Before I Die #641: Vampyr (1932)

This was the 641st film I've seen out of the 1,222 movies on the "Before You Die" list that I'm gradually working my way through. 

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer

A bizarre, fever-dream-like vampire flick with some impressive cinematic artistry for its day.

Inspired by the mid-19th century collection of horror short stories "In a Glass Darkly" by Fanu, Dreyer decided to loosely adapt some of the elements of the tale. It follows Allan Gray, a drifter who follows stories about the occult wherever they lead him. He goes to a small town, where he is immediately drawn into the strange goings-on surrounding Leone, a young girl who has mysteriously grown ill. Gray is initially alerted by what seems to be a dream, and he follows its directions into a nearby barn, where he sees shadows acting independently of their corporeal bodies, and other inexplicable and eerie interactions. Gray eventually falls victim to a vampire, and he is very nearly buried semi-alive, but a servant learns of what is happening, kills the vampire responsible, and frees Gray and Leone of their curse.

No synopsis or summary can come close to conveying what it's like to watch this movie. Frankly, I found it difficult to follow, narratively. I'm not sure how much of this was due to the fact that some of the original footage is still missing from the film, and how it was by design. Either way, the result was a tale that does not follow a typical structure in which the connections between the action is one scene and the next are clear. My hunch is that it was not meant to be so challenging, but it did create an almost dream-like air about the movie.

Even more than the creepy mood evoked by the story itself, though, was how striking the cinematic elements were, in terms of visuals. The framing and sets really stood out, compared to other films that I've seen around that era. Only the German impressionist films and a few others seemed to have had such a sharp eye for framing and the use of light and shadow so effectively.

I plan to watch a few of the supplemental materials available with this movie (a benefit of having the Criterion Channel), which I'm hoping will shed some light on the more puzzling elements of this film. Despite some befuddling aspects, I enjoyed it and recommend it for those who enjoy films from the era. The director, Dreyer, would soon go onto make many noted films with overtly religious themes, and Vampyr was a curious way to really get himself on the map before those later works. 

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Director: Wes Anderson

The wife and I have found ourselves unintentionally revisiting Wes Anderson's film catalog. It started with watching The Darjeeling Limited a couple weeks back, then continued with Rushmore last week. Having enjoyed those two, we kept it up with his follow-up to that latter film, and enjoyed it plenty.

The Royal Tenenbaums uses an impressive ensemble cast to follow the Tenenbaum family, a New York City-based clan which includes Royal, the self-involved, insensitive father; Etheline, a loving mother, and three budding genius children: Chas, Margot, and Richie. While the Tenenbaum kids all seem to be headed for greatness in their respective fields of interest - finance, playwrighting, and tennis - the dysfunction within the family (mostly due to their father) eventually derails nearly everyone's chance at great success. We mostly follow the children a little over two decades after they were all between roughly eight and eleven years old and still showed limitless promise. At this point, Royal, now completely broke and desperate but no better a human being, concocts a scheme to work his way back into his wife and children's lives.

This is the Wes Anderson movie I know best, having watched it every few years since it came out, and I still think it's pretty great.

The Royal Tenenbaums was the first film of Wes Anderson's to expand to the large-group ensemble approach. After his smaller-scale (and smaller-budgeted) films Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, we now got a story that juggles no less than a half-dozen major characters and their bizarre and dysfunctional relationships with each other. If there is any primary character, it is the titular Royal, played hilariously by Gene Hackman. His gruff, unforgiving turn as the thoughtless, selfish, destructive patriarch of the Tenenbaum family sets and keeps much of the rest of the story in motion. It's not always easy - not even in comedy - to create a character who's mostly despicable, but whom you ultimately empathize with. At least a little bit, anyway.

But the movie is more than just Hackman as the unfit, previously-absentee father. The all-star cast all live up the reputations that had either previously created and/or have since maintained. Anjelica Huston is as good as she's ever been, which is saying something. No surprise there. But the younger players - Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke and Owen Wilson, Danny Glover, Bill Murray, and others - are inhabit their quirky and damaged characters splendidly.

In an attempt to bond, Royal brings his newly-acquainted
grandsons to a dog-fighting circle. Perfect example his
insanely misguided (but hilarious) attempts to reconnect with
a family whom he himself drove off with this type of thing.

This movie was also the one which I consider the first of what the movie-going world would come to know as "the Wes Anderson movie." While we saw it almost fully formed in Rushmore, it is with The Royal Tenenbaums that we get the hyper-detailed, meticulously-crafted, super vibrant visuals and ultra-sharp cinematography in each and every shot and movement. It's not to everyone's taste, as it shatters any illusion that you're watching reality, and it can have a cartoonish feel to it. But for those who appreciate an eye for visual details, it's hard not to be impressed. The impeccable quality has been a part of every single film - both live action and animated - that he's done since, and this was really the one which set his own bar.

All technical merits aside, the movie is still just plain funny. Hackman delivers Royal's brutally insensitive lines and needling to perfection. The Wilson brothers bring their penchant for playing zoned out, sensitive types fully into Eli Nash and Richie Tenenbaum. The rest of the cast is just as good, and they're all given plenty of hilariously odd situations that actually don't seem too far off the detached, near-aristocratic pursuits of New York elite types. As with nearly every Anderson movie, it does take a brief, dark turn that's difficult to anticipate, but the proceedings never get overly bleak. There is heart and dysfunction aplenty, but this is, overall, a comedy.

