TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×03) – “What Jesus Said”

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×03) – “What Jesus Said”

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on September 22, 2014

What would you do for love? The question is directed at the younger Nucky Thompson, but it could also be asked of many of the characters on Boardwalk Empire (or at least the ones featured in this episode, “What Jesus Said”). Love, or some variation of it, is the driving force for many of the characters’ decisions, both small and big, on the latest episode of this bootlegging saga.

The show returns to Margaret Thompson in New York City and it turns out that the meeting between her and the late Arnold Rothstein wasn’t quite the dead end that I expected. While actor Michael Stuhlbarg’s presence is still greatly missed, Arnold’s death didn’t neatly clean up all the problems associated with the character. Similar to how Willie Thompson’s ambitions as a lawyer were held back by his criminal family connection, Margaret’s new life has hit a snag.

 

Her situation is much more severe though, with both the law clamping down on Rothstein’s banking deals (complete with Margaret’s signature) and the spurned Ms. Rothstein looking for retribution after she was left shamed by her husband’s activities. She wants a large sum of money that Margaret obviously cannot pay up, placing Margaret in a supremely difficult position. After multiple storylines that ultimately had little effect on the main plot (Owen Slater aside), it looks like the show is working to better integrate Margaret into the show’s drive, so it looks like Kelly Macdonald will have meatier material to chew on instead of remaining a stale “voice of reason.”

This week’s episodic arc belongs to the recently escaped Chalky White and his partner Milton holding up a mother and daughter for food and money at their home. Far removed from the Prohibition drama, the segment serves as a compartmentalized character study for these people in their current situation. Following the death of his daughter Maybell, the season premiere showed Chalky at his absolute lowest as a broken man spending his life in a chain gang. But when contrasted against the tense and possibly unstable Milton, flickers of Chalky’s humanity begin to show themselves.

The mother and daughter try to convince Chalky to turn on Milton a couple of times, but it’s when the daughter, Fern, learns of Maybell (though not of her unfortunate fate) that a shift occurs. This episode has more than a few memorable dialogue exchanges for Chalky in particular, including one where Fern asks what Maybelle would think of her father now. Chalky, in Michael K. Williams’ distinctive snarl, responds, “She knew what I was.” Fern’s interactions with Chalky bring out whatever humanity reserves he has repressed, and perhaps Chalky’s ultimate decision is informed by not wanting to see another family endure the same loss he experienced so long ago.

While old Nucky’s tête-à-tête with Joe Kennedy continues in 1931 (more examples of the sharp dialogue this week from writers Howard Korder and Christine Chambers), the younger Nucky’s acts of obedience for acceptance are brought to the forefront. Nucky’s willingness to do what he’s told is brought out by a lightly humorous montage of various adults in his life crying out, “Boy!” Eventually he comes across Mabel, his future wife, who plays with him in a very Lucy-to-Charlie Brown way by saying she’ll pay him for kissing his horse. Nucky, compelled by her but also timid to react fast, doesn’t get the coin as promised but it’s clear that she’s attracted to him nonetheless.

Nucky’s life path may have started with him taking orders, but now he’s the one (seemingly) in control over his situation, as evidenced by Margaret returning to him in Atlantic City in the last scenes. For a show that’s primarily concerned with business dealings and gangster violence, Nucky’s pleased smile at Margaret’s return shows that occasional displays of genuine emotion are allowed to reveal themselves too. Even though their relationship hasn’t exactly been the most tender or genuine on television (he did have her first husband murdered, after all), there is enough of an attraction that a little smile goes a long way in showing that side of them.

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×02) – “The Good Listener”

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×02)  – “The Good Listener”

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on September 16, 2014

“Cinematic” is a term that often gets thrown around in the television conversation. We praise how some shows are “so cinematic” because they remind us more of film than standard television fare. It’s true that television, even with the major storytelling evolution it has experienced in the last couple of decades, still has plenty of ground to cover when it comes to matching the visual dexterity of film. Most television shows still retain a flat point-and-shoot visual style, but there are also plenty of shows that have been able to get around the hectic production scheduling of television and allow directors freedom to play with form. Boardwalk Empire remains, and has always been, that kind of show.

We begin the episode by catching up with Eli Thompson, and the camera’s spiral-out clues us in to the general turmoil his life has descended into since his drastic measures at the end of season four. Following his divorce, Eli became a disheveled mess and now works alongside George Mueller (I still call him Nelson Van Alden, but whatever) in Chicago for Al Capone, who has now completed his transition to major power figure in the criminal underworld. Watching last week’s premiere and now “The Good Listener” further proves what most Boardwalk Empire fans have long understood: protagonist Nucky Thompson is not nearly as interesting as everyone else surrounding him.

