I Followed Actor Steven Yuen on Twitter and Nothing Happened

Some time in the pre-pandemic era of social media, my friend Tim decided he was going to follow actor Armie Hammer on Twitter. He liked the handsome young actor from The Social Network and Call Me By Your Name and he thought it might be fun to see what the actor revealed about himself on Social Media. It turned out to be a lot. Though what Hammer was doing to the women he encountered was done in DM's and not open to the public at that time, Tim still found himself in a weird rabbit hole as Armie Hammer, even before his being outed as a sexual predator, is pretty weird. 

That got me thinking, maybe if I found a celebrity I might find my own bizarre rabbit hole of weird behavior. Thus, I decided to follow the first random celebrity that the Twitter algorithms would recommend to me. The first name on the list was the former co-star of The Walking Dead and the recent co-star of the Oscar winning film, Minari. I am a big fan of Steven Yuen, aware of him despite not having watched a single moment of his television breakthrough in The Walking Dead. So, where did this rabbit hole take me? Read along to find out the terrifying but true details of Steven Yuen on Twitter. 

Steven Yuen Spends Very Little Time Tweeting

If you were to tell me that Steven Yuen's Twitter was unquestionably a Bot, I would believe you. Yeah, Steven Yuen, it turns out, doesn't do much on social media. Though he allegedly was an early adopter to Twitter, his bio indicates that Yuen joined the platform in 2008, Yuen did not send his first tweet until January of 2021. That first Tweet was a random and slightly insufferable Retweet of the Kurt Vonnegut Quote bot: "There's only one rule that I know of, babies — God damn it, you've got to be kind." 

Often, individuals trying out social media for the first time will use a quote from a famous intellectual as a way of setting expectations for those who choose to follow them. People like Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, Gandhi, are still represented on Twitter despite their lives pre-dating the launch of the site. Associating yourself with famous author A looks good on Social Media, doesn't require vetting by your publicist, and, hopefully, creates an association between you-the Re-Tweeter- and the highly respected and well thought of author portrayed in the ReTweet. I know this because, it's what I did as well. 

Click here for my full length article at Geeks.media

The Questionable Ethics of Rust Resuming Production

On Thursday, October 21st, 2021, actor Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger on what he thought was a 'cold gun,' a real gun on the set of a movie that is not loaded. Unfortunately, this particular weapon was loaded and when Baldwin pulled the trigger, a bullet struck Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and killed her. It also wounded director Joel Souza who was looking over Hutchins' shoulder as the shot was fired. Hutchins died on the way to the hospital. 

A subsequent investigation of the shooting still has not been resolved nearly one year later. Nevertheless, on October 5th, 2022, Director Joel Souza and the production team behind Rust, a western starring Alec Baldwin, will resume production of the film soon. The decision was made to continue after reaching a financial settlement with the family of Halyna Hutchins. Director Souza released a statement accompanying the announcement that claimed that resuming filming of Rust would be a tribute to Halyna Hutchins. 

Honoring Halyna Hutchins 

Regardless of the platitudes, resuming production of Rust is a cold and calculated business decision. For all of the supposed tributes and dedications to Halyna Hutchins, the cold hard reality here is that the people who invested money in making Rust want to make their money. Not only that, but the film now has a higher profile than it would ever have had had this on set tragedy not occurred. While we can only speculate about the motivations of the Rust production team, they can't escape the fact that Rust went from a likely candidate for the vast Video on Demand Rental market to a movie that carries a morbid curiosity around it. 

Of the many issues that must be wrestled with is the idea that due to the death of Halyna Hutchins, Rust has a higher profile than ever before. The New York Times, arguably the biggest of the big in American journalism announced the resumption of production on Rust in a Breaking News blast. That's coverage normally reserved for high budget blockbusters, not for obscure westerns starring Alec Baldwin. Prior to the death of Halyna Hutchins, most film consumers were unlikely to ever know Rust had been made. Now, with the tragedy, the film is front page news. 

Morbid Curiosity 

No matter what Alec Baldwin, Director Joel Souza, or the production team behind Rust says, the reality is they are capitalizing on the death of Halyna Hutchins. They can blame the media, they can blame the film consuming public for only wanting to see their movie out of morbid curiosity, but they can't escape the fact that any dollar made on this movie is now blood money. The entire profile of this film is now related specifically to this tragedy. 

