Colin Parton's Blog, page 6

Power

Power - Courtney A. Kemp Season Two This is part of my unedited thoughts series  6/10

I’ll add season one here as well once I find my notes.

All of the dramatic irony that was set up in season one comes to a head here. Ghost’s marriage is dust and Angela leaves him in the end as well.

Kayne blows up lots of the cartel’s arrangements as well.

The cops end up losing their case against Tommy because of Angela’s super dodginess. Tommy’s relationship with Holly is on and off, but surprisingly, it seems to be the most stable thing throughout this.

Because of the ongoing issues further up the supply chain and double shipment is sent and then the money needs to be back in quicker than agreed.

They all pull together and make it happen even with all the other shit going on.

In the end Ghost is angling to get out so ends up killing everyone apart from Ruiz who he warns to leave.

Ghost wins back his night club and he even manages to have his supplier killed in jail. Looking like he wants out of the game.

This feels like the end for me or there is going to be a completely new story. They spent season one building up all these plots and then ended them all here.

The characters feel a little bit like cardboard cut-out, nothing to them. There is also way too much sex in this season. It kind of felt that they needed to do something to up the viewers because they only had half a season with the plot they had. I mean sex is fine we just don’t need to see all of it. Though Tommy and the puppy after kicking the one-night stands out is great!

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What We Do In The Shadows

What We Do In The Shadows - Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi This is part of my unedited thoughts series  9/10

What could be more normal than a documentary about a coven of vampires?

When the film opens with archaic titles for: “New Zealand Documentary Board”, you know you are in for something unique. The complete deadpan way in which the film is presented is brilliant.

A documentary crew is following a group of vampire housemates in the lead-up to this year’s Unholy masquerade. Viago (Waititi) is the narrator. Our in-shot guide into their world. He isn’t the story’s hero as this character has no arc.

The hero of the story is Nick. A guy who is going to be their dinner but he escapes and is turned by the ancient vampire Peter. He then stuffs everything up by telling everyone that he is a vampire.

This leads to a vampire hunter coming after them and the death of Peter. Eventually, Nick accepts what he has become. Bringing his human friend Stu to the masquerade at the end saves the day.

There are a lot of sub-plots and backstories to cover as well.

It does feel like a reality TV show in the way these stories are told. We get one-on-ones with all the characters explaining their origins.

The rest of the show is vignettes of life as a vampire. There is some great stuff here.

The two young girl vampires that kill pedophiles – great stuff.

The introduction to technology is fantastic as well. They also make a lot of references to other vampire myths. Vladislav (Clement) is Vlad the Impaler himself. There are also visual references to other vampire films which are great little easter eggs.

Overall it is a fantastic piece of cinema that gives you exactly what you want, just in ways that you didn’t expect. All the performances are good. Underplayed but fantastic. Highly recommended!!!

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Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre - Guy Ritchie This is part of my unedited thoughts series  8/10

This had some great Guy Ritchie vibes. Reminiscent of Snatch and Lock Stock. Dialogue was key to achieving this.

Aubrey Plaza as Sara, the new communications operative was brilliant. She owned her role and dominated the screen.

Hugh Grant as the villain was also fantastic. We know he is mean – he is nasty – but comes across as charming when we meet him so is almost a caricature of a villain – until the very end.

It’s a pretty basic plot. Something important gets stolen right at the start and no one knows what it is. We just know that it is bad.

Then we are watching the team get put together. The group is led by Carey Elwes, lead from The Princess Bride.

The thing that sets this apart from other spy films like Mission Impossible and Bond is that there is a competing agency team on every operation. So not only are they fighting the bad guys they are also fighting the other good guys.

This starts silly and then shifts to ridiculous until we and the characters learn that the opposing team is trying to steal the McGuffin.

This parallels Hugh’s seeming caricature of a villain until near the end.

The finale is fantastic where Hugh turns villainy up to ten and all the other newbie baddies get shown up. The agents we have been following are great as well. Pitty it was a bit humdrum getting there. Still a very entertaining romp.

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Louis C.K.: Oh My God

Louis C.K.: Oh My God This is part of my unedited thoughts series  5/10

I don’t think I’m a huge fan of Louis C.K. I’ll try to explain why.

Most of his gag lines start funny enough but he keeps going and going and going until the joke is dead. Then he flogs it some more.

