The Desolation of Smaug

2013 Peter Jackson

This was not the Desolation, alright, it was the almost desolation.   Without spoiling it, I’ll just tell you that the desolation is still coming, as most of us adults know anyway, because you have to have your trilogy experience built from one novel now.  That’s why the scene/s of dialogue between Bilbo and Smaug inside the mountain were so PROLONGED.  Right.  About 40 minutes from the time Bilbo steps into the gold and starts looking for the Arkenstone is about the time that the conversation finally winds down.  That is after the dragon and all Dwarves exhaust the interior space of all the tunnels under the mountain.

Bilbo should have been dead at least a dozen times over as far as I could tell.  Smaug calls him a thief no less than 8 times.  This is his favorite word, because it translates very well in the mouth of a dragon.

Smaug is truly magnificent and menacing, as he should be, but I’m personally much more terrified of things that I cannot completely see, like in Alien for instance where we never really get a look at the whole beast, but are left some to mystery.  That mystery was completely given away, especially as Smaug pauses in his movement just long enough to reveal his missing scale, to be conveniently shot I’m sure by that one remaining black arrow, in the next, hopefully last Hobbit installation.

Everything was hyper-realized and elongated in this show, like that dialogue with Smaug.  Hey, that rhymes!  So the special effects departments get paid well and eye-candy enthusiasts get their dizzying fix, and poof, we have an excuse for a movie.  Beorn was not my favorite however.  He was just not likable enough as the man person, and his makeup was bad.  Could have done a better job there.

There were cute kids in the village of Laketown, and home-styled warmth aplenty to build up to an eventual destruction, which if you’re read the books, you know is coming.  

But speaking of books, I must say this is not an overall bad enhancement, as the facts are all still there.  Why would they not be?  There’s plenty of time to include them all.  The films are bringing to memory some of them you could forget, such as the healing of Kili's leg with Kingsfoil.  The addition and enhancement of Elvish involvement in the whole Laketown/Elven King enterprise, and the view of the Elven King’s kingdom interior were all magnificent, as were even the jail cells and barrel setups.  Nice work on the part of visualizing that whole experience.  Also the addition of the romance of an Elven sweetheart with deep dimples, matching her with a Dwarf as interested suitor was a nice cinematic touch, not in the book of course, but still not bad.  The river ride was ridiculous and not survivable, as far as I could tell, but of course they did.  Anyone can survive a CG waterfall, although they were supposed to have the lids on the barrels!

The scenes with Gandalf invading Dol Gulder all by himself were well done, especially the wickedly horrifying darkness of the enemy against the light of his staff.  That was truly amazing.  What I want to know however is where Gandalf keeps coming up with new staffs in his future iterations, and also why he didn't look at bit more young in this story since it is some time before the LOTRings.

I loved some of the little touches, like the Dwarves' little picture book with a drawn photo of "my wee lad Gimli".  Funny.

In any case, my reaction to the film overall was that I hated it as an adult.  If you’re a kid, or you have never read the books, I’m sure it was a fun experience, but for me, it is the equivalent of turning great literature into a Disney ride, and an expensive one.  

Inside Llewyn Davis

2013
Coen Bros.

An Ode to the generation in between the conservative Post War and the rebellious hippies, this one is for all the losers out there that had a dream, a voice, a guitar, or just a cat, and that did not want to just “get a job”, but they ended up either doing so anyway because the dream didn’t work out, or they died.

Llewyn Davis was the real folk singer, the real thing.  He had the voice, the Guthrie sincerity, the traveled feet, the real life background of one who was truly a “beat” type, the stokes on the guitar, the ideal.  But he ran, like so many, heads-on into the industry man who didn’t “see any money in this” - Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham). “I don’t see any money in this” is that pivotal moment, the beginning of the third act wherein the protagonist’s journey takes its turn towards a conclusion, makes a decision, and either goes all out in flames, or goes home.

There is a slice of life here of the folk scene as it was winding down and making way for the more esoteric, the more nuanced beat scene come to life in Dylan and then rock.  There is a scene of Llewyn coming out of the Gaslight Poetry Cafe at night, and there is a line of people waiting to get in, witness to the popularity and tiredness of the scene.  Llewyn yells at the line of people that ,"It's a sham, the show's a sham."  There are also the small dinner get-togethers at the apartment of a pair of true folk believers, the Gorfein's, wherein visit the square and old-school musicians who play harpsicords and "the old stuffs".  Llewyn attends the dinner parties because he needs a place to sleep and something to eat, but he is obviously suffering through it.

