Ratched Pilot Review

With the government telling us to stay in and not mingle too much, now is the perfect time to binge a new series. With eight episodes in its first season, Ratched will keep you busy for about 8 hours. The Pilot episode opens with some good old-fashioned revenge killings whose perpetrator seems to inspire the good nurse to travel to Lucia, California where the Lucia State Hospital is and where this killer is to be held. The show depicts some of the clergymen who are killed as far from saints. The show’s use of melodramatic music is over the top in my opinion and makes the show cornier than it should be. Mildred Ratched herself doesn’t appear until over five minutes into the episode. The killings are the inciting incident to Ratched appearing in Lucia to “work” at the hospital.

During her stay at a hotel in Lucia, Ratched entices a man to hook up with her, but instead of getting into the act, she only wants to perform a very strange and specific role-play. She is a very manipulative and calculating person. She knows what she wants and how to achieve it by any means necessary. What she wants is to work in the Lucia mental hospital–apparently so she may torture the patients.

She is well-educated (she uses a fancy word for “erection” in her first string of dialogue), and well-credentialed, as a nurse who supposedly served in the Pacific theatre of WWII. She is disrespectful to the gas station attendant and seems only to pretend to show respect for people when she needs something from them and they are in a position to withhold it from her. She also appears wealthy enough to not need a job as a nurse. She connives her way into a nursing job at the hospital and instantly asserts herself as the alpha-female ahead of nurse Bucket who was in charge until Ratched arrives.

One thing odd about the pilot is a character who I doubt the audience will see again after the episode that is rather obnoxious–this is that of the hotel owner woman. This role is over-acted and adds nothing to the story. Ratched seems to have a strong sense of hierarchy in society and wants to dominate.

Sexual impropriety, in the Victorian sense, is a theme or motif addressed in the show, but it’s too early to tell what if anything the show has to say about it.

Dr. Hanover is a good-natured, nervous, and ambitious man who runs the hospital. He proves to be easily manipulated by Ratched, but he is not stupid–only easily distracted. Nurse Bucket will also be a major character, and is introduced as an assertive woman–but not as assertive as Ratched. The Governor of California is a pompous jerk and political hack, while his wife appears to be the brains behind his power. It will be interesting to see how these characters interact as the show progresses. The show makes an odd use of split screens for dramatic effect, along with the music, it’s just too much–the show is no 24. That said, it was an effective pilot as I am “hooked” and intend to continue watching.

Misread Well-Wishes

Happy Zozo!

the nightmare year drawing to a close

Fuck 2020.

Hurry up and wait for the other shoe to drop

hustle through piles of shiny sharp slop

ACAB –> AOC –> ACB

Sun says “Stop,” but it’s ignored, shuttered out as usual

drink your coffee as black as no escape

remember to always keep your head, lest someone take it off

do you smell that? the campfire has leapt outside its ring

while Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg collect more bling

Tuesday comes and goes easily and buzzily with a swarm of bees that might sting

hold your secrets near your beating breast

clothespin on your nose, ballot slides down the chute into the steel box

maybe Vick’s would’ve been a better choice, under the mask which muffles your only accepted voice

Take it from a former special needs bus driver, it covers up the smell of all the shit

but what will you do when that shit starts flying at you and yours

will you complain and beseech your mother, “But I’ve done all my chores!”

Bullshit. You’ve neglected her and worse–stood by while she was raped over and over.

I hope you’re proud. I hope you fucking change your ways. Not for God to save you, but because it’s the right godamn thing to do.

is it deliberate engineering, or merely complacency that lead us to this juncture?

The question remains then, what to do with the POWs? Should we tease out information with a soldering iron, or is that meaningless? Should we drown their young in pits of flames, like the Nazis did? What would Trump tweet?

enough. I want some fucking answers. We cannot risk inaction here. The digital ink soothes my wrinkled heart and my pulsing brain.

I believe there is a peaceful revolution to all this.

Yin & Yang

consumption and creation

fasting and conservation

restlessness and lethargy

balance is essential

consequences ripple across the pond

reflecting flames and collecting ash

the trees dry out another few gallons as the temperature rises another few degrees

30 gallons slowly burn in a bulletproof, hermetically-sealed tank carrying a waving ill narcissist. Don’t encourage him.

destruction is a necessary as production: elemental to the Earth

some are concerned with where it all came from

others focus on the ethereal and how it cements itself into ladders for the few and walls for the many

is it ethical to fight fire with fire? Does it even work?

there’s a war going on, but when isn’t there?

who will choose a side? who will profit without setting foot on a battlefield? who will die? who will live on, wounded in heart and mind, destined to suffer, for the right or wrong reasons?

they may be innocent, but accidents happen, especially due to apathy

as a matter of fact, that may be the worst thing possible–apathy. Why wouldn’t one have a stake in how the world is being run?

