Crystal Clear: AMC's Breaking Bad is Addictive and Daring

In these troubled times in the world of entertainment, it’s more important than ever to appreciate quality original programming while we can. That’s why I’m hoping that, during this ongoing writer’s strike, you might find the time to check out the new original show from cable network AMC, Breaking Bad. AMC is fast establishing itself as a haven for daring, innovative television---if not for, well, classic American films. Heh.
Breaking Bad isn’t as impressive as this summer’s Mad Men, but this pitch-black comedy is as dangerous and addicting as its subject matter.

Created by former X-Files writer Vince Gilligan (he scripted personal favorite Bad Blood), Bad stars former Malcolm in the Middle father figure Bryan Cranston as a chemistry teacher and family man whose midlife crisis finds him using his science knowledge to cook methamphetamine. That’s simplifying it quite a bit—I assure you there are plenty more twists and turns involved that I want any potential viewer to experience themselves. The conceit of a middle class parent resorting to selling drugs to provide for their family may remind some of Showtime’s hit show Weeds, and on paper those comparisons are understandable. In practice, however, Breaking Bad is even more twisted in its humor and its unexpected twists.

It may be a little too early to tell if Bad can keep the pace of its first two offerings. In all honesty, its strange tone-which I'm currently enamored with-could grow grating as early as the next episode. Still, even if it were to dip quality significantly--I'll take merely good scripted television over the deluge of reality and game shows the networks are offering.

The first two episodes of Breaking Bad are available for download on iTunes and on demand through various cable systems. My recommendation would be to tune into AMC this Sunday night (Feb 3) after the Super Bowl when the network will repeat the first couple of episodes before resuming with a new episode the following Sunday. Follow this recommendation ONLY if you’re looking for a show that will get under you skin and keep you itching until your next fix.

There Will Be Lists: Personal Reflections on the Year in Film, 2007

Faithful readers of the site (all three of you) will no doubt recall that it took me until June of 2007 to post my Top 10 of 2006. This was due to the fact that, living in rural IA, I don’t often have the opportunity to see all the films that I would like to in order to make a definitive list until all potential films are out on DVD. Here’s the thing---I really wanted to try this year to get a list out earlier. I held out for a couple weeks in the year, holding out for one specific film before I would write what would have been known as “The Scheduled-to-Change Best Films of 2007.” However, that film (There Will Be Blood which I’ve been psyched about for months) has yet to arrive in my neck of the woods and I just couldn’t wait any longer. Hence, this self-indulgent post.

In lieu of making a temporary list, I’ve opted to take inventory of what my personal film-going experience was like in the year ending 2007. I’m playing a little loose with this because many films that belong to the past year I wasn't able to attend until January---but you get the idea. I will try and get back into contributing more, so I can give regular updates on films I’m checking out on DVD as well as the prestige films that trickle down to Waterloo-town.

With the films I’ve seen so far from 2007, there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s been an extraordinary year in the cinema. Frustration about availability aside, I’m actually excited that there are a number of films yet to be discovered from this great year. Here’s a listing (in order of how badly I want to see them) of the films I’ve yet to watch from 2007 that I feel I need to see before compiling my list:

In Theatres/Not on DVD Yet:
There Will Be Blood
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
I’m Not There
Margot and the Wedding
The Savages
Into The Wild (To be honest, this one came to my area, but I never found time to get to it. I sort of counted on it being recognized come Oscar time and to get a re-release-a la Michael Clayton-but that never happened)
Persepolis
The Kite Runner
On DVD-Just Haven’t Watched Yet
Paprika (read H-Dogg’s review here)
The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Like Paprika and many of the foreign films I’ve seen this year, this was released in 2006 but didn’t hit US theatres until 07)
The King of Kong (out on DVD January 29^th)
Rescue Dawn
Waitress
Bug
Sicko
A Mighty Heart

