The review title says it all, pretty much. I give Netflix credit. This series based on solid research, including credible witnesses, and as far as CGI and animation, illustrates reported and corroborated facts well enough, but not gratuitously. Take it for what it is -- educational and journalistic storytelling -- and it's better than most.
Reviews
12 Reviews
Collateral
(2004)
Foxx vs. Cruise
12 June 2021
Rarely are protagonist and antagonist so well cast, and also so well-scripted and directed as in this Michael Mann masterpiece. The action is taut, almost understated, never quite gratuitous although the accident sequence is a bit of a stretch in that regard. Cruise wields his character with chilling intensity, exuding almost a superhuman level of control. Unwitting hero Foxx chips away at him, cluelessly and then relentlessly. The soundtrack is first-rate, a host of well-selected, edgy tunes to savor. Climactic night club scene is maybe the very best of its kind ever filmed.
The Expanse
(2015– )
Bleak Reminder
22 August 2019
Overall this series is chock full of compelling images, memorable dialogue and talented cast. It is a bleak reminder of what lies in store for human beings if they succeed in colonizing and exploiting other planets in the solar system for industrial materials, as Elon Musk and so many others fantasize, without also mananging to learn from their own recent history: war, environmental destruction, and subjugation of the human spirit by the engines of industry. The series plot offsets this bleak, almost unavoidable conclusion with Christian themes and a character or two that struggle impotently to tame the massive juggernaut of the military-industrial complex. Nevertheless there is scarcely a ray of hope to be found in the first three seasons. The depiction of "protomolecule" technology to produce hybrid human "supersoldiers", albeit a cheesy, old-school special-effects gag theme and a boring reiteration of a theme from the Star Wars 'clones' episode, is truly creepy and unsettling.
Frontera Verde
(2019)
Cinematic Ayahuasca
20 August 2019
This must be the finest Colombian production since "Narcos". But unlike the "Narcos" story arc, a beam of truth and enlightenment shines through the story, characterization and cinematography. Even if at times the writing and direction falls back on familiar stereotypes and corny special effects (like a human heart beating inside an air-filled glass jar), in the aggregate, this is a brilliant telling, not of a story, but a certain truth about human beings and Mother Nature. It's not necessarily a happy or comfortable truth but one we desperately need to understand and experience. A unifying theme here is nature Goddess worship and its connection to health, longevity and happiness. Joseph Campbell and C.G. Jung would have loved this series!
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
(2017–2023)
A Comedy Writer's Education
23 December 2018
Forget about taking comedy-writing lessons at the Open Center or creative writing at Privalej University. Binge this series and extract the collective wisdom of its writers and actors -- most of them seasoned, competent comedic minds. This is not to say I found this series' first season a barrel of laughs. Yeah, there were a few laughs I admit. Mostly, I found it an excellent study in how to produce a period piece -- the makeup, costumes, sets and lighting are all brilliant in their homage to the period depicted -- and a head-scratching, beard-pulling, thought-provoking set of object lessons in how standup comedy works. Moreover, the non-standup lines and routines incorporated as part and parcel of the plot are, to a great or lesser extent, homages to comedy and movies and TV of the late fifties and early sixties.
The Snow Walker
(2003)
Only in Canada...
3 August 2018
Only in Canada would I expect a film this beautiful to be made, unfettered by the usual Hollywood formulas and dumbing-down of screenplays. The author of the original story, Farley Mowat, deserves a great deal of credit, of course. The director and actors do a wonderful job, the cinematography is pretty much no-frills but with such a barren Arctic landscape, what frills would one expect? A few special effects add to the awesome sense of beauty communicated by the barren landscape and the basic humanity of the characters.
The ending was symbolic and superbly simple, completely free of the usual Hollywood trivialities of denoument, and was surprisingly satisfying. (By force of habit I expected a "re-emergence into civilization" end-theme, which would be standard Hollywood fare -- but the central message of this movie, as I get it, is that 'civilization' is utterly perverse and hardly worth missing, so naturally the ending excludes that theme altogether).
