What's good and what's not so good about The Tunnel

The British-French co-production, The Tunnel (Season 1), is one of the several adaptations of the Scandinavian series The Bridge (which I haven't seen), a 10-epiosde pursuit of a maniacal terrorist/serial killer undertaken jointly by the UK and French police forces. I an't call it a great series, though it rises above most in that it held our interest over its whole 10-episode span. First of all, on the plus side, the best aspect of the movie is the interaction and the developing respect and friendship between the two lead cops, the British Karl, an older, seasoned, police detective with serious family issues, and the younger French detective, Elise Wasserman, single and singularly focused on her work and suffering from - though it's never named as such - what appear to be a form of Asperger's syndrome: She literally cannot utter a lie in that she can't imagine the social codes of etiquette that govern most of our lives, and she is always deadly serious about everything in her work and her private life. Slowly, and credibly, we watch her grow over the course of the season. Another highlight are a few scenes of real tension, particularly regarding bombs and incendiary devices; this series was a predecessor of and in influence on other terrorist programs, such as the recent The Bodyguard. That said, on the other hand we soon realize that each episode will highlight a potential suspect and then eliminate, often literally, him or her - so we sense (correctly) - spoilers here! - that we will never be able to guess the ID of the terrorist as we don't even see him till late in the season. Further, the terrorist's activities are preposterous on every level; no one person could plan and carry out such elaborate killings, all of them widely publicized - and if one person could do so there would be so many clues and security footage that the crimes would be solved quickly. Finally, though Karl's family is toward the end put in jeopardy, their behavior when under threat is so ridiculous and stupid that you just want to throw up your hands in disbelief. So to watch this series you have to just say the hell w/ it, I'll accept anything, and just enjoy the pacing and the sensitive character development, of which there is plenty. Obviously, there are threads untied at the end, as The Tunnel revs up for a second season (which I won't watch).

The Sopranos Season 1 is as great or even better than you remember

Over the past several weeks I have been watching Season 1 of The Sopranos, currently observing its anniversary. So often when one comes back to a work once beloved the show feels dated and out of touch, but in this case not at all. If anything, The Sopronos 20 years later is even more impressive - it stands out, still, as a tremendous sociopolitical drama with more insight into character and culture than just about any of the pale imitators that have arisen over the past two decades. The series still stands out as one that examines the complexity of personality, in particular of the lead character, Tony James Gandolfini, if anyone needs to be reminded). From the start we recognize that he is a cold-blooded killer earning his wealth and supporting his family by preying on the weaknesses of others (gambling in particular), a thief, a philanderer, someone who would scare the shit out of you with a glance, and yet - we also see that he cares deeply about his children, has a strong loving if difficult relationship w/ his wife (Edie Falco), and upholds a certain code of honor among thieves - and of course he bares his soul to his therapist (Lorraine Braco), in a stunning narrative device that helps us to see everything that makes Tony tic and sometimes explode. Is there too much violence? Certainly not by current standards, and though there are a few scenes of brutal beating for the most part what's striking is how matter-of-fact the violence can be: When one of the gangs has to "eliminate" a rival it's usually just a quick pistol shot, blam!; the characters are not interested in torture, killing is just part of the routine. (This efficiency changes in some of the later season, for at least a few characters.) There are so many great plot developments across the 13 episodes it's not possible even to highlight all of them, but it's notable to watch Christoper's attempt to rise in the ranks, the rivalry between Tony and his uncle Junior (see episode Boca, directed by friend AW) spurred on by the devious mother (Marchand), Carmella's attempt to run a conventional household and to come to terms w/ the source of their wealth, the initial rebellion of the children and their dawning awareness of their father's dark life, and a great confrontational scene between Tony and Dr Melfi in 13th episode. Tony would be a guy whom, if you knew him, you would fear - but w/ whom you could also become friends, at least in a tentative and dangerous way (see how the friendship works out of the Artie, owner of the Vesuvio restaurant) - I knew plenty of guys like him growing up in the Oranges.

