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It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Waiting for Big Mo (2019)
Nothing...
Nothing. There's nothing. All means nothing. Nothing happens.
Well? Shall we go?
No! We're going nowhere.
It's Always Sunny finally surpassed its predecessor. Yes, it's all nothing, but let's try again. And not fail better.
I hear nothing... (but the cries of "Worst episode ever" "Not funny" "Sunny is ruined" "Only fanboys liked this" -- yada, yada, yada). The strange thing is: this episode (and the whole of the 14th season is very vintage Sunny). This is after Pim, but does it matter? While most sitcoms drag themselves lame in mud Sunny surfs on the surface.
If Waiting for Big Mo was the series finale it would, in my opinion, be the greatest sitcom finale of all, though one must admit that sitcoms endings aren't usually good (to say the least).
Belacqua Bevilacqua It's Always Sunny.
This episode is a treat. Borrowing from the famous post-modernist play the Gang do what they always do: someone have a ridiculous idea and everybody just go with it without question. Laser Tag? Seems like any other nonsensical activity about which the Gang obsesses and blow out of proportion and press to the point of becoming meaningful after its previous triviality. It's great.
We get to see Dennis in high form, berating and manipulating the Gang into do his bidding. The Gang submits to Dennis' stratagems in the game of laser tag in place of enjoying the childish fun of the situation so they can win and gain some fake currency which is used to buy useless knick-knacks. A power trip to Dennis, of course. All of this as chamber play in a single set.
People giving one star in some website won't diminish the creators of Sunny genius and inventiveness. (And neither do they need the approval of people, who like me, rate most episodes high).
Is Big Mo God? No, if he was they would have called him so. Is Big Mo Sunny's critics (mostly neck-bearded incels vlog or blog ranting)? I don't know. Maybe. Does it matter?
No.
They do not move.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Janitor Always Mops Twice (2019)
I'm not the goddamn goon.
Well, the nay-sayers are going to nay-say; as always.
I love this episode. Film Noir plus Sunny? Yes, of course. Made me few all tingly, so I don't hear the nay-say, just Sunny me, please.
As with some of the ideas in this season, I can't believe that they haven't done this before. I really enjoyed the cigarette reference and the classic Sunny Dee is unattractive (perceived as such, almost exclusively, by the gang).
I don't know if anybody will see like I did, but to me it seems as if this is a fantasy episode; to us, the viewers, it looks black and white and well done and beautiful, but it's probably like The High School Reunion Part 2: The Gang's Revenge where we are seeing an idealised version of the Gang's dancing moves until a cut reveals how poorly executed their choreography is. The way Charlie and Dee and The Waitress (are they going to name her?) break character within this Crime-Mistery-Noir fantasy about cherries and diarrhoea, to me, suggests this.
Another great addition to the already great catalogue of craziness that is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Gang Texts (2019)
Don't go blue Dee
I want to review this episode, but I have no words, I'm speechless, I'm without words. I have only praise to distribute and that isn't good.
This episode --like all the preceding ones from this season-- is very simple and straight-forward and Seinfeld-y, coalescing nicely in the end.
The writing is way above any comedy I've been seeing now (with one or two exceptions); very sharp, rewarding long time viewers. (I just can't help but lose it when I hear Dee say: Goddammit).
It's almost strange that they haven't done an episode in the Zoo yet (I mean their behaviour was quite animalistic at times so would be a natural place for them to go and identify themselves with other beasts). And Dee being "tramped" by goats is a highlight for sure, however is the ending which is Sunny perfection.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Dee Day (2019)
No make-up for you.
I'm too biased towards Dee...
I can't believe they didn't make a Dee Day episode before, but I'm glad they did one now.
How one cannot love an episode in which Dee outsmarts the entire Gang while everyone thinks the opposite? It's gold, I tell you, gold.
We get to see the gang dressed-up in Dee's past (very racist) characters; Dennis without make-up; and Dee on top of things the whole time.
The Gang have some scheme going and Dee Day ruins everything and they ruin everything and Dee fixes everything. Charlie focusing on what's in Dennis' pants is a moment of pure delightful joy; Mac obviously says: I want what's in your pants. (Dennis have something sweet in his pants...).
The acting (they are these characters!), the writing, their chemistry; this season will be an epic ending to an epic series.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool (2019)
"Give dong or give me death."
Yes! Bloody PG-13. This episode is more contemporary Sunny; almost like a panel, a discussion on some public forum; they sit around and talk and talk; very minimalistic (in the way that Bergman films are).
They are "selected" as a focus group for a new film. They watch the early print of (no less) the new Thunder Gun instalment and think it sucks. (Maybe their attitude, their rejection of the changes done by the studio on the films they love is a reflection of the same disposition in some Sunny fans, I don't know; one shouldn't read too much into it, I guess). They want the old-school Thunder Gun. I love how they find the film confusing; they can't even understand a very simple-minded and in-your-face visual representation in the film's end: the old main character passing a literal torch to his son (the franchise's new lead character). Charlie says: He has a son?!.
"Give dong or give me death", says Dennis. The gang is mad that the main character didn't show his penis in the new film. Their outrage reach a height upon discovering that the film will be released with a PG-13 rating. Communist, liberal Hollywood is ruining everything again. The woman moderator is also enraged, however, by the gang's stupidity.
