Portly Adolescence

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[portlyadolescence]

Friday the 13th: the Final Chapter

Rating: B+

1984's supposedly Final Chapter, which ironically spawned a new trilogy, finally gets us caught up to 1984, in the series’ timeline, and now everything is totally 80s. Goofy 80s clothes, a love for primitive tech gadgets, and notable appearances from Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman.  Here we've gotten away entirely from the core team of the first movie with director Joseph Zito taking the helm. Zito directed a bunch of grindhouse low budget films in the 70s and 80s, most notably early WWII-themed slasher The Prowler. Zito's version of Friday is a lot colder, crueler, and meaner than the goofy fun of the last few movies, which helped make the film one of the fan favorites in the series. 

While we're no longer right by Crystal Lake, I think, we're still in the woods and cinematographer João Fernandes does a great job at finally getting across the unknown menace. All the exteriors have this really dark, chilly look from the hills filled with dense foliage to fog rolling over the lake. There's definitely more attention paid to atmosphere here and less on continual jump scares.  At this point, Friday the 13th reaches the point of stopping to care about teenage protagonists as anything other than stuff for Jason to kill. The film seems to actively despise Crispin Glover and his friends (most of whom are total assholes) and invalidates the experience of the virginal "final girl" stereotype who gets immediately killed after admitting she's fallen in love with a guy and loses her virginity. The kills are more simple and brutal (Glover getting a wine cork to the hand and butcher knife to the face is a notable one) while the sexual content comes back with a gratuitous vengeance (there are two skinny dipping scenes!). 

Instead, the focus is put on a mother, daughter, and son (an excellent Feldman who reminds you he was a gifted child star) living out in the woods next to the teenagers who are there for a vacation. The mother's going through a divorce, the kid is obsessed with making monster masks, and the daughter starts a flirtation with a mysterious camper who is out to take revenge against Jason. Though the teens are just there to die, the film succeeds by finally giving us characters we’re invested in. Feldman is eventually the one who "kills" Jason with a machete through the face in a particularly gruesome sequence. While Friday the 13th till this point definitely lacks any character connections like the Halloween and Nightmare films sometimes had, it does seem appropriate for a character that is essentially make up effects artist Tom Savini to kill off his creation. 

The Jason here was played by a nearly 60-year-old Ted White who famously was John Wayne's stunt double in many films. He plays a very brutal Jason who starts to become more of a monstrous bogeyman in this film than the wilderness hillbilly. His hands are more corpse-like with these thick, ugly fingernails and his face is truly ghoulish.  During this one I was thinking about why these movies always have that part where the final girl character sees the bodies of everyone that Jason has taken the time to lovingly display for her to find. Plot wise this is to get the final girl caught up to speed because she's usually kept in the dark until the last 20 minutes or whatever. But why does Jason go to the trouble of setting up the bodies everywhere? What's the point? I have to give this some more thought. 

-James P.

Next up: Jason Lives, or does he?  Body Count: 13

[portlyadolescence]

The 100: Season 1 (2014)

Rating: B/B+

The CW isn’t generally a network I turn to as I’m no longer a teenager and pretty burned out on superhero entertainments, but a co-worker was talking about the 100 and it sounded interesting…and it was on Netflix. While the post-apocalyptic show does have a lot of trappings of the network and does struggle a bit at the beginning, by the end of the first season it’s developed a fully formed world with rich characters who are regularly tried by complex moral dilemmas.

Based on a book series by Kass Morgan, the 100 has a lot of familiar elements from shows and movies like Lost, the Hunger Games, and Game of Thrones. We’re about 100 years after a nuclear apocalypse where the last couple thousand people now live in a series of interconnected space stations called the Ark. In order to preserve resources, the society follows a rigid, totalitarian set of laws where any illegal activity is punished by death via ejection into space. That is unless you’re under the age of 18 (as played by attractive models in their 20s), then you’re imprisoned.

The titular 100 current prisoners, as we start the show, are being sent on a drop ship to earth to see if it’s inhabitable, a pretty solid premise for the show. And while it is inhabitable, Earth is filled with mutant creatures and actual people they call Grounders (cue the Lost comparisons). As the teens try to find resources, develop leadership structures, and survive, the series spends as much time back in space with the adults (kind of unusual for a CW, teen-oriented show) who are trying to keep the Ark, umm, afloat as it endures equipment failures that threaten survival.

This show has a big cast, but we largely follow Clarke, the daughter of an Ark council member and head doctor, who was jailed after her father discovered the Ark’s oxygen generation systems were failing. While she’s a good person with pretty clear ideas of how to behave, a lot of the other prisoners are violent criminals initially led by Bellamy, a stowaway who should the Ark’s leader, who attempts to thwart Clarke’s desire for ordered rule in favor of hedonistic chaos.

Initially the dialogue is kind of bad in the first couple of episodes, particularly the pilot, and a lot of the characters come across as stereotypes. If you give it some time, though, the dialogue gets a lot better and the characters more complex. The show does a great job of giving each character clear motivation and having them respond.

For instance, Bellamy who we find out isn’t really a bad guy, but has spent his whole life trying to protect his sister, Octavia. The actual only siblings on the arc due to a one child rule, Octavia grew up in hiding. When she gets to earth, she’s never dated anyone or really experienced anything. Meanwhile, a lot of Bellamy’s leadership is designed to protect his sister and prevent the Arc from coming to earth to prosecute him for shooting the Chancellor.

What’s also great character wise is the show puts women and minority actors in positions of power. Women can be total badasses and powerful leaders, and there are never any corny lines about women being able to do the same things as men or shit like that.

Of course, there’s some other stuff that doesn’t really get better like how the show’s always trying to insert these currently popular songs—there’s a really cringe worthy Imagine Dragons’ song in the first episode. And a lot of the first season involves trying to get as many beautiful people to have very tame TV sex with each other. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just very CW and all the sex scenes are the same so they’re really kind of dull. However, not just women are the eye candy—everyone’s eye candy here.

Overall, the good outweighs the bad, and it’s very entertaining overall. The plot moves along very quickly with each episode having clear objectives like rescuing someone from the grounders or getting supplies. It tells a very clear story with a well-formed world, and they never seem to be making it up as they go along like Lost. And as a further corrective of that show, there’s always a little bit of mystery, but they clear things up before deepening the world.

What really makes the show worthwhile is it’s a show about complex moral decisions similar to Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad. On the Arc, the people in charge have to decide the best way to deal with the declining oxygen and it that’s killing hundreds of people so the rest can survive. Down on the ground, they’re struggling with whether to torture a grounder for information. And all those decisions they make matter too, even seemingly insignificant ones.

Like Game of Thrones, it’s also a very deadly show with the characters inhabiting a very dangerous world. By the time the teens land on Earth, some have already died and many more die during the season. They’re also not afraid to kill off main characters or people who seem like they would traditionally be very important. There’s no mercy on the 100.

And having already seen the second season, I can tell you that it gets a lot better and the 100 gets really awesome so it’s worth plowing through those first couple of episodes.

-James P.  

[portlyadolescence]

Friday the 13th Part III

Rating: B

While Part II didn't do quite as well at the box office as the first movie, it still made plenty to justify a third and initially final entry. Part III had twice the budget of the last movie, though most of that seems to have gone to shoot the film in 3D. It seems weird now, but the early 80s saw a big resurgence in 3D films—mostly horror flicks like Amityville 3D and Jaws 3D. The 3D here is all gimmick with everything from a yo-yo to a spear gun coming at your face.  Originally there talk of a plot of having Ginny from part II returning and getting stalked by Jason at a hospital, but that ended when Halloween II came out with the same plot. Fortunately, Friday the 13th changes the game up enough to be much better than the last entry. Steve Miner returns here as the only director to helm more than two of these films, and closes out the first "trilogy." 

The plot picks up right back where we left in 1984 (this was released in 82) with Jason still alive and now causing havoc outside of Crystal Lake. After slaughtering a goofy old married couple, he comes across a group of teenagers vacationing in a cabin transitioning this to more of a spooky cabin in the woods film than another campfire tale.  While some elements are familiar, like another wacky townsperson replacing Ralph, and the guy who loves pranks, the characters are much more amped up and ridiculous. The teenagers get harassed by a biker gang, there's a Cheech-and-Chong-style stoner couple, and the loser fat kid is always pretending he's dead or a serial killer. 

