Dawson City: Frozen Time. A Review (Review #990)

DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME

Even now, many people do not care about silent films.  Part of it is our disposable society, always rushing to whatever is new, now, next.  Part of it is simple lack of foresight: history is not appreciated in the present.  Part of it is simple and pure disinterest.  Dawson City: Frozen Time does not strictly make the case for film preservation.  Instead, it excellently blends the history of this Klondike Gold Rush town to how films that would have been lost forever ended up being saved and preserved, not because anyone there thought they had any value artistic, historic, or financial, but because through a series of random events and accident of geography, it just turned out that way.

With only an opening and closing segment that has on-camera interviews, Dawson City: Frozen Time reveals, in a roundabout way, how these films came to be where they ended up in.  The area that now is Dawson City was once the domain of the Han First Nation in Canada until gold was discovered.  That sent a flood of people to the area, not just to the future Dawson City but also to the nearby Whitehorse, where a certain Fred Trump opened the Arctic Hotel and Restaurant (read, a brothel), the beginnings of the Trump family fortune.

There, living in the area, was a young newsboy named Sid Grauman.  Also stopping by was a dancer named 'Klondike Kate' Rockwell and her partner, Sam Pantages.  A conductor who worked in the area was a William Desmond Taylor.  In a series of fortuitous events, after they all left, these same figures would play a role in film history: Grauman and Pantages as theater impresarios, opening such famous movie palaces as Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Pantages Theater, host of the Academy Awards, and Taylor became a well-respected film director until his notorious and never-solved murder.

As Dawson City grew, so did the desire to have entertainment, at least eventually of the legal, wholesome kind.  Denizens opened the Dawson Amateur Athletic Association (D.A.A.A.), a general community center with a swimming pool that was filled in for hockey (it is Canada, after all).

There was also a place where films could be shown, though many of these films arrived years after their debuts.  For example, The Female of the Species, released in 1916, screened in Dawson City on December 23, 1919.  Another film, The Price, was released in 1915 but didn't show in Dawson City until January 8, 1920.

The question now arrived as to what to do with all these films.  Dawson City was at the tail end of distribution, so once they arrived there, there was nowhere else to send them.  A clerk for the bank which acted as agents for the studios, asked if they wanted them returned.  The companies all said no, and ordered him to destroy the films.  Rather than do that, he had them stored at the old abandoned public library building.

Once sound came along, those who owned the theaters dumped the silents into the Yukon River, or burned them.  As for those in the abandoned library, it was decided they would make perfect material to fill in the pool for a new hockey rink.

The years went by, and while every so often a reel would pop out, delighting children by its ability to instantaneously burst into flames, all these films were forgotten until 1978, when the remnants of the D.A.A.A. building was being cleared.  There, dozens and dozens of old film cans were rediscovered, having been preserved due to the permafrost in the area.

Dawson City: Frozen Time mixes images from the myriad of formerly lost footage (533 reels) to match the history of the city.  The editing is incredibly clever and befitting of the narrative.  For example, when the film goes into the gambling of this barely-civilized community, clips from The Price and The Half-Breed pop up (with the clips always showing 'Dawson City Film Find' underneath the title).  When it goes into how the community would gather to see the films, we see clips from such formerly lost films as His Madonna (1912).

The condition of the lost footage ranges from the remarkably well-preserved (such as 1919's The Silver Girl) to those which have suffered the ravages of time (What is the Use of Repining from 1913).  If you consider that a flaw, you would be wrong: the worn and battered footage lends Dawson City: Frozen Time a certain elegance, even poetic nature to these almost lost films.

Some scenes are still absolutely astonishing in their beauty.  Clips from two other Dawson City Film Finds: 1912's The Frogs and 1911's Birth of Flowers are beautiful, almost true artwork brought to life.  These clips and the way writer/director/editor Bill Morrison blended them draws you in to this fascinating world and subject (even if perhaps some viewers might tire of reading the film).

What makes Dawson City: Frozen Time more remarkable is not just that movies were accidentally saved for posterity.  It was that it was a chronicle of not just this story, but of this community, far from most civilization, where these films and the newsreels were the only glimpses to that far-off outside world.  There were many newsreels among the film stock in Dawson City, and among those moments captured were scenes from the 1919 World Series, infamously connected to the Black Sox Scandal.  We get glimpses of what life was like for our ancestors, the things that interested and fascinated them, glimpses we might have never had had it not been through a series of fortunate events.  Footage from the circa 1907 newsreel A Trip Through Palestine, slightly battered, is still extraordinary in its images of a now-lost world.

It does, however, make one sad to think of all the other films that were not valued at the time and dumped into the Yukon River?  Could Theda Bara's Cleopatra have been among those lost to tide?  Morrison also works in a collection of photographs, also almost lost to history if not for a few who saw their value and saved them before the glass plates were to be used for a garden's glasshouse.

