Reviews

Other reviewers have already made key points about the series's high quality of acting, writing and cinematography. And many reviewers are impressed by the messaging or meaning of this work: it focuses on how difficult and risky defying fascism and totalitarianism is. It leads one to experience how essential it is that we do so NOW, even if what small differences one makes seem insignificant. The series shows that one can hope for better outcomes than what actually happens, but even if those expectations aren't met, retaining, recording and disseminating, publishing and publicizing memories of historical facts is a strong weapon against future fascist totalitarian crimes and abuses.

My only criticism worth mentioning is that the actors portraying these characters are more beautiful or more attractive by conventional standards than the historical persons were. I found myself reminding myself as I watched the series that I mustn't conflate the physical beauty or good health displayed with the beauty, value and worth of a person no matter their appearance. Just one example: I have admired the actor Liev Schreiber for decades, but he appears in the final episodes only looking somewhat older, as if he had not been through the extreme ordeal his character went through. While I don't expect or demand actors go to extremes to physically portray physical harm such as deprivation, I believe the series' creators relied on faith in their audience's intelligence and best judgement to compensate for the unrealistic consistent good looks of the cast. The end credits' inclusion of photos of the actual people portrayed confirms that these are fine actors telling a necessary story, but are not doppelgängers for the original people.

That may seem like a small point to make with as much attention to detail as I have. But I believe it makes a big difference in how this story impacts its audience, and had to be written about.

John Murphy's score for Les Misérables was bad. No mincing words. The only exceptions were the recreations of story-era church music and folk songs, which the show's credits indicate was the responsibility of someone else. Most of the music was utterly unnecessary. Grateful for the sections that ran without any score, which played much better than the parts with an underscore. Besides the annoying 21st century colors the score added to a film that went to great lengths to evoke the times the novel was set in originally, much of the music was tired and clichéd, major chords slowly arpeggiated, long notes held ever more intensely, etc. The music was so distracting that I had to quell my instinct to yell at the screen (I gave in a few times). And causes me to drop my rating here for the film overall from a 7 or 6 to a 5 star.

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown is simply the best television series of the 2010s. (I only wish I'd realized this sooner.) No program better enlightened the world of our times about ourselves than Parts Unknown.

I simply don't recall ever before (in 55 years of watching TV) liking an EMT or firefighter series so much that I had to give it praises. Of course 9-1-1 is much more, not just because it ropes in police under the 911 emergency services banner, not just because its regular characters are given compelling story arcs, not just because the 911 calls make for fresh yet non-exploitative episodes, but because almost all of it is so well written. The plotting, the dialogue, the editing, the camera shot choices, all combine to make for what I can best sum up as one of the best written shows on TV. Whatever it is that grounds 9-1-1's primary point of view: for all the problems in the world, a clear-eyed vision of the problems will help turn troubles into triumphs - a show that could have been either too sweet or too dark strides forward and maintains a dramatic balance in a sweet spot that engages audiences in several fraught situations every week and gives surprisingly satisfying payoffs as well.

One of the best songs ever to appear in this series, I was delighted by "Agree To Disagree", an almost perfect song of its kind. It's a "We Disagree, But..." kind of song, suggesting it could become one of the kind of funny, fun, character-rich, old-school cabaret comedy variety pieces that hasn't had any new material in a very long time.

Alone, it could have made an average episode rate a 7 or 8 out of 10. Little moments - the appearance of a guest star, a silly light- hearted bit the works, any time Gareth is on screen doing something - in every episode of Galavant keep teasing me with opportunities to raise my hopes that the series might actually get better, and "Agree To Disagree", coming early in this episode, raised my hopes tremendously.

But the rest of the episode turns on a sadly below-average device that doesn't work. Literary-ly and literally. The awful jokes in that scene are such stinkers, the only thing that prevents me from calling the consequences of that device failure impossible is that it's only a disappointingly familiar fail moment - not altogether unlikely, when the average episode can only rate a 4 or 5 from me.

But the show insists on reveling in the stale aroma of its meta- winks at old conventions, aiming to delight 8 - 12 year olds, and leaving anyone else who has seen a few parodies before to fight not to roll their eyes, like parents at a junior high school talent show.