Oh, piracy. The moderator mentions piracy and go so far as to say that's the main motive for the changes in the film and in the general industry, even though we know that the mainstream junk put out by Hollywood breaks records in the box office (and if they don't want people streaming or downloading shaky copies of their high budget garbage in sleazy sites filled with weird ads than just provide a legitimate form of streaming at the same time it's in the cinema and people will pay and watch).
The end of this episode is priceless. A middle finger to Hollywood.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Gang Gets Romantic (2019)
"I'm still your leading man."
Here we go. This is it. It's Always Sunny final chapters. This is the first. Beginning of the end.
What do we got?
The first episode of the fourteenth season is, in part, a throw-back, really back, old-school back, I mean first season back; very cringe-y and always funny for those of us who appreciate awkwardness (The Comeback please come back!).
We follow Mac (helped by Dennis and Dee) trying to create a rom-com story and failing miserably while Charlie and Frank copying Mac actually succeed at it without their knowledge. It's one of those very nonsensical Gang plans destined to go wrong. Their obliviousness to the real world is incredibly satisfying to watch.
The subtle meta is done right. Dennis said he still is the leading man. I believe him. He'll be there. For this season he'll be there.
Not much of review, but there's nothing negative; they want to do this, it's the last, there's nothing forced or boring or poorly done; it's pure Always Sunny and I can't help but love every second of it.
Satanic Panic (2019)
"For f-k sake, they were about to bang me to death with a giant killdo, okay?"
Two fuzzy bunnies, two fuzzy bunnies, two fuzzy bunnies.
What happens when a sweet and innocent and trusting blue-collar worker runs across a depraved group of cliché Satanists in a affluent neighbourhood? Well, if anyone was wondering about this that someone (or some-ones) got an answer and a great answer it is.
Satanic Panic follows a very unusual night in the life of a young woman working as a pizza deliverer; she just started and behold: evil gets its claws on her when after delivering a few pizzas for a man in a mansion she decides to get a tip which the man made a point of not offering before; entering the house uninvited she sees a gathering taking place and soon she finds herself prisoner for she have yet to be touched by the proverbial penis (of course!). A virgin roaming around a neighbourhood of the elite can't be good in a horror film with Satanic in its title. So... sacrifice (of course!).
Our protagonist, Sam, is held captive in a room with a man. Oh, white-knight, oh, saviour; he offers her sex, you know, to save her life, which she promptly refuses (the nerve! she'll perish at the hands of crazy fanatics, doesn't she notices that? Her only method of salvation is to give herself, throw herself at the mercy of some random man - of course!) and the man tries to rape her, annoyingly declaring himself a feminist (and doesn't she realize what she made him do it? Is her fault!). Of course! She fights and he dies and she flee the house. After these events the night keeps getting weirder and weirder.
Two fuzzy bunnies, two fuzzy bunnies, two fuzzy bunnies.
This film is one of those that keeps one saying What the hell! to oneself with each new scenario. Personally I find it very funny; both the crassness of some situations and Sam's innocent incredulity. She reacts as any sane, normal person would: I don't know what's happening? - a simple, common thought. She doesn't readily believes in the supernatural happenings around her. It's difficult not to like her. Hell, she accidentally saves a young woman (the daughter of the leader of the coven who's punished for losing her virginity and ruining the sacrifice to Baphomet) from being brutally raped to death, in the daughter's words: "For f--k sake, they were about to bang me to death with a giant killdo, okay?" - everything is insane and insanely funny.
I gave a 9 out of 10, though I find a bit crass to rate films (particularly independent productions) or books or whatever, but the high number represents my enjoyment while watching. And to the nay-sayers I am anxiously waiting for their films.
Some might say that I overrate things like this, well, perhaps it's true, but I prefer to overrate a film like Satanic Panic than some hollywoodian junk dressed-up in nostalgia for salivating suckers.
To any sceptic Satanism is immensely funny and the widespread fear and panic around it hilarious; just for this reason you can consider giving Satanic Panic a chance, you might laugh; motivations for mirth, now-days, are far too few.
Two fuzzy bunnies, two fuzzy bunnies, two fuzzy bunnies.
iZombie: Bye, Zombies (2019)
Die die die
It's almost ending, the show with an almost as charismatic lead as Buffy; funny and charming and smart show. Nobody talks or even watches any-more. That's a shame. Everybody seems too busy with thrash 1980's circle-jerky nostalgia. It's their loss.
One of the greatest aspects of this episode is that it wasn't a simple-minded set-up for the finale: no; it had all the best hallmarks of the series: the cuteness and darkness, the romanticism and the ugliness, the campy fun and the seriousness (am I describing Buffy again?) -- I'll miss this one.
There's nothing much to write.
Oh, the teary Clive hugging his friends goodbye, what a scene! The heist orchestrated by Liv, Raj and Clive was beyond funny. No, it wasn't "rushed". Don't complain.
And crazy extremists will always want conflict, doesn't matter in which side they fall; war war war, always bloody war. I like that the social commentary, although very on the nose, runs under the story and its great characters. Great writing there.
Only one more thing: I really want a very nasty end for Blaine; what an infuriating character; death is too good a fate for him. Die Blaine, die. What he did to Don E. (in the past episode) and what he did in this one: unforgivable.
This was a great episode, setting everything up without compromising the core aesthetic and values of the show.
