REVIEWS, BY YEAR:
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05/11/12
30 Rock Season Four
-
Awesome, I Fucking
Shot That! -
05/08/12
War - pretty
predictable action star vehicle. it's a shame to see jet li using guns
so much since his skill is in hand to hand combat. watchable, but not noteworthy.
C+.
05/03/12
Bully - content-wise,
this documentary about bullying in american schools is pretty good, and
timely. however, the style of the filming was distracting. it was shot
with handheld cameras and the filmmaker constantly chooses to rack the
focus as if to indicate that none of what he's seeing makes sense. it's
either overly literal commentary on the subject matter or crappy camerawork.
either way, i prefer the maysles style of documentary which is a relatively
well shot fly on the wall style.
as far as the content
goes, it's an important documentary. i don't know if bullying is better
or worse than it used to be, but it's worse than it probably should be.
there's always going to be some degree of poking fun or derision in schools
- it's part of socialization and growing up. it's not all bad, actually,
because it prepares you for the real world and nudges people to act in
accordance with certain social norms. however, this kind of socialization
should be used to keep kids from eating a third burrito for lunch or crapping
on the floor, not from acting gay or being interested in comic books.
the kids who do the
bullying are to blame, sure, but the parents and administrators are the
real problem. why they don't have the common sense and moral standing to
do something real about these problems is beyond me. maybe they don't want
to get sued for yelling at a bully for being an asshole. or maybe they
just don't give a shit anymore.
Toy Story 2
- not as good as the first one. the plot seemed a little strained at times.
certainly the animation is better here. B-.
05/02/12
Lost
Season One - production-wise this certainly isn't at the filmic
level of the finer tv series like breaking bad, however i didn't find the
less-than-great acting and cheesy music cues to be all that offputting.
it's a series that is notoriously plot-heavy and serpentine, but it also
has some good character work which i did not expect. seeing the backstories
of all these characters and how those stories relate to what they are experiencing
in each episode is where the series excels.
some of the first season
stuff that annoys me (other than the production) is in not meeting more
of the characters and the haphazard way in which the group goes about their
first few weeks on the island. that said, both kind of make sense. for
one, in a situation like this, probably the majority of the people are
going to do whatever the most vocal in the group tell them. so, having
the bulk of the survivors be basically unknown is fitting in this way.
secondly, i thought of a million different things that they should have
done that they didn't seem to do, or didn't do until late in the game.
build shelter, explore the island (why do they always assume it's an island
when no one has explored the shoreline thoroughly?), set up some system
of governance and rationing, etc.
all in all it's a compelling
series so far. hopefully it keeps churning out the quality drama. B.
04/28/12
American
Reunion - definitely better than american wedding, which had poor
production values and couldn't even keep the entire core cast together.
this one has the usual gross out humor and cringe humor (courtesy of jason
bates mostly), along with some mild t and a. the most important thing here
is that it produces some laughs and reunites us with those core characters
we've followed now for 13 years and 4 films. it deals, in a mostly superficial
way, with the realities of aging and marriage and living in the real world.
it doesn't say anything new about any of that, however it did give me the
opportunity to think about that stuff given that these characters are basically
my age and theoretically going through the same things. B.
04/27/12
Safe
- well done action film. i'm not sure if statham picks good directors or
if he just gets lucky, but he seems to have a better success rate than
most action stars these days when it comes to getting talent behind the
camera to make his films artistically worthwhile.
it's about a guy who
is down on his luck and doesn't have much reason to live anymore. when
things are looking most bleak, he sees a little girl who is being chased
by the very mobsters who killed his wife. so he saves her and kills them.
we actually follow both their stories before this intersection and they
weave together the storylines well. she's important to two warring mobs
because she has a code memorized which unlocks an unknown treasure. it's
an interesting, though far-fetched, conceit. why would these mobsters trust
this little girl to keep all their most vital financial information along
with this important code? having to protect her is just as difficult as
having to protect a briefcase.
other than the questions
the setup present, it's a really good action film. B+.
Five-Year
Engagement - over two hours long, though i don't recall checking
my watch. it felt long, but i wouldn't have guessed it was over 2 hours.
it's a nice story about a pretty typical situation faced by couples these
days. one gets a job offer that would take them both away from their current
life and the other has to decide whether they are ok with going or not.
in this case it's the woman who wants to move and the guy who has to go
along. edelstein thought it was a regressive film because the woman couldn't
move without the man losing something as a result or something like that.
my recollection of the film was that segel was more than willing to go
along with his fiance (played by emily blunt), but only became truly disturbed
when the 2 year committment turned into 5. sure, he was put off by the
fact that he had to take a major step down in his career - from sous chef
at a great place in SF to a sandwich maker in ann arbor, but he seemed
happy other than that. edelstein read too much into it, in my opinion.
it's a mostly funny
film wich a strong supporting cast. i think casting directors and writers
are getting better at encorporating supporting talent into films and a
lot of them are coming from comedy clubs and tv shows. this one had mindy
kaling and chris pratt, for example. for me, it was a solid picture, but
i laughed more than anyone else in the theater so you probably won't like
it as much. B.
04/24/12
Murder
On A Sunday Morning - academy award winning documentary. same director
who did the 6.5 hour staircase documentary. shows both in content and style.
this isn't as compelling a film, but it's another courtroom/crime documentary
that brings together several threads. it's about a black kid who is accused
of killing a white woman for her purse. he supposedly shoots the woman
within a couple feet of his husband and then steals her purse. he then
confesses to the local cops (i should note that this takes place in florida
so it has some trayvon martin elements to it) and he's on trial for his
life. i won't tell you how it turns out, but suffice it to say there is
plenty of intrigue and drama. the defense attorney is a real character,
as well. i could watch these rashomon documentaries all day. B.
04/22/12
Cabin
In The Woods - i never officially said so, but i sorta figured
that scream was the alpha and omega when it came to postmodern horror films.
it spoke to the genre and inhabited it equally well and i figured it would
basically never be touched again. it's kinda like unforgiven in that way,
though not as great. well, cabin in the woods takes it another step further.
and while the ending left me wanting something else, it's a solid film
on the whole that does a lot of thinking and commenting on the genre. horror
is, despite its appearances, one of the most thoughtful film genres there
is. stuff like bloodsucking freaks and scream call into question the norms
of the genre and even question the audience and its fascination with these
films. cabin in the woods does those things as well and portrays the genre
as a paint by numbers sort of exercise as well as a catharsis and substitution
for "something worse." in other words, we get off on watching these kids
get butchered in the woods so we don't have to quench the thirst of our
dionysian/id in more destructive ways. B+
Three
Stooges - if you like the original stooges stuff then you'll probably
like this. in a way it's what the farrelly brothers have always been about.
silly, slapstick comedy. it wasn't great, but looking back on some of the
stooges' shorts - they weren't always great either. to me it's more about
the stooges on the whole instead of a few classic moments or bits. so,
remaking them in one movie doesn't necessarily make that much sense. it's
an homage to them and scratches the surface of what made what they did
great, but not much more than that. B-.
04/20/12
Eraserhead
- trying to revisit some david lynch to give him another shake. never seen
this film in its entirety until now. it's weird and that's really all i
can say about it. what is he trying to say or accomplish? what is any surrealist
film trying to do? if you have something to say, say it. i'm too straightforward
a guy to enjoy these films so this kind of stuff is at a decided disadvantage
from the get go. i guess it's about isolation and relationships with some
cronenberg body disfigurement stuff mixed in. it felt like a mix between
cronenberg, rosemary's baby and the begotten. that's mostly a bad thing.
D.
04/19/12
Raid:
Redemption - more gory than anticipated, but this is a great action
film. the fight choreography is really good, reminiscent of tony jaa's
stuff more than anyone else. good cinematography during the initial raid
and then it felt like they gave up on being creative with the camera and
chose more to film it somewhat traditionally.
it also has a surprisingly
poignant and meaningful ending. the two brothers embracing what they are
and eschewing what they are not, but still remaining brothers. a good film
worth seeking out for action film fans. B+.