I still rank this one among my favorite Wes Anderson films. I've generally liked them all to varying degrees, but The Royal Tenenbaums is in my top two or three. Along with Rushmore, it's the Anderson movie I would recommend to someone who hasn't seen any of his. From either one of those, you'll know if he's to your liking. 

Idiot Boxing: Brockmire, season 4 (2020)

Jim dotes on Beth - the daughter he didn't know he had until
she showed up on his doorstep when she was eight years old.
There is a certain sweetness to their relationship, but it is
often lost amidst a season that was overly busy.

This show really swung for the fences with this final season, and ended up hitting a sacrifice, dribbling fielder's choice. It's a "productive" play that gets the run home, but it wasn't as strong as the first three seasons.

At the end of season 3, Brockmire had embraced sobriety and begun calling his first Major League Baseball games in over a decade, along with his new announcing partner Gabby. The future seemed fairly bright, even if Jim's relationship with Jules had all but fallen completely apart.

Season 4 does not go where you think it might. Instead of picking up with Jim (Hank Azaria) and Gabby calling Oakland Athletics games for the next season, we start with Jim being surprised by an 8-year-old daughter, Beth, showing up on his doorstep - a daughter he never knew he'd had by a romantic partner in the Phillipines, but who had died tragically in a massive hurricane. We then jump a full decade into the future, where the U.S. has become a near-dystopian land rife with no end of social ills. Major League Baseball still exists, but it is barely hanging onto to its small and ever-dwindling audience. Jim still broadcasts games, but his life is far more dedicated to Beth (Reina Hardesty), who is about to head off to college. In a desperation move, MLB elects Jim as baseball commissioner, hoping that his flare for the spectacular can somehow save the game from death. The succeeding seven episodes span the roughly four years between 2030 and 2034, as Jim deals with Beth going through college, the return of Jules (Amanda Peete) and Charles into his life, and his attempts to save the game he still loves.

This was such an odd turn for this show to take, and it mostly didn't work out very well. I fully respect the writers going way out on a limb to try and do something different and unexpected, but this just felt like an idea that should have been scrapped during the brainstorming session for this season. It wasn't terrible, and it had its share of laughs, but it was by far the weakest of the four seasons, which isn't how any show wants to go out.

Jules, Jim, and Charles at the corporate office of Limon. This
was a plot element that had several really good laughs, but
the theme gobbled up an amount of time that one would
expect more from a science-fiction show, not a comedy with
sports as its backdrop.

Setting aside the fact that the show completely jettisoned the story set up at the end of season 3 - Jim working with Gabby - I think the main problem is that the season never really seemed to know exactly what to do with itself. Making Jim and instant dad had potential, but that story often got washed out among the others: Jim's rekindled relationship with Jules. The return of his sex-addicted ex-wife back into his life. His trying to save all of MLB. And overarching all of this was a sometimes-funny but often just weirdly scary science-fiction/social satire which involved references to failed states. As if all that weren't more than enough for a season of eight 25-minute episodes, there's a story about a nearly-omnipotent computer gadget, the Limon, which plays a rather large role by season's end. All of a sudden, a show which always focused on two or three characters and one or two straightforward story elements gets strangely overstuffed in its swan song season. You just never knew what was coming; and while this can sometimes enhance a story, it only muddied the waters here.

This isn't to say that the show wasn't funny. It was. My wife and I had more than a few good laughs along the way, especially with many of the jokes surrounding the Limon tool. But the gags just weren't as numerous or consistently funny as past seasons, and the ever-shifting tone just made the lack of solid gags stand out all the more.

The finale of this series wasn't so bad that I would dissuade someone from watching it, or being a reason to never start watching the show in the first place. It's not a Game of Thrones scenario, in that respect. I would still recommend this show to people with dark senses of humor, as I feel that the first three seasons are well worth the time. I would just warn people to temper their expectations heading into this fourth and final season. To be ready for a weird, wild ride that may not always be as much fun as the first three seasons. 

Idiot Boxing: Westworld, season 3 (2020)

I'm still enjoying this series, even if this third season became far more like other sci-fi films and TV shows than its more unique first two seasons. It's also grown emotionally colder as it has progressed.

At the end of season 2, the Westworld theme park was completely finished, with nearly all of the remaining hosts' "consciousness" having escaped into a virtual reality after being guided by Maeve. Meanwhile, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) had escaped the park, bringing with her a handful of other influential hosts' memory orbs. This third season picks up from there, with Dolores beginning her assault on the entire state of human society. She uses her abilities to infiltrate some of the wealthiest, most powerful computer programming companies, in order to gain access to the immense control they have over people's lives. Before long, she is in the crosshairs of Engerraud Serac (Vincent Cassel), a shadowy man who seems to wield nearly unlimited knowledge and financial power, and who has resurrected Maeve to use in his fight against Dolores. All the while, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and a few other faces familiar from the first two seasons try to reach Dolores to either help or stop her.

This season was another solid one, but I wasn't as engrossed as with the first two seasons.

The themes are meaty ones, which are relevant and worth pondering. The primary one is how big data could potentially be used to build predictive programs that completely dominate human life. And not in the slightly-concerning "they know what I'm buying at the grocery store" kind of way. No, we're talking more like a Gattaca-style "We're going to lay your entire life out for you based on our algorithms" kind of way. This, as you can imagine, has some pretty dark impacts on people's lives, but people aren't even aware of them. It's not a massive leap for us viewers to see out digital society headed on a path not unlike what we see depicted in this season.