Nucky still gets sizable screen time, continuing his Godfather Part II-esque dual storyline, but breaking that time up with other characters provides a significantly more engaging hour than last week’s. Because Prohibition agent and general Capone nemesis Elliot Ness (played by Jim True-Frost, another The Wire alumni along with Domenick Lombardozzi) raided Eli and George’s booze warehouse, the two need to pay back the money that was lost. The Chicago storyline, even with its tragic and violent overtones, also provides unexpected doses of humor in a show not known for showing its lighter side.

But while the other Thompson brother is now fully in the thug business, his son Willie is trying to make things better for himself by becoming a lawyer. Unfortunately, his family connection to known criminals presents an obstacle for his efforts. Willie and Nucky’s relationship has developed to the point where Nucky is the true father figure to the young man, or at least Nucky provides more of a mentor role in his life. And with his true father wallowing away as a drunk in Chicago, it’s understandable for Willie to feel greater kinship toward his uncle at this point.

Meanwhile, Gillian is dealing with her own problems now that she’s living in an asylum for the criminally insane. After a clever fake out where it looks like she’s enjoying a spa bathhouse, we see the real conditions she’s living in (one of which includes Gretchen Mol and the other actresses fulfilling the usual HBO nudity quota). Her storyline is so separated, subject matter wise, from everything else going on that it’s hard to understand how this will connect back to the Nucky/Lansky conflict or the Chicago thread. However, this show has a tendency to wait until much later in the game to reveal how everything ties together, and with this being the final season I’m willing to play along for now.

In a similar vein, the concluding moments of “The Good Listener” serve as a nice bookend to its visual devices and an indicator of things to come. In classic mobster fashion, Nucky has his bodyguard leave a message for Lansky and Luciano in the form of a fatal knife-pinned postcard (“Greetings from Havana”) on one of their men. Now with both sides making their first moves, the stage is set for their final showdown. If the downward spiral camerawork that ends the episode is any indication, everything’s about to fall apart real soon.

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5x01) - “Golden Days for Boys and Girls”

Boardwalk Empire (5x01) - “Golden Days for Boys and Girls”

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on September 9, 2014

We’re here now in the home stretch of episodes for Boardwalk Empire, a final season truncated to eight episodes instead of the usual twelve. After catching up, I’ve rarely seen a “prestige” television show that could pull off many brilliant moments and turns and then coast on its talented actors and impeccable production design to distract from the persistent wheel-spinning in between. It follows the Star Trek movie rule where the even numbered entries are the best ones, so for every compelling Nucky/Jimmy conflict in season two or Chalky/Valentin in season four, there’s the many aimless subplots that litter one and three. Does the season five premiere, entitled “Golden Days for Boys and Girls,” continue the trend?

The first major, inescapable point that needs to be discussed is the time jump from the mid-20s to 1931. Series creator Terrence Winter has previously stated the he feels the show should end at the time when Prohibition does as well. It sounds like a reasonable place to hit for the endpoint of this story, but given that the show was several years away from that it means that a lot has changed since then or things have been dropped unceremoniously. Losing Arnold Rothstein (his real life death being in 1928) is huge for the show, given that Michael Stuhlbarg has been one of the show’s most consistently engaging performers since the very beginning and season four looked like it was opening up the next chapter for him.

One of the more interesting shifts occurs in Chalky’s arc. We find him in a prison chain gang following the death of his daughter seven years prior, and the episode pays plenty attention to showing him at his lowest. With only spare dialogue, Michael K. Williams finds new and sad depths within a character previously built upon his cool gravelly demeanor. The other side story catches up with Lucky Luciano, who decides that he’s done working for Joe Masseria and hires assassins to take out his boss. Now that he’s working for rival Don Salvatore, Lucky’s on the rise to becoming the famous mobster figurehead that his historical counterpart was.

The multiple contrasting rise/fall stories look like it’s setting them up as the major theme of this final season. None of this is more apparent than in Nucky’s storyline, which hasn’t changed as much as the others have but could lead to a major turn in the near future. As Nucky is resting up in Havana, Cuba and still in a relationship with Sally Wheet, the show switches back and forth between this and Nucky’s childhood. While initially this seemed like a hollow attempt to mirror Don Draper’s tortured childhood flashbacks on Mad Men (a show that Boardwalk has cribbed other characteristics from without integrating them quite as compellingly), these glimpses of young Nucky in 1884 instead recall the past/present timeline juxtaposition found in The Godfather Part II.

