Game of Thrones - "Walk of Punishment" - Review

These reviews I’ve been writing have been way too long and I’ve been trying to figure out a better way to approach them, and then it dawned upon me while talking about the reviews with my friend Eric Luby (Yea, I listen to my readers’ thoughts, people, so if you have anything you want to tell me or suggest, go right ahead). I realized that theme is largely not a good way to write about these reviews; instead, since Game of Thrones is largely built around characters and not theme, it makes sense to do these reviews with that in mind. I intend to lovingly adopt the “power ranking” model that Grantland does for its Mad Men reviews; this seems fitting since the overarching theme of Game of Thrones is power and who is winning or losing at the “game of thrones” is one of the key aspects of the show. For those of you unfamiliar with power rankings, this is how it goes: I’ll rank who is or isn’t in the best position of power in the latest episode. There are 10 ranks to be filled and I’ll try to cover as much as I can through the lens of characters and their rising or falling of power and fortunes (or just how good the material for the episode was for them). It’s won’t all be serious though; sometimes I’ll get a bit cheeky with it (this is a good episode to do that with too, but more on that below). Most of all, remember, it's pretty arbitrary and meant as a fun way to tackle examining the episode.

1) Dany – After being put into the middle of one of the most God-forsaken stories in all of television history (as far as I’m concerned: Qarth never happened), we’re reminded why Dany was such a great character to follow in the first place as well as just how phenomenal of an actress Emilia Clarke is. Clarke is largely reacting to things here and yet she communicates so much with so very little. Jorah and Ser Barristan argue over the proper course of action, but neither of them is in control in this situation: Dany is. Dany is young and she’s idealistic, but underneath it all she hides an inner power. She takes charge and purchases all 8000 plus Unsullied soldiers. The price is one of her dragons, but the lack of concern Dany gives off has got to leave you wondering what she’s up to (she’s definitely got a trick up her sleeve). If anything this demonstrates how smooth of an operator Dany is. The fact she doesn’t claw off this slave trader’s face takes all the willpower as is, but then the fact she plays the situation to get exactly what she wanted: well, damn grrrl. 

2) Littlefinger – Littlefinger doesn’t do anything especially memorable in “Walk of Punishment” but he does weasel his way once more to an even stronger position of power. Varys may mock his titles, but titles can be much more than a claim on paper, they can be gateways to real power. Peter Baelish intends to marry Lyssa Arryn (aka Catelynn’s batshit crazy sister we met way back in season one). Lyssa has been holding up is the Eryie with her sickly son Robin, keeping the Vale out of the war. Littlefinger may not have armies or money, but he’s an exceedingly clever individual and not one to be trifled with. 

3) Mance Rayder – “I’m going to light the biggest fire the North has ever seen,” Mance growls and by the old gods and the new, we can tell he’s not fucking around. The action north of the Wall is finally starting to pick up to a pace where events feel like they are going somewhere as opposed to just stalling slightly for chronological reasons. This is something that’s true of the episode as a whole; there’s much more focus and there’s a lot less jumping around. Some stories are put on hold but those that aren’t take up the majority of the episode and land some memorable moments. Mance’s plan is finally in action: Tormund Giantsbane (Mance’s second-in-command) is going to climb the Wall, along with Jon, and route Castle Black. 

4) Brynden “Blackfish” Tully – After a slew of awkward character introductions, the show sticks the landing for the awesome Blackfish, Catelynn’s uncle, and Edmure, her mostly useless brother. Edmure is kind of pathetic (his failure to accept chain of command cost them the chance to stop the Lannisters from getting back to King’s Landing). He fails to light the funeral pyre, not once but three times, and the Blackfish has to step up all epically and show him how to get shit done. The scene provides a lot of laughs, but it also perfectly establishes just who these two new characters are.

5) Poderick Payne – Well, damn. Who knew Poderick, Tyrion’s squire, had the way with the ladies? Tyrion’s thanks for Poderick saving his life at the Battle of the Blackwater is to buy him a gaggle of willing courtesans. We cut to Poderick with a skip in his step, returning Tyrion’s gold; he pleased the prostitutes so much that they refused to accept his gold. Now I know this is almost a throwaway joke, but it’s a really funny one and though it’s not exactly the best way to further develop this character, it’s just too funny not to be amusing. This is on the whole a very funny episode (while simultaneously, in that Game of Thrones way, being a very grim episode).

