Hello and welcome back to Death to the Algorithm. While I try to keep up with all new stuff coming out, I don’t always make a video reviewing it. Sometimes I don’t like the thing or I just don’t have much to say about it. So instead of forcing myself to talk about a bunch of things and shit out mediocre videos every time I watch something, I figure I can periodically do a quick reviews video and lump them all together. So let’s get into it. I’m gonna break this up by medium. Let’s start with movies.
Movies
Peeping Tom/The Sniper: I got the Criterion release of this based solely on the fact that it’s directed by Micheal Powell of Powell & Pressburger fame. The movies they collaborated on were gorgeous so I took a chance and got this as a blind buy. It was a good call. This movie is both dark and colorful in a very cool way. I watched this and a movie called The Sniper pretty close to each other and it makes for a good double feature. Both are about killers obsessed with women to the point of needing to kill them, with varying levels of sympathy. Moral of the story is, there have always been incel weirdos. They’re just in charge now. Fuck.
I Am Cuba: Beautifully shot film directed by a Russian (the USSR kind) about Cuba just before its revolution. It uses alluring imagery to mask just how much shit and violence it takes to win a better world. This and the next film I’m gonna talk about were kind of research for me in these modern times we find ourselves swallowed by. Anyway, been wanting to see this one for a long time and it did not disappoint.
Army of Shadows: Another in my research for surviving fascism, this film has such a cool grimly look to it. The dower look to everything goes a long way to show just how hopeless things must have felt in Occupied France. If they weren’t speaking French, you’d think it was taking place in Seattle. The most distressing thing about this film is just how little time the resistance fighters had time to resist. They spent most of their effort killing each other. Aside from a radio smuggling and a messy jailbreak, they didn’t get much done. I think almost all the bodies that were dropped were resistance to other resistance. Bleak.
The Brutalist: A lot has been said about this one so I won’t go too long, unlike this movie. The more I thought about this movie, the less I liked it. There’s the weird AI use and the weirder Zionist stuff, but mostly it just another movie about an artist who thinks they have to suffer if they want to make art, the rich who take advantage of that attitude and that if they do suffer, they’ll be rewarded decades down the line with fame. Which is just an idea I don’t subscribe to as much anymore. The suffering part that is, the rich absolutely are always looking for people to fuck in every way they can. That said, Adrian Brody is great in it and I do love brutalist architecture, so it wasn’t a total loss.
Captain America: Brave New World: I was gonna make a whole video on this, like I do with most MCU movies but there’s just not much to say. It seems to be getting hate on the internet but what else is new. The MCU might just be a victim of its own success. Now anything short of a two billion dollar masterpiece and people say it’s the worst thing ever. Oh well. This flick is average, which is fine. It’s got great action, but a pretty thin plot. It seems the whole evil plan The Leader had was to piss off Harrison Ford, which feels like it’s much easier to do than he made it look. The one thing that happened that really confused me was The Leader saying he had to get arrested to further his plan. Why? Bro, that’s a bad plan. I don’t know, seemed like a sloppy rewrite to wrap up his story. I’m excited for Adamantium and I love Carl Lumbey as Isaiah Bradley. Dare Devil and Thunderbolts are next but the real test is Fantastic Four. We will see.
Terri: I mostly watched this because it had Jacob Wysocki in it who I know from a bunch of Dropout stuff. There were a few other familiar faces as well which is surprising for something so low budget. Mostly a story about weird kids being fuck ups. Has a great monologue about just getting through life, which I’m a sucker for. I do not miss being a teen. We all knew someone like Chad. What a dick.
The Day The Earth Blew Up: I mean, give me one of these a year. It’s a crime that this is the first ever 2D animated Looney Tunes feature film. Give one of these to the folks who made Hundreds of Beavers. Go wild. In fact, my only criticism of this movies is it didn’t get zany enough. Go full 4th wall breaking, logic fracturing, absurdist with it. Anyway, get that parasite David Zazlov away from Looney Tunes, the blood sucking, fart huffing, penny pinching, little sniveling, mother- -unt.
That does it for movies but if you wanna keep up to date with me, I’m on Letterboxd at SydMonk. Let’s move on to shows!
Shows
Dune Prophecy: I love the new Dune movies, did not like this show. I can’t think of a single character I gave a shit about. Everyone was saying this was like Game of Thrones in space and that just made me glad that I never watched Game of Thrones.
Cunk on Life: If you’ve not watched the Cunk series of specials, stop watching this right now and go binge them. This is so up my alley to the point that I would have to pause the show to laugh. Not much to say other than it’s a must watch.