04/17/12
White
Heat - classic gangster film. the thing that really makes this
film is cagney's character and performance. his relationship with his mom,
his psychosis, his complete break from humanity...all leading to the infamous
ending. B+.
04/16/12
[Rec]
- original version of quarantine. the u.s. version is basically an exact
remake of this so they're pretty much interchangeable. no reason to see
both or one over the other, really. jennifer carpenter is in the remake
and some good looking spanish chick who won a goya for best new actress
is in the original. i'm actually
interested in seeing
the sequel for this one because it follows the original storyline and aftermath.
quarantine 2, though, just goes with a similar plot in a new place with
new characters. B+
30
Rock Season Three - pretty consistently b+ show. some laugh out
loud moments, but mostly just solid comedy. salma hayek is jack's season
long love interest. there are some funny moments there and she's good eye
candy, but no great comedy comes from it. the sexual tension between baldwin
and fey's characters has got to give at some point. or maybe not. B+.
04/15/12
Arrested
Development Season Three - it may be a good thing that the series
ended when it did. other than the ending which was anti-climatic, i never
felt that the quality dropped off. at the same time, there's only so long
that you can prolong this kind of plot without losing interest.
the series references
seinfeld quite frequently and so it's fitting that it went out on top,
as seinfeld did. B+.
04/13/12
Arrested
Development Season Two - season 2 continues with the laughs and
absurdity, but we see some of the beginning of the end coming through when
fox goes from 22 episodes to 18 and it is alluded to within the show. AD
isn't the first show to refer to itself or push the boundaries in this
way, but it does it well and to even greater effect in the third season
when the end is in sight. B+.
04/09/12
Arrested
Development Season One - starts off solid and doesn't take too
much time to find its voice and point of view. there's maybe a little too
much recap stuff from the narrator (ron howard) in this season, but that
makes sense because they were trying to establish the story with a new
audience.
it's pretty edgy stuff
overall with the implied incest some of the other innuendo and subject
matter. in this way it fits into the fox model which has consistently been
about pushing boundaries with simpsons, married with children, and family
guy.
the writing is very
good and smart. self-referential, pop culture aware and edgy. but its greatest
success is probably in the characters which are well cast and well drawn.
they are very clear cut individuals, there's never any mystery about these
characters. another strength is that there are several characters who are
funny in their own way - gob, tobias, lindsay, george michael...all are
clueless or entitled or utterly lost in their own way and uniquely funny
as a result. B+.
04/02/12
Friends
With Kids - very quickly falls into the rom-com genre, but without
much of either. adam scott is good and there is other capable talent attached,
but it never achieves lift off and is basically flat throughout. i blame
this on the writer/director jennifer westfeldt. the last line of the film
is "fuck the shit out of me" and it's supposed to be romantic, so i guess
you get the idea. i actually thought at the time "poor leading actress
who had to deliver that line." then i saw the credits role and i realized
that the writer/director was also the leading lady. perhaps because she
wanted to be a big star or perhaps because she couldn't convince anyone
else to deliver that line. not god awful. C-.
04/01/12
Six
Feet Under Season Five - spoilers...
overall, not a heck
of a lot better than the previous season. i started out this series with
reservations, so i wasn't really disappointed by the first couple seasons,
but these last two were underwhelming. i also knew that in the end we see
everyone die. oddly, knowing that bit of spoiling information didn't take
anything away from the series, or from the ending. as bad as parts of this
series were i'll say that it was worth it because of the 6.5 minutes that
cap it all off.
honestly i didn't think
i cared much about any of the characters, and despised some of them. by
the end of the series i had some degree of affection towards david and
keith, but could do without pretty much everyone else. the strength, though,
in seeing all these characters die in that final sequence isn't just in
the characters and having spent 50+ hours with them over the last five
seasons. it's also the weight of life and death itself. ahead of time i
thought about knowing how it ends. i suspected that i might have feelings
about the ending despite not liking so many of these people, but i didn't
know to what degree that would be true. as annoying as these people have
been in these last five seasons, seeing them pass away in basically average
ways (other than keith, i'll get to that later) - old age, heart attacks,
etc. - was still quite moving. death is a sad thing even for people as
troubled as nate or claire or ruth. david, who did a lot of unsavory things
in his life, was a well-meaning guy with a deep love for keith and it was
beyond sad to see him pass while envisioning keith playing football with
the guys. seeing keith get killed, as an old man still trying to make ends
meet as a security guard, was particularly poignant because at the end
of the series he was pretty much the only primary character i could say
i liked.
as shitty a series
as this was at times, and it really was a slog to get through from time
to time, i have to say it was worth it because of those final 6.5 minutes
that will probably always stick with me. they do about as good a job as
i can think of when it comes to portraying life's arc. not just the sadness
of death or the triumph of life (there are better films that address those).
the show looks at life and death in its totality. this arc isn't exclusive
to good people or likable people; it's life. there are ups and downs and
chapters and regrets and losses and breakdowns and triumphs and, in the
end, probably a great emptiness. as much as it portrays that emptiness,
though, the show also demonstrates how we live on in others and that's
about the only afterlife i'll probably ever believe in. the legacy we leave
behind in the form of our children or our apprentices or our artwork or
friends. it's as good as anything i can remember at showing how close life
and death can be. at showing how the two interact and inform each other.
i wish there wasn't
so much sex-centric stuff. i wish the last two seasons were more solid.
i wish nate was played by a better actor and wasn't written as such a back
slider. overall, though, it's a decent series with a homerun ending that
makes it all worth it. that ending made me bawl like a little kid, it was
kind of pathetic actually. there's some wisdom in the series, too, if you
look for it. at one point nate is dreaming about lisa and saying that he
feels like he had a once in a lifetime chance and he fucked it up. lisa
tells him that she's not a chance, she's a person. often, i think we do
that - project upon people in our lives our hopes and dreams. to him, she
was a chance to get things right in the traditional sense. he was looking
at it the wrong way of course and it was destined for failure.
another one spoken
to nate: "If you think life's a vending machine where you put in virtue
and take out happiness, then you're going to be disappointed." that one
in particular struck me. because i've always wanted life to be like that
and have increasingly tried to play the game "the right way." it gets frustrating
if that isn't rewarded. that's the conservative side of me i think - the
side that looks for justice and fairness instead of allowing shortcuts
and freeloading to be rewarded. but life isn't always like that. so much
of life is about learning to accept things, even characters as flawed as
claire living to 102 while keith dies at 60.
the season as a whole:
C.
the final 6.5 minutes: A+.
Mirror
Mirror - a nice take on the snow white tale. unsure how two of
these got green lighted for release in the same year, but it should be
interesting to compare and contrast. i have no idea how any of them compare
to the original grimm fairy tale. the cast is good, roberts is a real standout
as the queen. she's devilish
and has just the right
amount of tongue in cheek humor in her performance to never be over the
top, nor to underplay the tone. lily collins is attractive and perfect
as snow white. she has a quiet strength and of course the beauty you expect
from snow white.
since it's a tarsem
singh film you know the visuals are going to be great and he doesn't disappoint
here. the costumes and sets are oscar-worthy as well. all that said, something
about it didn't quite come together for me. it was funny and good to look
at and all that, but i wasn't drawn in quite as much as i would have liked.
maybe it was the direction or the writing or maybe it was just because
i was tired. B.