The violence is again more brutal, which led to some problems with the MPAA, though there's not really any sex or nudity. That's appropriate considering part of the film is about being a rape survivor. Final girl Chris was once attacked by Jason two years ago, but blacked out and woke up without knowing what happened. That's left her spooked by nearly anything and unable to be intimate with her boyfriend who doesn't really understand her problems because men are assholes.

But rather than this being a I Spit on Your Grave revenge film, the outcome eventually breaks Chris by the end. Watching this again after many years, I was impressed that amidst a lot of the silliness they were able to treat this fairly seriously and not nullify it by filling the screen with boobs. 

Jason here is played by former trapeze artist Richard Brooker who did stunts and later became a producer, director, and web design entrepreneur. Notably he was a director on Bill Nye the Science Guy. Brooker is a much taller Jason, and they make him look stockier than the last film. He's now bald with an evenly “mutant face,” though not as intense as his elephant man look in the last film. Jason gets hanged in this one and takes a machete to the head and lies presumably dead at the end, though they have a lot of fun messing with the canoe in the water ending of the first film.  Next up: Corey Feldman kills Jason...again!  Jason Body Count: 12 (biggest yet!)

-James P.

[portlyadolescence]

Friday the 13th Part 2

Rating: C+

Originally there was talk of making Friday the 13th an anthology series where each movie would feature another freaky happening on the titular “holiday.” But after the success of the first film, associate producer of the first movie Steve Miner, who went on to direct a number of decent horror movies like Halloween H20 and Lake Placid, took the director’s chair. Instead, they decided to run with the shock gag at the end of the first film that Jason was still alive.  Part II came out a year later, but the story picks up five years later (this would put us in 1984, though everyone still looks like they're fresh out the 70s). It opens with the surviving Alice still trying to get over the incident before she gets stalked and killed by a mysterious man (spoiler alert: it's Jason). It seems like originally there was a larger plot for actress Adrienne King, but in real life was stalked by a crazed fan following the success of Friday the 13th, which discouraged her from wanting to act much in the sequel. 

From there, we get essentially the same movie as the first one with a new group of counselors on the first night of a counselor's training camp (I guess they were too afraid to show Jason terrorizing children). There's a much bigger cast including two people of color who get no lines (a first for the series) and a guy in a wheelchair (not sure if he was actually disabled or not).

They also threw twice as much money at the film this time around. It's filmed in a similar style, but the sets are better, there's more kills shown on screen, and a lot more sex. Definitely follows the bigger, the better sequel philosophy. 

In regards to sex and drug usage, while everyone still gets killed, this one still has this very liberated 70s vibe. All the women are shown to be in control of their sexuality and are the ones who instigate sex in the film. They also present this idea that everyone from teenagers to responsible adults smoke marijuana and that's perfectly fine. It's important to remember this one was filmed before Reagan was present and before the AIDS crisis.  A lot of the same character stereotypes are here like the practical joker and the responsible camp owner, and Crazy Ralph returns, but the characters have slightly more depth to them this time around. They play around a bit with who is going to be the final girl, it actually ends up being a couple, and revealing if the killer is really Jason or just some lunatic. 

They hide Jason until the very end and when they reveal him it's a total bummer. He's this hillbilly-looking guy who wears a sack over his head, wields a pitchfork and other tools, and is not particularly menacing (in the next film he's in the hockey mask) until his sack gets ripped off to reveal a deformed mutant face. What I do like is they try to show him as this resourceful woodsman trapper who's built a cottage from scraps he found, it includes a shrine to his mother's decapitated head, and sets up traps in the woods for people and animals. This was an idea explored further in the remake.  Mostly the movie follows the same beats as the long movie down to a final shock for the audience (and a super incoherent ending). Still, it's pretty entertaining. 

-James P.

Next up Jason finally gets his iconic look...in 3D!  Jason Body Count: 9 (also implied he killed a dog and could have killed one other person) The first Jason was played by Warrington Gillette who from what I can tell is just a random guy. Steve Daskewisz is also listed as Jason's stunt double. He appears to also just be some dude.

[portlyadolescence]

Friday the 13th (1980)

Rating: A-

Kicking off a new feature where I go through one of the Friday the 13th films each Friday. 

Directed by Sean S. Cunningham and released in 1980, Friday the 13th was one of the first "holiday" slasher films to capitalize on the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween. Hence, the name of the film which takes place on Friday the 13th, even though it has little to do with it. While the critics hated the gory flick, it grossed close to $40 million at the box office despite a lowly $550,000 budget. Thus kick starting a seemingly endless number of sequels and spawning tons of other kids-at-camp slasher films like Sleepaway Camp and the Burning.  At the start of the film, a couple 1950s camp counselors are killed off after having sex. Flash forward to 1979 and the camp is being reopened as a camp for inner city youth despite the protests of the townspeople, including a local old coot called "Crazy Ralph." They probably didn't have enough budget for kids, so the movie takes place before the camp opens with the counselors getting picked off one by one, including Kevin Bacon who gets one of the best death scenes in the film (the fairly iconic arrow through the throat from under a bunk bed). 

Compared to Halloween, Friday the 13th is quite a bit less sophisticated. It seems like they were hoping to shoot for a mix of horror film and sex comedy, though it's not as violent or filled with sex as later entries. The movie takes influence from Italian Giallo films with a mostly unseen killer whose eyes we see a lot of through. In particular, Mario Bava's Bay of Blood seems to be a big influence. The "killer vision" would definitely be a major carryover in the slasher genre.  For some who haven't seen the series before, it may come as a surprise that Jason isn't the killer here, but his mother. At the time, it was a brilliant strategy to have actress Betsy Palmer show up as Jason's mother, trying to avenge the death of her son who drowned while camp counselors having sex. She was well known at the time for her TV, game show, and film roles as a kind, warm figure and no one would have suspected her.

Instead, her arrival late in the film would have likely put audiences at ease (similar to a certain actor showing up late in Interstellar). It's unfortunate that we don't have the same experience today. Reportedly, Palmer hated the script but did the movie to buy a new car. Later she ended up embracing her role as a delightfully deranged killer.  One of the biggest advantages watching this film on subsequent viewings is it plays with the idea of how far a parent would go to protect their child. While Mrs. Voorhees attacks teenagers after having sex, it's mostly about their neglect for her son. Subsequent films would translate that into a bizarre sense of morality where anyone doing "bad things" deserves punishment.

But here, it's really more about hacking up teenagers and even the "final girl" isn't really the main character like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. She's simply the only left or all that pure (it's implied she's having an affair with the camp owner and participates in a game of strip monopoly). We don't really care about any of these characters, though that doesn't stop the intense end chase/fight with Mrs. Voorhees and final girl Alice from being really exciting and scary.  Friday the 13th is a fairly trashy rip off of Halloween, but it's pretty fun and was a little inventive at the time. Definitely worth seeing if you're interested in the start of the slasher genre. On to the next one where Jason wears a bag over his head! 

One last fun fact is the legendary Tom Savini did the make-up effects for the film. He had just received some popularity working with George Romero on Martin and Dawn of the Dead and the arrow scene and the decapitation of Mrs. Voorhees would make him the go-to effects guru for most of the slasher era. 

-James P. Mrs. Voorhees Body Count: 9

[portlyadolescence]

Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014)

Rating: B/B-

I work from home most of the week and Fridays it can be a struggle getting through the day. What’s surprisingly helped is putting on a TV show that I’m mildly interested in, but normally wouldn’t watch in my spare time. And that’s how I plowed through seven mostly okay seasons of Sons of Anarchy on Netflix.

Sons of Anarchy was created by Kurt Sutter, who was a writer and cast member on The Shield, an excellent early FX show about crooked cops in California. Sons of Anarchy has a similar gritty feel and look, though it’s more lighthearted at times and nowhere near as good. The show peaks early with two very good seasons, three mostly enjoyable seasons, and then two fairly bad seasons with an alright ending.

