Yes, Iceland has a penis museum.
The Icelandic Phallological Museum, the name it goes by in more serious circles, houses severed male privates of all shapes, sizes, and species, but up until recently, a human specimen wasn’t among them. The quest of two competing, would-be donors to secure that place for themselves plays out in The Final Member, a new documentary from first-time feature directors Jonah Bekhor and Zach Math.
On one side is Páll Arason, a noted Icelandic explorer and (as you learn in the documentary) notorious ladies’ man. Opposite him is Tom Mitchell, a California-dwelling American who is so intent on being first that he’s willing to have his member – named Elmo – chopped off before he expires.
Two men, four testicles, and a whole lot of balls between them.
There’s a touching story at the heart of The Final Member. A couple of them, in fact. Museum founder Sigurður “Siggi” Hjartarson’s quest might seem ridiculous on the surface, but it’s hard not to root for his success when you witness his infectiously sincere love for the museum firsthand. The man loves his penis hobby, and totally not in a weird way.
Then there’s Mitchell’s own plan to part with his still-living member, which is so bizarre that it threatens to overshadow everything else. Here again, the man’s total commitment keeps you invested. For all that you learn about his various motivating factors – and there are many – you never once doubt his desire to see this through.
Arason is the odd man out. Unlike Siggi and Mitchell, the 95-year-old Icelander’s story is largely concluded by the time he signs of on bequeathing his privates to the Phallological Museum. He’s just not invested on the same level that Mitchell is, probably because he’s too busy enjoying his twilight years. Or maybe he just sees the whole competition as the silly thing that it is. Arason’s concerns over old age shrinkage – while entertaining – feel flaccid alongside Mitchell’s own attempts to part with his male organs.
Blame reality, not the film; Bekhor and Math do their best to render Arason in the same absurd-yet-endearing shade as they do with the other two subjects, chatting with the elderly Icelander and peering into his lascivious past. But the material just isn’t there. The filmmakers wisely load all of this into the front of the movie, since Mitchell’s story – introduced immediately afterward – quickly captivates.
Stylistically, there’s nothing particularly special about The Final Member. A handful of eye-catching shots and more than a few slice-of-life scenes chronicling Mitchell’s efforts keep things varied, but The Final Member sticks mostly to talking-head interviews and stock footage with voiceover laid on top. Granted, between Iceland’s alien landscape and Siggi’s penis-packed museum, Bekhor and Math have a lot of good B-roll to work with, but overall there’s little visual flash to this relatively dry documentary.
That’s OK. As it turns out, you don’t really need an eye-catching presentation to keep this absurdist take on a dick-measuring contest entertaining. The oddness of it all counts for everything. The Final Member isn’t likely to rock the foundations of documentary filmmaking, but it accomplishes what it sets out to within the constraints of a short running time. After all, it’s not the size that matters.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.