Hunger
Games - full disclosure: i own stock in lions gate so i have a
vested interest in everyone watching this. never read the books so i won't
go there. it's surprising that the film has as much hype as it does. it's
a good film, but i didn't see anything in the themes or storytelling that
would indicate to me that this would be a big blockbuster. i would have
given it the green light if i were an executive, but i wouldn't expect
it to be a billion dollar franchise. i can see the appeal to young women
and people who like character development which is to say i wouldn't think
it would do all that well in america.
there's some real meat
to the film which was a surprise considering it has been compared to twilight
so many times and appeals to the same demographic. whereas twilight sets
women back 50 years and is about the worst thing to ever be filmed, this
is empowering, interesting, and has some actual depth to it. since it's
a trilogy or quadrilogy (i think there are going to be four films, but
i'm not sure) you know you're not going to get real finality out of the
ending which is always a downer. that said, i thought they did a good job
of keeping you interested for the next chapter while closing this one.
it's a bit slow and long, especially for today's audiences. that's an encouraging
thing, though, because it's a long,
slowish film that is
hugely popular, empowering and has some depth.
jennifer lawrence is
great. B+.
03/31/12
Six
Feet Under Season Four - the series gets into real depressing and
fatalistic territory in this season. perhaps i'm viewing it without the
right point of view. perhaps there was a tongue in cheek quality i missed
in this season. perhaps the over-the-top awfulness of the characters here
is supposed to be funny. or maybe the creators and writers just hate the
characters. i honestly don't know. how i read it, though, is that these
characters whom we have followed for the last 3 seasons are now falling
apart even more than ever. they're either pathetic, grating and annoying
(ruth/david) or lack all moral fiber and seem to take themselves far too
seriously (claire/nate). it was during this season that i basically stopped
caring about the characters because i didn't see much hope for them. they
were devolving, moving backwards, and in a pretty depressing way. some
moments were just laughable in their dramatic flair. the end of episode
three shows them all having a bonfire in the backyard (in la?!) and staring
at it longingly. then clair turns on some radiohead and nate adds his sheets
to the fire to cleanse himself of lisa. whatever. nate once again looks
for meaning through sex, this time with anna gunn of breaking bad fame,
and that goes nowhere (big surprise since that strategy was so successful
in the past).
federico falls apart
and starts a sort of affair with a stripper. claire gets an orgasm from
one of her artsy fartsy friends. david assaults someone and keith has to
fix things for him by (what else?) debasing himself sexually.
it's a real downer
of a season and i felt like it just went through the motions. D+.
03/24/12
21
Jump Street - solid laughs throughout the entire film. tatum and
hill have good chemistry and there are a couple decent supporting characters.
generally these buddy comedies, and comedies in general these days, get
bogged down by plot in the latter half of the film and lose sight of keeping
the laughs going. they get overly sentimental or figure out that they need
a bunch of explosions and plot to check things off the list. that didn't
happen here, though, so it was money well spent. B+.
03/23/12
30
Rock Season Two - continues to get better. it's easy to see now
why alec baldwin receives so many emmy's for this character. men in comedies
are hardly ever very complex. generally they seem to fit the homer simpson
(or maybe ralph kramden) mold of being dumb and simple. alec baldwin is
a right winger so some might call him dumb, but he definitely pretty simple.
he cares about status and sex and not much else. of course he's also funny
as hell. B.
03/22/12
Senna
- there's a lot going on in this documentary about the brazilian formula
one driver of the 80s and 90s. he's like a brazilian prefontaine, only
he had a chance to fulfill his potential before passing away. in this way
it's an interesting film, too, because we see him rise and fall somewhat.
toward the end of his career he begins to blame his car and he accuses
another driver of using illegal equipment - these are the same things that
he accuses prost of doing in the twilight of his career. the contrasts
between prost and senna aren't just about racing style, they're also about
how we live life. prost plays it by the numbers and ends his career with
4 championships. senna pushes the limits at all times and ends a shorter
career with 3 championships. as someone who is intensely interested in
how to live a good life these two and their racing styles are quite interesting
to me.
overally it does a
good job of rising above the confines of the documentary subgenre of great
young fill-in-the-blank dies too young. it presents senna somewhat more
organically than the documentaries that show the subject via archival footage
and a lot of doting peers and commentators. we see senna has he rises to
greatness. even the casual or non-racing fan can see his skill in some
of the footage they present, so getting me to appreciate him on that level
was an accomplishment of sorts. it would have been nice to have a little
more explanation of some of the rules of f1 racing for those of us who
know nothing about the sport, but overall most of the stuff was fairly
well explained and decipherable for the average person.
interesting character.
B+.
03/21/12
Game
Change - i'm not sure how much of the behind the scenes stuff is
based on verifiable fact, so i'll get that out of the way now. much of
the film jibes with what i know about mccain and palin and the 2008 race
in general, but some of the more scandalous, gossipy things i hadn't heard
about. anyone with a brain can see that palin doesn't have one in the traditional
sense. the right thinks this film is a hit job, but i found it to be mostly
pretty fair to her. she comes off as ambitious and not altogether well-versed
on politics and foreign policy 101. however, she does come off as principled
- she supposedly wanted to return all the expensive clothes that the campaign
bought her and her family, she didn't want to appear with anyone who was
pro-choice, etc. it's clear that she has a very strong sense of what is
right and wrong; though i disagree with her on most points.
the film itself isn't
all that great. the writing could use an aaron sorkin punch up and most
of the actors turn in less than stellar performances. jay roach is tapped
again to do a political recount (no pun intended) of an actual event. last
time he did this it was on another star-studded hbo film - recount - which
was about the florida recount in 2000. he's an odd choice for these films
since his strengths are really as a comedic director. B-.
03/20/12
Jeff,
Who Lives At Home - reminded me a bit of magnolia in addition to
signs which it explicitly references throughout the film. all the leads
do a good job and ed helms turns in an uncharacteristic performance in
that he plays a porsche driving jerk. jerks always drive porsches - bridesmaids
is another example.
the characters are
spot on in my estimation. jeff reminded me quite a bit of my old best friend
phil, as well as my sister. he's a ne'er-do-well pothead who lives at home
and doesn't exactly have his crap together. that is, until he gets a phone
call and follows this "sign" everywhere it takes him. ultimately it's a
life-affirming film about taking control of your life, being honest, not
wasting time and all that cheesy stuff. jeff is vindicated in the end because
his hippie-dippy idea about following this sign ends up working out for
everyone involved. everything comes together and maybe we even believe
it a little bit because we want to. we want to think that everything we're
doing - all the precautions and training and experiences we have are leading
to our being able to do great things at some moment in the present or future.
if not then it's a total waste of time, right? take shelter touched on
this in a different way. he, too, was vindicated. what appeared to be psychotic
was actually prescient.
sometimes people say
that they have no regrets or that they wouldn't undo anything that they've
done in the past because if they did then it would mean that they wouldn't
be where they are at that moment. this is supposed to affirm that they
are happy with where they are, i guess. i've said it before and sorta believed
it at various times. but the truth is that of course i have regrets. there
are things i should have differently or not done at all. i don't think
that doing a few things differently in the past would make me such a radically
different person that i would have such a different outlook on life or
be such a different person that all my relationships would be different.
ultimately i suppose
it comes down to the fact that those mistakes (hopefully) make us less
like to repeat them in the future. even that, though, doesn't necessarily
need to be true. if there were only some way of learning from the mistakes
of others rather than making our own every step of the way. for some i
guess this is the bible or others it could be listening to the regrets
of those before them or aesop's fables which outline as well as anything
else the foibles of humanity. anyway, it was a really good movie. B+.
03/19/12
Six
Feet Under Season Three - kind of similar in feel to season three
of breaking bad. it gets even more depressing than the previous season
because the flaws of the characters continue to grow while the characters
seem to devolve. david continues to invest himself in a seemingly dead
end relationship with keith. nate has gotten rid of brenda and tries to
fly straight, but he's just going through the motions and it shows. claire
is really the only one who exhibits growth this season and it only seems
to really occur in the last few episodes when she dumps her boyfriend and
tells her teacher what a douche he is.
things definitely heat
up this season with more characters coming in (rainn wilson and ben foster
among them) and some things finally coming to a head at the very end of
the season. B.