Here is a list of films that I found to be especially excellent and are definitely in consideration to be in my top 10:
No Country For Old Men
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Atonement
The Lives of Others
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Ratatouille
Once
Michael Clayton
Zodiac
Gone Baby Gone
Across the Universe
Juno
Eastern Promises
The Lookout
Charlie Wilson’s War
American Gangster
In The Valley of Elah
The Darjeeling Limited
Sunshine

Already I don’t know how the hell I’m going to pick just ten out of that lot (if you look at the seemingly random order I have the films listed, you can see where I’m currently standing). Looking at the above list of movies, with which I could almost make two complete lists that I would be perfectly happy with---confirms that this has been my favorite year at the movies since 1999 (that would be the year of Election, Being John Malkovich, Three Kings, Fight Club, Toy Story 2 & The Matrix—among many others).

Trends I enjoyed this year:
Directorial Debuts
Three established talents tried out the director’s chair this year and the results were three exciting films that were among the best of the year.
Screenwriter Scott Frank (Minority Report, Out of Sight) helmed the overlooked bank-robbery thriller The Lookout. In Frank’s hands, a film that could have come off as Memento-lite (the protagonist, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, suffers from a brain injury that forces him to write everything down in a notebook) into a nuanced character study about living with a disability-as well as an exciting pot-boiler.
After playing with spy-genre conventions as the screenwriter of the Bourne trilogy, Tony Gilroy turned the legal drama on its ear with the morally gray world of Michael Clayton. The great performances and deliberate pace indicate an uncompromised vision of a director to look out for.
Following the media frenzy that was Bennifer I & II, I feel I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing Ben Affleck in front of the camera again. As a director, though, I’m excited to see where he goes next after his debut with Gone Baby Gone. Based on the Dennis Lehane novel of the same name, Baby stars Affleck sibling Casey as a PI trying to find a missing girl and finds himself having to make a very tough decision. It is a film that has haunted me since I saw it back in October, and a lot of that credit goes to Ben Affleck.

Musicals
I’m not ashamed to say I’m a fan of musicals, especially in a year that turned out so many good ones. Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite films of the year and was a perfect match of director and subject. The Beatles-centric Across the Universe is a flawed film, but over time those flaws have endeared themselves to me as interesting quirks. For those who don’t like musicals, the indie hit Once integrates its music so seamlessly to its subject matter-two street musicians who form a bond over their shared talent-that it would take a heart of stone to deny its charms. Also, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the potential disaster turned feel-good hit Hairspray as well as Disney’s live-action fairy tale Enchanted.

Comedies
Most moviegoers would often list Comedy as their favorite movie genre. Well, not me—in fact, it’s probably pretty low on my list. I love humor, but most modern comedies…well, suck. I’m looking at you Chuck and Larry. Well, this year there was berth of great comedies that I can’t deny my love for: The Seth Rogen two-fer of Knocked Up and Superbad, the glorious animated highs of Ratatouille and The Simpsons Movie, Juno (where’s the Oscar love for JK Simmons, Allison Janney, and Jennifer Garner? Where? I’d gladly give-up the Best Picture nom -which, to be honest, I think is pushing it a bit- for a single nod for the supporting cast), the dry wit of The Darjeeling Limited and The TV Set, and my personal guilty pleasure of the year Hot Rod. I laughed a lot this year.

Foreign Films
My subscription to Netflix has allowed me to check out foreign films that I normally would have passed on—and this was a great year to jump in. Paris Je T’aime is a collection of 18 short films, a third of which I loved, a third of which I tolerated, and a third of which…well…let’s just say if the film was around thirty minutes long it would be a shoo-in for my best of the year. The Lives of Others won the best foreign language Oscar last year and was one of my favorite films that I saw in 07. Fans of Cloverfield or Little Miss Sunshine might want to check out the Korean offering The Host, which combines elements of both for a film that---well, it’s certainly not dull. Another flawed film that is anything from dull is Black Book from the Netherlands. Director Paul (Robocop) Verhoeven’s film about a Jewish woman who will do anything to survive the horrors of the holocaust is more of a popcorn film than any film about the holocaust has any right to be-it’s gripping for it’s entire two-and-a-half hour running time. Now is not the time to let subtitles scare you away from great cinema.

