Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 343
July 16, 2013
If Only There Was a Video Recording ...
As I lament the killing of Trayvon Martin, and the acquittal of his killer in Florida a few days ago, I can't help thinking: if only there was a video recording of the crucial events of that evening.
One thing which everyone agrees upon is no one other than George Zimmerman now can know with 100% certainty what happened that night. In the absence of eyewitnesses, and, even worse, a video of the events, we are forced to rely on our ever fallible logic and emotions.
Eyewitnesses of course can be mistaken or can lie. A video can on its own do neither, but can certainly be spliced or pointed in directions which distort the truth. Still and all, it provides a record of events in general more reliable than eye-witness testimony.
Video recordings have already righted serious wrongs in our society. A video recording in 1991 brought Rodney King's beaters - Los Angeles police officers - to trial. And although they were acquitted of assault in state court, two of the officers were found guilty in Federal court of violating King's civil rights, and were imprisoned. Video recordings brought the cop who killed Oscar Grant in 2009 in San Francisco to at least some justice. In New York City last year, Alexander Arbuckle was acquitted of bogus charges brought against him by the NYPD during an Occupy Wall Street event. Fortunately for Arbuckle and the truth, Tim Pool had recorded the event and what preceded it on his smartphone.
Opportunities for video recording are increasing. Not only does every smart phone come with video recording capability, but developments like Google Glass will make them even easier and less intrusive to use. We can not go back in time and see what happened to Trayvon Martin. We can and should fight racism on every level, but we can never rid the world entirely of bad people. In the difficult course of attempting to bring them to justice, we need all the technological help we can get.
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One thing which everyone agrees upon is no one other than George Zimmerman now can know with 100% certainty what happened that night. In the absence of eyewitnesses, and, even worse, a video of the events, we are forced to rely on our ever fallible logic and emotions.
Eyewitnesses of course can be mistaken or can lie. A video can on its own do neither, but can certainly be spliced or pointed in directions which distort the truth. Still and all, it provides a record of events in general more reliable than eye-witness testimony.
Video recordings have already righted serious wrongs in our society. A video recording in 1991 brought Rodney King's beaters - Los Angeles police officers - to trial. And although they were acquitted of assault in state court, two of the officers were found guilty in Federal court of violating King's civil rights, and were imprisoned. Video recordings brought the cop who killed Oscar Grant in 2009 in San Francisco to at least some justice. In New York City last year, Alexander Arbuckle was acquitted of bogus charges brought against him by the NYPD during an Occupy Wall Street event. Fortunately for Arbuckle and the truth, Tim Pool had recorded the event and what preceded it on his smartphone.
Opportunities for video recording are increasing. Not only does every smart phone come with video recording capability, but developments like Google Glass will make them even easier and less intrusive to use. We can not go back in time and see what happened to Trayvon Martin. We can and should fight racism on every level, but we can never rid the world entirely of bad people. In the difficult course of attempting to bring them to justice, we need all the technological help we can get.
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey
Jon Voight continues to put in a stellar performance in Ray Donovan 1.3 as Ray's father - irrepressible, blunt-talking, much-despised by Ray but lovable to just about everyone else, including most or all of the viewing audience, I would guess.
Among the new things we find out about Mickey in 1.3 -
he likes Internet pornhe's a self-proclaimed "ass man"he killed the wrong priest back in Boston - the pedophile priest's brotherAll of this has the effect of making Ray's moves to put Mickey back in prison even more unsympathetic. Since we've yet to learn the true source of Ray's hatred of his father, it's hard to understand why Ray is working so hard not only to keep Mickey away from his family (his in both senses - Ray's and Mickey's) but to get him back in jail. It makes sense that Ray's kids and even Abby could be taken in by Mickey, but, as I mentioned in my review last week, why would Ray's older brother?
And if all of this wasn't enough to keep the pot boiling, the episode concludes with a new factor that literally turns up the heat - we learn that the FBI is investigating the whole family, with pictures on its under-investigation wall of both Mickey and Ray. Since I like both Ray and Mickey, it looks as if the series is pitching us into a another situation of rooting against the legal good guys - the FBI - just as we did in The Sopranos and do about the Feds in Boardwalk Empire - which all works to the benefit of the story in my book.
