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Les revenants (2012)
Pretty good...
I have enjoyed this, but feel like it suffers from similar problems to Dark - the gloomy atmosphere can be a bit oppressive, and the domestic drama dull and frustrating. The characters aren't that interesting or sympathetic, and I know that's not essential, but come on, guys. And, often, the writing seems to just about make it to school production level in its sophistication - interpersonal exchanges seem stilted and amateurish. It's likened to Twin Peaks, but it has none of that show's sense of style or genre playfulness, which, when coupled with Lynch's preoccupation with dream logic, managed to produce something TRULY weird. It's almost as if some European film and TV makers eschew anything "American" but instead end up with something stodgy and quotidian. Yes, the mountainous location is beautiful. Yes, the music (by Mogwai) is terrific in a kind of Howard-Shore-soundtrack-for-Crash way (plenty of silvery, discordant guitar). But I'm nearly at the end of season 1 and I don't feel like watching any more, frankly.
Close (2019)
Let down by the storyline...
Starts out promisingly enough, with a gripping escape-from-militia sequence, but the somewhat garbled narrative dissipates the initial impact. At one point Sam is asked by her young charge what they're going to do and she replies that she doesn't know. This could almost be the writers talking! The fight sequences are well-handled, except for a couple which end unconvincingly (distracted by a school of fish, killed by a fish-hook? WTF?), the normal action cliches are soft-pedaled, but there's some clunky dialogue, scenes which don't gel and slightly amateurish performances from some of the supporting cast. Maybe the strength of an action movie, as opposed to something with a more 'art' bias, is that scenes or dialogue which don't cut the mustard get the bum's rush, whereas there are moments in this which seem intended to flesh out character but play out without significant effect. The film looks gorgeous (shout out to cinematographer Malte Rosenfeld and production designer Luke Hull) but I'm thinking budgetary constraints influenced the writers' choice to resolve the tale at the (expensive-looking) scene of the first conflagration. I get the appeal of gender-flipping normally male roles, and some of the other reviews praise Rapace for turning in a nuanced performance, unlike male action stars, but it's not really the case - she's portraying a stone-faced badass who smokes too much and occasionally breaks down, and we've seen all this before - heroes with issues, who still manage to deliver (however, Sam DOES seem like a real person, not a male fantasy, and this is one of the film's strengths). And the "call your daughter" bit has been done before, too, with more panache - Samuel L. Jackson says the line to Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight (gender-flipped action movie from the 'nineties, truly there's nothing new under the sun!) - and seems like an unnecessary footnote to a character who, as another reviewer said, would be more interesting if allowed to remain a cipher. As a footnote of my own, I could happily watch Rapace in this kind of role until the cows come home...but I don't imagine we'll be getting a franchise out of this, shame.
Designated Survivor (2016)
It must have had something...but I'm not sure what.
So I've just watched all 43 (I think that's right) episodes on Netflix. Quite a binge. It dragged me along, but I think my suspension of disbelief bottomed out (that's an automotive reference, folks!) about two thirds of the way through season 1.
The good: the acting is usually to a high standard (not you, Maggie Q), the production design is impressive.
The bad: the writers are stuck firmly in Deus Ex Machina mode, and all political or procedural plausibility seems to have been jettisoned. It's almost like the writers inhabit a parallel universe where The West Wing and any other informed, literate political drama never happened and the only models they have are White House Down, Frank Capra and The Governor and JJ.
The first season was OK, but by about half way through season 2 things got really silly and I think I just kept watching from a fascination with how bad really bad TV (and embarrassing dialogue) can be. One small example from season 2 stands out: the president's teenage son (whose hair has grown shorter over the two seasons, perhaps to indicate that he's become more of a stand-up guy) has been accepted to a West Coast college and says he doesn't want to go, jokingly mentioning "You don't even know how to Skype" as one of the reasons. But I don't think there's an episode where the president isn't using some form of video chat to communicate with foreign leaders, staffers, whoever. Trivial, I know, but seems indicative of the show's deeper problems with credibility and consistency. I'm also amazed at the resources which must have been marshaled to produce this - it's not like a bad sitcom where they just spent money on a set, a laugh track and a small cast. Oh well, no third season. I guess the market (electorate?) has spoken...
Dark (2017)
OK...
I think what drove me to binge-watch this was the hope something interesting would emerge from it, but it wasn't all that satisfying. The soap-opera relationship bits are very tedious. The acting, script and score are needlessly portentous. There are lots of "everything is everything" conversations which sound like they were written by an undergraduate who had just read far too much Herman Hesse. It's not like Stranger Things or Twin Peaks at all, and I agree with another reviewer who said it's most like Lost, in its frustrating, made-it-up-as-they-went-along supernatural shaggy-dog story modus operandi. And there are so many characters, and different versions of characters, none of which are particularly compelling or well-drawn. I tried to keep track, but ultimately I just didn't care enough about any of them. I still think the gold standard for time travel movies is Shane Carruth's 'Primer'. It does your head in, in ways Dark doesn't manage to even get close to, and with only a fraction of Dark's resources (but some MUCH better ideas). I think there are probably more interesting episodes of Dr. Who about this subject. I wanted to like it, and enjoyed parts of it, but after, what, a couple of hundred of years of literature, movies and TV on this subject we can surely expect something more thought-provoking than this middling fare.
