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MikeNewYork
Reviews
My So-Called Life (1994)
Not as good as its reputation
When My So Called Life first aired, I was 17 years old, and while I remember being aware of it and certainly not disinterested (even as an adult, I have a soft spot for stuff intended for or dealing with teenagers), for some reason I never really watched it back then (maybe one or two episodes, but I can't tell anymore). But since the show is held in such a high esteem, I finally went ahead and got the entire season on DVD. I definitely agree that it would have deserved at least another season, but other than that I have rather mixed feelings.
I think the demographic My So Called Life is about (kids aged 14 to 17) is generally pretty neglected by filmmakers, and especially when it's a US mainstream production, it's mostly shallow, comedic stuff. I'm also really tired of many clichés that Hollywood has been feeding us over and over, always the same stories, evil rich kids bullying good regular kids, jocks vs. Nerds, yawn... So I was definitely hoping My So Called Life would be different, and it actually looked that way for the most part of the season... until it didn't. First of all, MSCL is a drama series, and that's great. When it's humorous, then only because the characters are doing or saying something funny within the plot, but it's clearly natural behavior, not added with a comedic intent. When the kids are introduced to us, my first thoughts were: Please, don't give me the same old "educational", cautionary Hollywood BS. I don't want another story about a girl that "breaks up" with her childhood friends to hang out with the "cool kids", until they let her down, she learns her lesson and returns to her trusted, goody-goody home turf. But this is exactly the direction the show is taking literally in the last two or three episodes. Sure, Jordan is a jerk, but hey, show me a teenager who's not driven by sexual attraction. Still I wish Jordan was a little more interesting and a little smarter. However, Brian is sooo boring, he's like a 12-year old kid. And we all know that when you're 14 or 15, the last thing you want is to be the way you were at 12. That's ages ago! So we can't tell for sure, but apparently Angela was beginning to see Brian in a different light just because it turned out that he had some deep thoughts in him, which by the way sounded totally out of character for him. And then we have Rayanne, to me the most interesting character, a flawed, but lovable character - up until the penultimate episode, where the creators decided to make her a real ahole. Why? WHY??? I've known a couple of people in my life who reminded me of Rayanne. They were unrelaiable, sometimes they lied for no reason, sometimes I wanted to kill them. But when we were together, boy, would we raise hell, boy, would we laugh, it was special. The kind of people that Kerouac wrote about:
Because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"
This is Ryanne, more or less. And then we're supposed to hate her. We're supposed to hate her because she slept with Jordan, which doesn't even make sense. Angela is officially over Jordan, we know this from her narration so we don't have any reason to assume that she's just pretending. There is nothing wrong with Ryanne sleeping with him, but what makes even less sense is that in the aftermath NO ONE seems to remember that Angela was over him, no one brings this up to defend Ryanne, including Ryanne herself. It's as if it never happened! Instead, Ryanne behaves like a total jerk and doesn't even want to talk about it. I think it would have been far more interesting to make the whole issue about the fact that Ryanne did something with Jordan that Angela wouldn't. We never really learn why Angela has such a problem with her first time. She's totally into this boy, girls usually mature earlier than boys, and sex is, well, far less complicated for them. We never learn anything about her inner turmoil. Oh yeah, I also thought it was refreshing for Hollywood to show us teenagers drinking with impunity, because that's all we did as teenagers, it was all about getting smashed on Saturday night, having a terrible hangover on Sunday, and doing it all over again next weekend. In most Hollywood productions, when teenagers drink they get sick and swear to never do it again. So, so unrealistic. And what do they do with Ryanne? Of course her drinking becomes a huge problem, in fact they make her an alcoholic! Which is ridiculous because for an alocoholic, she's able to quit rather easily and has no shakes or other typical symptoms. Coincidentally, around the same time I watched the Swedish teen drama show Young Royals. In one of the first scenes we see a girl puke her guts out during a party, and her friend not making a big deal about it. Boy, did I puke as a teenager. I was the puke master! The teenagers in this show remind me so much more of my teenage years, they're all about partying, drinking, and taking drugs, but this is depicted as a part of their life, not as a problem. And those aren't even stoner types, they attend this boarding school for preppies! Why did MSCL have to be so preachy? Unfortunately, I can't give more than 6 points (the acting is mostly very good, that's a plus). Ultimately the show's a little overrated.
Agent Elvis (2023)
Fun premise ruined by terrible writing
Even though I like Elvis and I'm afraid he may be turning over in his grave over this show, I'm not writing this as an (offended) Elvis fan who thinks they didn't do him justice or portray him accurately, I'm writing this as someone who really liked the premise and was hoping for a good, entertaining show. Unfortunately, it seems to me that nowadays the only idea for an adult cartoon that American producers/creators have is lowbrow fart and dick jokes, graphic violence, and drugs. I don't have a general problem with violence and drugs, you can put them to great use (see for example Pulp Fiction). But what the writers of Agent Elvis did is so vapid, so wannabe badass, and just not funny, it's really sad that there is apparently a big audience for this kind of humor that is long past puberty. It seems like the writers were 14 year old boys who picked up most of the jokes in the school toilet, and then they tried to make every single line somehow funny, failing miserably. "I'll give you a tour of the plane. Let's start with the cockpit. That's the best part because the word 'cock''s in it." 🤦 If you seriously think this is funny, then you're probably going to enjoy Agent Elvis. Me, I don't even understand why every American cartoon show for adults seems to be comedy by default. I wish they had made Agent Elvis more in the vein of classic James Bond movies, a little trashy with humorous undertones, but otherwise not in your face comedic. There is so much more creativity and diversity in Asia. And this is coming from someone who considers The Simpsons the best TV show ever. But every American adult cartoon I've seen in the last few years sucked or was mediocre at best. And of course The Simpsons have gone to the dogs, too, so maybe there's a pattern there, or this is what the key demographic wants to see...
