So I finished the second season of House of Cards last night. Though I enjoyed it to an extent and recognize that it is an objectively well-written and well-acted show, I didn't like it as much as Season One. I looked back at my blog on Season One and saw that I apparently flew through that season in six days; this season probably took me about three weeks to a month. This is partly because of timing; I watched the first season in the summer, when all of my regular shows had ended their regular seasons; I watched this while a number of shows I like were still broadcasting new episodes. However, there are definitely other reasons why I found myself consuming Season Two less quickly.
For one thing, I missed the characters that left the show-- or rather, that FRANK KILLED-- in late Season One and early Season Two. I liked Pete Russo (Corey Stoll) a lot, and while, as noted in my blog on Season One, my opinion on Kate Mara's Zoe Barnes changed throughout Season One, she was interesting, and it quite frankly pisses me off how things consistently end so horribly for the journalists on this show. Zoe got pushed in front of a freaking train. Lucas (Sebastian Arcelus) is in jail. The journalists on this show are the only ones who are even trying to tell the American people the truth, and it's not even just that they are thwarted in their attempts to tell their stories; politicians actively work to destroy them. Does this happen in real life? If it does, it makes me feel bad for and about the world.
Additionally, when Zoe and Pete left, we lost a human element that was mostly missing from Season Two. Was Zoe and Frank's relationship skeezy? Yes. Was it compelling and, let's face it, a little bit fun to watch? Also yes. And though Zoe didn't always act ethically as a journalist, she was at least, in her own way, trying to do the right thing. Same thing with Pete. He was flawed, yes, but he was trying to be good; it's just pretty much impossible to do so when you have people like Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) actively planning your demise. And so we're left with few characters who have anything interesting going on outside of their political lives and even fewer characters who are even trying to do the right thing. And the ones who do try? Beat down. As I mentioned earlier, Lucas is in jail. Megan Hennessy (Libby Woodbridge), the young woman who comes forward to reveal she was raped by a high-ranking military officer to try to help Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) get legislation passed to keep the same thing from happening to others is basically attacked on national television, abandoned by Claire, and then eventually pretty much suffers a nervous breakdown. Can the good people win anything ever, please? I'm not saying always; I know that wouldn't be realistic. Just once in awhile.
I think they tried to insert the human element into two storylines: Remy Danton (Mahershala Ali) and and Jackie Sharp's (Molly Parker's) romantic relationship and whatever the hell was going on with Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) and Rachel Posner (Rachel Brosnahan). However, Remy and Jackie's relationship lasted about five minutes, and I never really connected with Jackie as a character; I feel like with her, they needed an actor who seemed more conflicted, or who you could see change more throughout the season. Remy tells her at one point that she's gotten colder. Her: "It makes things easier." Me: "Really? She has? She's never seemed particularly warm to me." And...let's talk about the Doug and Rachel thing. So...Rachel was the prostitute who contributed to Pete's demise, and she "knows things" about what went down with Pete. I feel like there are ways to keep her from talking other than exiling her in an apartment in a town that doesn't even appear to be that far away, given how often Doug visits her, and forbidding her from having her any human interaction outside of work. Doug's fixation with her was creepy. I know that he himself recognized this and tried to stop. This doesn't mean that it was anything but uncomfortable to watch him interfere with her romantic life and show up and make her read to him and stuff. It also doesn't mean that I couldn't help but be all, "Good for you!" when she nailed him in the head with that rock at the end of the season. RIP, Doug. You won't be missed.
So, bottom line, I probably will still at least start Season Three, whenever it comes out. But I just find it more and more difficult to find any connection to any of these characters as the series progresses.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Sunday, May 25, 2014
thoughts on Million Dollar Arm
Jon Hamm stars as JB, a sports agent who, in the vein of Jerry Maguire, has recently struck out on his own with only a couple of loyal employees and isn't doing great so far. He is close to landing a very promising client; however, when said client decides to go with a bigger sports management firm that can afford to pay him a $1,000,000 signing bonus, JB must come up with a big idea to keep his little firm afloat. After flipping back and forth between a cricket match and Britan's Got Talent on TV one night, he's got it: he will travel to India and launch a "million dollar arm" contest to try to find Indian cricket players to bring back to the United States and train to be Major League baseball players.
