Film: Maybe I'll Just Sit Here and Bleed At You
I'm drowning in a sea of bad television here, and I don't know that I can take it. Two televisions where I am have Pay TV- something I don't usually have access to- and The Daily Show starts in mere minutes.
One TV currently has CSI. The other? Law and Order. A fun fact: crime shows are shit. Call this a matter of opinion, I call it fact. We are in the days where TV drama is adapting and advancing. Showrunners nowadays, if they so choose, pretty much have the power to basically have their own neverending movie. Story arcs have more time to play out than in movies, and twisting a story, making a huge revelation, can have a devastating effect, in a really good way. They can take their characters where they want to, giving them arcs that last years, creating their own world and if they're talented enough this world is unforgettable for viewers.
Or they can carbon copy the same story week after week, with minor variations, with character development limited to Grissom going from clean-shaven to bearded. I give you: CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Law and Order, Law and Order Special Victims Unit, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Cold Case, on and on and on forever. People have the opportunity to watch the exact same story, ten times every week. What joy.
At least I watched a fantastic movie today. And now I gush horrendously.
Brick
If you're on the internet and reading a movie site, you've heard of Brick. This is the opposite of if you're a member of the Australian public, because nobody anywhere is advertising this gem. And it is a gem.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt would have a career best performance here had he not starred in Mysterious Skin. He plays Brendan, a high school outcast- although it seems he was the one who cast himself out. He investigates the disappearance of Emily (Emilie de Ravin), his former girlfriend, while inhabiting a universe where people talk like they're from a 1940s detective film, and making me wish in my high school people talked like they're from a 1940s detective film, because it's really cool. This teen neo-noir makes Veronica Mars look about as noir as a Wiggles concert. (Not that Veronica Mars isn't still completely fantastic.)
The plot of the film can be hard to follow. It's not as hard to follow as the plot of the film I last reviewed- Miami Vice- but even if it was, you care here. You want to know what's going on, who's playing who. This is down to not only the formerly mentioned (really fucking cool) dialogue, but also how enormously entertaining the characters are to watch. Lukas Haas plays the villain The Pin as both low key and threatening, while Nora Zehetner is the femme fetale of the piece: the seductive, dangerous (and hot) Laura.
So, the writing's great. The acting is strong. The direction matches in quality. Not only is it an extremely assured and confident turn for the first time writer/director Rian Johnson- and with difficult material- but it looks great. This is thanks to the photography as well, but the fact that this cost just half a million dollars does not show at all.
I'd been looking forward to this film for longer than I can remember. As the fantastic buzz trickled through the one thing I didn't hear much about (and this only comes as a shock to me after seeing the movie) was the music. Nathan Johnson and the Cinematic Underground- a band I hadn't head of before Brick- have put together a fantastic score. The CD Soundtrack cover tells me they used kitchen utensils and broken pianos, and, against all odds, it's beautiful. The characters Brendan encounters have their own themes, and as the film progresses, the themes vary. It helps the story but on top of this it's just great music, especially Laura's theme.
The reason everything comes together so well is the fact that it's all played straight. This could have just looked completely stupid- the thought of teenagers spouting hard-boiled words like this brings to mind an amatuer high school adapation of Kiss Me Deadly or something, but from the first moments the dialogue feels somehow natural.
This isn't our universe these kids are inhabiting; it's not supposed to be. It's a romanticised version of teen angst; everything is as big as it felt back then. And it's fantastic. And finally, the closing line is a killer.
10/10
For the sake of truth in journalism (not that this is journalism), I wrote the first half of this entry two days ago, with the review just finished tonight. So the review was not written on the night of crime show doom. Rather, it was written the night David Tench Tonight crashed and burned. Andrew Denton, hang your head. Or just blame network interference. And whose idea was it to open the show with Pat Rafter being interviewed? Nice guy, sure, but boring! I wouldn't have wanted to watch a legitimately funny interviewer handle him, certainly not for half an hour. Really, was this ever going to work?
I edit for correction: apparently there were two guests tonight, the other being Ella Hooper, of the band Killing Heidi, if they still exist. So that's slightly less ludicrous than a half hour interview of one (uninteresting) guest. Still: must be funnier, Mr Tench.
Also, I ended up getting to watch not only The Daily Show, but also Kenny vs. Spenny, the greatest Canadian show ever, so that rant is also sort of a lie. I wrote it before I got to watch these things, though. And not that I've seen another Canadian show to compare Kenny vs. Spenny to, but I doubt they'd compare. But, the stuff about that genre of drama being shit still stands, and always will, forever and ever.
