Random Round-Up #1 (7/25/22 - 8/2/22)

The Bear (2022-Present)

Soft 8/10

The Bear is a FX-produced Hulu Original TV series that focuses on Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto’s (Jeremy Allen White) return to his hometown of Chicago to assist his brother’s best friend Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) in running their family’s sandwich shop: “The Original Beef of Chicagoland”. The Original Beef was formerly owned by Carmy’s brother, Michael, who had committed suicide, drawing Carmy back into a life that he had long-forgotten for culinary critical acclaim. Much of the show features the duo of Carmy and Richie participating in a power struggle that is only heightened by resistant employees of the restaurant. 

That being said, calling The Original Beef a “restaurant” is a far cry from its actual middling status as a business. Staff members such as Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) and Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) are reluctant to accepting change, especially when it means transitioning their nonchalant work environment into one where everybody refers to each other as “chef” and aspires to raise the bar of production as opposed to their acquired level of complacency. The Original Beef’s gourmet renaissance is spearheaded by Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri), an ambitious learner that Carmy takes a liking to immediately, effectively appointing her as his second-in-command, and subsequently ruffling some feathers.

With each episode sitting around the half-hour mark, much of the show’s intensity can be attributed to its lack of filler. There is little to no dead space between interactions, as dialogue is intertwined with appetizing cinematography of the kitchen’s various culinary processes. Additionally, the show opts for an extremely character-driven approach to its development, where we are often shown framatic vignettes of the severe personal toils that each character internally and externally experiences. Carmy’s propensity for treating every task as a professional exhibition of his talents further contributes to this everlasting sense of dire stakes, even if it's just making fruit punch for a child’s birthday party (S1E4). 

The Bear has its fair share of pandering to Gen-Z humor and flat irreverent comedy, but its most humorous moments come as unintended consequences of when characters’ attempt to maintain their stoic attitude with their occupations. This results in gratifying moments of self-realization that do not feel shoe-horned in order to progress the growth of the show’s ensemble.

Another unique dynamic displayed in this series is the generational disconnect that has become so prominent due to new outlets of business such as e-commerce and social media. In season 1’s penultimate episode, we receive a fierce 20 minute eruption of a technological malfunction that leaves Carmy unhinged and his chefs disheartened. Every character has such a prominent methodology to how they live life and aspects often get lost in translation, eliciting fiery bursts of miscommunication. Every episode is permeated by the sounds of alternative-rock and hip-hop artists, such as Radiohead, John Mayer, and more, further pronouncing the show’s off-kilter tone. 

At first, The Bear struggles to find its footing with what genre of media it wants to embrace, with it initially disguising itself as more of a comedy than a drama, it quickly gets on track by welcoming its darker undertones. The Bear is easily one of the most original new shows to have come out recently, and it is incredibly refreshing for a product of the streaming-era’s creative free-rein to have deliberately chosen to condense its content in an appropriate manner.

The Rehearsal (2022-Present)

Soft 7/10

HBO has been killing it with their original programming for years, whether it is through critically acclaimed masterpieces such as The Sopranos or The Wire or now with their era-defining production of Euphoria. The network is not afraid to push the envelope with the creative autonomy that it gives to its associates, and The Rehearsal is no exception.

Nathan Fielder, of Nathan For You fame, has been given a similar amount of liberty to his previous endeavor with this new project. Nathan For You blurred the lines of reality television and scripted comedy sketches with how Fielder would immerse himself into his own production in order to elicit genuine responses from his victims. The main purpose of the series was to revitalize struggling businesses with an “any press is good press” approach. In his new show, Fielder once again has set out to benefit others by blowing up micro-issues on a macro scale.

Each episode finds Fielder seeking out a random person who is struggling with any sort of personal issue, then he proceeds to embark on a grand rehearsal and absurd preparation in order to properly execute whatever the dilemma is at hand. In essence, The Rehearsal is the epitome of a character study, which you’d normally associate with fictional media, but Nathan distorts this notion into making it about his subject. The series has received backlash for Nathan’s tendency to trivialize and personally detach from the people he assists, but I believe this is a deliberate effort of expressing the dangers of living life in a state of constant overthinking and anxiety. 