Well, as you can see---I’ve written quite a lot. And I still have a lot of thoughts about the year that has passed to go. Maybe I’ll get to them soon…or maybe you’ll have to wait until June.

So What's The Deal with Cloverfield? ... You Decide

For many months leading up to its Friday release, Internet message boards and movie sites have been rampant with speculation surrounding the specifics of JJ Abrams monster flick Cloverfield. Its not surprising given the nature of its bizarre title and super vague trailer - Abrams and his team went to great lengths to keep the plot shrouded in mystery and build up the suspense. Only, if you went into the theater expecting answers, guess again.

The plot is as follows - the film is apparently home video evidence retrieved by the military of some kind of large scale attack on New York City. By means of said video, we experience everything from the POV of the group of friends caught up in the chaos, desperately trying to escape the city. It all starts with a tremor around midnight during a going-away party for one of the friends. Shortly thereafter, complete panic ensues when a large explosion erupts in midtown Manhatten. Is it an earthquake? Terrorist attack? Something else? Well, whatever it is, we know it roars because the sounds menacingly echoes through the streets. Soon sirens are sounding, military vehicles are racing through the streets and jets and helicopters fly by overhead while the frightened masses run wildly for safety... which, of course, is nowhere to be found. During all of this we only catch fleeting glimpses of what IT is while catching vague descriptions from panicked witnesses.

And so it is throughout - lots of shaky home video, screaming, running, explosions, flickering lights and intermittent roaring.

Eventually the movie ends as it must, where the video ends. Literally. This film takes a minimalist approach leaving the source material (the video) as the only plot device. When it ends, the credits roll. No explanation. No details. Little doubt this will leave many folks sitting in their seat scratching their heads wondering why not a single damn question they had going in was answered. Then there will be those who revel in what they just experienced. Trust me when I tell you that there is a certain element of brilliance to Cloverfield.

It is fairly clear to me that JJ Abrams understands what drives good suspense. In what I see as an enlightened approach to storytelling, Abrams and his team give the audience just enough to let them start filling in the details for themselves and, in doing so, avoid a pitfall that is all too common - the audience disagrees with the creator's vision of what happened or should happen. The audience had a ton of questions going in (ie: what the monster looks like) and probably just as many expectations, but in holding true to real life, every person who views Cloverfield will have their own interpretation of events. What exactly was attacking New York and what did it look it? You saw something, but let your imagination fill in the specifics. Where did it come from? You heard a few ideas suggested during the film, let your imagination decide. How does the story end? Does the military ultimately win out? You decide. And it is precisely the details that we do not know concretely that makes the events scary. People find themselves the most frightened when their imaginations run wild. Cloverfield fuels the fire.

This approach to storytelling is fast becoming Abrams' MO. His television project Lost has garnered a huge following and remains engaging because viewers find themselves speculating as to the true nature of the island, the "Others" and the lives of the castaways. Again, concrete details are few, just enough to get you thinking, yet the series is entertaining. Its what has made books so successful since for centuries - the reader's imagination. Abrams just knows how to tap it.

Also true to the home video vehicle, the film features absolutely no score. You're just there... in the thick of things and the chaos provides your imagination with the only score you need.

While watching, I couldn't help but think what a great idea it would be to create a companion film presented from another perspective like the military. We do get somewhat of a feel for what the military is up against during the film, but given just how entertaining the whole premise and experience was, I think another perspective could be just as fun.

Cloverfield isn't high brow cinema, but it is clever in presentation and wildly entertaining as a new-age monster flick. While the main characters' sub-plot is a bit lame, the point remains that they had to fill the movie with something and it works as well as anything they might have used. You have to get the characters from Point A to Point B somehow. The shaky camera-work might get annoying (and even nauseating at times) but overall it serves its purpose and adds to the aesthetic of the film. ITS PANDELERIUM BABY!!!

