BoJack Horseman Season 3 Review (No Spoilers)

I adore BoJack Horseman and Season 3 is fantastic.  It is one of my favorite TV shows right now.  It has fantastic, multi-dimensional characters and balances dark, dramatic storylines with quirky and hilarious jokes.

Season 3 at its core continues to explore happiness, how fleeting it is for the characters, and how they keep going through the same cycle over and over again, while also being extremely funny at the same time to balance out the darker moments.

My personal favorites of the season were: "Fish Out of Water" and "Brrap Brrap Pew Pew."  "Fish Out of Water" is an absolute delight and reminds us the power of cartoons as a storytelling device because I can't imagine live-action being able to tell a similar story in the same way.  "Fish Out of Water" is a very non-traditional BoJack episode in terms of storytelling and I applaud the show for branching out.  I hope they do another episode like this next season.  "Brrap Brrap Pew Pew" is fantastic due to its audacity.  Without revealing any spoilers, I've never seen any TV show actually *go there* though the topic does get discussed.  "Brrap Brrap Pew Pew" is bold and features one of the most hilarious, darkly humorous songs I've heard in a long time.  Honestly, though you really can't go wrong with any of the episodes this season.  All of them are great, and there were no fillers or weak episodes.

Season 3 starts just where Season 2 ended.  BoJack (Will Arnett) is on the Oscar campaign trail, Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris) is running her agency, Diane (Alison Brie) is working on her marriage to Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F Tompkins) and trying to find meaning in her work as a social media coordinator, and Todd (Aaron Paul) and Mr. Peanutbutter have ongoing shenanigans as usual.

I like how this season had even more of a focus on the past for all of the characters.  I especially like the glimpses we get of BoJack/Princess Carolyn's past relationship.  They decide to firmly break up early on in Season 1 but we never really get to see what their relationship had been like.

There's a lot of feminist themes this season as well, especially an episode that actually GOES there.  I also appreciate that there are so many great female characters in this show and all of them are well defined three-dimensional characters.  This season, we have past characters who pop up like BoJack's TV daughter Sara Lynn (Kristen Schaal) and popstar Sextina Aquafina (Aisha Tyler).  We also get new characters like star publicist Ana Spanikopita (Angela Bassett) and playwright Jill Pill (Mara Wilson).  I was also tremendously excited that the two main female characters, Diane and Princess Carolyn, spend more time together this season as Diane takes a job at Princess Carolyn's new agency.  It seemed strange before that these two main characters do not really get to interact, though they both play such pivotal roles in the show.

There is less BoJack/Diane hanging out this season, the two of them have one of my favorite relationships on the show since they really get each other, but it's been great to see the show dig into BoJack and Princess Carolyn's relationship and BoJack and his past Horsin' Around cast.

BoJack Horseman is really a magical show, and I can't wait to see the next season, especially excited that they've already been renewed for another year!

The Revenant

The Revenant 

     The Revenant is definitely not a movie for everyone.  It is brutal, harsh, and breath-takingly beautiful all at the same time.  The Revenant is about Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), a fur trapper who has to make his way back to camp after he is attacked by a grizzly bear and left behind to die by his fellow trappers: the villainous John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and young Bridger (Will Poulter).

     At its heart, The Revenant is very much a Western, and a very meditative one at that.  The Revenant does not gloss over how wild life is in the frontier- the large expansive distances that people have to travel and the solitude (sometimes loneliness of it all).  What makes The Revenant so hard to watch at times is how you see and experience almost everything that Glass experiences on his journey.    

     My favorite part about The Revenant are the visuals and the cinematography.  There are so many images of the haunting barren landscapes as Glass makes his way back to the fort.  One of my favorite images is when we see Glass walking through a clear snowy wasteland but we are so far away that we can't tell whether he is walking towards us or away from us.  The battle scenes are also such a treat- the scenes are so kinetic and alive- we really get brought into the moment of the battle, experiencing the chaos along with the characters and I can't recall a battle scene quite like this in recent memory.

     I am surprised by how much better this movie holds up the second day as I think about it some more.  Coming straight out of the movie, I was frustrated with the pacing and in my notes, had things written down like "troublesome pacing" and "wow, Leo really wants his Oscar."  But thinking back on the movie, I find myself liking the movie more, the whole experience of it, even the slower parts.  I am also amazed by how Hardy disappears, as he always does into his roles- Fitzgerald is no exception.

     If you want a non-traditional Western to watch or something intense and visually stunning, The Revenant is for you.

