Mad Men “The Better Half” Review: The Family Tree

Don Draper looks on in Mad Men

Photo Credit: AMC TV 

A review of this week’s Mad Men as soon as I take a vacation like trip to the beach…

“She doesn’t know that loving you is the worst way to get to you.”

-Betty

Over the course of 6 seasons the weakest portion of Mad Men may have been most of family life that happens outside of the office. Often times during the family sequences I would wonder what is going on at the office at the moment as it always seemed to be the more interesting alternative. When Mad Men gets the outside life right on the other hand, it can be fantastic to watch. “The Better Half” was a gem of an episode as it followed last week’s office craziness with a calmer, character episode that dealt with what’s going on outside the office and how it affects the inside of it. Surprisingly enough it worked very well in ways that I would have never expected it to work.

Betty! For the first time since maybe mid season three I thought the use of Betty wasn’t out of place, and in fact was the best part of the entire episode. Maybe it was the fact that Betty was almost always interacting with Don this episode (something that would usually be the case during the first two seasons before Betty kind of went off the rails) and that the chemistry between Jon Hamm and January Jones was spectacular throughout this week’s episode. Maybe it was the fact that for the first time in years it seemed the character, actor, and writers have a new confidence the kind of which is very unusual with Betty. For the first time in seasons Betty wasn’t angry, deranged, or going off the rails but was instead perhaps the most sane and enlightened character to come along throughout the entire episode. Betty felt young, energized, and introspective in ways that she hasn’t gotten to feel for a very long period of time. This version of Betty needs to stick around all of the time.

Going back to the first point about Betty, which was that yes Don and Betty, while coming to Bobby’s summer camp, did hit it off. I admire the way the writers handled the situation though as it wasn’t presented as a moment of weakness but instead almost a moment of understanding and moving on. Betty understands and loves Don in ways that no one else has been able to due to the fact that she was married to him for a long period of time. The chemistry between Hamm and Jones in that scene as previously mentioned was absolutely fantastic and helped play the sequence in the perfect way it was played. This is the most flirtatious and fun to watch the two characters have been in many years and it was a true blast to watch.

The Betty sequence also allowed us to peer deeper into the brain of Don Draper in more interesting ways. The simple interaction between Don and Betty where Don admits to Betty that “sex means very little to him” provides the final straw of understanding to the character. The sequence was also interesting as it pretty much negated the existence of the sometimes clunky flashbacks of last week and then earlier. The scene was simple, introspective and more powerful than has been done to get inside of Don’s head throughout the entire season.

Even better though was the way Don handled the situation after the fact. Don moved on, as it was more about the revelation Don experienced then it was about the sex and love. Both Betty and Don, at this point know there place with each other and their spouses and the sexual moment between the two of them was a moment of clarification and revelation about themselves and a chance to start over as both began to feel distracted in their own marriages. Don leaves his trip with a new sense of realization of how awful he’s been to Megan and finally tells her that he’s been distant. It was a near perfect way to end the episode and I cannot praise Mathew Wiener and the writers for taking Don’s head games in a direction that are more interesting and unexpected then before.

If there was one weakness to the episode it was the extra time we spent with Megan and her acting friend. While it’s possible to see where the scene’s use is, as it’s suppose to be a contrast to Don and Betty, it felt a tad clunky within the context of the rest of the episode. Maybe it’s the fact that Megan’s acting life seems irrelevant to everything, even Don’s feelings at this point, but it just felt a little flatter than the rest of the episode.

The Don psychology was only a small part of “The Better Half” as the rest of the episode focused not only on family life but the contrast of personalities presented within life and general. At the beginning of the episode when Megan is struggling to play twins (lovely Mad Men esque symbolism for you) describes how her director is telling her to play the role. “They are two halves of the same person and they want the same thing, but they’re trying to get it different ways.” The characters on Mad Men all connect and often times have different goals, as presented through the episode in many different examples.

