Ty Watches "The Curse" Season One

Last week I finished season one of "The Curse". I kept thinking about it a lot since then. I was thinking about it so much that I went back and rewatched the finale last night.

I thought this finale was pretty remarkable. In fact, I found this whole season to be very weird and interesting and thought provoking and pretty solid. This show is very different. It is unlike pretty much anything that is on tv right now. The plot is fairly simple, but the execution was next level.

"The Curse" centers on Whitney and Asher, a married couple that host a HGTV show. They go to their hometown and build climate change friendly homes. They have squabbles with the network, the people who work for them and amongst themselves. Sounds simple enough. But the twists and turns happen galore. This show went to some of the cringiest places one could imagine. There were times where I felt uncomfortable watching. I would squirm on the couch. It was wild. The way these two take advantage of the people in their hometown, especially the indigenous people, is abhorrent. When they think they are doing something nice, it is only for their own benefit or to help the show. They are only out for themselves, so much so that they start to plot against one another.

Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder are dynamic here as well. I was totally blown away by Fielder's acting. He takes the uncomfortableness to a whole new level. If you thought he was awkward on "The Rehearsal" or "Nathan For You", this show makes those people look tame. He is clingy and needy and helpless here. It was a delight to watch. Emma Stone is wonderfully odd and plays a white savior so well. She has no qualms about the things she does as long as she thinks she is helping out the less fortunate. In most cases she is only out for herself. There is a scene in particular when she pokes fun at Fielder for trying to be tough and I was taken aback at how mean and nasty her character could be. It was a tour de force for her. I also appreciate the fact that she is doing stuff like this as opposed to taking on multiple rom coms or dumb coming of age movies. She is taking chances, nailing it and I'm here for it. Benny Safdie is also a revelation. I have always enjoyed his directing, but his acting here is pretty good. And while not as cringey as Fielder, he is right up there.

I think my favorite thing about this show is the long, silent moments. They really make you sit in it. The viewer is almost forced to sit and go back and think about what you just saw. They will have this super awkward scene or moment, and then they will cut to a long shot of a home or the face of the person in the aftermath. You just sit there and go over what you just saw until the silence breaks. It is pretty cool the way they do that. And the way they tell this story, and how they end it, it is one of the odder yet cooler things I've ever watched. They never poke fun at reality tv or home making shows. They never make these awful people seem like they have some good inside of them. They paint these overprigeled rich assholes in the proper light. And I love that.

"The Curse" is not the easiest watch, but if you let yourself get into it, the payoff is pretty exceptional. I loved it. If you are going to watch, and you are a Fielder fan, change your expectations. And if you are going in to watch Emma Stone, change your expectations. This show is unlike pretty much anything out there now, but it is well worth your time. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Curse" Series Premier

Last night I was able to watch the pilot episode of "The Curse". This is Nathan Fielder's new show. He is also working with Benny Safdie, he is a co creator, and A24 is producing. Let’s discuss.

This is right up my alley. I adore Fielder's work. "Nathan For You" is one of the best, most original shows ever. He followed that up with a genius show, "Rehearsal". Fielder is in an incredible groove as of late, and Showtime giving him his own show was a genius move. Benny Safdie was in "Good Time" and he directed it with his brother. He and his brother also did "Uncut Gems" which is one of the better movies to have been released in the last couple of years. The Safdie brothers have a great eye for directing and they are on fire right now. Safdie was also excellent in his role in "Good Time". A24 is the best production company in the game. They are doing the best work in movies and tv right now. They also paid people and gave them what they asked for during the actors and writers strike. Whoever is running A24 is one of the smarter people in the game. A24 totally rules and they have a lifelong fan in me. So putting all three of these together, it is a recipe for a wild and entertaining tv show.

Now, this show is not really a comedy. There were comedic moments in the pilot, but they were few and far between and they were buttoned by something creepy or cringey. And I think that is the point of this show. Putting Fielder in charge may lead one to believe that this is going to be a straight forward comedy. But this show is a lot more like "The Rehearsal", or "Finding Frances". Fielder is doing something different and I'm here for it. There were moments in the pilot that were disturbing, creepy, cringey, uncomfortable and I was all in from start to finish. I wanted to see something different and weird from Fielder, and that is exactly what "The Curse" gives the viewer.

