Jane the Virgin is a charming new CW sitcom based on a Venezuelan telenovela, Juana la Virgen. Jane is an early 20’s girl whose faith and family take preference in her life over everything else. However, after a mix-up at the doctor’s office, Jane (the virgin) becomes pregnant through an accidental artificial insemination, and chaos ensues between Jane’s family, the baby daddy playboy and his crazy wife, and Jane’s long-term boyfriend.
So, get to watching. You can find the show on The CW or Hulu and catch up before tonight’s episode at 9pm EST.
You need more than that? FINE. Can’t just trust me and go watch the show. Way to stick a fork in our otherwise perfect relationship.
5. It’s different from anything else on television
Because the show is based on a telenovela, it plays out like one, with a cheesy narrator who talks far too much and cute animations. If you haven’t seen a telenovela, well, you’re missing out. You think Game of Thrones has shocking twists? HAHA. Telenovelas have more insane deaths in ten minutes than in an entire season in Westoros. (Except wedding season.)
Jane the Virgin follows that same trend, though, thankfully toning down some of the crazier aspects of Spanish soap operas. The show never takes itself too seriously (and does humor very well), but not at the expense of story. Sure, the plot is ridiculous and the characters, at times, campy and far over the top, but they’re still real people, with genuine dialogue and interactions. There’s an honesty to them, and once you think you understand one of them and have decided to hate them, they go and surprise you. (Looking at you, PETRA.)
It’s not even fair how attractive he is as baby daddy Rafael. I’m not a guy (*checks*), but even I’m intimidated by his good looks. Pictures don’t do this man justice; wait until he smiles on screen and your heart will go thump, thump, too. Sure, his acting only varies on a scale from “irritated” to “charming” but that kind of pretty boy naivete adds to his appeal. And I’m shallow. But hey, if this gets one more person to watch the show, then I’ve succeeded. Besides, his character can be sweet, especially when it comes to discussion about the baby.
(Editor’s Note: I’m a guy and it’s not even fair how ridiculously good looking he is. – Bilal)
3. The unborn child is referred to as a “milkshake”
I KNOW. ISN’T THAT HILARIOUS?
2. It has a lot of heart
For a show centered around an improbable premise, with so much cheese I need to see a doctor about the gas, you wouldn’t think it’d tug at your heartstrings, but it does. Of course it has its humor, that’s to be expected, but it’s the little moments–like when Jane and Rafael hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time–that shine the brightest.
Each episode I find myself torn between Team Michael or Team Rafael. (Mostly I’m just Team Jane.) Even more, the relationship between Jane and her mother, Xiomara, is reminiscent of Rory and Lorelai Gilmore: funny, unflinching, and full of secrets. Their respective history with Jane’s pious abuela only adds to the strange but lovable family dynamic. Let’s face it, we could all use something to fill that Stars Hollow-shaped hole in our hearts.
1. Gina Rodriguez
Gina Rodriguez is a damn treasure. After the first episode, I was so in love with her and Jane Villanueva that I filed a restraining order against myself. It’s fantastic to have not just a female protagonist, but one who is honest to a fault and kind, while not being a meek pushover. As she puts it, “I may be a virgin, but I’m not a saint.” And that’s true. Jane’s faith guides her, she believes in it, but it never becomes a caricature for who she is. Push comes to shove, she’s going to defend herself and what she feels is the right choice.
At first glance, Jane the Virgin appears to be yet another “oops, I’m pregnant” story, and while the pregnancy is the main plot for now, it’s more of a show about a young woman relinquishing the hold others have over her and finding out who she really is and wants to be.
THERE. I’ve given you reasons to watch the show. Now, get outta here and go watch the first five episodes IMMEDIATELY. If you need an excuse for why you didn’t show up to work/school/dentist appointment/etc., leave me a comment and I’ll have one handy for you. OR if you have watched the show, tell me how much you love it.
‘Dumb and Dumber To’ certainly delivers on its premise in spades; it’s certainly Dumb, and sometimes even Dumber. To.
The Farrelly Brothers, with the help of a gaggle of writers, have doubled down on the dumb for this twenty-years-in-the-making sequel which yields a mixed bag of funny.
‘To’ follows its 1994 mainstay original and picks up for the most part right where that film left off. Mentally, these characters haven’t changed a bit and it really shouldn’t be any different. It’s established quickly when we bare witness to the tail end of a 20 year-long joke set forth by Lloyd (Jim Carrey), who has been committed to an asylum -catheter and all- for the mother of all “Gotcha!”‘s. Upon returning back from the mental hospital, Harry (Jeff Daniels) reveals to Lloyd that he needs a kidney transplant and also finds a postcard from an old flame revealing that he has a child that he never knew about. And so begins yet another road trip, in which Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Dumber set off to track down Harry’s spawn in the hopes that she can donate a kidney for her wayward father.
The jokes in ‘Dumb and Dumber To’ come fast and furious, but end up misfiring more often than not, but those scenes end up being saved by its two stars. Take that opening mental hospital sequence. On the page it just lays there flatly, maybe a chuckle or two spring forth, but what makes the whole thing put a smile on your face is the dynamic between Carrey and Daniels. They slip back into their roles so smoothly that the past twenty years doesn’t even seem that long ago.
That feeling becomes status quo throughout the film as a familiar crime-plot unfolds unbeknownst to Harry and Lloyd in which Harry’s daughter’s (Rachel Melvin) adopted step-mother and lover (Rob Riggle) plots to kill her husband for his fortune. But we’re not here for the machinations of plot, are we? We’re here to laugh at a bunch of stupid gags, which continue their onslaught once Riggle tags along with Harry and Lloyd on their epic road trip. There are fart gags. There are slurpees down pants crotches. There are absurd dream sequences. There are catch-phrases.
Carrey and Daniels make it hard to truly dislike this movie despite knowing that it’s really not comedic gold. The story is transparent and the scenes are ham-fisted, even for a movie with this type of tone, but like Harry and Lloyd themselves, it’s hard not to love it. Carrey and Daniels are having just a shit-load of fun and that vibe pops off the screen and keeps the whole thing from sinking under the weight of its frequent unfunniness.
‘Dumb and Dumber To’ is a sequel that didn’t ever need to happen, but if it did, this was really the best-case scenario. Harry and Lloyd are back, and while we may not really need them, it’s nice to know that they’re around, even if they’re forcing us to hear the most annoying sound in the world.
Directed By: Bennett Miller Written By: E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman Starring: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo Rated: R Grade: B
Wrestling is more than just a sport in director Bennett Miller’s newest film Foxcatcher, a bleak and harrowing true crime saga focused on the strained relationship between two Olympian brothers and the eccentric tyrant who vows to fund their glory. It’s also an apt metaphor, rife with possibility for a story seeping with admirable thematic ambition. As the reluctant hero grapples with a sometimes exhilarating, often devastating personal journey, it makes sense to align his psychological plight with his physical one. Unfortunately, a consistently desolate tone and lurching pace mount tension so unevenly that when narrative gut punches are finally struck, they don’t land as deep as they should. While an arguably just resolution does help cushion the heartbreaking climax, Foxcatcher is often far too dreary to rouse genuine cheers. But its haunting depiction of ruthless desperation and maniacal greed will leave you undoubtedly pinned.
Channing Tatum turns in dedicated and fascinating work as Mark Schultz, a 1984 gold medalist determined to perpetuate his athletic momentum but painfully unable to resolve or even acknowledge his gaping emotional and social deficiencies. Mark’s charismatic and gregarious older brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), by comparison, is an equally decorated wrestler but also able to maneuver cultural expectations and personal relationships with an ease Mark finds simply foreign. Despite boasting nearly identical prowess on the mat, Mark finds himself constantly fighting to escape Dave’s shadow in every other aspect of life.
The film opens as the1988 Seoul Games loom near, but while Dave feels fulfilled as an invested husband, father and coach, Mark yearns to continue his career and strive for further Olympic success. His brooding persistence makes sense. Watching Mark silently gulp instant noodles at his barren kitchen table, we learn quickly that wrestling is all he’s ever really had, or known.
When multimillionaire wrestling enthusiast and certifiable weirdo John du Pont (Steve Carell, every bit as creepy and unrecognizable as you’ve heard) sends the brothers an unexpected invitation to live and train full-time at his estate, well, it’s an offer the younger Schultz simply can’t refuse. Dave is understandably dubious and unwilling to uproot his family, but Mark happily packs his meager belongings and sets forth for Foxcatcher Farms, a sprawling property near Valley Forge teeming with the kind of musty, old money glut the du Ponts display proudly as self-perceived pillars of exceptionalism. This hushed but powerful commentary on class warfare and elitism weaves ribbons of historical insight throughout Foxcatcher, as the relationship between Mark and his new benefactor bobs and weaves across a multitude of questionable boundaries before reaching levels both disturbing and sadly irrevocable.
Mark is initially wooed by du Pont’s declarations of loyalty and patriotism, and especially his inexplicably dogged desire to position Mark as the key to achieving his twisted American dream. “What is he getting out of this?” Dave asks Mark incredulously, after Mark relays du Pont’s promises of more material security than either Schultz has ever seen, all in exchange for victory in Seoul and the upcoming 1987 World Wrestling Championships. “Winning,” a stupefied Mark scoffs. “America. Winning.”
Du Pont’s pitch about the country’s “failure to honor” athletes like Mark drips with delusional, nearly seething entitlement to an objective listener, but the vulnerable Mark is awestruck at the notion of being truly understood for perhaps the first time in his life. Foxcatcher is at its core a bizarre love triangle of sorts, particularly once du Pont does finally convince the pragmatic, genial Dave to join Team Foxcatcher after all. “You can’t buy Dave,” Mark had first told him, leaving du Pont quizzically agape. As far as he’s concerned, everyone has their price. What he fails to grasp is the importance of value that isn’t measured in dollars, and Dave’s concern for his brother is a gold mine of sentimental worth even du Pont money can’t reach.
Dave provides the trio’s, and the movie’s, sole example of an honest, rational existence, and both his brother and boss resent him for it. Neither Mark nor du Pont possess anything resembling the instinctive knack for finding true contentment beyond a trophy case or bank statement that Dave does, and watching both men overcompensate their shortcomings with increasingly unhinged behavior pits Foxcatcher in an unwinnable match. It’s the strange, dual-ego dichotomy between Mark and du Pont that drives the story forward, despite a laboriously illustrative script (from E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman) that leaves at least one crucial confrontation curiously missing from both the page and screen. These two misfits are of few words, and even fewer means of expressing themselves. It’s not surprising to witness either Mark or du Pont devolve into raging id, but when one’s explosive self-hatred eventually claims a victim other than himself, Foxcatcher is left floating aimlessly in its own aftermath.