Luther: Episode #5.2 (2019)
Bloody hell. What an episode.
Bloody hell. What an episode. I wasn't this moved since watching Buffy (maybe Gilmore Girls or Fringe or Pushing Daisies or Six Feet Under or, of course, Twin Peaks) for the first time. This show is elevating the Crime-Drama genre to new heights of tension and passion (and artistic ambition and intention). At the edge of the seat one doesn't blink or even breathes.
Alice deserves a spin-off of any kind. For yesterday.
Alice is back and kicking (putting a big smile on me for every second of hers on screen) and her kicking puts a darker twist in Luther's life.
Cornelius will pay, one way or another, he'll pay.
And the grotesque couple dynamics is getting a bit more out of control (the morbid control and coldness they seem to uphold so highly); the depraved husband growing more restless with his "unusual" appetites.
Bloody hell. What an episode.
Luther: Episode #5.1 (2019)
To kill or not to kill (the best character).
Yes yes yes I say YES!
Luther is a great show, using the clichés of the genre as a spring-board and then subverting them in such an ingenious way as to better Hannibal (in my opinion, the relationship between Luther and Alice is so much stronger) -- and another show I would recommend would be Marcela, but that's another discussion.
Now. Luther is a great character, no doubt: masterfully played by Elba, but without Alice the show isn't the same: she's just so delightful to watch, so strong and interesting, that when she "died" it got me down (as much as a work of fiction can get one down).
Ruth Wilson should star a show of her own. She deserves. Oh! the The Affair debacle. (One doesn't simply kills one's best character off like that).
There's another serial-killer on the prowl; one with an interesting relationship and truly unsettling and bizarre behaviour (at least in part due to said relationship).
And an old "acquaintance" of Luther is having a horrible time with the disappearance (kidnapping) of his son. And the one involved in none other than... yes, you guessed.
A strong beginning. Great, actually.
iZombie (2015)
A meta crime-comedy with zombies
Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Dead Like Me; Veronica Mars; iZombie; I don't know anything about graphic novels or comic-books, however, and I sometimes wish I didn't, I do know something about TV series, and I recognise influence (even if somewhat unintended) when I see it and this show is immensely indebted to a few cult classics and lives under their shadows. The show, in my opinion, isn't ever as good or as complex (particularly compared to Buffy or Dead Like Me), but it have its value and it is entertaining and funny with a dash of cuteness (even when aware of its own ridiculousness); it doesn't matter, after all, I don't see any academic writing and in-depth studies of iZombie's ideas, philosophies, or social themes.
Unless, maybe, if one wants to discuss the very obvious topics of racism, xenophobia, nationalism and fascism present in the show.
There's not much to say about this one, except that the main character, played by amazingly charismatic actress Rose McIver, is funny and cute in almost every episode and really steals the show, carries it on her back with those idealistic and hopeful shenanigans of hers.
Actually, for me, the romance and drama are the lowest points of the show and a detraction; with less melodrama (or maybe none), like in Santa Clarita Diet, iZombie would be better. But hey, we're talking about a TV series about a city filled with functioning zombies (including one that helps the police solve murders (the murder of the week bits are my favourites) by eating the brains of victims) and humans aware of them: it is good entertainment.
The series bow to zombies tropes and clichés and at the same time throws them away and makes fun of them, though its meta qualities aren't ever too much, never too post-modern; the plot is always moving and the characters (maybe a little underdeveloped) anchor the stories quite nicely.
A meta crime-comedy with zombies, what there is not to love?
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Gang Does a Clip Show (2018)
"Well, at least we're not being lazy, right? We're coming up with new stuff."
I can almost hear the cries of those thinking this season is uneven at best or just plain bad and that this episode demonstrates exactly that. Well, I disagree. What a shock.
I thought I died. When they said they remembered The Contest my heart went faster, because I knew, instinctively, about what they were talking, and the whole scene made me die. I laughed so much, so much, I couldn't feel my face for a while.
As the title of the episode suggests: it's a clip show: something lazy and boring which show-runners do when they are out of ideas and want simply to cash in on their past glory. Not the case with It's Always Sunny. Why? Because, as has been proven time and time again, IASIP doesn't abide to cliches, the show subverts them, usually with high meta-fictional bravado, and so it is with this episode.
While waiting for their phones to update the software which will take about half an hour in which, as Dennis put it: "What are we gonna do without our phones for 30 minutes", they are lost in existence without nothing else to do as in most of our tech-enslaved society - anyway... they decide to remember the good auld times, even though Dennis protests, seeing as something only old people past their prime do. And so a typical clip show begins, they want to remember something and the show cuts to said memory, making a collage of old episodes. Pretty basic and lazy and boring, after all viewers and admires and fans can watch clips on YouTube at any time. But, in this case, is it lazy?
As always, with this wonderful show, even this seemly simple concept is turned on its head when they start to mess with each others memories, from small details all the way to complete fictional accounts, giving us the greatest Seinfeld reproduction scene (I've always wished that they would do a full-blown Seinfeld reference, of course I liked the small ones: Frank's tight jeans, yada yadas thrown here and there, Mac saying Frank with the same inflection Jerry says Newman, etc., but I wanted more, and I got it in spades).