As with any and every Nolan brother production, the story is multi-layered and complex, sometimes to a fault. It's certainly not a casual watch, as it requires close attention to keep up with the ever-shifting characters, identities, their relationships to one another, and the plots against each other. This can be enjoyable, but the entertainment value sometimes takes a hit, buckling under the weight of attempted sophistication and profundity. More than this, though, is that we are once again mostly dealing with non-human characters fighting more for intellectual, philosophical ideas. There are some touches of true, human feeling - mostly in the form of the character Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul) - but they usually take a back seat to the grander themes and overall scope of the story.

Caleb relaxes at his construction job with a robot assistant.
Caleb, played well by the reliable Aaron Paul, is really the
one and only strong human connection that we viewers
get in this season.

This season does still feature a few really solid action sequences, and the look and feel are as slick as anything we've seen in the show thus far. I must say, though, that this season - the first one that takes place almost completely outside of the Westworld-type theme parks - doesn't feel as distinct as the first two. Rather, it has the same mostly high-polish aesthetic which we've seen in so many other sci-fi shows and films, most notable the Blade Runner movies, Minority Report, and several others. This, combined with having themes shared in other shows released around the same time, like FX's recent Devs and others, make Westworld feel less novel.

I had originally thought that this was meant to be the final season. I have since learned that there is at least one more season planned. I'll watch it, though I won't be heading into it with the same enthusiasm as I was season two or three. It's feeling like a show that needs to reach its conclusion soon, or risk feeling like it's floundering for a way to wrap itself up. 

Rushmore (1998)

Director: Wes Anderson

After re-watching and enjoying The Darjeeling Limited, the wife and I decided to go back to an earlier Anderson movie which neither of us had seen in quite some time: Rushmore, Anderson's second full-length feature and his first with a significant budget.

This one holds up really well, and my wife and I actually picked up on things which we didn't remember catching on previous viewings (which were probably close to a decade ago).

The story follows Max Fisher, a 15-year old student at the Rushmore Academy, an elite prep school where Max excels in creating, running, and joining countless extracurricular clubs while failing miserably at anything academic. He falls in love with Ms. Cross, an attractive, young new teacher at Rushmore, but he hits a serious wall when confronted with the realities of their age differences and with a "rivalry" for her affections in the form of Herman Bloom (Bill Murray). Bloom is a self-made man who is miserable with his family life, but finds some rejuvenation with Ms. Cross. A jilted Max begins a series of retaliations against Bloom that soon spiral out of control, resulting in some rather serious consequences.

By now, just about anyone interested in films knows Wes Anderson's entire style. It is a very meticulously-crafted and curated visual style, coupled with a very dry, quirky sensibility in terms of character and dialogue. Stories often center on one or more people, young and old, who are in privileged economic positions but who deal with severe family dysfunction. Rushmore features some of those elements, though in a relatively grounded story. Max Fisher certainly fits the archetypal, precocious young person who is in plenty of Anderson's movies. In certain ways, he's way ahead of his peers, even if he's woefully immature in other ways. As usual with young people in Anderson's movies, a lot of the humor comes from just how dead seriously the young people take themselves.

This touches on one thing that both my wife and I realized upon this recent viewing: that for the first two acts of this movie, Max Fisher is an absolute monster. On earlier viewings, for whatever reason, I found him more charming and misunderstood, even as he was actively and aggressively seeking to destroy other people's lives. This time, though, I felt that I was truly seeing the emergence of a psychopath. Fortunately, the movie really is about Max eventually understanding the damage that he's done, atoning, and starting to move beyond the wildly egocentric stage of his life.

Along with 1994's Ed Wood, this was one of Murray's earliest
forays into quirky, very well-drafted "independent" type
comedies. The man was all but made for these roles.

The humor holds up really well, and is quite timeless. Anderson has never been one to rely on pop culture references, and it takes some fairly sharp writing to get dry humor to hit as well as he always has. That said, his is a particular brand of humor which isn't necessarily for everyone. I remember when I first saw Rushmore over two decades ago that I didn't completely "get it," though I found it amusing. Only after a few more viewings over the succeeding years did I start to really appreciate the more understated gags and the style, to go along with the broader humor.

Rushmore really is a great starting place for someone who's never seen a Wes Anderson movie but is curious. It's probably his most grounded, accessible work, aside from his first film Bottle Rocket, but the overall production value is far higher in this sophomore effort. Anderson's later movies are mostly bigger, zanier, and more cartoonish in ways, which may or may not be to some people's liking. Start here, then check out The Royal Tannenbaums. That should be a good gauge for whether you're a "Wes Anderson" person or not. 

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Director: Wes Anderson

An enjoyable movie that fits right into the same quirky niche that Wes Anderson has carved out for himself in the world of cinema.

The Darjeeling Limited follows three American brothers - Francis, Peter, and Jack - as they reunite and attempt to bond in India, one year after their father's death. The trip is the brainchild of the eldest brother, Francis (Owen Wilson), whose domineering "big brother" nature is clearly resented by Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman). Each of the three carries around his own dysfunction, making for rather chaotic proceedings any time the three of them are together. This is especially trying since Francis's plan is that they spend plenty of time on the title vehicle, a somewhat cramped train that crosses the Indian countryside while Francis hopes to put the three of them back in contact with their estranged mother (Anjelica Huston).