Short Term 12

Short Term 12

     Short Term 12 has been on my to-watch list for so long and and I am so glad I finally watched it today.  It is such a tremendous movie with memorable characters, fantastic writing and acting.  It genuinely broke my heart several times.  At the end of the movie, I wasn't ready to let go of these characters at all and would have gladly watched hours more of the kids and employees at the half-way home.
     Short Term 12 centers around Grace (Brie Larson), a supervisor at the half-way home, who has a chaotic week at work while her personal life falls apart.  Along with Grace at the half-way home, there is Grace's boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr), and the new hire Nate (Rami Malek).  The kids include quiet musician Marcus (Keith Stanfield), who is aging out of the home, and sarcastic newcomer Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever).
      What really struck me about the movie and what truly made the stories so sad is the pain that all of these kids had endured and how it continued to affect all of them, even though for many of them, the source of the pain was long gone.  There's Marcus, who is still haunted by his mother and expresses his pain through self-penned rap songs.  Grace is still haunted by her childhood too and she channels her energy through helping the kids at the home, finding a special connection to Jayden.

Master of None

Master of None
5/5 Stars

Master of None is Aziz Ansari's new Netflix show and it is fantastic.  It is funny, smart, and really relatable to people in their late 20s and 30s.  Ansari plays Dev, a late 20s something actor.  The show features loosely connected stories that Dev and his friends who include: sensible Denise (Lena Waithe), quirky Arnold (Eric Wareheim), Brian (Kelvin Yu), fellow actor, Ravi (Ravi Patel), and Rachel (Noel Wells).  Master of None reminds me a lot of Louie in terms of storytelling style, though in terms of tone, it is far more optimistic and vivacious, as would be expected from Ansari.  The show is also a really fun and easy watch- I found myself watching seven episodes in one fell swoop and the episodes feel short in a very good way.  I can't wait to watch the next season or see Ansari's next project.

One of my favorites parts of the show is how conscious it is about race and gender and also what it means to be an advocate.  One of the stand-outs is the second episode in which Dev and Brian who are first-generation Americans decide to learn more about their parents, who are immigrants.

Growing up, when my mom watched movies and TV shows with me, she was always excited whenever she saw someone who looked Asian in a show and for the longest time I never quite understood her excitement until recently.  As a first-generation Asian American who watches a lot of American entertainment, I haven't really seen too many shows or movies that talk about the Asian-American experience.  I did not realize how great it is to see some semblance of your story or experience told until watching the episode.  For example, Brian's dad, Peter, texts very formally and communicates with Brian by sending him Economist articles.

One key difference between Master of None and something like Fresh Off the Boat is that Master of None is willing to go there.  While it's fantastic to see an Asian family on TV, I was disappointed that for the most part, Fresh Off the Boat felt very sanitized.  There's another fantastic Master of None episode, "Indians on TV," in which Dev and Ravi are both being considered for a role in a sitcom and only one of them can be cast because including more than one "Asian" character on the show would automatically make the show just for Asians.

Master of None also deals with gender issues and advocacy.  There is an episode later in the season, Ladies and Gentleman, that honestly deals with how men and women experience the world differently.

Master of None features a slew of really interesting minor characters as well.  One of my favorites is Colin Salmon, playing a very dramatic, Shakespearean actor version of himself.

Rating: 5/5

Marvel's Daredevil Review

     When I first heard that Netflix was doing a Daredevil series, I wasn't terribly excited.  The original Daredevil movie (2003) was not only terrible but it has the unique distinction of being an extremely memorable bad movie.  Some of the distinct details of how bad it was include:
-A villain named Bullseye played by Collin Farrell who literally has a target drilled into his head
-When Matt Murdock/the Daredevil and his love interest, Elektra meet up, they solidify their budding romance by showing off their fighting skills on a playground
-Because the noises of the city are too much for him, Matt literally sleeps in a coffin filled with water.
See- lots of ridiculous details that are all surprisingly very memorable.

     I am pleased to say that Netflix/Marvel's Daredevil is a lot better than the movie.  The series is really solid entertainment.  In terms of tone and feel, it reminds me a lot of Batman Begins and is definitely very heavily influenced by the Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy.  Daredevil also has a fantastic theme song that I just want to keep replaying.

     Daredevil tells the origin stories of how Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer with heightened senses, who fights injustice in New York's Hell's Kitchen.  By day, he and his best friend Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) have their own start-up law firm, Nelson and Murdock.  By night, Matt is a vigilante who takes the law directly into his own hands, who is sometimes aided by nurse Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson).   Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) is their secretary who investigates a mystery that has been haunting her.  She later loops in Ben Urich (Vondie Curtis-Hall), Hell's Kitchen's world-weary investigative reporter.

    Daredevil relies on many tried and true tropes and character archetypes.  While it does not really do anything revolutionary with the plot or the characters, it executes what it has well and that's always pleasant to watch.  Matt/Daredevil, like Batman, has his one rule- he will not kill anyone directly and struggles with the morality of what he does as a vigilante, especially since he is Catholic.  Ben Urich is the Jim Gordon of this universe- he's seen a lot of ugly things happen and is worn down by the world he lives in but he will continue to fight to find the truth.  The heroes in the series are fantastic.  They feel three-dimensional and really drive the series forward.  The Daredevil, who has a disguised speaking voice from Matt's, also provides yet another example of how heroes can disguise their voices and still sound menacing without grunting into incoherence.

