-
Professional Sweetheart (1933, William A. Seiter)
There are a handful of Pre-Code elements in Professional Sweetheart it doesn’t seem like the Code broke so much as saved movies from. For instance, when Ginger Rogers needs to break out of her Stepford Wives mindset—Kentucky cracker Norman Foster has beaten her into it—all the city boys need to do is put her former… 📖
-
Of Human Bondage (1934, John Cromwell)
The best performance in Of Human Bondage is Frances Dee; despite doing a lot of close-up one-shots with the actors staring directly into the camera, the only time director Cromwell ever gives one anything to do is Dee. She’s mooning over Leslie Howard, which just draws attention to how little Howard mooned over anyone in… 📖
-
The Strawberry Blonde (1941, Raoul Walsh)
The Strawberry Blonde is a period piece within a period piece. It opens in the past, then there’s a flashback to the further past. It recalls a time when WASPs couldn’t figure out how to eat spaghetti and the political corruption machine was easier to crack. Director Walsh is very enthusiastic about the time period… 📖
-
Deliver Us from Evil (2020, Hong Won-Chan)
The evil in Deliver Us from Evil is specifically Lee Jung-jae’s sadistic villain but generally the entire world of the film, which features drug kingpins, child kidnapping, government assassins turned hitmen, human traffickers, real estate swindlers, organ thieves, and crooked cops. At one point the film gets super-judgy about Park Jeong-min’s cabaret singer complaining about… 📖
-
Life on Mars (2006) s02e06
It says a little bit too much about “Life on Mars” series two the writer tasked with resolving the “boyfriend in a coma, it’s really serious” arc presumably going on in future with Archie Panjabi, Simm’s girlfriend in the pilot episode who was kidnapped and apparently rescued; it’s been a season and a half and… 📖
-
Life on Mars (2006) s02e05
It’s a Matthew Graham episode, where he definitely goes far in showing I was right to dread Matthew Graham episodes. After a delightful claymation opening, John Simm wakes to a phone call from the station. They need him there ASAP. He’s been out a day sick, which we’ll later find out is closer to two… 📖
-
Future State: Swamp Thing (2021) #2
It’s an all-action issue, minus the epilogue, with Swamp Thing and his ragtag army of plant people and humans fighting against the evil humans and their ringleader. The ringleader’s who I thought it’d be. Ram V knows his Swamp Thing, knows the appropriate, historical supporting cast member to bring in to guest star for effect.… 📖
-
Future State: Swamp Thing (2021) #1
It never occurred to me Mike Perkins would be such a great Swamp Thing artist. There are a handful of ways to really nail Swamp Thing, with Perkins doing the passive movement thing—Swamp Thing’s branches sway in the wind (and he has branches to sway). Perkins’s art is excellent overall, but his take on Swamp… 📖
-
Nomadland (2020, Chloé Zhao)
Nomadland becomes even more of an achievement when you find out the supporting cast is entirely amateur. The film’s a character study of lead Frances McDormand as she adjusts to her life as a modern nomad, traveling the country in her van (where she also lives), working seasonal jobs, and coming across a variety of… 📖
-
Life on Mars (2006) s02e04
So this response is going to be about the importance of show bibles for consistency’s sake, not even continuity. Or at least the first few paragraphs. And I just remembered where I heard of show bibles–“Star Trek.” The phaser rifle was only used in the pilots even though it was in the show bible as… 📖
-
Life on Mars (2006) s02e03
New writer (Julie Rutterford) and director (Richard Clark) to the show this episode; they do a fine job, Rutterford even getting to approach some character development for John Simm as far as his relationships with his teammates. There’s not a lot, there’s nothing conclusive, but there’s more to it than usual because Simm’s big mouth… 📖
-
Ultramega (2021) #2
Thank goodness it’s double-sized. Ultramega definite needs the double-size, what with creator James Harren introducing an entirely—sort of—new cast who’ll be taking over the comic from now on. The previous issue was very prologue-y, complete with the cliffhanger being set twenty years in the future. This issue’s got its own, Kirby-esque (squishy Kirby-esque) prologue, all… 📖
-
All Rise (2019) s02e13 – Love’s Illusions
Let me get the big reveals out of the way. Starting with Simone Missick’s husband not having moved out to L.A. yet, even though once again it seemed like it was about to happen. Instead she’s going back to work and hiring a babysitter to look after the newborn. We also get to meet Lindsey… 📖
-
Life on Mars (2006) s02e02
Thank goodness for S.J. Clarkson. There’s also a bunch of good acting in this episode, but Clarkson’s direction is what holds it all together because Chris Chibnall’s script certainly isn’t doing the trick. Chibnall has two emphases this episode—first, lengthy exposition sequences with John Simm and Philip Glenister recapping information the viewer has seen play… 📖