While Mark and du Pont’s wildly different backgrounds represent their conflicting social extremes, it’s what they have in common that ignites their initial camaraderie and functional, if unnerving, working relationship. Mark’s stated goal “to be the best in the world” aligns congruently with du Pont’s maniacal diatribes, in which he truly fancies himself a gifted wrestling coach, mentor and role model. Although he coerces Mark to refer to him as a father figure in public speeches, Mark’s lumbering, dead-eyed presence makes it clear du Pont had found himself an ideally moldable protégé. Poor Dave has no choice but to helplessly watch the dysfunction unfold. The audience will likely relate.
Foxcatcher is a cold, stifling experience that somehow still enraptures in light of its aching unpleasantness. The effect is intentional. Miller demonstrates a spellbound fervor with the real story of the Schultz brothers and John du Pont that elicits comparison to his vision of Truman Capote’s work researching In Cold Blood in 2005’s Capote. The director’s deliberate, nuanced attention to detail produces results not unlike a powerful headlock, but what will keep viewers most fixated are the altogether magnificent performances from Carell, Tatum and Ruffalo. The actors have rooted these characters so deeply they defy the impressive physical transformations and achieve something truly transcendent. Their work, especially Carell’s, will almost certainly summon visceral repugnance, but it’s these strong reactions that will carry viewers across the film’s otherwise meandering objectives. Nonetheless, Foxcatcher stays with you. Its primary motive may, in fact, align best with that of a wrestler’s: it knocks you down first, but what it does best is keep you from getting back up.
Images courtesy of Scott Garfield and Sony Pictures Classics
Full disclosure: Jon Stewart is one of my idols and I’m naturally favored to enjoy anything he has his hand on. His brilliant work on The Daily Show for the past 15 years cannot be understated as he has regularly been more on-point about national and world affairs than most members of the “official” news media. So when I heard he would be writing and directing his first feature film, how could I not be excited?
It was only when I learned the subject matter of said film that I was taken aback a little bit. Jon Stewart directing a serious drama about a reporter being imprisoned in Iran? This didn’t sound like the satire-packed fare that I might have expected from him, but I had faith. It was only when I learned more of the story that it began to make more sense.
Back in 2009, The Daily Show filmed a series of segments in Iran featuring correspondent Jason Jones. As part of this filming, Jones conducted an interview with an Iranian-Canadian reporter for Newsweek named Maziar Bahari. In said interview Jones jokingly referred to himself as a spy. Now, anyone who has seen The Daily Show knows that 90% of the things that come out of the correspondents’ mouths are ridiculous and meant for comedic affect, but this particular joke had grave consequences.
After filming and releasing footage of the government violently repelling protesters following the fraudulent Iranian election of 2009, Bahari was arrested for being a spy and the main piece of evidence used against him was the clip from The Daily Show in which he gives information to “the spy”, Jason Jones. Bahari then spent the next 118 days in solitary confinement with daily and sometimes violent interrogations by a man who smelled of rosewater.
It is therefore easy to see why Stewart would feel so connected to Bahari’s plight and want to share that story further through the medium of film. And in both screenplay and direction, Stewart does a loving job of it. You can tell he treats the story delicately as if he genuinely feels responsible for the 118 horrible days that Bahari had to spend away from his family. This is a touching sentiment and a rare dynamic between a film director and the subject of his film and because of that there is no doubt in my mind that this would be a completely different film if it were in the hands of any other director.
But that also raises the question: would this even be considered as fodder for a film by anyone else? The answer to that is tricky. Bahari’s situation is no doubt a horrific one but in the wide world of stories about people being wrongfully accused and tortured, this feels a little light on the dramatics. It pains me to write those worlds because I can’t imagine having to go through what Bahari went through BUT in the full context of stories like this it could have been so much more tragic. One only has to look at current headlines about reporters being executed by ISIS for proof that there are reporters out there braving far more intense, horrific, and poignant scenarios that demonstrate the power of the press in a more inspiring light.
And although I don’t want to knock Stewart for selecting a story that is near and dear to his heart, I think he could have made his points about journalistic freedom and the oppression of the Iranian government more powerfully with a different story or even a slightly fictionalized one.
Subject matter selection aside, Stewart proves himself adept behind the camera with some really beautiful choices throughout the film and a strong adherence to realism. He brilliantly mixes in elements of documentary-style footage in a way that had me unsure about what was real and what was fabricated for the film. His only real stumbling blocks appear in a few graphic-heavy montages used to depict the use of social media during the protests and the media response to Bahari’s imprisonment. These particular elements don’t really gel with the grounded realism of the rest of the film and felt more suitable for a documentary.
Acting-wise, Gael García Bernal makes a fantastic anchor to the film as Bahari. He is likable, relateable, and instantly puts you on Bahari’s side. He is aided in his acting effort by a well-chosen supporting cast that makes you believe what you are watching is real and accurate. If only all movies were this well cast and acted.
In short, Stewart proves that he has the chops to write and direct something more than just sharp satire. There are hints of that scattered throughout his screenplay here but by and large this is a sober affair that makes pains to show the sacrifice and determination of the world’s journalists. I personally think there are more poignant stories out there to make that case but based solely on what we have here Rosewater is solid effort from this first time director and I eagerly anticipate what he chooses to film next.
Happy Friday, Weekend Wisdom readers. I come at you this week with a truly horrific film in our midst. No, it isn’t a leftover horror flick that somehow missed the Halloween release window…it’s worse. It’s a cheap, money grab excuse for a sequel that is coming out roughly 15 years too late for us to be genuinely excited for.
The film in question is Dumb and Dumber To (the “2” is spelled wrong – get it?) and boy does it look terrible. Not a single trailer, commercial, or poster has made this film look even remotely appealing thanks to an over-reliance on immature gross out gags and a rehashing of jokes from the first film, which collectively cracked us up exactly 20 years ago. But let’s be honest: if that the filmmakers or actors had something truly interesting or hilarious for these characters to do again, it would have happened well before now. Instead, this feels like a sad attempt by the faltering Jim Carrey and Farrelly Brothers to cash in on one last (hoped for) hit. Poor Jeff Daniels should have just backed away gracefully and maintained his more classy status quo.
This was my expression when watching most of the trailers for this movie.
The film currently reeks with a 27% score on the Tomatometer but look for that to drop as the weekend goes on. So can we all just collectively agree to pretend this movie never happened and let it slip away with as little fanfare as possible? Thank you.
What Else Is New?
Luckily, this weekend does offer some smarter alternatives to Dumb and Dumber To if you feel like preserving or using a few braincells.
Minnie Driver. Epitome of stern.
Opening in the most theaters behind that sad attempt at comedy is Beyond the Lights, a drama about a pop star and her romantic relationship with a cop assigned to her security detail. I haven’t seen this yet but it sounds like comparison to The Bodyguard end there. The film has been earning stellar reviews (87% on the Tomatometer) and high acclaim for star Gugu Mbatha-Raw who previously wowed the movie world with her performance in Belle. It sounds very much like a star is born.
Oh, Channing, just take your damn shirt off.
But when it comes to already established stars the big movie this weekend is definitely Foxcatcher. With Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo all working under the typically fantastic direction of Bennett Miller (Capote and Moneyball) this one is earning heaps of Oscar buzz with its chilling true story backdrop. We’ll have a full review up for you later this weekend but be warned that the movie is only playing in 6 theaters this weekend. I’ll be sure to let you know when it expands further.
He’s thinking: “Wait, shouldn’t this movie be funny?”
And finally, this weekend is bringing Rosewater to 371 theaters across the country for the true life telling of reporter Maziar Bahari’s imprisonment and torture in Iran. But what makes Rosewater so special is that it heralds the directorial debut of political comedian Jon Stewart who happens to be one of my personal heroes. I’ll be posting a full review of this one later this weekend but don’t just wait for my verdict – go check it out!
Expansion Alert!
Beat those drums!
Have you been hearing raves about a film called Whiplash but didn’t know where or how to see it? If the answer to that is yes, then this weekend you’re in luck. After earning rave reviews (97% on the Tomatometer) in very limited release, this critical darling is finally getting something close to a national berth by expanding into 419 theaters this weekend. And if you’re not quite sold on the idea of a film about a music teacher and his student, just read Keith Kuramoto’s review by clicking HERE and I think you’ll be changing your mind immediately.
Don’t Feel Like Leaving the Couch?
Okay. Here’s where I geek out.
As much as I’m excited about some of the new movies listed above, the thing that has REALLY had my blood pumping all week is actually 48 years old. And although I am not nearly that old myself, this particular thing was a staple of my childhood and routinely something I have always turned to for a laugh.
If I were more clever I’d make you figure out what it is with a riddle but instead I’ll just geek out and scream, “IT’S THE 1960s BATMAN SERIES!!”
Oh yes. After years of Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox battling it out over who owns the rights to this particular series cooler heads prevailed and an agreement was reached to bring us Batman: The Complete TV Series on Blu-Ray and DVD just in time for the caped crusader’s 75th anniversary.
Geek heaven in a box.
This glorious boxed set includes all 120 episodes of the series that ran from 1966 – 1968, 3 hours worth of bonus features, and some sweet swag including a mini Batmobile, a pack of trading cards, and a book of memories from star Adam West.
To be fair, you have to be a mega fan to shell out for this kind of boxed set so for those of you only interested in a smaller sampling of POW! BAM! ZAP!, there is also an option to purchase just the first season (the best of the three) or individual episodes via iTunes.
This is how I’ve looked all week since the box arrived.
This series will definitely prove jarring to those Batman fans who have only experienced his more recent, “dark and gritty” outings on the big screen, so its important to remember that this particular series was produced as a comedy and was successfully nominated for a Best Comedy Emmy in 1966 along with a Supporting Actor nod for Frank Gorshin’s portrayal of The Riddler.
This is the kind of show that begs to be viewed with a group of your goofiest friends who just ready to have an unpretentious good time. Throw in a few cocktails and you have a hilarious night of TV in front of you. I promise.
As Julie Newmar’s Catwoman would say, “It’s PURRRRRRRRfect.”