There was one scene in particular that really shook me seeing Fielder acting it out. He and his wife, Emma Stone, who is perfect here, are being interviewed by a local newscaster. The newscaster starts in on Stone's family and you can see it pisses Fielder off. He starts to go off on her, and at one point he snaps and tells her to "talk to me, not to my wife". My wife saw this and said she hates his character. I told her me too, but I think that is what Fielder is going for. He has other moments that really creeped me out, and he nails it, like the most squirm inducing sex scene I have seen in quite some time. Stone, as previously mentioned, totally nails it here. She is trying to do something good for her community, but she is also the poster child for gentrification, and she has no idea. She is tough and formidable, but she is also causing harm to her community. Benny Safdie is the creep of all creeps here. He is the director of their show, and from the moment he steps on screen he is despicable. He makes it look like a mom is crying when she is actually dying. He hits on Stone far too much. He gets footage without people's consent. He tries to make people uncomfortable when there is no reason for it. He shows his old content which is vile. He is so gross yet I cannot take my eyes off him when he is on screen. This show is very different and very creepy. They let you live in silence and they linger on shots longer than seems necessary. But it works. Fielder has an eye for this. Safdie knows what he is doing. And Stone is such a pro. This works.

“The Curse” may not be for everyone, but I'm in. I say check it out if you like any of the three main people, but go in knowing it is not a typical tv show. It takes chances and those chances worked for me in the pilot episode. I can't wait for more. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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An Ode to the Great Movies from the Safdie Brothers

While channel surfing the other day I came across the movie "Good Time". For those that may not know, "Good Time" stars Robert Pattinson and Benny Safdie. They are brothers who are running from the police after a bank robbery gone wrong. Safdie is the brother with a problem and Pattinson is the brother trying to help the only way he knows how.

This movie is incredible. This is the third time I have watched it and it gets better every time. Pattinson delivers a powerhouse performance. This is the movie that I saw him in when I realized he could really act, that he wasn't just the kid from "Twilight". He and Kristen Stewart have gone on to have very successful careers since that movie.

What stood out most this time from watching "Good Time" was the direction of the Safide brothers. They both directed the movie. Benny Safdie was also in it, but he and his brother, Josh, are credited as co directors. This movie is anxiety riddled. It is fueled with intense moments. I found myself on the edge of my seat and I already knew what was going to happen. But watching Pattinson running around New York with all kinds of shady people made this movie that much more intense. Whether he is trying to break his brother out of a hospital with a police guard standing watch, or tricking a family into letting him in, or dealing with a formerly incarcerated alcoholic, it is all just pure chaos in the best possible way.

The Safdie brothers seem to thrive on making movies that freak you out without having jumor scares or built in scary stuff. There is a scene in "Good Time" where they are at a theme park after dark, and when Pattinson's character turns all the lights on, the noise from the park scares me. I think that is because I am so caught up in the madness that is occurring at any given moment. And nearly the exact same thing happens with the other Safdie brothers movie I have seen, "Uncut Gems". "Uncut Gems" is one of the best movies I have ever watched. They take another actor, Adam Sandler, and put him in these crazy situations, all of his own doing by the way, and Sandler nails it. It is his best non comedic performance in my opinion. When Sandler has good writers and directors attached to a genre he may not be all that comfortable with, he usually delivers. The Safdie brothers made a movie that fits that perfectly. Sandler is a degenerate gambler and habitually cheater in "Uncut Gems". He is slimy and smarmy. He treats people like human ATM machines. And he does pay a horrific price in the end, but again, it is all because he doesn't know when to quit. And the Safide brothers do a wonderful job of showing his day to day life in this movie. It is also anxiety fueled. There are moments in "Uncut Gems" that scare me and it is not a scary movie. The Safdie brothers get a tremendous performance from Kevin Garnett, who is essentially playing a heightened version of himself. They got The Weekend to play a total scumbag in this movie, and he nailed it. Idina Menzel, who plays Sandler's wife, is not your typical put upon wife in this movie. She is tough as nails and commits. I really feel like that is due to Safdie brothers direction. "Uncut Gems" is a must see movie. It was the last movie I saw in the theaters prior to the pandemic, and I was stoked to tell people that.

I guess what I am trying to get at today is how well the Safide brothers make these specific types of movies. They are scary without being horror. They have funny moments without being a comedy. These are crazy dramatic scenes without their movies being full on dramas. I don’t really know how to categorize their movies, and maybe that is exactly how they want it to be. All I know is, I am a fan of their work and I cannot wait to see what they do next. I read they are working with Sandler again, so that could be very cool. Until their new project comes out at least I have "Good Time" and "Uncut Gems" to hold me over when I want to be stressed out in a good way while watching a movie.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.