6) Theon’s Rescuer – Well, Theon is getting his comeuppance for his actions at Winterfell. Not only is Theon tortured but he’s nearly raped before being saved by this newly appeared nameless savior. I dislike Theon as much as everyone else probably does right now, but there are some things that even I can’t tolerate occurring to a character and rape is one of them. Who is this mysterious figure and what’s he aiming at? He claims to work for Yara, but Yara wasn’t where he claimed she was. 

7) Melisandre – Though her and Stannis's appearance is probably far too brief, it does a very good job of showing the increasing hold Melisandre has over Stannis. Melsandre has this way about her where even when she essentially has no power, she has all the power. She has taken an even stronger hold over Stannis who just wants her to have his babies. She insists that someone with his same blood needs to be sacrificed, but keeps it mysteriously unspoken as to who that might be.

8) Hotpie – Sometimes the best way to play the “game of thrones” is to get out while you can. Though this is Arya’s story (and I’d much rather follow Arya who is played by a better actor and who is just all around a more interesting character), you can’t help but feel a little sad about Hotpie’s decision to settle down and become the baker his name always suggested he was destined to be. Much of this is far more touching then it has any right to be and it’s carried mainly by the actors who have sold much of this relationship when the writing just didn’t make the friendships of Arya, Gendry and Hotpie any more than a plot device. Now who wants a wolf cookie?

9) Tyrion – Tyrion was nominally the main character last season, but now he’s no longer the most powerful individual he was.  Not only did he not get title to Casterly Rock, but he’s been left with the unpleasant duty of being Master of Coin, a job that formerly belonged to Littlefinger, who seemed to make money appear magically. He’s not pleased by this task nor should he be; it’s one more added injury to insult for saving the King’s Landing from Stannis’s siege (the Kingdom is seriously in debt and Tyrion has been given the job because it's pretty much an impossible task).

10) Jaimie – Technically if this list were truly just a list about power and the positions of power people are in, Jaimie wouldn’t be on the list, but the fact is that there’s no way I can not mention the fate of Jaimie. Jaimie is a character that we know little about if we’re to be honest. Much of our ability to like him is being sold by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s (whose name is ripe for copy and pasting and never actually learning how to pronounce) performance; he’s a very charming guy and he captures the biting, good-humored wit Jaimie uses as a defense mechanism. It helps that were finally getting development moments such as Jaimie’s decision to save Brienne from being raped. It’s a great moment and it provides just enough humanizing to make Jaimie’s hand getting cutoff be as truly awful as it is. It's a holy shit! moment in a way that this series pulls off like few others. And then we cut to credits left wanting more!

Not Ranked/Other Thoughts:

Tywin - If I really was being honest Tywin would be number one pretty much every episode (he's the most powerful person in the Seven Kingdoms), but since he doesn't do much here, I'll be polite and leave my hero worshipping of Charles Dance to this here dangling participle section until he does something major.

Sam – The Crow’s return to Crastor who continues to be an absolute asshole, and Gilly has a son (a problem since Crastor offers sons up as sacrifices to the White Walkers). The tension crackles wonderfully in these scenes.

Cersei – The small council scene is really funny. Littlefinger pushes ahead to the first seat with flourish; Cersei moves a chair so she’s at her father’s right hand side. And Tyrion, finding this all absurd, drags a chair to the opposite head of the table. 

Varys – HE RETURNS! (Though with very little to do)

Davos – Still locked away in the dungeons of Dragonstone. 

Missandei – Dany takes the former servant of the slavemaster as a gift. 

Bran – Is missing once again but presumably is still trudging ever on towards the Wall.

Catelynn - Michelle Fairly is a great, great actress but there's got to be more to do with her than moody monologues where she regrets her past actions. 

On the whole this is the best episode of the season. It’s was at times fun and at times thrilling, moved forward with purpose, and utilized the characters well without coming off as if the writers and editors were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of story they need to tell. 

Grade: A-

The Office - “Stairmageddon” - Review

“Stairmageddon” suffers from a number of problems that many episodes this season have suffered from. For starters, it’s got way too much going on and the storylines that are the stronger ones don’t get the amount of screen time they deserve.

Pam and Jim’s struggling marriage is a storyline that I can get behind. It’s a well-acted, well-written story about two of the series best characters who have long been at the heart of the story. When the show does a story like this it pushes back the veneer of absurd antics and goes spine-tingingly deep. 

