Something for everyone - Fargo, Damages, Inherent Vice and The Hobbit

May 2015 Fargo, television series
1996 Fargo, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, 1996, National Film Registry

Did you see Fargo the movie when it came out back in 1996? I saw it in the theaters and having only lived in Minnesota for three years, I thought it was an hilarious depiction of my new state. I may have been the only one. I don't know too many people from Minnesota who like Fargo, but it seems to be the one film "about" Minnesota that the rest of the country has seen. The Coen brothers wrote and directed Fargo the movie, and are executive producers on the television series. The series (I watched season one) is not exactly based on the movie, but set in the same region (northern Minnesota) and it does have a ne'er do well husband at its center.

The movie was filmed around Minnesota, including places with which I was familiar (it always surprises me because I have no sense of place or direction). Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy in an Oscar-nominated performance) is a car salesman in Minneapolis who needs some money (who doesn't?); through his need, he is introduced to some criminal elements that quickly overwhelm him. He is out of his element with the men and the plan they hatch to kidnap and ransom Lundegaard's wife.You can imagine things go bad for poor Jerry, especially as Brainerd Police Chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand in her Oscar-winning role) gets involved. To me, Coen Brothers movies are infamous for their random and over-the-top violence (the wood-chipper scene, anyone?) and sometimes it annoys me and other times, I have to say, I just laugh because it is so absurd. I did like Fargo, its sense of irony, theater of the absurd element and how it portrayed Minnesotans to me at that time.I don't like everything that the Coen Brothers do, but it's always interesting.

The series, as I mentioned above, is not exactly an extension of the Lundegaard/Gunderson story, but it's in the same region (Brainerd/Duluth) and it features a sad sack guy, Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman from Sherlock and The Hobbit) and a no-nonsense hit man Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) and a deputy with an incurable sense of curiosity, Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman). The cast is sprinkled with other familiar names and faces and some new ones. The Nygaard plot line is the connecting thread, but there are plenty of diversions which is the benefit of a longer format like episodic television. Freeman could have played Nygaard as a one dimensional character, and while you may not like him very much, I certainly did not, he does evolve over the series. Solverson is also a 2006 (that's when this series is set) equivalent of Marge Gunderson, just a little younger and a lower rank. The Coen Brothers feel came through in the violence that occasionally verged on overkill (no pun intended); in fact, I kind of thought the series could have been trimmed by about two episodes. I was not sure how this would end, but it ended the way I thought it should (you'll have to see for yourself). My one complaint (or am I up to two?) was the accents of the characters; when I saw Fargo the movie, I thought the accents were hysterical and right on, but as i watched the series, I thought the accents were SO overdone, I thought nobody really talks like that. Well, the morning after I finished watching the series, I was on the bus and two guys, who I will name Lars and Ole, were talking loudly (there is usually no talking on the morning bus, it's just the rules) and I swear on Paul Bunyan that they sounded exactly like the series. I guess people do sound like that. There will be a season two with another murder in the upper Midwest. I'm glad I watched it on DVD from the library, because I didn't have to wait for the next episode or miss it because of something else; I think most series are best watched with that kind of continuity.

