Change Your Image
sorrybutt
Reviews
Boardwalk Empire (2010)
prohibition
i first read about this series going into production about 4 years ago. at the time, there was little mention of how central prohibition is to the narrative of the series. if i knew more about history, i might have made that connection right away. but i didn't, and i'm sure that i am not alone.
there has been little reason for me to learn about prohibition, and few people in my life who could teach me about it. until this year when the issue of prohibition came up regarding the taxation and control of another substance. it's remarkably timely that this particular series is released this year.
the 18th amendment prohibited the manufacture, sales, transportation, importation, and exportation of alcohol; consumption of the substance is not mentioned. this meant that the substance itself was not illegal. in the very first episode, this is shown in the plot: the internal revenue agents busts a manufacturing operation; this was shown simultaneously to hijacking of a Canadian alcohol shipment, where the hijackers were markedly afraid that agents would appear. the shipment itself was to be consumed at a judge's daughter's wedding, implicit that the judge would understand that this is legal as long as no one asked where the alcohol came from. the series also clearly points out that it is the bureau of internal revenue which enforced prohibition.
this series is relevant to its time. i haven't been able to watch *anything* for a good 2 years now. i sat through the entire pilot engaged. as other reviewers have pointed out, the historical accuracy and production values are both high. i am impressed at the foresight and skill of the production; i recommend this series and will continue to watch.
Curious George (2006)
sense of wonder, mature attitude toward the world
the show is constructed around its writing, the writing itself is multi-layered. while george enters into situations in which common sense, math, and science concepts are introduced, the narrator maintains a sympathetic and respectful tone toward his mistakes and lack of understanding. outlandish situations are presented as such, and they are often funny for both the kids and adult audience.
by encouraging a sense of wonder about the world through empiricism and experience, this show accomplishes the rare feat among kids shows. adults are depicted as present, involved, non-interfering, sympathetic guides. george is often left to make his own decisions. instead of awkwardly presenting and dissecting social norms and peer relationships, the characters' personalities take their respective courses. george has the ability to chooses between which rules to adhere to, and which to not. as such, this show is a standout among early education television for both parents and children. the show's attitude about the world is mature, tolerant, and positive.
the quality of the show is fairly consistent from episode to episode. some episodes have stronger writing and animation quality, some are weaker, but overall, excellent, especially given the quality of the pack it runs with (pbs kids shows.)
Dragon Tales (1999)
better than altered states
first, the characters get along much better than characters in the aforementioned movie. in fact, they get along great by treating each other with care and respect.
references to retreating into one's bedroom and opening a special box with one's closest allies is indeed an important perspective. increasing one's capacity to get along with others, bonding (share more deeply,) are major goals of the act, which went largely ignored in the 90s with the cultural reaction to the attitudes of the 80s (grunge, apocalyptic thoughts etc.)
contrasting with times in altered states/ imaginary realms, often, what happens outside of those times are not within a child's (or person's) control. should the goal of that act of imagination be isolating oneself from others, or to seek more meaningful relationships? dragon tales points to the latter; and for that, commendable.
Word World (2007)
what happens when designers and animators get jaded?
they make kids shows.
why are ducks always the loud-mouthed firecracker who can never do anything right? Disney and warner brothers cartoons. the stereotypes are consistent in this show. in this case, DUCK also has a southern twang.
it accomplishes its intention to teach phonics and spelling conventions, but it is of note that requiring animation to hold someone's attention to a story means it discourages reading. fortunately, the jokes are not funny, there is almost no story, and the characters are tedious, so there will be no emotional attachment.
the animations are relatively well-done, but it seems that the show was conceived of by graphic designers segueing into character design. creative typography is a very appealing trick for graphic designers. on this show, since the character design is not especially inspired/ iconic, i can assume that this is a portfolio piece.
overall, while i can appreciate having children learn spelling with ease, i don't know if they should be exposed to mind numbing story lines and DUCK.