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Not Great
So after watching the dreadful Set It Up I needed a decent romcom to clear the palate and saw When Harry Met Sally. Pretty great. Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, written by Norah Ephron, directed by Rob Reiner. So last night I was tempted by Sleepless in Seattle, with Ephron, Ryan and Reiner showing up again in a slightly different configuration. Oh boy, the news is not good. Few scenes work, they lurch and stagger along and then just expire. Here's a great rule of thumb: when the supporting players have no chemistry, head for the hills. Rosie O'Donnell as Ryan's best friend looks uncomfortable, like her lines have crawled into her mouth and died. Hanks seems stiff and unconvincing, Ryan seems to be phoning it in. It's like the movie (or the director, or the writer) has taken it for granted we'll be swept up in the romance and hasn't bothered to do anything to earn our submission. Great romcoms put flesh on the mechanical romcom skeleton so we don't notice the mechanism. Here, it's laid bare and the whirring and clanking forestalls enjoyment of the goings-on. Interesting that the movie's romantic touchstone, An Affair to Remember (Ryan and O'Donnell mouth lines while watching it, and the Valentine's Day meeting on the Empire State Building is borrowed from it), is similarly stiff, dreary and unconvincing. Guess not everything Ephron touched turned to gold. Or maybe I'm alone in this view.
Set It Up (2018)
Oh dear...
Age and experience bring perspective. That's something watching Set It Up has brought home to me. For instance, I've never understood why Ryan Reynolds is such a big star. He seems unbearably anodyne (is that an oxymoron?). But if you compare him to Glen Powell his comic chops assume the stature of William Powell's. Zoey Deutch can be quite charming when doing her 'Drew Barrymore in Fever Pitch' sports obsession schtick, but as the movie wore on (and I mean wore) her breathlessly yammery delivery began to annoy me and I began to wonder why, if they wanted a wacky brunette for this role, didn't they get the two-O Zooey? - too old for this role, I guess. And probably too (two) expensive. Incidentally, Set It Up has made me reconsider my unreasoning hatred for 500 Days of Summer - at least Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel had something approaching chemistry, which the two stars of this film desperately lack. Anyway, these two leads rattle off their lines in screwball comedy style, which wouldn't be a problem if those lines were good. Or relevant. Or witty. Or anything. The script is, unfortunately, weak and derivative. Which isn't always a fatal flaw. We all know the romcom formulae and would probably mutiny in our seats if expectations weren't met, but some fresh perspective, insight or wit is always welcome. In lieu of that, we're presented with scenes like the one where not one but two heavyset black men are wheeled on for comic effect, which, as well as being lazy and insulting, is handled in a comedically cack-handed manner. Which brings me to another problem - the direction. And the pacing. And, well, everything. But don't despair, dear reader. I watched forty-some minutes of this and stopped. The next day, I steeled myself to keep going. And I was not disappointed. Because. It. Gets. Worse. Maybe I'll see the end. Maybe (to quote The Lady from Shangai) I'll die tryin'.
The War (2007)
What the...
So I'm nearly through episode 1 and, with 19:11 remaining, a modern-sounding song plays over a montage of fighting, its lyrics "America, I gave my best to you". This seemed particularly jarring and even saccharine (dare I say it, Bruckheimeresque?), needlessly editorialising when up to that point straight reportage and the stories of the people involved had carried things along quite satisfactorily. 'White Christmas' had previously played on the soundtrack, and that's a very sentimental song, but it belonged to the time and place and had meaning for soldiers far from home. The song was bookended by statistics about American dead, which carry enough weight and horror by themselves without the song's slightly desperate underlining. Something of a gaffe, I hope the rest of the series avoids this kind of thing.
Space Race (2005)
Middling Fare...
Reasonably well-marshaled depiction of the space race. Live action nicely integrated with CGI and historical footage. Principal roles are handled well enough. But I understand there are a number of inaccuracies, and certain events are compressed or telescoped. That's kind of the problem with dramatisations. The story will often be tweaked for 'dramatic purposes', and this will add little to (or even detract from) one's understanding of what actually went on. I realise documentaries don't present the unalloyed truth, but I think I'd prefer to watch a documentary on this subject, with film of the actual events and interviews with those who were there. Aside from that, this is good enough in a potboiler-with-a-budget sort of way. One strange thing - the Russian scenes begin with the cast speaking subtitled Russian, then switch to English. It's a bit distracting, and I wonder what possessed whoever made the decision. Something else that stood out - the Russians are depicted with a lot more warmth than the Americans, who, with Von Braun, seem a square-jawed, flinty-eyed lot.
Mars (2016)
Bit of a mess...
The documentary sections are OK, the special effects are competent, but the dramatic parts are unsatisfying and faintly hilarious. Thrill to stodgy dialogue delivered in monotones, in a tale of the greatest adventure mankind has ever undertaken! Wonder why, if electrical power is so precious in the hostile Martian environment, nobody turns off some of those darned lights and monitors! (Come on, this isn't rocket science). The video diary device is overused as a way to flesh out character, and is really no substitute for decent scriptwriting and acting. The astronauts don't seem very astronauty, more like annoying co-workers you try to avoid around the water cooler. And the way they conduct themselves in the course of their mission...well, just watch any Shuttle-related YouTube video for clues as to how real astronauts behave (writers, producers and directors of this show, I'm talking to YOU!). But what I really want to know (I don't think this counts as a spoiler) is how did the commander maintain her stylish short haircut, and the doctor her nifty bob, during their stay on Mars? Was there a mission stylist we never met?