A feel-good rom com that touches on some important themes of prefudice and bias: The Big Sick

The romcom 2017 movie The Big Sick is a (mostly) feel-good movie w/ a strong comic line that recalls and brings into the 20-teens a movie like When Harry Met Sally (cute meet, seemingly mis-matched couple, gradually learning to love and commit to each other) with a touch of Love Story no less (gravely ill daughter brings disparate family elements together), along w/ a few contemporary touches of its own, including a reasonably realistic view of the life of a standup comedian (doubling as an Uber driver, which leads to one of the best gags in the movie) and, more important, a smart and sensitive look at the struggle of a young Pakistani immigrant who faces down a lot of prejudice and bias and as he tries to remain close to his traditional Pakistani family, which believes in arranged marriages. Kumail Nanjiani basically plays himself in the lead, and he's a winning presence as a comedian and altogether good guy; Ray Romano does a fine comic turn as well as the oafish father of KN's girlfriend (Zoe Kazan, very winning even though for half the movie she's in a coma).  I have to quibble and say that the movie feels stretched - 2 hours is 30 minutes too long for a romantic comedy like this - and that Nanjiani and co-writer (Emily V. Gordon) tie some of the plot strands to quickly and too neatly (e.g., Holly Hunter's sudden turnaround from KN's adversary to his champion), but that said I give them props for leaving a few threads untied at the end (which I won't divulge). Apparently this film is loosely autobiographical; in any event, it's worth a look.

Why Season 4 of Transparent may be losing its mojo

The bar has been set pretty high, but I'm afraid that Season 4 of Jill Solloway's fine series, Transparent, is losing some of its mojo. The problem is that the essence of the show is Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) and the issues she faces in her transition of gender. The other characters, notably Maura's ex wife (Shelley/Judith Light) and 3 children, are useful counterweights, and it's important to see how this transition affects a wide range of family members and friends (and former friends), but I for one am much less interested in the pathways of their lives and their struggles with sexuality. Unfortunately, over the course of the first 4 episodes there's relatively little about Maura - w/ 2 exceptions: a terrific scene of her undergoing a TSA search at LAX (in episode 3) and the opening up of a new channel in her family history as she reconnects, in Israel, w/ her father (he would have to be in his 90s) long presumed dead. I hope the season continues on that theme and brings Maura back to the center. It's good to watch Shelley seeming to find herself through her association w/ an Improv theater group; less good to see the continued struggles w/ sexual identity of children Sarah and Josh. Ally is the mystery: she accompanies her "mapa" to Israel and spends a large part of episode 3 w/ a group of young, activist Palestinians - but so far she's just a listener and a sidekick. There's opportunity to move her more to the foreground. Will it happen?

A note on the Lost City of Z

Just a note on The Lost City of Z, in that I watched "only" the first 90 minutes, foregoing the last hour - not that it was a terrible movie - it wasn't - but for a great adventure story about the early 20th-century explorations in South America, it was so flat and predictable - the good guys are good and brave and nobel and handsome, and the heavies are stupid and homely and buffoons. Worse, the voyages to SA (there are 3) are poorly presented cinematically: It all has the look of a back-lot production (even if it wasn't) and it's really hard to follow the narrative of each expedition: for example, they seem to be heading off into the jungle far beyond any civilization or settlement, but all of a suddent when one of the "heavies" gets injured they put him on horseback and send him back toward the base. Huh? Many other examples of the same sort. Also, the very fact of 3 expeditions - though it must be historically accurate (as this film is based on real events) - diminishes our interest in each. Despite a feeble attempt to make this about class politics (and father-son relationships), it all falls apart - not nearly as good as, say Wim Wenders's various SA films (Fitzcarraldo, e.g.).

