Time of Transition

Staring into the face of transition!

Photo Credit: AMC TV 

Hi everyone

First off I say thank you over the last many years for the very small audience that has followed this wonderful blog. No I’m not stopping the blog (in fact not even close to that) but instead I’m in a time of transition as I move on to the next portion of my life (ie University). Thus changes are abound some bigger, some smaller. First things first I’m going to be taking most of the month of September off of film reviews (as you’ve seen this summer I haven’t been doing a lot of film reviews but this will probably be a total shutdown) the last film review I will post will be one that should have gone up a few days ago but got pushed Closed Circuit (hint I didn’t like it so much). I will still be reviewing Breaking Bad every week, I will try to get to Newsroom each week, I’ll try to do a top 50 movie once or two times a week and I will check into a few cable premieres along the way (Boardwalk Empire and Homeland in particular) but for the most part I’m going to take this month to transition into University life. Don’t worry I don’t see a lot of films on the September schedule that are all that important and I’ll be back into full swing (if not even more so than before) with about a film review or two a week come October and into Oscar season. Also I’ve teased it before but there may be a new version of the blog coming when I’m back in the full swing of things. Again thank you everyone!

-Frederick Cholowski

Breaking Bad “Confessions” Review: Acting in a Crisis

 Hank and Jessie think hard on Breaking Bad

Photo Credit: AMC TV

First off sorry about last week I was on vacation and I tried to get the review up later in the week but it just became too late to be worthwhile in the end. Long review made short “Buried” was fantastic and one of the best episodes the show has ever done. Well that’s over on to this week so…

A Review of “Confessions” coming up as soon as I comb my mustache…

“Would you just, for once, stop working me?”

-Jessie

Wow!

Aaron Paul hadn’t had all that much to do up to this point, in fact in last week’s episode “Buried” he didn’t even speak a word. Boy did he make up for that this week. The final half hour of “Confessions” was an Aaron Paul showcase, one that reminds us how fantastic he is and has been over the course of this series. “Confessions” keeps the serie’s run of fantastic season 5B (or six) episodes with another beautifully explosive episode.

Before we get started with the Jessie bombshell let’s talk about Hank and his ill fated plans to find evidence to trap Walt. The first failed attempt began with Jessie. The final shot of last week say Hank head in to try and pry something out of the very silent Jessie, but by this week we realize that his attempts won’t have an effect. Even when Hank is completely on his game this week with Jessie (unlike how we say him with Skyler last week) and even getting close, the history between the two men just had a way to large of an effect and Hank wasn’t able to get anything before Saul came in to interrupt. It’s a great showdown that is one of this week’s pieces that puts Hank farther and farther down into the hole that continues to be dug for him.

The final nail in the coffin comes from the great acting and lying of Walter White. No not Bryan Cranston, even though he’s amazing and fantastic, but Walter himself. Walt’s fake confession is probably the most brilliant lie he’s ever told. What a truly amazing monologue delivered by Bryan Cranston in that fake confession video (great nod to the pilot in that sequence as it starts the same as that confession of sorts did) as his lie is so great and wonderfully convincing. With the surgery bills alone Walt has put Hank into an inescapable trap that may have taken him potentially out of the game.

But really it isn’t Hank that Walt needs to be worried about, it’s Jessie. Jessie had two spectacular character moments this episode, both involving lash outs towards Walt. The first of these lash outs happened in the familiar setting of the middle of the desert where we find out that Walt wants Jessie to get away and Jessie just wants Walt to stop working him for once and tell the truth. The sequence is fantastic ending in an awkward hug that shows just how far these two characters have come. All Walt really wanted in Jessie was a son figure and all Jessie wants was to get away, they both seem to get their wishes in that hug.

