Filmcap: The week of May 8-15

There seems to be much fewer things in the summer on this blog, but that's not much of a surprise for me. Family life, work life, and the addition of many more extracurricular activities in a much more urban area will have that effect. This week I saw the finales of two television series', the only connecting strand between the two being Kevin Corrigan (who has a minor role on both of them). The only film this week is an American classic I had never seen, and it did not disappoint. 

Fringe: Season 3 (Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman, 2010-2011): The last handful of episodes in season 2 of this show were very impressive. They were compelling and had emotion on the same level as "Lost." This is also after they started going in a more serialized direction after the more episodic season 1. As season 3 started I wondered if it could keep it up. It's too bad that the Fringe team never again reached the levels of the end of season 2. This season was certainly more serialized than ever before, with episodes in the beginning and end of the seasons that had no individual fringe investigation like early on in the show. The show had some interesting moments in the first half of the season, but towards the second half it increasingly took some ridiculous turns. What I mean by ridiculous is not that it made me turn off the show, it's just that it was not sophisticated anymore and the plot twists were just crazy science fiction concepts. That's not a horrible thing, there is definitely some fun in that, but there was no connection to the characters and hence no connection to the show after that.

There were few nice character moments involving Peter and his father, Walter, that had real emotion I thought. A large part of that is due to John Noble who probably does the best job of anyone involved with the show, including the writers. In terms of social commentary, which is what science fiction is best at, there are some interesting points regarding preemptive strikes and mutually assured destruction, but it's pretty inconsistent with those. This is still a show I will continue to watch just to see where it goes next, but if it does get cancelled (it's on the bubble) I won't care too much.
Season Grade: B-

Community: Season 2 (Dan Harmon, 2010-2011): When it comes to comedy on television, there is no show better than this one. It all started in the end of season one when they had their "Goodfellas" episode. An episode modeled after the famous Scorsese classic, but instead of drugs and money, they launder chicken. It was a brilliant spoof, and a few episodes later came the the episode that brought this show to the acclaim it has now, "Modern Warfare." The famous paintball episode (which they "sequeled" for this years finale). This whole season they continued the high concept episodes, but the brilliance of the show comes by the fact that even in the high concept episodes the show manages to shine a light on the characters. It never gets bogged down in spoofing something. This has made it so there are episodes that are not high concept, but end up being great anyway because the characters on the show are so fleshed out now. My favorite moments of this season where the times the show went unexpectedly dark (the christmas episode, and the mixology certificate episode). The fact that the show can have a stop motion christmas episode, and then reveal such a dark reason for the show being stop motion is why I love the show. Admittedly, the show doesn't do that as much as I would like, but the fact that it does is impressive.

The first season of the show did not do this. The improvement of the show in-between seasons is one of the biggest I've seen. It was not bad in the first season, but when comparing this great second season to the "just good" first season you see how much the show has changed and improved. Community represents my favorite type of comedy, satire on the surface, but complex characters underneath. They didn't do that all the time during this season, there were times when it spoofed without any character complexity, and there were times when it was just a regular sitcom, but at its best, Community is the best.
Season Grade: A- 

The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971): In the early 60's Jean-Luc Godard and friends brought the French New Wave film movement into order, Godard's early films in particular were characterized by small time crime, messy romances, and gritty realist underworlds. If Godard had come to America during that time period and made a film with Hollywood, I'm pretty sure The French Connection would have resembled that film very much. It showcases a New York City filled with crime and grime, it seems almost third world. The production design, the costume design, and the way it was shot with handheld cameras all make that possible. The feeling the film gives is almost irresistible. Everything feels so real, especially the main detective characters played by Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider. The way Hackman's character, Popey, emerges as the main character of the film is also really well done. The film starts in France with the criminals of the film, and as it continues on Hackman and Scheider both have equal screen time, but slowly Popeye emerges as the character to look out for and the one who is a bit more complex than you might have first thought. His obsession is never thrown at you and made obvious, it is slowly unraveled.

The story itself was underwhelming when I first finished the film because it's just a couple cops going after some drug dealers in mostly straightforward fashion, I believe I felt that way because crime stories have been done to death and it's hard to do one very memorable. But in this film there are enough touches to make the atmosphere and the obsession of the characters stand out. One is the famous car chase, but I also loved the way the film would show the French drug dealers sitting or walking and then the camera would zoom in on a person far away in the frame to show that these guys are being watched. It displayed the whole "you are being watched" feeling in a really effective way. I watched The French Connection about a week ago now (these posts are getting so late) and I think it has grown on me since I watched it that first time. It's a film that felt a bit underwhelming when I first watched it, but you later you find that the atmosphere, the aesthetic, and the characters, all stick with you.
Grade: A-