Stowaway is a movie seemingly tailor made for these unsafe times. Just four people. Just one location. But there’s plenty of potential there to be had with the right script and direction.
     I like spaceship movies, you can do surprisingly a lot with very few ingredients. You can do it with two actors à la Gravity or even one à la excellent Moon. And here with four actors there was plenty of drama to be had. Well, originally there were three, three trained and specialized astronauts on a two year mission to Mars. Until they discovered…you guessed it…a stowaway. So the balance is off and that alone would have been fine, but they’ve also discovered a FUBARed carbon dioxide scrubber, meaning they will be unable to complete the mission/remain alive for the duration of their trip with things being as they are.
    Time to kill the stowaway? Well, no, not for the morally developed and virtuous crew, lead in the moral outrage by Anna Kendrick’s Zoe. Actually Daniel Dae Kim’s imaginatively named David Kim character wouldn’t mind, he’s mostly interested in his algae. And Toni Colette’s slightly more imaginatively named commander Barnett probably would be ok with it too, she’s more about the bottom line. But Zoe won’t have it.
    And algae starts dying and the O2 need becomes critical. They have extra but getting to it is challenging. And Kim’s isn’t exactly a heroic type. But Zoe is. So watch her go all heroic. Set dramatically against the lovely but deadly solar flares.
    So this was meant to be a heavy hitting drama with a cast of talented actors making tough decisions and somehow it didn’t quite get there. Toni Colette was excellent as always, all serious and make up free, as a woman is charge, Kim was very good too, cutting up the scenery with his cheekbones. The stowaway himself was very compelling too as a man who wakes up to a nightmare that only seems to be getting more and more terrible. But Kendrick didn’t really work for me here.
   Mind you, nothing against Kendrick, she has great comedic timing, she sings well, she has a certain quirky appeal. But here applying against the type seems to prove too much of a stretch. And sure, the stowaway conveniently provided a heartrending sob story to motivate her ascent to superZoe status, but it all comes through sort of slightly off. Which it to say it doesn’t have the emotional gutpunch of George Clooney drifting into space or the rousing blockbuster moment of The Martian being rescued. It’s nice she tried to stretch her acting muscles, she even co executively produced it, but there’s something about Kendrick’s birdlike twiggy presence that seems all wrong for this movie and this scenario.
    Also, learn to tie knots, people. Seriously. So much of these dramatics would have been avoided with properly secured knots.
   So there you go, a space adventure only fans of slow paced isolation driven dramatics would put on their must watch list. For all others…strictly optional. Decent and pretty to look at, but underwhelming. And I’m still questioning some of the science and logistics. I mean…first off, a stowaway on a Mars mission? That already strains credulity plenty.

​    I remember noticing Alyssa Nutting’s book Made for Love long time ago while browsing the library’s digital catalog.  It had a pink dolphin on the cover and sounded intriguing, but it was always out and I just forgot about it. So when I found this tv show Made for Love, I didn’t immediately make the connection until the credits. I also didn’t expect too much from a cable network whose book adaptations recently have been uniformly drawn out, overacted (as in look, we’re a serious network, check out our cast, they can act, let’s watch them act) and generally underwhelming. Watchmen excluded.
    But what do you know…this one was just right. Kudos, Max, you finally nailed a tv adaptation. Granted, I’m not familiar with the source material enough to judge the plot fidelity, but Nutting appears to have been heavily involved with this production (as in beyond the executive producer credits, as in writing), so it can’t be too far off the plot.
   And what a plot it is…a woman flees her ten year old marriage to a tech billionaire to rediscover herself only to find out that not only is he unwilling to accept their relationship is over, but he has also fitted her with a surveillance device that enables him to be with her always, in a way.
   So what’s good about it? Well, it’s all good, actually. It’s a dark comedy that is refreshingly both dark and comedic.
    The casting is perfect…the perfectly blandly handsome look of Billy Magnussen is perfectly suited for Byron Gogol (a wildly literary moniker for a man never observed reading a book), a man obsessed with perfection and control and Magnussen shines in a lead role, having finally been given enough to work with outside of his normal supporting roles. Cristin Milioti (who will quite possibly forever in my mind be the terrifying soccer mom from Death to 2020), the main attraction and cover girl here, is very good and very funny as the woman who goes from nada to Prada and back again. And her dad (the back again she has no choice but to return to)…well, everyone loves that guy. Albeit here his controversial love life is a source of much contention for the locals. There’s a very talented line of comedic supporting characters too.
