June 22nd to June 28th
Fanvids
Marvel Comics, Steve/Bucky, “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now,” by trelkez
It’s rare to see good fanvids made from comics, but Ken Burns, eat your heart out. Hilarious and heartwrenching.
Film
22 Jump Street (2014)
As I suspected, superior to the first! The fourth wall takes incredible amounts of abuse as tons of money is thrown into the Jump Street program in order for Schmidt and Jenko to do the same thing as last time, but the two idiots finally figure out that it isn’t like last time. I heartily appreciate the meta, but Lord and Miller do more visual comedy here, whereas 21 Jump Street’s pacing seemed to indicate that a lot of it was from the “film them improving!” school of comedy. (Hilariously, Jenko despises improv in this film.) Upon moving into their shared dorm, the boys inventory all the cool stuff they’ve gotten. Since Schmidt and Jenko go through a rough patch in their relationship, split screen is utilized brilliantly, especially with a contrasting drug trip (insecure Schmidt has a nightmare; oblivious Jenko floats around in sweats on a tiny Lamborghini) and Schmidt and Jenko simultaneously realizing that a life without each other kinda blows. (Fun fact: Schmidt isn’t celebrating his thirtieth birthday alone in a restaurant; he’s celebrating Jenko’s. A THOUSAND TEARS!)
And it’s a smidge… well, I want to say more diverse, because there’s more ladies involved, but it also contains a scene whose humor is derived from the fact that a once be-penised gentleman now has a vagina and is forcing Dave Franco into a sexual relationship. C’mon, y’all. You’re better than that. Literally: Jenko takes a course about human sexuality and actively stops using gay slurs and shames others for using them. (There’s also a blink and you’ll miss it moment when Jenko wonders if he and Schmidt have ever had sex while drunk; it’s buried in a joke about him misunderstanding the word “embed”, but he seems merely curious and not disgusted.)
Music
Meghan Trainor, “All About That Bass”
It’s a great song about body positivity-that also hates on “skinny bitches” and says it’s okay to be big because boys like it. I have a complicated relationship with that message, but it’s just so damn catchy and poppy and sweet. “Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top!” is just so cute, and the video is adorable. I am torn.
MS MR, Secondhand Rapture
I think of MS MR as the dark twin to “Hideaway”-faraway, posturing, and decidedly retro (although surely it would be early nineties?). Although it’s also of a piece with more recent stuff that I’ve been liking, like Midnight City and Lana Del Rey. “Think of You” is the pinnacle, but “No Trace” is lovely and self-determined, “BTSK” is a delicate love story, and “Ash Tree Lane” is the roundest the sound gets.
Vaudeville Smash, “Zinedine Zidane”
Hilariously catchy. I have a new band to investigate.
Project Progress:
Saturday Night Live: 15.3% (5/39)
Star Trek Televisual Canon: 32.5% (13/40)
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