Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins (2019)

Director: Janice Engel

Excellent documentary on a Texan original, political journalist Molly Ivins.

I remember getting acquainted with Molly Ivins back in 1999, when I was working the cash register at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in College Station, Texas. It was a really slow night, and I picked up her book "Shrub," which was her rather scathing reporting on then-Texas governor/soon-to-be president George W. Bush. It was erudite, ruthless, and hilarious. And after watching Raise Hell, I realized that those same three adjectives described Ivins herself.

There are very few people who really are memorable characters and wordsmiths in the great American tradition. Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson. Mark Twain. And while Molly Ivins may not have quite reached the heights and reach of those titans of the written word, she wasn't far from it. She was big (literally and figuratively), bold, and brash in all of the best ways. So when she settled in Texas, bringing her immense intelligence, acumen, and wit, it was a perfect fit.

This documentary pulls together a ton of great testimonials from friends, colleagues, high-level politicians, and even a few of the adversaries who ended up in her cross-hairs. They all paint the portrait of a person who was scary smart, had firm ideals, and could drink any other three people under the table.

Any description of such a person will always beg the question, "Were they really like that, or are we just embellishing the life of one deceased." Well, since Ivins was around in modern times and was publicly successful, there's plenty of video footage of her so that you can judge for yourself. The video clips of her opining at conferences, on TV news shows, and during interviews makes for a great compilation of her excessively witty, articulate, and sometimes downright vicious manner.

People who didn't grow up in Texas, the Southwest or the South may be less familiar with Ivins. But I guarantee that when they see this, they will be very likely to ask themselves why they hadn't heard of her before this. When you see the figures she boldly (and almost always righteously) skewered and got reactions out of, you'll wish she had lived much longer than she did. And given just how relevant her perspective and notions still are today, hers is a viewpoint and talent that is sorely missed. 

Idiot Boxing, HBO Finales Edition: Game of Thrones, season 8 (2019); Veep, season 8 (2019); Crashing, season 3 (2019)

The dour faces depicted here match what many viewers felt
about this final season of the titanically popular series.

Game of Thrones, season 8

Spoilers Coming (which frankly, you deserve if you haven't caught up and watched the show by now)

Well, that was a bit of a letdown.

Not that we couldn't see it coming, but the final season of the insanely popular fantasy TV show maintained the high-gloss, rather puzzling mediocrity that had been set up during the previous season.

The end of season 7 of the show saw Daenerys joining her forces with Jon Snow and several northern factions, including wildlings from beyond The Wall and other assorted motley bands. These uneasy and unlikely alliances gather at Winterfell to try and fend off the Night King and his ever-growing army of White Walkers, including a zombie ice dragon. Meanwhile, Cersei is down south in King's Landing. Though she had promised to send soldiers to the north to assist the presumptive Targaryen queen, it is all a sham, as Cersei plans to wait for the Night King's forces to, if not defeat, then at least weaken the northern forces before they attempt to wrest the Iron Throne from the domineering Queen Lannister.

Season 8, further winnowing down the established 10-episode pattern of the first 6 seasons, restricted itself to 6 episodes, the last four of which clocked in at nearly 90 minutes each. Despite having about the same running length as most previous seasons, this final season featured the sloppiest, choppiest hacking and slashing away of nearly every subtle, nuanced plot and character point built up during the show's first five or six seasons. There was evidence of this in the penultimate season, but it is often painfully obvious in this one. I needn't go through them all, as more dedicated and sensitive GoT geeks have done all of that legwork for me and unleashed their ire upon every social media outlet known to man. For my part, I agree with much of the frustration felt, though I hardly take it as personally as many seem to have. I'll stick to just a few major points.

One of a few cringe-worthy moments of romantic cheese in
this season. In hindsight, it may have been a clumsy attempt
to throw viewers off the scent of where the story was going.

Firstly, the idea of Daenerys "breaking bad" was very poorly executed. I don't think it's a terrible idea to run with the notion of "power corrupting," and even throw the audience a curve-ball by having a beloved character get warped into a dark version of themselves. But Daenerys's turn into a murderous, egomaniacal tyrant is barely organic in any way. Like so many things about this season, it felt as if the writers started with a contrived concept, and then worked backwards to shoehorn a "they'll never see this coming" notion into an incredibly undersized time allotment. I think Daenerys's arc could have worked, if it had been set up and alluded to more delicately along the way. As it is, it felt like it was tacked onto the end for shock value more than anything that served genuine character development.

