5 Reasons Quantum of Solace Isn’t Actually Bad

October 6, 2021 By mwmelugin

With Bond 25 right around the corner, I set about the task of re-watching every Daniel Craig Bond movie. I’m eagerly awaiting No Time To Die and thought it appropriate to have this incarnation of Bond’s full arc in context going into Craig’s final installment. Upon rewatch, I confirmed several pre-held feelings about most of these movies. I still really like Casino Royale and Skyfall, and I still wish Spectre hadn’t been made. The movie that surprised me the most, however, was 2008’s Quantum of Solace.

Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko star in 2008’s Quantum of Solace.

The cultural perception of the Bond franchise has seen ebbs and flows since Daniel Craig took over. They hit big on their first bet (pun intended) with Casino Royale, which made $606,099,584 worldwide. Coming off the successful heels of “Casino”, Marc Forster’s Quantum of Solace was highly anticipated and opened strong. It made $67,528,882 domestic on its opening weekend, higher even than the opening weekend Casino Royale had. Unfortunately, “Quantum” fell short in its critical reception. As of today, it has a 65% Tomatometer and a mere 58% audience score.

My experience over the last decade has resoundingly cast “Quantum” as the lame bird in the Craig-Bond series. Nearly everyone I’ve asked has said they like the first and third offerings but that Quantum didn’t really work for them. And, in the past, I would typically affirm their apathy toward Quantum. It didn’t stick in my mind upon first watch like the others. There isn’t anything quite as directly memorable in Quantum as there is in the other recent installments. Casino Royale had poker and a brilliant performance from Mads Mikkelsen, Skyfall had a chase sequence on top of a train and perhaps the most electric Bond-villain performance ever in Javier Bardem, and Quantum of Solace simply took a backseat for most people. (Side note: I have nothing to say about “Spectre”. I think it’s awful and it’s hardly worth comparing to the first three Craig-Bond installments.)

This 2021 rewatch made me suddenly and enthusiastically change faith about Quantum of Solace. I tried my best to watch it with open eyes and an open heart. It proved my assumptions wrong as I found myself enjoying it far more than expected. I had anticipated a serious letdown and was met with a pleasant surprise. Here are my top five reasons why Quantum of Solace isn’t actually bad:

5 Reasons Why I Can’t Stop Thinking About Bo Burnham’s INSIDE

June 17, 2021 By mwmelugin

Bo Burnham has created a modern masterpiece with his new special INSIDE. And I don’t know about you but I for one can’t get it out of my head.

Nowadays, we are presented with a perpetual onslaught of entertainment released all day, every day. We doggy paddle our way through a sea of music, tv shows, films, music videos, Instagram photos, tweets, and everything in between. We all bow down to the almighty avalanche of content, the tsunami of entertainment which threatens to drown us if we don’t keep paddling, don’t keep watching, don’t keep consuming. With this massive, almost incomprehensible influx of media being delivered straight to us as though on a nonstop IV drip, it’s next to impossible for a piece of content to rise above the masses, stand out, and shine for longer than the time it takes us to tweet a review and then move on to whatever’s next.

It takes something truly special to make us slow down, even for a moment, and pay attention to a thing for more than the amount of time it takes to consume it. Films and albums are devoured and digested then largely excreted from the brain in order to make room for the next film or album. Even great artistic achievements are often skipped past in a matter of minutes, figuratively speaking. Great works like this year’s Best Picture winner Nomadland are doomed to escape the public consciousness as soon as the next spectacle arrives. As soon as Godzilla vs. Kong hit the big screen, audiences largely moved on from last year’s biggest hits. When the next thing is here, it’s time to move on. Due to this modern phenomenon, it feels somewhat momentous when something comes along and demands my attention long past an initial viewing.

Bo Burnham performs “Content”.

I love when something comes along, completely blows me away, and forces me to sit with it for days or weeks after seeing it. I live for those moments of sheer exuberance, awe, and reflection that emerge when a piece of content utterly astounds you on an artistic level. I’m talking about those moments when you’re left completely speechless, when you can’t believe what you just saw, completely sucker-punched by the artist, when you feel full of emotion and overcome by the power and potential of art. This doesn’t happen all that often, perhaps a couple of times each year, if we’re lucky. It happened to me when I saw Get Out in the theater for the first time and it happened when I heard Kendrick Lamar’s Damn. for the first time. It happened when I saw Portrait of a Lady On Fire and then again when I saw the finale of Devs last year (read my article about that here). It’s a beautiful feeling to be overcome by art and affected by it on a deep, penetrating level.

