Under the Skin

Year 12, Day 311 - 11/6/20 - Movie #3,691

BEFORE: As you're no doubt aware, it's now three days after the U.S. Election Day, and there's still no clear winner in the Presidential race.  Biden's a whole lot closer based on electoral votes - it's complicated, but nobody really votes for the President directly, instead Americans vote for local electors, who then have to go to college to cast votes for who the people of their state want.  There's no 100% rule that the electors have to vote for the person they say they're going to vote for, but they almost always do.  It's an antiquated system meant to even out the rights of the big states with the rights of the little states, to do that they made every one of the states essentially winner-take-all, thus in a close race virtually guaranteeing that almost half of the people's votes are useless.  OK, maybe not half, but anyone who's liberal in a conservative state or conservative in a liberal need not bother voting at all, so really, that saves a lot of people a bunch of time, if you think about it.  (And they wonder why so many Americans don't vote.  Duh!)

I'm sort of half-kidding, but when you realize that the Electoral College is based on the honor system, and then that there simply is no more honor anywhere else in American politics, it might be time to scrap it. I don't really favor a nation-wide popular vote, because I suppose even that way up to 49% of voters would still feel like their vote was wasted - I mean, they tell us that every vote counts, and nobody's vote is wasted because they made their voice heard, but really, if you voted for the losing candidate, wouldn't you have rather just slept in that day?  Not wasted two hours in line?  For a few years there I felt that if I was voting liberal in a liberal state like New York then my vote didn't really count, because the liberal candidate was going to win my state, so wouldn't I rather just sleep in that day?  But this election was WAY too important, I wasn't going to take any chances, so we went and voted early in person, on the first day that the polls were open in our state.  

As I said, Biden's closer to victory, some news outlets say he needs just 6 more electoral votes (Nevada would do it) while other news outlets say he needs 17 more (Nevada and Arizona would do that).  Meanwhile, as they keep inching closer to counting all the mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, if he gets that state's 20 electoral votes, then he wins.  Boom, it's over.  Barring the results of any recounts in close states, or lawsuits filed by Trump that could change any results, it seems like Biden's got a few ways to win this thing, and Trump only has two - win every state that hasn't finished counting yet, or flip a couple with lawsuits.  So far all the state judges have laughed in his lawyers' faces (I bet maybe a couple of them have lost family members to the COVID-19 virus, right?) so the lawsuit thing doesn't seem like a valid plan.  Sure, he packed the Supreme Court with three justices that owe him their jobs, but his lawsuits would have to progress up past the state level to get to the federal level, where he could expect a quid pro quo, and that's probably not going to happen.

Look, I'm old enough to remember the voting debacle in Florida in 2000, with the butterfly ballots and the hanging chads and the fact that every time they counted ballots in some counties, they got a different number.  Plus the governor of the state was Jeb Bush (the Republican candidate's BROTHER), and he appointed the woman in charge of counting ballots, so probably the fix was in.  Finally the Supreme Court had to stop all the recounting and they declared George W. Bush the winner, and if we'd had President Gore back then, maybe we'd be in a different place regarding climate change, who can say?  

Having six states right now that haven't finished counting is a bit unnerving, a bit like having SIX FLORIDAS, so it has the potential to be six times worse than the nightmare of 2000.  Let's hope it doesn't come down to that, or take that long - in mid-December 2000, we still didn't know who the next President was going to be!  This time it looks like Biden, unless something goes horribly wrong right now, and I've just jinxed it, haven't I?  Maybe in another day or two we can get some clarity, but even then, Trump's just not going to go down easy, he's going to claim victory, that there was rampant election fraud, or Ukrainian hacking, or wonder why so many of the mail-in ballots that got counted late (but most of those were mailed early) were for Biden.  Gee, I don't know, maybe because more Democrats chose to mail in or drop off their absentee ballots because of the pandemic, or the expected voter intimidation at the polls, or just because they couldn't wait until Election Day to vote out the President they despised?  Meanwhile, Republicans listened to their glorious leader who told them that absentee ballots were for losers, and that it was totally safe to go to the polls because the pandemic was over (it wasn't)?  