If you won’t fight for others, you are useless–if you will do so only for a fee, you are evil.

My only wish is that the people who make others suffer, suffer themselves.

But plagues are indiscriminate, at least in theory.

Scars

Sitting on a plush, Italian leather chair, Rueben took a drink of his champagne. The bubbles in the flute danced merrily to the surface next to Rueben’s omelette with the perfectly sliced tomato garnish. A beautiful brunette in a short dress appeared to refill his champagne, but as he held the drink over his lap, she spilled on him. Furious, Rueben awakened to find himself sitting on an overstuffed chair filled with mixed $10 and $20 bills. He had fallen asleep and spilled his tequila on himself. He held a revolver in his left hand with the cylinder open. It was empty, but a handful of rounds glared at him from the glass tabletop covered in ash, cigarette butts, cocaine residue, and empty liquor bottles. The sunlight sneaking past the vertical blinds offended him. Rueben’s pink bath robe had a cigar hole in it. Suddenly, he was six years earlier. Laughter and balloons filled the air. “Lucinda” was transcribed on the cake. The smile on her little face was adorable. It was cardamom seeds- the smell. From the Indian-style desert chai-rice pudding or whatever. Reuben’s own smile faded as another smell, this one only existing in the present, assaulted his cocaine-runny nose nostrils. It was Lucinda. All grown up with a can of gas and a cardamom-scented candle in her hands. He had always known this day would come. When he’d get his come-uppance. It was no surprise–in that way. However what he didn’t expect was the sadness in her eyes. He had assumed she’d be thrilled to finally exact her revenge. He knew she could soak him and torch him before his drunk ass could load a round and hit her with it. He knew she knew this too. Did she have a speech for him? What was she waiting for. She began to sob. But strangely, the crying broke into something more cheerful or insane, a demented slow, donkey-like laugh. She sloshed the gasoline at him, “Wait!” He cried. “The chair is full of cash!” She only laughed louder as, instead of sloshing more, she immediately threw the candle at him, it shattering on his forehead, as he “dodged” right into where she threw it. His face caught fire and he howled through the flames for a minute until he couldn’t any longer. She left him like this. Not dead, just scarred, forever.

Ex Machina: a Review

Greetings, fellow movie lovers. Today I’ve chosen yet another “old” movie to review (circa 2015), however I find its message to be just as topical as it was five years ago. One thing that impressed me about the film was its ability to carry my attention despite its economy of characters and settings. The movie is centered around only three characters, set in only two locations and takes place over the course of one week.

I find it to be a pleasing characteristic of art if it is made free of fluff–i.e. in movies no wasted scenes that may be entertaining, but fail to move the plot or significantly develop a character. Ex Machina only cost $15 million to make which is a fraction of the cost of most Hollywood feature films. The movie focuses on three characters, two of them human and one an artificial-intelligence driven android.

The movie is about an AI android created in secret by the founder of a company which may as well be called “Shmoogle,” the world’s most popular search engine. After secretly, (probably illegally) and definitely unethically capturing data from people’s smartphone microphones and cameras worldwide, Nathan, the founder of that company, creates a number of AI androids, some of which appear exactly like humans and others which are not designed to hide the mechanics of the android.

Via winning a workplace lottery-style contest, Caleb Smith is chosen by Nathan to be the “proctor” of the Turing Test for Ava, the AI android Nathan has developed. Of course the real question is, “Who really is being tested and will they pass?”

The obvious point of binary opposition to compare in the movie is human intelligence vs artificial intelligence. This binary opposition is neatly resolved by the end of the movie. I don’t want to ruin how, as it should be clear to any viewer. I happen to agree with this unspoken thesis of the movie. My criticism stems from the laziness of some of the writing and the pedestrian use of certain thriller and mystery tropes. I like what the film had to say, but it could have said so in a more sophisticated and nuanced manner.

The final prominent binary in the movie is sentience vs simulated intelligence. Artificial Intelligence may be defined as “any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals.” However this definition may include a Roomba vacuum, which I doubt anyone considers to be intelligent in any sense of the word. Other definitions involve a machine’s capacity to learn and problem solve. I’ll leave the analysis of Ava’s capabilities to the viewer. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it if you watch it!

