INVENTING ANNA | KIMI | CATCH THE FAIR ONE | BIGBUG |
Pop Culture Weekly Round-Up 11/02/2022
Hello, everyone! I hope you are all well. Things are getting better here where I live. The weather has been good and some days last week it even felt like it was spring already. I can’t wait for summer that will be hopefully Covid free. Anyway, in this week’s newsletter, I talk about the new show that Shonda Rhimes produced for Netflix, INVENTING ANNA. I also share some thoughts on three very interesting films that will be available today; Netflix’s BIGBUG, IFC’s CATCH THE FAIR ONE, and HBO Max’s KIMI. There is also a playlist with five songs I enjoyed last week.
QUICK THOUGHTS
BIGBUG is the latest film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the French director who is known for films such as DELICATESSEN and AMÉLIE. It has been almost a decade since he last wrote and directed a film. However, that changed with this vibrant, wacky sci-fi comedy, BIGBUG which is a Netflix original about a robot uprising. The film takes place in 2045 when a group of middle-class people living in an evermore AI-powered world is unexpectedly trapped inside a house during a robot uprising. The quality of Jeunet's films has fluctuated throughout the years, but BIGBUG is a weird but fun ride and also aesthetically stunning. The color palette of the film is stunning, and it is worth seeing only for its stylistic flair.
CATCH THE FAIR ONE Is about a Native American boxer (played by real-life boxer Kali Reis) who embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister. I had a chance to watch this gripping thriller at the Tribeca Festival last year and I really enjoyed it. Kayleigh's life after boxing and her determination to find her sister is established slowly in the script. But don't worry, once the action starts, the movie will keep you entertained. I really liked how gritty and intense CATCH THE FAIR ONE is. With a great lead performance and a simple approach to narrative, the film succeeds as an interesting revenge thriller. My only gripe with the film is that there is no genuine conclusion at the ending. To avoid spoilers, this will most likely be very vague and may not make much sense. But some narrative threads are left hanging after the film ends. And I think that some viewers will be disappointed as a result of this.
KIMI is the newest film by Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, written by David Koepp (PANIC ROOM), who stars Zoe Kravitz as an agoraphobic tech person who discovers information of a brutal crime. The movie feels like a contemporary REAR WINDOW or BLOW OUT, and even though it starts out slow it really gets going at the halfway point. The main character had a lot of depth, and Kravitz delivered another great performance; the directing and cinematography were also excellent. The story is not very original but it was enough to keep me engaged. Also, any new Soderbergh film must be essential watching for cinema fans.
INVENTING ANNA
INVENTING ANNA is a new series produced by Shonda Rhimes (BRIDGERTON and GREY'S ANATOMY) for Netflix with a plot based on a true scandal that shook the deep pockets of New York's elite. The series is full of twists and revelations and has Julia Garner, well known as Ruth in OZARK, staring as the convicted fraudster Anna Delvey.
Based on Jessica Pressler's New York Magazine story about Delvey, the series is recounted via the eyes of a fictional journalist clearly based on Pressler named Vivian (Anna Chlumsky). Vivian’s motivation is not only to uncover Anna's story but also fully comprehend who she really is. Vivian has also her own complicated reasons for being so committed to pursuing this article about the young woman.
Anna Delvey was born in Russia, raised in Germany, and then relocated to New York when she felt it was time to reinvent herself. In my opinion, INVENTING ANNA exemplifies how the American Dream was rebranded for the twenty-first century. These days is all about faking it till you make it on the internet. The show also highlights American capitalism's ferocious appetite and the insane rat race for being perceived as a wealthy person on social media.
Anna is a really charismatic woman, and throughout the series, we learn that things are not as black and white as they first appear to be. She is a sophisticated figure who was on the verge of obtaining a very large amount of money after persuading very rich and powerful people to trust her. She is quite charming, which is why she almost got everything she desired. Julia Garner yet again proves her capacity to construct an engaging character. In order to truly understand Anna, Garner went right to the source. She visited Delvey in Albion Correctional Facility in Buffalo, New York to get a first-hand idea of who she was and how her accent sounded like
I enjoy stories about con artists for a lot of different reasons, including the daring of their crimes and the rewarding moment of their karmic retribution when they're finally exposed. The producer Shonda Rhimes, gets it and applies all of her storytelling skills to the assignment. As a result, Netflix has once again produced a very intriguing series.
Top 5 Songs
These were the 5 songs on heavy rotation in my house last week. You can listen to them on Spotify and YouTube.