Just imagine, if Trump had taken the pandemic just a BIT more seriously, didn't infect more people by holding rallies, and the death toll had been reduced from over 200,000 to something more like 30,000?  There might have been over 100,000 more Trump supporters alive to cast votes on Election Day, and if they had lived in key states, that might have made a difference for him.  But, sadly, we'll never know, now, will we?  That karma, she's a bitch. 

Scarlett Johansson carries over from "Jojo Rabbit". 

THE PLOT: A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland.  However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery. 

AFTER: Well, this film puts me in a rather awkward position.  As one might be able to draw from the title of this film, the main goal of this production seemed to be to showcase Scarlett Johansson in the buff.  You know, starkers, nekkid, in the all-together.  Which is fine, if that's your thing, I feel like on some level this is something I should support, or at least would have supported in the past.  But a lot has changed in Hollywood these past few years, and my understanding was that, at least on some level, we were all supposed to be better than that by now, to have higher aspirations.  

Now I can't help but view this as exploitative somehow, even assuming (and I do) that Ms. Johansson was well aware of the nature of the project when she signed on, that nudity was involved.  And maybe she was fine with that, proud of her body's condition and form or interested in preserving it forever on celluloid (OK, digital now) before things started going south, or whatever.  Maybe she was between relationships at the time, and this served as a de facto type of dating incentive, and hey, now she's married (third time, I think) to Colin Jost, and things seem to be going well, so who's to say the plan didn't work?  

But the question remains, is there enough story here to justify the repeated on-screen nudity?  Here's the story - a (possibly alien?) woman seduces men while driving around in her van, she takes them home, or goes home with them, things start getting hot and heavy, nudity is involved, and then the man ends up in some kind of psychic hellscape instead, where he's covered in black liquid goo and (presumably) ultimately devoured.  Repeat, as necessary, until the end of the film.  Not much else is really explained - what, exactly is she?  Alien, or demon, or psychic vampire, or some combination thereof?  

There are other characters - one or more men on motorcycles who seem to act as her "handlers" of sorts, disposing of remains as necessary, or perhaps just generally keeping track of her activities, but since the dialogue is minimal throughout the film, it's often hard to determine what, exactly, is taking place.  That was my experience, anyway.  Not that a film has to telegraph everything, because it generally doesn't, but damn it, you've got to give me something I can hang my hat on, at least once in a while.  

And to be fair, something different does happen near the end - one possible interpretation is that "The Female" gradually grows tired of this cycle of violence, or perhaps starts to develop an emotional response after so many interactions with lonely men/victims.  One man is disabled, and it seems that she had some kind of change of heart, as he is later seen escaping, naked, from her physical or psychic prison.  But it seems that the mysterious motorcyclist is on hand to make sure that he doesn't get very far, because that would potentially ruin whatever situation it is that they're running.  (Are they harvesting men for food? Energy? Some kind of alien zoo?  It's all very unclear.)  

The Female seems to drive off on her own at some point, abandoning her van and heading off into the woods.  Perhaps it's karma that she then becomes a potential victim for an aggressive sexual predator in the woods - and this gives her a fresh perspective perhaps on her recent activities, but it also ends up sealing her fate.  Well, at least something happens after an hour and a half of nearly nothing happening. Technically this constitutes a narrative arc, but only just barely. 

I praised Ms. Johansson's acting ability a couple days ago after watching "Jojo Rabbit", but this film from 2013 represents more of the before-times, namely before the "Avengers" movies, when she would get hired to play the cold, emotionless female roles as seen in "Lost in Translation", "Ghost World" and "Girl With a Pearl Earring" - the dissassociated characters like "girl in painting" or "awkward teen".  Which makes you wonder if they cast "Under the Skin" by saying, "Hmm, who can we get that can interact with lonely men and display absolutely no emotion whatsoever... call Scarlett Johansson!"

