CONCRETE COWBOY | SHIVA BABY | MADE FOR LOVE
Pop Culture Weekly Round-Up 02/04/2021
Hey everyone, I hope you’re all well. A lot to watch on this Easter/Passover weekend. If you are into dumb fun destruction flicks you definitely should check GODZILLA VS KONG. Honestly, I wasn’t into it so I decided not to review it here. But I would say that I really liked how stylized the movie is, so much neon. But unfortunately, it has zero substance. CONCRETE COWBOY and SHIVA BABY on the other hand are great films. I had a chance to watch both at TIFF 2020 and I highly recommend watching them. I also talk about MADE FOR LOVE which although isn’t the most original series out there, has a lot of funny moments. And as usual, I’m also sharing some tunes I listened to during the week.
FILMS
CONCRETE COWBOY
CONCRETE COWBOY is based on the Greg Neri novel Ghetto Cowboy. The story is inspired by the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club, a real-life community of Black horsemen in North Philadelphia.
This is a beautiful story of a difficult relationship between father and son. But it is also about an interesting subculture that I had no idea even existed, black cowboys training horses in the streets of Philadelphia. I watched the film at last years’ TIFF and loved it. I’m glad it is available for everyone now.
STRANGER THINGS Caleb McLaughlin plays Cole, who is booted from his school after his latest fight. Fed up, his mother deals him some tough love by driving him to his father, Harp (Idris Elba) take care of him for the summer. And Harp takes care of him the only way he knows how by teaching him the way of the cowboy.
Writer-director Ricky Staub finds fresh ways to update a classic coming-of-age story. Idris Elba kills it as a cowboy (not a surprise) and Caleb McLaughlin is all grown up and ready to become a movie star.
SHIVA BABY
This is another film that I had a chance to see at TIFF. Shiva Baby is an expansion of Emma Seligman's 2018 short of the same name. And it tells the story of 20-something Danielle (Rachel Sennott) who tries to keep all her secrets intact as they literally crowd around her during a shiva. Shiva is the period of mourning after a Jewish burial, typically involving eating and mingling at the home of a relative of the deceased, in an effort to comfort the bereaved.
The film, which is very claustrophobic, and unfolds like a tide wave of never-ending hilarious situations that Danielle must somehow survive and keep her dignity, privacy, and independence intact.
Emma Seligman's debut feature is a funny and impressive character study. It has a stellar ensemble cast led by Sennott and is very well directed by Seligman. These two have a very bright career in front of them.
TV
MADE FOR LOVE
The HBO Max’s new high-concept half-hour comedy tackles technology, control, and gaslighting. The three episodes of MADE FOR LOVE that I watched felt a lot like the dystopia anthology show, BLACK MIRROR, but with a healthy dose of humor. Based on the novel of the same name by Alissa Nutting, a writer, and producer on the series, MADE FOR LOVE has a good combination of quirky charm and dark cynicism.
The main star of the show, Cristin Milioti, who also starred in one of BLACK MIRROR’s best episodes, USS Callister, plays Hazel. A woman that for 10 years, has lived in a weird virtual-reality environment called the Hub. But things become even weirder when she receives an unwanted hardware upgrade from her husband, Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen), who runs a world-dominating tech company. When Hazel seeks help from her father, Herb (Ray Romano), she finds him having a committed relationship with a sex doll, or like Herb likes to call her, a “synthetic partner”, named Diane.
Overall, MADE FOR LOVE is just another cautionary tech tale that has been told repeatedly in BLACK MIRROR. But it’s playful and funny and has an amazing cast that makes the show very entertaining. The tone comes pretty close to another HBO Max show, THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT, which is not prestige TV but I really enjoyed watching. So, I’m intrigued and I will keep watching the series to know how Hazel got into this mess and how she might get out.
Top 5 songs
These were the 5 songs on my heavy rotation this week. You can listen to them on Spotify and YouTube
1 - Meet Me @ The Altar: Hit Like A Girl
2 - BLOXX - Everything I've Ever Learned
3 - All Time Low: Once In A Lifetime
4 - Phem - Congratulations
5 - DE'WAYNE FT. Awsten Knight - Perfume