Otherwise the story's progression is predictable from the start but that hardly matters given the film's other strong points. Excellent casting BTW.
This film might help those of Stateside who know nothing about First Peoples to understand something of basic sanity of a way of life that, though fraught with hardship, was also rich with profundity.
The ending was symbolic and superbly simple, completely free of the usual Hollywood trivialities of denoument, and was surprisingly satisfying. (By force of habit I expected a "re-emergence into civilization" end-theme, which would be standard Hollywood fare -- but the central message of this movie, as I get it, is that 'civilization' is utterly perverse and hardly worth missing, so naturally the ending excludes that theme altogether).
Otherwise the story's progression is predictable from the start but that hardly matters given the film's other strong points. Excellent casting BTW.
This film might help those of Stateside who know nothing about First Peoples to understand something of basic sanity of a way of life that, though fraught with hardship, was also rich with profundity.
One of Scorcese's Best
31 July 2018
One of Scorcese's best
Scorcese has made many great films and has to be the American film industry's most underrated and underappreciated director. Because of its controversial theme and the viewing public's general lack of theological sophistication, The Last Temptation is bound to remain one of Scorcese's underappreciated productions.
In any case in the able hands of Scorcese the protagonists Jesus and Judas, played by Willem Defoe and Harvey Keitel, are made to provoke precisely the sort of doubt and cognitive dissonance that any spiritually mature person ought to have in assessing the doctrines of their religion. As Thomas Merton among others once reflected, profound doubt is necessary for profound faith and Jesus' story, especially as told here, bears that out.
As The Last Temptation has it, profound turmoil and profound divisions in the human soul are necessary for it to realize greatness, or enlightenment. While I'm not a Christian I think this movie does far more to stimulate deep reflection upon the theological conundrum of Jesus' humanity vs. the Christ's divinity than any other portrayal of the Gospels' stories in cinema.
Scorcese's direction and Defoe's performance together make this conundrum supremely provocative. There are apt to be as many interpretations of the movie's message as their are viewers. Personally I found the way Jesus' humanity is portrayed, and the way Defoe's character reveals his doubts and inner contradictions in discussions with Judas, makes the possibility of Christ's divinity that much more feasible. This is hardly an anti-Christian or sacreligious film as some have accused it of being -- it's Jesus as Everyman and God at the same time. That's pretty standard Christian doctrine no matter how you slice it!
Scorcese has made many great films and has to be the American film industry's most underrated and underappreciated director. Because of its controversial theme and the viewing public's general lack of theological sophistication, The Last Temptation is bound to remain one of Scorcese's underappreciated productions.
In any case in the able hands of Scorcese the protagonists Jesus and Judas, played by Willem Defoe and Harvey Keitel, are made to provoke precisely the sort of doubt and cognitive dissonance that any spiritually mature person ought to have in assessing the doctrines of their religion. As Thomas Merton among others once reflected, profound doubt is necessary for profound faith and Jesus' story, especially as told here, bears that out.
As The Last Temptation has it, profound turmoil and profound divisions in the human soul are necessary for it to realize greatness, or enlightenment. While I'm not a Christian I think this movie does far more to stimulate deep reflection upon the theological conundrum of Jesus' humanity vs. the Christ's divinity than any other portrayal of the Gospels' stories in cinema.
Scorcese's direction and Defoe's performance together make this conundrum supremely provocative. There are apt to be as many interpretations of the movie's message as their are viewers. Personally I found the way Jesus' humanity is portrayed, and the way Defoe's character reveals his doubts and inner contradictions in discussions with Judas, makes the possibility of Christ's divinity that much more feasible. This is hardly an anti-Christian or sacreligious film as some have accused it of being -- it's Jesus as Everyman and God at the same time. That's pretty standard Christian doctrine no matter how you slice it!