The show primarily follows Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), the Vice President of the Redwood Original branch of the Sons of Anarchy motorcycle club. His deceased father founded the club and his stepfather Clay Morrow (played by Ron Perlman) is currently the president. Decades after the club was founded under hippy-ish anarchistic ideals, they now make their money running guns imported by the IRA, which seems kind of random.

This is kind of like grimy version of Hamlet, with some Greek tragedy thrown in, and by the end of the first episode it’s pretty clear that Jax’s father was likely killed by his mother Gemma (Katey Sagal in one of the show’s best roles) and Clay because he wanted to get the club away from guns. That tension drives the show, along with Jax trying to push the club into more legitimate business vs. Clay pushing further into illegal territory to make more money.

The other source of tension early on is Jax becoming a father and having to quickly mature from a party boy outlaw. While married, his wife Wendy is a drug addict and overdoses causing her child to be born prematurely. The baby’s alright, his soon-to-be ex wife goes off to rehab for a few seasons, and Jax reconnects with Dr. Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff), a former high school flame recently back in town for mysterious reasons.

Tara sticks around for the long haul, and I liked how she was not the typical antihero wife character. The early part of the show uses her as the audience’s look into how the club works. While it still sucks that we don’t have a show like this that’s not all just dudes doing bad stuff, it is nice that Jax and Tara develop this equal partnership and both Tara and Jax’s mother are quite involved with the club.

The show does its share of objectifying of women to be sure, but it also does a surprisingly solid job of validating sex workers and portraying them as fleshed-out women (i.e. Lyla).  Characters who try to slut shame on the show are generally called out on their bullshit, and the later seasons do a lot to promote the advantages of legalizing prostitution.

Of course, what the show does best and makes it very watchable is the big focus on action. These dudes are always getting into lengthy car chases and gun fights. The show borders on a parody of the antihero genre at times due to its massive body count. I looked it up and it’s like 150+ people get killed on the show with Jax killing about a third of them.

Most of the seasons involve the club trying to deal with various levels of law enforcement, plus rival gangs in town usually with one other group trying to rise to the top. The best of which is in season 2 where the club is trying to outrun both this ruthless ATF agent and dealing with a vicious white supremacist group featuring Henry Rollins of all people (Marilyn Manson and Courtney Love also make appearances in the last season).

On that last note, one of the best parts of the show is its cast. Sons of Anarchy fills out its sprawling cast with tons of great character actors and notables from lots of solid shows. You’ll encounter prominent actors from the Sopranos, Mad Men, the X-Files, Deadwood, Lost, and pretty much the entire cast of the Shield. Best of which is a reoccurring part for Walton Goggins as a transgender woman that seems to start as a grotesque joke, but actually sets up this touching and oddly beautiful story about acceptance and the romance between one of the sons and this woman. The social issues on the show are fairly clumsy, but the show does seem to steer these semi-racist, mostly white, womanizers towards acceptance.  

It’s a heavily serialized show, but it’s less Breaking Bad and more Gossip Girl. SoA is all about constantly shifting alliances and the same groups fighting all the time. The sons might be aligned with the Latino group one week and the next they’re enemies. After awhile it was kind of pointless to keep track of all the constant entanglements.

This is largely the result of the show increasingly dragging out the main storylines. Starting at the end of season 2, they start dropping a shocker in the last episode that becomes the plot of the next season and doesn’t get resolved until the end. That forces them to deal with all these shifting alliances during the middle parts. As the show goes on, the episodes get longer and longer too leading to more foot dragging.

The other major issue with the later seasons is the show gets increasingly full of itself. Even in the beginning, you could tell Kurt Sutter just thought he was writing the most beautiful shit ever about these guys, instead of a fairly trashy show, but later on is just full of anguish and long stares and pretentious dialogue. This also goes hand-in-hand with the show getting increasingly violent and gory. You reach this point where the show wants you to love these people, but you realize they’re all these horrible mass murders and you just kind of want them all to die.

Season six and seven are a real slog, though the show never becomes totally unwatchable. Five seasons would probably been enough for all the story they wanted to tell, though at least the last few episodes are pretty enjoyable and wrap up everything decently. At the end, the show seems to finally come to terms with what it is and that helps to make the last episode feel fairly satisfactory.  

So yeah, this is a show that peaked early with the potential for greatness and continued on for seven seasons thinking it was better than the Wire, at least in my opinion. It’s easily watchable for the most part, though I’m not sure if I’d recommend it as anything more than a solid show you put in the background while doing other stuff. At least don’t watch this until you’ve seen the Sopranos, the Shield, the Wire, and Breaking Bad.

-James P.

[portlyadolescence]

The Evil Within (2014)

Rating: B+

I only recently got a PS4, mostly to play Bloodborne, so I’m currently playing catch up on a lot of games. The Evil Within’s trailers and imagery struck a chord with me last year and while it was released on the PS3, I wanted to wait to play it with the best graphics. After finishing the game, I found the story was overly confusing and the characters poorly developed, but I did enjoy the gameplay and atmosphere of the survival action horror game.

The Return of Shinji Mikami

My gaming knowledge is pretty limited, so I missed a lot of the hype surrounding this game which was centered on Shinji Mikami—the creator of the Resident Evil Series—returning to the survival horror genre after his split with Capcom under his own Tango Gameworks studio. A lot of people were really excited for this game and that contributed to some mixed reviews over the end product.

Story and Character Development

The big problem here is the story and character development. You play as Krimson City detective Sebastian Castellanos who is investigating a multiple homicide at a mental hospital with his two partners.  He sees video of a mysterious pasty, burned man dispatching all the people, gets knocked out, and wakes up in a grimy butcher room where a scary Leatherface-esque guy with a chainsaw is chopping up bodies.

The story isn’t overly complicated when read on Wikipedia, but is presented in a convoluted way. Mainly the pasty man was wronged and now is wreaking havoc using his mind hooked up to a bunch of bathtub looking things…and maybe it’s not that simple.

A lot of video game stories aren’t very clear or overly complicated, but strong characters help to brush that off. That’s not the case here, either. Sebastian’s back story is only presented through notes you find and has little connection with the events going on. That’s the only character development and most of the game has Sebastian saying stuff like “What’s going on?” and “This is really stage” in a hilarious deadpan that actually breaks up some of the tension (likely unintended by the game). His two other partners seem more interesting, but there’s very little info on them provided. The game also seems to be holding out on info for the DLC, which is kind of annoying.

Game Play

Fortunately the game play and overall atmosphere largely make up for that. You spend the game in pasty man’s mind where any number of horrible things can happen. You’re constantly being transported to different parts of his memories mixed in with the real world. Areas are fairly linear, but you’re always in a different type of environment from creepy mental hospitals to spooky houses to destroyed cityscapes to parts where you roam a European countryside in the middle of the day. You really have no idea where you’re going next and the game’s unpredictability is definitely a strong suit.

Along the way you encounter a number of horrifying creatures. These creatures start with mutilated zombies wrapped in barbed wire and get more disgusting as you go on till you’re fighting things that look like they got turned inside out and mashed together. There’s not very many jump scares, but all this stuff makes you feel uncomfortable at all times.  

The game is very difficult early on as you only have limited tools at your disposal and everything is out to get you. Besides the enemies, there are traps everywhere and the game is kind of doing everything to kill you. You’ll be using a pistol, shotgun, and crossbow for the most part, though more weapons like a sniper rifle and .44 magnum become available later in the game while some don’t show up until new game plus. Generally I’m not one to replay games, but Evil Within lets you play through again with new tricks while increasing your stats so that’s pretty cool.

While the guns are a little basic, the Agony Crossbow in particular provides a new depth to how you play the game. It’s totally unrealistic—perfectly fine since you’re in pasty guy’s mind—and can be uploaded with all types of ammunition like harpoons, bombs, and freezing darts.

Though fairly linear, I loved that Evil Within really gives the player a lot of freedom for how they want to tackle combat. You can try to go in shotgun blazing, electrocute a guy and sneak kill him, disarm a trap for crossbow bolt parts, or lure a zombie through a trap and watch him explode in gory goodness. There are also some optional paths and tough enemies to challenge that can provide great rewards or cause you to lose all your resources before a next boss fight.  