In a case of how one thing leads to another, those glass plates were used in an Academy Award-nominated documentary about Dawson City, City of Gold in 1957.  The film's use of archival footage, pan and zoom of the photographic negatives, and narration inspired future filmmaker Ken Burns to use the same techniques.  Coming full circle, the Dawson City footage and the film techniques from City of Gold would find their way into Burns' epic miniseries documentary, Baseball.

Dawson City: Frozen Time relies primarily on on-screen text to reveal the information, and I think that might dull some viewers.  For those who love history, film, and a happy ending, Dawson City: Frozen Time captures this stranger-than-truth story, gripping you with history and beautiful images, even in their imperfections.

DECISION: B+

Jane: A Review

JANE

Dr. Jane Goodall has become an icon through her long-term study of chimpanzees in the wild.  Jane, the documentary on her life and work, is an extraordinary achievement.  It's not a hagiography or a dry recitation of her life and times, but a portrait of a remarkable yet quiet figure.

Jane is also unique in that it features recently rediscovered footage found in 2014 that was shot in the 1960's by acclaimed wildlife photographer Hugo van Lawick which was thought lost forever.  The film intercuts this footage with a current interview with 83-year-old Goodall as she is interviewed about her life and work.

Jane Goodall, then a 26-year-old secretary, was sent in 1957 by renowned archeologist Louis Leakey to study the chimpanzees in their natural environment.  Goodall was selected not because of vast scientific and/or academic study but despite of it, as Leakey wanted someone to go to Gombe without any preconceived notions.  Goodall was the perfect candidate as she had an open mind and more important, an eagerness and passion for animals.

With only her mother as a chaperone, she soon takes to the 'time of discovery', adopting a routine of staying all day moving and searching for the group of chimps and then coming down the evening to write.  Her observations, unencumbered by academic study, allows for unprejudiced views.  Eventually the chimps start warming to this 'strange white ape' as Goodall describes herself as, coming down to camp to take bananas.  However, she notes that they become wildly aggressive and dangerous, until with some human ingenuity they reach a peaceful settlement and exchanges.

To keep the funding, the National Geographic Society sends van Lawick to photograph and document her work.  She is woman, he is man...after he leaves he proposes and she accepts.  Despite never planning for a life as a wife and mother, she finds eventually she becomes both. 

She also endures the sometimes patronizing views of men on her work, with newspaper reports sometimes focusing more on her looks and legs than on her field research.  "Beauty and Her Beasts" and playing on her name (She Jane, He Chimp) being some of the more quippy headlines.  Goodall finds correlation between the female in her group, whom she names Flo and herself, especially after Flo gives birth to her own son, whom Goodall names Flint. 

Mother, Dr. Spock, and Flo are the best sources to raise children, she remarks, even if her son, nicknamed Grub ended up hating chimps.  At least he grew different than Flint, who in a sense refused to grow up, insisting on having Flo carry him on his back long after he grew to adulthood with Flo too old to push him to independence.  When Flo dies, Flint lost all purpose, dying three weeks after his mother.  Flo's death also broke the group apart, and Goodall sees that her original views of chimpanzees as kinder than humans is not true: they can be just as bound to cruelty as humans.

Jane gives us a fascinating portrait of this legendary figure, and director Brett Morgen so brilliantly blended the rediscovered van Lawick footage (of which Morgen culled 100 hours worth of) into a tapestry that gives us insight into both Goodall the researcher and Goodall the woman.  Jane does not make Goodall into some saint or aloof intellectual or crazed environmentalist.  Rather, the simplicity, even ordinary nature of Goodall comes across both in the van Lawick footage and her interview, where she looks back with no anger and very little if any regret.

For example, when thinking back to how sexism played a role in her work being overshadowed by her gender or society's perceptions of her beauty, she in her soft-spoken manner comments that she used this to her advantage.  The Jane Goodall in Jane comes across as an extraordinary yet quite ordinary person, one who sees her life as extremely blessed to do what she dreamt of doing: living with animals in Africa.

We do, through van Lawick's footage, also get wry moments of life, such as seen poor Mother Goodall's soap flow down the river while she lathers her face with it.  When her hand tries to reach for it again and cannot find it, we see the perfectly human reaction: her putting her hand all around to 'find' it while blind.

Jane is also accompanied by another brilliant Philip Glass score.  Unlike other compositions by Glass, Jane almost seemed to allow a little bit of humor in the music when the chimps come down en masse to steal bananas.  Glass' score is one of the aspects that makes Jane such a success to view.

The work that Goodall has done has not only given us insight into the wild and the importance of preserving it, but also insight into what makes humans unique in the animal kingdom.  Goodall's work showed that chimpanzees are able, like humans, to form tools, but that they are as capable of war and aggression as we are.  They, however, do not appear to have a vast sense of what we would call 'morality' (none appear to think that stealing was 'wrong', though if they did, would they consider it 'stealing'?).  Chimpanzees do not have an issue with the females having sexual encounters with many males to procreate, while humans do, or at least argue about it.

