The Americans: Divestment Review

THE AMERICANS: DIVESTMENT

Apartheid is evil.  American segregation was already bad enough, but despite the immoral legal boundaries placed on the African-American population blacks were able to still achieve greatness in the world of science (George Washington Carver), business (Madame C.J. Walker), and the arts (seriously, you have to ask?).  As much as one loathes 'separateness' in South Africa, Divestment doesn't make a case for justifying a particularly brutal act of retribution.  It does however, give yet more standout performances and a chance to see just how things are breaking for our favorite spies.

We have at least three stories going on today.  There's Elizabeth and Philip Jennings (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys), who are holding the two South African anti-anti-apartheid operatives hostage to get information out of them.  The black South African Communist agent, Reuben Ncgobo (Dwayne Alistair Thomas), decides that there is no mercy for the enemies of the movement.  He takes the older and more fierce of the two, Venter (Neil Sandilands), finds him guilty of crimes against the people, and gives him a tire necklace as a parting gift.  To the horror of Elizabeth, Philip, and the other South African, college student Todd (Will Pullen), Ncgobo put a tire over Venter and set it on fire.  Elizabeth and Philip, highly disturbed by this act, decide that once they get Todd to reveal his information, to let him go, over the loud objection of Ncgobo.

Meanwhile, daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) starts looking into their old friend Gregory, having some consciousness awakening apart from her sheltered world.  If only things at the FBI were that calm and confident, as the investigation of Walter Taffet (Jefferson Mays) continues, and Martha (Alison Wright) continues to be evasive in her answers.  She finally confronts Clark, her husband who is suppose to be doing Taffet's job, wondering who he is.  Finally, our favorite traitor Nina (Annet Mahendru) reaps rewards for informing on her cellmate: a reduced sentence from death to a mere ten years.  However, there is yet more hope.  If she can get Refusenik scientist Anton Baklanov (Michael Aronov) to work by gaining his confidence, her debt to the State will be considered paid in full.  Essentially, she will be released.  However, it does mean having to work under Vasily (Peter Von Berg), whom she betrayed.  The creepy old guy she slept with to get information isn't happy about this either, but work is work.

I think that Alison Wright's work on The Americans is coming into its own, and its a wonder to watch.  The confusion, the hurt, the terror of this, yes I'll say it, poor woman, duped in love and now having betrayed her own boss Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas) is overwhelming her.  She may not be putting all this together, but she knows that something just isn't right.   Sometimes Martha appears to be lost in the shuffle of the great work of the others, but recently we see that Wright has been given something wonderful to work with and she makes the most of her opportunities.

Thomas for his part does excellent work too, beating up the mail bot in an unspoken rage about the whole situation. 

The setting of Venter on fire is shocking, surprisingly graphic, and a sign that for even as someone as committed to the Cause as Elizabeth, some things are just beyond.  One feels for Philip's insistence that they let the younger Todd go, a boy who fears being necklaced in the same way that his 'mentor' was.  You see that Philip is starting to really have his conscience weigh on him, and it is tearing at him. 

It's interesting to see how ethics play a large part of the work The Illegals do.  For Nina, it is a question of survival.  She is desperate to live, and with no one to serve as her advocate, not her FBI agent lover or the son of a powerful Soviet official to help, she must do whatever it takes, even if means betraying her trusting cellmate.  Better her than me is the motto.  For Philip and Elizabeth, two people used to killing, the immolation of Venter shocks and horrifies them (and let's face it, it takes a lot to horrify the highly loyal Elizabeth).  Perhaps Reuben had a reason to do so, but I couldn't help think what the difference is between Ncgobo setting his opponent on fire and ISIS setting that Jordanian pilot on fire. 

Perhaps because I am having trouble understanding why Martha is not more concerned about what is going on with Clark I think this episode isn't as strong as others.  However, particularly with regards with Alison Wright's performance, Divestment is, and I never tire of saying it, another great The Americans episode.

7/10

Next Episode: Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?

The Americans: Walter Taffet Review

THE AMERICANS: WALTER TAFFET

All the carefully laid-out plans of Clark's are about to come undone thanks to a bug.  Walter Taffet gives the hour to a character we see basically either at home or at work, and at long last, The Strange Love of Martha Hanson starts coming apart.  The fact that Martha is one of the most innocent victims of the Jennings' master plan makes it all the more heartbreaking. 

Things keep getting worse and worse for Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys).  Not only is he highly upset that his wife Elizabeth (Keri Russell) took their daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) on an excursion into the ghetto, but the bug that Martha (Alison Wright) planted long ago in her boss Agent Gaad's office (Richard Thomas) has finally been discovered.  Martha, worried about what this means, quickly destroys the recording device she has.  All this time she has thought that Clark was working as some sort of investigator to keep tabs on the FBI for any potential traitors.  Now she sees that Walter Taffet (Jefferson Mays) is the actual agent, and she wants to know who Clark really is.