By contrast, I have no clue what the hell is going on with Dwight. Seriously. There were multiple moments where it begs all plausibility. Why is this happening? Why is no one preventing this? It was flippantly bizarre. Dwight gives Stanley bull tranquilizer and carries him out of the building for a paper sale. If it were just filler, well, that would be problematic as is, but it’s just so utterly weird and the show seems to accept it at face value. 

Andy’s subplot is equally unnecessary if much more logical. But it’s just not very funny (I at least laughed at a number of moments in Dwight’s story in spite of myself) and repeating story we've already seen from this character. 

It was a messy episode that privileged stories that the episode could have done without while giving mere slivers of the material this show is still nailing. 

While it’s an episode not without its moments (i.e. Kevin brags about keeping Oscar’s secret, the security guard could care less about Dwight absconding with Stanley, and almost everything with Jim and Pam), it’s an episode that’s far too hit or miss. 

Grade: C+

"Grand Hotel" - Film Review

When I think of the spectacle of Old Hollywood, I think of films like Grand Hotel. Sugary to the point of being saccharine, Grand Hotel is one of those films that stuffs a lot of stories and a lot of stars into one film and hopes that its sheer charm will be enough to cover up for its flaws. And for the most part, it succeeds.

The film is clichéd but there’s a great deal of star power, glitz, and glamour that make the film a good deal of fun even when you can so clearly see the plot strings being manipulated. These characters are types. The penniless baron (John Barrymore); the evil businessman (Wallace Berry); the clever stenographer (Joan Crawford); the mild-mannered assistant (Lionel Barrymore); the disillusioned singer (Greta Garbo). 

Director Edmund Goulding largely balances these stories without it becoming overwhelming; a fact eased by the singular setting of the story set in the titular hotel. The stories begin to intersect in interesting and unexpected ways and eventually the film privileges ones story over the others, that of the Baron, and has the other stories play into this one story. The new found focus allows the film the get away with its excesses. It also helps that this privileged story is a love story. 

The story of the baron becomes about his efforts to pay off a debt so he can be with the singer. By a strange turn of circumstances, he falls in love with her after getting stuck in her room while failing to cat-burglarize some pearls. She’s suicidal and he helps talk her down. She’s quickly won over by him, all the more so after he admits to stealing the pearls. 

The stenographer has a crush on the baron. The assistant is taught to love life and stand up to his boss with the baron’s encouragement. The evil businessman is increasingly slimy and awful, and his despicableness culminates in an act of manslaughter. At which point the last third of the film becomes something far more brooding and dark. You kind of wish it would emphasize this development more, but instead it balances between the old happy-go-lucky tone and the sadder one with mixed results. By film’s end, the story disappointingly chooses to go for a full on happy ending. 

It’s all one of those alluring showcases of Old Hollywood with stars and laughs and tears, and it all plays out mostly predictably. But it’s hard to not to be won over just a little bit by all the spectacle; the charmingness of let’s put on a show! It was meant to be a crowd pleaser back in 1932, and it, for the most part, remains pleasing even if it’s all just a little lightweight and thinly strung together. 

Grade: B-

"Where is the Friend’s Home?" - Film Review

We’ve all been faced with a choice at one point or another. It may not have been the most earthshattering choice, but in the moment, on that day, that choice felt like life or death. We’ve all had to make a decision where we didn’t need to do something, but by not doing something it would lead to consequences for other people.

Where is the Friend’s Home? is about a choice. A boy Ahmed (Babek Ahmed Poor) accidentally takes his classmate Mohamed Reda Nematzadeh’s (Ahmed Ahmed Poor) schoolbook and he realizes that if he doesn’t get it back to him, the other boy is going to get expelled from school.

His mother (Aruna Irani) tells him he’s not allowed to return the book, and he’s torn. He knows deep down what the right thing to do is: return the book. But his moral compass gets the better of him and he flees his home and runs over far away to the city where his friend lives. He doesn’t know where his classmate lives in the city; all he knows is that he has to get this book back to him somehow.

It sounds like such a simple story and on the surface it is. But director Abbas Kiarostami plumbs the story and turns the simple ethical quandary into a fascinating exploration of ageism, growing up, and doing the right thing.

There are moments in the film that are oddly intense. Nothing major is happening, but the roadblocks the character keeps running into make what should on its face be an easy task turn into a scenario where it feels impossible. 