Goodall remarks that in chimpanzees, males are the dominant sex, something that humans have managed to overcome to varying degrees.

There is still so much to learn, about chimpanzees, about humanity.  Jane will be, I think, a definitive portrait of this most fascinating of ordinary people.

Born 1934

DECISION: A-

The Disaster Artist: A Review

THE DISASTER ARTIST

I'll be frank: I did not go into The Disaster Artist willingly.  Something about celebrating someone for a spectacular mediocrity does not sit right with me.  This is not like Ed Wood, in that Wood was already dead by the time we got Tim Burton's loving tribute to the oddball filmmaker.  Tommy Wiseau, the subject of The Disaster Artist, is very much alive to revel in the celebration of being inept and talentless.  The Disaster Artist, I figure, is a salute to all the dreamers who aim high only to fall spectacularly but somehow still end up successful almost because of how incompetent they are.  I still feel though, that the Wiseau that I saw portrayed is not someone who should be feted.

He is someone to all but avoid.

As both James and Dave Franco are in The Disaster Artist, I'll refer to them as 'James' and 'Dave' to avoid confusion.

Aspiring actor Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) finds himself struggling to be open in his performances, fearful of failure and rejection.  Such hangups are no problem for the mysterious Tommy Wiseau (director James Franco).  He has no problem expressing himself fully in acting class, screaming "STELLA!" repeatedly and literally climbing the walls.

Such openness fascinates Greg, who asks Tommy to read with him.  The uninhibited and downright bonkers Tommy welcomes his new friend into his world, though his world is one that leaves many questions.  Tommy insists that he is near Greg's age despite Greg at this point being 19 and Tommy looking like he's in his 30's if not 40's.  Tommy claims to be from New Orleans (the one in Louisiana, he helpfully adds) despite a strong yet vague European accent, Eastern most likely.  He has unlimited financial resources despite not having any known or discernible means of income.  Despite knowing him for a few months at most, Greg eagerly goes from San Francisco to Los Angeles with Tommy to pursue his acting dreams.

Times are tough for our odd couple as acting jobs are hard to come by, both for the all-American good-looking Greg and the "all-American good-looking" Tommy (Wiseau stubbornly insisting he is both despite all evidence to the contrary).  Greg has managed to find a girlfriend, Amber (Alison Brie), a barmaid whom Tommy has a strong dislike, his curious possessiveness of his 'baby-face' unexplained, like a lot of things in his life.

Wiseau has a rare moment of doubt, but Greg's casual comment about making a movie themselves sparks Wiseau's interest.  He decides to write, finance and direct his own film so as to get into cinema.  His script, which he declares "the greatest drama since 'The Tennessee Williams'" is called The Room, and Greg is to be the second lead.  One guess as to who the first lead is.

It takes no time to show that Wiseau knows nothing about filmmaking, with Greg somewhat eagerly going along with whatever oddball decisions our faux-Fellini makes.  Why rent equipment when he can buy?  Why use a real alley when you can have an exact replica built?  Why decide between film and H-D when you can shoot in both simultaneously?  Why use a perfectly normal and functioning toilet when you can have another one put in for your own exclusive use, even if it is covered with drapes for privacy?

As production on The Room continues, it becomes clear to the Director of Photography, Raphael (Paul Scheer) and script supervisor Sandy (Seth Rogen) that their director is not only completely incompetent (Greg had to whisper to Wiseau what a 'D.P.' was), but that he was also cruel.  Sandy, cueing Wiseau when he was 'acting', struggles through 67 takes to get Wiseau to say the lines Wiseau himself wrote. Raphael gets into a fight with a naked Wiseau when he insults his female lead, Juliette (Ari Graynor) after calling her ugly.  Wiseau insists on showcasing his ass on camera much to everyone's horror, then couples that with thrusting himself too high, making it look on camera as if he's trying to have intercourse with the character's belly button.

Despite all this, the crew keeps pushing on. Despite the wretchedness of the script (the actors flat-out tell him he has plot points that he doesn't bother to bring up again, let alone resolve). Despite even his refusal to pay for air conditioning or water causes an older actress (Jacki Weaver) to faint, Tommy's only reaction to her fainting due to heat stroke is asking if she decided to take a nap.

In a 40-day shoot, The Room goes into 52 days at least, but in that, Wiseau's pull over Greg is so great that when offered a chance for a guest spot on Malcolm in the Middle, arranged by MITM's star Bryan Cranston himself, Greg opts for the disaster he knows The Room is.  When Wiseau tries to add extra footage by recreating their first meeting, Greg finally has enough and leaves.

