Reviews

I saw the movie version with Matt Damon, and, frankly, I don't remember anything about it (but that may be age kicking in?). I'm not likely to forget this TV version. The first thing I noticed is that the photography is beautiful. I doubt that a color version could be as striking. Don't mistake this as meaning Ripley is "arty". It just seems that the set-up for every scene involves extra thought and planning. It seems Hitchcockian to me. This surprised the heck out of me--I don't expect to see such care taken for a TV series.

The second thing I noticed is that I didn't fall asleep for any of the episodes. Although the story develops relatively slowly, I found myself to be fascinated by all of the characters--even the minor ones are given room to "stretch" in their roles. All of this suggests that the director, whom I had never heard of, is a very talented person with precise ideas about about every aspect of the production.

The third thing I noticed is that, although Ripley is a psychopath, I found myself rooting for him. He's played as such a bizarre, narcissistic but "talented" person that you can't wait to figure out how he is going to get out of each of the many messes he creates. Andrew Scott does nothing obvious to ingratiate himself with his audience, but I found myself rooting for him as an underdog.

I could go on, but you get the point. Watch this superb series. It will make you want to read the novel.

"Now Hear This" is simply one of the very best and most interesting classical-music shows I've seen in 7 decades as a TV watcher. Scott Yoo, himself a master musician, interviews and plays with other top world musicians, as well as fitting the chosen composers into the context of their culture and time. The latest in the series takes a composer who isn't particularly familiar and performs his innovative works about Spanish cities and the Spanish landscape. He also touches on the tango--some very sexy performances are included. The performances are excellent, and Mr. Yoo offers a cure, through music, for our current world-wide malaise. I seldom stay awake through an evening of television, but this show never puts me to sleep. If you think you don't like classical music, watch this.

This is a moving, beautifully made movie about the breaking up of a family by circumstances beyond a single person's control. It's a tragedy, in the old, literal sense, where the temptations of knowledge and experience disrupt an edenic lifestyle--replacing a life in tune with the cycles of nature with the unknowns of leaving Paradise for the worldly pursuit of knowledge and money.

For me, the film is nearly perfect. The musical score, never intrusive, glitters with the sparkling waters of the Atlantic and grumbles with foreboding, distant rhythms that hint of the disruption facing the characters.

The acting is superb--I felt like I was completely immersed in the universal tribulations pitting change and uncertainty against equilibrium in the lives of the Gullah characters. They didn't seem at all like actors but real people.

The pacing and setting are also immersive. As a former country kid, I know how memory idealizes growing up in nature--you tend to forget the tough times and difficulties while remembering, deep down, the sense of home in the natural world. This film brought that sense back for me. The beauty of the setting at Ibo Landing was captured perfectly. The break-up of the Paesant family was like a voluntary expulsion from Eden.

There are only a half dozen movies that I would like to own, and this is one of them. It may be strictly a personal preference, but this movie struck a chord for me, and I won't forget it.

One of the most incoherent, implausible "plots" I've seen from Hollywood. Nothing about this movie makes sense, and the thing lurches from one nonsensical scene to another. If Marjorie Taylor Green had written it, I'd understand.

The female characters provide decoration and not much else, and the male leads must have been desperate for a paycheck. They play buddies who have a radio talk show but live like losers. It's part Alice down the rabbit hole (but it's a garage with a special grease pit) and part Faux "news" conspiracy theories. The music occasionally blares out so loud I thought it would break our soundbar; at other times, the actors mumble and made themselves hard to hear (probably out of embarrassment). The nonsensical pictures and colored tapes the hero puts up in his motel rooms (and pictures of aliens in his trailer--what's the deal with the flying saucers?) don't seem to have anything to do with the plot. I could go on, but what's the point? Unless you've lost whatever mind you had before watching this, don't waste your time.

At some time in the future, I'm convinced historians wondering "what went wrong" in the US will watch this movie. American Honey dramatically shows us how different some people's attitudes toward our country really are. It should be required viewing in Congress and in state legislatures, where cluelessness reigns. (And in high schools, but that will never happen in the capital of hypocrisy.)

As typical middle class American, I, at first, thought these kids were just drug-addled miscreants. The heroine, though, consistently shows that she's smart and gutsy--both traits we usually honor. The other kids and their "handlers" and other "adults" are also consistent with the story. Acting is excellent. By the end, I was convinced that this is a classic.

Obviously, there are viewers who love this movie and others who hate it. I love it. It's atmospheric, with clear ties to a particular place (rural Kentucky) and time (early in the Civil War). The relationship between the brothers is full contradictions and conflict as well as brotherly love and disappointment--if you like movies about relationships, it's fascinating. I was left wondering what happens to Henry, the more complex and conflicted brother, who disappears at dawn at the end of the movie.

I don't recommend this for people looking for a "war flick", but there are some viewers, myself included, who think this movie is a gem (and have no "financial interest" in it, as one reviewer seems to think). We just don't all like the same things, right?

This series started out great. The characters were adults, and the plots were a bit Byzantine, but weren't impossible if you paid attention. The two main characters were a beautiful, intelligent and independent-minded genealogist and a 30-something detective who was interesting--meticulously dressed and groomed and a bit of a fuss-pot who played the cello for fun. One could guess that both characters had secrets that weren't being revealed by the first season's 6 shows--hence my interest in seeing Season Two.

So, then, along came the second season. The interesting, beautiful genealogist was replaced by a pushy, somewhat abrasive woman who doesn't seem to know anything about genealogy (but shares the same name as the original character) and reminds me of the standard somewhat dumb assistant in American cop shows. I have no idea what her part in this confused mess is supposed to be. And the detective suddenly grew a stubble, mussed up his hair, and started wearing jeans to work--in short, he became the standard American adult-male-hiding-as-a-teenager TV star. He's about as good a match for the new co-star as Sherlock Holmes would be for a waitress in a diner (but they'll probably hook up, given the logic of season two). Add to that a pouty 9-year-old who's far smarter than her years (or any of the adults on the show) and you wonder what the series' producers could be thinking.

Watch the first 6 episodes and pretend this show doesn't have a second season.