Then right before Jessie goes to meet up with Saul’s get away guy, Saul makes the error of jacking the pot from Jessie’s pocket; not because of the pot specifically but because Jessie begins to put the pieces together about Brock. In a stroke of sheer genius by Vince Gilligan and crew Jessie figures out that Huell jacked the risen from his pocket the same way that he did the pot before he left this time. This leads Jessie on a rampage of anger, first attacking Saul by punching him numerous times before Saul swears that he thought Walt wanted him to do it to protect Jessie. Then the rampage shifts squarely to Mr. White (Jessie refers to him as Mr. White even after finding out what Walt had did which is a testament to just how much Walt had twisted him up) and in a brilliant cliffhanger he goes right to Walt’s home and pours gas all over the floor and the furniture.

The sequence is brilliant for many reasons most notable is that Gilligan doesn’t make the audience out to be stupid. Gilligan relies on the basis that the audience had been paying attention to what had happened and how it had happened and never babysits the audience at all. The other notable reason that the sequence is brilliant is of course because of just how fantastic Aaron Paul is. The sequence where he figures it out is amazing and escalates higher up the ladder of amazing when he completely looses it. It’s horrifying to watch and even more horrifying with the suggested consequences for Walt and his family. Ladies and gentlemen let the chips rain on down.

Only 5 episodes left!

Some other musings:

• Poor, poor Trent; in a scene worthy of the best comedy accolades poor waiter Trent had to deal with the epic stare down between Hank, Marie, Walt, and Skyler. All he wanted to do was serve them Guacamole dang it!

• Look it’s Todd! In a very awesome opening scene we get to see Todd tell big stories about the high and mighty Heisenberg and then try to call Walt to get his approval! See Walt one of your son figures wants your approval! Just not the right one…

• Speaking of Son’s Walt’s cancer returning speech to Walt Jr. (aka Flinn) was perfectly manipulative. Great stuff from R.J. Miller though whose reaction to Walt was utterly perfect.

• Another great comedy moment: Walt trying to fix himself up before seeing Skyler at the car wash and then their whole awkward conversation after was superb.

• Frozen bullets!

That’s all for now this was just another amazing episode of a show that looks like it will go out with a massive bang!

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

Top of the Lake Series Finale Review and Series Thoughts

Robin and Tui share a scene on Top of the Lake

Photo Credit: Sundance Channel US 

Top of the Lake just finished airing in my home country of Canada so a few thoughts right after I literally become a ticking time bomb…

*Full Spoilers Ahead*

This has most likely all been written about when the show aired in the US so let’s jump right into the bullets:

• Boy is the atmosphere of this series fantastically dark and somewhat creepy. Every nature shot is beautiful yet utterly terrifying at the same time. I want to take in the sights of this small lake town in New Zealand but boy I would never in my life want to live there at all. Nature, as seen many times throughout the course of these 7 episodes (6 if you watched the original New Zealand version as to make room for commercials each of the American episodes is shorter but there are more so all of the content remains exactly the same save for awkward episode breaks) is very unforgiving and the consequences of it being unforgiving can be very brutal.

• Speaking of nature being brutal the scene where Tui’s best friend falls from the top of the rock cliff is utterly horrifying. Not in a long time has a rush of panic entered me while I was watching something quite in the same way that that specific scene did. The scene was just such a mix of what the series did so well both visually and storytelling wise.

• I never thought I would say this but man did that head fake at the end of the mystery ever work. As much as Matt Mitcham (played super well by Peter Mullan) could have ended up being the father of Tui’s baby the character had been set up to be sympathetic enough that it would have felt like a cop out to have been him. He’s not a good guy by any means but it seemed that Tui was scared of him for other reasons rather than for her being raped. To me it also felt natural for it to be Al all along. It occurred to me about midway through the 4^th or 5^th hour in the scene where Tui’s friend is being bullied in the interrogation room by Al as he’s teaching him roughly how to make invisible tea that the conclusion would feel more natural and haunting had it had been Al. The reason the head fake ultimately works is because the motives of Al are questioned throughout the entire run of the series (like what did he do to Robin when she got drunk and stayed over that night? And was Robin really drunk or did he roofie her?) and that no matter how much we thought that Al could have done it there was always a sinking suspicion (at least in my head) that he hadn’t done it. Also the series didn’t make it into a gotcha moment and never really treated the reveal as much more than a natural conclusion to a well told long form mystery.

