Re: Peter thread - World music, movies, Television etc.

[kid_glove]

List of films yet to be watched but had released already :

Killing 'em Softly,

Argo,

Looper,

Premium Rush,

Cloud Atlas.

With Skyfall to come, this would be final week for most films bar Argo/Cloud Atlas

[kid_glove]

Homeland is bothering me off-late. For a show on surveillance, counter-intelligence and wire tapping, it isn't just a matter of plausiblity or implausiblity, it's a little sloppy in running down the detail. Lester/Prez & Major Crimes unit would school this CIA lot. That said, the characterizations might just about keep it going. This season's frenetic pace doesn't let the characters breath. Middle portion of 1st season offered more scope in tone & mood, a conspiracy thriller married to psychological drama. Carrie's mini-boobs/tits aside, she spoils it for me with her incessant cryface, but still one hopes to know more about the character's past, there are clues towards a CI source in Iraq being executed, and that execution might have kicked in her paranoiac obession. Also this would be a nice inversion with Brody-Issa arc. Saul is made fascinating by the actor who is playing it. I haven't seen the latest with Brody's character grilled. But hope they surprise us. Ultimately, one could only hope there's more than these white Americans with the possibility of exploring other characters, the lady journalist (the link-up between Brody and Nazir) & Nazir. But the show's busy building up Brody's ex-Marine acquaintances, his teenage daughter & Veep's family.

Finally the business of being quasi-realistic invalidates the leap of faith it wants us buy in to. Maybe this is the cost of expanding the series. At least, for its own sake, it's not that bad. It's not a right-wing prop. like 24, but one sincerely hopes there's more than just a facade of moral ambiguity here, masquerading its inner-24..

Wizzy,

I'm in to Lilyhammer myself, I didn't find it all that funny. Sopranos was so much more funnier (actually, majority of Sopranos could work with laughter tracks, I might try that for youtube video) without having to reduce itself into a spin off in mould of "Northern Exposure". But I'm only couple of episodes in, maybe I'll watch the rest to see if the writers tap into the dark grey humor (ala Coens)..

[kid_glove]

The Thick of It is my favorite show ATM. Though 6th episode has different characters spelling out Tucker's spindom & ploy to play the jury of his leak into a leak, it's still hugely masterful in its verbal assault. 7th to be watched soon.

Downton Abbey: Death changes the dynamics of the estate. But it's slightly troubling when the dynamics feel more heavy and weighted when its upstairs, than the one in downstairs, William, who martyrs himself for Matthew's life, dies a tragic death. Daisy carries no real feelings for him. Now we don't carry the burden. Nor does it really matter in grand scheme of things, dramatically speaking. The turkish guy's death seethes the drama, and Swire family, offer the countermand to Matthew-Mary, and now, the Estate itself. If JF's head is out of the collective arses of Lordship & family, we would have more to chew on. It's still the downstairs crew who hold the unredeemable sins though they have redeeming features, the homosexual is still the conniving bastard.. as is the Lady's maid. All this would make it seem less compelling, actually quite the contrary, the viewers, like JF, wagging our tail like the retriever that open the credits, in harmony & delight of the Lord's company & lush richness of that estate. But at times, we hope there's more of an equilibria, remember it's always upstairs first, and.. then the downstairs. My hopes of it being an elegy isn't vanquished, in fact, strengthened by Daisy's father-in-law asking her to learn his trade, Mrs Hughes to Carson multiple times, Crawley employing the sex worker, and the in-house suffragette sister (in a way, might take over from Sybill) wanting to be a writer. Finally, Matthew to take over from the Lord.

Boardwalk Empire: The ficitional hurricane of Atlantic City/NYC in this threeway Irish-Jewish-Italian standoff might be just as destructive. Gyp Rossetti is the brutality that might challenge Nucky. Jimmy was never a potent threat. The excuse of a man being lost in the trenches, and of a man, continuously castrated from an incentous mom to lesbian wife.. Gyp is an animal, the actor gives a tremendous performance, especially in his brusque physicality. I expect him to confront Nucky in ways the latter is challenged..

Dexter: Who would have thunk? The show kicks out of limbo in a huge way. The past 2 seasons were a non-entity as far as I am concerned. And key towards this season might also do with crisp writing, condensing it into its focal points, and reliable direction (the usual suspects from 1st & 4th season). The moral dilemma might be a good starting point. And hey, my Gordon-Batman prediction might come true. Still I hope Debra doesn't mouth off expository turn of phrase, 'Necessary Evil', for feck sake..