The opening joke line in this movie is an excellent example of this. He talks about this old lady in New York and her and her blind dog. 

The perspective humor is great – emulating what it is like to be them. Then he talks about them dying and who it would be better to go first. The end of the joke line is the lady shitting on the dead dog’s head forever in her toilet. I mean I get that no critic is the authority on what is funny but the silence that followed this joke sent a clear message.

The only other show I’ve seen by Louis C.K. is Chewed Up. This is much better than that. What perplexes me by these shows is that people find them funny. It may be a contagious thing – like everyone else is laughing so I have to laugh.

The funniest part of this is the animals at the zoo jokes. Like a good story it’s all in the way it’s told. So if you can find those they are well worth a watch.

The whole line about getting old and having a loose leaking butt was just gross.

I thoroughly enjoyed the pretending not to live in the building joke. The dating jokes were ok. Tits jokes were ok but getting pretty perverted. The of course and maybe joke that the show ends on is just a cop-out. An excuse for him to say whatever he wants and get away with it – which he obviously cannot do as the slavery joke gets called out by the audience.

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Prophet

Prophet - Frank E. Peretti This is part of my unedited thoughts series  1/10

Politics and manipulative news. Coupled with religious experiences. I am certainly not interested, even if the bad guys will get their comeuppance.

Coupled with the subject matter which I have no interest in were the typos that were rife in the edition that I was reading. So jarring. Not going to lie I did not get very far into this.

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Sound of Metal

Sound Of Metal - Darius Marder This is part of my unedited thoughts series  9/10

At the heart of it, this is a simple story. A musician loses hearing, and this is the story of him coming to terms with that and his struggle to regain it.

The sheer terror that this must cause him is something else. You really feel for his steps and the desire to do anything to solve the problem.

The counter to this is there is no problem to solve. This is the argument put to him by the deaf community that he becomes part of.

We are brought in and out of his world through the brilliant use of audio design. This is only used at key moments and is fantastic. We get to hear what he is hearing, or the approximation of it. If this was used more it would be unbearable.

Another standout of this film is the casual way the story is told.

What I mean by that is what they choose not to tell us. They are not concerned with explaining all the details of the character’s world. We only learn what’s important, and even then only in broad strokes. It’s very Hemingway-esk in this regard. It’s very strong and more powerful because of it.

The establishment of Rueben and his relationship with his girlfriend, Lou. He is a caring partner and she is troubled and needs his love.

This is flipped when he loses his hearing. She is there for him but this is much bigger than anything she, or he could solve.

He gets unbelievably mad at her as she leaves him because he won’t join the deaf community. In leaving him she forces him to join them – and begin to navigate a path out of where he is.

I don’t think he is actually mad at her. But he is mad at the situation and terrified.

The way we see the loss playing out for him is spectacular. We go through the loss of hearing with him. He hear what he is hearing and can see the anguish as he tries to continue playing music after he has been told not to as it could mean he looses all the hearing he has left.

Rueben is focused on solving the problem of being deaf. When he joins the deaf community and they are focused on addressing the mental issues around the hearing loss and not the loss itself it is a real shock to him.

But he begins to deal with these issues as he joins the group and learns to sign. Some great relationships begin to form.

But then he sees Lou on the web and is drawn out of this world and wants to get his hearing back again.

This ends up costing him his place in the deaf community because of the disruption his trying to cure deafness will cause.

He ends up going through with the surgery and it is average at best. He thought that it would return him to perfect hearing but it is far from it. He can’t deal with crowds and the final scenes of him listening to Lou singing with her dad is heartbreaking. He cannot hear a thing really and this was his life with her.

This is a brilliant piece of filmmaking but I found it too sad to give it 10. It ends with acceptance but no hope. Rueben has lost everything and appears to accept his state at the end but it does feel hopeless for him.

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Apollo 11

Apollo 11 - Todd Douglas Miller This is part of my unedited thoughts series  7/10

This isn’t a narrative documentary as we already know the outcome. This is more of a detailed look at the events we already know from a new angle.

Lots of the footage has likely been sitting in the archive since it was shot.

It is exciting, nail bitting and they build drama around all the big events we know and some of the events we don’t.

The biggest issue that I had with the film was the data that is displayed on the screen throughout much of the film.