Also starring Jeremy McWilliams, Adam Pearson, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Krystof Hadek, Paul Brannigan, Michael Moreland, Dave Acton

RATING: 3 out of 10 male naughty bits

Jojo Rabbit

Year 12, Day 309 - 11/4/20 - Movie #3,690

BEFORE: Well, it's pretty clear that I haven't changed my 2020 schedule THAT much, not yet anyway.  This is exactly where I planned to be, back when we thought that NYC movie theaters might still open up in 2020, and when "Black Widow" still had an opening date in early November.  Like so many things this year, that didn't happen.  Admittedly, cancelling (or re-scheduling) is par for the course this year.  We had only one set of trick-or-treaters on Halloween night, and my wife wouldn't even let me answer the door.  She has a valid point, I don't know where those kids have been, and kids are very efficient at spreading germs.  So I guess that half-bag of candy left from 2019 won't be given out until next year.  Sorry, kids. 

Next up, will Thanksgiving be cancelled as well?  I'm no longer surprised by the coincidences I encounter, and this film appearing so close to Election Day is just another one of them.  What am I supposed to make from a film about Hitler turning up NOW?  There's got to be something about fighting fascism that I can work with here.  Let me watch the film (admittedly, I'm watching BEFORE election results come in, and reviewing AFTER, so the fix is in today) and I'll have more to say, for sure. 

Taika Waititi carries over from "Hunt for the Wilderpeople". 

THE PLOT: A young boy in Hitler's army finds out his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.

AFTER: It's 10 pm on Election Night as I'm writing this, and at the moment Joe Biden is ahead in the projected electoral college count, which means I'll probably be up late tonight trying to figure out how the Democrats are going to manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  On the other hand, Biden's ahead, he's been ahead so far and maybe he'll stay that way - my wife just went to sleep convinced that Biden's going to lose, somehow, and it would be great if she woke up to an unexpected result, which would karmically balance the one in 2016 when she went to sleep fairly confident that Hillary Clinton would be the next president.  History is sometimes decided in the wee hours of the morning - but we've also been told that some races are so close to call that we may not have a definitive result for several DAYS, a week even.  For all the talk of a "blue wave" and a possible landslide, this thing now looks like it's going to come down to a nail-biter, even if we factor in California's 55 electoral votes that will almost certainly go Biden's way.  

For all the talk about the change that the USA needs, for all the rightfully placed anger over this President's lack of coronavirus preparations and response, for all the disenfranchised women and minority voters who set out to strike a blow for all the other women and minorities, for all the hundreds of politicial scandals in the last four years which had Trump at their core, the race is still, at the moment, too close to call.  How the heck does this happen?  Most of the polls, and nearly all of the rhetoric since the debates, indicated to me that we were on a positive, righteous, non-lazy path.  We all know what the right things to do are - look after each other, take care of the disenfranchised, make sure we all move forward together, protecting not just our own rights but the rights of others, take care of the only environment we have, and just generally be excellent to each other.  But yet somehow there exists a large portion of this country that either doesn't know what to do in these regards, or would just rather not do them.  It's the lazy man's more seductive path, and it comes with a heavy, heavy price, or at least it should. 

But look who we have as an example, the man who's personified our political process for the last four years.  Nothing bad has happened to him, as yet, for anything bad that he's done.  He's skated on his taxes, he's skated on every lawsuit ever brought against him, done very little actual work over the last four years, again always skating, mostly golfing and watching TV, and what are the consequences that have befallen him?  Nothing bad, instead he gets to eat a bunch of fast food every day and meet with sports champions and rap stars.  I had such hopes that the bill for his laziness and incompetence would finally come due, and he'd be ousted from the White House at the very least, and either impeached or convicted of something at best.  So far, that hasn't happened. I can't take another four years of this, and I don't think our country can either. 