Raggs (2006)
saved by the bell with neon coloured puppies
quite literally saved by the bell with puppies.
the main characters, puppies, form a band; there are skits depicting various situations between peers, they perform once in front of bouncing children during the course of each show. no adults, except for a cat puppet that asks real children questions about different themes during the course of the show. he's mr. belding.
i watched saved by the bell everyday for 5 years, look how well i turned out. watching raggs may mean graduating to mtv, then a quarter life fame crisis, (which social networking, user generated content will solve,) then a level-headed, steady job straight to old age. or maybe it's quite the opposite, i don't know, i'm no longer a toddler. let's see in 20 years.
truly mind numbing.
The Onion Movie (2008)
late
by 6, 7 years.
it would have mattered in 2002.
even in 2005, it still would have been entertaining. trite, but relevant to fans. (i understand from reading some of the discussions that the movie was made in 2005.)
released in 2008, it is nothing beyond redundant. one may call it a 'straight to bittorrent' production. the other day, i thumbed through 'the dangerous book for dogs' released by the onion. funny, and quite sweet. but not satirical. what evil does that defeat?
as for the obsolete, dated footage, they could have done any number of things with them, but they didn't. it's what many people refer to here as 'loosely strung' scenes. that fact is made salient because the content is trite.
that they would continue to position themselves as satirists, and identify themselves with that word, imbues the word 'satire' with the new definition of 'pot-haze braindead wussiness'. if they're just going to cave, then they really should move over and let someone else come up and perform that function.
the ability to put any message out into the world is a privilege; as media, hogging the floor is the ultimate breach of a medium's social contract with the people. the content of the onion has not changed since the very early 00s, as reflected in the movie. (britney spears in 2005? at least roast someone a wee tad more current like lohan.)
the culture, as always, is not stagnant, but not according to the onion. at least mainstream media (whatever that is) does not exist merely to barricade its own niche. unless one aspires to live in a late 90s time warp, why would one read the onion?
there's no cure for self defeat.
(edit: 07/15/2008) to be smart-mouthed requires, first, a thorough understanding of the culture and its audience, which enables an entity to accomplish the second task, which is to conceive of exactly what is off in culture, and finally, to communicate this through wit and humour. as the new yorker's attempt at satire shows, American media does not understand its culture and audience, and thus, has lost its ability to create satire.
the onion has failed; the new yorker has failed. the aforementioned satirists operate as though they have the authority on humour, thus, the audience would follow them wherever they take their messages. as the general reaction to both works (this film and the front cover of the new yorker) show, this is markedly untrue.
the failures are of polar opposite natures, one too conservative and late (the onion movie,) the other too foolhardy. both miss catastophically on timing. more importantly, both show a gross lack of insight into the piths of issues each attempts to address, thus, each only addresses the superficial symptoms, comments remain banal, thus, irrelevant.
but satire is not dead, the sources have simply shifted. to start, self reference is rampant at the turn of this century, the funniest material has come from comedy which addresses its own genre/ medium. i honestly think that such comedy is the catalyst for the recovery of satire.
Stella (2005)
absurd and satirical
after a string of filler and hyped failures and like the-prank-show-whose-name-i-don't-remember and hollow men, finally something for a shorter attention span. i've seen stella doing stand up on comedy central and didn't like them, so imagine my surprise and delight when the pilot turned out to be brilliant.
each scene features random clichés (mostly Hollywood conventions) that are fully developed within 10 seconds to 5 minutes. another joke starts before you realize the last one's over, and they are stringed together like this to form scenes within the show. the characters are completely nonchalant about the rules of their world. while all three actors are men, they switch between masculine, feminine, even animal clichés. the show's distinguishing schtick is that random sketches combine to form a storyline.
the show is relentlessly committed to its absurdity and satire. the underlying idea is not unlike traditional spoof comedies ranging from monty python to mel brookes films to the more recent scary movie series, but this is more shamelessly random and faster. the 3 guys are really good. i had a great time with the pilot. my only concern is as the show progresses, how they will be able to come up with as much material for every episode in order to not resort to running jokes.
best show introduced on the network since chappelle. but not for everyone.
