One movie and two TV episodes is all I have to report for the last week. I haven't really felt like watching much lately. Maybe a short break. Maybe the beginnings of an early winter slump.
Sugar is a sweet little film. Alongside Rudo y Cursi, Sugar stands in a tradition of sports movie cliches and gently rises above them. Besides being a great baseball film, Sugar smartly comments on immigration issues in a much more effective way than the heavy-handedness of something like last year's The Visitor.
Ignore all the hype about Blind Side (which, to be fair, I haven't seen so shouldn't be bashing). We already have the best sports movie of the year. Its name is Sugar.
I just finished the first two episodes of Breaking Bad and really love it. The show barely skirts the line of the ridiculous while providing thrills and eliciting heart-churning emotional responses. There's an ultrsound scene in episode 2 that is so perfect, it's among my favorite motion picture moments of the year.
The wall between "cinema" and "television" was already being torn down when talented B directors like Joseph Lewis and "A" talents like Hitchcock were working in early television and international masters like Rossellinni, Rohmer, and Fassbinder started working in the medium (and probably from the first flickering moments in Philo's workshop).
That wall is in ruins now. Most of us so-called "cinephiles" barely make it into a cinema. I've been lucky to see a lot of films projected this year, but the dominant way that I watch "films" is through DVDs, either on my relatively small television or computer. Sometimes I break out the digital projector. I've got it set up nice in my bedroom right now and hope to use it more often now. Every once in a while, I've done the truly horrific and watched something on my Zune (I've yet to watch a full movie on my iPod Touch, but it will happen). All to say that motion pictures are much more than any single format.
I can't speak for the general condition of today's television programming. I assume that the large majority of it still sucks. Breaking Bad does not suck.
Breaking Bad is basically a lively cross between Bill Nye and Hard Case Crime. There's a pulp sensibility permeating the series (at least the first two episodes). The action is compelling and vitually non-stop, from the very first shot of pants flying through the air to the bathtub scene in episode 2. Every moment, even the quiet ones, from intimate breakfast chatter to chemistry class are moments of action that advance the tight plot.
Besides the action, the show is closely related to pulps in its morality. Our "straight-laced" chemist Everyman breaks bad without hesitation and ultimately without regret (so far). There's a hardness to him that is pure noir, alongside the struggling humanity of his situation that makes him not only relatable, but totally sympathetic.
There's a 3-second or so reaction shot during the above-mentioned ultrasound scene that reveals, in a silent face, the quiet desperation at the heart of all the action. Then, quickly, hardness; a cover-up which is as painful for both of the characters involved as it is incrdibly funny dialogue for the audience to enjoy.
As an aside... Brandon, you wrote that Jarmusch reminds you physically of Marvin. During Limits, I kept thinking that Bankole reminded me physically of Jarmusch. Which may be weird, but I thought it was there.
I'm looking forward to the rest of Breaking Bad and also getting around to checking out all of the other critically acclaimed shows of the past decade that I've mostly missed out on.
On a related note, I don't pretend that Lost is great art, but I'm more excited about the upcoming season of Lost than I am about any upcoming art film (except for the new Malick which will be the movie event of 2010). When Lost is doing everything right, it becomes more than goofy entertainment. It's magic.
1 comment:
Sounds interesting.
I like how you pointed out that many directors started and continued in television. David Lynch wanted Mullholand Drive to be a television series. I have heard good things about Best of Youth from Italy.
Another show that I recommend you check out would be The Wire. The little that I've seen would imply that it could be the best study of crime in recent cinematic history. My brother swears by it. It is pretty spectacular.
New Paul Thomas Anderson project was just announced, it's about a religious movement in the sixties and it stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I don't doubt that PTA will enjoy a nice decade of great films.
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