movies: I've been thinking long and hard about the Dark Knight Rises and how to qualify such a movie in words. It really was quite stunning in just about every fashion, and where to begin may have been the hardest part of all of this.
The movie itself was just a stark cold tale of Gotham in the aftermath of the second movie of this trilogy, The Dark Knight. On the heals of the death of Harvey Dent, who unbeknownst to the the general population turned into Two Face, Batman, who is deemed responsible for his death, is in missing from the scene of crime fighting and Bruce Wayne is also in exile, feeling lost without his alter ego. This, however, seems to have helped things in Gotham with the Dent Act, named for the cities fallen hero(or so they say), has gotten mobsters and criminals off the streets. This is a lie. And lies are not met without consequences.
That consequence is a man named Bain. Bain comes from the same League of Shadows that taught Bruce how to become the bat. His goal seems to be nothing but destruction and anarchy as he makes a brilliant speech about about giving the city of Gotham back to the people while activating an atomic bomb to destroy it. As Bruce watches this happen, he knows there is only one thing to do: bring back the Batman. The more or less obvious full circle use of this story pertaining to a League of Shadows member spouting similar rhetoric to Raz Al-Gul in Batman Begins was a great way to bring the story full circle and allow for continuity between three movies that, if it were decided, could have had none.
The story from there unravels into an epic battle between the people of Gotham and Bain and his followers. This battle is lead by an absolutely stellar cast. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays an optimistic cop who believes in Batman to the point of a potentially important future. Catwoman is played elegantly (although without enough insanity for my taste) by Anne Hathaway as the queen burglar of Gotham whose affection for Gotham's dark knight, and his alter ego, ultimately force her to help save the city in which her crime has thrived(the moment when Batman asks her to help save Gotham from destruction by nuclear bomb, you see her think something along the lines of Spike's "I like this world" speech in the final episode of season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The meaning being that some people want the world to survive because they enjoy being bad in it.) The always engaging and beautiful Marion Colltiard plays the yin to Catwoman's yang as an optimist who still believes in Wayne Enterprises. And of course, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman couldn't be more brilliant in their returning rolls as Alfred and Gordon.
What we see in this movie that makes it different from The Dark Knight is that this collection of characters and actors bring a sense of total excellence to the movie. There is no iconic performance or moment in this movie. But a collection of greats doing great work.
As the end of this trilogy, the movie did exactly what it was supposed to. It gave a sense of completion and closure the story that had unfolded over the previous movies. In the spirit of all things Christopher Nolan, there was not necessarily an end. It was just a conclusion. The politics most thought would be overt in this movie were left to interpretation quite nicely. Then end may even be subject to debate.
Nolan's greatest achievement may have been his most vague point of conclusion though. The fate of Gotham was not written in stone at the end of the movie. Batman saved Gotham from yet another pending danger. It may have been the biggest danger yet faced, a HUGE danger necessary to bring him out of exile. But what ever the fate of Gotham is by the end of this war, there is no assurance that it is going to remain safe. Harvey Dent once said, "The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise, the dawn is coming." The night certainly did continue to get darker. But after seeing where this trilogy has taken us, I can't say that I know that that dawn Dent spoke of is ever going to come. The sun has just been given a temporary opportunity to rise. Luckily, Gotham has the hero it deserves to save them if need be in the future.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
breaking bad
tv: Last night Breaking Bad returned for the first part of its final season. I spent a long time thinking about what I saw, and decided that to digest what I saw I had to start with something of a look back at what I had already seen. The series is the story of a somewhat pathetic high school science teacher named Walter White who turned to cooking meth with a burnout former student of his named Jesse Pinkman in order to provide for his family after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. His motive throughout the first two seasons is simply that. He wants money, and as much of it as possible through his new criminal enterprise. As the story continues his motives for continuing to cook change. It becomes more about the threat of the dangerous people he is forced to associate with forcing him to continue what he does. These threats and motives also allow the absolutely terrible things he does to keep his drug enterprise going, mainly the murder of other drug dealers and distributors, to be more or less excusable. After all, he is just trying to provide for his family and stay alive in the process. As the third season ends and the fourth season begins we see both Walt and Jesse descend further into darkness as they are confronted by the all to frightening threat of their boss, Gustavo Frain, played brilliantly by Giancarlo Esposito. That war escalates to a breaking point that leaves Walt in a kill or be killed mode that ends with him willing to blow up a hospital wing at a retirement home in order to kill Gus. When he calls his wife, Skylar, who is now involved in his criminal activities by trying to hide and launder his money for him, all he can find the words to say is "I won."
