30 Rock is in danger of going adrift

"30 Rock" is kinda fun, I mean, who doesn't like Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin as smarmy studio exec has found the perfect role for him. Some of the secondary characters are amusing, too, in a sitcom fashion - meaning that they're all characteristics, not characters in an true sense - in other words, they are not like any human beings you will ever meet outside of a sitcom. There are always a few good laughs in each episode. However, does anyone else notice that the series has drifted too far away from its initial premise, and charm, in that its less about the actual making of an SNL-like TV show and more or a forum for the actors to display their eccentricities. The show within the show has drifted toward the background, it's become just the excuse to get these characters into the same room, or plot, and ultimately, at its worst, the show just seems like a bunch of lunatics misbehaving. It needs to be grounded more firmly in its reality - we have to know what these guys do, that despite their craziness, or because of it, they are successful at their unusual work: much like Mad Men, for that matter, and MM may suffer from the same draft, as it has gradually become more of a domestic soap and less of a workplace drama. This is less of an issue for a comedy like 30 Rock, in that we don't turn to it to learn about the craft of TV. But think of that other great sitcom based on a TV show, The Dick Van Dyke Show - which always worked because we saw the show as the glue that kept these characters together and accommodated their craziness. 30 Rock is in danger of gooing adrift.

Too long, too dark, too much suffering - but a good movie about an "outsider" artist

At more than two hour running time, "Everlasting Moments" is far too long for its material, but it's a very good, thoughtful movie that seems to truly capture the hardships of a family life in a particular time and place - southern Sweden in the early 20th century - and universally, in a working-class family where the father is alternately fun-loving and charming then a drunkard and a bully. If he were always horrible, it would be a movie of unrelenting gloom, and no doubt his long-suffering wife would have left and end of movie. But he keeps trying to reform and she keeps wanting to believe him and there are so many social pressure to keep her in the marriage. Things seem to be going well, and then he comes home drunk and the movie just explodes. Some very powerful scenes of domestic violence, and a solid political background as the father and some of the other characters get involved in a violent dockworkers' strike. The heart of the movie, though, is the mother's (Maria's?) fascination with photography - she tries to pawn a camera, but eventually starts taking pictures and has some real talent. This work helps keep the family alive, and is an artistic salvation for her - through her vision, and through a friendship she forms with a photographer in the city. This friendship almost costs her the marriage, and the relation between her and the photog remains ambiguous. The film apparently based on conversations with the woman's daughter - unclear whether the ambiguity of the relation with the photog was because of lack of info or to protect the reputation of the mother. Also not clear at all the stature of the woman's work: was she a well-known photographer in her life, or a talented amateur? Anyway, a pretty good movie but dark and full of suffering - reminds me of the many movies about the struggles of immigrants, but in this case they're the ones who didn't immigrate but should have. Also reminds me of the recent spate of movies about "outsider" artists.

Even 2nd-tier Bunuel is beter than most movies made today

Even 2nd-tier Luis Bunuel is far above most movies made today (or ever), so his distinctly 2nd-tier but still engaging "Death in the Garden" (1956) is worth seeing, especially for the 2nd half, when the exiled characters make their way through the South American (Mexican, actually) jungle to escape the pursuing armed soldiers. The trek through the jungle has some amazing scenes, as the characters gradually lose their sanity through hunger and privation: cooking the snake, the priest sitting in a rainstorm talking about soft-boiled eggs, most of all the discovery of a wrecked airplane. This is a truly Bunuelian moment in a film that in other ways doesn't bear the marks of his style throughout (it's an adaptation of a novel, and a truly commercial venture). As the scholar Victor Fuentes notes in an interview extra on the disc, the characters in the jungle suddenly are taken with the trappings of bourgoise society - makeup, jewelry, luggage - right in the middle of the jungle. Only the priest gets them to think about the rites for the dead - in fact, the priest comes off better than any other Bunuel religious figure I think. The film does have Bunuel's contempt for authority and for conventional values (Simone Signoret, as Djin, a prostitute, is really great in the role), the diamond miners' riot after an unjust execution is very exciting, reminds me of Battle of Algiers. Film doesn't have the depth and the wonder of some of Bunuel's greatest but worth watching to see how well he handles more commercial material.

