"The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" - Film Review

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a terribly disturbing film. For all its occasional clunkiness, when director Dario Argento wants to scare us, the film thrills and unsettles like few horror films do.

While much of the film is a by the books slasher film, spiced up by some intriguing amateur detective work by the protagonist, it takes its familarness and mines it for some truly delightful and unnerving thrills and chills. Part of the film’s seeming familiarity is how many times the film’s premise and style have been copied; the film sparked the Italian horror genre of giallo.

While many later giallo films would use the genre for cheap thrills of violence and nudity, Crystal Plumage crafts a solid narrative that though not without its faults (the whole visit with that artist is just idiotic and clumsy) is very entertaining. The murders are frightening and creepy, especially since they’re shot largely from the perspective of the serial killer. The film turns these stalking sequences and the attacks on the life of Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) and his girlfriend Giulia (Suzy Kendall) into highly exciting scenes that often leave you on the edge of your seat. 

When Sam witnesses an attempted murder, he rushes to save the woman in distress and soon finds himself caught up in the investigation for the killer. He initially wants nothing to do with the case, hoping to return home to the United States. But the more he looks into the murders, the more engrossed he finds himself to the point of near-obsession.  The greater his involvement becomes, the more he puts himself and those around him at risk. 

The film is helped along by some lovely cinematography that’s at times sumptuous and exquisite, accentuating its colors at the just the appropriate moments to build a wonderful sense of atmosphere. 

Crystal Plumage is disturbing and thrilling horror film that’s still a great deal of fun to watch. 

Grade: B

Patrick Vs. Buster Keaton

Patrick Versus the Works of Buster Keaton

In this weeks episode: Patrick takes on two films by silent film auteur Buster Keaton.

Summer means I have more time to watch stuff, but I also don't want to neglect my writing. To compromise I'm trying out this shortened format so that I can get in a lot of content but still get in some thoughts here about what I've watched.

Steamboat Bill Jr.

-Keaton has a wonderful ability to articulate everything he wants to say. Sure, a lot of this is sight gags, but its sight gags with underlying meaning.  There's never a moment without a point to it and there's never a moment where it's unclear as to what or why is happening.

-At its heart, it's really a very sweet and funny story about starcrossed lovers as well as a father-son relationship.

-That final sequence with the storm is incredibly exciting. All the visuals of this are wonderful, especially the now infamous gag of the house falling on top of Keaton.

-There's some pretty questionable elements about masculinity, but it's more of a sign of the times then an outright offensive suggestion. 

Sherlock Jr. 

-Buster Keaton sure is an amazing physical comedian. The amount of near death experiences Keaton has due to collisions with cars and trains in this film is kind of astounding. Keaton put himself out there and his commitment to the performance and the gags sells them.

-The extended fantasy sequence that takes up most of the film is absolutely delightful. From the astral projection, to the constantly changing film stock that throws Keaton for a loop, and all the wry self-aware meta humor about the scenarios Keaton's character is thrown into. Just a fantastic film sequence that demonstrates the capabilities and magic of cinema.  

-Keaton apparently has a weird obsession with trains and boats as clearly suggested by these two films. This one has nothing to do with trains and yet it features trains multiple times. On at least two occasions for physical, near-death experiences for comedic effect.

Consensus: Buster Keaton's films are very funny comedies from the silent film era. They're tinged with a great sincerity and earnestness to them. Keaton finds wonderful ways to get tremendous amounts of humor and pathos out of very little.

Grade:

Steam Boat Bill Jr.: A

Sherlock Jr.: A

Game of Thrones - "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" - Review

Myles McNutt said something recently about “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” that really stuck with me as I thought about the episode: ‘”Well, not much happened this week.’ And then I proceed to write 2000 words about it.” Because I suspect this episode potentially rubbed a lot of you the wrong way, and it’s largely due to the series seeming to stall just a little teensy bit longer than seems necessary. “The Climb” all but telegraphed bigger events to come and at times “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” feels like it’s killing some more time before bigger things take place. While much of this is still entertaining, it feels like an episode from the second season which is to say it feels like we pop in on every character possible for five minutes even when at times that doesn’t seem necessary. The show had largely avoided that sense of aimlessness in recent episodes, forming a cohesion that was a welcome sight.