Take for example Don and Ted (and poor Peggy who gets stuck in between) this week. The two want the same thing but go by it in contrasting ways. Don is a little more uptight, preferring the harder communication approach giving off that he’s cockier with about his ideas. Ted is a little softer but equally as driven in with his ideas. Both can crush Peggy at a moment’s notice. Don is more aggressive towards Peggy telling her to pick a side instead of trying to be the mediator. Ted crushes Peggy through denying a relationship with her while trying to do the right thing something that’s even more painful given the events of Peggy’s already now complex personal life.

Speaking of rest in peace Peggy and Abe’s relationship as Peggy stabbed (quite literally actually with her stabbing poor Abe) their relationship to death this week. Peggy and Abe are an example of two people with similar goals (trying to get the relationship to work) but a wild smattering of personalities. Peggy is grounded in the past; the corporate and societal structure is first and foremost, not following it is the wrong way to go. Abe is more along the lines of the early 70s and believes in diversity and giving the new way a chance. They had been working until Peggy’s paranoia gets her to accidentally stab Abe, ending the relationship. Peggy is devastated leading her back to Ted and Don who manage to crush her even more.

The final issue to deal with is Pete, Roger, and good old Bob Benson. Pete is going through tough times and Bob is there to help. Bob is a reminder of young Pete who may actually be out for the greater good (but probably isn’t) and wants to help Pete throughout the time. He’s also dating Joan! That’s where Roger seems to come in. Roger has to deal with trying to be a father again and isn’t being accepted as one. Joan doesn’t want Roger to be present within his life and the final straw was Roger trying to see Joan only to find Bob with her. Roger can’t be the father to Joan’s child that he wanted to be and it’s making him feel more lost by the minute.

The magic of Mad Men is that after a strange episode like last week it’s able to transition into a saner more focused episode while feeling like the same show. This week’s Mad Men was back to being a great episode providing powerful psychological character moments that were done very, very well.

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?

The Hangover Part 3 Review

"The Wolfpack" returns in The Hangover Part 3

Photo Credit: Warner Brothers Studios

The Hangover Part 3

C

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

Who would have guessed when the original Hangover film was first released that the franchise would go this far? It was a small raunchy comedy experiment that somehow exploded into the realm of mega popularity, and now has spawned not just one but two sequels. The first film was a funny comedy rife with solid comedic timing and decent characters, the second film was a completely awful film that was an unfunny zombie version of the first film. The third film lies unfortunately, despite being better then it's predecessor, more on the side of the second film then the first one. The film is funny at times but ultimately is dragged down into the land of the poor film by bad tone and character choices.

After the already awfully socially awkward Alan (Zach Galifianakis) has a bit of a mental breakdown following the death of his father. Safe to say it has his family and friends concerned so in order to drive him to a care facility in Arizona his friends Stu (Ed Harris), Phil (Bradley Cooper), and Doug (Justin Bartha) reunite as “The Wolfpack” one last time to make sure Alan will be healthy. On their way to Arizona “The Wolfpack” is kidnapped by Marshall (John Goodman) and told that if Stu, Phil, and Alan don’t track down Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong), who stole a lot of gold from Marshall, that Doug will be shot. So the epic misadventure begins with “The Wolfpack” ultimately returning to the place where all the craziness began four long years ago, Las Vegas.

The problem with this misadventure is that it doesn’t have any sense of consistent tone. About 70% of this film tries to be darker and more like a caper then an actual comedy. This makes the most of the film drag on and be close to unwatchable, as the darker stuff just doesn’t work at all. The fun of the original Hangover film was that it went for crazy, often over the top humor that all clicked with the vibe of the film. While there is some of that humor still remaining in the bones of Part 3 (I did laugh a few times in this movie unlike in the last one) it’s a smaller part of the film then it should be. Also when it does come in it makes the more serious material feel even more off as the tonal shift is fairly drastic.

