The Armchair Squid

Director: Rian Johnson

Original Release: September 6, 2025

My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Super sleuth Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back.  A priest of a small town Upstate New York parish (Josh Brolin) has been murdered and his newly arrived assistant pastor (Josh O'Connor) is the prime suspect.  Meanwhile, the massive inheritance - preserved in a single precious gem - has gone missing.  Blanc is on the case.

I haven't written about the Knives Out series yet, of which Wake Up Dead Man is the third in the series, all written and directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daniel Craig.  The franchise is based on classic mystery and mystery-comedy films.  The original installment, released in 2019, was a massive hit: $312.9 million at the box office, nearly eight times its production budget.  Netflix bought the exclusive rights to two sequels for $400 million.

All three movies are loads of fun.  The original is probably my favorite and, for me, this third one is an improvement on the second, Glass Onion.  Craig's James Bond charm transfers easily to Blanc.  Wake Up Dead Man boasts a wonderful supporting cast, combining established A-listers like Brolin and Glenn Close with talented but less famous actors like Cailee Spaeny and Daryl McCormack.  O'Connor holds his own with the bigger names.  I particularly appreciated Mila Kunis in a notably unsexy role as the local chief of police.  

The church itself was stunning.  Exteriors were shot at the Church of the Holy Innocents in High Beach, Epping Forest, England.  I was a little disappointed to learn that the interior, the real treat, was a soundstage built for the movie.  It's easy to spot the Moby Dick homage: a pulpit built to look like a ship.  

Johnson and Craig have each said they'll keep making Knives Out movies as long as they're both still involved.  We're definitely up for more at our house.

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 7

Original Air Date: October 30, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Granted shore leave on the Nechani homeworld, a few of the crew indulge in a guided tour of religious sites.  Curious Kes wanders into a cavern where she gets too close to what sure looks like a glowing sacred shrine.  It zaps her.  She is dying.  She and Neelix are beamed directly to sick bay on Voyager.  While the Doctor searches for medical solutions, Janeway and Company press the Nechani for answers.  The Nechani are plenty friendly and apologetic but unfortunately, they don't know how to help Kes either.  Perhaps the monks can help...

"Sacred Ground" starts off on the wrong foot for me.  Sadly, this sort of thing happens in the real world all the time: well-meaning but stupid travelers wander somewhere they're not supposed to, experience terrible mishap, then demand the locals fix it.  Let's not mince words, either.  It's typically white travelers treating the non-white world as their playground, shocked when they have to pay the price for ignoring very sensible warnings from the locals.  At best, it's obnoxious.  At worst, it's colonialist.  As such, I have little sympathy for the Voyager crew in their initial reaction to the predicament.  Sorry, but Kes should have known better.  Her stupidity or, more kindly, naïveté is not the Nechani's fault.

Fortunately, I felt better by the time the real point of the story became clear.  "Sacred Ground" is all about getting over yourself and accepting the fact that not all understanding comes from rational thought.  The episode gets mixed reviews, some saying it's among Voyager's worst.  Others are more charitable.  Despite my early annoyance, I'm inclined towards the latter.

At first, Janeway is all confidence and swagger: no problem, I'll knock out whatever silly tasks they have for me right after I finish my ninth cup of coffee.  But when doing that doesn't get her what she wants, she has to reconsider her own approach.  She must accept that science can't solve everything.  The answer she seeks is in the spiritual world.  She must take a leap of faith.

Yes, there's ultimately a scientific answer but that's not the deeper message here.  I'll admit to being science-first myself but we all know there are plenty of questions in the universe that have yet to be answered by empirical evidence and never will be.  Furthermore, humility often offers a path forward which the arrogant never find.

One more thing: frequent visitors may have noticed that I am always on the look out for connections between Star Trek and Star Wars.  Janeway's initial encounter with her guide was quite similar to Luke's introduction to Yoda, even involving fussing over a light fixture.  Of course, the trope of mistaking a sage - or even God - for an annoying commoner predates both franchises by thousands of years.  Grimm's fairy tales, for instance, offer numerous examples.  