One TV currently has CSI. The other? Law and Order. A fun fact: crime shows are shit. Call this a matter of opinion, I call it fact. We are in the days where TV drama is adapting and advancing. Showrunners nowadays, if they so choose, pretty much have the power to basically have their own neverending movie. Story arcs have more time to play out than in movies, and twisting a story, making a huge revelation, can have a devastating effect, in a really good way. They can take their characters where they want to, giving them arcs that last years, creating their own world and if they're talented enough this world is unforgettable for viewers.
Or they can carbon copy the same story week after week, with minor variations, with character development limited to Grissom going from clean-shaven to bearded. I give you: CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Law and Order, Law and Order Special Victims Unit, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Cold Case, on and on and on forever. People have the opportunity to watch the exact same story, ten times every week. What joy.
At least I watched a fantastic movie today. And now I gush horrendously.
Brick
If you're on the internet and reading a movie site, you've heard of Brick. This is the opposite of if you're a member of the Australian public, because nobody anywhere is advertising this gem. And it is a gem.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt would have a career best performance here had he not starred in Mysterious Skin. He plays Brendan, a high school outcast- although it seems he was the one who cast himself out. He investigates the disappearance of Emily (Emilie de Ravin), his former girlfriend, while inhabiting a universe where people talk like they're from a 1940s detective film, and making me wish in my high school people talked like they're from a 1940s detective film, because it's really cool. This teen neo-noir makes Veronica Mars look about as noir as a Wiggles concert. (Not that Veronica Mars isn't still completely fantastic.)
The plot of the film can be hard to follow. It's not as hard to follow as the plot of the film I last reviewed- Miami Vice- but even if it was, you care here. You want to know what's going on, who's playing who. This is down to not only the formerly mentioned (really fucking cool) dialogue, but also how enormously entertaining the characters are to watch. Lukas Haas plays the villain The Pin as both low key and threatening, while Nora Zehetner is the femme fetale of the piece: the seductive, dangerous (and hot) Laura.
So, the writing's great. The acting is strong. The direction matches in quality. Not only is it an extremely assured and confident turn for the first time writer/director Rian Johnson- and with difficult material- but it looks great. This is thanks to the photography as well, but the fact that this cost just half a million dollars does not show at all.
I'd been looking forward to this film for longer than I can remember. As the fantastic buzz trickled through the one thing I didn't hear much about (and this only comes as a shock to me after seeing the movie) was the music. Nathan Johnson and the Cinematic Underground- a band I hadn't head of before Brick- have put together a fantastic score. The CD Soundtrack cover tells me they used kitchen utensils and broken pianos, and, against all odds, it's beautiful. The characters Brendan encounters have their own themes, and as the film progresses, the themes vary. It helps the story but on top of this it's just great music, especially Laura's theme.
The reason everything comes together so well is the fact that it's all played straight. This could have just looked completely stupid- the thought of teenagers spouting hard-boiled words like this brings to mind an amatuer high school adapation of Kiss Me Deadly or something, but from the first moments the dialogue feels somehow natural.
This isn't our universe these kids are inhabiting; it's not supposed to be. It's a romanticised version of teen angst; everything is as big as it felt back then. And it's fantastic. And finally, the closing line is a killer.
10/10
For the sake of truth in journalism (not that this is journalism), I wrote the first half of this entry two days ago, with the review just finished tonight. So the review was not written on the night of crime show doom. Rather, it was written the night David Tench Tonight crashed and burned. Andrew Denton, hang your head. Or just blame network interference. And whose idea was it to open the show with Pat Rafter being interviewed? Nice guy, sure, but boring! I wouldn't have wanted to watch a legitimately funny interviewer handle him, certainly not for half an hour. Really, was this ever going to work?
I edit for correction: apparently there were two guests tonight, the other being Ella Hooper, of the band Killing Heidi, if they still exist. So that's slightly less ludicrous than a half hour interview of one (uninteresting) guest. Still: must be funnier, Mr Tench.
Also, I ended up getting to watch not only The Daily Show, but also Kenny vs. Spenny, the greatest Canadian show ever, so that rant is also sort of a lie. I wrote it before I got to watch these things, though. And not that I've seen another Canadian show to compare Kenny vs. Spenny to, but I doubt they'd compare. But, the stuff about that genre of drama being shit still stands, and always will, forever and ever.
posted by Simon A at 10:03 PM
1 Comments:
I keep seeing the ads for David Tench and wondering what the fuck it is. Like... who are these people sitting there talking to? I feel so sorry for people like Nelly Furtado.
The only good crime show that's on at the moment? "The Closer"
All the CSIs and Law & Orders (and even stuff like House, etc) are the same every week and The Closer is too, but that one's different. Like House it has a great lead performance and she is a great one. Her character is so fun to watch. Yes, we know how it'll end but it's still fun watching it. Whereas on CSI or whatever I always go "No, it's not him! It's too early in the program for that"
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