I never thought a chicken flying through someone’s chest would be as scary as it was.
And monstrous, flying sheep tearing people apart?
Sheep that are able to tear apart a Compound V-riddled bull?
Okay. The Boys ending with “Old MacDonald” over the closing credits.
This show is something else.
Stuck in with the crazy killer animals hopped up on V, you had a beautiful send off with Hughie’s dad (after he butchered a bunch of innocents, of course), the return of Giancarlo Esposito, Butcher being Butcher (which means horrendous betrayal and lies, I guess), and Frenchie’s guilt driving him to a new level.
The Boys is crazy.
Oh, and I forgot about Homelander and his new way of manipulating Ryan. One way that really seems to be working. Again, Antony Starr deserves an Emmy nomination (if not win) for his performance. This year has seen even a deeper psychological depth to Homelander than we have seen previously. He continues to be one of the most frightening things on this show.
Has Butcher finally taken it too far? His obsession has turned him into a MFer with a heart of gold to a monster. He would be happy to see Starlight and Kimiko fall to this virus as well as any other supe.
I am afraid for A-Train. His redemption arc this year has been awesome, but does he stand a chance?
I also loved the shade tossed at the MCU with the Vaught movie announcements. That was funny.
I avoided this movie not only when it was in the theaters, but this month during the June Swoon 3. I had a feeling that this would not be a film that I would enjoy. Infinity Pool was a Brandon Cronenberg directed film. Brandon’s father is David Cronenberg, who was renown for his body horror films. I am not big on the body horror.
Despite my hesitancy, I gave Infinity Pool a chance on Hulu.
Boy, was I right.
I did not enjoy this movie at all.
According to IMDB, “While staying at an isolated island resort, James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) are enjoying a perfect vacation of pristine beaches, exceptional staff, and soaking up the sun. But guided by the seductive and mysterious Gabi (Mia Goth), they venture outside the resort grounds and find themselves in a culture filled with violence, hedonism, and untold horror“
I will start with the positive. Mia Goth is a star. She has been amazing in other films such as Pearl and X and she is just as frightening here. I look forward to seeing her career move on.
That was about it. I had no character in this movie that I could support or root for. They were all just horrific people. I think I was meant to cheer for Alexander Skarsgård’s character, but I found him unlikable in just about every way.
The bizarre sequences of the film were not enjoyable to watch for me and just did not engage me with the story.
It was unsatisfying and I was right to skip it last year. I wish I had skipped it this year too.
Welcome back to the EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week! Another strong week of covers through the BUNCH of books I bought.
Bronze Medalist
Universal Monsters Creature from the Black Lagoon #3
Cover art by Matthew Roberts & Dave Stewart
I believe this is the third cover from this comic that has earned a medal. Impressive since it has only had three issues in the series so far.
Silver Medalist
The Department of Truth #23
Cover art by Martin Simmonds
The Department of Truth returned after a long intermission. I love the look of the cover, featuring what appeared to be the Kennedys with the series’ typical blurred imagery.
Gold Medalist
The Spectacular Spider-Men #4
Cover art by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado
As soon as I spotted this cover, I knew it was going to be gold medal winner this week. I love the visual with the glass shattering, breaking the fantasy worlds of our heroes. The light blue on the yellow background really makes this impressive.
How have I never seen anything about this movie before?
What a wonderfully charming movie. From the director of Sing Street, Flora and Son is a story of a single mom Flora (Eve Hewson) who has had trouble connecting with her 14-year old son Max (Orén Kinlan). One day, in an attempt to find something for her son to do, she rescued a guitar from the dumpster. When he rejected it, Flora decided to take online lessons to learn the guitar herself and she found a guitar instructor Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who changed her life.
This film is a love letter to music and its power to create, heal or maintaining relationships, even those that feel as if there is no possible way for those relationships to work.
The film has a complicated relationship between Flora and Max at the center, a mother and son who seem to barely stand each other, but their eventual similar love of music started to repair their bond.
The relationship with Flora and Jeff is one of the most fascinating ones of the film as they never meet face to face, only over the internet. However, the film uses some clever ways to show this online relationship that helps create a connection that benefitted both of them.