Philip and Elizabeth, however, have to deal with taking two South Africans who are working to discredit the anti-apartheid movement.  This means having to kill a poor redheaded woman who was seeing Todd (Will Pullen), the student, whom the SA agent Venter (Neil Sandilands) was coordinating with.

There were a couple of things about Walter Taffet that puzzled me.  Why would Martha not be more persistent about the issue of Clark?  Here was this man whom she loved and whom she thought she was working with as a covert agent for the U.S., only to find he isn't whom he said he was.  Clark, for his part, now has this potential time bomb on his hands.  Will Martha fall apart?  Will she crack under the impending investigation?  Will he have to reveal all?

He has revealed his secret son to Elizabeth, which is extremely interesting.  Less a sign of his desperation, or even of his trust in his first/current wife, it could be reciprocation for her admitting that she should have told Philip about the field trip with Paige.  In her own way, Elizabeth is admitting that Philip has a voice in their daughter's upbringing.  He is in danger of losing two of his children, and add to that his complicated life colliding all over the place.

Noah Emmerich, who plays FBI Agent Stan Beeman, directs this episode, and he does such a masterful job one wonders why he doesn't direct more.  The final scene, the abduction of the two South Africans, is set to Fleetwood Mac's The Chain, and I don't know a current television series that edits music and visuals to such a brilliant degree as The Americans.  I still tremble at how last season's finale Echo made Golden Earring's Twilight Zone into both an intense ride and descriptive of the plot.  Fleetwood Mac's The Chain similarly does the same for Walter Taffet.    

Each moment in Walter Taffet is brilliant: the discovery of the bug, Martha's silent terror as she destroys the recording device, Philip and Elizabeth's dual confessions, and especially the final plan of abduction (complete with the killing of an innocent bystander).  I think it helps to remember that The Americans is made for adults by adults (in this case, Emmerich) versus something like Franklin & Bash's fourth season episode Honor Thy Mother, which appeared to be made for horny teen boys by horny teen boys (and seeing Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer, two men in their forties, in that was beyond sad).  Sorry for the digression, but I'm finishing up my Franklin & Bash retrospective.

It will also be the last time Franklin & Bash are mentioned in the same sentence as The Americans.  My apologies to The Wig Shop.

If only for my confusion about how Martha took the discovery of Clark's not really being part of the U.S. government, I probably would rate Walter Taffet higher.  As it stands though, the episode is still a knockout, giving us more to worry about when it comes to the Jennings' lives. 

8/10

Next Episode: Divestment

Jurassic World: A Review

JURASSIC WORLD

It's Not Like We Haven't Seen Dinosaurs Before...

I find myself in the oddest position when talking about Jurassic World.  First, I never saw either The Lost World: Jurassic Park or Jurassic Park III.  Therefore, I know nothing of the 'franchise' beyond the original Jurassic Park (noting that I doubt a series of Jurassic Park films were planned save for the fact that the first was a monster hit...no pun intended).  Second, I haven't seen the original Jurassic Park since its release twenty-two years ago (making me feel very, very old).  If there were references or plot details in those other films that Jurassic World touched on, then they pretty much flew over my head with a couple of exceptions.

I figure that I should get this out of the way before going on.  I'm going to be the spoilsport and say that Jurassic World is, while not a bad film, by no means as great a film as its been cracked up to be.  It IS entertaining in a dumb way.  It IS what it set out to be: a monster movie.  That being said, I cannot bend to current fanboy craze and say how wonderful everything was, how cool or awesome it was to have a.) dinosaurs or b.) Chris Pratt, movie star du jour, on screen.  It might have to do with the fact that I didn't see the other Jurassic Park films and/or that I am a stickler for things like plot and logic (which also goes to explain why I now pretty much loath Doctor Who, but that's for another time).  Jurassic World is a film that I found funny when it shouldn't have been, odd when it shouldn't have been, and which never answers the one question I think should be answered...

WHY DID THEY OPEN THAT DAMN PARK IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Open it they did, despite the horrifying fiasco of the first attempt (and I figure the more horrifying fiascos of the other two).  Now billed as Jurassic World, this combination EPCOT/Animal Kingdom/Sea World/Universal Studios has thousands of people flocking to see the dinosaurs eat and live.  There's even a petting zoo where little children can ride triceratops and hug baby brontosauruses. 

A side note: having been to regular petting zoos myself, where I've seen geese gone wild and go after people, has the petting zoo ever had a triceratops bite the little tyke?  Are guests made to sign a waiver releasing the park from any liability should the dinosaurs, well, kill them?  Silly me for applying logic to this.

