wizkid420

[wizkid420]

The best part about The Athletic is that it’s just hipster soccer Twitter. Just a bunch of dudes yelling “statistics!” at each other

[wizkid420]

The French Dispatch and Loneliness

While I was watching this film, I often thought to myself what this film was about. Anthology, vignette style films often strike me this way. I guess I question the purpose of positioning short stories together. What can three stories tell together that they cannot tell themselves? But as with most brilliant pieces of art, it doesn’t strike you until the end. The cook’s moment with Jeffrey Wright’s character at the end hits the hammer on the nail - Loneliness. In a story about a newspaper that brings the world to Kansas, it is the more the case of the world being brought to Ennui. And from the ennui of living in Ennui, we see the world through journalists, artists, and photographers. We see their loneliness as it is their purpose to reflect the thoughts and feelings of others. The French Dispatch was excellent film in my opinion. While I will never appreciate the references and odes to The New Yorker, I still can draw from its themes. As I have recently moved into a new city, I too am struck by the same loneliness felt by many of the characters in the film. For I too, am a foreginer. 

[wizkid420]

Montero and The Evolution of “Pop Rap”

So I’ve actually been thinking about Drake a lot recently. With CLB dropping and The Ringer Music Show ranking his albums, I’ve thought about who Drake has become and how he got there. One of the key takeaways has been how rap evolved to let Drake to succeed and how Drake has evolved rap. No question about it, Drake has pushed rap into uncharted territory with each successive album, feature, and loosie. Now, I’m coming at this with a limited world view. I’m 23; I didn’t think about “music” until I was in high school. The first capital P popular rapper to me is Jay Z. Now when I say popular, I mean that white people know and listen (i.e. I’m gonna ignore cats like 50 Cent). Jay was the KING of those random rap verses after the second chorus on pop songs. But by the time I came into consciousness, Jay Z was replaced by one of the greatest artist of all time - Kanye West. With Graduation and 808′s, Kanye fused pop and rap into one. He created rap arena music. From there, the torch was passed to Drake. Everything about Drake has already been said so I’ll skip ahead. Every rap artist after Drake is chasing Drake; even Kanye. And the peculiar part about Drake is that he kept evolving (or biting). He has taken sounds from all over the world and added his flair to it. But from here, comes a new step in rap’s evolutionary process - Lil Nas X. Yet, listening to Montero, you can immediately tell that this isn’t a rap album. It’s a rock, indie, rap album. These are “songs”, not a drum loop created on a computer. Lil Nas X was initially thought of as a rapper, but he is clearly much more. Similar to Tyler the Creator, these guys are artists, not rappers. But rap has evolved into something more interesting than a triple snare with a mumbled verse. These artists have taken the initial conceit of a rap song - rhythm and poetry - and applied to legitimate songs.

[wizkid420]

Black Widow - Review

I’m a pretty big Marvel fan. I’ve seen all the movies; I’ve rewatched all the movies. I let the bad ones slide. There’s usually a redeeming quality in those ones. So while I wasn’t truly excited for Black Widow, I still went to go see it opening weekend. This film was the first Marvel movie that I immediately thought to myself: “That was genuinely a bad film”. It wasn’t bleh and lazy like your Thor and Iron Man 2′s. It was all the worst parts of the “Marvel Formula” rolled into a movie that was obviously shot because they had Scarlet Johansson for one more film. It was all the worst parts of Hollywood’s misunderstanding of the “Bourne Identity”. The plot and action were incoherent. The set-piece were boring and unimaginative. They devised of a floating base in the sky, and then proceeded to have all the scenes set in boring rooms. You had the potential for an interesting battle between Black Widow and Taskmaster (who wasn’t even a character), but Black Widow just kinda beat Taskmaster. They spent the whole movie hyping this character up only for the fight to last 1 minute and no clever tricks. 

I think where I am truly disappointed in this movie is the lack of character development. As critics and film historians will note, “Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark” is a monumental blockbuster film in that it spelled how to tell the modern day blockbuster - pack the movie with impressive set piece after set piece and have some action every ten minutes or so. Black Widow, the movie, did understand how the storytelling of that epic was utilized. The action isn’t in Indiana Jones just for the sake of action, it drives the story, it’s based off the character’s motivations. The epitome of this misunderstanding is the scene when Scarlett Johansson enters the safe house in Budapest and encounters Florence Pugh. They then proceed to fight for no real reason and then they just kinda stop. It is then revealed that Florence Pugh’s character sent Black Widow the macguffin. So then it makes no sense why Florence Pugh’s character is surprised Black Widow showed up and proceeds to fight her when she is looking for Black Widow’s help. I can drone about these nitpicks and “plot-holes” cause this movie is riddled with them. It’s just lazy, bland storytelling.

