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Reviews
Night Court: Prince of a Guy (1986)
Some things really don't age well
I've been enjoying going back and watching a show that I loved as a kid. Some things about the show are as funny and fresh as they were then, and some things ... not so much. The "simple natives from an island kingdom who are so strange and naive that a simple coin trick will get them to worship you" schtick is deeply cringeworthy at best. (and of course the old chestnut of a simple translation issue turning into a marriage proposal, and the natives not being able or willing to comprehend such a simple misunderstanding) Night Court was on the whole deeply progressive in its intentions, but at times fell into celebrating the racism and sexism that it ostensibly tried to parody.
That said, feel free to give this episode where a Polynesian princess gets busted for public indecency because she didn't understand that public nudity is not allowed in New York a pass.
Black Panther (2018)
I had a blast
Wow, I am really surprised at the hate in the comments. I saw this tonight and enjoyed every second of it. I loved the relationships between the characters, the multiple pressures against T'challa, the motivations of the antagonists, the overall themes. It was just a totally solid film and a hell of a good time.
The Tempest (1979)
Interesting for some, but not for most
I was loaned this DVD by the director of a film I am working with, in which I play an actor who is playing Prospero. Knowing his own style, I did not expect anything resembling a "classical" interpretation of the text.
What I have found is sometimes striking, sometimes evocative, but often meandering and tedious. Like most experimental music, I find that in films such as this, the building blocks of powerful film-making are crafted, even if they have not found their most useful form in a more coherent format.
Thus we have a Caliban who is more a clown than a threat, and who not even Miranda seems terribly afraid of (which is odd, since we know that he has attempted to rape her at least once). A Stefano and Trinculo who are more annoying than funny. An oddly young Prospero who looks like Amadeus. And a great loss of character development and plot through creative editing and highly stylized posturing.
Interestingly enough, I do not have an issue with the way in which Ferdanand or Miranda are portrayed. His stunned rapture and her slightly freaky innocence are actually quite appropriate.
I do not say that this is a bad film, but an experimental one. One that takes huge risks, but is meant more for students of art and film and not really for anyone with an interest in the Tempest for its own sake.