So what is the story on Cloverfield? I don't know, you tell me. 8/10

I Am Legend Starts Strong, Doesn't Close the Deal

Will Smith delivered once again. I Am Legend looked intriguing from the first trailers and when you saw that Will Smith was in the leading role, well, at least for me, much doubt was cast aside. He can apparently do it all - comedy, action, drama - so why not add suspense to the resume? Exactly. Check that one off of the list.

Far removed from his posh throne in Bel Air (yes, I just made that reference), Smith now finds himself as military scientist Robert Neville, apparently the last man on Earth. How did we get there? Well, ironically, and I really appreciated this plot element, the alleged cure for cancer went haywire and killed everyone... except Neville who after some 5 years now spends his solitary days roaming a deserted New York City with his loyal canine companion looking for answers. He spends his night hunkered down in a house-turned panic room, complete with his own medical bat-cave.

Okay, so Neville isn't really the last person on Earth. Those not killed by the so-named "Kryppen virus" have basically become a hybrid of zombie-vampire, feeding on flesh and having to avoid daylight.

Neville hunts them in order to run tests in the lab in order to find a cure. They hunt him in order to eat.

Kudos go out to this film for many different reasons. First, as any good "last man" story does, it spends much time exploring how Neville, deprived of any human interaction, copes and combats the onset of insanity. He talks to his dog, go shopping in the overgrown remains of New York and interacts with manikins that he has cleverly placed in stores and shops, rents movies from the video store and hunts wild game in the streets. However, despite his best efforts, he is slowly slipping into madness as his desperation for a cure grows.

Second, the post-apocalyptic presentation of an abandoned metropolis was very well done. As previously mentioned, wild game roam the overgrown boulevards and thoroughfares. Escaped zoo animals (like lions) also roam the "urban jungle". There seems to be an innate fascination with people to see what would happen to the monuments of our civilization if humans suddenly ceased to exist and we get a fully imagines front row seat in this film.

Finally, the suspense aspect of this film was handled expertly in my opinion. Yes, we get to see the "monsters", but context is always appropriate. They creep out at dusk, loom large but out of sight during the day and they are mostly silent. Silence is frightening. They are also fast (like in 28 Days Later) which makes them all the more formidable that your classic zombie arch-type. But they are also smart. They set traps and stalk. In a "Most Dangerous Game" type of way, that is very frightening!

Two scenes really got to me. The first was when Neville ventures into a pitch-black building searching for his dog. Armed with a flashlight and his rifle, he ventures silently through stairwells and hallways knowing that the infected are hiding all around. When we see a group silently huddled in a corner breathing heavily... creepy. It reminded me of the game Half-Life when the aesthetics simply overwhelm and the panic portion of your brain reminds you that you shouldn't be where you are.

I also very much appreciated the scene where Neville notices that some of his manikins are out of place. He doesn't have to speak for you to understand - manikins don't move on their own. Its just an unsettling notion and it alludes to so much more than what is shown on screen.

After such a strong first two-thirds of the film, it was disappointing to me how the film plays out in the final act. Without spoiling its events, I can say that what transpired seemed to diffuse the panic and desperation that permeated the rest of film. And just when I came to terms with that, the film concluded in the manner that seemed totally unnecessary. It went out not with a bang, but a fizzle. While questions were apparently answered, I left the theater scratching my head. Why? Its a difference of opinion between the creators and the audience I suppose, but it damn ruined the whole experience.

You can't like every film I suppose. And while I don't hate I Am Legend, its simply disappointing that a film that could have been great turned out in the end to only be merely "ok" as a whole. If you haven't seen I Am Legend, its worth viewing. I just hope it doesn't disappoint for you as it did for me. 7/10

H-DoGG's Anime Hit Parade Continues with Paprika

As I indicated with my last post, my last month and a half has been filled with some excellent DVD viewing experiences. (I also learned that when you move and decide to forgo cable television, you watch a LOT of movies!) Most notably, these past couple of months have seen me really delve into anime as a new, serious interest. And yes, I can already sense some of your eyes rolling at the thought. Let me assure you, I have not lost my sanity.

