Monthlyish Digest, 4/30/2017 - 6/10/2017
BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad (dropped, episodes #1-6)  â modest, casually-paced show about falling in love with music that never really reaches the proper emotional heights that would communicate that theme most effectively. Turns a premise with real heart into something very, very average.
Best: Believable code switching with multiple characters who prefer English to Japanese. Those voice actors do a pretty damn impressive job and the scenes specifically about it are hands down the best code switching Iâve seen portrayed in fiction. Worst: By the later early episodes, the conscious directorial choice of slow pacing turns into budget-saving and excitement-killing stills and unnatural dead air. Like, this scene is amazing but, nodding off multiple times during #6, I canât imagine it as anything but a beautiful outlier.
Pokemon White 2 (complete, 82.5 hours) Â â what should be the blueprint for any Pokemon sequels to come, with a lot of practical lessons and palpable ambitions that any RPG franchise should internalize.
Best: the Pokestar studios mini-game where you get to âfilmâ movie franchises and release âem to a growing fanbase. A perfect example of extra content that builds upon world and character Worst: the story doesnât exactly flow, nor does it really make much room for character writing outside of cartoonish, robotic motivations. That said, itâs an acceptable level of amateurish that, paired with the pacing of special Pokemon trainer boss battles, still drives you to explore the whole game
Close-Up  â one of the absolute best works of metafiction to ever exist, covering the trial of a man who just happened into conning a family by pretending to be a famous film director. Intimate, real court footage mixed with reenactments with the involved parties played by ... themselves.
Best: after opening with a very structured sequence that plays out like fiction, the opening credits immediately let us in on the secret that everything both is and isnât as it seems, casually disregarding both truth and fiction, opting for something weirder but ultimately genuine
Miami Connection (rewatched) Â â still one of the great goodbad movie treasures, its earnestness is infectious and pure, all in the service of a self-aggrandizing plot about a bunch of tae kwon do friends who have a really bad, modestly successful band. But with folks this innocent, you do want to cheer for them after all.
Best: on this rewatch, a certain something stood out to me. Director/writer/star Y.K. Kim really insisted on highlighting how he and his friends represented the best of the American melting pot. In the current political climate, really seeing that theme emphasized added yet another layer to the movieâs naive but comforting earnestness

