Succession
(2018–2023)
Actually Pretty Funny
18 June 2018
Succession is a good, if not exactly great series. At least not yet (as of Season 1, episode 3). Look for a fine cast, solid writing, fair direction, and a veritable mine of understated humor. One can hardly overstate the latter point, that is, "understated humor". As grotesque as the characters and dialogue are, the humor is dry almost to the point of being undetectable, at first. Keep watching and there are some real gems. The absurdity of wealthy, ambitious, emotionally retarded Americans is eviscerated again and again. There are raging bioches, effing orafices, hellbent lawyers, and ruthless corporate raiders at every turn. The only profession represented here that has any detectable morals is the medical profession.
One may not like the portrait painted here of America's .01 percent, but thank heavens, it is a somewhat funny caricature.
One may not like the portrait painted here of America's .01 percent, but thank heavens, it is a somewhat funny caricature.
Wild Wild Country
(2018)
Unbelievable but True
17 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
It's easy to feel sympathy for most of the players in this epic story. All that is except for many of those near the "Sanyassi" social creampuff top.
"Sanyassi" means 'renunciate'. "Sanyassi? Now there's a laugh! The only thing these folks seem to have given up is any sense of not being superior to other human beings.
All theologies and religious practices aside, the people of Rajneeshpuram had the wool pulled over their eyes. They were told what they wanted to hear, and in the end, had to face the facts: they'd been told wrong, somehow, by somebody. But of course it wasn't Bhagwan's fault. Nooooooooooo. Nothing clings to the Teflon Bhagwan!
The raging hubris, ambition and rampant deception behind Rajneesh and Rajneeshpuram does not fail to impress, however. It's the Emperor's New Clothes, Redux. It's a fashion statement: believe what you want to believe, and it's true. Except it isn't.
To hear lawyers tell it, it's all about inalienable rights like assembly and religious freedom, due process and so on. Everybody on both sides of the law here played hardball, or even greaseball, with those. Of course who keeps greaseballs on hand? Scumbuckets, of course, but I digress. Focussing on the legal entitlement issues in this case somewhat obscures the ostensibly 'spiritual', theological--or dare I say, demonological-- questions begged by this internecine (if not quite incestuous) saga. It concerns a New City for the New Man: a ticking psycho-social time-bomb built with exquisitely rich and thick layers of love, hate, lies, and surveillance.
Nobody is entitled to do whatever they want, however they want. That is the law of karma. These folks, Bhagwan ("God") included, were seriously in denial about a number of issues. For one, they never researched the places or the people they would end up alienating. Awash with American and European wealth as they were, they just assumed they could buy whatever privilege they wanted, and litigate (or intimidate, or worse) as necessary against any and all obstructions. Doesn't that remind you of....hmmm let me think for a minute ... Scientology? Or was it the Catholic Church? Or was it The Company...no doubt they had a few irons in this fire from the early phases.
How could they not? Rajneeshpuram was a fascinating cauldron of mass hypnosis, mass pharmacological manipulation, and mass hysteria. Never mind the good sex. Even without quite so much sex -- perhaps even more so without -- the same or similar game would be expected to unfold in a large, spontaneously-arisen religious cult. It happened in Mormonism and Jonestown, too. Just in rather different ways, and different degrees of success, than it did at Rajneeshpuram.
The overweening hubris of Rajneesh and his henchwomen and henchmen seems, in retrospect, obviously pathological. No wonder the world felt like such a strange place in the seventies and early eighties, when I was a kid. The bogus-guru commune-bottles were out in the sun, in the medias' light of day, corks ready to blow, and to most of us observers it was just love, light and free (if vaguely unhealthy) soda pop.
Apparently not even God himself, or herself, living as a human being (if that were even possible) can get away with anything indefinitely. Because the Gods need their worshippers, and their worshippers' offerings, to exist. A god without worshippers is no longer a god in any practical sense. Likewise a god-man or god-woman. God-men and god-women like these are borderlines and psychopaths run amok with money and power. Garden-variety nouveau-riche Americans, in other words. Easy come, easy go. Their 1980's era McMansions, and McCommunities, not just Rajneeshpuram, stand rotting here and there, all over the country.
