Chaos Reigns: A Hectic Lead-In and the Dangers of Capitulation

Happy Fantastic Fest week, coven. It's been a busy one already, and we're only a day into the festival. "Chaos Reigns," the longtime missive of the festival, has been particularly appropriate so far as our journey over to Texas has been concerned. In the last several days alone, I've dealt with thieves, vandals (no, really. yes, we're ok), continued to apply to anything I can find, got on a plane with about two hours of sleep, banged out two reviews on the plane (I can't sleep on them), picked up a last second interview (the celebrity kind, not employment), published two other reviews (one of which was another debut), scheduled a meeting for a podcast project I'm quite excited about, hugged a lot of friends and saw an absolute banger of a monkey movie.

Amidst all of that, things continue to get worse across America. Jimmy Kimmel was ripped off the air for saying a simple fact because Nexstar and Sinclair are desperate for the FCC to make a deal and Disney has made a habit of capitulating to fascists. The push back has, thankfully, been swift. Everyone from politicians and stars have come together to support but, far more importantly, regular people have too. While it's just my own, small, social media bubble, I have seen hundreds of people cancel their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions in the last two days alone, and I've barely been online.

Like clockwork, nihilist dorks have come out of the woodwork to say that those actions don't matter at all. I've already touched on my thoughts on that publicly.

Outside of the entertainment sphere, congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh was thrown to the ground by ICE while peacefully protesting at one of their detention centers.

These modern-day American gestapo will continue to get more violent as they emboldened by the current administration and its hatred. Continue to stand up against them in any and every way you can. Protect your neighbors; call your representatives constantly (it's so easy); and always speak up. We will only win this fight by taking it on together. The more people normalize these discussions, the more those who don't pay attention to "politics" will start to understand and, if we're very lucky, become more engaged.

Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

I reviewed HIM, the Jordan Peele produced sports horror flick that seems to have divided a nation. I'm one of the few people who enjoyed it, it seems. It's most certainly hamfisted in the way that everyone's saying, with director Justin Tipping laying it on thick throughout the entirety of the film. However, I think most American football fans kind of require that lack of nuance. I don't know that any will have the "wait, is this fucking play about us?" moment that the film intends, but I most certainly hope it does.

In addition to that, I made my Paste debut this week with my review of Gen V Season 2. After the tragic loss of Chance Perdomo, I truly wasn't sure that the team would be able to avoid a harsh sophomore slump. I'm trilled to report that concern was unfounded. There's not a second of this season that doesn't honor Perdomo, and the series' addition of Hamish Linklater is one of the smartest casting decisions in recent memory. His villain, Cipher, is the strongest villain in The Boys franchise to date.

That's Fantastic

With that, my adventures continue at Fantastic Fest. Stay tuned for reviews throughout the week, and another dispatch after we leave next Friday and plenty of reviews to come in the meantime. There are so many goodies to come in the rest of the festival, including my review of Paramount's Primate. Festival openers have the tough responsibility for setting the tone for the rest of the event. Primate goes — please excuse me for this — ape shit, so I have high hopes for the rest of Fantastic Fest's 20th anniversary.

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