This Week in Geek (18-24/08/24)

"Accomplishments"

In theaters: I know nobody owns the founders of Rome, but Alien: Romulus seems to be stealing from Star Trek here. Except it's really stealing from the rest of the franchise. I might even say grave-robbing given the ghoulish use of an actor who's passed away in all his ghastly CG glory. It's just the worst kind of fan service, making connections we don't need, and finding forced ways to include classic lines (I'm thinking of one in particular that just doesn't work). The rehash of Alien(s) is, in fact, what I'm least interested in. Romulus DOES have something to offer... Seeing a Company-run colony does some interesting world-building we haven't had before on film (it really is Elon Musk's future, isn't it?). Cailee Spaeny (Civil War) and David Jonsson (Rye Lane) are a great double act (all other members of the heist team are cookie cutter forgettables), and I think we care about their well-being enough to get us through the jump scare horror show. New things to say about androids. The outer space stuff is gorgeous to look at with real beauty shots in the climax... It's unfortunate that the production is so fannishly obsessed with repeating lines and shots to fully make Romulus its own thing.

At home: An interesting premise for a time travel romcom, The Greatest Hits has Lucy Boynton (Sing Street) able to go back to different points in her relationship with a now-dead boyfriend by listening to the music that they heard together at those points. It's grief's "living in the past" inability to move on made manifest, and she's been obsessed with saving his life somehow for the past two years. Then she meets Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy) with whom she has immediate chemistry, and has to weigh her options. And if the movie works at all, it's largely because they are so cute together, establishing a fun, witty, self-deprecating, bantery relationship almost from the first moment. The boyfriend in the past is CW-handsome, but feels more like a comfy couch, which I think is well set up. One character is the excitement/awkwardness of a new relationship; the other is the comfortable, this will last forever, ease of an old, practised one... and part of the equation she must solve. It's pleasant, though I would have liked the tunes to hit harder. Perhaps there just weren't a lot of songs I knew, but they felt like off-the-rack, we own these so use them, as opposed to specifically chosen for the story. It's a cute film about learning to move on (Min also has a similar subplot) through self-actualization and accepting you can't control everything.

I suppose setting David Benioff's 25th Hour in the year following 9/11 is, for Spike Lee, a show of resilience. Edward Norton is a drug dealer convicted, sentenced, and on his last hours of freedom, interacting with his loved ones, contemplating the hardships that await him and that he perhaps deserves. If he doesn't exactly know if he can "take it", New York City perhaps tells him he can. Other elements like the wounded dog he rescued some time ago, his Wall Street friend not wanting to move from an apartment next to Ground Zero, the school essays about grief, etc. inform this as well. Not sure how all the stuff about flirting with underage girls really fits this theme though, except that everyone's pretty corrupt in this world and it's therefore no tragedy that bad things are happening to them. But is Lee saying something about his City and 9/11 there? In any case, his direction is quite novelistic here, incorporating time shifts and internal monologues in interesting ways. I especially like the finale which sold me on a film that, despite having a strong cast, had few likeable characters and seemed to meander.

Paul Auster is one of my favorite novelists, and judging from Smoke, a pretty good scriptwriter too. The chapters in this assembly of different stories about people frequenting a certain smoke shop  aren't closed loops, but add characters/plots that are then part of the whole. Smoke pervades, it spreads out, it's fluid, and both Auster and director Wayne Wang (who's perfect for this kind of storytelling) are suiting form to theme in that way. An early speech about the WEIGHT of smoke as what's removed from the solid ashes of a cigar sends us into tales of absence - absent parents, absent children, absent motivations, missing limbs and eyes (Stockard Channing in an eyepatch is an amazing look) - building on that smokey theme in wonderful ways. But it's not just a formal triumph. A powerful cast draws us into the various dramas, until it feels completely natural to just listen to Harvey Keitel tell a long story that fits the theme.

