Too Many People with Too Many Babies

Arguably, at the root of many of civilisation's problems is that it works too well; the growing population puts a strain on the planet's resources that manifest in pollution, war, and starvation. 1972's Z.P.G. presents the conflict between the attempt to regulate expanding human population and individual, emotional needs. The mania of the film's women played by Geraldine Chaplin and Diane Cilento in their need to bear children is a little over the top but striking in a severely Communist society. A reliably smouldering performance from Oliver Reed is always captivating though it sometimes overwhelms the material.

"Z.F.G." stands for "zero population growth" which the government attempts to effect by forbidding women from giving birth. An oppressive, omnipresent surveillance system in the library and on the streets is augmented by bounties on babies. After husband and wife Russ (Reed) and Carol (Chaplin) have sex, she goes to their bathroom where an automated home-abortion machine is installed. For all this, the obvious question would seem to be why the government doesn't simply sterilise the population or just portions of it. The film avoids addressing this.

Carol finally decides she can no longer endure life without having a child so she skips the abortion machine one evening. She and her husband are forced to pretend separation while she hides in the basement for her pregnancy. Afterwards, caring for the child proves difficult when Russ can't even access information about childcare in the library without law enforcement being alerted. But their worst trouble comes when their neighbours, George (Don Gordon) and Edna (Diane Cilento), learn their secret and want to share childcare duties and are willing to threaten Russ and Carol with exposure to get their way.

This is a nice way of showing how a police state can effect life on more than the obvious level of violence and rules. The psychological effects are complex and nasty in ways it can be hard to predict. And who wouldn't start to go crazy with the creepy animatronic substitute babies women are encouraged to care for? Diane Cilento has two and her wild eyed, furtive manner certainly gains credence in light of the situation.

There's a lot of nice, early 70s future style on display and it's always great watching Oliver Reed just being Oliver Reed. He always seems ready to boil over somehow which compels me to watch him attentively at all times. Z.P.G. is available on The Criterion Channel as part of their new '70s Sci-Fi collection.

Scapes Far and Wide

At last in 16:9, the fourth season of Farscape begins by showcasing an even greater sense of improvisation and familiarity between cast and crew, blending seamlessly with complicated effects and design.

Season Four, Episode One: Crichton Kicks

We find Crichton (Ben Browder) with his Jeremiah Crichton beard again (though this time, apparently, it was real), taking refuge on a dying Leviathan. He's adopted a DRD he's named 1812, to which he's taught to play The 1812 Overture with electronic beeps. This recalls A Clockwork Orange but the general tone of the episode is more like a Terry Gilliam movie.

Another beautiful woman crashes into Crichton's life; the redhead Sikozu (Raelee Hill), on the run from aliens whose resemblance to Klingons Crichton doesn't refrain from pointing out. This felt scripted but a lot of the things Ben Browder does and says feel more spontaneous, like his antics when trying to lure an alien hound out into space. This moment shows how perfectly the makers of the show were able to blend natural performance with carefully contrived special effects and plotting.

The first of Moya's crew to come back after the inevitable massive bounties are put on their heads are Chiana (Gigi Edgley) and Rygel (Jonathan Hardy). Chiana, in the middle of chewing Crichton out for getting them into trouble, kisses him on the lips without missing a beat, another moment that's so fast and weird that it feels improvised yet also perfectly fits their relationship. The strange Moya family has now become very familiar, at least among themselves.

Sikou seems to fit in well despite being new. I always liked her, particularly in this episode. The way she and Crichton are placed in incidental physical intimacy, as when she sits on his lap facing him when they hide in his module, recalls the many times he and Aeryn (Claudia Black) were doing that in season one. Her abilities to walk on walls and reattach severed limbs somehow emphasise her sexuality. I'm really not sure why but that's Farscape for you.

. . .

Farscape is available now on Amazon Prime.

This entry is part of a series I'm writing on Farscape for the show's 20th anniversary. My previous reviews can be found here (episodes are in the order intended by the show's creators rather than the broadcast order):

Season One:

Episode 1: Pilot
Episode 2: I, E.T.
Episode 3: Exodus from Genesis
Episode 4: Throne for a Loss
Episode 5: Back and Back and Back to the Future
Episode 6: Thank God It's Friday Again
Episode 7: PK Tech Girl
Episode 8: That Old Black Magic
Episode 9: DNA Mad Scientist
Episode 10: They've Got a Secret
Episode 11: Till the Blood Runs Clear
Episode 12: Rhapsody in Blue
Episode 13: The Flax
Episode 14: Jeremiah Crichton
Episode 15: Durka Returns
Episode 16: A Human Reaction
Episode 17: Through the Looking Glass
Episode 18: A Bug's Life
Episode 19: Nerve
Episode 20: The Hidden Memory
Episode 21: Bone to be Wild
Episode 22: Family Ties

Season Two:

Episode 1: Mind the Baby
Episode 2: Vitas Mortis
Episode 3: Taking the Stone
Episode 4: Crackers Don't Matter
Episode 5: Picture If You Will
Episode 6: The Way We Weren't
Episode 7: Home on the Remains
Episode 8: Dream a Little Dream
Episode 9: Out of Their Minds
Episode 10: My Three Crichtons
Episode 11: Look at the Princess, Part I: A Kiss is But a Kiss
Episode 12: Look at the Princess, Part II: I Do, I Think
Episode 13: Look at the Princess, Part III: The Maltese Crichton
Episode 14: Beware of Dog
Episode 15: Won't Get Fooled Again
Episode 16: The Locket
Episode 17: The Ugly Truth
Episode 18: A Clockwork Nebari
Episode 19: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part I: A Not So Simple Plan
Episode 20: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part II: With Friends Like These . . .
Episode 21: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part III: Plan B
Episode 22: Die Me, Dichotomy

Season Three:

