At the March of Madness

Phew~

It certainly has been a while. March was an unexpectedly busy month for me and sadly the amount of work I do at my job has shoved this passion project of mine to the side. I was able to spy some delightful streaming picks this month, but instead of finding time to make in-depth reviews, I think it’ll be easier for me to write these compilation posts at the end of each month. I’ll include originals, but I also wanted to splash some news and non-original picks in here so that this is all worth wild to you.

Last weekend was the 94th Academy Awards and with it came a historic moment. For the first time in history a streaming service won Best Picture. CODA, from AppleTV+, was nominated for three awards; Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Picture. Miraculously, it won all three, and Troy Kotsur’s speech for Best Supporting Actor was easily that night’s highlight. Youn Yuh-jung presented the award by saying “And the Oscar goes to…” and finishing that heavy sentence with sign language, announcing Troy as the winner. The room erupted in a sea of waving hands, a sign that Troy’s peers respected him enough to sign his applause. And if that wasn’t heartbreaking enough, Troy went on to sign the best speech of the night.

CODA wasn’t the only streaming movie to win big. Netflix nabbed Best Director for Jane Campion with The Power of the Dog, a thoughtful western that peels at the layers of masculinity. The last time the Oscar went to a streaming film for Best Director was at the 91st Academy Awards where Alfonso Cuaron won for Roma. This marks Netflix’s 15th Oscar win. Finally, Hulu won their first award for Best Documentary with Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a powerful film that celebrates Black history and culture.

This Marks Netflix’s 15th Oscar Win.

Over the last decade, and especially the last few years, we’ve seen streaming services up their game and slide into the real competition, and conversation. With CODA’s ‘sweep’ at this year’s Academy Awards AppleTV+ comes in second place, tied with Amazon Prime Video, with 3 wins. Disney+ with 2 and Hulu joining the rankings with 1 respectively. Roma and CODA have absolutely opened the doors for streaming. We’ll be seeing a lot more originals get nominated and win in the coming years. The pandemic definitely helped in streaming’s favor as it changed how the world consumes movies. At this Academy Awards the majority of movies nominated, original or not, were available on streaming. I even made a list where you could watch each nominee. You can check it out HERE, but remember that this list was updated for March 31, 2022. Not all of them may be available on their respective services after this.

At the beginning of the month, I created a spreadsheet to accurately track what I watch over the numerous streamers available. In this section of the monthly newsletter, I’ll be dividing it by service and talking about what I’ve watched indicating whether it was an original or not. As this is my first go-around with this format any feedback would be appreciated. Now, let’s dive into March…

HBO Max

My day job can be exhausting and more often than not I find myself having very little time in the week to enjoy gripping television. So when I stumbled upon Impractical Jokers, a comedy show about four friends embarrassing each other in public via pranks, it became my go-to visual meal when decompressing after work. I haven’t laughed this much in years and the endorphins I get every day from them help ease the constant pressure. I’ve devoured five seasons of these hilarious comedians and I can say without a doubt it was the best decision of the month.

The way the show is structured is that these four guys have to complete three different tasks. If they can’t do something, they get a thumbs down. The one with the most thumbs down gets punished at the end of the episode and these punishments are brutal. Ranging from teaching a sex-ed class to your parents to getting real tattoos that the winner chooses, it can be very intense. As you go through the show they start to build on recurring gags and insane lore that makes each season better. It truly felt like I was part of a friend group at this moment where I’m alone, and for March of 2022, I needed that very much.

I only watched one movie on HBO Max and that was the Oscar-nominated The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Jessica Chastain received an Oscar for her performance as the doe-eyed Tammy who portrayed good Christian intentions as a Christian TV host but was swept up in a crazy money scheme by her husband. As biopics go it’s fairly standard. I find this era of television fascinating, but beyond the performances presented here, there’s not much to latch onto.

Prime Video

Continuing my Oscar watch, Amazon’s Prime Video was host to their Oscar-nominated original Coming 2 America. This sequel to the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedic hit is an interesting mixed-piece. Prince Akeem, played by Eddie Murphy, is cozy with where his life has led him. He now has three daughters and is reckoning with his father’s time on the throne coming to an end. The story is a tale as old as time and not worth mentioning, but what I really loved about this sequel is how normal dancing and singing seem to be in the country of Zamunda. I don’t remember there being much in the first film, but here, people break out into dance to show their power. Then there’s a beautifully constructed funeral that looks amazing. The amount of time put into the set design and costumes work wonders. Truly, one of the more interesting looks that were nominated at the Oscars this year.

