Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 145

The Irishman - a podcast review

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 120, in which I review The Irishman. I thought it was fabulous, perhaps Scorsese's best.  If you'd like to read along, you can find my written review here, but I always put something extra into the podcast.



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The Irishman: "It's What It Is"

"It's what it is" was an oft-repeated phrase in this three-and-a-half movie about who killed Jimmy Hoffa, and how.  And what this movie by Martin Scorsese certainly is, is something extraordinary, in the story it tells, and in the way it was directed by Scorsese, and acted by Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and, for that matter, everyone else in the movie.

One big question is how true is the story Frank Sheeran tells us in the last days of his life.  Part of this story is how Sheeran killed Joey Gallo in 1972 in Umberto's Clam House in New York City.  Up until this movie, based on  Charles Brandt's 2004 book, I Heard You Paint Houses (which I haven't read), I had thought that four other gunmen (not Sheeran) had killed Gallo (see the Wikipedia entry on this). Since I wasn't there, I can't with certainty know who killed Gallo.  But if Sheeran did not kill Gallo, why should we believe that he killed Hoffa?

A somewhat lesser but still significant question is why Sheeran's daughter Peggy had such deep misgivings about her father, to the point of never talking to him again after Sheeran (presumably) killed Hoffa?  Why did she have those misgiving all those years?   Why her and not her sisters?  Based on the movie, the only answer I can think of is that Peggy had almost a sixth sense about her father, which is not very satisfying as even a component of such a momentous story.  (There was the scene of Sheeran crushing the hand of the man who pushed her in the grocery store - with Peggy looking on - but this doesn't seem sufficient for her life-long, growing abhorrence of her father.)

But there's an old saying to the effect of, though it may not be true, it's still a great story.  And that is manifestly the case for The Irishman.  And a lot of the story does make a perfect kind of sense.  Why did Russ (played by Pesci) talk Sheeran into killing Hoffa?  It was to protect both Sheeran and Russ, as Russ later explains to Sheeran.  If someone else had killed Hoffa, the mob would have been concerned, very concerned, that Sheeran might seek some vengeance.  As we heard early in the movie, being very concerned is a state that everyone takes very seriously.  With Sheeran pulling the trigger on Hoffa, the mob didn't have to be concerned about vengeance because, who could Sheeran take vengeance on, himself?

As for the acting, tour de force doesn't do justice to the three main players.  De Niro was absolutely masterful in voice and expression.  Pacino was the same - the way he says "phone" in his first conversation as Hoffa with Sheeran is just the right tone to establish Hoffa as a character in a world of his own.  And the same for Pacino's expression when Russ (Pesci) tells Hoffa that he may not be showing proper "appreciation".  Pesci delivers that line with a quiet strength and mob wisdom that typifies his character.  All three acted their characters over decades - the "de-aging" process enhanced this, but their acting brought the ages home.  My recommendation: all three actors should split the Oscar for best performance this year.  The supporting roles in the movie might be too short for supporting Oscars, but they were all memorable, ranging from Jesse Plemons as Hoffa's son Chuckie to Harvey Keitel as mobster Angelo Bruno.

I have to also talk about the music.  I used to sing "In the Still of the Night" by The Five Satins with my doo-wop group in the late 50s/early 60s (I was just a kid), and it was great to hear that song at least three times in The Irishman.  The other music was right on key for the movie, too.

Scorsese is already lauded for Goodfellas and Casino, movies about the mob that were so good they come in just below The Godfather trilogy.  I'd put The Irishman just above those two, and I'm going to keep thinking about it.

I should also mention - it's one thing to see a movie on Netflix that would never be in a movie theater.  It's quite another to see a movie on Netflix, by one of the world's leading directors, with all-time great actors, that is playing in theaters in New York City right now.  The streaming revolution continues apace.

 

It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...




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His Dark Materials 1.4: The Bears

The bears took center state in episode 1.4 of His Dark Materials last night.  If this is starting to sound like a three-ring circus, that's because it is, but the menagerie in His Dark Materials is far more diverse and intriguing than any you'll find in any circus, or, for that matter, to use another place where the Bears appear, in any football game.