   This is a pretty out there scenario and the show absolutely sells it, the cast plays it just right, it’s real for them so it becomes real for you. In a crazy way, of course. Because there’s no way technology would one day eliminate privacy to this extent, right? (Insert sarcasm here).
   Conceptually this is very much a lighter side of the Black Mirror. Social commentary included. But in a cleverly understated way. The show talks about the insane possibilities of technology, but also its inherent limitations when it comes to unquantifiable and unprogrammable things like love, happy relationships, etc. It takes on control, consent and more making it more real and salient by staging it in the land of the unreal and positively whimsical digital Oz. Which is in turn cleverly juxtaposed with the trailer trashiness of Mrs. Gogol's past life. Oh the precious parallels...perfectly played out.
   The look of the show is slick, the network has money and isn’t afraid to make it rain. And a show about a tech genius who lives in a cube subdivided compound of virtual reality excellence absolutely has to have a slick look.
    And so despite the outrageousness of the premise, it’s a terrifically compelling, engaging and entertaining programming. It’s just fun. You’ll laugh, you’ll care and you’ll wish for more when it’s over, which is all too quickly. Only eight short episodes. I already miss you, tv show, you were indeed made for love.

​   The importance of utilizing a cultural perspective lens while viewing a foreign movie is essential. In this present day hyperwoke zeitgeist it is also nearly impossible, since the snowflake generation has nominated itself to be the most conscientious, moral and politically correct generation ever. Newsflash…they are not, every single generation before them thought the same thing about themselves. Odds are all subsequent generations shall do the same.
  So how does a Westerner watch and then criticize a movie from a culture as fundamentally foreign as Japan. Especially a movie about  (sadly to this day)  controversial subject from right under the LGBTQ umbrella.
Specifically how does one separate the movie from its culture? Japan, like most Asia, isn’t exactly gay friendly. So in theory this is huge. Positively revolutionary. To do this grand lesbian drama.  If for no other reason than it increases visibility, thus normalizing it. Although let’s face it this movie isn’t going to go very far with normalizing lesbians for anyone.
    Yes, I’m sorry to say, this Japanese sapphic reimagining of Thelma and Louise (actually it’s an adaptation of a famous manga series Gunjo by Ching Nakamura) is a steaming pile of doodoo. And no, not a steamy pile, that would have been nice, after all this movie lives and dies by its romantic aspect. In fact, for those who care, the love scenes in here (despite utilizing an intimacy interpreter…yes, that’s a real thing someone gets paid for) are tragically laughable. And there’s also the fact that there’s inexplicably more straight sex than lesbian one and it lasts longer. Which is to say that by the time the two protagonists of this movie get together they produce one of the most…terrible, just terrible lesbian love scenes ever committed to celluloid. The dialogue during is it just..tragic. You’d think a man wrote it, but no, it’s adapted by a woman from a book by a woman. Maybe it was the male director. Maybe it’s Maybelline. But it’s complete and total sh*te.
    Would the movie get by on just relying on two pretty actresses and some nice Japanese scenery? No, not at that length. The scenery can’t sustain the terrible dialogue, the incessant weeping and the downright bizarre behavior.
   The plot is straight out of the American 90s movies with murderous lesbians and women scorned. It begins with a very graphic murder (done amid one of the inexplicable from character’s perspective straight sex scenes). Then it rewinds a day to show the whys of it all. Turns out that the murderess, Rei (who struts through the entire movie like a model that she is), has a perfectly nice life with an adoring live in girlfriend (the only realistic, likeable and decent character in this entire production who barely gets any screen time). And then Rei gets a phone call that blasts her right into the past reuniting her with the object of her youth’s obsession, Nanae (who you might just refer to as piñata, since that seems to be her life’s trajectory). Seriously,  (almost) everyone is this movie takes a swing at Nanae, she spends all of the movie black and blue Most notably her dearly beloved, who has beaten her terrible during his latest jealous rage. What’s a girl to do but track down her old lesbian flame and ask her to kill the guy?
     Mind you, this romance was never consummated, though Rei tried and tried, going as far as buying Nanae’s affections when they were younger. And yet, despite that and despite being out of each other’s lives for ten years and despite having a nice life, Rei immediately throws it all away…for love. And goes to murder.
     And afterwards the two, having no other plans or possibilities, drive off into the sunset. Only it isn’t quite like that. That would have been easy. Maybe even fun. No, you don’t get that. You get long, longing looks, odd sparse dialogue, another straight sex scene and lots, lots, lots, lots, lots of tears. It’s a very soggy movie. They scream, they fight, they cry, they make up, they give up, they rally, they scream, fight, cry some more. By the time they get together they must be as exhausted as the viewers are, which would explain their underwhelming sexual performances.