03/18/12
Lord
Of The Rings: Return Of The King - the extended version is absurdly
long (4hrs 15 minutes) and it seems to meander and ruminate too much on
battle scenes or little moments. i had only seen this once in the theater,
but this viewing confirms that it's the worst of the trilogy. in rewatching
them with my cousin i'd have to say that each one gets a little worse than
the former. it's certainly not a bad film and the first two weren't short
by any means, but this one takes the length to an absurd level in my opinion.
the ending feels anti-climatic,
though i suppose anything would after 11+ hours of build-up. this one got
all the oscars because the previous two didn't, not because this is the
one that actually deserved all the praise. as a trilogy this is in must-view
territory, unfortunately this final installment doesn't quite rise to that
level. i'd like to rewatch the neverending story because it has so many
similar elements in a tighter package. B+.
03/17/12
30
Rock Season One - netflix describes the series as smart, but i
found that most of the first season was actually relatively puerile. it's
good, but it was silly and juvenile through most of the season.
going into it i expected
tina fey's character to be a bit above the fray.instead she's just one
more of the flawed characters which is kinda cool. she's actually more
likable because of her flaws. the comedy mostly derives from her and alec
baldwin with tracy morgan and others chipping in occasionally. the self-referential
quality is endearing and a good source of humor. B.
03/16/12
A
Bug's Life - it's a cross between an aesop's fable (the ant and
the grasshopper) and kurosawa's the seven samurai. it's about a group of
bandit grasshoppers who never store their own food for the winter and always
steal it from the peasant ants. so, one ant goes out and recruits some
other bugs that he thinks are badass mercenary types (the seven+ samurai).
unfortunately they turn out to be circus performers so hilarity ensues.
it's a good take on those two prior works and was interesting in that way.
it's also interesting how water was used in the film - even a drop can
be a destructive force. overall not a bad film, though the animation (especially
that of the bird) left something to be desired. with a film like toy story
the plasticy-fake look worked ok, but not so much here. pixar still didn't
have the texture looking right yet. B.
03/11/12
American
Pie - immature and overly sexualized drivel. in other words it
perfectly matches what it's like to be a teen boy. total classic for its
iconic moments, premise, and characters. A-.
American
Pie 2 - a worthy sequel. B+.
American
Wedding - low production values here. it felt like this one was
made just for the money. stifler's character is way over the top and most
of the jokes are of the gross out type. nothing special with this installment.
C+.
03/10/12
Patsy
- this might actually be the only jerry lewis film i've seen. he's pretty
funny here. it's basically a pygmalion type setup where he's a bellboy
or whatever who is sculpted by some hollywood handlers who have lost their
star in a plane crash or something. B.
Hour
Of The Gun - sturges film that picks up where gunfight at the ok
corral ends. jason robards (who was seemingly the same age for the last
40 years of his career) plays doc holliday and that's the acting highlight
of the film. there are other notable stars, but they don't do anything
of particular note here. the film itself isn't all that special. it's a
good enough drama film with the typical western elements. it felt like
the searchers and the wild bunch, both of which are better. a posse (this
one happens to be lawful) looking for the bad guys, bonding all the while.
the earps are an interesting subject largely because of doc holliday. holliday
was basically an outlaw who was riding with the earps. so it's an interesting
juxtaposition of the shining example of the law in the west (earps) alongside
doc holliday who was a gambler and wanted murderer. but, hey, that's the
wild west. C+.
03/09/12
Crazy
Horse - uninteresting and uninspired documentary from frederick
wiseman who is somewhat of an icon in the genre. it's about the crazy horse
strip club in paris which is evidently undergoing some artistic changes
to its show. the first 15 minutes or more of the film, though, is basically
the audience getting an idea of the show, up close and personal. there's
a reason it's an NC-17 picture. it's not especially sexy or educational
so i wasn't really sold on it from the very start. as the film progresses
we get to see a bit more of the behind the scenes stuff. usually this is
taken up by long bouts of exposition where one person gives their opinion
of how the show should be or how things are going. apparently the french
are extremely long-winded and opinionated. the only time there seems to
be equitable debate is when the dancers are discussing the show. unfortunately,
no matter who is talking, we don't learn a whole heck of a lot about the
industry, the art form, or anything else. D.
03/08/12
Six
Feet Under Season Two - definitely better than season one. season
two sees the characters all growing or regressing or changing. no matter
what direction they are going, things are getting more interesting and
complex. they are difficult characters and that's probably the most rewarding
aspect of the series so far. in a series like dexter, for example, it's
fairly easy to root for dexter even though he is a murderer. here, though,
the characters, and their complexities, are more true to life. we see them,
warts and all, and it makes liking them all the more difficult.
the plot, too, has
picked up. the rival corporate funeral service company ratcheted up their
bid to take over, nate's health deteriorated further, david's love life
continues to ebb and flow, things with the mother's work and love life
get more interesting...all in all it's a more solid season and i'm looking
forward to season three more than i was to season two. B.
03/07/12
A
State Of Mind - unparalleled documentary that follows two north
korean girls who are training for the mass games. the games are a large
gymnastics exposition which displays the all for one mentality of the nation.
thousands of athletes work together doing the same movements; it's quite
an impressive show.
more than anything
the film is valuable because it shows a country that is seen by so few.
somehow the filmmakers were able to get unfettered access to the families
and were able to get out alive. seeing a country that is as isolated and
purely communist as is possible for a nation that size is pretty compelling
stuff. it's a great foil for the u.s. and how we live and how we view ourselves.
honestly, i can see
the appeal of this kind of communism. they've done a good job of balancing
the needs of the individual as well as the desire to be a part of something
larger. they all have a common enemy (u.s.) which tends to help. they also
have a term for individual effort that essentially states that the individual
must do everything they can to make do with what they have. it's the communist
equivalent of rugged individualism and it was interesting to see one of
the fathers talk about it. they don't simply submit themselves to the state
as we may think from the outside. the reality is more nuanced.
i can't argue that
their system of government is better than ours, but it clearly has its
advantages. thought-provoking stuff. B+.
03/06/12
Parks
And Recreation Season One - wasn't sure if i was going to review
these or not, but meryl said i should. the first season is iffy but promising.
the characters were there (poehler and ansari, especially showed promise
early on), but the writing didn't seem like it had found its feet yet.
it's a series that
is fitting for the times we live in when trust in government seems as low
as it has been since watergate. at least now we can laugh at the thought
of a pit taking several years to be filled in and turned into a park or
inane bureaucracy. B-.
Parks
And Recreation Season Two - season two is where the series found
out what it was about. chris pratt and aubrey plaza beginning their flirtation
was a good comedic match. nick offerman's character really blossoms as
a libertarian curmudgeon working for the government; what a setup. i was
skeptical of adam scott and rob lowe at first, but they turned out to be
nice additions to the show. not only from a character standpoint, but also
from a plot perspective as well. B.
Parks
And Recreation Season Three - best season i've seen so far. poehler's
character continues to anchor the show, but aziz ansari, nick offerman
and plaza/pratt get most of the laughs. B+.
03/03/12
Lorax
- slept through about half of this film, but what i did see didn't impress
me much. i think i also remember sleeping through some of horton hears
a who so maybe dr. seuss shouldn't be adapted to film anymore. just a thought.
C-.
Project
X - it's this generation's ferris bueller's day off or risky business.
more the latter, though, because ferris bueller's day off is the only true
classic of the bunch and, even with the totaled ferrari, not as destructive
as the other two. they do all have the common element of a trouble maker
kid taking advantage of their parents' trust and going a step (or several)
too far.
this film is better
than risky business in part because it has a really good soundtrack that
can appeal to a variety of people. it's also a film that is sort of the
logical conclusion of risky business. risky business goes into some darker
territory (drugs and prostitution) than the usual teen comedy and this
one takes the baton and runs toward the lawlessness without reserve. the
characters in project x make about as much trouble as they can without
completely losing the audience. in this way the film really does go as
far as the teen trouble genre can go without turning into criminal drama.