The rest of the time, you’ll be journeying back to a mental hospital to upgrade or fighting bosses. The mental hospital is where you have to save, which is kind of annoying, but you can also upgrade your character specs with green goo. Kind of similar to how The Last of Us worked with collecting junk to use at workshops, here you can either scour dark corners or take down enemies to get the green stuff.

Sitting at this horrifying, fetishistic-looking chair, you can upgrade weapons, run longer, boost health, improve aim, etc. There’s not enough to upgrade everything so you have to pick and choose, causing you to craft a character that meets your needs whether that’s a Sebastian that’s quick and ready to get away to use a sniper rifle or a shotgun and magnum-wielding bruiser.

In terms of boss fights, I was generally impressed with these. The monsters are increasingly horrific, and they mix up the situations quite a bit. Some of the highlights were fighting the Keeper, this guy with a safe on his head that can resurrect in other safes, a fight with this giant mutant in a parking garage, and the final multi-stage battle that is absolutely bonkers. There are some letdowns like certain bosses getting reused way too often as regular enemies and fights like the one with pasty man’s scary sister that require you to figure out some puzzle/activate something in a few seconds while you’re getting chased down.

Final Thoughts

At the end, this was a weird game where the story and characters became a total turnoff, but the fun action game play, horrific creatures, and always unsettling atmosphere kept me engaged. That said, and not having a Markiplier/Pewdiepie-size following, I don’t think I’ll be shelling out another $30 to play through the three DLC episodes.

-James P.

[portlyadolescence]

Books: August 2015

Rating: B/B+

Another round of short book reviews. Everything here was mostly enjoyable, but nothing was especially incredible.

Kobo Abe – The Face of Another (1964)

Abe followed up The Woman in the Dunes (highly recommended) with this philosophical “mad scientist” tale that’s told in a semi-Victorian epistolary style in the form of diaries to the scientist’s wife with a few more post-modernish touches like some corrections and reactions to earlier sections. After a lab accident that causes his face to burn off, a scientist puts all his energy into creating a mask. 

Once he does, he becomes obsessed with doing bad things, especially to his wife. Mainly this is a lot of thinking about the faces people wear and not a lot happens. I saw the movie years ago and wasn’t that crazy about it and wasn’t that into this either, though it does have interesting qualities (Rating: B-).

Blake Butler – There Is No Year (2011)

I’ve long enjoyed Butler’s Vice columns, but this is the first of his books I’ve read. It’s kind of like House of Leaves mixed with Tao Lin and Harmony Korine. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s structured as a series of vignettes about a mother and father who move with their son into a new house after he recovers from a mysterious illness.

Soon all sorts of weird things are happening like insect infestations, “copy” families, mysterious rooms, and never ending commutes. Butler plays around with adding footnotes without referents, questions, and page layout. It’s interesting, bizarre, and often hilarious, but goes on for way too long (Rating: B). I’m reading his latest 300,000,000, and it seems like a winner. I’ll let you know later.

Mark Z. Danielewski - The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May (2015)

Danielewski’s first novel in nearly a decade is his first in a planned 27-novel series, which is just insane. As the title implies, it takes place on one day and jumps back and forth between a bunch of different characters who don’t seem to be connected at this point (we’re not quite in Sense8) territory just yet. Most of the time is dedicated to an epileptic girl named Xanther who is on her way to pick up a dog with her father.

Other times we’re with her father or mother, a detective, a gang member, two old people on the run with a mysterious orb, and a weird section in the middle where either the narrator or an observer takes control. The style and font changes with each character; in the case of a man in Singapore, it’s rendered in broken English that makes it nearly impossible to decipher.

This is a much more linear novel than House of Leaves though with some interesting touches like this narrator that interjects at times, some “coming attractions,” and a “next time” section, and his characteristic attention to the placement of the text. I don’t really know what to think so far about this first part in the series, but I’m intrigued for what’s next (Rating: B+).

Don DeLillo – Cosmopolis (2003)

DeLillo’s short follow-up to the even shorter The Body Artist follows Eric Packer, a young billionaire taking a private limo across NYC to get his haircut on a crazy day that sees him losing his money and stalked by a crazed former employer. A sort-of takedown of rich Wall Street Elites, DeLillo fills the novel with terse, edgy prose and ridiculous scenarios like Packer getting a prostate exam in his limo while having a business meeting. There are some moments that approach American Psycho hilarity, but it’s too scattershot and the ending feels like of forced like he just needed to end it so here you go. Just okay and so is the David Cronenberg adaptation (Rating: B).

Kim Gordon – Girl in a Band (2015)

Kim Gordon’s memoir following the breakup of Sonic Youth and the end of her marriage to Thurston Moore reads more like a collection of biographical essays, but is essential reading for fans of the band. Gordon opens up more about her personal life, especially detailing how an abusive relationship with her schizophrenic brother let her to bottle up her feelings and use art as a way of creative release.

She touches on most of the major touchstones in her and the band’s career, details the highs and lows of her marriage, and talks about relationships with people like Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. There’s a lot of interesting stuff here, though it feels rushed at times like Gordon was trying to connect all the dots without quite fleshing everything out (Rating: B+).

Zadie Smith – White Teeth (2000)

I’ve kind of gotten tired of the multi-generation family saga, but I enjoyed Zadie Smith’s debut novel quite a bit for its very complex, developed characters and the sharp writing. The book follows the friendship between a British man who marries a Jamaican immigrant along with his friend from WWII, a Bengali Muslim who has an arranged marriage with a younger Bengali woman. There are four sections with the first half focusing on the two men starting to raise children and the second half focusing on their teenage kids.

Smith uses a lot of White Teeth’s multi-generation saga to look into the push-pull of the immigrant experience which involves both trying to stay true to your roots while also assimilating and finding the new culture to always still see you as the other. The characters react to these tensions in different ways, most notably with one of the son’s who is torn between his love of western culture with his more fundamentalist Muslim friends.

The narrative tries to get too neat and tidy towards the end by pushing all these characters into one place for a potentially explosive finish, but doesn’t have many faults other than that. This was my first Zadie Smith novel, and I enjoyed it quite a bit (Rating: B+).

[portlyadolescence]

The Sopranos Season 5 (2004)

Rating: A

So far during my second watching of The Sopranos, season five is by far the best and one I had most been anticipating. Here the show brings back more of the intense mob plotting of season one while also expanding on the intense character development of the previous two season.

The big mob plot action comes from the class of 2004, a group of mobsters getting out of jail that threaten to upstage the balance of power. There’s the elderly Feech LaManna (Robert Loggia) whose card game Tony knocked off as a teen, Phil Leotardo who steps into the role of Jonny Sack’s enforcer, and, best of all, Steve Buscemi enters the picture as Tony’s never before mentioned cousin Tony Blundetto. After the death of Carmine Lupertazzi last season, there’s also a growing power struggle between Carmine’s son and Jonny Sack over who’s going to rule the New York family.

While Tony gets more awful than ever this season, David Chase and the writers present him as somewhat wizened by his experience as a mob boss. Most evident of this is recognizing Feech as a potential Richie or Ralph and getting him sent back to prison.

A major change, though, is Tony’s loss of a support system in Carmela. The two spend the season separate, consistently butting heads and seeing if there really is anything they like about each other (the party for Carmela’s father is a great moment of the latter).  Tony falls back on his mob family, though finally realizing they are employees rather than his actual friends. The show seems to push more of the idea as Tony as a sociopath that only uses people, but still seems to sympathize with him as everything falls apart around him.

Let’s shift our attentions over to Tony B. for a bit. Tony B. is a bit of a thinner character than Richie or Ralph, but Steve Buscemi makes him one of the most memorable characters by virtue of being Steve Buscemi. The writers seem to step out of the way to let the actor riff a bit while also letting that underlying melancholy of the actor seep through quite a bit.