I discussed the daemons in my previous review (of episode 1.3).  The bears apparently are not daemons.  But there are sentient and speak.  They have no daemons, but they consider their armor, which can be removed, to be their souls.  So, in effect, their armor is a kind of inert daemon.

And the bears are very strong, which makes them good to have on your side in a battle or a war.  And that's what's shaping up in the action up north - a war between Coulter, who commands the Magisterium, and the Gyptians, who want their children back, and who now have Lyra and her truth-telling device on their side.   Since we're still early in the story, these relationships are still developing and being discovered.

Mrs. Coulter continues to be the most enigmatic.   We learned in a previous episode that she is Lyra's mother.  But now we hear that she may not.   In our world, with our logic, the two states of being cannot both be true: Coulter is either Lyra's mother or she is not.  But I have a feeling that not only animals and their alliances but logic itself is a little different in His Dark Materials, which makes it even more appealing and interesting to see.

See you here next week.  Given the role of animals in His Dark Materials, I'm assuming the humans there don't celebrate Thanksgiving.

See also His Dark Materials 1.1: Radiation Punk ...  His Dark Materials 1.3: Coulter's Daemons



more alternate reality - "flat-out fantastic" - Scifi and Scary
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Debuting Welcome Up LP at Philcon 9 November 2019

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Ray Donovan 7.2: Good Luck

Showtime was good enough to put up Ray Donovan 7.2 ahead of time On Demand, so I figured, why not see it and review it, which I did, but of course there'll be spoilers below.

It was no surprise that Mickey survived the explosion, because we saw the back of his head, still attached to the back of his body, standing and alive, in the coming attractions last week.  And, as far as I know, the four-leaf clover which Mickey put in his wallet and then saw all over in all kinds of signs last week means only good luck not bad luck, right?  And then there's the fact that we all would have known had Jon Voight been leaving the show, which I'm very glad he is not.

But it was still great to see the various scenes of the brothers finding out about Mickey's death and grieving.  The final scene of that, in the house, with Ray turning from laughter and jokes to tears and everyone raising a glass to Mickey was one of the most memorable of the series.  Mickey's apparent death was well worth it, just for that.

He also can now really lead a charmed life.  As a dead man, no one will be looking for him.  Any number of crimes committed before his presumed death can be pinned on him, with no adverse effects to him or the rest of the Donovan family.  That's good luck indeed.

As for other characters, it was great seeing Bunch being the hero in the drugstore.  Lena was in typically good shape, too, and I'm hoping she delays her plans to return to LA, indefinitely.  Terry's path is one we've seen before, but Mickey's survival shows the vision Terry had was just that, an imaginary vision, which is good to know, too.  The Bridget story is getting more interesting, too, especially with the flirtation she's having with that guy in the recording studio.  Looks like we're in for an excellent season of Ray Donovan this year.

See also Ray Donovan 7.1: Getting Ahead of the Game

See also Ray Donovan 6.1: The New Friend ... Ray Donovan 6.2: Father and Sons ... Ray Donovan 6.4: Politics in the Ray Style ... Ray Donovan 6.6: The Mayor Strikes Back ... Ray Donovan 6.7: Switching Sides ... Ray Donovan 6.8: Down ... Ray Donovan 6.9: Violence and Storyline ... Ray Donovan 6.10: Working Together ... Ray Donovan 6.11: Settled Scores and Open Questions ... Ray Donovan Season 6 Finale: Snowfall and Mick

See also Ray Donovan 5.1: Big Change  ... Ray Donovan 5.4: How To Sell A Script ... Ray Donovan 5.7: Reckonings ... Ray Donovan 5.8: Paging John Stuart Mill ... Ray Donovan 5.9: Congas ... Ray Donovan 5.10: Bunchy's Money ... Ray Donovan 5.11: I'm With Mickey ... Ray Donovan 5.12: New York

See also Ray Donovan 4.1: Good to Be Back ... Ray Donovan 4.2: Settling In ... Ray Donovan 4.4: Bob Seger ... Ray Donovan 4.7: Easybeats ... Ray Donovan 4.9: The Ultimate Fix ... Ray Donovan Season 4 Finale: Roses

And see also Ray Donovan 3.1: New, Cloudy Ray ... Ray Donovan 3.2: Beat-downs ... Ray Donovan 3.7: Excommunication!

