It is very violent and quite profane, but The Wire rings out with truth on every level and topic it touches. It would have taken several documentaries to teach us as much as we learn from this series, but the dramatic presentation and validly earthy humor of The Wire makes it all so much more enjoyable and memorable. Be sure to watch the seasons in sequence, so the story arc can be more clearly followed.
A recent flurry of mail DVDs from Netflix will now slow to the trickle of one at a time starting this week. I expect to watch more movies from my streaming queue now, and hold off on activating my library queue. It also might be a good idea to slow the whole viewing process and use some of the time for other pursuits.
So again, here is what I have watched on DVD and streaming since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system explained at the link on the sidebar. Those watched via Netflix instant view, include “Streamed” after the numeric rating.
The Wire [Season 4] – 2006 (3.8). The story arc of this series was planned for a five season run, with each year coming to enough of a conclusion to suffice if the show was not renewed. Season 4 ventures into the stories of four middle high age kids being lured by the drug game and the difficulties the school system has with the woefully neglected and disruptive “corner” kids. The politics continues, embracing the police department and school system and we see several of the adults trying to reach out to troubled kids, with mixed results. With the knowledge we have acquired from the first three seasons, season 4 reaches new heights of achievement.
Rabbit Hole – 2010 (3.1). The playwright wrote a good screen play for this adaptation of his Pulitzer play about a couple struggling with the accidental death of their four year old eight months ago. Nicole Kidman gives a fine performance as the grieving mother and the rest of the cast and the directing are good. But the intelligent story is the star and the script is refreshingly cinematic in spite of its stage origins.
Get on the Bus – 1996 (3.0). A diverse group of African American men ride a chartered bus from Los Angeles to attend the Million Man March in Washington DC in 1995, and along the way discuss and argue about many aspects of the black male experience in America and about their individual attitudes on many race related topics in this spike Lee movie. Intelligently written by Reggie Rock Bythewood, though most of the movie takes place on the bus, the movie has a dynamic feel that avoids claustrophobia. Though it says a lot, it does not seem preachy.
30 for 30: The Two Escobars – 2010 (3.0). This ESPN documentary deftly tells the story of Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar and Columbian soccer star Andres Escobar, two unrelated men from the same city whose paths crossed when soccer fan Pablo got involved with the sport as another way to launder drug money. Talented Andres was part of the highly paid team that quickly put Columbia as a favorite for the 1994 World Cup. Using interviews and archival footage, this movie manages to entertainingly educate about the Columbian drug cartel, the war on drugs, Columbian culture and the 1994 World Cup elimination of Columbia at the hands of a vastly underdog team USA.
Mao’s Last Dancer – 2010 (3.0). A true story of a Chinese village boy taken from his parents and brothers at age 11 to be trained as a ballet dancer, rising to be a star and coming alone on a cultural exchange to America, where he experiences culture shock, first love and a freedom which raises his dancing to new heights, this Australian film uses a good script, tight direction and competent acting to tell the tale. The ballet scenes are beautifully choreographed and filmed and quickly enough paced to be attractive even to those of us who may be “ballet challenged”.
The Wire – [Season Five] – 2007 (3.0). The final season of the series is a bit of a letdown. The introduction of the newspaper role in the community is good but comes along a bit late, while all the other story lines seem to wrap up a little too fast. Too much time is spent on a far-fetched scheme concocted by one of the police detectives. Though it is part of the winding down story, the scheme does not ring with the truth of the other parts of this series.
Ugetsu – 1953 (2.9) Streamed. Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi directed this 16th Century story of two ambitious men and their wives caught up in the turmoil of civil war and how the wartime experiences affect their lives. This movie is nicely paced, with a good feel for the feudal times on a more intimate scale than in many epic films, and this story maintains interest.
GasLand – 2010 (2.9). This is a very amateurish documentary with excruciatingly poor camera work, but the subject matter of the dangers of gathering underground natural gas by fracturing the bedrock is quite important. The drilling technique involves over 500 chemicals being injected under pressure to create miniature earthquakes and it is being employed in thousands of wells in over 30 US States. Under regulated and poorly monitored, the process may be polluting many underground water sources and it also results in voluminous drilling fluid sludge which is not being properly handled (much of it was placed in reservoirs in Louisiana and subsequently dispersed with hurricane flood waters). The film maker was motivated by concern for drilling proposals on his Pennsylvania home acreage, and he travelled to several States to interview people whose well water now bursts into flames. Also interviewed are a few scientists and a couple regulators. Predictably, the drilling industry declined to be interviewed, though there is some footage of their spokesmen at a Congressional hearing.