-
Karmen (2021) #2
More than half the issue is recently deceased Cata (by her own hand, so presumably stuck in purgatory) swimming around the city naked taking in the sights. She can swim-fly to the top of the cathedrals, she can peek on strangers in their homes, she can even end up tracking down her best friend. The… 📖
-
Michael Hayes (1997) s01e16 – Under Color of Law
“Michael Hayes 4.0” continues with zero emphasis on David Caruso’s character, other than his potential as a righteous savior. And writers Ray Hartung and John Romano (it may be Romano’s best episode or maybe second best, but it’s aces compared to his usual) find a great place for him to save—upstate New York cop Brian… 📖
-
Michael Hayes (1997) s01e15 – Imagine: Part 2
Despite some better than necessary acting from the guest stars and nicely competent direction from Mel Damski (though Damski can’t make the silly black and white flashbacks to last episode work and every time they’re jarring and terrible and there are a lot of times), it’s a reductive conclusion to the big conspiracy two-parter. Given… 📖
-
Out of Sight (1998, Steven Soderbergh)
Right up until the third act, Out of Sight has a series of edifying flashbacks, which reveal important facts in the ground situation; almost enough to set the start of the present action back a few years. The film starts in flashback, which isn’t immediately clear, and then the series of consecutive flashbacks builds to… 📖
-
The Midnight Sky (2020, George Clooney)
The Midnight Sky goes wrong for a number of reasons. It’s too thin, even with phenomenal special effects—half the film is an Arctic adventure tale, half the film is a hard sci-fi but done as a 2001 homage. They’re destined to collide, but the Arctic adventure ceases to be an Arctic adventure by that time… 📖
-
Little Shop of Horrors (1986, Frank Oz)
I begin talking about Little Shop of Horrors with a confession—I didn’t like it as a kid. I think I saw it a couple times on video, but a full decade before I was willing to give musicals a chance. Now, of course, I can appreciate the absolute glory of the film’s musical numbers, particularly… 📖
-
Best in Show (2000, Christopher Guest)
Best in Show is a masterpiece of editing. Guest’s direction is spectacular as well—the way he creates space for the performances—but it’s all about how Guest and editor Robert Leighton construct the narrative. Even in the second half, when Best in Show becomes a singular tour de force of buffoonery from Fred Willard, it’s all… 📖
-
Mann’s World (2021) #4
The end of Mann’s World is pretty much what I’d figured it be, complete with the compressed second-to-third act transition and an elongated epilogue. The third act itself gets short-changed, but it’d just be more peculiar action, which never engages—less Nico Walter’s wanting art, more writer Victor Gischler being out of set piece ideas. Possibly… 📖
-
Mann’s World (2021) #3
The art’s less bad this issue. I’m not sure there’s any improvement from Niko Walter, but there’s less he’s bad at drawing in the story this time. Less people talking. He seriously flubs one of the conversations to the point I thought I’d gotten all the characters names wrong, not just didn’t know one of… 📖
-
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) s01e06 – One World, One People
Turns out forty-five minutes is the just right length for a Falcon and the Winter Soldier, even if Sebastian Stan gets startlingly little to do in the final episode of a show where his character’s name is in the title. Stan ends the series with less of a character arc than either extremely shallow villain… 📖
-
Mann’s World (2021) #2
The art takes a dive this issue. There’s a lot less detail, but there’s also a lot of action and Niko Walker’s action art is very awkward. There’s a splash page with like four entirely different major problems. Worse, Snakebike Cortez’s coloring is pretty bad here. He’s still showing a lot of the perspective, but… 📖
-
Mann’s World (2021) #1
Mann’s World has a simple start—a group of male friends on an “adventure” vacation together. Only instead of white water rafting through Alabama, they’re in the future and going to the title planet, which isn’t significant enough for environmentally exploiting so it’s just a giant resort. But for dudes who want to hunt; you can… 📖
-
Frasier (1993) s05e06 – Voyage of the Damned
It’s a particularly excellent episode, with the cast—minus Jane Leeves, who gets one great showcase scene and is then out—going on an Alaskan cruise. Peri Gilpin’s got a friend looking to book a celebrity entertainer and after some mild cajoling (and Gore Vidal-name dropping), Kelsey Grammer agrees to go and give a speech. David Hyde… 📖
-
Frasier (1993) s05e05 – The 1000th Show