[Wizzy]

KG, thot Lilyhammer was a mockumentary of sorts set against all cliches that comes with that obscure region from
peeps working their backs off to get their papers versus a stranger getting things done in jiffy and ever damn thing falling in place at the right time every single time. Humour is mostly deadpan so it takes time to warm-up literally(it did for me ) wait till Frank set his business up and running from then on its mostly Fargo meets Goodfellas.

trivia on the mistake which led to this show.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/27/sports/olympics-lilly-hammer-is-planning-her-own-olympics-for-35.html

it just hit me that Looper was directed by 'Fly' guy Rian Johnson
have you seen any of his other directorial ventures? are they d/w worthy??

[kid_glove]

Isn't Lilyhammer a bit too on the face, than deadpan? The guy really preens a lot. Even in Sopranos, he over-mimes Pacino's TGF3 'they pull me back in' act a lot, doesn't he? Of course, it's a mock-up of many things, among which the fallacy of witness protection, maybe even a slight poke at outsourcing.. Agreed on bag of cliches. The small town scape does revoke Northern Exposure as much as Coens. Hoping to grip on the bone..

"Brick" is a great debut feature. More than worthy, d/l or otherwise. Tremendous control of mood and atmosphere that makes a modern noir. JGL solid. Coincidence Sid and I were discussing it, he seemed to have problems with the underground gang..

[Wizzy]

I meant it wrt rest of the Norwegian cast..Van Zandt is as cheesy as it gets, guess he trying to mime Al comes with part of that package

[kid_glove]

I meant it wrt rest of the Norwegian cast..Van Zandt is as cheesy as it gets, guess he trying to mime Al comes with part of that package

He is terrific in Sopranos .

[V_S]

Welcome k_g. Happy to see you here!

[jaiganesh]

Ok. My first proper snippet on Paan Singh Tomar.
Choosing to make a film on a real life personality is both an advantage and a hurdle.
Advantage - coz you dont have to create artificial conflict points and resolutions - they are all there in news paper articles
and interviews of people associated with the character.
Disadvantage - Distilling and presenting a central theme to make a movie on. Case in point - Gnaana Rajasekharan decided to make movie on Bharathi - he chose the 'social reformer' bharathi - choosing to leave out other aspects of the great character - totally giving the movie an incomplete feel.
Tigmanshu Dhulia, the director takes two aspects of Paan Singh tomar - the international athlete who made India proud and the twisted hand of fate in making him one of the feared 'Dacoit (Bhaagi or Rebel)' of the chambal valley'. The way he has managed to tie both these aspects in and then make that awesome climax that marries both these visions - is nothing short of awesome.
A big thanks to him in not trying to be too smart with 'post modern - non linear' stuff - he choses to keep the narrative first person (in form of an interview to a reporter) and achieves some dramatic high in the process.
And one small paragraph cannot suffice to detail Irrfan Khan - At times I felt I was watching a sivaji ganesan in action - the pin pointed laser sharp vision of a thinking actor was visible right from the first scene to the last. He knows where to play dead pan with a satirical smile or when to amp up the drama .
Three stand out scenes
1. when he returns dejected and insulted from the police station only to learn that his family has fled and his mother attacked by his unruly and influential cousins - there is the Al Pacinoesque blank stare summing up his anger.. priceless.
2. When he returns to his coach in a preclimax scene and asks for a photo as a souvenir and finds an entire album of just him running - the 'nalladhor veenai seidhe' moment - that expression beats everything and sums up the whole movie.
3. The climax scene when he has finished the jump across the canal (nahar ki us paar) - when the natural thrill of an athlete crossing a hurdle takes over the dacoit fleeing police bullet - that is a cinematic moment worth its weight of every pixel in gold.
Needless to say, Irrfan khan is the best actor in operation today in India. and it is a privilege to have watched this movie.

[sagi]

That said, the characterizations might just about keep it going.

Crippled Ex-marine, typical bitchy daughter, typical wimpy son, kamasutra girl (glad she has vanished already), the new dude in Saul's team <-- Unselected

Need more of Carrie-Brody romance (more so now since Brody is behind the bars), Mike-Jess, Nazir-Brody-Issa.

Downton: The queer is caught already and going to be shown the door, may be he ll return for some vengeance. Lady's maid turn against Mr. Barrow was good. Anna-Bates, glad that Bates is free now, I don't have to sit thru the boring prison sequences. Its hilarious to watch Carson/Lord struggling with the changes after the war. Well written character transformations. We see some changes in Violet also. And she still remains the USP of this show. Bloody brilliant.

[Michael AF]

2 broke girls is not bad. Kat dennings is awesome as Max and she is good with her wisecracks. And Beth behrs is from Lancaster, PA so I have to support her

[sagi]

Just finished watching S3e05 of Homeland. As expected the American decides to turn against the terrorists. The interrogation scenes were well done. A little convenient/sappy etc., but effective nevertheless. I sincerely hope Brody double crosses them. Otherwise this is going to be another 24. But I trust them to surprise us.