Tony S. loves Tony B., that’s for sure, but the mob kingpin doesn’t know what to with his cousin when he doesn’t want to get back into the mafia, opting to pursue a career as a massage therapist. Tony doesn’t know what to do with somewhat he can’t use yet also feels a major sense of guilt. Tony had a panic attack causing him to miss a robbery gone wrong that sent Tony B. to jail. Throughout the season, we as an audience are left to ponder what might have happened if Tony B. had stayed out and taken Tony S.’s role.

Tony B. also shares his cousin’s anger and acts impulsively in a way that his now hardened cousin wouldn’t. This puts Tony into conflict with New York and in a position where he has to choose between actual family and the “family” with severe consequences either way.

That brings us to the other tough decision facing Adriana and Christopher. For a long time now, Adriana has been stuck as an informant for the FBI. As the season progresses, Adriana is in a position where she can no longer function. The guilt and fear of her double life leads her to depression and severe medical problems.

Eventually she’s pushed into the position of having to tell Christopher and trying to get him to flip on Tony and run away into the witness protection program.   Obviously we all know what happens in what is just an intense, horrifying, and very well done scene. Adriana is one of the few “innocents” on the show and one of the few genuinely good people. This time I around I was concentrating on trying to figure out at what moment she knew it was all over.

For all the shit that happens, season five seemingly oddly at first brings it all back home again with Tony and Carmela getting back together. Like Matthew Weiner did with Mad Men, The Sopranos is often a show about people who are unable to move past their faults and keep slipping into the same destructive behavior. At the end as Tony runs away from Jonny Sack’s house, he emerges—like the wild bear at the beginning of the season (the series isn’t that subtle with the imagery)—bloodied, tired, and a little afraid. Tony has made it back home, but what’s been the cost?

-James P.

Next time in Season 6 Part 1: As I recall the first half of season six, which is pretty much a normal season, gets into some weird territory with stuff like Kevin Finnerty and Cleaver. Will Christopher be able to go on after Adriana? Will Phil Leotardo continue to be a threat to Tony? See you next time kids.

Last Time: Season 4

-James P. 

[portlyadolescence]

Girlhood (2014)

Rating: B+

The title of Girlhood obviously tries to play it as a response to the critically-acclaimed Richard Linklater film, though its original French title that translates to “Girl Gang” is probably more accurate for this story of a 16-year-old French teenager discovering her identity in this bold, very assured, often mesmerizing third feature film from director Céline Sciamma (the first of her films I’ve seen).

In a film that continually produces extraordinary moment after next—it’s probably better as a collection of moments than for its plot—the beginning really stands out. Girlhood opens with a group of black French girls playing American football to this pumped up, synth pop track. They’re super tough, but we get the sense they’re all having fun and support each other. Then they walk away and start to splinter off—giving us the sense this movie could have been about any of these girls—until we’re left with Marieme (played by newcomer Karidja Touré).

Marieme’s rarely seen mother is always working as a maid, the father is absent, and she’s left taking care of her sisters while trying to avoid her sadistic, overbearing brother (the limited amount of men on screen are reversed from the typical Hollywood gender roles to filling stereotypical roles or acting as eye candy for the most part). She’s told she doesn’t have the smarts for high school and her only real track is to go to a vocational school or settle for a husband and popping out children.

Living in an impoverished Parisian suburb, Girlhood is largely about Marieme’s struggle to find autonomy for herself with little options due to her economic background and patriarchal constraints. A first solution is presented in the form of Lady (Assa Sylla) and her “gang” of girls who wear their hair straight and wear very fashionable clothing. Sporty, shy Marieme is invited to join because they need a new member and not because she seems like a good fit. Marieme brushes them off, but reconsiders when she sees that they’re acquainted with a boy she likes.

Soon she’s straightening her hair, wearing edgier clothes, and going by the name “Vic” (for Victory). The movie flirts with the girl gang genre and takes elements of those old movies like Switchblade Sisters with the girls stealing and getting into fights and Vic seemingly rising in stature, but most of this part of the film is about how they bond.

After stealing dresses they get ready for what looks like to go out, but instead stay in a hotel room and start lip synching to Rihanna in what’s sure to be a long talked about scene. It starts with just Lady then they all start to join in while the frame goes larger and by the end they’re all singing. It sounds kind of stupid, but is actually really touching when you watch. Other scenes of them dancing in a park or just hanging out are all great, and I could have gone for a movie of just these girls getting into trouble and hanging out, or Vic objectifying her boyfriend (there’s this great scene where she comes over and tells him to turn over so she can check out his ass).

The movie does suffer from a bit of third act syndrome as Vic makes a major change again, becoming a drug dealer for the local slum kingpin. She has short hair, wears more masculine clothing, and binds her breasts. I like the idea of using a crime narrative as a way to show how teenagers try to find themselves by changing their look and gender identity is a fluid part of that, but this seemed to be more thrown in here than when Vic changes for the girl gang. Is she changing her look to fit in a masculine-dominated world, or does it have to do with her own identity? Is she in love with Lady? And some more questions.

That’s not really that problematic, though the last part of the film does suffer because it removes the great dynamic of the girl gang, and we don’t get much resolution to that narrative. There are still some great moments between Vic and the prostitute she lives with, and I really loved the final shot. Overall, though, I think the film itself suffers from a similar identity crisis, but maybe that’s the point.

Lastly, it’s got to be pointed out there is likely an issue here with this white director creating a film about the lives of these Black French teenage girls. On the other hand, it does seem like a good to have some representation on the French screens for young Black women rather than none and hopefully seeing Karidja Touré and Assa Sylla doing interviews and in ads will have a positive outcome. But then again, by trying to reduce the men in the film to stereotypes, which I understand the reason for doing so, this white lady makes it seem like Black men in France are all criminals.

Overall, though, I found Girlhood to be a very impressive film trying to challenge women’s roles with solid acting, beautiful cinematography, and a great soundtrack. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more of Céline Sciamma’s films and hope to see more of these young French actresses.

-James P.

[portlyadolescence]

Volley Shoes

Rating: C-

Last July, I was about to go to Minneapolis for the weekend and needed a new pair of casual shoes for the trip and didn’t have a lot of time. I was new to the Wicker Park area at the time and went to City Soles, which I had passed a bunch of times due to its location right next to the Damen Blue Line (it’s since moved down on Milwaukee).

They had some interesting shoes at some fairly high prices. I went with this pair of fairly plain black canvas shoes from Volley, an Australian shoe company that were priced somewhere in the $40 to $60 range (I can’t remember the exact price now). I thought the elevated tan rubber edging went too far up the shoe and looked a little stupid, but wasn’t in the position to judge much.

After my diesel shoes bit the dust, these Volleys became my regular pair of shoes. They didn’t offer a lot of cushioning, but weren’t that uncomfortable either. They just seemed like your basic shoe. That is until very recently when they very quickly went to shit.

As seems to be a trend with a lot of shoes I buy recently, the adhesive holding the canvas part of the shoe to the rubber started to go and bits of the rubber started pulling off, though not enough to really worry about. Then when I was tying my shoe, part of the shoelace ripped off. I was able to recover enough to keep going until I could get to another shoe store.

Next a decorative rivet on the side of the shoe popped off and I started to notice depressions/holes in the sole of the shoe. With yet another trip ahead of me, I knew the Volley shoes were not going to last, so while I was out shopping with my girlfriend we stopped at a DSW. As soon as I entered the store, half the bottom of one of the shoes ripped off on its own. Good timing!

While I did use these as my regular shoes, I work from home and don’t always leave my houses. I did not work out in them and used them just as walking shoes, so they were not abused in any way. And they were not worn at all during the winter (you can’t make it through a Chicago winter without a solid pair of boots).

So the bottom line is I bought some semi-unattractive shoes that didn’t last me a full year and horribly self destructed at the end. If these had come from like Target or Wal-Mart I’d consider giving these a higher rating, but at that price point I’d expect better construction, more comfort, or something more unique. I wouldn’t buy another pair of Volley shoes and wouldn’t recommend them. Let’s hope the next pair does better.

-James P.

