I'm Glad This Exists #2

Horror, true crime, standup, and some music

Every year November rolls around and every year I start watching movies because reading and writing kept me from watching as many as I wanted during the year. This year is no different. It started a little earlier because the trip to France was in October and sitting in planes to and from Europe is a great way to catch up on movies. Anyway, this is all good because it helps with this new column I’m doing. If this is your first time reading it, don’t worry. The idea here is to talk about things I’watched and read and listened to and then finish with “I’m glad this exists” regardless of my opinion because it might be someone else’s cup of tea, you know? Let’s get to some recent stuff.

Alien: Romulus

Alien is one of my favorite movies. I’ve written about it and I’ve written short stories that pay homage to it. Now that you know how much I love it, let me say this: it’s time to let it rest. Oh, I know they won’t. They’re gonna keep milking this until it’s a joke like the Fast & Furious or the Saw franchises (and I loved Saw when it started, too). Anyway, this is a movie that constantly references the original material. At first, it’s like, “Oh yeah, I remember that! That was a cool little throwback.” After a two dozen more of those, you grow tired of them. That’s when you notice that there’s not much else going on. If you’re not a fan of the franchise, you can skip it. Anyway, glad this exists.

Monkey Man

Loved it. Fast, violent, emotional, entertaining. This thing has John Wick all over its DNA, but it’s also its own thing, it stands alone. Patel is great here as co-writer, director, and leading man. Love that this embraces not only its culture but also diversity within that culture. Nice action sequences, solid score, and decent performances all around. Oh, and I had no issue with the shaky camera work. It fit the movie and the fast pace. Looking forward to whatever Patel does next. He’s a talented dude. Anyway, glad this exists.

This Is the Zodiac Speaking

This isn’t bad. It’s also not great. Yeah, it exists somewhere between those two. Not boring, which is a good thing. There were a few small issues here—not great photography, mediocre writing, etc. However, the main two problems are very hard to ignore. The first one is that this is one of those true crime documentaries where the tone says “we know everything and here’s the truth” while also ignoring a lot of stuff/people. Second, the family at the center of this as weird. The bad kind of weird. The “gonna let my kids go on overnight trips with their adult male teacher” weird. Better yet, “this dude is gonna hand me a knife and I’m just gonna stash it in my closet for reasons” weird. I guess it’s a good addition, but by no means the final answer. Glad this exists.

Anthony Jeselnik: Bones and All

I love standup. Been a hardcore fan since my early teens. I don’t talk much about it on social media. Haha. In fact, you’ll notice there were whole years where I didn’t mention comedy and only talked about a few movies. Wanna know why? Because folks have opinions, but they also love to have opinions about your opinions. This means that I got tired of things like not liking a movie and then having half a dozen idiots telling me that movie is brilliant and I missed the point. Anyway, I like Jeselnik. I think he’s smart. His comedy has levels. Sit down and pay attention to the way he goes one way and then does a turn with a short phrase. In this special, there’s a lot of that. There’s also a lot of making fun of comedians who mostly complain about cancel culture while also writing shitty jokes. If you like your comedy DARK, give this one a watch. Glad this exists.

That’s it for movies! I also want to mention two records I’ve been listening to obsessively: Got a Story to Tell by Thee Sacred Souls and Chronicles of a Diamond by Black Pumas. Very solid, very layered, very mellow, very awesome. Give them a listen if you haven’t done so yet.

I’m off to California on Friday for residency, so I’ll be mostly teaching for ten days. That said, I’m also going to use that time to work on some other things, including a few for this newsletter. Yeah, I wanna tell you about some of the cool ideas I have for next year, mostly because it involves interviewing some of you.

Be decent humans and take care of yourselves and each other. More from me soon. Cheers.