But to bring it back to where I originally wanted to take this conversation, I had previously watched the 5th episode of Loki before going to see Black Widow. Where we are seeing actual growth in characters with the TV shows, the movies still seem to be boring and uninteresting. Loki is where I want Marvel shows and movies to head towards and reach for, not Black Widow. I just hope Black Widow is outlier in this next phase of Marvel movies.

[wizkid420]

CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST - Review

Is Tyler, the Creator the closest we’ve gotten to the next Kanye West? The more I think about, the more I think it’s true. I look at the credits on every Tyler album since Wolf and Tyler has writer and producer credits on every song, with at least half of every album being solely Tyler himself. I know Kid Cudi was tipped to be the next Kanye (and Chance as well), but they both went off on their own path. Neither of them have that song making ability that Kanye has. But damn, if Tyler ain’t got that touch like Kanye. I have been thinking it for years.

What I enjoy most about this album, and Tyler’s career as a whole, is, as a fan, we have been able to enjoy and experience Tyler’s evolution as a rapper, as a producer, and as an artist. Now, I haven’t listened to album more than once so. But, as a straight while male, I naturally feel inclined to speak on matters I don’t have any knowledge on. I throughly enjoyed this album. Tyler was really focusing on his raps. It wasn’t just clever word play; these were thought out meaningful bars about his life. The production quality throughout the album is absurd. I personally think when we look back on it, Tyler will rank up there with the Kanyes and Dr. Dres in terms of rapper/producers. Another Kanye-esque or Dr. Dre-esque quality Tyler has is his ability to get the best out of a feature artist. I’ve listened to NBA Youngboy before. He’s okay. Nothing special. But his verse on “WUSYANAME” was something special. I mean goddamn. Or Pharell’s verse. Or Weezy’s! These were plotted features. Not some DJ Khaled throw it in the pot and see what happens features. 

Overall, I just really enjoyed this album. I so clearly see that Tyler has a massive future ahead. He has finally understood and harnessed his musical talents. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

[wizkid420]

Fargo

For me, many of the Coen Brothers’ movies often leave me wondering what the whole story was about? What was resolved? All the criminals either died or were arrested, but there were no resolutions to that, only repercussions from these money hungry men. What was the purpose of this film? Was it to illustrate that Marge and Norm have it all? Because they aren’t interested “in a little bit of money”. 

The Mike scene is what really makes me question the meaning of this film. I guess I am confused what Marge was supposed to learn there. Is he supposed to be a foil to Jerry; two crazy men just trying any scheme or story they can concoct in order to cure their ailments? Or is Norm the true foil? Just a simple man who paints wildlife and is extremely happy to have his artwork selected for the 3 cent stamp. 

[wizkid420]

A Quiet Place Part II

Thinking back on the first one, I remembered how much I enjoyed the movie. It was this great horror/action movie from Jim. It came out when a lot of other comedy stars, Bill Hader and Jordan Peele off the dome, were trying their hand at far more creative, traditional directorial feats. It was just a well made, well structured movie with a clear purpose. But, we all knew they had to make a sequel. 

Fast forward past the pandemic, and I just went to go see Part II.

Wow.

What a movie. Had such a blast being in a movie theater again.

To steal a point from someone else, who knew Krasinski had this “Spielbergian” ability to him. The opening scene is just incredibly well staged with a few extended takes that were incredible.  Well played Jim, well played. 

What I really enjoyed about this movie, and this series as a whole, is that the creatives are not interested in the monsters themselves. I see talk about how these monsters lack motivation, but who cares? We constantly slog through Marvel movies with mindless CGI monsters who have basic goals of world domination. The monsters are here, they kill anything in “sight” (lol can’t think of the hearing equivalent and google isn’t giving me a good answer), and that is all that matters. I will say that I did not like how the second one had more monsters, but that is probably more in tune with there probably shouldn’t have been a second movie and sequels only get bigger. However, the scale of the film was not that much larger. It still stayed contained in its surrounding area and characters. 

Anyways, I was very impressed by Krasinski and this film. Just an overall solid movie that was meant for theaters.

I hope Jim continues to make original movies because we need them.