Paramount+

The last Oscar-nominated film I watched happened to be the incredible documentary on Paramount+, Ascension. This exclusive documentary examines Chinese culture from a class perspective. It starts off with factory workers where recruiters are going around talking about two, maybe five, dollars per hour plus restrictive living conditions as an incentive. Then they show actual work in these factories and how much effort these employees put into their products even though machines do a lot of it. It’s a fascinating look at the parallels between the effort of work and the pay they get, especially when the film gets to new money people and they talk about their perspective on human rights.

The documentary has no narrator and because of that, it might be difficult for some people as it takes on an observer’s point of view. The filmmakers put a lot of faith in their audience to make their own observations because the majority of this film doesn’t have dialogue, or if it does it’s describing their jobs. It’s very much in the moment between people from all classes trying to make their way in the world, and it is one of the best movies I watched all month.

And then we get to Paramount’s next legacy sequel, Jackass Forever (cue banjo music). In February I decided to watch every Jackass movie on Paramount+. It became very apparent that this series was not for me. I couldn’t find the jokes funny and, in many instances, I swear I lost brain cells. And yet, out of a completionist’s obligation, I turned on Jackass Forever and let the nonsense soak me. This time around the actors are older, we’re missing a few legacy actors, and we got some new blood into the game. By all accounts this is a fairly solid foundation for a legacy sequel.

I liked the new people they brought on. You could see in their young eyes the uncontrollable giddiness they felt in every bone-shattering stunt. They didn’t take a beating as Ehren did with those relentless ball-bursting horror scenes, but they showed how much they deserved to belong there. The only thing I wished was there to have been more scenes with Rachel Wolfson. I don’t think this is a well edited film, so I can’t say for sure if her scenes got cut, or if she didn’t participate as much as the other new guys, but from what she was in I’d be interested in seeing more from her.

At times I felt bad for watching these people who are getting hurt and who probably wanted to spend time with their friends more than actually doing these stunts.

The returning cast is definitely showing their age and you can tell that they do not have the patience nor the vigor when doing these stunts. At times I felt bad for watching these people who are getting hurt and who probably wanted to spend time with their friends more than actually doing these stunts. The ball-busting bits were hard to watch and Johnny Knoxville’s infamous bull stunt looked absolutely brutal. For me, there wasn’t much fun to be had except in the opening scene. As odd as it sounds, Jackass Forever opens with a loving tribute to giant monster movies and it is glorious. Worth it just for those seven or so minutes.

Hulu

There is a new hit film on Hulu that the critics are hyping up and it is called Fresh. What makes Fresh difficult to talk about is its genre shift after the first act and if talking about what happens from the shift is a spoiler. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler, but it’s the type of shift that is more fun when you don’t know about it, so for the purpose of this post I’ll avoid what happens. What I will say, however, is that this film is a solid date movie. Fresh starts off as a romantic comedy with Noa (played by Daisy Edgar-Jones) not quite finding Mr. Right. She goes through awful dates via a Tinder knock-off app and can’t seem to catch a break until she meets Mr. Sexy (AKA Steve played by Sebastian Stan) at a supermarket. The moment Noa meets Steve her life is turned upside down.

The story has a surprising amount of great side characters that feel genuine, important, and particularly funny. Their quirky attitudes flesh out Noa’s world for the better as the movie dives into her defining what makes a relationship toxic. There’s not a scene stealer or big ‘wow’ moment, but Fresh delivers a consistently solid tale that is very much enjoyable.

Peacock

There have been many trends over the pandemic, but one surprising trend that popped out of nowhere was Netflix’s Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. Since debuting in April of 2020 it has spawned a sequel, a spin-off, memes, and an aftershow special. Everybody wants a piece of this Tiger King money, including Peacock, which brings us to their original limited-series Joe vs. Carol, based on the second season of the true crime podcast Over My Dead Body.

Peacock is the first to release a dramatization of this larger than life tail.

While previous networks’ take on Tiger King involved documentaries, Peacock is the first to release a dramatization of this larger than life tail (my pun for the day). Kate McKinnon is a producer and plays Carole Baskin while John Cameron Mitchell takes up the mantle of Joe Exotic. From the first two episodes I can say that this series was not what I expected. With a comedic heavy like Kate McKinnon taking on a producerial role you’d expect it to lean into the comedy that these larger than life people inhabited, but what Peacock has shown is a straight drama with some jokes for the most part.

