Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 355
February 3, 2013
Midnight in Paris: Time Traveling ala Woody Allen
A belated review of Woody Allen's 2011 movie, Midnight in Paris, which, considering that it's a time travel movie, it's amazing I didn't see and review much earlier. The loss was mine - it's a wonderful movie - and thanks to my wife for suggesting we get it On Demand last night when there was nothing else to see on a cold, snowy night in New York City.First, unlike Woody Allen's Sleeper, in which the hero is cryogenically frozen and jumps into the future that way, Gil in Midnight in Paris goes from 2010 to the past and back to the present like any decent, genuine time traveler. The mechanism of the the time travel - the stroke of midnight on a quiet corner in Paris - is more like the means in Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court or Jack Finney's Time and Again, which is to say, close to magical - but still makes the cut as a legitimate time travel story as far as I'm concerned.
And it's excellent indeed, investing Woody Allen's sage, delightful repartee and style into a narrative in which Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and all manner of luminaries from the 1920s figure in our 21st-century hero's adventures in the past. The neurotic Gil (well played by Owen Wilson) - a version of Woody Allen, despite Gil's Californian flair, as are all of Woody's male heroes - plays well and hilariously against these luminaries who no doubt are Woody's as well. The attention to accurate detail of the 1920s, a key ingredient in my book in making any time travel to the past work, was mostly spot on. The only slight error I caught was someone saying "science fiction" - although Hugo Gernsback did create the term some time in the 1920s, he much preferred the term "scientification" at first, and "science fiction" did not come into general use until a decade later. But only a science fiction and time travel fanatic like me would know that.
The question always arises in these sorts of soft time time travel movies - that is, time travel without a machine or some sort of scientific explanation - as to whether the character is dreaming or really time traveling to the past or future. Allen clearly answers this question near the end, when we're shown a private Parisian detective - who was hired to follow Gil by his about-to-be-father-in-law - running around in the age of Louis IV like a chicken without a head. The scene is not only fall-down-funny but indicative that the time travel was not just in Gil's mind. (Yes, Gil could have been dreaming that scene, too, but such solipsism is not much fun, and we see no other evidence of Gil dreaming - unlike, say, the Ethan Hawke character in The Woman in the Fifth, another recent Parisian movie.)
Like most of Woody Allen's movies, Midnight in Paris is not only funny but wise in the lessons it provides. In this case, it's that everyone has their own favorite time in the past, but there's usually some of that still in the present, if you're lucky and alert enough to find it. We enjoyed Midnight in Paris so much, we went on to see To Rome with Love, Woody Allen's 2012 movie, right after. It was also excellent. But Midnight in Paris is something special in the roster of both Allen's and time travel movies, and I predict it will become a classic.
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January 31, 2013
The Americans: True and Deep
The Americans, with Keri Russell as one half of the Soviet sleeper spy couple so deeply undercover in Washington they're more American than most of us, debuted on fx last night. It was superb.
First, about Keri Russell, there are two interrelated things about her past as an actress that make her appearance in The Americans especially interesting. She is best known for her breakthrough Felicity roll a while ago, one of J. J. Abrams' early series about a college student. And Abrams' next series was Alias, which featured Jennifer Garner not Russell as graduate student turned spy, but which had a major continuing storyline about a Soviet agent under cover in the United States - Sydney Bristow's (Jennifer Garner's) mother, Irina/Laura. I like these sort of complex prior histories to television series.
In Alias, the Soviet spy (played by Lena Olin) was married to an American spy (played by Victor Garbor) - all powerfully acted, by the way. In The Americans, both Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) and her husband Phillip (Matthew Rhys) are Soviet spies, and their acting is top-notch. In fact, just about everything in this series seems to be, so far. Plot twists, unexpected bursts of action, frank sexually vivid (not quite explicit) language combine with the acting to made the premiere never a dull moment.
Russell, especially, has a way of getting just the right pitch in her voice. When her husband, wanting to show her a little affection and getting rebuffed, protests that he's her husband, Elizabeth responds "is that right?" with just the right slight cutting sarcastic edge. This is because their marriage is their job as spies, not a true aspect of their lives. But, as William James the American psychologist noted more than a century ago, when you go through the actions of something, often enough, you begin to grow real feelings for those actions, too.
