mekjd Reviews

The Burial (II) (2023)

Feel Good, Feel Bad, Feel...Victorious over Bad Company

[8/10 · 19 October 2023]

A battle for a family funeral and burial insurance company erupts just as owner Jeremiah O'Keefe falls on hard times and is ripe for exploitation. Fed up with contract law, he seeks out flamboyant African American trial attorney Willie E. Gary. The trial attorney does not want white clients. Somehow, however, the will to win overcomes his bias and he takes on the case. And then some!

Lots of courtroom and behind the scenes shenanigans and lots of opinions about white people proffered. Shenanigans great, racial critiques a bit over the top.

In the end justice prevails. The funeral director is made whole and charitable works will be undertaken.

Actual interracial friendship is created and honored. All is well that ends well.

Superb performances by Tommy Lee Jones and Jamie Foxx.

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Perfect Multilevel Send-Up of Criminals, Psychology, Writers, Hollywood, Everything...

[8/10 · 17 June 2023]

I do not know how it came to pass that I never heard of this now more than a decade old gem. Everyone in this movie is a flaming idiot (that is no spoiler!) and everyone in this movie is a bit of a crook, a killer, and a psychopath. So they can get up to a lot of stuff, what with making threats, stealing dogs, kill shots in the back in cold blood, and what not.

Also existential crises and death of the notion of an afterlife.

If this were not enough, there is work. Somebody has to get stuck writing the screenplay. That asks a lot, even of an alcoholic. Even one who wants psychopathy to lead to peace, which it does, only in the sense of "rest in peace."

Adding to my list of comedic favorites.

Succession (2018– )

Unsatisfying End to One of the Better Shows of Recent Years

[7/10 · 11 June 2023]

The rumor is that Succession creators/producers thought there would be successive seasons of Succession. Thus the finale is choppy and inconclusive and just no darn good.

It is one thing to invite an audience to chart its own path for characters' futures.

It is another thing entirely to slap a finish on as if to tell the audience to "go know."

The strong performances of the ensemble saved in part what would have otherwise been a lackluster fourth season, but even performances did not spare the audience the 'gross out' moments.

And wonderful plot points were missed. I had thought that one sibling would be murdered (as fantasized) immediately after the other siblings notified that sibling that the crown (so to speak) would be his to wear.

That would have been much more fun, and would have echoed the first season drowning.

But no such luck. Just brothers and sisters who are happy-happy-happy, which is completely unpersuasive,as they never showed such affection before.

And resurrecting the Chappaquiddick moment to determine the fate of the company? Please..Lazy writing. Just plain lazy.

Wish I could turn back time and watch an entirely new and better final season.

A Spy Among Friends (2022)

Friendship, Intelligence, Loyalty...and Betrayal

[6/10 · 29 May 2023]

Nothing in this presentation discloses exactly what intelligence Kim Philby provided to Russia, nor are we particularly enlightened about what information he provided to the U. K. or to the U. S.

We are reminded that during early days Russia was an ally but we are never truly told what prompted Philby to stay on after the party was over.

There are allusions to just plain old liking socialism but we do not know why.

The grim paradox (irony for those who cannot give up this overused word) is that by virtue of Philby's treason he became a hero among British upper class spies. And the same could be said of the U. S., which, according to this tale, caused James Jesus Angleton to turn into a monster of paranoia, as if he could not have gotten there himself on his own.

A lot of the series is about supposed male friendship. Men sit next to each other, tell dirty jokes, dance in circles, get drunk as lords, feign rescue of each other, and call this friendship. There is, of course, the undercurrent of homoerotica, which in old-timey accounts would be understated in a way unknown to modern producers, a loss to be felt by the audience that does not appreciate being clobbered over the head.

Fine crew and performances but we never really know where this matter ends. Perhaps in the "Siberia" of Philby's own making. But all in all the viewer is left wanting...something. And because this is spycraft, the viewer cannot be sure what is wanted or its significance. Alas!

The Royals (2015–2018)

Elegant and Witty, With Surprising Bursts of Depth BUT....

