This and That

More of the 2011 Oscar nominees have been coming in from the library, as has Larry David’s CYE, Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt (of which I was reminded by a retirement book I read), and the first season of Boardwalk Empire from HBO. Via Netflix streaming I finished WWII with Foyle and watched some National Geographic shows on Africa before their stream expired.

Boardwalk Empire is a bit in the vein of The Wire, but not quite in the same league. The actor who played Omar in The Wire is what led me to Empire, but his role so far is much smaller in Boardwalk.

Here is what I have watched since I posted my last list. [The ratings I give are on my own number system which is explained at the link on the sidebar].

Boardwalk Empire (Season One) – 2010 (3.2). Based on true characters from the early days of Prohibition, this series centers on the Republican Boss of Atlantic City corruption and also tracks the intertwining stories of his cronies, lovers, fellow politicos, gangsters and Revenue agents. CGI enhanced sets enhance high production values and the story follows a definite arc that maintains and increases interest. Being from HBO, there is the requisite graphic violence, nudity and profanity, though most of it is appropriate to the story.

Foyle’s War – (Season Six) 2010 (3.1). As the War has ended, the series concludes with Foyle finally officially retired, but still solving War related crimes. His sergeant carries on as a new detective in a neighboring jurisdiction, his driver gets engaged and as Foyle heads for America, we learn that his family may be bigger than we thought, even as his RAF son seems to have disappeared from the story.

Foyle’s War - (Season Five) 2008 (3.1). Resigning for good becomes a problem for Foyle as the War winds down, but crime continues. Much of the personal story arc is basically abandoned but the War related mystery heart of the series centered on Foyle continues.

About Schmidt – 2002 (3.1). After retirement, Omaha actuary Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) realizes in his loneliness that he is bored and depressed and makes a few changes in his life, about which he writes to his six year old foster child in Tanzania using language as if he were writing an adult. His efforts to get along better with his only child, a daughter in Denver, who is about to marry a man Warren believes is wholly unsuitable, are frustrating. Honest in its portrayal of the boring platitudes that fill our lives, the film manages to be properly paced and interesting, at least to men of a certain age like me.

Foyle’s War – (Season Four) 2006 (3). The series seems to slip a little, as the Yanks show up to help fight the War, offering some new material in the first episode, but the other three don’t offer much new about life on the home front. Interesting story arc lines are dropped as Foyle’s son is gone and barely mentioned, the hint of Foyle’s openness to love is not followed, his driver has a melodramatic brush with death by a mysterious disease and the sergeant’s domestic quandary is brought to a swift end. Tired of meddling from incompetent superiors, Foyle considers resigning.

Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season Eight) – 2011 (2.9).Pretty much the same with some episodes filmed in NYC, with still too much profanity but the same quirky humor. Larry David says he’ll know when it is time to call it quits. We’ll see.

Death and the Civil War – 2012 (2.8). Using techniques like those of Ken Burns, this American Experience PBS documentary tells how the US Civil War changed many attitudes toward death and toward the role of government, all brought about by the massive numbers of men killed in the battles, the inability of the military and the communities near the battlefields to deal with the bodies, the push of dedicated individuals to get the Federal government involved in solving the problem and the assumption by the Federal government of this new responsibility. An interesting subject, though morbid, gets a straightforward but somewhat pedantic treatment.

The Descendants – 2011 (2.8). This movie is a slow starter with characters of no particular appeal, but staying with it allows the relationships to grow a little. There is not a lot of drama in the plot until almost the very end as final goodbyes are said to the woman who has been taken off life support and is about to die. The Hawaii setting and subplot about selling ancestral land to developers are apparently intended to give a laid back contrast to the tension of the story, but they are not integral and maybe even distract from the central story.

The Iron Lady -2011 (2.8). Better than expected, this biopic of the political career and later years of Margaret Thatcher covered the main events by flashbacks, while using the hallucinatory character of her deceased husband for gentle continuity. The performance by Meryl Streep was Oscar worthy without being over played or seeming too virtuoso. The script did not offer much more on her personal life or give any context to her politics, but Thatcher did not seem to have a personal life of much interest and her hard-nosed conservative politics seemed to ignore context anyway.

Africa: Desert Odyssey – 2001 (2.8). This National Geographic series episode followed a nine year old boy taking his first six month camel journey through the Sahara with the men of his community who trade  salt for other goods. The journey to get the salt covered most of the episode, while the trading for other goods and return home were given very little screen time.

Africa: Leopards of Zanzibar – 2001 (2.8). Part of a National Geographic seven part series, this movie tells of young divers who make their living fishing for octopus and lobster in the beautiful waters off their island home, but whose passion is their amateur soccer team, the Leopards. After winning the island championship on fields of sand, the team raises the money for a trip to Dar-es-Salam on the mainland to play in a tournament in a grand stadium with grass turf.

Africa: Treasures of the South – 2001 (2.8). This National Geographic series episode follows various black people in South Africa, a young woman who is the first female to work in the gold mines where she is an explosives expert, three elderly bush sisters who are allowed to return to their ancestral home which is now on a game preserve, an old miner who wants to leave the mines in order to spend all his time with his family in his home village, and young women employed in rugged mountains cutting down non-native pine trees which endanger beautiful native flowering plants.

Africa: Voices of the Forest – 2001 (2.8). This National Geographic series episode told of a Baka (Pygmy) village whose people were relocated to the edge of their indigenous rain forest in Cameroon and the problems they encounter hunting for food and dealing with loggers cutting down valuable hardwood trees.

Hugo – 2011 (2.7). Wonderful sets, excellent cinematography, fine direction, but another poor script. According to the special feature, the book on which this movie is based was quite extensive and the script was “streamlined”, or more probably bowdlerized. The role of the station inspector was expanded to a point of over absurdity. After a fantastically cinematic opening sequence the movie quickly slows down and meanders before eventually working its way around to revealing the quest of the young protagonists and then morphs into homage of a pioneer French filmmaker. The true story of the filmmaker would make a good biopic, but Martin Scorcese directed kids and dogs for the first time in order to make a movie his young daughter would be able to see. Seeing the movie in 3-D would make it even more stunning visually, but could not improve the script.

Albert Nobbs – 2011 (2.2). Oh no, another tour de force acting job in a movie where the star co-produced and co-wrote, but thankfully did not direct. What a new story, a woman pretending to be a man in order to gain employment. Why an actress playing a man of limited emotions is supposedly so challenging is hard to fathom. This movie is absolutely boring for the first half and then barely tolerable as a wisp of a story finally starts to emerge just in time to end in a whimper.