Eight months later, Greg is in a better place, playing Biff in an L.A. production of Death of a Salesman.  However, to his horror, The Room finds its way into theaters.  Wiseau gets him to attend the premiere, and the gang is brought together again.  The audience is first shocked, then amused at The Room, laughing uproariously through it all.  Even the cast and crew find themselves laughing through it all.  It's only when Greg starts laughing too that Wiseau leaves the screening, hurt that his masterwork is ridiculed.  Greg gets Wiseau to see that the audience loves his work, and him.  With that, their friendship is restored and The Room becomes the cult film that is now.

I admit I have heard of The Room but have never had a desire to see it.  As we are treated to both clips and recreations of it, I can imagine The Room to be a genuine disaster, and I say this as someone who has seen both Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda?.  The Disaster Artist has its heart in the right place in making a film that lauds someone whose ambitions were greater than his abilities.

Nevertheless, as I sat watching it with others, who found the whole thing hilarious and probably knew more about The Room than I did, I could not shake the idea that we were meant to laugh at Wiseau, not with him.  I never laughed at Ed Wood while watching his eponymous biopic because despite himself his character was endearing, almost naive and sweet in his total incomprehension of his lack of talent.  Wiseau, on the other hand, comes across as genuinely insane (more than once I wrote or thought to myself variations on 'the guy's a nutter!').

As much as James is being celebrated for his performance, and I do think it was a solid turn, I felt that it was more of an impersonation of Wiseau's accent and mannerisms than a distinct character.  James makes Wiseau look drunk, drugged or barely awake many times, and shockingly unaware of reality.  Megan Mullally has a small role as Greg's mother.  Mrs. Sestero is shocked to see her little boy run off with someone he barely knows and she has never met.  Forcing her way outside to talk with Wiseau, she asks him how old he is.  "About his age," he responds in his slightly out-of-it way.  An incredulous Mrs. Sistero responds Greg is 19, then adds sarcastically that she 'just turned 14'.

"Well, Happy Birthday," Wiseau replies in a perfectly sincere and loopy way, as if sarcasm and reality don't register with him.

To his credit, James is not afraid to show the darker aspects of Wiseau's personality: his jealousy, his possessiveness, his disinterest in anything apart from how it relates to him.

Was it a good performance?  Yes, but I still felt it was more impersonation than actual character at times.

It is surprising to me that Dave has not been as well-recognized as James for playing the straight man to our bonkers Hitchcock in waiting.  In his insecurity, in his loyalty, in his hesitancy and desire to move forward, Dave gives as well-rounded a performance as any.  I think better of Dave than of James in that Greg is a generally unknown quality versus the better-known Wiseau, so his role was tougher in my view.

The Disaster Artist is a well-made, well-crafted film.  Nevertheless, no matter how much it tried, I could not join in to salute someone for being a spectacular failure, one who seemed a bit bonkers and whom we are asked to laugh at rather than laugh with.  Yes, I laughed too: you can't help laugh when you hear things like Wiseau asking if he really looks like a 'vampire rapist'.  However, I couldn't get into the joke as much as those who find The Room and Tommy Wiseau a delightful romp.

Born ???

DECISION: C+

The Librarians: And the Steal of Fortune Review

THE LIBRARIANS: AND THE 

STEAL OF FORTUNE

Now that's what I'm talking about.

And the Steal of Fortune, the second episode from the fourth season of The Librarians, does away with whatever season-long story arc the show plans (though in the past, the show has been clever in how it brings elements from seemingly unrelated episodes back full circle).  It has that zippy humor and whimsy that elevates the series into what it always has been: a delightful romp.

The Librarians are unhappy to hear that due to their mission in life, they won't have 'normal' lives outside the Library.  "You're not normal people.  You're Librarians," main Librarian Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) advises.  One Librarian who won't agree to that is Jacob 'Jake' Stone (Christian Kane), so with his fellow Librarian Ezekiel Jones (John Kim) he heads to see Jake's friend Slayton (Nate Scholz).  Slayton now owns a horse, but has lost him at Fortune Downs, a racetrack and casino.

It's one of the latest set of setbacks Slayton has had, a strange string of bad luck that has left him desperate.  Unfortunately for him, a random bee sting now has left him all but dead.  Stone and Jones notice that the hospital where Slayton is at has a wide series of other unfortunates in bizarre accidents.  A one-in-a-million chance of bad luck is one thing.  A whole group of people having those million-to-one accidents, that's magic.

Convinced that magic is involved, fellow Librarian Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth) and their Guardian, Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn) go to Fortune Downs to investigate.  They zero in on the owner, Benny Konapka (Richard Kind) and his pinkie ring, convinced that the ring is a magic object that robs people of their luck.  It isn't until Cassandra uses math to win repeatedly at roulette and an examination of the ring via Librarian Skype from Flynn and Jenkins (John Larroquette) that they find the ring itself is not the object.