[7/10 · 28 May 2023]

This show thoroughly captivated me. I had expected complete junk. Boy, I was wrong. There was such an expanse of seriousness and wit and conscious and unconscious self-parody of "royals" and the cast itself. Can it fairly be said that Joan Collins is anyone other than Joan Collins no matter where or when? And Elizabeth Huxley is gorgeous and wonderfully smart. Brava to both!

The young princess and her commoner love are a story destined to make any heart, no matter how hard, melt. The secret love letters. And conquering the throne as only lovers can. Sexy without the showy-but-not-sexy trash we see too frequently.

And Cyrus! So evil! But we love him so much. The badder, the better. Because he has suffered from the depths, all is forgiven. Providing him with more opportunities to make mischief.

Liam: naive, naive, naive. But ultimately, Liam boards the crafty bandwagon in an attempt to avenge his father's untimely death.

BUT the end of the show was so dismaying that it has taken days for me to recall how much I loved it.

In the realm of the royals, there is room for a do-over. Someone restart this show, please! Let there be a new royal dynasty (hat's off to you again, Joan Collins).

Am I Being Unreasonable? (2022– )

Loneliness: It's Murder!

[5/10 · 27 April 2023]

Moving to and fro among real time and flashbacks and fantasy can induce a kind of psychic vertigo, asking the viewer to constantly consider what on earth is being watched. This is particularly so where the watcher must guess what is flashback and what is fantasy and then, of course, what is real.

But! It does not matter. And that is the point. Not that shows need a point. But perhaps the pointlessness is the point which, when combined with loneliness, compels the protagonist into a life of adultery and lies, which definitely spices things up. Maybe.

There is no indication why the protagonist lands in such a spot. No before that would precipitate a loveless marriage, notwithstanding the great efforts of a bright child with special needs who is a charmer and an entrepreneur/psychopath in the making.

Mum is still...what is mum, anyway? In need of a man? Why sign up to be the brother's keeper (of a sort)?

The show is successful in some measures, as it illustrates how devastating loss can be, even if the loss is the death of something that was never real. Now this would be a topic for a great show, whether comedy or not, but the characters, while well acted, are so annoyingly stupid and amoral that it is hard to wish for anything other than the show's finale.

Mammals (2022)

Sometimes Soaring, Ending Boring

[5/10 · 16 April 2023]

One might fall hopelessly, blindly in love, forsaking all others, more or less, only to find one's beloved has not followed suit.

In the throes of grief over miscarriage and in the process of opening a Guide Michelin star-worthy restaurant, the protagonist has the heart and soul space to embrace a quest to find the reason for his wife's crushing betrayal.

In the interim, his sister, being left alone and lonely too long while her spouse the neuroscientist who has betrayed her, falls into elaborate fantasies concerning the protege (and betrayer!) of Coco Chanel.

In the right hands the characters' loves and betrayals could create compelling art. Indeed, early on the series holds the promise of so doing.

Yet in keeping with these themes, the ending so betrays the audience's fidelity that the heartbreak is far too great to bear.

Babylon (I) (2022)

Exhaustive and at Times Exhausting

[8/10 · 2 April 2023]

An excess of excesses plagues this three hour long extravaganza of the early, often cruel days of Hollywood. The occasional success in wealth and fame is often accompanied by the early grave of addiction. Love eludes yet the possibility of being that imaginary on-screen character cannot be relinquished.

There are scenes of extremes that serve both to titillate and to serve as cautionary tales, deft work by the director.

A good deal of the dramatization of drug use is laughably overstated by incessant prattling. The idea of imbibing ether may strike readers as odd as it has hardly been a feature of Hollywood histories, so it is of note here, particularly as it works wonders for the complexion.

Margot Robbie gives her all and deserves praise no matter what is said about the film overall. Diego Calva carries the torch of true love with tenderness without being mawkish. Jean Smart, as ever, lives up to her name. You-could-see-it-coming with Brad Pitt, but overall, not bad.

Recommend viewing twice. No matter what the overall impression, the attention to detail deserves a second look.

Inside Man (II) (2022)

The Only Suspense is Wondering if Your Plot Guesses Will Be Confirmed

[5/10 · 25 March 2023]

I am very fond of Stanley Tucci and David Tennant. I am also fond of mysteries and crimes and plot twists, oh my! Therefore I thought that Inside Man would just have to be good. I kept waiting for it to get good.