And see also Ray Donovan 2.1: Back in Business ... Ray Donovan 2.4: The Bad Guy ... Ray Donovan 2.5: Wool Over Eyes ... Ray Donovan 2.7: The Party from Hell ... Ray Donovan 2.10: Scorching ... Ray Donovan 2.11: Out of Control ... Ray Donovan Season 2 Finale: Most Happy Ending

And see also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family ... Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey ... Ray Donovan 1.7 and Whitey Bulger ... Ray Donovan 1.8: Poetry and Death ... Ray Donovan Season 1 Finale: The Beginning of Redemption


 

It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Emergence 1.7: Piper's Real Mom

A fast-moving episode 1.7 of Emergence earlier this week.  I hope the rest of the season continues at this pace.

We learn a lot.  Emily is Kindred's daughter.  She created Piper - or, rather, got Wilkis to create her - to satisfy Emily's need to have someone who really loved her.  But, for reasons we still don't completely know or understand, the AI that is Piper wound up with a mind of her own.

But it's a mind vulnerable to what we would otherwise call hacking.  Emily can hack into her "daughter's" mind and get Piper to see and do all kinds of things.  But one thing Emily didn't count on is the feeling Piper has developed for Jo and her family.

And in episode 1.7, those feelings prevail.   And, whatever exactly Piper now is, she's now likely to stay at least somewhat free of the hacks.  Jo shoots out the master computer which contains and directs or whatever the code that is inside Piper.  Which means, if I understand that correctly, that no one can now put ideas into Piper's head.  She is what she now is.

But this doesn't mean she will stay that way.  Because, although she may be free now of outside interference, she's still evolving or ... emerging.  So now the title of this series becomes more clear.  It's about an AI in the body of a girl which is evolving into who knows exactly what.  Whether this was intended by Emily and Wilkis is not clear.  Perhaps her emergence was intended, perhaps it's an expression of the programming gone wrong.

A good puzzle, all in all, and more than enough to keep me watching.

See also: Emergence: May Just Make It ... Emergence 1.2: Cleaning Up ... Emergence 1.3: Robots and Androids ... Emergence 1.4: Android Child ... Emergence 1.5: Supergirl ... Emergence 1.6: The People Who Are Kindred





The androids are coming out into the open, for the first time in centuries .... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Everybody Hates Elves by Kari Maaren: You'll Just Love It

Hey, I had a great time in Toronto on Wednesday night at Bakka-Phoenix Books' Night of Amazing Stories, where I and four other authors (Jen Frankel, Shirley Meier, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, and Lena Ng) read from our stories published in the amazing Amazing Stories.  Editor Ira Nayman put this all together, Gisela McKay video-recorded the event (I'll post the link here when it's up on YouTube), and I actually not only read a story but sang a song, "If I Traveled to the Past," which will be on my new album, Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, to be released by Old Bear Records in early 2020.  (If you'd like to hear that song, there's rough mix of it, right above this post, right above the snowy window.)

But speaking of songs, one of the best surprises for me of the evening was Kari Maaren, who sang two songs, one about a nerd, one about a werewolf, with her ukulele and her delightful, strong, funny (as in laughing) voice.  The songs both had clever, bouncy lyrics, just my cup of tea.  They've not yet been released.  But Kari has released a CD, which I couldn't resist listening to and reviewing here.

In general, Kari’s a little like Raffi with a ukelele - but mostly not like anyone else.  Her CD Everybody Hates Elves - which you can listen to here - has 14 songs, all of which have Kari's unique sparkle and style.