Episode 1: Season of Death
Episode 2: Suns and Lovers
Episode 3: Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part I: Would'a, Could'a, Should'a
Episode 4: Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part II: Wait for the Wheel
Episode 5: . . . Different Destinations
Episode 6: Eat Me
Episode 7: Thanks for Sharing
Episode 8: Green Eyed Monster
Episode 9: Losing Time
Episode 10: Relativity
Episode 11: Incubator
Episode 12: Meltdown
Episode 13: Scratch 'n Sniff
Episode 14: Infinite Possibilities, Part I: Daedalus Demands
Episode 15: Infinite Possibilities, Part II: Icarus Abides
Episode 16: Revenging Angel
Episode 17: The Choice
Episode 18: Fractures
Episode 19: I-Yensch, You-Yensch
Episode 20: Into the Lion's Den, Part I: Lambs to the Slaughter
Episode 21: Into the Lion's Den, Part II: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Episode 22: A Dog with Two Bones

A Dime the Shadows Covet

There are other treasures on Disney+ besides Star Wars and Marvel. There're also Disney things. Many of my childhood favourites, like DuckTales, for example. I mean the old one, of course. I've seen the first episode of the new one and I'll probably watch it through eventually but for now I'm content to have a reliable source for the classic series. Though, like many series, Disney is for some reason streaming the episodes out of order. In this case, it's an old problem because I remember my DVD sets also did not include the first episodes on the first collected volume, I think because they were labelled as pilot instead of as the first episodes. Whoever puts these things together seems to be on autopilot. Or maybe that's just it; it's AI.

Anyway, I hopped into the middle of the first season a couple nights ago with "Magica's Shadow War", a surprisingly provoking tale of Magica De Spell (June Foray) bringing her shadow to life in order to steal Scrooge's lucky dime.

It's her usual goal, established by Carl Barks in the original Uncle Scrooge comics, but it's one that is curious in itself. The concept that this item, to which Scrooge (Alan Young) himself mostly only ascribes sentimental value, is coveted by De Spell, a witch, as something of great value. Is Scrooge really a self-made duck, or was it a matter of destiny, fate arranged by the gods via a dime? In this, one can surprisingly see a basic argument between left and right. The ambiguity is fitting, too, because usually we don't see exactly to what extent someone owes their wealth to luck or their own talents. Magica, in the villain role, seems fitting as her conception of the dime would mean the world is a place where Scrooge's own decisions and actions have little meaning.

The shadows bring this to another level. First there's just one, Magica's, then, when it rebels, it spawns others. All alike, each the same distorted copy of Magica herself. And they all want the dime, insisting that it's their right. They've fully assimilated Magica's idea that the dime is responsible for Scrooge's success and it becomes, in the minds of the shadows, a power Scrooge has stolen. It can't be that Scrooge owes his success to his own hard work and ingenuity.

Bitter minds of indistinct individuals, resenting one successful duck. It sounds like Twitter.

Twitter Sonnet #1316

A penny school removed the dollar's worth.
The flying car advanced beyond our reach.
Another Mars displaced our lonely Earth.
There's something else a plastic globe can teach.
A shadow's dime was lost in piled cash.
Exclusive banks encase the liquid gold.
The market value's printed 'long the sash.
Expenses crush the story while it's told.
A hidden cake conceals another chip.
Computer thoughts begat careers at home.
A cottage quilt portrays the vicar's lip.
The metal showed the water where to roam.
The pictured cat resolved in pixels clean.
A giant land condensed inside a bean.

Carnival of Divorce Lawyers

When two shallow, self-absorbed people decide to get divorced they find a landscape of crooked lawyers in L.A. These lawyers prove adept at driving a further wedge between them in 2019's Marriage Story. Strong performances from Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson come with a few good laughs but with too many broad moments for the subtle issues writer/director Noel Baumbach sets out to tackle. It's like if a Woody Allen or Ingmar Bermgan movie were remade by George Costanza.

The movie begins with two montages with voiceover narratives. First with Charlie (Driver) narrating a montage about his wife, Natalie (Johansson), then with one by her about him. Both have nothing but lovely things to say about each other, each for some reason praising the other for adopting opposite gender roles or behaviour. Natalie talks about how Charlie loves caring for their son and always cries at movies and Charlie talks about how Natalie opens pickle jars for him because she's much stronger. Which is pretty hard to buy after seeing Driver shirtless in Last Jedi and even harder to buy after he punches a hole in a wall in this movie.

It turns out these are essays the two have written about each other as part of marriage counselling but they end up not sharing with each other because Natalie isn't feeling up to it. Is the gender roles thing meant to be cause for their breakup? We actually don't get much detail on what drove them apart initially but the two start to distrust each other more and more once lawyers start manipulating them.

Baumbach casts some powerhouse supporting players in the lawyer roles--Natalie gets a shark played by Laura Dern and Charlie first hires Alan Alda and then Ray Liotta. Alda's pretty good as a mild mannered old hand but Dern and Liotta are so cartoonishly aggressive it seems bizarre that Charlie or Natalie listen to them. But then, Charlie is a theatre director whose cold and hipstery production of Elektra we get a glimpse of. Maybe I can believe he's that big of a sap.

Driver and Johansson give their all in some dialogue that goes from tense to heated and the energy between the actors is captivating but I struggle to remember anything they actually said. It's telling that the climax of the film is Driver in an effective piece of slapstick, Baumbach apparently wise enough to realise the screenplay didn't provide enough satisfying material. Johansson wears a cool David Bowie Halloween costume in another scene so there are lots of nice little things but I'm not sure it makes the whole movie worth watching. Your mileage may vary.

Marriage Story is available on Netflix.

Short Skirts, Fringe, Stoles, and Depravity

Burglars may lead the most innocent girl down the path of disgrace and ruin. A young girl in 1920's The Flapper flirts with such danger after her boarding school is robbed by a pair of low-lives. Olive Thomas gives a charming performance as the picture of innocence, scandalising her family by playing dress-up in this droll comedy.

