January Catch-Up
Hello! Hooray!
Alan Bates says, “Meowwwwwww”
Hi there and happy new year. It’s been a few weeks since my last update. I’m not beating myself up about that though, given the weird time-suck blackhole that is late December/early January. Still, it’s nice to see you all here, I hope you’ve been well. Except Steve Carlson. You know what you did, Steve. (See you later tonight!)
Thanks again to the newsletter’s first paid subscribers. I appreciate your support and hope you like the little media gifties I sent in return. If you haven’t signed up for a paid subscription, you should know that if/when you do, I’ll also send you a surprise blu-ray/DVD/VHS/book at no cost to you. You get cool swag and I get a little more rent money. We can’t lose!
Ahn Jae-hong and Ryu Seung-ryong in Chicken Nugget, which is on Netflix
I wanted to start this newsletter with the usual updates about what I’ve written and what has been announced in the time since I last posted here. For starters, I wrote a list of some worthy 2024 K-dramas for the New York Times. I’m relieved that that article only had one correction since I know how rabid K-drama fans can be, and I’ll not soon forget the list of proposed corrections that some Marvel fanboys submitted after I wrote two WandaVision explainers for the Times. That wasn’t fun, but while this K-drama article took some doing, I am glad that it turned out as well as it did.
Next, there’s a number of reviews. The negative and mixed ones you can find by yourself. Here’s the positive stuff that you may have missed…
Tony Jaa, not a mummy.
Striking Rescue! Thai martial artist Tony Jaa’s not really a star in America, which is one more thing to be sad about. He is, however, big in China, where he’s been an ensemble cast-member in a few Detective Chinatown spin-offs, and Hong Kong, in both sequels to Sha Po Lang (aka: Kill Zone). Striking Rescue is a modestly-budgeted mainland production. It was released theatrically after debuting on a Chinese streamer. It’s still pretty fun and treats Jaa like the star that he is, so there’s that. More in my Roger Ebert dot com review.
Justice Smith in I Saw the TV Glow, a performance that Jene occasionally marvels at…
I Saw the TV Glow! Every year the writers at Roger Ebert dot com are asked to submit a top ten list. I did, even though I’m still working on filling in some blind spots. This is what my best of the year list looks like at the moment, btw (the notes tab has info on where to stream/rent). As for Roger Ebert dot com’s list—after the votes are tallied, ten of us are assigned to write about one of the group’s top ten. I was asked to write about Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow and I’m happy I did. Terrific movie. More at Roger Ebert dot com.
The Tuba Thieves!!!
The Tuba Thieves! The above-mentioned K-drama list took a couple of weeks of concentrated focus, so I was not able to participate in Ebert’s annual Best Performances or Best Craft or Technical Achievement or Whatever list. I was, however, able to submitted some picks for the site’s first Underrated Movies list. For that assignment, I submitted three movies that I considered…well, more underseen than underrated, since I know that that’s what’s intended for a prompt like this. I listed three movies and my editor picked one. So I wrote briefly about The Tuba Thieves, which, if you haven’t yet seen, you should.
Is somebody going to take Donnie’s lunch order or are you just gonna keep starring at his wig?
The Prosecutor! Donnie Yen’s been focusing on directing lately, which is nice, since he showed promise as a filmmaker, particularly with Legend of the Wolf (1997) and than Sakra after that. I’ve read that he might even direct a John Wick spin-off. Eesh, all yours, guys. In the meantime, I did like The Prosecutor and have to admit that part of what I responded to is the way that Yen kind of, sort of appears more comfortable playing the same type of character he’s been returning to for a few decades now (looking at you, Asian Cop: High Voltage…). I explain in my Roger Ebert dot com review.
I like Pan’s Labyrinth, too, man.
There’s also been a few blu-ray supplements announced since November’s catch-up. I recorded a new audio commentary for Flying Lotus’s Kuso for Vinegar Syndrome’s Shudder partner label. This was an unusual assignment as I was mixed-to-positive on the movie when it first came out on Shudder. I still said I’d be down for a revisit as long as that was ok. And it was! (these stories are great, I know) I’m sometimes convinced that I’m at my best when I’m engaged and interested, but maybe not so in love with the project that I wind up feeling paralyzed by insecurity. Which is my roundabout way of saying that I’m happy with how this commentary turned out and think it might be one of the best I recorded last year.
I’m seein’ double, four Alains!
I also recorded four audio commentaries for Kino Lorber Studio Classics last year, three of which have been announced for March of this year. First there’s The Black Tulip, a 1964 French swashbuckler starring Alain Delon and Alain Delon as his twin. The movie takes its name from an Alexandre Dumas novel, but otherwise has nothing to do with that book . Still, I read a little from Dumas’s book in my audio commentary, where I also get into how this movie wouldn’t exist without Cartouche, the 1962 Jean-Paul Belmondo swashbuckler, not to mention The Black Tulip director’s Christian-Jacque’s formative Fanfan La Tulipe (1952), which paved the way for both Cartouche and The Black Tulip. I talk a lot about Delon in my audio commentary, so you should check out Kino Lorber’s upcoming blu-ray if you like thinking about him, too.
Look out, it’s Jean Gabin, and he’s got a truck!
Then there’s two (2) titles out on March 25th. The first is another French star vehicle, this one featuring Jean Gabin during his so-called “grey period” of the 1950s. The movie’s Hi-Jack Highway (aka: Gas-Oil), a 1955 trucker noir whose source novel I translated from French for my own amusement and edification…I also read a little from my translations during theaudio commentary, because man, why not? My commentary considers Gabin as a symbol of French politics and French cinema, and the movie’s an amiable B-movie with a small, but key role for young Jeanne Moreau. Worth a look, IMHO!
“Ro-ads…”
Finally, also on March 25th, I recorded an audio commentary with filmmaker Penelope Spheeris for Kino Lorber’s upcoming Black Sheep blu-ray. That went pretty well, I think, so I’m not going to puff it up much. Here’s a link.
I think the next edition of this newsletter will likely be a lightning round-up of the first few noteworthy 2025 releases I’ve seen, as well as some 2024 stragglers. I realize now that I want to keep these kinds of short capsule review type posts free, while paywalling new essays/full-length articles. For example, I have some thoughts about Evil now that Jene and I have finished season four. (for now: compulsively watchable, frequently confounding, overstuffed, and messy) I think I’d also like to try to write a newsletter once every week or two, but that’s going to be hard since assignments are already coming in, not to mention some tentative movement on the next book. These are all problems you want to have, but still…hard to make promises or do much planning when you’re thinking about one or two months at a time.
While we ponder the imponderable, I wanted to leave you with some new music: