The Leftovers “I live here now” review and season 2 thoughts: Miracles do happen

Kevin and Nora figuring some things out on The Leftovers

Woah...

The Leftovers was a great show in its first season. It was a show who was powerful and emotionally satisfying enough to overlook its various flaws and at times divisiveness. It was a great dramatic gut punch, one that I could not stop thinking about for long after I finished.

But boy was I not expecting season two to be this great. The Leftovers made the proverbial “leap” in season two from a show that was great, but great in and amongst other shows along the same level, to having one of the all-time greatest television drama seasons. The Leftovers season two left me a wreck after its conclusion, and it is a season of television that I will remember for a long time.

Now due to some exam related time constraints lets go right to the bullets:

• How about that final scene in the finale? Kevin and John’s gradual conflict/tense friendship had been one of the through lines to the season and it payed off in the most wacky and beautiful way. All it took was for them to finally air out the tensions of where the hell Eve went (more on that in a bit) and of course for John to shoot Kevin for good measure. The scene the two share making up on their respective porches is so powerful because it has been strangely earned. The exact same thing applies to the great scene that follows and ultimately ends the season with the whole fractured extended Garvey/Durst/Jamison clan welcoming Kevin back home. In a season full of Kevin fighting his demons and fracturing his family within a space where nothing seemed to go wrong only to have the safe space be destroyed only to find a potentially sane Kevin reuniting with the family he had almost drove away was powerful and provided the perfect ending for a near perfect season.

• So Kevin survived death not once but twice this season. The first time led to one of the great hours of television “International Assassin” in which Kevin explored his own version of an existential hell in the form of a hotel as an assassin. There was no stranger or more perfect way to end Kevin’s conflict with the ghost/hallucination/psychotic nightmare of Paddy then in a plot that turns him into an international assassin and climaxes with him pushing a child version of Paddy into a well and then waking up being buried in Jordan’s magical dirt. The second time he goes back to the existential hotel and sings a Simon and Garfunkel song! Whatever supernatural elements are going on within those moments (and throughout other parts of the season as well) go largely unexplained for better. Hey as this season’s theme song says “let the mystery be!”

• The execution of the single character POV mode of storytelling this season pushed this season over the top for me. The format allowed the viewer to really sink into one (sometimes two) characters for an hour allowing room for a lot of sheer emotional investment. It was especially powerful when used to focus on side characters such as the Matt episode “No Room at the Inn” which was one of the season’s best. The way the narrative was handled also ultimately avoided clutter problems and let each main character shine in their own individual way while still moving the plot forward at a nice pace

• The POV format also made it so when they did pull away from it in the finale it made it that much more impactful. One of the best things about “I live here now” was how it felt like a culmination of all the arcs that we had seen develop individually throughout the season. All the dominoes fell from Marry finally waking up and confirming that she did wake up the first time and the sex that she and Matt had was consensual, to Meg’s plan being revealed as just a larger extension of her “throw a fake grenade into the school bus.” Yet at the same time the show kept it personal and stuck to individual character’s POVs only instead presenting a bunch of fixed POVs instead of one. It made the finale a culmination of plot, character, and style in a super satisfying fashion.

• Finally the biggest plot point in the finale. Meg’s big elaborate scare was the perfect place to end the false paradise of Miracle. The city finally being forced to break out of its fantasy and being thrust into the new reality they had been avoiding for so long was a wonderfully powerful moment. It was almost like a different version of the cave analogy except Socrates is a delightfully evil Meg and who knows if the enlightenment is actually a good thing. It was the big explosion that resulted from the slow cooker of full of bad things that the town was hiding.  The actual bridge crossing scene itself was beautifully directed, it is kinetic and visceral despite essentially being people jogging across a bridge. It helps that the bridge sequence contains the horrifying scene of Nora having to essentially dive on top of her baby in order to save it, which resulted in one of the more memorable images of the finale.

I have so much more to say about this season of The Leftovers so this may be something I revisit again at the end of the year. But for now…

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

SPECTRE Review: And Nothing Else Matters

 Daniel Craig returns to the role of James Bond in SPECTRE

Warning the following review spoils the twist that pretty much every other review does. Consider yourself adequately warned.

