The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

 We have come a long way from The Exorcist. The Exorcist is a slow burn with a big roller coaster barf finale. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is a contemporary roller coaster and we are blasted out of the gate like The Hulk ride at Universal Studio's. Warner Bros. Pictures made this, and it's a wild fast ride of horror. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are back in this third installment of the series, as real life paranormal ghost hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren. These two have such great on screen chemistry, they are a big part of why I love these films. This is based on a "true story" of demon possession - if you believe in this sort of thing. I don't but that didn't stop me from having a whole lot of fun. If you are a fan of the first two films - I think The Conjuring (the first one) is a modern horror masterpiece and I loved it. The second one was good but not as good as the third, in my opinion. The third is stripped down and there is little time to catch your breath. What's it all about? Satanists are at work and people are getting possessed by the devil - there is black magic and black candles and the powers of darkness are at work. It's up to Ed and Lorraine to sort the possessions out, save Arne (Ruairi O'Connor) from spending a life in prison for stabbing a man 22 times to death - the devil made him do it!

Go get possessed with this horror thrill ride, now on streaming services. 

Ted Lasso

 Jason Sudeikis. I knew him from SNL. Goofy, funny. I liked him. Didn't' really have any strong feelings about him. Then I watched "Kodachrome" - something I had wanted to watch for a long time because I'm a huge Ed Harris fan but just hadn't gotten around to it. Sudeikis is great in this dramatic role. (catch it on Netflix). I was really impressed. So I thought, let me give Ted Lasso a try.

Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso; goofy, funny. I loved him. What's it all about? Imagine if Ned Flanders (Homer Simpson's nerdy neighbout) wasn't religious and instead coached American Football. The religious aspect replaced with the power of positive thinking (a taped sign that says "Believe" on the locker room wall), Same dorky moustache and nerdy coaching track suit and same "Okilly Dokilly" can-do attitude, and you there you have Ted Lasso. Then imagine if this American Football coach with the positive attitude were hired by a British Soccer Club owner to intentionally have her soccer club fail as revenge against her louse of cheating ex-husband. Except Ted doesn't know the club is supposed to fail. Ted is here to turn it around, not drive it into the ground. Nobody believes in Ted. But Ted (and maybe his co-coach) believes in himself. Believe. 

Ted Lasso is a fish out of water story and you can't help but be charmed by this Bad News Bears story, even if we have see it a dozen times
before. It's damn charming. Funny too. Jason Sudeikis, goofy, funny, and I loved Ted Lasso. The second season is coming soon. Score a goal and catch this highly likeable show streaming on Apple +. Believe. 

Dispatches From Elsewhere

This show is Jason Segel's existential crisis brought straight to the screen. It's part David Fincher's "The Game," tossed in the Dharma Initiative of TV's "LOST" and the breaking-the-fourth-wall of "The Holy Mountain" (but the fun of Ferris Bueller). What's it all about? There are four main characters played by Jason Segel (Peter), Sally Field (Janice), Eve Lindley (Simone), and André 3000 (Fredwynn). They each get wrapped up in a game that brings strangers together in a kind of surreal Amazing Race treasure hunt where the goal isn't known but it's all about the adventure, the journey. As a viewer, you get caught up in the fun and the magic of these characters and their escapades. The show is full art both actually and metaphorically. The whole thing gives you a feeling like you walked into a museum of the absurd, a circus show of freaks. It's also a show that embraces difference. The most important being Eve Lindley's Simone. Eve Lindley is a real Trans woman and she play a trans woman, Simone, in the show. Peter has a relationship with Simone and it's complex. Quite frankly I found it brave of Jason Segel to put this on screen. Brave and important. It shows Simone struggle as a Trans person but it also make strides for humanizing Trans people and not have them be the butt of transphobic jokes. For nothing else, Dispatches From Elsewhere should be hailed as important for Eve Lindley's portal - she really does a great job.

But Simone's story is just one piece (albeit large one) of a complex story with many moving parts. Hats off to Jason Segel to keep it all moving. Some people may be disappointed in the show's ending - you are shown the wizard behind the curtain. I loved it all. Go have an adventure and catch this amazing and important series on Amazon Prime.  