Almodovar's surprising adaptation of stories by Alice Munro

I can't imagine why the reviews of Pedro Almadovar's 2016 film, Julieta, were lukewarm at best, as it seemed to me another great work with his signature style and his favorite issues: examining the life of a woman in crisis, and in particular the relationships among women and how they support one another, told in a crisp and stylish narrative style with sparkling view of life in contemporary, largely well-to-do contemporary Madrid and filmed with extraordinary beauty of color composition (just looking at the backdrops of most of his shots and the exciting color combinations is like a trip to a gallery or museum) and even with an unobtrusive yet emotive score. In fact, in some ways this film is stakes out some new territory for Almadovar: the mother-daughter relationship is at the center of the film, and if anything there could be more to explain the daughter's alienation and her eventual life decisions. The eponymous Julieta (played by 2 actresses, one "current day" at about 50 years old and the other in the back story, playing the role ages roughly 20-35) is enigmatic at first but over the course of the film, as she reflects on her life, some of the enigma is clarified, though not fully resolved - which is at is should be. I was surprised and pleased to see in the closing credits that Almodovar based the film on a group of stories by the great Alice Munro; I hadn't make this connection (her stories, from Runaway, are set in British Columbia; Almodovar transposed this setting into NW Spain), but I plan to re-read the stories as I'm curious as to what other changes Almodovar may have made in his adaptation. Nevertheless, it speaks well of his direction and of Munro's writing that such seemingly personal narratives and sufficiently universal to seem and feel at home, "native," in a completely different setting and culture.

One disappointing miniseries and one complete absurdity

After 3 episodes (of 6) I'm underwhelmed by the British police drama River, in which the eponymous detective hears and responds to the voices (and images) of dead people, in particular his charming colleague "Stevie" who was recently shot in an apparent assassination. The premise is pretty good, as we see this clearly disturbed man try to keep his career alive in the London PD and try to solve the mystery of the death of his partner, and he's a complex character though not unlike a few thousand other noir detectives - a loner, an eccentric, and obsessive-compulsive type. At the heart of the matter, it seems that he and Stevie had a flirtatious relationship, and we want to find out if their friendship became any more than that. Looks unlikely through 3 episodes, but that could change. All that said what really throws me off is the completely ridiculous sense of how a police department and police investigations work. Each of the first 3 episodes also involved a case of some sort that River neatly solves within the hour time slot in various ludicrous and improbable ways. Worse, there's no sense of a working PD; for example, how many officers do you think would be involved in the investigation if one of their colleagues was shot in the back of the head? In this show, the answer is 2: River and a guy assigned to more or less be his "babysitter," and his supervisor keeps telling him to drop the matter anyway. We learn also that Stevie's family is involved in gang crimes, and somehow she got involved in a case that sent her brother to prison. Really? And so forth. We get a # of scenes of River undergoing counseling w/ a female psychiatrist, and what does that remind you of? Too many of the 2ndary characters are one-dimensional, one-note types: the supervisor constantly telling River to focus on his cases, e.g. This is a miniseries w/ a hopeful premise and a good start for me it never has the ring of truth. Additional note for the record: At least it's better than Glitch, about people rising from the dead in a midwest cemetery, that made no sense from the start and got increasingly ridiculous throughout the first episode, which three of us couldn't even bear watching to the finish.

Fauda keeps up the pace and tension right to the end

The Israeli 12-part miniseries Fauda starts well and, unlike many such programs, maintains its pace, tension, and moral ambiguity right up to the end - a great ensemble piece w/ strong writing and plot and character development, good acting by all the leads - Israeli and Palestinian both - good production values including the haunting score and the use of street locations, and a story line that offers some insight on the complexity of combating terrorism while trying, against the odds, not to sink as ethically low as one's antagonists. Obviously, the sympathy is all on the side of the Israelis, that's a given, but it's impossible not to like the Palestinian doctor who gets caught up in the web of this manhunt and is abused and deceived by all parties. I won't give any spoilers here, but will only say that the final episode leaves a few doors open - making us think what it would be like to live in the aftermath of these tragic and bloody events (involving shootings, bombings, kidnapping and abduction, prisoner abuse, sexual politics, medical ethics, and deception of every sort) and leaving open the possibility of a 2nd season, although I don't see any evidence that another season is in the works [update: apparently a season 2 is in the works]. Usually it's best to quit while you're ahead.