Then there's Bran ending up on the Iron Throne. Again, this perhaps could have been an intriguing and satisfying story element had Bran done anything more than sit around in a wheelchair, staring blankly into space for 99% of the last two seasons. While his powers are intriguing, they were never explored or much explained, and Tyrion's grand speech about Bran "having the greatest story of them all" is baldly insulting. For me, this was yet another idea that seemed to be included for the sole purpose of keeping us viewers off balance. Having surprises in a story is great, but they have to feel logical within the story. Bran ending up on the throne felt far from that. You want a great story, Tyrion? How about your wife Sansa, who matured and survived the machinations of several of the most devious and evil bastards in all of Westeros? Or how about Jon Snow, the guy who was literally brought back from the dead and saved everyone from the savior-turned-psycho Danaerys? That's a pretty good story, eh? But no, let's wheel out the catatonic weirdo that barely anyone knows and have him rule the joint. Makes sense.

There were moments and elements of this eighth season that I did enjoy. The quieter second episode had some strong moments of interpersonal dialogue in it, and some of the battle scenes and fights were quite memorable. On the whole, though, I have to say that this was easily the weakest season of the entire series. Now granted, for a show that set such an incredibly high bar, this was almost inevitable. But the dropoff was more precipitous than I had expected.

The good news for people like me, who had been avidly reading the source books for many years before the show existed, is that there are still two more novels to come (if the George R.R. Martin eventually gets around to them). And I feel confident that they will be far more satisfying in their conclusions than the show was. Perhaps the saddest thing about the HBO adaptation is that, despite how incredibly strong the first five seasons are, I doubt that I'll ever bother re-watching the series due to the knowledge that it all ends with a bit of a "thud."

Selena Meyer, along with a few of her brutally incompetent
staff. In the finale season, Selena tries one more shot at
winning the presidency.

Veep, season 7 (final season)

In a fortunate contrast to the far more famous Game of Thrones, the scathing HBO comedy series Veep went out on a hilarious high note.

After what I found to be relatively more mean-spirited and narratively scattershot 6th and 7th seasons, the final season of the political parody show found that great groove that it had in its stronger earlier seasons. Despite every sign in the world telling Selena Myer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) not to make yet another run at the presidency, her unfailing ego and narcissism saw her once again ignore any sense of reality or what might be best for the country as she kicks off her campaign at the beginning of Season 8.

This season made full use of the political realities at work in the United States over the last several years, featuring thinly-veiled references to Russian interference in elections, the frighteningly broad appeal of ignorant bigots like the current Commander in Chief, and the crippling identity politics of the far left. Many characters who had previously been smaller players become concentrated versions of figures who we know all too well in reality. The moronic Jonah Ryan actually finds a support base for his platform of toxic idiocy. The oblivious Jordan Spleth finds himself backing up the political ladder through a series of gaffs and accidents on the parts of leaders above him. And plenty of others with no business making public policy are whipped around by the vortex of their own reckless ambitions within the maelstrom of U.S. politics. I’ll have to go back and watch the earlier seasons again, but my initial reaction was that this last season may have been the show’s best, which is really saying something.

The humor was fully back on point here, too. As stated, I found some of the humor in the previous two seasons a bit dark and disturbing to be terribly funny. While season eight certainly keeps things cynical, I felt that it rediscovered the right balance in order to keep things humorous rather than downright upsetting. In this final season, the political and social commentary and the vicious insults come as fast, furious, and hilarious as any of the best seasons earlier in the show's run.

I'm not sure what can be said about the cast that one wouldn't have already seen in any of the previous seven seasons. Nearly a decade ago, virtually the entire cast came into this series as well-seasoned comedy acting pros, so it was no surprise that they finished the run just as strongly as they all started. One could spend multiple paragraphs breaking down the hilarity behind the various characters and the actors' portrayal of them, but I'll reserve it for the star Julia Louis Dreyfus, who is arguably on the Mount Rushmore of modern era TV comedy. Just between her turn as Elaine on Seinfeld and Selina Meyer on Veep, she's a living legend in the field, never mind some of her great turns on lesser-known shows and movies. It was great to see her end such a great series on top.

There is no doubt that before long, my wife and I will go back and do a steady rewatch of this show over several weeks or a couple of months. From the very first moments we began watching years ago, we knew that we were missing certain moments because we were laughing so hard and the jokes were coming so fast. That's a mark of great comedy, and I'm already looking forward to the time when we work out way through the over-the-top madness of this show again.


