Featuring the films and shows:
Special Correspondents
(2016) **
Patton Oswalt: Talking for
Clapping (2016) ***
A Trip To the Moon (1902)
****
Alice in the Cities (1974)
***½
Captain America: Civil War
(2016) ***
Hell Comes To Frogtown
(1988) no stars
Ali Wong: Baby Cobra (2016)
***
Mommie Dearest (1981) **
The 33 (2016) ***
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu
Island (1956) ****
The Apartment (1960) ****
Mr. Turner (2014) ***½
The Keeping Room (2015) ***
Jurassic World (2015) ***
On the Town (1949) ***
Main Street Today (1944) ***
Elementary, season 4 (24
43-min. eps. 2015-2016) ***
The Last Man On Earth,
season 2 (18 23-min. eps. 2015-2016) ****
Castle (8 seasons, 173 eps.
2009-2016) ***
A Room With a View (1985)
****
Saturday Night Live, season
41 (21 105-min. eps. 2015-2016) ***
Supergirl, season 1 (20
43-min. eps. 2015-2016) ****
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
(1974) ****
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,
season 4 (22 45-min. eps. 2015-2016) ****
Blindspot, season 1 (23
42-min. eps. 2015-2016) ***
Gotham, season 2 (22 42-min.
eps. 2015-2016) ***½
The Avengers (1998) ½*
The Asphalt Jungle (1940)
***½
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) ***
All My Good Contrymen (1969)
****
All the Boys Are Named
Patrick (1959) ***½
The Muppets (1 season, 17
eps. 2015-2016) **
I’m so far behind that I’m
forced to include the entire month of May in one post. I’ll have to do the same
for June. With the end of the television season occurring in May, there are a
great many individual shows and films I would like comment on in addition to my
tweets, so let’s get to it.
OK. I checked out Ricky
Gervais’s Netflix movie “Special Correspondents” and I have to say for all the
freedom Netflix gives to their filmmakers, they seem to have a problem with
their original film division. While that approach seems to work very well for
their longer format series, it seems to result in feature films with a lack of
energy. They need to be tightened up. Gervais is quite funny and he has a good
premise here, but its approached with no urgency and suffers from it. We’ll
return to this next month with Adam Sandler’s latest, “The Do Over”.
I also watched two of
Netflix’s comedy specials this month. Patton Oswalt and Ali Wong prove their
mettle as seasoned stand ups here with very personal material and solid laughs.
Comedy institution Saturday Night Live turned 40 this season and was rather hit
and miss with its episodes all season. There were some that were almost all
terrible and some that were the best episodes I can remember of the current
cast. The Weekend Update team came into their own this year and was the one
consistently great element of the show week in and week out. The season finale
was one of their best and the primetime 40th Anniversary special was
a hoot.
In other television viewing
there was the bittersweet ending of “Castle” which I never called a great show
but did enjoy every week. “The Muppets” was appropriately axed after only one
season despite a rather interesting premise. Will Forte’s offbeat sitcom “The
Last Man On Earth” proved it had the legs for a full season and multiple
seasons with its brilliant originality. “Blindspot” surprised me by pulling me
into its first season, but my favorite part about it is to make fun of the male
lead’s over intensive nature. “Gotham” got weirder and ran further off the
rails than any other series I watched this year, and somehow became more
watchable for it. “Supergirl” smashed onto the scene with its strong feminist
message and turned me into a fan. But it was “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” that provided
the best twists and turns throughout its season, ending with my favorite season
finale of the year so far.
The only theatrically
released movies I saw this month were the two big comic book entries, “Captain
America: Civil War” and “X-Men: Apocalypse”. I enjoyed the former better than
the latter, which suffered by taking on more than it could chew. Although I
essentially enjoyed them both, it still seems as if existing within the Marvel
Cinematic Universe is better than not for superheroes. Sony made a smart move
by allowing Disney to place Spider-Man within it. And I would like to express
just how much I like that Paul Rudd was cast as Ant-Man. It’s a wonderful take
on a non-traditional superhero.
As far as the month’s
stinkers, I did give “Mommie Dearest” a look for the first time since I was a
kid for Mother’s Day. I don’t believe it’s as bad a movie as people like to
make it out, but that don’t mean it’s good. The “How Did This Get Made” podcast
offered up two entries, “Hell Comes to Frogtown” and the 1998 movie reboot of
the British spy television series “The Avengers”, and they were two of the
worst I’ve seen since I’ve been following the podcast. I was managing a movie
theater when “The Avengers” came out and had only ever seen it in bits and
pieces. I could tell then that it wasn’t good, but I had no idea just how bad
it was until I watched it from beginning to end.
