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.