Girls - "Boys" - Review

Identity has always played a major role in Girls. It’s apparent more broadly in the characters figuring out who they are and what they want to be. But it also exists in the characters putting on personas to escape their true selves.

Hannah has tried on a number of identities in her escapades to become the “voice of her generation”. A task she’s discovered, as she pointed out last episode, to be exhausting. 

Shoshanna is as refreshing as she often is because of how sincere she is. She rarely if ever is hiding her true identity; it’s there for all to see (the case is similar with Adam). Her alarming honest unnerves Ray who is at a crossroads in his life. Ray, at 33, is older than the rest of the main characters. He knows who he is, but he’s not exactly where he wants to be or hoped he’d be at when he was Hannah and Shoshanna’s age. He feigns to have his shit together, but deep down he feels like a complete “loser”.

Hannah believes her career is taking off just as she’d anticipated, but she’s lying to herself. The e-book is a nice starting point, but as the random partygoer notes, “It’s not a book. It’s just an e-book”. This isn’t what Hannah wants to be writing about. Even the “12 Fruits that Make You Fat” article on her laptop is more appealing to her than writing this drivel. 

Marnie deep down knows her relationship with Booth Jonathan isn’t anything special or meaningful. But Marnie is so desperate for attention that she willfully ignores the telltale signs that douchey artist Booth could care less about her (as if the slightly disturbingly misogynistic undertones of how he treated her weren’t enough). So when she lets it slip out that she thinks they’re boyfriend and girlfriend, she’s given a rude (but not all that unexpected) awakening. 

Just like Ray and Hannah, she’s lying to herself. None of them want to be where they’re at. This lack of enamoration is true both of their mindset towards their life goals as well as the particular, specific situations they’re in. Ray just wanted to get his copy of Little Women and be done with Adam, but instead he’s forced to traverse to Staten Island to return a stolen dog. In the process he’s reminded of how unhappy he is with his life. 

If the point weren’t clear enough, the next to last scene finds Marnie and Hannah calling eachother. They both want to speak what’s on their minds; they want to fix their friendship, but neither can admit it. Rather than do the one thing they want, they continue to accept the touted identities they’ve adopted and lie to themselves and eachother. 

Marnie and Hannah may be barely concealing tears (as well as their real selves) by episode’s end, but Ray, finally by himself, is free to shed the identity that has become his cross to bear. The final shot is of him crying, completely honest about who he is. 

Stray Observations:

-Adam was too good of a character for the series not to find some way to bring him back, and Ray and Adam make a surprisingly funny and well-matched pairing.

-Adam named the dog “Dog”.

-“This is what it must have been like to storm to the beaches of Normandy” – The whole conversation between Adam and Ray on the ferry is great.

-Jessa doesn’t get much screentime but I love “depressed” Jessa noting “This book’s not going to matter”

-Adam’s “carnival game” analogy of Hannah felt pretty accurate to me.

-“She was accepting of my brand of difficult”

-The woman we meet who is the daughter of the dogowner was a smidge bizarre. I don’t know if the language here was pushing the limits.

-“You’re a hostess for a living”

-“I think I liked the idea of you”

-The episode didn’t feel like it warranted the title “Boys”. Sure, there a fair amount of time spent with Adam and Ray, but it didn’t feel like it deserved that title. 

Grade: B+

What did everyone else think?

"Stagecoach" - Film Review

When asked to name his favorite directors, Orson Welles once famously replied, “I like the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.”

It’s not that Ford had a particularly distinctive style that made his films so great; it was how proficient he was about filming every single shot. His shots had a quiet simplicity and strength. He more often than not cut footage than kept it, and he was notoriously opposed to lengthy dialogue. He was a brilliantly efficient and effective storyteller that told his stories with ease and a total command. Stagecoach is a film where nothing feels out of place or superfluous; this is a masterclass example in how to edit a film. Ford is merely trying to tell a story and tell it well, and it shows.  