So don't be fooled by the quaint Indian, English, and European accents, or the educated middle-class manner of many of the clueless, damaged, self-deluded or (in some cases) evil folk interviewed here. This is an American, all-too-American religious cult. There are no gods here, and nobody is "awake". "Awake". Now there's laugh, in a series that mostly makes me want to cry or, just pity the poor fools.
If a human being makes themselves into a god in others' eyes, their feet furn into clay instantly. Isn't that a funny paradox? But one can appreciate it so much with this brilliant, and sympathetic, documentary.
"Sanyassi" means 'renunciate'. "Sanyassi? Now there's a laugh! The only thing these folks seem to have given up is any sense of not being superior to other human beings.
All theologies and religious practices aside, the people of Rajneeshpuram had the wool pulled over their eyes. They were told what they wanted to hear, and in the end, had to face the facts: they'd been told wrong, somehow, by somebody. But of course it wasn't Bhagwan's fault. Nooooooooooo. Nothing clings to the Teflon Bhagwan!
The raging hubris, ambition and rampant deception behind Rajneesh and Rajneeshpuram does not fail to impress, however. It's the Emperor's New Clothes, Redux. It's a fashion statement: believe what you want to believe, and it's true. Except it isn't.
To hear lawyers tell it, it's all about inalienable rights like assembly and religious freedom, due process and so on. Everybody on both sides of the law here played hardball, or even greaseball, with those. Of course who keeps greaseballs on hand? Scumbuckets, of course, but I digress. Focussing on the legal entitlement issues in this case somewhat obscures the ostensibly 'spiritual', theological--or dare I say, demonological-- questions begged by this internecine (if not quite incestuous) saga. It concerns a New City for the New Man: a ticking psycho-social time-bomb built with exquisitely rich and thick layers of love, hate, lies, and surveillance.
Nobody is entitled to do whatever they want, however they want. That is the law of karma. These folks, Bhagwan ("God") included, were seriously in denial about a number of issues. For one, they never researched the places or the people they would end up alienating. Awash with American and European wealth as they were, they just assumed they could buy whatever privilege they wanted, and litigate (or intimidate, or worse) as necessary against any and all obstructions. Doesn't that remind you of....hmmm let me think for a minute ... Scientology? Or was it the Catholic Church? Or was it The Company...no doubt they had a few irons in this fire from the early phases.
How could they not? Rajneeshpuram was a fascinating cauldron of mass hypnosis, mass pharmacological manipulation, and mass hysteria. Never mind the good sex. Even without quite so much sex -- perhaps even more so without -- the same or similar game would be expected to unfold in a large, spontaneously-arisen religious cult. It happened in Mormonism and Jonestown, too. Just in rather different ways, and different degrees of success, than it did at Rajneeshpuram.
The overweening hubris of Rajneesh and his henchwomen and henchmen seems, in retrospect, obviously pathological. No wonder the world felt like such a strange place in the seventies and early eighties, when I was a kid. The bogus-guru commune-bottles were out in the sun, in the medias' light of day, corks ready to blow, and to most of us observers it was just love, light and free (if vaguely unhealthy) soda pop.
Apparently not even God himself, or herself, living as a human being (if that were even possible) can get away with anything indefinitely. Because the Gods need their worshippers, and their worshippers' offerings, to exist. A god without worshippers is no longer a god in any practical sense. Likewise a god-man or god-woman. God-men and god-women like these are borderlines and psychopaths run amok with money and power. Garden-variety nouveau-riche Americans, in other words. Easy come, easy go. Their 1980's era McMansions, and McCommunities, not just Rajneeshpuram, stand rotting here and there, all over the country.
So don't be fooled by the quaint Indian, English, and European accents, or the educated middle-class manner of many of the clueless, damaged, self-deluded or (in some cases) evil folk interviewed here. This is an American, all-too-American religious cult. There are no gods here, and nobody is "awake". "Awake". Now there's laugh, in a series that mostly makes me want to cry or, just pity the poor fools.
