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The Sandman (2022)
You too, mr Gaiman?
Aaron Sorkin once said that the worst sin a screenwriter can commit is telling the audience something they already know. This show clearly was not written by Aaron Sorkin. The dialogue is 90% exposition and the large majority of it is exposition we already know. Here is an example from the episode three:
"He's coming, isn't he?"
"Who?"
"Yeah, well, you know who. Morpheus. The oneiromancer. You know, the sandman, he's back."
"The sandman? The one who puts the kids to sleep? He's a fairy story, Hettie."
"He's no fairy story, missie. He's back and he wants his sand."
30 seconds spent to tell audience nothing they don't already know. The character who delivers this warning could be cut out from the show with no loss whatsoever. And so could the Dream's butler, whose only purpose is to deliver exposition and to say "but you must drink your chicken soup, my lord!" in an ever more irritating manner.
But the biggest crime the writers commit is wasting Charles Dance aka Tywin Lannister on a total joke of a character who lasts exactly one episode. The man could've carried the show all by himself, but instead he's playing a one-dimensional "angry man" who couldn't be more shallow if he was a paddling pool for unusually small babies.
The sad thing is, all the ingredients to make a great show are here. Every once in a while there is an intriguing development that could make us feel something, but the show always rushes past. The relationship between "angry" Charles Dance and his spineless son could've easily been the heart of an episode. Or the gay romance that goes from zero to "happily every after" in about a minute of screentime. But no, if we take time to develop our characters, there mayn't be enough time left for exposition!
<Disclaimer: I only watched the first three episodes, but every one of them leaves me more hopeless than the one before>
La grande bellezza (2013)
A new take on an old story
The Great Beauty is such an unusual concoction of sights and sounds, it's a wonder it works at all. Watching it is like seeing a walking bicycle and realizing, to your amazement, that one can actually ride it.
The movie follows Jep Gambardella, the king of Rome's night life. Jep came to Rome in his twenties, after having written a very promising novel, but 40 years later he is settled as a journalist for a high-class literary magazine. Jep has friends, who are just as frustrated and unsatisfied with their lives as he is, despite having all their red Ferraris and high-rise condos. Together they keep each other company and form a support group of sorts. The presence of other miserable people convinces them it's OK, the life is still worth living and facade is still worth maintaining.
Jep has invested last four decades into becoming the Rome's chief socialite and now he has the power to make party a success or disaster. But there's something compulsive about his pursuit of entertainment and admiration. Like a functioning alcoholic, Jep doesn't enjoy his life, but has no will to change it either. He reminds me of Michael Fassbender's sex-addict character in Shame. At the time of orgasm, Fassbender's expression was not that of pleasure, but of pain.
Soon after his 65th birthday, Jep notes to himself that he no longer can afford doing things he doesn't want to do. Instead, he looks up his old friends, learns more about his now-dead girlfriend who left him 40 years ago and develops a friendship with 41 year old stripper named Ramona. Ramona doesn't try to appear important or intellectual, she seems to exist entirely in the present moment. (That presence of mind has its own price, as we learn later)
One of the appealing things about Great Beauty is that its characters are not aware of how funny they are. The pinnacle of comical absurdity is a 104 year old Catholic 'saint'. She's not official saint yet, we're told, but everyone calls her Santa (Saint) Maria. She looks like a mummy that just walked out of its glass case in British Museum, communicates with animals and at one point parodies the 'stair crawl' from the Exorcist. And yet, at no point the film is making fun of her. Nobody seems to question their sanity when Santa Maria asks a flock of migrating flamingos to rest on Jep's balcony.
Sometimes I think the Great Beauty is making it intentionally difficult for us to get to the story. The opening scene with Jep's euro-trash birthday party lasts several minutes longer than storytelling rules require. The changes between scenes are often abrupt and even stunning, leaving the viewer to fill the gaps. There's no obvious drama or big emotional payoff, as you'd expect from an American movie. And yet, at its core, it's the same old story about a writer who has lost his inspiration and tries to figure his place in the world. I feel sympathy for him and his journey, just like I would in any other film.
O Auto da Compadecida (2000)
I'm crying.
It's just sad. For hundredth time I see promising start in a Brazilian movie, but it stumbles somewhere towards the end.
Here we have a case of screwball comedy. In the beginning, it presents some appealing characters and plenty of funny jokes and fooling around. You may not like the genre, but you gotta admit it's a good example of it. And, unlike many new Hollywood productions, this movie doesn't employ below-the-belt jokes and toilet humor at all. Everything is built on dialogs and acting.
Then, after about an hour, we're introduced to the Lord, Virgin Mary and the Devil. Frankly, I still don't know if it's a religious mockery or supposed to be taken seriously, because comedy elements mix with rather grave matters here. But in either case, it's plain dull. We spend half an hour in heaven, without much action, plot development or jokes.
What fills this time? Infamous "social context". We're repeatedly shown sorrowful images and told sad stories: boy whose family has been shot by police, misadventures of poor homeless children, etc. But, as you expect in a comedy, they fail to provoke any genuine emotions. Does every Brazilian movie has to thrust this "social context" down your throat? If you start it as a comedy, finish it as a comedy, for God's sake! Not every movie has to be City of God.
Maybe, this 30-minutes fragment does a good job at presenting Christian values? Hell, no. It shows faith as some bureaucratic institute and overloads it with unnecessary catholic mythology. It reminds me of the Sunday school, where kids are taught shell, but not spirit. (Forgive me if you had better religious education). Like Greek myths, only much less imaginative. So, if you look for something to present ideas of Christianity to your Chinese friend, please continue looking.
I still think it's pretty remarkable movie, if you're interested in Brazilian culture or learn Portuguese, but as a comedy it's half-baked.
7/10
Serenity (2005)
how you can make a bad movie out of a good series
I never thought it's possible, but they did it. The whole movie, from start to end, is an encyclopedia of Hollywood clichés. Brutal reavers' attack to impress viewer right off, uber-hacker processing zizabytes of information by one motion of his finger, a hero dying on the hands of his captain at the exact second when medic arrives, a scientist recorded a deadly warning right before being eaten up by the monsters and of course high-school girl turning out to be a natural born killer and dealing with dozens of armed men without any visible efforts.
The one thing I like about the original series is that it's natural and rather believable. Nine different people, each with his/her own quirks, are standing against coldness of the universe. But in the movie we see no genuine human interaction at all, it's all concocted from action scenes and clichés.
I've seen worse movies, that's true, but this one is my bigger disappointment so far.