Previously in this series: Brown Puma Shoes

[portlyadolescence]

The Sopranos Season 4 (2002)

Rating: A-

Spoilers Ahead

At the end of Season three, the Soprano family and their friends and business associates all seemed lost. While business for Tony and his crew was going great, there was a sense we were at a crossroads: that things could go up or down for everyone. What David Chase didn’t know was a few months after season three ended that planes would fly into the World Trade Center and season four would begin in post 9/11 world where everything had changed.

The September 11 terrorist attacks aren’t explicitly dealt with in the show, which started airing about a year later, but that sense of loss pervades the season where hopes and dreams start to drift away. Here we begin a descent that will take us through until the end of the series.

A big part of this is the fracturing of Tony’s marriage as well as the hope for the future of his organization fading away. The latter part is due to Christopher Moltisanti’s growing heroin problem. Tony tries to distance himself from the organization by sending all his orders through Christopher to both improve his legal standing and groom Christopher for taking control of the family one day.

Christopher can’t handle it, though, and succumbs to his drug addiction, which leads him to abuse Adriana (also suffering by being trapped as an FBI informant) and kill her dog. This does lead to probably one of the funniest moments of the series where Tony and his goons stage a ridiculous intervention that ends in them beating up Christopher and sending him to the hospital before a trip to rehab.

While Tony’s own children seem alright this season with Meadow maturing and ceasing to be an awful bran in particular, his marriage crumbles as Carmela finally (I can’t believe it took this long) comes to terms with how much she hates her life. Tony seems blindsided by it because he’s just been doing the same shit, but Carmela views him as her jail keeper especially after a failed attempt at an affair with Furio (poor Carmela’s failed every time to get some enjoyment outside her marriage while Tony continues to fuck around with even Svetlana, his Uncle’s nurse with one leg).

Carmela has always been my favorite anti-hero wife and Edie Falco really gets the chance to shine here as Carmela wrestles with her morality and choice of lifestyle and finally can’t handle it anymore. The end of this season flirts with the possibility of conflict between New Jersey and New York, but I like that Carmela’s decision to finally get away from Tony becomes the major power shift and climax of season four.

Not to say there isn’t any mob action in this season, though with Ralph Cifaretto finally getting killed for non-mob reasons (the increased attention towards New York will become more of a plot fixture in the rest of the series). It’s a surprise Ralph made it as long as he did with numerous threats against him yet Tony brutally murders him in a horrifying kitchen brawl after finding out that Ralph burned down the stables that held his horse, which Tony had become very attached to. What’s surprising is the killing happens in the middle of the season and comes unexpectedly in an episode where Ralph’s son was severely injured in an accident.

What’s also great about the rest of the season is how many characters get these great stories. There’s Paulie Walnuts dealing with old ladies bullying his mother and snitching to New York, Bobby Bacala struggling with the unexpected death of his wife, Uncle Junior’s trial and possibly growing mental health issues, Artie’s suicide. Certainly a lot of bleak stuff in here all swirling around the death of the American dream and well acted by the incredible ensemble cast.

There’s only one part about this season that’s bad and it’s really bad: Episode 3, “Christopher.” This is probably the worst episode of the whole show. It’s about Silvio and some of the mob guys taking umbrage with Native American protestors unhappy about the Columbus Day Parade. The whole episode is super heavy handed with long speeches by Silvio and other people.

At the time, this episode was trying to address critics who thought the show was anti-Italian American. But it sucked then and it sucks even more now removed from that context. What’s even worse is this is the episode where Bobby’s wife dies, and it effectively neuters actor Steven R. Schirripia’s moment where his character takes on a lot more depth (fortunately Bobby would become an even greater character as the show went on).

If I had the time I would dissect the Sopranos episode by episode because there’s simply way too much to cover. This is an incredibly rich show with such a talented cast, and I’m even getting a little sad right now going into the back stretch of the show; watching Sopranos again now is even more heartbreaking every episode when I remember that James Gandolfini is dead. What an incredibly talented man, what a shame. One really shitty episode aside, Season 4 is probably the best yet thanks to continually subverting both expectations for the mob drama and dramatic TV in general.

-James P.

Coming up Next: As I remember, Season 5 is going to be very good and very intense. To look forward to, we’ve got the rise of Johnny Sack and increased problems in New York, the introduction of Phil Leotardo, and the best part: Steve Buscemi. Oh yeah, and a lot of people are going to die. See you next time!

Previously: The Sopranos Season 3

[portlyadolescence]

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Belasco Theatre: May 2015)

Rating: A-

Sometime during high school, I stumbled upon Hedwig and the Angry Inch, an offbeat cult film based on an off Broadway musical that ran for two years, but never made the leap to the “big time.” While I’ve never been a fan of musicals, I was captivated by the story of Hedwig and actually enjoyed many of its glam rock and punk-influenced songs and ended up re-watching it several times over the years.

It certainly seems indicative of our changing social climate that now Hedwig would make the leap to Broadway with huge stars like Neil Patrick Harris taking over the lead. I couldn’t get my act together in time to go when John Cameron Mitchell (the star of the original production and the movie) resumed the role, but still wanted to go, even as I was a little apprehensive as to whether former Glee-actor Darren Criss could take on the role.

For those not in the know, Hedwig tells the story of an East German man who grew up on American rock & roll who falls in love with an American military officer. The officer agrees to marry the boy Hansel to take him to America, but first Hansel has to have a sex change. Thinking he’ll never be able to leave he agrees to the procedure and plans to take his mother’s name, Hedwig, but the procedure is botched leaving Hedwig with the titular inch and an identity crisis.

Left all alone in America, Hedwig starts writing songs with a band made up of Korean army wives and comes to the attention of a rebellious army general’s son who is enamored by Hedwig’s mystique and music. Hedwig helps the boy to find a new identity as the 90s alt rocker Tommy Gnosis and he ends up stealing her music and becoming huge. The embittered Hedwig now spends her life following around Tommy and playing the same songs in much smaller venues.

On stage, the structure deviates significantly from the typical Broadway musical with Hedwig setup as a faux rock concert. Marquee Moon was blaring before the show and the members of Hedwig’s band casually started to stroll on stage to tune. Criss as Hedwig made an epic entrance from above via wires as the band broke into the first song.

The back story is Hedwig has been able to take over the theater for one night after the quick closing of Hurt Locker the Musical as Tommy Gnosis kick starts a comeback tour right outside in Time Square.  The set is decorated with exploded rubble and a bombed out car. The staging stays pretty simple throughout, though there were some animations and projections. As the show goes on, Hedwig removes parts of the set. Like how she sheds layers of clothing, this acts as a simple way to enforce the character’s baring of her soul while I thought also was a way of showing this outcast being forced to contend with and taking ownership over a world that doesn’t recognize her.

In between the songs, Hedwig reveals her story, often playing the other characters. Tommy Gnosis’s voice is heard once and awhile through a back door, though he is never seen. The only other real character on the stage is Yitzhak, Hedwig’s equally gender-bending husband (played by actress Rebecca Naomi Jones) and backup singer who yearns for the spotlight and is constantly upbraided and abused by Hedwig. (Jones) had a wonderful voice and lots of presence, and I enjoyed the character’s progression here more than in the film where Yitzhak begins to have more and more of a voice throughout the show.

Criss is the youngest actor to play Hedwig, and I was pretty worried he was going to end up as bland as his character Blaine on Glee, but fortunately I was wrong. While his age certainly doesn’t match up with the character’s timeline, Criss gave the character a youthful, wild energy that put Hedwig in easy company with Iggy Pop with a voice raw enough for rock and roll. Since there was no fourth wall, Hedwig interacted with the audience just like this was a normal concert, even going out into the crowd to rub her crotch in the faces of middle aged men and even appeared to kiss a few dudes. At another point, Hedwig spit some liquid on the front row.

Cameron’s Hedwig in the film version always came across as beaten down, sad, and embittered. For the stage performance, Criss’s Hedwig is first off trying to be that cocky rock front woman while gradually losing control to the rage and despair brought up by the character telling us these stories of her past. It’s basically amounts to those emotional train wreck performances that have ended bands like the Replacements and Women. Criss did a great job in the part, and it seems like he could have a really great career ahead of him if he wants more challenging roles.