The second of three collaborations between director Alex Ross Perry and Elisabeth Moss (and they sure like to present a character breaking down to the sharpest little shards), Queen of Earth starts with Moss being broken up with and then winding up at her best friend's lake house to recuperate. But her relationship with her friend (Katherine Waterston) has been tense at least since the prior summer, mostly on account of the men in their lives standing in the way of their closeness. Moss fears abandonment above all else, but while Waterston presents as someone who ruthlessly cuts toxic people off, it's not true to say she doesn't have the same problem. Both attitudes have the same root cause. It's just the latter better protects herself. Waterston is truly great, but Moss' performance - just as great - is more showy, and there are moments here so unhinged that you wonder if the movie will veer wildly from psychological drama to some other genre. Some ambiguities remain. I've been thinking about the title, and I suppose it relates to both positions' selfishness. Or perception of their selfishness, because I do think they are trying to show each other grace and simply missing the cues.

Why are the best cinema experiments coming out of the Philippines right now? Cleaners aims to tell various short stories about high school life, turning humiliations into triumphs in the way only resilient, adaptable, idealistic youth might, and it works on that score alone. An anxious girl, kids forced into a project together, a young couple, a student council hopeful... They're all heading for a cathartic finish. Where Cleaners distinguishes itself from the crowded coming of age genre is in its formalism, which creates a unique hand-colored photocopy-mation that acts as a new way to evoke memory (move over, color correction). The leads are color-coded and only eventually, when we're used to the convention, does film maker Glenn Barit use the conceit to create effects - it's a wonderful little shock. And whether it's the stories or the aesthetic, it DOES activate one's memories of school, of the traumas we carry from those days even if, as adults, they seems small. Maybe it's the photocopy smell. Maybe it's the grace on screen that you wish you had at that age.

The Cooler really should also be filed under the Fantasy genre because William H. Macy's luck - which goes from bad (which is why he's employed to "cool" casino patrons' lucky streaks) to good (after he falls in love) - is truly supernatural in its effects. And absurd in its execution in the middle of an otherwise grounded drama that avoids becoming what I think the audience really wants it to be, once the table has been set: a revenge heist picture in which Alec Baldwin's old-school casino manager gets his comeuppance. If it does lean that way, it's only in the slightest sense. I do not like the resolution, which is half-Scorsese, half-James Gunn. The real light in the picture, as much for the audience as for Macy's character, is Maria Bello, who gives a naturalistic performance you can fall in love with. And to give it its due, The Cooler is a bit like those revisionist "last" westerns that spelled out the end of an era (and of a genre), with the traditional casino under threat from the tourist trap "new" Vegas, but it also has too many subplots jostling for attention for it to really hit satisfactorily. Ultimately, it's an odd assembly of different ideas.

There's of course no way you can beat Sidney Lumet's 1957 feature film presentation of 12 Angry Men. It wasn't the first (that was a television production 3 years earlier), but it's the iconic version of the story. A close second has to be William Friedkin's 1997 adaptation (with an updated teleplay by Reginald Rose who wrote the original) made for cable television. The cast alone makes this a must-watch. It includes solid movie stars like Jack Lemmon (in the Henry Fonda role), George C. Scott, Hume Cronyn, Edward James Olmos (sharing the screen for the first time with Battlestar Galactica co-star Mary McDonnell who plays the judge) and Ossie Davis; TV stars like Tony Danza (about to learn who the boss is), or on the cusp of stardom like James Gandolfini (2 years before The Sopranos) and William Petersen (3 years before C.S.I.); and more recognizable faces besides. The main difference, 40 years on, is that the jury is more ethnically diverse, and it's interesting that the raging racist here is played by an African-American actor (the defendant is Latino). The verdicts definitely aren't split down racial lines. Though the cast skews older - making Lumet's version more energetic - Friedkin keeps things edgy with hand-held cameras, and there's no denying the power of the performances and the script. 12 Angry Men is a one of the great murder mysteries, in a way, and this version does it justice.