Anyway, into this Jurassic World enter two children: sulky teen Zach (Nick Robinson) and perky tween Gray (Ty Simpkins).  They are sent by their mother Karen (Judy Greer) to be watched over by their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is the executive in charge of the park.  It will serve as a distraction while Karen and her husband get divorced.  As expected Claire is simply too busy/uptight/uncaring to bother with these little people (she for example, has no idea how old they are) and pawns them off to her assistant while she develops the newest attraction.  It is Indominus rex, a new genetically engineered dinosaur that is sure to give guests that new thrill they so want (we being so fickle as to no longer being impressed by living dinosaurs...well, perhaps they're not too far off the mark there, but I digress).

In the park also is White Hunter...I mean, raptor trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt).  He is dead-set against his 'animals' being used as war machines by the evil military guy (Vincent D'Onofrio).  Claire, who had ONE date with Owen many Eggs ago (Doctor Who reference there), goes to Owen to have him inspect the holding facility for the Indominus rex...because apparently there are no structural engineers at the park or that can be hired.  Whatevs....I'm just going along for the thrill ride.

Little Gray cries because his parents are divorcing, but Zach isn't too interested, being occupied by staring at girls (despite having a clingy girlfriend back home).  Having ditched the assistant many Eggs ago too, they go around the park in a bit of a daze really. 

Well, we learn that the Indominus is capable of high thought, having tricked the puny humans into helping her escape.  It now goes on a hunting expedition, and it's up to Owen, with a little help from high-heel wearing Claire, to stop it and save...I'm not sure.  She takes an awful long time to remember her two nephews are out there, and the 'evacuation' of the park is a rather leisurely affair (despite having a rampaging beast on the loose, the guests are pretty much left on their version of Downtown Disney, waiting for something but having enough time to get beers at the Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville bar, but much more on that later).  The Indominus rex, created from part T. rex and part something 'mysterious', goes after the boys...the same boys their aunt can't remember are out there for what I figure must have been at least two hours as the crisis grows and grows.

Eventually, Owen is talked/coerced into using his raptors to hunt Indominus down, but we get a twist in that wild hunt.  The park devolves into chaos, people are killed (some rather brutally) and Claire learns to love.

Seriously...she learns to love her nephews and slips into the muscular arms of Andy Dwyer.


I have to get this off my chest before I go on.  Jurassic World is perhaps the laziest script I've seen in a while, at least this year.  There's no consistency and it almost enjoys contradicting itself.  Let's get a look at a few points of idiocy and illogic in the film, courtesy of Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Derek Connolly, and director Colin Trevorrow.

As a side note, anytime you have more than three writers working on a script, I worry.

Aunt Claire got Zack and Gray VIP passes that can get them past all lines to get into rides and exhibits quickly (the ultimate Fast Pass).  Yet we see them waiting in long lines to get into the bubble-craft things. 

Owen can control the raptors with a clicker, but that idea comes and goes at will, because sometimes his just bonding with them is enough...apparently to have them come to his rescue at the most opportune moment (eye-rolling moment for both Fidel and me).

A big deal is made out of Claire's footwear, but we never see her take her heels off.  In fact, in what is suppose to be a climatic moment when she "releases the Kraken" (aka lets the big T. rex out), we DISTINCTLY hear the clicking of heels as she runs out to have it follow her.  I've never known a woman to outrun anything/anyone in high heels.

Zack and Gray get on their little bubble-craft just before the order comes in to close the park.  Yet there is no override device on the machines to get them back to the ride, so in theory could someone ride on those things for hours and hours until the park had to send someone to basically corral the guest?

Claire orders an evacuation of the park, but when we do get glimpses of the guests, the management or staff doesn't seem to really make much effort in getting anyone out.  I observed to my friend Fidel Gomez Jr. (whom I'm happy to report is very much alive and who watched the film with me, the first time we've seen something together in at least five years) that the Titanic was evacuated faster and more efficiently than Jurassic World.

This last point was a big one for me.  You have a growing crisis going on, but we never see ships coming in, or there being any real effort to get people out.  No ships, no helicopters, no battleships...nothing.  Instead, the guests are told there's been some kind of 'containment anomaly' and that's pretty much it.  I'm suppose to believe that the park is being shut down, but when the pterosaurs are rampaging, there are still little tykes riding the triceratops.  Wouldn't they have shut down the little petting zoo by now? 

I digress to point out that Disney's Animal Kingdom shuts down at five, and the Disney people are very efficient at getting people out.  Same for the Bronx Zoo...once the zoo closes, the animals essentially disappear.  I guess Jurassic World doesn't work the same way.