Elizabeth and Matthew have been at this for more than a decade. They have two children, a daughter age 13 and a son a little younger. So of course they have some real feelings. It's just that, at the beginning of the show, Matthew is more in touch with them than is Elizabeth. But that changes at the end, in a sequence of events which show that, as much as Matthew has become a truly happy suburban American father, he's still tough as nails underneath.
The one part of the premiere episode that jangled a bit is the FBI guy who moves next store. This can't be coincidence - which Elizabeth and Matthew seem to realize - but so far the show is playing it as coincidence one-hundred percent. I expect we'll find out before too long what's really going on with the neighbor.
There's also great 1981 scenery, with talk about Reagan as a lunatic from the Soviet perspective, Walter Cronkite on television, and all sorts evocative 1981 music. At this point, The Americans is looking to easily be one of the best new shows on television, with only The Following as any real competition.
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
First, about Keri Russell, there are two interrelated things about her past as an actress that make her appearance in The Americans especially interesting. She is best known for her breakthrough Felicity roll a while ago, one of J. J. Abrams' early series about a college student. And Abrams' next series was Alias, which featured Jennifer Garner not Russell as graduate student turned spy, but which had a major continuing storyline about a Soviet agent under cover in the United States - Sydney Bristow's (Jennifer Garner's) mother, Irina/Laura. I like these sort of complex prior histories to television series.
In Alias, the Soviet spy (played by Lena Olin) was married to an American spy (played by Victor Garbor) - all powerfully acted, by the way. In The Americans, both Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) and her husband Phillip (Matthew Rhys) are Soviet spies, and their acting is top-notch. In fact, just about everything in this series seems to be, so far. Plot twists, unexpected bursts of action, frank sexually vivid (not quite explicit) language combine with the acting to made the premiere never a dull moment.
Russell, especially, has a way of getting just the right pitch in her voice. When her husband, wanting to show her a little affection and getting rebuffed, protests that he's her husband, Elizabeth responds "is that right?" with just the right slight cutting sarcastic edge. This is because their marriage is their job as spies, not a true aspect of their lives. But, as William James the American psychologist noted more than a century ago, when you go through the actions of something, often enough, you begin to grow real feelings for those actions, too.
Elizabeth and Matthew have been at this for more than a decade. They have two children, a daughter age 13 and a son a little younger. So of course they have some real feelings. It's just that, at the beginning of the show, Matthew is more in touch with them than is Elizabeth. But that changes at the end, in a sequence of events which show that, as much as Matthew has become a truly happy suburban American father, he's still tough as nails underneath.
The one part of the premiere episode that jangled a bit is the FBI guy who moves next store. This can't be coincidence - which Elizabeth and Matthew seem to realize - but so far the show is playing it as coincidence one-hundred percent. I expect we'll find out before too long what's really going on with the neighbor.
There's also great 1981 scenery, with talk about Reagan as a lunatic from the Soviet perspective, Walter Cronkite on television, and all sorts evocative 1981 music. At this point, The Americans is looking to easily be one of the best new shows on television, with only The Following as any real competition.
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
January 29, 2013
New Dallas Back for Second Season
Not long after the sad news of Larry Hagman's passing, the new Dallas came back last night for the two-hour debut of its second season. J. R's still in the first number of episodes, and his appearance now gives a special tug on the emotions.
The plot has been revved up to pit Global Barnes against Ewing Energy, in the person not just of Cliff Barnes for Barnes but Rebecca Sutter, revealed at the close of Season One to be his daughter, and with a first name of Pamela - as in her aunt - to boot. Julie Gonzalo does a good job of portraying the combination of strength, zest for revenge, and vulnerability of Pamela/Rebecca, and her character is my favorite in the relaunched series. She sleeps with both Christopher (to whom she was and technically still is married) and John Ross - well, of course, Elena does that, too - and Pamela combines this not only with a tough business savvy but a capacity for scheming that almost matches J.R.'s. Elena's a good scientist and businesswoman, and beautiful, too, but seems not quite in Pamela's league when it comes to razor-sharp strategizing and willingness to take a bold decision, as in killing someone. What more could you ask for in Dallas?