[wizkid420]

Kill Bill Vol. 1

I had already seen this movie before, but on rewatch, it was so much better. This is 100% a movie that benefits from a rewatch. There are a lot of plot elements and backstory that held me back when I first watched it, but the second time around, far more rewarding. From the first fight to the last, this is a master at work. The final fight especially is one of a kind, which is weird to say considering how much Tarantino takes/copies/learns from other movies. I am sure if I watched Tarantino’s influences for this movie I would not be applauding him like I am, but maybe there is a reason I have not watched those movies. Just as Sean Fennessey said about Reservoir Dogs and City of Fire: “City on Fire is a good movie, Reservoir Dogs is a classic” (I forget the exact quote but I got the meaning). I cannot wait to watch Vol. 2. I need to watch all of Tarantino’s movies.

[wizkid420]

Failure to Listen

My political thoughts aren’t well formed. I never gave it much attention until a few years ago, and we all know how that has gone. But more and more I have started to see the failings from both sides. Is the main failure of politicians their failure to listen? To understand?

I guess my biggest gripe is with the democrats who are alienating more and more “democrats”. As much as the right loves to call the democrats “libs”, are the democrats actually open to change? You can see people like AOC try and try to enact change; a wall is all they hit. Maybe this is just me griping about the failures of the two party system in America. America is screaming for a multiple party system. We are too diverse. Democrats in California have different wants the democrats in Texas and both have different needs than the democrat in Vermont. 

[wizkid420]

The Ann and Andy Problem

So I decided to watch an episode of parcs and rec and it got me thinking. I really hated how they kept Ann and Andy on. It just always felt so forced. I would have preferred a goodbye at the end of season 3. They just weren’t part of the “office”. It was trying to be a community show and it didn’t really work.

Honestly, it would have been nice if shows like these had a bit more of a rotating cast. Almost like grays. People come in and out. What if Ann and Andy leave season 2, maybe Brendanawicz stays and extra season, and then Chris and Ben come in. And keep this going. Have different members of the community come in out. They had some decent “that guys”. Maybe they leaned on some a bit too hard, but not complaining.

Idk, I think that would be cool. I guess the Office tried that and it did not work at all. You know they had that Will Ferrel exit episode ready. 

Anyways, it just really ruins the show for me

[wizkid420]

Tenception

So I just recently rewatched Tenet and Inception. Both are masterpieces in storytelling. The way Nolan plays on the structures of plot is so interesting to me. There are multiple ways to push the medium of film forward and plot is often the most underutilized aspect in this effort. However, I find Tenet to be just a far more enjoyable movie. Tenet allows itself to be ridiculous. I forget which, but a character has a line: “don’t think, just feel it”. What a great, powerful summation of the movie. 

I really noticed on my rewatch of Inception that A LOT of time is focused on building the mechanics of the world. It harms the rewatchablilty of the movie as Inception isn’t that complicated of a movie. I think Nolan just explained so poorly. The movie would have benefited from trimming the exposition and giving you a one page document when you walk into the theater that explains most of what the whole dream world is like. Maybe time travel is just easier to explain, but Tenet isn’t concerned with the “world building”. Rather than guiding you to the finish, Tenet pulls you along. I find Tenet far more “confusing” because of the lack of hand guiding.

Another difference I want to touch on is the emotional stakes. Like it has been said before, Tenet doesn’t suffer from the “Nolan Dead Wife Problem”. The main character is literally called “The Protagonist”. Nolan pushed all of the emotional stakes onto the Elizabeth Debicki character; stakes that I find compelling, to a degree. Yet, with Inception, the whole Cobb/Mal storyline just doesn’t work. It is a bit boring. The one scene of in the hotel room is compelling, but it all just seems like it’s a different movie. The emotional stakes of Cobb has nothing to do with the heist. 

Anyways, I wanted to address some of the improvements Nolan took from Inception to Tenet. I think Tenet is far superior movie because it doesn’t get bogged down in exposition and has more compelling emotional stakes. 

Also, Tenet has by far the most interesting use of time travel I have ever seen. Rather than viewing time travel has teleportation, he sees it has actually moving through the space-time continuum as we humans perceive it. 

[wizkid420]

What Happened to Chance the Rapper?

Couldn’t think of a more clever title, but what I really want to focus on is how did Chance go from arguably one of the biggest pop hits of my generation to a nothing rapper? His most recent album was terrible. I barely got through half of it before I turned it off. I am sure there is better analysis than what I have to offer, but the overall consensus was poor. And with his “debut studio album”, Chance’s popularity vanished. How did one of the most popular artists just vanish like that? Was the album released too late after his initial success of Coloring Book?

Lemme look backwards first before I solve my questions. 

Acid Rap was a big album for high school me, and other kids like me. It was very much in that post Kanye/Kid Cudi/ vibe. It had that teenage angst to it. It had that “OF”/internet feel to it. It also was one of those albums that you knew if you met someone who listened to it, they were cool. Chance was still very underground when I discovered Acid Rap. And then he was on Kanye’s “Ultralight Beam”.