It did not.

There are bright spots, though. Tucci's prison mate was a true scene stealer. You could say that he killed.

Applause then goes to Atkins Estimond for serving as prisoner Grieff's (I know, I know, was that a clue?) foil and for saving otherwise gruelingly dull scenes.

And I have to say that I know of no other actor who can look as twisty and demented while sporting a suit and tie and looking for all the world like a regular guy than Dylan Baker. Another impeccable performance, although I will admit that I was forever spoiled by The Americans.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)

Back in the Day, Mom Had it Tough, But Her Wit Saw Her Through

[7/10 · 14 January 2023]

This true story is so skillfully animated by Julianne Moore that it is easy to overlook the somewhat overly dramatized reflections of life in the days that Moms stayed home and cooked every single meal while violent alcoholic Father nearly drank the family into foreclosure but Mom loved him so much she put away her rosary long enough to have ten kids while in the meantime supporting the family with earnings from brand contests. Things did not get too tough until Father pushed Mother while she was carrying bottles of milk causing her to crash to the floor amid shards of glass and slippery spilled milk which deeply injured her but which she, post-hospital, decided was not worth crying over.

Phew! The deliberately run on sentences above are intended to capture the tone of the film. Yes, we recognize the "bad old days" for women, no need to beat us over the head with it. Yet there is a tenderness that "Mom" displays that invites the reader to cheer her on no matter how dire her circumstances. Well done, Mom!

Dublin Murders (2019)

Something Wicked This Way Comes, Accompanied by Warped Office Romance

[8/10 · 14 January 2023]

Found it impossible to turn away from this murder mystery, which employs a not uncommon tactic: shifting back and forth from adulthood to childhood to find where the wild things live. At the same time, in adulthood, the bearers of childhood secrets find mad love in between sleuthing and running interference through office pollitics.

No one is who the world believes them to be. Or even who they believe themselves to be. This could be tedious beyond belief but the lead performers are so good that the watcher truly does suspend disbelief.

The watcher wants them, as a couple, to succeed, but it is impossible to disregard the arch-motif of the murders, which is that not only is no one who he or she appears to be, no one manages to live out their life's promise, either. Thus, "murder" is not just physical death.

Have issues with the reveal and denouement, but would definitely recommend.

Person of Interest (2011–2016)

Bam! Artificial Intelligence! Automatic Weaponry! Moral Quagmires!

[9/10 · 4 January 2023]

Even when it is not too good, Person of Interest is thoroughly captivating. Four Oz-like characters make their ways to personal redemption -- or try to do so -- with the guidance of benign AI, soon to be vanquished -- or so it is feared -- by a counterpoint immortal but amoral controlling AI.

This ensemble of misfits is among the best offered on network television within the past few decades. Moreover, the topic of information gathering, privacy, and data security has grown more significant over time. With intimations of bio-warfare added in, the show is remarkably prescient.

And yet! There are lots of good old shoot-em-ups and bombings and nefarious evildoers doing evil.

Truly something for everyone. And yes, the characters all redeem themselves from themselves in the end.

Don't Worry Darling (I) (2022)

Incoherent, Darling

[4/10 · 9 December 2022]

It is as if Olivia Wilde wanted to concoct a dish out of stereotype leftovers, Hard to know whose ingredients she would borrow next. Stepford Wives, Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock, and many, many more.

Borrowing by itself is no crime. It can be a tribute.

But none of this hangs together.

Would not bother with this. The Busby Berkeley dance scenes are masterful. Yet mocking.

The fashions, lovely.

The sets, amazing in their just-too-perfect colors, with antique cars.

I was left with the conviction that Wilde had money to burn on this production, and burn it she did. Bring in everything, leave out nothing (spies! Tranquilizers! Shock therapy!), yet go nowhere.

Wilde would do well to take cues from her literary ancestor, Oscar Wilde. He was over the top, but mindful that Less Is More, Darling.

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony (2021)

Delightful

[8/10 · 20 November 2022]

There is something about Hopkins that captivates even when he does not seem to strive for complexity, or perhaps that is the very thing that draws us in.