J.R.'s back in good form, too, saving Sue Ellen from prosecution and prison by blackmailing the prosecutor over an affair. But John Ross seems a little light-weight, even though he does set in motion a scheme that J.R. admires. Christopher is learning, just as his father did, that playing by the rules doesn't always pan out - though, come to think of it, Bobby may not quite have learned that, even now, after all he's been through.
He's now getting entwined, not only in the Barnes-Ewing battle, but in Ann's attempt to reestablish a relationship with her daughter kidnapped years ago. The revelation that her first husband and mother-in-law engineered the kidnapping promises some good soap opera flourishes ahead.
And it's well to remember that Dallas still is, after all these years, a soap opera, with larger than life characters in situations that often strain credibility. But as long as the betrayals move quickly and the twists come fast and unexpected and the love making takes place in pools and boardrooms, Dallas should be in for more good times ahead - the best homage one could want for Larry Hagman and his inimitable J. R.
See also The New Dallas: An Outright Pleasure and New Dallas One Season One Evaluation
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
The plot has been revved up to pit Global Barnes against Ewing Energy, in the person not just of Cliff Barnes for Barnes but Rebecca Sutter, revealed at the close of Season One to be his daughter, and with a first name of Pamela - as in her aunt - to boot. Julie Gonzalo does a good job of portraying the combination of strength, zest for revenge, and vulnerability of Pamela/Rebecca, and her character is my favorite in the relaunched series. She sleeps with both Christopher (to whom she was and technically still is married) and John Ross - well, of course, Elena does that, too - and Pamela combines this not only with a tough business savvy but a capacity for scheming that almost matches J.R.'s. Elena's a good scientist and businesswoman, and beautiful, too, but seems not quite in Pamela's league when it comes to razor-sharp strategizing and willingness to take a bold decision, as in killing someone. What more could you ask for in Dallas?
J.R.'s back in good form, too, saving Sue Ellen from prosecution and prison by blackmailing the prosecutor over an affair. But John Ross seems a little light-weight, even though he does set in motion a scheme that J.R. admires. Christopher is learning, just as his father did, that playing by the rules doesn't always pan out - though, come to think of it, Bobby may not quite have learned that, even now, after all he's been through.
He's now getting entwined, not only in the Barnes-Ewing battle, but in Ann's attempt to reestablish a relationship with her daughter kidnapped years ago. The revelation that her first husband and mother-in-law engineered the kidnapping promises some good soap opera flourishes ahead.
And it's well to remember that Dallas still is, after all these years, a soap opera, with larger than life characters in situations that often strain credibility. But as long as the betrayals move quickly and the twists come fast and unexpected and the love making takes place in pools and boardrooms, Dallas should be in for more good times ahead - the best homage one could want for Larry Hagman and his inimitable J. R.
See also The New Dallas: An Outright Pleasure and New Dallas One Season One Evaluation
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
January 28, 2013
The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan
The Following followed through tonight with an episode as tight and powerful as the premiere, which is to say, about as on-the-edge-of-your-seat powerful, frightening, and unexpected in its twists and turns indeed. The Following is not like any other show on network television, and more than most shows on cable at that.
We learn tonight a very unsettling thing: the followers have been in training, deep undercover, for years. This is true of the babysitter, the not-gay guys, and the security guard. It could therefore be true of anyone, except Ryan and Claire, and I'm not even 100% sure about them. But it could certainly be true of anyone else in the FBI, especially the new woman chief who came on board this episode. She gives Joe a nice edition of Poe's works at the end - likely just a gambit to establish some rapport with him, but you never know - never know what happened in the past or what could happen in the future.
Actually, I'm pretty close to 100% sure we can trust both Ryan and Claire, but Claire reminds us just how suspect everyone is when she says Ryan is the only person she can trust.
So far, Joe and his followers are winning just about every encounter. The one apparent failure is Ryan shoots the security guard before he harms Claire. Then Joe tells us that was part of the plan - to give Ryan some confidence so that he can be a better opponent - but it turns out that Ryan's wounding rather than killing the guard was not what Joe expected. Hence Joe's one failure tonight. He can't control everything. But it's a minor failure indeed.