My biggest surprise was definitely the focus on Joe. I forgot where I heard it, but I was under the impression that this series would be Tiger King from Carole’s perspective, and that’s far from the truth. At least so far. Like the Netflix documentary, Peacock has definitely fallen for Joe’s showmanship and has wrangled him as the more meaty character which definitely created mixed feelings inside of me. One of the criticisms I had of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, was how they portrayed Joe. There was a lot of evidence to suggest that Joe is not a good guy. Flawed, sure. Struggled, definitely. But his backstory and charisma don’t justify him doing all those shady actions. The documentary loved it, however, and seemed to get lost in his light. Similarly, Peacock’s version seems to have gotten lost inside Joe’s backstory as episode two pulled off a solid coming out/coming of age storyline.

The storyline starts with Joe in the hospital trying to recover his ability to walk after a car accident. While inside he meets a gay couple that sheds light on his life by telling him why he should come out and live proudly (as well as why he should get a baby tiger). This is pivotal moment in Joe’s life felt celebratory and in the following scene, Joe is completely out, walking around town with a fully grown tiger and hits on the hot bartender, who he then starts a relationship with. I think all of this is handled well, but based on what I know from the documentary, and how I feel about Joe now, it feels very weird to see this sympathetic tone towards him on Joe vs. Carole. Unless they’re playing a smart game and going for the corruption character arc, it makes me worried about later episodes.

As a whole, from what little I’ve watched of the show it’s not one I’d recommend wholeheartedly. Especially if you’ve already seen the original series on Netflix. There isn’t quite a new angle on this story and while the actors do a good job portraying these characters I feel like the show can’t handle the conflicting tones it has already set up.

Thank you for reading The Streaming Librarian. If you like what you’ve read so far please hit the Share button and spread the word!

Disney+

Finally, let’s dive into Disney+ and their newest original Pixar hit Turning Red. Meilin Lee is a rambunctious 13-year old girl from Toronto. She has good grades, is part of clubs, aces the school system while balancing family temple chores, and has the best friends ever. In many respects ‘Mei’ has a solid life and good relationship with her family. However, the day after her mom embarrasses her in front of her crush changes her life forever as she wakes up in the body of a giant red panda. Now Mei has to fight puberty crushes, popularity, and a body that changes into a giant fluffy animal at any sign of emotion.

Without sugar coating anything I must say I absolutely loved this film. Meilin has such a dynamite personality that it’s hard not to fall under her confident spell. Similarly, each of her friends has a distinct personality that makes their interactions pop off the screen. Then there’s the animation. Pixar has had a weird fixation on photorealistic animation for the past decade, to the point where I’d argue the photorealistic backgrounds are actually distracting from their movies, but Turning Red is a breath of fresh air. You can feel and see the anime inspiration all over this film. The style they aimed for here feels very much inspired by what Sony has been doing lately since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Pixar hasn’t been this exciting in expanding animation in years, and this really makes me believe that Turning Red will be the turning point for the next era of Pixar animation.

Like Disney’s Encanto, there is no bad guy in Turning Red. The character dynamics are fleshed out enough that there doesn’t need to be an antagonist. The antagonist is generational trauma and the way this film deals with a particular piece of trauma that is passed down between three generations is quite beautiful. What I think this film does so right is the complex relationship between Mei and her mom. On the surface, it’s a solid and rare loving relationship, but the film puts in small hints as to why it’s not all good. You can feel the small annoyances the characters have underneath the skin boiling up throughout the story and contrary to the animation style it’s handled very maturely.

After watching Turning Red I naturally had to watch Embrace the Panda which is the behind-the-scenes making-of-featurette. Like the movie, this featurette is adorable and wholesome. Anyone who is interested in filmmaking or animation should watch this. The director and producers are interviewed as well as parts of their crew. For a production afflicted by the pandemic, it was really fun to see how they transitioned work to Zoom calls and how the director Domee Shi kept everyone’s spirits up.

And to finish off the month I threw on Phineas and Ferb. This animated show popped up during my High School years and didn’t make it into my rotation of weekly watches, however, I did tune in from time to time. Unfortunately, I graduated before it finished and soon ebbed out of that phase in my life. But now that Disney+ has a great back catalog of classic cartoons I decided to check this out and watch the final episodes. The story they made wasn’t bombastic, nor emotionally memorable, but it was 100% Phineas and Ferb with a nice focus on Candace and Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Overall, the series felt like a light adventure between school years, and sometimes that’s all you need.

Thank you for reading the month of March! I’m very excited to dive into some specific genre adventures in April. See you all then.