See also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family
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Among the new things we find out about Mickey in 1.3 -
he likes Internet pornhe's a self-proclaimed "ass man"he killed the wrong priest back in Boston - the pedophile priest's brotherAll of this has the effect of making Ray's moves to put Mickey back in prison even more unsympathetic. Since we've yet to learn the true source of Ray's hatred of his father, it's hard to understand why Ray is working so hard not only to keep Mickey away from his family (his in both senses - Ray's and Mickey's) but to get him back in jail. It makes sense that Ray's kids and even Abby could be taken in by Mickey, but, as I mentioned in my review last week, why would Ray's older brother?
And if all of this wasn't enough to keep the pot boiling, the episode concludes with a new factor that literally turns up the heat - we learn that the FBI is investigating the whole family, with pictures on its under-investigation wall of both Mickey and Ray. Since I like both Ray and Mickey, it looks as if the series is pitching us into a another situation of rooting against the legal good guys - the FBI - just as we did in The Sopranos and do about the Feds in Boardwalk Empire - which all works to the benefit of the story in my book.
See also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family
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Under the Dome 1.4: Good Night for Junior, Until ...
Episode 1.4 of Under the Dome last night offered a good opportunity for Junior, who finally begins to earn his father's admiration, in addition to the new sheriff's, with his cool, powerful handling of a potential mob scene of people who had to be kept inside the clinic until the resolution of the meningitis outbreak.
Junior in those circumstances was like the lead character in The Deer Hunter (1978 movie starring Robert De Niro), maladjusted in normal times, but those same intense traits made him a hero in crazy times, such as the war in Vietnam. Junior is a psycho in "normal" times under the dome - though of course nothing can be completely or even mostly normal under the dome - but rises to the even crazier occasion of people pent up in the clinic, and masterfully talks them down.
All of this is going on with pretty Angie still chained in Junior's basement, and water gushing into it no less. This is the underside of Junior - literally - a foundation of his insanity that he is unwilling to remove or change.
Fortunately for Angie, and in a good move for the story, Junior's father Big Jim finally hears Angie screaming at the end of the episode, and finds her in the basement. Bad news for Junior, especially ironic because it happens right after Big Jim comes to see some value in his son, and even says he should consider a career in law enforcement.
What will Big Jim do? Given what little we know about him, I'd say the thought might occur to him to kill Angie to protect his son. On the other hand, he has even more motive to dispose of Rev. Coggins, and thus far has refrained. Maybe he'll split the difference, and just not release her from the basement.
Meanwhile, Julia's antipathy to Barbie is growing to the point that she's barely grateful that he saved her life - almost as if she senses that he killed her husband. But I'm still thinking that we'll see them in bed together - if not in this season, before the series is over.
See also Under the Dome: Superior Summer Science Fiction ... Under the Dome 1.2: Adrenaline and Seepage ... Under the Dome 1.4: Way Under
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Junior in those circumstances was like the lead character in The Deer Hunter (1978 movie starring Robert De Niro), maladjusted in normal times, but those same intense traits made him a hero in crazy times, such as the war in Vietnam. Junior is a psycho in "normal" times under the dome - though of course nothing can be completely or even mostly normal under the dome - but rises to the even crazier occasion of people pent up in the clinic, and masterfully talks them down.
All of this is going on with pretty Angie still chained in Junior's basement, and water gushing into it no less. This is the underside of Junior - literally - a foundation of his insanity that he is unwilling to remove or change.
Fortunately for Angie, and in a good move for the story, Junior's father Big Jim finally hears Angie screaming at the end of the episode, and finds her in the basement. Bad news for Junior, especially ironic because it happens right after Big Jim comes to see some value in his son, and even says he should consider a career in law enforcement.
What will Big Jim do? Given what little we know about him, I'd say the thought might occur to him to kill Angie to protect his son. On the other hand, he has even more motive to dispose of Rev. Coggins, and thus far has refrained. Maybe he'll split the difference, and just not release her from the basement.
Meanwhile, Julia's antipathy to Barbie is growing to the point that she's barely grateful that he saved her life - almost as if she senses that he killed her husband. But I'm still thinking that we'll see them in bed together - if not in this season, before the series is over.