Even more bizarre (and hilarious to me) was that when the pterosaurs finally attacked a la The Birds, I saw one of the extras grab a couple of beers and run off.  SERIOUSLY?  No margarita is worth my life.  And did Claire and Owen really have to kiss after rescuing the annoying kids with flying dinosaurs still flying about them?

Apparently, in Jurassic World there are other things that don't exist.  Let's go along with the idea that they didn't tell the guests why the park was closing.  Apparently, Jurassic World has no Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Skype, or YouTube, because apparently news of the insanity going on in the park never appeared to reach the outside world.  No one posting some "I can't believe their closing Jurassic World" on their news feed or "Still waiting to leave JW" tweet.  Yes, maybe I am overthinking that point, but I can't really buy the world they created (especially since I don't understand why we're told it was Sir Dickie's John Hammond's dying wish that they really wanted to open the park after his grandchildren were almost eaten alive.  I wish they had had an auto-animatronic or hologram figure of Sir Dickie saying "Welcome to Jurassic Park").

Look, I can suspend some disbelief, but not to where I'm basically asked, "Don't think at all, just focus on how cool the big dinosaurs are" in a park that I probably couldn't afford to go to...even on Coupon Day (Fidel reminded me of that).  Fidel also had a great line when Claire tears her shirt open to show he was a huntress.  "What does that mean?" Owen asks her.  "Means I'm ready", she replies.  He quipped, "Ready for a photo shoot".

As much at Jurassic World would like for me to care, I couldn't, especially about the subplot of the kids finding they love each other and their parents' divorce (poor Greer had nothing to do but literally cry IN EVERY SCENE SHE WAS IN, which was in three: beginning, middle, and end.  Cry, cry, cry she did).  It's not a good sign that when little Gray cries about finding out his parents have two sets of lawyers...DIVORCE lawyers, I started laughing.  It also doesn't help I actually wanted them to get eaten.

Watching Jurassic World does not convince me that Bryce Dallas Howard got this gig because she doesn't have some connections in the industry.  Granted, it's a one-note character, but she couldn't do anything with it apart from being a cliché.  Same goes for Pratt, who has decided to abandon the dimwitted goofball he was on Parks & Rec and which he used to great effect in Guardians of the Galaxy.  Instead, he's all square-jawed hunkiness, manly to a T. rex, which has the unfortunate effect of making him less endearing and more 'this is my bid to be a stoic action star'.  Fine, let him have a career, but this doesn't make for me a case that he's a.) a real action star and/or b.) a real actor.

Let's see him play Hamlet, and we'll talk.

There's also that military subplot and the 'mad scientist' machinations of Dr. Wu (B.D. Wong, the only actor to return from any Jurassic Park film, begging the question 'why didn't anyone else stop them from opening the damn park?').  Both drag the film down considerably, making it longer than it should be.

I'll say that there was at least one highlight: Jake Johnson was a delight as Lowery, the comic relief who rattled off quips while working in the control room (itself a subject of arbitrary logic...THERE they could see the Indominus was still in its holding cage, but at the cage itself, it registered as NOT being there.  How convenient).  I also like the Michael Crichton nod (you can see a book with his picture on it on Lowery's work area). 

I like dinosaurs.  Dinosaurs are cool.  However, for what it's worth, I can't get excited over those in Jurassic World.  I still prefer the original.  There was a real WOW factor there.  Oddly, I thought those in Jurassic World were more predictable than the ones in Jurassic Park, rather than the other way round.

Fidel and I were surprised that people applauded at the end of Jurassic World, since both of us thought it was not a particularly good film.  We're big on logic, even in a popcorn film (see, Galaxy, Guardians of).  I guess people are easily pleased nowadays, just like the guests at the Jurassic World, who need "Bigger, Faster, More Teeth" and aren't as thrilled with dinosaurs walking among them as they were twenty-two years ago.  Fidel made an interesting point.  He didn't buy the premise that people would become blasé about dinosaurs.  He figured people would still be excited to see dinosaurs, period, and wouldn't be demanding different, more brutal types.

I think the wild success and acclaim Jurassic World has had proves him wrong, and the impending sequel (seriously, how stupid can people be to go BACK into that damn looney bin) puts the coda on it all.  "These people, they never learn", a character says.  True dat, true dat.

DECISION: C-

JURASSIC PARK FILMS

Jurassic Park

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park III

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World Dominion

Jurassic World Rebirth

Lust for Life: A Review

 

LUST FOR LIFE

Now, I love the works of Vincent van Gogh as much as the next guy.  That being said, I went into Lust for Life, the biographical film about van Gogh, with certain expectations.  I can say that I was disappointed by the end result, but there is barely enough to warrant a viewing.