If a human being makes themselves into a god in others' eyes, their feet furn into clay instantly. Isn't that a funny paradox? But one can appreciate it so much with this brilliant, and sympathetic, documentary.
Hate to admit it
28 February 2018
But I love this show. Season Three has legs. Great writing and cast. Direction with a keen eye and ear for how Angelenos speak, dress and behave. Or maybe the direction sucks, who knows? Because the writers and actors already know who and what they are portraying. They are flaying the seamy, but not infrequently hilarious, horrid and enlightening underbelly of the devilish hog that is Hollywood. They know these are the moves, the attitudes, the Great Way of Babylon. And they make it funny, and also, at turns, sickeningly real. That's some pretty good irony there, given the series title.
As I said, I hate to admit lines like these are hilarious:
"Oh wait. Does his daughter have cancer? " "No cancer." "Oh damn it!"
It's unreal and yet, it works so well given what we know about how show business really is today, already. It's horrible, its unreal, and what's a bunch of top-knotch pros in TV in LA to do in this work environment? Simple really: produce Unreal. Best therapy for the Real Hollywood blues.
As I said, I hate to admit lines like these are hilarious:
"Oh wait. Does his daughter have cancer? " "No cancer." "Oh damn it!"
It's unreal and yet, it works so well given what we know about how show business really is today, already. It's horrible, its unreal, and what's a bunch of top-knotch pros in TV in LA to do in this work environment? Simple really: produce Unreal. Best therapy for the Real Hollywood blues.
The Ganges with Sue Perkins
(2017– )
Mutual of Omigod's Wild India, with Sue Perkins
3 November 2017
This is an odyssey with a funny soulful woman who is bracingly courageous (though of course it helps when you have a whole crew behind you). If you've been to India it will make you nostalgic -- and also, super concerned about the condition of rural Indian women. Thankfully some change and help afoot for them (see Episode 2).
This series is an eye-opener -- but does not overly focus on the very real distress of the people.
India is an incredible place to see and the people, some at least, are extraordinary and one gets to meet a few of them in the series. They sure seem to like Sue Perkins (presumably, no relation to Marlin), who has some interesting things to say after she slips in a dark alleyway late at night in a human poo-pile and nastily scuffs her arm (Episode 2, around 44:00). It's the unrelenting sea of humanity in which one is just a small bug -- that is why we watch this show and breathe a sigh of relief!
Still, just watching, one yearns to swim there again. (But I don't mean literally go swimming in the Ganges. Noooooooo.)
This series is an eye-opener -- but does not overly focus on the very real distress of the people.
India is an incredible place to see and the people, some at least, are extraordinary and one gets to meet a few of them in the series. They sure seem to like Sue Perkins (presumably, no relation to Marlin), who has some interesting things to say after she slips in a dark alleyway late at night in a human poo-pile and nastily scuffs her arm (Episode 2, around 44:00). It's the unrelenting sea of humanity in which one is just a small bug -- that is why we watch this show and breathe a sigh of relief!
Still, just watching, one yearns to swim there again. (But I don't mean literally go swimming in the Ganges. Noooooooo.)
Brilliant twists and delectating soupçons
9 May 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Legalistic minds, petty con men and hypersensitive writer-poets alike should continue their viewership feast unabated with this episode, savoring as it does like a cherry or sprinkles on a towering spiral of binge-watcher's Reddi Whip.
A personal favorite moment here comes around 43:13 where Bob Odenkirk says "Yeah, I do" but with Bob McKean's voice-over. It's a subtle "Gotcha" moment in a series full of small, medium, large, extra-large, plus a few gargantuan-sized "Gotcha" moments.
A personal favorite moment here comes around 43:13 where Bob Odenkirk says "Yeah, I do" but with Bob McKean's voice-over. It's a subtle "Gotcha" moment in a series full of small, medium, large, extra-large, plus a few gargantuan-sized "Gotcha" moments.
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