Tagged: 2020s
Pedro Pascal in The Last of Us
Vitals
Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller, tough pandemic survivor and former contractor
Boston to Utah, Fall through winter 2023
Series: The Last of Us (Season 1)
Air Dates: January 15, 2023 – March 12, 2023
Created by: Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann
Costume Designer: Cynthia Ann Summers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
It was fascinating to see my distaste for mushrooms validated in such a distressing manner in one of the biggest shows of the year.
Based on Naughty Dog’s popular video game of the same name, The Last of Us concluded its acclaimed first season on Sunday night. The series was primarily set in a post-apocalyptic 2023 in the grim aftermath in a global pandemic (albeit far more dystopian than our current reality), caused by a mass fungal infection that transforms its human hosts into grotesque quasi-zombies (shroombies?) that still roam the tattered world two decades following the societal collapse. Continue reading
The White Lotus: Shane’s Pink Seersucker Shirt and Swimwear
Vitals
Jake Lacy as Shane Patton, smug and spoiled newlywed
Maui, Hawaii, Summer 2020
Series: The White Lotus
Episode: “New Day” (Episode 1.02)
Air Date: July 18, 2021
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
While it’s the second season of The White Lotus that’s currently dominating memes and award show headlines, my honeymoon this week had me—for better or worse—recalling the frat-tastic style of the newlywed realtor Shane Patton (Jake Lacy) from the first season, set in Hawaii.
Lacy himself has described Shane as “the most entitled victim possible,” unable to enjoy his Hawaiian honeymoon with his new wife Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) after being assigned to a different luxury suite than expected, beginning a private battle against the beleaguered hotelier Armond (Murray Bartlett) that escalates through a series of drugs, defecation, and daggers. But before that… breakfast! Continue reading
No Time to Die: Retired Bond’s T-Shirt and Shorts in Jamaica
Vitals
Daniel Craig as James Bond, retired British secret agent
Jamaica to Cuba, Spring 2020
Film: No Time to Die
Release Date: September 30, 2021
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Costume Designer: Suttirat Anne Larlarb
Background
Happy birthday, Daniel Craig! Born March 2, 1968, the English actor celebrates his 55th birthday today. I had been debating how to sartorially celebrate Craig, especially considering his stylish reprisal of detective Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, but my upcoming Jamaican honeymoon encouraged a return to his style in No Time to Die as a now-retired James Bond, living a life of comfortable solitude in Jamaica.
Bond fans are well-aware of the significance of Jamaica to the 007 series: it was at his Goldeneye estate on Oracabessa Bay where Ian Fleming wrote the first novel (Casino Royale) in 1952, most of the first movie (Dr. No) was set and filmed in Jamaica, and Roger Moore’s first Bond film (Live and Let Die) was also filmed extensively in Jamaica. There’s very much a “where it all began” association between Bond and this scenic Caribbean nation, making it all the more appropriate that No Time to Die establishes it the setting for Bond’s retirement, specifically a secluded home on Jamaica’s northeastern coast near Port Antonio. Continue reading
The White Lotus: F. Murray Abraham’s Beige Safari Jacket
Vitals
F. Murray Abraham as Bert Di Grasso, libertine grandfather
Sicily, Summer 2022
Series: The White Lotus
Episodes:
– “Bull Elephants” (Episode 2.03, aired 11/13/2022)
– “Abductions” (Episode 2.06, aired 12/4/2022)
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
During the 29th annual SAG Awards on Sunday night, the acclaimed second season of The White Lotus was awarded Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Speaking on behalf of the cast while accepting the award, F. Murray Abraham said that “this was the best job I ever had,” not unsubstantial praise from the prolific actor whose six-decade career included his Oscar-winning performance in Amadeus (1984).
The first season had premiered as a limited series, produced in Hawaii during the final months of 2020, its limited location and characters making it ideal to be produced under COVID-19 guidelines. Following the show’s success, a second season was green-lit, filmed at the Four Seasons San Domenico Hotel in Taormina, Sicily.
The second season followed a similar structure as the first, with the opening scene suggesting a mysterious death and only providing a handful of characters whom we knew would be still alive by the season’s end. We then cut to a week earlier as the guests begin arriving, greeted at the dock by their pink-suited hotel manager. The oldest of the guests is Bert Di Grasso (F. Murray Abraham), traveling with his wealthy son Domenic (Michael Imperioli) and grandson—and ostensible namesake—Albie (Adam DiMarco), all intent on tracing their family’s heritage. Continue reading
Triangle of Sadness: Woody Harrelson’s Captain Uniform
Vitals
Woody Harrelson as Thomas Smith, cynical Communist Marxist luxury yacht captain
Mediterranean Sea, Summer 2020
Film: Triangle of Sadness
Release Date: September 28, 2022
Director: Ruben Östlund
Costume Designer: Sofie Krunegård
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
As we near the 95th Academy Awards ceremony in a couple weeks, I wanted to look at one of the more offbeat nominees. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, Triangle of Sadness joins the current trends of productions like The Menu, Parasite, Succession, and The White Lotus that satirize—often darkly—the entitlement and excess of the wealthy ruling class.
The commentary is clear in Triangle of Sadness, with its middle act set aboard a luxury yacht where the staff—itself split by the tip-earning stewards and below-decks crew—are at the whim of their ultra-privileged passengers that range from social media influencers to arms dealers and oligarchs like the gregarious Dimitry (Zlatko Burić).