The Following is unafraid to dole out death and other nasty surprise at every corner, street as well as metaphoric. The babysitter's mother succumbed to murder by the babysitter her daughter some years ago, and there's clearly some tension brewing between her now and the guy she's not sleeping with in the kidnap house. Is this also what Joe intended?
It's rare to see a show so brimming with unpredictable psychos whose only constant is allegiance to Joe and Poe. But since Poe himself was a master not only of the macabre but the unpredictable, that leaves us in a truly unsettling and excitingly fine kettle of blind fish indeed.
See also The Following Begins
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
We learn tonight a very unsettling thing: the followers have been in training, deep undercover, for years. This is true of the babysitter, the not-gay guys, and the security guard. It could therefore be true of anyone, except Ryan and Claire, and I'm not even 100% sure about them. But it could certainly be true of anyone else in the FBI, especially the new woman chief who came on board this episode. She gives Joe a nice edition of Poe's works at the end - likely just a gambit to establish some rapport with him, but you never know - never know what happened in the past or what could happen in the future.
Actually, I'm pretty close to 100% sure we can trust both Ryan and Claire, but Claire reminds us just how suspect everyone is when she says Ryan is the only person she can trust.
So far, Joe and his followers are winning just about every encounter. The one apparent failure is Ryan shoots the security guard before he harms Claire. Then Joe tells us that was part of the plan - to give Ryan some confidence so that he can be a better opponent - but it turns out that Ryan's wounding rather than killing the guard was not what Joe expected. Hence Joe's one failure tonight. He can't control everything. But it's a minor failure indeed.
The Following is unafraid to dole out death and other nasty surprise at every corner, street as well as metaphoric. The babysitter's mother succumbed to murder by the babysitter her daughter some years ago, and there's clearly some tension brewing between her now and the guy she's not sleeping with in the kidnap house. Is this also what Joe intended?
It's rare to see a show so brimming with unpredictable psychos whose only constant is allegiance to Joe and Poe. But since Poe himself was a master not only of the macabre but the unpredictable, that leaves us in a truly unsettling and excitingly fine kettle of blind fish indeed.
See also The Following Begins
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One
Bones 8.13 opens with two corpses, buried right next to each, one apparently dead of natural causes, the other of the unnatural cause of murder.
I guessed the killer - the killer being the killer of both women - pretty much as soon as I saw him. There was something about the widower of the first woman, the one who died of natural causes, that didn't seem quite right. Maybe it was a vibe from the actor, maybe I'm just the suspicious sort, but I had a feeling that he was in one way or another the killer of both. Which, as the plot unfolded, it became clear that he was.
But, hard as it is to admit, I wasn't much on target when it came to something else. When Sweets and Daisy broke up - when Sweets left her at the altar - I said I was glad to see that happen. I didn't think they were that good a couple, mainly because I thought Daisy was a moderately irritating character, my least favorite of the interns.
But I was wrong - on all of those accounts. Seeing Daisy back on the scene, and talking to Sweets, it's now clear to me that the two were and would again be a good couple. Cam's analogy at the end, that when things that die are brought back to life they are never as good as they originally were, and Daisy should know this as a scientist, I think does not apply. Love isn't science. So now, completely reversing myself, I'm hoping that Sweets and Daisy do finally get back together. This likely won't happen - but who knows.
In a sense, Sweets and Daisy may have become the new Booth and Bones - really loving each other, but breaking up and not seeming to know how to get back together. We'll see ....
But, speaking of Booth and Bones, we had another good ending, with Booth recording a video will in which he invests much of himself and all of his love for Bones. Hey, if they at last got together, certainly Sweet and Daisy can do it, too.
See also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ... Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil
And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones
And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7: Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful
And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
I guessed the killer - the killer being the killer of both women - pretty much as soon as I saw him. There was something about the widower of the first woman, the one who died of natural causes, that didn't seem quite right. Maybe it was a vibe from the actor, maybe I'm just the suspicious sort, but I had a feeling that he was in one way or another the killer of both. Which, as the plot unfolded, it became clear that he was.
But, hard as it is to admit, I wasn't much on target when it came to something else. When Sweets and Daisy broke up - when Sweets left her at the altar - I said I was glad to see that happen. I didn't think they were that good a couple, mainly because I thought Daisy was a moderately irritating character, my least favorite of the interns.