How much the viewer gains from this episode depends greatly on their tolerance of Nucky, given that he takes up the bulk of the screen time and, let’s face it, most of the supporting characters have been much more engrossing than him despite Steve Buscemi’s efforts. Every minute spent in Cuba drags the pacing to a crawl, even by this show’s pacing standards. This plodding section is broken up by an attempt on Nucky’s life, which may or may not be related to Meyer Lansky’s unexpected presence, and comes complete with gratuitous ear slicing (subtle Reservoir Dogs reference for Buscemi fans?).

The attempts at shock value extend to an aside with Margaret, where her boss publicly shoots himself for no reason other than to remind the audience that the Great Depression takes its toll on people. Capone, Van Alden, Eli, and Narcisse are left unseen until next week (hopefully) catches up with them, and if the show wants to go out on a high note I hope it remembers why the last season came together so well. The show realized that Nucky works better as a side player to the actual side players and that it didn’t need to rely on unexpected violence to keep viewers interested, so the quality of this season will likely depend on how much time it’s willing to give to its supporting cast even as it’s tying up the lead’s storyline.

Not Only Gamers

Not Only Gamers

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on September 6, 2014

This month of August has been one of the most frustrating in a long time for a number of reasons. One of those reasons has been a Twitter trend dubbed #GamerGate, which in recent weeks has been a conflict between many video game players and journalists/critics/etc. While those participating in it all say that their intention is to instill integrity in gaming journalism (another loaded topic for another time), a lot of this antagonism stems from the blatant misogyny that many of these male gamers have displayed towards game developer Zoe Quinn and critic Anita Sarkeesian.

When Quinn’s ex-boyfriend Eron Gjoni (who has since clarified his initial statements) accused her of cheating on him with Kotaku game reviewer Nathan Grayson, a subset of gamers cried foul of “corruption” and that she was sleeping around just to get good reviews for her game Depression Quest (despite Grayson never having written a review). Somehow Quinn became the target for ruining “journalistic integrity” instead of, you know, the actual journalist in this situation.

Meanwhile, Sarkeesian has been creating a Kickstarter-funded video series, “Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games,” for the past couple years that examines how female characters in video games are often marginalized and objectified. Many of the people attacking Sarkeesian reason their actions by arguing that her Kickstarter funds have been put to shady use, among other excuses, but these accusations have been unfounded.

Misogyny in the video game realm has been well known for a long time now. The incessant rape and death threats (among other generally horrible terms) lobbied at these two women in the past month have triggered a conversation about what can be done to change the ways women are treated in gaming by both the gamers and the developers/producers of games. The worst of it seems to have passed, hopefully, but it’s important to remember that this conversation shouldn’t be limited to just gaming.

Geek culture in general has taken over the mainstream in a way that was most likely unanticipated almost two decades ago, and now the previously put-upon culture is the one in power. So when a beloved property receives criticism, the push-back often looks like a pack of wolves defending what they perceive as “theirs.” Female game journalists like Jenn Frank are even leaving the industry because the sustained abuse has become unbearable. And unfortunately this form of abuse isn’t restricted to the dark side of gaming culture (although that is just about the worst of the worst).

Negative reviews of films based on major geek properties get attacked on a frequent basis regardless of the critic’s gender, but the comments were decidedly gender-pointed in the case of Amy Nicholson’s review of The Avengers. Nicholson, much like Sarkeesian, created a balanced and fair piece of art criticism and was met with vitriol simply because she dared to have a different opinion. She also happened to be a woman doing this, so double strike. Examples of such poetry include “stick to rom-coms, bitch,” “self-absorbed cunt,” and “she liked Green Lantern because Ryan Reynolds… was shirtless.”

Back in April of this year, veteran journalist and comics editor Janelle Asselin wrote a harsh analysis of the Teen Titans #1 comic cover. While Asselin was critical of other aspects of the cover, her most ardent criticism was the portrayal of Wonder Girl. Her points reflected concerns similar to Sarkeesian’s, namely that the female character was presented as an over-sexualized object. This is nothing new in the long and problematic history of women in comics, but it becomes a legitimate point of concern when said character is an under-aged teen. And, like clockwork, the same hateful sexism from the male-dominated target demographic arrived.