Click here for my full length article at Geeks.Media

Classic Movie Review All About Eve

All About Eve (1950) 

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz 

Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz 

Starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, George Sanders, Gerry Merrill, Marilyn Monroe 

Release Date October 27th, 1950 

Classic on the October 10th episode of the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast 

A question that plagued me as I watched and loved All About Eve for the 100th time was what the modern story equivalent of All About Eve might be. The original finds a cunning ingénue snaking her way into the inner circle of Broadway's elite with career advancement her sole motivation. I love Broadway, but it hasn't been as relevant recently as it was in 1950s where All About Eve occurs. The modern All About Eve would not be set on Broadway. Nor would it likely be set in Hollywood. No, the new All About Eve would center on the social media world. 

Today, the Eve of All About Eve would have come up as a fan of Logan Paul's Team 10 v-loggers or a fan of Charlie D'Amelio and her family. Eve would arrive at the Tik Tok Hype House and wait outside everyday in hopes that one of Charlie D'Amelio's family will see her dedication and introduce her to her idol. She would become Charlie's assistant and help film her Tik Toks and then, when Charlie could not make it to a big Hype House brand deal meeting, Eve would take her place and dazzle the owner of Bang energy drinks with her talent for branding his awful drink. 

Okay, that's not exactly a one to one comparison. It's more like what He's All That is to She's all That really. That said, I am just struggling for a way to bring the supremely witty, ingenious and utterly brilliant All About Eve into a context that might intrigue young people to watch it. It is my all consuming desire to get more people to watch and remember All About Eve so that they can experience the full breadth of the talent of Bette Davis and writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Together, Davis and Mankiewicz might rescue the concept of wit in the day and age of Tik Tok. 

Sadly, All About Eve remains bound to its New York in the 50s aesthetic. It belongs to a time when people were devoted to the New York stage in a fashion that today people are dedicated to a vast cross-section of media. The ambition of Eve remains timeless, that type of striving will never not be in fashion, but the circle that this Eve strives to be part of will never be the same. This witty, drunken, catty and brilliant circle, revolving around superstar Margo Chandler (Bette Davis), is lost to time. 

Perhaps that's the point? Perhaps the modern reflection of All About Eve is how a bad person with ambition still thrives while genuine talent, fondly remembered, recedes slowly but inexorably into time. Indeed, Bette Davis is the kind of talent who stuck around for a very long time, but well after her talent was most fondly remembered. She was the kind of actress who bravely accepted roles like Margo Chandler because her talent and smarts far outpaced any sense of vanity or perception. 

Indeed, many Eve Harrington's have come and gone over the years, they've found success but without respect. They were popular and idolized but never became icons. Their ambition brought them the trappings of celebrity minus the things that make life whole like the respect of ones peers or the secure notion of self that is so rare and valuable. The Eve Harrington's of the world spend their careers forever uncertain if they have actual talent or a bit of luck that could run out. 

That's perhaps the secret of Bette Davis, security. A secure sense of self. That is reflected in her performance as Margo Chandler. She wins in the end after briefly doubting herself by remembering that she's Margo Chandler, she has the respect of her peers, the love of the man of her dreams, and a tight circle of friends who see past her talent and what that talent can do for them. Margo needs not for ambition, people recognized her talent and she never had to ask for their attention, no seeking, no striving, a full arrival of a complete person. 

Similarly, Bette Davis didn't need to strive for respect, she had it from the first moment. She didn't need the adulation that some sought, she had the respect of peers and directors who sought to work with her even if they may not have liked her. They knew and she knew that she was the best at what she did. If they didn't like her, it was because she possessed incredible talent and she knew it. They couldn't do what they did without her but she could damn well do what she does without them. 

All About Eve is a story about duality, two performers as two contrasting states of being. Eve Harrington represents insecurity, a life built out of sticks and threads haphazardly strung together to create a life. Margo Chandler is self actualization, she's confidence. Margo is a life built on talent and accomplishment. It's a life built on an earned respect. And it's a life built around finding people who can similarly claim security and confidence and bolster each other's security and confidence. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media 

What I Saw at Fantastic Fest At Home

I would have loved nothing more than to travel to Austin, Texas to be part of Fantastic Fest as it unfolded September 22nd to September 29th. Sadly, I was not able to be there in person. Instead, I settled for covering Fantastic Fest At Home which offered selections from the Festival that were made available online. This included features and shorts, documentaries and a wild selection of new release movies that fit the uniquely avant garde reputation of Fantastic Fest. I've already had the chance to write about a pair of documentaries that I adored at Fantastic Fest, you can find my reviews of the wild A Life on the Farm and Lynch/Oz linked here. And I could not resist writing about the bizarre experience of the horror film All Jacked Up and Full of Worms, a full length review you can read linked here. 

