12.2.23 - Arrival, The Killer, Sicario, The Perfect Holiday | Gems From the Rabbithole #3
I watched quite the hodge podge over Thanksgiving.
So this newsletter is a day later than normal. Internally I was freaking out a wee bit, but then carefully coaxed myself off the ledge. #Grace.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I rewatched a sci-fi movie I kinda sorta remembered liking and it still hit. Otherwise, I watched a hodge podge of mostly uninspiring shit that played in the background as I Black Friday shopped on my cellular device. Nevertheless, per usual, I have thoughts, I have opinions, I have recommendations — even if it’s what not to watch.
Arrival (2016 | Paramount+, Amazon Prime)
Sci-fi isn’t my usual go to, but then again I’ll watch anything. Sci-fi movies usually center men — white men specifically — and, just like watching The Bachelor, don’t seem to be speaking to me at all. I’m also generally uninterested in space. Asteroids hitting our planet isn’t a storyline that really gets me going. AI robots taking over the world…meh (although that one does give me some pause). Now aliens…..that one might rope me in. Alien movies sometimes feel akin to supernatural horror and that’s my jam.
Arrival is sci-fi lite. There’s not a ton of action, it’s actually a pretty, quiet movie. But it is a movie with a lot to say — about men playing war, about our lack of humanity and obsession with violence, about our free-will or lack thereof. It plays more like a moody drama about grief than a true action-packed sci-fi.
In the film, Amy Adams stars as a linguist enlisted by the United States Army to discover how to communicate with aliens who have unexpectedly arrived (so far peacefully) in 12 massive spaceships in various locations across the globe. Whether or not you believe in UFOs and aliens, the idea of life outside of Earth is intriguing; the idea that we’re not the center of the universe and others out there might have this life thing figured out in, I’m sure, a more optimal way than us humans. It’s like every friend who has come back to America after visiting Japan; the glimmer in their eyes that there’s others out there operating more efficiently. But what if these aliens don’t just got us beat when it comes to intelligence and technology, but also emotionalism and collaboration? In Arrival, we’re reconciling that, not just blowing up meteors.
Sidenote: That one time I saw UFOs ^^^
Before tensions lead to war, the mysterious question looming and creating the central source of anxiety as you watch Arrival: why have the aliens arrived and do they pose a threat? Amy’s character — one of the sole women listened to — wants to talk it out with the mysterious, seemingly nonthreatening visitors, meanwhile the men, of course, are ready to drop bombs. How life in America, better yet, the world would be so different if we led from empathy and understanding rather than fear… if the men would just sit down and shut the fuck up for once. The movie remarks on collaboration and the lack thereof between world powers — men playing war and burying everyone beneath their tall egos and power grabs. At the center of every world conflict, you’ll find this exact pattern. Men are exhausting. Arrival forces us to think about this distrust and xenophobia plaguing us and the empathy and emotionalism that could save us if anyone would just stop and listen.
In the film, just as in space (I think), time and the direction in which it moves flows differently. You can see the past, you can know your future, sometimes — because memory is funny like that — you can’t decipher between the two. Live as if you’ll die tomorrow. If tomorrow was your last day, how would you live differently? We all know these god damn LIVE LAUGH LOVE mantras are onto something. Imagine knowing how tomorrow would go, how different the choices you would make would be. The disservice we do to ourselves everyday living in the constant state of fear we’re all in. I don’t think Arrival wants to make us feel guilty, but to at the very least remember we do have choices.
Final Verdict: Arrival is a good one. Watch if you want something quiet and cerebral.
— The Hodge Podge —
The Killer (2023 | Netflix)
David Fincher is one of my favorite directors, simply for what he did with Fight Club. Lest we forget The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network. We all had high hopes for The Killer. Michael Fassbender played a sex addict in Shame and a sadistic slave master in 12 Years A Slave; the man can fuck up some roles. However, this here role in this here movie? It’s a pass for me dawg. Fassbender plays a cold-blooded assassin who’s breaking all his rules and getting a bit shakey at his job. His character was frustrating to watch; he was the clunkiest assassin there ever was but was still presented to us as cool. I didn’t buy it. The plot line was also thin. At the very least, some of the kill scenes were inventive, but overall I was not impressed.