Worth noting, Janeway's default attitude towards someone she did not at first consider worthy of her time did little to endear me to the story in its early stages.

Our family Christmas present this year was LEGO's new USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D set along with the free accompanying Shuttlecraft set.  The big set is 3600 pieces and it took us several days.  In total, the two sets include ten NextGen characters - eleven if you count Data's cat, Spot.

via Memory Alpha

Becky Ann Baker played the role of Janeway's guide.  Baker was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky, February 17, 1953.  She graduated from Western Kentucky University.

For the more fortunate of my generation at least, Becky Ann Baker is probably best remembered as Jean Weir, mother to Lindsay and Sam, on Freaks and Geeks.  I say fortunate because despite only running for 18 episodes, F&G is considered by quite a lot of us to be one of the best shows in the history of television.  Seriously, do yourself a favor and go watch it now.  Imagine John Hughes movies, only better.  In the United States, it's available on several streaming services, including kanopy which you may be able to access for free through your local library.  Binge it all.  You'll thank me later.

Fortunately, several of the people involved, including producer Judd Apatow and actors Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Seth Rogan and Jason Segel went on to great success after the show was cancelled.  Getting back to Baker...

After F&G, Baker had a recurring role on Girls (also produced by Apatow) which earned her an Emmy nomination.  Guest appearances include L.A. Law, Frasier and Sex and the City.  Films include In & Out, Nights in Rodanthe and Hope Springs.

Director: Orson Welles

My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Charles Foster Kane builds a newspaper empire, ultimately becoming one of the richest and most influential men in the world.  Then his life falls apart.  Truthfully, any plot synopsis falls short of conveying the sheer immensity of Citizen Kane.  Is it the greatest film ever made?  That's certainly a worthy debate though it comes as close to critical consensus as any.  I've only given it a 4, not because I deny its brilliance but because there are other movies I enjoy a lot more.  

Kane was Welles's first film after he'd taken the theatre world by storm.  He was given as close to total creative control as a major studio has ever given a first-time director, before or since.  He made the most of the opportunity.  He was only 25 years old.

I'd love to take a class on Kane.  It doesn't take long to recognize its uniqueness.  Other films simply don't look like this.  Cinematographer Gregg Toland literally invented camera shots, even carving new lenses.  It would be fun to go through shot by shot with someone who has studied it lovingly for years.  Kane is the Hamlet of film in that once you start looking for homages, you see them everywhere.  All the huge wooden crates in the mansion at the end of the movie... can't help thinking of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  

Amazingly, Kane flopped in its original release.  The story hit too close to home for William Randolph Hearst, one of several real-life inspirations for the protagonist.  Hearst forbade his newspapers from advertising or even mentioning the movie.  The impact on ticket sales was no joke.  Even so, quite a lot of critics fell in love with it and the movie was re-released in 1956 with much greater success.  It probably didn't hurt that Hearst had passed away in 1951.

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 5

Original Air Date: October 28, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Keiko has been possessed by a Pah-wraith, one of the evil spirits who dwell in the Fire Caves on Bajor.  Miles must do exactly as the spirit tells him or his wife will be killed.  O'Brien can't catch a break...

"The Assignment" has a lot going for it.  Miles episodes are generally satisfying and Rosalind Chao gets some good material as possessed Keiko, too.  We catch up with Rom, now working his way up the ranks in the engineering department.  We get a bit of a "Lower Decks" perspective as Rom joins his colleagues for a raktajino break.

The Pah-wraiths will figure prominently going forward, especially in the series finale.

via Memory Alpha

Patrick B. Egan played the role of Whatley (listed as Jiyar in the credits), a member of the engineering crew.  Beyond DS9, Egan has made guest appearances on The Practice, Second Chances and DiResta.  His films include Where's Marlowe?, Breathing Hard and Pee-wee's Big Holiday.

