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Reviews
Leverage: The Frame-Up Job (2012)
Nate and Sophie play Nick and Nora Charles
This is my favorite Leverage episode. It's a murder mystery in the urbane comedy style of The Thin Man. Nate and Sophie (the rest of the team is away) put on a Nick and Nora Charles act at the scene of an art theft, tormenting straight-man Spencer who just can't get them to take him seriously as the Interpol agent he now is
The plot is as convoluted as a Dashiell Hammett mystery, further exasperating the put-upon Spencer with its multiple false "solutions", each of which undercut his having triumphantly taken credit for the previous "solution"
It's a fun and charming tribute to the urbane comedy-mystery genre that nicely advances the theme of Sophie and Nate becoming a couple.
The Pretender: Cold Dick (2000)
Every TV drama series needs...
...a comedy episode. This was The Pretender's. Well-done spoof of a much-spoofed genre and you can tell the actors had fun making it. Little touches all the way through show the production crew had fun too. A cartoonishly formed double scoop pistachio ice-cream cone that stays chill in the Vegas sun was my fave. The way you always knew what was coming next, about a half second before it actually happened tells us the director enjoyed himself as well. Even the dog was having a good time.
This episode deserves a higher rating. It's the best one in the series.
"Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine."
-- Lord Byron.
Robot & Frank (2012)
Beware Of the Humans
Frank is getting old. Frank's an odd guy, a petty thief and more than a bit antisocial.
Robot is committed to Frank's welfare with doglike devotion. Frank at first resists this but can't deny Robot is useful, willing to do any menial task, even seeking out opportunities to do menial tasks in its quest to please Frank.
Movies usually give us reasons to fear robots, but in this story, it's the human who goes astray. Frank ultimately corrupts Robot. And they both pay the price for that.
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
Flawed but with quality moments
First of all, forget about Denzel Washington and Jennifer Beals. Don Cheadle as Mouse (if you didn't want me to kill him why'd you leave me alone with him?) is by far the best thing about this movie.
Too bad it takes so long for him to show up. Until he does, the story wanders around in circles, pointlessly, with a cast of thousands, going nowhere. Cheadle's an actor's actor and he makes Mouse a 100% believable character despite he's an over-the-top outrageous one. You will find yourself believing in Mouse and wondering afterwards how that came about.
Other quality aspects include the sad observation at the end that not even the rich, white mayor can cross the "color line". It traps everyone.
This is a lush movie, visually lush but also thick with violence and West Coast racism. It hurts to watch it. You've been warned.
Pontiac Moon (1994)
One perfect act
The first time I watched Pontiac Moon, I took it at face value. The perfect act was to drive a certain distance, matching mileage to the moonshot on arrival at Spires Of the Moon in Idaho. Then I watched it again and realized it wasn't about that at all.
When Washington starts their journey intoning, "one perfect act," the camera zooms to ... the wedding ring on his finger and lingers there. The perfect act was never the surface story at all. It was his deep love for his wife and son and an attempt to save both of them from their own self-imposed prisons.
His son -- regimented and stiff. His wife so filled with anxiety she can never let any trace of the outside world enter her home or life.
This is why, after carefully mapping out their route, he deliberately leaves the map behind for his wife to find as she tries to figure out what happened. Maybe she'll rise to the challenge. Maybe not. He leaves it to her. For maybe the first time in his life, he leaves the decision to someone else to make for themselves. This is his One Perfect Act. This is Love.