Part of the problem is how much of this feels like a re-hash of things we’ve already come across before. This is particularly true of Theon’s story, which, even though I understand the intention of it and see where it’s going, can’t help but feel needlessly excruciating and pointless. Even stories that actually go somewhere (such as Arya’s and Robb’s) have a sense of hey lets stop in with this character. I could watch Maisie Williams play angsty til the cows come home, but until the Hound snatches her up her plot came off as a major re-tread of what we’ve already seen from this storyline. Robb’s storyline suffers from the fact that Game of Thrones has never been particularly good at depicting sex scenes, even one with a sensible purpose, such as the reveal that Talisa is pregnant (heirs man! That’s intriguing … right? …).

This desire to stop in on a lot of characters would feel fine if each scene felt like it were absolutely necessary in order to properly tell the story, which you would hope would make the scenes of an episode feel like pieces of a whole. As is “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” felt very piecemeal.

Now not all of this felt needless. Even a less than crucial scene such as that between Melisandre and Gendry is filled with such a sense of atmosphere (the aftermath of Blackwater is hauntingly beautiful) and also provides a nice little character moment for Gendry as he discovers his true lineage. Similarly, the scene between Tywin and Joffrey (perhaps the episode’s best scene) isn’t a particularly significant scene but it reminds us of where two characters are at (Tywin is always in control and Joffrey is a frightened little boy playing at being a man) and pairs together two characters that have all but been destined to meet up in an entertaining fashion.   

The place where stuff actually happens is in the titular story. Jaimie leaves Harrenhal only to be so guilt stricken over the fate of Brienne that he bargains his way towards a return to the castle. This is a really great pay off of story to the growing relationship between Brienne and Jaimie. The series has nailed the evolution of this relationship, and the moment feels like a fitting expansion upon that relationship. Plus there was an effing bear in a pit! 

I know I didn’t get around to a lot of other elements to this episode, but I simply didn’t have time for a longer review and I wanted to get this up before Sunday rolled around again. I’ve largely really liked this season, but I think much of what will shape our opinion of this season is how the show deals with the forthcoming stretch of episodes which thus far have not stacked up with expectations. So until then, chew over your thoughts for “The Bear and Maiden Fair”.

The Office - "Finale" - Review

What … that’s not tears. It’s just been raining on my face.

Well, damn. 

Alan Sepinwall once said something that rings true of this finale, bad endings don’t ruin a good series, but good ones make a series. While this last season has been all over the place, this finale is a near perfect coda to a very good, very influential series. 

The Office was never a series that was always fully formed. The first season is on the whole not worth mentioning, and while later seasons were not always the most stellar of efforts they don’t detract from how wonderful the series was in its prime. I’ve been frustrated immensely by this season and last season but they can’t take away from how superb the show was for about six seasons. 

This is as perfect of a finale as we might have hoped for and it plays off so many great character details and callbacks. The episode even manages to take one of the less digestible elements from this season, Andy’s story arc, and make it something rather amusing and satisfying that pays off that character far more than his regression this season should have ever allowed for.  

The episode is set a year into the future right when Dwight and Angela are set to marry, and the panel talk about the recently released documentary coincidentally simultaneously is taking place. The episode does a fine job of acting as a standalone effort while also recalling so much of the show’s history. The bachelor and bachelorette stories are both very amusing individual efforts and provide some of the funniest moments for the season (Dwight failing to understand the concept of a stripper, Meredith’s son turning out to be the stripper for Angela).  

What really makes the episode so wonderful is how astutely it acknowledges its characters and where they’re at by this point in the series. Kevin’s firing is mean-spirited but it’s something that’s been a long time going. The show handles these supporting character moments better elsewhere, and where it does it absolutely knocks it out. Everything related to Creed is hilarious and the show finally pointing out Creed’s real life membership in The Grass Roots is wonderful self-aware acknowledgement a show could only ever get away with in its series finale. The notion of Meredith off-screen getting a PhD this whole time is one of the best jokes from this entire season. Stanley retiring to go down to live in Florida is such a spot-on character observation, and Phyllis later tearfully saying, “People think Stanley is a mean old grump” while displaying a wood-carved figure of herself is one of many, many touching moments from the episode.  