Within the first episode, this commentary is made apparent by the fact that even with Nathan painstakingly practicing his initial interaction with Kor, his first project, he still suffers from oversights that leave him embarrassed and jarred. This establishes that even though the show highlights all of the silly hijinks that Nathan performs as whimsical, the series is as much of an analysis on Nathan as it is about his associates. In the same pilot episode, Kor’s love and pride for his trivia skills are at the forefront of his character, but in order to perfectly prepare for his resolution, Nathan forsakes Kor’s, and his own, morality by cheating and providing Kor with the answers so that there is no distraction from the ultimate goal. Through moments like this, Nathan emphatically showcases life when it is stripped of its spontaneity; daily tasks become chores and virtues lose priority. 

I don’t know if the show is authentic to any degree, and while it’d be incredibly impressive if it was, it doesn't really matter. Who cares if the content is veritable and candid, it compellingly gets its messages across in a quirky manner that is incomparable to most actual reality-television.

The Red Turtle (2016)

Strong 7/10

Silent film is often seen as incredibly outdated and unfeasible during our generation’s obsession with content saturation and desire for media to consistently grab our attention, but The Red Turtle (2016) is an anomaly in this regard. The film is a fantastical animated film with no dialogue, but surely an abundance of nuanced content.

The film begins with a man at sea who is left shipwrecked on an isolated island by a storm. He is initially resentful and eager to escape this geographical prison, but is thwarted by an unseen creature during his most ambitious attempt. After a couple more attempts and failures, the creature reveals itself to be a large turtle with a red shell. Again, the man is fueled by irritation by the turtle and how it has trapped him, leading him to flip the creature onto its backside, effectively dooming it. This turtle is essentially the man’s sole companion on this desolate land, and he begins to suffer from extreme regret for his actions and his resistance towards nature.

The red turtle eventually transforms into a woman, marking the next chapter of the man’s rebirth. He now has a true partner, and his reluctance of fate begins to dissipate, as new meaning has been provided for his life. The two bond over similar experiences of strandedness caused by uncontrollable forces, whether it is the man being cast away by a storm or the turtle/woman being left helpless by the man. Both also share a stubborn approach to life, regarding the man’s grudging attitude to his new home alongside the turtle’s inclination to prevent the man from leaving the island. Eventually, the duo has a child, another contributor to their strengthening partnership. The film ends with the child having grown into a young man that dreams of leaving his habitat, of which the parents allow. This beautiful conclusion marks the full-circle that is drawn throughout the film, as the father and mother who were both once steadfast in their ways, are now willing to bestow freedom on to their child that they were not able to wield. 

The film’s animation is expressive and child-like, it never does too much and commits sensory overload, but it is not simple enough to bore. Just like the animal of the same name, The Red Turtle presents itself as a seemingly bare fairytale, but it transforms into something much more impactful.

Beastie Boys Story (2020)

Solid 7/10

While many know Spike Jonze as the director of acclaimed films such as Her (2013) and Adaptation. (2002), the man had already had a full career in media prior to his cinematic debut. Jonze’s career began as a BMX and skateboarding aficionado, giving many of these underground athletes a platform through various brands and publications. Jonze’s big break in pop culture was his music video directorial efforts, beginning with the likes of Weezer and eventually progressing to collaborations with Puff Daddy, The Notorious B.I.G., Björk, and of course, the Beastie Boys. All this being said, Jonze is deeply rooted in the foundation of hip-hop and “street-culture” infiltrating the mainstream, so this new entry into his pantheon of creative work comes as no surprise.

Beastie Boys Story (2020) is a documentary film, stage-performance and biopic all wrapped into one. It was completely curated and organized by Jonze, with Beastie Boys members Mike D. (Michael Diamond) and Ad-Rock (Adam Horowitz) as its performers/narrators. In essence, the film is a career retrospective, as well as an homage to the late MCA (Adam Yauch), that details the trio’s growth as musical artists in coalition with their personal character. Many unheard stories and insights are revealed about Russell Simmons of Def Jam exploiting the caricatures they had built for themselves in hip-hop, as well as Rick Rubin establishing their sound but also effectively cornering them into a niche zone of sonic expression. 

Since it is ultimately a live performance, Ad-Rock and Mike D.’s stage chemistry is accentuated for better and for worse, but moments of raw emotion consistently seep through in ways that a typical documentary would not be able to capture. There are occasional tacky moments of candid interruption by Spike himself that vary in appropriateness, but Jonze still manages to illustrate decades of stories in a contemporary fashion that only someone as in-touch as him could properly execute.