Genevieve, known as "Ginger" (Thomas), grew up in a town called Orange Springs, a town where, a title card informs us, there were no saloons to close when Prohibition took effect the previous year. Ginger leaves this garden of innocence for another when she goes to boarding school. Among the depraved antics Ginger gets up to here include snowball fights and sleigh rides with a boy from another nearby school, Bill E. Forbes (Theodore Wetman, Jr.).

When two thieves bust in and fleece the place, mostly for confiscated clothes and jewellery belonging to the headmistress, they decide to frame Ginger the troublemaker. Ginger decides to make a wardrobe from the confiscated items and dupe her family into thinking she's become a fallen woman.

She breezes past a perplexed Bill, telling him how impossibly separated they are now across a gulf of class and experience. When her dismayed father asks who was "the man" who effected her ruin she's equally perplexed, wondering why a man should be involved.

This is a movie designed to give the audience cheesecake they can eat, too; we get to watch Ginger dressing and acting like a trollop and the more she does the more innocent she's confirmed to be. It's pretty cute.

The Flapper is available on YouTube from a variety of sources.

The Doctor Flattens

Well. I liked part one. Watching Sunday's new Doctor Who, "Spyfall part II", was like being on a rollercoaster, going up a steep hill to reach the top and . . . levelling out, coming to a stop, and exiting the ride safely. We were presented with some recycled plot bits about the Master and Gallifrey as though they were new, dramatic revelations. It was sort of like if The Dark Knight had ended with Commissioner Gordon saying, "It turns out the Joker . . . is a villain!"

Spoilers after the screenshot

Meanwhile, comedy bits with the Doctor's Companions, Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole), and Yasmin (Mandip Gil), seemed about two seconds away from the three of them hitting each other with rubber mallets or throwing pies in each other's faces.

GRAHAM: "I forgot uh read the instructions!"

YASMIN: "Graham!"

GRAHAM: "Well, we was in a rush, what could I do?"

RYAN: "Rocket cufflinks! To be fair I didn't read the instruction on those either."

GRAHAM: "You doughnut!"

RYAN and YASMIN: "Doughnut?!"

GRAHAM: "Yeah, the pair of you, a right couple a doughnuts! Ah. There's no-one I'd rather be on the run with."

Aww. They're like the Three Stooges except they hug each other after fighting. A few minutes later I was watching Graham dancing around shooting pink lasers from his toes without any clear aim and the main question I had was, "Why the fuck am I watching this?"

Jodie Whittaker's still trooping along with a good performance. She got a laugh out of me when she was frustrated with herself for accidentally calling herself a man again. I like the idea of the Doctor running into Charles Babbage (Mark Dexter) and Ada Lovelace (Sylvie Briggs) but Babbage spouting some random sexism about how woman are decoration--and then Ada being so passive as to essentially be decoration--was not the most exciting use of these impressive personages.

But it was the episode's conclusion that dropped, well, not the bomb but--what? The water balloon? Gallifrey had been lost again and this time the Master (Sacha Dhawan) was taking credit because the "founding fathers" of Gallifrey weren't who the Doctor and the Master thought they were. What does that mean? So Rassilon and Omega weren't really murderous madmen? Virtually every story about Gallifrey's past since the 70s has been about how the founding fathers were nuts so I can only imagine the Master's secret revelation about them is that they were actually perfectly decent fellows at all times. Somehow I doubt that's the idea, though.

The Doctor, exasperated, asking the Master if he ever stopped his evil antics sure didn't feel like the Doctor had just recently finished spending a whole season rehabilitating an imprisoned Master. There's been plenty of times where the Master's regeneration wasn't explained but this is ridiculous. It really feels like the show is pretending Missy just didn't happen, which would make sense if the character had been wildly unpopular but my impression was that the opposite was true. The Doctor in the first part of "Spyfall" even has a line about how being a woman now is an "upgrade", much like a similar, funnier line Missy had ("Some of us can afford the upgrade"). Is it possible that Chibnall or some of the producers decided that Missy, as conceived, was a product of misogyny? That's the impression I'm left with when formerly a villain's line is given to the hero and that incarnation of the villain, in which she had become a more nuanced and interesting character, has seemingly been erased. It's ironic the episode concludes with the Master hinting at an erased history of the Time Lords.

So I guess the uplifting conclusion of the 50th anniversary special has been overturned. People complained that that twist had upset the Doctor's central internal drama for the Russell T. Davies era. But the anniversary special pointed out an aspect of the Doctor's destruction of his homeworld that hadn't been previously alluded to, that in the process the Doctor had killed not just a corrupt, warmongering establishment but also millions of children, innocent adults, and possibly Leela and Romana (who returned from E-Space in tie-in media) and at least one version of K-9. This, combined with the fact that the 50th anniversary was enough of a special event to overturn a cornerstone of the overall story, made me happy with the resolution. What does "Spyfall" leave us with? A villain rebooted as simplistic doing a really bad thing that had already been done before. With dopey companions. I'm starting to feel like the target audience is gorillas and dolphins.

Twitter Sonnet #1315

A line of teeth continues cleaning bones.
A glass of dust resembles drying milk.
The metal tombs resound in music tones.
The certain box's lined with ragged silk.
The missing nails foretell a sinking ship.
A running pawn dismissed the rooks and knights.
The broken prow behind the waters dipped.
A dozen days disturbed a million nights.
A shadow moves without a body's aid.
A picture gasps before a withered hand.
With missing months and blood the room was paid.
A bat repulsed the hordes across the land.
A tower cracks and changes shape to mist.
A secret pulse infused a gentle wrist.

To Absent Crichtons and Hybrid Warships

The final episode of Farscape's third season introduces a new main character, a major plot development, and drastically changes the direction of the show but mostly it feels like denouement. After the events of the previous episode, Moya seeks to deliver Talyn's remains to a Leviathan burial ground of sorts. Meanwhile, most of the characters feel it's time to go their separate ways and head to their separate homes.

Season Three, Episode 22: A Dog with Two Bones

I'm not really sure why everyone seems to feel this way. If anything, I'd think they were in more danger from the Peacekeepers after destroying the Command Carrier. But it makes for some bittersweet farewells during which no-one seems to care much that a total stranger is in the mess hall.