The film follows the life of Vincent van Gogh (Kirk Douglas) as he struggles to find his way in life and with growing mental instability.  He thinks first he should follow in his disapproving father's footsteps and serve as a preacher, but finds that he is uninspiring in sharing the word of God to the miners.  Instead, he basically becomes one of them, sharing in their intense poverty, much to the disapproval of the missionary group that sent him (most reluctantly, I might add).  Returning home, he starts to draw and paint full-time but he just can't help himself.  Arguing with his family over faith, he declares his passionate love for Kay (Jeannette Sterk), a recent widow horrified by his intensity. 

He leaves after she rejects him constantly and goes to Paris, to find himself in the arms and home of Christine (Pamela Brown), a laundress, who sometimes looks for easier work, and we'll leave it at that.  While there, he meets with a cousin in the art world, who sees potential in his work.  He also gets the ever-loyal support of his brother Theo (James Donald), with whom he lives with on and off and who supports him morally and financially. 

Eventually, even Christine finds Vincent too poor to tolerate, especially when he spends what money they have on paint versus food.  Vincent does find some compatriots in the art scene, particularly Paul Gaugin (Anthony Quinn), whom the other artists admire.  They move in together in the south of France, but their relationship, like all of Vincent's, is an extremely tempestuous one.  After one violent clash, Vinnie slices off his ear (which makes the town mock him).  Vincent goes to a mental institution, comes out, and eventually shoots himself, believing he died a failure.

What I really found if not hilarious but overblown in Lust for Life was Douglas' Oscar-nominated performance as Vincent van Gogh.  It seemed there was one speed Douglas had: INTENSE with a Capital I.  Sometimes it looked like he was less acting than he was attempting to do his version of a Frank Gorshin impersonation of Douglas.  It was all one-note: uber-intense to where it is becomes almost parody.  This is a real shame because I thought that when Douglas showed a calmer side (as when he was gently wooing Kay before going all intense and out-of-control) we saw what would have made van Gogh a fascinating figure, someone whom people could live with and admire.

However, this wasn't what we got.  Instead, we got the worst traits of Kirk Douglas: an inability to tone things down, a chance to see him go over-the-top repeatedly, and constantly screaming and posing all over the place.

It's interesting that Anthony Quinn won his second Oscar for his supporting role as Paul Gaugin despite appearing halfway through Lust for Life and leaving long before this very long film is over.  Essentially, he is there just in the middle of the picture, but I see Quinn gave a solid performance.  Unlike Douglas, Quinn wasn't overacting or being big.  In fact, Quinn toned things down at times as Gaugin, his final scene when he leaves the injured van Gogh being quite subtle. 

Anthony Quinn, not known as the most subtle actor working at the time, managed to make Douglas' broad interpretation more outlandish.  I personally would have preferred a shorter film about their troubled relationship (an early example of frenemies) and/or a film about Paul Gaugin himself.

I wasn't too thrilled with the voice-over by Donald as Theo, having never enjoyed voice-over myself.

Director Vincente Minnelli did have some beautiful imagery, bringing a lot of van Gogh's world to life in stunning and impressive cinematography.  There was one point when one could see it was obviously a set (the 'field' where Kay and Vincent go together), but apart from that the attention to detail was rendered quite well.

I never felt we really got to know Vincent van Gogh.  I think we got instead was Kirk Douglas going over-the-top, doing an impersonation of a Kirk Douglas performance.  I don't see why people think it is a brilliant performance.  When I wasn't struggling to stay awake I found myself at times laughing at Douglas (particularly when the townfolk come to mock van Gogh and he becomes predictably hysterical).  If I were to recommend something, it would be the MGM-produced documentary Darkness Into Light, which was created to promote Lust for Life.  I found that short film more involving, interesting, and informative about van Gogh than this biopic.

Still, it is very pretty, and Anthony Quinn is quite good in it.  Those are pluses, minor as they are.  If given the choice, however, I'd pick the song over the film.



1853-1890

DECISION: C+

The Americans: Born Again Review

THE AMERICANS: BORN AGAIN

ONE thing I'll say about Born Again, the brilliant The Americans episode that pushes the show to greater levels than its already achieved: like Elizabeth and Philip Jennings.

I don't like Paige's church either, with their hippie-drippy lefty liberation theology.  I'd accept that Paige could fall in with a conservative evangelical church.  That seems more accurate given how the Religious/Christian Right was a powerful political force in the 1980s (and whose power has dimmed in the ensuing years, thanks to the rise of such things as transgenderism and same-sex marriage virtually replacing heterosexual marriage as the norm).  What ARE the chances of Paige therefore, finding this church that has the trappings of religion but thinks that the Lord's work involves nuclear freeze and anti-apartheid protests? 