See also Under the Dome: Superior Summer Science Fiction ... Under the Dome 1.2: Adrenaline and Seepage ... Under the Dome 1.4: Way Under
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July 15, 2013
The Newsroom Season 2 Debuts on Occupy Wall Street and More
The Newsroom was back on the air for its second season last night, with a good show that got Neal at the beginnings of Occupy Wall Street in August 2011 New York, and the team into much more.
Actually, the much more entails what may be a departure for the series, at least insofar as what we saw in the first season last year. "Genoa" is some kind of project so secret and so powerful that it could "bring down a President" and change the world. We get little more than a whisper about it in the opening episode. It could conceivably be a fabrication of the source who brings it to "News Night" - but likely not - or it could be something that turns out to be related to, I don't know, the real NSA leaks. Or it could be something in between - that is, a true story told by the source, but with no connection to our reality.
One could wonder why, with so many overtly tectonic news developments happening at this time, The Newsroom not only dabbles with the fictional, but makes it an apparent centerpiece of this season. The answer, of course, is that this is fictional television, and as such is entitled to choose what parts of its story are based on real events, and how real those events may be.
But I do especially enjoy the second take The Newsroom gives us on events that we lived though in the real news, which is why I think Neal on Occupy Wall Street was the high point of last night's episode. The inability of the conventional media to understand and thus report accurately about Occupy Wall Street - something which I critiqued them about in my own appearances on television at the time - was well presented by the Occupy Wall Street non-leader whom Neal got to interview. But we all know that News Night is not quite conventional media, which is why its story - the show that we watch - is so riveting. I'm therefore much looking forward to seeing how this OWS thread develops.
Meanwhile, it was also good to see at least one personal relationship moving in the right direction - to wit, Don breaking up with Maggie, after he sees her YouTube video in which her lack of feelings for Don are clear. It will be good to see Jim back from New Hampshire and closer to Maggie.
And the election of 2012 indeed looms large - in the October 2012 "present" of this season, and its August 2011 extended flashbacks - which provides yet another inducement to look forward to The Newsroom. I'm especially fond of revisiting elections with happy endings.
See also The Newsroom and McLuhan ... The Newsroom and The Hour ... The Newsroom Season 1 Finale: The Lost Voice Mail
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Actually, the much more entails what may be a departure for the series, at least insofar as what we saw in the first season last year. "Genoa" is some kind of project so secret and so powerful that it could "bring down a President" and change the world. We get little more than a whisper about it in the opening episode. It could conceivably be a fabrication of the source who brings it to "News Night" - but likely not - or it could be something that turns out to be related to, I don't know, the real NSA leaks. Or it could be something in between - that is, a true story told by the source, but with no connection to our reality.
One could wonder why, with so many overtly tectonic news developments happening at this time, The Newsroom not only dabbles with the fictional, but makes it an apparent centerpiece of this season. The answer, of course, is that this is fictional television, and as such is entitled to choose what parts of its story are based on real events, and how real those events may be.
But I do especially enjoy the second take The Newsroom gives us on events that we lived though in the real news, which is why I think Neal on Occupy Wall Street was the high point of last night's episode. The inability of the conventional media to understand and thus report accurately about Occupy Wall Street - something which I critiqued them about in my own appearances on television at the time - was well presented by the Occupy Wall Street non-leader whom Neal got to interview. But we all know that News Night is not quite conventional media, which is why its story - the show that we watch - is so riveting. I'm therefore much looking forward to seeing how this OWS thread develops.
Meanwhile, it was also good to see at least one personal relationship moving in the right direction - to wit, Don breaking up with Maggie, after he sees her YouTube video in which her lack of feelings for Don are clear. It will be good to see Jim back from New Hampshire and closer to Maggie.
And the election of 2012 indeed looms large - in the October 2012 "present" of this season, and its August 2011 extended flashbacks - which provides yet another inducement to look forward to The Newsroom. I'm especially fond of revisiting elections with happy endings.
See also The Newsroom and McLuhan ... The Newsroom and The Hour ... The Newsroom Season 1 Finale: The Lost Voice Mail
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Falling Skies 3.7: The Mole and a Likely Answer
Well, we finally found out who the real mole is on Falling Skies 3.7 last night. I had lazily accepted that it was Hal, under alien influence - as had most of the characters in the series. But if you think about it, Hal was pretty much in control of his mind until the last few episodes, which means he was unlikely to have blasted Manchester to oblivion at the start of this season.
