2040 - Wish I Was Here

I was a Kickstarter backer on this project.  I was a fan of Garden State, and as a crowd-funder myself I wanted to follow the campaign.  One of my perks was to get an advanced screening of the film, so that’s how you’re hearing from me early.

I have to be honest.  I didn’t love it.  Some other reviews have said “it was good enough to make you wish that it was better” and I think that’s fair.  Another review that said it’s “Phony, shallow, and completely disconnected from reality. To make matters worse, it thinks it’s sincere, deep, and realistic.” and while that’s pretty harsh - I can’t disagree.  There’s so many lines in this that feel like it’s really clever, but no one would ever talk like that let alone consistently always have the perfect thing to say at the exact perfect moment.  At times it feels like we’re watching a marathon of clever ideas that Zach Braff had and how he wedged them all together.  And wedging isn’t far off - there’s so many things going on here that look like they’re there for the sake of the visuals than anything else.  

I read somewhere that Braff spent years trying to get this film made within the system and couldn’t get it done - which seeing the end product, it doesn’t surprise me.  The last thing I wanted to do was crap on this film, but I can’t honestly endorse it. I like what he’s trying to accomplish - it’s a film about the difficulty of being a parent, so there’s things here that I dig, but as a whole - it’s messy.  And it’s hard to care about a hero who puts himself ahead of his family and tries to use his dream as a defense.  A lot of us find a way to do both.  

The highlights are Mandy Patinkin and the soundtrack - which is worth buying for sure - though it feels clumsy with how it’s used in the film, especially compared to how well the music was used in Garden State.

So if you were obsessed with Garden State than you’re going to see this anyway.  If you don’t dig Zach Braff to begin with, this likely won’t help.  Please do check it out for yourself though - I’d be happy to be in the minority when it comes to disliking something.

1950 - Homeland: season three

Late getting this up because I fell behind.  This season got a lot of flack from some critics early on, and from what I could tell was that most came around to it by the end.  There will be some SPOILERS going on here below, so if you're not caught up - here's your warning.

So the biggest complaint I've heard is about keeping Brody alive past his expiry point in the show.  I was one of those people who thought that the show pussied out by not having him blow everyone up inside of the bunker at the conclusion of season one.  The show has well made up for that with the Langely bombing as well as the mission that lead to (HUGE SPOILER) Brody's death - which redeemed him to all (the only thing that was missing was a final moment with Dana seeing how she reacted to discovering her father was a hero after-all.  Like any one else I love Mandy Patinkin's Saul, and seeing him in charge was a breath of fresh air - I pray they find a way to keep him in the story moving forward 'cause losing him would easily be the show's biggest loss.  I could watch a Homeland without Carrie if that came to pass - but one without Saul is just hard to imagine.  It's hard to imagine how the show will reinvent itself now that it's main storyline from the beginning is more-or-less resolved.  I feel confident that the freedom will allow for awesome things in the writer's room.  Although I thought the same about Dexter in the aftermath of season four, and later learned that we had just seen the show's peak.  Let's hope Showtime doesn't make the same mistake twice.  Keep it going, by all means, if you've got story to tell - but please don't milk it.  No one wants another lumberjack ending.

1847 - The Princess Bride

God bless small children for giving you a reason for revisiting your old favourites.  Watched this with my little guy tonight and he loved the shit out of it, which of course made me proud.  My wife threw him some spoilers on the characters and so he was obsessed with trying ti figure out who the six finger man was.

This film is such a fantastic classic.  An endless amount of quotable lines and performances.  It's the kind of family that every one really can enjoy and it stands up viewing after viewing, which I'm sadly learning isn't always the case with some of the films from my youth.  If you've never seen this film, I feel badly for you, please remedy that right away - do yourself a favour and watch it with your favourite kid.

1787 - Homeland: season two

There are shows that you look forward to watching each week and then there are shows that you just absolutely can't wait to get to the next one.  Homeland is in the latter category.  Here's the thing - this show is immensely popular so if you're not watching it yet then you really just need to - it's got a great premise, solid cast, and fantastic storytelling.  So for all intents and purposes expect the rest of this blog posting to be SPOILER HEAVY - turn back now and catch up with this show.  You've been warned.

So I was pissed when they didn't kill Brody at the end of the first season - I thought it was a cop-out and didn't know how they would extend that character.  The brilliance of what they did was the first season you spent rooting to kill Brody, and they managed to flip it where here you're rooting for him to make it out alive. Very very strong reversal for us emotionally as an audience member.  For Claire Danes character this season has been a redemptive one, and she's as good as she ever was.  And so if they coped out with how they ended the first season they emptied the kitchen sink here.  This season was doing things in the second episode that I thought would take the entire season to get out - but they just plowed through a lot of great material with what seemed to be reckless abandon.  A risk that paid off in spades.
This season moved along like a freight train and made the world much bigger - I think some people preferred the smaller scale of the first season and, really, I like both and I think they can work together as well.  I love where this was left and how I can already see the seeds of the third season.  Clean slate for everyone in a really wonderfully heartbreaking way.  Hopefully the future seasons can sustain this quality, or they get out while they're still in fighting form.  I loved this and can't wait to return to it next fall.

1677 - Homeland: season one

Let me get the generic stuff out of the way so that I can talk about specifics.  I'll let you know when I head into spoiler territory...
So I'm just slightly behind others on this season but my wife and I quickly caught up over the holidays.  This is a series about a CIA operative who is told that a POW (Prisoner of War) has been turned and then months later one shows up, having been gone for nearing eight years.  What follows is a hell of a lot of cat-and-mouse as you try to figure out whose in on the plot and if the CIA agent, played absolutely brilliantly by Claire Danes, is brilliant or crazy (minor spoiler - she's a bit of both :) ).  While not a perfect show it's pretty goddamn great and well worth checking out if you haven't yet.

And now.  SPOILERS BELOW!!!

I was pretty impressed with how quickly they burned through story here, and quite shocked that they had Danes and Lewis hook up - although the reasons make sense for the story it surprised me a bit for her character.  Still not sure how I feel about that.  I loved how this season played on your prejudices - as we watch Brody take part in a morning Islamic prayer we have to force ourselves to remember that just because he's converted to Islam doesn't mean that he's a terrorist.  It's a very effective thing to make us feel bad about our thoughts.
I was also impressed by how harsh they went with Danes character in the end of the season.  Having her removed from the CIA was a bold move and I was sure that Brody would be found out just to help clear her name - it but wasn't so - he'll be around next season... and I'm not sure how I feel about that.  To be fair, I'm not sure this is a show that can go on for too many seasons without diminishing returns.  Already this season ended with us feeling like the system can never be beat - the powerful will always be corrupt and rise above the others.  The idea of potentially giving Danes amnesia is annoying and a bit of a cliche.  I like that the "mole" is still out on the lose, as well as the recording that Brody did and hid in the wall (who took it???  very exciting!).  But now we're back to square one, Danes suspects Lewis but no one is going to believe her, and whats worse everyone knows that she's a bit crazy now.  How do you keep that fresh?  And how do you keep the twists coming when you've more or less given everything away about your turncoat?  With Brody alive and entering the political arena I can't see the show keeping up to itself.  How would the CIA stay involved?  How does Carrie?  All great questions and I have to put faith in the creators who gave us a pretty damn solid first season of television.  I'm intrigued to see where they'll head next in this story and how they'll keep it exciting.  It's no small feat.

And last but not least, I love Mandy Patinkin in this series.  I love him in general, but he's the warmth that a show like this absolutely requires.

Give this show a shot, for sure, but be prepared for frustration with how the season ends...