Right This Minute

Here's a survey of all things pop culture that are currently vying for my attention.

Movies
Bill Cunningham New York - One of my favorite super-specific subgenres of film is the fashion documentary.  Docs like Valentino: The Last Emperor and The September Issue have been some of my favorite non-fiction films of the last few years, and Bill Cunningham New York, just out on DVD, deserves to be among their ranks.  It's a wonderfully sincere, genial portrait of Bill Cunningham, a New York Times columnist who has spent his life capturing the styles and trends on the streets of the Big Apple.  Over 80 years old, he rides his bikes through the streets, camera at the ready, a surprisingly energetic, mobile fashion historian.

The fashion is fascinating, but the real draw of the film is the enigmatic Cunningham.  Though he's known and loved by many, few know much of anything about his personal life, and he tends to shy away from divulging too much about his upbringing.  Though he's an icon in and of his own right working for the foremost newspaper in the world, Cunningham leads a charmingly simple life, sleeping amongst his exhaustively thorough file cabinets containing every shot he's ever taken.

While many of the most notable recent documentaries are tackling big, important issues, it's fun to find one that takes an interest in such a joyous, human story.  It's impossible not to fall in love with the subject, as well as the film itself.

Melancholia - Lars Von Trier follows up his misogynistic sex nightmare Antichrist with a thoughtful, gorgeous apocalypse tale that is quite troubling itself.  The film is divided into two chapters, the first chronicling the disastrous wedding reception of weird, wandering Justine (Kirsten Dunst) as her friends, family, and new husband (True Blood's Alexander Skarsgard) try to keep her grounded and the party from completely falling apart.  The second portion focuses on Justine's sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg, who was so stunning in Antichrist), as she grapples with the fear that newly-emerged planet Melancholia is going to crash into the earth.

The juxtaposition of familial and astronomical doomsday scenarios is compelling and magical, with Von Trier keeping his narrative just strange and ethereal enough for it to never feel quite real.  The cinematography is gorgeous, especially during the opening tableaux (many of which comprise the film's trailer), with many shots worthy of being framed and hung in galleries.  Dunst gives a strong, frustrating performance - which won her Best Actress at Cannes - and Gainsbourg and the supporting cast deliver strong work, as well.

Like The Tree of Life earlier this year, Melancholia is a movie as concerned with tone and texture as narrative, and the result is a sensory feast.

Melancholia is currently available on Video On Demand, and will release in theaters in November.

TV
Ringer - Being the diehard Buffy fan that I am, Ringer's inclusion on this list may come as no surprise.  However, just because Sarah Michelle Gellar is my soulmate (and she is!), I had many doubts about this soapy tale of twintrigue (twin intrigue).  The show got off to a bumpy start - especially the horrific green-screen work in the pilot - but now that it has its narrative momentum going, Ringer has proven to be my favorite new show of the season.

Being on the CW, Ringer is rife with heightened emotions, but they work in such a complicated, constantly cliff-hanging narrative.  Gellar does a great job of bringing both twins to life, with Bridget scrambling to keep up her charade as she pretends to be Shiobhan, while Shiobhan, presumed dead by Bridget, pulls the strings from Paris in some grander scheme.  It's all very twisty and often quite goofy, but there are plenty of jaw-dropping moments if you can suspend your disbelief and dig into the fun.

Fringe - I started watching Fox's spiritual successor to The X-Files over the summer, and now I'm finally caught up to the Peter-shaped void that has plagued Season 4, but should be getting filled within the next episode or two.  It's a shame that Fringe isn't finding a larger audience, because it's one of the best shows on TV.  The narrative's through-line is stellar, with parallel universes having recently been merged and one of the show's protagonists disappearing once the deed is done, and episode-to-episode, the show is a fantastical, funny crime procedural with serious sci-fi cred.

Anna Torv does amazing work spinning numerous variations of her character (including a few Season 3 episodes where she channels Leonard Nimoy with creepy accuracy), but John Noble (Denathor from Lord of the Rings) is easily the show's MVP as the mad scientist with a heart of gold Walter Bishop.  Noble's line readings are some of the funniest and truest on television, and it's a shame that the Emmys haven't taken notice of his incredible work.

Video Games
Professor Layton and the Last Specter - The DS is in the twilight of its life with its 3D successor on the rise, but that doesn't mean the beloved portable is out of steam.  On the contrary, the US has just gotten the fourth (and last DS) entry in the seminal Professor Layton series.  Fans of the franchise know exactly what to expect with this one, which serves as a prequel to the original trilogy of games and chronicles how the scholarly gentleman met his protege, Luke Triton.  The professor and his assistant(s) travel around mysterious locales, tapping everywhere for hint coins and solving riddles for the weirdly obsessed denizens, all whilst solving a presumably supernatural mystery plaguing all their lives.  Even some of the puzzles are familiar to the point of being tired, with even more sliding block puzzles and simple math equations.

But it's wonderful.  The accordion music, the beautiful animated cutscenes, the emphasis on gentlemanly behavior - it all adds up to a delightful, comfortable whole.  The Last Specter doesn't break new ground, but it doesn't need to, because the formula is finely-tuned to the point of puzzling perfection and the charm is thick and genuine.

The Last Specter does go above and beyond the call of duty with a hefty bonus game called Professor Layton's London Life, an Animal Crossing-esque RPG with retro graphics and lots to do.  As far as cherries on top of sundaes go, this one is monstrous.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - The latest entry in the legendary (and my favorite) franchise isn't due out until November 20, but already it is proving to be a huge distraction.  Early reviews are in, and even by Zelda standards, they are stellar.  EDGE, a gaming magazine noted for its tough review scores, rewarded Skyward Sword a rare 10/10, asserting that it is the best game in the series.  As a lifelong devotee Ocarina of Time devotee, such a claim can only be heresy.


But so they say.  And I'm excited to play it.  So excited that I'm already seriously considering calling off of work that day so I can devote myself fully to exploring the beautiful watercolor vistas and master the Wii MotionPlus controls with my shiny new golden Wiimote.  In the meantime, I'm resisting the temptation to watch every new video Nintendo releases as it puts the hype machine into full drive.  I want as much of the epic adventure to be a surprise as possible.  How comforting to know that I won't be disappointed.


Books
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan - I've been a fan of Rick Riordan's work since I saw the first Percy Jackson movie back in February 2009.  His series are compulsively readable, combining tons of mythology with a fun sense of humor, memorable characters, and plenty of action.  The Son of Neptune is the second entry in Percy Jackson spin-off series The Heroes of Olympus, and it's quite possibly Riordan's best book yet (a feat made even more impressive knowing that he's juggling two series at once: both The Heroes of Olympus and The Kane Chronicles receive yearly entries).

Following the events of The Lost Hero, in which Greek myths started to give way to their Roman counterparts, The Son of Neptune shows Percy arriving at the Camp Jupiter, the Roman equivalent of Camp Half-Blood.  There's much confusion, plenty of interesting backstory for Percy's traveling companions, and higher stakes than ever before, if that's even possible.

While Riordan is no J.K. Rowling or Suzanne Collins, he spins a good tale and manages to make it semi-educational, to boot.  There are worse ways to brush up on your gods.