Noranti (Melissa Jaffer) cooks and dispenses wisdom for a barely receptive Crichton (Ben Browder). How differently this would've unfolded on Star Trek. But Crichton's too busy having visions of an alternate timeline where he and Aeryn (Claudia Black) marry on Earth, he has no time to interrogate the interloper.

Maybe this alternate tale is something like what would've happened if the other Crichton had lived. As it is, Aeryn, understandably, finds things too weird with the remaining Crichton and she takes off in her new Prowler, despite the episode's bombshell; Aeryn is pregnant. Presumably with the other Crichton's child. In a series about new and ambiguous family relationships, this may be the newest and most ambiguous yet.

It's an idea that certainly made for a great story across the length of season three and sets the stage for an even wilder season four . . .

. . .

Farscape is available now on Amazon Prime.

This entry is part of a series I'm writing on Farscape for the show's 20th anniversary. My previous reviews can be found here (episodes are in the order intended by the show's creators rather than the broadcast order):

Season One:

Episode 1: Pilot
Episode 2: I, E.T.
Episode 3: Exodus from Genesis
Episode 4: Throne for a Loss
Episode 5: Back and Back and Back to the Future
Episode 6: Thank God It's Friday Again
Episode 7: PK Tech Girl
Episode 8: That Old Black Magic
Episode 9: DNA Mad Scientist
Episode 10: They've Got a Secret
Episode 11: Till the Blood Runs Clear
Episode 12: Rhapsody in Blue
Episode 13: The Flax
Episode 14: Jeremiah Crichton
Episode 15: Durka Returns
Episode 16: A Human Reaction
Episode 17: Through the Looking Glass
Episode 18: A Bug's Life
Episode 19: Nerve
Episode 20: The Hidden Memory
Episode 21: Bone to be Wild
Episode 22: Family Ties

Season Two:

Episode 1: Mind the Baby
Episode 2: Vitas Mortis
Episode 3: Taking the Stone
Episode 4: Crackers Don't Matter
Episode 5: Picture If You Will
Episode 6: The Way We Weren't
Episode 7: Home on the Remains
Episode 8: Dream a Little Dream
Episode 9: Out of Their Minds
Episode 10: My Three Crichtons
Episode 11: Look at the Princess, Part I: A Kiss is But a Kiss
Episode 12: Look at the Princess, Part II: I Do, I Think
Episode 13: Look at the Princess, Part III: The Maltese Crichton
Episode 14: Beware of Dog
Episode 15: Won't Get Fooled Again
Episode 16: The Locket
Episode 17: The Ugly Truth
Episode 18: A Clockwork Nebari
Episode 19: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part I: A Not So Simple Plan
Episode 20: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part II: With Friends Like These . . .
Episode 21: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part III: Plan B
Episode 22: Die Me, Dichotomy

Season Three:

Episode 1: Season of Death
Episode 2: Suns and Lovers
Episode 3: Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part I: Would'a, Could'a, Should'a
Episode 4: Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part II: Wait for the Wheel
Episode 5: . . . Different Destinations
Episode 6: Eat Me
Episode 7: Thanks for Sharing
Episode 8: Green Eyed Monster
Episode 9: Losing Time
Episode 10: Relativity
Episode 11: Incubator
Episode 12: Meltdown
Episode 13: Scratch 'n Sniff
Episode 14: Infinite Possibilities, Part I: Daedalus Demands
Episode 15: Infinite Possibilities, Part II: Icarus Abides
Episode 16: Revenging Angel
Episode 17: The Choice
Episode 18: Fractures
Episode 19: I-Yensch, You-Yensch
Episode 20: Into the Lion's Den, Part I: Lambs to the Slaughter
Episode 21: Into the Lion's Den, Part II: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Doctor Dracula is In

So why do vampires need to be invited in? Why are they put off by crucifixes? Such questions are at the heart of the dialogue in 2020's Dracula, a Netflix/BBC miniseries from Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. I've only caught the first episode so far but I've found it enjoyable but not brilliant. With Sherlock and Doctor Who, Steven Moffat took fan speculations, nitpicks, and decades of critical analyses to generate new versions of the classic characters, turning analyses into genuine people. A similar attempt is made in Dracula but so far the result is more of a video illustrated deconstruction than the same kind of organic endeavour as Moffat's previous forays.

But there's already been deconstructionist takes on Dracula--how couldn't there be? Bram Stoker's novel is one of the most adapted works of fiction of all time. There was Andy Warhol's Blood for Dracula which broke down the implications of class stratification with an amusingly wimpy, aristocratic performance by an adorable Udo Kier. There was Guy Maddin's Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary, an insufferable slog through the shallowest, academic perspectives on the book as reinforcing patriarchal and colonialist privilage. One of the most refreshing things about Gatiss and Moffat's version is that, though it references English presumptions in foreign lands and culturally supported sexism, it also makes a point to show that Jonathan Harker (John Heffernan) is compelled to risk his own life as a matter of course when someone requests his aid. This is a show that's aware of the fact that part of the Christian cultural heritage is a basic sense of human decency. The conflict between the good and bad qualities of the religion forms the internal conflict of Agatha Van Helsing (Dolly Wells).

A female version of Van Helsing has been done (there's a USA series which, for all I know, may still be airing new episodes). But this one is also Sister Agatha, another character from the book, so she's not simply gender swapped, she's a combination, one that works well enough to serve as an intriguing streamlining of the story. Her crisis of faith is something entirely new, though, as neither Sister Agatha nor Abraham Van Helsing seemed to have any trouble believing in God.

Mostly the show has the quality of an intellectual discourse, exemplified when, in their first showdown, Agatha and Dracula (Claes Bang) argue about why vampires require invitations. The show brings very little new to the table in terms of atmosphere and effects, much of which is cribbed a bit from Hammer and a lot from Francis Ford Coppola. Claes Bang comes off a bit like Christopher Lee's Dracula crossed with Cary Grant in Suspicion but with the faster speech of a typical Steven Moffat character. There's nothing Vlad the Impaler-ish so far, he doesn't even have the "We Szekelys have a right to be proud" speech, Dracula's longest monologue in the novel. This is a show much more about discussing the vampire in modern fiction in a breezy manner and, while it doesn't inspire much shock or awe, it is kind of fun.