Another problem is that the film is literally at its funniest after the credits role. After the first set of credits lies the funniest scene in entire movie (in the screening that I attended the post credits sequence got the largest laugh reaction by quite a fair margin) that evokes some of the crazy hilarity of the first film. It’s disappointing as while it’s admirable that director and co-writer Todd Harris tries to deviate from the formula in this film the final sequence reminds the viewer of what the formula that the first film could achieve and what could (and quite frankly) should have been explored in the both of the sequels.

The other main problem with the film is its character focus. Focusing the entire plot on Mr. Chow is a big mistake as he was the weakest and most annoying parts of the first two movies. Most of the jokes that come from Chow in this film aren’t funny at all (save for a certain parachute sequence that I laughed at) and his shrill and under drawn character stands out even more then before when it’s put into focus.

Also I don’t quite know how well Alan works as a main character either. The two other main members of “The Wolfpack” Stu and Phil were always better drawn and more sympathetic characters and it seemed that Galifianakis’ character was there to be a supporting player to steal most of the laughs. On that basis the character works just fine but here with the focus added to him it seems that Alan should only be used as a “sometimes food” kind of character instead of a full blown lead.

For the most part the comedic acting is as good as has been in the prior films. As much as I dislike the writing and focus for Mr. Chow and Alan both Jeong and Galifianakis are good in this film and add some energy to kind of compensate for the, for the most part bad writing. Ed Harris is still as enjoyable as ever as the nerdy dentist member of “The Wolfpack” Stu. The one who seems a little lost here, for some strange reason, is Bradely Cooper. He seems a little out of this film and at times lacks the energy that he should have when jumping into his character. Maybe he just wants to just move on and continue to be the very good, more dramatic actor he has become over the years. I certainly wouldn’t blame him.

The best complement I can give to The Hangover Part 3 is that I didn’t hate the film. It provided me with enough genuine (but nothing really gut busting) laughs to allow me to suffer through the bad portions of the film. The Hangover 3 still isn’t a good film by any stretch of the imagination; it’s poorly plotted and has some really odd decisions plastered throughout, but it did provide some entertainment something that it’s predecessor cannot claim.

Mad Men “The Crash” Review: Crazy Creative Flings

A serious looking Roger on Mad Men

Photo Credit: AMC TV

A review of this week’s Mad Men after I do a tap dance I learned from my mother first girlfriend…

“Every time we get a car this place turns into a whorehouse.”

-Don

Well that was sure disorienting! Don’s a mess, a very large, very sad mess. “The Crash” was the episode which displayed, as the title suggests, the potential low point in the ever descending mindset of Don Draper. Who knew all it took was a wild trip into the land of high energy serums to get there. “The Crash” was perhaps the weirdest and wackiest episode of Mad Men to date but was ultimately a large success due to the raw emotional place the show placed its characters in. “The Crash” was indeed a crash on so many levels and provided raw emotions that caused many characters to go very close to strange edges.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect “The Crash” was the way it was shot and edited. To display what the characters were going through when on their magic serum (or even before with Don being very tired) there was little sense of time during the scenes in the office and it truly felt like what the characters were going through was utter chaos. Shots often were cut in interesting places and completely different time frames blended within each other almost instantaneously providing a feeling of time not playing a factor into these character’s lives. Director Michael Uppendahl and the editing crew did a fantastic job of giving the episode the timeless feel that allowed for all the strange emotions to be felt throughout the episode.

One of the main escapes that were felt throughout the sixties was sex which was dealt with in some interesting ways in this one. Stan for example is devastated by his cousin being shot while on a mission in Vietnam so he attempts to escape into Peggy. Peggy denies telling Stan that ultimately emotions need to be felt and escaped from through sex (something that throughout the whole run of the show many of the characters haven’t realized) and ultimately get’s him to stop at a few kisses and a “nice ass” comment as she leaves his office. Well Stan has been a marginal character who is usually there to provide a good laugh he was used well here to convey the need for escape throughout the era of many tragedies. Ultimately the audience unfortunately has to see him escape with the now deceased Frank’s strange psychic daughter it’s a deeper more interesting use of Stan that hopefully leads to some more Stan centric bits.