But sadly, I can't write full length reviews of everything I saw at Fantastic Fest at Home so here are several capsule reviews of movies I saw at Fantastic Fest. Two of these I was lucky enough to interview the director of the movie and you can find those interviews on my brand new Sean at the Movies YouTube Channel linked here. Like, subscribe, share and all that YouTube stuff. 

Give Me Pity 2022 

Directed by Amanda Kramer 

Written by Amanda Kramer

Starring Sophie Von Haselberg

Release Date Unknown 

Played at Fantastic Fest 

Give Me Pity is a strange and bold movie that captures both the bizarre nostalgia of 70s and early 80s variety shows centered on celebrities and a fever dream of horrific proportion. Bette Midler's incredibly talented daughter, Sophie Van Haselberg as superstar Sissy St. Clair. There is no narrative per se in Give Me Pity, rather the film begins with Sissy St. Clair performing a lavish opening number for her very first variety special. 

Director Amanda Kramer never breaks the spell of this gauzy nostalgia. Instead, she introduces visual elements, dreamscapes and nightmare imagery that can lead you to your own conclusion about what you are watching. For me, I settled on the idea of Hell and how this character, Sissy St. Clair's version of Hell was being forced to perform in this variety show for eternity as her mind slowly begins to crack and madness begins to set in. Again, that's just my interpretation based on a surface level observation. I'm not writing a full length review of Give Me Pity only because I need to see it again to ponder the many, many layers of Meta and Irony and deeper meanings behind the many songs and skits in the movie. 

Sophie Van Haselberg is a revelation. She's incredible in this movie. I kept wondering why she looked so familiar and when I saw that she's Bette Midler's daughter, it clicked, I've seen her mom perform on shows not unlike the variety special in Give Me Pity. I can recall Bette Midler wearing similar costumes and crooning in the same way Sissy does in this movie. That's not to say that Van Haselberg is in her mother's shadow but rather that being Bette Midler's daughter adds a delightful layer of meta-commentary that requires another viewing to fully unpack. Give Me Pity is a must see when it becomes available. 

Give Me an A 

Directed by Anthology 

Written by Anthology 

Starring Virginia Madsen, Alyssa Milano, Milana Vayntrub, Rachel Torres, Regina Ting Chen 

Release Date Unknown 

Premiered at Fantastic Fest 

Wow! I really should leave the review as that one word, Wow! Give Me an A is the most in your face and pointed horror satire I've ever seen. Nakedly political, the anthology of short films from female directors with female stars makes serious points about the debate over abortion or, more specifically, about how the abortion debate is really about women's bodily autonomy. While the extreme voices would like to say this is about 'killing babies' or other such nonsense, the reality of the debate is about whether or not women get to make decisions regarding their own body. 

It's more than merely whether to carry a child to term. This debate in full affects whether women should be able to make any number of decisions about how they use their body. It's also about the rippling effect of these nakedly political decisions, masquerading as moralism, and the ways in which women's behavior are under attack, largely by a group of men whose oppressive conservatism, brought to its most powerful affect would prevent women from making decisions about their private lives, their healthcare, and other important aspects of THEIR life. 

Give Me An A uses a series of fiery and supremely intelligent short films to make these points dramatically, horrifically, through science fiction, and through a scathing satire that demonstrates both humor and a stinging rebuke of those who would stand in the way of women making their own decision about their bodies. This is one of the most exhilarating and exciting anthologies to come around in some time and a rare one that uses the form to make a trenchant and fearlessly political point. 

Find my complete article at Geeks.Media 

Documentary Review The Computer Accent

The Computer Accent (2022) 

Directed by Riel Roch-Decter & Sebastian Pardo 

Written by Documentary

Starring YACHT 

Release Date October 21st, 2022 

Album Chain Tripping Released 2019

I have no idea what Chain Tripping means and neither does the band YACHT, though it is the name of their 2019 record. It's a pair of nonsense words mashed together and yet, Chain Tripping seems to fit perfectly the album it gives title to. When you listen to Chain Tripping and you find the groove that appeals to you, especially on tracks like Scatterhead, you feel like you are tripping and you could call it a chain as one song flows seamlessly into the next in an otherworldly rave. 