• I say this a lot when watching Mad Men but boy is Elizabeth Moss a fantastic actress in every way. This role she may have some better moments than when she plays Peggy on Mad Men. Sure it takes a second to adjust to the Kiwi accent (it’s not that it’s not great it’s just that if you’ve watched Mad Men Moss’ voice is firmly implanted in the mind) but she plays Robin so perfectly in every way. Just the vulnerability of the character as Played by Moss is utterly fantastic and every dark reveal about the character’s past and present are something special. Plus for Moss this seems like a really balsy performance as well as it the character is put through so much throughout the course of the series. It isn’t an easy performance which is why when Moss makes it look easy it’s so utterly fantastic.

• The Holly Hunter and paradise story seemed weird at times but by the end of the series it felt perfect given the subject matter of the series and the state of the characters that inhabit it. Sure there were times where it felt like a different show but Holly Hunter was so strangely still and captivating and by the later part of the series it just all clicked so beautifully. There wasn’t any moment in particular but it just took time for the story to ripen and develop and then something special came out of it.

• I don’t know if it was like this in the US but the cuts to commercial in the Canadian airing of the show were absolutely awful. There were even one or two that cut right in the middle of lines of dialogue! That is really unacceptable and for me it was a bit of a determent that while not the series’ fault managed to throw me off every once and a while.

• Are Robin and Jonnho really not brother and sister? I really can’t trust Al after, you know…

This is truly a fantastic series, one that will most likely be on the top half of my top ten shows come the end of the year. It just got so many things right and had one of the finest and most haunting endings of any long form mystery that I have seen.

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

Mad Men Rewatch 2013: Season 1 Ep. 13 “The Wheel” The power of family

 Don sits alone on the stairs on Mad Men

Photo Credit: AMC TV

It’s rewatch time!! For the first time ever this summer we will be watching an old season of a television show over the course of several weeks. Installments will be posted Sundays and Wednesdays with the posts spoiling only the episode that is being talked about. This summer the rewatch is on the first season of Mathew Weiner’s 1960’s period piece Mad Men, one of the great first seasons of television.

Thoughts on the final episode of Mad Men’s first season as soon as I buy that slide progector…

“Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means "the pain from an old wound." It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards... it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel, it's called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels - around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved.”

-Don Draper

So before we get anywhere, I don’t think that throughout these recaps I’ve mentioned just how utterly fantastic Jon Hamm is as Don Draper, mostly because I just associate the actor with the role so much it doesn’t come as a first priority when writing about the show. But my goodness that pitch sequence is one dazzling piece of acting. Sure the scene is amazingly written in every way and ties the whole season’s (and really the series) themes into one beautifully crafted package, but my goodness does Jon Hamm elevate it to sheer masterwork. And the best part is I haven’t even begin to scratch the surface of that scene which is only about 3-4 minutes of “The Wheel” which is one of the finest episodes of Mad Men that has ever been produced. Ladies and Gentlemen this is how you go out on a bang.

Really the best part of “The Wheel” is that on a plot level there are no real bangs (unlike another all time great Mad Men hour the season 3 finale “Shut the Door and Have a Seat” which is almost all plot based) plot wise. Other than the revelation that yes Peggy’s weight gain is because she got pregnant (more on that later) not all that much is revealed that is neither surprising nor that moves to plot along all that much. Instead “The Wheel” is all about the characters and what they have been dealing with all season. In a way despite “Nixon vs. Kennedy” having the plot climax of the season (Don vs. Pete and the election) it feels like “The Wheel” really takes these characters to their final emotional climaxes and that it pushes them into some very interesting places.

