corbett, Keir Gilchrist, and Patton Oswalt add to making this a fun half hour. Another solid effort in the Showtime stable.

1974 in Review

• July – Man-Thing #7 (Marvel): Cover by Ron Wilson. Written by Steve Gerber. Art by Mike Ploog. More adventures in the swamps of Florida. Something to do with modern-day conquistadors and the Fountain of Youth.
• July 7 – West Germany (led by Gerd Muller and Franz Beckenbauer) wins the World Cup Final, 2-1, over the Netherlands (playing the Total Football system) in Munich.
• July 20 – The first music festival held at Knebworth Park is called “The Bucolic Frolic”. Appearing in front of roughly 60,000 fans, the festival was led by the Allman Brothers Band, Van Morrison, Tim Buckley, and the Doobie Brothers. It would become a venue for large festivals through 2022.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“Too bad, but it’s the life you lead
You’re so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you’re wrong
You know you can’t always see when you’re right (you’re right)” – Billy Joel

Stay Hard

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