The real mole is a good choice - probably the sweetest character in Charleston. And, my sweet Lord, it's sweet Lourdes! Which is not only a nice surprise, but makes sense in retrospect. Before she was taken over by the alien worms, she was a good medical assistant to Anne. This season, especially with Anne out of the picture, Lourdes has apparently become a highly effective, full-fledged doctor. This transformation is more explicable if due to alien help.
And that leads us to another likely consequence of Lourdes' conversion. She worked daily with Anne. She examined Anne to make sure her pregnancy was proceeding well and her baby was ok. She easily could have drugged Anne at any time. Any of which would have given Lourdes ample opportunity to introduce alien DNA into Anne's developing baby.
So we have an answer about how the hybrid baby came to be - better than Tom was somehow infused with alien DNA when he was on the alien ship a few seasons back. But given the propensity of Falling Skies to pull aliens out a hat, we may yet not know the full story of baby Lexi's conception, and we certainly don't know what's been happening with her since she and Anne left Charleston. How quickly, for example, is Lexi growing up?
Looks like good viewing ahead in the concluding three episodes of this season of Falling Skies.
See also Falling Skies 3.1-2: It's the Acting ... Falling Skies 3.3: The Smile ... Falling Skies 3.4: Hal vs. Ben ... Falling Skies 3.6: The Masons
And see also Falling Skies Returns ... Falling Skies 2.6: Ben's Motives ... Falling Skies Second Season Finale
And see also Falling Skies 1.1-2 ... Falling Skies 1.3 meets Puppet Masters ... Falling Skies 1.4: Drizzle ... Falling Skies 1.5: Ben ... Falling Skies 1.6: Fifth Column ... Falling Skies 1.7: The Fate of Traitors ... Falling Skies 1.8: Weaver's Story ... Falling Skies Concludes First Season
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The real mole is a good choice - probably the sweetest character in Charleston. And, my sweet Lord, it's sweet Lourdes! Which is not only a nice surprise, but makes sense in retrospect. Before she was taken over by the alien worms, she was a good medical assistant to Anne. This season, especially with Anne out of the picture, Lourdes has apparently become a highly effective, full-fledged doctor. This transformation is more explicable if due to alien help.
And that leads us to another likely consequence of Lourdes' conversion. She worked daily with Anne. She examined Anne to make sure her pregnancy was proceeding well and her baby was ok. She easily could have drugged Anne at any time. Any of which would have given Lourdes ample opportunity to introduce alien DNA into Anne's developing baby.
So we have an answer about how the hybrid baby came to be - better than Tom was somehow infused with alien DNA when he was on the alien ship a few seasons back. But given the propensity of Falling Skies to pull aliens out a hat, we may yet not know the full story of baby Lexi's conception, and we certainly don't know what's been happening with her since she and Anne left Charleston. How quickly, for example, is Lexi growing up?
Looks like good viewing ahead in the concluding three episodes of this season of Falling Skies.
See also Falling Skies 3.1-2: It's the Acting ... Falling Skies 3.3: The Smile ... Falling Skies 3.4: Hal vs. Ben ... Falling Skies 3.6: The Masons
And see also Falling Skies Returns ... Falling Skies 2.6: Ben's Motives ... Falling Skies Second Season Finale
And see also Falling Skies 1.1-2 ... Falling Skies 1.3 meets Puppet Masters ... Falling Skies 1.4: Drizzle ... Falling Skies 1.5: Ben ... Falling Skies 1.6: Fifth Column ... Falling Skies 1.7: The Fate of Traitors ... Falling Skies 1.8: Weaver's Story ... Falling Skies Concludes First Season
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July 14, 2013
The Killing 3.8: The Kidnapping, and a Prediction
Last week's Killing 3.7 concluded with Linden kidnapped by the pastor. That's where tonight's 3.8 begins, and proceeds for a tense most-of-an-episode with Linden driving or otherwise with a gun to a head.The pastor's a sick a guy, no doubt. But in true Killing fashion, he's not the killer Linden and Holder and the police are looking for. He's not the killer who Linden feels in her bones is the killer of the woman, Seward's wife, that Seward is on death row for - which just two days left until his hanging.