They MUST be Episcopalians...

Born Again has the standard The Americans brilliant acting, brilliant script, and sets up more of the stories that will be part of the season that is already turning out to be one of its best.

As stated, Paige (Holly Taylor) got baptized, which didn't please her parents Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys).  At the moment, though, her turning to the opiate of the masses is just one of the issues they have to face.  Philip still struggles with the pressure his minder Gabriel (Frank Langella) is putting on him to sleep with Kimberly (Julia Garner), the girl who is close to Paige's age, to get to the recording device in her father's briefcase.  Gabriel also has some more news for Philip: his former love Irina, whom we met in Season One's Duty and Honor has been captured and sent back to the motherland.  Gabriel also tells Philip that the son they had (whom he didn't know he had until he and Irina reunited) is serving in Afghanistan.

Gabriel also has a task for Elizabeth.  Hans (Peter Mark Kendall), her protégé, has inadvertently stumbled upon a major player for the South African government, here to discredit the anti-apartheid movement.  Getting at the SA agent would be a way to strike at President Reagan and the American government, so she is ordered to follow up on Hans' investigation. 

Elizabeth for her part does a little follow-up of her own, this time with Paige.  She takes our girl to the ghetto to talk about her old friend Gregory, their involvement in the civil rights movement, and to show that they are more alike than they realize.  It is also Elizabeth's way of slowly working into conversation the fact that Paige's parents are Soviet spies.

It's interesting how despite their atheistic worldview, faith has a powerful hold on the Jennings.  Elizabeth is a believer...in the Soviet system.  Philip's faith is more ambivalent, brought down by the acts his faith requires of him.  He, a decent man whose conscience plagues him, knows he has chosen this life.  He, however, struggles much with all the things coming at him: sleeping with minors, seeing his daughter both slip into something he believes to be wrong AND being dragged into their sordid lives.  The war that his country is involved in might end up killing the son he does not know.  Add to that that unlike Elizabeth, Philip doesn't dislike America (he seems rather fond of the place, having become a country music fan). 

This is the real Cold War: between Elizabeth and Philip.  It isn't overt: they don't hate each other by any stretch.  However, they now are coming into conflict on many issues, particularly when it comes to their children.  Both want what's 'best' for them, but they don't agree on what is 'best'.  To Elizabeth, doing work for the Great Soviet cause is what's best.  For Philip, doing what they want is what's best.  All that the Jennings have seen and done is causing that rift: Philip's fears for Paige and Henry, Elizabeth's hopes for Paige and Henry. 

We see this in how both of them attempt to silently influence Paige.  Philip goes to her room and tells her to be herself, to not let others take her down roads she doesn't want to go.  Elizabeth takes her down those roads, to the ghetto to begin a slow indoctrination.  It is almost as if Paige is now just another American Elizabeth has to lure to work for the Soviet Union.  The tug-of-war between them is a highlight of Born Again.

We see Russell and Rhys give really great performances, particularly when they take a few hits from the marijuana Gabriel gave Philip to use with Kimmie.  As they talk and find Philip's excuse for not sleeping with Kimberly amusing (he had to pray first, using Paige's methods of prayer), one got the sense that they were saying more than what the words were.  In fact, one wonders whether Philip wishes there were a God to absolve him of his sins.

This isn't to say that the other subplots are short-shrifted.  Nina (Annet Mahendru), still rotting in the gulag, has her own moral choice, one that is easy for her.  She sells her cellmate out and is rewarded with a good steak dinner...and a chance to live and outwit the death sentence she is under for having worked for the Americans.  Her scenes are brief and pop in and out quickly, but they didn't interrupt the flow of the story.  Instead, they serve as an opening to what I hope will be more stories on Nina, since Mahendru is an underused and unsung aspect of The Americans. 

I will say, given how she is in a rotten place, how can Nina still look so good?  Granted, she doesn't look glamorous, but she still is a knockout despite being locked up.  No woman looks that good on Orange is the New Black. 

We also got brief scenes of Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) slowly moving on with his life: he brought a date and slept with her, and he seems to figure that there really will be no reconciliation.  I think it's a bit of a set-up for the rest of his personal story this season, but it works.

I was really impressed with the acting all around.  The various teams (Langella/Rhys, Taylor/Russell, Rhys/Russell) all work so well that there is a great pleasure in watching this ultimately tragic story of families caught up in realpolitik.

10/10

Next Episode:  Walter Taffet

Tuesdays With Oscar: A Recap

If there is at least one thing that I dislike about school, is that it disrupted the flow I had on my Tuesdays With Oscar retrospective.  I went from 1928-1943, but I think that in retrospect I was getting myself in knots as well.