Yesterday The Daily Mail reported that Christoph Waltz is joining the cast of James Bond 24. According to writer Baz Bomigboye, Waltz will be playing a significant character who is extremely cunning and some kind of nemesis to Bond.
This isn’t the first villainous role for the two-time Oscar winning actor, who first became known to worldwide audiences as the evil Col. Hans Linda in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. He went on to play other dastardly characters like Chudnofsky in The Green Hornet, August in Water for Elephants and Cardinal Richelieu in the 2011 Three Musketeers remake.
Bond 24 will be directed by Sam Mendes with Daniel Craig, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Whishaw all returning to reprise their roles. Filming is set to start in early December.
Waltz will next be seen in Horrible Bosses 2 which comes out on November 26.
Whatever shall I say about a film like The Imitation Game? On one hand its a fascinating story told exceptionally well. On the other hand its one of those films that feels patently built for the sole purpose of winning awards. And even though it well may deserve some of those awards (like i said, it’s exceptionally well made) the piece as a whole feels just like every other true story set during World War II that gets thrown at us every awards season. Is it too much to ask for something more unique?
This is an especially pertinent question when you consider the subject matter of this particular story. Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) was not only the man who ended up cracking Nazi Germany’s impenetrable code and thus ending the war much sooner than possible. He was also a sort of godfather of computers. And on top of those two achievements he also happened to be gay in a time when it was illegal and harshly punished by the law.
This was no ordinary man and to see his story told in such a straightforward and uninspired way is kind of a letdown.
The Imitation Game tells Turing’s story through three different periods of his life all cut together in a manner that at first seems intriguing but ends up being your pretty standard set of flashbacks and flash-forwards. A vast majority of the film is spent during World War II where we meet Turing as a genius mathematician volunteering his services to his country during wartime by promising to break the code for the Nazi’s impressive Enigma decoding machine.
In many ways, Turing is reminiscent of one of Britain’s war heroes from World War I, T. E. Lawrence, who is more commonly referred to as Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence, like Turing, was gay and often had a hard time playing nicely with others – especially those who happened to be in positions of authority. But where Lawrence was considered somewhat playfully difficult, Turing was apparently more of a dick. As written and played in The Imitation Game he was a man who knew his own strengths and didn’t particularly have the time nor the patience to deal with anyone else. Luckily, he was able to back that gusto up with results.
Some of the people forced to deal with his self-assured demeanor during wartime included his superior officer, Commander Denniston (Charles Dance); the original head of the code-cracking team, Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode); a spy named Stewart Menzies (Mark Strong); and the rest of the young team of decoders which happens to include Downton Abbey’s Allen Leech.
But Turing also had to prove himself to those that he recruited to the team. The most important of these characters is Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), a brilliant young woman who must lie to her parents and say she is merely being a secretary at the military base so as not to be thought of as living and working indecently surrounded by all men. As the story plays on, she becomes one of the few confidants that Turing has and they strike up an unconventional love that leads to an even more unconventional engagement.
But as the World War II-centric story of cracking the Enigma machine by building their own code breaking computer goes on we are treated to flashbacks of Turing as a young student (Alex Lawther) falling desperately in love with one of his classmates. These scenes are counterbalanced by flash-forwards to the early 1950s where Turing is being investigated by police for homosexual acts. These particular scenes are heartbreakingly sad and lead to an even sadder conclusion for the film as a whole but don’t really add a lot until the very end, making their inclusion throughout the film feel a bit tedious at times.
But if anything is true about The Imitation Game its that Cumberbatch carries it all with a tremendous performance that is a joy to watch even as he is breaking your heart. As a character who is hated by a majority of all other characters for most of the film, Cumberbatch manages to immediately put the audience on his side and keep us there for the entirety of the film even at moments when his prickly demeanor would have us abandon him in the hands of a less capable actor. By the end of it you really just want to squeeze him in a bear hug and tell him how great he was and how many lives he saved. In short, don’t be surprised to see Cumberbatch being named as an Oscar nominee a few months from now.
The rest of the cast gamely keeps up with Cumberbatch in a supportive nature that is generally strong but no one else is given the individual dramatic goods to stand at his level. Knightley has a few strong scenes but this feels so similar to much of her previous period drama work that I don’t expect to see too many accolades being thrown her way when all is said and done.
I think the same can be said for the film as a whole. It looks nice, has a lovely score, and is put together in a clean and competent way, but it genuinely feels like we’ve been there and seen this before. I wanted to love this due to the brilliant lead performance and compelling subject matter but I just can’t make myself get enthusiastic about it. There is no doubt an audience out there who will eat this up but in retrospect I find myself wishing that the secret code of an Alan Turing biopic had been cracked by a more inventive filmmaker. In the meantime, The Imitation Game can only stand as an honorable first attempt.
Earlier this year, Princeton boldly declared Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule- in which said hours is the amount of time one must devote to a skill to fully master it- to be dead. But don’t tell that to Terence Fletcher, J.K. Simmons’s intensely inspired Jazz Band professor in the completely electric indie ‘Whiplash’.
Both Master (Simmons) and Apprentice (Miles Teller) radiate off the screen with the energy and tension of snare coils buzzing against drum head. The fundamental nature of a percussion instrument is that it’s, well, percussive; an explosive sound triggered by fierce impact. This is the relationship between Fletcher and Andrew Nyman (Teller), who makes the cut after Fletcher eavesdrops on one of his grinding, sweatbox practice sessions. At the Schaffer Conservatory of Music, such obsession is not abnormal, but acceptance into Fletcher’s class is.
First impressions of that class have the hallmarks of any animal obedience school; there is casual cross-talk and chatter until Fletcher enters the room, sucking all the air out of it and everyone immediately sits with perfect posture. On that day, Andrew is first-hand party to Fletcher’s unique teaching style when his finely tuned ear detects that someone in the band is ever-so-slightly out of tune. What follows makes McCarthyism seem like ‘The Newlywed Game’ as the vice tightens on that poor, slightly sharp son of a bitch. What looks to be a blessing soon warps into a curse as Andrew is sucked into Fletcher’s unforgiving sadism, which fuels his potboiling teaching style. Chairs are thrown. Tears are shed. And Fletcher couldn’t give one shit. As the film unfolds, it’s difficult to know if or how Andrew is going to survive this particular meat grinder, making it impossible to look away.
Whiplash
That meat grinder, constructed ever so carefully by writer/director Damien Chazelle, is more than a bit autobiographical. “I wanted to write what the fear was like in that situation,” explains Chazelle at a post-screening Q&A. He recounts his time at an unnamed music school where he studied rock drumming under the thumb of a none-too-different Fletcher-in-the-Flesh. That tenuous relationship crippled his want to study music, but that formative experience stayed with Chazelle so impressively that he was compelled to dramatize it in the form of a screenplay, which made the industry Black List in 2012.
Simmons’ devotion to the project dates back to when Chazelle whittled his script down to the length of a short film which would test the waters for a feature. This successful process in which a veteran actor backs a fresh-voiced writer/director echoes P.T. Anderson’s success in turning his short ‘Cigarettes and Coffee’ into ‘Hard Eight’, both starring Phillip Baker Hall. While the jury is still out on Chazelle’s longevity as a filmmaker, his debut is auspicious to say the least. J.K. Simmons attributes Chazelle’s life experience to the richness of the characters and is not shy in giving credit to the written word: “The characters were so fully realized– all we had to do was not screw it up.”
Don’t worry– they didn’t. Across the board, the performances in ‘Whiplash’ are uncompromising and layered, pushing through some of the script’s weaker moments (A big moment that kicks off the film’s third act, for example, feels inherently silly in its high-drama execution, but ends up playing out nice enough).
But once the final sequence starts to unspool in double-time, any narrative disbelief or over-the-top shot choices stop mattering because the only thing that does matter is that moment in which both Andrew and Fletcher give each other one final shot.
‘Whiplash’ is not a movie for everyone, but it is tailor-made for anyone who has ever wanted something so much, that they will claw their way out of the screaming maw of hell to get it. Some people turn tail and run, while others stand to face the demon- even if he happens to be conducting the country’s best Jazz band.
If any modern film genre needs a shot in the arm, it is certainly the Video Game Adaptation, and late yesterday it got just that when Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark Boal signed on to lend a hand to the screenplay for Sony’s adaptation of the hit video game series ‘Uncharted’.
Boal is just the next in a long line of writers who have worked on the long-gestating film, but he is certainly the most prominent and comes with the most accolades. While such a development cycle is normally the kiss of death for most films, it feels like Sony and developer Naughty Dog are simply taking their time to get this one right.
After the adaptation of ‘Halo’ fell apart, ‘Uncharted’ has taken the dubious mantle of Adaptation-To-Best-Legitimize-Video-Game-Movies. Boal won an Oscar in 2010 for ‘The Hurt Locker’ and was nominated again in 2013 for ‘Zero Dark Thirty’. ‘Uncharted’ is slated for release in 2016.
James Spader gives a spine tingling performance in this newest Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. The tone is dark and sinister as we get a haunting rendition of Pinocchio’s “I’ve Got No Strings” (ahem Disney!) with Ultron ending the song saying, “But now I’m free, there are no strings on me!” Fans also get a to see more scenes from the upcoming film including close ups on all our heroes.
Spader may join the ranks of James Earl Jones (Darth Vader) and Jeremy Irons (Scar) for voicing iconic and unforgettable villains. Watch now and let us know what you think!
It’s no surprise that Arrow has been setting up Laurel to take the reins of Black Canary after the events of the Season 3 premiere.
Today, the CW Network has released the first image of Katie Cassidy donning the Black Canary outfit.
It looks like the blonde wig, black mask, and black leather are here to stay and I couldn’t be happier! Here’s hoping Laurel will be able to honor the memory of Sarah.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been so on the ball this season, it’s almost hard to imagine a time when the show struggled to find its feet – and for that matter, an audience. While Captain America: The Winter Soldier helped elevate the show late last season, its been sustained by strong story arcs and interesting character development. And so far, every episode has more or less given us proof of an adage that seems to be forgotten in this day and age of television: give a fledgling show time to find its feet, and it will flourish.