Servant

 Let me tell you about my new favourite thing on TV - Servant. From Producer M. Night Shyamalan - he directed the first episode of Season One. What's it about? It's a about a woman who is a daytime TV reporter and her Chef husband (Dorothy and Sean Turner) who have a new baby, Jericho. They have hired a nanny, Leanne. Leanne is strange. The Turners, well they have an issue with Jericho that I really don't want to explain. I want you to trust me, just watch this. Warning, it's disturbing, twisted, and dark - just my cup of tea. Dorothy's brother, Julian (Rupert Grint) shows up from time to time at their Philadelphia home to polish of some booze and to be the voice of reason - Rupert is fantastic. But even better is Leanne's Uncle George (Boris McGiver) - what a bananas performance; I loved it.

The show is a gorgeous thing to behold. The food that Mr. Turner cooks up is the stuff out of Hannibal - eels, squid, placenta, crickets, lobster ice-cream. And the lighting! The way this show is lit, it's amazing - it's a Renaissance painting; a colour palette of greys; browns and earthy tones. The use of textures and patterns - oh, my - the show is like a gothic flower arrangement. And the dolly camera shots are phenomenal! It simply is the most beautiful show on TV - and likely the most terrifying. 

Catch this horror show on Apple +

When They See Us

This four part Netflix miniseries came out in 2019, before George Floyd's murder, before the Black Lives Matter movement took hold in the way it has. This miniseries feels even more relevant now, just a mere two years later. It's powerful. It's a gut-punch. It's important. What's it all about? It's the dramatic telling of the true story of the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five - five kids, wrongfully convicted of raping and assaulting a jogger in Central Park in 1989. These kids did nothing and were convicted for the colour of their skin. Steve Lopez, 14. Antron McCray, 15. Kevin Richardson, 14. Yusef Salaam, 15. Raymond Santana, 14. Korey Wise, 16. Kids. Korey Wise had it by far the worst, being sent to adult prison. Jharrel Jerome is the only actor to play both the young man and the adult version of his character; his being, Korey Wise. He is remarkable. He won an Emmy for his performance. The miniseries brought to me to tears several times. Like I said, it's a gut punch. Powerful stuff. Important viewing. It is reminiscent of the miniseries "The Night Of" which is also excellent and has a similar story line. "The Night Of" is fantastic and I loved it, but it's fictional. "When They See Us" - it's true. This really happened to these boys. After you watch it, follow it up with  Oprah Winfrey's "When They See Us Now" - the interview with the Exonerated Five. Catch both on Netflix

News of the World

 I wouldn't call Tom Hanks an action star but if you consider films like Castaway and Captain Philips, News of the World would fall into this same wheelhouse of action. It's a travel Western about a man, Captain Kidd (Tom Hanks) who travels from town to town reading the news - newspapers and literacy both being scarce at this time in American history. Kidd ends up with a kid, Johanna (Helena Zengel - nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance here) and Kidd has agreed to take the kid across the country to her only living relatives after her parents are killed and Johanna was raised by the Kiowa tribe (indigenous people of the Great Plains). Johanna has forgotten how to speak English or German or whatever language she spoke before. Kidd is going on this road trip, because well, we wouldn't have a movie otherwise and it's Tom Hanks (big old softy). They have many adventures along the way and by the end of the film I found myself rather emotionally invested despite the simplicity of the story. Helena Zengel is bloody great in this. It's one of the better films to come out of 2020 so hitch your wagon to this one and giddy up. Catch it on streaming services.  

Judas and the Black Messiah

This year we have two films set in the same 1960s era, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and this one, Judas and the Black Messiah - you should watch them both. Daniel Kaluuya (the dude from Get Out) won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor for his role as Black Panther founder, Fred Hampton. He's nominated for best actor in a leading role for an Oscar. Why the Globes nominated him for best supporting when he should have been nominated for lead remains a mystery. Fred is the messiah and Bill O'Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) is Judas - an undercover snitch for the FBI who infiltrated the Panthers as a way to weasel his way out of serving grand-theft -auto jail time. It's a true story and a crazy one at that. It makes for a great movie. And this is a great movie. The cast is phenomenal, the story is riveting, and the direction is spot on. It's reminiscent of such films as Goodfellas, Selma, and Donnie Brasco - I loved it; learned lots about the Panthers and Fred Hampton. It's one of the best films of 2021. Catch it on streaming services.