Dracula (2020) is available on Netflix.

Mutant Chicken Aphrodisiac

Genetic experiments on chickens, the serial murders of prostitutes, and a love triangle. All of these things are contained succinctly somehow in the the title of 1968's Death Laid an Egg (La morte ha fatto l'uovo). A stylish film with beautiful stars, it's as captivating as it is weird despite a discordant soundtrack and distractingly experimental framing. Sometimes seeming to lose its train of thought in dead end digressions, the film nonetheless seems to be making some kind of point about sex and nature. Sort of.

The beautiful Anna (Gina Lollobrigida) is the wealthy owner of an egg farm run by her handsome husband, Marco (Jean-Louis Trintignant). When Anna's young, beautiful cousin, Gabri (Ewa Aulin), visits, the relationship between Anna and Marco is disrupted.

It's not that Marco's attention seems distracted by Gabri's beauty. Probably because he's busy secretly paying for prostitutes in a hotel across town where he role-plays murdering them (many reviews and synopses of the film seem to feel we're meant to think at first he's actually murdering them but I never had this impression). Instead, it's Anna who become fixated on Gabri and tangentially with the idea of Marco having an affair with her. When Anna discovers Marco's prostitute habit, she and Gabri gleefully initiate a scheme to have Anna pose as a prostitute.

The commentary on sex and relationships here seems almost a Vertigoian statement on the role of fantasy and ideal in relationships. With this context, the fact that a scientist is breeding headless, wingless chickens at the egg farm takes on new significance.

Anna sees this as a revolutionary development with a promise of increasing profits. Marco, meanwhile, sees only abomination. Is there an implied connexion here between how each one sees relationships? Kind of. Anna is fixated on discussions of wigs and Gabri's young skin, of dressing up and modifying, the effect of beauty being more important than the process to achieve it. Marco, meanwhile, enacts a relationship that places him in power. How that's connected I'm not sure unless it's to say that a body needs a head.

Death Laid an Egg is available on Amazon Prime.

Twitter Sonnet #1314

A horde of hoards were many marching coins.
A walkie talkie took the cell to phones.
Official pants report the legal loins.
Banana banks begin to peel your loans.
A tower leans to shelter little trees.
The acre plate controls the breakfast land.
A bigger thought contained a hive of threes.
A double deck could deal a triple hand.
A walking head connects the footed necks.
Repeated guys redeem the mushy lunch.
Rewards involved bikini cargo wrecks.
The frothy waves advanced to test a hunch.
Extracted words create a second sea.
Vacation hives return a strident bee.

The TARDIS and the Alphabet of Espionage

I caught wind of so many bad opinions of Wednesday's new Doctor Who, "Spyfall Part 1", that maybe I was predisposed in its favour a bit. But I think I just kind of liked it. I applaud the return to a two parter format, the pacing feels more natural, and the new monster (unless it's really an old monster) is genuinely creepy. Stephen Fry is good but needed more screentime and he gets a couple of too-dopey lines. Really, the main problem I have with the episode, and it is a big one, is the companions, whose dullness shines more starkly after their absence.

I can kind of dig Mandip Gil now and then but Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole seem like they took heavy doses of novocaine every morning. Listening to them talk about how they're not really qualified to be spies, I thought, "Yeah, it's true, you guys don't belong here." As Walsh wades through another slow line delivery about how he doesn't understand what's going on or asks why the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) is going to do something dangerous it is rather like some random, disinterested person off the street was pulled in and forced to be the Doctor's companion. Her affectionate calls to the "family" seem kind of sad, when you think about it.

So, it's not like the Doctor usually pulls companions from training facilities or elite military or science corps (though sometimes this is true). Often, they're ostensibly just regular people who get caught up in the adventure. There are two ways to make this work--make the companion a genuinely average person and dumb down all the rest of the universe to their level, or make the companion an extraordinary person whose abilities haven't been recognised by human institutions. Usually, the show has taken the latter tact. It's especially clear during the Davies and Moffat eras--Donna is able to spot weird things at work her coworkers can't. When Clara is reintroduced in "The Snowmen", she's a woman with two secret identities and even then the Doctor tests her with the umbrella on the roof. In the classic era, Ace was an explosives expert who'd left Earth before encountering the Doctor; Nyssa, Adric, and Zoe were young geniuses; Sarah Jane Smith was an intrepid reporter. You could say Ian and Barbara were pretty ordinary but, even with them, their expertise as teachers came into play more than once. The only genuinely average companion I can think of is Tegan and it's basically what drove her away in the end.

Thirteen's companions aren't just average, though. They behave average or even below average. Sometimes I think a note from the BBC after Moffat left was, "Everyone talks too fast on this show. Make everyone talk slower." As far as the companions are concerned, it's overkill.

But, all in all, I liked this episode.

Spoilers after the screenshot

The Master is my least favourite aspect of Doctor Who. I always felt the show lost 60% of its brain cells whenever he showed up. But Steven Moffat made me appreciate the character with Missy. She was so good, she made all the other appearances of the character better for me, except John Simm. And even he was better when he showed up at the end of Twelve's run. This new Master, played by Sacha Dhawan, I don't hate. He takes a page from Michelle Gomez's book and plays the character as though he has some real mental damage and he channels only a little of John Simm's zaniness. It's standard for the Master to show up after being definitely killed (Moffat even joked about this) but it is disappointing to see him come back with no nod to that finale with Gomez and Simm because that wasn't just a physical death, it was a thematic cliffhanger. There was a conflict between Master and Missy. How was that resolved? It's natural to want to know. And Dhawan would have to be ten times better than Daniel Day Lewis to make me not want Missy back in the regular role. Was it really necessary to cut all ties to the Moffat era?

