T-Rex: April 2022
Whatup. Got a ton of rex this time, so let’s get right to it!
Films
The Batman (HBO Max)
I could say a lot about the character Batman and the whole milieu of white superheroes, but lemme just stick to this film. It does the whole superhero-meets-epic crime film thing pretty well. It’s 3 hours long (and doesn’t need to be), yet it’s well-paced. The aesthetic/overall look of the picture is quite engrossing. The central message is (somewhat) profound, but the writers don’t really know how to handle it (or were forced to change it, who knows) so it falls very flat. Performances are great. It features the most Black people of any Batman film (i.e., 2) and includes not one but two interracial kisses (same characters both times)—‘shocking’ you like the 90s by way of the 60s. The ending is pretty silly.
Tl;dr—not bad for a Batman flick. Haven’t liked one this much since Batman Returns.
Pig (Hulu)
So Pig. Let me start by saying this is not a perfect film but it is beautiful in a way you’ve probably not seen too often. (Shades of Redbelt, Nightcrawler, You Were Never Really Here, but different from all of those, too.) The John Wick comparisons are not really warranted, but inevitable. There is a scene that is total Fight Club, but it’s not a very Fight Club-y movie. It’s softer and sweeter on the balance, even if it is a story about hard, salty folks. And their pig. Check it out, even if you are unsure.
Spencer (HBO Max)
Okay, so the music is so good. Kristen Stewart—I loves her. But as soon as they weighed Diana in for Xmas, I was pee-us-t and couldn’t really stop hating royalty and traditionalism enough to really care about what was going on. That’s my ringing endorsement.
Deep Water (Hulu)
Let’s get a few things out of the way, ‘kay? Patricia Highsmith (who wrote the source material and you know better as the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley) was a great writer, an early queer writer. Ana de Armas falls into the ‘so pretty it kind of hurts to look at her’ bucket for T. Benny A looks like a human cheeseburger (but, aside, I am glad for Bennifer I: Part II, for whatever reason). Adrian Lyne, the director, probably peaked with 9 1/2 Weeks and so we’re getting, you know, run-off from that for the rest of his career. The dude who wrote the screenplay is the hipster brain trust behind Euphoria. So your mileage is gonna vary depending upon your reaction to what I’ve presented there.
Is it kina icky? Yeah, it’s pretty icky. Is it kina sexy? I mean … kind of. Could you spend your two hours on something better? Most def.
Titane (Hulu)
Winner of last year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes. Probably oughta watch Raw—and if you’re down for it, Junior (link is to full short film) too—before seeing this one, but I guess you don’t really have to? Like the characters and story are freestanding, but you will for sure notice connections if you’ve seen all three.
There is really no way to preview this movie, and you’re best off going into it knowing as little as possible. It is trigger-y as hell, I will warn you that much, and is not for the faint of heart. But if you can hang with weird shit and like a rough (very fucking rough, like next level rough) love story, then you’ll dig it.
I saw this awhile ago, but it’s just come to Hulu, so now you can too!
Chaos on the Bridge (Tubi)
These ST writers need to ee a bee o dees and learn about kishōtenketsu. Anyway, that said, this is a cool little doc about the rocky start to Star Trek: The Next Generation as written and directed by da Shat. The choice of country-western theming in the graphics and music is bizarre af, but kina makes it better somehow? Only negative is a homophobic remark made by a writer and Shatner’s tacit, cringe-like response to it.
Kimi (HBO Max)
You’ll read all kinds of comparisons to Hitchcock films, which, you know, are techinically true, but this does not feel like a Hitchcock film at all. It’s more like The Net or Pelican Brief meets Panic Room with a bite-sized dollop of The Conversation.
As a rule, I like Soderbergh movies, flaws and all, better than I like most mainstream fare. This one is kind of meh. Definitely don’t think while watching it; just take the ride.
Upsides: Zoë Kravitz is wonderful as always, and the cinematography is masterfully crafted like all Soderbergh films. Kina fun on a slow night. Speaking of fun on a slow night …
Death on the Nile (HBO Max)
I mean … it’s fine. Perfectly okay way to pass a couple hours and not have to pay attention really. Also, mustache porn for days. By the by, if you want a similar vibe but an actually good movie, check out Bogdanovich’s The Cat’s Meow.