If you're familiar with Wes Anderson's films, then this one would come as no real surprise to you. It bears nearly every hallmark of his live-action films (his animated ones, too, in some respects). Members of a privileged, dysfunctional family try to work out issues that have plagued them for their entire lives. They struggle. Something rather dark and violent happens. They work through things and find an imperfect but more tranquil place for themselves in each others' lives. And it's all presented in a meticulously-crafted and framed, dazzlingly colorful fashion. If you've seen one Wes Anderson movie, you'll recognize the style immediately. You'll probably also know whether you like it or not. The Darjeeling Limited isn't going to change your mind about that.

All that said, I've always liked Anderson' movies, to one degree or another. I remember watching Rushmore a couple of years after it came out, and while I can't say I fully appreciated it, I dug the quirky humor. The Royal Tannenbaums really got me, though, as I thought it was great. Since then, I've been sure to check out everything Anderson does, with slightly mixed results. The Darjeeling Limited is a solid offering from him, but not one I consider among his very best. If there's one thing that does set it slightly apart from his others, it's that he abandons his typically larger cast and focuses on the three main characters for nearly the entire film. Yes, there are secondary characters, sometimes played by famous actors, but it's mostly the three brothers and their fumbling awkwardness. It gives the movie, which is a tidy 91 minutes, an even more streamlined feel than some of this other movies.

Peter, as he inexplicably decides to buy a highly venemous
cobra. This is just one example of how good decision-making
is not the forte of any of the three brothers.

The performances are strong, with Owen Wilson playing the instinctively but unintentionally dominating eldest brother, and Brody and Schwarzman dryly seething at getting trapped within their own three-way sibling dynamics. We also get several faces familiar to Anderson's movies - brief appearances by Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, and a few others, all of whom execute their roles well.

There is still the element common to all of Anderson's earlier films - that the characters are all wealthy, self-absorbed, damaged white folks. And there is even a slightly cringe-worthy "what we learned from the brown natives" vibe in the resolution in the third act. But it isn't wildly overdone, so it hardly spoils anything.

The Darjeeling Limited tends not to be mentioned as among Anderson's best-known or strongest efforts, but it's not because it's a bad movie by any means. Rather, I think it's simply because it's more limited in scope and doesn't have quite as tidy a resolution as some of his other movies. It's still highly enjoyable, though, and one that fans of his better-known movies should try out, if they haven't already.

Before I Die #640: A Star is Born (2018)

This is the 640 film I've now seen out of the 1,222 movies on the "Before You Die" list that I'm gradually working through.

Director: Bradley Cooper

A deftly-handled and sometimes touching musical tragedy that overcomes a few pacing and character development weaknesses.

This was the fourth major studio incarnation of the A Star is Born story, with the previous three being produced in 1933, 1956, and 1976. Every one of them tells the same basic tale of a young, talented, aspiring female singer being discovered by an established male musician. The man makes a protege out of the woman, who then quickly vaults to stardom, all while the man falls prey to his own demons. I've not seen any of the earlier renditions of the film, but I've heard that they are a mixed bag. For my part, this most recent version was a really strong musical. And I typically don't like musicals.

To be clear, this movie is something of a dark fairy tale. Especially though the first two acts, there's an "ugly duckling" story-line at work, with Lady Gaga doing brilliant work as Ally, the Jersey girl-next-door with a powerhouse voice and something to say. Within the span of about 48 hours, she's discovered by popular, highly-respected, country-folk singer/songwriter Jackson "Jack" Maine (Bradley Cooper), and enticed onto a stage with him. Ally's star is, immediately, born, and she is very quickly off and touring with Jack, to gangbuster crowd response. Ally's fame grows, and she falls in love with Jack. But all is far from fairy tale perfect. Jack has long been in the throws of serious alcoholism and drug abuse, soon made worse when he sees his beloved Ally starting to abandon her artistic integrity as a meaningful songwriter, instead allowing herself to be molded into a more shallow, superficial version of a bubblegum pop star. What started as a fairy tale dream ends as something far more complex and affecting.

I enjoyed the movie, and actually found it to have more depth than I expected. While the "magical moments" felt a tad rushed and even a bit contrived at times, they weren't so awkward that they spoil anything. And while the film isn't exactly short (it clocks in at 2 hours, 16 minutes), I couldn't always sense whether only days or months had passed in Ally's rise from nobody to musical sensation. Still, once things settle down and get beyond the "magical moment" first act, there is more and more to chew over in terms of character and theme. A great strength of this movie is that it often isn't overwritten. We only learn so much detail about Jack's past - enough to get a certain sense of why his relationship with his older brother is so rocky and why he self-medicates to such damaging degrees. And we are allowed to infer certain things about Ally and some of the decisions she makes, including hooking up with a clearly alcoholic Jack, despite her stating early that she's wary of such types. There's also the larger theme of artistic integrity and what it can cost some people, financially, psychologically, or both. These are the things that my wife and I enjoyed talking over a bit once the credits were rolling.

Ally's first big performance, and arguably her most affecting
to us viewers. Lady Gaga manages to work through several
emotions with her face, posture, and voice, all within about
30 seconds, leading to an unforgettable moment.

Being a musical, a large part of the movie is the songs. While I'm not big on musicals, and I'm not big on country/folk, singer/songwriter tunes, I have to admit to getting a bit caught up in my feels a few times during this picture. 99% of this was just Lady Gaga's performance and amazing voice. I just found something so vulnerable yet powerful in it, especially in the earlier tunes she sings. Cooper does quite well, too, for a person without nearly the musical background of Lady Gaga, and his sometimes-understated performance fits the story well.