It’s different for everyone, of course. We all react more strongly to what we’re predisposed to. That said, it happens to all of us. You know that feeling. It’s that moment when a piece of media leaves you slightly nauseous because it made you feel so many emotions. The ones that make you sit back in your chair when the credits roll and say, “how in the f*** did they DO THAT?” Well, that’s what Bo Burnham’s INSIDE made me feel.

So, without further ado, here are five reasons why my little chimpanzee brain simply cannot stop thinking about Bo Burnham’s INSIDE:

Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ and The Future of Movie Theaters

September 5, 2020 By mwmelugin

It’s a turbulent time for the movie industry and movie theaters, so what better answer than a movie about time?

It was three years, one month, and thirteen days between the domestic releases of Christopher Nolan’s last film Dunkirk and his newest release, the long-awaited and much-delayed Tenet. I lead with those numbers because the auteur director and most of his films, Tenet not withstanding, seem obsessed with the concept of time.

A lot has changed in the last three years, including the way most of us watch movies. The movie industry has evolved since the release of Dunkirk. That evolution has reached a crescendo in 2020 as face masks and home viewing have become the new normal. Movies theaters closed their doors in March and I now go through more hand sanitizer than I do artificial popcorn butter, which feels crazy. It’s a weird time to be alive and an even weirder, more precarious time for the film industry at large.

Finally, movie theaters are reopening. They started the reopening process on August 20th, with over two-thirds of theaters open as of September 3rd. To do so is an admittedly mixed bag; movie-nerds such as myself are elated to see new movies in a theater but there’s an inherent trepidation about the safety/sanity of doing so. One of the most hotly anticipated films of the year is set to open and the big question is whether anyone will actually go out to their local cinema and see it. A year ago, we never would have questioned whether we would be going to the theater to see Tenet.

Weird times indeed. And in these weird and confusing times, I find it incredibly apropos that theaters are set to reopen on the back of a weird, confusing film about time. Enter Tenet.

Considering Determinism | Was I Always Destined To Love Devs?

May 6, 2020 By mwmelugin

I recently blasted through the FX mini-series Devs. The show was created, written, and directed by Alex Garland, who I have been enamored with since his 2014 directorial debut, Ex Machina.

Don’t worry, I’m not interested in giving spoilers but let me just say, Devs is the bomb. You should seek it out immediately if you’re at all interested in sci-fi, thrillers, quantum mechanics, the social consequences of technology, or questions of moral philosophy. That said, you don’t need to have seen it to read this post.

Director Alex Garland and star Nick Offerman on-set of FX’s mini-series, Devs.

On top of being a brilliantly entertaining tech-thriller, Devs centers around the philosophy of determinism. If you aren’t familiar, determinism is the philosophical belief that all events are completely pre-determined by previously existing causes, i.e., everything in life is already meant to be. This includes the good aspects of life as well as the bad. Determinists believe that every avenue of reality is fated to occur precisely as it does. (I encourage you to watch this excellent video from Crash Course if you’d like more context on determinism before you continue reading.)

Since the onset of 2020, the world at large has been a bit, well, rocky. Between the COVID-19 outbreak and various other strokes of misfortune, including my own personal unemployment, Devs presented itself at a curious time in my life. It feels oddly serendipitous that a show about determinism would come at a time when the world faces such medical and economic turmoil. I feel the series arrived at a timely moment because it suggests that even the worst of events are meant to be. And I, for one, am thankful for a show that encourages us to ponder why good and bad things happen.

Dissecting Childish Gambino’s Mysterious New Album 3.15.20

April 10, 2020 By mwmelugin

By now, you’ve probably heard of Donald Glover. He’s a Grammy-nominated multi-hyphenate who has dominated the last decade in film, television, and music. He’s been in some of the biggest movies of the last few years, including Solo and the live-action remake of The Lion King, created one of the biggest hit TV shows in recent memory, Atlanta, and somehow found time to break the internet under his musical stage name, Childish Gambino.

On March 22nd, 2020 he released his fourth studio album, 3.15.20. The surprise release has fans everywhere simultaneously dancing and scratching their heads. Here are my theories about the mysterious nature of the new Gambino project.