The only thing that really didn’t stick was a lot of the new jokes. The concept of Hurt Locker the Musical was amusing, but none of the jokes about it were that fanny. Likewise there were a lot of jokes about current Broadway shows that were kind of dumb and pandering to the crowd. These didn’t detract significantly from the performance, though there were a few awkward times when Criss was waiting for a reaction that didn’t come.

As a longtime fan of Hedwig and the Angry Inch film, I was thrilled I got a chance to see the live production. Even though I missed John Cameron Mitchell by a couple weeks, Darren Criss did a great job and certainly won me over.

-James P.

[portlyadolescence]

Hot Girls Wanted (2015)

Rating: D-

Premiering after some festival appearances on Netflix, Hot Girls Wanted is a new documentary from directors Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus detailing the world of “amateur pornography” in Miami, Florida. Bauer and Gradus piece together the documentary with a “danger danger mothers, lock up your daughters: tone that approaches, though doesn’t quite cross, the hysterical line of something like Reefer Madness or Sean Hannity’s yearly coverage of spring break in somehow acting like it just discovered that people can be exploited while working in a capitalist system.

There’s nothing subtle at all about Hot Girls Wanted. It’s loaded with montages of scantily-clad celebrities and out of context, or purposefully vague, captions about how there are limited federal guidelines for pornography and how porn studios are moving from California because they don’t want to have protected sex (while ignoring how increasingly ridiculous state regulations in California has led to the fracturing of what was a pretty safe and self-regulated environment in regards to testing has pushed people to places like Miami).

Gradus and Bauer really want to hammer in how young people are exposed to all these shocking images from celebrities and that’s leading them to porn as if there wasn’t a complicated relationship between pornography and our cultural identity that stretches back to the Greeks performing plays wearing giant penises and cave dwellers drawing naked people on walls.

They also want to use a microcosmic group to make an over-arching statement about the macrocosm of pornography on the whole centering on a very small group of performers. The filmmakers detail a group of young women living at the home of Riley Reynolds, a 23-year-old “talent” agent and performer who offers girls from around the country plane fare to Miami to enter the pornography business.

He charges rent and takes a 10% cut of their bookings—which actually seems surprisingly far from an exploitive rate for the film’s purposes. This guy comes off as less despicable as I would have expected and strangely apathetic or bemused about his lifestyle. Then again we don’t get much detail into his character to form much of an opinion of him, but he does get a puppy for the women in his house so he can’t be too awful.

As the film repeats over and over and over and over again, most of the women who come to Miami to film pornography only last for about three months before going back home to some town where everyone will know them as the girl who was in porn. This is emphasized by a new model Tressa who answered Riley’s ad hoping to become independent and leave her small Texas town.

Tressa seems to be having a great time living in Miami and hanging out with all these other young women, but feels the pressure from her mother and boyfriend to quit. The boyfriend initially seems thrilled with having a girlfriend in porn—probably the fantasy of most bros on the block—he grows resentful of her having sex with men and calls her a prostitute because he wants to posses her and objectify her for herself.

The film tries to freak us out by showing Tressa degraded by participating in a bondage shoot that seems to be fairly tame and seems to demonizes and shames people who are actually into BDSM; contrast this movie with the sex-positive documentary Kink that shows people engaging in BDSM in a safe and affirming environment. But it’s all okay because she ends up back at home as daddy’s little girl with a shitty boyfriend. We hear her say that she actually enjoyed her lifestyle for the most part because the filmmaker’s want us to think they’re not anti-sex when the forced narrative they construct totally is.

Case in point: Belle Knox. The “Duke Porn Star” who came to prominent attention after being outted by an asshole frat guy. The media lost their shit in a mostly disrespectful way for this well spoken, incredible woman. Knox was put in an awkward position as a newbie to the porn industry forced to be its advocate but did a great job sticking up for herself and advocating for the rights of sex workers.

The filmmakers kind of strangely bring her up a few times in a derisive matter as if to say how dare this woman try to be successful in this industry and get an education. This also extends to a porn actress featured in the film who seems to have made a career out of the industry, her only current sexual relationships are on camera, and reads Frank McCourt novels. She’s the most interesting person here, but she’s sidelined because she doesn’t fit the agenda of the movie.

And the way woman who do have negative things to say about their experiences have it come across as merely displeasures of working. The way one actress talks about not enjoying having sex with a middle aged man has the tone of how working a double shift at McDonalds sucks. She makes it clear this is a job and these women are performers. It’s not like every athlete or actor going to Hollywood makes it either, but some people like Sasha Grey, Jessie Andrews, Asa Akira, etc. are able to have careers in porn while also expanding to other venues.

In the rare instances where the filmmakers stop trying to force a narrative in this very short, 78-minutes before credits documentary, there are some actually enjoyable and fascinating scenes where we see the women just living in this strange environment giving helpful advice for newcomers about “cream pies” and checking out their scenes.

An actually great documentary would just film these people existing in this bizarre world where girls from small town America live in this house and let the bland surroundings filled with temporary suitcases speak for itself. This movie really has no new insights into this world or actually cares much to show how any porn actually gets made, instead spending lots of time forcing their narrative or showing Tressa on skype or back at home.

That’s not to say that there aren’t legitimate arguments about the porn industry and how it exploits young women, and how in many cases it takes the patriarchal nature of our society to appalling extremes and just what the fuck is up with rose buds, but this movie uses flimsy evidence to ram home a point and definitely comes across as being against women’s sexuality unless it’s in the context of a father-approved monogamous boyfriend.

[portlyadolescence]

Fish in the Dark (Cort Theatre: May 22, 2015)

Rating: B+

My girlfriend and I basically planned a trip to New York City to see Larry David’s Broadway debut and first written play: Fish in the Dark. Larry David seems to be done with Curb Your Enthusiasm, and I was looking forward to seeing new comedy from him and actually seeing him in person.

Co-starring some solid hitters like Rita Wilson, Rosie Perez, and Ben Shenkman, plus about a billion other people, the play sees David once again adopting a Larry David-like persona (Norman Drexler, who’s not as much of an asshole as George or Curb’s Larry). The show starts with Norman getting the call in the middle of the night that is father (played by Jerry Adler aka Hest from the Sopranos, which was a fun surprise) is dying.

What moves the plot along is Adler’s dying wish that Norman or his brother Arthur (Shenkman playing an even bigger asshole than Larry) take in their mother (Jayne Houdyshell), though it’s not clear which brother the dying wish was addressed too. There’s also an illegitimate son their dad had with the maid (Rosie Perez), and the two brothers argue over who’s going to support their new half-brother.

The stakes aren’t super high and Fish in the Dark isn’t much of a play, taking influence from those older screwball theater comedies that are now mostly seen in high school productions and dinner theaters in Florida. If Larry David was removed from the equation, there’s no way this would be on Broadway.

Of course, it does succeed precisely because Larry is all over this. Essentially he’s created a sitcom on stage full of all the things you like about Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm like tipping improperly and getting into fights with children and that occasional overly ridiculous moment that could only come from Larry David. The plot is super broad, but Fish in the Dark cares more about on David’s random observations about life and plenty of petty grievances and that’s the stuff you watch Curb and Seinfeld for.

Larry David hasn’t made it a secret he loathes doing stand up and has never done one of those “victory lap” stand up tours older sitcom comedians tend to do. With Fish in the Dark, he’s come up with a suitable surrogate to give the fans what they want—don’t be mistaken, this play is full of fan service like Larry doing the “pretty…pretty good” line—while doing it in a sitcom-like comfort zone.

As a production under the direction of Anna Shapiro, Fish in the Dark does utilize about four different sets with a huge amount of detail, and it was clear there was a lot of money poured into the set design. There were also a couple fun voiceover sections, though the animated sequences of a death certificate getting filled out got fairly tiresome after seeing it for the second or third time.

As a Larry David fan, I loved getting to see him in person and enjoying what felt like a set of greatest hits; random fact, but he’s really skinny in person. But Fish in the Dark definitely isn’t breaking new ground for Broadway and that’s not a problem with me.

After the play, Larry David came out the stage door and took some time to greet fans and sign autographs. The play was a lot of fun, but it definitely made the trip worth it seeing him up close. Love you, LD!