We’ve spent the better half of the first batch of season two episodes establishing how Hydra has taken a hold in both S.H.I.E.L.D. and on the word, dealing with personal moments specifically important to characters such as Skye’s parentage and Fitz’s brain damage and Simmons’ undercover detail, and introducing fresh new blood in the likes of Bobbi Morse, Lance Hunter, and Mack. Tonight took us back to one of the biggest mysteries surrounding season one, and what is essentially almost the backbone of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Coulson’s resurrection, GH325, and those mysterious alien markings. And so that’s how we start off “The Writing On The Wall,” where we meet a man and a woman who are coming home slightly drunk from a bar, with the woman claiming the man seems familiar. Turns out she’s not wrong. They have met before, the man reveals, before opening his shirt to reveal the alien code tattooed on his body. Ah, it was such a promising night, too.
Coulson is carving his own alien code to some sweet music, and a worried Skye interrupts him. Naturally, Skye is a little wary of the fact that everything is seemingly connected – the information about her father, the Obelisk, the alien blood. Though Coulson is convinced the code is some sort of map, Skye thinks it’s a map to nowhere. Coulson, however, just can’t turn anything off, and he needs answers. When Skye shows him the picture of the woman who was murdered, with the markings carved into her back, Coulson recognizes her as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Coulson maintains “we’re the only ones who know what we’re looking for” and although Skye is doubtful, a quick trip to her house turns up a painting of the alien code with the words “a magical place,” on the bottom.
While Coulson and Skye begin their search for answers, May and co. are attempting to keep tabs on Ward. And again, here’s a dynamic I feel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. really has been succeeding in each week – the fostering of group relationships. Strike Team May, Hunter, Morse and Tripp? Someone please give this to me all the time, every day. Hell, make it into a side show. It’s always tricky introducing new players into a show with an already large cast, but by splitting up the group, the show has smartly allowed us to invest in important relationships like Coulson and Skye, Mack and Fitz, and Bobbi and May and Hunter. When we were watching Coulson and Skye work together tonight, we didn’t feel like we were throwing other characters to the side, which might have been the case last season – and that’s a great strength to have in an ensemble show, especially one where the stories are presumably going to get more complicated as we move forward.
Simmons examines the woman’s body with help from Mack and Fitz, and did I mention I love the new Jemma Simmons? She’s confident, take charge, and more sure of herself than she ever was before, despite the fact you can tell she’s still upset about everything going on with her and Fitz. Her strength is impressive in a way that we had seen, but that she never had a chance to really embrace.
Turns out that both the killer and Stevens have GH blood, which marks them as T.A.H.I.T.I. patients, but since Coulson can’t remember enough to help, he makes the executive decision that they’re going to have to force the memories out of him by putting him in the memory machine. Skye is naturally worried but Coulson overrides him with his Director superiority – and, well, there’s not really a lot Skye can do but let him go under the knife.
Speaking of characters that are finally getting their due this season – whereas Grant Ward was previously little more than an undercover pawn, it seems that we’re finally getting more of an established storyline for his character. Ward is now free of authority, free of his prison, and he’s really on his own for the first time in forever. What does he do with his newfound freedom? He manages to use a pretend bus trip to alert Bobbi that he’s onto the fact she works for Coulson (but misses the fact that Hunter’s trailing him on a different bus, so we score one for S.H.I.E.L.D. in this segment), and then goes to a bar in Boston where he meets Bakshi. With “Strucker out of town” (nice nod to the man who will no doubt be instrumental in Age of Ultron, who, as we saw in the credits of Winter Soldier, is ready to deal with “an age of miracles”), Ward wants to know who Bakshi is reporting to. He also promises he can get him a “face-to-face” meeting with Coulson, which he does…by leaving Bakshi tied helplessly to a chair, knowing that eventually, Coulson and his team will bring him in for capture.
As Coulson goes into the memory machine, he experiences flashes from his time at the Guest House, where he interviewed Stevens and six patients total. Stevens tells him she was dying, which is why she volunteered to be part of the experience. There are more flashes, all of which involve the patients getting progressively crazier and more unstable as they start to write the alien code, to the point where Coulson recommends everything be shut down and the host destroyed. Apparently, that’s not possible, because according to one of the members involved in the project, the host – which is older than anything – is forcing its memory onto patients. Coulson manages to name the rest of the individuals, until he goes completely mental and Simmons and Skye decide to pull him out of the machine. He’s a little more than out of it when he wakes up but Skye gets that gun in his face and he calms down. As it stands, there are only two patients from the T.A.H.I.T.I. project that are still alive, but Coulson is unsure which one is actually the killer we saw at the beginning of the episode. At the request of May, he agrees to be locked up, and if it seems too easy, it is – he tricks Skye into being trapped into Ward’s old cell instead, and goes off to deal with the killer himself.
Mack and Fitz are playing video games and discussing the brain (or, more accurately, Fitz’s brain) and again, let me take a moment to say how much I adore this dynamic. These two have wonderful chemistry, and I really hope we see them grow more…even if it means less FitzSimmons time overall. Simmons sees Skye on the monitors and rescues her, and Skye alerts them of Coulson’s actions while Strike Team: Let’s All Kick Ass breaks in to take Ward down. Coulson, meanwhile, has found Mr. Thompson, who is playing with his son and toy trains, and tries to talk with him about the alien markings. But he’s technically too late – the killer has already been there, and takes Thompson and Coulson hostage.
Apparently, we learn that the reason the killer keeps cutting into his victims is because pain makes him remember the things that Coulson erased. He reveals the tattooed code on his body, and Coulson tries to reason with him based on the fact that he knows they’re connected. Thompson manages to get free and helps Coulson escape as well, and here’s our fight scene of the evening, which is actually pretty awesome. Go Director Coulson! Kick some butt!
As Mack and Skye (fresh off of a conversation about Tahiti) bust in to help, Coulson manages to get hold of the killer and forces him to look down at the train tracks, which he realizes are a two-dimensional pattern. The man calms down after looking at the model, and Coulson realizes that the alien writing is not a map like they previously thought but rather, a blueprint for a city.
Later, a now-calm Thompson thanks Coulson for helping him out, and Coulson reveals that the compulsion that had been eating away at him and everyone else is gone. Whatever was in their blood, it was driving them to go to that city, to go home, to a place they didn’t know how to find. While Skye goes off to hack Bakshi’s cell phone, Director Coulson faces the team and tells them that the pieces are coming together, fully opening up on how he’s been acting and what he’s learned. He shows them the blueprint, and also proves that he’s gotten really good at using those hologram things. Personally, it’s a little emotional for me to see such a nice, big team when at the end of last season, we had only a handful of agents after Hydra’s fall, ready to rebuild at Nick Fury’s request.
In other news, Ward is clearly over “no shave November” and shears off his beard as well as most of his hair, cleaning himself up for the first time last season – looks like the old Grant Ward is back, and in more ways than one. (By the way, did you all catch the really interesting easter egg of a framed Captain America print that says “Trust Cap to Lead The Way”? And my apologies, my original twitter said “war” because I couldn’t read it well in the dark. We know Marvel is heading into a Civil War storyline soon, and a large part of that conflict is going to be whether to follow Cap or Tony – might this be some random foreshadowing?)
Ward calls Bakshi’s cell phone and Skye answers (appropriately) with “Hail Hydra.” She doesn’t exactly expect Ward on the other end of the line, but manages to hold her own as he alerts her to the fact that he has Bakshi exactly where he wants him, and threatens the new recruits. Our parting shot is Ward packing up a bag with a paper that has his brother’s face on the front page. And we all know how Ward feels about his brother….
Quoteables:
Mack: “Does he have alien blood, too? Imagine that…S.H.I.E.L.D. being run by a man that’s part alien.” / Skye: “Imagine that.”
Starz’s newest original series is a continuation of The Evil Dead franchise, a low-budget horror/comedy trilogy with a massive cult following. The films’ original team is on board with director Sam Raimi, producer Rob Tapert, and star Bruce Campbell who will be reprising his role as unlikely hero Ash Williams.
According to the network:
The STARZ Original series officially titled “Ash Vs. Evil Dead” will be 10 half-hour episodes. Bruce Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons –personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its “Evil” grip…
The original film followed Ash and his friends into a cabin in the woods where they accidentally release demons who need to possess human flesh. The franchise has spawned two sequels, comic books, video games, and a 2013 remake. The film also launched the careers of Raimi and Campbell, with Raimi going on to direct Sony’s original Spider-Man trilogy (starring Tobey Maguire). Campbell has also had a prolific career, appearing on countless movies and television shows including USA’s Burn Notice from 2007-2013.
“I’m really excited to bring this series to the Evil Dead fans worldwide – it’s going to be everything they have been clamoring for: serious deadite ass-kicking and plenty of outrageous humor,” said Campbell.
The first episode is titled “Ash Vs. Evil Dead” and is written by Raimi (who will also direct), his brother Ivan Raimi (Darkman, Army of Darkness, Drag Me to Hell), and Tom Spezialy (Chuck, Desperate Housewives).
“Evil Dead has always been a blast. Bruce, Rob, and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to tell the next chapter in Ash’s lame, but heroic saga. With his chainsaw arm and his ‘boomstick,’ Ash is back to kick some monster butt. And brother, this time there’s a truckload of it,” Raimi said.
Speaking of his boomstick, who could ever forget this scene from Army of Darkness? YEEEEEEEES.
Image courtesy of Dino De Laurentiis Company via IMDB.
Showtime has announced the renewal of their drama series Homeland and The Affair. Renewed for a fifth season, Homeland will return with a 12-episodes next year while The Affair will receive a 10-episode sophomore season.
“In its fourth season, Homelandhas brilliantly reinvented itself. It continues to capture the attention of a devoted fan base, and has provided an enviable platform for the successful launch of The Affair,” said David Nevins, President, Showtime Networks Inc. “With thought-provoking, relevant and addictive storylines, both series have been embraced, dissected and much debated week after week. We’re excited to see more from these complex shows in 2015.”
THE WALKING DEAD Season 5, Episode 5
“Self Help”
GRADE: B+
We finally receive some much needed characterization for Abraham and Eugene this week in The Walking Dead, as we follow their small group on their quest to reach Washington DC. When their bus breaks down and the group is forced to once again proceed on foot, Abraham grows increasingly frustrated by their repeated setbacks and tensions mount to a startling revelation. Proper characterization for Abraham’s small party has been sorely lacking ever since their appearance in last season’s “Inmates”, but a well written episode provides some welcome screentime for the underappreciated characters.