B+.
02/28/12
Under
The Tuscan Sun - pretty much by the numbers midlife crisis chick
flick. diane lane is a better than average actor so that certainly didn't
hurt the film. C+.
02/27/12
Without
Limits - compared to steve james' "prefontaine" this may have been
the more watchable, accessible film. most of the performances were better
here than they were in prefontaine. the notable exception being that i
thought jared leto did a better job than billy crudup. they both show pretty
much the same stuff and begin and end with prefontaine being recruited
and then his death. unsure why only two films have been made about him
and both came out with a year of each other and both are so similar.
they did a very good
job of accurately reproducing the 1972 race. that said, they didn't do
as good a job as "prefontaine" in capturing the time that pre lived in.
this is a slightly easier film to watch, but i think the steve james version
captures more of the context as well as the importance of pre as an athlete
and runner. B.
02/25/12
Gone
- better than expected thriller/mystery. it preys on the usual genre conventions
and uses them to create tension. it also overturns some of them like the
expectation that this rogue female will end up needing a man's help at
some point to defeat the bad guy. in the end, it's a good mix of convention
and convention-breaking that makes the film relatively unpredictable and
surprisingly watchable.
seyfried's character
is unstable, ballsy and very resourceful. she's everything that a male
counterpart might be, but with the added dimension that everyone underestimates
her because of her gender. it's like butch says in pulp fiction "That's
how you're gonna beat 'em, Butch. They keep underestimating you." B.
02/24/12
Good
Deeds -you can't come into a tyler perry film expecting standard
fare. things will be more exaggerated or silly or, in this case,
melodramatic than you've probably come to expect from average films. sometimes
this comes off as grating or amateurish, and sometimes not. good deeds
is kinda in the middle for me. once you resign to yourself to the fact
that you're watching a soap opera, i think you can get a lot more enjoyment
out of it. the audience got it, i, however, took a while to catch on.
i haven't watched a
lot of soap operas, but basically it's clear that no one is perfect and
everything seems like it's the end of the world. perry's version is toned
down a bit (which makes it harder to like, actually), and is ultimately
positive. so, there are some nice messages that the film has and it tackles
some real issues of class and race and family obligation. it does so in
a style, though, that i don't think most are receptive to. also, his direction
doesn't seem to capture the right tone. he doesn't sell it very well, in
other words. add to these problems the many little issues with the screenplay
(perry is a 5th generation ivy league graduate [barely mathematically possible,
i would imagine], the janitor doesn't receive any kind of benefits from
her daughter's dead army dad, etc.) and you have a sloppy, well-intentioned
film that doesn't really achieve meaningful lift-off. C.
Wanderlust
- paul rudd is must-see these days, i just wish he did more stuff. even
when he's aping in front of a mirror while psyching himself up for sex
it's hilarious. really, you could just set the camera up in front of him,
no plot and just have him mess around for an hour and it would probably
be plenty entertaining. B.
02/19/12
Six
Feet Under Season One - first season takes its time establishing
the characters, but by the end of the season i felt invested enough and
interested enough in them and their various struggles to commit to the
second season.
plot-wise the series
is a bit slow, but the characters are compelling enough to keep my interest.
michael c. hall turns in a good performance throughout and the series has
hints of dexter. both revolve around death, both have a dead father who
makes recurring appearances, and (for most of the first season) hall is
hiding something (his homosexuality) from even those close to him. i think
we'll give it one more season to see if it gets better. B-.
02/18/12
This
Means War - technically speaking this is the perfectly crafted
date movie. it's got a little bit of eye candy for both sexes, it's a love
story, it's got some action, it's got a bad boy looking guy who is a softy
and a pretty boy who is a bad boy character, and it's got a happy ending.
there are some nice moments in the film, mostly in the middle. chelsea
handler is good as the raunchy friend of reese witherspoon. well-executed
fluff. B.
02/17/12
Antz
- quite a collection of stars do the voices of this dreamworks animated
film...dan akroyd, sly stone, sharon stone, woody allen, anne bancroft,
gene hackman, j. lo and others. unfortunately the animation is distractingly
bad and the story is formulaic at best. it's a precursor to bee movie which
is about bees instead of ants and they do a much better job in that film
of relating the charm of the colony and of squeezing a lot of material
out of telling the story from that point of view. here there are some little
jokes or bits of material that are gotten from the fact that it takes place
in an ant colony, but mostly it either is played straight or the stuff
falls flat. the mis-spelling of the title is, i guess, a nod to the protagonist's
name - "z." so, i suppose it can be read as ant Z as well as the plural
of ant, modernized. C.
02/15/12
Searchers
- a perennial top pick when it comes to best westerns or best films lists.
i've seen it 4 times
and slept 2 or 3 of those times. wayne's character is tortured by racism
and the civil war and probably a host of other things. and this is the
strength of the film - the host of other things that we don't really ever
see or know about. there's a lot in the film that we don't see - the damaged
bodies left by the comanche, the affair (or whatever it is) that occurs
between wayne and his brother's wife, the surrender of the south in the
civil war, the scalpings, the kidnappings, and many other things. the most
dramatic elements of the film are excised, purposely i'm sure, but i don't
know that it's something that translates today. and this is what i was
getting at in my review
in 2002 - the film leaves a lot out and i think that plays well in
the 50s. today's audience, for better or worse, wants to see what they're
missing. on the whole i think the film is overrated. wayne's performance
is good, not legendary. the setting is great (despite being factually inaccurate
- monument valley isn't texas, though texas might wish it was). the cinematography
is another of the film's strengths. so is the music, though it's sometimes
too literal for me.
the plot is slow and
contains seemingly excessive elements. i think you'd be hard pressed to
justify the existence of every scene in the film. when seen in light of
what is purposely left out, it's puzzling that some of these scenes are
included.
ultimately, i predict
that that film will fade in its perceived greatness in the coming decades.
or maybe i'm wrong. i'm apparently wrong about john ford. i've seen many
of his films, certainly enough to judge him, yet i don't think of him as
a pantheon director. andrew sarris does, though. so does my dad. kurosawa
called him "the master." and orson welles said he learned everything he
needed to know about cinema from "stagecoach." all these people know more
about film than i ever will, yet i can't get excited about any of his films
outside of the grapes of wrath and, to a lesser extent, the man who shot
liberty valance. it's an important film
that has had elements
borrowed from it in films like star wars, but that's not the way i judge
a work, as you well know. if it were, then the bible would be the best
book of all-time, followed by aesop's fables. B.
02/12/12
Prefontaine
- i think steve james (hoop dreams, interrupters, etc.) and i would get
along. this is his only feature film, and i can't say that it's great filmmaking,
but the subject he picked is a good one. the 1972 olympics are probably
the most interesting from a storytellers point of view. you have the israeli
hostage situation, the russia/usa basketball game, and young steve prefontaine
making one of the most daring moves in running history against possibly
the greatest distance runner ever (lasse viren). i first saw this race
when i was 16 or 17 years old and a runner myself. our coach showed us
the 5000m race on vhs and we all kinda thought
that prefontaine had
a chance when, with three laps to go he made his move toward the front.
unfortunately he didn't have the kick that viren and others had. ultimately,
the slow pace is what killed it for him.
the film itself captures
all the drama of the 72 olympics and adds the drama of the time politically
and socially as well as the pro vs. amateur fight that was really heating
up at the time. i don't think this issue was resolved until the 90s when
they finally allowed pros to compete in the olympics and that's most famously
manifested in the dream team which is still the greatest assemblage of
athletic talent the world has ever seen (except for christian laettner).
it also catches the early days of nike. phil knight isn't in it, but of
course bill bowerman is.
the downfall of the
film is in its more human moments. the relationships it portrays never
fully work. some of the acting is flawed as well. ultimately, james is
a documentarian who wanted to tell the story of someone who interests him,
but who had died many years ago. so, you get what this film is. it's a
faux documentary (it's told after his death with many of the characters
narrating their thoughts about prefontaine like they would in a documentary).
it's shot in a cinema verite style as well. i don't think it's going to
draw the average person in very much, but i'm a fan of prefontaine. he
had a great gift and was extremely devoted to it.
so if you like prefontaine
and/or steve james it's worth checking out, otherwise probably not so much.