Why the documentary RGB surpasses the recent movie-version of the Justice's life

I wasn't initially that keen on watching the 2018 documentary RGB, as I felt that I'd already had the full story about Justice Ginsberg from the nearly contemporary movie version,On the Basis of Sex, but as it turns out the documentary (RBG) is in my view the much better movie, giving a more complete and, apparently, accurate picture of RBG's life, accomplishments, background, and personality. Obviously a movie version is "based on" true events but has to make many narrative compromises and decisions the keep the story moving along and focused, but now, having seen both, it's clear that the On the Basis had some significant distortions. First, it totally missed the essence of RBG's marriage and her relationship with husband and family: the documentary makes it clear that the husband was a real kibbitzer and was much more the family man, in a real role reversal; there's also no indication that they ever tried a case together - his expertise in law was far removed from her expertise and interests. The movie made is think that RBG's whole career focused on one key case - a reverse-discrimination in which she fought for and won equal rights for a widowed father; that much is true - and was a shrewd decision to take on that case - but we get a better sense from RGB that there were myriad key cases that she fought for, argued, and won. We sense in the documentary that she was and still is extremely driven and laser-focused. On the Basis pretty much stops at her first major court victory - and that's OK, no need to tell her entire life story - but the documentary has lots of great footage that shows her character and determination and subtle wit today, as shes's in her 80s and, god help us, living w/ serious health issues. Among that finest and perhaps saddest moments in RGB is her Senate confirmation hearing, in which Sen Hatch of all people says to her that he disagrees w/ most of her views but he's been impressed by her testimony and will vote to confirm - nobody could imagine that from today's Republicans. The documentarians, Betsy West and Julie Cohen, have a lot of fun w/ the rise of the moniker The Notorious RGB, and include nice footage of RGB working w/ a personal trainer (!), meeting w/ students, attending and appearing in an opera, and appearing on several panels (including some footage w/ her personal friend and ideological antithesis, Justice Scolia) and well as interviews with her children and her childhood friends - a fine job all around that never feels like an assemblage of talking heads.

Informer

The six-episode thriller Informer on Prime is yet another example of a fine and exciting show that thee Brits can turn out one after another, all of them well acted with a wide range of social and racial elements , with a contemporary awareness (this series is about a London police agency using "assets" and paid informers to provide info on a pending terrorist attack), and with great use of London topography and with many scenes set in projects and other seldom filmed locations far off the tourist path. There's constant tension as we follow the fate and travails of a young man of Pakistani descent forced into serving as in informer, and his police contact who (of course) has a dark history himself. The only problem is that there are so many plot twists and red herrings that there are some scenes that I simply can't explain and I would have to watch the whole series again if I were to hope to get everything. As w many police procedural there are also scenes that, if you were to pause the stream and think about them could never happen - including some crucial plot elements involving a teenage boy in the final episode. Informer may not a masterpiece but for fans of the wire or of British noir it's worth watch NH.



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Kidman is terrific in Destroyer, one of the best recent cop/crime dramas

Nicole Kidman is headed toward an Oscar nomination and maybe a win for her terrific performance as an undercover LA police officer whose personal and professional life is a nadir, in Karyn Kusama's film Destroyer (2018). Kidman plays almost a double-role: In the main, present-day narrative she is Erin Bell,a police officer on the outs with her colleagues, seriously addicted to alcohol and possibly to opioids or other Rx, and she looks just terrible - a brave role for Kidman to take on, in my view. In essence, the film opens w/ her arriving at a crime scene where there's a dead body, victim of gunshot. Though out of her jurisdiction, Erin examines some clues and spots a tattoo that indicates the dead man's gang affiliation, a gang that Erin had investigated years back as an undercover agent. She wants to close the case and redeem her career insofar as possible. The movie from this point forward is bifurcated: Some in the present as Erin follows a series of leads that bring her by stages to the head of the gang, some 17 years back when she was an undercover member of the gang,and reliving a bank robbery the gang pulled off w/ tragic consequences. That said, the plot is intricate but extremely well designed, w/ great moments of tension and shocking narrative twists. This movie as about as engaging as any recent cop/crime film I can recall - not only Kidman's acting, but a strong supporting cast, terrific pacing that keeps the tension ratcheted to the top, and a great stylish look that any fans of LA noir will enjoy from the opening moments on - with the caveat, probably my only caveat, that the film could have ended 10 minutes earlier and cone to rest on a darker and more mysterious note and avoided some saccharine, over-orchestrated moments, the only ones in the film.