But I was wrong - on all of those accounts. Seeing Daisy back on the scene, and talking to Sweets, it's now clear to me that the two were and would again be a good couple. Cam's analogy at the end, that when things that die are brought back to life they are never as good as they originally were, and Daisy should know this as a scientist, I think does not apply. Love isn't science. So now, completely reversing myself, I'm hoping that Sweets and Daisy do finally get back together. This likely won't happen - but who knows.
In a sense, Sweets and Daisy may have become the new Booth and Bones - really loving each other, but breaking up and not seeming to know how to get back together. We'll see ....
But, speaking of Booth and Bones, we had another good ending, with Booth recording a video will in which he invests much of himself and all of his love for Bones. Hey, if they at last got together, certainly Sweet and Daisy can do it, too.
See also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ... Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil
And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones
And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7: Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful
And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
January 27, 2013
The Hobbit: A Review
Finally had a chance to see The Hobbit, Peter Jackson's beautifully rendered prequel to his Lord of the Rings masterpiece trilogy.And I mean beautiful. The Shire never looked more verdant and shimmering. Rivendell and its falling rivers was just breathtaking - you could practically feel the spray in the theater. The mountainous passes took your breath away, including a great battle, not just on the mountains, but of the mountains, or at least two mountainous outcroppings.
The characters were well drawn, too. Bilbo Baggins, at this stage, in this movie, carries none of the weight that his later self and Frodo must bear. So Bilbo, though older than Frodo, is much more like Merry and Pippin than Frodo in lightness of bearing - much like any Hobbit not beset by the burden of the ring.
The movie, much more a prequel to the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy than a treatment of the original novel, treats to us a delight of characters from the trilogy, including a cameo of Frodo and old Bilbo at the beginning (before the quest in Lord of the Rings begins), Elron (Hugh Weaving is one of my favorite all-time actors), Galadriel, Saruman, of course Gandalf and Gollum, and even that scowling old woman Hobbit in the Shire. There are also some good characters we haven't encountered before, including a trippin brown Wizard and his team of superfast rabbits, and all manner of Dwarves and Orcs.
Don't expect the profundity of Lord of the Rings, but the movie's a real pleasure to see.
See also Confessions of a Science Fiction Chauvinist, as Occasioned by Seeing the Two Towers
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
January 25, 2013
Fringe Evita
There was no Fringe to see tonight, so my wife and I went to see September - aka Michael Cerveris - in the next-last-evening in the fine Broadway revival of Evita. Our daughter, who is not a Fringe fan, bought us the tickets - because she knows my wife and I love Evita. I'd say it's one of best musicals ever on Broadway, one of the best plays, period, on a par with with works of Shakespeare and the ancient Greeks. I've used Evita and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" in my graduate courses in Propaganda. The Fringe connection was thus icing on the cake, and a superb icing it was. September lives on in Evita - for at least one more night.Ricky Martin as Che was the headliner, and he was fabulous tonight. Not quite as wise as Mandy Patinkin's Che in the original Evita - which we saw back in 1979 - but he more than made up for it in style, voice, sass, and dance, and was better than Antonio Banderas in the movie. Elena Roger as Evita did not sing as electrifyingly as Patti LuPone in the original or as well as Madonna in the movie, but she did offer a compelling interpretation, especially her "New Argentina" rendition, which was part rabble-rousing speech and part song.
Cerveris was the best Juan Peron I've seen. The Peron in the original music was so unremarkable I can barely remember him and his performance. Jonathan Pryce was better in the movie. But Cerveris, much as he did in Fringe, commanded the stage every time he was on it in Evita, making Peron more of a partner than a supporting character in the story.
There's something about Fringe that seems to connect to the theater. My wife and I saw Joshua Jackson and Patrick Stewart - in retrospect, Peter meets Picard - on the stage in London in 2005 in "A Life in the Theater". Let me know if you hear about Walter or Olivia in any Broadway shows, and we'll be there.