Crashing, season 3 (2019)

Pete's new girlfriend, Kat. Pete may be getting his professional
comedy feet under him, but his relationships can still be messy.

Unlike the previous two HBO shows reviewed, this season was not expected to be the show's final one, with it being officially cancelled shortly before the end of this third season. This is unfortunate, as both my wife and I highly enjoyed all three seasons of this stand-up comedy-focused series.

This third season sees Pete Holmes continue to make a more serious living out of stand-up comedy. At the start of the season, he has wrapped up the lucrative-but-limiting college comedy tour that he netted at the end of the previous season. Through this season, he keeps trying to find a bigger break at more noted comedy clubs. This doesn't immediately go very well, but Pete finds romance with a strong, free-spirited woman, Kat (Madeline Wise). Pete has some successes and failures, both professionally and personally, and by season's end, he does find himself in a better place than at season's start. He's certainly not "big time" yet, but he is a solid, professional stand-up.

Once again, the show was hilarious from start to finish. From the jump, Crashing had the built-in humor of having an aspiring comedian interacting with well-known, well-established, extremely funny stand-up comedians. This season is no different, although at this point, the show relied less on famous guests and allowed Pete and a few other, lesser-known characters take more center stage. We also continue to get a bit more insight into the world of stand-up comedy, where success or failure can sometimes be infuriatingly out of one's control, even if a person is genuinely funny. I also found the fourth episode engaging, as it focused on the changing perception of offensive, Andrew Dice Clay-type "shock comics" who were big in the 1990s but who have lost nearly all favor in the wake of social movement such as #MeToo.

Although the creators of the show were planning on further seasons and HBO's cancellation was a surprise for them, this season did actually have some sense of closure to it. For a show whose plug was unexpectedly pulled, this is about all one could ask for. I'll be grateful to Pete Holmes and everyone involved for putting together such a fun show and introducing my wife and I to several comics whom we hadn't heard of before but whom we are now fans of. I still highly recommend this show to anyone who digs stand-up comedy. In a very manageable twenty-seven episodes at about 30 minutes each, it's easy to dive into the whole series and get plenty of great laughs.

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (2008)

Director: Anders Ostergaard

This is one harrowing documentary. One that makes me appreciate a great many things that I often take for granted.

Burma VJ is a documentary focused on the 2007 protests in the streets of Rangoon, Burma (presently known as Myanmar) - a large country in Southeast Asia between Bangladesh and Thailand. Though conditions have since improved somewhat, through nearly every decade following World War II and up to the making of this film, Burma was ruled by one of the most oppressive military regimes in the world. It was almost on par with North Korea in terms of how little freedom of speech its citizens were allowed. The only method of getting their stories out was through guerrilla-style street reporting done undercover and at great risk to those video journalists (the V.J. in the title of the movie).

Patched together by the journalists and sympathetic groups based mostly in Oslo, Burma VJ depicts the struggle of the Burmese people to stand in the face of the totalitarian rule of the military and demand a truer form of democracy. It's a situation that we've seen unfold in may countries in the world, especially within the last ten years. Whether it's in Burma, Thailand, or any of the many countries involved in the Arab Spring, the fight of an oppressed citizenry over tyranny has become common enough that we in more privileged countries can often become jaded to it.

That's where a film like Burma VJ comes in.

One of the many images that the Burmese military
government does NOT want outsiders to see - the standoff
and violent reaction to pacifist monks who move for
social justice.

It's one thing to read about it (as I have a few times in National Geographic or the occasional newspaper story about Aung Sun Suu Kyi), but when you see the collage of video footage of the brutality and the average people who stood up it, it becomes all too real. When you see citizens grabbed by thugs and stuffed into waiting government vehicles less then three minutes after they try to criticize the government in public, you truly do start to understand what "police state" and "living in fear" truly mean.

The real meat of this film comes during a time in the protests when the Buddhist monks, usually completely removed from politics due to their beliefs, actually take up the mantle and join the citizens in marching for freedom. Seeing these pacifists and the people who stuck with them through ruthless beatings certainly gave me some perspective. I'll probably think twice the next time I want to gripe about not getting the NFL Network as part of my cable package.

File this one in the same category as films like Waltz With Bashir, The Square, Dirty Wars, and any other documentary about the brutal realities in which many people live. No, you won't "enjoy" these movies, but you really should watch them to have an understanding of just what a large portion of the global population has to live through and fight against.