Dawg.

He was king. That song was everywhere. And then there was the build up to Chance 3, to Coloring Book. Coloring Book was a mainstream sensation. That album was being played during lunch when we sat outside. That album was being played in cars. That album was being played at our awkward shitty house parties. Suffice to say, Chance was on top of the world. So could one bad album undo all of his good work? Did his mainstreaminazation lose him all his day one, underground fans? How big do you have to be to let a bad album slide? Honestly, we have been letting Drake slide with a few mediocre (some may even be bad) albums, but it is all good cause he’ll just a drop a song with Meek Mill or Rick Ross and we’ll forget all about More Life.

Or was Chance the last big wave of the Internet/Punk rap? The last of the internet mixtape before you could just put your shit on Spotify and actually make money. By January of my freshman year, Culture had arrived and I was never more enthralled. Trap had taken over. I only wanted to hear that sound. Chance was only being played by the white girls; all of my friends didn’t want to hear that “nasely sounding bitch”. They wanted “hard” rap, “real” rap. 

[wizkid420]

Episode 3 (and 4)

Been meaning to write about Episode 3 for awhile, was just compiling my thoughts. I attempted to a do a bit of “live tweet” on the notes app so I decided that was the best way to get my thoughts across. So here are my hot takes:

This podcast I listen to always calls Palpatine Shiev because that is the actor’s name and it just fits so well that I have started calling the character Shiev. Shiev is so comical in this movie.

Anakin, talk about a dude who needs therapy

Darth Vader is literally an incel. Angsty teen who gets very upset that a girl doesn’t love him. He literally joins the Sith and kills all of the Jedi just so he can make her be with him forever. 

If the Jedi aren’t religious zealots, then what are they? Professors? Police? A religion?

It really is interesting to watch the original trilogy and see the Jedi treated as this mystical thing that only so many people heard of, but then this new trilogy ruins all that by being only like 20ish years in the past. 

You need to have a better relationship between Anakin and Padame because Anakin turning to the dark side in order to combat her death because losing his mother was too much can be powerful storytelling. The Kenobi-Anakin relationship is so much better/stronger and actually feels painful when they fight at the end. “YOU WERE BROTHER ANAKIN”

George low key said fuck it and went for it in the last one. Such random shit everywhere. So many creatures and characters. Jedi are mowing droids down in this movie.

This grievous kenobi fight makes no sense because the droids would just shoot kenobi. And the George was like lemme have a chase scene where I cut mid way thru to give you 5 minutes of boring Anakin shiev talk where Anakin finds out Shiev is Palpatine, even though the audience has known this since the first episode.

To borrow a Rewatchables term, the VINCENT HANNA “THEY KNEW” AWARD FOR OVERACTING has to be given to Shiev. My mans is on the court for like 11 minutes doing nothing but giving layups that won’t go in, finds his inner force, and then just starts ripping it from like 40 feet going 8/10.

It has to be said, Shiev’s plan is far to convoluted to have been planned out.

I’d love to see a clone story the explored being a war hero and fighting for the republic in one part. And the second part is a movie about him finding about that he is going to execute order 66. I think that could be very interesting story - what is it like knowing you are going to murder someone and there is nothing you can do to stop it?

Side note - someone has to find the link between Game of Thrones and the Star Wars sequels failing at the same time because both were stories that began as these epics about these families that then devolved into these weird nothing fantasy stories that were chalk full of plot.

Honestly its stuff like Chewbacca showing up in episode three that really closes the loop. I do not need Chewbacca in Episode 3. I really don’t like how claustrophobic this “universe” feels.

My biggest problem with Mustafar but there is just no way anyone could breathe on that planet. This planet is literally just one massive volcano. There is nothing but CO2 in the air lol.

Episode 1 take but Jar Jar Binks is the definition of funny guy who is in the movie for the first action set piece, and then sticks around for the rest of the movie even though he has no thematic or plot purpose.

Episodes 1-3 would make a great costume drama. Would have loved a early season GoT style story.

This final battle is iconic. This is the good kind of bad.

Is Darth Vader more machine than man? A machine that ultimately find his humanity?  

Oh and episode 4. Watched it again. It was all fine. Pacing seemed off this time around. Its a lot longer of a movie than I remembered. Also, some weird audio issues kept popping up but that could easily just be my no external speaker having TV lol.

[wizkid420]

My Unwanted Opinion on Arsenal: What Does the Future Hold?