This story does not deal sentimentally with the beat generation at all, as some have attempted to do.  Rather, it leaves it almost silent, smoking, driving in a car without any seeming real destination, mumbling almost incomprehensible poetry lines and dropping a name in the car that sounds like Corso, ripping apart new music compared with the superiority of jazz, stopping at every rest stop necessary to stagger into the bathroom and then finally collapse on the floor drooling with a needle stuck in its arm and a surgical tube around it, then shoveled none too gracefully back into the car.  That’s pretty accurate if you ask me.  And there is Llewyn, stuck driving for them, but he closes his door on the tag along friend, and that’s that.  He still takes a stab at the music, he makes it to Chicago.

Actress Carey Mulligan plays a very effective slut.  At first, the sweet looks and charm make for a great foil for Llewyn, emphasizing the depth of his impoverishment by establishing that they have a long-time loser relationship, and then in the end she becomes another brick in the wall of insider trade for the folk scene.  As a representation of women in that scene's politics, however, she does a fine job delivering a great performance, since she refused to deliver anything else, according to the story. :)

There's Llewyn chasing a cat through the streets that turns out to not be of a gender he was expecting, close to the real thing, but not; an impostor.  That was such a perfect metaphor for the whole story.  Great stuff by the Coens.  The cat, Ulysses as it turns out, follows him out of the Gorfein's apartment, as does his music, and he is forced to carry it around with him to care for it.  I mean, what?  Who's he going to leave it with, the elevator guy?  But as an attachment, much like his box of stuff at his sister's house, and his box of records at the record company that are going to get thrown out if he doesn't take them, the cat is so much baggage that he must take care of, and like him, is getting shoved from one place to another in an increasingly smaller world.  At one point, Llewyn is asked where he's staying for the night, and he answers, "Well, there must be somebody [in the area] that doesn't hate me."

I would go into the level of confidence and sympathy we have for the point of view of Llewyn during the most touching scene in the story (again, just at the cusp of the third act, after the main character has made a major decision and is heading towards it), but that would be a spoiler.

The reality that the music industry is just someone’s whore is never more clear than this.  Llewyn most likely represents that other 99.8% that did not make it, that ended up broke, ended up with a box full of vanity press vinyl.  He most likely represents that percentage that got its ass kicked in an alley, and took a back seat to those whose studios catered to only the 1.8% that they happened to like.  He also, I am sure, represents the other large percentage that the music "system" used to utilize as fodder from the streets by creating an archaic workaround that was very much like the old time "company store" for coal miners.  This was more like reality than most other stories I’ve seen representing a romanticized “generational movement”.  

This one is not for the audience of the popular generational ideal.  This one was for those who actually lived it, attempted to love it, and lost out in one way or another.

This is a must-see if you’re a 60’s buff, a 50’s sympathizer, or just simply a music fan.  Others hooked on pop culture, easy solutions, or with no sense of history (romanticism) please never mind.

Silver Linings Playbook

2012

Ok, I just saw this film again.  I love this movie!!  ( my shortest post ever?)

Philomena

Philomena

2013

Ok, I don't like it.  There were touching moments, quite a few, and quite a few comedic moments.  The whole thing really "works" of course, because it's brilliantly directed and acted, and has great chemistry, etc.  So why don't I like it?

Because it's also a highly emotionally manipulative work that has the underpinnings of the homosexual agenda.  It takes a serious subject of the abuse of religious position, power, and greed, and turns it sideways into a manipulative text on homosexuality and the supposed absurdity of sexual abstinence.  It contrasts quite rightly the negative results of sexophobic nuns improperly administering punishment that has been left over from a bygone era of dark age mentality and cruelty, combined with a greedy sensibility, with that of the question of our sexual nature and the question so aptly put by the Martin Sixsmith character played by Steve Coogan, "But why would God give us such a powerful thing as sexuality only to then tell us we must suppress it?" (this is my wording).

