Can I love again? Do I have the strength to endure another heartbreak? Will George Lucas intervene and fuck up the new film if it actually ends up being good? These are the questions rolling around my head the last twenty-some hours. One human being can only take so much. Continue reading
Oaths were kept, masters were killed, and eyes were turned blue. This episode was unified thematically; every storyline this week featured someone who entered into some type of promise, vow, or binding agreement. The episode was in large part about the costs of keeping those oaths and the consequences of breaking them. Continue reading
Media are reflections of the culture and society they represent and emerge from. When one is alienated from certain media it likely stems from a lack of relatability on the part of the consumer in relation to the reflection in question. In other words, the consumer doesn’t see themselves reflected in the product. This is why, stereotypically, men don’t like daytime soap operas and romantic comedies, women don’t like sports and wrestling, and black people don’t like Seinfeld and the Winter Olympics (this black person actually loves Seinfeld as much as he hates the Winter Olympics, but we’re talking about stereotypes). Continue reading
Orphan Black remains the only show on television that is worth watching on the strength of its lead actor alone. Let me be quite clear here: I love the concept of the show, the writing, overall production value, and supporting cast (especially Jordan Gavaris) are all of high quality. But even if I weren’t an incurable SciFi geek endlessly fascinated by the science and ethics of human cloning, I would still watch this show strictly because of Tatiana Maslany. This episode was actually pretty weak in my opinion, but it didn’t feel that way because Maslany’s so much fun to watch. Each one of her characters is so unique I continually forget that she’s playing each of them. It seems almost secondary to mention how good an actor she is on a basic level, never mind the juggling act
I don’t have much more to say on this other than I’m glad its finally back and that I’m exceedingly glad Helena is still alive.
Let’s just get right into it. I always try not to read other pieces on Game of Thrones before finishing my own, but I couldn’t hide from the amount of stuff written about Jaime’s rape of Cersei. Before I begin in earnest, let me be very clear up front that I am not defending rape, the depiction of rape or the use of it as a narrative tool by media-arts producers. As for the latter, I reserve the right, as any viewer does, to question and deride whatsoever I please within any piece of work. I will not do so, however, for the sake of propriety, personal preference, or moral outrage. The works I find to be morally outrageous are those which are wantonly intellectually dishonest or somehow produced in bad faith; I do not find Game of Thrones the television series in particular or A Song of Ice In Fire in general to be such works. Continue reading
Surely we are in the midst of a Golden Age of the episodic crime drama. Between Sherlock, True Detective, Luther, Broadchurch, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Top of the Lake, and a plethora of enormously successful CBS procedurals that I admit I have never seen but people seem to enjoy (NCIS, Elementary, post-Petersen CSI). I have seen Criminal Minds several times (its a favorite of my parents) and have usually enjoyed it, but for a variety of reasons, traditional procedurals favored by the likes of CBS in particular and networks in general don’t really fit into my main argument, which I’ll present herein. Continue reading
The Purple Wedding did not disappoint. If I have a big complaint it would only be that the wedding sequence was so dominant in the episode that when I sat down to write this I had forgotten most of what happened in the run up. So, naturally, I’ll start from the back. Continue reading
1. Adele Exarchopoulos: Blue Is the Warmest Color
Some actors have “that face,” other actors have “those eyes.” Exarchopolous has both. Her’s was not the most polished performance this year, or the most mature, but it is the one that effected me the most emotionally. It’s the one that stuck in my head and refused to leave. I don’t think it sentimental for one to give marks for that: cinema, by it’s very nature is an art of manipulation of the emotions of the viewer, and actors are the vessels through which the viewers emphasize with the characters. Continue reading
As I sat alone in my apartment slowly applauding computer generated images of dragons I realized without embarrassment that I really am part of a specific class of people. The class I’m referring to is that class who believe that this particularly inspired combination of the mythical, carnal, gory, and political is the richest narrative universe in all of genre fiction. George R.R. Martin is the talent of a lifetime. Continue reading
Mixed American Film Buff 