Movies, TV, and books we're into this week

There's nothing better than a flawed horror movie that attempts to create tension by having a demonic thing stalk those who have sexual intercourse with one the demonic presence wishes to kill. This is It Follows in a nutshell. The only way to pass on this demon is to have sex with someone, but someone has to end it since after it kills the last person to have sex, it works its way up the line.The demon takes the form of people the particular person knows, but it takes an absolute age to move anywhere, making it easy for the protagonist and her crew to make it to different locations while they wait for it to arrive. It's not a great movie, but it does make you jump here and there and is well worth watching if you can't find another horror hit.

I knew The Hate U Give wouldn't be an easy watch as soon as I read the description. It's the story of a teenage African-American girl who's life is divided between a lower-income urban existence (where she lives) and an upper-income suburban situation (where she goes to school). The two locations are literally like night and day, and she spends most of her days surrounded by white high-schoolers and her nights around black family and neighbors.The main conflict of the tale comes about when one of her African-American friends is killed by a white police officer a traffic stop. The reactions from the people around her are divided, and she's treated like a victim on one side of the coin and like a kind of suspect on the other.This one isn't exactly a feel-good flick, but it spotlights the very real issues of race and class relations in America (and likely other places) these days, and it's simultaneously poignant, sad and scary. It's not perfect or always realistic, and it's sure to offend you in some way. But that's kind of the point, I think.

I somehow missed The Great Wall when it came out in 2017, but since I don't remember many movies from that year, I reckon it was a period when I wasn't frequently heading to the nearby cinema. The Great Wall unsurprisingly follows a garrison based at the monument in China, only it's actively in use to repel attacks from unknown alien forces and contain the outbreak.It may sound good, but this Chinese movie fails to have a compelling plot. There are some cheesy moments, while other points you're wondering if this is actually a school movie, but Matt Damon (Bourne trilogy), Tian Jing (The Warring States), and Willem Dafoe (Game of Thrones) all play a major role and it's more than bearable, especially if you're all about big budget action scenes.

I watched Breaking Bad at the weekly pace of its original release way back in 2008, through to its completion in 2013. I loved it, as did most people, and I let it be for five years. Now, however, I've started watching it again from the start, and being able to watch episodes back-to-back is a different experience. It's easy to get entirely caught up in the story, and I have to tear myself away so as to not completely binge a season on a day off.Haven't heard of Breaking Bad? It's one of AMC's hits that tells the story of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, an unlikely duo who get together to cook some of New Mexico's finest crystal meth. It's violent, it's suspenseful, and despite lasting for five seasons (I'm a firm believer that most show overstay their welcome), doesn't ever seem to drag on or get stale.

I remember seeing Seinfeld a bit growing up, but it wasn't until the last few years that I came to truly appreciate the series.As long as you can get past some dated references, Seinfeld is one of the greatest comedies ever to grace television. The "show about nothing" is led by a cast of sociopathic characters, sure, but that's a part of its charm. The situations that Jerry, Kramer, George, and Elaine find themselves in are beyond absurd, but in the funniest ways possible.

I kind of went through a Bukowski phase a few years back, where I read through all the (seemingly always drunk and disgruntled) author's books (there aren't that many). When I finished, I thought something like 'What's all the hype about, those weren't very good … But one book, in particular, stuck with me, Post Office, because it so vividly captured a sense of disillusionment and malaise with modern American life that I kept thinking about it for weeks.I decided to recently reread Post Office, and I still don't love it. But I get why some people do. Bukowski effectively portrays the everyman working for the U.S. Postal Service, taking abuse day in and day out from his employers and customers, never able to get ahead, with no salvation in sight. So he gives in 110 percent to the temptation of booze, woman and gambling and feels absolutely no guilt about the whole thing. Sounds like fun, right? Well, maybe not fun … but gratifying.