This again plays into the hands of the "gay" agenda, as well as Philomena's absolutely blank and unabashed acceptance of her son's homosexual nature, explaining that she "knew all along" that he was homosexual, because he was "such a sensitive and caring boy", inseparable from his sister, so they took them both together.  As if sensitive and caring is the essential ingredient of "being" homosexual.

The writers, Martin Sixsmith (the real one), Steve Coogan, and Jeff Pope, have twisted the wrench here by taking a true story, then tying Catholicism, sexual reticence, and of all things George Bush and the cessation of funding for AIDS research altogether for a 1-2 punch against conservatism, but also thereby ruining, or at best completely clouding the real issue of compassion and grace that the Church is also known to have for lost girls, family, and children.

Booo.  I don't like being manipulated.


Agitatus

Nebraska

2013

Paramount/Vantage

“Universal”

Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, and Stacey Keach

Woody Grant, David his son, and Kate, Woody’s wife, slowly, and methodically shuffle through every single rotting room of an old homestead that Woody’s father built with his own hands in the middle of Nebraska, the landscape where everything is bare and plain, and stretching for miles to the next homestead or town.  This is exactly the description of the search through Woody’s soul, the different rooms of a man’s heart.  And amongst all that empty ruin, the broken glass, the completely demolished crib, the alcoholism, the slow depreciation of the body, the son finds a way to hold up a bit of life for his old man, to stand next to him in the face of his ridiculousness, his absurdity, his delusion, and delivers a punch that we’re so glad happens at the proper time.  

Bruce Dern is Woody, Will Forte (SNL fame) is one of his sons, and June Squibb is Woody’s wife.  Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad) joins as David’s brother Ross, the other son.   Stacey Keach does a fantastic job in an important smaller role of an old friend in Hawthorne, Nebraska, where Woody grew up.  I remember Bruce Dern from Silent Running (1972), mostly.  That was one of my all-time favorite sci-fi flicks when I was a teen, right along side THX-1138 (George Lucas’ first breakthrough starring Robert Duvall).

This story is about respect, honor, and commitment, even in the face of what appears to be a shattered and worthless life.  It’s about coming to terms with an individual life.

But it is equally about the real desire that we have as fathers to leave something for our children, even if it’s just a truck, and a compressor.

A fabulous job of revitalizing Black and White photography, and a completely appropriate use for this story’s setting.  I liked the fact that at the start, director Alexander Payne (The Descendants - 2011, and About Schmidt - 2002),  used the old Universal logo, also in B/W.  But what could not have been more appropriate than the non-use of color was the inclusion of relatives, and people revealing everything they were - also, eh hem..in black and white, especially the wife Kate.  She was the bullhorn of opinion, the town crier of lists of sins, outspoken and not a hint of embarrassment at her own self-defacement.  She left no rock unturned.  Kudos to the bravery of writer Bob Nelson, who previously to this has written only some TV drama and comedy.  There is a bite to this one.  

Ed Johnson of NUVO.NET does a review in the Nov27-Dec4 issue.  He states, “Nebraska almost succumbs to ugliness, but eventually finds it’s footing and pays off.”  I have to agree here somewhat.  That is what appears to happen if you’re not paying close attention.  But that so-called ugliness is simply truth telling, made possible by Kate, in fact, who plays a much larger role than you would at first imagine.  Ed Johnson also notes that he wonders, “weather Payne and Nelson’s (the screenwriter) parade of sad, angry, inane, lost and /or insufferable folks was an indictment of rural communities or humanity in general.”   I have to say neither.  (Please read “neither" with an “I” instead of an “E”).  It is a parade, yes, but a very carefully executed parade through the various vagaries of the degrees of motivations and manipulations that people are capable of, thereby bringing an even higher contrast to the almost winsomely honest performance of Will Forte’s character as his ingenuous son.  Again, more black and white.  This is an expose of the nature of people in the progress of dying.  

The family watching football had to be one of my favorite moments of the film.  Funny, and appropriately timed as a relief from what could have been a tedious subject.  A road movie, as Johnson said in his review, yes, but not a barren one.  I knew when the last shot was happening on the screen, when the titles would come.  It was a great closer, perfectly done, and very satisfying, a complete “trip”, without leaving us in some kind of existential blur or a question about what we should do now.  What to do?  Well, it made me want to pause and spend time with someone, to listen to them, to possibly alleviate their desires for life.  

Great film.