Teenage Mutant Hero Reptiles (The Year in Review 2017)

Even as it becomes increasingly obvious that we're living in the darkest timeline, 2017 still managed to deliver some absolute gems. It so happens a lot of the best art this year was decidedly old-fashioned, linked to comic books, heroic young people, and/or an era in which the bad guys were easy to spot. But there was also art that held up a mirror - dark, ugly, damning - to our own society. And still more, like this year's best video game, that just asked us to embrace it all. So go, enjoy. There were some wonderful creations this year. And if you're anxious for it to be over, 2018 is just around the corner and I hear the second season of Legion is starting soon.

FILM

An old-fashioned war movie spruced up with modern editing and special effects, DUNKIRK is a thrilling yet respectful account of the most infamous defeat of World War II. Like the greatest war movies, it gives audiences a core group to cheer for, without forgetting the wider impact of the conflict. Thus, we see tragedy - untold casualties, the fall of France in what Churchill called "a colossal military disaster" - but also incredible heroism. Those heroes include the teenage soldiers struggling to survive until rescue, the Air Force pilots who chased down German bombers in order to buy time, and the incredible true story of the little ships of Dunkirk, a flotilla of civilian boats that raced across the English Channel to assist in the evacuation. Somewhat surprisingly, the film clocks in at a lean 1 hour 47 minutes, in an admirable show of restraint on the part of writer/director Christopher Nolan.

The first three-quarters of woke horror-thriller GET OUT are so insidious, so unnerving, that it helps to remember you're essentially watching a straight adaptation of the African-American experience in the United States. Yes, black people live under the unrelenting threat of violence in the white police-state that is America. Yes, even the liberally-minded can get hung up on platitudes - "I voted for Obama", "I like Tiger Woods", the (unspoken, but hanging over the film) "Some of my best friends are black people". Even in the latter part of the film, when the particularly unspeakable evil that lurks in these white woods reveals itself, it's hard not to see it as a manifestation of every white (and to a degree, male) insecurity that gave rise to another unspeakable evil: the one currently residing in the White House.

TELEVISION

If superhero stories require a suspension of disbelief, then LEGION requires a suspension of that suspension. This show is weird, unlike any comic book property you've ever encountered, and unlike anything else on TV. A loose X-Men spinoff, the series features Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens as David Haller, a maybe-schizophrenic/maybe-psychic weirdo who may also be the most powerful mutant on Earth. But whatever he is, and whatever that (deliberately?) artificial American accent is supposed to be, it's all secondary to the increasingly strange scenarios that Haller and friends get caught up in. Echoing Haller's fragile mental state, the show plays at the fuzzy edges of the mind, offering up oddball scenarios that dare the audience to believe what they're seeing. Did they really just indulge in a Bollywoodeseque dance number? What's that weird obese creature with the glowing eyes? Is Aubrey Plaza even real? That the show admirably answers (most of) these questions within the space of its brilliant first season only makes us wonder: what the hell are they going to do next year?

The absurdly self-aware and borderline satirical RIVERDALE is the Archie Comics adaptation you never knew you wanted. And like its lead character, perennially young 75-year-old teenager Archie Andrews, it's dumb, funny, and a pleasure to look at. In hindsight, adapting Archie Comics into a teen soap-cum-murder mystery makes perfect sense. You get to keep all the heightened personalities of the comics, from beanie-wearing Jughead to the impossibly perfect Betty and Veronica, while also leveraging those personalities to tell an actual, compelling, serialized story. Its only fault? Too much maple syrup, not enough hamburgers.

The existence of RUNAWAYS is a miracle akin to Rocket Raccoon having multiple action figures. Runaways is, of course, its own little beast, a quirky tale of teenagers who find out that, yes, their parents really are that evil. The creation of Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, the original comic quietly came and went in the early 2000s, barely a handful of readers even aware of its existence. Now, like everything else these days, it's part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and for my money, it's a more accurate portrayal of the teenage experience than the life of Peter Parker. Plus (light spoilers) there is a goddamn dinosaur.