See also Fringe 5.1: Paved Park and Shattered Memories ... Fringe 5.2: Saving Our Humanity ...Fringe 5.4: Ghosts of Fringes Past ... Fringe 5.5: "You Don't Even Know What You Don't Know ... Fringe 5.6: "Dad" ... Fringe 5.7: Father and Son ... Fringe 5.8: Love Triumphant ...Fringe 5.9: The Boy Observer in the Age of Aquarius ... Fringe 5.10: Montage Revelation ... Fringe 5.11: September with Hair ... Fringe Finale: A Review
See also Fringe Returns for Season 4: Almost with Peter ... Fringe 4.2: Better and Worse Selves... Fringe 4.3: Sanity and Son ... Fringe 4.4: Peter's Back, Ectoplasm, and McLuhan ... Fringe 4.5: Double Return ... Fringe 4.6: Time Slips ... Fringe 4.7: The Invisible Man ... Fringe 4.8: The Ramifications of Transformed Alternate Realities ... Fringe 4.9: Elizabeth ... Fringe 4.10: Deceit and Future Vision ... Fringe 4.11: Alternate Astrid ... Fringe 4.12: Double Westfield / Single Olivia... Fringe 4.13: Tea and Telepathy ... Fringe 4.14: Palimpsest ... Fringe 4.15: I Knew It! ... Fringe 4.16: Walter Likes Yiddish ... Fringe 4.17: Second Chances ... Fringe 4.18: Broyled on Both Sides ... Future Fringe 4.19 ... Fringe 4.20: Bridge ... Fringe 4.21: Shocks ... Fringe Season 4 Finale: Death and Life
See also Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia ... Fringe 3.2: Bad Olivia and Peter ... Fringe 3.3: Our/Their Olivia on the Other Side ... Fringe 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber ... Fringe 3.7: Two Universes Still Nearing Collision ... Fringe 3.8: Long Voyages Home ... Fringe 3.10: The Return of the Eternal Bald Observers ... Flowers for Fringenon in Fringe 3.11 ... Fringe 3.12: The Wrong Coffee ... Fringe 3.13: Alternate Fringe ... Fringe 3.14: Amber Here ... Fringe 3.15: Young Peter and Olivia ... Fringe 3.16: Walter and Yoko ... Fringe 3.17: Bell, Olivia, Lee, and the Cow ... Fringe 3.18: Clever Walternate ... Fringe 3.19 meets Inception, The Walking Dead, Tron ... Fringe 3.20: Countdown to Season 3 Finale 1 of 3 ... Fringe 3.21: Ben Frankin, Rimbaldi, and the Future ...Fringe Season 3 Finale: Here's What Happened ... Death Not Death in Fringe
See also reviews of Season 2: Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ... New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22: Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch
See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ...17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ...Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best
"As a genre-bending blend of police procedural and science fiction, The Silk Code delivers on its promises." -- Gerald Jonas, The New York Times Book Review
"A thinking person's time travel story... I felt like I was there." - SF Signal
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
January 21, 2013
The Following Begins
A nasty night of entertainment on Fox tonight, with a dark episode of Bones followed by the premiere of a much darker series - as in a serial killer just one or so steps below Hannibal Lecter - called The Following.James Purefoy, best known to the American audience as Mark Antony in Rome, plays the erudite serial killer Joe Carroll. He was an English professor with a poorly selling first novel (uh oh) and an obsession with Edgar Allan Poe. He breaks out of death row, and that brings his arresting officer, Kevin Bacon's Ryan Hardy, back into play.
Except Ryan is much more than an arresting officer. He was an intrepid FBI agent who against all odds nabbed Carroll some years ago, and was nearly killed in the process. He's retired due to his wounds, and an alcoholic (though he maybe was that way before). He also wrote a book, has a following of at least one young FBI guy, who is thrilled to be working with Ryan on this new Carroll case.
Except Carroll is much more than a literate serial killer. While he was in prison, he somehow attracted a cadre of blindly devoted followers, women and men, who will do anything he commands. Hence the name of the show.
So what starts out as a show about a brilliantly, sickeningly demented serial killer who thinks women look their most beautiful when dead and who takes out his victim's eyes - ala Poe - and prides himself on all the ocular muscles he expertly severs, segues into a show more about a Charles Manson writ large. Or, what might have happened had Charles Manson been able to command a following even once he was behind bars.