Ewe Hewson is tremendous as Flora. She is the ultimate standout of the movie and her performance carries most of the film. I found her so appealing that I bought every relationship she had and I rooted for her to be a better mom. Orén Kinlan was solid too, bringing the typical brooding teen more depth than you would think.
I did not expect to enjoy this film as much as I did, but I loved Sing Street and the vibe definitely matches that one.
“Wars don’t start with explosions. They start with silence.”
Today’s June Swoon 3 film is another Oscar winner that absolutely rips at your soul and had me crying within the first 20 minutes. 20 Days in Mariupol won the 2024 Best Documentary Academy Awards this past March with this chilling look at the Russian invasion into Ukraine, specifically into a coastal city called Mariupol.
Three AP journalists, led by Mstyslav Chernov, who wound up writing, directing and appearing in the doc, end up the final journalists inside war torn Mariupol, dedicated to getting their footage out of the country to show the world the atrocities being committed by Russian soldiers.
Absolutely heart-wrenching as the footage showed men, women, children being torn apart by the shrapnel and the bombing of civilian structures. As I watched, I was taken aback by the continued filming of these tragedies and how the Ukrainian people, for the most part, wanted the filming to continue. I guess the desire to show the world what was happening, to be able to record the travesty was vitally important to everyone involved.
The switching to news clips of Russian representatives claiming these images and film was of actors, that it was “fake news” was downright sickening. The use of that phrase to try and minimize the truth and throw shade at the media is obscene, and I am ashamed of how that term has been used in the US as well as abroad.
The film was so raw and painful to watch these innocent people suffer through because of the aggression of an occupying force. As painful as it was, it also was a homage to the power of the human spirit and the dedication to one’s craft in the face of real-world horrors. This was harrowing.
A Long, Long Time Ago… in a Galaxy far away… Well, maybe not that far away.
Few fandoms are as currently as toxic as the Star Wars fandom. Not to put down the entire group of people for the divisiveness of some, but there is no denying that Star Wars fans lean towards hyperbole. One only needs to look at the discourse surrounding the new Disney + series, The Acolyte, to understand it.
However, the Star Wars universe had something once that is both beloved and reviled unlike anything else. It was something that George Lucas himself wanted to see banished from the canon of his creation. It was something that Star Wars fans desperately tried to see for decades… a badge of honor among those who truly called themselves Star Wars aficionados.
The Star Wars Holiday Special.
So today’s June Swoon focused in on a documentary from Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak all about the creation of and response to on of the most infamous TV specials of all fandom.
Between the release of Star Wars and Empire Strikes back, the CBS network wanted a Star Wars special to broadcast over the holiday season and they turned it into a variety show, featuring Chewbacca’s family as well as Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman and Art Carney. It aired once and then disappeared, only to be seen by those who could find a bootleg copy.
This documentary included clips of all of the Star Wars performers, including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher with their thoughts on the special. Harrison Ford’s responses are always the most entertaining as he is clearly hoping the special would disappear forever.
There were also interviews of a ton of famous people in the geek community giving their comments and thoughts on the special including such notable stars as Kevin Smith, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Bobcat Goldthwait, Seth Green, Paul Scheer, Donny Osmond, Gilbert Gottfried, and Patton Oswalt. There were a lot of interviews with people involved in the creation of the special including Bruce Vilanch, Mick Garris, Bob Mackie among others.
Though the doc certainly says that this special was bad, there was items included that show how some people, particular those who may have seen the special as a child, loved the show. Jon Favreau is an unapologetic fan of the special and they showed how he included Easter eggs from it in The Mandalorian. The clips from the animated section of the special was shown as the first place we saw Boba Fett.
The documentary was very funny and gave real opinions of people who were desperate at the time for content in the Star Wars community. One wonders what the fandom today would do if something like the Star Wars Holiday Special were to be released on Disney +. The review bombing that would happen would be generational.
All Star Wars fans should be looking for this documentary, which I rented on Amazon Prime. If you are interested in how something like this able to be created, you should check this out. It was highly entertaining and an easy watch.
Norman is such a nice guy. He is so easy to root for in this show that it is almost really sad that you know where he is going to wind up. It is easy to forget about his psychotic tendencies when he is played with such charm and warmth by Freddie Highmore.