That object is Benny's companion, whom he calls Felicity but who in fact is Fortuna, Roman Goddess of Fortune (Sunny Mabrey).  Having grown frustrated with merely being worshiped but having no power, she has reemerged thanks to Benny's accidental help and is now determined to rule the world through luck.  Her goal is to give everyone bad luck through her method of kissing, only now she has live television to do it by blowing the world her bad-luck kiss.

It's now up to the Librarians to stop Fortuna, though they need a little luck on their side too.  How to defeat Lady Luck herself?  By cheating, of course.

With help from Benny, who realizes how dangerous Fortuna is, the Librarians work together to rig the system.  As a result of her own fortunes turning around, Fortuna is returned to her statue form, and Jenkins secures her in the bowels of the Library.

And the Steal of Fortune is a wonderfully self-contained story where our heroes do what they do best: intervene to stop a supernatural power from causing wreck and ruin.  We get the quips and funny dialogue that have made The Librarians such a hit; when Jake quotes Thomas Aquinas to counter Flynn's assertion that they as Librarians won't have a 'normal' life, Flynn scoffs that Thomas Aquinas barely made the waiting list to be a Librarian.  Wyle's straightforward manner makes this even more hilarious.

Guest stars Mabrey and Kind made And the Steal of Fortune both amusing and almost menacing.  With Mabrey, she balanced the camp nature of Fortuna with a surprising amount of menace.  Kind has always managed to make his characters fit into the spirit of the shows he's on: from the darkness of his Mayor James on Gotham to this slightly menacing but slightly cowardly Benny on The Librarians. 

The main cast still works so well together, whether it is Kim's Jones, determined to beat the machines that keep beating him, to Booth's Cassandra, who rolls out lines like "No scam.  Math," to explain how she kept winning at roulette, to Kane's physical humor (stumbling on wet floor in his efforts to punch Fortuna's henchmen), everything worked so well in And the Steal of Fortune.

As a side note, Kind's reply to Cassandra's protestations, "There's no math in roulette.  It's just numbers," is quite accurate and amusing.

And the Steal of Fortune is a romp, a perfect fit to The Librarians.  With a fun, unapologetically frothy story and strong performances by both the cast and the guest stars, Fortune is definitely on our side.

O Fortuna Indeed...

9/10

Next Episode: And the Christmas Thief

The Librarians: And the Dark Secret Review

THE LIBRARIANS: 

AND THE DARK SECRET

What some fans of The Librarians forget is that prior to it being a television series, The Librarian (singular) was a series of television movies.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  Blessing in that we have an already established world.  Curse in that we have an already established world.  And the Dark Secret, our fourth season opener, has that whimsy and humor that has been one of the show's qualities.  It also is working to reintegrate more of the original Librarian films into its growing mythos.

Librarian Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) and his Guardian, Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn) are rehearsing for a special event.  If you thought it was their wedding, guess again.  It's their 'Bonding Ceremony', but bonded to the Library itself, not necessarily to each other.  Just as they continue to bumble and stumble through it all, much to the displeasure of the Library's Caretaker, Jenkins (John Larroquette), a major alarm goes off.

One of the four cornerstones of the Library at Alexandria, the original Library, has been stolen.  This is bad news, because if the Alexandria Library returns, it will plunge the world into darkness, which is what the thieves want.  They are part of a renegade Catholic order with the appropriate name of the Heretic Order of Shadows.  Formed to counter the Enlightenment, they want a return to the Dark Ages.  They had one of the stones from long ago, and now they have the second.  It's imperative that the Librarians find the last two.

Perhaps a ghost from the past can help them.  It seems that Jenkins has kept Carsen's former Guardian, Nicole Noone (Rachel Nichols) in a dungeon underneath the Library.  Why, pray tell?  She had become Immortal due to an accident involving H.G. Wells' Time Machine, an accident Flynn caused and which led him to think she was dead.  Flynn now has the Mrs. and the Ex: Nicole from their search for the Spear of Destiny, and Eve from now.

The other Librarians, Jake Stone (Christian Kane), Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth) and Ezekiel Jones (John Kim) now rush to find the other cornerstones.  As Nicole hid them based on the three Muses the Alexandria Library was dedicated to, their second stop is the Paris Opera House (Aoide, the Muse of Song, being the clue).  Unfortunately, the HOS got there too and grabbed the stone and them.

Despite Jenkins' objections, Flynn and Eve take Nicole to find the last stone, which is in Venezuela.  They do get to it, but the HOS gets there too.  As they begin their unholy rites, the Librarians work together to stop them.  Nicole appears lost again when she gets swept into a vortex, but this time Flynn won't let her go.  He does rescue her, but she slips away before she is retaken.

Still, the Tethering Ceremony awaits, but will Nicole return to cause more mayhem?