Modern Family is a totally enjoyable series that's never condescending

The sit-com series "Modern Family" is a totally enjoyable, funny, clever little romp, never condescending to its characters and, though far-fetched and slapstick at times, always on the near side of credibility. The likable ensemble cast includes a 40ish prosperous couple in which the mom (Julie Bowen) is a bit overprotective (especially as she recalls her wild youth) and the dad (played too much like a 2nd-tier Steve Carrell) buffoonishly thinks he's in "hip" (I text!), the 3 kids includes a young teen daughter somewhat rebellious, brainy daughter, adhd-ish son. In the extended family - an gay uncle and his partner and their adopted baby girl, and the grandpa newly married to a hot Latina and fathering her chubby 10-year-old son. Hm. That's a lot, and a bit hard to follow when you first start watching - even after several episodes I don't have the names of the characters in mind - but the plots of each episode click right along, very well written, clever dialogue, good laugh lines, and a nice feeling of good will without smarminess throughout. We like the characters and tend to laugh with them and at their foibles, as they obviously mean well and try to do well. Series has a bit of a mock-umentary style, a la the Christopher Guest movies and The Office, in which the characters from time to time will address the camera as if sitting for an interview. Not sure how successful this series has been or how long the Lloyd-Levitan creative team will be able to sustain the mood and storyline, but it's an entirely enjoyable series.

Bad is good but not why not great? : Breaking Bad

Haven't watched a lot lately but now have seen most of season 3 of "Breaking Bad" and Bad is good. Not great, but a big step above the many formulaic oddball concept series out there: what if a woman had to raise money by growing pot (weeds), e.g. Breaking Bad (what if a teacher thought he was dying and raised money by cooking meth?) rises above the cheap concept level by treating the characters and their anxieties with real insight and sympathy. The chem teacher, Walt White, is a good guy who's made a bad decision. His wife is a good person trying to do the right thing. It doesn't, however, rise to the level of the greatest series like Sopranos, Wire, maybe Friday Night Lights, because the main characters are not grand enough to carry the whole show (cf Damages, The Shield) and the secondary characters are more like sketches, interchangeable. The plot is good, pretty tense, nicely paced, and the dialogue is generally strong, but again it falls short of greatness - it doesn't give you a sense of a whole world, it doesn't have the assured inside knowledge of the underlife of the drug dealer's world. It flirts a bit with cornball staginess, as the two sinister dealers (twin brothers, apparently) pursue Walt, coming closer to him in each episode, but they're characters out of a comic book or a dumb movie - nobody in real life behaves that way, with silent cruelty. On the plus side, the noose tightens very slowly around Walt, and he's increasingly driven to do crazy things to keep his family together, and it's interesting to see his brother-in-law, a DEA agent, very gradually piece together the truth about the meth manufacturer he's pursuing.

If you can buy in to the premise, a harmless entertainment: Men Who Stare at Goats

It's not hard to like "The Men Who Stare at Goats," but it takes a lot of buy-in to get there. If you can accept, even in a comedy, that the U.S. Army would hire a Vietnam vet officer who's spent years in the counterculture (doing research, supposedly) to develop and lead a special unit devoted to peace and harmony and new age techniques, able to kill without weaponry (that's the staring at goats part), then maybe you can accept this film for what it is - I couldn't make that buy in, but still appreciated the broad humor of the officer, Jeff Bridges - he's getting better with each movie, isn't he? - having his team of soldiers dance and get high - far, far more humor in these scenes than in most other "trippy" scenes from other movies, e.g., the totally flat Steve Martin & Meryl Street It's Complicated. So the plot is preposterous, but there are some laughs along the way: the loathesome Kevin Spacey going into a snit when his psychic powers fail him, for example. Casting of the film is weird, however. Spacey, Bridge, and Clooney are all way too young if we're to believe that they were Vietnam vets or recruited shortly after the war. Ewen Macgregor, as a reporter trying to cover the Iraq war, is way too old for the part and continually has trouble with his American accent. Filmmakers obviously know nothing about American journalism, by the way. All that said and the premise as ridiculous as it is, the movie goes along at a pretty good clip, with some funny scenes - it has nothing to do with real life and nothing to do with war, but it's a harmless entertainment.