I spent a whole week or so, watching some of my favorite British detective/mystery series. I highly recommend the Inspector Lewis series, which picks up a few years after the Inspector Morse series, with the beloved Lewis as the Chief Inspector and his new right-hand man, Detective Sergeant Hathaway. It is still set in Oxford and Hathaway is almost more erudite than Morse, while Lewis still relies on old fashioned detective work. There are currently seven series available. I always liked Lewis, he brought an earthy humanity that complemented Morse's often uncomfortable human interactions. If you liked Morse, but have not seen Lewis, what are you waiting for? Closely related to Inspector Lewis and Inspector Morse is Endeavor, a look at the young Morse, when he was just a Detective Constable; you can see his love of crosswords, opera and Jaguars and how he never really fit in with his colleagues or superiors. Last, but not least, is a recent favorite of mine, Inspector George Gently, which is set in northern England, Durham, in the mid-1960s to the late 1960s. It's not really a time period or location that gets a lot of attention, so I found that very interesting (love the music they include and the different settings). George Gently is a transplant from London to the north, and he has a lot to learn, so of course, he has to have an eager sidekick, in the form of Detective Sergeant John Bacchus. Both men have their share of personal and professional challenges that slowly evolve over the course of the series. Gently can be incredibly hard-assed when dealing with the baddies or incompetent police offices, but shows a very sensitive and caring side when dealing with victims, families or fragile witnesses. Bacchus, is, well, a little rough and not quite up to the very high standards that say a Detective Sergeant Lewis or Hathaway possess. Bacchus is from Durham and is familiar with the culture and the language and guides Gently (or not, depending). What I enjoyed watching was how Gently and Bacchus's relationship developed; they're combative, competitive and can sometimes have different ways of getting the same result. Occasionally Bacchus seems like he's a Neanderthal and Gently is very enlightened, which may be a little odd because Bacchus could be Gently's son; but Gently served in World War II, and that has influenced much of how he thinks now. I don't know if Gently has been on PBS, but I found the series (all of them actually) at my library.
5/24/2014, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, 2000
Unusual for a foreign film (although it has happened), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won several awards in additional to the Best Foreign Language Film. I think when watching Crouching Tiger you have to keep in mind that it is not real (that probably sounds really stupid and painfully obvious), that it's not just a martial arts movie, there is a great deal of fantasy incorporated, I mean, people really cannot run straight up walls and fly among the trees. Every once in a while, this was disconcerting to me, I think I was expecting more realism (I don't know why, I just was), but even saying that, I really enjoyed it. There was something very balletic about the fight scenes. Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Hulk, The Life of Pi) directed, and while The Life of Pi annoyed me, it was a beautiful film, and so is Crouching Tiger, the colors, the costumes. I'm not sure I can really explain the story, because it got a little convoluted for me; there are two love stories at the heart of the movie, unrequited, mostly; the desire to preserve honor, avenge fallen loved ones. Chow Yun-fat (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Bulletproof Monk) and Michelle Yeoh (Memoirs of a Geisha, Kung Fu Panda 2, Tomorrow Never Dies) are probably the most familiar to US audiences. I cannot believe that we have not seen more of Michelle Yeoh, but I think we should. If you are afraid to see a foreign film after my review of The Great Beauty, try this one, it's got action, love stories, and gorgeous scenery.
5/25/2014 Adaptation., Best Supporting Actor, 2002
I don't even know how to describe Adaptation., maybe a story within a story? Nicholas Cage stars as twins Donald and Charlie Kaufman (Charlie is real, Donald is fictitious); Charlie is a screenwriter in Hollywood and the movie opens with scenes from Being John Malkovich, a film written by Charlie. Donald is trying to find his life path, and decides he wants to be a screenwriter like Charlie. The film follows the story of Donald and Charlie's relationship, the differences in their two personalities: Donald is very outgoing, seemingly totally unaware of any social flaws or perceptions that others have of him; Charlie is insecure, awkward and not happy with himself. The other part of the movie is the story that Charlie is struggling to write based on a book (a real book, to make things even more confusing) about, and called, The Orchid Thief. The orchid plot involves Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean, a writer for The New Yorker and Chris Cooper as John Laroche, a new type of Renaissance man, who is happy to try his hand at procuring rare flowers and plant life or pornography on the Internet. Cooper, who also starred with Streep in August: Osage County, won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Cooper was good and he is such a versatile actor, but I think Paul Newman would have been a valid choice for his role in The Road to Perdition, Ed Harris was very strong in The Hours, but I hated that movie, so, Newman it is. Spike Jonze directed (Her, Where the Wild Things Are). I was happy when the movie was over, I didn't care about anyone or anything; I certainly don't think this was one of Streep's best roles, and I'm just not a big Nicholas Cage fan, I don't know why, he hasn't made many movies that I like. This is a movie that I probably would have happily ignored if it wasn't on my damn list.