Ford’s name has become synonymous with the Western. Though he made a number of movies that weren’t Westerns, the Western was the genre he returned to time and again; Ford was one of the driving forces for making the genre as well-regarded and well-respected as it was. 

Stagecoach is the Western encapsulated perfectly. A bunch of mismatched individuals find themselves put together under highly unlikable and extreme circumstances. The characters by now are archetypes, but Ford was one of the first to nail them down, whether it be the hooker with a heart of gold, or the jovial drunk, or the misunderstood outlaw. Riding in a stagecoach across the vast expanses of the gorgeous Monument Valley (now ubiquitous with the Western), the motley crew finds themselves chased after by Apache Indians. 

If this all sounds a bit cliché, it’s because Stagecoach is one of those seminal films that invented the clichés we associate with not only Westerns, but for films more generally about unlikely, mixed groups having to work together.    

This was the first collaboration of John Wayne and Ford in their longstanding partnership. The studio didn’t want Wayne, but Ford insisted, and soon they yielded to the always implacable Ford. Thank goodness they did: Wayne provides his usual wily, understated charm to the role of the Ringo Kid, and the film put him on the map and allowed him to star in countless other great films. 

Though it’s deeply insensitive in its portrayal of Native Americans, Stagecoach is a masterful piece of filmmaking and storytelling that remains as enjoyable today as it was when it was released.  

Grade: A    

"Shoot the Piano Player"- Film Review

Ever the romantic of the French New Wave bunch, Francois Truffaut continued to find ways to make his films feel true to real life even as they had a heightened sense of reality or at times implausible scenarios. For example, The 400 Blows is increasingly sentimental even as it’s pressing impossibly miserable scenarios upon its young protagonist.

By the same token, Shoot the Piano Player is at times thoroughly unbelievable in the situations it presents to us, but it’s so life-filled and humanistic that it manages to find the everyday in the extraordinary and the extraordinary in the everyday. 

The film is a hybrid of genres; at times thriller, at times comedy, at times romance, at times tragic drama. And more often a delightful blend of all these genres to become its own inexplicable, highly enjoyable vision. 

It’s not just that it’s a soupçon of all these elements, but also how the film chooses to present much of it to us. Like how Chico (Albert Rémy) takes time from running away from the criminals who want to kill him to have a conversation with an unsuspecting helpful stranger (Alex Joffé) about love and marriage. Or how we get an unexpected extensive flashback midway through to explicate on piano player Charlie Kohler (Charles Aznavour) that deepen our understanding of his character and his present relationship with Lena (Marie Dubois). Or the iris-effected way we learn that slimey shop-owner Plyne (Serge Davri ) has sold out Lena and Charlie. Or how two kidnappers have some alarmingly amusing smalltalk with the kid they’ve taken hostage.  

And so and so. 

Wallowing in self-pity and sadness after an unexpected tragedy, Charlie is drawn into the chaos surrounding his brother's criminal activity with gangsters, while suddenly finding himself in a love affair with Lena who renews him and gets him out of his stupor. 

There’s simply so many great moments and the unexpected ways Truffaut chooses to tell them gives them an undeniable energy that exudes through the screen. 

Truffaut adapted the film from Down There by David Goodis, but turned Charlie into a much less confident and shyer figure, and contrasted this with Lena’s strong-willed nature. He also chose to make the narrative more ambiguous and more cynical, leaning heavily on homages to American movies particularly noir and B-movies. 

It's not the Truffaut film that gets the most acknowledgement; this is a shame because it's one of those pieces of cinema that's able to be massively entertaining even as it's being deeply artistically bold and impressive. 

Grade: A

"City Lights" - Film Review

At the time of City Lights’ release, there wasn’t a film character quite as ubiquitous or iconic or well-received as Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp. That was a stroke of luck because silent films were being made less and less by studios in favor of sound features at the time of its production. Chaplin, however, with his independence at United Artists, decided to push on ahead, and in turn he created one of his finest films.

The Silent Film Era is a time period of cinema frequently bordered off; refused to be watched by some people who fail to see how genuinely entertaining and memorable these films can be.