I have been reworking my retrospective to make it more user (and author)-friendly, but I think it would be a good time to go over my choices as I would have picked them.  With that, I present a stopgap in my Tuesdays With Oscar Retrospective.

Remember, these are unofficial until such a time as I watch all the nominees that year and can finalize my selections.  As always, this is just for fun. An asterisk (*) indicates they did win the Oscar.  When you see two names, the first indicates my choice from the nominees, the second from those not nominated whom I think should have been.

BEST DIRECTOR

1928: King Vidor (The Crowd)
1929: Ernst Lubitsch (The Patriot)/G. W. Pabst (Diary of a Lost Girl)
1930: Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front)*
1931: Josef von Sternberg (Morocco)/Fritz Lang (M.)
1932: Josef von Sternberg (Shanghai Express)/Tod Browning (Freaks)
1933: George Cukor (Little Women)/Leo McCarey (Duck Soup)
1934: Frank Capra (It Happened One Night) *
1935: Michael Curtiz (Captain Blood)/James Whale (Bride of Frankenstein)
1936: Gregory LaCava (My Man Godfrey)/Charles Chaplin (Modern Times)
1937: Leo McCarey (The Awful Truth) *
1938: Michael Curtiz (Angels With Dirty Faces)/Howard Hawks (Bringing Up Baby)
1939: Victor Fleming (Gone With the Wind)*/George Cukor (The Women)
1940: John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath)*/Howard Hawks (His Girl Friday)
1941: Orson Welles (Citizen Kane)
1942: William Wyler (Mrs. Miniver)*
1943: Michael Curtiz (Casablanca)*

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1936: Alice Brady (My Man Godfrey)
1937: Andrea Leeds (Stage Door)/Billie Burke (Topper)
1938: Spring Byington (You Can't Take it With You)/Una O'Connor (The Adventures of Robin Hood)
1939: Hattie McDaniel (Gone With the Wind)*/Margaret Hamilton (The Wizard of Oz)
1940: Judith Anderson (Rebecca)/Carmen Miranda (Down Argentine Way)
1941: Sara Allgood (How Green Was My Valley)/Dorothy Comingore (Citizen Kane)
1942: Agnes Moorehead (The Magnificent Ambersons)/Dorothy Lamour (Road to Morocco)
1943: Katina Paxinou (For Whom the Bell Tolls)*

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1936: Basil Rathbone (Romeo & Juliet)
1937: Roland Young (Topper)
1938: Robert Morley (Marie Antoinette)/Basil Rathbone (The Adventures of Robin Hood)
1939: Brian Ahearne (Juarez)/Bela Lugosi (Son of Frankenstein)
1940: Jack Oakie (The Great Dictator)/Conrad Veidt (The Thief of Bagdad)
1941: Sidney Greenstreet (The Maltese Falcon)/Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane)
1942: Henry Travers (Mrs. Miniver)/Monty Wolley (The Man Who Came to Dinner)
1943: Claude Rains (Casablanca)

BEST ACTRESS

1928: Janet Gaynor (Street Angel)/Rene Falconetti (The Passion of Joan of Arc)
1929: Jeanne Eagels (The Letter)/Louise Brooks (Diary of a Lost Girl)
1930: Greta Garbo (Anna Christie)
1931: Marie Dressler (Min & Bill)*
1932: Marie Dressler (Emma)/Marlene Dietrich (Shanghai Express)
1933: May Robson (Lady for a Day)/Margaret Dumont (Duck Soup)
1934: Bette Davis (Of Human Bondage)
1935: Katharine Hepburn (Alice Adams)/Greta Garbo (Anna Karenina)
1936: Carole Lombard (My Man Godfrey)
1937: Irene Dunne (The Awful Truth)
1938: Wendy Hiller (Pygmalion)/Katharine Hepburn (Bringing Up Baby)
1939: Vivien Leigh (Gone With the Wind)*/Joan Crawford (The Women)
1940: Joan Fontaine (Rebecca)/Rosalind Russell (His Girl Friday)
1941: Barbara Stanwyck (Ball of Fire)/Barbara Stanwyck (The Lady Eve)
1942: Bette Davis (Now, Voyager)/Lucille Ball (The Big Street)
1943: Joan Fontaine (The Constant Nymph)/Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt)