The Bond franchise never deserved Casino Royal. It is not as if Casino Royal is a perfect film but it is a close as the franchise will ever flirt with greatness. Casino Royal was the first film to push the character of James Bond into new and intriguing situations, giving him some much overdue character development and giving the franchise a much needed shot in the arm. It’s a dangerous game flirting with greatness though as when something dares do so people begin to invest and everything that follows must continue to hold the audience’s engagement. We all know by this point that Casino Royal was followed by one of the worst Bond films in franchise history Quantum of Solace but even then it was not enough to kill momentum. As bad as Quantum of Solace was it felt more of an issue of a poor directing choice rather than a fundamental step in the wrong direction. That point was soon proven by its follow up Skyfall, another one of the series' best entries and another film that pushed the Bond character into stark new directions. It seemed as though after the goodwill brought by both Casino Royal and Skyfall it would be very difficult to shake the newfound engagement with Bond even if we got another Quantum of Solace.

Yet SPECTRE manages to pull it off. SPECTRE singlehandedly destroyed any goodwill I had garnered for the Bond franchise. It’s a film that not only spits on the grave of everything Casino Royal built for Daniel Craig’s 007 but turns around, pours gasoline on it, sets it on fire, and watches it burn while laughing manically. Never again will I dare invest any drop of emotion or investment in a Bond film, and it is all thanks to SPECTRE.

And for those that are asking yes it boils down to the one twist. You know the one; even if you have not seen the film you know it. Because if the trailers did not make it clear enough you, dear reader, have surly read another review that spoils the hell out of it. So here goes nothing.

Yes the main villain played by Christoph Waltz is Blofeld. Yes that Blofeld, the one that was the crux of a bunch of bad early Bond films you probably do not remember the names of. All that is fine and dandy, I’m one of the people who did not get angry at the Khan reveal in Star Trek into Darkness after all, but it’s what happens next that is infuriating. Yes not only is Waltz Blofeld but he is behind every event of the last three films, EVERY LAST ONE! His reason? Because his father loved James, the son he adopted, more then he loved poor Blofeld. That is the reason! Every mission, ever tragedy, every piece of character building, every last second I invested into Craig’s Bond character all happened solely because our main villain was a jealous brother with serious daddy issues. Nothing in the last three films mattered, none of it had any significance it was just one brother trying to get back at the other because his father loved the other brother more. All of the great things in the last three films have been trivialized in the name of having Blofeld in the film. Heaven forbid you give two time academy award winner Christoph Waltz something to do and come up with something creative instead.

But back to the bigger issue at hand. It is absolutely infuriating to have spent three films invested in the growth of the character of James Bond through the events that surround him only to have it thrown away all for the cheapness of one crummy twist; that in the grand scheme of things, only about a fraction of the audience will actually pick up on. It feels dirty, and screams cash grab. It is like the filmmakers are actively flipping the bird at the audience saying “haha we have your money now we can do whatever we want suckers.”

What’s worse is that in a vacuum SPECTRE is actually a competent Bond film. Sam Mendes continues to bring a great visual sense to the franchise, every frame he shoots is picturesque, every location jumps of the screen with their own distinct and beautiful features. Every action sequence he directs is creatively shot, from the opening tracking shot through Mexico, through the frantic train fight that is a near perfect homage to the trademark sequence of From Russia with Love. Daniel Craig continues to be perhaps the best James Bond, one who is fundamentally broken and is unsure of the life he has chosen for himself. Craig’s performance keeps trying to push Bond into new and fascinating directions just through the subtle touches, facial expressions and small hints of emotion. If only Craig continued to have the support of the rest of the creative forces behind the film then maybe we could have seen even further evolution of what it means to be James Bond.