D20 Unsleeping City S1/StarStruck Odyssey: While working my real job, I’ve been listening to seasons of Dimension 20 that I’ve missed and am interested in. The latest of those have been The Unsleeping City Season One and Starstruck Odyssey. The Unsleeping City got me because I love New York City. Top three cities I’ve been to in my life, no doubt. I even tried to live there when I was 19, but that’s a whole other story. I love the idea of a secret city on to of the actual city and New York is style perfect setting for that. It’s like the comic Fables but without the Bill Willingham of it all (If you know, you know). Filled with great New York-isms and the story is pretty emotional too.
Starstruck on the other hand was a laugh riot. As I mentioned in my Critical Role Campaign Three review, I love when a a D&D party is just a bunch of fuck ups and the absurdist space setting really lent itself to that. Knowing that it was created by Brennan Lee Mulligan’s mom, and learning more about his family history, makes me think he was bred in a lab to be who he is today. After I finished, I realized I wanted more of this universe, so now I have to go find the comic.
Invincible S3: This show is so good. I’ve only dipped into the comic but it’s hard to see how it could top the show. I’ll probably do a whole video on the show once it wraps up. The way they explore the idea that, with superhuman powers comes superhuman consequences and trauma, is so nuanced and interesting. Much more thought out and carefully done than others have explored the topic *cough*Zach Snyder*cough*. I mean, when a fight can level a city, the people in that city are gonna have feelings about that and the winner of that fight is gonna have some shit to work through after causing so much destruction. Anyway, can’t wait for more.
Books
Critical Role Art Book M9 Vol.2: Let’s move on to the books I’ve read recently, and talk about a different D&D show, Critical Role. Specifically the art book for Mighty Nein Volume Two. I have all of the art books from Critical Role (ooohh, ahhhh) and have a fondness for the series as a whole. It feels like the bigger Critical Role has gotten, the less it’s able to directly interact with its fans, which is to be expected. But I’m glad they’ve continued at least printing the beautiful fan art in such well crafted tomes. There are a lot of gorgeous pieces in here and I also love all the extra goodies that came with the special edition, especially this coin. Very cool.
The Sound and The Fury: I give every book 100 pages to hook me and if it doesn’t, I give up and move on. I gave up on this one. The stream of consciousness thing is hit or miss with me. I just couldn’t follow it and the characters seemed like rich dickbags. I don’t know, maybe I’m just too dumb for this one.
Sucker: A pretty good read but I have never hated a main character more than in this book. Every interaction was transactional for him. He was so self centered he didn’t notice the obvious around him all the time. II’ve never rooted against a main character more.
A Red Death: The second of the Easy Rawlings stories. A fun detective novel but again hard to root for Easy. He’s a landlord who is working for the Feds to kill a union organizer. That’s a real Venn diagram of people I don’t like. But I couldn’t solve it by the end which makes it good in my book.
To Photograph Is To Learn To Die: A very heady book about why we make art, written in a way that feels like my thoughts. The basic idea is that, because we know we will die, we try to express the inexpressible in objects which seem more permanent. Very out there but good. This time it’s a Venn diagram of stuff I like, photography and thinking about dying.
Anarchism Today & The Last of The Hippies: Two books on anarchism and the fallout from the hippies. The first while the hippies were still fresh and trying to parse what they meant. Ultimately coming to the conclusion that they were undone by their lack of interest in theory or history. The later, from Penny Rimbaud of Crass, seeking alternatives to the hippies failures.
Mother Night: A good early Vonnegut novel. Not as good as his later work but a short interesting read none the less.
Comics
Let’s move on to comics. There’s a lot here as I was trying to make my way through a giant pile, so I’ll try to keep it short.
Spider-Punk: I read a few disparate issues of this and loved it. I found the trades while I was recently in New York. It’s simple and not groundbreaking by any means, but I love how far out of their way they go to fit in punk song titles and references for kids who definitely don’t catch them. Great for your budding teens.
Athos in America: I love Jasons work and not just because we share a name. This was a more surreal series of stories than other works of his I’ve read, so it wasn’t as emotionally devastating, but I loved it all the same. Maybe I’ll do a whole Pitch Please episode on Jason, Seth and other cartoonist. Put that on the to do list.
Birdking Vol. 1: I picked this up because I love artist, Crom. This is Volume One of Three and it did the job. It hooked me. The world feels deep and strange and I want to dig in more so I gotta find Volume Two. It has a real Headlopers vibe and I love it.
Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: I bought this for my friend because I thought she would relate to it. After she read it, she had me read it because I guess I remind her of the boyfriend (also named Jason) in it. I’m a sucker for these slice of life comics so I enjoyed it. Get it for the anxious woman in your life.
