Mission Complete
Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond initially acted as direct response to how goofy Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond films had become. Instead of the over-the-top, hammy, and, honestly, Austin Powers-esque1 romps that James Bond had become, Craig’s Bond, debuting in Casino Royale (2006), was gritty, realistic, and serious. Craig’s Bond was almost immediately softened throughout the years. Quantum of Solace (2008) was a traditional Bond film that was hobbled by the writer’s strike, but was followed by Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). Both of those being “anniversary” Bond movies that played homage to the long history of 007 movies, with it working in favor to the former and to the detriment of the latter. The latest entry into the series, No Time To Die (2021) marks Craig’s last film in the series and, weirdly enough, mostly plays homage to an unusual Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), starring George Lazenby (who is the only actor to play James Bond only once in an official 007 movie).
What is perhaps most memorable about On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is it’s ending where, spoiler, Bond decides to marry Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) and as they drive away on some winding cliffside road, happily wed, she is murdered in a hail a gunfire by Bond’s arch nemesis Ernst Blofeld (Telly Savalas). Bond’s last words to Tracy end up being “We have all the time in the world”.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’s sounds and images echo throughout No Time To Die. At the start of the film, you see Daniel Craig’s Bond driving on some winding cliffside with his mysterious new love, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), enjoying Bond’s retirement. Bond tells her that “We have all the time in the world” as the instrumental version of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’s theme plays in the background. Despite Bond putting Ernst Blofeld (Cristoph Waltz this time) into custody and walking away from the life of being a secret agent, Bond finds himself pulled into the world of espionage and adventure yet again. This time, Lyutsifer Safin2 (Rami Malek) threatens the world with an advanced bioweapon, a high-tech poison that can target certain DNA strands. What would normally be sci-fi gobbledygook actually has relevance to the tragedy at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
At the end of Casino Royale, Bond loses the love of his life, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) and spends the rest of the series mourning her. Her death is a direct result of their involvement in the dangerous world of spycraft. In No Time To Die, if you are a target of Safin’s bioweapon, anyone related to you is at risk of being killed by it too. Those who you find closest to you are most likely to be hurt by something you do. Bond has taken a chance by letting both Vesper and Madeleine into his life and both of their lives are put at risk because of it. George Lazenby’s Bond couldn’t save the one he cared about, but Craig’s Bond spends most of No Time To Die trying to.
What results is an engaging action film with countless high quality set-pieces (the whole section in Cuba with Ana de Armas being the stand-out), but with an emotionally resonant thorough-line that isn’t just “You always hurt the ones you love”, but, rather “If you let someone into your life, you make each other vulnerable to each other”. For the emotionally closed off thug that Craig’s very practical Bond starts out as, becoming vulnerable with someone allows him to accept so many people in his life. At the end of No Time To Die, Bond finds his relationships stronger than ever and he doesn’t save the day by closing himself off to others. Letting someone in, despite the pain that could happen, ends up being a heroic choice.
No Time To Die is in theaters now.
The Inverted Lovers
Via Cinema Lamont, I was able to see the new 4K restoration of the 1981 art-house horror film, Possession. Directed by Andrzej Żuławski, Possession follows the difficulties between a married couple living in West Berlin. Mark (Sam Neill) and Anna (Isabelle Adjani) only yell and fight the moment Mark returns from his mysterious job as, what can only assume, some sort of intelligence agent. It isn’t long before Mark suspects Anna has, or is, cheating on him. The further he digs, the more the situation becomes darker and bizarre.
The whole story takes place in West/East Berlin, emphasizes how seemingly irrecoverably split Mark and Anna are. Both are now parallel lines that do not intersect. Within the two of them there are two identities as well. Mark has one self that is the father and another that is the tyrannical jealous husband who, using his abilities as a surveillance agent, tries to exercise control over Anna. Anna, on the other hand, plays the role of the mother, but seems to much more prefer her other role: being psychically and physically dominated by a certain “Him”. This dissonance within one’s self and between the two of them is like the reverse of the tarot card The Lovers. Instead of harmony and fusion, there is discord and alienation. That discord can be felt throughout the film via the frequent shouting matches and strange supporting cast. The more surreal and supernatural elements further sow chaos in this version of Berlin.
This absolute control desired by Him and Mark has a negative impact on Anna’s mental health to say the least. She screams, thrashes, and harms herself as Mark and Him covet her presence. Possession isn’t a picture of demonic possession, but rather of ownership. Relationships are meant to be equal give and takes, which might be why when that balance is unnaturally upset at the end things appear somewhat apocalyptic. If it’s an all-or-nothing “I can’t live without you” kind of relationship, then you’re setting yourself up for an identity exploding finale if you lose control and things don’t go your way.