I may never watch this one again, since it's not really my genre, but it's easy to see why it was such a hit movie. If you're a fan of musicals and somehow haven't seen it yet, you'll almost definitely love it. If you're more like me and don't care much for the genre, I still suggest that you give it a shot. You might be surprised at how much you enjoy it.

That's 640 movies down; only 582 to go. 

Idiot Boxing: Better Call Saul, season 5 (2020)

No Spoilers - Read Away!

This show has just gotten better and better.

The fifth season of the Breaking Bad prequel series continues to tell the backstory of Saul Goodman, the professional name finally, officially adopted by hustling lawyer James McGill.

Yes, it's become as much a "Breaking Bad, season 0.5" as it has been the back story of Saul Goodman, but one can't deny just how expertly crafted it all is and how it does still manage to keep clearing the incredibly high bar that its creators have set for themselves.

At the end of season 4, Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) had reckoned with the loss of his brother, Chuck, though he narrowly managed to avoid completely losing his law license. Instead, he waits out his suspension, cons the bar into restoring his license, and he officially decides to practice law as "Saul Goodman." Season five picks up immediately after those events, with Jimmy's legal license suspended and Kim (Rhea Seahorn) trying to make her name working for a huge-name bank. Meanwhile, the illegal drug trade grows ever-more tense, with Gustavo Fring methodically attempting to build a power base from which to eventually strike back at his bosses in Mexico (a story which we saw play out in later seasons of Breaking Bad). Assisting Fring is Mike, who still remains stoic while continuing his secret life as a security expert and enforcer for the his ruthless boss. The main thorn in Fring's and Mike's side is Lalo Salamanca, the oddly cheery and lethally cunning emissary looking over the New Mexico drug scene for his family. Stuck in the middle of those large-scale shady dealing is Ignacio "Nacho" Varga, the mid-level street guy who is looking for a way out of the drug trade altogether.

This season is arguably the best yet, even if it's not quite as purely about Jimmy/Saul as the first few of seasons. Not only do we get to see Saul becoming far more like the sleazy lawyer we met in Breaking Bad, but every character interaction and dramatic beat seems firmly in place. Arguably even more than the best seasons of Breaking Bad, this show is about as tight as they come. In contrast to that brilliant show, though, Better Call Saul exhibits unbelievable patience in its execution and storytelling. It probably helps that most of us viewers know, thanks to Breaking Bad and the previous four seasons of Saul, that patience is rewarded. Scenes that may be puzzling in the moment always make sense later on. Or at the very least, they offer viewers the opportunity to put pieces together in engaging ways. It's just a blast to watch, on many levels.

As if he hadn't already done it in the previous season, Lalo
fully takes his place among the very best villains in the
world of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul. Tony Dalton is
outstanding in his performance. 

In terms of characters, there are the obvious and familiar ones - Jimmy/Saul, Mike, Gus Fring - whose past and future stories we know. Still, that doesn't make the drama in this prequel story any less compelling. But the non-Breaking Bad characters are great as well. Kim has developed into a calm, powerful but slightly enigmatic main character, while Nacho's plight does evoke plenty of sympathy, despite his being eyeball-deep in the drug trade. The comet of this series so far, though, has been Tony Dalton's portrayal of Lalo Salamanca. Of all of the villains we've seen across the Breaking Bad universe so far, Lalo has emerged as arguably the most magnetic, entertaining one of the entire colorful rogues gallery. It's a rare thing to have a villain who can be so frighteningly smart, intimidating, and ruthless but also hilariously charismatic. In one episode or scene, I'm hoping he gets killed with extreme prejudice, but in another I'm reveling in how he's managing to have so much fun being a bad guy. The show was already great before he showed up, but Lalo has put this show right over the top.

It's been announced that the next season - to be released in 2021 - will indeed be the final one. This is as it should be, as we see the nearly-finished "Saul Goodman" at this point. And even though we know certain things about where some of these characters will be at season's end, there's still plenty we don't know. Regardless of whose story you tune in to catch, I have every confidence that this show will end in the same high-quality fashion that its root show did. It should be a great final ride. 

Idiot Boxing: Devs, season 1 (2020)

No Spoilers - Read Away!

Director: Alex Garland

Solid, cerebral sci-fi that offers some meaty food for thought, even if the pacing and dialog aren't always enhancing the story as much as they could.

Written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation), the story takes place in a not-too-distant future and follows Lily (Sonoya Mizuno), a young programmer at the tech company Amaya. Her boyfriend, Sergei, has just been promoted into Amaya's most secretive and exclusive division, known only as "Devs." Before long, things take a turn for the worse, leading Lily to greatly fear for herself and start looking into exactly what Devs is. This also brings her closer to the somewhat enigmatic owner of Amaya, Forest (Nick Offerman), who has a vision that goes well beyond using tech for getting faster emails and business transactions.

Devs was an engaging watch, though one that came off as feeling that it was a bit smarter and sleeker than it ultimately was. Don't get me wrong - there are some really compelling speculations in the story. They mostly revolve around just how far predictive algorithms might go and the ever-growing reach of big data. And they take these themes into some wondrous and frightening places, in terms of their impacts on humans. But there are more than a few moments when the pace, tone, and dialog lend an air being overly didactic. One particular episode was little more than a slow explanation of causality, complete with innumerable long, pregnant pauses between thought groups and characters simply repeating the other's question back to them. It became rather frustrating, especially since the dialog in the show is nothing special (this has never been one of Garland's areas of strength, though he's fantastic at many other aspects of film-making). Despite the occasional narrative drag, the mystery and greater themes carry the story through its eight episodes pretty well.