GAMING

The first moments of EVERYTHING (Windows, Mac, PS4) are so aggressively alienating it almost feels like a joke from the developer. But once the game really gets going, once its mechanics are revealed and you're encouraged to really play around with it, you realize what a special experience you're in for. I hesitate to say more, but if you ever thought Katamari would be more fun if you could be the objects rather than picking them up, then you have a good idea. (Honourable mention here to CONSTELLATION, a nifty free browser game that embraces a similar spirit, albeit at a more limited scale.) 

RESIDENT EVIL VII (Windows, Xbone, PS4) is a fantastic and long-overdue corrective to a series grown over-reliant on big guns and loud set-pieces. Even if it can't live up to its obvious inspiration Alien: Isolation - i.e. the scariest video game ever made - it nevertheless offers a mostly rewarding, mostly terrifying experience. The first few hours in particular, when you find yourself trapped in a strange house with no weapons, no map, and no clue as to what terrors lurk in the shadows, are unforgettable.

It's hard to imagine a huge audience for SCOTT PILGRIM'S PRECIOUS LITTLE CARD GAME, but Toronto-loving gaming-and-comic book nerds will be happy with this board game release. Playing a bit like Dominion, it improves on the deck-building model by adding humour - in the form of challenges like "get a job" and "win the girl" - and, as I noted in my review, Street Fighter-style combat. 
↓↘→B ↓↘→B ↓↘→B but don't spam or you'll anger the other players!

The strange, the weird, the beautiful (The Year in Review 2016, pt. 2)

Nocturnal Animals

A week out from the collapse of the American Empire, it's hard not to carry a lingering grudge against 2016. That said - and as we discussed in our last entry - there were some good, beautiful (and Better and Stranger) things produced in the past year.

That extends to the worlds of film and video games as well, and in this second part of our Annual Review, we take a look at lonely curators, hard choices, and - strangest of all - the success of a good ole un-ironic Hollywood musical. Spooky.

FILM

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS is, above all else, an intelligent film. Yes, it is violent and disturbing, and it has moments that are hard to stomach. But that squeamishness is all in service of a sophisticated and well-observed psychological drama about love, loss, and loneliness. Indeed, one of the striking - and brazenly unusual - aspects of the film is the way it deploys an already thrilling form - the neo-Western - in service of a far more grounded story. That the viewer winds up caring more about the life of one lonely art curator (Amy Adams, stellar) than that of a gun-toting avenging duo (Michael Shannon and Jake Gyllenhaal, also excellent) speaks volumes about the artistry of director Tom Ford.

The sequel we didn’t know existed, TEN CLOVERFIELD LANE, which was filmed under an alternate title and a cloud of secrecy, is a remarkably thrilling entry in the growing Cloverfield universe. Where its Godzilla-like predecessor used found footage to great effect, this take is smaller, more claustrophobic, and way creepier. John Goodman is great as the survival nut who kidnaps a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), ostensibly to protect her from an unseen apocalypse happening outside. Buckle your seat-belts, this one's a thrill ride.

Oh, and LA LA LAND is great. Go watch La La Land.

VIDEO GAME

In what’s becoming a running theme here at Seven Seas, the best game of the year is THE WALKING DEAD: MICHONNE. Ostensibly a zombie horror game, it’s really a choose-your-own-adventure, but with the hardest choices you've ever faced. Who will you trust? Whose lives will you save? There are no correct answers, only the nagging feeling that you somehow did the wrong thing anyway.

It landed with a bang and a whimper, but for all its faults THE LAST GUARDIAN is still a wonderful game. I wrote more about it elsewhere, but the short version: it's exciting, breathtaking, and deeply flawed.

EDIT: BONUS "HEY GUYS IT'S YOUR FRIEND WADE WILSON HERE GETTING ALL UP IN BLOGSPOT'S BUSINESS BECAUSE APPARENTLY THIS IDIOT FORGOT TO INCLUDE A CANCON AWARD THIS YEAR SO I'M MAKING SURE MY GOOD FRIEND DEADPOOL (NO RELATION)'S MOVIE WINS THE ANNUAL OBLIGATORY AWESOMELY CANADIAN" AWARD

Deadpool is one of the funniest mainstream movies released in the past few years and I promise this sentiment is fully endorsed by the jerk who writes this blog.

p.s. isn't ryan reynolds so dreamy?