B.
02/11/12
Paradise
Lost 3: Purgatory - third and final (one must assume) installment
of documentaries covering the west memphis three and the child murders
at robin hood hills.
the first 30 minutes
or so is basically unnecessary for those of us who have seen the first
two installments. i'd like to see a version that is combined into one film,
in two parts, that cuts out all the redundancies. once you get past the
recap portion of the film, though, this is a great cap to the story and
the trilogy of films. when watched along with the staircase and into the
abyss (which i watched a few months ago), you get a pretty interesting
glimpse into the criminal justice system in this country. these films do
well when watched together.
certain themes and
motifs consistently arise. like the women who are drawn to these guys on
death row or life imprisonment. i've worked with one of them before, actually.
basically they come off as normal people on the whole, but i guess there's
just one part of them that desires a man who can't hurt them, but is dangerous
at the same time? or maybe they're ultra jealous and want their man to
be locked up? who knows. i know that scott peterson is extremely popular
and i find that extremely creepy. pop psychology aside, there are other
similarities between all these films.
you see how quickly
truth not only becomes muddled, but also how quickly it becomes secondary
to the rest of the circus. these high profile murder cases become their
own subcultures. you have mr. byers who is probably the most colorful character
in the three films who goes from grieving stepfather (paradise lost 1)
to nutty potential murderer (paradise lost 2) to possibly the most reasonable
guy in the circus (paradise lost 3). by the end of the film you have the
alleged murders who have always looked
the part, but always said they were innocent (except miskelley's one-time
confession under pressure) finally say that they are guilty. once they
admit guilt they are let free by the state, after 17 years in prison. make
sense? it's called an alford plea which is one of those things that can
only exist in a system devoid of real common sense. maybe it makes sense
to some philosopher, but i'm a simple guy so it doesn't make a lot of sense
to me. essentially, in order for the convicted murderers to finally be
set free they must admit that they committed the crime. this allows the
state to not admit any wrongdoing, avoid being sued, etc. it also allows
the convicted (and now admitted) murderers to be set free into society.
basically, the state knew that they were going to get off because of dna
evidence (actually lack thereof) as well as other new evidence, so they
let the guys go...after 17 years of wrongful (in my mind) incarceration.
brilliant system.
the whole thing is
so bizarre and twisted. there are all these little subplots and interesting
sidebars and secondary characters. meanwhile we have three innocent men
who have had their lives basically ruined and three innocent boys who were
murdered a long time ago and are always in the background, forgotten.
this installment is
the cherry on top and its grade is indicative of the trilogy, rather than
just the last film. A-.
02/10/12
Safe
House - pretty much played out as you expect once you know who
all the characters are. lots of acting talent here with farmiga, denzel,
and gleeson, but it's not really utilized well. plays like a tony scott
film in terms of look and feel, but ultimately doesn't deliver like one.
a little longish, otherwise it passes the time albeit not in the most inspired
way. B-.
02/09/12
Animal
Kingdom - not quite sure why this one received so much hype. it's
reminiscent of many family crime dramas where anything can happen and you
get that the protagonist needs to worry about his life/well being all the
time. i found it to be a fairly lifeless film, though, and, as a result,
i can't say i would have minded the death of any of the characters. sure,
the acting was good and the matriarch was creepy at times, but it never
achieved lift off for me. B-.
Staircase
- maybe the best courtroom/criminal justice documentary of all-time, can't
think of a better one except maybe the paradise lost trilogy. follows a
man who is accused of killing his wife. she's found at the bottom of a
staircase dead with a lot of blood at the scene. was she beaten or did
she fall? the plot thickens with every 45 minute episode of this 6.5 hour
drama. yeah, it's long, but it's very compelling stuff.
the victim, as always,
is lost in the shuffle as is the truth. everyone around michael (the accused)
gets sucked into this thing, sides are chosen, politics, his sexual orientation,
etc. all factor into the case in some way. i feel like these courtroom
documentaries are like war films where the first casualties are truth and
innocence. it's a depressing work in the final analysis because each side
is so tenacious in its argument, because things that shouldn't be considered,
are. because a family is torn apart, once again. because we'll never really
know what happened and yet so much is on the line. it shows, as if we didn't
already know, that truth isn't obtainable and that people (on both sides)
are blind to facts and arguments that don't fit their views. A-.
02/08/12
Dexter
Season Six - spoilers. sure the show is formulaic in its ebb and
flow and conflict setup, but it's solid entertainment with some meaty stuff
to think about as well. with this season we're officially all caught up
with the rest of the world and it's too bad because, for the first time,
the end of the season left a cliffhanger.
the dexter/deb relationship
is what drives this season more than anything else. her feelings for him,
her walking in on him killing yet another victim...how is this going to
affect an already fragile deb? how will he explain things? will he come
clean or draw a new line of defense (e.g., say that it was just this one
time because he felt so strongly about the case). if he covers his ass
and kills her, dexter will never be the same again. we won't be able to
ever side with him again, that's for sure. of course, in reality, he crossed
that line a long time ago, but, in a fictional world, we can still root
for him right now. B+.
02/07/12
Chronicle
- felt like cloverfield, but it wasn't as exciting. there was a latent
power in the film that was only barely ever released. and by the time things
did peak i wasn't sure i knew what i was supposed to make of it all. is
it just a story about coming of age? B-.
02/04/12
Dexter
Season Five - after losing rita because of inaction at the end
of season four, i sorta figured dexter would turn for the worse. i also
figured he wouldn't find anyone who could fill the emptiness left by her
absence. i was wrong on both accounts and this leads to a possibly even
more depressing finale than last season.
the main plotline here
is the bonnie and clyde setup with dexter and lumen (julia stiles) hunting
down men involved in the rape of stiles and 12 other women. in lumen, dexter
finally finds someone who he can open up to, who is like him, and who isn't
completely nutty. there's a caveat, though, which is that lumen is only
like dexter so long as she is hunting the men who raped her. so, by season's
end, after the task is complete, lumen realizes that her need to avenge
is gone; her "dark passenger" has left her, as dexter puts it. it's sad,
but inevitable and this inevitability is what keeps it less tragic than
rita's murder, for me anyway.
deb continues to be
a strong character. she's the rock and moral compass of the show in many
ways. sure she loses it from time to time and she has a way of getting
involved with people she shouldn't, but she's also a strong character with
character. everyone else seems to have their issues - angel is blinded
by lust, maria is power hungry, dexter is a murderer...deb, though, seems
to always have the best intentions even though it may not always work out
for her.
these last two seasons
have been the best so far. i only wish they could increase interest in
the first half of the season. it seems like a back loaded show in that
all the drama comes late. B+.
02/02/12
Artist
- i've always wanted hollywood to revisit silent and noir films, but it
never seems to happen. sure, they do it in their own way with fargo or
l.a. confidential or something, but they never fully embrace the style
of yore. luckily, we have the french who love early hollywood. sometimes
it creates crappy, overrated wannabes like godard, but occasionally you
get a solid film like rififi or the artist. there's nothing amazing about
this film, but it revisits the style in a loving and charming way. film
geeks love movies about movies so this one should get a strong showing
at the academy awards. someone has probably written about the interesting
relationship between the french and the americans, i'd like to read it.
they bailed us out in the revolutionary war, they gave us the statue of
liberty, we bailed them out of world wars one and two, they labeled our
greatest film genre (film noir), etc. this film adds another page to the
book. and while it's interesting in that way and as a piece of film history,
it doesn't strike me as a particularly great film. it's solid. it's fun.
it's a nice throw back. but i didn't see greatness in it. B.
