Change Your Image
willpageauthor
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
The Candidate (1972)
By moving slow, the films intimacy grows
I was drawn to The Candidate because of two prior viewings: All the Presidents Men and The Conversation. The former features Robert Redford and is arguably one of the greatest films of all time. The latter is a hidden gem (and hard to buy/view) but captures the brilliance of Allen Garfield. Both excel here.
The plot is predictable from the title, the delivery less so.
The film meanders at a walking pace and is without any real climaxes. This isn't a weakness per se as it allows you to appreciate the sheer quality of the acting. A political campaign is full of repetition - quoting the same sound bites, greeting the same people - and this film captures that in a way that allows you to grow a fondness of characters you disliked from the beginning. You grow into the movie as the Candidate himself grows into a contender.
That's the films masterstroke: slowing the pace to grow the intimacy.
Final word to Robert Redford himself. Without offering spoilers, there are scenes here where you don't know if they are outtakes or actual acting - and if the former, they it fools you as the latter. He is so in control of his role as Bill McKay you feel like you're a fly on the wall on the actual campaign trail. Non-fiction might be a suitable categorisation as The Candidate feels that close to the truth.
Griselda (2024)
Aimed high and missed, for complex reasons
This is a tricky review as anticipation was high and knowledge of the storyline even higher. I am student of the Billy Corben film Cocaine Cowboys and consider it the greatest documentary of all time. Having watched it, and its derivatives many times, I knew the Griselda story inside out*. That may help, or hinder, what follows.
To put some benchmarks in place, Griselda is not Narcos. That was the hope, but it is not even comparable. Narcos was unique in sinking you into the location, placing you on the streets of Colombia and moving toe-for-toe, blow-for-blow with the characters. Griselda just doesn't quite get there. Too much time is spent with Griselda giving long pensive looks to the camera, without any real suspense. This is often followed by clunky editing that makes you ask 'why did you say 'cut' at this point in the shoot'. Consequently, the momentum gets lost every time it tries to work through the gears.
Another fault of the drama is they've pinned everything on Sofia Vargas, and forgotten about what made the Griselda story so incredible: the importing and distribution of cocaine across the United States This barely gets a look in - I counted only a couple of scenes that tried to quantify quantities - leaving the viewed unappreciative of what made Griselda's story so incredible. "It's the operation, stupid". The smuggling, the dealers the network and the cartel formation. Very little time is spent exploring this, and without it, the glass isn't even half full. Real shame.
To be clear there are lots of strengths. Juliana Aidén Martinez is strong in the role of June, and perhaps Gabriel Sloyer is even stronger as Diaz. Martín Rodríguez ace's it as Rivi - the closest we get to what made Narcos so addictively special. These three set the bar, it's just a shame the others fall short. The best thing about Griselda, however, is the music - I'd give the music supervisor the Nobel Prize as I've never Shazam'ed so many times in my life. And I'm not talking about being slammed with hypnotic entrancing Colombian rhythms - you'll get that in kilos - but discovering gems like Mammy Blue by Roger Whitaker. To the music supervisor, take a bow.
Let's see where this review sits with others, but I think it's fair given the prior knowledge. If you are coming at Griselda fresh, then your impressions may differ - and rightly so. But this for me was a film that focussed too much on Sofia Vargas and not enough on what makes the Griselda (and Cocaine Cowboys) story so captivating: the "Narconomics" - to quote a fantastic book by Tom Wainwright.
Forces spéciales (2011)
Black Hawk Down on a tenth of the budget
You get what you pay for and - when compared to Black Hawk Down - the budget for this movie would get you an Oyster card for Zone 1-2 for a month. This isn't Hollywood dollars and it shows.
Some of the scenes are a tribute (or plagiarism) to the Ridley Scott masterpiece. There is a decent opening sequence and the acting is reasonable, but you just feel that you're being dragged into B-movie territory despite wanting it to work.
Weirdly, what really lets down the move is the music. Its all low-end production music and has nothing to do with the supposed location, making it harder to believe it was shot on location.
Had there been more zeros on the production bill, this could have been an eight but it'll need to be a low six I'm afraid.
Anatomy of a Scandal (2022)
So close (to matching BBC's State of Play), yet so far
This is a tricky one to review. Storyline and cast are all solid. Plot has enough twists and turns to maintain focus. Timing is favourable too; themes are all current. In a sea of mediocre movies that Netflix seems to be relentlessly throwing up, this should have been a welcome surprise. If done right, this could have even matched the BBC 20003 classic TV mini-series State of Play
Unfortunately, annoyingly, it fell short.
