Tune-up

My wife has fallen ill with the virus that's been going around pretty big, lately, and it's been anything but fun for her. Somehow, I've remained sick-free... for now.

This week, we recieved several large dumpings of snow. Considering what a dry summer it was, it is a welcomed relief... but boy did it make driving fun. It's been a good week, otherwise- went to see a show, a large and beautiful Christmas light display, I FINALLY finished editing a recording six five months in the waiting, and more. We also got a piano tuned, which piano we received free a few weeks ago. It's an OLD Kimball, and it kind of shows on the outside... but it was well worth it to pay the couple hundred to have a professional come out and give it a good, thorough go-through. Now, in its current state, I think it reflects the common person. On the outside, one can see that the years have taken its toll, and that by physical description, perhaps it was more interesting once, but is now a rough sight on the eyes. And yet, within those rough, woody surfaces, lies a framework of strings which are tuned to play such a symphony as has never been heard before. And with time, those strings may become a little askew- but a small tune-up here and there helps keep them well and good. Have you recently had an inner-tune-up?

On another note, I saw three new movies this week. I guess we'll call this section the MedjoPangit Movie reviews corner, because it seems to be a recurring thing with me, apparently. The first was Avatar Way of Water. My thoughts? To be clear, I loved the visuals. It's kind of hard not to, right? Now, did I enjoy them for over 3 hours? No, but they were still good. But I came to realize that James Cameron has a gift... and he abuses it in creative ways. He creates and builds up these worlds, and these characters, and he seems to be really good at it! But then, for the Characters we are to assume most important, (take for example the main antagonist), he starts turning them from one-dimensional characters into two... but then immediately regresses back to square one- and does this multiple times for the same Character! On top of that, you know it lacks a general sense of humanity, but arguably, that may come down to preference. Perhaps the most frustrating part for me? There I was, seeing these cool worlds, getting to know these cool people, and I should've been enjoying it. But because it's James Cameron, all I found myself thinking for nearly the entire run of the film was, "cool... so, when does it all go to heck?"- because that's exactly what you know he's going to do. Granted, this film reached that note less destructively than I expected, but it doesn't negate the fact that it makes the good parts of the movie rather hard to get through. So, yeah, wasn't a big fan, but it's certainly not the worst thing by any stretch of imagination.

Film two is a lesser-known, but highly underrated Wes Anderson film from 2018: Isle of Dogs. ...and where to begin? I mean, if you've ever seen any of Wes Anderson's other movies, like Fantastic Mr. Fox, you have some idea of what to expect in terms of tone, humor, storytelling, cinematography, etc. Anyway, I found this movie to be really good! The animation is such a fun trip, and the styles integrated with Japanese culture worked so interestingly well with it all. And the tone was one of the most unique things I have ever experience in my life. Name me one other film in which you are laughing at perfectly executed dry humor in one scene, spend a minute then watching a very sad backstory which nearly brings you to tears, and then immediately get hit with another perfectly executed dry humor moment immediately following- and it doesn't feel like tone whiplash. Oh, and the voice cast? If you told me Walter White from Breaking Bad was in a film with Bruce Banner from the Incredible Hulk, that bald guy from Lady in The Water, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray and FREAKING Yoko Ono were all in an animated movie about dogs, I would probably say you're high. But of course, they pulled it off in the best way you could possibly imagine. Seriously, it's one you need to watch once, at least.

And the final film is The Apostle (or in its native Spanish, O Apóstolo), which was, against most odds, my favorite, I think. Think about stop-motion animations like The Corpse Bride, Coraline, etc. I really enjoyed movies like those for having a mysterious dark story, fascinating and colorful imagery, and good animation. With this film, part of the reason I say "against most odds" is because the animation in it is fantastic (more on that in a moment), but the imagery was... sometimes colorful, but mostly intentionally dark and rather dead looking. But that imagery, in this case, helps convey the atmosphere and story, and aids it really well, so it works to the advantage. The story was pretty interesting, but I think my favorite thing was the animation- it was just so hypnotizingly intriguing! Most of the film is just normal stop-motion animation, and it's a slightly different flavor of it than I had seen before, so that alone was pretty neat to watch. But then there were the in-between scenes- like the opening, the closing, and ESPECIALLY that breakdown moment near the climax that I refuse to spoil, which were just SO creative, and really helped build the creepy atmosphere it needed! Oh, and that's the other thing, this kind of film probably could've easily done what most stupid horror movies do, and just use violence and gore to "make it creepy" (but honestly, in my opinion, just ruins it, but I digress), but instead, it keeps things at a slow but steady pace, and lets certain scenes build up, feel closed in, and linger just long enough, that without knowing it, you're starting to feel pretty darn unsettled- more so than you already are, with some of the very eerie character designs. And I'll be the first to admit, there's a very niche market for Philip Glass music... but for how well it fit the atmosphere, this film may as well have been its home. Honestly, I highly recommend it, just as a fascinating show for the visuals alone! And that breakdown, OH what a whammy that was! Not telling, just go find it and watch it!

And that's pretty much the cool stuff to relate this week. Christmas is on the brink, illness is in the air, and trippy animations are playing in my head, so there's that. Until next week, see ya!

Tune-up

Adminisk8or

12/18/2022