That moment is where we pick up at the beginning of the fifth season. And with those words, and no discernible threat, besides the pending investigation of the DEA that has been going on throughout the series, we find ourselves now finally atop the mountain looking to finally descend and finish the trip. And descend is where we go. There seems to be a somewhat steep and unforgiving downward trajectory to Walt's character that will continue to the end of the series. It was created, not as an amoral or immoral character to root for, as Dexter or Tony Soprano is, but simply as a study in pure descent from weak, yet decent man, to the embodiment of evil not to be rooted for but just stunned and frightened by. Walt begins the fifth season in as dark a place if not darker than he ended the fourth season. And looking ahead it only appears to get darker.
The fifth season begins with Walt and Jesse hoping to evade detection from the cops as the investigation by the ABQPD and DEA continue search for Gus's killer. This finds them needing to destroy the surveillance footage from the lab that Gus was recording. The dark humor of this situation, as with most of the show can only be compared to the scene at Eric Stoltz's house in Pulp Fiction when Uma Thurman overdoses, is brilliant. Walt and Mike, a hitman for Gus, plot, and fight about the realistic possibility, of a way to blow up the evidence room containing the computer that Gus saved the footage (all too elaborately mind you) as Jesse suggests a magnet, with all the memory sucking hand motions and sound effects provided to explain to the two old men of this odd trifecta. Then as they are testing the magnet that they decide to borrow from a scrap yard for this caper, Jesse so typically yells "YEAH BITCH!!!!!!" at their apparent success.
The real defining moment of the episode was the very end. Walt returns home after a seemingly successful attempt to erase the computers memory (it worked "because he says so") and decides to talk to his wife, Skylar, about the fact that she gave all of his drug money to a man she had had an affair with to keep the IRS off of her and her former lovers trials. Skylar, meanwhile, is still waiting to see some sort of contrition and remorse for Walt's role in the gang war that happened in their town and threatened their family. Walt shows no remorse. Instead he acts with the same sort of terror he has grown accustomed to away from his family when he simply holds Skylar and says "I forgive you."
The look on Skylar's face as the episode ends says it all. We are clearly now in the midst of a full fledged monster where forgiveness for our shortcomings, real or not, is all that is keeping us from a horrible end. Walt's steep trajectory into darkness has lead us to a place where there is no forgiving his actions. He is clearly nothing less than a killer and kingpin who feels no fear and no remorse. People have spent the past months leading up to this season wondering who the new villain would be. The answer is Walt.
As the show continues to come to an end I have no doubt that the meticulous nature of how the shows entire universe of characters and stories has been conceived and executed will drive it towards a suitable and logical end. The enjoyment of the ride, in the meantime, will be watching this absolutely morally void main character continue down the path he seems to be set on and how that will effect the place the show is going and the characters that are being brought down by Walt's path of terror. That end, right now, seems to be the showdown between Walt and his DEA brother Hank.
This first episode was shot in a lot of dark settings. I couldn't help but smile and wonder if creator and writer of the episode, Vince Gilligan, was telling the director something to the effect of, "Its fine, we'll just use a flashlight or two and a lamp. I used to do it on X Files all the time." Out of the harsh light of the New Mexico Desserts and cold lights of laboratories, I wouldn't help but see Gilligan returning to his roots not only metaphorically but literally: the darkness.
That moment is where we pick up at the beginning of the fifth season. And with those words, and no discernible threat, besides the pending investigation of the DEA that has been going on throughout the series, we find ourselves now finally atop the mountain looking to finally descend and finish the trip. And descend is where we go. There seems to be a somewhat steep and unforgiving downward trajectory to Walt's character that will continue to the end of the series. It was created, not as an amoral or immoral character to root for, as Dexter or Tony Soprano is, but simply as a study in pure descent from weak, yet decent man, to the embodiment of evil not to be rooted for but just stunned and frightened by. Walt begins the fifth season in as dark a place if not darker than he ended the fourth season. And looking ahead it only appears to get darker.