Echoing some of the constructive criticism on IMDB, it's too long. Perhaps by one or two episodes, it could have really been tightened up - four hours is a big ask. Also, it may be a pandemic thing, but the actors don't always feel comfortable with the material they have to deliver - you can see they they're 'carrying the script' at times, as opposed to embracing it. Merge these two points together and you get a plot you can't buy into.
And here's where it really falls apart (spoiler) Michelle Dockery (5'8" plus heels) is good, I mean really good in the lead role. But why cast Nancy Farino (5'3") to play her student-self when they look nothing like each other. Worse, they couldn't be the same person. The young James and Sophie fit the role brilliantly and believably but Farino looks so mis-cast it makes you think they had someone else in mind for the role, but they called in sick.
If you've got a long haul flight and nothing else to watch, then maybe. But if this is the storyline your after, and you want something way better, go back two decades (!) and watch BBC's State of Play. That was a masterpiece. This was piecemeal.
A Castle for Christmas (2021)
So bad, you'd prefer spending two hours with the dentist. Wouldn't qualify as a poor man's outtake or blooper.
I get it people, Christmas romcoms need to be taken with a pinch of salt. But two hours of Christmas viewing can be better spent elsewhere, as this film falls apart on three counts.
One - the actors give up on acting. There are scenes where you can see their eyes straying away from the camera angle to read their next lines. It's as if they've bene assembled that morning to hash out a rehearsal and the director said cut and took it to Netflix as stocking 'filler'. The simple rule of acting - learn your lines - seems to have been forgotten.
Two - the way Scotland is portrayed is beyond the pale. I'm not being overly sensitive here, but firstly - highland cow do not roam down village high streets - please, was that for the postcards? Secondly the accents are god awful and patronising. Third, the costumes look to have been assembled from a charity store. It's not the lack of effort, it's the fact they made NO effort.
Three - it's so strange they play on the town of Dunbar - although this is never featured. Nor do the locations used have anything to do with Dunbar. You do get a glimpse of Tantallon Castle but that's about it. For Netflix to claim "the most accurate depiction of Scotland ever seen on screen," does make me wonder how the reaction would work if the film was about (say) a country with less sense of humour and a more sensitive disposition.
Breaking Bad (2008)
Makes you Pay Attention, and Plays with your Imagination
Breaking Bad has tallied up over 1.5m scores and 3,903 reviews to date, so why even bother adding one more? After all, the arithmetic mean score is 9.3 and the Median is a straight up 10, so what more can be added?
As I am embarrassingly late to the party (I only heard of the series earlier earlier this year, a bit of a faux pas) and had to binge my way through it, I thought I'd try to add two dimensions not already covered. Yes it's a ten. Yes its addictive. Yes its unprecedented ...tick all the boxes and ditto all that's said before, but I believe the following two observations add value to the extensive review of the most valuable TV drama I've ever seen.
The first is how it plays with your attention. I can draw a parable from music, where we've seen adoption of streaming drive two changes: first songs are getting shorter; second songwriters are moving the chorus to the front. Why? Because you only get paid when you get played for more than 30 seconds and you don't get paid a second more for lasting a second more - so canny songwriters write shorter and catchier songs. This is covered in more depth in my book Tarzan Economics. I see a similar play so that we pay attention during the opening sequences of Breaking Bad, bringing the climax to the front to make sure you stay the course. Attention is scarce, we all want more of it meaning something has to give. The Breaking Bad series successfully won over almost two solid days of attention (or just over 47 hours), when most podcasts can't command half an hour and most songs can't get past three minutes. We should appreciate the introduction sequences which made this possible. So much so, it was possible then (pre-iPhone), and it's still possible now.
The second is how it plays with our imagination. I'm thinking specifically about Los Pollos Hermanos, a fried chicken fast food restaurant which functions as a front organisation for Gus Fring's meth operation. Numerous other reviews have acknowledged how well Gus is portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito, and the way he can deliver an unforgettable scene without even delivering an expression - the deadpan stare becomes the default. Nevertheless, I want to acknowledge the support actors in Los Pollos Hermanos - the customers, waitresses, kitchen staff - as they make you wonder how many diners you've been to which are a similar 'front' for bad behaviour. Where things seem just too normal. Where the takings at the till don't seem to add up given the known costs of running the store. These support actors are the unsung heroes which drop you deeper into Fring's underground world - they act like they're not even trying.