The sad thing is that this conversation about sexism isn’t just limited to traditionally geek media. In the last couple of weeks, dozens of Hollywood actresses became victims of a widespread hack into their iCloud accounts for nude photographs. Although most of the reaction to this theft and invasion of privacy was justified anger, that didn’t mean that the actresses were free from victim blaming in some corners of the media. Sarkeesian had a similar experience of victim blaming. And then when a few of the actresses, such as Mary Elizabeth Winstead, spoke out about the subject, they got the same offensive and gender-pointed insults that Quinn, Sarkeesian, et al experienced.

These incidents leave the impression that these women were aggressively attacked (including, as mentioned before, threatened with rape and death) because they expressed their individual voice, sexuality and/or dared to point out that, hey, maybe we should be more mindful and considerate of how females are portrayed and treated across the media. The fact that these situations still occur in 2014 indicates that this subject is one that should be addressed now, and silence on the matter just leaves this to continue on longer than it should in this day and age.

P.S. After finishing the article above I learned that Quinn had been spying on the 4chan message boards (where most of the misogynist harassment originates from, and also where the celebrity photos were initially posted) for some time now. Quinn and Sarkeesian have frequently been accused of making up their abuse claims, but the compilation of messages that Quinn found and released this morning reveals that #GamerGate, regardless of what it has since morphed into, very much started as an organized attack meant to tear them down.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) Movie Review

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on August 28, 2014

This review was written much like Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was: late to the party. The sequel to Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s adaptation of Miller’s comic series Sin City arrives nine years after the original, with many delays and setbacks along the way. Sin City the movie arrived at a time when digital technology used to shoot movies was still in its early years and Rodriguez was one of the filmmakers at the forefront of the tech shift. It was a little experiment (and, honestly, a neat gimmick) in manipulating cinematic visuals to perfectly recreate the source material that caught the attention of many. So without the benefit of fresh discovery or even palpable sequel excitement, how does A Dame to Kill For fare in a time that has long since moved on?

Rodriguez and Miller’s return to their grimy world is broken into three distinct stories, one of which is the Dame story of the same name from Miller’s comic series, and the other two ones written specifically for the film. It shouldn’t be too surprising that the central yarn is the best and most complete of those offered here, given Miller’s career trajectory in recent years. The other two main stories highlight this further, with their slapdash writing and anticlimactic conclusions, as if they were hastily written to fill out the movie to feature length.

But the movie’s problems pervade throughout the whole enterprise and aren’t exclusive to the new material. The performances are generally all over the place, with Powers Boothe boasting the only consistent one as the loathsome Senator Roark. Eva Green’s supreme vamping in 300: Rise of an Empire looks like a model of restraint compared to the scenery devouring under Rodriguez’s watch. Meanwhile, Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are mostly collecting paychecks while Jessica Alba is asked to handle the movie’s most emotionally complex material, which should give you an indication of how misguided this whole affair is. When Lady Gaga is the only person who feels like a normal human being, something is amiss.

Although even without the element of surprise, the heavily stylized visuals of Sin City still have the power to impress. Scattered sloppy details aside, the meticulous recreations of Miller’s artwork are striking in their use of lighting and composition. Splashes of color are highlighted against the black and white in ways that lean more towards style than any meaningful substance, but nonetheless enhance the pulpy atmosphere.

Such overt flair can go a long way in smoothing over the rougher storytelling edges, however unfortunately in this case they can’t conceal the unpleasant misogyny engrained in the work. While the males get to play a variety of characters, the females are left to struggle in roles that resort to ugly stereotypes. In this world, if a woman isn’t mentally unstable or a psychotic man-eater, she’s either a submissive hooker or a heroic hooker.

Blood, bullets and boobs in macho entertainment can only take one so far before things become troublesome. Even hyper-exaggerated pulp needs tact and tonal control to be pulled off successfully, and while the first Sin City was fairly flawed (in some of the same ways this one is), it actually displayed excitement and inspiration in translating the source. A Dame to Kill For never really recaptures that level of confidence, and the result is a dull and plodding retread of material that doesn’t achieve the same punch it once held.

Lauren Bacall Leaves Behind a Legacy at Age 89

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on August 14, 2014

As many people were still left reeling from the shocking news of Robin Williams’ death, they were struck with tragic news again the next day, Tuesday, August 12, when classic Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall passed away. Bacall had reached the age of 89 by the time of her passing, and would have turned 90 next month. At the start of her career she had been a teenage fashion model for magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, but it was her debut role in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not that made her a breakout star. This was the first of multiple collaborations with her future husband, actor Humphrey Bogart, and together they would come to define each others’ star images throughout the 1940s.