Forest and his chief scientist, Katie. These two can be more
than a little intimidating, though the show does try to give
them a bit more depth than your run-of-the-mill, dubious
STEM types.

The look and feel are what one might expect from Garland, if you'd seen his previous two films. There is a slick aesthetic at work, though not one without warmth and life in many places. The camerawork is solid, and the visuals can be quite stunning at times. There are, however, some sections and even whole episodes of the show where the settings are a bit bland. And without the benefit of sharper dialog to distract one, it can lead to a few moments that feel overly long and dull.

The acting is very good, though the cast sometimes had to work with dialog that wasn't allowing them to show off everything they were capable of. Sonoya Mizuno shows decent range, though the story never fully explores  or utilizes a genius that is mostly hinted at in earlier episodes. Nick Offerman is excellent as the imposing, obsessive tech mogul Forest, often easily shifting between seemingly down-to-earth everyman and detached egomaniac. Peeling back the layers of his backstory and personality is a big part of what keeps the show engaging through the series.

I do recommend this one to fans of cerebral science-/speculative fiction. It's not perfect. It's not even as good as Garland's best work. But it certainly has enough to feel fairly rewarding, including some troubling themes and commentary on our ever-more digitally connected world. 

Blade of the Immortal (2017)

Director: Takashi Miike

A decent, if a bit overstuffed, cartoonish adaptation of a popular, violent samurai-era manga.

The story is based on the hit Japanese manga (comic book) series of the same name by writer and artist Hiroaki Samura. I was a fan of this comic back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and had kept up with the series for about half of its considerable length. So I was curious when I heard that hyper-prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike (13 Assassins) adapted it into film.

The story is set in feudal Japan, in the thick of the samurai era. A lethally-skilled mercenary known as "Manji" has blood infused with "blood worms," which heal any wounds with amazing speed. This makes Manji virtually immortal, though he seems to be dejected and devoid of purpose in life. That is until a young woman, Rin, seeks his aid in satisfying her desire for revenge. She wants to find and kill Anotsu Kagehisa, the young leader of a group of revolutionaries who want to destroy the long-standing system of formal fighting schools in Japan. Kagehisa and his band, contrary to traditional fighting school structures, uses unorthodox fighting weapons and techniques, making them all heretics in the eyes of the established martial arts schools. Rin wants Kagehisa dead because he killed her father and mother, due to her father's rejection of Kagehisa's revolutionary ideas. Finding and getting to him are no easy feat, however, as the young upstart is surrounded by a large band of ruthless and highly-skilled minions.

Blade of the Immortal is a pretty wild ride, though one that I was prepared for from having read the manga. Director Takashi Miike is known for very flashy, violent movies, and this one is right in his wheelhouse.  The story is populated by colorful - both visually and personality-wise - oddball characters, nearly all of whom range from "violent" to "murderously deranged." As Manji and Rin work their way towards Kagehisa, nearly every edged weapon you can imagine flies, along with buckets of blood. It's stylish, vibrant, and brutal.

Manji squares off against a whole bunch 'o dudes. This is a
pretty typical situation for the deathless, irritable samurai
without a master. His immortality, along with his immense
fighting skills, help even the odds, though.

But is it good? Yeah, I thought so. Not great, but compelling and entertaining enough. It probably would have been better served as a mini-series, though (I just learned that this is exactly what has happened - a full anime series started in late 2018). Despite clocking in at a good two hours and twenty minutes, the movie often felt rushed, introducing and cramming too many new characters down our throats in rapid succession. Most of the key adversaries are strange characters in and of themselves, each of whom could have been given more time in order to reveal the odd and sometimes highly-twisted aspects of their motivations and psyches. As it was, though, a new fighting weirdo would show up, trade blows with Manji, then get killed within a few minutes. After roughly three minutes of slower story, that cycle would repeat. And so it went for the entire second act of the film.

The original manga was a fun, modern, and fantastical take on violent samurai tales, and the movie maintains that spirit. It looks and feels rather campy much of the time, and the final battle scene, as epic as it is, drags out for too long in my opinion. Still, I enjoyed with one, as I imagine others will who want to see a well-done, live-action movie version of a story usually told in comic book or cartoon form. 

Idiot Boxing: Preacher, season 4 (2019)

And so the tale of the Preacher, adapted from the 1990s comic book to which I had almost religious devotion, comes to a close. For me, it ended about the same way it began - compelling enough and with appropriate respect for the source material, but never quite living up to its potential.

This fourth and final season brings everything to its insane conclusion. Jesse Custer has been tapped and trapped into being the world's Messiah by the ultra-powerful, mostly secretive organization The Grail. The Grail is now headed by the cold, psychotic, and vengeance-obsessed Herr Starr. After being jilted by Custer, Starr brokers a truce between a resurrected duo of Adolf Hitler and Jesus of Nazareth (yes, you read that right). While this ultimate odd couple tries to figure out how to jump-start the Apocalypse in order to save and remold the world into The Grail's vision, Jesse dies and is offered a seat as the new God, to replace the deity who has long since abandoned his post as omniscient overseer of the universe. Tulip and Cassidy, Jesse's ex-girlfriend and his best friend, stay involved and on the run from the long reach of The Grail, while also trying to foil their planned Apocalypse.