2015 Damages, season 5, 2012

Some day, when I have nothing left to watch, I am going to watch the whole series from the beginning to the end with no interruption. Thank goodness there are only five seasons. Glenn Close and Rose Byrne are the protagonist and antagonist, starring as Patty Hewes and Ellen Parsons, respectively. Patty Hewes is a litigating attorney who specializes in big, dramatic and potentially high reward cases; Ellen Parsons begins the series as an associate working with Patty, but through a series of events over a year or so that I'm not sure I can even explain cogently, they become adversaries, sacrificing people along the way to defeat one another. After watching this series and Albert Nobbs, I just think Glenn Close is amazing. They are two different characters, but both played with an intensity that you can't stop looking at the screen (if you have not seen Albert Nobbs, I totally recommend it; it's an under-appreciated film). Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, The Internship, Neighbors, and others) is more than up to the task, I think she develops as Ellen develops; going from a naive, innocent lawyer who is afraid of Patty Hewes into a wily, manipulative attorney who is no longer intimidated by Patty or her shenanigans. This particular season focuses on a Julian Assange-like character, Channing McClaren, played by Ryan Phillippe, with a very high sleaze factor, and a source (played by Jenna Elfman) of his who allegedly committed suicide. There are twists and turns that are self-contained in the season, but also twists that go back over past seasons. The thing I learned pretty early on is do not believe everything you see; I don't know if the editing team won any awards but they certainly should have. Damages was a smart, intelligent, occasionally whacked series that kind of faded away in its last season. I watched Fargo and Damages close together, and that may have been a little too intense, but I survived and so will you.

5/17/15 Song of the Sea, Nominated Best Animated Feature, 2014

Song of the Sea is an animated feature that was done by Thomm Moore who directed the Oscar-nominated animated film The Secret of Kells, which was also an Irish fantasy movie. It took me about 25-35 minutes to get into the story, which is about a half-human, half-selkie child who discovers her magical abilities. A selkie is a mythological character who is a seal when in the water and human when on land. Saoirse is the half-selkie child and she is the younger sister and annoyance of Ben, who blames Saoirse for the disappearance of their mother. The night Saoirse was born, their mother, Bronagh, mysteriously leaves her family (unlike in Disney movies where the parents, usually the mother, die so their children can go forth in the world). Ben and Saoirse are sent to live with their grandmother in the city, which they hate and they have to leave their Old English sheepdog, Cu, at home. They want to go back to their father and their home near the lighthouse and the sea, but get lost. This is where I got interested, because they met fairies and had some adventures that were a little hair-raising. Song of the Sea was nominated for several film awards, and won a few, just not the Oscar (which went to Big Hero 6 which I really did not like as much as the other nominees). I don't know how many kids could sit through this story, it seems  like it might be for an older audience, that's not a bad thing. I loved the animation which is not computer generated; I also loved the voice characters, particularly that of Ben. David Rawle voiced the Ben character; I knew right away the voice was familiar and when I looked him up, I was right, David Rawle is Martin Moone in the television series Moone Boy. If you have never seen it, it's on my local public television channel, you should check it out. It is laugh out loud funny, even as it is occasionally inappropriate, and Rawle has a great inflection and timing, which he brings to Song of the Sea, especially because he is often talking to himself because Saoirse does not speak. Brendan Gleeson is Ben and Saoirse's father and Fionnula Flanagan is Granny and Macha (a witch).

5/17/15 Inherent Vice, Nominated Best Costume Design, Best Adapted Screenplay 2014

I planned to see Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice in the theater, but I could not bring myself to sit in a theater for 149 minutes, I wasn't all that thrilled to lie on my floor to watch it either. In fact, I fell asleep during the first 52 minutes; well, I was okay for the first 10 minutes and then it was lights out. I did wake up after an hour or so and started the movie from the beginning. So, in fact, I watched a 200 minute movie. Anderson is known for long movies, There Will Be Blood was about 3 days long. Anderson adapted his screenplay from the book by Thomas Pynchon. The mysterious and eccentric Joaquin Phoenix starred as Doc Sportello, a pot smoking private detective who seems to get hit as much as Jim Rockford. The story is set in the early 1970s, so the costumes reflect the bell bottoms, stripey patterns and side burns of the period. Doc Sportello is seemingly haunted or at least inconveniently connected to his ex-girlfriend and femme fatale, Shasta, who comes and goes as it's pleases her (I found her annoying and am pretty sure the story could have been told without her). There are three different story lines which sort of overlap and are sort of independent, and maybe they could have been different episodes instead of one extremely long movie. Joaquin Phoenix is always interesting to watch, you never know what your're going to get, Johnny Cash in Walk the Line or Freddie Quell in The Master (another Paul Anderson Thomas movie, and I hated this one), but you know you're going to get a totally committed performance. Josh Brolin plays the straightest straight man ever; he is Detective Christian "Bigfoot" Bjornsen, Doc's nemesis. Brolin plays Bjornsen with no humor and that's kind of what makes it so funny. The cast reads like a who's who of Hollywood: Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Maya Rudolph and on and on. The movie plays like a drama with these different mysteries, but it has this layer of comedy that pokes through when you least expect it. There were a few times where I laughed out loud. You might be put off by the length of the movie, or you think Joaquin is too weird, find a rainy summer day (we've already had quite a few) and pop it in or stream it or whatever you do.