Then there is Don and his very unfortunate sex life. “The Crash” gave us a glimpse into the head of Don and relationship with sex through flashbacks. Yes it’s a return to the flashbacks to the whorehouse where we get to see young Don Draper get his first and kind of strange experience with nutriment and then perhaps unfortunately sex. Don is introduced to sex through a lady at the house who does a better job of caring for his illness then his inept mother seems to. Then unfortunately she has to try him causing the sexual obsession and confusion we see with sex in his present years. It’s truly an interesting and disturbing prospect to see how the one seemingly nurturing sole in Don’s early life ends up taking his virginity thus changing his prospective on how sex works and potentially turning him into the strange man he has become presently.

The flashbacks provide a frame work for Don’s continued drop as a creative force and as a man in general. The episode starts with the fallout of Don and Sylvia’s fling that sees Don looking very much like a sad and lost puppy. Don’s never been brought out to the curb before quite like with his affair with Sylvia (whom after last week is completely right in her cold ousting of Don) and it’s evident here that he has some strange attachment that he can’t seem to deal with. He has weird smoking sessions outside of Sylvia’s door as well as an awkward phone conversation regarding his super stupid feelings towards her.

Then comes the serum and things become increasingly interesting for Don. The flashbacks and the interesting ideas start flowing through Don like wildfire producing a self destructive rage of a weekend. Don seems to get lost in the flashbacks and instead of finding ideas about Chevy cars Don goes out of his way to find a soup add that represents what he needed as a kid and what he’s feeling at the moment. It’s a assortment of emotions that ends up in nothing as at the end of the day nothing is produced from the serum filled rampage save for a few Ginsberg produced pages with Chevy spelt wrong.

Then there are the consequences that come in Don’s familial life. Don’s just not a good parent at all that has been established but what happens in this episode may take the cake in that regard. Having a woman who is able to come in and trick Sally and Bobby into thinking that she is their grandmother so she can steal all the valuables in the apartment is a truly scary prospect. Megan is ultimately a decent step mother and it’s not really her fault for leaving the kids thinking that Don would be home to take care of them soon, Don is just awful for not being there. He’s also awful for returning in a drug induced mess only to find his house broken into, his kids traumatized and his Betty telling him off. His crash at the end doesn’t only show him drugged up and exhausted but symbolizes his ultimate crash. Don’s life both professionally and personally is a mess and it’s going to take a while (especially with the merger and the new people to watch over him) for him to recover from this awful state he finds himself in.

Some other Musings:

• Great opening sequence here that sets off the “what the heck is going on” vibe right off the bat with Ken getting to drive with the crazy Chevy folk. Poor Ken he works so hard and gets dumped on too often.

• Speaking of Ken who knew he was such a tap dancer. Ken high on serum tap dancing while talking to Don is one of the funnier Mad Men bits in a long time.

• Betty’s skinnier and blond again allowing January Jones not to wear that kind of awful fat suit again.

• The other thing that is really sad about Don’s relationship with the kids is that they know literally nothing about him at all and that causes the robber to trick Sally and Bobby with elegant ease.

• One thing I wish was in this episode Roger Sterling on Serum so much could have been done with that.

• Poor Peggy is getting kissed by every guy friend she has. Maybe this time though she won’t go imagining Stan’s head on her boyfriend’s body.

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?

Star Trek Into Darkness Review

Kirk and Harrison square off in Star Trek Into Darkness
Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures

Star Trek Into Darkness

B

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

J.J. Abrams has successfully rebooted the Star Trek franchise. He turned a once convoluted and practically unwatchable franchise of films and out of it created a new intriguing film franchises that while different then the productions of old provided a universal movie going experience for new viewers and memories of Wrath of Khan for veterans. In comes the second attempt in the rebooted, and watchable Star Trek film, Star Trek Into Darkness J.J. Abrams attempts to go bigger and darker in true blockbuster sequel fashion. Ultimately Star Trek Into Darkness is a good film that misses its ambitions due to some unfortunate plot decisions that stop the film from reaching where no Star Trek film has ever gone before (well maybe Khan is in the great category), into the realm of greatness.