5/26/2014 8 Mile, Best Original Song, 2002
According to Netflix, I had already seen 8 Mile and rated it two stars. I didn't remember anything, so I watched it again. If I could have rated it 2 1/2 stars, I would have, I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it either. Rap really isn't my genre, I don't get it, I try to know a little bit so I can converse with the young people (or my brothers, as I like to say), but nothing sticks. And besides, after all the negative press that Eminem has received for some of his comments, I wasn't all that keen on watching this movie. I'm not going to make out like I had some kind of grand epiphany or anything, but watching the whole movie and keeping the comments in context, I am not as 'against' Eminem as I might have been. 8 Mile refers to a main road in Detroit (I have actually driven across it) and it is the boundary of the city limits of Detroit; make no mistake, Detroit is a character in this movie, gritty, dirty, crime-ridden, but still possessed of some kind of civic pride in the Motor City's contributions to music. B. Rabbit (Eminem) is under-employed at a local stamping plant, struggling as a rapper (a white rapper, no less) and dealing with his mother's haphazard lifestyle. Rabbit is surrounded by four friends who stick by him, tease him and care about him; probably the closest thing to brothers, and family, he will ever have. Rabbit competes in free-styling (I think that's the term) where you rap against someone, usually slinging insults about their family, sexual proclivities, talent, or whatever comes to mind, while rhyming. Rabbit is in a contest where he just freezes and walks offstage, earning a reputation as a quitter and a coward, not cool when you need to be tough. The rest of the movie seems to involve his redemption in his own eyes and his rap community. Brittany Murphy stars as Rabbit's 'girlfriend' (although I didn't know that stand-up sex in a stamping plant made you boyfriend/girlfriend, but then I'm old-fashioned), and she seemed way out of it, maybe that was her character, maybe it was her, but she was annoying. According to Wikipedia, 8 Mile has been called a "hip-hop movie masterpiece" - it's so beyond my knowledge, I'll defer to others; I thought it was okay, I have certainly seen worse movies recently. If you are a fan of hip-hop, you have probably already seen it, if not, but you're interested in the Motown music scene, check out Standing in the Shadows of Motown about the musicians who played on the Motown music label.
5/26/2014, Gravity, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, 2013
I don't often regret seeing movies on television (even my 1996 Panasonic) versus the big screen, for most of the movies that I like to watch, it really doesn't matter, but for Gravity I am so disappointed that I could not get my life together to see it at a theater (although I don't think I could have handled it in 3D). Gravity picked up the top technical awards at the Oscars as well as Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron, and I can't quibble with any of those. The movie is an astronomical feast for the eyes; Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are really the only characters we meet (one other astronaut becomes fodder space debris hurtling past the space station), but it's really Sandra Bullock's show. I don't want to give too much away in case you haven't seen it yet, but here's a little bit. Dr. Stone is a space rookie, while Matt Kowalski is a veteran astronaut, space-walker who brings a little wit and wisdom to the party, he tries to get to know Stone a little bit; she clearly seems like she has hardened a part of herself. The action starts when the astronauts are told about a Russian missile strike on one of their own satellites that has a terrible ripple effect on everything else that is out in orbit, including sending large chunks of debris flying towards the spacewalking astronauts. Chaos ensues. What happens next can be imagined, but what shows up on screen is incredible, Stone and Kowalski fighting to get back to safety, being flung about like rag dolls, Earth in the distance. Bullock really did an incredible job, especially considering she was alone on the screen for a large part of the movie and had to act with green screen technology, but I don't think there was any way she was going to beat Cate Blanchett. Technically, this movie broke a lot of new ground, using new and different technologies and was really beautiful; I don't recall anything about the musical score, nothing that made me think, 'ooh, ah', I was partial to Philomena and Saving Mr. Banks, and All is Lost, which wasn't nominated for an Oscar. At first I was convinced that Steve McQueen should have won for Best Director, but after seeing Gravity, I could be persuaded that Cuaron deserved the honor for using the technology but still keeping the human element very much a part of the story (it did not seem that it was only about the fancy visual tricks). If you have not seen Gravity, you should, and you probably have a better screen and picture quality than I do, so feel free to invite me over.
As a post-script, I was lucky enough to see Rodriguez, who was the featured in the documentary Searching for Sugar Man, who played a concert in Minneapolis. It was an amazing performance, and his voice sounded as good as it does on record. The crowd was atypically rowdy and obnoxious, although I read a review of his Detroit performance and the crowd was the same. Perhaps it was their unbridled joy at this long-hidden American treasure playing in their city. He handled it quite well and even interacted with the crowd. He's a lot older now and who knows how long he'll be touring, but if you have a chance to catch him in your city, make the investment and get a ticket.
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| Rodriguez, May 17, 2014 State Theater |
Coming up: X-Men: Days of Future Past