5/22/15 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, nominated Best Sound Editing, 2014

Before I go into any review, I would like to point out that The Hobbit trilogy was over 474 minutes long, that is 7.9 hours and Gone with the Wind was 221 minutes, that's approximately 3.7 hours; Gone with the Wind covered the Antebellum South, the Civil War and Reconstruction. When I first heard that Peter Jackson was going to film The Hobbit, I was so excited. It's one of my favorite stories, with one of my favorite characters, Bilbo Baggins (I have a Bilbo tattoo and if you ask nicely, I'll show you). Then I read it was going to be two films, then three. Then my heart sank. First, I knew I would have to wait at LEAST three years for the whole story to be completed, which irritated me; then I thought, it's not that complicated of a story, in fact, it's the shortest book of the whole series. WHY? WHY? So, I went from super excited to mildly let down (it's actually a normal state for me, I've been a Cleveland sports fan my whole life). I really lost any momentum and was not interested in the movie at all, but figured I may as well knock it off the list. The movie picks up with Smaug destroying Laketown and the dwarves and Bilbo up on Lonely Mountain. There is a lot of focus on Thoren Oakenshield who falls under the sway of all the gold and jewels in Smaug's stash; his grandfather suffered a similar fate. It's the dwarfs against everyone else as Thoren refuses to help the people of Laketown or keep up his end of the bargain with the elves and the men. Azog brings his great armies and the fight scenes were quite impressive, with elves and men and dwarfs in great battle. I love elves, I think they're my favorite, Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom specifically. I also love the Great Eagles that always seem to come in the nick of time. I think I was bored for the first hour, but eventually I was back on the team. Maybe one weekend in the winter, I will make my friends watch eight hours of The Hobbit and then the rest of the trilogy. I guess I am grateful to Peter Jackson for taking on the mantle of Tolkien, but if you want a briefer look at The Hobbit, I highly recommend the Bass/Rankin animated version from 1977 starring Orson Bean as Bilbo (the best, I think) and John Huston as Gandalf. I have it on VHS if you'd like to borrow it.

Avengers, Billy Joel Live, Woman in Gold and more

The first two weeks of May have been filled with variety of the cinematic, television and musical kind. I am happy to present to you, May.

Turn Left at the End of the World, 2004

I don't remember how this movie ended up in my Netflix queue. I'm sure I randomly clicked it or read the synopsis and thought it would be interesting. And it was. Turn Left at the End of the World is set in the Negev desert in Israel in the 1960s and it focuses on the newer immigrants from Morocco and India. I did not know there were immigrants from India; I was aware of Moroccan Jews, but not really of their lives in Israel. Two girls, one from an Indian family and one from a Moroccan family, become friends despite their families' differences and disagreements. Both groups are wary and judgmental of the other. The movie is mostly in Hebrew but also in English and French. I think if you're looking for something a little different in terms of topic and locale, this might be of interest.