Let me be clear about one thing: I love Disney sports films (Miracle, The Mighty Ducks, The Rookie, etc.), so I can handle-- and, in fact, was looking forward to-- a movie about underdogs overcoming obstacles to achieve a goal. I certainly wouldn't give this film a hard time if its only problems were that it was formulaic or cheesy, which it is at times. The issue is that after a few somewhat promising and interesting early scenes in India as JB and his employees go about the process of recruiting players, once JB gets back to the United States with two would-be ball players and a translator/would-be coach in tow (Rinku, Dinesh, and Amit, played by Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mattal, and Pitobash, respectively), the movie becomes less about the contest and more about how JB becomes a better person through acting as sort of a father figure to the young Indian men. Before, JB was living a somewhat shallow bachelor life full of one-night stands with models but bereft of much real human interaction; the only people we see him check in with during his time in India are Aash (Aasif Mandvi), the employee who initially introduces him to cricket, and Brenda (Lake Bell), the medical student who rents his guest house. After returning to the United States, JB makes a bunch of mistakes that can be chalked up to the fact that he's treating Rinku and Dinesh like commodities rather than people. It initially doesn't occur to him that he should actually go and watch them practice and look after their general well-being, what with them being new to the United States, and all; instead, he drops them off at practice each day, orders them pizza each night, and for entertainment, takes them to a wild party and sets them loose while he tries to land a deal (spoiler alert: this doesn't end well). He pushes them into their tryouts for the Majors before they are ready.
One frustrating thing about all of this is that JB has several people warning him every time he's about to make a mistake, and every time, he stubbornly pushes ahead and then acts angry and surprised when things turn out exactly as everyone told him they would, and exactly as any fool could see they would. Because of this, this movie is, as previously noted, less about an interesting (if not selfishly motivated) idea for a contest and the people who participate in it and more about a jerk who learns to be less of a jerk. Why not tell the story from Rinku and Dinesh's perspectives and actually develop their characters? JB would still necessarily play a large role in the whole thing. Jon Hamm could still play him. I just think that Rinku and Dinesh are probably more interesting people than JB, but we never really get to learn whether or not that's true. I know that people made similar comments about The Blind Side-- that the movie was more about how Leigh Anne Tuohy saved Michael Oher than about Michael Oher-- but at least Leigh Anne Tuohy as played by Sandra Bullock was an interesting character. JB really is not.
There are some moments of Disney sweetness, mainly involving JB's eventual (and perhaps inevitable) romance with Brenda. Case in point: Brenda invites JB back to the guest house one night. We see them kiss. We gather, based on the fact that Rinku, Dinesh, and Amit catch JB leaving the guest house the next morning, that they slept together, but we don't actually see it, and JB has to gently tell the guys that just because he and Brenda spent the night together doesn't mean they're going to get married (though, spoiler alert, we learn before the closing credits that in real life, JB and Brenda actually do. Did I mention that this is all based on a true story?). Moments like this are nice, and Brenda is fine as a "cool girlfriend who helps the jerk guy change his ways" kind of character (other examples of this type of character include Jennifer Garner in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Jennifer Garner in Draft Day, which was the last movie I saw in a theater before this one, and which was so boring I didn't even bother to review it, in case you were curious). Jon Hamm is also fine as JB in that you always believe that Jon Hamm is good deep-down even when he's playing guys that often do bad things, which also works for him as Don Draper on Mad Men. I just really feel like Disney made a mistake by having this film revolve so heavily around JB, though.
Let me be clear about one thing: I love Disney sports films (Miracle, The Mighty Ducks, The Rookie, etc.), so I can handle-- and, in fact, was looking forward to-- a movie about underdogs overcoming obstacles to achieve a goal. I certainly wouldn't give this film a hard time if its only problems were that it was formulaic or cheesy, which it is at times. The issue is that after a few somewhat promising and interesting early scenes in India as JB and his employees go about the process of recruiting players, once JB gets back to the United States with two would-be ball players and a translator/would-be coach in tow (Rinku, Dinesh, and Amit, played by Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mattal, and Pitobash, respectively), the movie becomes less about the contest and more about how JB becomes a better person through acting as sort of a father figure to the young Indian men. Before, JB was living a somewhat shallow bachelor life full of one-night stands with models but bereft of much real human interaction; the only people we see him check in with during his time in India are Aash (Aasif Mandvi), the employee who initially introduces him to cricket, and Brenda (Lake Bell), the medical student who rents his guest house. After returning to the United States, JB makes a bunch of mistakes that can be chalked up to the fact that he's treating Rinku and Dinesh like commodities rather than people. It initially doesn't occur to him that he should actually go and watch them practice and look after their general well-being, what with them being new to the United States, and all; instead, he drops them off at practice each day, orders them pizza each night, and for entertainment, takes them to a wild party and sets them loose while he tries to land a deal (spoiler alert: this doesn't end well). He pushes them into their tryouts for the Majors before they are ready.
