Y tu Luna también: La Máquina: Episode 4 – “In Memorium” (2024)

*Major spoilers for episode 3.*

And the hits keep on coming! While I get that my definite biases play a role, I am loving this show, and I think it’s fantastically done. This is a shorter episode, but it still packs a punch. (Honestly, I’m not making intentional boxing references here—they’re just apt descriptions.)

Big things went down in the last episode. Esteban, fresh off a devastating diagnosis about his hallucinations, does a TV interview where he hints at the idea of a shadowy conspiracy to rig fights. And in retaliation, the Otras Personas have Andy’s brother-in-law Saul killed. Now, everyone is reeling. Andy’s wife Carlota is falling apart with her grief, both Esteban and Andy are scared and guilt-ridden, and Irasema is more determined than ever to uncover what’s going on and expose those responsible.

In episode 3, Esteban learned that he has pretty severe brain trauma. It’s what’s causing his hallucinations, and through her investigation, Irasema has seen firsthand what other symptoms might be coming as his condition worsens. He’s kept away from Saul’s funeral out of concern that he won’t be able to hide his situation, so instead, Esteban goes to the gym with Sixto, who takes him through a kind of treatment to “untangle” some of the issues buried inside his hallucinations.

Given what Esteban has been seeing and hearing throughout the miniseries, it’s no surprise that his injured brain is stirring up traumatic memories from his childhood. We’ve seen flashes here and there, and while this episode doesn’t give us any answers, it more clearly puts Esteban in a position to face them. His session with Sixto is interesting to watch. As Esteban hits the speedbag in rhythm to a metronome, Sixto asks him a series of rapid-fire questions, digging deeper when Esteban tries to deflect. The longer it goes on, the more gets stripped away. For instance, he initially answers, “Yes” to the question, “Do you deserve to be happy?” The next round, that one gets a “no.” The crux of the matter, the question he can’t yet bring himself to answer, is, “Who fucked you up?”

It's interesting—thinking back on it, most of the episodes so far have only had a few scenes where Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal are together. They spend the majority of their time in separate plots, but every time they do come together, it’s just fantastic to watch them play off each other. I love that, for much of the miniseries, Andy and Esteban been angry and arguing, and yet that doesn’t lessen their obvious love for each other in the slightest. Here, Andy is upset that Esteban never told him about the hallucinations. “I would have helped you,” he insists. I doubt that either of them knows what kind of help he might have been able to offer, but it’s clear that he means what he says. It’s also apparent that each knows the other better than they know themselves. Individually, each has personal blind spots that they’re avoiding dealing with, and so both can see the other’s messy parts. “I’m in denial?” Andy asks, scandalized, when Esteban suggests he gets his own house in order before trying to fix Esteban’s.

As Andy and Carlota attend Saul’s funeral, we get some really great character stuff for Andy. I’d been suspecting it for a couple episodes now, but this one crystalizes it: yes, Andy’s appearance is more than a little absurd, but the show itself doesn’t treat it as a joke. We’ve seen how much his mom has obviously messed up his self-image, and we’ve seen how his first instinct when he’s stressed is to check his face for imperfections. That comes to a head in this episode. After arguing yet again with Esteban and preparing to head to the funeral, Andy makes use of some emergency Botox vials in his glove box. But it’s not until after he arrives that he realizes he’s screwed it up—he pinched a nerve in his forehead and over-injected his lip.

Andy’s panic when he realizes this is palpable. There’s anguish in his eyes as he physically tries to hide his face from others, and his attempts at damage control in private are increasingly agitated. When, after several tries, he finally gets his doctor on the phone, He pleads, “I’m at a funeral, doc. I can’t go right now…. I can’t wait till tomorrow. I have to go downstairs!”

I love this—the storyline itself, and especially Luna’s acting. As a society, I feel like it’s easy to be unsympathetic to people who get a lot of work done, particularly if it’s obvious. But this miniseries is taking its time to really show us Andy’s point-of-view here. We see how much his injections are fueled by his anxieties and insecurities, and we see how desperate he is for other people to think he looks good. In the list of Andy and Esteban’s problems, “bad injection” ranks far below all the other drama they’ve got going on, and that doesn’t mean it’s not hugely important to Andy.

A Few Thoughts on Big Neurodivergent Energy Stories: ADHD Edition

Distinctions between autism and ADHD can be fuzzy for me—since both are in my head, I don’t necessarily find it helpful to tease out what stems from one versus the other. No doubt my previous posts on shared elements common to Big Neurodivergent Energy stories include plenty of both neurotypes. But today, I do want to look at a few things that, to me, feel very ADHD in particular. With BNE stories in general, it’s often about feeling a kinship with the many neurodivergent characters and vibing with the aesthetic, tonal, and thematic qualities that really speak to me.