BEST ACTOR

1928: Emil Jannings (The Last Command)*
1929: Chester Morris (Alibi)
1930: George Arliss (Disraeli)*/Lew Ayres (All Quiet on the Western Front)
1931: Adolphe Menjou (The Front Page)/Peter Lorre (M.)
1932: Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde)*/Paul Muni (Scarface)
1933: Charles Laughton (The Private Life of Henry VIII)*
1934: Clark Gable (It Happened One Night)*
1935: Charles Laughton (Mutiny on the Bounty)/Boris Karloff (Bride of Frankenstein)
1936: William Powell (My Man Godfrey)
1937: Fredric March (A Star is Born)/Cary Grant (The Awful Truth)
1938: James Cagney (Angels With Dirty Faces)/Errol Flynn (The Adventures of Robin Hood)
1939: TIE: Clark Gable (Gone With the Wind) and James Stewart (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)/Lon Chaney, Jr. (Of Mice and Men)
1940: Henry Fonda (The Grapes of Wrath)/Joel McRae (Foreign Correspondent)
1941: Orson Welles (Citizen Kane)/Humphrey Bogart (The Maltese Falcon)
1942: James Cagney (Yankee Doodle Dandy)*/Fred Astaire (Holiday Inn)
1943: Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca)/Joseph Cotten (Shadow of a Doubt)

BEST PICTURE

1928: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1929: Alibi/Diary of a Lost Girl
1930: All Quiet on the Western Front*
1931: The Front Page/City Lights
1932: Shanghai Express/Freaks
1933: I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang/King Kong
1934: It Happened One Night*
1935: Top Hat/A Night at the Opera
1936: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town/My Man Godfrey
1937: The Awful Truth/Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
1938: The Adventures of Robin Hood
1939: Gone With the Wind*/The Women
1940: The Great Dictator/The Thief of Bagdad
1941: Citizen Kane
1942: The Magnificent Ambersons/Holiday Inn
1943: Casablanca*

Now, I hope to be more organized in upcoming Tuesdays With Oscar articles.  I will also have to rework some of my earlier entries, but all in good time...

Bates Motel: The Complete Third Season Overview

BATES MOTEL: 
THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON 

Nothing like a little mother/son bonding to make things all sweet, sunny, and sugary.  

Bates Motel continues to be among the best shows on television: troubling, sometimes highly disturbing, but maintaining that balance between prequel to Psycho and as a story of its own.  This season was a particular rewarding one for me, personally, as I found myself declared a 'super-fan', complete with a prize.  I wasn't expecting a prize for answering trivia questions correctly, but I'm thrilled with my Bates Motel guest book and fan art. 

As I look back on this season, I see that we are still getting a pretty amazing show, though by the end I found a tad bit of predictability attached to it.  However, if there was a theme in Season Three of Bates Motel, it was that of family: it starts out with the death of a mother, and ends with the emerging of "Mother".  For all their good intentions, the Mother figure ends up being one of death and chaos.

The show continues to be among the best-acted.  The double-act of Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore continues to make Bates Motel intense watching, as they skirt around their issues (no pun intended).  Highmore brings Norman's increasing insanity to life in a masterful way, especially when he literally thinks he is his own mother.


Farmiga for her part continues making Norma Bates this complex, complicated, contradictory character: a woman who loves her sons but who also damages them.  Any sensible mother would have done what she did and checked out a mental hospital for Normie a lot sooner.  However, a sensible mother would also have been alarmed at seeing her son peering through guest windows or suggesting that maybe her son was a little too much into her.


My hat goes off to Max Thieriot, whom I first dismissed as a mere hanger-on as Dylan, the bad boy brother.  His character's evolution into almost the moral core of the show has been fascinating to watch.  I think that of all the people on the show, with the exception of Olivia Cooke's Emma Decody, Dylan is the most moral and responsible...and he sells pot! 


Now, this isn't to say Bates Motel is perfect.  I hated a few things on the show.  I never warmed up to 'creepy villain of the season' Chick (or as I called him, a strung-out Mac Powell from Third Day look-alike).  He would pop in and be all weird, and a character who basically says, "I'm really weird and creepy" doesn't do it for me.  Neither does this season's antagonist, Bob Paris.  It isn't a slam on Kevin Rahm's performance, but it does seem a little repetitive to have a drug lord cross swords with Norma, and a little more repetitive to have Nestor Carbonell's Sheriff Romero bail her out by killing the guy...and on the docks, AGAIN!


Worse was the brief return of Bradley.  I never liked her, and seeing her come in to get killed off (as if anyone thought she was going to make it) isn't all that interesting.  By the way, did they ever solve the murders of the two girls who were at Paris' sex party?  And how did Norma climb over the wall in an evening dress?


Oh, well, given the general nuttiness of Bates Motel, that little detail isn't a big thing. 


On the whole, Bates Motel went down slightly this season.  The slightly repetitive nature of things pushed it down (oh look, we end the season with Norman killing someone he's sexually attracted to!).  However, the show continues to be a brilliant exploration into the complex relationship between a mother and her son... who will end up becoming iconic figures.  Granted, for all the wrong reasons...



NEXT EPISODE: A Danger to Himself and to Others