My Companion Film project hits continues with a movie starring "Martha Jones"... Recognizable British actor Jason Flemyng (Primeval)'s sole directing credit is Eat Local, a vampire comedy that's stacked to the nines with well-known faces, especially if you're a genre fan - the Doctor Who people alone includes Freema Agyeman, Eve Myles (Torchwood) and Tony Curran (Van Gogh), but Charlie "Daredevil" Cox is also one of the vamps. Unfortunately, it's got a stronger premise than it does an execution. That premise: Britain is divided into 8 territories and therefore must be "run" by 8 vampires. They are losing one of their number tonight and must immediately re-up. What happens when their candidate refuses, or is rejected? Waiting in the woods are soldiers who are after vamps for various reasons. Once the shooting starts, that piece of world-building seems forgotten to the film's detriment, and I never really got a handle on the Renfield types in the farm house (perhaps as my interest started waning). Watchable, but you've seen this kind of material in funnier and more exciting shapes. The highlights for me are definitely Myles' "sexy cougar" and Cox's humane blood-sucker.

Audios (watch out for spoilers): Getting back into Big Finish's Eighth Doctor Adventures in its fourth season (2010) after a long hiatus (don't remember when I listened to S3) took some catching up. See, the first episode, Alan Barnes' Death in Blackpool, is a sequel to Doc8/Lucie Miller stories that I've mostly forgotten. But once I got into the groove, it's not a bad Christmas story, albeit a pretty dark one. With the early comedy stylings, I thought maybe the Santa character was the real thing, which just added to my initial confusion. Its treatment of Zygons prefigures what Moffat would do with them in the television series. And ultimately, this becomes a battle for Lucie's soul as she lies in a coma on the edge of death. And her farewell scene is one of the saddest in Doctor Who, all media included. Starting a season with a companion departure takes some balls, and given Sheridan Smith's popularity, creates a nasty jumping-off point. But stick around, Lucie fans, the series isn't done with her yet!

I love the conceit behind Eddie Robson's Situation Vacant. The Doctor apparently puts an ad in the paper asking for applications to be his next companion! They all meet at a hotel where strange Doctor Who things are happening - vanishing scientists, giant robots, undercover aliens, timey-wimey stuff - so he can audition them properly. Four young people try their hand at it, some with ulterior motives. The resulting mystery is absolutely bonkers and may or may not make sense. I don't think it really matters. It's would-be companions thrown into bizarre situations, making a mess of things, coming to the wrong conclusions, and being judged by the Doctor. That's the show, from a companion's perspective, in a nutshell. A thin story even if it's full of incident, but important for its introduction of the next assistant, as well as the rumbings of a threat that carries over into the rest of the series.

Not a huge fan of Barnes' Nevermore, a story that tries to be very clever in its use of Edgar Alan Poe's works (as many as possible), but takes place on a planet in the future. Poe DOES appear in flashbacks, which are probably the best scenes, but all the sci-fi stuff is by-the-numbers Doctor Who stuff, no matter how dressed up they are. Among these familiar elements are the robotic ravens that sound just like Daleks with the numbers filed off (I thought they were voiced by Nicholas Briggs, but no, it's just a good imitation). Most damning is that the reason behind the literary similarities is essentially the same as The Wasp and the Unicorn's (the Agatha Christie episode). Weirder still is that both stories star Fenella Woolgar! I do give Barnes points for finding ways to fit Poe's most famous tales in a working sci-fi framework, but I wish he were more concerned with fleshing out the new companion. There's not much to Tasmin Drew yet.

Barnaby Edwards offers a solid historical tale with The Book of Kells, though it's really a vehicle to finally introduce the series' big bad - the Meddling Monk, on audio for the first time - and in a post-credit scene, a character thought lost and left uncredited by name on the CD. So I won't say too much here despite my earlier spoiler warning. There's also a bait and switch to the Monk's casting, with Downton Abbey's Jim Carter prominent on the cover but not necessarily a Time Lord (too bad). He's part of a really very strong and recognizable cast with credits in Who and elsewhere. But though I was afraid that Tasmin would turn out to be one of the most useless companions ever - she's initially painted as being bad at everything - that "uselessness" becomes a potent source of comedy. As a failed actress, she copes with the historical format by stealing from Shakespeare and has ease with puns. The Doctor, after having affection for two consecutive assistants (Charley and Lucie) seems completely unimpressed with her wit and choices, changing the dynamic in a pleasant way. Paul McGann finds a way to do it that doesn't sound like Doc5 sighing at Tegan, though it's in that ballpark. The Book of Kells eventually solves a true historical mystery, which is nice, but it IS a little slim once it's taken care of all the introductions (including Tasmin's, which should have been attempted earlier).

