Eastbound & Down: Season Three (2012)

Showrunner: Jody Hill and Danny McBride

 The journey of Kenny Powers has always been one in which he has consistently struggled to accept his status as a regular person after falling from so high. Season one was about him getting used to his new "regular guy" lifestyle, season two was about him trying to get back into the game and becoming who he was before, and now season three was about him finally accepting that there are ways besides being a famous athlete to be a great man. It's not totally official that this is the final season of Eastbound & Down, but if it is, it is definitely a very satisfactory ending for this great character.

This season was not as consistently great as the last two, sometimes it did get too wacky and did lose its way. But it did have some great moments as well, many of them instigated by his rivalry with his new younger Russian counterpart and not to mention his infant son. Those characters force Kenny to realize his status in the world, he's not the great pitcher he once was, and he is now a father with responsibilities. I don't want to spoil the end of the season, but it's one in which Kenny keeps the personality that made him such a hilarious and entertaining character but also finally makes a smart decision but in a completely Kenny Powers way.

Grade: A-

Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (1986)

Director: Claude Berri

 I'm writing about these two movies as one because they're basically one four hour long movie. They were intended as one and only split because they would be quite long to watch at once for most people. Both films would be fairly flawed if experienced individually. But as a whole they are an engaging viewing experience that serves as a morality play of unintended consequences. The film has a sold narrative, identifiable characters, and easy messages. The movie is a period pieces based on a book, so it's basically equivalent to the awards-bait type movies we see here in the United States, but that does not mean its bad.

The long running time allows for the film to breath and the pacing is smooth and easy. The movie is relaxed, but never too slow. The payoffs of the film though are not all that surprising or emotional which they're supposed to be. The story is predictable so the payoffs aren't too effective on an emotional standpoint, but the messages of those payoffs are definitely felt, though they aren't completely unique. In the end the film is one of those period pieces that would have won all the Oscars if it were made in America, so depending on how you feel about those kind of movies, this may or may not be for you.

Grade: B

All the Presidents Men (1976)

Director: Alan J. Pakula

 This is known as a film about the Watergate scandal, but it's not really a movie about that scandal or President Nixon. It's not a movie about politics either. It's actually a movie about journalism. The film is much more procedural than I thought it would be, and that is because it shows even the smallest of things that could affect a reporters investigation. It's a very realistic take on investigative journalism and how detail-oriented it can be. I certainly respect the film for not glamorizing the process. There are cinematic touches here and there, including a great shot of the Library of Congress, but the film makes sure to always include moments what would usually be seen as "boring" if not for the high-stakes nature of the investigation.

Pakula's greatest achievement as director in this film was creating tension in completely mundane situations. Though I admit he had some help because the audience knows the results of the investigation and the consequences of it on the presidency, so there is tension already because of that. But even with Pakula's direction not all of the movie cinematic gold, there are some sequences that could have been straight out of Law and Order due to how procedural and standard they were. I still consider the film an impressive accomplishment though because it shines a light on the process of journalism and how game-changing things like calling numbers out of a phone book can be.

Grade: B+

Man Facing Southeast (1986)

Director: Eliseo Subiela

 This film is most famous for being ripped off by the American film K-PAX. It features the same plot: a man suddenly appears in a mental institution saying he is from another planet, a doctor then investigates this man and tries to figure out who he is and what he is. That plot synopsis is as science fiction as the movie gets, which is a good thing. The plot could easily have been used for a cliche sci-fi story, but instead the movie is ambiguous enough with its plot that the allegorical aspects come across clearly and very well.

The film is from Argentina, a heavily Catholic country, and the movie really hits at the Christ-like status of the mystery man. His sway over the rest of the patients, his all-around charm, and the way the hospital administrators refuse to believe his story all contribute to his Christ-like nature. The film never brings up religion though, and all of the parallels are subtext, and the movie is all the more better for it. The film parallels faith and mental illness. It's ambiguous enough to the point that those who are religious will find a message that criticizes modern culture for losing faith and showing how Jesus would be shut down if he appeared today, while non-believers will find evidence that supports their beliefs that those who believe they can talk to God are just plain crazy. The plot is certainly not astounding, and there are some odd technical aspects (like the music), but it is still a thought-provoking and well-done film.

Grade: B

The Big Blue (1988)

Director: Luc Besson

 This film is epic, sprawling, meditative, and tranquil. So normally I would love a film like this, but unfortunately, Luc Besson just does not have complete control over his epic narrative and it stumbles frequently. It is not a focused movie thematically or narratively. It tries to be a movie about a man who has a loving obsession with the sea, and a movie about a lifelong rivalry between two great swimmers all at the same time, and there's also something about dolphins.

Much of the film is touching and quite interesting, especially when the movie focuses on the swimmer who is obsessed with the sea and how that obsession makes him a very unsociable human being. That situation makes the romantic subplot of the film quite unique. But the film loses focus eventually. I still greatly admire The Big Blue because what it does right it does very right, but it is not a movie I can say I am a fan of due to its inconsistency. But I will never discourage any filmmaker from trying to make a movie that is this epic and tries this hard. Next time, try a bit harder.

Grade: C+

Insomnia (1997)

Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg

 The film noir genre is known to emphasize shadows and dark imagery and are usually set at nighttime. But in Insomnia the daylight is used just as shadows would be used in a regular noir film. It's a daylight noir that uses light and intense brightness to give us a sense of unease in the story of a detective trying to investigate a murder in a small town up north near the Arctic. There is constant light and that light symbolizes the insomnia and mental breakdown of the detective as he undergoes a downward spiral trying to investigate what should have been a a run-of-the-mill murder investigation.