The pastiche alone in this episode deserves the highest of commendations, it is simply divine, add to this the magnificent ending which can give birth to some pretty wild hypothesis of the reality of the show and its characters (for those who like theorise about such things) and one gets an episode that goes fast and hits hard and makes one think and enquire. Deeply satisfying.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Gang Beats Boggs: Ladies Reboot (2018)
"Are you trying to poison me? That's not alcohol."
"Are you trying to poison me? That's not alcohol."
Goddammit. I can hear the nay-sayers: "is not funny", "this episode sucks", "where's Charlie?", etc., but I think it was brilliant. I certainly laugh; out loud; a lot. My only complain is the lack of a cameo by Dennis (though his presence lingers).
When it started I though there would be a guys sub-plot, but there wasn't and so I was satisfied in that regard.
The waitress is such a naturally funny character. She's a bit like Jerry: she seems unable to not be funny. "You cannot not be funny". Yes I say Yes--she's always funny. Rainbow and wine indeed (though singing on the intercom while drunk is Dee's thing).
One thing that might unrest some of the oldest followers is the less-than-subtle meta moments. Usually It's Always Sunny uses a more subdue stance with their meta stuff; one example would be "The Gang Tries Desperately To Win An Award" which, although on the nose with its meta comedy (we know it is, but its meaning stays vague enough), left a lot to interpretation. So, Frank saying that "In every reboot you gotta have somebody from the original to make a cameo" might be a little much for some. I like it, though; but I like anything from really obscure high-brow allusions to outrageously fourth-wall breaking.
Mrs. Kelly is bloody funny; all her misogynistic lines flew to great heights: "It's the women pilots", she said when there was some trouble in the flight. Artemis putting Dee's ideas down, saying it's all uninspired and simply more of the same: "No, you know what's pathetic? Is this Boggs ladies remake" was awesome. Of course, some of this (or most) is just a way to poke fun at Hollywood's obsession with reboots and remakes (getting more and more ridiculous with time) that nobody wants and everybody goes to the cinema only to complain later.
Oh. The stand-off between Dee and Snail, just great. And so was the grand-finale à la Family Guy; a gross apotheosis.
*I would have written something about episode two, but I thought unnecessary (well it's all unnecessary (and who reads these little non-reviews anyway?), because the episode was so self-evidently good.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Gang Makes Paddy's Great Again (2018)
This is an average episode of a show that will always be anything but average or ordinary.
Oh! that time of the year when one cannot resist surrender to some vapid entertainment, but is It's Always Sunny that empty? The answer may-be subjective, however I think not, and with a long article I could prove it, or at least provide a good case in favour of this show's brilliance; yes I could justify the hypothesis (that the show is more than mere vacuous distraction).
Anyways... First the superficial: they all look great. They aren't young (that young) any-more, but look great. Mr. McElhenney finally look like those action heroes of which he seem to a fan. And Mr. Day - lucky as hell. And DeVitto is also in very good shape. And do I need to mention Olson? 43 years old - damn.
Okay. The episode, in my opinion, isn't all that It's Always Sunny can be, nonetheless it isn't bad. A low Sunny still higher than most. Like in last season the first episode have a gimmick (in this season's case the one that Dennis (continuing season 12 finale) is gone when we (the fans) can see he really isn't and also can see the reveal from many bloody miles away): with that said the episode still funny: it kind of works. Is it predictable? Yes. Is it a bit misguided? Yes. Does it have a familiar, generic (albeit vague) scheme and many characterization callbacks? Yes and yes. But I see no reason to detract.
There's a (supposedly) new member to the gang (an ethnic woman) and we're lead to believe that Dennis is gone forever and forget his sociopathic antics until Mac receive a package containing a sex-doll in the likeness of Dennis (complete with a blow-job mouth which Mac says is suppose to feel as though in the mid of a conversation, fooling no-one) which the new member urges to be thrown away. The new member can pull-off schemes with incredible skill, however the Dennis doll (in the minds of our favourite cast of miscreants) start to talk with them and soon berate and abuse and judge them, bringing everybody to their inglorious past - so, Dee is a bird and needs more make-up, Mac is fat, and everything Charlie and Frank do is stupid and wrong; and so goes the scheme to hell. But the scheme and its engineer are utterly unimportant, because all that matters is Dennis: and this is the failure of the episode: it should have made more of an effort to make us believe that Dennis was gone, the scheme should have been better used and the new character better developed.
Of course, when the Waitress get drunk and have sex with the doll we can't help but laugh. To me she was the episode's highlight and I hope she'll appear more in the remaining two seasons.
This is an average episode of a show that will always be anything but average or ordinary.
Disenchantment (2018)
The negativity towards this show seems vapid to me.
As a "good at nothing" meself I immediately identify with Princess Bean. Sceptical though I was (that the princess would be just Leela in a magic kingdom) of the show freshness and inventiveness after the short marketing and presentation, I have to admit to liking it after just a few minutes. I expected far less.
Better than the current The Simpsons and better than Family Guy; as good as Rick & Morty; almost as good as Futurama and Daria and Bojack Horseman - Disenchantment delivers all: simple silly laughs and serious themes and feel-good moments and dark comedy and smart comedy with a dash of meta-comedy.
The animation now, to me, it shines, it's beautiful, but I can see how it's divisive: that old video-game aesthetic of the scenery, for example, is not to everyone's taste, but what is? I can only praise the animation.