     On the other side of the fence are Hell's Kitchen's villains.  Vincent D'Onofrio gets top billing among the antagonists as the mysterious Fisk.  Fisk is highly reminiscent of Bane- both are not only physically intimidating men but also highly intelligent.  D'Onofrio plays Fisk too big and I really wish he'd gone with a smaller, more subtle performance.  Fisk has a halting manner of speaking like he has trouble pushing out his words and that becomes more distracting the more Fisk speaks.  Most of the villains are flat characters who feel like flimsy cut-outs.  The only two exceptions are Wesley (Toby Moore), Fisk's loyal right hand man, and Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho), an elderly heroine manufacturer who has her own army of blind drug runners.

     Episodes shift between the character-driven ones and the action-focused ones.  The action-focused episodes almost remind me of Justice League and Batman cartoons with elaborately choreographed fight scenes.  With the TV-MA rating, the fight scenes do get brutal and very violent.  Daredevil has a good grasp on the small/character driven events.  I would really like to see it address the world of Hell's Kitchen more.  One thing that I really enjoyed about the series is how actions do have consequences in this universe.

     The first moment I knew I wanted to invest time watching this series was actually a small one in the second episode.  The second episode is now famous for the fantastic tracking-shot hallway fight scene.  In the second episode, there is also this small scene in which Foggy and Karen go out for drinks because Karen does not want to go home yet.  Karen, seeing all the seemingly seedy people in the bar feels uncomfortable but Foggy goes around and tells her about each of them including how they've been helping one scary looking guy get his kid into daycare.

The Imitation Game (2014) Movie Review

The Imitation Game

Biopics are a tricky business.  In the cynical 2010s, sweeping biopics about historical figures just don't really cut it anymore.  There have to be complications and something different than just a series of events in the storytelling.  Recently, Lincoln (2012) did it fantastically by focusing deeply on a narrow time frame- what was going on in Congress and within Lincoln's inner circle during the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery.

The Imitation Game uses a similar technique by having flashbacks focus on Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) during his arguable peak when he and a team of academics worked on cracking the Nazi Germany ENIGMA codes at Bletchley Park.  As a framing device, the film also follows Turing in the present day when he is jailed for having relations with another man.  The movie is really at its best when it focuses on the past.  I wish the writers had spent as much time developing the bleak, present day when Turing is broken down by society's treatment of homosexuals because that is also a really critical to piece to Turing's tragic legacy.    

The Imitation Game is a fine, solid, serviceable movie but could have been a much better film if it hadn't tried to thickly force the main themes.  One of the main themes is that even though Turing can't seem to understand other people, that is also what makes him so unique and singularly able to break the code.  There are lots of ways the movie conveys this main theme naturally through the plot, but it also, ungracefully, has characters verbally state the theme.

Despite that though, there's a lot that I like about the Imitation Game.  It does a fantastic job explaining how the Bletchley Park team of mathematicians and linguists broke ENIGMA.  I am sure we got a vastly simplified explanation of how the machine that Turing's team built, but I appreciated how the writers were able to describe how the Turing machine (precursor to modern computing) worked for a general audience.

The performances are fantastic, especially Cumberbatch as Turing and Alex Lawther as young Turing.  Both do a really wonderful job of showing what it is like being unable to belong and not understanding people well enough to understand why they don't.

I was also really pleasantly surprised by the prominence of Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), the female mathematician on Turing's team.  While Turing is unable to connect with his teammates, since Clarke is a woman, she is not even allowed to work with the team in the same room.  Turing has to sneak Clarke's work to her room during odd hours of the night.  I love that Clarke clearly has her own agenda and is never relegated to being defined by her relationship to Turing as female characters unfortunately often are in movies.  Clarke and Turing's friendship is one of my favorite parts of the whole movie, especially because both of them want different things from what society expects of them.  

One really fantastic scene that has stuck with me was how when Clarke meets the rest of the team, she is pleasant and the team immediately likes her.  Turing, confused, wants to know how Clarke gets them to like her so easily.  In reply, Clarke states, "Unlike you, I don't have the luxury of being difficult."  Especially in light of all these studies showing how women do face biases in the workplace, I wish more movies and TV shows told these stories about women not just in period pieces but in modern day pieces.  I do find it strange how some of the best fictional portrayals of women fighting social limitations all take place in period pieces (such as the always fantastic Mad Men).

Overall, The Imitation Game is a decent film.  The story telling could be a little less heavy handed but its fantastic performances, explanation of modern computing, and unexpected feminist leanings definitely make it worth watching.

Movie Review: Perfume- The Story of a Murderer (2006)

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is one of those rare movie trailers that really stood out because of  how visually striking it was.  I'd meant to see it but never really had a chance to until I saw it recently on Netflix.