-James P.

[portlyadolescence]

Andy Stott (Smart Bar: May 7, 2015)

Rating: B+

Post college I’ve been getting into a lot more electronic music and one of my current favorite electronic artists is Manchester-based Andy Stott. While he’s been around for a long time now, the past five or so years have seen Stott become very popular thanks to his often slow, shuffling, murky minimal/dub techno. For a guy who lives across the sea he seems to be here all the time, but I keep missing him (missing out on his last shopw with Demdike Stare was particularly disheartening).

This time Stott was playing at Smart Bar, a night club owned by the Metro and located in a basement below my least favorite Chicago music venue. Smart Bar does have a cover that I probably wouldn’t want to pay if I came here regularly, but it was just like $9 for an advanced ticket to see Stott.

The bar area that you first enter into looks kind of shitty, but Smartbar gets quite a bit nicer when you turn the corner into the dance floor. Here there were cool red colored panels along the wall, a dance floor with lights and a smoke machine, and some nice booths mixed with way too much self advertising for the club. Quite a bit nicer than the Metro with a much better sound system that was super clear with a low end that could shake the walls.

A Chicago guy called Void En Vogue was the “opener.” I don’t really know the jargon for electronic music, but he seemed to have a heavy industrial influence with these big, heavy beats. No one was dancing yet, though this easily was danceable while still being interesting to listen to. I was pretty tired the whole night and I’m tired right now, so apologies for the lack of description (Rating: B).

I pretty much sat out the next opener out and had a beer—not a lot of great choices at Smart Bar btw—while waiting for Stott to start. Stott was dressed pretty plainly in a t-shirt and started at midnight behind a DJ booth. I kind of wish there had been music so I didn’t have to stare at “Smart Bar” written out several times on the wall behind him. Thanks guys, didn’t know where I was.

Stott played elements of his music—the operatic vocal samples, some of those droning beats—but didn’t play a straight up set of songs. Still, he seemed to be putting it together on the fly rather than just DJing. It was a very crowd pleasing, turned up set that didn’t have dumb drops or anything like that.

Early on I was reminded a lot of Aphex Twin’s more hardcore stuff while later he adopted the dubstep of Burial and some of the jungle that he plays in Millie & Andrea. The music was constantly evolving and shifting. He’d segue into a crowd pleasing groove where everyone was dancing and then throw in some noise or an industrial, thudding passage.

I’d like to hear Stott do some of his songs live, but it was still a very fun set in a setting I don’t usually get to experience. If clubs regularly played this kind of music, I would go all the time.

-James P. 

[portlyadolescence]

Spartacus: Blood and Sand (2010)

Rating: B+

The first season of Starz’s Spartacus (subtitled Blood and Sand) is unexpectedly awesome…in its second half. Based on the life of a real gladiator who led a slave uprising—popularized in the Kirk Douglas-starring movie of the same name—the first few episodes of the show range from stupidly entertaining to the deliriously awful bro’s homoerotic fever dream that is the pilot. Suffer or laugh through those first few episodes though, and you’re in for a surprisingly nuanced show about class struggles and repression (albeit with lots of violence, gore, profanity, and nudity that rivals Game of Thrones).

The pilot is by far the worst episode here, but it’s so outrageously strange that it kind of approaches outsider art. Clearly early on the show was trying to siphon off fans of 300, as well as dads who still couldn’t get enough of Gladiator. The first episode seems to be entirely done on green screen without much of a budget. It takes the cartoony aspects of 300 and renders them even less subtle with comic book transitions, absurd amounts of CGI blood, and the most unrealistic and fake-looking backgrounds ever.

Plot wise it’s all very much pulled from Gladiator with minor changes. Our hero is a Thracian whose village is conscripted by the slimy Roman Legatus who promises to help them finally stop the constantly raiding barbarian hordes. When the Romans don’t hold up their end of the bargain, Spartacus and his men rebel and flee only for him to be captured and his wife sold off to slavery.

He’s to be put to death in a gladiator pit in some desert town—we never get to the coliseum—but hulks out and kills four dudes in the arena. A lowly gladiator training camp (called a ludus) owner offers to purchase Spartacus and he’s sent off into slavery to train to be a fighter.

While the show clearly never gets a lot more money, they wisely dial back on the ridiculous editing and settle for a mixture of sets mixed with CGI and CGI blood paired with some practical effects. It doesn’t look great but it’s serviceable and can occasionally seem artful. Particularly I kind of liked the bright, sandy gladiator school paired with this very flat, dark cloud ceiling that’s supposed to be the sky.

The next few episodes still kind of suck because all Spartacus does is moan about his wife, but they’re very watchable as the other characters start to be pretty interesting. There’s plenty of action each episode which starts to become more and more horrific as the show goes on. In one episode, Spartacus is sent to the fighting pits where he witnesses all sorts of horrors like a guy who wears the face of his last slaughtered opponent.

At a certain point, Spartacus “settles” into his life as a gladiator, and the show finds its groove as this hyper violent and hyper sexual version of a Dowtown Abbey-style upstars/downstairs workplace drama that focuses heavily on the human cost of slavery and the demeaning horrors these men, and the female slaves of the house, face every day. In the end, there is no glory in being a gladiator, even if you are a victor.

On the upstairs front, we have Batiatus who runs the ludus, which at the start isn’t doing so hot. From his perspective, we see being in the gladiator business is pretty awful. It’s a tricky balance of appeasing the needs of politicians, trying to boost the morale of his fighters, and hoping they don’t get killed or else he has to invest the time and money in new slaves (most of which won’t make the cut).

We also follow his wife Lucretia (played by Xena Warrior Princess herself, Lucy Lawless). Lucretia is having an affair with the gladiator Crixus, who starts the season as the ludus’s current champion, and also has a borderline Sapphic and manipulative relationship with Illithyia, the wife of the man who enslaved Spartacus and a senator’s daughter. Lucretia hopes to gain her favor to boost the prestige of the ludus, which becomes easier and easier as Illithyia seems increasingly taken with the violence and physical appeal of the gladiators.

Besides seeing Spartacus lose his life to slavery, we see many different cases downstairs in the ludus of people who have been dehumanized. One gladiator Varo (Jai Courtney who’s going to be in the new Terminator) still has a wife and child outside that he struggles to take care of. Crixus is stuck as a sex slave for Lucretia and unable to follow his heart with female slave Naevia. And when Spartacus starts to win more matches, we see how being the champion one day means nothing after you lose. You’re just a piece of meat here.

I read a review of the pilot that said something along the lines that this show was dreamed up by a group of teenage boys and their gay friend in regards to the violence and the sexual content. This is a show filled with nudity from both men and women, and unlike Game of Thrones the men here seem to be the most on display.

All the gladiators have these perfect bodies and spend the majority of the show shirtless wearing these tiny loincloths or just naked. And yes, there are plenty of flaccid penises on display. We also get an actual homosexual gladiator couple featured early in the season, which certainly surprised me from a 2010 Starz show I assumed lacked any sort of nuance.

Again, there’s also an interesting dichotomy in regards to the sexuality between upstairs and downstairs. In the Roman world, the wealthy are pretty much liberated sexually to do whatever they want. Early on we see Batiatus and Lucretia having sex together while also being pleasured by their slaves, and Illithya and another Roman woman come to the Ludus to have rough sex with gladiators that their husbands won’t give them. Of course the flipside is the rich are exploiting the poor to satisfy both their wealth and sexual needs.

It’s a very sex positive show that’s certainly trying to arouse the viewer, but seems to be equally trying to attract all types of viewers. We’re not just in HBO boob world here.

Without giving anything away, the first season ends satisfactorily with a string of great episodes and with Spartacus achieving a great deal of power that promises to send the show in a completely different direction.  I’m definitely curious how they’re going to progress the show from here on out and hoping it can retain the same level of excellence as the later episodes.

So the bottom line is Spartacus: Blood and Sand wildly exceeded my expectations, and I’d recommend it. The low budget does hinder it a bit, but once you get through the first few episodes the character building, political intrigue, and solid action scenes come together very nicely.

-James P.