Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness

If you haven't heard of Netflix's Tiger King yet, I would be surprised. In fact most of you have likely already binged this. On the off chance you haven't, book off a six hour time slot and get busy. What else do you have to do these days anyway, right? Watching Tiger King is like drinking a couple of ice cold beers on an empty stomach and suddenly somebody put a bowl of greasy potato chips in front of you. You will devour it like a tiger would devour expired Walmart chicken. What is it all about? It's about people running big cat zoos in the Southern US. The main focus of the show is the feud between the gay, redneck, polygamist, county-singing (voice of an angel), Joe Exotic and a woman (who people believe killed her husband) named Carole Baskin. Both run big cat zoos. Baskin claims to be running a sanctuary but that seems dubious. There are also a ton of other characters running around that are right out of a Carl Hiaasen novel; people missing legs, an arm, teeth, tattoos everywhere, and everyone seems to be carrying a gun. It makes Hunter S. Thompson look boring. It's that bananas. Enough writing, enough reading. Go watch this on Netflix now. 

The Invisible Man

My first thought when I heard this movie was coming out was why? Then adjectives like ridiculous, dumb, and needless floated around inside my noggin. But then I noticed that Elisabeth Moss was attached to it and I thought, well maybe I shouldn't be all so judgmental. But a spring release of a horror movie is never good. Then I noticed it's directed and written by Leigh Whannell - he is not a household name. This is James Wan's (Saw, The Conjuring) buddy who he started out in Hollywood with. Leigh Whannell directed and wrote a highly underrated sci-fi film entitled, Upgrade in 2018 (if you haven't seen it, check it out, it's a lot of fun).Leigh is a good writer, maybe even a great genre writer for this type of material. He elevates the horror genre the same way that Hitchcock did. The Invisible Man is a film Hitchcock would have been proud to have made. Yeah, I really enjoyed myself. What's it all about? Elisabeth Moss plays Cecilia, who is in a horrible abusive relationship with a brilliant, rich, sociopath who happens to be a leader in the field of optical technology. Cecilia splits and guess who shows up, invisible douche bag. The whole thing is rather transparent (I couldn't help myself). However Whannell really does a fine job keeping us on the edge of our seats. Elisabeth Moss is great in this. I had so much fun with this movie. It's quite clear to me, (snicker) you shouldn't miss seeing (snicker) this one. Catch it on streaming services.

The Outsider

Since the Syfy channel cancelled Channel Zero, my favourite horror series ever, I've been in mourning. Maybe there is a monster running around out there feeding off my grief? I've tried other shows, American Horror Story, the new Twilight Zone, and I even managed to watch almost all of Castle Rock - I gave up two episodes before the end because, well, I didn't care. And Castle Rock had lots of things going for it, and lots against - both of them being Stephen King. Stephen King, for me, can be hit or miss. Some of my favourite horror movies are Stephen King adaptations. However, there are more bad ones than good ones. I'm very happy to report that The Outsider ranks among the very best of Stephen King's translations to screen. This HBO miniseries is outstanding. The musical score by Daniel Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans is brilliant and haunting - it's half the reason you should watch. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, after all, it's still horror. It made me forget about Channel Zero, at least for a little while. So, what's it all about? I don't really want to spoil it. There is a child murder and we follow the investigation. Things get weird fast and not everything is as it seems. That's all I want to tell you. The big names attached to this thing are Jason Bateman (Ozark) and Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline), but everyone in this is fantastic - big props to Cynthia Erivo as Holly Gibney (one of the most memorable characters to grace the screen in a while). If you are looking for something to take your mind off of COVID-19, try this. Catch it on HBO.