- FINE|Line
- Posts
- Metal Monday
Metal Monday
11.18.2024
Owen McClintic
November 18, 2024
YouTube Obsession
I’m still in my “comfort media” mode so I’ve been returning to a classic Let’s Play from Chip and Ironicus.
The Wonderful 101 is an action adventure game from Platinum and like it’s other offering, Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance1 , is a game that transcends genres and is much much deeper than first expected. It really takes a knowledgeable and good player like Chip to really showcase what this game is doing different and I’m very grateful for their videos.
Watching
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad The Substance exists, I just wonder why it exists. Demi Moore is amazing and the practical effects are so fun. I even found myself laughing for 5 minutes straight following a scene that I think was supposed to be horrifying? I’m not sure.
And that’s really my whole problem with The Substance. If it’s not sure what it wants to be why should I care? It alludes to other (better) movies so often that it can’t even be itself. Is that saying something? Maybe!
From scene one, the movie is yelling it’s main themes at the audience. In every shot there is a surface level allusion to “young vs. old”2 , even repeating scenes for the catatonic at home.
I understand a lot of the hate for movies like Saltburn: Movies that seem to have a social message but are really saying nothing. The difference is that Saltburn was actually a fun movie to watch. The Substance, once it’s themes are made clear does nothing interesting.
Much like Captain Planet put the responsibility for pollution on the individual rather than the corporations that contribute 99% of the pollution; The Substance seems to imply that unnatural beauty standards are an individual choice. As Esther’s review on Letterboxd highlights..
the narrative confusion creates an unfortunate thematic confusion. what is this movie trying to say? beauty standards for women are bad, naturally. but the movie is strangely more judgmental of moore's character for using fake-ozempic than it is about the mysterious creators of the substance, who never appear except to chide the female leads for their selfishness and stupidity. in the finale, when the two finally destroy each other, the film treats their fate with such sneering cruelty. it's hard to take the film as a critique of society when the only object of critique seems to be the women who are trying to live within it (this is a knock-on effect of the bowdlerized quaid character, who never feels like a threat). sad to say about a film with such fun practical effects but i thought this was pretty much a trainwreck.
Like I said, I’m glad this movie exists but I really don’t understand the hype. Maybe because I’ve recently watched a lot of Cronenberg who supports all of his body horror with pathos and primal meaning that The Substance can’t help but be skin deep by comparison.
Reading
I’m a huge proponent of “STOP READING THAT!” It’s the lifestyle choice to stop reading a book - at any point- if I don’t like it. No one is grading me. I will not get a sticker for finishing a book I don’t like. This applies to all media but I have to remind myself with books most often. The voice in my head saying “maybe you just don’t get it” is a little louder than with other media and I force myself to read more of a book I hate. Hell, maybe I am too dumb for some books that I read but life is far too short to hold myself at gunpoint to finish a book.
That said, The Need by Helen Phillips is by no means a bad book. It’s written very well, the structure is interesting and it stays pretty active. But it’s main themes are about motherhood, more specifically, the physical aspects of motherhood and I just can’t relate or just find childrearing generally uninteresting. Maybe I need to develop some more empathy for mothers/parents but I just found myself falling asleep. So I stopped reading it and I have to remind myself that is ok.
The Lobster Johnson Omnibus 1 & 2 by Mike Mignola, John Acrudi are excellent pulp sci-fi/horror/detective comics that just roar with prohibition era charm.
Lobster Johnson is a spin-off character from the Hellboy comics. He’s essentially Mike Mignola’s take on Batman. I love the undefined lore3 of the character and his trait of constantly yelling axioms about “Justice” as he’s shooting gangsters.
It is a bummer that Mignola doesn’t draw any of the comics but the pulpy stories are well worth reading.
Playing
I am currently Prestige 3 and have started grinding weapon camos. It’s been very nice to pour myself into a classic grind to numb my brain.
Listening
If you’re not familiar with Lisa Gail I am honored to be your introduction.
I can’t say that this is a good song but I cannot deny that it get’s stuck in my head more often than it should.
She puts it all out there and you really have to commend her for the effort. Also, book her on Cameo.
Other Notables
** “Laguna Beach’s first season introduced the show’s core cast: a group of eight California high school juniors and seniors, improbably wealthy and often even more improbably named. (There are boys named Dieter, Polster, and Talan, while two of the three central female protagonists are named Lauren.)”
** The Onion buys Infowars and introduces a Print Subscription in the year of our lord 2024, further blurring the lines between parody and reality.
** A good dam video
2 Cars in the background are all very old models or brand new. DO YOU GET IT?
3 Readers never get a true origin story for the Lobster