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Aug. 2nd, 2015 09:40 pm1. Just finished watching a lovely little film by Lasse Hallstrom, entitled The Hundred Yard Journey - which is basically about an Indian boy's journey to becoming a chef in a small town in France. The film, amongst other things, deftly deals with the topics of xenophobia, fear of competition, jealousy, and fear of change. But in ultimately positive and uplifting manner - demonstrating how reacting in kindness, not violence, and empathy can bring joy and celebration.
It does have pacing problems, however. A bit slow in the middle. The whole bit when he goes to Paris to study and becomes famous takes too long and slows the movie to a crashing halt. But overall a warm and good film.
2. Also finished streaming S1 of the Netflix original series Daredevil - it feels like watching a noir graphic novel lovingly brought to life, panel by panel. Everything is true to its origin. Perhaps too true? It is a little slow in places, but no overly so, and the whomever is doing the direction and cinematography is having a blast framing the shots - not always to the benefit of the series. There was one bit in the last episode, that made me want to grab the cinematography by the lapels, and say, make up your mind, these distance then close up then distance through the barbed wire fence are making me crazy - I wondering if someone else is watching them besides the nutty camera man.
At any rate, I found that they did a good job of creating a layered but flawed villain and hero, who in various ways echo each other. The story, in case you are unfamiliar with the comics, is about a man who lost his vision as a child in a chemical spill, as a result of the accident, he develops heightened senses and while blind, he does see - but what he sees is a world on fire. Everything is almost too intense for him. After his boxer father is murdered by the mob, he is trained by a martial artist, who briefly takes him under his wing, then leaves him when they get too close. Goes to law school, meets Foggy Nelson, they set up a law practice. While at night, he is a costumed vigilante.
The first season acts as a sort of origin story.
The villain, Wilson Fisk, is a multi-millionaire developer with his hand in various pockets. He's a huge man, portrayed with considerable aplomb by Vincent D'Ornitho. We learn through the series about his origin and why he is the way he is. He's a bit mysterious at first, as is the Daredevil.
It has a lot of twists and turns, and while the outcome is more or less predictable, the way there isn't. There's one scene that rather surprised me, but works beautifully within the framework of the genre and the series.
Possibly the best television series I've seen this year. Only 13 episodes, which may be part of the reason.
3) Also finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - which was ultimately frustrating. Norrell does sort of redeem himself at the end, but I wanted to strangle him for being a complete fool the whole time we worked to get there. And the women have almost no roles. It's a series that focuses on a lot of irritating men in black cloaks fluttering about like idiots. The only half-way interesting character or appealing one is Jonathan Strange, although the Gentleman/Fairy had his moments. Everyone else I wanted to strangle for acting like they were trying to figure out if they were still dreaming and if it was time to wake up.
Still? It was better than a lot of other things on.
4) Poldark - interesting, this is based on a series of novels by Winston Grahaem, in which each of the novels is named after a different character, with Ross Poldark being the main character.
Also at some point in the novels, Elizabeth marries George, and on the eve of her nuptials, Ross breaks into her bedroom and rapes her. (I hope they refrain from duplicating this in the series. It apparently is a major plot point in the novels and changes the course of various relationships. I can't see it happening in the television series - it would make no sense. I'm guessing he never gets over the loss of Elizabeth in the novels, nor she him, exactly. Also she's not quite as likeable in the books and blond.) I got all this from Wikipedia's entry on the books.
Anyhow the series isn't bad. A bit slow in places, but that's par for the course for all costume dramas, particularly historicals.
5) Zoo - I think I've given up on. It's just silly.
It does have pacing problems, however. A bit slow in the middle. The whole bit when he goes to Paris to study and becomes famous takes too long and slows the movie to a crashing halt. But overall a warm and good film.
2. Also finished streaming S1 of the Netflix original series Daredevil - it feels like watching a noir graphic novel lovingly brought to life, panel by panel. Everything is true to its origin. Perhaps too true? It is a little slow in places, but no overly so, and the whomever is doing the direction and cinematography is having a blast framing the shots - not always to the benefit of the series. There was one bit in the last episode, that made me want to grab the cinematography by the lapels, and say, make up your mind, these distance then close up then distance through the barbed wire fence are making me crazy - I wondering if someone else is watching them besides the nutty camera man.
At any rate, I found that they did a good job of creating a layered but flawed villain and hero, who in various ways echo each other. The story, in case you are unfamiliar with the comics, is about a man who lost his vision as a child in a chemical spill, as a result of the accident, he develops heightened senses and while blind, he does see - but what he sees is a world on fire. Everything is almost too intense for him. After his boxer father is murdered by the mob, he is trained by a martial artist, who briefly takes him under his wing, then leaves him when they get too close. Goes to law school, meets Foggy Nelson, they set up a law practice. While at night, he is a costumed vigilante.
The first season acts as a sort of origin story.
The villain, Wilson Fisk, is a multi-millionaire developer with his hand in various pockets. He's a huge man, portrayed with considerable aplomb by Vincent D'Ornitho. We learn through the series about his origin and why he is the way he is. He's a bit mysterious at first, as is the Daredevil.
It has a lot of twists and turns, and while the outcome is more or less predictable, the way there isn't. There's one scene that rather surprised me, but works beautifully within the framework of the genre and the series.
Possibly the best television series I've seen this year. Only 13 episodes, which may be part of the reason.
3) Also finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - which was ultimately frustrating. Norrell does sort of redeem himself at the end, but I wanted to strangle him for being a complete fool the whole time we worked to get there. And the women have almost no roles. It's a series that focuses on a lot of irritating men in black cloaks fluttering about like idiots. The only half-way interesting character or appealing one is Jonathan Strange, although the Gentleman/Fairy had his moments. Everyone else I wanted to strangle for acting like they were trying to figure out if they were still dreaming and if it was time to wake up.
Still? It was better than a lot of other things on.
4) Poldark - interesting, this is based on a series of novels by Winston Grahaem, in which each of the novels is named after a different character, with Ross Poldark being the main character.
Also at some point in the novels, Elizabeth marries George, and on the eve of her nuptials, Ross breaks into her bedroom and rapes her. (I hope they refrain from duplicating this in the series. It apparently is a major plot point in the novels and changes the course of various relationships. I can't see it happening in the television series - it would make no sense. I'm guessing he never gets over the loss of Elizabeth in the novels, nor she him, exactly. Also she's not quite as likeable in the books and blond.) I got all this from Wikipedia's entry on the books.
Anyhow the series isn't bad. A bit slow in places, but that's par for the course for all costume dramas, particularly historicals.
5) Zoo - I think I've given up on. It's just silly.