ULTRASOUND | THE ADAM PROJECT | THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY | UPLOAD Season 2
Pop Culture Weekly Round-Up 11/03/2022
Hello, everyone! This week’s newsletter has thoughts on the mind-bending film that I watched at the Tribeca Festival last summer called ULTRASOUND. I talk about the new Netflix original flick, THE ADAM PROJECT, and share my opinion about two shows very different from each other. The drama THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY on Apple TV+ and the second season of Amazon Prime’s comedy UPLOAD. And as always there is a playlist of five songs I enjoyed last week.
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QUICK THOUGHTS
THE ADAM PROJECT is a new sci-fi action-adventure that stars Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Jennifer Garner, and Catherine Keener and is directed by Shawn Levy. After a tremendous hit with FREE GUY last year, Reynolds is teaming up with Levy once more. He portrays Adam Reed, a brilliant pilot from the future who flies back in time to find his nerdy earlier self (Walker Scobell). However finding his younger self isn't the real point of the mission; rather, it's a side quest that must be performed in order for the main mission to be finished. This is a decent Netflix original but it would probably fail badly if it was released in theaters. The flick is packed with stars and if you are into Reynolds’ well-established schtick of him pretty much playing himself, you will like this. I’m honestly tired of this said schtick and I didn’t care much about the movie. For me, it felt like the director tried to emulate early Spielberg movies but he didn’t manage to achieve what he wanted. The special effects look ok, with space planes and bad guys dematerializing into colorful dust every time they die. The action scenes are mediocre at best and there is also a lousy lightsaber rip-off. But the worst part of the movie for me was Catherine Keener’s de-aged version of herself. That was terribly done and kind of took me out of the movie. Overall THE ADAM PROJECT is just another Netflix original that felt like a cheap version of a studio blockbuster.
THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY is an Apple TV+ six-part drama, adapted by Walter Mosley from his 2010 novel of the same name. It tells Ptolemy Grey's (Samuel L. Jackson) story. He is 91 years old, has dementia, and lives in dire circumstances, which are made more pleasant by his nephew Reggie's (Omar Benson Miller) regular visits. The series paints a terrifically believable portrait of an ill man abandoned by his family, friends, and even himself. Things began to get intriguing when Dr. Rubin (Walton Goggins) is introduced, which was an interesting twist in this series. He offers Ptolemy a revolutionary treatment that would restore his memory, but there's a catch: the effects of this wonder medicine are only temporary. Samuel L. Jackson has largely avoided television throughout his career, but this series explains why he ultimately gave it a try with TLDOPG. He's fantastic here. He’s playing three versions of his character, which is even more remarkable. The younger alter ego is a romantic dreamer. Meanwhile, the elder figure under the influence of the miraculous treatment has a puckish attitude and sass. However, the sick version, the “out of his mind” Ptolemy, might be Jackson's greatest performance of his career. I really enjoyed THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY and I highly recommend it.
UPLOAD Season 2 This Amazon Prime series returns as a shockingly competent iteration of itself, having the opposite of a sophomore slump. The Greg Daniels-created series has a punchier pace this time around, thanks to a shorter seven-episode run. It is not simply bouncing inconsistently between numerous exciting but fragmented themes like in the first season. Instead, it reaffirms its reasoned critique of current Big Tech challenges. It's easy to draw parallels between UPLOAD and THE GOOD PLACE since they both deal with mortality. But the NBC sitcom put people's ability to develop into their ideal selves to the test. But, at its foundation, UPLOAD is all about the decay of the capitalist system, The series also succeeds at examining true workplace culture and greed via fantasy themes. Season 2 of UPLOAD is an interesting mix of comedy, science fiction, and drama, and each episode is only thirty minutes long, making it an enjoyable binge-watching series.
ULTRASOUND
ULTRASOUND is a weird film. But weird in the best possible way. I had a chance to watch it at the Tribeca festival last year and I really enjoyed it. The narrative of the story is based on the intersection of three events.
Glen (Vincent Kartheiser) has car difficulties late at night while traveling home in a severe downpour. Near where his car broke down, he notices a house and decides to knock on the door. He is met by Arthur (Bob Stephenson), a strangely pleasant middle-aged guy, and his younger wife, Cyndi (Chelsea Lopez). The strange couple pours Glen a drink, and then more drinks, followed by an unexpected offer that he can’t refuse. Elsewhere, a young woman, Katie (Rainey Qualley), is feeling emotionally weighed down by a secret romantic arrangement that feels like a textbook case of gaslighting. And at the same time, in a nondescript research facility, medical professional Shannon (Breeda Wool) begins questioning her role in a bizarre experiment, fearing that she’s doing more harm than good.
Yeah, I know, this plot is weird, just like I told you in the first sentence of this review. But trust me, all these stories come together in the end.
ULTRASOUND was written by Conor Stechschulte (adapted from his graphic novel GENEROUS BOSOM), and it was meant to perplex the audience, and it does so throughout the film. I liked its dreamlike unreliability. At some parts, I literally had no idea what was going on and could not predict what was going to happen next. And this unpredictability paired with the director Rob Schroeder's surreal visual aesthetic made ULTRASOUND a very interesting film, in my opinion.
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.