Thank goodness he never became a "star." Big, big fan of Hopkins, just as he is.

And as the biopic notes, Magic is a much underrated film.

.....the IMDB says that I must write more....more there will be, then.

I was also glad that this was not a fall from grace/redemption picture. While alcoholism is not given short shrift, it is not center stage, either.

I would have liked a deeper explication of the characters he played. Not just Dr. Lecter, but others. Some are touched on, but not enough to satisfy my curiosity. Nixon! Dracula! Doctor to the Elephant Man! So many lives lived by one man, more would have been great.

Severance (2022– )

A Consolidation of Fears

[6/10 · 8 August 2022]

Dystoppias and science fictions exist to present our fears and horrors in disguise, "Severance" no less -- yet no more -- than others. It is puzzling to this reviewer how this slow action unfolding of the old amnesia corporate autocracy myth. Not exactly new and hardly comparable to Metropolis. Meaningless work, absent emotional connection. One day the same as the next. Just like now!

The casting of good performers redeems in part this weary series, yet cannot fully save it. Not eager for yet another round.

Harlem (2021– )

Young, Gifted and Black with Bad Scripts and Plots!

[4/10 · 18 July 2022]

I had high hopes for this show but found it too cliched and vulgar to maintain an interest. Really the show did not serve the talent well. Better luck next time.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022)

Only Connect

[7/10 · 20 June 2022]

So well acted. In the hands of clumsy performers, this script would be horrifying. But it wasn't and so it isn't. When we want sex there are always other hungers, other flavors that we desire. A widow seeks adventure, a sex worker seeks affirmation, perhaps praise that was never freely given. All in all a "feel good" movie in more ways than one.

Under the Banner of Heaven (2022)

Conflicts Modern and Historic: Living in Closed, Faith-Based Communities Now and During the time of Mormon "Deadwood"

[8/10 · 1 June 2022]

Sooner or later in life all of the comforting truths we were taught about God give way to a deeper quest, for those comforting truths cannot, by themselves, survive the evidence of the evil that is ever in search of new lives to destroy. All must walk on, and walk through.

Thus is the quest of a police officer called to solve the slaying of a local mother and the beheading of her eighteen month old daughter. All those who walk with an aura of righteous conviction are felled by pride and delusion. Modern Latter Day Saints sin and suffer, as did their founders, the stories of whom are recounted unsparingly, likely dispelling any cheerful or heroic hagiography taught to children.

Andrew Garfield and Sam Worthington are superb, police officers and detectives, that is, guardians of order and seekers of truth, forming a bond that transcends the strictures of preconceptions and bias.

This review was written in the belief that I had finished a six part series, and originally the review lamented a lack of resolution. I have learned another episode will soon be available. The sense of a lack of completion in the series was only too real. I eagerly await another episode.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Missing the Morality Tale that is the Core of Noir

[6/10 · 2 February 2022]

Most noir has a subtext of morality, whether or not redeemed. Nothing in this story reflects that, making this more of a spooky carny tale with unfortunate characters than a true noir film.

The special effects of the faux executioner's chair were a high point.

Otherwise, this seemed to be a waste of a gathering of significant talent.

I May Destroy You (2020)

Engaging but Highly Uneven

[5/10 · 31 January 2022]

At times it is difficult to watch yet another show about young adults sexing and texting their ways through life, thereby avoiding the more difficult existential questions that would otherwise pop up. Yet no one forced me to watch this, which I did nearly in one sitting. So: reviewer's hypocrite score = very high indeed.

Drugs, sex, and rock and roll (or rap or pop or whatever) or literary notoriety, or friends and lovers will at some point always fall short. How to respond in crisis is always challenging.

Protagonist Arabella has quite the crisis here, confounded by an inability to recall what happened to her. A journey of reconstruction of the facts fails, leaving only reconstruction of the self.

Of particular note was the protagonist's dawning awareness that a good friend could be both good at times and "bad" at others, and that this is part of life. Perfectionism and black-and-white thinking will not salve emotional wounds.