Room (2015)
So disappointing
This movie could have been so much better. I thought the premise was super interesting, I'm also a huge fan of a number of films where people are held captive, trapped, or otherwise confined to one space, like "Misery" or several Polanski films or the Spanish movie "Buried". "Room" however pales in comparison. I was hoping for some suspense, some drama, but I found the movie to be emotionally flat and not very well-acted. I get it, this is supposed to be a "quiet, gentle" film, to quote the reviewer below me, but that's exactly what Hollywood is not good at, in my humble opinion. They will give you something that looks emotional on the surface and - no offense - will fool many people into believing that they saw something special, something beautiful and touching. But seriously, when I think about "Buried", this was also a very low-key movie, but it left me dumbfounded and shaken to the core. Around the time I watched "Room", I also stumbled upon the Danish film "Anklaget" (English title: "Accused") on Netflix. Now, this was an emotionally harrowing movie, by the end I had tears in my eyes. "Room" however left me strangely cold. I was also shocked to read later that Brie Larson got an Oscar for this completely forgettable performance. Is that really all it takes nowadays, Academy? I also found it absolutely not believable that the man would not check if the boy was really dead inside the carpet, but I could live with this if the movie had been better overall. I know 1 star is a little harsh, but I simply can't give more, seeing how many far better movies have a much lower rating. In reality I would probably give it 5 stars.
Vinyl (2016)
Shame on you, you plug-puller(s), whoever you are!
So, finally I managed to watch this show without actually knowing much about it. But the title and a short synopsis seemed interesting enough. To say that my expectations have been fulfilled would be a strong understatement. This is hands down the best movie or show about the music industry I have ever seen, if I don't count Spinal Tap (which is so different and special that it's hard to compare to anything). I read a lot about music history in general and the 70's/80's in particular, and from what I know I would say that the portrayal of the era is spot-on, masterfully interweaving real people and events with fiction. Compared to, say, Walter Yetnikoff's autobiography, Vinyl even seemed a little tame. Drugs and debauchery are present because there's no denying they played a role, but music is always at the very heart of this show. I'm not sure why this wasn't more successful and the IMDb rating is much lower than it should be. Maybe because it requires a lot of background knowledge to fully enjoy Vinyl? But to me that's one of the aspects that made it so good - the creators don't explain everything, they don't spoon-feed the viewer. So either you know that Jamie is holding a Big Star album, or you don't know what she's talking about. Either you know those are The Raspberries on stage, or you don't, because it's never said. Heck, I think even the entire conflict between commercialism and edginess/art may be lost on many viewers.
The performances are wonderful throughout. The characters are believable*, and it feels as if they were taken straight out of the 70's. There's so many period shows/films from Hollywood where you have the feeling that the meticulous and costly recreation of an era is pretty much the only merit. Vinyl has both - the look and feel, but also the flesh: great dialogues, characters, and storylines. Watching the show, I wasn't aware it had been cancelled after just one season, so I was expecting either a conclusion (like a mini-series) or more seasons in the future (well, I hadn't realized it was already that old...). Needless to say, I was devastated when I found out the truth, especially since the last episode was literally begging for a continuation.
And yes, Mr. Scorsese, it is tragic that this show didn't see at least a second season, but I'm really disappointed... Hey! Mr. Scorsese? Yeah, I'm talking to you. Who else do you think I'm talking to? You're the only one who said this show failed because you didn't direct all episodes. Which is kind of a slap in the face of all the people who did an amazing job on Vinyl, because it was not the show that failed, Mr. Scorsese, it was the audience, HBO, the system - I don't know. But certainly not the show, nor the direction, nor the actors, nor all the people who put their hearts and souls and all this attention to detail into this wonderful series. Do you know what my favorite movie of yours is, Mr. Scorsese? Even ahead of Taxi Driver and everything else? It's The King of Comedy, which was a massive box-office bomb, but certainly not a failure. You didn't fail with The King of Comedy, Mr. Scorsese, just as the team behind Vinyl didn't fail.
Oh, and before I go - Miss Olivia, if you ever feel like you've had enough of the rich and the famous or whoever you're dating or marrying these days, just drop me a PM, and we'll work something out!
* One notable exception is Lena Olin who inexplicably plays a Polish woman. Will Hollywood ever learn to do justice to foreign languages, especially in this day and age, when everything can be watched with original audio in every corner of the world? Not that there weren't any Poles living right in the US. As much as I respect Lena Olin as an actress, I'm a Polish speaker and I barely understood a word of what she said. Tarantino has been doing it right ever since, Breaking Bad cast real German actors. It can't possibly be that hard to find a suitable Polish actress with decent command of English, especially since the role called for English with a foreign accent. I know this won't bother anyone but Polish speakers, but still I wanted to mention it.