The more frustrating the task becomes, the more we start to root for the task’s success, and the more powerful the film’s storytelling becomes. It gradually becomes almost mesmerizing. 

Ahmed has to start asking him if it’s worth getting the book to his classmate, and may be if it’s not worth finding him. He really struggles with this decision, and the more difficult doing it becomes, the more worrisome it starts to feel that he won’t get the book to his classmate on time.

Every person he comes across proves to be useless. They either provide less than helpful information or just don’t care about an eight year old’s single-minded goal. Everyone doesn’t think much of him or his plight because he’s so young, and they just don’t see the importance of what he’s trying to do. He’s a soft-spoken kid, and he never has the courage speak up over other people and people keep ignoring him. 

The film take a brief detour to show the boy’s grandfather criticize the youth of the present day. He talks at length with a friend about how kids these days don’t have discipline. But his grandfather’s generation and his parent’s generation are often far too nostalgic or lack the understanding to appreciate the youngest generation. Ahmed is trying to get information about where his friend lives and his grandfather can’t be bothered to listen to him, but instead makes him get cigarettes for him. Then he scolds Ahmed when he comes back empty handed, and this is all despite the fact he already has a pack of cigarettes and doesn’t need anymore. The grandfather thinks he’s teaching him a valuable life lesson, but he’s really getting in the way of his grandson doing something profoundly kind and important. 

The elderly blacksmith that helps Ahmed find his classmate’s house talks about how people are changing their doors. Their switching out their wooden ones, many of which he helped put in place, with stronger iron ones. The blacksmith laments that things are changing. There’s a generational gap between him and the boy.

Eventually Ahmed does find the friend’s house after an arduous day looking. However, he’s too scared by the nighttime noises to follow through. He ends up deeply regretting his decision and feeling sick to his stomach.

The classmate sits in the school-building nervously the next day, and it’s uneasy to sit through. The teacher works his way through checking other student’s homework, and we wonder if Ahmed will show up and save his friend…

The film plays out like a beautiful little short story and as it moves along it proves itself to be an insightful, profound and engrossing fable. 

Grade: A

Community - "Intro to Felt Surrogacy" - Review

Community has had a rough time this season. Whether it was due to the vagaries that all shows suffer as they get older or the loss of creative talent, many episodes have failed to stick the landing. However, there have been episodes that, though not the best efforts the series has done, showed a way forward. On a conceptual and emotional level they didn’t feel forced. The first of these was in “Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations” where Jeff met his father and it featured some nice, well-earned emotional moments. The most recent episode “Herstory of Dance” was another episode that though it had problems in the way this whole fourth season had problems didn’t feel like it was going through motions and like the show still had some tricks up its sleeve (I was pleasantly surprised by Abed's story with the girl who's equally obsessed with television tropes, and the Jeff-Britta conflict paid off well).

The third season had some bigger problems than many of us were willing to admit at the time, but I was willing to forgive it because it was still reaching the dizzying heights of “Remedial Chaos Theory”. The fourth season hasn’t yet reached those creative highs once again. “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” doesn’t achieve such heights but it comes within spitting distance. Of course, I can’t quite put my finger on what makes it land just shy of genius, but it doesn’t completely nail what it’s trying to do. But it’s a cool conceptual episode that the show mostly goes broke for like it did in older season rather than half-assing it like it has recently, and it chooses not to lean on campus hijinks but on the crazy concept (the characters as puppets!). In turn, it plays off the absurdity of the concept including a few musical numbers and also finds a way to pull off some solid character moments that the show just hasn’t been successful at recently. 

The series is also funnier during this half-hour than it has been in just about in any other episode, which helps a ton. It’s not all up to snuff with what we’ve come to anticipate from this series but much of this works far better than you’d expect and rises above its gimmickeness. 

Grade: A-

What did everyone else think?

New Girl - "Bachelorette Party" - Review

If the Nick-Jess plots of recent episodes have been the highlight of the season, it came at a price. Every other potential storyline that could be done with the characters had to be put on hold in the name of Nick and Jess’ awkward dance towards coupling. In the process, Schmidt and Cece dealing with the fallout from their break up has been put on the sideline for what has arguably been far, far too long.

“Bachelorette Party” is a funny episode, but it’s an episode that focuses on Cece and, well, that’s a problem. Hannah Simone is good performer, but Cece has never been well handled for story time with our four apartment dwellers. There’s a logic to her talks with Jess about Jess’s relationship woes, but every other character doesn’t really have a reason to interact with her anymore because Schmidt is no longer dating her.

