Welcome to The Case Files for all my non-football based ramblings
On this week's agenda is a lot of 'food' based media
Hi all,
Firstly a bit of housekeeping, if you’re here to read about football, that’s my other newsletter Played on Paper (which you can find here).
This is going to be for my thoughts on everything else, which I admit is an incredibly broad sell for a newsletter/blog but who knows, one guy’s ramblings on film, tv, music, food, and life in general might have been all you’re looking for and more.
If that last part is the case and you haven’t already clicked off the tab, welcome to The Case Files, a blog for which I spent way too long thinking of the name (I would like to take this time to curse Flo Lloyd Hughes for having Go With The Flo just there for her, it’s a perfect name).
Somewhat unintentionally the theme for this week is centred around media that involves eating of some sort, which may give you the illusion that these things are going to be cohesive all the time; I assure you when I said ramblings I meant it.
Let’s start with something I watched on Netflix, The Santa Clarita Diet (probably will have to spoil some stuff but will try to keep it to a minimum).
Ok, when I said ‘eating’ you were probably thinking you were going to get my thoughts on Couple’s Come Dine With Me (an excellent show that I definitely recommend for lazy watching with your significant other), but no, it’s the one about zombies.
I’m late to the party with SCD but I really enjoyed the show’s three seasons. In the now rather bloated landscape of zombie media, it was a refreshing angle on a tired formula.
The whole cast looks like they’re enjoying themselves in every episode, and Timothy Olyphant is the standout as Joel, an eccentric man trying to come to terms with the fact his wife kills and eats people in front of him.
He does the ‘I’m completely disgusted right now but I also love my wife and I am trying to be supportive’ look incredibly well and has great chemistry with Drew Barrymore (who plays the undead Sheila).
It’s not consistently ‘laugh out loud’ funny, but it got a reasonable chuckle from me most of the time, especially when Eric, played by Sage Johnson, is way too obvious about seeing Joel as a surrogate father figure, despite the fact the latter literally killed the guy who was meant to be his surrogate father figure (and Eric knows that he did).
It’s a good watch, however, I struggle to recommend watching it, because of Netflix.
If you hadn’t heard, Netflix likes crushing your dreams and insulting the things you love. By that I mean, it cancels too many shows way too early.
Now I get canning a show in its first season sometime; not everything is the hit it needs to be to survive even if it does garner an audience. But since Netflix also likes to consistently brag saying ‘look how many people watch our service’, it makes it hard to understand why they do it.
What is unforgivable (and also incredibly stupid) is cancelling a reasonably popular show on its third season, when that said season ends on a cliffhanger and with tons of unanswered questions.
This is what happens with SCD and I feel it undermines the product as a whole.
In trying to save money by finishing it early, Netflix undermined the investment they had put into their previous three seasons. As a Netflix Original, it will now sit on the site for the rest of its existence as something that users may avoid watching because it has no clear resolution.
It’s pointless and incredibly dumb, but it isn’t an isolated occurrence. It’s also the case with GLOW and a number of other shows, but Netflix doesn’t care, in their eyes, they’ve ‘never cancelled a successful show’ (I’ve seen enough posts about Mindhunter to know that this isn’t the case).
You’re not the first people to hear this rant, my friend was on the receiving end of this particular verse while we were driving to the cinema to watch The Whale.
My first viewing tip for watching the latest instalment of the Brenaissance - eat whatever snack you’ve brought for the film before it starts because you will not want to eat it at any point during the movie.
My friend and I both bought a ‘brookie’ (a rather disappointing combination of a brownie and a cookie) for the film. I tucked into mine during the trailers; he, unfortunately, started eating his right before a rather visceral binge-eating scene and only had a small bite before throwing it away at the end.
It’s a really powerful and at the same time, uncomfortable watch and yes, Brendan Fraser is as good as you’ve heard and probably better. Despite his situation, his character Charlie has an air of positivity and earnestness that shines through in his performance.
I think enough will be said about Fraser’s Oscar-worthy performance (I’ve not seen the others so I won’t say he should win it but it wouldn’t surprise me if he did), but the supporting cast also deserves their flowers.
The Whale is based on a play of the same name by Samuel D Hunter; the whole runtime is spent either in Charlie’s flat or just outside it. Therefore it’s up to the actors to elevate the source material and I feel both Hong Chau and surprisingly, Sadie Sink do just that.
Their emotional energy and sometimes abrasive presences bounce well off Fraser’s more sensitive and reserved performance.
So I can give The Whale a strong recommendation, but it wasn’t the best thing that I watched this week.
With a trip to both The Pasta Factory and Birria Bros at the Koffee Pot in Manchester just around the corner, I needed to get my appetite back. So I finally got around to watching The Menu, starring Anya Taylor Joy, Nicolas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes.
I think what you need to know about me in advance is I really like Cabin in the Woods, Scream and Tucker and Dale vs Evil (the latter of which I recommend you watch because it’s severely underrated and under-watched); three ‘horror’ movies which take the horror genre and add a goofy and satirical twist to the normal conventions.
I think The Menu falls comfortably into the same bracket.
As a Letterboxd review so eloquently puts it - ‘Fiennes serves while Taylor Joy eats,’ but I think Hoult also deserves a shout as one of the film’s main comedic elements; a food nerd who is intentionally oblivious to the chaos around him.
That, however, is part of the film’s clever writing. Despite the danger and horror elements, the food is always the most central element and every course is presented grandiosely and with fanfare. The announcement of each dish doubles as the signal of another act commencing.
The dialogue is also layered with symbolism and subtext at every opportunity. The food critic Lillian Bloom is meant to be reviewing the food but sees every dish as an opportunity to show off her own ‘intelligence’ and massage her own ego by believing her opinion matters more than everyone else’s.
Retroactively I think I would put it high on the list of my favourite movies last year, though I doubt it would overtake Top Gun: Maverick for the number one spot. And as a bonus, I was able to enjoy my Rigatoni Carbonara and my Birria Beef Tacos on Saturday with my appetite fully renewed.
So that’s all for this week’s instalment of ‘The Case Files’, I’m going to try and do these semi-regularly on whatever non-footballing topic takes my fancy (also I’ll hopefully have some graphics sorted by then).
In terms of next week, I’ll likely be watching Blue Lock and playing Sifu but at some point, I’m hoping to get round to The Last of Us (both the game and series). Anyway have a good one all, please subscribe if you enjoyed it and see you next time.