To preface, I am neither Arteta In or Out. If I had to choose, maybe ArtetaOut. But, when you think about it, how of this is his fault? How many of these problems have been planted 10+ years ago and now every problem is coming to a head at the wrong time. I am a fairly new Arsenal fan. I picked them up around 2011/2012, but I can truly remember being a fan coming into the 2012-13 season. That was the last good transfer summer Arsenal had. It was the beginning of the end for Arsenal. Little did I know...

I have only seen Arsenal fall in terms of team quality and standards. Wenger, for all he was for worth, paved over the multitude of cracks that were starting to appear. We started celebrating 4th place like we won the Premier League. Wenger even said getting 4th place was more important that winning the Premier League. Maybe he was right, but money can cloud all judgement. Every Arsenal fan could see Wenger needed to go. If there was a good time to sack him, it should have been after Leicester won the title. He was far past his prime. He was out of ideas. The Ozil, Sanchez, and Auba signings may have been good signings, but what did they win us? A few FA Cups? In end, that really means nothing. The Title and the Champions League are all that matters.

And eventually he did leave, and limbo took his place. The Emery appointment was atrocious. The football we played was atrocious. After years of blowing cash on shitty players and letting players leave for half their value or on frees, we blew the remaining scraps on Pepe. I’m sorry, but what a bust. 19 goals in 86 games. That is not the return you want from the 22nd most expensive player. He’s a classic inconsistent winger who tricked the idiots at Arsenal to buy him. 

And eventually Emery left too, and Arteta took his place. 

I am sure Arteta is a good coach and will probably have a decent career as a manager. Maybe he will be world class. Just like Pepe, I have seen these glimpses of brilliance from Arteta. But Arsenal is toxic. We took him in, threw the future of Arsenal and its financially stability on his shoulders, and expected him to deliver. And there is no doubt that Arteta has made mistakes. Willian will have to go down as one of the worst signings ever by Arsenal. He has made many a managerial mistakes on and off the pitch. But, this was not an environment for any manager to succeed in. Arsenal is in transition and no one has come to terms with that fact. Our squad is unbalanced, aged, and depleted. The culture of Arsenal has been falling apart for years. We have been falling into middle table mediocrity and now it has finally happened.

So now that I have gotten all these ramblings out, where do we go from here? I think the Kroenkes have to go. They have milked Arsenal dry. They haven’t provided any money for transfers or facilities or wages. And now we don’t have European competitions to make up for our massive wage bill. Arteta may be a problem, but he isn’t the only problem. I would love to see Arsenal try and solve another problem before we change managers again. There is a core group of Arsenal players that are on their 3rd manager. Why can’t we cast blame on them? The future is uncertain, but I will keep my faith that someone at Arsenal knows what they are doing. There is group of young players here that might be special. Maybe they are the answer. Maybe Arteta is. But who knows. We are all just angry Arsenal fans looking to channel years of pent up rage somewhere.

[wizkid420]

Is it me or do all spoofs of cheesy 80’s movies just turn into cheesy 80’s movies? I mostly am thinking about Wonder Woman 1984, but Stranger Things season 3 also had that problem.

They both had a villain who really hammed it up

[wizkid420]

Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

This is the worst Star Wars movie in my opinion. There is nothing redeemable in this movie. The other two prequel movies have something to watch for, but this is lacking in every category. The script is bland; the characters have nothing to work with. The lighting is simple, boring; just like an MCU movie lol. 

Ewan is giving it his all and is the only highlight. His stuff on Kamino is interesting. Good action scene between him and Jango. 

The Padama/Anakin relationship is so perverse. It has the biggest 25 year old high school teacher/17 year old high school student vibes ever. Is Anakin subconciously using his Jedi Powers to cloud Padame’s mind and make her fall in love with him? I would have loved to get a better idea of what Anakin’s true powers are. How powerful is he?

[wizkid420]

Star Wars I: Phantom Menace

We all know the various problems that this movie has. Script, directing, acting, the racist undertones in so many aliens; the list goes on and I could nitpick my way through this movie for two hours. But, I am not an incel. I don’t want to waste my time, or yours, doing that.

What I do want to talk about is the just the raw vision of this movie. George Lucas has an incredible mind. Rewatching this movie, I was truly blown away by everything this movie includes. From the ships to the various aliens to the scope, this movie has it all. 

Jar Jar Binks is an incredible invention. I don’t care for the character; even the other characters in the movie are annoyed by him. But goddamn if Jar Jar isn’t one of the greatest inventions in cinematic history. George and ILM created probably the first CGI character to have multiple scenes in the movie. He is everywhere. George waited 20 years to make new Star Wars because he wanted to push cinema forward. He wanted to create new technologies to help him create the best “world”.

Overall: 5/10