I’ve decided to go with a 3-star rating system: one star means “Don’t bother,” two means “There’s something interesting about it and it’s worth watching,” and three stars means “How haven’t’ you seen it? Go watch it now!”

Ex Machina (2015)

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Silence of the Lambs Movie Review: Dr. Lecter vs Buffalo Bill

The Silence of the Lambs is a thrilling ride despite it being yet another law enforcer vs criminal story that we have seen so much of lately particularly on the small screen. This is another film with very adult subject matter and visuals. It achieves its intrigue via the interactions between Agent Starling and Dr. Lecter as she tries to access his insight in order to catch the at-large serial killer Buffalo Bill before he kills again. Dr. Lecter is more interested in probing Starling’s psyche than helping her find Buffalo Bill who is a former patient of his, but he realizes he has to help her at least a little bit or she won’t seek him out anymore.

Starling is ambitious, clever, brave, and grew up with a chip on her shoulder. She worked her way into the FBI academy and is constantly reminded that she is in the minority as a woman. She faces repeated romantic advances from other professionals throughout the film as well as a couple of situations in which she is treated differently than her male counterparts by her boss.

The major theme of the movie is “it takes one to know one,” illustrated by the fact that the FBI seeks out the aide of a psychopathic murderer in order to catch a murderer. Of course Starling, in a sort of happy accident, discovers that Lecter is Bill’s former psychiatrist or psychologist and because of this, Lecter knows Bill well.

Buffalo Bill however, seems more fragile than Dr. Lecter. While Dr. Lecter has a deep understanding of the way others think and feel, he does not appear to experience feelings himself. Whereas Buffalo Bill is concerned, not only with his image, but also with the well-being of his dog and his Asian moths. He is a serial killer with a nurturing side when it comes to animals and insects, though he did give his victims some food as evidenced during Catherine’s captivity and entrapment of Bill’s dog.

Another theme of the movie is that violence and abuse begets more violence and abuse. Yet, although Lecter and Buffalo Bill himself allude to his past abuse, the movie focuses on the violence that Buffalo Bill perpetrates. It is Starling’s past trauma that is explained in the movie and is the namesake of the film, not Bill’s. Although Starling describes Bill as having self-control and being careful, Bill seems to be less in control of his behavior than Lecter (though Lecter finds amusement in toying with people at times). Lecter always finds a way to take control and recognizes as soon as Starling first appears to question him that he is holding all the cards. Lecter’s escape is not only simply setting up the sequel, but is a fascinating scene of the movie as we see Lecter’s cunning turned to cold, calculative killing. I won’t ruin how he escapes, but let’s just say it is both horrific thinking and very smart. Both Lecter and Bill seem to be obsessed with sex in their own ways. Lecter is interested in Starling’s love life and Bill desires to be desired sexually. Bill kills his victims for their bodies and is uninterested in their minds whereas Lecter seems to kill for revenge for slights against him, and also of course to facilitate his escape.

What struck you about this film? It is more sophisticated and nuanced than some, so I am curious to read what others think about the three main characters (Starling, Bill and Lecter). Thanks for reading.

What Makes a Psycho American?

This a movie review containing spoilers. American Psycho is a disturbing film that leaves the viewer with a head full of questions at its resolution. DO NOT LET CHILDREN WATCH IT. It’s full of gore, sex, drugs and literal women in refrigerators. To answer my title, I believe that the character’s obsession with status and hierarchy and his extreme vanity make this psycho American. He is vain to the point that he only looks at his own muscular frame in the mirror while he has sex.

The depiction of the psychopathic violent behavior of Bateman is grotesque, therefore, having skimmed the Wikipedia page, I was surprised to see that it was considered to be darkly comedic when it came out in Y2K. I didn’t so much as snicker throughout the whole film.

The movie is set in the late ’80s in NYC a few years before the novel that the movie was based on was written. I find it strange that the movie rights were sat on for nearly a decade before it was created. However, even today, the caricatures of Wall Street employees seem valid. The movie is mostly unremarkable in its cinematography, use of music, and voice-over characterization of Bateman. Christian Bale’s performance of the Patrick Bateman character is the dramatic core of the movie, as it delves into the mind of a madman.

From the opening credits, the movie plays with ambiguity. Is that blood dripping from the knife onto the plain white screen? No, it’s raspberry sauce being drizzled onto a dessert plate. Here the movie declares a subtle warning about its conclusion–not everything is what it seems.