This show does a great job of creating Norman Bates as a character that you can enjoy and root for while still seeing how he winds up with his mother stuffed in a rocking chair in his attic.
I’ve mentioned this before, but this show has also done a sensational job of creating an ensemble around Norman filled with three-dimensional characters that enrich Bates Motel wonderfully.
There was a tremendous scene between Norma and Romero in this episode. I know where this will eventually go and this episode is the first time we see some sparks, albeit slight ones, between these characters. Romero is such a bad ass and that little chink in his armor came with a slight smile.
Dylan is another tremendous character this show introduced us to as Norman’s brother, who despite everything cares for him, and who is also a bad ass.
Norma lecturing Norman about spending time with Cody when she is constantly involved with the wrong people is the height of hypocrisy. Norma clearly knows that when Romero tells her about the councilman Lee Birman died in a car crash, her new ally Nick Ford had something to do with it. I mean, he specifically told Norma not to worry about Lee Birman. He couldn’t have been more ominous if he had tried.
Then, both Norman and Emma had sex in this episode. Both with different people, of course. Personally, I like Cody much more than the post smoker Emma slept with.
I am very proud of this podcast. I came up with the idea for my squad, which was the Actor’s Guild, after taking a class on Podcasts in the Classroom as a license renewal credit. I wrote up a script, and assigned roles to the different students. I have not listed their names online just to be safe, but I am very pleased with their efforts.
Setting the story of the podcast in Dalton Hill really helped make the podcast feel important to me. Dalton Hill is one of the books that I wroted, based on a short story that I wrote in college. I love the character of Lincoln Phillips and I was excited to include him in this podcast. I was also excited when the young student who voiced Lincoln joined the project. He was very talented and he leant a lot of credibility to the project for the rest of the Actor’s Guild.
I think what we accomplished here was awesome considering no one here was a professional and that we really only had around a half and hour a week to do it. I did use time outside the squad time to record some of the staff members who joined in on the podcast. I want to thank everyone who took their time to record something with me. You helped make this awesome.
I know the listeners are limited, but that does not limit my enthusiasm for this project or for what we were able to accomplish. I have an idea for a second podcast, though I do not know the status for squads next year at school. I hope that we can continue with this moving forward.
A huge thank you to those 8th grade students who contributed to the podcast, who will be moving on to high school next year. You all should be proud of what you helped do.
This was an interesting episode that was fairly odd.
It was all a flashback. Not only the main part of the story, but also the framing device including Fox Mulder. When we saw Mulder in this episode, this predated his arrival at the X-Files. Truthfully, this introduced Mulder to the concept of the X-Files.
I am not sure the purpose for this episode, outside of highlighting the time of American history when people from our government targeted certain individuals as Communists for political reasons. It was also nice to see Mulder’s father, Bill, involved in the story. Bill Mulder was the hook that brought Fox Mulder into the narrative in the first place.
I liked the aesthetic of the episode, with the throwback look of the show. The fifties feel was very retro and it was a cool break from the typical design of the X-Files. Connecting this to Nazi scientists who had come to America to continue experiments was a solid tie-in and worked for this episode. The do not go too deep into anything from here though.
This was a fun episode, but it was a total filler episode. I do not know i f any of this would mean anything moving forward. I think it was just meant to be a show placed just after Mulder reclaimed his belief system, to give us a way to easy back into the status quo of the series.
Of course, it also meant that we did not get anything with Gillian Anderson and that is always an unwelcomed thing.
Today’s June Swoon entry is a piece of historical fiction blended into a vampire tale that received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography this past Oscars.
El Conde tells the story of Chile’s brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) as a 250-year old vampire who arrived at a point that he wanted to die. His sycophant children came to see him, with the hope that they would receive their inheritance. When they were unsure of the plans of their father, they hired a nun named Carmen (Paula Luchsinger) to find the missing fortune, although Carmen has ideas of her own to put into place.
The film is a black comedic satire of not only the vampire movies, but also of the political world of the time. One only needs to wait to discover the mother of Augusto Pinochet is to understand that.