Perfume is definitely not for everyone.  It is about Jean-Baptise Grenouille (Ben Whishaw, Q from Skyfall), a strange man who has an incredible sense of smell.  Over time, he becomes obsessed with preserving smell using whatever means possible.  Many parts of the story really make me pause to recommend it to others, especially the fate of all the beautiful women Jean-Baptise terrorizes in his insatiable desire to capture scent.

In many ways, the movie reminds me of a dark fairy tale- the original Grimm's fairy tales in which truly macabre, gruesome things happen beside the fantastical.  There really are not too many fantasy movies and one thing I really enjoyed about the movie is how confident it was visually.  It shows us what Jean-Baptise smells through its beautiful visual scenery and really immerses us in a different world.  In particular, I loved seeing the flower harvests in perfume-town Gasse.

The movie fluctuates in tone between the serious and lighter areas.  It really works best when it does not take itself too seriously and plays up the dark fairy tale aspect, which it does well when Jean-Baptise first learns the perfume trade from a highly entertaining, struggling perfumist, Baldini (Dustin Hoffman).  The always wonderful Alan Rickman also makes a memorable appearance as Richis, father to Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood), a girl who becomes Jean-Baptise's object of obsession.
I really wish the women in this movie were given more to do than be victims of Jean-Baptise.  Laura is really the only female character in the movie and she really does not have much to do except look lovely and suffer in silence between two unappealing choices.

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and House of Cards Season 3 Review

Between House of Cards Season 3 and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix is having a fantastic month.  My reviews are mostly spoiler free and the spoilers are hidden.  

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt 

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a new comedy on Netflix, produced by Tina Fey.  I just binge watched the season last weekend and adored it.  Kimmy Schmidt is delightful and leaves you wanting more in a good way. If you are a 30 Rock fan, you are going to love Kimmy Schmidt.  The humor, rapid fire jokes, quick cutaways are all very reminiscent of 30 Rock.  However, Kimmy Schmidt distinguishes itself early on from 30 Rock by being more optimistic and grounded in reality.

One thing that I love about Kimmy Schmidt is the main, titular character Kimmy (Ellie Kemper) who is unapologetically optimistic.  Even though Kimmy comes from a tremendously dark place (she and 3 other women were kept underground for years by a crazy cult leader for several years), nothing can quench her inner strength and positivity.  With so many comedies grounded in cynicism, it is so refreshing to see one centered around positivity.  (Side Note 1: One fantastic comedy that was centered around optimism is the recently ended Parks and Recreation.)  On a completely unrelated side note, if they ever did a live action version of the Teen Titans, I can't imagine a more perfect actress for optimistic alien princess Starfire than Kemper who makes Kimmy such a compelling character.

The main cast of Kimmy Schmit is also fantastic.  My favorite is probably Titus Andromedon (Titus Burgess), who is Kimmy's fabulous gay roommate- a singer hoping to make it big.  Burgess, who comes from a Broadway background, gets to show off his gorgeous voice often.

There is consequently a lot of funny musical moments, including Titus' party playlist and fake musical Daddy's Boy , which I would definitely pay serious money to see a whole production of.

 One of the show's funniest moments early on is Titus's surprisingly catchy music video for his song Pinot Noir which has really impressive rhyming.

There's also Kimmy's boss, Jacqueline Voorhees (the always fantastic Jane Krakowski aka Jenna from 30 Rock).  Jacqueline feels very much like Jenna in the beginning, rich and self-absorbed,  but soon distinguishes herself as more human and contemplative of her life choices.  The only main cast member who did not quite work for me was landlord Lillian (Carol Kane).  Lillian certainly has a lot of funny, hilarious moments, but she hasn't really come together as a character for me yet except as someone who gets to say a lot of funny things.  I liked Lillian the best when she gets paired with Titus and hope to see the two of them go on more misadventures next season.

Among the supporting characters, my favorites are Xanthippe Voorhees (Dylan Gelula), Jacqueline's teenaged-daughter and Kimmy's frenemy, and Dong (Ki Hong Lee), Kimmy's immigrant study buddy.   Kimmy and Xan share some hilarious barbs that you've probably seen memes of floating around.  Dong and Kimmy have a genuinely sweet friendship in which they bond over all the strange things they've observed in NYC so far.  (Minor SPOILERS below)

Besides the supporting characters, there are also quite a few fantastic cameos that I will not spoil here.  But when you see them, you will be excited.  If you haven't already, go watch Kimmy Schmidt- you really are in for a treat.

House of Cards: Season 3 

I really wanted to write a more positive review of Season 3 of House of Cards because it starts of so strong.  There's so much energy and potential throughout the season that I was surprised to see it all fizzle away as the season limped towards the end.

People who really enjoyed Season 2 are not going to like Season 3 at all.  There are not too many brash, bold Frank Underwood moments and the Underwoods actually come across as more human and vulnerable.   I wasn't a huge fan of Season 2 so I was pleasantly surprised in how Season 3 improves upon many of the flaws from the earlier seasons.