That means next to Winston, Cece is the least developed character on the show. That means that Simone has to carry the character largely by herself and the strength of her performance. The show has treated Cece only so far as she relates to Schmidt. She was vaguely made out to be this bossy type with hidden insecurity, but the series has not done the necessary groundwork with the character in the way it has with Schmidt, Nick, and Jess. 

Cece pretty much solely exists now to be won back over by Schmidt. That means that Cece essentially has no agency. And that’s a huge problem. 

Why exactly is Cece choosing to marry Shevrang? Yes, she doesn’t have much longer to have kids. But what beyond this do we know that makes her arranged marriage a sensible action on her part. Shevrang is a nice guy and he likes Cece, but Cece’s hesitancy about the whole ordeal hasn’t been played up as significantly as it likely should be.  

Winston, by the same token, is a character who the show doesn’t know what to do with. He’s whatever the writers need him to be. For instance, in this episode, Winston randomly taking things too far comes out of nowhere. Now Lamorne Morris is a very funny performer and so most of the times its forgivable because the writers have him doing things that are amusing and make me laugh. But the show needs to develop him more or else in time it will become distracting. 

The show needed to come back to Cece’s marriage in time for the finale, and it’s a good thing because it’s been overlooked for so long. But some of this episode’s impact is nullified due to how little time we’ve spent with Cece.

"Nights of Cabiria" - Film Review

I love, love, love Giulietta Masina. So much of Nights of Cabiria is sold by Masina’s great performance. Cabiria is stubborn, proud, quick-tempered, and naïve, and played by the wrong actress our sympathies wouldn’t necessarily lie with this character. It’s a tricky line being walked and Masina nails it. She’s warm and charming, and there’s something about her performance where she easily draws you in.

Cabiria is a prostitute working the streets of Rome. But the film never makes her job a big part of her character. Nights of Cabiria is part of the Italian Neorealist tradition of postwar Italian filmmaking. Cabiria a working class gal who, like many Italians of the 1950’s, was struggling to get by. Her mother put her to work at fifteen, when she was too unsuspecting to fully comprehend what she was doing at such a young age. 

She’s a bit clueless in that way though. The film starts with her getting pushed into a river by a man who feigned affection for her so he could rob her. She nearly drowns but she doesn’t immediately accept the truth of the situation; it’s only after her loving but stern friend Wanda (Franca Marzi) sets her straight that she snaps back to reality.

Throughout the film she keeps meeting men and falling head over heels for them despite her better judgment. She meets a big shot movie star, Alberto Lazzari (Amedo Nazzari), who spends the night with her after he’s spurned by his girlfriend. Cabiria flirts with the idea that something might happen even though she’s only kidding herself. The girlfriend shows up in a huff and Cabiria is forced to sit in the next room while the guy sleeps with the girlfriend. Clearly she’s chasing after the wrong men.

She becomes convinced she can’t change her life. She meets a man who provides charitable help to homeless people in the countryside, and she wonders why she can’t do something more with her life. She goes to a religious procession to a shrine for the Virgin Mary and asks for guidance, but it doesn’t help.

Cabiria’s outward cynicism hides a hopeless romantic side deep down. She finally shows this side after being hypnotized at a magician’s show. It’s a surreal scene with a dreamlike quality. I was given goosebumps; there’s a transcendence to it.  The world seems to shut out and Cabiria is told to imagine she’s talking to a man named Oscar; she’s like a giddy teenager all over again as the magician has her imagine sweet nothings are being spoken to her. She’s soon snapped back into reality and completely embarrassed. After the show, a man claims his name is Oscar and that it’s fate. 

They start spending time together. He claims he doesn’t care about her past. She even tells him about her line of work and he doesn't appear to mind. He asks her to marry him. Could this be for real? 

Director Federico Fellini sets the story in the world of the everyday. There’s a beautiful naturalism to the story and events unfold with a pleasing simplicity and feel as if they could go anywhere at any moment. Though there’s a true to life nature to the film, it also has this inexplicable whimsicalness.

Its marvelous simplicity deceptively hides a powerful tale and slowly builds to a knockout of an ending. Utterly charming, lyrical, funny, and sad, Nights of Cabiria is a fantastic movie. 

Grade: A