Final Verdict: Everyone’s watching it, so give it a whirl if you must, but you also ain’t missing much.
Sicario (2015 | Netflix)
Funny enough, Sicario is from the same director (Denis Villeneuve) as Arrival — albeit a very different movie. Movies about the cartel also aren’t my usual go-to (man I was really branching out this Thanksgiving!), but this one was decent. Emily Blunt plays an FBI agent who joins a CIA task force working to bring down the leader of a Mexican cartel. That’s basically the premise for all cartel movies. Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, and Daniel Kaluuya are all in it and great to watch; Benicio being the clear star of the movie. The film highlights the illegal lengths the US, more than likely, goes to in order to bring down the cartel. The opening scene was brutal, imaginative as far as cartel kill scenes go, and definitely hooked me in.
Final Verdict: Watch if you need some action and suspense in your life or a lil Benicio. I just love his name…
The Perfect Holiday (2007 | Dare I say we purchased this on Amazon Prime)
The cast of The Perfect Holiday is ridiculously stacked; you got Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Charlie Murphy, Faizon Love, Jill Marie Jones, Katt Williams, Queen Latifah, and Terrance Howard. Seems trustworthy right? Well, we couldn’t have been more wrong. This movie was comically bad. It was giving Hallmark Movie reject or Tyler Perry direct-to-DVD. Gabrielle played the same role as always, Morris Chestnut played a big fat loser (Why on Earth would you ever choose this role, Morris?), neither Charlie Murphy nor Katt Williams provided any true comedic relief. Basically, everyone was in their worst form. Faizon Love was the saving grace and the best part of this movie. We need more Faizon; we (see: Faizon’s agent) need to do better by that comedy gem.
Final Verdict: Watch if you’re home for the holidays and your Grams or aunties are looking for something to watch. They’re the only people I think would get a kick out of this movie.
I’m in Montreal with Nate visiting a friend and running late for brunch. Gotta run! Here are some gems from my recent late night Internet deep dives…
WATCH: Squid Game: The Challenge (Netflix) - The fact that they actually greenlit a live-action Squid Game is wild. It’s a FASCINATING watch. It’s intense AF and what we’re watching is probably illegal, but I can’t get enough and I high-key need a season 2 ASAP.
LISTEN: Whoreible Decisions Podcast EP 343: Dommes, Subs & Skat Play (Ft. Steph Domme) - Weezy and Mandii are not for everyone. They’re both BAD BITCHES and talk about their wild sex lives and kinks with the upmost vulgarity. Justine, my co-host at 2 Black Girls, 1 Rose, swears by them and so every now and then I dip in for a listen. This recent episode features a black, NYC-based dominatrix with a customer base of exclusively white, high-powered finance bros paying her to humiliate them or do her laundry. Steph Domme even brought one of her clients to the podcast recording on a leash. I’m dead.
READ: “First-Gen Social Media Users Have Nowhere to Go” (WIRED) - I have a very complex relationship with social media. I run a business on Instagram, but also cannot stand Instagram and am often ready to chuck my phone out the window. I hate feeling so enslaved to my phone and hate seeing how enslaved we’ve all become. This article thoroughly resonated with me and I’m curious if any millennials out there feel the same?
WATCH: Celebrating Thanksgiving Dinner With a White Family For the First Time - This is a classic HILARIOUS YouTube video I watch every year around this time. You’re welcome.
LISTEN: “Too Late To Turn Back Now” by Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose - This song played in Daisy Jones and the Six and I just love it.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think, what you want me to write about, what you want me to watch. Or just drop me a line and say hey!
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