Let me try to bring this back to "Jojo Rabbit", after pointing out that Trump, in many ways, is like the American Hitler.  Remember, also, that Hitler was freely elected, and he wasn't a dictator at first, either.  But once in power, some people tend to do everything they can to remain in power, and therefore use the powers of their office to remove or discredit all of their political opponents, and also denigrate and make life difficult for any minority groups they don't like.  Sound familiar?  Trump's gone after Mexicans, Chinese, and Muslims, denigrated women, people with disabilities, mocked every Democrat who's ever disagreed with him and then even members of his own staff who've done the same.  He claims, for some reason, to have the best interests of black Americans and LGBTQ Americans at heart, but I think we all know that's just another smokescreen, right?  Outside of those rap stars, when has he ever done anything for black Americans? Just go back and see what he said about the Central Park Five (who were later exonerated, BTW). 

Hitler, on the other hand, made the trains run on time.  There was a feeling among Germans that this was the guy who could get things done.  Just don't ask where all the Jewish people have gone, or the disabled, or the gays, or the gypsies.  Again, sound familiar?  Trump's the guy whose reputation says he'll be better for the economy (just ignore all his bankrupt businesses over the years) and for mostly personal, selfish reasons, to many people that's more important than listening to scientists about how to deal with a deadly virus.  And just don't ask why there aren't many senior citizens around any more, or why the big cities aren't as crowded as they used to be, or have as many working restaurants.  Hitler had concentration camps for Jewish people, Trump had essentially the same thing for Mexican immigrant children.  

And everything's been so divisive, there are families split right down the middle on the important issues of the day.  Yes, finally I'm bringing it back to "Jojo Rabbit", where a young boy is part of the Hitler youth movement, but meanwhile his mother is only pretending to support the government in power, she's actively working to make a difference in the world by hiding a Jewish teen girl in her house's walls.  The reason seems to be that she had a teen daughter who died, and she couldn't save her, but she can try to save this Jewish girl instead.  When Jojo hears noises coming from his sister's old room, he investigates and locates the hidden girl instead, which makes him very conflicted.  He's been trained to report all Jewish people to his superiors in the Hitler youth army, but he also knows that his mother could be in a lot of trouble for hiding her in the first place.  

His only confidante is an imaginary Hitler, whom he consults for advice.  Taika Waititi (also the director of the film) plays Hitler, and this is intended as a comic character here, in the same vein as what was seen in both versions of "The Producers".  Since Jojo admires Hitler greatly but has never met the man, this allows for his imaginary version to be an extreme one, something akin to a cartoon.  And this mostly works, seeing Hitler through the eyes of a young boy, unless you happen to look at this from a German point of view.  Of course when you get a bunch of British, American and New Zealand actors on board to play Germans, it's never going to be an accurate portrayal of German society, instead it's all going to be played for laughs here, as was done in "The Death of Stalin" a few years ago.  

A couple of points here, I had to disagree with the choice to open the film with the Beatles' German recording of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", which they recorded as "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand".  I can see WHY they did this, because the song was played over footage of Hitler rallies (again, sound familiar?) and thus there was a connection drawn between the popularity of Hitler and the popularity of the Beatles (crowds of screaming fans in both cases).  However, there's two full decades that separate the images and the music, so that song would not have been even CLOSE to existing at the time of World War II, and therefore the opening is incredibly historically inaccurate.  (The film also closes with a version of David Bowie's "Heroes", also sung in German, which is even more anachronistic.  I know, I know, once you let modern songs into a movie like "Moulin Rouge", on one level all bets are off, but I'm still a purist, and I don't approve of this.)  You can't turn 1944 into 1964 just through juxtaposition.

Still, the main message of the film is a tolerant one, and the Nazis are shown on the wrong side of history, which is all good news.  And there are actors here who are almost always great in the films they appear in, like Sam Rockwell, one of my favorite actors, and Scarlett Johansson, who's come a very long way, acting-wise, from her teen roles, a fact I learned earlier this year.  

Speaking of "earlier this year", if you recall back in April I watched a whole bunch of Nazi and Hitler-based films in a row: "The Reader", "Look Who's Back", "Downfall" and "The Boys from Brazil".  (Three of the films had Bruno Ganz in them, but it's still fairly amazing that they all linked together and this sequence didn't break my chain.). I always had the intention of including "Jojo Rabbit" in the mix, and I could have watched it back then on an Academy screener, but this one just didn't link with the others, so I had to postpone it and hope that I could include it later on in the year.  So I'm happy that I finally got to it, here in the closing days of 2020, which also happens to be the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Still very proud of the fact that I watched "Downfall" on the exact 75th anniversary of Hitler's death.). 

Someday, maybe we'll all look back on the Trump years the same way that people once looked back on World War II - namely that it was a difficult time, people were dying all around, and we all had to do our best to survive as best we can, some of us in quiet opposition to the government.  (Others, not so quiet.). But I certainly wouldn't want to look back on such a difficult time in history, knowing that I'd sold out my fellow countrymen for the sake of quick-fixing the economy, putting my own financial interests ahead of the lives and livelihoods of others.  That would be just as bad as living in Nazi Germany and turning a blind eye to the evil and corruption of Hitler, wouldn't it?  Sure, you might argue that "it can't happen here", but to some degree at least, hasn't it already?

Also starring Scarlett Johansson (last seen in "Marriage Story"), Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie (last seen in "The King"), Sam Rockwell (last seen in "Richard Jewell"), Rebel Wilson (last seen in "Pitch Perfect 3"), Alfie Allen (last seen in "The Predator"), Stephen Merchant (last seen in "The Girl in the Spider's Web"), Archie Yates, Joe Weintraub, Brian Caspe (last seen in "The Catcher Was a Spy"), Gabriel Andrews (ditto), Billy Rayner (ditto), Luke Brandon Field, Sam Haygarth, Gilby Griffin Davis, Hardy Griffin Davis with archive footage of Adolf Hitler (last seen in "What We Do in the Shadows"). 

RATING: 7 out of 10 propaganda fliers

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Year 12, Day 307 - 11/2/20 - Movie #3,689

BEFORE: As long as I'm in New Zealand, I figure I'd better take advantage and squeeze this one in.  This film only JUST made it to Netflix a couple of weeks ago, and common wisdom says it should be there for two years, so I should probably watch other movies that are likely to leave the service first.  BUT, this one's a double-link, with both Taika Waititi AND Rhys Darby carrying over from "What We Do in the Shadows".  (Actually I think it's a triple, see below.). And who knows when I'll be watching another film with Rhys Darby, or Sam Neill, for that matter?  So I'd better work this one in now.

It's funny, I forgot that my 2020 Movie Year started with a New Zealand-based film, "Whale Rider", and now I've circled back there unintentionally.  I guess in some ways the first film of the year can really set the tone for what's to come, that's why I'm so obsessive about selecting my starting point each year.  

But today's movie is what made me tear up the path I had to the end of the year and re-think it, once I knew for sure that "Black Widow" and "Hellboy" couldn't be part of the mix this year.  Instead of planning a Christmas movie that I wasn't really into, re-thinking the final 12 films for the year allowed me to work in three other Christmas films that I think I'll like better, plus a documentary on my (former) favorite band.  It's really only four out of the twelve films that I changed, but I think it makes a world of difference if I'm happier about the line-up.  As long as I'm in charge of the linking (and the linking's not in charge of me) why not pick the films that I think I'll enjoy better?  Sometimes it's just that simple.  

Oh, and I found a path from January 15 to February 1 - actually, I found TWO paths, which makes things easier, but also harder in a way.  I know for sure now that my 2021 linking will be solid until mid-March (and really, that's the first few steps of a potential yearlong chain already sorted) BUT now I have to decide between the two paths, which both get me to the same place in the end. Again, it may be a matter of just figuring out which one's likely to make me happier. 

And my links for November are: Taika Waititi (again), Scarlett Johansson, Leonardo Nam and Nate Mooney. 