     If you’re thinking wow, this reviewer has really disliked the sex scenes and thus is bashing the entire movie…here’s some objectivity. I really enjoy foreign cinema, though it depends on a country. I love learning about different cultures, though. To that end I’ve read at least three nonfiction books about Japan and watched a bunch of documentary programs, one even focused on the sexual culture there (essentially repressed with oases of kink). I’m not sure this movie goes a long way to represent Japanese culture one way or another. It might have. Just as it might have dedicated more time to dealing with the social class differences (something very prevalent in the Rei/Nakae’s dynamic), just like it might have said more about homosexual and gender idealogy, acceptance, etc. (barely grazed in the scene with Rei’s abandoned lover and her mother). But all of that, all the things that might have been significant and important in this movie just got washed away with all the tears and buried under all the tediously drawn out melodrama. Lamentably so.
And then it’s finally over and it’s like whew, so that was that. What a crappy execution of a potentially fun idea. Outside of some unintentionally comedic moments and some interesting cultural perspective there’s absolutely nothing to warrant throwing away 142 minutes of your life on this. What a disappointing ride this turned out to be.

​      Through numerous trials and egregious errors, Falcone/McCarthy team finally got one right. Granted, those trials and errors have set the bar pretty low, but hey, they cleared it. They’ve actually made a fairly decent comedy. Sure, it seems to have gathered mainly negative critical reviews and sure, like all its predecessors it’s strategically lowbrow, but it’s pretty funny as in you’ll laugh. And then laugh. And then laugh some more.
      Getting here wasn’t easy. The one before that was a sh*tbrick of dumb ironically titled Superintelligence. So they grabbed a love interest from that one (the ever effusive Canavale), rebranded him as the evil guy and created scenario where superpowered evildoers referred to here as miscreants  roam free or as free as Canavale’s The King (don’t forget the article) guidance will allow them. And there’s no one to match their fighting powers. Until…two middle aged overweight ladies stand up.
    Ok, to be fair, the ladies are supercharged. The genius of the team, Octavia Spencer’s  Emily character has dedicated her life to developing superpowers (because the miscreants killed her parents, classic origin story) and finally succeeded. She didn’t plan on sharing them with her childhood mess of a friend Lydia, a fairly typical McCarthy character, a fun slob, but sometimes things don’t go to plan and are all the more interesting for it.
   Now Lydia’s got superstrength and toughness and Emily can go invisible and together they are ready to fight crime, right wrongs and in general protect and serve the windy city. Enter…comedy.
    Because it is inherently funny even on the purely visual basis and so very against the grain of the prototypical superhero entertainment. And because McCarthy is a genuinely hilarious actress. Spencer, oddly enough, isn’t, almost at all. She’s a perfect physical match for McCarthy and can provide a sort of straight foil thing, but she isn’t a comedic genius in any way. There’s just enough funny crap going on around her that you won’t notice.
    Melissa McCarthy is one of the highest paid actresses, she’s (not a weight pun) too large to fail in a way, and she seems to be choosing to throw that weight (oh man, I can’t help it) behind her man. Granted Tinseltown isn’t exactly known for relationship longevity and it’s lovely to find a genuinely happy (or so they seem) longtime couple like her and Falcone, but that talent distribution there is far from even. Falcone is by now a perfectly competent director and even a semidecent comedic writer, but these movies he makes survive exclusively on the star power of his very talented wife. Which means it’s a huge drag on her otherwise good career, just compare Bridesmaids to Superintelligence and you’ll get it. She can even do drama, really well, actually, her recent dramatic turn as Lee Israel proves in aces. So her passion for dumb comedies is tough to explain outside of the fact that a. she’s a nice midwestern girl who did well and wants to entertain nice midwestern people in a mild inoffensive way or b. she loves her man and wants to work with him and has fun doing it and doesn’t care about results/reviews/etc. because she can always work outside of that and do something really good if she needs a change. Maybe it’s a plus b. Who knows. The important thing is that their collaboration has finally produces a decent result. With all the right PC messages weaved in, it’s girl power all the way, for girls of all ages. And sizes.
    And to their credit, everyone always seems to be enjoying themselves in these movies, just look at Jason Bateman clicking his claws…tots adorbs as the kids say.
    So hurray for the happily married lowbrow superteam who finally got one right. Whatever the critics say. Sequel, anyone?