01/31/12
Breaking
Bad Season One - so i'm going to start reviewing select tv series
as i watch them. each season will count as one movie, i think that's fair.
i plan on only counting series that have a running plot like like breaking
bad, sopranos, etc. in other words, south park, the simpsons, twilight
zone, etc. won't be included. there are going to be more spoilers in these
reviews than in my movie reviews so don't read any of the reviews if you
haven't already watched the season in question. i'll try to keep spoilers
to the seasons they occurred in.
most tv series have
trouble finding their feet the first season, but bb is an exception to
this. it pretty much hits the ground running from the pilot episode. it
keeps you interested right away with a problem or clue in the opening scene
that needs solving or figuring. i like their opening scenes for this reason.
it reminds me a bit of far country (james stewart/anthony mann western)
which opens with three men riding into town. one of them (stewart) has
the guns of the other two, but we also get the impression that they were
partners at one point. how did this happen? what will come of this tension?
the beginning asks a question and the rest of the episode (usually) answers
it. it's a great device.
the first season is
really well pitched. there's plenty of drama, things are still very believable
and i felt like jesse and walt could still emerge from things (relatively)
undamaged. the titles of episodes 2 and 3 reference a line from the sweet
smell of success. i'm writing this review a month or two after watching
the first season so i don't have too much to say about it specifically,
but i will say that breaking bad is the series that started me thinking
about getting into tv more. when i lived in ohio i watched twin peaks (season
one) and sopranos and west wing in their entirety, but didn't feel compelled
to write about them as much as i do about this. breaking bad is top notch.
cranston is great. aron paul really grew on me and the secondary characters
are intriguing, good foils, good for plot, and great comic relief. A.
Breaking
Bad Season Two - probably my favorite season of the series through
the 4th. things with tuco really heat up and jesse and walt are forced
to grow even closer, while also getting more tense. walt is forced into
lies that grow increasingly deep and convoluted. the blackout lie and getting
close to hank finding out about everything when he is at tuco's really
stretch the limits of walt's imagination and resourcefulness. there's also
still a good amount of science in this season and i found that that fades
as the series progresses.
this season shows the
highs and lows of the business as well as any other and does so while maintaining
believe-ability. after all that jesse and walt go through with tuco they're
still broke. it's the classic case of having to go deeper or dropping out
completely. they choose to go deeper. saul's character is introduced (my
favorite outside of jesse/walt) and they go from rags to riches after finding
gus.
there are a lot of
professional changes as well. hank moves up in the dea and there's a life
changing event there. walt has trouble at work. jesse realizes he can't
break into normal society. skyler gets a job and drama emerges there.
we also see jesse continue
to evolve. his run-in with the meth heads and their son is a highlight.
unfortunately as jesse seems to be getting better femme fatale jane takes
a turn and they drag each other down the drug rabbit hole. jesse is too
much of a follower for his own good. walt turns a major corner in the second
half of the season culminating with him allowing jane to die in front of
him. A.
Breaking
Bad Season Three - things really fall apart for the first half
of this season. i stopped pulling for walt and jesse as all their wrangling
and lies had seemingly left them bereft of possible redemption. hank emerges
as a more central character this season and skyler is much more active
as well. jesse and walt get as close as ever to being caught when hank
finds the rv at the junkyard.
this was a tough season
for me. it hurt to see jesse off the wagon last season, but it's almost
worse to see him resigned to criminality here. his strong moral compass
when it comes to kids is redemptive and walt stepping up for him, thus
strengthening their partnership, are good things to see. of course this
is capped off by the finale which is as tense as any episode in the series.
the series continues
to be about walt/jesse and them solving problems together, but this is
the season where hanks and skyler really are central to the plot. i think
of it as a plot-driven show since so much is always happening, but the
characters are so strong and complex that it works on both levels. as always,
actions have consequences and we see that here. A.
Breaking
Bad Season Four - this season gets a little outlandish with some
of the plot. things are almost ridiculously tense. it's contrived hysteria
at times, but i mean that in a good way. the writers do a good job of ratcheting
up the drama without straying too far into absurdity.
in gus, walt finally
has an adversary worthy of his intelligence. much of the series walt is
obsessed with the fact that he's underutilized in this regard so it's nice,
in a way, to see him finally challenged to the fullest. his potential is
being realized and i guess that's all any of us can hope for, but it so
completely destroys everything around him - his family, jesse, the community,
order - that it's also depressing. hank's idleness is similar - he's bed-ridden
and unable to fulfill his potential until he goes out with walt looking
for heisenberg and breaks the law in his pursuit of his white whale.
i'd like to think that
walt and jesse can return to some normalcy in the final season, but they've
passed the point of no return. walt is far too tenacious to give up and
there are loose ends that will surely bite them next season. ted's death
may haunt skyler, the cartel wanting a piece of jesse (who helped gus in
his overthrow), etc. at the end of the season it looked like maybe they
were done with the business, but the business may not be done with them.
A.
Dexter
Season One - the first season takes a little while to lift off,
but it is intriguing enough to keep you coming back for more. dexter is
a more plot-driven series than it is character-driven. i found myself much
more interested in who the ice cream truck killer was than what motivated
any of the characters. part of that is a lack of great secondary characters
and part of that is the voiceover, which inserts for the viewer, dexter's
interpretation of the characters and events. so, instead of interpreting
things yourself, you are given his opinion; in essence you are told what
to think. i think that the use of the voice over evolves a bit as the series
progresses. it's less present and more seamless. it's more funny, too.
dexter is like a lot
of people and he has a code, he has scruples which makes him capable of
some sympathy. i think audiences appreciate when psychopaths draw a line,
it allows them to connect at least a little bit. towards the end of the
season dexter is forced to decide what kind of person he's going to be,
and this is the kind of decision he'll likely face throughout the entire
series.
luke got me started
on this and i wasn't really sold on the series until about half way through
the first season. you really have to give a series several episodes if
you see any potential. even seinfeld took a little while to find its feet.
glad we stuck with it. B.
Dexter
Season Two - this season was about the hunt for the bay harbor
butcher and dexter battling with living a normal life or a life in the
closet. i think this will be a long standing theme of the show. if he ever
goes fully in one direction or the other the show will lose much of its
intrigue. this is also the season where lila plays the foil for dexter.
his brother was the foil in the first season, but he was firmly on the
insane side of the spectrum. lila comes off as embracing her wickedness
in a less destructive way. turns out, though, that she's a total nut who
is willing to do whatever she needs to get what she wants. her insane energy
and dastardly
manipulation make for
some good episodes.
it was during the first
part of this season that i found myself finally warming up to dexter the
character. i was already sold on the series, but the character hadn't quite
won me over yet. now, though, i started thinking to myself "maybe we
need a guy like dexter around to do the dirty work for us from time to
time." just a thought.
it's a really taut
season as it revolves around looking for the bay harbor butcher which is
dexter. lundy is hot on his tail and so is sgt. doakes. dexter comes as
close as he can to giving himself up without actually doing it. B.
Dexter
Season Three - the season of jimmy smits as foil and friend of
dexter. took a little while to get into the plot of this season since the
stakes weren't as high. but smits' character was good and unpredictable.
dexter, and the audience, think that smits is for real - a potential partner
and friend for dexter. someone who finally understands dexter but isn't
a sociopath. someone who dexter can teach and learn from at the same time.
but, as always, things unravel and smits turns out to be another nut job.
a formula is arising here. we have a foil for dexter. dexter becomes more
normal and assimilated. dexter reaches out to someone who understands him.
this person proves to be unstable and unreliable. dexter kills this person
out of self-preservation and in line with "the code" since this person
also happens to kill the innocent.
i'm left wondering
what will happen once dexter is wrong about someone he kills. he uses science,
sure, but one day may come when he is wrong about who he decides to kill.
this season wasn't as good as season 2, but the production is better in
these two seasons relative to the first. secondary characters like angel,
deb and rita get a
little more meat to them. B.