The fifth season begins with Walt and Jesse hoping to evade detection from the cops as the investigation by the ABQPD and DEA continue search for Gus's killer. This finds them needing to destroy the surveillance footage from the lab that Gus was recording. The dark humor of this situation, as with most of the show can only be compared to the scene at Eric Stoltz's house in Pulp Fiction when Uma Thurman overdoses, is brilliant. Walt and Mike, a hitman for Gus, plot, and fight about the realistic possibility, of a way to blow up the evidence room containing the computer that Gus saved the footage (all too elaborately mind you) as Jesse suggests a magnet, with all the memory sucking hand motions and sound effects provided to explain to the two old men of this odd trifecta. Then as they are testing the magnet that they decide to borrow from a scrap yard for this caper, Jesse so typically yells "YEAH BITCH!!!!!!" at their apparent success.
The real defining moment of the episode was the very end. Walt returns home after a seemingly successful attempt to erase the computers memory (it worked "because he says so") and decides to talk to his wife, Skylar, about the fact that she gave all of his drug money to a man she had had an affair with to keep the IRS off of her and her former lovers trials. Skylar, meanwhile, is still waiting to see some sort of contrition and remorse for Walt's role in the gang war that happened in their town and threatened their family. Walt shows no remorse. Instead he acts with the same sort of terror he has grown accustomed to away from his family when he simply holds Skylar and says "I forgive you."
The look on Skylar's face as the episode ends says it all. We are clearly now in the midst of a full fledged monster where forgiveness for our shortcomings, real or not, is all that is keeping us from a horrible end. Walt's steep trajectory into darkness has lead us to a place where there is no forgiving his actions. He is clearly nothing less than a killer and kingpin who feels no fear and no remorse. People have spent the past months leading up to this season wondering who the new villain would be. The answer is Walt.
As the show continues to come to an end I have no doubt that the meticulous nature of how the shows entire universe of characters and stories has been conceived and executed will drive it towards a suitable and logical end. The enjoyment of the ride, in the meantime, will be watching this absolutely morally void main character continue down the path he seems to be set on and how that will effect the place the show is going and the characters that are being brought down by Walt's path of terror. That end, right now, seems to be the showdown between Walt and his DEA brother Hank.
This first episode was shot in a lot of dark settings. I couldn't help but smile and wonder if creator and writer of the episode, Vince Gilligan, was telling the director something to the effect of, "Its fine, we'll just use a flashlight or two and a lamp. I used to do it on X Files all the time." Out of the harsh light of the New Mexico Desserts and cold lights of laboratories, I wouldn't help but see Gilligan returning to his roots not only metaphorically but literally: the darkness.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
weeds
tv: Weeds returned for its eighth and final season this past Sunday. The show has undeniably not been its best, despite some great efforts in recent seasons, since it left Aggrestic at the end of the third season. Despite that, this first episode did seem to show promise and shed light on the end of what has been a bizarre show. (this will be all spoilers)
The episode picked up right where the end of season seven left off. We get to see the gruesome outcome of the gunshot that was fired at Nancy as she was making her toast to the Botwin/Wilson/Price-Grey family. Shot in the head, We see Nancy bloody and dazed and needing to be taken to the emergency room with her life hanging in the balance.
As Nancy gets put into a chemically induced coma the family reaction is as classically fucked up as anything one could expect from Weeds. Silas and Shane discuss the many people who could be responsible for this. Shane also tells Silas about his enrollment in the police academy, which for the time being seems to be for real. We also see Kevin Nealon, in classic Doug Wilson fashion, end up feeling up a comatose Nancy as he tries to get the crumbs of a well enjoyed snack off her body. And of course Andy continues to do the wrong thing by sleeping with Nancy's sister and blaming it on emotional distress.
This plot development and typical Weeds hilarity is dealt with while addressing the coming end of the show. Nancy herself says, once again in the glib voice of the show, "Doomsday is coming. Not really, but..... maybe". Andy's run in with a hospital chaplain/rabbi forces asks the question that has plagued his character the entire series, which is whether or not he can change, and go from the impulsive, womanizing, pot smoking child he has been the entire series, to the man of the house his brother, and Nancy's former husband, was.
There are certainly plot points that will have to be dealt with that create a bit of intrigue. Shane's new found desire to be a part of law enforcement certainly being at the top of the list. As a known (by the viewers) murderer and sociopath, as well as son of a drug dealing family, his new path seems to be a rocky one at least. Silas is surely going to be put in the cross hairs with the grow room his mother built him in the house that the police are now scouring while investigating Nancy's shooting. And of course, what is the purpose of making Tim the shooter? Tim being the son of Nancy's former husband and DEA agent, Peter Scottson, who was killed by a cartel to protect Nancy.