I glazed over the director credit—I knew it was David Lee, but David Lee turns in particularly distinctive episodes, usually just competent ones. But this time he gets to do something special—half the episode is shot on location in Seattle (the only time in the series, apparently), with David Hyde Pierce and Kesley Grammer walking… 📖
-
All Rise (2019) s02e12 – Chasing Waterfalls
I missed the writing credit at the open so I didn’t know until now Damani Johnson is responsible for the coolest Say Anything reference a fourteen year-old could have made in 1992 before it became exceptionally dated and also the actors involved in the scene were six when Say Anything came out. So “All Rise”… 📖
-
Punisher: Soviet (2020)
No question, Garth Ennis has still got that old Punisher magic. Soviet is a change from most of Ennis’s post—Punisher MAX limited series, which have been military historical fiction with the Punisher inserted, filling out the character, peeling the onion of his tragedy. Soviet’s not about Frank. Soviet is about Frank’s Russian alter ego, one… 📖
-
The Tankies (2021)
Tankies is a collection I never realized I needed. I’ve read the component limited series and story arcs, which came out in Dynamite’s Battlefields series from writer Garth Ennis. The Tankies brand was in the separate mini series version, the first attempt at an anthology series, and the second attempt at the anthology series. Dynamite… 📖
-
Mystic River (2003, Clint Eastwood)
Mystic River is at all times a very American tragedy. Eastwood approaches it as such, both as director and composer (it’s Aaron Copland levels of romanticized, you eventually just have to go with it because Eastwood’s committed). But it’s also really just MacBeth in Bah-ston. A very, very cynical one. There’s not a single moment… 📖
-
If I Were You (2012, Joan Carr-Wiggin)
At the halfway point in If I Were You, it seems like the film’s biggest problem is going to be Joseph Kell being charmless. Close second is Valerie Mahaffey’s small part being a waste of Mahaffey. Director Carr-Wiggin’s script is a tad plodding in the plotting, but it’s because she’s thorough and it does just… 📖
-
All Rise (2019) s02e11 – Forgive Us Our Trespasses
Forgive Us Our Trespasses is the first “All Rise” since producer Warner Bros. fired creator Greg Spottiswood for being too racist and sexist, which doesn’t appear to have any bearing on the episode—unless it’s somehow in the subtext of Peter MacNicol’s arc about appearing to be profoundly biased against a Black defendant but really it’s… 📖
-
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) s01e05 – Truth
A couple things real quick. First, given how much this episode’s opening resolve of the cliffhanger feels like the actual dramatic beat—and is a brutal (in a good way) fight scene—it really seems like the best version of “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is a two and a half hour movie and not a six… 📖
-
Michael Hayes (1997) s01e14 – Imagine: Part 1
Well, it makes sense why the previous episode closed off two plot threads with big ol’ cop outs—“Michael Hayes” has got a new pair of drivers. This episode adds Michael S. Chernuchin (single writing credit on the episode) and Michael Pressman (director of the episode) as executive producers. Their big idea for what to do… 📖
-
Michael Hayes (1997) s01e13 – Arise and Fall
Even with some big cop outs—so big it’s practically another soft reset of the series—it’s either the best or second best episode with show co-creator John Romano’s name in the writing credits. Most of the episode is a “day in the life” of the people working at the U.S. Attorney’s office; more of a few… 📖
-
Life on Mars (2006) s01e08
It’s the season finale, which one would think means some questions are getting answered. It takes about a half hour until everything starts tying together—and it turns out all the season’s recurring “vision” sequences were pointless considering how quickly they get explained (sorry, I’m going to try not to be overly negative but the episode… 📖
-
Life on Mars (2006) s01e07
After a couple episodes not dealing too much with John Simm’s Sam Becket-esque attempts to get home, this episode brings that element in partway through an otherwise very straightforward whodunit about a dead prisoner. The script’s from Chris Chibnall, who approaches it with quite a bit of gusto as far as giving the characters all… 📖
-
The Equalizer (2021) s01e06 – The Room Where It Happens
It’s a perfectly solid episode of The Equalizer. It might be the best? It’s certainly a lot more comfortable with itself—minus Chris Noth, who apparently won’t be on the episodes where Tory Kittles shows up and vice versa (based on last episode)—and it handles the “equalizing” a lot better. Instead of doing the story like… 📖
-
Life on Mars (2006) s01e06
Until now, “Life on Mars” has been a police procedural with some very flat, very hard sci-if garnish about time travel. But this episode is an action episode, starting with John Simm getting a phone call—on a disconnected phone—from his mum in the future. She’s at his bedside, telling him the doctors want to unplug… 📖