Dexter
Season Four - just finished this one so it's fresher in my head.
it's the best season i've seen so far. john lithgow is a great foil for
dexter because he's, from afar, the guy who can balance being a killer
with being a family man. sure, he doesn't live by the same code as dexter
(and thus must die), but dexter can learn something from him...or so it
seems. deb goes through some more awful stuff when lundy dies. she's basically
the show's punching bag. things with angel and maria heat up out of nowhere.
he's too good for her, in my opinion.
really, though, this
season is about dexter settling into married/family life. can he successfully
manage those two worlds? probably not, and in the final moments of the
season it turns out he kinda doesn't have to. rita is killed (presumably)
by lithgow, though i'm not sure how he would have found out about dexter's
past. it's possible it was just a coincidence, i suppose. i accidentally
looked up julie benz online and saw that she was dexter's wife through
season 4. it was a fleeting glimpse and at the end of the season i still
held out hope that i had seen it wrong. turns out i didn't, but it wasn't
too much of a spoiler because i never saw it coming that she died the way
she did. honestly it was a very sad moment. dexter needs rita, i think,
and now that he doesn't have her i'm afraid he's going to wander into even
more despicable territory.
season four also saw
dexter being wrong about one of his murder victims for the first time.
john dahl directed several episodes in this season and season three, so
i guess that explains where he's been lately. i also noticed a difference
in the way harry appears in the last couple seasons. instead of being used
solely in flashbacks, harry is now used as dexter's conscience and comments
on what's currently happening. i think it's a more seamless way of inserting
the character and was a good change. B+.
01/29/12
Haywire
- i went into this movie knowing that a lot of stars were in it and that
was all. meryl sets our movie agenda and i told her a while back i wanted
to see it, but had completely forgotten about it by the time we saw it.
as i was watching it i kept thinking that it felt and awful lot like a
steven soderbergh film. the long takes, the movement of the camera, the
david holmes-esque music. it felt like a laid back ocean's eleven. then
the credits roll and it says directed by steven soderbergh and suddenly
the world makes sense. and then it says music by david holmes and i feel
like a genius for about 2 seconds. then i find out that the lead is gina
carano who is an mma star. this makes sense for two reasons. she's a pretty
convincing fighter in the film (though the editing needed some work to
make the fights tighter) and it fits the girlfriend experience mold that
soderbergh made with sasha grey. in that film he got a porn star to play
a prostitute and here he gets an mma fighter to play a mercenary.
the plot wasn't exactly
clear, but it was interesting enough to keep me engaged. carano cleans
up nice, too. all in all it wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't as good as
you expect from soderbergh. B-.
One
For The Money - gotta respect the truth of the title. katherine
heigl could easily move to the next level in the acting world if she chose
to. she's a pretty good actress when the material is there and she has
plenty of pull. in knocked up she made $300k for her starring role. now
she's making over $12 million a picture and, it appears, taking any work
that comes along. this picture is bad and formulaic. heigl tries a jersey
accent, but it's inconsistent and not particularly good anyway. gross commercialism
here. glad we stole this one. D-.
01/27/12
Grey
- thinking back on this movie a few days after seeing it, it's hard to
say exactly why i liked it so much. not a whole lot happens and it's not
the film that the trailer depicts, but it's a real good film nonetheless.
there's a great balance of tension and comedy, some good mystery, and a
nicely chosen cast. liam neeson is pretty much must-see these days. it's
not often that i'd rewatch a movie within a week, but i'd definitely check
this one out again if i had the opportunity. B+.
Man
On A Ledge - nice enough working class tower heist-esque little
movie. the big problem here, though, is that they cast elizabeth banks
when they meant to (or at least should have) cast vera farmiga. every line
that banks delivered had me thinking that farmiga was the one who should
have been the one delivering it. other than that this is a good enough
flick to pass the time. B-.
01/24/12
Extremely
Loud & Incredibly Close - more like extremely obnoxious and
incredibly gay. the kid is annoying and not well acted, though not helped
by the poor screenplay. overly long and cheap in its use of september 11th.
not at all worthy of nomination. not the kid, not the movie, not max von
sydow. the one thing it had going for it was the mystery of finding out
what the key is for and then we find out it's for a stranger's safety deposit
box and we never find out what's inside. a waste. D+.
01/23/12
Iron
Lady - total piece of junk with no soul and no discernible narrative
structure. streep, of course, is very good, but her performance alone doesn't
save this from the scrap pile. a total bore. another shitty british film.
please, someone take away their cameras. D.
01/20/12
Addiction
Incorporated - addiction incorporated primarily a talking heads
documentary that covers the downfall of the tobacco industry. in my college
years i did a fair amount of research on the anti-tobacco lobby and the
tobacco settlement around which the movie revolves, i've also seen the
insider a few times, so it's a not unfamiliar topic to me. despite, not
because of, that i found the documentary to be engaging and informative.
it not only illuminates the tobacco industry and their fight for survival,
but also the special interest and political system we have. by now all
this stuff is fairly old hat for a cynic like me, but it served as a good
reminder that sometimes the truth actually makes a difference. a rare feel
good story in the world of politics. B.
01/11/12
Silent
House - uruguayan horror film supposedly based on real events.
basically it's paranormal activity with the academically interesting twist
that the whole thing is shot in one take. it's the second longest take
i know of in film history, with the first being russian ark. i must say
that both films are not entirely interesting beyond the gimmick, however.
plus, like hitchcock does in rope, there are some cheats in the film that
allow there to be a few cuts, though i'm unsure whether they used them
to cut or not. i just kept wondering why she was wandering around this
house aimlessly as things got more and more terrifying around her. the
ending reminded me of high tension, but it made even less sense. C-.
01/05/12
Bellflower
- the trailer is really good and enticing, unfortunately it's not entirely
indicative of the feel of the film. the film wanders about as does its
protagonist. i kept waiting for something inspiring or weighty to happen
and then the ending finally delivers, only it doesn't. acting and directing
showed promise, but really uncertain how i feel about the story as a whole.
i get what happened and what didn't and i think i understand why everything
was portrayed as it was, i'm just not sure it was worth the build up. B-.
01/02/12
It's
Kind Of A Funny Story - pretty good the second time around as well.
funny and touching with a nice style to it. it's like one flew over the
cuckoo's nest meets 500 days of summer or catcher in the rye or something.
B+.
01/01/12
Girl
With The Dragon Tattoo - better than original overall. it told
the story better and the music and direction were better. both are overly
long, but the books are long and detailed from what i've heard so i understand
why. i almost feel like the ending of both should be an epilogue instead
of the final act. summarized over the credits using news reports would
suffice. one aspect where the remake fell short was the ending wherein
the girl feels let down by blomkvist who continues his romance with another
woman. i just didn't buy the sentimentality from her character. the way
she first comes onto blomkvist, for example, isn't the sign of a woman
who is an emotional wreck going out on a limb. rather it's a sign of a
woman who takes what she wants and evidently wants blomkvist at that moment.
i can't recall all
the other differences between the two films, but the american version had
a better feel in my estimation and i attribute that largely to fincher.
it follows in the mold of se7en (and, to a lesser extent, zodiac) more
than any of his other films. it's not his best work (that's behind him
at this point), but it's a nice enough film and i'll be watching the others
as they come out. B+.
grading scale:
| A+ | 4.3 |
| A | 4.0 |
| A- | 3.7 |
| B+ | 3.3 |
| B | 3.0 |
| B- | 2.7 |
| C+ | 2.3 |
| C | 2.0 |
| C- | 1.7 |
| D+ | 1.3 |
| D | 1.0 |
| D- | 0.7 |
| F+ | 0.3 |
| F | 0.0 |
| F- | -0.3 |