There are some really gross moments in the film, but everything is shot in black and white which makes it more artistic. Again, to avoid spoilers, the use of a blender definitely stands out as one of the creepier aspects of the film.
The film may drag on a bit, but it does have its funny moments and makes the most of its gimmick. The performances are decent and the film looks amazing. El Conde is available for streaming on Netflix.
This is a two-part adventure featuring Starbuck that was really epic.
I will state that I had some problems with the first part of the episode knowing what time frame was going on at certain times. As we started with Starbuck in a Viper and spinning out of control, and, as far as I remembered, that was not where we left off with episode three.
Then, they bounced around, kind of like Starbuck was seeing her life flash before her eyes. At least, that is how I took it, though it did not make for easy viewing. Again, I was not sure what was present day and what wasn’t.
However, that did not last for long and once I was able to get my bearing for the episode, this turned into an incredible fight for survival.
Watching Starbuck find that Cylon vessel and figure out how to fly it back to Galactica was exceptional. I do wonder how she wrote her name on the wings of the ship to avoid getting shot by the fleet. I loved how she just kind of flew rings around Apollo while he was mistakenly attempting to destroy the Cylon ship she was piloting.
We learned a lot about our main characters during this attempted rescue mission including Adama. Starbuck confessed her passing of Zach when he should have failed to Adama. Still, you could see how important she was to him and to Apollo as they were willing to put it all at risk to save her.
There was an advancement of Helo on Caprica too as a pair of Cylon machines get into a firefight with him. After this, he cannot find Sharon. This is a still evolving story bit.
I enjoyed this two-part episode even if Starbuck’s ability to fix and pilot the Cylon ship is stretching reality. I just took it as she made herself some great dice rolls (as in D&D). Perhaps some natural 20s.
I have enjoyed seeing June Squibb in just about every supporting role she has ever had, from the movie Nebraska to the role of Mee-Maw on The Big Bang Theory. She was just recently the voice of Nostalgia in Inside Out 2 as well as voice acting in Ralph Breaks the Internet, Soul and Toy Story 4. She has had a tremendous career so far.
That is extremely impressive for the 94-year old actress. You can add another accolade to June Squibb’s resume. A lead role in a funny and heart-warming movie called Thelma.
Thelma Post (June Squibb) is still living alone, two years after the death of her long time husband, and, as a 93-year old, she is worrying her family who wonder if she can continue to live unassisted. Her grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger) tries to help her out, but truth be told, he has enough trouble keeping himself moving forward.
So when Thelma receives a scam phone call stating that Daniel had been in an accident and needed her to mail $10,000 to help, Thelma fell for the act and mailed the money.
Embarrassed by her naivety and with the police being no help, Thelma decides to take things into her own hands and starts out to find the scam artists and get her money back.
June Squibb is excellent here. She is so charming and she is clearly a force of nature that I believe every far fetched situation that she is place within. Some of her choices are remarkably dangerous, and you just know that something was going to go wrong with this, but you can’t help but root for her anyway.
It is also great to see Clark Gregg once again. Our beloved Agent Phil Coulson is playing Thelma’s son-in-law, a twitchy, over-protective father married to a neurotic woman, Thelma’s daughter Gail (played by the ever awesome Parker Posey). Gregg and Posey are excellent here as the overbearing parents of Daniel, whose love for their son may get in the way of his development.
Despite some of the credibility-stretching scenes, there is a lot of heart to this movie as well. There are plenty of comments directed toward the aging process and how some have more troubles than others. There are several scenes set at a retirement/old folks home that show the whole gamut of the aging process. It has several jokes directed at aging, but they are done with surprising kindness.
Richard Roundtree had a major supporting role in this film as an old friend of Thelma who owned a scooter that she needed for her own independence. Roundtree was fantastic as Ben and brought a new element to the story.
This was a lot of fun and, despite being far fetched in a lot of things, it was charming enough to overcome any issues it might have.
I wonder what the producers have on Russell Crowe? They must have something for him to appear in this train wreck.
Russell Crowe played Tony Miller, an actor with his share of personal problems, takes a job playing a priest in an exorcism/possession movie, and the role is bringing up all kinds of past troubles. Meanwhile, his estranged daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins) is trying to get past her own problematic history with her dad.