The acting felt very much in sync with what the show is without any major issues (hey, everybody voicing animated characters with outlandish accents slips sometimes, right? Queen Oona?) - I don't like, I must admit, King Zøg's voice very much; nothing is perfect.
And the music, oh! The music; so good (but I'm very fond of fiddle and the whole folk sound). (Even the theme song is good).
Because of the new (not so new now) format in which the whole season is released at once writers have the opportunity of crafting a true concept-season with an arc that starts when the first episode or chapter starts. Disenchantment utilises that resource very well, and while re-watching one can notice all those foreshadows and how each character's evolution was put in motion at their very first appearance.
This show just grabbed me.
The negativity towards this show seems vapid to me.
Twin Peaks: The Return: Part 18 (2017)
..."I'm fine".
"Once we cross, it could all be different." Cooper said to Diane. Yes, everything changed. David Lynch said that the Laura Palmer mystery shouldn't have been solved and, it seems, Laura is, once again, turned into a mystery (that spawns more mysteries but is never meant to have a definite resolution of its own), because this work of art is about mysteries not their conclusions, the process leading to the conclusion not the conclusion itself, the end is of no interest because there isn't one, this is a continuous story. A closure on one mystery begets more mysteries. And Laura must remain forever a mystery. With The Return Lynch seems to be rectifying that long standing mistake. The whole story of Twin Peaks is overturned to become something else, new, complex, and mysterious. Watching Twin Peaks the pilot, season 1, season 2, Fire Walk With Me, The Missing Pieces, and The Return, the sense one gets is that Laura Palmer's story holds everything (every single mystery, every sub-story that doesn't involve romantic interests) together and without her and her complications all might fall; the first half of season 2 is the greatest example of this.
"Laura is the one". (Which Laura, Palmer or Dern?). Characters from a dream-world (a TV show) bleed into reality, into the world of the dreamer(s) (the artists and the viewers). That might be one meaning of this long poem put to film. Art affects reality. Fans can live in this affected reality (alongside their favourite characters). Rancho Rosa, RR, David Lynch playing a director, Monica Bellucci, Lynch's exposition in France, the woman who answers the door at the end being the real owner of that house, and many more. Fiction, the dream, touching reality. And why not? Hypothesis and theories by fans are all right and all wrong at the same time. Dead yet alive. Of course it's only useless conjectures (everything, every little theory about Judy and realities and time and traps and bombs and evil and good), as every other person I know nothing about the workings of Lynch's minds. "Life is full of mysteries, Donna," Laura said. Let's keep Twin Peaks that way. And in the end those conclusions some of us were hoping to get don't matter because we can enjoy these scenes of pure poetic beauty.
The Book of Henry (2017)
Genre-bending fun, suspenseful, and sad.
The Book of Henry follows a natural, "literary", progression; this film plays as a novel (a short one — perhaps a young adult one — reads. It is not disjointed or plot less (the plot is very tightly constructed — too much for my taste). The story is good (though it makes use of some clichés (of writing): most clearly the alternation between sadness and happiness, very balanced emotions, artificial, crafted).
Now, people may think that artificiality is a bad thing, but I don't.
It tells the story of a very gifted boy (of twelve), as intellectual as an old professor, a real prodigy. (He even takes care of the family's finances). He discovers something bad happening with his neighbour (the girl next door) and colleague and decides to do something about it (one almost forget that he is just a twelve year old boy). Another cliché ensues. But the story take on some dark turns that I didn't expected and the weight of helping the helpless girl falls in the shoulders of his mother (who's somewhat childish, ascertain by the fact (another cliché) that she plays video games and is willing to follow her son's plan (that culminates with her assassinating the step-father) to save the girl from the claws of an abuser — up to the final moment when she grows out of the infantile behaviour to which she was accustomed). The story was written with subtlety (one does not know if the girl is being abused or if Henry is imagining and mistaking the girl's dislike of her step-father as an abuse case until Henry's mother finally sees it happening and one have a look at her (the mother) expression of horror and disgust). After some of those dark turns the mother find herself aiming a rifle at the head of her abusive neighbour. The clichés are used as starting points for the telling of a good story. Great.
Jaeden Lieberher's performance as Henry is merely adequate (in my opinion); there's some off moments (particularly at the most dramatic (demanding) scenes). Jacob Tremblay as Peter was surprisingly good, for such a young person he's very, very good. Naomi Watts — there's nothing to tell, really, what can one write about her at this point: she is great at everything, and the rest of the cast follows.
The family name of the main characters is Carpenter. Here we go. There's a scene compose as a Pietà. The name of the girl next door is Christina. The last name of the abusive neighbour is Sickleman, sick old man, a clear aptronym (too clear). So, yes, a very "literary" film; it feels like a genre-bending middle-brow novel. Symbols and literary resources. If it was a novel The Book of Henry could win one of those middle-brow prizes for anglican and American fiction, Pulitzer, Booker Prize, etc..
Overall I'm impressed with some of the films in English this year. (I usually don't like so many of them). And the Book of Henry don't disappoint. If you like genre-bending, good story-telling, beautiful scenery (the small cabin with its steampunk design is really a nice touch), and solid to great performances you'll probably like this one. (As a side-note I think critics are stupid).
Personal Shopper (2016)
Vintage horror, mystery and drama, beautifully crafted.