Biblical satire starts well but soon loses its course and ends in a complete mess

I was disappointed by the recommended (JS) French-Belgian comedy The Brankd New Testament (2016), a movie w/ great promise and some dark humor especially in the first segment but that ultimately loses focus and control and ends in a complete mess. The concept, to which I willingly suspended disbelief, is that God is a cranky old man living in Brussels with a much-abused wife and daughter (Ea) an and absent son (JC) and a computer with an enormous database of files on all human beings. We see some of his "mistakes" during the process of creating the world (ostriches wandering through a supermarket, for example) and some of his perverse "rules" (e.g., the other line is always faster). These are not exactly groundbreaking concepts - Heller had much to say on the perversity of a god who created pain, for ex. - but the movie gets off to an OK start, as the 10-year-old Ea breaks into the computer system and sends to all people a message telling them exactly how much time, to the second, they have left to live. Now that's pretty interesting. How does that change life on earth? We see a few examples (wars stop, e.g.), but then the movie goes awry, as Ea escapes to earth w/ fsix files she grabs at random, people who she wants to make into another 6 "disciples." Now the movie's gone off on divergent courses, as Ea's goal is to get each "disciple" to tell his or her story. All six suffer from anti-social behaviors, ranging from sad isolation and disappointment in life to actually reprehensible behavior (one is a known killer), and the fact is we care little or nothing about any of them (not even C Deneuve now 70+ in a reversal of her Belle de Jour role as a housewife seeking out male prostitutes and eventually falling in love w/ a Gorilla, if you can suspend that much disbelief). We have no sense that any of these people are disciples of anything, nor that there is any new testament in progress (Ea befriends a man who is homeless and illiterate to take down these stories, for some reason), so by the end the concept of the movie is long-forgotten and we're just looking at a group of oddballs who console one another and through divine intervention fulfill their dreams before fore-ordained death. The movie picks up when God comes to earth in pursuit of wayward daughter, and we follow the cantankerous God in a few confrontations w/ authority - but that's not enough to sustain a nearly 2 hour mess of a movie. The attempts at whimsy fall flat; I wondered if this is the same crew that did Amelie, as the flash cuts and the narrative style and the playful digital imagery recalled that movie, but absent its humanity and its charm.

A terrific and engaging series (at least so far) about Israeli special agents - Fauda

Very impress w/ and caught up in the first have of the Israeli 12-part (one season) miniseries Fauda, a terrific take on an Israeli secret service team of agents in their efforts to capture a Palestinian terrorist whom they had believed (and whom the world at large believes) they had killed in an earlier raid. The attempts to capture him go terribly wrong in an episode-one scheme involving planting agents to act as caterers at a Palestinian wedding. When they're "made" the wedding turns riotous and the groom is killed - which leads to a cycle of revenge and retaliation and ever-more-bold schemes. The whole series so far feels close to reality, it's tense every minute, and it's full of moral and tactical dilemmas that keep us engaged and keep us guessing. The Israeli team is super-tough, esp the de facto leader, Doron (?) who on top of the terrorist search has to deal w/ a # of family matters, including the off-the-rails behavior of his brother-in-law, also a member of the team, who goes on a personal crusade to avenge the death of his girlfriend, jeopardizing himself and the whole operation. Terrific series, complex but easy to follow thanks the the fine script. I recommend opting to hear it Hebrew, w/ English subtitles - the English-dubbed version we used for episode one sounds fake and strained.

Scorcese's best in years

Martin Scorcese's fine 2016 film, Silence, may not be for everyone - a historical piece set in 17th-century Japan, with a medley of subtitles, and weighing in at 2 hours 40 minutes - but I found the movie completely engaging start to finish, and real smart, disturbing narrative with haunting cinematography and s subtle, mysterious pseudo-Asiatic score. The story, based on a novel by the Japanese author Endo (which I plan to read) is of 2 20-something Portuguese priests who set off for the then remote and almost other-worldly Japan to check on the state of the few small Christian communities and on the fate of the legendary Portuguese priest who had brought the gospel to Japan and has seemed to disappear. The 2 witness and then endure almost unimaginable hardships and tortures as they conduct clandestine services in several remote villages and approach ever-closer to the seat of government in Nagasaki. The Japanese feudal government repressed the Christian/Catholic communities, seeing an alternate religion as a threat to their oppressive regime; the priests are placed several times in terrible moral positions - asked to renounce their faith or else witness the killing of one or several of their converts. The priests try their best to keep their faith while seeking in vain for some message from their god as to what course they should take - but their god remains ominously silent (hence the title). The movie is in essence a spiritual adventure story, as the priests, together and later separated, endure a series of hardships and dangers; it's also a examination of the nature of faith and morality - very fine, powerful, Scorese's best in years. (Not sure to what extent the movie and Endo's novel are based on fact - most likely not insofar as this is a tale of 2 specific priests, but I think the oppression of the Christian community in medieval Japan was probably factual.)