Again, The Librarians has a tricky proposition in melding what has come before with what we have now.  And the Dark Secret is the first time, at least that I can remember, where we dive into Flynn's first adventure to tie it in with the current series.  We got an explanation as to what happened to Nicole, especially since Quest for the Spear had another actress in the role (Sonya Walger) and ended with Nicole and Flynn starting a romance.  All these things probably, I figure, fly over those who either didn't watch or don't remember the three original Librarian TV movies.

I think on the whole it worked well, this tying of past and present.  It doesn't work perfectly: the way Nicole was supposed to have disappeared from Flynn's life and her reemergence seemed a bit far-fetched, even for The Librarians, but I'm not going to quibble about that.

If I do quibble about something, is the rushed manner the Heretic Order of Shadows is disposed of.  A side note: with their name, at least the Heretic Order of Shadows can't be accused of false advertising.  Given that they are in the season debut, I would figure they would be the season-long villains, as Apep, DOSA, and the double-act of Prospero & Moriarty were before.  If And the Dark Secret is any indication, they were pretty disposable as their ringleader, Monsignor Vega (John Noble) was dispatched quite quickly.

Give Noble credit for camping it up as the mad monsignor for all its worth.  Despite him being whisked off into a vortex, I'd love for him to return, as well as his aide-de-camp/main hitman, Father Giallo (German Alexander), a most wicked fellow.  Alexander and Noble make for an interesting combination, one that if written well, could actually be strong foils for the Librarians.

And the Dark Secret is setting up two future storylines: the Tethering of Eve & Flynn to the Library (and each other) and the potential return of Nicole.  Nichols as Nicole (what are the odds of that) was strong as the hurt woman who has secrets of her own, though as it's been a long time since I've seen Quest for the Spear, I cannot vouch to whether Nicole was British.

The trio of Kane, Booth and Kim still work so well together: their scene at the Opera House where they have to sing in tandem to break the glass is wonderful and light, which has been one of The Librarians' greatest strengths.

As a side note, one wonders what would have happened if Ella Fitzgerald had ever played at the Paris Opera House?

Is it live, or is it Memorex?

Most of The Librarians' viewers are simply too young to remember Ella...or that tagline...or cassettes.

Wyle also did great work as Flynn, and And the Dark Secret allowed for some dramatic moments in something as light and frothy as The Librarians.  His guilt, his regret about Nicole, and perhaps his fear of being tethered to both The Library and Eve all were played so well, along with his Flynn Carsen-like bumbling nature.

If I had an issue with And the Dark Secret, it was probably the rushed manner of how the HOS was disposed of.  I think it would be nice to have them return.

Then again, I still yearn to see Moriarty come back, so there you go.

That rushed manner brought down And the Dark Secret for me, especially given that it was the opening episode.  On the whole, however, And the Dark Secret is still holding to that zippy nature that The Librarians has cornered.

Sing it, Miss Ella...

6/10

Next Episode: And the Steal of Fortune

Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS. A Review

HELL ON EARTH: THE FALL OF SYRIA AND THE RISE OF ISIS

Hell on Earth is one of the myriad of documentaries released on the horrors in Syria.  Last Men in Aleppo covered the final days of that tragic, besieged city, while Hell on Earth chronicled how we got to this sorry situation.  It puts human faces on the horrors, building its case methodically, even if I don't agree with some of its comparisons.

Narrated by co-director Sebastian Junger, he holds that Syria descended into the darkness due to radicalism.  "Radicalism," he says, "depends on desperation.  It depends on grievance.  People will turn to radicalism once they've exhausted every other option".  The film sees the Arab Spring not as a series of rebellions against autocratic dictators to gain freedom and democracy, but rather as anti-corruption movements.  All the old order was being swept away: in Tunisia, in Libya, in Egypt, with their rulers falling.

Then we come to Syria.

Bashar al-Assad, seeing his fellow rulers fall, was not going to go down.  As Radwan, one of the two brothers who form a backbone to Hell on Earth tells it, the regime was determined to hold onto power even if it meant to absolute end of the country.  Radwan was told by the pro-Assad forces, "It's Assad or we burn up the country".

And burn it up Assad did: indiscriminately shooting at protesters, torturing them in prisons, and bombing them.  It did not help that Assad was aided by a disorganized opposition, a West fearful of 'radicals' and 'terrorists', and Assad's mastery of manipulation.  He freed the Islamists in  order to let them fight his battles for him, with the bonus that they rather than the secular but disparate Free Syrian Army became the face of the revolution to the West.

In something that Hell on Earth didn't touch on, there is a sad irony that the West opposed arming the rebels because the arms could fall into the hands of terrorist only to have ISIS armed by the West when they overran the Iraqi Army.

The Syrian conflict soon became a proxy fight between various powers: Iran & their Hezbollah allies, their enemies the Saudis & their allies, the Russians, and soon the Americans.  Each was using Syria for their own political needs, and eventually the Revolution descended into civil war.