David Hyde Pierce is here too, playing Father Conor, and being a huge distraction as he just looks too much like Niles Crane. Sam Worthington is in the movie, but he is totally underused, and Chloe Bailey is here too for some reason.
I found this to be trash. The first two-thirds of the film was dull and then the final act of the film was so off-the-track that had there been any goodwill generated previously, it would be spent completely. The story was ridiculous. The characters were wasted. The backstory of Tony was jumbled and not delivered in a manner in which it could be understood. Poor Niles was there looking for Frasier.
The acting was not very good. I mean, I believe that Russell Crowe was giving it his all, but I felt as if the director of the film in the film, played by Adam Goldberg, was constantly berating Tony’s performance and it made me question what Crowe was doing too.
There was a potential story that was here that could have been different and potentially fascinating, but this was not it. This was another terrible movie this year, which seems to be packing them up all over the place.
It is another busy day, so I made time this morning for another Oscar nominated documentary short film, and it is one whose topic is close t my heart. The ABCs of Book Banning is a look at some of the books that have been banned, challenged or restricted in schools across the country and the thoughts from children about the banning.
The film showed many books and gave excerpts from them in order to show a type of book that seemed to be banned more than others. A high percentage of these books appear to be about those segments of society that are different from the “normal” public. Black & Jewish history, those dealing with LGBTQ + community, those dealing with power for women… these are the majority of the books shown.
The film began with 100-year old Grace Lin speaking to a school board about the banning of books and how it went against everything that she believed and that her husband, who died in World War II, fought for.
The most effective part of the film was the comments made by the children. These kids were asked about the books. These children were very well spoken and convincing.
The slideshow-like was less effective, basically just showing images of the banned books and animating some for illustration. I saw several books that I have on my own shelf show up on the screen, including EYG Hall of Fame graphic novel Maus.
This film does feel slight and does not go into the specifics of the topic. I do not have a problem with the film stating that they wanted to give voice to the one side of this issue since the voice for the banning has been so loud, but I needed more substance to it.
I am totally opposed to the idea of book banning and find the act repulsive. This is not quite as powerful as I would have liked.
I’m not worrying about numbering this. This is the finale.
Doctor Who ended its first season available on Disney + with the second part of its epic finale, following up on the amazing reveal last week of Sutekh, the God of Death who had been hitching a ride on the Tardis for years after the 4th Doctor believed that he had destroyed Sutekh.
After an amazing reveal last week, expectations were huge for the final episode, and I am happy to say that the finale reached them… mostly.
The episode certainly revealed a lot of truths and when that sand started swirling around, killing everyone in its path, my mouth started to drop. Now, when it started crossing the entire earth, it became pretty apparent that things were not going to stick. When it was just UNTIL, I thought maybe that would be the end, but that became clear qquickly.
I enjoyed the two specials with David Tennant, but I have truly come to love Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor. I have seen a very few Doctors over the years, but Ncuti Gatwa is just amazing. He is an emotional performer. He showed the tears of the Doctor across this entire episode.
I am sure that the interior of the memory Tardis that Doctor, Ruby and Mel escaped in was filled with unbelievable Easter eggs. I saw the scarf of Tom Baker in there. I did not know much about the history of Doctor Who and I can just imagine those breakdown videos on YouTube will be going crazy with this scene.
Sutekh looked awesome. The giant dog gripped the Tardis with a passion, the lifeline that he held for so long.
The episode did feel like there was a lot of exposition, but I guess that was necessary. And I did love the Doctor showing that he was smarter than you would think when he realized that Mel had been compromised and set Sutekh up.
The truth of Ruby Sunday’s mother was an interesting tweak, with the Doctor saying that they had given the woman the specialty by assigning her that importance. I’m not sure why Ruby can make it snow, but I hope that means we’ll get more Ruby down the road.
It sure seemed as if Ruby’s story was done, but I am not so sure. I think she will be back next season.
And how about Miss Flood talking to the camera at the very end with a scary message of the future of the Doctor? Who is this woman and what does that mean for a second (or 15th) season? I don’t know, but I will be watching.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 