When we first met Abraham, his dogged insistence in getting Eugene to Washington made for superficial characters and a repetitive voice of dissent in all the group decisions. After a while, his tunnel-vision and stubbornness bordered on delusional. However, a series of flashbacks provides the crucial context that puts all of Abraham’s actions in perspective. Having lost his family and with nothing else to live for, a grieving Abraham prepares to take his own life when Eugene shows up, in need of rescue and safe passage to Washington DC. It’s not terribly unique as backstories go, but it helps to humanize the otherwise comically stubborn and unreasonable man. His need to push forward is as much about escaping his past as it is about saving the human race, and casts his unwavering determination in a more sympathetic light.
Eugene’s personal journey was less dramatic than Abraham’s (at least until the end). Rightfully dismissed as a socially stunted coward, the connections he forges with the others over the course of the episode were important developments for his character. His fumbling attempts to overcome his own cowardice and prove his value to himself and others leads to a small but triumphant moment when he uses the fire truck’s water cannon against a horde of zombies.
Eventually, our group comes across a truly massive, sprawling sea of walkers, and the tension reaches a breaking point. Abraham is at the limit of his patience, and the group struggles to reason with him. As a fight nearly breaks out, Eugene suddenly confesses that he made everything up. Driven by his own guilt, he admits that he is not a scientist and doesn’t know how to stop the zombie apocalypse.
It’s not a particularly shocking revelation, but it’s one that is perhaps surprising to see so early in the season. What will happen to Eugene, how will the rest of the group react, and will they still decide to go to Washington? This season has shown a great willingness to push the plot forward and embrace uncertainty instead of milking every plotline dry, and has been more compelling and focused as a result. So although Eugene’s confession shattered both his nose and Abraham’s mission, the future of the season is brighter than ever.
Besides the vaunted face-to-face meeting between Emily and her father, David, we’ve seen many characters making plans for the coming apocalyptic showdown between Emily and Victoria. They’re jockeying for position, taking shelter or making back alley deals to prevent being the victim of absolute collateral damage. For instance, last week’s episode saw Charlotte voluntarily going into rehab after seemingly making up with her sister. Before she did, you’ll recall that she told her brother, Daniel, the truth about Emily Thorne.
This week, we get one of those “ending is the beginning” type openers with mysterious images of sparks falling, culminating in Victoria waking from a dream and hearing squeaking floorboards downstairs. Because she’s suddenly unable to fully investigate anything larger than what’s in her immediate view, David simply tells her to come back to bed and Victoria dismisses it as “hearing things”. Of course, it was Emily the whole time! MWHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Also, Daniel confronted his Mom, repeating what Charlotte had said: he wanted no part of his Mom’s war and swore he’d make a deal with Emily, herself, if that’s what it took. That’s just what Daniel does. While stuck in an elevator with him, Emily basically proclaims that, yes, she did have feelings for him but those went away when he stuck by his late father, Conrad. Daniel mugs his way through the scene and tells Emily that he’s ready for bygones to be bygones. He’ll back off if her “blast radius” doesn’t include his personal space. Emily agrees to this as struggles to leave the elevator car via the top vent. David has the line of the night here:
“If I knew you were that flexible, things could have worked out between us.” He oozes.
Emily, in response, uses Danielle — literally, climbing on his shoulder to leave and says, “You want real? That was real,”
It was a nice little blow-off to a feud that’s been going on, unsettled, for months.
Meanwhile, Louise attempts to kill Margaux by locking her in a steam room at a local club. There’s nothing much to this plotline, except that Louise is obsessed with Daniel because they slept together once and now she wants to kill a woman that Daniel really isn’t all that fond of, except that she would help line his pockets. She did it because of her Mom’s urging. Her Ghost Mom, that is. That’s right: Louise is now being lead to murder by her hallucinatory Mom. Sounds like her and Dexter have a lot to talk about. The whole affair, of course, leads to Margaux throwing a drink in his face and storming out because that’s what all them louses deserve.
As for Nolan, he’s still smarting from his punch in the face from David, though his face still looks just fine. He’s been vilified, of course, by the press, (they care so much, they actually sent vans and news choppers) forcing him to move his self-proclaimed “Revenge Batcave” to another, more discreet location. So, what does Nolan do to cool things with the press? At the urging of Louise, he uses a million dollars of his money to buy the yacht club he so hates. Though, he does his good deed for the week to help Emily figure out the story behind her father’s sudden appearance. Emily brings Nolan a knife and a mysterious key that she swiped from the Clarke Malibu Dream House — coveted evidence that might be of help to Good Cop Ben in his quest to figure out who murdered Conrad Grayson. Nolan spends the episode, forgetting the stress of his life by ditching his cell phone and kicking back with a drink and a roaring fire.
Speaking of the good cops BenJack…or…JackBen or…Back. Or Jen. Wait, no…anyway, they bust the case wide the hell open by finding tattooed wrist guy in Charlotte’s former room — along with a knife similar to the one that ended Conrad’s life.
What Emily discovers with the key (which ends up being tied to a safe deposit box) is shocking: a series of photos tracking the fake “Amanda Clarke” and Jack as they go through their average day of running a bar and sailing. She can’t wait any longer and bursts into the beach house, furiously telling Victoria to leave — which she does at David’s insistence. Emily tearfully asks him why he didn’t just reveal to her that she was alive instead of skulking in the shadows and accuses him of being a coward. David has no idea what she’s talking about until she lunges at him…and he grabs her wrist…and sees the Double Infinity tattoo. David realizes that his daughter is alive and well — but their reunion is cut short when they hear a pop and an explosion.
Victoria’s on the ground, outside. She’s been electrocuted by a wire that was cut from a nearby pole and was in direct contact with her car.
Despite my mockery, I really enjoyed this episode. The big story, of course, was the big reveal and subsequent reunion of Amanda and her father. And not some Lindelof “technically, it was ‘Emily’ talking to David” bullshit. This episode delivered what many fans have wanted since the show started. Of course, the first reunion was the Lindelof tease and payoff and I guess that had to happen because we’ve all waited about three years and six episodes. What’s 40 more minutes?
The downside to this? We have more questions than answers and about 17 more episodes, at most, to figure out where this is all heading. At the very least, there seems to be a prevailing sense of finality hanging over the proceedings.
“A MERRY FRIGGIN’ CHRISTMAS”
Directed by Tristam Shapeero Written by Michael Brown Starring Joel McHale, Robin Williams, Pierce Gagnon, Lauren Graham, Bebe Wood, Candice Bergen, Clark Duke, Wendy McLendon-Covey, Matt Jones, Oliver Platt Rated PG-13
no stars out of ****
The best thing about “A Merry Friggin’ Christmas” is that it’s in severely limited release and I didn’t have to leave my house to see it thanks to my cable company’s on-demand library. Unfortunately, I still paid to see it.
The movie stars Community‘s Joel McHale as Boyd Mitchler, a successful hedge fund manager living the dream: he has a beautiful home, a sexy, loving wife in Luann (Lauren Graham, playing nearly the exact same role she played in Bad Santa), and two kids, Vera (Bebe Wood) and Doug (Pierce Gagnon). Because he grew up with an alcoholic and verbally abusive father, Boyd is one of those parents who does his absolute best to provide a loving environment for his family and works, exhaustively, to shield them from the horrible, cynical outside world. This has mostly worked. While Vera is more world-wise than she should be for her age, Doug is still innocent and doe-eyed and, wouldn’t ya’ know it, he still believes in Santa Claus.
Out of nowhere, Boyd’s idiot brother Nelson (Clark Duke) phones him up in the middle of the night to divulge the fact that he’s now a father — and the baptism is taking place on Christmas Eve. Best laid plans be damned, this will eventually put Boyd face to face with his father Mitch (Robin Williams) who has grown even more abrasive than he was when Boyd was young. Reluctantly, Boyd packs his family in the car as they go home to Wisconsin. In record time, Mitch rubs his son the wrong way and Boyd is ready to go home. Seeing a potentially explosive situation, both Luann and Mitch’s long-suffering and enabling wife, Donna (Candice Bergen) do their best to smooth things over in order to get Boyd to stay which he does, much to his chagrin.
Unknowingly, Boyd’s problems are only beginning: he’s unwittingly left his son’s big gift back in Chicago and if he doesn’t have it under the Wisconsin family Christmas tree in the morning, Doug’s entire belief in Santa, which was in already in jeopardy after Doug bumped into a drunken, deadbeat Santa (Oliver Platt) at one of those cheesy “Christmas Village” places you see along the highway, will cease to exist. Or something like that. On top of that, Boyd’s SUV breaks down, forcing his father to pick him up and drive him to Chicago instead. Also, Nelson’s along for the trip because he hid in one of Mitch’s port-a-pottys (it’s Mitch’s trade) when he blacked out due to PTSD stemming from an argument at the family dinner table.
I know it shouldn’t be possible, but the movie gets even worse. How? I don’t really care to elaborate.
Oh, all right:
“Bourbon is where Santa gets his energy,” “Santa” explains to little Doug, who is horrified to see his childhood hero getting piss drunk in front of him without a care in the world. The scene is as disturbing, horrifying and unfunny as it sounds.
Did you want me to go on? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
If 1989’s “Christmas Vacation” is the ultimate portrayal of the American Family Christmas gone horribly awry, then this would be the movie that goes deep under its surface, exposing the dark familial baggage that the late John Hughes wisely decided not to subject his audience to. I realize, in typing that, I might have carelessly insinuated that Hughes was involved, in some manner, in the making of this train wreck. That’s patently false. I apologize. The mere association of Hughes to this crap is incredibly cheap of me and crass to boot. Still, he might be laughing at me right now. I can’t honestly be sure. Anyhow, I wish I could speak well of Robin Williams here. It really wouldn’t be fair of me to grade his performance as it’s just Robin Williams doing a half-assed imitation of a grizzled, small-town Conservative yokel and it mostly feels like he was probably only doing this for the paycheck up until his untimely death. I know all this is depressing as hell to think about but, honestly, the movie is so boring, insipid and unfunny, there’s really not much else to do but think of something other than this movie.
The movie is helmed by Tristam Shapeero who should be used to this kind of thing by now being that he’s worked with McHale on Community. Frustratingly, he’s been paired with first-time screenwriter, Michael Brown, who enters into the anti-Christmas movie sub-genre on the coattails of other, better films within that realm, with the idea that what he’s presenting is razor-sharp. Unfortunately, Brown brings a Spork to a gunfight and the movie suffers as a result, starting black as coal, continuing that way while blotting out any comic relief with terrible (and, at times, confusingly arbitrary) situations and characters which, in turn, gives us nobody to root for or sympathize with. It’s really sad, considering the level of talent involved.