Assad found an unexpected and unwitting ally in former President Barack Obama, who declared a 'red line' should Syria use chemical attacks on its own people.  Syrians met this declaration with a mixture of derision and anger: it suggested the U.S. would give Assad a free hand to use all other types of weapons.  When Assad did use chemical weapons, it looked like the U.S. was about to strike, but Obama pulled back at the last minute (Hell on Earth reports that Saudi jets were literally on the runway ready to take off).

With a weak and divided opposition and a West unwilling to commit more than words, Assad now had another tool at his disposal: ISIS.  He used ISIS to his own advantage: so long as the West was held in fear with their savagery, no one paid Assad's savagery any mind.

ISIS, or ISIL or Daesh to the Arab world, was beneath their faux-piety just a criminal enterprise.  They extorted those under their domain with 'forgiveness cards': papers that allowed them to live for a price, various taxes that went to their coffers, and Mafia-like tactics.  They killed all who opposed them, stringing them up, beheading them, and even putting others in cages.

Eventually, ISIS made so many enemies that everyone started going after them, all but Assad, who didn't have to care now that he had a new patron: the Russians.

Intercut through all this chronicle of a state in ruins is the story of Radwan and his brother Marwan, two men with their families who first fled Aleppo in the opening days of the siege, then after struggles managed to escape to Turkey.

Some of the images in Hell on Earth are beyond sad: we see a woman screaming over and over again "Where are my kids?" after a bombing by Assad's forces.  Hearing the children of Marwan cry at another bombing raid tears at you.  The sight of jihadis in training, with their slick recruitment videos, chills you.  Hell on Earth held back in showing some of the absolute worst of their inhumanity: the throwing of suspected gay men off tall buildings, the actual beheaded men, the mass graves.

Hell on Earth also seems to peter out by the end, as if it began to lose focus and started just rambling.  The subtitle The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS is not misleading: the documentary covers the rise of ISIS as soon as it finishes covering the fall of Syria, or at least at a certain point it shifts from one to the other.  This shift from one to the other flowed relatively well.  Other parts did not.

For example, Hell on Earth maintains that as author Robin Yassin Kassab theorizes, displays of public violence are par for the course in all societies.  He points to how the British hung, drew and quartered prisoners, the French stripped and shaved women who had slept with Germans after World War II, and how in the United States, people would go and pose with victims of lynching.

My disagreement here is that this is not the same as what ISIS is doing.  The French and American crimes were not, as far as I know, state-run, state-organized, or state-sanctioned.  They were cruel, savage, but not a deliberate and thought-out manner of behavior by the government.  Moreover, there were many people who openly objected and worked against these acts, whereas there was no recourse for anyone opposing ISIS.

Moreover, Junger and his co-director Nick Quested could not resist taking a few jabs at the United States, all but holding that the Americans are no better, perhaps if not worse, than ISIS.  They mention how the United States has killed more people than ISIS and how the Iraq Invasion brought about the radicalism that begat ISIS.  This comes from the film's viewpoint that 'radicalism depends on desperation and grievance'.

Somehow, I'm not convinced of that.  If that were the case, all nations would be in the throes of perpetual armed revolutions and insurrections given that there is almost always a group that is desperate and grieved. I also am not convinced that the ISIS nasheeds (the a cappella hymns celebrating their evil) are the equivalent or similar in being to national anthems such as France's La Marseilles (The Star-Spangled Banner isn't mentioned, but one can expect that the notions of war and bloodlust found in ISIS chants can be extended to the American national anthem).

If Hell on Earth wants to make a case that celebrating death in song or action is something all nations are capable of, that case can be made.  However, if the case is being made or suggested that ISIS and America are the same in moral equivalency, something just doesn't sit right with me on that.

The film also gives scant coverage to the Kurdish Peshmerga, the fighting force that includes women (as one female Peshmerga offers, 'No difference between men and women in Kurdish uniforms).  The story of Radwan and Marwan gets hit on from time, but whether it was a way to 'put a human face' on the nexus of misery and tragedy in Syria or not I don't know.  A whole film about them can and perhaps should be made. 

Hell on Earth has some strong insight and gripping imagery to it.  However, after a while it seems to lose itself and not hold itself together as well as it could have.  There is, late in the film, mention of a native-born French Muslim named Mohammed Merah, who killed French soldiers in his hometown as well as other people until he himself was killed.  It seemed to come out of nowhere and almost irrelevant to what had gone before.  Not completely irrelevant, but close.

Still, it is worth seeing to get a primer on how the Syrian situation has degraded into a true hell on Earth.

DECISION: C+

Gotham: Queen Takes Knight Review

GOTHAM: QUEEN TAKES KNIGHT

What a difference an episode makes.  Queen Takes Knight, the midseason finale of Gotham, impressed me with its mixture of action, genuine drama, and even comedy.  It still had those twists that didn't sit too well with me but unlike Things That Go Boom, this time I wasn't thinking it was too wild a twist.

