An homage to Huck Finn and to Bob Dylan : Kisses

By no means is it a great movie, but the Irish indie "Kisses" has a lot going for it and may foretell more good works from Irish cinema and from this writer-director. Story about two abused kids, boy and girl (about 12 years old maybe?), next-door neighbors in an industrial suburb of Dublin, who run away to the city to escape horrible families. Like most child runaway stories, it's improbable for the most part and meant to be so, but more than most it includes some really rough elements and some very exciting moments. Many times when I was sure the kids would not make it - though I knew in movie terms they would have to (though the ending is ambiguous and intentionally disturbing). Part of the time, as the kids romp through a shopping mall wasting $ on a buzz cut and new sneakers, thought no kids would behave that way, they'd be really worried about how they were going to get through the night. At other times, I accepted that they were just kids, impulsive and naive, and that they'd manage. There are homages here to the greatest runaway story, Huck Finn (they take a canal barge to Dublin), and echoes of other runaway movies such as the great Little Fugitive and, in a funny way, with two young people building a romantic bond as they course through the night, I was reminded of Before Sunrise. The main homage in the movie is to Bob Dylan - the boy is named Dylan, and he learns that his antecedent is a "musical god," and who would disagree? Great Dylan songs on the soundtrack and one amusing "appearance" of Dylan in the film itself.

Should you watch Season 1 after you've seen Season 3? : Breaking Bad

Watched the first season pilot for "Breaking Bad" last night for some reason; had already seen most of Season 3 (but none of seasons 1 or 2). M. is always curious about how these shows (which we sometimes pick up later in their runs) began, but I'm not, once I see where it's going have little interest in looking back. Someone once asked me: If you only had read the last act of Romeo and Juliet, wouldn't you want to see the beginning? Yes, but Breaking Bad is not Shakespeare. In fact, we enjoy reading/seeing great dramas multiple times, but even the best of television, for me, serves for only one round. Nevertheless, the pilot for Breaking Bad is quite well done and I can certainly see why the show was picked up and renewed. Amazing how most of the characters that I'd seen in Season 3 are introduced here; also surprising how little they change - even really good TV is mostly about types and characteristics, not about subtle character development. Pilot starts off with a very exciting and for first-time viewers bewildering scene of van careening through the desert, driver wearing mask, half-naked, bodies rolling around in the back - then we flash back 3 weeks and by end of pilot understand the scene: a meth lab on wheels. Personality and dilemma of main character established well. Friend Andy has noted to me that he could never buy into the premise of Breaking Bad, and I agree - idea that he would keep his cancer diagnosis secret from family and that he would embark on this crime path is not made credible in the pilot - and in that way I think it's almost better to begin watching Breaking Bad at a later point, when the crime history is a given, rather than a choice.

A ovie of brutal poverty, great acting, and some edges and surprises: Winter's Bone

"Winter's Bone" likes up to its reputation - a totally captivating movie especially because of the work of its star, Julie(?) Lawrence, young actor who captures the plight of this 17-year-old nearly overwhelmed by the responsibilities of her life - invalid mother, two young sibs, dad on the run, no money, no social or family supports (at least so it seems). The plot's a little hard to unravel at times, made even more so by the heavy accents of the characters and their tendency to underplay the parts and even to drawl. But the tension throughout is palpable, and the director, whose name I don't recall, does a great job creating a whole world - you've never seen true Ozark poverty portrayed so effectively in a feature movie, I guarantee. Every scene, every moment, seems wracked with cold and the anguish of rural poverty: the crappy little houses, the old cars, the ugly landscape, the old tires and broken-down toys littering the yards, the crummy T-shirts and tattered jackets everyone wears, most of all the people, many of them grotesque, full of threat and menace, overweight, unhealthy, it's a world of hell - and a very believable one, not like some of the ridiculous action features and their cartoonish ideas of evil - these characters seem to have grown right out of the land, like forces of nature. (And then again, in the midst of this brutal and mean poverty, one scene of stunningly beautiful music - which makes you think about this terrain and this world in a different way - a movie, and a place, full of edges and surprises.) Many people praise the source book, by Donald Woodrell (?), and I'm sure it's great though I'm in no rush to read it - 90 minutes in this setting was plenty. Some unforgettable scenes: gutting the squirrel, reaching into the cold water to grab the hand of a corpse. After seeing this film, you'll never again set off into the Ozarks to show up unannounced at a meth lab.