Last week, I was optimistic about Homeland. With six episodes remaining, there was still plenty of time to salvage the season. Sure, there have been some bad episodes in the mix, but the premise was there. The characters were…sometimes there. Repeatedly I defended Carrie Mathison and her behavior, claiming that she is a flawed, unreliable narrator, and that made her interesting.
But after the seventh episode, “Redux,” I can’t defend her or even the rest of the characters any longer.
Homeland seems intent on swimming with the fishes. With Brody gone at the end of the third season, everyone (I took a poll) thought hoped that Homeland would return focus to the CIA, politics, undercover work, spying, and all those bits that once made the show great. Instead, Carrie received another unlikely romantic partner. Sigh. Alright. “Recruiting.” Whatever. Then last week, the poor kid ate dirt, and lo! There was hope once more! (Sorry, Aayan.)
Except now we’re back to the “psychotic” Carrie episodes. Why, oh, why do the writers insist on destroying Carrie this way? Remember when she was fierce and a bit off-kilter but still loyal and insanely intelligent? WE LOVED THAT CARRIE. Sure, the bipolar episodes threw a wrench into the mix, but after last season’s hearing about her mental state, it seemed the door had been closed on that particular issue. But okay, say we do revisit Carrie’s mental health–I can understand that, it’s always a battle–and say, Dennis Boyd, that sniveling weasel whom I love to hate does manage to switch her pills. That’s fine! Except Carrie KNEW something was wrong. We all know Carrie’s stubborn, but dammit, she isn’t stupid. Instead of the hallucinations, her mind should have deduced she’d been drugged and then she and Quinn could have searched for that pesky mole. It’s not like she just became bipolar and doesn’t understand how it works with her personality. SHE KNOWS. HER FATHER HAS THE DISORDER.
An aside: do you think the writers were being cheeky by titling the episode, “Redux?” Are they toying with us?
After pew-pewing her kidnappers, Carrie is then whisked away to a generic torture cell and then again to a mansion that I’m going to guess is not owned by Oprah. Because that girl needs some Oprah right about now and she’s never gonna get what she needs. Look, I understood Carrie’s feelings for Brody in the first season. I didn’t care for their relationship after that because it never felt genuine to me, but hey, I can appreciate it for what it was. And then Brody died. Except last night, I thought I was almost as crazy as Carrie. Wait. COULD he be back? How did he die again? Could he have survived a hanging? Was this entire season a lie and did Brody never die? And then the camera pans out and we realize she’s in the arms of the I.S.I. agent, Khan, and in Carrie’s fragile mental state, she is still grieving for Brody . Something I imagine she never did. Toying with my sanity is not cool, Showtime. I wasn’t scared that I might actually be crazy, but more afraid that Homeland is just crazy enough to bring Brody back. (DO NOT.)
I appreciate letting Carrie grieve. After Brody, Sandy Bachman, leaving Frannie, watching Aayan’s death, and then Saul’s capture, there is no sane way for Carrie to feel even close to normal. But you know what you don’t need to get that across? Drugs. Hallucinations. BRODY. Bringing Brody back was a gimmick and nothing more. It was meant to shock and draw in more viewers because they know the show is floundering.
But it’s not just Carrie who’s having issues lately. For the first three seasons, Saul was the glue that held the show together. Even in its worst state, Saul was there to reel in Carrie and Brody and all the absurd plotlines and remind them, “Hey, this is supposed to be a spy show. Stop having cabin sex and pissing off Brody’s family.” And now, it’s like Saul was never in the CIA. It’s like he never threw Carrie in a mental institution for the sake of mission and understands how the game works. (Still bitter about that, Saul.) Saul Berenson waltzed into that airport bathroom to do…what? Apprehend Ghazi himself? Sorry, Saul. Quinn, you are not.
ALRIGHT FINE. He didn’t want to lose the lead. One mistake. Except last night he was like a deer on the highway, zig-zagging in front of cars that just want to slam on the gas and push him aside. Was he trying to get killed? It didn’t look that way with all his confused stares and sullen pleas of “I’m not important!” (Brody storyline 2.0?) If Saul wants to live then why, oh why, is he slapping around the cobra? You’re at the dinner table of a man who fully admitted to using you as a meat shield, after watching him unflinchingly murder his own nephew, and you blame him for 9/11? That’s not ballsy, Saul. It’s just asinine.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but the best part of the episode was CIA director, Andrew Lockhart, if only because he’s been the most consistent character thus far. (Listening to Dennis Boyd, A PROFESSOR, struggle to count to ten was also pretty hilarious.) Lockhart is a master of the Douchebag Technique, and fortunately for Ambassador Martha Boyd, I think his threat about taking away foreign aid worked. But we’ll have to see next week how things pan out. Maybe he’ll go on a hallucination trip and see Brody as well. At this point, anything could happen on Homeland. And that’s not a good thing.
To sum up: Saul goes “Waaah.” Carrie goes “pew pew.” Lockhart goes “Hehe, I’m so good at directoring.” And Khan goes “Mwhaha,” but I bet he smells good; Repeat.
Season 4, Episode 7: “Redux” Homeland airs Sundays on Showtime at 8pm EST.
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox
Grade: A-
A film as classy and delicate as The Theory of Everything very much deserves descriptions beyond basic, modern-day slang but it really is true that this film is “everything.” With remarkable performances and a screenplay that is both witty and touching you’ll find yourself holding back tears at this real life love story of a scientific icon and the woman who stood by him through the most difficult of health challenges.
Stephen Hawking is one of those rare academics in the modern era that has actually risen to a level of celebrity. One might be tempted to chalk this up to the fact that he’s achieved everything he has while also combating the ravages of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but health problems or not, Hawking is one of the most exceptional minds in scientific history and the theories he has put forth will likely stand the test of time longer than most elements of pop culture.
But in many ways Theory of Everything, a biopic of Hawking, isn’t about those scientific achievements at all. Those speak for themselves. Instead, the film is about the immeasurable love between him and his first love, Jane, who stood beside him and raised a family that would become a completely unconventional yet beautiful and honest one.
As played by the spectacular Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, we follow Hawking and Jane from the moment they meet at university through his diagnosis with Lou Gehrig’s Disease and on to their marriage with three children. As the years go on and Hawking’s body continues to deteriorate, Jane becomes friendly with her church’s choir director, Jonathan (Charlie Cox), who out of his own loneliness and desire to help becomes a sort of new member of the family. Jonathan is there to help do things like lift Stephen in and out of his wheelchair, help him use the toilet, and getting him up and down stairs. But he is also there for things like family outings to the beach and finds himself completely integrated into the family. It is only when people start whispering about the nature of Jane and Jonathan’s relationship that they are forced to address it themselves and what transpires is both incredibly mature, understandable, and fascinating.
By really delving into these complicated relationships the film happily avoids many of the tropes that a biopic attempting to cover the subject’s entire life usually succumbs to. And luckily, the entire cast is completely game for this difficult task in a way that makes the movie soar. Redmayne is nothing short of spectacular by believably conveying a man with a brilliant mind trapped inside a failing body. His physical transformation is heartbreakingly realistic and will make you break down to just see him struggle with the simplest of tasks. One scene where we see him fight to get up some stairs while his young son watches from above absolutely ripped me into pieces.
And although Jones doesn’t have to convey any big physical changes in her character, her performance is equally impressive as Redmayne’s. Her warmth, charm, and unconditional love all come across beautifully clear in a performance that absolutely clicks from the first moment she’s on screen. If Jones doesn’t become a significantly bigger star from this movie, there is no justice in the world.
If the film has a downside though its a lack of visual flair on the part of director James Marsh. The cinematography is flat as if its unnecessarily reminding us that we’re watching a period piece and there are definitely some missed opportunities to do something visually bold with Hawking’s theories and thought processes. Had the visual aspect of the film been a bit more impressive or notable this might very well be a perfect movie.
But visual flair or not, The Theory of Everything is still a remarkable piece of work that examines science, love, and relationships in an extremely beautiful and memorable way. Look for it to definitely get some love on Oscar night.
At the end of the weekend, Big Hero 6 ended up on top of the box office, even beating out Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and I think it’s totally justified. I know that some are tired of the superhero genre, especially the origin story gimmick, but I, for one, couldn’t be more glad to see these stories becoming mainstream. Origin stories inspire greatness, with heroes stepping into their respective roles from all walks of life. Disney’s foray into the money-making Marvel-verse, Big Hero 6, is an origin story based on a Marvel comic book series of the same name; and while some of the looks and names are similar, Disney has watered down the story for younger audiences. And the result is a resounding success.
Big Hero 6 takes place in the fictional city of San Fransokyo, a world of rolling hills, dumpling emporiums, trolley cars, and pagoda-topped buildings. Here, we met Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter), a 14-year-old child prodigy who uses his gift for robotics to hustle the bot-fighting underworld. A kid after my own heart. But Hiro’s sweeter and more sensible older brother, Tadashi (Daniel Henney), wants more for his little law-breaking sibling, so he takes him to–wait for it–Robot College Without Rules. Okay, it’s actually just the robotics lab at his university, but Robot College sounds way cooler. At RCWR, Hiro meets a group of awkward but lovable nerds and after seeing his brother’s medical project, Baymax, he begins to respect what Tadashi does with his also ridiculously over-sized brain. As often happens in real life, a music montage plays and Hiro crafts the innovative micro-bots, his application for entrance to the RCWR. At the demonstration, the micro-bots are a success, even impressing Professor Callaghan so much that he is accepted into the school. The happiness is short-lived, however, as a fire breaks out at the university with Callaghan and Tadashi inside. Soon after, a creepy man in a Kabuki-mask appears, and with Hiro’s thought-to-have-been-destroyed micro-bots. The rest of the film follows Hiro and crew as they try to find out the villain’s identity and stop him before he hurts anyone else.
Like most Disney/Pixar movies, the above growth and tragedy occurs within the first twenty minutes of the film. It’s sad, of course, but it’s not exactly new material. The movie doesn’t take off until Baymax enters the story permanently, and when he does, the story becomes infinitely more engrossing. Until that point, the most exciting part of the movie is the setting, the city of San Fransokyo, and the unique mix of Asian and Western culture. Baymax is kind of like a talking Wall-E, if Wall-E were an inflatable marshmallow capable of what, I can only assume, are the best hugs. He’s naive, honest, and his entire purpose is to act as a caregiver to those around him, appearing anytime someone utters the word, “Ow.”