Most importantly, the series absolutely nails everything related to Jim, Pam, and Dwight. The questions at the panel directed at Pam are incredibly uncomfortable and weirdly specific, but they probably get at the nagging thoughts of some of us real life fans about Pam’s treatment of Jim being away. Pam’s response in turn to spontaneously sell the house (hey, Jim did buy it without telling her) is a lovely little moment in a series that was built on lovely little moments. Jim and Pam’s sit-down with Dwight about them leaving for Austin also nicely pays tribute to how much that relationship has grown, and Dwight firing them so they can receive severance pay only makes the scene that much more emotionally potent. 

I appreciated that the finale recalls what the series was at its core about, people suffering through corporate drudgery and ennui, and how in spite of this soul crushing-ness there was sometimes something genuinely great about teaming up with your co-workers to stave off this existential nightmare. Darryl repeats how he can’t quite figure out why but he’s going to miss the office even though he’s totally ready to leave it. Perhaps Michael (a massively welcome, but brief, appearance from Steve Carrel) shows us best though that when you get a chance to leave for better things that you need to get away no matter how Stockholm-Syndrome-in-love you are with your white collar job. Michael has kids and he’s toned down the antics; he’s better than ever. But none-the-less the show always had the right of it; those small victories fought in the face of cubical ensnarement are hard fought and precious, and that elevates them to a level of near bliss.

This is a surprisingly emotional episode, especially in those last few moments. The talking heads juxtaposed with the clips of old episodes is strikingly evocative. It works as well as it does because as sappy as the sentiments are they feel like they ring true, and they speak to themes and truths The Office has long been keen about. 

This was an excellent finale. A very funny, very moving episode that was a reminder of why we stuck with this series for so long.

How I Met Your Mother - "Something New" - Review

How I Met Your Mother in some respects has always been playing a long con. However, there used to be so much more to the series than the titillating possibility of who the mother was. It was, among many other things, a really sweet and funny exploration of being in your late twenties and growing old. The mother and the growing mythology were always intriguing, occasionally exciting, but it was never the end all be-all for the show’s existence. And even as the series reached a point where it should have been giving bigger answers, it was still managing episodes that were absolute knock-outs that it was hard to question the writers forestalling the inevitable. For example, season four is arguably where the show began to show signs of slowing down and yet it has “Three Days of Snow” which is on a narrative, character, and humor level one of the best efforts the series would ever produce and has tons of re-watch value.

But somewhere around the fifth or sixth season the show became a major tease almost always to the show’s detriment. The show could no longer be just a fun hang out comedy with the occasional hint of grander designs related to its title. In fact, the hang out aspects often became at times the least interesting part of the series as they seemed to frequently be filler to waste some time until we got a big piece of information pertinent to the identity of the mother. Now this isn’t the whole truth of the matter. Seasons seven and eight have produced such solid efforts as “The Ducky Tie”, “Tick Tick Tick”, “Symphony of Illumination” and “The Final Page”; all of which are some of the shows best efforts that do many things a series this far in its run ought to be doing. They revealed things about our main characters, while being plenty of fun and in some instances very moving. But by and large, HIMYM seemed to be stuck in its tracks, re-hashing old gags and plots, such as the slap bet (even the return of the slutty pumpkin was rather disappointing and even a little unnecessary).

If this were a typical sitcom we might let it slide, but the long term goals of the series have become more and more pressing as the show has gone along because they need to be serviced in order for the show to complete its narrative in a relatively satisfying and holistic manner. Any time we aren’t finding something out about the mother, we know the writers are probably being withholding, and that means every typical sitcom situation is slightly tainted. 

This is especially true of an episode that is meant to be a season finale. Finales need to do more than the standard episode of a season. They are stuck with the duel task of functioning as a standalone effort and to wrap up the various plots we’ve been following throughout. And “Something New” for a while is very un-finale like for a strange amount of time. There are very sitcom-y plots and not entirely in a good way, which is not to say it’s without its moments, but the show once again appears to be stalling until we get some big reveal in the eleventh hour. 

