Books:
All About Me! by Mel Brooks
So this autobiography - which, as with all celeb autobiographies I listen to on audiobook rather than read because, well, so much better to hear the person telling their story themselves - isn't exactly an autobiography but rather more of a careerography of Mel Brooks as told by him. The title is somewhat deceptive in that way because the book while, yes, is about him it’s really more about what he achieved, i.e. there's no dishing. And at some point late in the book he notes, before going off on a personal tangent, that he didn't want to write a tell-all meaning this is exactly what he intended to write. I'm noting this upfront in case you're thinking the book will be a career-spanning gossip-fest because it isn't at all. Which isn't to say it isn't entertaining, especially if you've seen the bulk of his work as I have. However, it really is extremely output-focused as in he's very complimentary of everyone involved, credits everyone by name and lists their achievements, etc. So I'd say this is more of a good-natured career recounting with some personal stuff thrown in (especially in the beginning) and a lot of excerpts from Mel Brooks' films than an autobiography per se. It definitely has, especially in the audiobook version though I imagine this would hold true for the written version as well, a kindly-grandpa feel to it where the kids are gathered around to hear all the wonderful things grandpa did with zero rough edges and with lots of schticky jokes tossed into the mix. I enjoyed it because I remember loving his movies (not that I've seen one beyond the age of like 12 I think) plus, once you get into his producing career, you realize he really did make some great films (like The Elephant Man). I wouldn't say this is a particularly funny book but he comes off as such a positive person that it's kind of addictive even when it's equally somewhat repetitive and not particularly behind-the-scenes-y. Like it's a lot of "we got this wonderful actor and that wonderful costume designer and that amazing writer had that hilarious idea which become this scene that I'm going to perform for you now"; I mean, yeah on the one hand not the biggest thrill, but on the other extremely pleasant especially if you've enjoyed his movies. Also, and this is specific to the audiobook, his voice is so familiar with that thick Brooklyn accent and gruff tone, that that too feels very soothing. I don't know, I think I thought this would be something else and I probably would've enjoyed that something (something snarkier and more insider I think is what I imagined), but frankly this gentle career description from someone who seems to have loved every single person he worked with and everything he ever did and believes in his talent while simultaneously never coming off as egotistical or jaded about his work or the biz actually turned out to be a really pleasant-and-not-in-a-putdown-way-but-genuinely-pleasant couple of hours.
TV/Streaming:
House of the Dragon (Season 1):
I'm going to give you not only the plot of this prequel (or somesuch) to Game of Thrones, but also the 10 hours worth of dialogue for literally every single episode, though I'm changing names to avoid potential spoilers despite the fact I actually have no idea if spoilers are involved because that would've required watching a series that had any interest in keeping its viewers - or at least this viewer - awake. So here’s the plot: asdl;fjasdk of House asdflkja who's married to asd;lkfkj from House atowoith gave birth to asdl;fkasjd who had an affair with 23opouasndkf and now 239uofdkn and ashkask are in competition for the throne and there can’t be a single scene or moment that isn’t about THRONE THRONE THRONE THRONE HOUSE HOUSE THRONE dragon. In the meantime, aoisdfalksd brother of qwoirpaosduf also wants the throne as he too is surrounded by people whose sole interest, character, and life devotion in every moment across all the years on whatever planet this show takes place on is the throne and every single being who might ever have been connected with the throne. We then for some incomprehensible reason which admittedly may have been explained when I was asleep, jump forward in time with totally new actors... who proceed to do all of the above for the remaining episodes. There is literally not a single shred of plot or dialogue or ANYTHING that isn't reading back everyone's relationship in some completely fabricated family tree and how they're all vying for power without any seeming interest in explaining (a) why (other than your basic pathological me me me me power power power) or (b) why anyone would care. And I don't just mean me. I mean like anyone in the kingdom they’re ruling, which seems to be perfectly fine and where it will make absolutely no difference to anyone anywhere which fake blond is bossing people around. The show is stakeless in a way that borders on the totally impossible as in how on whatever that planet this is did any executive who read this snoozerina not say one single word to anyone? The only thing I can think of is that George R.R. Martin maybe thought all this blither for 10 hours of nothing happening would be riveting and no one at HBO could convince him otherwise, but honestly I doubt it. I think everyone involved just sucked.