The bond between angsty Hiro and empathic Baymax is what drives the entire movie: their ADORABLE fist bump (Bodolololooo), the silent exchange at the police station, the gorgeous flight over San Fransokyo, and of course, Hiro’s unwillingness (but need) to be Baymax’s patient. Without these moments, the movie would flounder almost as bad as Wolverine: Origins. The plot unfolds predictably and the supporting cast are convenient and good for a chuckle, at best. Okay, that was harsh. I retract that statement about being worse than Wolverine: Origins. But let’s be honest: Big Hero 6 is not The Incredibles.
BUT! (Put away the pitchforks.) That doesn’t mean Big Hero 6 isn’t a fantastic movie. When it comes to children’s movies, I don’t expect earth-shattering storytelling. In fact, I’m an advocate for seeing children’s movies with children. As I looked around the theatre, every kid was on the edge of their seat, rapt with joy. They didn’t care about exciting plot twists or realistic supporting character development. To them, the movie was about a boy and his robot, a robot who was endearing, silly, supportive, comforting. I can guarantee to you that after seeing the movie, one of the kids in that theatre will go home and want to build a robot. Not learn karate. Not beat up the bad guys with violent gadgets. Instead, they’ll have to use their mind, their creativity, school and those around them in order to save the world. It’s a message that doesn’t come across in any of the other superhero movies, and so for that, thank you, Disney.
Big Hero 6 is a movie chock-full of humor and even more heart. I’ll have you know I only cried three times in the span of two hours. Four if you count the sobs after watching Disney’s short, “Feast,” that aired before the movie. Whether or not you have children, you should take the time to see Big Hero 6. It’s a wholesome superhero experience that eschews the dark hero comic book trope. Besides, Baymax only wants us all to be healthy, and you wouldn’t want to make him sad, would you?
Couldn’t get tickets to Interstellar in IMAX? No room in your cold, jaded heart for Big Hero 6? Why not stay in this weekend with Snowpiercer, a gritty post-apocalyptic action film about a class revolution on a giant train?
Snowpiercer is the first English language film from Korean director Bong Joon-ho (best known for 2006’s The Host), and takes place seventeen years after an experiment to counteract global warming backfires disastrously and plunges the earth into a bitter ice age. The last remnants of humanity board the eponymous Snowpiercer, a massive train that perpetually travails the frozen wasteland.
The logistics of maintaining a human population on a gigantic train is about as problematic as one would imagine; limited space and resources have stratified the population, with the more privileged elite in the front and the oppressed lower class in the rear. Chris Evans (the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s very own Captain America) stars as Curtis Everett, a member of the underclass who leads a revolt to reach the inventor and caretaker of the eternal engine at the front of the train.
The universe of the film is wonderfully realized; the train provides a rich but claustrophobic backdrop for the story and action. As the revolt works its way to the front, each car reveals another unique function of the train or aspect of life for its many inhabitants. The cramped and squalid rear cars give way to utilities such as water recycling and food growing. As the revolt presses forward, they also proceed linearly across the socioeconomic spectrum, passing classrooms and salons, and eventually to the extravagant luxuries of saunas and nightclubs towards the front. Each car is a small tableau with a discrete character; the film proceeds smoothly through each like a carefully crafted slideshow.
The action is swift and brutal in the narrow confines of the train, and the story provides a few delightful twists and turns that provide considerable depth to its microcosmic class war premise. A great supporting cast rounds out Chris Evans’s strong but sensitive heroism–John Hurt lends his sagely gravitas as the mentor to Curtis, Song Kang-Ho provides just the right touch of crazy as a drug addicted security expert, and Tilda Swinton revels in her role as the tyrannical minister of the train.
Snowpiercer stands out amongst the usual sci-fi films with a unique premise and solid action that’s guided smoothly by Bong Joon-ho’s skillful direction. Much like its eponymous train, the film is filled to bursting with character and detail as it barrels relentlessly forward to its thrilling conclusion.
The network has decided not to order any additional episodes of their freshman comedy. Unlike their cancellation of Manhattan Love Story, ABC has not pulled Selfie from the schedule. There is still a chance the network will air out the remaining episodes.
Hello, readers! We’ve made it to November and for the first time in this column’s history we have a true battle between two gigantic films going down at the box office this weekend. In one corner we have a space epic from one of the most renowned directors working today. In the other corner we have a Disney animated feature based on a Marvel Comics property. This is a true battle of the titans if there ever was one.
Actually, strike that. I don’t actually want to pit these two films against each other.
Let’s instead look at it as being given the gift of two films worth being excited about and not care which one ends up making more money. But here are the details if you only have time this weekend to see one of them:
Boldly going to Mardi Gras 2005.
I was able to see Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s wildly ambitious sci-fi adventure, earlier this week on an immense IMAX screen in 70mm and if you’re at all interested in science fiction that is the way to see this movie. My full review of the film can be read by clicking HERE but in short its a visual marvel that will leave you with a lot to chew over when the final credits start to roll. As you’ll see in my review, I wasn’t instantly enamored by every aspect of the movie but I think its one that will grow richer with subsequent viewings and the passage of time.
“Oh, hey.”
On the flip side of that we have Disney’s Big Hero 6, a bright and colorful action comedy that gets to bear the Marvel stamp. Disney’s animation team is still riding high from the success of last year’s phenomenon, Frozen, and they would no doubt like to repeat that success with Big Hero 6. It somewhat hard to believe that they’ll reach the same box office heights as Frozen but so far the reviews are pointing to lots of love coming its way thanks to an 89% score on the Tomatometer.
We’ll have a proper review of Big Hero 6 up later this weekend so stay tuned for that!
What Else Is New?
This weekend also sees the release of two notable films in limited release. One of them is generating Oscar buzz. The other one…isn’t.
How about those glasses?
On the positive side is The Theory of Everything, a biopic about probably the world’s smartest man, Steven Hawking and his working relationship with his wife who has been at his side through all of his health troubles. Playing Hawking is Eddie Redmayne (My Week with Marilyn) who seems almost destined for a Best Actor nomination based on word of mouth from early screenings. I’ll be seeing the film tomorrow and will let you know The Workprint Verdict as soon as possible after the fact, but based on its 78% Tomatometer score, I’m in for a likely positive reaction.
Missing this guy. 🙁
On the other side of the spectrum is AMerry Friggin’ Christmas, the first blatantly holiday-themed film to come out now that Halloween is in our past. The film isn’t getting a wide release (its also available OnDemand) and the reviews thus far haven’t been particularly strong but what makes it worth mentioning here is that it represents one of the last works by the late, great Robin Williams. I don’t need to tell anyone that Williams was a national treasure and any remaining work of his left behind is probably worth taking a peek at. We’ll have a full review up later this weekend to confirm how high you should place it on your priority list.
Don’t Feel Like Leaving the Couch?
What’s that I smell? An even longer Hobbit movie?!
Out on Blu-Ray and DVD this week is Peter Jackson’s Extended Edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which adds 27 minutes to the film that was released in theaters last December. When it came to the Lord of the Rings trilogy the Extended Editions really were the preferred versions of the films thanks to their added characters, content, and context enriching them to whole new level. The extended edition of the first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey, didn’t exactly live up to that legacy since these Hobbit films are probably already a bit longer than they need to be BUT what makes these extended editions worth checking out is the completely immersive behind-the-scenes content available. The documentaries that are put together on the making of these films are absolutely brilliant and give us such an invested perspective on the work that went into them by the cast and crew. I’m not even ashamed to admit that they’ve made me cry on numerous occasions.
Well…maybe I’m a little bit ashamed.
“This just in: My show is amazing.”
Hobbits, dragons, and dwarves not your thing? In that case I recommend picking up the Complete Second Season of HBO’s The Newsroom which was also released for home entertainment this week. If you’ve yet to see it I highly suggest marathoning through as fast as you can so you can dig in to the third and final season which premieres on Sunday night at 9. I’ve got your review of that episode right HERE.
Full disclosure: I’ve almost never been so unsure about what to say in a movie review as I am right now. I saw Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar last night at Hollywood’s gorgeous Chinese Theater in eye-popping 70mm IMAX and as the film went on my reactions to it were all over the place. I tried my best not to let that distract me or pull me too far out of the movie so I just kept saying to myself: “Worry about what to say after its over.”
I tried that.
It didn’t work. And I’ve been worried ever since.
For every mind-blowing visual or interesting scientific concept there was a moment where I found myself wondering, “Where in the film’s nearly 3-hour run-time are we? Is it almost over?” And that’s not to say I wanted it to be over. Far from it! I just literally lost all sense of time in a way that was borderline frustrating.
But what makes feeling that way about it so interesting is that this is a movie about time. In it, characters are dealing with the passage of time, the theoretical relations of time, and quite possibly the end of time as we know it. I’m quite sure Nolan had no intention of making me wanting to check my watch but its an interesting idea regardless.
Either way, what Nolan has assembled here is a big film with even bigger ideas and for that reason alone he is to be commended. In a time when the major studios almost never give a green light to a big budget film not based on some kind of existing property, Nolan continues to push the envelope with original storytelling unlike any other director working today. One only has to look at his Inception to get a taste for the kind of original tales kicking around in his head. They’re brilliant and I want to see more of them. Period.
But even the most masterful filmmaker can’t make EVERYTHING turn into pure gold. Nolan proves that with this film but he gets major points for effort.
If you didn’t already know, Interstellar introduces us to a not-too-distant future where the Earth is slowly succumbing to another dust bowl and the prospects for future human life are dim. In this dire setting we meet a former NASA pilot/current farmer named Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who, along with his young daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy), discovers a mysterious set of coordinates that leads them to a top secret government base.
It is at this base where they meet Professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway) who reveal that they are secretly working for the once-thought-to-be-defunct NASA on a mission that will take a group of explorers through a wormhole to another galaxy in hope of finding a planet where life is possible for humans. One group of scientists has already made the journey to scout out the best planets so this next trip will be responsible for making that final decision and then returning to Earth with the good news.
And because these scientists take cryptic messages very seriously, they believe Cooper was sent to them for a reason and insist that he be the one to pilot the vessel to this other galaxy. And after initially dismissing the idea in favor of staying behind to care for his two children, he reluctantly agrees in hopes of saving not only his own children but the children of everyone else on Earth.