There's my two cents to add to the 3,903 cents already added - hopefully I'm breaking new bread with these observations, and you find them helpful. My thanks to the writers, cast and crew which made this 47 hour binge marathon worth every minute. Time to 'cook' a sequel!
Cocaine Cowboys (2006)
You know what's the best thing about Miami? It's just so close to the United States of America.
'You know what's the best thing about Miami? It's just so close to the United States of America!' This little known adage helps explain why this city, and this documentary has such a unique story to tell. Why, as the Former Crime Reporter, Miami Herald Edna Buchanana put it so geographically: 'you get washed up in Miami as there's no further to fall'. In Cocaine Cowboys, we have a treasured documentary that tells that story; why. Arguably, (and this is a first time reviewer putting his neck out) it can place a claim as one of the greatest documentaries of all time.
Let me shape that argument forward in three steps.
First, there's the intimacy of the storytelling. Today's internet can scale just about anything, but it can't scale intimacy. The documentary, which dates back to 2006 when YouTube was finding its feet, unfolds with the first-hand experiences and anecdotes of former traffickers Jon Roberts and Micky Munday. Got lucky! They not only give explicitly clear and remarkably relaxed accounts of what went down in Miami during the crazy late 70's and early 80's, but they do so with intimacy - using the tone and terminology of a fireside chat that draws you (back) into the madness of the time.
When Jon Roberts says 'let me explain this in a language that Americans would understand' - he's generously taking the time out to translate the ruthless culture of the Cubans and Colombians who were populating Miami at the time for us, watching from the safety of our sofas. He didn't need to, after all he spent the best part of a decade in jail, but he's a naturally gifted storyteller and wants the viewer to immerse themselves in the cultural melting pot that was boiling over. Micky Munday matches him for intimacy, explaining what it meant to buy an aircraft for close to $1m dollars in cash in 1981. Rather than do the inflation calculator trick (which results in $3m in cash today btw), he simply pulls a wry smile and asks us to 'imagine doing that today'. You needn't do the math; it was too wild back then to even bother.
Second, there's a saying that goes 'the jockey is only as good as the horse' - and director (or jockey) Billy Corben doesn't just get lucky with the storytellers, but the story itself is leaves your jaw on the floor. Cocaine Cowboys makes Narcos, Scarface and Miami Vice look tame. Especially when you 'follow the money' that was flowing through the city. To learn that the Federal Reserve Bank of Miami had a cash surplus greater than the rest of the United States reserve banks combined underlines how out of control the reality was. In a scene that lasts less than six seconds, the owner of one of Miami's cocaine banks is posed a question as to why, in a normal year, he would deposit $12m with the federal reserve yet records show that over $600m had been shelved. His response, in a mafia-esque Latino accent and a deadpan expression is to throw the question back: "are you implying that this bank does something wrong?"
Third, the cast of characters - Edna Buchana, Sam Burstryn, Raul Diaz - become unforgettable as the stories they tell are unfathomable. Like the drug itself, director Corben takes you on a high, and prepares you for the comedown as order is restored in the mid 80's - the irony being Miami Vice took off just as the crime got under control. On that note, hat tip to Jan Hammer - he of Miami Vice theme tune fame - for providing a soundtrack. It might not be your musical choice, but it couldn't be anyone else. It's those small nuggets scattered across the two hour documentary which can easily be missed on first viewing: heavy rotation is essential.
Imperfections, we got 'em. The fast paced editing, perhaps too choppy for some viewers, is not a crowd pleaser because it's cut in a way that the Director feels right - this is the Cocaine Cowboys era of Miami after all, not a retirement home like it was before, or as it has become since. Simply accessing this documentary ain't easy either. As with all of Billy Corben's impressive work, it's hard to find the original Cocaine Cowboys outside of the US. Also its legacy gets blurred as it's not clear what the purpose of the three hour reprise, titled Cocaine Cowboys Reloaded, was. (Note: If I had the chance to mash up them both, I'd edit down the interview Jorge 'Rivi' Ayala from the original and add back the Barry Seal footage from Reloaded). To make matters more confusing, Corben's reloaded another Cocaine Cowboys onto Netflix in recent months.
Here's the deal in 2021. Netflix is on a Narcotics 'tear' right now with countless dramas and documentaries hitting our recommendations. None come close, just trust me on that. Cocaine Cowboys is the original. It's the best. What's more, it is punk - it doesn't play to the crowd but asks the crowd to lean in and pay attention to what actually happened. It teaches you why Miami was so close to the United States. It had its own rules, and so does Corben's directorial style. It's a masterpiece and it deserves a perfect ten.