A Long-Awaited Release

Childish Gambino’s last studio album, Awaken, My Love! came in late 2016. Then, after a year and a half of near radio-silence, musically speaking, Gambino dropped one of the hottest music videos of the decade in May 2018. “This Is America” signaled a grand reemergence and led to fans everywhere sniffing around for a new album. He followed that up in July 2018 when he released Summer Pack – EP which included the tracks “Summertime Magic” and “Feels Like Summer”. Between the three songs, a new album appeared to be imminent.

The album cover for Gambino’s 2018 release, Summer Pack – EP.

However, Gambino dove back into the shadows and left us guessing for over a year. This music-less period likely had much to do with his cinematic ventures and position as a new father. That, or you could say he was simply taking his sweet time. After much waiting and rampant speculation, it’s finally here. The release was sudden and the rollout was peculiar, though warmly greeted by fans who had been waiting almost three and a half years.

We all knew that Gambino’s next project would likely be genre-bending and somewhat experimental. Awaken, My Love! had signaled the prior while “This Is America” and Summer Pack – EP intimated the latter. Even with those projects setting the stage, none of us could have expected what he gave us with 3.15.20.

3.15.20 Is Very, Very Mysterious

3.15.20 is beautiful and jubilant in certain areas then haunting and borderline indecipherable in others. I’m not going to attempt to put a genre label on 3.15.20. That would be doing it a disservice. However, the way it blends various genres and then stitches itself together with exceedingly experimental transitions makes the album, well, unique.

The Value of Progress | Revisiting Your Past Creative Work

March 27, 2020 By mwmelugin

Have you ever looked back at your past creative projects from three-plus years ago and absolutely cringed? Yeah, me too. There’s something about reviewing our past creative endeavors that tends to give artists the willies. It’s similar to how most of us don’t enjoy looking at awkward photos of ourselves taken during middle school.

This process of revisiting our own past work and being terribly disheartened applies to the full spectrum of creative mediums. The sentiment is the same with regard to painting, drawing, pottery, and just about anything else. I have old poems, prose, and graphic design projects that I’m equally unmotivated to revisit but, for the sake of this article, I’m going to reference a few of my old short films.

I’ve read various interviews with famous filmmakers who have said how they rarely, if ever, revisit their past films. Even if it’s a classic. Al Pacino said in an interview last year while making the rounds for The Irishman, that “…there’s no real need (to go back). I’ve seen it; I know what it is. If it’s good, I feel lucky. If it’s not, it’s something you try to forget.”

Of course, I’m nowhere near the arena of someone like Pacino. Yet, when I rewatch past projects like Stella, I can tap into what he meant. I said in a previous post that I’m an extremely nostalgic person. This characteristic doesn’t necessarily extend into the professional sphere, however. I’m not a huge fan of my early poems and stories, nor do I enjoy re-watching old videos I’ve made. That said, it can be a *fun* exercise to do so occasionally as a means of gaging your own progress. So long as the act of doing so doesn’t make you vomit or question your self-worth.

Etymology Fun Facts | 5 Stories About Word Origins

March 4, 2020 By mwmelugin

Call me a nerd, but I’m a big fan of etymology. I like to know where a word came from and appreciate its historical journey. For anyone not in the know, etymology is the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history. Word origins are not only educational, but they’re also often wacky, historically intriguing, and humorous. As a registered word nerd, I recently read this book, Origins of the Specious, by word mavens Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman to learn more about this oddity we call English.

Origins of the Specious by Patricia T. O’Connor and Stewart Kellerman, published in 2009.

Origins of the Specious provides a swath of stories about common word misconceptions. The language is engaging and anecdotal as it dissects seemingly complex myths and origin stories. It’s witty while being incredibly well researched. They poke holes in widely assumed origins, like the idea the Caesarian section was named after Julius Caesar (it wasn’t) or that the “GI” in GI Joe once stood for “government issue” (it didn’t).

If you aren’t typically the type to dig in on a book about words, I’ve culled through Origins of the Specious for you. Here are five of my favorite topics and stories from the book.

My Top Five Word Origins

“Niche”

This word has always perplexed me. Everybody has their own preferred manner of pronouncing ‘niche’. Some say ‘NEESH’ while others say ‘NITCH’. In my experience, the traditional thinking is that ‘NEESH’ is somehow the more proper, or at least more bougie, pronunciation. Turns out that those of us who still say ‘NITCH’ aren’t as wrong as people might think.