Oh and sometimes dragons show up, though mostly in pitch black. BTW this isn't the first time HBO has been accused of releasing episodes shot with the lights off - and I'm not exaggerating, as in for minutes I couldn't see anything and, given the volume of TV/Streaming I watch, I think we all know the problem isn't my with OLED - but they decided that was a good idea, though I think we’d all have to agree a bizarre one given that HBO’s sole business is… showing people things. Basically this series is everything you hated about history class but in multimillion dollar completely unlit form. There's zero character, zero stakes, zero conflict beyond throne-squabble, and really go watch (no don't! save yourself!) if you think I'm exaggerating about how no one talks about anything or has any life beyond discussions about the throne and houses, i.e. everyone's talking about things but no one's up to anything. And then randomly and for no reason whatsoever they'll switch to a made-up language and why? I mean they’re speaking English and then all of a sudden I have to watch actors talk Klingon or whatever and what, specifically, is that adding to my experience? Annoyance! The most dazzling thing about this show is its complete and total lack of creativity. There's no culture in the kingdom beyond Medieval-generic and whatever lords/ladies, anti-gay, anti-women, formal-and-boring/formal-and-snaky impression just flew across your mind in the millisecond I noted Medieval-generic is all you're ever going to get from this show. It's a total creative blackhole or perhaps, as with the dragons, it’s creatively rich and amazing only no one can see it, and, per usual, I'm baffled that anyone financed this especially given the shaky goodwill HBO was left with after the final season of GoT.
Awful. Yeah, I'll probably try at least the first few episodes of the second season to see if anything improves like maybe HBO fired the showrunner or something but I'm not hopeful. And my advice to you: don’t bother.
Glow Up (Season 4):
I was not initially super into this reality competition series where makeup artists - mostly people who've only ever worked on themselves for their Instas - compete to win a makeup contract, but over the seasons it's gotten better and I was totally into this one (though as background noise - more on that in a sec). The tl;dr on why I didn’t initially enjoy the series is that I thought the first season was kinda depressing because the contestants were so clearly out of their depths and that's just not fun to watch as for me a competition show needs to have contestants any of whom could win because they have the technical background or at least enough self-taught practice to make it through the challenges and the rest is about pulling out their creativity in the face of pressure. But if people are still honing their basic skills and then being insulted well that's just not fun viewing to moi. That's changed, likely because that first season made people aware of the show and then way more competent people started applying because this season was pretty packed with super talented amateurs. And if you're wondering, given that I have zero expertise or interest in makeup, how I can possibly make that statement, it's because while, yeah, there's some more subtle beauty-ish makeup in there, the show is primarily about makeup as artwork as in doing these incredibly creative and visually striking paintings on a human face and sometimes body as well. Like doesn’t this look pretty cool?
Many of the challenges are abstract like "do a makeup that includes the arms and chest which captures your personal demons" so it really is kind of all a big art competition. Yes, there are some more standard makeup challenges and frankly those are kinda dull to me and what relegates this to background noise sometimes. But, this season and last especially, some of stuff these people create is really amazing and, because as with most painting it's unclear during the process how everything will turn out, it's equally unclear when viewing which adds some interest to the show because it's hard to tell if something's going to be a bust or not. Also the judges are somewhat amusing and are pretty good about explaining why things are or aren't working. In any event, if you like a visual-based reality competition show, this one has definitely gotten better over the seasons and, if you don't mind the normal somewhat slow pace of many British competition shows (which clearly I don't), this one might be worth a look.
Movies:
Fractured - This is a thoroughly dumb-in-a-good-way thriller about a guy, his wife, and child who get into an accident and wind up at a hospital where the wife and daughter disappear... or is the guy's head injury making him paranoid? It's in whatever genre The Sixth Sense is in - mindbender? paranoid thriller? - and the whole thing is told from the guy's POV and while I don't think anyone would accuse this of being elegantly made, it's just north of 90 minutes and there's enough going on to keep it amusing and rolling along even while you know to the core of your being that it's completely idiotic. Nothing really makes any sense even taking into account that, since you have an unreliable POV, that might actually be the case. The movie tries to play on what's real/what's not and when you think about the what's real part it makes as little sense as the deliberately off not-real part. But, especially if you're group-watching, it's fine. I wouldn't say this is the most well-crafted thing on earth (it's Netflix after all) by which I mean there are some things that occur early on which are so flat-out dumb that you know something's off as opposed to in, say, Rosemary's Baby where it wasn't so easy to tell what was in her head and what wasn't. Like in this one, the daughter has a bone fracture and they make her sit in the hospital waiting room forever, then they're seen and there are all kinds of intrusive questions (fine) and then something about how his insurance isn't accepted which is absurd since, even with the worst medical system on Earth (that would be the U.S.), we all kind of know emergency rooms are required to treat patients regardless of ability to pay - oh I don't know why I'm bothering with this! I guess it goes back to my usual thing with studios like Netflix where they pay huge money to make something but the thing that’s completely free (smart notes) seems beyond any amount of the aggregate sum of monthly subscriber fees. And I guess that's a little annoying because clever would've been just fine, as in instead of knowing there's something wrong with the lead 10 minutes in, set it up so it takes me, oh, half the movie length to begin to wonder. Whatever. Regardless, if you're looking for a silly but engaging paranoid thriller this one fits the bill. I'll put it this way: I told another Janice about this idiocy and that Janice texted me the entire time they were watching it about how dumb it was and yet, like moi, that Janice also finished the entire thing. Is that a good or a bad review? Whatever it is it's probably what'll happen to you if/when you watch it.