If you're wondering why I don't just shut up already about all this theoretical pondering and let you have your cowboy boot wearing cake, it's because besides the awesome, invigorating reveal at episode's end, this is not a great episode. Now when we do get the reveals at episode end, it’s all very exciting ... but it’s another damn tease. Granted it's a tease with a sense of finality and purpose, but it's still the show saying, "Hey! Stick with us for one more season. Stuff's going to happen eventually!" I mean, we haven’t even gotten to the wedding yet. HIMYM probably should have ended with this season, but since it will go on for a ninth season it makes sense that the writers want to draw this out a little longer. But it does feel like they’ve been a bit dishonest, suggesting from this season’s premiere (“Farhampton”, where we flash forwarded to the future wedding as well as were given a glimpse of Ted’s first encounter with the mother) that by season’s end we’d at least have gotten to the damn wedding. And we sort of do, as everyone heads over the wedding ceremony (including, which I’ll get into more later, the - OH MY GAWD THEY REVEALED THE - MOTHER!!! – played by Cristin Milioti). But it’s the show stalling once more. Granted this stall leaves me wanting more in a way previous stalls haven’t, but it’s still a stall. 

Let’s get into the nitty gritty of this. I had qualms with this finale but everything between Lily and Ted is absolutely fantastic. Lily and Ted have been an underused pairing in the series. The early glimmers of their friendship and its significance as a bedrock of the group got pushed aside for other stories. But it’s a nice call back here to how the two have always been willing to tell eachother big secrets when they’ve been afraid to tell anyone else. This scene works, not only because it’s revealing stuff to us finally, but because it gives material for Joshua Radnor and Alyson Hannigan to play that actually gives them something interesting and emotionally resonate to play. While there was probably something far more meaningful to call back to than that locket Robin tore up all of Central Park failing to find, it’s a callback that feels like it’s worth recalling to expand the story further in meaningful ways rather than to re-hash a joke for diminishing returns. It’s not a perfect flashback in that Robin is acting very out of character (her feelings for Ted were long since over by that point and it feels slightly like a cheap retcon), but it’s progress for the narrative in a way that the series has been seriously lacking since the mid-season finale “The Final Page”.    

Now I know you want me to talk about you-know-who, but we have to deal with another less fun point before we move on. That Robin and Barney storyline was just awful. Everything that’s wrong about Barney is present in this story. This is a mean-spirited and nasty, inconsistent and uninteresting plot that regresses both Robin and Barney, and it’s just utterly frustrating. They break up a couple because they’re pissed off by them. And then the only reason its okay is due to them accidentally causing the couple to get engaged. And then they shrug it off as if it’s no big deal. The writers seem to think if they can’t make Barney less of a scheming womanizer than the only solution is to drag Robin down to his level, but it’s not an honest development for either character and it’s simply not pleasant to watch Colbie Smulders or Neil Patrick Harris to play this character note. Everyone appears to have accepted the dreadfulness of this behavior by Barney, which was why it was refreshing to see Ted call him on his shit and then to see Robin question the behavior in last week’s episode. But everything is status quo once more. It’s okay to let characters evolve. Barney doesn’t need to be the same sex crazed maniac he was at show’s start. He can grow and we have totally seen growth and it’s not a complete leap of logic that he would want to settle down. This feels like unnecessary overcompensation.  

Now that we’re past the bad…. *Hyperventilates* THE MOTHER! Now I don’t know if showing the mother at this point was the best decision but, hell, I’m just happy to be able to put a face to this mystical manic-pixie-dream-girl we’ve heard so much about for so long. After eight years I don’t care if this wasn’t the best reveal but that there was at least something revealed. And since we’ve only heard her speak one line, there’s little for us to say whether this was a choice piece of casting or not. All we know is that there is indeed a (wo)man behind that blasted curtain and, well, she seems fetching if nothing else.  

HIMYM, at this point, has become one of the flagship series of CBS; a series that oddly enough seemed to gain fans rather than bleed them as it got older (something that almost never happens to shows going into their eighth season). And since it went beyond what was arguably its appropriate lifespan, it has made decisions to sustain itself going forward into the future. Some were bad, but others have allowed for some great episodes of television (especially for a series that is practically a dinosaur by this point). While it’s not as strong as it was at its peak, HIMYM still manages moments that give me hope for it going forward into its final season. Marshal’s sojourn to Minnesota produces some funny moments and the way it’s played to undercut the gravitas of the Ted-Lily conversation is classic HIMYM. It’s moments like these that still put a smile on my face even though the series at times seems to have run its course and gets stuck in ruts it often just doesn’t know how to remove itself from. 