Murph quickly resents her father for agreeing to leave and refuses to bid him farewell when the time comes to launch into the cosmos. What follows is an epic journey through space and time that will take your breath away from the sheer scope of it all. We are right there with Cooper, Amelia, and fellow NASA scientists Romilly (David Gyasi) and Doyle (Wes Bentley) as they rocket through wormholes, dare to fly near a black hole, visit a water-covered planet with waves the size of mountains, and land on an icy planet where even the clouds are frozen. These moments and many more are a visual feast that are only more mesmerizing if you see the film on an immense IMAX screen in the 70mm format. No matter how you feel about everything else in the film – characters, plot, dialogue, etc. – these images will absolutely leave you reeling from their pure beauty, wonder, and believability. On this front alone the film is a masterpiece.
But the reason that a lot of these images are so powerful is that they are anchored very nicely to Cooper’s almost single-minded quest to return to Earth and be reunited with his children. And what makes this film an almost sci-fi answer to Boyhood is that the passage of time happens differently for those left back on Earth and as a result we get to see his children grow into adults in the form of Casey Affleck and the great Jessica Chastain.
Chastain, who takes on the more prominent role of adult Murph, convincingly pulls our heartstrings as a child who feels abandoned and betrayed by a father who appears to have little chance of actually returning to her after a 20+ year absence. Their relationship is a complex and interesting one that only gets more complex as the film goes on.
And I think therein lies the problem with Interstellar. In some ways it feels like a film that doesn’t know where to end. There are scenes and moments scattered throughout the last act that I personally think could have been sufficient and satisfying end points. That’s not to say that everything that comes after these points is terrible (far from it) – they just seem to exist to answer every remaining question and tie up every loose end. Some viewers may appreciate this but for me, a movie so operatic, mystical, and full of wonder would have left more of an impression by leaving a little bit left to the imagination.
So where does that leave us?
Even though I didn’t walk out of the theater wanting to sing Interstellar‘s praises from the rooftops, I still highly recommend seeing it for the experience that it is. See it in the best theater, on the biggest screen, and with the biggest crowd you can find. What Nolan has assembled here is GARGANTUAN and I cringe at the thought of anyone ever watching it on their phone or laptop. This is a movie in the biggest sense of the word and it deserves to be seen that way.
It may not have a perfect script and probably runs far too much longer than it needs to but it made me marvel at space again in a way I hadn’t felt since I was a little boy. And sometimes that’s all a movie needs to do.
I really didn’t think we would need another Toy Story movie after the third one. Everything wrapped up nicely and I walked out of the theater feeling like the series had given me closure I didn’t know I needed.
What I never expected Pixar to do was announce another movie. Shockingly, that’s exactly what they have done.
That’s right, Pixar is making Toy Story 4 with John Lasseter, the director of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, returning to direct the film. Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich, the storytellers behind all three Toy Story films, have collaborated once more to dream up the new entry.
“We love these characters so much; they are like family to us,” said Lasseter. “We don’t want to do anything with them unless it lives up to or surpasses what’s gone before. Toy Story 3 ended Woody and Buzz’s story with Andy so perfectly that for a long time, we never even talked about doing another Toy Story movie. But when Andrew, Pete, Lee and I came up with this new idea, I just could not stop thinking about it. It was so exciting to me, I knew we had to make this movie—and I wanted to direct it myself.”
The new chapter in the lives of Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the Toy Story gang will be written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (Celeste and Jesse Forever) and produced by Pixar veteran Galyn Susman (ABC’s Toy Story OF TERROR! and Toy Story that Time Forgot). The story was dreamt up by Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich, the storytellers who have been the driving force behind all three Toy Story films.
Toy Story 4 is slated for release on June 16, 2017.
Musical fans, rejoice! We have been granted a second trailer for Into the Woods!
Into the Woods combines several well-known fairy tales into one plot, taking characters from Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Jack & the Beanstalk, all the while examining the repercussions of each character getting what they wished for. It’s not intended to be a “happily ever after” tale, but it’s expected that Disney has watered down some of the darker aspects of the original story, in order to be more family-friendly and maintain that PG-rating.
Let’s hope that come December 25th we aren’t regretting our wishes when it comes to the film. I’m hopelessly optimistic the movie will do well and have been pleasantly surprised with what I’ve seen thus far. (Except for Johnny Depp’s ridiculous Wolf costume. I have a theory that Tim Burton made the costume and Depp refused to take it off, so the director had to make do.)
Into the Woods is set to release in theaters on Christmas Day, 2014.
The next film in the Star Wars mega franchise gets a title at last: The Force Awakens. Does this mean a resurgence in the Jedi order? Little baby Jedis via Han and Leia? Or perhaps still unknown future padawans that the original trilogy characters will meet along the way? Likely the latter.
Today the official Star Wars twitter account released a new image with Episode VII’s title:
Principal photography also finished up last week and a wrap party was thrown at London’s Science Museum. Actor John Boyega gave fans a little peak of the night’s celebration:
The film is set 30 years after Return of the Jedi and features the original cast of Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, and Warwick Davis as well as newcomers Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong’o, Max Von Sydow, Gwendoline Christie, and John Boyega.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is expected to be released on December 18, 2015.
Oh, what’s that music, you ask? It’s the “Song of Time” and we’re going back to the year 2000, a time when all you nerds were indoors NOT PLAYING Majora’s Mask on the N64. Seriously, there are too many of you who have this game on your “Not-Yet-Played” lists and I, for one, am appalled. But there’s no need to weep faerie tears and embarrass all your Goron friends. Nintendo has your back, finally releasing Majora’s Mask on the 3DS and 2DS.
Here’s the trailer, slackers:
As you can tell from the trailer, Majora’s Mask isn’t all gemstones and pony rides like its predecessor, Ocarina of Time. Termina is a darker world, darker than Hyrule under Ganondorf’s rule (that emo-poser), and it’s your job as Link to stop the moon from falling on Termina and destroying everything you love. Including Epona. So, grab your masks, your ocarina, and get to slayin’.
Well, not quite yet. Majora’s Mask doesn’t release on the 3DS/2DS until Spring 2015. But you’re excited now, right?
You’re welcome.
To the beautiful bastard who made this image: I love you.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “I. LOVE. THE NEWSROOM.”
But from the very night that this brainchild from word wizard Aaron Sorkin premiered on HBO in 2012, its been almost routinely shat upon and picked apart to death by a very vocal online mob. To be fair, some of their points have some validity but more often than not they are overblown to the point where you can honestly hear the joy in their voices at the chance to rip it apart. Does it make them feel good to knock down a show that speaks so confidently in its message? Or is it just fun to pick on a guy like Sorkin who rarely turns in anything less than stellar? And more importantly, why do these people keep watching a show that they claim to hate so much?
We’ll likely never have an answer to those questions so ya know what? Fuck them. This is a review for those of us who love the series or at least have an open mind about its potential. And to those of you reading this from the non-hating camp I say rejoice: The season premiere of this upcoming final season is nothing less than perfect.
Titled simply ‘Boston’, the episode begins on April 15, 2013 when two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killing 3 people and injuring more than 250. Like any group of journalists, the team at Newsnight springs into action to figure out exactly what happened but the difference between them and every other network is that they refuse to go on air until they know exactly what they’re reporting about.
Still reeling from their humiliating experience reporting the Genoa story in season two, the team is bound and determined to get the story correct even if it means they’re the last ones on the air. This naturally occurs much to the chagrin of network President Reese Lansing (Chris Messina) who still laments Newsnight’s weak ratings and weaker reputation in addition to fretting about the parent company’s overall economic performance.
But enough about him. Let’s discuss our main characters.
Will (Jeff Daniels still crushing it after his Emmy win for Season 1) and MacKenzie (Emily Mortimer) are busy planning their upcoming wedding. Charlie (Sam Waterston) is still a hot head. Sloan (Olivia Munn) is fascinated by a new economics mega-computer that she has installed in her office and intends to use it to solve a mystery about their corporation’s stock price. Neal (Dev Patel) is in contact with a source willing to hand over thousands of classified government documents. Maggie (Alison Pill) is sent on assignment to help Elliot (David Harbour) cover the marathon bombing story in Boston. Don (Thomas Sadoski) has to get out of jury duty. And Jim (John Gallagher Jr.) and Hallie (Grace Gummer) are on hand in the studio to help cover the bombing despite Hallie’s annoyance at MacKenzie’s refusal to use eyewitness reports from Twitter.
In other words, this season premiere is stuffed full of content but never in a way that feels OVERstuffed. The teleplay by Sorkin keeps things moving briskly and weaves everything together in a way that is economical, fresh, and often very, very funny. And no doubt some of this humor comes courtesy of producer Paul Lieberstein who joined the show for this last season after many successful years as the producer and actor on NBC’s The Office. The Newsroom has always been funny but now it plays closer to straight-up comedy without sacrificing its dramatic heft or sharp media criticism. What more could you ask for?
But what makes this a truly great season premiere is how all of these storylines come to a head by the end of the episode and beautifully set the stage for things to come. I don’t want to spoil anything here but what unfolds offers an amazing collection of wonderfully intriguing obstacles for these lovable characters to grapple with over the remaining five episodes. In fact, Jeff Daniel’s episode-ending line is filled with so much exuberance and potential that you’ll find yourself desperate to see the next episode immediately.
At this point I’m not sure what’s worse – that there are only five episodes left after this or that we have to wait a full week in between each one. All I really know is that if those remaining five episodes are as strong as this one, we’re absolutely in for a treat every Sunday night. And who knows – maybe even the haters will finally come around.
Season 3 of The Newsroom premieres on Sunday November 9 at 9 PM.
The streaming giant has announced a series adaption of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.
“On the search for fantastic material that appeals to both parents and kids, the first stop for generations of readers is A Series of Unfortunate Events, “ said Cindy Holland, VP, Original Content for Netflix. “The world created by Lemony Snicket is unique, darkly funny, and relatable. We can’t wait to bring it to life for Netflix members.”
“I can’t believe it,” Snicket said, from an undisclosed location. “After years of providing top-quality entertainment on demand, Netflix is risking its reputation and its success by associating itself with my dismaying and upsetting books.”
A Series of Unfortunate Events was originally adapted as movie in 2004. Starring Jim Carrey, the adaptation covered the first three books, but never saw the big screen after its first romp at the box office.
The books follow the tale orphans Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire as they try to escape their evil uncle and uncover the mystery of their parent’s death.