I want to like Bored to Death, but it just won't let me

You want to like "Bored to Death" (HBO) but it keeps promising to be good and then disappointing you (me). At its best, it's zany and witty with some good dialogue, a kind of likable nebbishy literary lead character (Jason Schwartzman) who manages to get the girls mostly through his wit, a role Woody Allen might have played 40 years ago. It also offers Ted Danson in a great role for him, a Clay Felkerish boulevardier and magazine editor - Danson continues to get better. Also some amusing name checks and cultural references - watch this show if you want to be reassured that you already know the most hip writers and directors. Also some good stunt casting here and there. All that said, Bored to Death just never comes together and never makes sense. The odd premise is that Schwartzman is a magazine writer, a blocked novelist, with a part-time job on the side as a private eye. He is completely and utterly unbelievable as a detective, and it seems that the writer (Jonathan Ames) has no idea how to blend these elements of plot and character into a unified vision. For example, shouldn't the plot lines link - he solves literary mysteries? He uses his writerly skills to solve mysteries? No, we just have two different characters living in the same body, it seems. His palling around with Danson makes no sense either; no magazine editor of Danson's stature hangs around with a part-time writer and a cartoonist (Zach Galif... - another poorly conceived character, never believable as an artist). Although there are many laughs along the way, the whole feeling is of three musketeers concocted by a screenwriter who have no relation to one another outside of this script. In a great series, you can imagine the characters lives beyond the frame. Not here. And, by the way, no serious writer ever tells someone: I can't hang out tonight, I have to work on my novel.

Season finales are often disappointing - but Friday Night Lights stil among the best

Though final season episodes are almost inevitably a little disappointing - hard to tie so many strands in 41 minutes, so they inevitably feel a bit burdened by the demands of plot, and are often either too arcane (Damages), too ambiguous (Sopranos), or, in this case ("Friday Night Lights") a little too sentimental - Friday Night Lights Season 4 remains among the best. I won't be a spoiler, but I exactly predicted what would happen to principal Tammy Taylor. As to the rest of the plot outcomes, I'll leave them unsaid. Just this: The season beautifully explores some key issues seldom treated effectively on TV or in any dramatic format for that matter: racial tensions (two rival high schools, white and black), moral ambiguity (several characters brush with crime and not all pay a price), friendship (friendship between guys portrayed accurately and sympathetically without recourse to vulgarity or Apatow-like pranks and snarky dialogue, funny as that may be in other contexts), teenage love (Matt's abandonment of Julie was surprising, yet ultimately seemed like just the kind of thing a confused and somewhat immature guy would do - and her sorrow is palpable), marital stress and happiness (Tammy and Eric Taylor cover the whole range of emotions from fury to tenderness all in a totally credible and sympathetic manner). Though most people will say the final game between E and W Dillon is the highlight, I think it's hard to top the Thanksgiving dinner at the Taylors, with the strained dialogue and the awkward toast. The excellence of the scripting, acting, and directing of this scene speaks for the subtle beauty of the whole series.

The inequities between East and West Dillon are criminal (Friday Night Lights)

Penultimate episode of Season 4, "Friday Night Lights," just great - as with many next-to-last episodes in seasons, it ends with just about everyone in trouble and with the sense that there's no way they can clear this up in one more hour. We'll see - but meanwhile I have to step back and admire at how effectively this is written, directed, and played - we believe in each of the characters, we actually like each of the characters, even the screwups. Every plot line is credible, and each is quirky enough and sufficiently unpredictable that you cannot see ahead around the bend - surprises happen, and they feel right and inevitable. To summarize where we are: Riggins brother at their highest point (new dad, new landowner) arrested for running a chop shop, Vince walks away from a gang revenge assignment and into Jess's arms, leaving Landry out in the cold, forces still gathering around Tammy trying to oust her as principal on trumped-up charges that she counseled a girl toward abortion, and most germane: East and West Dillon about to face off, the game made ugly by tremendous vandalism to the already pathetic East Dillon field. The inequities between these two schools are criminal, and I hope they will move that issue to the forefront before the season ends. I for one can't quite see what will happen, though I suspect Tammy will lose her job and nothing good will happen for Vince. Odd how some characters - Matt, e.g. - have been written right out of the series. Another oddity (goof): anyone notice that Coach Taylor calls Landry "Lance" throughout one scene?

You don't have to like football, but... : Friday Night Lights

"Friday Night Lights" Season 4 gets back on track (episode 10?) as Matt at last gets in touch with Julie and she tearfully tells him off, Vince witnesses a shooting while with his thug friends, and Luke finally breaks down and shows Coach his severely injured hip. Also, Riggins gets thrown out of his trailer and again is alone and troubled, sensitive tough kid with terrible luck. And most significant - fundamentalist forces in town (backed by Dillon boosters?) go after Tammy's job, accusing her of counseling a girl (Becky) toward abortion. In other words, a lot happening in this episode as season conclusion (obviously the Dillon E v W game) is on the horizon. Not sure why I find this episode better, stronger, but I think Becky is a weak character and a limited talent, so the episode of her struggle with her pregnancy did not ring true - hard to understand her hookup with Luke, hard to figure the level of her maturity as she comes on to Riggins, that whole plot line seems a little out of kilter - and how it's largely resolved - it was mainly used to set up Tammy. Also, story line seemed to be in danger of moving too far away from the field, which is ultimately at the heart of this series - I tell everyone that you don't have to like or even understand football to like FNL, but some of the best moments in the series concern the team and its players, and we don't know a lot about the E Dillon players - at least compared with how we knew the Dillon Panthers in previous years. This episode puts the team back in play.