Weeds began its run ripping the lid off of suburbia and showing the world what was really going on in those squeaky clean communities in a way that was fresh and snarky. It has come a long way from that. And that long way is not necessarily for the better, but it has built a new and different world. That world is filled with new questions. Most of those questions deal with the two Botwin kids at this point. Shane and Silas are running headstrong into a world that was built for them, not by choice, and has forced them to be men long before they were ready. Despite the fact that this show has seemed to be all about Nancy, with her in a coma as the final season begins, the final season seems to be more about the men of the family: Shane, Silas, and Andy, and where their lives with Nancy will leave them looking into the future that exists beyond the show. What started as a suburban critique, has now become a drug drama. As doomsday approaches, hopefully this can be done justice.
The episode picked up right where the end of season seven left off. We get to see the gruesome outcome of the gunshot that was fired at Nancy as she was making her toast to the Botwin/Wilson/Price-Grey family. Shot in the head, We see Nancy bloody and dazed and needing to be taken to the emergency room with her life hanging in the balance.
As Nancy gets put into a chemically induced coma the family reaction is as classically fucked up as anything one could expect from Weeds. Silas and Shane discuss the many people who could be responsible for this. Shane also tells Silas about his enrollment in the police academy, which for the time being seems to be for real. We also see Kevin Nealon, in classic Doug Wilson fashion, end up feeling up a comatose Nancy as he tries to get the crumbs of a well enjoyed snack off her body. And of course Andy continues to do the wrong thing by sleeping with Nancy's sister and blaming it on emotional distress.
This plot development and typical Weeds hilarity is dealt with while addressing the coming end of the show. Nancy herself says, once again in the glib voice of the show, "Doomsday is coming. Not really, but..... maybe". Andy's run in with a hospital chaplain/rabbi forces asks the question that has plagued his character the entire series, which is whether or not he can change, and go from the impulsive, womanizing, pot smoking child he has been the entire series, to the man of the house his brother, and Nancy's former husband, was.
There are certainly plot points that will have to be dealt with that create a bit of intrigue. Shane's new found desire to be a part of law enforcement certainly being at the top of the list. As a known (by the viewers) murderer and sociopath, as well as son of a drug dealing family, his new path seems to be a rocky one at least. Silas is surely going to be put in the cross hairs with the grow room his mother built him in the house that the police are now scouring while investigating Nancy's shooting. And of course, what is the purpose of making Tim the shooter? Tim being the son of Nancy's former husband and DEA agent, Peter Scottson, who was killed by a cartel to protect Nancy.
Weeds began its run ripping the lid off of suburbia and showing the world what was really going on in those squeaky clean communities in a way that was fresh and snarky. It has come a long way from that. And that long way is not necessarily for the better, but it has built a new and different world. That world is filled with new questions. Most of those questions deal with the two Botwin kids at this point. Shane and Silas are running headstrong into a world that was built for them, not by choice, and has forced them to be men long before they were ready. Despite the fact that this show has seemed to be all about Nancy, with her in a coma as the final season begins, the final season seems to be more about the men of the family: Shane, Silas, and Andy, and where their lives with Nancy will leave them looking into the future that exists beyond the show. What started as a suburban critique, has now become a drug drama. As doomsday approaches, hopefully this can be done justice.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
celebration rock
music: The album Celebration Rock by the Japandriods has been out for a couple of months now. I just recently picked it up, and decided that this is something that needs to be talked about. For anyone who doesn't know, The Japandroids are a two person band out of Canada that has built their careers on fun hook filled rock. I don't know if this is the culmination of this effort, being that I have not listened to a lot of their music. All I can say is that it sure as hell seems like it.
Celebration Rock as I listen to it (now over and over again) is one of those albums that seems to embody the spirit of rock. The fun, straightforward, and sometimes raw and raunchy nature of the album is exactly what the genre has been about since its inception.
