Severance, After Yang, and gay cowboys
Visions of work and home, plus Sam Elliott vs. The Power of the Dog
Hello!
On this week’s episode of Criticism Is Dead, we discuss Severance and After Yang, two futuristic works about what it means to be a person.
Click here to listen to the full episode on the web
Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, or other podcast apps.
02:36 The sci-fi workplace psychological thriller Severance, streaming on Apple TV+, is one of the best shows on television right now.
It’s been a while since we’ve been this enthralled with a series, but so far, Severance really has it all: direction, writing, performances, set design, camerawork, sound, and more. This is a story about corporate hell taken to the extreme, but it also probes questions of ethics and subjugation of the self. There’s not much else I can say, except: Severance is fascinating, the kind of show that will leave you wanting more with each episode.
23:33 After Yang, available on Showtime, is a contemplative film that excels at the aesthetic, but its touch is so light that it’s rendered more gestural than deeply felt.
A spin on the sci-fi category of techno-orientalism, After Yang’s world building is conjured mostly through visuals: a pod-like vehicle gliding silently through a tunnel; a tasteful, Japanese minimalism-filtered home of the future; verdant green everywhere. But director/writer/editor Kogonada (whose first film Columbus we discussed in an earlier episode) relies too much on his talent for creating beautiful vignettes, to the point where salient contextual details like Kyra’s career and the geopolitical context are revealed more in interviews than anywhere in the movie. He has a unique vision — one that I’m personally interested in — but it hasn’t quite come together yet.
37:45 Plus, culture notes about everyone on The Power of the Dog being forced to defend it against Sam Elliott.
Sam Elliott: “They made it look like — what are all those dancers that those guys in New York who wear bowties and not much else.” [he means Chippendales dancers] “That’s what all these fucking cowboys in that movie look like. They’re all running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the fucking movie.”
Benedict Cumberbatch: “And beyond that reaction — that sort of denial that anybody could have any other than a heteronormative existence because of what they do for a living or where they’re born, there’s also a massive intolerance within the world at large toward homosexuality still, toward an acceptance of the other, of any kind of difference, and no more so I guess than in this prism of conformity of what’s expected of a man in the Western archetype mold of masculinity.”
Kodi Smit-McPhee: “I’m a mature being and I’m passionate about what I do. And I don’t really give energy to anything outside of that.”
Jesse Plemmons: “Made me laugh … I know there are different layers to that. Not everyone has to like it, I’ll say that. That’s fine.”
Finally, director Jane Campion: “I’m sorry, he was being a little bit of a B-I-T-C-H. He’s not a cowboy; he’s an actor. The West is a mythic space, and there’s a lot of room on the range. I think it’s a little bit sexist.” (Then she went on almost immediately to do this.)
Not much more to add except let’s all remember when Pedro Almodóvar described what his version of Brokeback Mountain would have been like: “More sex, more sex.”
Bonus links
Pelin on The Batman:
Actually learned quite a bit from this GBBO alum Lizzie Acker interview, including:
“Your apron gets clean but nothing else does. Everyone smells.”
Gorgeous painting:
Finally, thank you everyone who has ever said anything nice to/about us ❤️
That’s it for now. See you next week!
— Jenny
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram!
Please rate/review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, WHEREVER, and tell a friend about us!
Inquiries, complaints, and recs for what to watch can go to criticismisdead@gmail.com.
Some credits:
Music: REEKAH
Artwork and design: Sara Macias and Andrew Liu