I liked the siege with the alien beings, I like how mysterious they are, though they don't quite hit Weeping Angel heights or even the Silence. Mostly, I'm just happy to have an episode paced like a two-parter. That's the natural pace for Doctor Who and the show improves whenever it returns to it.

The Lands of Sand and Cats

The first Sirenia Digest of the new year is one of the best I've ever read. Caitlin R. Kiernan's new story included in the Digest, "Seven Dreams", is another vehicle for dialogues but the unnamed narrator's communication with different dream characters in different dream scenarios takes on an extraordinary sense of personae eternally bound together and in conflict in ways both subtle and clear.

The story is also set in H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands and the narrator shifts between a dialogue with a woman named Sarah in Ulthar and a dialogue with a mysterious girl with whom the narrator's trudging through a sandstorm. Both Sarah and the girl talk about the other in ways that suggest the other is a dream while also insisting on the importance of dreams. Each one, in a sense, delegitimises the other while also focusing on her in a way that suggests extreme importance. There are other shifts in shape and persona once the narrator and the girl reach Dylath-leen that bring the story to other fascinating, lovely heights. I felt the tale crystallises some preoccupations evident in earlier Sirenia Digests. A really nice piece of work.

The 2010s in Film, as Far as I Could See

Happy New Year, everyone. One of the regular features on this blog is a ranking at the end of the decade of every movie I saw. I fully appreciate the rationale that says the decade would really begin on 2021 but, the way I see it, when we think about the 1980s or 1950s, we think of them beginning in 1980 or 1950 because we call the 80s and the 50s based on their names, not their numerical values.

For this decade I'm dividing the 278 films I saw into three categories: Worst, Better, and Best.

Worst Films:

40. The Peanut Butter Falcon(Wikipedia entry)
39. Madame Hyde (imdb entry, my review)
38. Let It Snow(Wikipedia entry)
37. We Have Always Lived in the Castle(Wikipedia entry, my review)
36. The Killing Joke(Wikipedia entry, my review)
35. Captain Marvel(Wikipedia entry, my review)
34. Little Sister(Wikipedia entry, my review)
33. Ant-Man and the Wasp(Wikipedia entry, my review)
32. 1922(Wikipedia entry, my review)
31. The Cloverfield Paradox (Wikipedia entry, my review)

30. Goodnight Mommy(Wikipedia entry, my review)
29. Doctor Strange(Wikipedia entry, my review)
28. X-Men Apocalypse(Wikipedia entry, my review)
27. Ghostbusters (2016) (Wikipedia entry, my review)
26. Jurassic World(Wikipedia entry, my review)
25. My Buddha is Pink(Facebook page, my review)
24. Gun Woman(imdb entry, my review)
23. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty(Wikipedia entry, my review)
22. The Circle(Wikipedia entry, my review)
21. Lights Out(Wikipedia entry)

20. Terminator Genisys(Wikipedia entry, my review)
19. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) (Wikipedia entry, my review)
18. Gone Girl(Wikipedia entry, my review)
17. Batman v. Superman(Wikipedia entry, my review)
16. The Fault in Our Stars(Wikipedia entry, my review)
15. Man of Steel(Wikipedia entry, my review)
14. The Deep Blue Sea(Wikipedia entry, my review)
13. Star Trek: Into Darkness(Wikipedia entry, my review)
12. 12 Years a Slave(Wikipedia entry, my review)
11. Colombiana(Wikipedia entry, my review)

10. Argo(Wikipedia entry, my review)
9. The Battery(Wikipedia entry, my review)
8. Tree of Life(Wikipedia entry, my review)
7. The Artist(Wikipedia entry, my review)
6. Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the King(Wikipedia entry, my review)
5. Alice in Wonderland(Wikipedia entry, my review)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides(Wikipedia entry, my review)
3. Robin Hood (2010) (Wikipedia entry, my review)
2. The Conjuring(Wikipedia entry, my review)
1. Transformers: Age of Extinction(Wikipedia entry, my review)

Better Films

238. Morning Glory(Wikipedia entry, my review)
237. The Kids are All Right(Wikipedia entry, my review)
236. Shame(Wikipedia entry, my review)
235. Raees(Wikipedia entry, my review)
234. War Horse(Wikipedia entry, my review)
233. Wild(Wikipedia entry, my review)
232. The Predator (Wikipedia entry, my review)
231. Fahrenheit 11/9 (Wikipedia entry, my review)

230. Upstream Colour(Wikipedia entry, my review)
229. We Need to Talk About Kevin(Wikipedia entry, my review)
228. Get Out(Wikipedia entry, my review)
227. Padmaavat(Wikipedia entry, my review)
226. Avengers: Infinity War (Wikipedia entry, my review)
225. Hysteria(Wikipedia entry, my review)
224. Absolutely Fabulous(Wikipedia entry, my review)
223. The Night Before (Wikipedia entry)
222. Star Trek Beyond(Wikipedia entry, my review)
221. Captain Fantastic(Wikipedia entry, my review)

220. Jupiter Ascending(Wikipedia entry, my review)
219. Frances Ha(Wikipedia entry, my review)
218. Birdman(Wikipedia entry, my review)
217. Fan(Wikipedia entry, my review)
216. Clouds of Sils Maria(Wikipedia entry, my review)
215. Macbeth (2015) (Wikipedia entry, my review)
214. Mission Impossible: Fallout (Wikipedia entry, my review)
213. The Avengers: Age of Ultron(Wikipedia entry, my review)
212. Alien: Covenant(Wikipedia entry, my review)
211. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword(Wikipedia entry, my review)

210. The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies(Wikipedia entry, my review)
209. Ant-Man(Wikipedia entry, my review)
208. Boyhood(Wikipedia entry, my review)
207. An Adventure in Space and Time(Wikipedia entry, my review)
206. Midnight Special(Wikipedia entry, my review)
205. Thorn(Wikipedia entry, my review)
204. A Hijacking(Wikipedia entry, my review)
203. The Enemy(imdb entry, my review)
202. Amour(Wikipedia entry, my review)
201. The Witch(Wikipedia entry, my review)