Waking Life (2001)
the sophie's world to dream yoga
dream yoga is the practice of dreaming consciously, the practice exists, as far as i know, in at least some taoist and buddhist traditions. from how to awaken within a dream, to identifying different types of dreams, to using dreams to prepare for death, waking life touches on each topic.
like the book by jostein gaarder, "sophie's world", "waking life" is a fictional story with the text of a perceived esoteric field embedded. sophie's world is used in some European countries as text for western philosophy. waking life also features a conversational journey of one person. individual episodes deal with unique sets of ideas all pertaining to the practice of conscious dreaming.
also notably parallel between the two works, is the use of medium. "sophie's world", the work dealing with western philosophy and its history is in book form; "waking life", the work dealing with conscious dreaming, is presented in film form (not to mention an animation overlay.) here's a personal story: "waking life" came out around the same time as "mulholland drive". the night i watched waking life i lost my keys in the theatre only to realize that after i had gotten on the bus. so i went back to the theatre to get those keys, but another showing had already begun. the staff was nice enough to offer for me to watch any other feature while i wait for the theatre to evacuate. i ended up watching mulholland drive. what remind you that movies are like dreams than a lynch film, other than this particular film.
Mou gaan dou (2002)
most successful self-advertisement to Hollywood thus far
infernal affairs is striking in that it is first and foremost a showcase of production values and top talent. while there story, setting, themes, and characters, none of those are as central to the purpose of these productions as the production itself. at no point in the process of watching these films does one not realise that one is watching production values. somewhat like watching old mgm films, which is why the infernal affairs films themselves are advertisements for their own Hollywood re-make.
i do not doubt that Scorsese chose to re-make this film because it is a familiar theme, and Andy lau's natural swagger parallels that of Leonardo DiCaprio. i do think that the biggest reason he chose this particular project is because it has everything that makes up a film except traces of subjectivity, attempts at illustration of the produced reality, colour. those are Scorsese's focus *and* forte.
i don't know if non-indigenous viewers understand this, but the hong kong film industry currently has a very strong focus on exporting their talent and products to Hollywood. with infernal affairs, it shows that they have figured out how to successfully advertise to Hollywood: by embedding a blaring element of lack in an otherwise meticulously produced piece.
Secret Window (2004)
your ego, their fun
when a 'twist' is predictable, you have to think about why it's predictable. if it's obvious, then maybe one needs to forgo the satisfaction of "i'm smarter than you", and realise that one's ego is getting in the way of one realising that it's intended.
films that are framed around twists are patronising in that they stroke the viewer's ego, hence, encouraging each to leave the theatre excited to challenge a friend to see the film and compare points at which they predicted the coming of the twist. the large patronage at films with twists indicates this.
this is a mystery until after our 'twist'. the irony is not that our man is the last person who realises that he's the bad guy. the irony is in the decision to continue with the decent. it then becomes a horror story, and the horror is in that desire to fall.
in my mind, johnny depp is one of the only actors who can make that particular point in the movie a market quality twist. he is so charismatic and loved, that even on the verge of being hit over the head with the self confrontation scene, we want and will him to *not* be what he is. the sequence before that is mort arriving at the postoffice, the officer calls out to him. there is no doubt what the officer wants to say to mort, but once he's inside, our postoffice girl pines over him as he leaves. contrast with the later scene with the girl after the mort-mort confrontation.
despite of the winking (which is a johnny impression,) i think john turturro paces his character's emergence out of the caricature very nicely and does so with minimal ego. johnny depp plays the requisit complex neurotic, then gets to do an impression of john doing an impression of him. they parallel koepp, who directs and writes.