That Uncertain Feeling (Paramount+)
The only film I’ve seen in which Burgess Meredith plays a smooth poon hound. Must be seen to be believed—tho, in truth, he’s back to his usual dorkiness by the end.
This was my first Ernst Lubitsch film, and I’d call it good not great. I’ll keep you posted on my deep dive into his oeuvre.
Hot Saturday (Criterion Channel)
Pre-code Cary Grant flick about a gal who can’t decide if she wants to get married or not and lowkey commentary on how women are forced into marriage. Has a very far-fetched, tacked on happy ending. You can decide if that’s an endorsement or not.
Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway
This movie is … beyond insane, but in the best way. Like Titane, really the less said the better. Just check it out!
Freak Orlando (Criterion Channel)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24al5o
German weirdness at its finest. It’s sort of a non-narrative (or at least an intensely visual one) so it’s probably important to know that going in. It ‘makes sense,’ but only in its own visual vocabulary and whatever is evoked by that. Reminds me some of Lynch’s Inland Empire (which was made much later, ofc, but I saw first) in that regard.
Telly
Moon🌙Knight
Okay, so I’m a Moon Knight superfan from back in the day, so I will do my best not to just squee the fuck out. It’s a lot of fun. Very different from the early era of the comics, but quite good. Oscar Isaac sells it, and it’s his to win or lose. Ethan Hawke is also good enough to make a boring white guy cult leader kind of interesting.
Picard (Paramount+)
Sooo, I know this show has been out for, like, three years. There’s a new season, and I’ve stumbled back into ST somehow, so I decided to give it another try. (We’d waited with bated breath for the premiere and were then … disappointed.)
Let me get a few things outta da way. Patrick Stewart is an international treasure. I don’t think this is really open for debate. I was way too excited to see some of the characters return in this. (Won’t say which ones, but you probably already know.) Michael Chabon was the showrunner on season one, and the man has won a fucking Pulitzer for literature. Did any of that come through? Not at all. Probably one of the worst written shows I’ve ever seen, and that is a massive disappointment given the talent involved. I’ve made no secret of my love for Fringe—as well as my grievances with its shortcomings—and a lot of the same dudes are involved here. And they are dudes, and you can feel it. Just like there was a massive dudification that occurred on Fringe, so do these dudes dude the hell outta Trek. The female characters are especially poorly rendered, and there are no nonbinary or queer characters. Zero. In fact, one character who we first see as a young boy being raised by women is the object of pity both by Picard and the warrior nuns that raise him. Fuck. That. But, I mean. We finished the season anyway, and carried on. Season two is a bit better written, and the cast overall seems tighter knit and more comfortable. Would still love an enby character. It’s the future! And we have tons more enbys now, in the present! Many folks have spoken about how awesome it was to see themselves first represented on Star Trek (notably Whoopi Goldberg), but they are lagging behind on this one. Such a sadness.
TNG again: Tasha Was Ukrainian
Rather than plug Next Generation again, I’ll just say that I learned this month that Tasha Yar was of Ukrainian descent. Her surname is a reference to the WWII atrocity of the same name. And she was killed by an angry shit monster with no redeeming qualities for no reason. Hmmmm ….
Artists (names link to websites)
Stella Untalan
Stella’s one of my first friends on Ello, and I adore her style. Check out her book, prints, and Patreon!
Theresa Magario
One of the coolest people I know (though not in person), Theresa is a multifaceted artist, writer, and dancer.
Veronique Benedictson
One of my newer friends, Veronique is an illustrator and makes cool zines. Pick one up! Buy one of her prints!
Games
So a lot of these games I actually played awhile back, like maybe as far as two years ago, but imma go over them here or they’ll just get skipped for goddess knows how long.
Hollow Knight
The actual music is much better than the trailer music, just fyi. This is a beautiful game on pretty much every level. It is very difficult. That’s going to be a turn-off for some, but it’s worth sticking with. It’s one of those that makes you wish there were more like it, but there’s not really.