Season 3 is much quieter than the earlier seasons in a good way.  House of Cards actually manages to pull off this wonderful slow burn throughout this season, especially in the first half.  In the second half, there is also a tremendous amount of tension but it disappointingly does not clearly lead to anything.  A lot of the conflict ends up being what is left unsaid and unshared.

Season 3 picks up soon after Frank (Kevin Spacey) takes office.  One very welcome change is that people around the Underwoods are no longer stepping aside or playing directly into their hands.  In fact, the Underwoods face many worthy adversaries this season.  A few of the most memorable ones include Russian president Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelsen), underused Senate Majority Leader Hector Mendoza (Benito Martinez), and US Solicitor General Heather Dunbar (Elizabeth Marvel).   Mikkelsen's Petrov is a fantastic House of Cards version of Putin- confident, ruthless, and pragmatic.  I was really excited to see Mikkelsen in the cast, especially after his creepy turn as antagonist Magnussen in Sherlock Season 3.

Another Underwood adversary that I really enjoyed was Dunbar.  One thing I really like about Dunbar is that even in the corrupt House of Cards world, she is a somewhat moral character and people like and respond tremendously well to her.  Dunbar is however human and I am glad to see that she genuinely and realistically gets tempted with some morally dubious choices.

Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) has slowly become my favorite character of the show.  The sexual assault storyline last season and how media treated her because of her potential infidelity were some of the most riveting parts of an otherwise lackluster season.  This season, Claire gets some of her most compelling story-lines.  I like that this season they do start to address directly, if you can really have a power couple in which both parties are equal.

In terms of supporting characters, the Underwoods, as always are the protagonists and their political allies and enemies flit in and out as needed.  Remy Danton (Mahershala Ali), despite having a key role, really gets little to do story-wise.  I've been neutral to him in the past but he does get a really compelling, brief story that we don't really see told in entertainment often enough, if at all.

Locke and Birdman

In Locke, Tom Hardy plays Ivan Locke, a family man and building foreman who goes on a drive and has a few life changing telephone calls.  When I first heard about the premise of Locke, a movie featuring one actor who is driving and talking on the phone for the duration of the whole film, I was curious to see how it would play out.  It plays out fine and it's interesting enough that I was intrigued to see what would happen next the whole time.

A couple of things that really surprised me is how ordinary Ivan Locke is- the stuff that he has to deal with- projects at work and family aren't extraordinary circumstances, yet there is still a lot of story to be told there.  I was also surprised by how much I could get to know a character by just their voices.  You never get to see Donal, one of Ivan's colleagues from work or Katherine, his wife, but by the end of the movie, I was surprised by how much I knew or could infer about them just by their voices.

Overall, Locke is a decent film.  It's not a must see but if you find yourself intrigued in seeing how a movie featuring Tom Hardy talking on the phone in a car, it's worth checking out.  The only parts of the movie that seemed incongruous are when Ivan monologues to his dead father.  It takes you out of the realism of the film and away from the large amount of tension that builds just from the real time phone conversations on as Ivan drives on.

**

Now, Birdman is another movie that experiments with movie storytelling and does tremendously well with it.  Birdman might just be my favorite movie of 2014.   There's nothing too unique about Birdman from a plot perspective.  Riggan Thomas (Michael Keaton) is an aging movie star, who is about to open his play on Broadway, in which he stars and directs.  Riggan sees it as his last shot at greatness.  The aging movie star story has been told many times in many different ways- recently really well by BoJack Horseman on Netflix.  Now what makes Birdman a treat is really how the story is told.

Birdman is a bit jarring at first and it takes a while to get used to the camera following the characters around in real time.  In fact, Birdman is shot in a way that it looks like the whole movie is just one long single take and it works fantastically well to creating the mounting tension that Riggan feels as opening night draws closer and the escalating chaos backstage.  You really get pulled into the movie, with the thumping drumline and the characters flitting in and out - almost like a play, and grow to care about them, especially Riggan and his mental state of mind.  There're so many great scenes that are hard to describe without watching them first or spoiling the film.  One of my favorite scenes is when Riggan has to walk through Time Square during a dress rehearsal.
 
 There are a lot of big names in the cast including Emma Stone- Sam, Riggan's daughter who just got out of rehab, Edward Norton- Mike, a pompous, talented theater actor, Naomi Watts-Lesley, an actress in the play, and Zach Galifianakis-Jake, Riggan's long suffering producer.  Norton stands out as an apologetic jerk and features in many of the movie's funniest moments.      

Go see Birdman!  It's a fantastic ride.

BoJack Horseman

BoJack Horseman is a pleasant surprise.  It starts off as an adult cartoon comedy and then somewhere along the way, without us realizing it, it turns into something darker, more serious, and ultimately very satisfying.  BoJack (Will Arnett) is about a washed up 90s family sitcom star who starts re-evaluating his life when Diane (Allison Brie- Annie from Community :D), a ghostwriter, pens his life story.  