The film explores the binary relationships between form versus function, inside versus outside, compassion versus apathy, and appearance versus reality. So who does Bateman appear to be? A Wall Street player who cavorts with his colleagues. These men act like fraternity jerks with money and anti-Semitic and misogynist views. These men are terribly superficial and competitive, always trying to outclass one another down to the smallest thing such as having a nicer business card. This is a prime example of the psyche of Patrick Bateman. Each business card provides the same function–the same information. However they are crafted slightly differently–with different fonts, textures, and hues. Patrick fixates on these cards to the point of murderous rage at men who carry fancier cards than he does. See, to Bateman, form is everything because form can be used to hide function in American society. That’s what Patrick wants to do, hide in plain sight. However, the question arises, “If one spends much of their time doing something or crafting a persona–even if it is only an act intended to fool others–does this “actor” really not become this character they portray to others to some degree?” To state it more simply, at what point does one become what they pretend to be?

As Bateman and his fiancee Evelyn are riding in a limousine talking, she questions why he will not take time off of work for their wedding. She is just a part of his front and he has no feelings for her. So long as they are engaged, he has his fake fiancee. Because of this, he replies to her, “I want to fit in!” He, like the rest of us, wants to fit in. Most people want to “fit in“ in order to be a part of a community and feel the security that accompanies being part of one. Bateman and other psychopaths want to fit in like a wolf in sheep’s clothing (never really thought about this idiom, sounds very strange to say that sheep wear clothing).

Aside from the killings, just about everything Bateman does is to maintain his image as a fit and well-to-do Wall Street executive. He exercises, uses tanning beds, and applies numerous skin products to create his ideal physical appearance. Early in the film, and probably the most visually moving shot, (despite the amount of gore in the movie), is a close-up of Bateman as he peels a transparent layer of skin product off to reveal his bare face. This visual metaphor for revealing one’s true self by their actions is compelling.

Bateman also uses false compassion to gain the trust of others as he did with the homeless man, Al, who Bateman stabs to death after pretending to offer him help. Also, at a dinner with his colleagues he decries the evils of the world and says that world peace, world hunger and even women’s rights should be addressed. It’s clear he doesn’t mean any of this. Perhaps saying that he believes women deserve equality with men is the only line of the movie that could draw laughter due to its blatant dishonesty.

Towards the conclusion of the movie, things spiral out of control as Bateman kills every witness and police officer chasing him. Things become more and more incredible, for example the prostitute runs screaming down the hall in the middle of the night in Bateman’s apartment building and no one wakes up as he gives chase revving the motor of a gas powered chainsaw. Later, he shoots at police cars and they explode almost instantly.

By the end of the movie, it appears that Bateman may have imagined most or all of the events of the movie up until the end where he is faced with realities that contradict the murders. However, in maybe the only scene of the movie which excludes our main character, his secretary Jean finds a notebook in his desk drawer full of sketches of murders and dismemberment of the people that the viewer watched Bateman kill earlier. If our narrator as it were is not to be trusted, maybe this scene is the only one that happened as the audience saw it.

If one concludes that the murders did not take place, then the question remains, is Bateman dangerous? Fantasizing about something may be a necessary step for some people to take certain actions, but other times fantasies are just that and not premeditations of heinous actions. Bateman spent all that time pretending he was killing people in his mind. He sketched one of the murders on the tablecloth at a restaurant when he broke up with Evelyn. Maybe his delusion is not that he wouldn’t kill someone but that he’d get away with it if he did. One problem with this viewing of or perspective on the movie is that of the private investigator who questions him multiple times about the disappearance of one of Bateman’s presumed victims, Paul Allen. First, if Bateman really is a psychopath, why would his delusions contain a sort of conscience figure? Is it just to serve as a tool to help him cover his tracks?

Bateman says that he only feels two emotions: greed and disgust, but the movie proves he feels envy, rage, pride, and anxiety as well. The movie’s conclusion shows the viewer that he ultimately lost the conflict of man versus his own mind or man versus insanity. While the movie attempts to end on a note as ambiguous as it began on, I believe it fails to hit that note. Bateman’s descent into madness, paralleled by his literal descent in the city from tall buildings to the ground is confusing because it happens in the course of a few seconds while he is withdrawing cash from an ATM. One could view this as a metaphor that “money makes Americans (or people) crazy,” but that’s just a humorous coincidence. The ATM’s absurd command, FEED ME A STRAY CAT, sets off Bateman’s most insane delusions.

For me, Bateman’s delusions, being that he thinks he killed all of those people when he didn’t, is oddly disappointing. Now I know that sounds terrible, but without the murders actually occurring, why does Bateman behave as he does in terms of trying to hide in plain sight in the social construct of Wall Street? That’s one question I didn’t want to ask myself at the end of the film. How boring.