Here are my comments on most of them (I always like leaving a little something out when I review an album or an LP, to keep you in suspense) -
“It must be so dreary to die” typifies the title song  "Everybody Hates Elves," a defiant song, with irrepressible, alliterate lyrics, which, come to think of it, light up just about every song on the CD"Fake Geek Guy" has some excellent counterpoint, and splashy sarcasm, another hallmark of these songsBut "Come Rescue Me," from the Star Wars universe, is a plaintiff, almost lilting, altogether beautiful ballad"Trekless," on the other hand, rhymes Borg and morgue, hard and Jean-Luc Picard, binge and Fringe, and mentions HuluLike most science fiction writers, Maaren dabbles in a little mystery, then returns to science fiction - but in the same song - and gets in another bevy of good rhymes, like "soil" and "foil" - in "Being Watson"She has a good love song in "I Did It For Love," and follows it with a good meta-love song, "They Are in Love," which stresses that nothing else matters, and brings the point home with the line "gives the tale its punch" which I think may be (homonymically) provocative"The Prophecy Hotline" is a very different kind of song, with a great ending, and one of my favorites lines in this collection of songs, "well meaning morons"Next up, "When the Starcats Come," has to be auto-biographical, about a kid oppressed in school, hoping for extra-terrestrials to rescue herEven more desperate is "Take My Sheep," which finds the troubadour unable to sleep, "buried in mounds of sheep"Boy A or Boy B is the dilemma presented in "I Can't Decide" - one is "excellent without a shirt" ... and the other? well, you have to listen to the song to find outAnd, trite as it may be for me to say this, Kari saves the best for last, with another other meta song, this one about a magazine seeking submissions (of stories), with rhymes of historical and metaphorical, in a refrain that features “we don’t want your unrealistic shit” which rhymes with ... "Can Lit" the title of the songSo, you get the acoustic picture.  If you'd like some laughs, memorable melodies, and creme de la creme rhyming lyrics, do yourself a favor and acquaint yourself with Kari Maaren's Everbody Hates Elves, which, again, you can listen to right here.

And if you'd like to know why I like rhymes so much, you'll find at least part of the explanation here.
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

His Dark Materials 1.3: Coulter's Daemons

I'm enjoying His Dark Materials, most of all the nature, behavior, and variety of the Daemons.  As I understand them, they're some sort of external manifestation of the humans they're connected with, including their human sensibilities, with perhaps some other things that Daemons have on their own.

They clearly die - literally de-materialize - when their human partner is killed.  We saw an example of that in episode 1.3.  And conversely, when someone's daemon causes someone else's pain, that daemon's pain is felt by its human.   In both cases, Coulter (or her daemon) are the source of the damage.

But I'm wondering:  why is Coulter able to be separate - be physically apart - from her monkey or whatever it is counterpart?  And we've seen her hit her daemon - when she did this, we didn't see Coulter feel any apparent pain,   Feeling no pain, meting out punishment, adds to Coulter's sinister luster as a first-class, memorable villain.  Ruth Wilson plays this part perfectly.

And other questions abound: if a daemon is killed, will its human counterpart die, too?  Presumably not for Coulter, but how about everyone else?   If humans can in some cases survive the death of their daemons, can they bond with or generate another one?

And back to Coulter in particular:  she apparently controls and directs the spy flies (great name).  Are they another one of her daemons - does she have multiple daemons - or are the spy flies yet something else?

I'm looking forward to learning the answers to these questions and more, as this vivid series progresses.

See also His Dark Materials 1.1: Radiation Punk



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Watchmen 1.5: Some Enchanted Evening

That was the best thing about tonight's insane episode 1.5 of the insano Watchmen tonight - "Some Enchanted Evening" - sung first by Sinatra at the beginning of the episode and at the end by some group unknown to me.  But my favorite rendition of the song that Ezio Pinza first sang in Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific all those years ago has always been this one by Jay and the Americans.

As to the story tonight, we get the back story of Looking Glass, who's traumatized as a teenaged boy in Hoboken.  Yeah, I know, Hoboken, NJ can be frightening in our reality, but not that bad.  In the alternate reality that is Watchmen, Hoboken and nearby NYC are attacked by a squid that kills countless people.   Those squids, again, prompting the FBI guy years later to talk about a squid pro quo, giving tonight's episode an odd resonance to our own political situation (I was tempted to use that as the title)

I just want to take a moment here to say that I still have almost no idea what's going on with Adrian Veidt, which is one of the reasons I said I liked "Some Enchanted Evening" the best tonight.  I can only hope that he'll escape from his prison before this first season (I don't know, has it been renewed?) ends, and proceed to Tulsa or some place pertinent to the main story, which would give all these scenes of his trying to escape and failing at least some modicum of relevance.