The first three episodes are probably the weakest of the bunch but do stay with the show, the payoff is worth it.  In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the fourth season of Arrested Development in which each episode builds on each other and it's only when you're a few episodes in that things start making sense and you start getting the jokes.  BoJack is full of dark humor and has lots of zany anthropomorphic jokes.  One of my favorites are the bird paparazzi.  There's also a lot of jokes around Hollywood (Hollywoo') culture and some around internet culture a la Buzzfeed.

The characters, despite most of them being deeply flawed, are all immensely interesting and I was surprised by how much I grew to care for all of them.  Among the main characters, there's also Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris), BoJack's intense, overworked and underappreciated agent; Todd (Aaron Paul!), BoJack's loyal, slacker housemate; and the always sunny and optimistic Mr. Peanutbutter  (Paul Tompkins), BoJack's rival.  Among the more minor characters, there's the hilariously constantly panicked publisher Mr. Penguin (Patton Oswalt).

BoJack is really at its best when it upends traditional storytelling and has some of its best episodes towards the end of the season.  Some of my favorites are: Say Anything- in which we learn a lot more about Princess Carolyn, who goes from someone who's hard to care for to a fully developed, complicated character, The Telescope- in which BoJack visits an old friend and his past, and Downer Ending- which goes to emotional depths you'd never expect the show would be capable of early on.

Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black is Netflix's newest original series is about Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), who is incarcerated for transporting drug money, and her fellow inmates at Litchfield federal prison.  Orange is the New Black is fantastic and refreshing. It made me realize how much I've missed watching shows about strong, well developed female characters.  I've watched several movies in theaters and the last recent movie I can think of in which the main female characters weren't just the love interests was Bridesmaids which was out two years ago.

I also love how it actually allows older women, women of color, and butch lesbians speak and become fleshed out characters instead of just the younger, prettier women.  There's even a transwoman on the show, Sophia Burset (Laverne Cox), and I think they handle her story and character well.  I am frankly impressed by how many stories and themes the show addresses that you usually don't see.  I like that many of the women on the show get to develop as characters in their own right.  It's so refreshing to see female characters who aren't mainly just about finding or dealing with love and to see them actually get to develop relationships with each other.

I think the show plays it very safe in the beginning with Piper being the character who we follow into the world of Litchfield prison.  Of all of the storylines in the season, one of the least interesting ones is how Piper's fiance Larry (Jason Biggs) and her WASPy friends and family deal with Piper's incarceration.  The contrast between their lives and those of the inmates is stark and Piper's brother is a good comic relief but with so many other characters from the prison left unexplored, I found myself a little frustrated whenever the show focused on life outside of the prison.

I was surprised by how quickly the corrupt wardens, correction officers, and gaurds grew on me as the show progressed and the power dynamic between the prison guards and the inmates.  Particularly fascinating are: sleezy guard "Pornstache" Mendez, corrupt vice warden Figueroa, and Piper's correction officer Healy.

At the heart of the show are, of course, the inmates- all wonderfully portrayed with so many fascinating stories. There's stern Claudette (Michelle Hurst), tough and motherly Red (Kate Mulgrew), transwoman Sophia (and I love how above all else, they emphasize her classiness and downplay her flamboyance), joker Taystee (Danielle Brooks), the mother and daughter Diazes, former junkie Nicky (Natasha Lyonne), Piper's ex girlfriend Alex (Laura Prepon), and Crazy Eyes (Uzo Abuba).  It's absolutely fascinating watching the relationships between the women develop and the dynamics of the different prison cliques change over time.  The show is at its best when it tells stories we don't usually see like Janae, the track star who gives in to peer pressure to fit in, and how for some of the inmates, prison isn't bad compared to the dangerous neighborhoods they have to return to after they leave.    

Brilliant, hilarious scene from the show.

Prequels: Monsters University and Hannibal

Monsters University 

Monsters University is the prequel to Monsters Inc following Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan during their college days.  MU is delightful.  I enjoyed it tremendously and had forgotten how charming the Monsters world was- full of color and optimism.  Given Pixars two latest films, the cliche, forgettable Cars 2 and well-intentioned but too preachy Brave, I was a little worried they were losing their touch.  With Monsters,  I am reassured that Pixar still has many fun and meaningful stories to tell.

Monsters University is very much Mike's story.  We learn why he's so optimistic and why he's the guy who is still over the moon when he's on a TV commercial even when the logo happens to be covering him up.  I like how it goes back to those classic Pixar movies in which the messages were always uplifting but not saccharine.  I was also particularly impressed with how brutally honest the characters are with each other when they finally confront each other.  



Hannibal

A more terrifying prequel I've been following is NBC's Hannibal, created by Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies).  For a while, Hannibal had been one of those shows I put on in the background while I did other things, but somewhere in the middle of the season, "Sorbet," completely blew me away.  