With ADHD, though, it’s often something that feels even more deeply engrained. It doesn’t just feel like this story is about ND-coded characters or most likely created by ND people (diagnosed or others)—it physically feels like the story itself has ADHD. I’m drawing from fewer stories here than in my past BNE posts, even though plenty of stories I’m not mentioning today definitely have ADHD- or AuDHD-coded characters. At any rate, as I look at the qualities associated with this feeling, I’ll be repeating my references. Up top, these stories all feel inextricably ADHD to me:

·        Nimona

·        Everything Everywhere All at Once

·        The Spider-Verse films

·        The works of Jorge R. Gutiérrez (specifically The Book of Life and Maya and the Life, since those are the only ones I’ve seen so far)

·        Polite Society

 

 

Pacing!

We have to start here. First and foremost, these stories feel fast. Not that they never have slow or introspective moments—they do, and when that quieter stuff hits, it resonates even more deeply because of the contrast to the frantic pace around it. But stories like this have extended sequences that are absolute roller coasters of action, dialogue, or humor, scenes where you just have to hang on tight and wait to see where it’s going. Think the shapeshifting-fueled escape from the Institute in Nimona, think Miles’s frenzied discovery of his powers in Into the Spider-Verse, think of the chaotic fights with the gids in Maya and the Three. All the Things!!! are going on, and you feel like you’re careening through the story.

 

Humor!

The humor in ADHD-driven stories is very particular. Again, it tends to be fast, like the quips, asides, and visual jokes in the Spider-Verse films. But there’s often a lot of off-the-wall stuff too—moments where you’re laughing out loud even as your brain is going, “Wait, wait?!?” There’s humor in the rug being pulled out from under you, abrupt shifts that send you spinning. The whole concept of the Improbability Drive-style “science” behind verse-jumping in Everything Everywhere All at Once is sooooo ADHD-coded. Where else are you going to get action sequences that hinge on paper cuts, butt plugs, and staples to the forehead? If the jokes lean on references and homages, they often come fast and furious. Polite Society does a fantastic job with its send-up of the action genre because it uses every trick of the trade in its story, style elements, and fight choreography.

 

 

All the Emotions!

Emotions are really important in these stories. That probably feels dumb to say—after all, emotions are important to virtually all stories! But when we’re talking about stories that feel fueled by ADHD, the emotions are intense. Like everything else in these stories, they can change fast, swinging dizzily from one extreme to the other. It’s not happiness and sadness, it’s elation and despair. It’s fury and remorse, it’s fascination and ennui. It’s laughing through tears. One critical emotion is shame, when everything has gone wrong and the character feels the entire weight of it on their shoulders, desperate to fix it. If you know you know, and the emotions in ADHD-driven stories often have some of the highest highs and lowest lows you’ll see in fiction.

Other Doctor Lives: Gentleman Jack: Season 1, Episode 5 – “Let’s have another look at your past perfect” (2019)

*Some spoilers for episode 4.*

Big things happened in the last episode, and this one is very much in reaction to that. Anne is reaching for the domestic happily-ever-after she so desperately wants, but forces around her and Miss Walker are conspiring to get in the way of that.

In episode 4, Miss Walker received news that a friend of hers was killed in a carriage accident. This upset her, not only because she grieved the loss of her friend, but because she feared that Mr. Ainsworth, the late friend’s husband, would expect to marry her next. It was with much difficulty that she confided to Anne about his past sexual assaults on her, and now that Mr. Ainsworth has come to town, Anne considers it her sworn duty to shield Miss Walker from his creepy advances. However, as friends and relatives flutter around Miss Walker, they’re 1) concerned for her delicate health, 2) wary of Anne’s interest in her, and 3) ignorantly enthusiastic about the prospect of her receiving a marriage proposal. Certain matters merely get in the way of the two women, while others actively work to separate them.

Hearing about Mr. Ainsworth, and what he did to Miss Walker, was bad enough in the last episode. He’s even worse in the flesh, putting on a panto-worthy sham performance of mourning for his late wife even as he conspires to force Miss Walker to marry him. He’s just vile as he hams it up on tear-filled lines like, “I hope you don’t think it indecorous of me, coming here so soon after…the event.” You can feel how much he disconcerts Miss Walker—you cheer for her in the moments where she stands up against him, and when she’s unable to do that, you root for Anne to put that slimy rapist in his place.

With Miss Walker’s friends and relatives discussing her potential match with Mr. Ainsworth, Anne grows even more determined to solemnize their relationship, and she pushes Miss Walker for greater assurances. However, the more she clings, the unsure Miss Walker gets, especially with her “well-meaning” loved ones talking in her ear about “sins,” things being “unnatural,” and two men who were recently hanged in another city for being in love. I understand Anne’s doggedness, because she’s been burned before by lovers who gave her up to get married, and she speaks passionately and eloquently in defense of her feelings. But given Miss Walker’s state of mind and the past trauma she’s currently wrestling with, Anne’s ardent words only scare and overwhelm her.