As for the rest, I won’t try
to cover every movie, but I would like to point out the Criterion Collection
films I’ve been watching through Hulu and my own collection. “Samurai III: Duel
at Ganryu Island” is the wonderful conclusion to the trilogy about Musashi
Miyamoto pulled from my own growing collection of Criterion titles. “Alice in
the Cities” is an early look into the out of the ordinary stories told by
German filmmaker Wim Wenders. “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul” is Fassbinder’s amazing
examination of institutionalized racism that resonates just as strongly today
as it did when he made it. “All the Boys Are Named Patrick” is a cute short about
dating by French New Wave masters Eric Rohmer and Jean Luc Goddard. But the
find of the month was the wonderful Czech movie “All My Good Countrymen”, which
exposes the corruption that took place through the selling of socialism in a
small farming community after WWII. While the subject matter sounds heavy, the
film itself is an epic look at small farm community life in Czechoslovakia at
that time. It is funny and moving, even sometimes silly and profound. What a
wonderful film.
Here are the Tweets.
5/3
#SpecialCorrespondents
continues @netflix current run of
dull original movies. #DLMChallenge
No. 113
Feeling sad for @pattonoswalt since his tragic
loss so I checked out his new special #TalkingforClapping
and smiled. #DLMChallenge
No. 114
5/4
The original color version
of Georges Méliès's 1902 film #ATriptotheMoon
puts me in awe of creative genius. #DLMChallenge No.
115
5/5
Imagine leaving your child
with a complete stranger on an international flight. Alice in the Cities
(1974). #DLMChallenge
No. 116
5/7
Dark and thought provoking
days in the Marvel cinematic universe. #CaptainAmericaCivilWar
#DLMChallenge
No. 117
#HellComestoFrogtown
Yes. It's as bad as it sounds. @HDTGM #DLMChallenge No.
118
Pregnant woman does funny
stand up @aliwong3000 #BabyCobra #DLMChallenge No.
119
5/9
#The33 gives a
satisfying account of the Chilean miners rescue despite some pretty big story
gaps. #DLMChallenge
No. 121
5/10
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu
Island ends the Musashi trilogy with more depth and beauty than the two
previous entries. #DLMChallenge
No. 122
5/11
Finally saw Billy Wilder's #TheApartment.
Anyone directing a rom com should be required by law to watch this. #DLMChallenge No.
123
5/12
#MrTurner is the
portrait of an artist as that artist himself might've painted it. #DLMChallenge No.
124
5/14
#TheKeepingRoom
is a harsh feminist Civil War western that is layered with depth and
unpredictability. #DLMChallenge
No. 125
#JurassicWorld
working a little better the second time through as its thematic elements become
clearer. #DLMChallenge
No. 126
5/15
Love the choreography of
Miss Ivy kicking all the men's assess in her introductory number in On the Town
(1949). #DLMChallenge
No. 127
Main Street Today (1944) is
an interesting piece of war propaganda dealing with the worker shortage caused
by WWII. #DLMChallenge
No. 128
The 4th season of #Elementary ends
fairly quietly as if they didn't expect the 5th season renewal, but I don't
mind. It's a solid show.
5/18
The first full season of #TheLastManOnEarth
proves that they really can keep a comedy this original going.
5/19
I don't think #Castle was great
television, but for 8 seasons it was more fun than most police procedurals.
Will miss Castle and Beckett.
5/20
#ARoomWithaView
is astonishingly watchable. I liked how the title cards structured its
emotionally fragmented story. #DLMChallenge No.
129
5/22
Say what you will about the
quality of the 40th season of @nbcsnl,
but they put together a hell of a season finale.
Season one of @supergirlcbs was the surprise of
the year with its deep feminist roots putting it close to the same level as @JessicaJones.
5/23
Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats
the Soul is filed with the power of its silences. #DLMChallenge No.
130
Damn @AgentsofSHIELD ! Now that's how
you do a season finale! Season 3 just got better and better with each episode.
I was surprised by how
engrossed I became with the first season of @NBCBlindspot . Will be back for
s2. #intenseeyes
5/27
The Avengers (1998)--the
Hollywoodized remake of the British tv show--is astoundingly bad. @HDTGM #DLMChallenge No.
131
5/28
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
gives you the complete heist emotional experience for every member of the team.
#DLMChallenge
No. 132
All My Good Countrymen
(1969) is a funny, amazing epic about communist corruption in a small Czech
village post WII. #DLMChallenge
No. 134
5/29
A cute short by some French
nobodies named Rohmer and Goddard is titled All the Boys are Named Patrick
(1959). #DLMChallenge
No. 135
5/31
R.I.P to @TheMuppetsABC
which I wanted to enjoy and often did when I watched it, but I found it hard to
return each week. #idontknowwhy
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