5/1/2015 Woman in Gold, 2015, not yet nominated

Woman in Gold is based on the true story of Maria Altmann and her fight to get back several family paintings taken by the Nazis during the Second World War. I mentioned this story about a year after I read the book The Lady in Gold, the Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer by Anne-Marie O'Connor. Helen Mirren stars as Marie Altmann and Ryan Reynolds is Randy Schoenberg, her reluctant attorney who takes up her cause and int he process, learns a little more about his own history. The movie uses flashbacks to help tell the story of Maria and her family's life, including her beloved aunt, Adele Bloch Bauer, who was at the center of many social gatherings in Vienna and the subject of an historic painting by Gustav Klimt. Mirren is wonderful as always, avoiding sentimentality but dealing with things in a determined, matter-of-fact way, occasionally with stubbornness, a little humor and a hint of satisfaction at the end result of her case (not smugness, though); Reynolds is up to the task, showing a bit of reluctance at even taking on this case, but eventually getting drawn into the enormity of the issue at hand and the connection to his own family (his grandfathers were Austrian composers Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl; Schoenberg is specifically mentioned as a friend of the Bloch Bauers), as well as matching wits with the very sharp Altmann/Mirren. There are very definite good guys and bad guys here, without guns or weapons, just a history of anti-Semitism and a desire to bury the past. Schoenberg and Altmann are met at every turn with roadblocks from the Austrian government, but Schoenberg finds loopholes in international and US law that allow them to pursue their case. There was something about Toman, the official from the Belvedere Museum that made me want to hiss and boo. Schoenberg and Altmann are assisted by Hubertus Czernin,(Daniel Bruhl) a Hungarian journalist who believes that in order to heal and move forward, Austria must acknowledge and make amends for its role during the Holocaust. I enjoyed the movie and am so glad this story has made it to film, but I was glad I read the book first because even though I struggled to get through the first hundred pages or so, O'Connor provided a rich background of life in Vienna in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and especially culturally; she also included information about the wider Bloch Bauer clan and what happened to the different members of the family. Obviously, that couldn't all be put into a ninety minute movie. I liked the movie, but if you haven't seen it on the big screen, I think it's a great film for your DVD or streaming pleasure, but you should see it.

5/2/15 Avengers: Age of Ultron, 5/2/15, not yet nominated

Followers of this blog will recall that I love my superhero movies, and as you can imagine, I have been waiting for this movie and the others promised by Marvel over the next few years. Age of Ultron reunites our heroes from the first Avengers movie and adds War Machine, Falcon, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and my favorite, The Vision, plus a new villain, Ultron. The movie opens right away with an action/fight sequence with the team fighting a Hydra outpost; this is where Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are introduced (if you saw the last X-Men movie, you may recall that Quicksilver made a key appearance there as well). There is some awesome action sequences, especially towards the end, but to be honest, there was too much talking for me. I just want flying and fighting and stuff like that, I was not thrilled with the subplot with Hawkeye (I have to agree with a column I read that Hawkeye should have been knocked off instead of the character who was); and I thought the subplot with Black Widow and The Hulk was ridiculous. I could use more Black Widow and other female heroes, so I am happy they added the Scarlet Witch to the mix (although it took a very long time for Elizabeth Olsen to grow on me, and I'm still not 100% there). On a side note, a friend of mine and I, who often discuss the merits of superhero movies, talked about how there are so many good female characters, enough to create their own movie. Oh well, maybe another time. I love The Vision and can't wait for more of him (played by Paul Bettany). I also LOVED how James Spader brought Ultron to life with his voice dripping with sarcasm, irony and  and all the characteristics that make his Raymond Reddington character so enjoyable (and the best thing about The Blacklist). Without disclosing too much of the plot, what I will say is this not my favorite Marvel movie (although I still liked it) and it seemed more like a bridge to the upcoming Captain America: Civil War and other movies like The Black Panther and the next Avengers. My guess is that it will get nominated for one or more of the effects categories. 

