The Return of the Son of Monday
Feb. 26th, 2024 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse The big thing making Monday so very Monday-like today is stuff I really don't want to talk about--home insurance woes (like, the getting of a new policy after Secura dumped personal home insurance in Minnesota) and free-floating malaise regarding the universal problem of Not Having Enough Money, but also at my age (which I feel just adds extra depression. Like, as a kid I always I imagined there would be a time when I might age into wealth and stability. *Hahahaha... gross sobs.*)
So, instead of all that malarky, I will tell you about the very cheesy media I have been consuming lately. Okay, some of it was actually sort of good? But, here's a run down:
I AM MOTHER. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Mother) Shawn and I were both pleasantly surprised by this movie. Like, every time we thought we knew for sure what was going on, we'd only be partly right--and I LOVE films like that. The basic premise is that we begin the story after an Extinction Event in what appears to be an embryonic seed silo. A robot "mother" is assembled and raises a daughter to be perfectly empathetic and obedient. Everything is going along well, until one day, a human shows up OUTSIDE the bunker's door begging for help. Everything unravels from there.
Fully recommend.
Reading through the Wikipedia site, apparently the New York Times reviewer thinks the movie "shows its cards too early" but remains suspenseful. That might be true, depending on what you think is being revealed. I posit that the thing that I was expecting does happen, but in a way that I found my sympathies shifting slowly towards a very unexpected (and only satisfying if you have the same shift) ending. I wish I wanted to spoil this more, but I want people to watch it, so I won't.
Meanwhile, LIFE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_(2017_film) was insanely predictable and really only for the viewers, like Shawn and I, who generally appreciate a good monster-horror film. Also, there is a giant plot hole regarding the atmosphere that I would get into, if I cared more about this film. I will note that I spent the whole time saying, "This would be a better film, if human beings had tried being NICE for once," but, you know, probably that would have just meant a different kind of face-eating movie than it already was.
The above, in reverse order, was Shawn and my date night double-feature. Thank goodness we watched I am Mother last or we might not have made it all the way through Life.
I listened to two other movies over the weekend: THE LIE and THE CAVE. I will get to their mini reviews in a second, but I have to explain what I mean by "listened to." So, like most families these days, most of what we consume is streaming. We have a TV screen in the house, two of them, in fact. But, I can't remember when the last time was that we turned either on for anything other than gaming (and by "we," in this case, I fully mean just Mason.) Shawn loves to watch movies and TV shows while crafting. She's been working on paper piecing a grandmother's garden quilt since forever and while she does that, she props up her Kindle next to her chair and watches.
When Mason is here, she puts on headphones. Same, if I want to watch something different than what she's watching--then, we both plug in. Most of the time, my wife and I have fairly separate tastes? She's the horror and murder mystery fan, heavy on the British police procedurals. me, I'm watching anime and science fiction.
The other movie I listened to this weekend was god awful, The Cave (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cave_(2005_film) Shawn really loves monster horror--you know the stuff. It's where a monster basically is awakened, unearthed, discovered, stumbled across, unthawed, reanimated, etc., (good example being The Thing) which then proceeds jump scare the f*ck out of the audience while eating everyone's faces off, The End. (See: Life, above.) The Cave was this, but with a very weird twist involving, possibly--though not explicitly--the origin of the vampire myth. Like, there are also almost NO A-list actors in this film... which I mean, I guess makes them prime canon fodder. My experience from my side of the room was hearing a lot of "AHHHH, GOD, OH NO, AGGGGRRRRRHHHH" and Shawn saying, "I think he now has goat eyes? Oh, maybe super-hearing too??" Not recommended as an audio experience. Perhaps the special effects made it more worthwhile.
That was kind of a lot of movies for us, but we've been really enjoying doing Friday date night movies. I'd say we're doing Netflix and chill, but apparently that means something else entirely (although also appropriate for date night.)
So, instead of all that malarky, I will tell you about the very cheesy media I have been consuming lately. Okay, some of it was actually sort of good? But, here's a run down:
I AM MOTHER. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Mother) Shawn and I were both pleasantly surprised by this movie. Like, every time we thought we knew for sure what was going on, we'd only be partly right--and I LOVE films like that. The basic premise is that we begin the story after an Extinction Event in what appears to be an embryonic seed silo. A robot "mother" is assembled and raises a daughter to be perfectly empathetic and obedient. Everything is going along well, until one day, a human shows up OUTSIDE the bunker's door begging for help. Everything unravels from there.
