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Reviews
Fargo: Waiting for Dutch (2015)
Shattering!
Season 1 reminded me a lot of the great film "Fargo." Dakota humor, quirkiness, violence, a masterpiece. Fargo is "Fargo." I loved it.
Season 2 is simply shattering. If you want to compare the Coen Brothers: Season 1 was "Fargo." Season 2 is "No Country for Old Men." I love it even better.
No spoilers; absolutely watch it. Be prepared. This is some very nasty stuff.
Derek (2012)
Brilliant!
I don't think I have ever seen a show or film that mixes humor, wisdom and tragedy in anything like these proportions
It simply never hits a wrong note and when it rises to its highest highs only the greatest of the best TV is in the same league (i.e. The Wire, Breaking Bad).
Many thanks to Ricky Gervais and all the series' fantastic supporting actors and actresses. I truly feel like a better person both morally and spiritually for having watched it about 20 times!
In speaking about one's ability to forgive and make amends when "Derek" says "It's never too late, until it is" during the last episode of Season 2 I seriously lose it every time.
Very highest recommendation!
The Hustler (1961)
A Review of Two of the Greatest Scenes in Cinema
There are so many great reviews of this amazing film (which easily belongs in the top 50 ever made) but I would like to point out two key scenes that no one seems to have really noticed that each show the incredible artistry of Paul Newman and Robert Rossen.
First, the opening scene before the credits role and Kenyon Hopkins' incredible musical score begins when "Fast Eddie" and "Charlie" pull into the small Pennsylvania bar to hustle a few dollars.
Next time you watch it check out the smile on Newman's face as he suddenly changes from wobbly drunk to absolutely confident, consummate pool hustler and makes that impossible shot (I've tried it 100 times with no luck).
How can a momentary change in an actor's countenance constitute one of the of the great moments in film? I don't know, but Newman manages it here.
He just smiles, he manages one of the most classic 5 mile stares ever, and doesn't even appear to notice the outcome. He KNOWS he made the shot before he even made it. Just that one moment is so brilliant every time I watch the film I play it through about 5 times before I go on.
And then there is the great ending as the credits role and everyone vacates the pool room, one by one. Kenyon Hopkins should have won some kind of award for the music he provided for just that one scene.
The final sax note and strummed guitar chord when the film stops rolling is like the end of a great symphony. A never to be matched ending to one of the greatest masterpieces ever in the history of American film making.
Breaking Bad (2008)
Interesting Old Reviews
It is fascinating to read all these reviews of Breaking Bad from people who wondered if it would manage to maintain the same level of quality throughout the 2nd and 3rd season.
Having talked with many other Breaking Bad fanatics about the subject, I have yet to find a "binge watcher" who saw the last episode of Season 3 (Full Measure) and did not immediately purchase and watch Season 4, Episode 1 (Box Cutter) no matter how much money they had, and no matter what time they had to be at work the next day.
The ending of the show (after five seasons) is absolutely perfect (with background music by Badfinger "Baby Blue).
The best episode of the show in my opinion is Season 3, Episode 7 (One Minute).
I don't think I have ever seen anything that hit me so hard, with the hard, jerking camera pan into the distance and the insistent car alarm during the ultra violent climax. Absolutely brilliant!
Not to detract from "Full Measure" which undoubtedly caused many people to have a very bad day at work the next day.
BTW, Jonathan Banks (Mike), given his brilliant acting in this series, is perhaps the most underrated actor in either TV or film at the moment.
And that is a real Philadelphia accent. I was born there!
The Tree of Life (2011)
One of the Greatest Cinematic Poems Ever
I think the reason that this film gets such low ratings from so many people is because so few people read poetry anymore, or have the patience for the type of elliptical, indirect, allusive form of expression that great poetry involves. Most people expect film to conform to the same conventions as prose, as embodied in the genre of the novel, with interesting characters and a more or less linear plot that leads toward some resolution.
This is a cinematic poem, and one of the most sublime exercises in that genre I've ever seen. It makes me feel lonely that so few people even remotely "get" the idea that Malick is trying to convey here, which flows from the quote from the Book of Job that starts the film.
This is one of the very, very few films I've ever seen which seems to take Andrei Tarkovsky's "Mirror" as its main source of inspiration. The people to whom I've recommended "Tree of Life" who love Tarkovsky as much as I do have been rendered speechless by its spiritual depth and staggering visual beauty. I know a few people, myself included, who have had to make room on their "Top Five" list of greatest films of all time after having seen "Tree of Life" a few times. It does not give up its secrets easily. Those who don't like or understand abstract film (or art, or poetry) tend to fall asleep or get angry when watching it.
So what is it about? I believe that great art is irreducible to anything other than itself. To try to explain something in terms other than those used by the artist destroys the art. The best that one can do is to help the audience understand the work on it's own terms.
To me, the film is a homage to the hidden, greater reality that lies behind the world of images and sensations, but which has great portents in those images and sensations if one knows where and how to look. That underlying reality seems randomly cruel, tragic and heartbreaking at times, but it is not, because ultimately it emanates from a Love that is beyond all understanding.
The unimaginable amount of Love that goes into creating another human being cannot be meaningless, it cannot be for nothing in the economy of Redemption, Salvation and Love that we all inhabit, whether we recognize it or not.
If you care about this, and believe this, you will probably find "Tree of Life" to be one of the greatest, most beautiful, most emotionally and spiritually devastating films ever made. It reminds me of the old aesthetic aphorism: "The problem with beauty is not finding it, but bearing it." If you don't care, or don't believe, you will probably feel that you just wasted over two hours of your life that you will never get back after watching it.
I can't help but think that many people who watch this film, and don't like it at first glance, will be haunted by it as time passes, and life starts to unfold in ways they cannot understand nor could have predicted. Sometimes the most important lessons are not learned until many, many years after they have been taught.
"Tree of Life" ranks with Tarkovsky's "Mirror," Bergman's "Winter Light" and Bresson's "Au Hasard Balthasar" as one of the greatest exercises in abstract filmmaking ever. I think it will remain on that very short list for as long as people have eyes to see, minds to wonder, and hearts to feel.