Coup de Torchon (Clean Slate) – 1981 (2.9). A pulp novel about the American south is adapted to Senegal on the verge of WWII, in this typically stylish and watchable movie from French director Bertrand Tavernier. The story is about an inept colonial police officer who is tired of being the butt of jokes and decides to take revenge. Also well scripted and acted, shot on location with soft Fuji film and Stedicams, the film is funny in some spots and dramatic in others and has some intelligent perspectives, but I never quite felt like I knew what made the police officer tick. Maybe that was the point. The DVD has a very good interview with the director, and though it has some spoiler aspects, it is worth watching first to enhance the viewing of the movie.
The Way Back – 2010 (2.8). Inspired by a true story, this movie tells a tale of survival as a multinational group of men escape from a Siberian gulag near the end of WWII and trek across Siberia, the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas trying to reach freedom in India. Not as dramatically scripted as it could have been, the film is nevertheless competently done and the scenery (actually Bulgaria and Morroco) is spectacular.
Tokyo Story – 1953 (2.8) Streamed. Japanese master Ozu directed this story of parents traveling from their remote home town to Tokyo to visit three of their adult children, who are not thrilled to see them. However the widow of their deceased son is genuinely pleased by their visit. The youngest daughter remained home and is not happy with the attitude of the older siblings. A bit long and filmed with the signature thigh high fixed camera, this movie is slow paced as it reflects on how adult children drift away from their parents.
The Misfortunates – 2009 (2.7). This Flemish language film set in the Flanders region of Belgium tells about a young teenager growing up in the 1980s in the household of his long suffering grandmother, who has the misfortune of also housing her four adult alcoholic sons. The movie tells the story of the son, now himself unintentionally becoming a father, by a woman he does not love, and how he reflects and writes about that, remembering back to growing up in that grossly dysfunctional family. Though basically well acted and directed, the script manages to create only a small amount of understanding or sympathy for the young boy, but none for him as an adult nor for any of the other characters. This would be a good movie for “Lesser Flanders” to use to discourage tourism.
Of Gods and Men – 2010 (2.6). A French drama of a true story about French Trappist monks in the mountains of Algeria caught up in a struggle between government forces and Islamist radicals, this Cannes winner, though well-acted and filmed, had a disappointing script. There are many things we could have learned about the lives of these monks, including how they related to their vocation, each other, God, the villagers, the Church, the Algerian government, the French Government and the radical Islamists. But each of these was barely touched upon and too much slow time was spent showing the monks in chapel chanting prayers. How each monk approached the decision of whether to stay and face the radicals was interesting, but deserved more script time, and the potentially fascinating dialogue between the monks and the radicals about religion was limited to just a couple lines.
The Lincoln Lawyer – 2011 (2.2). This Netflix member review hits the nail on the head for me: “Saying something is the best Matthew McConaughey movie ever is not saying much, let's face it. I thought this was supposed to be good! Wow, what low bars we have set for film, apparently. This actually had potential, but was lost in cutesy pie glibness and plot holes the size of Jupiter. The mom - just ridiculous. Not a bad movie until the denouement, when everything is explained in 5 minutes - in a less than satisfying way. Why waste talents like Bill Macy or Marissa Tomei in something like this? Must have been a big payday for them - or maybe they, like me, were expecting this to be so much better.” But I would say it was a bad movie even before the denouement. Trivia: there is no profanity at all in this movie (not that profanity would have made it any better).
Jan and I watched "Hard Candy" starring Ellen Page, a very well made movie, but pointless. Page plays a teenager who terrorizes an older man she suspects of seducing other teenagers and killing one. She ties him up and castrates him (or does she?) and in the end convinces him to hang himself. Of course this is not a believable story, but the movie is so well done nobody cares. But it is just another scary movie, and this time the scary person is a teenaged girl. I wasted 1 hour and 43 minutes watching this one.
ReplyDeleteEllen Page is a good young actress. But Hard Candy sounds like a loser. Of course, scary movies are not one of my favorite genres. The best movie I have seen Ellen in was a Lifetime movie, Homeless to Harvard, not available at Netflix (I got it from the library). And of course Juno was good. I also liked Whip It where she played a young roller derby skater.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there is something Freudian about old men watching movies about teenage girls, but I just realized five of my most recent watches featured such young actresses. I was thinking the reason teenage girls are often featured is that old men are the ones who have the power to make movies and they like to work with teenage girls. But of the five I mentioned, only one was filmed by an older man, three were by young men and one was by a woman.
Nothing Freudian here. My wife picks 95% of the movies we watch, and she likes scary movies. I don't care much for this genre either, so she usually takes a granddaughter when she sees one in the theater. That I sat through the entire movie Hard Candy probably says something positive about the actors and the director. Maybe we'll try Whip It.
ReplyDeleteApparently the "woman of the house" is the movie chooser more often than I realized. I am the chooser in my house and often end up watching alone while Susan switches to TV or her Jewel Quest video games. Most often she just says she is not interested in the film I am about to watch, but sometimes she gives it a try and then leaves early. I wonder if women are more likely than men to bail out early on movies.
ReplyDelete