5/9/15 Father Goose, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, 1964

I love Cary Grant, not in that way, because I would have a lot of explaining to do, but I love his movies. Father Goose features a less than dapper Cary Grant as Walter Ecklund a drunken, ne'er do well, who finds himself in the South Pacific as the Japanese are threatening invasion to the islands. He is coerced/bribed into becoming a coast watcher for the Australian Navy. Ecklund is not really interested, but he really doesn't have a choice. He is sent on an unexpected mission to another island where he meets Catherine Freneau (Leslie Caron) who is in charge of seven young girls. Walter and Catherine are very different and exchange barbs and witticisms, with the girls often taking Catherine's side, until one of the girls, who has not spoken a word, forms a bond with Ecklund and they begin working on his boat that was damaged by the Australian Navy, essentially to strand him on the island. Relations improve between Catherine and Walter after they mistakenly believe she has been bitten by a poisonous snake; the audience is in on the misunderstanding and it's pretty funny. The group soon finds itself under attack from Japanese planes and tries to get off of the island. I certainly do not think this is the best movie ever, or the best Cary Grant movie ever, but it was fun to watch; one might even say 'cute'. There is a lot of drinking, it's pretty much Walter's raison d'etre, so it's hard to say this is a 'family movie', but there's practically no real violence (the gunshots don't really hit anyone), there's no swearing (I don't think, nothing sticks out, maybe a 'hell' or 'damn'), the kids are cute in the precocious 1960s way. This movie came towards the end of Grant's film career, in fact it was the next to lat movie that he did. Watch The Bishop's Wife or The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer for a glimpse of him in his prime.

Billy Joel, The Target Center, Minneapolis, 5/16/15

I've been to a lot of concerts over the past two years, and I have to say, that I feel very fortunate that every one of them has been a great experience; I've seen solo acts with just their guitars, I've seen bands with great stage shows and I've had fabulous seats, I've gotten signed CDs, etc., overall, I have not regretted a single event. Last night with Billy Joel was no exception. I've had the chance to see Billy Joel in the past, thirty years ago, in fact, and I just never wanted to. I must be getting old and nostalgic, but I really wanted to see him this time around, even if it was going to be at the Target Center, my least favorite venue. Gavin DeGraw opened up the show and he was full of energy and excitement and the crowd was very receptive. I appreciated his stage presence and performance, but I have to say, after twenty minutes, his stuff sounded the same. That may be because I am not as familiar with his material or because it really did sound the same. After realizing I was in the wrong section (it was not my only 'duh' moment of the evening), I scooted over one section to the left and waited for Mr. Joel to take the stage. Thank goodness for the screens, otherwise, I would have to take it on faith that he was on stage because I was pretty close to the roof (did I mention I hate this venue?). Billy opened with "My Life" and then played most of his well-known songs and a few gems that the hard-core fans really enjoyed. He played with a great energy and the band seemed to be really having a good time. There wasn't any of the 'arena rock' planned banter, it came off as being a conversation between a guy and 20,000 of his friends, it was easy, self-deprecating (he looked up at his image on the screen and said he thought he saw his dad; joked about the tiff between him and Elton John and songs about his former wife, Christie Brinkley) and appreciative. He gave the audience the chance to pick a couple of songs early on in the set. Songs included "Pressure", "Allentown", "Uptown Girl", "Vienna" (a song I had never heard before), "The Downeaster Alexa", "She's Always a Woman" (a favorite of mine), as well as a bit of "Like a Rolling Stone" just before he started "Piano Man". The encore had to be about 20 minutes or more and included another favorite "Big Shot", as well as  "You May Be Right" and "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me". His band would have been fun to watch if I had not been blinded by the landing lights that totally obscured them. That is probably my only issue with the concert, is the lights were so overwhelming and you couldn't watch the band rock out; if the camera wasn't on them, they weren't on the big screens. I love a band/performer that uses a horn section, and he had a trumpet, saxophones, slide trombone, with only three people. They were great and all multi-instrumentalists. My other issue is the woman behind me; look, I love rocking out to my favorite bands and singing with them (just wait until the Indigo Girls in July), but she was so high pitched and behind the count, that it was a little distracting. Love her passion, just wished it was quieter. I definitely got my money's worth that night, and I so enjoyed myself I didn't even care I went to the wrong parking garage to get my car.