Hannibal is a prequel of sorts to Silence of the Lambs and features Hannibal Lector (Mads Mikkelsen, the Bond villian from Casino Royale) when he's still a psychiatrist before he gets caught.  Lector is at the top of his game.  He is respected in the community for his medical expertise and for his gourmet cooking.  Mikkelsen really nails this role, especially since Anthony Hopkins so iconically portrayed Hannibal in Silence of the Lambs.  Mikkelsen's Lector is mysterious and frighteningly cool.  He has an accent no one can quite place but he appears so cultured and polite, other characters can't help but to instinctively trust him.

The show follows Hannibal's relationship with Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), a gifted FBI profiler who's gift and curse is his ability to empathize with others, and Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), Will's supervisor.  Other main characters include: Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas), Will's close friend and Beverley Katz (Hettienne Park), a member of Jack's forensic team.  I was also really excited to see Gillian Anderson (Agnet Scully!! :D) make an appearance on the show.  

Hannibal is a very character-centric show and visually striking, full of eerie imagery.  I enjoyed it the most somewhere near the middle of the season, when things weren't too bleak yet and when there was this undercurrent of tremendously dark humor and when you really had no idea where things are going.  The episodes leading up to the finale are tough.  Will Graham, who uses his gift of empathy to profile serial killers, becomes increasingly damaged as he bears the brunt of the emotional trauma the characters experience.  While the Abagail Hobbs story was interesting especially for the development of the characters and Will and Hannibal's relationship, I wish they had featured other arcs more heavily, like Franklyn, another one of Hannibal's patients, and Tobias the violin maker.

The Great Gatsby

My review of The Great Gatsby.  It's very much Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby and not in a good way.  It's gaudy, flashy, and lacks substance.  I did enjoy the soundtrack though.  In particular, Florence + the Machine's majestic "Over the Love."  There's also a very amusing, jazzy cover of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love."

Haruki Murakami's1Q84

1Q84 features two seemingly parallel storylines: Aomame, a physical trainer who kills violent, abusive men and Tengo, an aspiring novelist who ghost writes a promising short story he feels particularly drawn to.  The first two books of 1Q84 are magnificent.  They draw you in immediately and introduce you to the strange and sometimes creepy world of 1Q84 in which there are two moons instead of one and policemen carry semi-automatic weapons instead of revolvers.  The pacing is tight and characters are motivated to act.  The third book of 1Q84 feels weak.  Another character's POV is introduced (he doesn't really add all that much to the story) and things that should get resolved sooner drag on.  The antagonists in the story are also surprisingly disappointing, especially when they've been built up as so omniscient and cunning.

I liked Tengo right off the bat and initially looked forward to his part of the story more.  As the story went on, I found myself liking Aomame more.  Her struggles are deeply moving and become more fascinating as the novel progresses while Tengo seems to take a more passive role.  There're many minor characters and I wish more of them had felt more like real characters rather than plot devices.

Of the minor characters, my two favorites were Fuka-Eri and Ayumi.  Fuka-Eri is the mysterious teenager whose story Tengo ghostwrites.  Fuka-Eri is wise beyond her years but deeply damaged and oftentimes unable to communicate her wisdom.  She also had this strange, intimate dynamic with Tengo that I almost wish Murakami had explored more.  I would love to read a whole novel just about her.  Ayumi is a policewoman who befriends Aomame.  Ayumi has had a very damaged background just like Aomame but deals with it in a very different way.

IQ84 is at its best when it builds up to its fantastic climax- it's exhilarating and terrifying.  There are a lot of moving pieces and it's especially satisfying to see the characters behave unexpectedly.  I also really enjoyed the stories both about the characters (the dowager's history, Aomame's friendship with Tamika) and about the books that they read ("The Cat Town" and "Air Chrysalis").  Cat Town and Air Chrysalis are both haunting in their own ways and Air Chrysalis does live up to all the hype the characters in the book put around it.

In many ways, the love story in IQ84 feels like the weakest part.  Despite the relationships they develop in their parallel story lines Aomame and Tengo both still feel terribly alone and only find solace in their idealized love for each other .  In some ways, I wish the author let them develop deeper relationships with others around them because those relationships felt very raw and much more realistic though what the love meant to Aomame is genuinely moving.  

I also still have so many questions about Air Chrysalis and the world of 1Q84 and if any of you have read it I'd love to get into a debate about what the more mysterious things in the book meant.

Mace's Five Favorite Lesser Known Films

I saw this question posed on a movie forum recently and gave it some thought.  I'm sneaking in one extra.    

The Wedding Banquet (dir: Ang Lee) is about a gay Taiwanese man who fakes a wedding to a woman with his partner to please his traditional Taiwanese parents who don't know he's gay.  It's funny, poignant, and heartfelt.  