Sofia Falcone (Crystal Reed) finds herself attacked on all sides.  Not only are Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) and Captain James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) both working to get her out of Gotham, but now the big guns have been pulled out.  None other than Don Falcone himself (James Donan) has come at Penguin's request to get his errant daughter out of the way.  She finally sees defeat, and it looks like it's all over, until a random hit squad takes out Don Falcone and injures Sofia.

Penguin stubbornly insists he had nothing to do with the hit on the Falcones, but he isn't believed.  At the funeral, Victor Zsasz (Anthony Carrigan) pays his respects to the Don by leaving a bullet in his casket.  Former Captain Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) returns, giving Gordon advice: get something solid on Pengy before arresting him.  Something does come to him: Sofia informing Gordon that Penguin killed Martin.  With this, Gordon goes to arrest Penguin, and Pengy delights in telling him that Martin's 'death' was all a rouse, until Victor turns on Pengy and says Martin is dead.  An enraged Penguin promises revenge and is locked up.

Now, the Sirens: Barbara Kean (Erin Richards), Tabitha Galavan (Jessica Lucas) and Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) find themselves the newest owners of the Iceberg Lounge, thanks to siding with Sofia.  Sofia still, however, has a few cards to play while the Penguin is away.  Zsasz pledges loyalty to Dona Falcone, and she reveals to Gordon that not only did she have her own father iced but that Professor Pyg (Michael Cerveris) was also part of her elaborate plan.  She then kills Pyg and makes it look like Gordon did it.  With that, she now has revenge for her brother...and control of Gotham's underworld.

In our minor plot, Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee) still cannot control the debauchery and decadence of our young Master Bruce (David Mazouz).  He's too busy carousing and drowning himself in booze and broads to care about anything.  They fight and it turns physical.  Bruce has legal documents drawn up declaring himself emancipated and fires Alfred.

We also touch on Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) still struggling to keep his Riddler persona at bay, while Tabitha struggles to get her former love Butch Gilzean aka Solomon Grundy (Drew Powell) to remember her.  Eventually, we get hints that he does remember.

Again, Queen Takes Knight is a standout episode.  Part of it is the witty dialogue in the script.  As Don Falcone is leaving with Sofia, he looks up at the sky.  "The Sun never shines here," he observes, pointing out what is both obvious and symbolic of our dark city.  When Alfred finds Bruce, he wakes him up with water to his face.  "Oh, the Front Page is up," he quips.

This dialogue gives the actors great material to work with.  Moreover, it gives me as a viewer a greater appreciation for the comedic stylings of Victor Zsasz.  Penguin angrily shouts, "How is Jim Gordon beating us?"

With a perfectly deadpan expression, Carrigan's Zsasz replies, "Well, every cop in Gotham is behind him.  I'm guessing he has great leadership skills".  I don't think Gotham has given enough credit to how droll both Carrigan and Zsasz are.  He can be quite dangerous, but Carrigan also makes Zsasz a very funny figure, a mixture of menace and mirth.

I think by this point Taylor owns the role of Penguin, and he's set to be the Penguin: not as camp as Burgess Meredith on the Batman TV show nor as grotesque as the Danny DeVito version in Batman Returns.  There really is nothing more fun than seeing Pengy in a rage.  Taylor is simply the perfect actor for the role not only in terms of talent but in his characterization of the character.

He can be menacing, downright bonkers, but also deeply emotional.  Whether he is confronting Gordon and the newly-reformed GCPD or expressing frustration at Zsasz's manner, or in screaming out revenge against all his enemies, where he draws the attention of Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan in a cameo), Taylor never ever hits a wrong note.

McKenzie too does some outstanding work as Gordon, the good cop who finds himself living a lie to project an important truth.  Mazouz as the angry Bruce Wayne, lost in his own dark night of the soul, Pertwee as Alfred, desperate to get his ward on the right track, also do incredible work. It's a shame Doman won't return as Don Falcone, but given that his character was already dying, it seems fitting he was done in by his own daughter.  His last scenes were excellent, down to where he slaps Sofia in frustration, a shocking moment to say the least.

A real standout is the calm and duplicitous Sofia, played with aplomb by Reed.  She does small versus say a Taylor big, but it fits both their characters.  One can wonder as to how everything seemed to fall into place for her, but why quibble about such things.

Overall, Queen Takes Knight is a strong note to end this half of Gotham.  Fine performances, a steady pace of stories, resolutions to some stories (farewell, Professor Pyg) and the teasing of others (Penguin & Joker Together At Last), all brought to a satisfactory close.

Here's hoping the second half of Gotham Season Four works just as well.

10/10

Next Episode: Pieces of a Broken Mirror