A lot of the series is almost a visual stream-of-consciousness, which can be jarring at times, but the writer/producer should be credited with trying on this style.

Note to viewers. This is not a series for the sexually shy. Nor is it a series for those who are not receptive to listening to raging about race and rape.

15 Minutes of Shame (2021)

Well Done but Suffers from its own Ambitions

[6/10 · 31 January 2022]

I stayed away from this film, thinking (wrongly) that its focus would be on its producer.

Not so. The film attempts to encompass all of the issues that impact the use and misuse of online media, and how lives are affected by online behavior. My sense is that it would have been a better product had each facet of the online world been presented separately, in a series, with a wrap up at the end.

Nonetheless, this was very well done and I will take away the names of resources featured.

Notwithstanding that this documentary was in many respects a pleasant surprise, the none-too-subtle imagery attempting to link undesirable groups to a former president detracted from the film's overall theme.

The White Lotus (2021–2025)

No surprises!

[3/10 · 16 January 2022]

The show bring s together every anxious stereotype known in a bad way, trying but failing to match the work of Christopher Guest. You need not worry about subtlety, as every point will be clobbered home. Neither should you worry about missing out, as each and every spoiler imaginable is presented at the end of each episide, guaranteeing you will have nothing to look forward to, as you will have seen everything in advance.

Note however, that the ocean plays its role boldly, in and out, crashing and retreating. The sun shows up at sundown to show off a bit, as well.

Scandal (2012–2018)

You Made Me Loathe You

[5/10 · 8 January 2022]

...I didn't want to do it.

So much promise squandered: a terrific ensemble and some fun plots -- fixers and spies and elections, oh my!

Yet we quickly sink into long-term love and longing, punctuated by periodic hot sex, followed by even hotter sex with a different partner.

No one is supposed to cringe when Ms. Pope celebrates.....herself!

Momma and Poppa Pope are brilliantly dastardly, mad props to. Joe Morton and Khandi Alexander.

And too frequently overlooked in this wokish soap is the brilliant. Kate Burton as Sally. Langston, a character so riddled with stereotypes she should have been deemed terminal, but Burton saves her with each enunciation of "Lovers of Liberty..."

And Guillermo Diaz as the bedeviled savant, a crippled killer well acted, and therefore sparing the audience seasons of misery.

Special mention to Kerry Washington's wardrobe. Oh! The clothes! Who wants the power job, just send the outfits.

The show had its moments. But it was the moments, no, episodes, in between those moments that turned it from watchable to not.

The Big Leap (2021)

Phenomenal Arc: Horrendous Decline

[5/10 · 16 December 2021]

I began streaming this show as a filler between more serious pursuits. Little did I know I would fall in love with the concept and the characters. Just the right show for this time, I thought. And the dancing and romancing and opposites getting together, what a delight!

And then came the run up to a next season, in the prelude to which we see that the (successful) white man is a nefarious self-seeking villain, the (bad word omitted) blonde white girl is willing to manipulate anyone for anything, that gender/race/reproduction issues will emerge (curtains to that!), and, in general, that the show on screen will bend to the whims of the day.

Such a disappointment.

Equally disappointing was the rewriting of Swan Lake to end with the protagonist's gazing into her reflection in water and falling in love with herself, thereby freeing her from the need of any one else.

The showrunners could not possibly be unaware of the meaning of the myth of Narcissus, and the plague of narcissism that besets our world. Why this toxic pseudo-psychological-pseudo-spiritual ending was interwoven in the story is anyone's guess and it rings so hollow. The entire show is about connection, not self-reflection.

I leave still a bit enchanted, but mostly disaffected.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)

Mental Anguish for Art or...Just Plain Mental Anguish

[5/10 · 10 November 2021]

A man of lively mind descends into madness following the death of his wife and the explosion of his art. Madness ws compounded as his failure to copyright his work plunged him and his family into the poverty from which the art was to have been a saving grace.

Altogether the impression was created that this film was hastily cobbled together with 'name' casting to create something marketable in the waning days of the Covid-19 miasma.

Madness, yelling and screaming and raging and ranting, just ain't that interesting, truth be told.

Neither is the superficial account of an apparent cat art fad that took the turn of the century folks by storm.