So who is the killer? Bullet will likely find out pretty soon, assuming it's the killer looking at her in the diner as she waits for Holder to listen to his voicemail.
There are only two possible killers that I can see at this point. One, obvious for a while, is the guy who had Kallie's phone over her mother's house. But, again, obvious, and The Killing's not about the obvious.
So here's my pick and prediction: prison guard Becker. He's also a sick a guy, and we find out tonight from his wife that he goes missing for several nights a time. We've seen him spending the night in prison, when he's supposed to be home, but who knows exactly where he was earlier in the evening - apparently not at home, and it's unclear if he just spent 24 hours in the prison.
It's a long shot, I know. And there's the coincidence that the very guard keeping watch on Seward in prison is the real killer of Seward's wife and the girls discovered in the first episode. But stranger things have happened, and a killing coincidence would work quite well in this high-octane emotionally rending series.
See also The Killing 3.1-2: Poe Poetic Po-po ... The Killing 3.3: Hitchcockian Scene and More ... The Killing 3.7: "Opiate of the Masses"
See also The Killing Season Two Premiere ... The Killing 2.2: Holder ... The Killing 2.11: Circling Back ... The Killing Season 2 Finale
And see also The Killing on AMC and The Killing 1.3: Early Suspects ... The Killing 1.5: Memorable Moments ... The Killing 1.6: The Teacher ... The Killing 1.8: The Teacher, Again ...The Killing 1.9: The Teacher as Victim, Again ... The Killing 1.10: Running Out of Suspects ... The Killing 1.11: Rosie's Missing - from the Story ... The Killing 1.12: Is Orpheus the Killer? ... The Killing 1.13: Stretching Television
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Dexter 8.3: The Question and the Confession
The two high points in the superb Dexter 8.3 tonight were -The Question that Vogel puts to Dexter early in the episode: If the prime principle of Harry's Code (which we now know was in effect co-authored by Vogel) is for Dexter to protect himself at all costs from legal and other retribution, how come he didn't get rid of Debra after she killed LaGuerta to protect him? Dex's answer, of course, is that he loves Debra. But the question is reminiscent of what happens when's there's a conflict in a robot attempting to follow Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics - like deciding which of two humans to save when the robot can only save one, and the first law of robotics says a robot must always act to save a human life. In Dexter's case, his inability to kill Debra and therefore his inability to follow Harry's Code shows that he may not be quite the psychopath, incapable of love, that Vogel thinks him to be - all the more interesting, because Vogel is beginning to realize this. Dexter's supposed to love himself, but what happens when this conflicts with his love of Debra?
But, other than not killing Debra, Dexter still acts to protect himself, to the point of knocking Debra out with an injection, which brings us to the second high point of the show:
The Confession that Debra makes to Quinn about killing LaGuerta: Only Dexter would be able to figure out a way out of that, by taking advantage of Quinn's belief that Deb is out of her mind, and audaciously drugging Deb, slinging her limp body over his shoulder, and taking her out of the precinct ass first. Even Vogel's surprised at Dexter's bold move, as she is when Dexter handcuffs Deb, still unconscious, so she doesn't beat up Vogel when she comes to.
"You don't know her," Dexter tells Vogel when she mildly objects - but I'm still thinking it's really Vogel that we know very little about, and before the series is over, we may find that's she's some sort of psychopath, too.
See also Dexter Season 8 Premiere: Mercury in Retrograde, Dexter Incandescent ... Dexter 8.2: The Gift
And see also Dexter Season 7.1-3: Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 7.4: The Lesson in Speltzer's Smoke ... Dexter 7.5: Terminator Isaac ... Dexter 7.6: "Breaking and Entering" ... Dexter 7.7: Shakespearean Serial Killer Story ... Dexter 7.8: Love and Its Demands ... Dexter 7.9: Two Memorable Scenes and the Ascension of Isaac ... Dexter 7.11: The "Accident" ... Dexter Season 7 Finale: The Surviving Triangle
And see also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Gellar Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra: Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love
And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ...Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain
And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ...Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ...4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations
And see also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ...Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review
Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well
See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter
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July 10, 2013
The Bridge Opens Brooding and Valent
A good opening of The Bridge on FX tonight, with its story of a body stretched out dead across the Juarez - El Paso border on the bridge between Mexico and the US, making it a case in the jurisdiction of both countries and their police, except it turns out to be two bodies - the upper torso of one woman and the lower torso of another - which makes the murder case even more interesting.Demian Bichir - of Esteban fame on Weeds - plays the Mexican detective Marco Ruiz, and he does it with customary style. When an El Paso detective wishes him "buenos dias," he responds with "howdy partner" in a perfect Texan accent. He has hands full not only with his lethargic boss in Juarez but his Amercian counterpart Sonya North, played by Diane Kruger.