But in the end none of this matters. Because, by trivializing all the work done in the last three iterations, the filmmakers have made it very clear that nothing in the Bond franchise matters at all. Any investment that we as the audience make can be undone so that the filmmakers can throw in inconsequential twists to try and appease their own wallets. That way there is no need for them to continue and push the envelope of where Bond as a character can go. The producers can safely go back to creating the same old inconsequential Bond films of iterations past without people like me caring to ask what if.

James Bond will return but at this point who cares?

Grade: D

-Frederick Cholowski

Inside Out Review: Reading Minds

Riley's emotions look on in Inside Out

Photo Credit: Walt Disney Studios

Inside Out

A+

A review by Frederick Cholowski

Welcome back Pixar.

After an unprecedented streak of not making a bad film Pixar began to enter a bit of a slump. Cars 2 was a shockingly bad (by Pixar standards), Brave was meteorically generic, and Monsters University was fine but did not have many of the elements that made Pixar films of the past so special. Inside Out, Pixar’s latest, is the studio’s return to what made it special and is a great reminder of what made me fall in love with the studio in the first place. Creative, funny, and full of heart Inside Out is one of the best films Pixar has ever created and one of the best of 2015.

The concept of Inside Out tries to answer the old question of what are people actually thinking. According to the film the mind is broken up into five emotions, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and fear who combined all determine how a person acts. The human at the center of Inside Out is a young lady named Riley (voiced by Katlyn Dias) and her along with all of her emotions (voiced by Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, and Mindy Kaling) must deal with moving away from her childhood home in Minnesota to a new unfamiliar one in the middle of San Francisco. Along the stressful journey both Joy and Sadness get lost in the banks of long term memory leaving only Anger, Disgust and Fear in charge which threatens to ultimately change the base of Riley’s personality.

As with every great Pixar film, the creators use wildly creative concepts in order and tell a story of basic human emotions. The realizations of all of the emotions and their role in shaping memories and personality is so beautifully realized on screen it is stunning. All the ins and outs of how memories are stored and shaped along with how someone’s personality is formed is absolutely magnificent and provides opportunity for amazing looking animated vistas. Every portion of Riley’s mind from the headquarters to the subconscious are explored in such interesting and funny ways giving life to every encounter throughout the runtime of the film.

Of course no Pixar film would be complete without a huge amount of heart at its centre. One of my main complaints with the last three Pixar films was that they lacked any semblance of the heart that defined so many of Pixars’ previous works. Either it felt really forced (Cars 2 and Monsters University) or it really did not connect (Brave). Inside Out is Pixar’s return to the perfectly integrated emotional storytelling of their past, giving us a human story of leaving a place we love behind and adapting to something new while at the same time dealing with our own emotional turmoil. It’s fantastic and heartfelt while never feeling sappy or forced in any way. Inside Out also manages to integrate humor into the proceedings in wonderful ways, throwing in great, mostly adult oriented, Jokes to help lighten up the sometimes heavily emotional proceedings.

The voice cast are all superb and wonderfully cast. Amy Poehler feels as though she was born to play the role of Joy and it even feels very similar to the character she played so masterfully on Parks and Recreation. Phyllis Smith is hilariously melancholic as sadness bringing a lot of humor and heart to the proceedings. The rest of the emotions paly a little bit of a back seat but it is always amusing to see Lewis Black get super angry, or Bill Hader freak out about random things. The voices of the human characters are also perfectly done, Katlyn Dias is magnificent as the central character and her parents voiced by Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan do perfectly in their reactions to the new stressful situation.

As per usual with Pixar the animation here is stunning. As mentioned earlier, the realization of the mind and all of its elements are beautifully realized and unlike anything I have ever seen before. Everything in the film just pops off screen, every idea is so colorful and creative at every turn. It really makes for a fully fleshed out world that looks pretty from its first frame to its last. The score is also wonderful outlining each element of the film with the perfect emotion. Pixar’s technical performance has always been a strong suit and Inside out is no exception.

Inisde Out is one of Pixar’s finest films and a spectacular film to bounce back with. The film succeeds at being beautiful in both a visual and storytelling sense in a way only Pixar at their peak can capture. If you only want to see one animated film this year I have a good feeling that nothing will surpass the wonderful Inside Out.