Take Don for example, a man who all season just wanted to get away from his family and his life. The mistresses, the late nights at work, the constant coldness to Betty, and even in this episode his unwillingness to go to thanksgiving all are a sign of a man wanting to escape his family constantly. Then (about two episodes late) Don ridden with guilt caused by seeing that package phones his brother only to find that he hung himself. This hits Don so hard that he decides that he needs to rethink everything that he has done or that he has wanted to do throughout the season. He has a fundamental change of heart of everything he’s put Betty and the family through throughout the season.

All of this comes out in that magnificent pitch sequence. It’s a mix of an amazing pitch (seriously it’s 2013 and I wanted a Kodak slide projector after watching that pitch) all of Don’s surface level change towards wanting his family back. Is it truly sincere, absolutely not! It’s really is Don buying into his own sales pitch, and while it’s a masterful one, it’s one that he will most likely abandon when the time is right just given his character. In that moment though the twinge of the heart is powerful enough for Don to want to return to the family he’s been so desperately trying to escape all season long. Is it going to last, again based on what we’ve seen of Don all season long, absolutely not, but it’s a fantastic moment of surface level realization that comes out in one of the best written, acted and directed sequences in Mad Men (and really television) history.

The best part is that the scene is that it’s juxtaposed around Betty’s realization of Don’s bull crap sales pitch. The slow process that occurs throughout the episode of Betty going from having the idea of adultery planted in her head by Francine at the beginning of the episode to basically telling her therapist all of what Don’s been doing and feeling all season (without firsthand knowledge) was fantastic. The road is rocky on the way; she seems very childish when crying to Glen before entering the pivotal therapy session. In the end though it’s always darkest before the dawn and Betty’s dawn is magnificent. In that moment she knows that Don has been snooping around, that he doesn’t care about the family anymore, and that he’s been keeping tabs on her supposedly private treatment. In the end the thing that has made her seem childish and constrained isn’t the life of a house wife but instead Don’s whole lie of what their family is and what it means to him. Like Don the whole revelation probably won’t last all that long given the character, but finally Betty has gotten out of that childish decent and onto the upswing of being a more aware partner to a dishonest man.

It all culminates down into the final, brilliantly tragic sequence. Don returns home on the train expecting for the family to be there ready for him to make a sudden reversal on going to Thanksgiving weekend; instead Don get’s an empty house with nothing there but his own shame. Just when he begins to buy his own sales pitch it all comes crashing down on him without warning. Ultimately Don is left as he usually is alone, but this time as he sits on the steps there is a yearning for the past, and the family that he’s abandoned over the course of the season. It’s a beautiful and tragic and very Mad Men way to leave the season.

(Fun fact: Mathew Weiner actually wrote the final scene to be the happy family sequence and that the characters would ultimately have a happy end. After a heated debate he finally admitted his mistake and said that he just loved the characters too much and changed the ending to the one found at the end of the episode. I’m very glad he did.)

The final part of “The Wheel” involved Peggy and her Baby. First, on the positive side, she’s now a copywriter! On the other end though we now get to see what the reason for her weight gain really was and yes she was pregnant. It’s tragic to have to watch Peggy who gets a decent moment within the sound room earlier on in the episode to have to have a child that she never wanted, and with no one by her side. It’s not surprising at all when it’s reviled that she’s having a baby but the sequence as a tragic character moment worked surprisingly well as it was not very fun watching poor Peggy get crushed in the way she did because of that child.

“The Wheel” is the cherry on top of this fantastic first season of television. It’s so deep and introspective about the show’s characters and their feelings at the time and the place that they find themselves in. It’s a near perfect ending to a near perfect season and it shows the amazing emotional heights that this series can reach. Oh and that pitch is still amazing…

I love this show so very much!

That’s it for this year’s television rewatch! It’s been fun going through Mad Men season one with other people along for the ride! We’ll see what season of television will be tackled next summer but for now one last time:

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