Most of Peter Davison’s scenes today are with the horrible Mr. Ainsworth, who’s staying with the Priestleys as he tries to get his hooks into Miss Walker. Mr. Priestley buys into his sad-widower act and tries to do what he can to help, sympathetic even as he gets uncomfortably Victorian over all this show of feeling. “Emotionally constipated” is often the phrase that comes to mind when I look at Mr. Priestley, and while it’s certainly unflattering to the character, Davison plays it very well.

His best scene comes when Anne drops by. She’s come to put the fear of God into Mr. Ainsworth but she does it very offhandedly and cleverly, couching her threats in a conversation about something entirely different and directed mainly to the Priestleys, only addressing Mr. Ainsworth in occasional asides. When Mr. Priestley gets word that Anne has arrived, there’s visible panic on his face, no doubt thinking of the gossip about Anne and Miss Walker and not wanting Miss Walker’s prospective fiancée to get wind of it. But as Anne performs her subtle balancing act, he gets completely swept up in it, to the point where he’s still calling after her with questions when she makes to leave.

The Goldfinger (2023)

I’m glad I was finally able to get my hands on this movie! It marks the first time Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau have partnered onscreen together in 20 years—not since the Infernal Affairs movies! This stylish crime drama is a nice showcase for both of them.

Lau Kai Yeun is part of an anti-corruption agency, and after years of chasing, he’s finally on the verge of nabbing a particularly big fish: Ching Yat Yin, also known as Henry. Once Lau brings Henry into custody, the wild story of his meteoric business success (fueled by rampant stock manipulation) is told through a series of interviews and flashbacks.

The film is written and directed by Felix Chong—Leung has worked with him on numerous films, but maybe most notably on Infernal Affairs, where he was one of the screenwriters. I can definitely see some shared lineage between the two movies, even if they’re ultimately very different. This one has a pretty breezy style, filled with snappy montages and cool dialogue like, “A house full of thieves is easy to rob.” There are a lot of characters involved in what gets to be a pretty complex web, but the film reels them out gradually enough that it isn’t too hard to keep track of everyone.

If I was going to describe the vibe of this film, I’d say it’s the product of a one-night-stand between The Wolf of Wall Street and Catch Me If You Can. It’s got the sleazy 1980s business/finance stuff, with ostentatious displays of wealth and lots of people getting super amped about stock prices (not to mention screwing each other over!) And it’s centered around the cat-and-mouse game of the dogged investigator vs. the crook who seems to feel that evading jail is just part of the fun.

Andy Lau turns in some nice, solid work as Lau Kai Yeun. It’s a fairly understated role for him—and he admittedly has less exciting material to work with than Leung—but he sells it well. I buy him as this serious, by-the-book guy who’s been meticulously looking for the evidence he needs to topple Henry Ching’s shady operation.

Speaking of Henry Ching, that’s where Leung comes in. It’s a very different sort of role for him. Especially on the surface, Henry is all about flash and swagger, flaunting his wealth and reveling in his “too big to fail” good times. He wears loud suits and has risen from humble beginnings to become the biggest name in town (via oodles of corruption, of course!) If Lau’s performance is more understated than is usual for him, Leung’s is much bigger. It’s a lot of fun to watch him tear it up onscreen!

But what makes it work especially well for me are the glimpses we see behind the flash and swagger. Henry uses his larger-than-life personality and eye-catching wardrobe as a sort of sleight-of-hand to distract you from what’s really going on. He gets his start in Hong Kong pulling a con, and that sensibility carries into his businesses as well. In truth, while the glitz and excess distract you, his wheels are always turning. This quieter, shrewder side of him is in sharp contrast with the image he projects, and Leung does a wonderful job navigating between the two.

It's funny—I’m in the middle of posting my reviews of La Máquina, which features the long-awaited acting reunion between Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal, and now we’ve got this film, which was similarly promoted as “Andy Lau and Tony Leung Onscreen Together Again!!!” But in both projects, the acting duo actually spends the majority of their screentime apart from one another. Lau Kai Yeun is interviewing Henry Ching and his various associates, but for much of the film, that’s a framing device for extended flashbacks that chart Henry’s trajectory in the business world. And in the flashbacks, the two men don’t really have anything to do with each other. (Come to think of it, Infernal Affairs is kind of the same way—Leung and Lau don’t really have that many scenes together.)

But like with La Máquina, the scenes where we do get to see Leung and Lau playing opposite each other are some of the best in the film. I love how Henry responds to Lau Kai Yeun. Even in the face of interrogations and accusations, he’s almost unfailingly calm and confident, like he still knows he has the upper hand. Because frequently, he does. Against Lau Kai Yeun’s frustrations and disgust, Henry carries himself like a man who’s in on the joke and just waiting for the punchline to hit. Such a stellar dynamic, and Leung and Lau are both killing it here!

Recommend?

In General – I think so. The film drags in places, but it’s fun, cool, and full of good acting.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai – Definitely! Leung delivers handily in this complex performance that falls outside his more typical wheelhouse.

Warnings

Violence, language, sexual content, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.