The finale season doesn't really offer anything new or drastically different from the first three seasons, in terms of tone or direction. It's wildly irreverent, packed with cartoonish ultra-violence, and is rather difficult to anticipate, even for those of us who know the source materials very well. The casting is spot-on, the acting is really strong, and the anything-goes attitude and tone are faithfully maintained right through the entire season.

For its strengths, though, this series underwhelmed me. So much so that working through the final two seasons felt like more of an obligation than something I looked forward to. This is probably why it took me a year to finally get through the final season, going back to it on and off.

I've explained the elements which have bothered me about the show in my earlier posts reviewing seasons one, two, and three. Those issues came into even sharper relief in this final season. The original comic, written by Garth Ennis, was always a wild ride, but it was one that did have its own logic. Even in terms of what some of the immensely powerful characters could or could not do, it maintained a nice amount of internal consistency. The same could not be said of the TV show. It was almost never clear exactly what laws or rules governed the fantastic powers that characters like Genesis, Cassidy, The Saint of Killers, the angels, the demons, or even God. I've always found that tales like this - which rely on their own mythology - are best when that mythology has been carefully considered and has a certain cohesion. Without it, continuity and any sense that you can get a grip on the world is weakened. This was a problem with the TV adaptation of Preacher for me.

Yes, ladies and gentelmen. That is, indeed, Der Fuhrer
working shoulder-to-shoulder with the Lord and Savior, Jesus
of Nazareth. And if this doesn't give you some sense of the
irreverence of this show, then maybe the fistfight they get
into later will make it more abundantly clear.

Related to this is the "anything goes" attitude being taken too far, at the cost of an organic narrative much of the time. I always had the feeling that the writers were a bit more interested in shocking us with irreverent situations and over-the-top actions sequences than in building meaningful, plausible motivations for the characters' actions and interactions with each other. As it is, the approach feels much more like a "throw them all in a blender and let crazy stuff happen - we'll figure out the exact motivations later." This is less effective that Ennis's original story, which - though having a few digressions here or there - always had a very clear sense of where it was going, exactly what was driving the main characters, and precisely where they would end up.

Again, I give the TV show runners, Sam Catlin, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogan, plenty of credit for trying their best to bring this story to TV life. They very clearly are fans of the source material and respected it a ton. And I was glad to see that they had the guts to take the story and characters into directions different from the comic, rather than just give a live-action rendering of Ennis's exact tale. That's always a gamble, especially with material that had such a devoted fanbase. For me, though, the end result was something that fell just a bit short of being satisfying.

In looking over the general critical and fan reception, I may be in the minority on this one. Looking at scores on Metacritic, the show received mostly positive reviews, all around. This suggests that someone looking for a pretty crazy, no-hold-barred, horror fantasy TV show may want to give this one a shot. Believe me - you'll be able to tell within the first ten minutes whether it's your bag or not. 

Purple Rain (1984)

Director: Albert Magnoli

Despite being a full-on Generation Xer whose formative years were smack in the 1980s, I somehow made it right through the end of the 20th century without ever seeing Purple Rain. I now know that I wasn't missing all that much.

A semi-autobiographical vanity project for undisputed musical genius Prince, Purple Rain falls laughably flat in every area where a musical film needs to answer the question, "Why don't I just buy the album or watch a live performance of the artist?" Purple Rain has no good answers to either of those questions.

The story told in between the musical numbers follows "The Kid," (Prince) a supposedly misunderstood musician whose genius is mostly ignored, with audiences preferring the pop funk stylings of The Kid's main rival and tormentor, Morris Day (essentially playing himself). When a beautiful young woman, Apollonia (playing a version of herself), comes along to try and make it as a singer and dancer, she falls in love with The Kid. The romance falls apart when The Kid grows angry and hits Apollonia, a dark echo of the abuse that he's witnesses his father unleash on his mother for years. Apollonia begins a solo career under the tutelage of Morris Day, sending The Kid further into despair. He gets a wake-up call, though, when his father commits suicide. Pulling himself together, he crafts a few masterpiece tunes, shows up at a music competition where Day's group has also performed, and The Kid dazzles the crowd with an array of brilliant pop-funk-R-and-B tunes, including the iconic title song "Purple Rain."

When written out in summary form, it seems like it should be an OK musical movie, right? Maybe not great, but at least the bare bones are there for something that isn't laughable. Well, much of the movie was laughable, and not in the intentional "Walk Hard" kind of way.

The music is mostly great. Prince was fully formed at this point, and the movie soundtrack includes some of his best pop hits. Even aside from "Purple Rain," we also get "Let's Go Crazy," "When Doves Cry," and "I Would Die 4 U," along with a few lesser known but engaging jams. And many of the songs are presented as live performances by The Kid, so we get to see Prince's stage performances, which are truly something to behold.

The stage performances are worth seeing, but you're probably
better off just catching them in isolation on youtube. That
is, unless, you want to heckle the other sections of the
movie, just for fun.

Unfortunately, the stage was the only place in this movie where Prince looked even remotely in his element. It's hard to say what was more to blame - the horribly tepid script, the hiring of actors for their looks over their acting skills, or the utter lack of genuine chemistry between the characters. It was likely a toxic combination of all of them. Regardless, the result was a film that, when Prince wasn't performing on stage, was hilariously bad. It was fairly obvious that the "story" was merely a patchwork excuse to string together some Prince songs, with the shortcomings attempting to be glossed over with bright costumes, a shiny motorcycle, some nudity, and a couple of semi-graphic sex scenes.