Possession is currently streaming exclusively via Metrograph.com
“I Liked It”: True Crime and Me
Guest Article by Molly Thomas
Last week I Liked It! author (and my good friend) Nick sent me a Gawker article by Emma Berquist titled “True Crime is Rotting Our Brains”. It’s a great read. My response to Nick was “Big mood” though the quote from me he actually wanted to put in the newsletter was “I feel 1000% better since I stopped engaging in true crime stuff”. While both eloquent remarks, I wanted to write a little more in depth about my relationship with true crime.
I used to love true crime, despite how much it scared me. I remember watching Forensic Files after school when I was in middle school, it terrified me but I couldn’t stop watching. The next few years I was too afraid to stay at home alone. When I got into high school I still hated being home alone but felt I was too old to say anything about it and kept my panic to myself. In college a friend of mine got me back into watching Forensic Files and any other true crime shows we could get our hands on thanks to Netflix. This was before true crime really started to become mainstream and in a weird way I thought being into murder made me different and interesting, I didn’t notice that it was slowly make my anxiety more and more unmanageable.
I’m a dog walker and pet sitter, occasionally for work I have to stay overnight at client’s houses while they’re out of town. Thanks to my love of true crime I was never able to feel fully feel safe in other people’s homes and could never sleep through the night. I always told people that I just had trouble sleeping in other people’s houses, on some level I guess I always knew how bizarre it was to say, “I can’t sleep at client’s houses because I’m afraid they’ll murder me”.
I even had trouble sleeping in my own house when my roommates were gone. I was too afraid to go camping; I knew every sound from outside the tent would send me into fight or flight mode. I’ve had friends tell me that my pace would significantly quicken when we passed by someone on the street or a wooded hiking trail. After consuming true crime constantly for years I felt instantly unsafe the second a man crosses my path. It took me years to fully realize how unhealthy and not normal it all was.
The worst part of these unreasonable fears and behaviors was that they were constantly reinforced by the true crime community. It wasn’t unhealthy to fear men; in fact it’s good to be afraid of strangers. It’s good that you never fully feel safe anywhere you go. It’s good to always be on your guard no matter what. Otherwise you’ll surely be murdered.
Up until last year my interest in true crime was going strong. It wasn’t until quarantine that my anxiety towards everything was knocked up a notch. I went from being totally unaware of my anxiety to having horrible stomach pains and insomnia. I would lie in bed awake at night thinking not “what if I got murdered” but “I AM going to be murdered”. Even though I knew it was a ridiculous thought I literally couldn’t fathom a world in which someone wasn’t going to slip into my room at night and strangle me. I would narrate my day as if I was the victim being discussed on a true crime podcast. So I made the decision to cut true crime out of my life completely.
And it has made a world of difference.
A year and a half later and I no longer live my life in a constant state of fear of being murdered. I sleep like a baby when I do overnights for work. My brain is slowly recognizing ridiculous worries about being murdered as what they are: ridiculous. It’s a slow process to undo the damage that an interested in true crime has done on my brain but I am feeling “1000% better” now. I want to tell everyone who listens to My Favorite Murder or Crime Junkie to just stop; that life is so much better when you’re not thinking about how every living person has the capacity to murder you. Maybe not everyone is as severely affected by it as I was but a lot of people could stand to chill out and take a step back.
I still need to have the TV on if I’m sleeping in an empty houseand I do still compulsively check my backseat when I get into my car but I know every day I’m getting better. I look forward to the day I can go camping.
Stray Observations
No Spooky Season section this week, saving the third and final part for next weekend, the holiday itself, to give some extra spooky recommendations!
I have been really enjoying the newsletter I’m Fine I’m Fine Just Understand by Noelle Stevenson. They use it to post mini comics about gender, identity, and mental health. If you’re familiar with their work, you’ll see the familiar poetry-like stream of consciousness you’ve come to expect from Noelle’s autobiographical work. It’s got metaphorical images and a very simple art style to convey larger messages. Really beautiful stuff.
A new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune came out this weekend. I caught a screening and rewatched David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation, so, pending further consideration, expect a piece about that crazy spice world in next week’s issue.
Halloween Kills, the sequel the 2018 Halloween film, hit theaters this weekend. While Halloween was a fun straightforward slasher in the spirit of the original 1978, it’s important to remember what it actually was about, as this tweet illustrates:
While that is amusing and it’s good to have deeper themes, sometimes you can’t beat the thrill of a nasty guy with a knife trying to getcha!
Thanks for reading! Please subscribe and, as demonstrated with this issue, if you want to submit an article to I Liked It!, drop me a line! Enjoy!
“We had to destroy the myth because Mike Myers fucked us - I am a huge Mike Myers fan, so don't get me wrong - but he kind of fucked us; made it impossible to do the gags.” - Daniel Craig in MI6 Confidential Magazine
Lyutsifer Safin? Lucifer Satin? Ok. That’s pretty corny, but I like it.