Dead Cells
You remember me telling you about Absolver, right? Well this is kind of like Hollow Knight in an Absolver-y (i.e., dying earth) setting. Like both those games, it has a deep lore that isn’t really explained; you just kind of piece it together as you play. It seems like your avatar is a glob of cells that cannot die who takes possession of dead bodies and reanimates them in their attempt to escape an island that’s been overrun by a zombie-making plague.
I’m fascinated by the parallels to Buddhist rebirth in games like this where you die but can make gains that carry on after your death (v.i., UnderMine). NPCs will sometimes recognize your body, but then realize that the person they knew is dead, and you’re walking around in their corpse. It’s played for laughs, but I guess is kind of disturbing when I see it written out like that.
Anyway, hours of fun!
UnderMine
In this one, you play a peasant (well, a shitload of peasants shortly) who is sent by a wizard down into the mines to combat some ancient evil. You will die, you will die quickly, and you will die often. But each peasant can make gains that will help the next, which I think is a really cool concept.
Narita Boy
This game is beautiful, albeit a bit sad. And like a few of these games, it is very difficult. It’s serving you some vaporwave hardcore nostalgia for the 80s, for TRON, for Japan. It’s clearly very personal, so a lot of the story is recessed and feels impressionistic. Just a beautiful piece of art in game form, maybe more so than any other I’ve seen.
Fez (Switch, Steam)
So Fez has been out forevs, but just came to the Switch last year. (You can see all about the making of it in the doc Indie Game: The Movie, which also features Braid, which we’ll get to in a sec.) It is maybe one of the sweetest video games I’ve played that is also a lot of fun. It’s a Mario-style platformer without a game over or any real loss of life. Your little marshmallow person, Gomez, just sort of frowns and collapses after falling too far, then respawns where you were last safe.
There’s embedded Twin Peaks references.
It’s got its own language (that you don’t have to pay much attention to, so don’t stress).
It has a gorgeous soundtrack by the artist Disasterpeace.
And the whole thing was made by one dude, which is kind of amazing.
Braid
Braid, like Fez, is hella old by gaming standards. But it’s so good! It’s bit like Mario meets (aptly enough) Donkey Kong but with the added feature that you can (and must) manipulate the flow of time in order to solve the puzzles, get the painting jigsaw pieces, reassemble them in your house (some of them are in the game environment, too, and have an effect on gameplay), and reveal the story. Which is … problematic is some ways, yes, but trust me: it’s a very pretty game with great music and very good game design ideas.
Framed (https://framed.wtf)
Like Wordle but for film. Try it!
Music
“Mask Off” by Future
My bestie put this on one of our collab mixes, and I can’t stop hearing it in my head. Video is cool af, too.
“Doing It to Death” by the Kills
This one is featured in Titane, so I thought I’d include it in this ish. The line, “Heads up we’re in a dead club …” could summarize almost all of my interests.
Alison Mosshart is goals. She’s also in the supergroup The Dead Weather, so check them out, too.
Also, the dancers in this remind me of my villains in Everything Fails.
Hey, wanna make a collaborative mix with T on Spotify? Just holla, and I’ll hook it up!
Websites
Dream by WOMBO
Shoutout to Reese for introducing me to this. One can spend hours ‘painting’ with words and AI.
What Should I Read Next?
What it says on the tin.
The Sample
Shoutout to Chevanne at The FLARE for the rec. If you have a newsletter, list yours!
Mutual Aid and Charities
First, what’s the diff? This Real Simple article will explain it better, but basically mutual aid is a less capitalistic, more equal way to accomplish a lot of the same goals as charities.
Your Mutual Aid Hub
Because of its local and decentralized nature, you can see why I can’t really know what your particular MAs are. So use this site to help you find or start one!
Charities
Rather than lay a bunch on you (which can be found in T-Rex #1), I thought I’d just ask directly: please donate to the Transgender Law Center. Our rights are under assault in many states right now, especially in the south. Every bit helps.
That’s all for this time, folkies. It turns out these T-Rex issues take a bit longer than anything else I do, so if you feel like givin’ T a one time tip, you know, a little somethin’ for the effort, that would be baller. Or, you know, upgrade to a bought-in subscription. Or both.
Later on, muh babes.
Xoxo,
T
TR 002