THE PLOT: A national manhunt is ordered for a rebellious kid and his foster uncle who go missing in the wild New Zealand bush. 

AFTER: Well, it seems that New Zealand culture is very different from ours - I'm slowly starting to understand their sense of humor, thanks to comedy ambassadors like Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi - I never watched "The Flight of the Conchords" but Clement turned up in the "Men in Black" series and Marvel's "Legion" show on FX, and I got to know Waititi through his voice-work as Korg in (and his direction of) "Thor: Ragnarok", which was easily the funniest Marvel superhero movie to date (with "Guardians of the Galaxy" a close second).  Now he's also providing the voice for the bounty hunter droid IG-11 in "The Mandalorian", season 2 started on Disney Plus just a couple days ago.  

But maybe we're not all that different from New Zealanders, don't we have a bunch of people in the U.S. who love to hunt and pride themselves on being able to survive out in the wild, while avoiding all possible influence from the government?  Doomsday preppers, or radical militiamen, whatever you want to call them, I have a feeling that come this Tuesday, they'll all be either headed into the woods to go native for four years, or else they'll be strapping on their ammo belts and headed in to the big city to defend our country from Mexicans or liberals or just any minorities they can find.  Either way, it should make for an interesting week.  Just like "The Munsters", the Civil War is a franchise that I don't think needs another installment.  I'd love to see a peaceful election and a fair turnover, but I'm braced for Civil War II: Red vs. Blue.

But I may be able to get a couple more films watched before the country burns to the ground.  This one and "Jojo Rabbit", at least.  Today's film is about abandoned boy sent to live with foster parents, which echoes back to "The House with a Clock in its Walls" from last week.  Almost 13-year old Ricky Baker is in trouble for everything from burning things to loitering and graffiti, so a child welfare officer sends him off to a farm to be raised by Bella Faulkner and her husband, Hec.  Hec's a lot older, so he and Ricky don't exactly see eye to eye, it's really Bella's generosity and spirit holding the "trifecta" together.  They each teach Ricky how to hunt, and it's quite amazing for Ricky to see Bella take down a wild boar. 

But when Bella dies suddenly, child welfare wants to take Ricky back to juvie and his "foster uncle" Hec says he's going to go live in the bush for a while, Ricky beats him to the punch and heads out to the wild first, with his canine companion, Tupac, and a backpack full of peanut butter sandwiches.  He quickly loses his way in the jungle, but Hec manages to find him and they bond as an odd pair to survive outside of conventional society.  After a few months there's a nationwide search and a reward for their return, which seems like a lot of trouble for child services to go through just to find ONE teen.  In America they used to just put missing kids' photos on milk cartons, but it's unclear if any missing persons were ever found by the efforts of habitual milk drinkers. 

There seem to be a bunch of randomly placed hunting cabins across New Zealand, and none of them seem to be locked.  Hec and Ricky raid them for food when their hunting skills fail, but confusion comes about when Ricky says something to a group of hunters that accidentally sounds like his foster uncle has been molesting him.  Ah, there's that wacky New Zealand sense of humor again.  The two spend months out in the wilderness, and then a week with a recluse named Psycho Sam before the authorities manage to track them down.  

It's a simple enough story, but it's got some genuine heart - this was a festival favorite back during the 2016-2017 season.  The message is that everybody needs other people, and at some point in life, your family consists of the people who you've chosen to spend time with, rather than the people you share DNA with.  Also, it's probably a good idea to bring a warm coat. 

Also starring Sam Neill (last seen in "The Commuter"), Julian Dennison (last seen in "Deadpool 2"), Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House (last seen in "Whale Rider"), Oscar Kightley (last heard in "Moana"), Stan Walker, Mike Minogue (also carrying over from "What We Do in the Shadows"), Cohen Holloway (ditto), Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Troy Kingi, Hamish Parkinson, Stu Giles.  

RATING: 6 out of 10 improvised haikus