I will say that I'm glad that I've now seen it. I was never a massive Prince devotee, but I certainly love several of his tunes and have no trouble seeing how musically brilliant the diminutive Minnesotan was. But short of someone doing a really fun Rocky Horror Picture Show type review, I will never feel the need to watch this one again. Buy the album, maybe, but not watch the movie. 

Moon (2009)

No Spoilers!! (Though it's an older movie, many haven't seen it, and I would hate to ruin its twists for anyone)

Director: Duncan Jones

A fairly quiet, still-underrated modern sci-fi classic featuring a brilliant performance by Sam Rockwell.

Rockwell plays the character Sam Bell, the lone worker on a moon station where he he oversees the sending off of a resource - known as helium-3 - that has helped vastly reduce Earth's reliance on other forms of energy. Sam is nearing the end of his three-year stint at the station, where he has worked in total isolation except for his computer/robot assistant GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). With only a few weeks to go, however, Bell makes a discovery about the station and possibly himself that throw his entire existence into a horrifying new light.

Moon is a great example of that rare science-fiction movie that plays things simple, without sacrificing the intelligent speculation and the connections to human emotion that make for the very best of the genre. With relatively little reliance on special effects or dazzling sets (though they are perfectly crafted), this movie does what the best sci-fo movies do: plausibly imagine the impacts on a person's psyche and emotions of the advancement of science and technology. It doesn't take long to establish that Sam's job of gathering and sending of helium-3 has been an invaluable boon to mankind as a whole. But as you learn of its cost to Sam himself, some serious questions arise. Questions that one could easily apply to many of the wonderful advances in technology in recent decades and those in the decades to come.

Sam chats with GERTY, his robot assistant and a welcome
departure from the artificial intelligence units that you
may be used to in sci-fi movies.

Being a movie with a single actor inhabiting the screen for about 99% of the entire time requires a certain skill level to keep an audience engaged, and Sam Rockwell was more than up to the task. The incredibly versatile Rockwell has to display a wide range of emotions here, all without any acting partners to play off of. I imagine that this is something which not many film actors could do, and it is captivating to watch Rockwell work through the wild ride that the story sends him on.

It's also worth noting how Moon echoes certain earlier, iconic space flicks, though modifying things to satisfying degrees. The notion of the "one savior in space" is one that's at the heart of cult sci-fi classic Silent Running (a film with a good premise but, in my opinion, some awful execution). And the presence and voice of GERTY can't help but remind one of HAL in landmark sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. Again, though, GERTY is a rather welcome variation of HAL, which had long been overly mimicked to the point of unintentional parody.

My hat's really off to writer and director Duncan Jones for this one. I haven't seen any of his other movies (though I've heard that Source Code is quite good), but I'll be checking at least one of them out sooner rather than later. 

The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

Director: Jim Henson

Another fun muppet movie, though one that I found to be a little too heavy on the musical numbers for my liking.

As part of our Coronavirus quarantine, my wife and I have not been above goofy, escapist movies. And even before the current quarantine, late last year, we had a good time re-watching the original The Muppet Movie. In this state of mind, we fired up The Great Muppet Caper, a film that I saw probably no less than a dozen times as a kid but hadn't watched in well over 30 years.

Rather than trying to continue the story told in The Muppet Movie, this one just takes the same basic characters and plugs them into a different tale. Here, Kermit and Fozzie are twin brothers (a hilariously nonsensical plot point of which the film is completely aware) who are a budding reporter duo. They chase a story of a jewel thief across the Atlantic, to England, where they become embroiled in the thief's shady plans, while Kermit meets Miss Piggy, an aspiring model. Along the way, the entire crew of familiar Muppets get involved for one reason or another, culminating in the gaggle of strange characters managing to foil the attempted theft of a nearly priceless diamond.

This one still has plenty of laughs for adult fans like me and my wife. Part of the fun is having decades-dormant memories jogged by certain jokes, physical gags, or iconic moments in the movie. There was one particularly subtle suicide joke that I found hilarious when I was about 8 years old but hadn't thought of since about 1983. Not that I knew it was a suicide joke back then - I was laughing at the goofy voice acting of the scene back then - but it was quite an experience to have a latent memory like that brought back to the surface. Oh, and that scene is still pretty damn funny to my 44-year-old self. There were more than a few moments like that upon this revisiting of the movie.

My favorite celebrity cameo in this one - Peter Falk as a
self-absorbed bum who takes a weird stab at helping Kermit
feel better.

Compared to The Muppet Movie, I found Caper to be a slight dropoff, mostly because there seemed to be far more musical numbers, some of which went on for several minutes. I'm generally not a big fan of musicals, so I found myself mostly waiting for the tunes to end and the regular zaniness to continue.

The overload of songs aside, the rest of the movie has plenty of gags that are right on par with some of the best moments of the TV show or the original movie. And of course, there are several solid celebrity cameos, though not as many as the 1979 movie. Charles Grodin is great as the villainous thief (who also falls in love with Miss Piggy), and we even get John Cleese, Peter Ustinov, and others. But the best is probably an uncredited Peter Falk as a know-it-all vagrant who tries to have a heart-to-heart with a disconsolate Kermit.

This is still a fun one for parents with young kids, or adults who don't mind some goofy family humor. These types of movies are rarely made anymore, but this one still holds up nicely.