Chain Tripping is, as far as I know, the first and only fully A.I produced full length album. The band YACHT, an acronym that means Young Americans Challenging Technology, were looking for a challenge for their new album in 2019. Since lead singer Claire L. Evans is also an accomplished author whose most recent book chronicled the history of women in technology, futuristic ideas about artificial intelligence were certainly part of the band on a molecular level. 

As they began to look at making their next record, the band took a meeting at Google where a group of Google engineers happened to be working on technology intended to produce A.I generated music. With Google's work as baseline and the work of futurists and theorists in the field of A.I at their disposal, YACHT, which also includes Jona Bechtolt and Robert Kieswetter, began the painstaking process of making an album collaboration with Artificial Intelligence. 

The band then began a painstaking process for planning the record that would become, Chain Tripping. The first thing the band did was set some ground rules that would determine that the record fully came from their A.I collaborator. 

Rule 1 No adding notes, no adding harmonies, and no jamming 

Rule 2 The band could choose instruments, transform melodies, cut up melodies. 

These rules in place, the band set about breaking apart every song they'd created in their previous 17 years as a band and entered the songs into the A.I which would then use those elements of the YACHT catalogue to create a series of computer generated melodies that would be the base line of a song, essentially the instrumental for the record. Another rule the band created for themselves was that they were allowed to only use sounds that they could reproduce in live performance using some form of instrument. 

In one of the most fascinating aspects the documentary, The Computer Accent, we watch as Bechtolt and Kieswetter teach themselves these songs. It's a process that requires them to relearn how to play instruments they'd played all of their lives in order to re-produce the melodies generated by the A.I. In one incredibly telling instance, Bechtolt hears a computer generated melody that will require him to play the drums in a way that is counter-intuitive to the way most, if not all drummers, approach playing the drums. 

Similarly, lead singer Clair Evans had quite a challenge in mastering the A.I generated lyrics. In order to generate an albums' worth of lyrics from the standard of current A.I, the band needed to use not only their own back catalogue, but hundreds of songs from bands they'd admired and that had influenced the band members over the years. With the aid of technologist and poet Ross Goodwin, lyrics were generated and then Evans began a painstaking process of cutting the lyrics and rearranging them without changing the basic lines created by the A.I 

What Evans did is very similar to the process David Bowie used to write some of his most unusual and memorable lyrics. As detailed in the recent Bowie documentary, Moonage Daydream, Bowie would cut lines from news paper and rearrange the lines into lyrics and that would become the basis for a song. Or Bowie would write a complete song and then cut his lyric sheets up and rearrange the line to create something completely different and yet the same. Bottom line, it's not easy to do and it's an incredibly revealing challenge for a songwriter. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Terrifier 2

Terrifier 2 (2022) 

Directed by Damien Leone 

Written by Damien Leone 

Starring David Howard Thornton, Lauren LaVera, Elliott Fullam, Chris Jericho 

Release Date October 6th, 2022 

Published October 24th, 2022 

I went into Terrifier 2 with a chip on my shoulder. I had made many assumptions about the movie before seeing it and my cynicism was beginning to shape my perception of the movie without seeing it. What a surprise it was then to have walked out of Terrifier 2 having been turned into a huge fan of the movie. Rather than being edgy and perverted, Terrifier 2 is a triumph of both incredible DIY gore and a sense of the absurd macabre of the horror movie that is employed to make the movie watchable beyond the off-putting if groundbreaking approach to horror. 

Terrifier 2 stars David Howard Thornton as the terrifying horror villain, Art the Clown. I'm told that Art the Clown made his film debut in Terrifier 1 and became such a cult phenomenon that a sequel became a demand of the fans. The sequel over-delivers on the original in which, though I have not seen it, I've been told, Art has less personality and even more brutality. In Terrifier 2, writer director Damien Leone and star David Howard Thornton have fully realized the potential of Art the Clown by leaving him silent but giving him an even more terrifying physical personality. 

Opposite Art the Clown is our hero Sienna (Lauren LaVera). Sienna is a teenager dealing with the suicide death of her father with whom she shared a very special bond. Sienna's dad used to write comic books and dedicated his stories to her, especially a beautiful and strong female hero. On Halloween, Sienna plans to pay tribute to her dad by using her incredible cos-play skills to re-create the look of the female hero her father created. She may be the only one who knows the character, but regardless, the costume means the world to her. 