One frustrating thing about all of this is that JB has several people warning him every time he's about to make a mistake, and every time, he stubbornly pushes ahead and then acts angry and surprised when things turn out exactly as everyone told him they would, and exactly as any fool could see they would. Because of this, this movie is, as previously noted, less about an interesting (if not selfishly motivated) idea for a contest and the people who participate in it and more about a jerk who learns to be less of a jerk. Why not tell the story from Rinku and Dinesh's perspectives and actually develop their characters? JB would still necessarily play a large role in the whole thing. Jon Hamm could still play him. I just think that Rinku and Dinesh are probably more interesting people than JB, but we never really get to learn whether or not that's true. I know that people made similar comments about The Blind Side-- that the movie was more about how Leigh Anne Tuohy saved Michael Oher than about Michael Oher-- but at least Leigh Anne Tuohy as played by Sandra Bullock was an interesting character. JB really is not.
There are some moments of Disney sweetness, mainly involving JB's eventual (and perhaps inevitable) romance with Brenda. Case in point: Brenda invites JB back to the guest house one night. We see them kiss. We gather, based on the fact that Rinku, Dinesh, and Amit catch JB leaving the guest house the next morning, that they slept together, but we don't actually see it, and JB has to gently tell the guys that just because he and Brenda spent the night together doesn't mean they're going to get married (though, spoiler alert, we learn before the closing credits that in real life, JB and Brenda actually do. Did I mention that this is all based on a true story?). Moments like this are nice, and Brenda is fine as a "cool girlfriend who helps the jerk guy change his ways" kind of character (other examples of this type of character include Jennifer Garner in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Jennifer Garner in Draft Day, which was the last movie I saw in a theater before this one, and which was so boring I didn't even bother to review it, in case you were curious). Jon Hamm is also fine as JB in that you always believe that Jon Hamm is good deep-down even when he's playing guys that often do bad things, which also works for him as Don Draper on Mad Men. I just really feel like Disney made a mistake by having this film revolve so heavily around JB, though.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
thoughts on Neighbors
Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne star as Mac
and Kelly Radner, a thirty-something married couple with a baby. When a fraternity moves in next door, they
are concerned about the potential noise, but want to try to be cool; they
introduce themselves to the guys (led by fraternity president Teddy, played by
Zac Efron, and vice-president Pete, played by Dave Franco) and offer them a
joint, trying a little too hard to be casual when they tell them to “keep it
down.” After they get fed up with the
noise and call the cops on a party, however, they find themselves in a war. Mac and Kelly break a pipe and flood the
guys’ basement. The guys steal the
airbags from Mac and Kelly’s car and strategically place them in chairs, so
that Mac winds up shooting towards the ceiling more than once. Kelly gets the idea to try to cause a rift
between Pete and Teddy by getting Pete to hook up with Teddy’s girlfriend.
It’s all pretty fun and funny. Part of the humor comes from the fact that with a few exceptions, the war is way more on Mac and Kelly’s end than the guys’. Yes, the fraternity guys are being loud and annoying, but most of it isn’t specifically directed at Mac and Kelly; they’re just doing what they do. Mac and Kelly actually scheme to try to get what they want. Their friend Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz) correctly suggests that they’re just bored, getting used to being parents. Likewise, Pete suggests to Teddy that perhaps he’s taking all of the fraternity stuff so seriously because he has no idea that he’s going to do when he graduates.
The movie is also surprisingly sweet at times. Mac and Kelly enlist a pledge to try to help them bust the fraternity for hazing; he initially goes along with it, but backs out when Teddy demonstrates legitimate concern for him and his sudden problems with the fraternity’s initiation rituals. Teddy and Pete seem to have a genuine friendship. Mac and Kelly have an argument at one point—he tells her that one of them has to be the adult in their relationship, and she’s supposed to be the one to rein him in; she points out that she’s never been like that—but make up quickly. The film also largely avoids gross-out humor, save for one gag with the baby finding a condom on the lawn.
All in all, this was a funny and sweet comedy with largely likable characters. I’d recommend.
It’s all pretty fun and funny. Part of the humor comes from the fact that with a few exceptions, the war is way more on Mac and Kelly’s end than the guys’. Yes, the fraternity guys are being loud and annoying, but most of it isn’t specifically directed at Mac and Kelly; they’re just doing what they do. Mac and Kelly actually scheme to try to get what they want. Their friend Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz) correctly suggests that they’re just bored, getting used to being parents. Likewise, Pete suggests to Teddy that perhaps he’s taking all of the fraternity stuff so seriously because he has no idea that he’s going to do when he graduates.
The movie is also surprisingly sweet at times. Mac and Kelly enlist a pledge to try to help them bust the fraternity for hazing; he initially goes along with it, but backs out when Teddy demonstrates legitimate concern for him and his sudden problems with the fraternity’s initiation rituals. Teddy and Pete seem to have a genuine friendship. Mac and Kelly have an argument at one point—he tells her that one of them has to be the adult in their relationship, and she’s supposed to be the one to rein him in; she points out that she’s never been like that—but make up quickly. The film also largely avoids gross-out humor, save for one gag with the baby finding a condom on the lawn.
All in all, this was a funny and sweet comedy with largely likable characters. I’d recommend.
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