Chaplin has such a command of the language of cinema here in City Lights. He uses each shot to articulate everything he wants to say so precisely that it painstaking and impressive (Chaplin was a noted perfectionist. He did countless takes of shots when most directors at the time usually did just one). This is all the more impressive because Chaplin had next to no diegetic sound to elaborate on any point he wanted to make.  

Yes, on the surface this is just a series of gags carried by the through line of the Tramp’s affections and doting for a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill), but these gags are used purposefully to not only be highly amusing but to move forward the plot in interesting and meaningful ways. 

Not only that but they’re incredibly funny and intelligently crafted. Chaplin beautifully stages these scenes so they feel effortless in spite of their intricacy.  

The story is undeniably sincere and sweet. The Tramp falls hard for the blind girl who sells flowers and tries to win her love. After befriending a millionaire (Harry Myers), he takes advantage of his friend’s wealth to trump himself up to be more than he is. 

Much has been said about that final scene, and rightfully so. It’s beautiful and touching scene that ties up the film fantastically.

City Lights is possibly Chaplin's best film, and it's undeniably one of silent film's greatest works.

Grade: A

"Eraserhead" - Film Review

How do we define weird?

It sounds like an odd question, but consider for a moment the fact that in order for something to be weird, there has to be something “normal” to define it against. Society decides what aspects of its culture are good and right and “normal”, and in contrast it does the same thing with those things we consider “weird”.

I bring this up because Eraserhead is an incredibly weird film. So much so that its weirdness practically comes to define it and in turn what we take away from the movie.

It’s purposefully weird though. David Lynch has always had a flare for the bizarre and abnormal; it’s inherent in all his works. He’s also not one to shy away from upsetting “polite society". 

In fact, many of Lynch’s films take on American exceptional notions of culture and identity, forcing us to reconsider why we hold such values. His seminal television series Twin Peaks is set in a small, rustic town that has an abundance of dark secrets. Blue Velvet delves into the underbelly of a white-picket fenced suburban town. 

Eraserhead isn’t as keen on tackling this subject matter, but it’s there for those willing to look. Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) gets Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) pregnant with an abnormal, horrific baby, and the remainder of the film is a surreal deconstruction of his feelings towards the child, his hatred and ill ease for childcare and domestic life, and the decay of industrial society.

The film creates an uncomfortable, claustrophobic atmosphere through its imagery and its sound design. The surreal, unnerving images combined with the mechanical, dark, incessant background noises make the film wholly bizarre. Widely overlooked upon its initial release, it grew in reputation through midnight movie 

showings to become one of cult cinemas most recognized movies. 

Grade: B

The Vampire Diaries - "Down the Rabbit Hole" - Review

Well, that was more like it!

After last week’s massively disappointing “Into the Wild”, “Down the Rabbit Hole” reminded me about why I watch this series.

I could analyze this episode in great detail, but I have only one thing to say: KATHERINE! 

The show has failed at the one thing it’s become almost infamous for: its plot twists. And there were so many turn of events in this episode that it had me yelling out like I hadn’t in a long time. How lovely were they, let me count the ways:

Well firstly we got the nice bombshell that there’s only one dose for the cure, which shakes up alliances and complicates matters in a way that the universal healthcare package cure just wasn’t pulling off.

Secondly, we got ourselves good ole Katherine. Now I was actually thinking to myself while watching this episode: man, this show is gotten really far away from its origins, and Katherine was at the heart of that. 

The series just kept expanding and expanding to the point where this season took it to a point where it had expanded perhaps a bit too much with the cure plot (which felt “shark jumpy”, but wasn’t nearly as terrible as the sirebond).

The series always was a little more fun with Katherine around and it was only a matter of time before she came back, and boy did she ever come back. As if that awesome twist wasn’t great enough, we got the biggest cliffhanger in a long while: little Jeremy Gilbert has left this earthly plane. 

HOLY SHIT!

I had complained in the past how the series had been too cautious and kind with its characters. It needed to kill someone to raise the stakes again (or least something on par on the devastating scale). 