It's a frightening prospect, powerfully acted by both Purefoy and Bacon, and I'll be watching the rest of the harrowing story this season with one eye on the screen and one on the door.
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil
As much as I enjoy the dancing, comedy, flirtation, and intellectual puzzles in Bones, it's always good to see the team beset by a good old-fashioned psycho genius. Zack Addy is still the quintessential best example of this - what more could you ask for, the beloved Bones intern in this role - but Pilant in his own way is fairly horrendously remarkable. He has almost none of Zack's charm, is hated not beloved by the team. In other words, he's just undilutedly evil. And he's back in 8.12.
Even Bones admits he frightens her. He begins his return by drugging Hodgins and Angela, putting crocus petals in their baby's crib, and a skinned corpse in their ceiling. Everyone is motivated, but Hodgins in particular has a special edge to obliterate this guy.
And indeed this fast-moving kick-in-the-plexus episode revolves more around Hodgins than anyone else. He resists Cam's well-meaning but not necessarily correct guidance in one of the best displays of anger this year, does a painful biopsy on his lung (and Angela's, who volunteers) to discover the gas that drugged them, which points to the place that Pilant acquired the gas, and all of this leads to an ending that gives Hodgins a punishing choice.
Before that, Booth almost takes out Pilant with a sharp shot, but Pilant escapes and initiates his final gambit of the night: a drone plane on course to take out a schoolhouse of girls in Afghanistan. Angela can use her computer skills to maybe deflect or self-destroy to the drone, but Pilant has also set loose a program to drain every cent of Hodgins' mega-rich funds. If Angela destroys the drone, Hodgins' (and her) funds will be gone. Hodgins thinks a split second and of course opts to save the girls. The right decision, for sure, and welcome, Hodgins, to the 99% and the low end of it at that.
This Bones also had some fun peripheral stuff, including Hodgins hauling out of mothballs two old Enigma cipher machines to communicate in a way impervious to Pilant's masterful cracking. (They must have cost Hodgins a fortune which he no longer has.) But most of all this episode was a refreshingly bracing reminder that beneath the fun and games there lurks a very dark and deadly grit to this series. Good thing to keep in mind, because Pilant, face disfigured by Booth's bullet as we see at the end, will no doubt return, even angrier and uglier than he was tonight.
See also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones
And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones
And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7: Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful
And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Even Bones admits he frightens her. He begins his return by drugging Hodgins and Angela, putting crocus petals in their baby's crib, and a skinned corpse in their ceiling. Everyone is motivated, but Hodgins in particular has a special edge to obliterate this guy.
And indeed this fast-moving kick-in-the-plexus episode revolves more around Hodgins than anyone else. He resists Cam's well-meaning but not necessarily correct guidance in one of the best displays of anger this year, does a painful biopsy on his lung (and Angela's, who volunteers) to discover the gas that drugged them, which points to the place that Pilant acquired the gas, and all of this leads to an ending that gives Hodgins a punishing choice.
Before that, Booth almost takes out Pilant with a sharp shot, but Pilant escapes and initiates his final gambit of the night: a drone plane on course to take out a schoolhouse of girls in Afghanistan. Angela can use her computer skills to maybe deflect or self-destroy to the drone, but Pilant has also set loose a program to drain every cent of Hodgins' mega-rich funds. If Angela destroys the drone, Hodgins' (and her) funds will be gone. Hodgins thinks a split second and of course opts to save the girls. The right decision, for sure, and welcome, Hodgins, to the 99% and the low end of it at that.
This Bones also had some fun peripheral stuff, including Hodgins hauling out of mothballs two old Enigma cipher machines to communicate in a way impervious to Pilant's masterful cracking. (They must have cost Hodgins a fortune which he no longer has.) But most of all this episode was a refreshingly bracing reminder that beneath the fun and games there lurks a very dark and deadly grit to this series. Good thing to keep in mind, because Pilant, face disfigured by Booth's bullet as we see at the end, will no doubt return, even angrier and uglier than he was tonight.
See also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones
And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones
And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7: Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful
And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
January 20, 2013
Criminal Minds 8.12: Spencer's Burden
An excellent Criminal Minds 8.12 this past week, which prompts my first review of this long-running show in more than a year.