I liked the Jay and the Americans' version the best because of the harmony.  I used to sing the song with my folk rock group, The New Outlook, in the Alcove at CCNY when we were still more of a doo-wop than a folk-rock group.  The Alcove was indoors, and we sang there rather than outside because we were worried about raining squids - no, only kidding, we liked the acoustics.

Anyhoo, see you here next week, when we'll learn the fate of Looking Glass, I hope.

In the meantime, one more thing: Don Frankel, in a group called Sundial Symphony with Robbie Rist which has recorded some of my songs on Big Stir Records - like Looking for Sunsets (In the Early Morning) - always sounded a lot like Jay.

See also Watchmen 1.1: Promising Alternate History ... [Watchmen 1.2: don't look for my review, I didn't feel like reviewing it] ... Watchmen 1.3: The Falling Car ... Watchmen 1.4: What We Learned



more alternate reality - "flat-out fantastic" - Scifi and Scary


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Ray Donovan 7.1: Getting Ahead of the Head

Ray Donovan came back on Showtime tonight in fine form.  He and his family are still in New York.  One of the dead heads comes up in bag from wherever it exactly was in the waters around the city.  Ray says, don't worry, we'll get ahead of it.  Hence my title for this review.

In case you don't recall, the head is from one of the crooked cops who was killed late last season.  Even though he was crooked, the police who are still alive want to know how that head got to be in the water, after it was shot and severed from its body.  Totally understandable.

But that's not the only problem Ray is dealing with.  He has to make sure Mick doesn't get lost on the way to prison - if he did, Bunch would be in trouble.  And, as you know if you've seen the episode (if not, oops, sorry for the spoiler), Ray apparently ends up a lot worse than lost.  He ends up dead.

Except, I'm a firm believer that, when you're dealing with television drama, if you don't see a head literally blown to bits, the head and its owner could still be alive.  We saw Ray in the coming attractions punching someone who showed up at his door.  I'm predicting that either that's Mick, or, if not, he'll pop up alive someplace else.

What else is going in the family?  Bridget doesn't want to be married anymore.  Terry's trying some new age stuff to get his Parkinson's under control (I thought for a second that I flashed back in time and was watching something from the season before last on The Affair, also on Showtime).  But, anyway, we have the makings of a good new Ray Donovan season here, and I'll be happy to see it and keep reviewing it here.

See Ray Donovan 6.1: The New Friend ... Ray Donovan 6.2: Father and Sons ... Ray Donovan 6.4: Politics in the Ray Style ... Ray Donovan 6.6: The Mayor Strikes Back ... Ray Donovan 6.7: Switching Sides ... Ray Donovan 6.8: Down ... Ray Donovan 6.9: Violence and Storyline ... Ray Donovan 6.10: Working Together ... Ray Donovan 6.11: Settled Scores and Open Questions ... Ray Donovan Season 6 Finale: Snowfall and Mick

See also Ray Donovan 5.1: Big Change  ... Ray Donovan 5.4: How To Sell A Script ... Ray Donovan 5.7: Reckonings ... Ray Donovan 5.8: Paging John Stuart Mill ... Ray Donovan 5.9: Congas ... Ray Donovan 5.10: Bunchy's Money ... Ray Donovan 5.11: I'm With Mickey ... Ray Donovan 5.12: New York

See also Ray Donovan 4.1: Good to Be Back ... Ray Donovan 4.2: Settling In ... Ray Donovan 4.4: Bob Seger ... Ray Donovan 4.7: Easybeats ... Ray Donovan 4.9: The Ultimate Fix ... Ray Donovan Season 4 Finale: Roses

And see also Ray Donovan 3.1: New, Cloudy Ray ... Ray Donovan 3.2: Beat-downs ... Ray Donovan 3.7: Excommunication!

And see also Ray Donovan 2.1: Back in Business ... Ray Donovan 2.4: The Bad Guy ... Ray Donovan 2.5: Wool Over Eyes ... Ray Donovan 2.7: The Party from Hell ... Ray Donovan 2.10: Scorching ... Ray Donovan 2.11: Out of Control ... Ray Donovan Season 2 Finale: Most Happy Ending

And see also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family ... Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey ... Ray Donovan 1.7 and Whitey Bulger ... Ray Donovan 1.8: Poetry and Death ... Ray Donovan Season 1 Finale: The Beginning of Redemption


 

It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music