RPGs: So when I last mentioned the Call of Cthulhu game I'm involved in, the fate of one of our party, a woman who was aging backwards every time she took damage, was left up in the air. I noticed dice roll activity on our Discord server and expected the worst. Indeed, we later got a hand-out - a newspaper article about a dead infant - that laid that question to rest in the ghastliest terms. So THIS session, the player had to usher in a new character, someone I jokingly called a "warrior nun" after taking a glance at her character sheet. And it proved to be true! The player in question is prone to physical solutions, yes, but also made great rolls when in physical danger, cementing the nickname. She might even be more efficacious "muscle" than our lumbering beast of a gravedigger! Well, he can always rely on being half of a comedy double act with my own, completely opposite character. Our Keeper is running a published product (for the first time in our campaign, though he's run at least one other group through it in the past), but we've apparently short-circuited "Blackwater Creek" by not going into town and skipping over many dangers. (Honestly, I thought we WERE going into town until the farm came into view). We're out there looking for a university professor who missed the start of class while on a dig. Part of playing an "unbeliever" such as Phelps is being rather unwary or uncautious until it's kind of too late. So if we didn't do "enough research" before heading out, blame it on that. Ley lines thumping through his brain like Poe's Tell-Tale Heart, nightmares about his beloved mother (which seems to be going around the area), a strange disease and lots of bugs and rats are all part of the horror cocktail. Oh, and a giant malformed pig that gored our B&B host and almost killed the gravedigger (after a pre-game conversation about dying stupidly in RPGs... I guess we tempted fate. If Phelps continues to survive, it's because he's a coward. His solution here was "GET IN THE CAR!!!". Apparently, we're doing better than the previous group to run through it...

After a summer hiatus of some weeks, we got back into Torg Eternity by starting on one of the published mega-adventures, The God Box, which takes place in the Living Land, which we hadn't been to since the very first mission of the campaign. The first Act requires the PCs to scour Washington D.C.'s suburbs for refugees and bring them to the National Mall, a Core Earth hardpoint held by the military. A bit of dinosaur action (but not too much, the players were smart and/or lucky), some NPC interaction (I did like the supporting cast here), a background appearance by the High Lord himself (ooh), and then the REAL adventure begins with the theft of the title artifact from the Smithsonian and our Agents getting on its trail. Just some intro stuff to get everyone back into the Living Land style of play before they are whisked away via Dimthread Tree to parts unknown and, uh-oh, the Akashan PC fails to materialize with the rest of the crew at that destination. (It might have been more shocking if that player didn't have a history of changing characters every so often...)

Best bits: The Frankenstein prepared to parachute out of a plane by slipping into a body bag so as not to lose any pieces of himself in the drop. He also thought up a plan to keep refugee families together even if some had been transformed, so he wasn't just ridiculous. By asking if any of these people had "value", the Realm Runner had made persuasion more difficult. At the celebratory dinner, the Monster Hunter stuff a hard bread roll in his potion launcher and punched a hole in the wall (after discarding the idea of shooting one of the dinosaur bone displays in the museum in case it collapsed the hardpoint). The Akashan used psionics to float over swamp land like some kind of anime character, but the VIP has to be his high-tech rope that extends and retracts at will, saving the damsel in distress character twice. And his bummer speech (having lost his entire world, y'know) at the dinner was accompanied by silly sound effects coming out of the Realm Runner's sound board (I really lost it). A card led to a Wonder, a rather spooky statue of SHIFT's (the Delphi Council's) leader, calling him the "High Lord of Earth" - the Realm Runner used his psychometric powers on it, so I had to spin a yarn about a parallel world where the "ancestor" PCs from our previous campaign murdered each other with the last man standing (THIS player's character) starting a blood line that used a Darkness Device to invade other cosms.