I ordered a steak skewer special.  Wife and child shared a Fattoush Salad, a Fatayer with beef and the spicy Mixed Pickles, which they also generously shared with me.  I thought everything was lovely.  The kid also got a Mejadrah which they pronounced beautifully (just finished their third semester of college Arabic) but otherwise didn't care for - too bland, they said.

Only one beer on tap: Peroni, an Italian lager I feel like I'm suddenly seeing everywhere.  Otherwise, there are plenty of options: beers in cans and bottles, multiple wine offerings, plenty of cocktails and some off-beat non-alcoholic choices.  Service was friendly.  Two big screens over the bar.  One was playing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

We'll definitely be back.  It's great to have pre-concert or movie options on the way into Burlington and The Wise Fool seems likely to feature in our outings.  

via The Wise Fool

The name comes from Goha, a beloved character from Middle Eastern folk tales.

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 4

Original Air Date: October 21, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Jake Sisco tags along with Dr. Bashir to a medical conference, hoping to find an interesting story to write about.  Instead, the story finds him.  During the return journey, they receive a distress call from Ajilon Prime where a Federation colony is under attack by the Klingons.  Reluctantly, in light of the danger he would be putting Jake in, Bashir heads down to help the medical staff.  In what feels more like a M*A*S*H battalion aid station episode than Star Trek, Jake gets far more material than he bargained for.

Was it not just a couple episodes ago that I wrote about DS9's frankness regarding the horrors of war?  "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" is the roughest, most intimate example.  The writers drew heavily from literary classics: Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Erich Maria Remarch's All Quiet on the Western Front and, most extensively, Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.  The episode title comes from Ecclesiastes 9:11.

It's worth nothing that at this late stage of the series, Jake Sisko, who because of child labor limitations has had by far the least material among the principals, is the central character for two of of the best episodes so far: this one and "The Visitor."  While Tony Todd did most of the heavy lifting in the earlier story, it's all on 18-year old Cedric Lofton this time.  It represents a major step forward for the character, too.  Most Jake stories - even "The Visitor" - had been framed within the context of his relationship with his father.  This time, he's a young man out on his own - a very young man.  

18.  In 2026, we still send 18-year-olds to the battlefield as professional soldiers.  All of the fear, confusion and guilt we watch Jake endure would be perfectly understandable for someone twice his age, particularly for one with zero previous military or medical training.  I and most of the people who are likely to read this have only ever experienced or even considered war from a great distance and thank goodness for that.  I expect the same is true for most Star Trek fans.  

Though other stories have had hints, no Trek episode has ever come anywhere near war with comparable personal intensity either before or, honestly, since.  Yes, there has been death, pain, injury and recovery.  But nothing like this.  It was a one-shot deal and for my money, they did it right.

There isn't much levity in "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" but we do get a little in the beginning of Act One as Quark makes an attempt at creating a decaffeinated raktajino:

via Criminal Minds Wiki

Andrew Kavovit played the role of Kirby, an orderly at the battlefield hospital.  Kavovit was born in the Bronx, July 19, 1971.  He was only 25 himself and a young-looking 25 at that.  The script called for an actor not much older than Jake, a more worldly-wise mirror for our naïve hero.  

Kavovit was a genuine soap opera star, playing Paul Ryan on As the World Turns from 1986-91, winning a Daytime Emmy in 1990.  He also had a principal role on The Magnificent Seven TV series.  Guest appearances include Full House, My So-Called Life and Married... with Children.

As a family, we've grown fond of the Hirshhorn, The Smithsonian's modern art museum.  Modern art has always been an easy sell with our child, especially when they were little.  The Hirshhorn is also significantly less crowded than other sights on the Mall and exhibits are always changing.  A few current highlights:

We did see a few National Guard folks around - what a joke.  As a community, DC detests the current president so expressions of resistance are everywhere.  This was one of my favorites, spotted on a bookstore bulletin board:

Finally, my wife and I shared this spectacular dessert, Pão de Açúcar, at The Grill from Ipanema:

Despite our best efforts, we couldn't finish it.