Not only that but the show needed a new villain and Silas looks to be the answer to shaking up the dynamics of the series and prevent it from going stale.  

This was the show at its finest. Finding ways to be shocking and daring, while still being intelligent, emotional and remembering its characters. 

Stray Observations:

-Man these opening recaps are terrible and cheesy. And seem to be getting worse as we go along.

-After having the Caroline-Tyler-Klaus story feel totally disconnected last episode, the writers find ways to make it dovetail nicely with the main plot.  

-Our new hunter had a nice accent; Damon quaintly describes him as “Shrek”. They utilized him well for the short time he existed. RIP.

-“Need any help my love?” “Nope” – Great line reading by Candice Accola.

-“It’s called a cryptex … what I’ve seen the Da Vinci Code”

-Bonnie was actually pretty great this episode. “I’ll kill him myself,” shes tell Jeremy about if Shane were to cross them. Way to finally wise up.

-Shane breaks his leg, and everyone’s reaction is, “Well, you kind of deserve it”. “Best to stay off it,” Bonnie replies to his pleas for help.

-“You’d still give it to Elena wouldn’t you?” – I want to ship Rebekah and Stefan. Why won’t you let me?!

-“Your attachment to your friends will be the end of you” – that was very Star Wars-y

-That contraption that the hunter used on Rebekah was kind of awesome.

-Silas using Grams to manipulate Bonnie: Not cool man!

-“You prefer who you are to who you were” – Caroline begging for Tyler’s life was a great scene.

-An even better scene: Tyler and Caroline on the porch saying goodbye. “Tell me you’ll forget about me… that you’ll lead a happy life without me,” she pleas. That’s not tears … something just got in my eye.

-“I’m done playing nice” – Nina Dobrev is usually pretty good, but her talent really shines through when she gets to play Katherine. 

Grade: A-

What did everyone else think?

"Morocco" - Film Review

Let’s set aside the fact that Morocco is filled fairly abundantly with Orientalism. Besides that though, what does the film offer us? Well, for starters it’s an entertaining, if a little lightweight and jumbled, story that tells a semi-atypical romance and stars a fantastic performance from Marlene Dietrich. 

Yes, this is some pretty blatant orientalism that constructs at times an exotic or backwards other in the natives of Morocco. Even the music that accompanies the shots of daily life is broaching on the offensive.

I hate to be an apologist for a film that features orientalism, but we have to take films in context and by 1930’s standards Morocco is pretty progressive. 

It’s an example of the themes pre-code Hollywood could get away with. The film at times has a rather sophisticated and nuanced exploration of gender and sexuality. The long sequence where we’re first introduced to Dietrich’s Amy Jolly is surprisingly provocative. She steps out centered staged, cross-dressed in a suit, and she gleefully looks out at the audience as they begin to jeer; but she soon wins over the crowd, singing a flirtatious French tune. By the end of the number, the crowd's taken such a liking to her that she’s able to kiss a female audience member and it causes raucous cheers. The female bears a bemused grin at Jolly, and both men and women whoop and holler. It’s an incredibly sexually charged scene that Dietrich carries with superb confidence and charisma.   

Dietrich is simply awesome. And I don’t mean in the conflated sense that the word has gained in recent years. I mean in the literal sense of the definition: she inspires awe and reverence. This is a strong female character who knows what she wants and who’s in control of her sexuality and her identity. 

Gary Cooper stars as Tom Brown, a legionnaire in the French Foreign Legion who’s a womanizer and who Jolly falls for despite herself. Cooper is probably a bit ill-suited for the part, almost too gruff with his deep mid-western drawl.

Thankfully the film makes this slightly more complicated than the average rom-com. The two are uncertain of their feelings, and Brown’s womanizing and Jolly’s desire for independence aren’t helping matters. 

Though the film's plot is a bit one-note, and it isn’t very well paced and the editing leaves something to be desired, it’s worth it for scenes like Dietrich’s tuxedo-garbed kiss which was scandalous back in 1930 and still as memorable today.

Grade: B-