Let me preface by saying something that shouldn't be controversial: Ms. Stewart is a good (great) actress. She is better than that concocted star Jennifer Lawrence. (Apples and oranges, right?). Oh! That Academy debacle - Lawrence is in no way better (or gave any better performance) than Emmanuelle Riva.
I, sincerely, don't understand about what people are talking when dismissing Kristen Stewart's acting. (Sometimes I think people are in another reality and seeing something different from me). Maybe most people like overacting, melodramatic acting, pseudo-Shakespearean acting, soap-opera acting, etc., but I surely don't.
Personal Shopper is a wonderful character-driven film (if you can only seat through a film with a thick or very tightly woven plot you may not like this) about a young woman who lost a brother with whom she had a strange (or perhaps more common than I believe) agreement that consists of making contact from after-life (if there's such, which I believe not) with each other. Both are self-identified mediums. Both have (he had) a heart condition which can kill the carrier seemingly out of nowhere. So, she hangs around Paris (where her brother died) waiting for his contact from the beyond. (To a cynical sceptic like myself this premise should sound ridiculous, but, alas!, is not and the film was capable of enchanting me even).
The so-called profession that gives the film its title is boring (and the main character knows). She goes around Europe and England buying and renting high-end clothes and jewellery for a high-profile personality of the fashion milieu. Boring. But the character is not boring and Stewart's performance just kept me watching with interest (almost without blinking).
There are ghosts (or not); a peculiar murder plot that is a somewhat side note (very refreshing in my opinion); hints of madness (or not). Again, Stewart's performance is really mesmerizing.
The film have a classic tone to its composition, and, at the same time, a very modern, organic feel. We see things happening with a character and that is it. The grieving sibling story was done before, of course, but how it is done in Personal Shopper feels fresh to me. Avoiding every Hollywood cheapness. (Hollywood is awful in my opinion).
Drama, horror, and mystery perfectly bound together. Personal Shopper surprised me. A wonderfully well crafted film that avoids being a cheap Hollywood-we-need-to-win-a-prize- (or) -we-need-to-scare-you-using-loud-noises film without wondering to much to the side of art-house pretentiousness (a shame to me, because I like pretentious).
I was thinking of writing something with more depth about this film, but, on second thought, who would read?
* Big plus for that short scene with Anders Danielsen Lie close to the ending.
Parks and Recreation (2009)
Silly and cute and heart-warming.
I
I cannot believe how much I like and care about this show and its characters (it is just a TV show after all). I consider Parks and Rec to be one of the very best sitcom (stupid term) — or just one of my favourites (alongside Seinfeld, It's Always Sunny, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Comeback) — and I'm the most boring and pretentious person and as so I shouldn't even be watching this stuff, but I do and I like it.
This is a confession: I love this show. I care about the characters and I do feel pretty stupid about it. I don't know why I like it. I have nothing in common with this people (character or actors) apart from belonging to the same species. I'm not even American.
The fact that the actors don't look plastic (modelled to be the very embodiment of western assumptions of beauty) is very nice — nothing worst than a Friends-like cast or Marilyn Monroe-like plastic people created to attain some form of weird perfection making us feel bad about ourselves (superficially).
Well, at the beginning, I thought this would be a cringe-y show, but, then, it changed (in my opinion for the better) and instead it became silly, sentimental, and all around oozing cuteness. Also, it starts with the documentary (or mockumentary) idea to explain the camera which I dislike, because it's unnecessary to work, the pretence of reality in visual or literary arts can and should be dropped, but without anything to explain it or back it up like in a Godard film.
So, it is a post-modern show, but it certainly cares about its characters: they change, grow, become better.
What a feel-good show this is; really heart-warming. April and Ben looking at the camera are always funny and cute and real somehow and all the asides directed at the camera (at us) are laughing out-loud funny. That's how meta-fiction should be: disdaining (or better, disregarding) the pretence of reality in art shouldn't affect the diegetic continuity and our enjoyment of it.
Exaggerated and silly and cute Parks & Rec continues.
The chemistry of the cast confounded me at certain times, gave me goosebumps. The veneer of post-modernist pretentiousness is made irrelevant in such an atmosphere of great performances (effortless acting) in which they seem to enjoy themselves so much.
In summa, in my opinion, Parks is the greatest silly comedy show (though less intellectual) since Flying Circus.
* Points for those who know and noticed Jolie Holland's poster (of the album Pint of Blood).
** This review was useless I now notice: why did I wrote this? *** The show is great. Go watch it. If you like silly and cute and heart-warming story telling, go watch it.
**** TV is a waste of time but so is sleeping (and everything else).
II
I know, I know what I like about this show: so obvious: universal themes: friendship, unity, goodness, etc.; beauty in difficult situations, walking the walk of life, just trying to be a good human being.
Although all the characters are extremely different from one another and their interactions sometimes conflict they manage to be good and support one another (even Jerry). They fight, they make amends, they love.
Leslie's enthusiasm in her personal relationships as well as in her professional affairs is contagious; when she smiles we laugh, when she cries our hearts stop. (Yes, the show doesn't lack highly dramatic moments). Heart-warming heart-warming heart-warming cute so cute silly funny life-affirming renew one's hope in humanity's goodness so cute so nice everything everything I assume some people have disliked Leslie becoming the archetypal progressive woman instead of the clueless and kind of idiot-savant that she was at the beginning, but the awkward, cringe comedy didn't work for the characters and overall feel of the show in those few episodes in which she was that (stupid, misogynist) stereotypical blonde (only slightly less "blonde"). But, come on, the couples are so cute, and there's Ben (awesome! He mentioned Twin Peaks: double awesome!).
