Black Mirror is a series of episodes, I guess you can call them episodes, because they are not movies. Or at least I don’t think they are. The best I can come up with is these are a sort of modern-day Twilight Zone. Some are Sci-Fi, some are drama or thrillers, and some are horror themed. Either way there is a sliver (sometimes more than a sliver) of weird thrown in there. While most of the episodes are average, around two and a half or three stars, there are some that are better than others. A few have left me sadly disappointed, I mean how can a werewolf episode be bad? Well, it can be as Mazey Day proved. Luckily, every now and then there is one that makes watching the mundane episodes all worth it. San Junipero is one of those episodes.
San Junipero is a beach front resort town that we visit in the middle of the 80’s decade. We are introduced to Yorkie (yes, just like the little dog breed) who is portrayed by Mackenzie Davis (The Martian and Speak No Evil) in a nightclub. There, Yorkie meets Kelly who is played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Cloverfield Paradox, Lift, and Concussion), soon after meeting, Kelly begins to come on to Yorkie. Yorkie isn’t feeling it and leaves. After a few more chance encounters, the two eventually have sex at Kelly’s beach house. Afterwards, Yorkie tells her this was her first time having sex, she also admits she is engaged to a man named Greg. The two of them part ways and after a week Yorkie goes back looking for Kelly once again. Her search leads her to another nightclub where she finds a man named Wes who Kelly seemed to be dating before. Wes tells Yorkie that Kelly isn’t there but to “try a different time”.
And I’m hooked! I’m a sucker for time travel stories and this has time travel written all over it. Or does it? Without giving too much away I can say the episode follows the relationship of the two from when they first meet as young women in 1987 to when they are much older sometime in the future. Denise Burse (The Wrath of Becky and The Boy King) plays an older version of Kelly while Annabel Davis (Stapler and Free Zone) portrays the elderly Yorkie. The episode follows the two ladies as they fall in love and want so much more from their relationship but due to some circumstances beyond their control it’s not easily accomplished. I think it’s possible that the main reason I love this episode as much as I do is because it’s such a different episode. San Junipero is a one hundred and eighty degree turn from what we normally see from Black Mirror.
Where we usually see the negative effects of technology on people regardless of whether they deserve it or not; here we have nothing but the best of things that can happen when technology gets it right. It’s a beautiful story of two women falling in love and going above and beyond what anyone would expect two people to do to find that love. I also loved seeing the 1980’s again. As someone who views the 70s, 80s, and 90s as the three best decades not only of my life but possibly ever (OK, maybe trade the 90s for the 50s), it’s always nice to time travel even if it is through the magic of film. When it’s done as well as it is here it really pulls at those nostalgic heart strings. I openly wept at least once and came close a second time. Oddly enough it also made me grateful for the friendships I had back then and still have today, especially that of my Horror Homie Cerpts who you can find here on Blogger: The Land of Cerpts and Honey and here on Letterboxd: Cerpts on Letterboxd. I give this excellent episode of Black Mirror four Quagmire’s out of five.
I want to put in a little note about The Countdown To Halloween and the month ahead. Usually, in the past, I have tried to post two movie reviews a day all month long. This year will be a little different in that I will be trying (struggling is more like it) to post one a day all month long. It's not something I want to do but due to circumstances I won't be able to sit in front of a computer making posts as long as I have in the past. We're still plugging along and we're still going to contribute as much as possible. Have a great month and stay creepy my friends. Oh, and yes, you are either reading this on Blogger or on Letterboxd. The posts are both the same except on my blog they have pictures in the posts. So, you can read it either here on Letterboxd or here: The Man Hole on Blogger.
What's this BLACK MIRROR of which you speak???
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel - this Countdown I'm doing my best but I usually start prepping in January and didn't this year. If I post once a day, I'll think I'm batting a thousand!
Black Mirror is on Netflix. It's in the realm of Tales From The Dark Side, Outer Limits, and the such, just with a modern day flair.
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