From now on whenever someone asks me whether I prefer the
British or American Office, I’ll
answer, “The Korean.”
Hong Won-chan’s Office
is a movie holding a massive beef with corporate culture. Before the title card
we get a deliberate pairing of scenes: a mentally shattered office manager
going home for the evening and murdering his family, followed by a temp worker
breathlessly sprinting to work the next morning to check in on time. That’s Office’s thesis statement: fear for your
job is stronger than fear for your life.
It's been fifteen months, but Netflix's most popular show is back. It sounds
like we may not get another season until 2019, so savor this while you can. If
you've watched the first season a dozen times, I recommend going into this one
with moderate expectations. The second season cannot match the surprises of the
first because we all love it now. Stranger Things 2 is more Stranger Things:
more creepy crawlies preying on the small town, more lore of the Upside Down,
and more character development for one of TV's most lovable ensembles. It's
another order of that fun meal you had last time.
The season puts its weakest foot forward, taking about four
episodes to really get in motion. It’s a hard contrast to the first season,
which in one episode set up everyone’s motivations and half of the major plot
threads. The difference is that now the Duffer Brothers know exactly how much
pop culture loves their kids, and so they don’t mind having them hang out,
slowly get into needless conflicts with each other, and lather up in 80s
references. The slower early episodes are thickly decorated in Punky Brewster
and “vintage” and KFC product placement.
In both seasons, Stranger Things is at its best when it uses
its influences quietly. The first season was highly influenced by Spielberg’s E.T.
and Stephen King’s Firestarter. It honored its influences by doing things like
the bicycle escape scene where Eleven used her powers to save them – flipping a
van rather than making the bicycles fly.
At its best, this season handles its influences in the same
way. One particular episode dives deeply into visual queues from Alien and
Aliens, but no one brings it up, and the outcomes are very different. In another plot thread, Dustin tries to adopt a
little monster of his own, promptly feeds it after midnight, and the synth-heavy
soundtrack echoes notes from the theme to Gremlins. These are homages embedded in
the plot without derailing it. It’s much defter, say, than when the kids scream
at a Dragon’s Lair arcade cabinet, or watch a vintage commercial for Oreos and The
Terminator.
After the shocking hit of Gerald’s Game, I had to watch
Netflix’s other big King adaptation. I am a huge King fan. A decade ago I began
limiting myself to reading one King book per year so I wouldn’t run out. Yet I
honestly don’t remember this novella from Full
Dark, No Stars. Even by the end of the movie, nothing shook loose.
It is certainly a King story. A loveless farm marriage threatens
to break up when the wife wants to sell a large chunk of the land that’s
legally hers. The husband (Thomas Jane) bides his time, then kills her and dumps
the body in a nearby well, covering his tracks and manipulating their son into
being an accomplice. The law wants to know where she was, and while the father
keeps them away, rats have started climbing out of the well and following him.
Since I couldn't sleep thanks to syndrome pain, I tried out Amazon's new show Patriot. It felt worth a shot given warm reviews and an amazing cast, including Terry O'Quinn and the guy who plays Death on Supernatural. Why not try an offbeat espionage comedy?
The second episode goes on a weird spree of abusing disabled characters are least four separate times. The Asian math whiz who suffered brain damage in a car accident returns... only to be talked down to by everyone, and as soon as he shows his aptitude at math is still there, his competitor shuts his laptop and leaves him helpless. The protagonist steals the prosthetic legs of amputees which pays off in one of them being a security guard who has to chase him later, hopping along ineffectually.
September is half-over and Christmas decorations are
starting to crop up in department stores. 2016 is a dying beast, and some
people are already writing their Best Of lists. But there are books (yo, Wall of Storms), games (yo, Mafia 3), and even movies yet to be
released that we’re craving. I just knocked off Don’t Breathe, which I have
many, many thoughts on.
But that can wait. Let’s talk about cool movies that are
coming out alarmingly soon.
1.The Mermaid
You might not have heard that The Mermaid is the most popular
film in the history of China. Releasing earlier this year, it has already doubled
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s lifetime box office, and is heralded as
revolutionizing Chinese Fantasy films.
The Mermaid is a remix of Chinese folklore through the
unique lens of director Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer). Trailers
promise a comedy about a lovable loser being harassed by a mermaid, or a tragic
love story of that same duo being pulled from each other by a cavalcade of
figures from Chinese folklore. Despite the CG battles, I’m hoping for more of a
comedy, because no director has Chow’s knack for oddballs.
You probably haven’t heard of it, though, because it was
licensed by Sony Pictures. The company released it on just 35 theaters across
the entire United States. Fortunately, it’s received an On Demand release.
A wonderful thing happened while watching Daredevil. Stuck
in bed with bronchitis, too wiped to even sit up and read (my poor copy of Grace of Kings...), the show was exactly
what I needed. There's so much worthwhile about it that I actively hoped
certain characters from the comics wouldn't show up, and certain stories
wouldn't play out, because of how cracking they would be as the focus of later
seasons.
And lo, Netflix's Daredevil restrained itself. The season is
about the feud of Murdoch and Wilson Fisk, The Lawyer Vs. The Mobster, with a
few side characters fleshed out. Mostly side-characters are introduced with
unlimited potential: the best buddy Foggy Nelson, Karen Page with a checkered
past, the Night Nurse willing to treat heroes without exposing their
identities. It's a great season of television as well as a cracking origin
story, and at the end I had a wishlist of things for future seasons.
We'll get to that wishlist in a paragraph, but be
forewarned: we're about to spoil the crap out of the show. If you like superheroes,
you ought to give Daredevil a shot. The list of what could be coming will be
waiting when you're ready. But if you're caught up, or if you don't care about
spoilers*, let's dig in.
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