This is not to say it is in the vain of a classic rock album. This is not AC/DC or Van Halen or Guns 'n' Roses, specifically on Appetite For Destruction. Those albums epitomized rock as a lifestyle. The booze and drugs and girls, especially the girls, seem to be nothing short of a daily occurrence for bands as they worked the sunset strip or toured the world. This was not only the truth, but the feeling you got from listening to their albums. There was a lack of specificity in the feel and style of the lyrics that created a lifestyle as opposed to a more singular and specific experience.
That singular experience is what you get from the Japandriods. Keep in mind that this singularity is no less universal. It is just a vibe. That vibe is not "This is our lives everyday, getting hammered and doing drugs and banging the hottest chicks ever while rocking 24/7/365". When you listen to Celebration Rock it is more of a "I feel like total hell this morning but the more I remember about the night I had that made me feel this way, it was totally worth it". I have no idea under what influence the Japandriods made this album, but that is how it makes me feel. The album sounds like they just had the most amazing night full of youthful exuberance at a party out by the lake where there are 120 people and the sunset was movie picturesque as the kegs were flowing, dudes were sneaking off into the woods to have sex with their girls in secrecy (even though everyone saw them sneak off) and the rest of the party was left to get hammered and smoke up on the greatest night of all of their young lives out by this mythical perfect lake that exists in the mind of all those who have been to "that party". Then they woke up the next morning, and as the haze of that perfectly youthful and carefree night cleared, these two guys remembered what happened and realized, "We need this night to be an album." That album became Celebration Rock. An album filled with hilariously blunt lyrics about booze and sex on the best night of someones lives set to the backdrop of music that is basically two dudes pounding the shit out of their instruments and filling the chorus of every single song with Whoas and Yeahs.
I really have no idea if this scenario I just talked about really happened. All I can say is that this is how the album makes me feel and what it makes me think of. It is the best of the best night in a youth that mostly really exists at parties on lakes with kegs of shit beer. But it is better than that. It is better than the version of that night shown in high school movies scenes like the prom scene in American Pie at Stiffler's lake house, which is the best possible version of that. It is better than that. It is the celebration of that. And a celebration of what those nights are all about: youth and rock.
Celebration Rock as I listen to it (now over and over again) is one of those albums that seems to embody the spirit of rock. The fun, straightforward, and sometimes raw and raunchy nature of the album is exactly what the genre has been about since its inception.
This is not to say it is in the vain of a classic rock album. This is not AC/DC or Van Halen or Guns 'n' Roses, specifically on Appetite For Destruction. Those albums epitomized rock as a lifestyle. The booze and drugs and girls, especially the girls, seem to be nothing short of a daily occurrence for bands as they worked the sunset strip or toured the world. This was not only the truth, but the feeling you got from listening to their albums. There was a lack of specificity in the feel and style of the lyrics that created a lifestyle as opposed to a more singular and specific experience.
That singular experience is what you get from the Japandriods. Keep in mind that this singularity is no less universal. It is just a vibe. That vibe is not "This is our lives everyday, getting hammered and doing drugs and banging the hottest chicks ever while rocking 24/7/365". When you listen to Celebration Rock it is more of a "I feel like total hell this morning but the more I remember about the night I had that made me feel this way, it was totally worth it". I have no idea under what influence the Japandriods made this album, but that is how it makes me feel. The album sounds like they just had the most amazing night full of youthful exuberance at a party out by the lake where there are 120 people and the sunset was movie picturesque as the kegs were flowing, dudes were sneaking off into the woods to have sex with their girls in secrecy (even though everyone saw them sneak off) and the rest of the party was left to get hammered and smoke up on the greatest night of all of their young lives out by this mythical perfect lake that exists in the mind of all those who have been to "that party". Then they woke up the next morning, and as the haze of that perfectly youthful and carefree night cleared, these two guys remembered what happened and realized, "We need this night to be an album." That album became Celebration Rock. An album filled with hilariously blunt lyrics about booze and sex on the best night of someones lives set to the backdrop of music that is basically two dudes pounding the shit out of their instruments and filling the chorus of every single song with Whoas and Yeahs.
I really have no idea if this scenario I just talked about really happened. All I can say is that this is how the album makes me feel and what it makes me think of. It is the best of the best night in a youth that mostly really exists at parties on lakes with kegs of shit beer. But it is better than that. It is better than the version of that night shown in high school movies scenes like the prom scene in American Pie at Stiffler's lake house, which is the best possible version of that. It is better than that. It is the celebration of that. And a celebration of what those nights are all about: youth and rock.
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