Sonya's a strange piece of work for a detective - by the book, wound tight, but with the same kind of irrepressible energy as Barbara Havers on the British Inspector Linley Mysteries (how's that for a stretch). I'm not sure if I like her, but based on the first episode she may be the most memorably peculiar female detective to come along on television since Sarah Linden in The Killing.
Speaking of which, The Bridge feels to some extent like a southern version of The Killing, which takes place in Seattle. But what The Bridge also has going for it is its Mexican component, and the obvious relevance of this series to the immigration issues that currently beset our country (because of Republican intransigence, but I'll try to keep politics out of this).
Ted Levine of the late great Monk is back as police lieutenant (ok, he was a captain on Monk), and Annabeth Gish from Brotherhood lends her appeal and intensity as someone whose husband drops dead after he tells her he wants out of their marriage and who must have something to do with the murders.
Brooding, smoky, philosophic, politically valent - The Bridge may be just the thing for a hot summer's evening.
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Cloud Atlas, Space Travel, and Souls
I saw Cloud Atlas tonight, and I must say my favorite part was at the very end, with its revelatory punchline about space travel. This was not only satisfying but appropriate, because, after all, the movie does have "cloud" in its title. Before the digital cloud there were and manifestly still are clouds above us in the real sky, and I take our capacity to get beyond them - now just to our solar system but someday far beyond - to be one of the most inspiring aspects of our existence and therefore of this movie.
There were other good things in the movie. Speaking of digital, the neo-Seoul segment had lots of that, along with a powerful, exciting mini-story of clones and heroes that rang with the best of The Matrix, which is probably why the hero of this segment looked so much like Neo.
Speaking of which, Hugo Weaving played a major role in Cloud Atlas - actually, major roles, as did all of the major actors - and delivered some of his patented brilliant sheer evil, soulless bad guy, along with a bad guy who may have turned to good guy in the neo-Seoul segment. Tom Hanks also put in some fine performances, especially as the lead in the two farthest future segments, including the final one that finds his character along with Halle Berry's as grandparents on a planet far from Earth. These two future segments also offered some fine future evolved English - I thought I heard the Hanks character say he needs to "cog" a situation, meaning he needs to understand it, for example - which gives Cloud Atlas a bit of Clockwork Orange resonance.
There was even some good comedy on hand in the final parts of the Cavendish segment - set in 2012 Britain - well played by Jim Broadbent and company. Not every segment was too my liking, though. For some reason, the music segment in 1936 Britain didn't ring as true as it should have, or maybe it's just that I'm not a big fan of suicide. And although the 1848 segment had some moments, I found it slow going.
But all in all, Cloud Atlas deserves to be called a tour-de-force, not only because of the stories which were stunning, but because of the quiet way the lives all did seem to play - in the musical sense - so well together through history into the future. This is no time travel movie, but that's ok. Cloud Atlas tells us souls are inherently connected through time just by their very being.
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There were other good things in the movie. Speaking of digital, the neo-Seoul segment had lots of that, along with a powerful, exciting mini-story of clones and heroes that rang with the best of The Matrix, which is probably why the hero of this segment looked so much like Neo.
Speaking of which, Hugo Weaving played a major role in Cloud Atlas - actually, major roles, as did all of the major actors - and delivered some of his patented brilliant sheer evil, soulless bad guy, along with a bad guy who may have turned to good guy in the neo-Seoul segment. Tom Hanks also put in some fine performances, especially as the lead in the two farthest future segments, including the final one that finds his character along with Halle Berry's as grandparents on a planet far from Earth. These two future segments also offered some fine future evolved English - I thought I heard the Hanks character say he needs to "cog" a situation, meaning he needs to understand it, for example - which gives Cloud Atlas a bit of Clockwork Orange resonance.