Disney & Taika Waititi | Jojo Rabbit Oscars Conspiracy

February 17, 2020 By mwmelugin

Taika Waititi won his first Oscar on Sunday, February 9th. He won in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for his 2019 film Jojo Rabbit. He took home a little golden man in exchange for a beautiful, brash and bewildering tale about a young boy with an imaginary friend in the form of Adolf Hitler.

Taika Waititi co-stars as Adolf Hitler in Jojo Rabbit.

Waititi co-stars in Jojo Rabbit as the imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler.

Jojo Rabbit is based on Christine Leunens’s book Caging Skies. It’s impressive that a fairly unknown property was able to contend with such venerable competition. Jojo went up against Greta Gerwig’s beloved retelling of Little Women and Todd Phillips’ take on the Joker character. Other nominees included Anthony McCarten for The Two Popes and Steve Zaillian for The Irishman. In the end, none could defeat a ten-year-old Nazi.

My speculation is this:

My hypothesis is that Disney secretly pulled the strings to ensure Waititi won his Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. “Why,” you ask? By bolstering his stature in the industry they would be able to more effectively market future Waititi-directed Disney properties.

My Top 10 Films of the Decade | 2010-2019

January 24, 2020 By mwmelugin

To no one’s surprise, there have been countless year-end and decade-end film lists in the past few weeks. Everybody and their mother has done a Top 10 Films of the Decade list. But so what? I mean, it’s not every day we enter a new decade. Why shouldn’t we take a moment to appreciate and commemorate the best of the best?

The past ten years of film history have been tumultuous and varied. Films changed as the culture evolved and new technologies such as streaming services moved in. It was the decade of Netflix, but it was also a decade of auteurs and companies like A24. If you’re into labeling eras, I’d say this has been the decade of the superhero film. Box offices were dominated by Marvel and Star Wars, reboots and sequels. Some of them were great and some weren’t. A couple of movies won Best Picture that maybe shouldn’t have (here’s to you, The King’s Speech) but it should not be overlooked how many truly exquisite films we’ve been given since 2010.

A collage of the top 10 films of the decade.

Remember, art is subjective.

Bear in mind, I’m a humble autodidact who has only been writing about film seriously for about a year. I’m not an authority so don’t be mad if your favorite movie isn’t on here. These are all great films in one way or another, whether they can definitively be called the top 10 films or not. I’m simply putting them forth as my top 10 films. Each of them has deep and resonant themes that impacted me on a personal level when I first saw them. Not only that, but they have all held up upon multiple viewings. I’ve loved and thought about these films the most. They’re the ones that have inspired and challenged me and made me feel connected to my fellow humans and the art of movie-making.

If you’ve ever tried it, you know it’s insanely difficult to rank what the best movies are. It’s all subjective. Like when you’re asked what your favorite song is, it probably depends on your mood. I’ve compiled this list alphabetically because they’re all amazing and I wanted to avoid the pain of having to rank them. After detailing my top ten, I’ll list out my forty honorable mentions, also in alphabetical order. Thus presenting my unranked top fifty best movies of the decade.

Without any further ado…

My top 10 films from 2010-2019…

Why I Started Using A Weekly Planner | Video Blog 01

January 3, 2020 By mwmelugin

This post is my first ever attempt at a video blog. You may either watch the video or read the extended, original prose article below. Or do both, that would be cool too.

https://youtu.be/iyokJn1MtpI

My History with Journaling

I never kept a weekly planner before this year. In high school and college they often hand them out for free in order to encourage students to use them. In those days though, I was young and stubborn and, frankly, rather ignorant, so I rebuked every journal or planner that was presented to me. Back then, I think that I regarded myself as being above the necessity for such devices out of some delusional notion that “my brain could do what other people needed a planner for”. If my memory serves me, there were a few instances where I gave it a whirl with a planner for maybe a week or so before promptly losing interest in it, or simply losing it.

That trend ended this past August when I encountered the Smart Planner Pro via an unsolicited Instagram advertisement. I followed the link (which was a mistake because I then got targeted ads for planners and journals for a month) and bought one off Amazon the following day.

This planner has been very durable for me. It’s a great size and I appreciate the pen holder on the side.

As I said in my previous post, I had been feeling stuck in my daily routine. I felt like time was out of my control and that it was slipping away without my consent. It was a combination of not actively structuring my days well enough and feeling like I didn’t know where my days had gone once they were over. I spent several weeks trying to figure out what I could do to remedy this feeling. I had no idea whether a planner would solve my problem or not, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Handwritten Kin