[Michael AF]

Watching these days



Seasons 3 and 4 !!!

[sagi]

Have seen 4 episodes in S03. (Walt is going to start cooking in Gus' lab from the next episode). avvaLavu siRappaa illaiyE, I mean S02 tops so far.

Btw, Don Salamanca and his bell, one of the greatest characters/creations ever in any form of art.

[Michael AF]

Nerd, What did you think about the last scene in Season 3 opener. Bryan Cranston directed that episode and that explosion scene is easily the best i've ever seen. I mean that's better than HW in my books. And those two freaks. They didn't flinch even for a second. That's BADASS at it's best.

[Michael AF]

Here's the crew talking about filming that episode. It's an ONE-TAKE scene. Those brothers had "F U" tattooed in their eyelids. . They had to keep a spoon under his eyelids to make that tattoo

[sagi]

Yeah that was so cool. As I said before one of the best directed shows ever. Its no mean achievement since its not just one person doing that job.

Spoiler -

Spoiler:

[kid_glove]

LOL

Season 3 & 4. 5.5 are the best.

[kid_glove]

Just finished watching S3e05 of Homeland. As expected the American decides to turn against the terrorists. The interrogation scenes were well done. A little convenient/sappy etc., but effective nevertheless. I sincerely hope Brody double crosses them. Otherwise this is going to be another 24. But I trust them to surprise us.

They're trying to develop the Veep's family and they will eventually tie in Brody's Ellen Page wannabe daughter and his wife. With Brody's aspirations to be the next Veep at core of it, his whole admittance of the truth has come at a cost, he wants to be truthful, a huge load off his chest. Not to mention, the romantic vibes in Carrie-Brody. He couldn't possibly be a double agent now, could he? The journo, Zoya Hammad, and Nazir, now being the persons of interest, one hopes we will see more of that side. And in deed, one isn't really sure of the writers standing on anything, anymore. It's a huge masquerading act if they start to inculcate morality & nationality lessons in to Brody.

[kid_glove]

That said, the characterizations might just about keep it going.

Crippled Ex-marine, typical bitchy daughter, typical wimpy son, kamasutra girl (glad she has vanished already), the new dude in Saul's team <-- Unselected

Need more of Carrie-Brody romance (more so now since Brody is behind the bars), Mike-Jess, Nazir-Brody-Issa.

I thought you had seen episode 5 when you wrote this and after I watched it, I realized you didn't! Yeah, it's going to be a mixture of do's and don'ts, I think!

Downton: The queer is caught already and going to be shown the door, may be he ll return for some vengeance. Lady's maid turn against Mr. Barrow was good. Anna-Bates, glad that Bates is free now, I don't have to sit thru the boring prison sequences. Its hilarious to watch Carson/Lord struggling with the changes after the war. Well written character transformations. We see some changes in Violet also. And she still remains the USP of this show. Bloody brilliant.

That homosexual dude being castigated for being an asshole and not for his sexual orientation would have been perfect, but here's where the problem is: The biggest moron of the show happens to be a man from downstairs, the moroness (Miss O'Brien) likewise. Upstairs guys are all affable, aren't they..

Violet is Roger Sterling of the show, without doubt.

[kid_glove]

Gale, Hector are both great characters. Both are truly key for every season. No one's a mere accessory..

[kid_glove]

The actor playing Gale, actually plays two different types of bosses, both extremely flawed in TW & Suits. Pretty sure VG cast him after watching The Wire, though he was somewhat straightforward there. I'm not sure why that character didn't really see eye to eye with Gus (not BB), the chief editor of The Baltimore Sun in the show, and/or did David Simon suggests a cyclical throwback to Valchek-Prez of season 1, highlighting nepotism. In "Suits": he treads a fine line that makes us continually clued if he's reformed or still untrustworthy (I sort of made out from the writing of the show, but his performance is Ace). Now I'll refrain from saying more about Gale, but the guy has restraint but assured presence and it's Gale that's my favorite performance of this unknown actor..

[kid_glove]

I'd have to see Damages (Suits is really a watered down, semi-comedy than a dramedy on Law firm). I've see few episodes of House and The Office, but haven't seen the episodes this guy's in..

[Michael AF]

Nerd, How was S3E6 and E7. Those 2 are my favorite episodes of season 3 and in the top 5 of the entire series.

[sagi]

Great episodes for sure. I din't like the Gale diversion. Those mottai dudes were stunning. And the way they die was brilliant too. Terrific control of the medium. And Jesse, what a talent boss. Best actor of the show by miles. I really liked the way he added an extra bitch while reciting what Walt told him to tell Hank from inside the RV. And ballooning himself up with air inside the lab, ROFLMAX.

Damages - have seen 3-4 episodes. Mildly intriguing, so far.

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