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Jun. 21st, 2015
1. Gone Girl
Just finished watching the David Fincher film Gone Girl and the best thing about it was Rosamond Pincher who played Amy Bloom, and that's saying something. I've admittedly never understood the appeal of Gone Girl. The plot seems sort of cliche to me. (Maybe I've just seen and read too much in this particular genre? And far better films and books within it?) Nor is it particularly good noir -- and I've read and watched a lot of noir in my lifetime. But Double Indemnity it's not. Or even close to the brilliant The Last Seduction starring Linda Forentino. It tries real hard to be cool -- with a clever plot twist, but alas, if you are at all familiar with this genre, you sort of see the plot twists coming a mile away. Amy's not likable and she's played sort of cold by Rosamond Pincher. Ben Affleck, unfortunately, plays Nick in somewhat the same manner, coldly. Neither appear to care much about anything, so as a result it's hard to care much about them.
And their characters just service the plot - they aren't really developed much beyond that. Just stereotypes of the upper-class NY and Midwestern couples, I've yet to meet anyone like this in reality - but they certainly haunt the pages of popular novels and television screens from "Revolutionary Road" to "Little Children". But not flesh and blood. It was hard to care about anyone in the story, and it felt as if the writer was more interested in exposing our media obsessed culture - where the media twists and embellishes the crime, inserting lots of hyperbole. Amy is a boilerplate sociopath, with a fucked-up childhood and narcissistic parents. Her hubby, Nick, isn't all that much better - a bored suburban husband who gets it on with a college student and co-owns a bar with his drab and somewhat clueless twin sister. Through most of the film, I felt as if I had seen it all before.
If you are a fan of David Fincher -- I'd skip this one and just re-watch either the Social Network, Seven, or Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...at least you won't be bored. And if you love neo-noir films...watch Body Heat, Last Seduction, Double Indemnity, the Postman Always Rings Twice, and the French films Les Diaboliques and Tell No One.
I didn't read the book, so I can't comment on how close it was to the original. However, Gillian Flynn, the writer of the book, also adapted the screen-play. So I'm guessing characters aren't her thing and I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the book all that much either.
2. The Astronauts Wives Club -- this has more in common with the failed ABC series Pam Am or The Playboy Club than it does Mad Men or The Hour. The characters are once-again, plastique, pretty, and dull. The series focuses on the Astronauts Wives or the women behind the men who went into space. But it doesn't really do anything interesting with them, nor expand on what we've already been told via news reels. Let's face it Glenn, Grissom, Aldrin, and Shepard kept their private lives fairly private.
It's a shame, considering we're talking about the 1960s and the US Space Race. There's a lot you could play with there - specifically the sexism of that time period and the NASA space program. But alas, ABC plays it safe and doesn't, instead it's depicted with glossy-eyed nostalgia for a by-gone era, which only existed in movies and news reels. Rent the films "The Right Stuff" or "Apollo 13" instead.
So much wasted potential.
3. Proof -- is about an ER doctor who had a near death experience, resulting in almost seeing her dead son again. She's contacted by a philanthropist portrayed by Matthew Modine who is about to die of cancer and wants to know if there is any proof of life after death. After a lot of hemming and hawing, and some issues with her teenage daughter, she finally agrees and builds a team. It has potential - if only in the casting of Jennifer Beals, Modine, Joe Morton...and the guy who plays her assistant, a Nigerian Doctor. But other than that -- not much to grab me.
4. Game of Thrones
Hmmm...we're off book for practically everyone but Ayra and Jon Snow. Which is interesting. ( vague spoilers )
Just finished watching the David Fincher film Gone Girl and the best thing about it was Rosamond Pincher who played Amy Bloom, and that's saying something. I've admittedly never understood the appeal of Gone Girl. The plot seems sort of cliche to me. (Maybe I've just seen and read too much in this particular genre? And far better films and books within it?) Nor is it particularly good noir -- and I've read and watched a lot of noir in my lifetime. But Double Indemnity it's not. Or even close to the brilliant The Last Seduction starring Linda Forentino. It tries real hard to be cool -- with a clever plot twist, but alas, if you are at all familiar with this genre, you sort of see the plot twists coming a mile away. Amy's not likable and she's played sort of cold by Rosamond Pincher. Ben Affleck, unfortunately, plays Nick in somewhat the same manner, coldly. Neither appear to care much about anything, so as a result it's hard to care much about them.
And their characters just service the plot - they aren't really developed much beyond that. Just stereotypes of the upper-class NY and Midwestern couples, I've yet to meet anyone like this in reality - but they certainly haunt the pages of popular novels and television screens from "Revolutionary Road" to "Little Children". But not flesh and blood. It was hard to care about anyone in the story, and it felt as if the writer was more interested in exposing our media obsessed culture - where the media twists and embellishes the crime, inserting lots of hyperbole. Amy is a boilerplate sociopath, with a fucked-up childhood and narcissistic parents. Her hubby, Nick, isn't all that much better - a bored suburban husband who gets it on with a college student and co-owns a bar with his drab and somewhat clueless twin sister. Through most of the film, I felt as if I had seen it all before.
If you are a fan of David Fincher -- I'd skip this one and just re-watch either the Social Network, Seven, or Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...at least you won't be bored. And if you love neo-noir films...watch Body Heat, Last Seduction, Double Indemnity, the Postman Always Rings Twice, and the French films Les Diaboliques and Tell No One.
I didn't read the book, so I can't comment on how close it was to the original. However, Gillian Flynn, the writer of the book, also adapted the screen-play. So I'm guessing characters aren't her thing and I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the book all that much either.
2. The Astronauts Wives Club -- this has more in common with the failed ABC series Pam Am or The Playboy Club than it does Mad Men or The Hour. The characters are once-again, plastique, pretty, and dull. The series focuses on the Astronauts Wives or the women behind the men who went into space. But it doesn't really do anything interesting with them, nor expand on what we've already been told via news reels. Let's face it Glenn, Grissom, Aldrin, and Shepard kept their private lives fairly private.
It's a shame, considering we're talking about the 1960s and the US Space Race. There's a lot you could play with there - specifically the sexism of that time period and the NASA space program. But alas, ABC plays it safe and doesn't, instead it's depicted with glossy-eyed nostalgia for a by-gone era, which only existed in movies and news reels. Rent the films "The Right Stuff" or "Apollo 13" instead.
So much wasted potential.
3. Proof -- is about an ER doctor who had a near death experience, resulting in almost seeing her dead son again. She's contacted by a philanthropist portrayed by Matthew Modine who is about to die of cancer and wants to know if there is any proof of life after death. After a lot of hemming and hawing, and some issues with her teenage daughter, she finally agrees and builds a team. It has potential - if only in the casting of Jennifer Beals, Modine, Joe Morton...and the guy who plays her assistant, a Nigerian Doctor. But other than that -- not much to grab me.
4. Game of Thrones
Hmmm...we're off book for practically everyone but Ayra and Jon Snow. Which is interesting. ( vague spoilers )