Parks and Recreation isn't just a platform to showcase the show's runners perceived progressiveness — it really is a well of great comedy balanced with conflict and drama and a deep sense of friendship and faith in humanity's ability to unite in crises.
Twin Peaks: The Return: Part 17 (2017)
No conclusion.
This is not a review — just a brief commentary about the two part ending.
I knew what to write (almost to the word) right up to the moment when part 18 started and then I was lost. I really liked part 18, because part 17 was too good, the darkness wasn't there (I thought: Lynch has gone soft with age — my mistake, not where it counts). So, almost the entire conclusion was revoked in part 18 and we are back into darkness, pure Lynch-ian darkness, and I couldn't bring my jaw back from the floor. I guess most will dislike part 18. It's fine, us (the crazy people that like "nonsense" and, of course, "self-indulgent masturbation") pretentious folk will like and sing praise for it. It's not even a question of getting it: there are questions to be made, however, the very fact that one knows that there's questions means one gets it, the problem is not knowing if those questions are meant to be answered and if one says Yes they are then there's another question: will the questions be answered in a near future? And that's why I'm lost.
The revelations in part 17 where great, but I don't feel like writing about them, at least not in the face of part 18. I want a part 19 and 20 and 21 and so on and on for n number of seasons.
I want so much to know who (or rather what) is Judy and of what she's capable that I forgot about Audrey, my beloved Audrey, damn, what happened to her? And could it be a next season in which, perhaps, Cooper will try to go back and take Laura with him? I don't know. But I'll wish for it.
There's nothing to watch now.
When does the next season of Fargo begins?
Twin Peaks: The Return: Part 16 (2017)
I am the FBI
If I had a book length space I would try convince everybody that Twin Peaks is the very best show ever committed to television, but I don't, so I won't
instead I'll write this pseudo-review and post it on a site of questionable merits and nobody will read and if somebody read shall not care because the text is useless.
Cooper is briefly in a coma and then fully woke (I wrote last time that this would wake him, not smart of me, probably most admires of the show saw this one coming a long way); Evil Cooper most loyal minions die out of thin air (just like in life: you never know); Richard Horne dies or is teleported somewhere else; Diane was a tulpa; Audrey finally gets to the Roadhouse and
well, there is this brief dance (Audrey's dance, with Audrey's song!), but you know, just an illusion, she is in fact (as I and everybody who likes the show suspected) stuck somewhere, an asylum or another reality (she is probably there (wherever that may be) since the probable rape Evil Copper unleashed on her — he did called Richard his son —, nobody, even her dad, mentioned her, so of course she is not there in Twin Peaks, or at least not in the same reality: there's the sound and the lamp shadow in the hotel to suggest that she is in fact in another reality), the episode ended with a backwards song after showing her in some bright space, looking very confused, so lets start theorizing.
Overall a fantastic episode. I sincerely thought that the show would get lighter (my own stupid mistake). Lynch dislike most of the second season (and just have a look at how he finished that season; pure darkness).
I hope for another season or episodes of two hours long each to finish the series. (I just can't get enough of this show). I will have nothing to watch after this end. Nothing seems interesting after this. All insipid drivel.
Twin Peaks — I will be damned.
Twin Peaks: The Return: Part 15 (2017)
What is reality?
Funny and dark and sad and disturbing: the show that have it all. Margaret "The Log Lady" Lanterman passed and it was sad as sad can be. Also, it seems, that Lynch cleanse the show out of a sub-sub plot that went nowhere and was used, mainly, to help set a tone for the town of Twin Peaks darkness with its lack of Laura Palmer and Dale Cooper (hence, lack of love and goodness), its descent further and further into the abyss of disgrace.
I believe that Lynch might believe that dreams are no more than another reality (at least metaphorically), for he (Lynch) did used the same techniques to convey both dreams (as shown in Part 14) and the other reality (or realities) of the story, and, when somebody asks who's the dreamer, is a very powerful and key question, as if to scrutinize who is or what is the force behind other realities, how are they (the realities) possible, how is ours. I'm just thinking, of course.
I have to ask: what's with Audrey Horne's loop? The dialogue is unbalanced and weird and it doesn't seem whole, she and the character named Charles seem stuck in a house at night with no change (unless it (the scene) is one whole chopped in little parts and shown little by little making it already the past; people who have read William Faulkner will catch this), because she can't be in the coma still (she had a child –– that I'm going to guess is from Evil Cooper, not sure, but he (the child, Richard) is with Evil Cooper now), but she isn't well, that's for sure, she's too irrational in a way that young Audrey wasn't. Hell's bells, I cannot understand her part yet.