There was even some good comedy on hand in the final parts of the Cavendish segment - set in 2012 Britain - well played by Jim Broadbent and company. Not every segment was too my liking, though. For some reason, the music segment in 1936 Britain didn't ring as true as it should have, or maybe it's just that I'm not a big fan of suicide. And although the 1848 segment had some moments, I found it slow going.
But all in all, Cloud Atlas deserves to be called a tour-de-force, not only because of the stories which were stunning, but because of the quiet way the lives all did seem to play - in the musical sense - so well together through history into the future. This is no time travel movie, but that's ok. Cloud Atlas tells us souls are inherently connected through time just by their very being.
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July 9, 2013
Under the Dome 1.3: Way Under
The most interesting development in Under the Dome 1.3 is the discovery made by Junior. At Angie's imprisoned suggestion, Junior looks to see if there may be a way out of the dome by going under it. He finds that, no, the dome goes all the way down, too - or least down through the base of the tunnels under the town.
This is a blow. I've always looked at secret tunnels as a great way out. We're having a problem with some part of the world above ground? Get out of it by going under it. There are rumors of secret tunnels in lots of places in New York, where I live, and I always considered that a plus. It's part of what makes the New York City subway system cool - there are indeed abandoned parts of the system, and these provide great foundations for fiction.
Junior's discovery of no way out under in Under the Dome adds an important ingredient to the science fictional underpinnings of the show: whoever, whatever, is responsible for the dome means business. The dome and its designers are not going to be undermined by some kid goaded by his shackled girlfriend - even if that kid is the son of the most powerful guy in town, or someone who appears to be.
We still don't know what Big Jim knows, and how much of it is directly relevant to the dome. On the one hand, Big Jim may be as much a victim as everyone else, except he's a victim with a big secret. On the other hand, his secret could entail an explanation of what brought on the dome. The answer is likely somewhere in the middle.
The other big continuing mystery is what's up with Barbie, and why he killed Julia's husband. Whatever Barbie knows, it's clearly not what Jim knows, and apparently has even less to do with the dome that what Jim knows. The other question here is whether Barbie will sleep with Julia before she discovers what he did to her husband.
I'd be happy to see the show focus much more on all of the above, and less on kids partying with parents away - but, hey, I'm in this more for the science fiction than the character storyline.
See also Under the Dome: Superior Summer Science Fiction ... Under the Dome 1.2: Adrenaline and Seepage
#SFWApro
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
This is a blow. I've always looked at secret tunnels as a great way out. We're having a problem with some part of the world above ground? Get out of it by going under it. There are rumors of secret tunnels in lots of places in New York, where I live, and I always considered that a plus. It's part of what makes the New York City subway system cool - there are indeed abandoned parts of the system, and these provide great foundations for fiction.
Junior's discovery of no way out under in Under the Dome adds an important ingredient to the science fictional underpinnings of the show: whoever, whatever, is responsible for the dome means business. The dome and its designers are not going to be undermined by some kid goaded by his shackled girlfriend - even if that kid is the son of the most powerful guy in town, or someone who appears to be.
We still don't know what Big Jim knows, and how much of it is directly relevant to the dome. On the one hand, Big Jim may be as much a victim as everyone else, except he's a victim with a big secret. On the other hand, his secret could entail an explanation of what brought on the dome. The answer is likely somewhere in the middle.
The other big continuing mystery is what's up with Barbie, and why he killed Julia's husband. Whatever Barbie knows, it's clearly not what Jim knows, and apparently has even less to do with the dome that what Jim knows. The other question here is whether Barbie will sleep with Julia before she discovers what he did to her husband.
I'd be happy to see the show focus much more on all of the above, and less on kids partying with parents away - but, hey, I'm in this more for the science fiction than the character storyline.
See also Under the Dome: Superior Summer Science Fiction ... Under the Dome 1.2: Adrenaline and Seepage
#SFWApro
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Levinson at Large
At present, I'll be automatically porting over blog posts from my main blog, Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress. These consist of literate (I hope) reviews of mostly television, with some reviews of mov
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