200. Snow White and the Huntsman(Wikipedia entry, my review)
199. X-Men: First Class(Wikipedia entry, my review)
198. The Loneliest Planet(Wikipedia entry, my review)
197. Oculus(Wikipedia entry, my review)
196. Hidden(Wikipedia entry, my review)
195. Life Itself(Wikipedia entry, my review)
194. Predators(Wikipedia entry, my review)
193. Scott Pilgrim versus the World(Wikipedia entry, my review)
192. Source Code(Wikipedia entry, my review)
191. Sons of Norway(imdb entry, my review)

190. Maleficent(Wikipedia entry, my review)
189. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes(Wikipedia entry, my review)
188. A Letter to Momo(Wikipedia entry, my review)
187. Iron Man 2(Wikipedia entry, my review)
186. Rammbock(Wikipedia entry, my review)
185. Chyonmage Purin(Wikipedia entry, my review)
184. Captain America: The First Avenger(Wikipedia entry, my review)
183. The Dark Knight Rises(Wikipedia entry, my review)
182. Hell(Wikipedia entry, my review)
181. Pacific Rim(Wikipedia entry, my review)

180. Frozen 2(Wikipedia entry, my review)
179. Dark Touch(Wikipedia entry, my review)
178. The Solitude of Prime Numbers(Wikipedia entry, my review)
177. Poll(Wikipedia entry, my review)
176. Hanna(Wikipedia entry, my review)
175. Inside Llewyn Davis(Wikipedia entry, my review)
174. Ghosts of the Night (my review)
173. Sleeping Beauty (2011) (Wikipedia entry, my review)
172. Ted(Wikipedia entry, my review)
171. Avengers: Endgame(Wikipedia entry)

170. Cloud Atlas(Wikipedia entry, my review)
169. I am Not Your Negro(Wikipedia entry, my review)
168. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy(Wikipedia entry, my review)
167. Mother of George(Wikipedia entry, my review)
166. Super Dark Times(Wikipedia entry, my review)
165. Deadpool(Wikipedia entry, my review)
164. Black Panther (Wikipedia entry, my review)
163. The Winter's Tale(Wikipedia entry, my review)
162. Wild Tales(Wikipedia entry, my review)
161. Kill Me(Wikipedia entry, my review)

160. Gravity(Wikipedia entry, my review)
159. Lucky(Wikipedia entry, my review)
158. Bande de filles(Wikipedia entry, my review)
157. I Smile Back(Wikipedia entry, my review)
156. The Place Beyond the Pines(Wikipedia entry, my review)
155. The Hunger Games(Wikipedia entry, my review)
154. Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo(Wikipedia entry, my review)
153. Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest(Wikipedia entry, my review)
152. Hugo(Wikipedia entry, my review)
151. Giovanni's Island(Wikipedia entry, my review)

150. Another Earth(Wikipedia entry, my review)
149. Iron Man 3(Wikipedia entry, my review)
148. The Wall(Wikipedia entry, my review)
147. Iron Sky(Wikipedia entry, my review)
146. Bridesmaids(Wikipedia entry, my review)
145. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug(Wikipedia entry, my review)
144. Ghost in the Shell(2017) (Wikipedia entry, my review)
143. The World's End(Wikipedia entry, my review)
142. The Edge of To-morrow(Wikipedia entry, my review)
141. World War Z(Wikipedia entry, my review)

140. Captain America: Civil War(Wikipedia entry, my review)
139. The Cabin in the Woods(Wikipedia entry, my review)
138. The Assassin(Wikipedia entry, my review)
137. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2(Wikipedia entry, my review)
136. The Avengers(Wikipedia entry, my review)
135. Super 8(Wikipedia entry, my review)
134. Chico and Rita(Wikipedia entry, my review)
133. Trollhunter(Wikipedia entry, my review)
132. Machete(Wikipedia entry, my review)
131. Force Majeure(Wikipedia entry, my review)

130. Devil's Pass(Wikipedia entry, my review)
129. The Borrower Arrietty(Wikipedia entry, my review)
128. Tangled(Wikipedia entry, my review)
127. Looper(Wikipedia entry, my review)
126. Kahaani(Wikipedia entry, my review)
125. Suicide Squad(Wikipedia entry, my review)
124. Haider(Wikipedia entry, my review)
123. The Rover(Wikipedia entry, my review)
122. Guardians of the Galaxy(Wikipedia entry, my review)
121. X-Men: Days of Future Past(Wikipedia entry, my review)

120. The Garden of Words(Wikipedia entry, my review)
119. Next to Her(Wikipedia entry, my review)
118. High Heel(Wikipedia entry, my review)
117. Atomic Blonde(Wikipedia entry, my review)
116. Only God Forgives(Wikipedia entry, my review)
115. A Separation(Wikipedia entry, my review)
114. Personal Shopper(Wikipedia entry, my review)
113. Chennai Express(Wikipedia entry, my review)
112. Thale(Wikipedia entry, my review)
111. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya(Wikipedia entry, my review)

110. The Eternal Zero(Wikipedia entry, my review)
109. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie(Wikipedia entry, my review)
108. King Lear (2018) (Wikipedia entry, my review)
107. Captain America: The Winter Soldier(Wikipedia entry, my review)
106. Veronica Mars(Wikipedia entry, my review)
105. The Interview(Wikipedia entry, my review)
104. Hell or High Water(Wikipedia entry, my review)
103. Mandy (Wikipedia entry, my review)
102. Kizumonogatari(Wikipedia entry, my review)
101. Spider-Man: Homecoming(Wikipedia entry, my review)

100. Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World(Wikipedia entry, my review)
99. Sausage Party(Wikipedia entry, my review)
98. The Green Inferno(Wikipedia entry, my review)
97. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker(Wikipedia entry, my review)
96. Zootopia(Wikipedia entry, my review)
95. It Follows(Wikipedia entry, my review)
94. Hail, Caesar!(Wikipedia entry, my review)
93. Shield of Straw(Wikipedia entry, my review)
92. Michiel de Ruyter(Wikipedia entry, my review)
91. Killing Them Softly(Wikipedia entry, my review)

90. Cosmopolis(Wikipedia entry, my review)
89. Inception(Wikipedia entry, my review)
88. Barbara(Wikipedia entry, my review)
87. Black Swan(Wikipedia entry, my review)
86. The Death of Stalin(Wikipedia entry, my review)
85. Your Highness(Wikipedia entry, my review)
84. Thor(Wikipedia entry, my review)
83. Solo: A Star Wars Story (Wikipedia entry, my review)
82. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse(Wikipedia entry, my review)
81. Ida(Wikipedia entry, my review)

80. The Hallow(Wikipedia entry, my review)
79. The Wailing(Wikipedia entry, my review)
78. The Martian(Wikipedia entry, my review)
77. Interstellar(Wikipedia entry, my review)
76. Dunkirk(Wikipedia entry, my review)
75. Europa Report(Wikipedia entry, my review)
74. Life of Pi(Wikipedia entry, my review)
73. In Bloom(Wikipedia entry, my review)
72. The Shape of Water(Wikipedia entry, my review)
71. Isle of Dogs(Wikipedia entry, my review)

70. Locke(Wikipedia entry, my review)
69. Logan(Wikipedia entry, my review)
68. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec(Wikipedia entry, my review)
67. Ex Machina(Wikipedia entry, my review)
66. Mr. Holmes(Wikipedia entry)
65. This Is the End(Wikipedia entry, my review)
64. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey(Wikipedia entry, my review)
63. Why Don't You Play in Hell?(Wikipedia entry, my review)
62. Wonder Woman(Wikipedia entry, my review)
61. Alita: Battle Angel(Wikipedia entry, my review)

60. I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House(Wikipedia entry, my review)
59. Blue Jasmine(Wikipedia entry, my review)
58. Byzantium(Wikipedia entry, my review)
57. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote(Wikipedia entry, my review)
56. Elle(Wikipedia entry, my review)
55. Nymphomaniac(Wikipedia entry, my review)
54. The Zero Theorem(Wikipedia entry, my review)
53. The Counsellor(Wikipedia entry, my review)
52. Moonrise Kingdom(Wikipedia entry, my review)
51. Bone Tomahawk(Wikipedia entry, my review)

50. Enthiran(Wikipedia entry, my review)
49. The Hobbit: Tolkien Edit(Web site, my review)
48. You Were Never Really Here(Wikipedia entry, my review)
47. First Reformed (Wikipedia entry, my review)
46. Thor: Ragnarok(Wikipedia entry, my review)
45. Mama(Wikipedia entry, my review)
44. Never Let Me Go(Wikipedia entry, my review)
43. Take Shelter(Wikipedia entry, my review)
42. 10 Cloverfield Lane(Wikipedia entry, my review)
41. The Irishman(Wikipedia entry, my review)

Best Films:

40. Maps to the Stars(Wikipedia entry)
39. The Grand Budapest Hotel(Wikipedia entry, my review)
38. Midnight in Paris(Wikipedia entry, my review)
37. The Neon Demon(Wikipedia entry, my review)
36. Your Name(Wikipedia entry, my review)
35. Twixt(Wikipedia entry, my review)
34. Star Wars: The Last Jedi(Wikipedia entry, my review)
33. Only Lovers Left Alive(Wikipedia entry, my review)
32. The Babadook(Wikipedia entry, my review)
31. Toni Erdmann(Wikipedia entry, my review)

30. Mad Max: Fury Road(Wikipedia entry, my review)
29. The Wind Rises(Wikipedia entry, my review)
28. Star Wars: The Force Awakens(Wikipedia entry, my review)
27. Snowpiercer(Wikipedia entry, my review)
26. The Mermaid(Wikipedia entry, my review)
25. Frozen(Wikipedia entry, my review)
24. Rogue One(Wikipedia entry, my review)
23. Crimson Peak(Wikipedia entry, my review)
22. The Hateful Eight(Wikipedia entry, my review)
21. Prometheus(Wikipedia entry, my review)

20. Shutter Island(Wikipedia entry, my review)
19. The Wolf of Wall Street(Wikipedia entry, my review)
18. Drive(Wikipedia entry, my review)
17. Winter's Bone(Wikipedia entry, my review)
16. My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?(Wikipedia entry, my review)
15. True Grit(Wikipedia entry, my review)
14. The Act of Killing(Wikipedia entry, my review)
13. A Dangerous Method(Wikipedia entry, my review)
12. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs(Wikipedia entry, my review)
11. The Tale of Princess Kaguya(Wikipedia entry, my review)

10.Under the Skin(Wikipedia entry, my review)
9. Chloe(Wikipedia entry, my review)
8. Django Unchained(Wikipedia entry, my review)
7. The Other Side of the Wind(Wikipedia entry, my review)
6. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood(Wikipedia entry, my review)
5. Joker(Wikipedia entry, my review)
4. Magic Magic(Wikipedia entry, my review)
3. Blade Runner: 2049(Wikipedia entry, my review)
2. Melancholia(Wikipedia entry, my review)
1. Twin Peaks: The Return(Wikipedia entry, my review)

Twitter Sonnet #1313

A muppet swapped for toonish dreams returned.
A cloudy place includes the icy gaol.
Through Jawa eyes the hidden droid's discerned.
A frozen stone was sent by Hothly mail.
A curving path resolved in broken stones.
A missing house eludes the turning eye.
Increasing speed digests the burning bones.
A magic light projects another try.
Courageous strides deliver peeps to Earth.
A tide of clocks betide the flood of hands.
The steel and stone descry an iron berth.
And so the massive ship discreetly lands.
A running cat was scratching grounded ears.
A horde of films became a dime of years.