Anyways. Was a great episode. Jennifer Jason Leigh's character is scary and she is doing an amazing job as always (she should have as many Oscars as Streep but who cares?), though I can see that she is not going to come out too well out of the confrontation with Dougie, if there will be any. Dougie putting the fork in the socket was crazy and I hope that wasn't a simple trick to bring Cooper all at once from his weird childish state (did the man in glasses on the film reminded him of someone? The Fireman? Albert? Who?). Also, what was that ending? Hell's bells, I have to think. But, at last!, Norma and Ed, finally, got together, bringing some light to such dark times. Now Shelly must give out her obsession with bad guys
Twin Peaks: The Return: Part 13 (2017)
Loneliness
The criticism of capitalism (yes, yes, he we go, I know, and I won't go) in the third season (I didn't noticed in the first two, too subtle, perhaps) comes at a surprise, almost out of nowhere, it's a bit clunky and, to some people (not for me), might be undesirable; for me, it adds to the overall atmosphere of strangeness (I will not spoon-feed this by me called capitalist criticism); nothing seems right; this is Twin Peaks — the no-place where everything is different (or is it?): for example, what's with the young woman with numbers (7-6-6-3) tattooed on her left arm near the end of this episode? Is that relevant? She's there, at the Roadhouse, crying while James plays that hypnotic song of his — so, yes, nothing is a surprise with David Lynch, and everything is a surprise as well; everything is surreal, no, I should say: more than real: this is a hyperrealistic story.
Something that is leaving me sleepless is, of course, Audrey Horne, with those bizarre (well, not bizarre, Lynch-ian, yes, that term) scenes (see her like that just kills me): what, exactly, her part is suppose to be? But everything is so odd here — I think that love (of all kinds) is dead in Twin Peaks, and there's only loneliness now. It's bleak, I know. However there's a theory that might explain this coldness: Cooper isn't in Twin Peaks, notice how everything and everyone around him gets better and better: he is a messiah of joy and happiness, a messenger of the gods of goodness (or should I say: capitalist goodness) themselves; his odyssey is not one of war but of peace; so as long as the pie eating and coffee drinking agent of good remains outside of the idyllic town so does the warmth and beauty and happiness and even love. That loneliness expressed in the eyes of Ed at the end of this episode while the credits role silently (something rare) seems to support me on this, but, with Lynch and Twin Peaks, you never know.
Around Cooper's doppelgänger everything is evil, is more like our world, everywhere exists corruption and darkness and despair, life seems, it becomes, valueless; here nobody cares for their neighbours, only the I must survive, if the other can't advance the I's plans then the other must be eliminated (or at the very least step out of the way): this is us, the world we build for ourselves, dangerous and cold and scary.
This show is getting so great I can't hardly breathe. I don't read the reviews because critics don't know merde. So, from where I live, I cannot say what people think of it, because I don't know anyone who watch this beautiful piece of art. All I can say is: I rather watch Twin Peaks than any other piece of TV drama ever conceived, including all the top dramas on critics' lists, or those "best (or greatest) of all times" lists.
Twin Peaks: The Return: Part 12 (2017)
Audrey. Audrey. Audrey.
I don't know what to write except this chant: Audrey. Audrey. Audrey
ad infinitum. Really, I dreamed of her (though, dreaming of characters from Lynch's stories isn't exactly dreaming but "nightmaring"). But she's married? What the hell happened? And what's with Richard? Never mind all that. We got to see Audrey Horne. Fantastic. That look and smile that can melt your heart is still there, it's a tight grip under my chest. Maybe I'm running over one of my personal rules in somewhat idealizing and idolizing her, but I'm only human and I do put my pants one leg at a time
Oh. Yes. There's other things in the episode too (apart from satisfying my juvenile wish for a horny nostalgia). Though she does look a little bit like she shook her head to the apple-pie, a bit distraught, unhinged even.
Audrey. Audrey. Audrey.
Everybody's going to Twin Peaks. You can feel it. It's obvious you might say, don't be stupid you might say, but the truth is that we don't know, this is Lynch on the reins, so how can we be sure? Audrey. Audrey. Audrey.
Anyway. There's more mischief (I assume, for it can be not) from Diane, but, of course, the great Albert is there for whatever it may be. We don't see much of Cooper (just a brief comical scene). Vaticination abounds. Darkness is a few steps closer. And there's a short scene with my favorite actress of all time, Jennifer Jason Leigh, doing (well, Tim Roth actually did it) one of the mandates of Evil Cooper. And that's about it. A great cinematic (because I do think that each episode is a film) experience as it has been since the start.
Audrey. Audrey. Audrey.
Twin Peaks: The Return: Part 9 (2017)
Cooper. Cooper.
The third season of Twin Peaks maintains a pitch perfect tone. The odd, off-sitcom-like (purposely out of timing) comedic moments are beyond great. The surreal, dream-like atmosphere casts a shadow over the story. The alien darkness that lurks underneath the beautiful nature and overall façade of the small city and its inhabitants exists in full form and force now (as it should've been from the start of the show itself). The drugs and the violence and the craziness still loom over. My only grievance is: no Audrey Horne. The suspense is killing me.
The Ninth Part is like the ones that preceded it: awe inspiring beautiful, but leave you wanting more, much, much more; wishing that a dreamy indie song (viewers should pay attention to the end songs) don't start for you not realize that the hour is gone and you have to wake from the magic experience. And so we have more little pieces of the big puzzle. Some characters know this and others know that and we have it all, this simple literary device of storytelling is used to amazing effect, it heightens the suspense and introduces a somewhat straightforward genre style on a very complex and dense (to some too much so) narrative.
The conflict between Cooper and his doppelganger is drawing near. Also, this episode raises a very important question: what Diane thinks she's doing?