HIMYM isn’t a bad series, but a series that has far too much time to kill. If anything, it’s a show that could use a shortened series order (rather than 23 episodes, may be it gets 14). Because when it’s good, it remains indelible, but when it’s not, at best it’s boring and at worst it’s just painful to sit through. And this finale is a mixture of moments that left me going meh but it also had the reveal of the mother which had me so freaking giddy. But this episode does leave me excited for next season even if it is largely due to a huge cliffhanger. But dude: it was one hell of a cliffhanger!

The Vampire Diaries - "The Walking Dead" - Review

Bonnie has probably been the character The Vampire Diaries has been most off point with throughout the series’ run. Bonnie has frequently been more of a plot device than a character. Part of the problem is that Bonnie is the only major character who can perform magic which means she always gets forced into plots solely for her powers. And yet this is fantastic episode for Kat Graham as Bonnie.

The character suddenly clicks in a way she hasn’t in the past. It helps that her story is front and center and that the deeply confusing and convoluted Silas story finally has a sense of direction and comes out in full force. Silas was meant to be this season’s big villain but this never really came together. He’s been more in the background than a character of this seeming magnitude arguably ought to be. But suddenly Bonnie’s motives in the Silas scheme, and the general nature of the scheme itself, are clarified. And that makes a world of difference. 

We actively root for Bonnie rather than scratching our heads pondering just what the hell is going on with her this week. I was even actually a little devastated when Bonnie looked down at her dead body. Something I never thought I’d say.

The return of dead folk also proved to be rather effective. It’s a well the series has drawn from a bit too much, but it works here. I’ll take any excuse to see Alaric and Damon palling it up again as it remains to be one of my favorite pairings. But other returning character are also nicely used including Lexi who floats the suggested romantic interest of Caroline past Steffen (I smiled; I can dig it. Their relationship has grown into something really sweet and sobering. The only problem would be their mutual nagging feelings for former lovers) as well as Jeremy whose appearance was necessary for Elena’s closure (Jeremy's appearance is almost underwhelming). 

The Elena and Silas storylines are at times at odds with eachother (which is a problem this season has had with balancing multiple long term storylines). But for the most part this is a solid outing from the series.

Grade: B+

Community - "Advanced Introduction to Finality" - Review

Community’s season four finale “Advanced Introduction to Finality” suffers from a lot of the problems this season has suffered from. It’s high concept with a tacked on heart. It’s not very funny. There are many character decisions that don’t align with what we know about the characters. And that’s really just the start of it.

It’s an episode where I can understand all the intentionality of it but in execution it’s an absolute mess. It leans on ideas from the past that just aren’t that fun or interesting to re-hash (notably the darkest time line). The darkest timeline dopplegangers crossover to make sure Jeff takes a job as a lawyer … only they don’t because this would be so totally ungrounded in reality that even by Community standards it would make the series seem broken (much more than it already is). All in all, it just left a bad taste in my mouth.

There’s a heart in there somewhere if you look hard enough. But the whole premise of the episode wants to have some weird headscape shenanigans to go down so that we can get insight into Jeff’s feelings about leaving Greendale and how his time there changed him so much. But this analysis is so very unclear for so long that it’s almost beside the point. 

The real point is to try out this concept, which is cool (I guess at face value at least) and may be in the past I could potentially see the show attempting something of this sort, but I wish it didn’t involve the darkest time line (which has never been much fun outside of “Remedial Chaos Theory”). More importantly, concept for the sake of concept is never, never a good or genuine basis for a series. 

Community could get away with the craziness of its premises in the past because there was some deeply felt emotion under the surface that wasn’t sutured on at the end. Here I felt very little and at times was uncertain as to what the writers wanted me to feel in the first place.

The episode made me uneasy at times simply because this never should have been a concept it ever tried to pull off ever, and the the way they went about it was so poorly handled that it became marred even further.

This season has had its moments, but by and large it has been inconsistent, at times laugh-less, sometimes flat out irredeemable (yea, I'm being bombastic, but this episode has me in that sort of mood), and this finale is the worst offender. A very disappointing effort from a lackluster season of a show that used to be so much more.