After a mission where he put the Enterprise’s identity on the line to save Spock’s (Zachery Quinto) life James T Kirk (Chris Pine) is suddenly demoted from his captain position and into obscurity. After a kick in the butt from his old mentor Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) and a first officer position offer on his old ship things begin to look up for the formerly high and mighty captain. Then terror arrives in the form of a former Starfleet spy John Harrison (the wonderful to spell Benedict Cumberbatch) who after exploding an archive building brings the attack right to Starfleet causing Kirk, Spock, and Bones (Karl Urban) to return to adventure to hunt him down.

As with the last film in the Abrams franchise, Into Darkness plays out much less like a Trek film of the 80’s and more like a Star Wars prequel. The films are much faster paced and adventure packed ditching large slow burning suspense for fast wiz bang space battles. As with the 2009 film (and to a greater extent here as there is more pound for pound action in this film) the film provides numerous exciting sequences that are very well executed. The film is often good at building tension and creating large and interesting set pieces that provide some truly interesting moments.

The main problems with Star Trek Into Darkness lies within the plot. The plot and character motivations are at numerous points completely unexplained, overly convoluted, and makes the plot feel like it could have been resolved in much simpler ways. The film suffers in the middle from these convolutions as it seems at points like characters are just fighting for the sake of fighting without any real motivation at all. It all feels like the writers needed to get from point A to point B with some cool moments in between and didn’t really care about developing some of the plot so it makes complete logical sense.

The other glaring problem with the film is the climax, or lack thereof. The film has a phenomenal amount of build and a really potentially cool final set piece, but manages to throw it all away within the few moments of the film. Yes this is another film that after all the big space fights and large set pieces ultimately comes down to a pointless seeming fist fight (it’s the second of two summer blockbusters this year to do this as Iron Man 3 boils down to fist fights as well). Then the film just kind of skips straight into a finish ignoring creating any sense of a climax. The film just kind of ends, and ends up making all the cool set pieces before it seem like they lead to absolutely nothing. It’s disappointing as all the action that leads up to it could have been a climax but instead there is a fist fight and then a whole lot of film that was skipped.

Despite its plot flaws the film still has amazing chemistry between its characters. Pine, Quinto, and Urban are all fantastic together and even almost completely replicate the fantastic chemistry between the three original actors (Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley). The other memorable performance in Into Darkness with Benedict Cumberbatch’s surprisingly three dimensional villain. Cumberbatch’s character could have just been a simple, disposable terrorist but instead is understandable at points giving an extra layer to the character. The character also acts as the film’s main “Star Trekien” political comment regarding terrorism and its many forms. Here it works because of Cumberbatch measured performance that allows for the comment to fit in without disturbing the flow of the film.

Visually the film is stunning, just as the 2009 film was. The space battles are fast paced, colorful, and multidimensional and the effects that help bring them out are very good. Also the designs of the new worlds presented in the film are creative and stunning to look at, especially the world presented in the opening sequence of the film. The 3D in this film (first 3D film I have been to in a while been avoiding it) isn’t great but is good enough to not detract too much from the visual flair of the film. I noticed that at times it was hard to follow the film in 3D when the shots are speedier but for the most part it works as a concept. The score is big, loud and proud, and the Star Trek theme from the TV show isn’t used to the end, the theme of the newer movies is used constantly within a brassy score. It works in a traditional sci-fi film sense and actually adds to parts of the film as good scores should.

Star Trek Into Darkness is another example of a solid summer blockbuster. It’s not great as it has some interesting plot problems throughout the film, but it provides enough character and action to remain a solid film throughout. Make it two good Star Trek films in a row for Abrams and gang.