THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY (TV)– A little too self-consciously “quirky,” and not above lapsing into trope (who among us doesn’t), but a great cast and some snappy writing brings it home. Ellen Page is the standout, yet another reminder of how criminally underutilized she is.
BRIGHTBURN (MOVIE)— One of those ideas that makes writers pound their heads and say “why didn’t I think of that.” The elevator pitch is “Superman’s origin story, except Superman is evil.” I saw it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a fun, nasty popcorn-muncher.
BUT.
They could have done SO much more. The idea is so good, it offers a million rabbit holes and the filmmakers go down exactly none of them. I’m kind of bummed by that. There’s the potential for insane Oedipal stuff here, and some dark allegories about puberty and the nature of human development. “Brightburn” seems uninterested in any of this, it just wants to be a straight genre shocker. It does that really well, but I truly think it could’ve been a companion piece to “Carrie.”
TACOMA (VIDEO GAME, PC/CONSOLES)— I’m super late to this one, but I was annoyed by this developer’s previous game, “Gone Home.” It was a drama that dressed up like a horror game to sell copies, and I philosophically abhor lying to the customer about the genre you’re giving them. “Tacoma,” on the other hand, lets you know it’s a story-focused space mystery from the outset, and it executes that wonderfully. The setup is simple: you’re an investigator on an abandoned spaceship, watching AR logs of the crew’s final days. You can rewind and fast forward at will, moving between rooms to watch scenes that play out concurrently.
I expected “Tacoma” to use this as a puzzle-solving tactic (listen to the conversation to get the passcode for that locked door!), but it rarely did. The game makes almost no effort to game-ify watching the logs. You watch them for their own sake, as an end, not a means to an end. Its success lives or dies on whether or not you want to keep seeing the story. And I did.
It’s also short, I finished it in an afternoon, and I loved that. Most games are too long, and a third of their content is undercooked. I want more games like “Tacoma,” priced and engineered for a few captivating hours. Would that not be a more sustainable model for the industry?
DETECTIVE PIKACHU (MOVIE)— If I met the people behind this movie, I’d quote Jeff Goldblum from “Jurassic Park” to them: “You did it. You crazy son of a b*tch, you did it.” They made a video game movie that works. I thought I was gonna do that (I actually did, a few years ago, but that’s beside the point). To be clear, “Detective Pikachu” is pretty far from a masterpiece, I think the overall plot’s kinda weak, but it has a ringer, and that’s Ryan Reynolds (?) as Pikachu (????) What kind of far-seeing savant knew THAT was gonna work? They had to have lucked into that. They were going down an agency avails sheet and saw his name, they said “Deadpool is hot right now,” and they took a swing. I will not believe that any person could actually anticipate that combination clicking as well as it does. It’s too random. Stanley Kubrick couldn’t have seen that coming.
OCULUS QUEST (VR HEADSET)– The Quest is the headset of the future, and I’m not just saying that because I’m making a game for it. If you’ve been waiting to get into VR, and you don’t have a high-end computer, this is the moment. For 400 bucks, you can have true full motion VR, most of the best games made in the space, and no light houses, no cords, nothing. This is the device I said they had to make for VR to break wide, and they made it, then had the good sense to charge you a song for it.
Of course, the Quest isn’t the top of the line in terms of pixel resolution or controllers, but anything better is tied to a computer. Is a slightly sharper image better than being totally free to move in whatever direction you want? I have a feeling the answer is “no.” I’m not saying the Quest is the best headset on the market for the foreseeable future. But I’m not saying it isn’t, either.
BARRY SEASON 2 (TV)– Ah yes, the OTHER HBO show that had its finale recently. If you’re not watching this show, you should. Bill Hader (who is a low-key super talent) plays the eponymous Barry, a melancholy hitman (I know, I know, but keep listening) who gets bitten by the acting bug after stumbling into a class run an aged but mildly unsuccessful acting coach, Gene Cousineau (a never-better Henry Winkler). The show follows Barry’s attempts to extricate himself from his violent line of work (which he’s GREAT at) and make it as an actor (which he’s terrible at). The show balances an oddball, Coen Brothers-esque sense of humor with deep cynicism and tragedy. And like “Homecoming,” it proves how vital and powerful the half-hour episode format can be.
GAME OF THRONES (TV)— Just kidding, I’m sick of talking about it.