We Bare Bears is a delight.

An animated series appropriate for all ages with bits of character business? With character development? With unique story points and twists you never see coming? These kinds of qualities are more often praised as elements of a critically acclaimed live action drama. But they are part of these 9 minute mini-masterpieces. But if I say that, it will get your hopes up too high, won't it? So forget all that. It's funny. The characters are likable, the situations are interesting, the animation is clever without attracting attention to itself.

It Surprises me, every episode. It makes my jaw drop, every episode. It makes me laugh, every episode.

I'm a 56 year old guy with a love for classic Disney and Japanese animation and a taste for art flicks, and these "kids cartoons" are one of the 3 or 4 best things I've seen on TV in 2015.

I'm not an aficionado of old b&w movies. But I guess I've seen enough of them to get Man of the Century's continuous stream of aged references and older jokes. So this movie reminds me (this will take a stretch of the imagination for some) of 2007's Hot Fuzz (my favorite film that year). Man of the Century resembles it by providing a continuous run of homage moments to previous bits of pop culture, sewn together imaginatively, giving the viewer a constant stream of little thrills at recognizing some of what's being honored.

It's not as seamless as Hot Fuzz -- for one, main character Johnny Twennie's love-interest's suspicions and confusions about him are too easily discarded at the end, even for a film indulging in stereotypical behaviors of characters in 30s and 40s films. (I suspect some dialog was cut.) But if you enter the world of the film on its own terms (instead of wanting it to be the film of one's expectations, like so many viewers (and reviewers) have done) then it pays off in spades.

I guess I've seen enough rapid-fire dialog romantic comedies of the mid-twentieth century to fall in love with the style, and this movie fulfills my need for more of it in many spots. About 15 minutes in, when a character refers to Johnny Twennie with "Here comes Zeppo," I instantly accepted the gift the filmmakers had given me, relating him to the 4th Marx Brother, dropped from their films after their earliest ones. The little touches of film history, from an almost Chaplinesque beginning to the detective or suspense film double exposure, impressed me. The integration of stock characters: the eccentric society mother, the black washroom attendant, the waifish young ingenue, the older Italian romantic, even the Chinese opium den (!) were rendered so that this often political-correctness-sensitive reviewer was unoffended. And their characters get contrasted with contemporary stock characters -- the independent young working woman with the incredible job, the kinky guy with the smooth exterior, the corrupt pol, the buffoonish foulmouthed gangsters -- that other than the lead, interestingly the older-stereotype stock characters come out being far less sympathetic than the contemporary ones.

The musical numbers function more as interludes than in the Broadway musical sense, but each is a veritable chestnut, each one undeniably enjoyable by this modern rock loving reviewer.

And the cast! Co-author / co-producer Gibson Frazier was clearly having the time of his life playing Johnny Twennie despite shouldering what were probably substantial indie filmmaker responsibilities. Plus: Anthony Rapp! Gary Beach! Bobby Short! Frank Effin' Gorshin fer gawrsh-sakes! And a few character actors I must admit I'm not experienced enough to claim to have recognized by name, but who I'm sure I've seen act on screen at least a dozen times before.

I won't belabor the points of contention I have some reviewers - what I've written above should make them clear. But, compared with the modern crap some reviewer shill for - worth little ultimately at best than a pleasant diversion if you leave your good personal standards behind and expend energy turning off one's uneasiness at every annoying trend-hopping moment - Man of the Century is a relative masterpiece. A delightful film, especially the second time around.

In conclusion, my one line review: "Man of the Century" is the best young Woody Allen movie he never made.

The best of all the 9/11 movies. It's really that simple to me.

Anthony LaPaglia and Sigourney Weaver give perhaps the best performances of their careers.

I'm somewhat unable to completely lose myself in performances in that I don't forget that I'm watching actors.

This film was an exception: I really lost track of the actors and experienced long stretches of time when I completely felt I was in the room with these people.

Most films using 9/11, either as their setting or focus or as a key moment in the plot, try to recreate the events of the day. That is what appears to be what they receive their critical acclaim for - the level of verisimilitude and their emotional 'oomph'. Instead of punching hard, like the other films do (or try to do), The Guys touches deep.

An incredibly underrated film.