This is a investigative thriller that does use some of the same things you would expect in movies of this genre, but where it succeeds is its focus on the detective rather than the crime, the victim, or the criminal. It is about the incapacity of the detective to handle himself as he feels guilty and questions his sense of morality after a dangerous decision he makes during the investigation. Unlike the 2002 American remake by Christopher Nolan, there is little sympathy for the lead character, we just watch this descent. While the plot doesn't have much to it, the atmosphere has such an effect that it's all you need to understand and appreciate the film.

Grade: B+

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Director: Martin Scorsese

 When looking at a film like this, it is important to take it as a piece of art, and not a historical document. For this movie this is especially necessary because a title card in the beginning explicitly says that this movie is not meant to be a historical document or an adaptation of the story of Jesus from the Bible. If it's not a Christian story of Jesus, then what is it? The Last Temptation of Christ is a film about the eternal spiritual struggle between the desires of the material world and the demands of the divine moralistic world. It uses Jesus by showing that even the most famous religious figure in the world struggled with the sacrifices one must make to fully commit to God.

I don't think I've seen many better films about spirituality than this one here. That is why it is a bit ironic that it got so much controversy from fundamentalist Christians. I'm sure that if they watched the film honestly (if they watched the film at all) they would also relate to the spiritual struggle depicted in the film. Martin Scorsese has said that if he wasn't a filmmaker he probably would have been either a gangster or a priest, because that's the type of culture he grew up in. He's known more for his movies about gangsters, but with this film he shows that he's equally skilled at making films about religion as well.

Grade: A

Luck: Season One (2012)

Showrunners: David Milch and Michael Mann

 The death of a few horses behind the scenes led to the eventual cancellation of this show. This cancellation was unfortunate but also very appropriate considering how much this show adored horses. It's about a bunch of people who come together at this horse track because of their admiration and love for horses. Whether or not they are contradicting themselves by being at a race track and also loving horses is not the issue, but it is clear that the makers of this show and the characters are all big horse lovers.

Luck is filled with characters who try so hard not to show any weakness or sentimentality, but it is always the scenes where people are interacting with horses in which emotion, sentimentality, and tenderness come through. This poeticism that comes through is a result of David Milch's great dialogue and Michael Mann's amazing visual eye. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a show better than this from the standpoint of a sensory experience. It proves television does not have to be writer-centric forever, the show is filled with cinematic, visceral, and poetic moments that make sense internally even if they don't always make sense plot-wise. The story can be confusing, it's big, complex and filled with race track vocabulary that made it even more difficult to understand what was going on. This should have been more frustrating, but the show always knew how to make you feel what you need to feel. Like Milch's best show, Deadwood, I suspect the show would have been even better in the second season, maybe all-time great television level, but unfortunately we'll never get to see it happen.

Grade: A-

Tiny Furniture (2010)

Director: Lena Dunham

 Biopics that follow a person from their youth to their death are usually met with the criticism that they are unfocused and not all that powerful. This is because it is hard to encapsulate that many years of a persons life into a two-hour movie where the audience demands simple coherence in the theme and subject. Lives are complex, unfocused, and they've got big pacing and tone issues. That's why movies that capture a certain moment in a life have found more success and are usually much better.

Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture is an example of that now-popular tradition. It is about a female who just graduated college and is struggling in that moment of post-graduation and pre-adulthood. The film spans maybe a couple weeks at most, and it does a fine job of capturing that part of a life specific to this culture. This only works because the movie is very honest and authentic, partly due to the autobiographical nature of the film. But I will say that while the movie as a whole is very effective, there are definitely unnecessary scenes that do not accomplish anything. Dunham seems to be a bit of an episodic storyteller, and that does not always work to her advantage. But then there are scenes like the final one in the movie that really do a wonderful job of capturing a person a turning point in their life, and the troubles and thoughts that accompany that moment.

Grade: B+

Battle Royale (2000)

Director: Kinji Fukusaku

Regardless of any sociopolitical subtext, whenever you've got a movie featuring 13-year-olds brutally killing each other, it is going to be a cult classic. Battle Royale is extremely violent and has got compelling plot that never fails to keep your attention. Kids fight each other with all sorts of weapons and engage in all sorts of survival techniques, it is certainly fascinating. But there is also some great subtext about the divide between the world of adults and the world of children. The plot of the movie represents the disdain the filmmakers have for the inhumane dog-eat-dog world of adults, especially in a time of economic woes, such as the time Japan was in when this movie was made.

The actual details of the premise and plot are sometimes thin, which is not a flaw. Too much backstory would have taken away the allegorical quality of the plot, but there is some unclarity in the end that I would have liked to see improved. There's also a whole lot of unnecessary teenage melodrama, and much of it focuses on a select few characters making the question of who lives and who dies very predictable. But ultimately, the movie is extremely entertaining and leaves a whole lot of room for contemplation on the relationship between children and adults.

Grade: B

The Hunger Games (2012)

Director: Gary Ross

I reviewed this film for the newspaper and you can find that review here. I will say that I was surprised by the quality of the movie, but as it stands on its own it definitely would not be as popular if there were no books. I have not read the books, but I assume those are the reason so many people flocked to see this, all the non-readers, like me, just went to see what the fuss was about. While it's a quality film and there are things in it I greatly admire, I would advise you to make sure not to get your expectations too high. I certainly look forward to the sequel to see where the story goes, but I won't be expecting The Godfather Part II. 


Grade: B