The strange, the weird, the beautiful (The Year in Review 2016, pt. 1)

Well, that sucked.

As we all turn our backs on the God-Level Troll that was 2016, it helps to at least consider the few good things that snuck through last year. The following films, games, and (for the first time ever) TV series and podcasts may not save 2016 from the dustbin of history, but at least they made the year tolerable. (Part I covers TV and podcasts; part II film and gaming.)

TV

This is the first time I'm covering television, which is a bit surprising given that it's probably the best mass art form right now. In fact, there's far too much great stuff on-air right now, so I've had to limit myself to new series only. (Sorry, Veep, Silicon Valley, and Girls!)

We begin with Louis C.K., the brains behind two of the year’s best new comedies, BETTER THINGS and BASKETS.

The former features C.K.’s long-time writing/producing partner Pamela Adlon as a lightly fictionalized version of herself, a 40-something mother and actress (in that order) navigating love, race relations, gender roles, Feminism, and (of course) sex.

The latter, an exceedingly weird black comedy, stars Zach Galifianakis as a Paris-trained Clown-artiste with lofty ambitions, despite an unfulfilling job at a rodeo in Bakersfield, California. It’s absurdist in the Camus sense: sad, funny, but deeply sympathetic towards the many oddballs who inhabit its universe. Louie Anderson won a deserved Emmy for his decidedly non-mocking (it would be belittling to call it "drag") portrayal of the family matriarch, Christine.


The best dramas were, of course, on Netflix.

STRANGER THINGS came at the right moment, an 80’s throwback sci-fi adventure starring Winona Ryder and a bunch of non-precocious American child actors. Alternately fun, scary, and awesome, it was the year’s must-watch event. But then you know that already, because everyone watched Stranger Things.

That said, the far stranger thing to come out last year was THE OA, an auteur-driven sci-fi series unceremoniously released by Netflix mere days before Christmas. That weird timing underscores the weirdness of the whole endeavour: a young woman (the brilliant Brit Marling) resurfaces after a seven-year disappearance, sporting strange scars and even stranger ideas about life and death. At its core, it’s another series about decent people trying to do the right thing, including Phyllis Smith (The Office), in a breakout role as the kind-hearted schoolteacher.

PODCASTS

The return of Bowe Bergdahl

Who knew radio journalism was so good? And who knew radio dramas were still a thing? Apparently everyone but me. So, alongside this long-overdue list of great podcasts, I'd like to offer up an apology to all those fans of the medium I kept ignoring these past few years.

Probably the most-anticipated podcast of 2016, SERIAL: THE BOWE BERGDAHL STORY did not disappoint. Journalist Sarah Koenig investigates and interrogates the story of PFC Bergdahl, an oddball Idaho boy deployed to Afghanistan, gone missing in 2009, and resurfaced in 2014 as part of an infamous hostage-swap deal negotiated by President Obama. That deal is mere backdrop for a gripping and heart-rending tale of a war gone FUBAR, the camaraderie of soldiers, and the tragedy of a lost son. (And for what it's worth, it's a more interesting story than Adnan Syed's.)

Finally, further proving he can and should do everything, Oscar Isaac co-stars in HOMECOMING, the year’s best fiction podcast. Also a war story (coincidence?), this one is about the soldiers who come home, the ones who don't, and how society struggles to deal with what that means. The near-future setting allows for a modicum of sci-fi shenanigans, but the core of the story - about the rehabilitation of soldiers - carries an entirely contemporary message. Catherine Keener and David Schwimmer co-star.

SURELY YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS? BONUS AWARD:
Do you like Airplane!? Do you like The Naked Gun? Have you ever seen a grown man naked? If you answered yes to any of these questions, go watch Angie Tribeca, the hilariously goofy police satire from Nancy and Steve Carell.

Coming soon in PART II: Creepy movies and even creepier video games.