Fully recommend.
Reading through the Wikipedia site, apparently the New York Times reviewer thinks the movie "shows its cards too early" but remains suspenseful. That might be true, depending on what you think is being revealed. I posit that the thing that I was expecting does happen, but in a way that I found my sympathies shifting slowly towards a very unexpected (and only satisfying if you have the same shift) ending. I wish I wanted to spoil this more, but I want people to watch it, so I won't.
Meanwhile, LIFE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_(2017_film) was insanely predictable and really only for the viewers, like Shawn and I, who generally appreciate a good monster-horror film. Also, there is a giant plot hole regarding the atmosphere that I would get into, if I cared more about this film. I will note that I spent the whole time saying, "This would be a better film, if human beings had tried being NICE for once," but, you know, probably that would have just meant a different kind of face-eating movie than it already was.
The above, in reverse order, was Shawn and my date night double-feature. Thank goodness we watched I am Mother last or we might not have made it all the way through Life.
I listened to two other movies over the weekend: THE LIE and THE CAVE. I will get to their mini reviews in a second, but I have to explain what I mean by "listened to." So, like most families these days, most of what we consume is streaming. We have a TV screen in the house, two of them, in fact. But, I can't remember when the last time was that we turned either on for anything other than gaming (and by "we," in this case, I fully mean just Mason.) Shawn loves to watch movies and TV shows while crafting. She's been working on paper piecing a grandmother's garden quilt since forever and while she does that, she props up her Kindle next to her chair and watches.
When Mason is here, she puts on headphones. Same, if I want to watch something different than what she's watching--then, we both plug in. Most of the time, my wife and I have fairly separate tastes? She's the horror and murder mystery fan, heavy on the British police procedurals. me, I'm watching anime and science fiction.
But, a lot of the times, especially on the weekends when I'm not catching up on some anime or other, she just lets the audio roll. I sit across the room from her and treat it like a radio play. But, since it's not a radio play with narrated stage directions, I'll occasionally have to ask, "What's happening? That's awfully suspenseful music! Can they see the body?" and Shawn will give me a quick little rundown of whatever's on screen that's not being described. If she knows I'm into it, she will often just volunteer information, ala, "Oh no! Brittany's Dad just saw them through the curtains!"
So, I can't say I've SEEN either of these two films. But, I listened to The Lie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lie_(2018_film) which is about a fifteen year old girl who tells her father she pushed a friend off a bridge--and the absolute sh*tshot that happens when the parents try to cover up this murderous impulse. I spent a lot of this film doing that thing you do, which is trying to help people GET AWAY WITH MURDER. Like, you know, there's a certain intellectual curiosity around "can you plan the perfect murder?" that this movie would tap into if the parents weren't such utter morons. The ending, despite all of this, is a surprise. Can't say I'd ever have picked it for myself, but I was standing behind Shawn's chair in order to watch the final scene.The other movie I listened to this weekend was god awful, The Cave (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cave_(2005_film) Shawn really loves monster horror--you know the stuff. It's where a monster basically is awakened, unearthed, discovered, stumbled across, unthawed, reanimated, etc., (good example being The Thing) which then proceeds jump scare the f*ck out of the audience while eating everyone's faces off, The End. (See: Life, above.) The Cave was this, but with a very weird twist involving, possibly--though not explicitly--the origin of the vampire myth. Like, there are also almost NO A-list actors in this film... which I mean, I guess makes them prime canon fodder. My experience from my side of the room was hearing a lot of "AHHHH, GOD, OH NO, AGGGGRRRRRHHHH" and Shawn saying, "I think he now has goat eyes? Oh, maybe super-hearing too??" Not recommended as an audio experience. Perhaps the special effects made it more worthwhile.
That was kind of a lot of movies for us, but we've been really enjoying doing Friday date night movies. I'd say we're doing Netflix and chill, but apparently that means something else entirely (although also appropriate for date night.)