Those who know me fairly well know that I am a huge fan of the anime series and film Cowboy Bebop, the ultra-cool, stylish series from the mind of director/creator Shinichiro Watanabe. What most people do not know, however, is that was the first anime I truly appreciated and gave any serious attention. Having grown up in a time when my friends watched Dragon Ball Z, I had absolutely no desire to watch it, any of it because quite frankly I found it to be utter garbage. Despite my recent interest in anime, my opinion remains steadfast. Most of it (anime) is just that - garbage! Derivative drivel best suited for pre-teens lit up on sugar buzz.

My opinion did, however, become less broadly-stroked when I experienced Cowboy Bebop (one of the best series ever in my opinion) and also when I subsequently viewed Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece Spirited Away. The truth is animes can be just as good as regular films and drama or better when they are handled more seriously and carefully, avoiding the stereotypical trappings of mass-marketed, hyperactive, uber-action anime, consisting almost entirely of repeating frame sequences mixed with mind-numbing tracks of endless screaming, spraying blood and unnecessarily heavy breathing.

My introduction to the works of director Satoshi Kon further serves to demonstrate this point, first and foremost with his latest film Paprika. Paprika first grabbed my attention almost exactly a year ago when I ran across the trailer online. It looked to be an amazingly animated feature with compelling and mind-bending sequences that pushed the limits of animation. My first viewing would confirm this impression. Visually, Paprika is nothing short of a delight!

Most satisfying for me and the friend I viewed Paprika with was the fact that the story was equally compelling. The subject matter resonated with me and held my interest on a level with films such as Primer (H-DoGG Top 10). The subject: dreams, nightmares and the ability to physically share those of others through computer assisted dream reconstruction.

In Paprika, a psychological research team develops a device known as the "DC Mini" that, when worn while sleeping, allows a computer to visually record a person's dreams so that they can go back when awake, watch the dreams (or nightmares) and try to make sense of it. The purpose of the technology is to serve as an aid to psychologists with the treatment of their patients. However, the technology also allows those wearing the device to experience the dreamer's dreams firsthand.

The problem is that the technology is not entirely benign. In fact, prolonged exposure allows dreams to be projected directly into the minds of users, even while not connected! When a few of the experimental units go missing, unusual episodes begin to wreak havoc with team members around the labs leading to a series of accidents. The race is on to find out who stole the DC Minis and what exactly it is they intend to gain from abusing the power - the unabated intrusion into the subconscious. The only hope of getting control of the dreamworld lies in the abilities of a somewhat mysterious young woman named Paprika, who also happens to be a powerful lucid dreamer, an ability that in the world of dreams translates into a superpower. But who is she?

The ride through the crime scene of nightmares is somewhat "trippy" at times, but still coherent enough to advance the plot skillfully and is beautifully translated to the screen. The attention to detail is of the highest caliber and easily lends Paprika to repeat viewings.

While the premise seems overtly "techy" in nature, Kon weaves together elements of romance, relationships and also a taught crime thriller as a detective, who has been a test subject for the minis with Paprika, fights through his own nightmares to get the bottom of a murder case that has been haunting him, as well as bringing the dream-thief to justice. This side-story also serves as a device that demonstrates Kon's own love for the art of cinema.

Overall, Paprika is a superb anime (and feature in general) that entertains, engages and puts together a thought-provoking story. It also demonstrates how far behind American animated cinema has fallen with respect to quality. Films like Paprika put American studios to shame, proving to not only be visually superior, but in a whole other league when it comes to high concept. It also shows that animation can be more than run-of-the-mill kiddy fare bloated with throw-away pop culture references and lacking any real substance. In the right hands, animation is on par with (or beyond) what traditional film has to offer. Paprika is a film you'd be doing yourself a service to check out. 10/10