indeed, the writing and executions were both neurotic. the film is just a serving platter for visual tributes (particularly to projects johnny had been involved with,) some pretty cynical jokes, an avalanche of play on words; all vignette-y. i end up feeling like i was listening to a burn-out talk about his line of work. it does seems like it was a fun project, and i for one need to learn how to use work to bounce back from being burnt. 7/10
Oh! Sûpâ Miruku-chan (1998)
first episodes translate poorly, then gets over itself, moats, and turns into a pretty good sitcom
think about the castle of dr. weird on a hilltop lit by a background of lightning. it's a convention used to the point of cliché, but the sequence becomes funny when it surprisingly deviates from the tired convention to the other extreme and becomes 'random'. repetition only reinforces the humor as each episode stays just as random. the humor is dependent on your jadedness at the conventions. when cinema is exported, immediately, a cult forms around all material from a geographical location, mainstream and cult films alike. this is because viewing anything from another visual/narrative tradition is already fresh.
in the first episodes, super milk chan is constructed the same way only it is random to a different tradition of clichés. far from jaded, the irony is a stretch for foreign audiences. plus it felt like they had limited material so they paced it really really slowly with silence as filler as it tries to bully you into a cold laugh.
so just as i was ready to write this show off, it changes significantly in later episodes. all of a sudden the visual style went from flash movie-like to hand drawn, nodding at its roots. more importantly, the humor got a lot drier and became situation based. it's like somebody turned the light on and finally got it. instead of just referencing culture, the show finally becomes it and writes with contemporary abandon. it finally had timing: in its curt, clean cuts where appropriate with no wasted pauses, furthermore, they wisely axed the derivative sitcom device of framing with repeating situations (e.g. dr. eyepatch and tetsuko, landlord visitations, the president acting consistently within a set personality, etc.) the writers took a 180 and showed complete conviction. i doubt it's an accident that the show blatantly references dr. slump (visual example: helicopter in the middle of the screen; thematic example: inventor/ technology juxtaposed with lewd and/or toilet humour,) and i believe it has the possibility of becoming just as good at this point. we'll see as the season progresses.
Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (1984)
mother of the show 'the office', only it seems they're serious
this program describes being employed in the old economy. corporate or factory employees can find themselves here. it like the old Japanese corporate system, when it was not an option to lay off an employee and the employees do not think about looking for another job. less ideally, it's just like any corportate environment and any factory in the first world. thomas and his friends encourage each other to base their self worth on job performance, and everyone has his/her place. indeed, derailed tank engines are sitting ducks. the engines' loyalty makes sense.
weird. really weird. watching it is eerie the way looking at very old photos of strangers is.
I Heart Huckabees (2004)
a midsummer night's dot dot dot
(spoilers?)
i've not seen three kings or flirting with disaster so i didn't have any expectations going into this movie.
tightly executed and stylistically consistent. the characters were terribly flat, static and bland, as were the sets. the evolution of layers were just as terribly quick-paced and frequent. contrast with 'waking life', which dragged (to emphasize looking at infinity, as did the death device), but was visually rich. huckabees is more mature about the whole thing (it's a comedy.) one approach isn't better than the other and one audience isn't smarter than the other, but these are films that deal with broad-themed questions and they are tired by definition. this film addresses both the tiredness (visuals, characters) and liveliness (writing as interest/ connection) of the questions. stylistically, huckbees shifts the focus to the writing, which means the film engages the right faculty for the subject matter, the writing itself charms and invites.
the narrator is the lily tomlin character. aside from seeing her 3,4 times behind a plate of glass, contrasting with the Hoffman character (big picture), she is the one who looks at the details. and the last shot with all 3 detectives were looking at schwartzman and marky mark, she wears the light, cool colour suit and stuck out in the shot. i guess that's a compliment to dustin Hoffman, that is if the whole exercise is worthwhile. i especially appreciate that they didn't pontificate except against those who pontificate. i didn't care for the same device several times though, came off like it tried too hard. they don't do that too often though.
disappointing to see naomi watts as a pancake. she did try to make the most of her slapstick (gorgeous in the multi-angle sequence and didn't over/under-do the frumpy walk,) but she didn't look like she was having enough fun. i guess it's just not her style. the trivia section named several actresses who were considered for the part, all of which would have been sufficient. the casting was OK otherwise.
oh right, a midsummer night's dot dot dot. it's the whole woods/'marsh' as place of escape from reality and the whole patches/connection thing. i'm not really trying to write a spoiler.
worth watching.