At the helm, or at least supposed to be, is the ship’s American captain Thomas Smith (whose surname is never mentioned on screen, I believe, though it certainly recalls the similarly named captain of the Titanic, a disaster which also has become allegorical for class disparities in the decades since it sank in 1912.) An outspoken Marxist, Thomas doesn’t fit neatly into any of the passenger and crew categories, though he’s the first to admit—once he stumbles through the challenges of drunken alliteration—that he’s “a shit socialist because I have too much! I have too much abundance in my life, I’m not even—I’m not a worthy socialist… a shit socialist.” Continue reading
Noah Segan in Blood Relatives
Vitals
Noah Segan as Francis, classical music-loving vampire
Across the Great Plains and Southwest, Summer 2022
Film: Blood Relatives
Release Date: November 22, 2022
Director: Noah Segan
Costume Designer: Michael Bevins
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Sometimes I read a description of or watch a trailer for a movie and think that it had to have been written specifically for me. A recent example of this phenomenon is Blood Relatives, Noah Segan’s directorial debut that premiered on Shudder four months ago, following a leather-jacketed Jewish vampire on a Paper Moon-style road trip in a classic muscle car through the neon-lit small towns of the Midwest and Central Great Plains while unpacking generational trauma with his daughter.
Needless to say, I loved the movie and urge all fellow fans to vote for it as Best First Feature for the 2023 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards, which ends on Monday, February 27. Continue reading
All the Old Knives: Chris Pine’s Peacoat
Vitals
Chris Pine as Henry Pelham, CIA “clandestine case officer extraordinaire”
London, Winter 2020
Film: All the Old Knives
Release Date: April 8, 2022
Director: Janus Metz Pedersen
Costume Designer: Stephanie Collie
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
On one hand, I appreciated All the Old Knives‘ dedication to a le Carré-esque depiction of spywork as more of a subdued, slow-burning investigation rather than the action-packed world of James Bond and Ethan Hunt. On the other hand, does “subdued” necessarily have to feel so… subdued?
Nearly eight years after the disastrous terrorist attack of Turkish Airlines Flight 127, the CIA reopens its investigation with the secret information that the hijackers may have been assisted by a mole within its Vienna station. Agent Henry Pelham (Chris Pine) is assigned to the case by his chief Vick Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne), who advises him not to tread lightly even if the clues should point to Pelham’s former fellow agent and paramour Celia (Thandiwe Newton). Continue reading
Glass Onion: Noah Segan as Derol
Vitals
Noah Segan as Derol, carefree stoner who’s “going through some things”
Spetses, Greece, May 2020
Film: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Release Date: November 23, 2022
Director: Rian Johnson
Costume Designer: Jenny Eagan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Derol is definitely having a moment right now! From articles in Variety to countless memes, the laidback loafer played by Noah Segan has quietly risen as a fan favorite among the star-studded cast of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in the month since it premiered on Netflix.
Glass Onion is set in May 2020, two months into the global lockdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the nonchalant Derol reminds me of the vibe I had aspired to at this stage in lockdown: unbothered, staying in my lane, growing out my hair and chilling. Continue reading
Don’t Worry Darling: Harry Styles’ Blue Suit
Vitals
Harry Styles as Jack Chambers, “technical engineer”
The Victory Project, an American desert utopia modeled after late 1950s Palm Springs
Film: Don’t Worry Darling
Release Date: September 23, 2022
Director: Olivia Wilde
Costume Designer: Arianne Phillips
Tailor: Jack Kasbarian
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I had been among those who were anticipating the release of Don’t Worry Darling since long before the gossip, mostly excited to catch my faves Florence Pugh and Nick Kroll—supporting though his role may have been—against the lush ’50s-inspired style from costumes to cars as seen in leaked photos from the production in Palm Springs.
Much of the film’s attention has since been mired in controversy between behind-the-scenes issues and frustration over its plot execution, but I’d argue that credit is still considerably due to its showcasing the most aspirational aspects of mid-century life, including natty wardrobes, naughty cocktail parties, and Detroit’s chrome-detailed finest in every driveway. Indeed, you could say a little too much attention was paid to *clears throat* Styles over substance.
Okay, that was a cheap shot. While I won’t deny that I was frustrated by what felt like unnecessary red herrings and logistical storytelling holes that didn’t even last my trip to the fridge, Don’t Worry Darling was a dazzling spectacle anchored by a solid performance from the always-excellent Florence Pugh, who celebrates her 27th birthday today.
Glass Onion: Benoit Blanc’s Striped Sweater
Vitals
Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, “in your words, the world’s greatest detective”
Spetses, Greece, May 2020
Film: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Release Date: November 23, 2022
Director: Rian Johnson
Costume Designer: Jenny Eagan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
As its quick ascension to the #1 movie on the service suggests, many are spending their Christmas holiday and its surrounding days watching Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which had only a one-week theatrical release earlier this year before it premiered on Netflix on December 23. My wife and I watched it last night and enjoyed yet another fun, stylish, and unorthodox mystery centered around Southern-fried investigator Benoit Blanc, reprised by Daniel Craig after his entertaining turn in Knives Out. Continue reading