But Bacall constructed an image that was entirely her own as well right out of the gate. In the role of Slim Browning in that first film, at the age of just 19, she carried herself with the maturity and confidence of a full-grown woman who could handle herself in tough situations. Along with her sharp features and a “look” that could cut diamonds, Bacall’s husky voice helped to illustrate her star power in a way that set herself apart from Hollywood’s other top actresses. One only needs to watch the famous scene in To Have and Have Not where she tells Bogart to “put your lips together and blow [to whistle]” to understand how her talent was so readily apparent. But why stop there?



1946’s The Big Sleep reunited her with Bogart and by that point their innate chemistry had become so identifiable that the film’s dialogue was reshaped to target the appeal they had together. It was these films, as well as later ones such as Dark Passage and Key Largo, that established Bacall as a quintessential figure of noir storytelling, often as the femme fatale. She could play mysterious with a specific look and posture, while her husky voice exuded dangerous allure.

The actress would branch out into other genres like musicals and westerns in the following decade, and her well-established star persona would be used as a contrast in lighter affairs like the 1955 comedy How to Marry a Millionaire. As the studio system waned during the 1960s so did Bacall’s starring roles. She began taking on parts as more of a character actress in ways that demonstrated her range and went well beyond a defined type, such as her wounded character in the Paul Newman vehicle Harper and her part amongst the eclectic cast of Murder on the Orient Express.



Old age didn’t stop Bacall from consistently working in film and television up until the time of her death, either, and in 1997 at the age of 72 she finally received her first Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in The Mirror Has Two Faces. In addition to working with filmmakers Rob Reiner (Misery) and Lars Von Trier (Dogville), Bacall made an appearance on a late series episode of The Sopranos as herself. Her last two roles prior to her passing came in the realm of animation, earlier this year in Family Guy and the film Ernest and Celestine, but it’s the whistles heard since 1944 that ensure Lauren Bacall’s long life and career will be fondly remembered.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) Movie Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on August 11, 2014

 Unlike other childhood favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles don’t quite hold the same sway over my early nostalgia. They never really stuck with me over time like Star Wars or even Transformers despite my frequent devouring of their various cartoons as a child. I recall the initial live-action movies even less, to the point where if I had even seen them, then it was so long ago I don’t remember anything about them (except Vanilla Ice… who is better left forgotten). This, along with the current release of the new Ninja Turtles movie in theaters, prompted a revisit of the first live-action attempt from 1990 to see how it held up, if at all.

Oddly enough, the aspect that holds up the most about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie is the one most would expect to date the worst: the rubber Turtle suits. Even with their stiff moments, the Jim Henson-designed suits are more expressive than one would expect, and ably demonstrate how even warts-and-all practical effects stand the test of time better than many blue screen, optical, and/or CGI effects of the time (and even nowadays). A movie about the Ninja Turtles gains a lot of mileage by capturing the turtles and their brotherly banter even amidst the silliness of the premise, and it’s the reason why the franchise still endures today in many forms.

This is important, because even if you buy four turtles running around fighting with martial arts, there is still plenty of silliness around them that’s hard to avoid. Sometimes it’s better to just accept that they’re teenagers and ninjas, “just because.” It would have been a much better approach than the laughable origin flashback showing how the turtles and their master Splinter came to be. The cheese factor runs high, from the mannered acting to corny dialogue and scenes that simply make no sense at all.

The movie is at its best when the tone plays things straight with just enough of a knowing wink, while the weakest moments occur when the tone skews too melodramatic or juvenile. In the context of a movie aimed at children, there’s an unexpected edge when it comes to establishing a city full of rampant crime, or as much as there can be in a movie with a hockey-playing vigilante (played by Elias Koteas!) and an army of ninjas ruled by someone named Shredder (complete with racial stereotypes!). Although it skimps on the satirical angle that defined the original comics, TMNT still retains a tinge of its grit amidst the cartoonish surroundings.

Bringing the Ninja Turtles into the real world will probably never work as smoothly as they were on the comic pages and animation panels. It’s a concept that is just inherently suited to those mediums, and that is especially evident here when seeing the heroic quartet go into action, where the fight choreography is serviceable but never quite as fluid or thrilling as it should be. It may come as a backhanded compliment to say this is still the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, especially when the other choices are so varyingly woeful, but it also shows that putting in at least a little effort into unabashed product helps a good deal. Even junk food mostly fueled by decades of nostalgia can still retain its harmless charms.