Sienna's little brother Jonathan however, he's another story. Jonathan's costume is an edgy homage to a massacre in their rural New York state town. Jonathan wants to dress as Art the Clown, something that infuriates both his sister and their mother, Barbara (Sarah Voight), who orders Jonathan not to wear his favored costume. This scene and another that comes up in the wake of a disturbing slaughter, play our love of Halloween blood and guts and serial killer obsessions against us, calling us out for turning real life terror into entertainment. 

That scene, the slaughter scene, is easily the most disturbing and illness inducing. You've perhaps heard stories about moviegoers becoming sick while watching Terrifier 2. Well, as much as that is merely a marketing campaign for the movie, I can see where this slaughter scene might cause people to become unwell. As Art scalps his teenage victim, cuts out their eyeballs, and is discovered playing with the victims' entrails, while the victim is still alive, we are kept at a distance by the absurd level of graphic visceral human destruction. Art's horrifying rictus grin casts a gaze directly at the audience as if accusing us of enjoying what he's done. It's chilling and farcical all at once. 

Click here for my full length review of Terrifier 2 at Horror.Media 

Documentary Review Louis Armstrong Black and Blues

Louis Armstrong's Black and Blues (2022) 

Directed by Sacha Jenkins

Written by Documentary 

Starring Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis 

Release Date October 28th, 2022 

Platform Apple TV 

Published October 27th, 2022 

At some point, the phrase 'Do you like Jazz?' became a cheesy signifier of pretension and oddity. Jazz is still wildly popular but it's settled into a niche that rarely breaks into mainstream success these days. Years ago however, that was not the case. Indeed, in the 40s and 50s, Jazz was fully in the mainstream. Much of that success could be attributed to the popularity of 'Satchmo' aka, Louis Armstrong. Arguably the greatest trumpet player of all time, Satchmo crossed racial lines and united fans of Jazz at a time when unity among white and black Americans was far from the norm. 

The new documentary, Louis Armstrong's Black and Blues chronicles the life and career of Louis Armstrong in a way no other Armstrong project has. For years, Armstrong wore a big brave smile and stayed above the fray of American politics. It was his effort to remain as popular among all audiences but it came with the cost of many Black Americans believing that Louis Armstrong was selling out Black people to secure his own success in mainstream America. Through never before heard private recordings we find out how Armstrong really felt about his success, the racial divide, and other notable aspects of his life. 

Louis Armstrong grew up in New Orleans and developed his talent for playing the trumpet at a very early age. As a teenager he honed his skills playing in brothels. But Armstrong was far too talented and too charismatic to go unnoticed. Eventually, Armstrong was brought on board with a touring band and his huge smile and brazen trumpet playing were the undeniable draw. By his mid-twenties, Satchmo had become a headliner, even in areas of white America and the south where the stage was the only place he was allowed to be because of his race. 

Among Armstrong's earliest challenges was navigating the mob. Having moved to Chicago in the late 20s and 30s, Armstrong was forced to cope with connected club owners and promoters who used intimidation tactics to get him on stages but used the same tactics to take larger portions of Armstrong's earnings from those gigs. Eventually, Armstrong was forced to choose between gangsters who set his schedule and took his money and settled on one who took the lowest amount of his earnings. 

Always a canny self-promoter, Armstrong turned to Hollywood to pick up paychecks and to spread his popularity as a singer and trumpet player. Word of mouth and recordings of his trumpet playing had made him a pretty big star but appearances on the big screen let Armstrong show off his winning smile, his innate charisma and a performance style unlike any other modern American musician. That voice, that gravelly, sad, yet joyous voice became as indelible and iconic as his legendary trumpet thanks to his appearances in movies that exposed his uniqueness to a wide audience. 

What director Sacha Jenkins captures in Louis Armstrong's Black and Blues is Armstrong's uncanny talent for self promotion and his private struggle with racial injustice. Even being, arguably, the biggest Black American star in the country did not rescue Armstrong from the indignities of racial intolerance. One notable story, related in the documentary features the voice of rapper Nas reading a private letter that Armstrong wrote to a friend about his experience on a Hollywood movie set. 

Click here for my full length review of Louis Armstrong's Black and Blues