Fante Bukowski: This is right up there with Fungirl for me for funniest comics I’ve ever read. This guy is such an idiot. A somehow lovable idiot, but an idiot all the same. It’s also depressingly relatable as I fear I was this guy in my teens and early 20’s just without the drinking. I can only apologize to anyone who knew me then.
Blubber: I’ve never seen so much dick sucking in a comic. It was honestly off putting. Do not recommend.
Superman Smashes The Klan: Man what a good Superman story. Even better that it’s based on an old radio serial. If you wanna raise your kids right, you’ll get them this book. It got me pumped for the new movie. I wish Superman was real and could smash a few fascist I know.
The Absolute Universe: This is the biggest thing in comics right now so I doubt you need me to tell you how good they are. The way they can find new and exciting ways to tell stories with these characters that have been around for 100 years is amazing. It pushes the boundaries of the characters while highlighting what makes them great in the first place with the skill of master storytellers. It’s so good, I’ve been buying single issues and I’m a die hard trade waiter. Controversially, I think I might like Absolute Superman best. I just love the idea of union thug Superman. But all of them aesthetics gold so far.
New DSTLRY: There are a bunch of new DSTLRY comics, so I’m just gonna rattle trough them quickly. The Big Burn, a heist in hell for your soul. What a concept. Like an Oceans movie but with eternal stakes. Time Waits seems is be a strange time travel story. As a Doctor Who nerd, I’m always game for some time travel. You Won’t Feel A Thing is from superstars Scott Snyder and Jock who did a book called Wytches together and this is shaping up to be just as terrifying. City Beneath Her Feet is one I was surprised by how much I liked it. Cool story of a normie sucked into the spy world for love but what really hooked me was this cool ass art. Warm Fusion might be the first DSTLRY book I dislike. Just too much going on and it didn’t hook me. Lastly, Spectregraph released it collection and hot damn what a good book. Really out there concept, fantastic surreal art and a perfect twist. All around great stuff here.
Music
Haven’t listened to much music lately but here are a few highlights.
Mock Media: Found this band from a video of them covering Chappell Roan which I found funny. Very much in the linage of The Clash. I listened to their second record and it’s just a good time. I’d like to see them get a bit more of a punk edge in the future but maybe that’s just me.
Thermals: I’ve honestly been stuck in a bit of a musical rut lately and the album The Body, The Blood, The Machine is one of the record that’s been on repeat. This came out in the year I graduated and things were rough under dubya and only getting rougher but god damn if we didn’t have some good ass, fun punk rock. Gets me dancing every time.
Current Joys: This band has another record that’s been stuck on a loop for me called East My Love. Very different from Thermals. It’s a finely recorded folky rock record full of slower front porch jams. Heart tugging lyrics you can ugly sing to. A rare Dylan cover I don’t hate. A friend and I want to start a country/folk band and I heard this randomly and went damn, beat me to it. It’s just a really solid record. If you liked the latest MJ Lenderman record, you’ll dig this.
Thank: Another band I don’t remember how I came to them but the second I heard the song Woke Frasier from the album I Have a Physical Body That Can Be Harmed, I was all in. I don’t know what it is about Brits yelling over light industrial/noise that I love so much but damn if doesn’t work. This is for fans of groups like Gilla Band or Yard Act (who they may be label mates with?). It’s gonna make you feel tough. They also have a flavor of some of my favorite local bands here like my friends old band The Eeks or Ypsi cool doom guys King Under The Mountain. Anyway, give it a listen if you want to get ready for a fight.
JER: On a recent Bandcamp Friday, I picked this up and what’s to say other than, no one is pushing ska forward more than JER. It’s fun and bouncy while also talking about real shit. If you’ve watched any of their SkaTune Network videos, you know what you’re in for. A good time.
Blowout bands: I went to the Hamtramck Blowout this year and saw a ton of performers while in a half awake state. Some highlights were deadsurf, a METZ-esque punk trio, Carbon Decoy, a krautrock/doom outfit that blew the roof off of Outer Limits, the lo-fi drum machine noise of Low Exposure, and the fun pop punk of Mango Star. One big highlight was my first time seeing Cult of Spaceskull who put on a show so wild I nearly shit. There were tons of good bands that I caught but because everyone was running on punk rock time, my carefully constructed schedule was thrown out of wack and I’m not sure who I saw. Good times though.
And I think that does it for this round of quick reviews. Let me know if you check any of this out and recommend some stuff in the comments. Until next time, death to the algorithm.
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