The data shows different things such as fuel left in the burn. Very interesting and exciting and could add a whole lot to the visuals that we are seeing on the screen.

The problem was that the data was often presented microscopically. This is a real letdown.

With the opening shots of all the people on the beaches and inlets around the launch site, you remember how big a deal the launch was.

One of the parts that they used to add tension was early on. There was a hydrogen leak just before the astronaut boarding and the use of split screen makes this exciting.

The audio mixing could have been better. At times I struggled to make out what people were saying. Perhaps just poor quality of recording but if that’s the case don’t use it or use subtitles.

The huge amount of time that they spent up there hit home in the doco as they jump between the signing in and out of the different base crews after the craft is cruising towards the moon.

There is some great comic stuff as well. They lose signals from two of the respirators to which Buzz responds: “I’ll let you know if I stop breathing.”

The constant alarms as they descend to the surface of the moon are terrifying and they have very little – 3 mins – of fuel. Only 10 seconds left when they land. I squinted and I could see the number.

And then all the tension of the return. I didn’t realize that they spent 18 days in isolation on return. As the newsreader said – to ensure that they didn’t bring back any space germs. Hillarious.

It was an exciting film seeing inside the craft and the control rooms during the famous mission. The film was let down by the choices of audio and statistics that you couldn’t hear or see well.

Enjoyable overall but a little frustrating.

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Archer

Archer -Adam Reed This is part of my unedited thoughts series. Season Twelve  9/10

Better late than never. Archer is back for the final season of what has been one of the best TV shows of late.

It is extremely well-written and pulls no punches. If it is not your cup of tea, you will hate it.

Archer has come out of his coma and returns to duty with a mechanised walking stick.

The agency finds itself out of money having to participate in an advertising popularity contest against much bigger fish. That is until Lana’s husband buys it.

There is a rivalry between them and the best agency in the business IPA.

It’s great to see the return of many recurring tropes.

The main plot is about a scientist who has made an ultimate weapon which is also a reactor that could solve the world’s energy problems.

The season ends with Archer’s mum retiring and the agency being taken over by IPA.

There were lots of laugh-out-loud moments. I found this more annoying this season for some reason. It’s annoying because you miss the next few lines of dialogue. But perhaps that has always been a problem.

I’m going to miss this show and its irreverent tone and extremely crass humor.

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UnReal

UnReal - Marti Noxon & Sarah Gertrude Shapiro This is part of my unedited thoughts series. Season One  9/10

This show is a scripted drama that follows the production crew of a reality TV show.

I want you just to take a moment to consider what the last sentence truly means. This is a genius idea – I love it.

So it’s behind the scenes but not really because it’s scripted.

Take this a step further – they are also showing us scenes of the reality show: Everlasting. So because UnReal is scripted is the reality show. But it has to be scripted so that it appears not to be. Fabulous stuff to watch.

The two shows mirror each other so well and have important things that cross over making you care about what is happening in both of them.

The lead is one of the producers on the show and she is brilliantly manipulative. Coupled with that is the fact you can see she cares about what is happening to the contestants – she doesn’t want to do the things that she is doing to these people. But she does because it’s her job.

The psychological drama at play here is fantastic to watch unfold.

The female executive producer is also fantastic. Great at her job and realistic about what she has sacrificed to get where she has gotten. She wields her power unflinchingly – love it.

All the male characters are jerks. They all suck.

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Mrs. Wilson

Mrs. Wilson - Richard Laxton This is part of my unedited thoughts series.  5/10

This story falls foul of the biopic trap – it fails to tell a good story.

There are all the things required to make a great story but it just misses the mark and that’s because they stick to the facts.

The death of Mr. Wilson unravels all the lives of what we quickly learn are his many wives. None of them knew of the others.

The lead Mrs. Wilson then decides to investigate her past with him. This quickly leads him to go from being a saint to the opposite.

The truth is hard to see and as soon as she grabs hold of something firm it vanishes. 

Ultimately, he is a scoundrel with no real answers or closure.

Throughout the series we go on the journey with Mrs. Wilson believing him to have been some sort of spy.

In the end, it does seem like this was correct and the impersonation of an officer also appears correct. How much of the rest of his, and everyone else, story is true or not is hard to unravel.

Each answer that we were given opened up more questions.  There was a nice shot of all the family members at the end.

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