Spencer has had a girlfriend all season - a girlfriend Spencer style. They almost met in person, but the meeting was left hanging when Spencer was concerned that his girlfriend Maeve's stalker was in on the meet. He thinks he was wrong at the end of that episode, but it turns out that, indirectly at least, he was right.
In 8.12, Maeve is in fact kidnapped. To rescue her, Spencer has to tell the BAU team all about his mostly virtual romance - no easy job for Spencer, who keeps his personal feelings and life pretty close to his vest. Turns out, after some twists and turns, that the kidnapper is a former student of Maeve's - a student with a grievance, brilliant and beautiful. Diane of course gets the upper-hand on the team for a while, and then-
What makes this episode so good is the unexpected tragic ending. Spencer risks his life to save Maeve, and we know he's not going to die. Diane takes her own life with a bullet in the head, and that's sad but not surprising. But the buller goes through Diane's head and into Maeve's, and presumably kills her.
The room and team are frozen in shock and sorrow. Spencer will for the most part recover, but he's encountered another breach in a life which just can't seem to bring him love. All of the team in one way or another have difficulties in their personal lives - comes with the territory - but Spencer's niche and burden continues to be one of the most interesting on television.
See also Criminal Minds 7.1: "The Is Calm and It's Doctor" ... Criminal Minds 7.3: Meets House and The Unit
And see also Criminal Minds in Sixth Season Premiere ... Criminal Minds 6.2: The Meaning of J. J. Leaving ... Criminal Minds 6.3: Proust, Twain, Travanti ... Tyra on Criminal Minds 6.13 ...Criminal Minds 6. 17: Prentiss Farewell Part I ... Criminal Minds 6.18: Farewell Emily ... Criminal Minds 6.19: Fight Club Redux Plus ... Criminal Minds 6.20: Emily's Ghost ... Criminal Minds 6.21: The Tweeting Killer ... Criminal Minds 6.22: Psycho and a Half ... Criminal Minds 6.23: The Good Lie ... Criminal Minds Season 6 Finale
And Criminal Minds 5.22 and the Dark Side of New New Media
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Spencer has had a girlfriend all season - a girlfriend Spencer style. They almost met in person, but the meeting was left hanging when Spencer was concerned that his girlfriend Maeve's stalker was in on the meet. He thinks he was wrong at the end of that episode, but it turns out that, indirectly at least, he was right.
In 8.12, Maeve is in fact kidnapped. To rescue her, Spencer has to tell the BAU team all about his mostly virtual romance - no easy job for Spencer, who keeps his personal feelings and life pretty close to his vest. Turns out, after some twists and turns, that the kidnapper is a former student of Maeve's - a student with a grievance, brilliant and beautiful. Diane of course gets the upper-hand on the team for a while, and then-
What makes this episode so good is the unexpected tragic ending. Spencer risks his life to save Maeve, and we know he's not going to die. Diane takes her own life with a bullet in the head, and that's sad but not surprising. But the buller goes through Diane's head and into Maeve's, and presumably kills her.
The room and team are frozen in shock and sorrow. Spencer will for the most part recover, but he's encountered another breach in a life which just can't seem to bring him love. All of the team in one way or another have difficulties in their personal lives - comes with the territory - but Spencer's niche and burden continues to be one of the most interesting on television.
See also Criminal Minds 7.1: "The Is Calm and It's Doctor" ... Criminal Minds 7.3: Meets House and The Unit
And see also Criminal Minds in Sixth Season Premiere ... Criminal Minds 6.2: The Meaning of J. J. Leaving ... Criminal Minds 6.3: Proust, Twain, Travanti ... Tyra on Criminal Minds 6.13 ...Criminal Minds 6. 17: Prentiss Farewell Part I ... Criminal Minds 6.18: Farewell Emily ... Criminal Minds 6.19: Fight Club Redux Plus ... Criminal Minds 6.20: Emily's Ghost ... Criminal Minds 6.21: The Tweeting Killer ... Criminal Minds 6.22: Psycho and a Half ... Criminal Minds 6.23: The Good Lie ... Criminal Minds Season 6 Finale
And Criminal Minds 5.22 and the Dark Side of New New Media
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
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