This might just be my favorite Ang Lee film because he captures the Chinese parent-child relationship so well especially when there's that generation/cultural gap between the parents who live in the home country and the kids who move to the US.  To some extent I think every Asian kid can relate to the relationship- how there are things you don't tell your parents because you don't think they'll get it (but they do or they'll try their very best to). 

   

Another one of Ang Lee's earlier films that I really enjoy is Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, which is is about a former chef and his three daughters. Like the Wedding Banquet, it starts off with a light, comedic tone but reaches quite a different and more serious tone towards the end.  Eat, Drink, Man, Woman is about growing up and moving on.  It also features some really magnificent Chinese cooking.  One of my favorite food sequences on film is below.  

  

The Children's Hour. The Children's Hour is a haunting story about how a little girl ruins the lives of two of her female teachers (Audrey Hepburn and Shirley Maclaine) after she spreads a rumor about them. I was impressed by how progressive it was since it was made in the 1960s.  

This one is definitely a downer but I do wish more people knew about this movie since the messages it conveys are so important.  It also has fantastic performances from Hepburn and Maclain.    

  

Marty (1955).  Marty (Ernest Borgnine) is a very well-liked butcher in his town, but he can't seem to get a girlfriend. When he finally finds someone he really likes and gets along with, none of his friends or family approve of her. 

This is another older, black and white movie.  Marty holds a very special place in my heart because this was one of the first older movies that I really enjoyed and connected with.  I remember catching it on Turner Classic Movies and just being really charmed by all of the characters and the lovely plot development.  

The Science of Sleep (dir: Michel Gondry)- a very imaginative movie about an eccentric man (Gael García Bernal) who confuses his dreams with reality.  The Science of Sleep is filled with beautiful, creative imagery- it's really beautiful what they do in this movie without CGI using cardboard, foam, and other basic art supplies  At a deeper level, Science of Sleep draws you in because of how personal the movie feels.  

The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Before it was the Denzel Washington thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a really haunting and gripping thriller about conspiracies, brainwashing, and assassination   

  

Zero Dark Thirty

     Zero Dark Thirty (directed by Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker) is about the CIA’s manhunt for Osama Bin Laden.  The film centers around the sharp CIA agent Maya (Jessica Chastain) who spearheads the investigation.  Zero Dark Thirty is somber, intense, and well-made but for some reason it left me feeling a bit cold.  It doesn't have the energy or raw intensity of The Hurt Locker and I found it harder to connect to the characters.  We really only get to know Maya.    

     One thing this movie does really well is to keep the narrative grounded firmly in reality.  It does a good job of portraying how difficult and frustrating the search for Bin Laden was.  Though the movie follows a linear narrative, the search for Bin Laden was certainly circuitous.  There was not one eureka moment but a series of small steps forward with many steps backwards.  While many movies shy away from uncertainties to keep to a clear and clean narrative, this one really embraced them and it strengthened the movie because it kept the search realistic.  Even as we get closer and closer to finding Bin Laden in the movie, we never get that it’s a sure thing.     

                There’s been quite a lot of controversy over various aspects of the torture scenes in the movie: that they weren't accurate because the CIA didn't use them to find Bin Laden and that the movie promotes the use of torture to extract information.   The torture scenes in the movie are intense and difficult to watch but it doesn't seem like the movie is promoting the use of torture to get information.  Ultimately, it is unclear how useful and reliable the information the characters get from the interrogations are. 

                There’s a secondary storyline to the manhunt that doesn't come through as well: the changing role of the CIA and how that has affected its priorities.  We get hints of it from Maya’s bosses but it’s mostly pushed to the side when the search starts making progress.

                In terms of performances, this movie really belongs to Jessica Chastain.  As Maya, you watch her find her voice as the movie progresses.  She starts off as the newest CIA agent in the Pakistan office who stands quietly in the interrogation room to the only person in a room full of CIA leaders who has complete conviction that they have found Osama Bin Laden.  While we see Maya find her voice, I wish the movie had spent more time on how she formed her views.  We see her looking conflicted during earlier interrogations but how her views change on interrogations as time progresses is not really shown. 

                Rounding out the rest of the cast, there is Jason Clarke and Jennifer Ehle as CIA agents, Kyle Chandler as Maya’s boss, and Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) as a Navy SEAL.  I’m a big fan of Parks and Recreation, but it was a bit distracting to see Pratt in the movie.  Pratt provides some levity but doesn't seem to quite fit the tone of the rest of the movie. 

                Zero Dark Thirty is a somber portrayal of a manhunt.  It is intense, draining, and worth seeing but it's missing something that I can't quite put my finger on.    

Young Adult. Last of the Mohicans.

Young Adult

Young Adult is about Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) a young adult ghostwriter who visits her hometown and tries to win back her old high school sweet heart Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson).  Mavis is one of those girls from your high school- the pretty, popular, petty girl who's always powdering her nose or spreading nasty rumors about everyone else.  Theron does a good job playing Mavis who is so petty and hasn't really changed that much from her high school days.  There are sides to everything, there are friends like Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt) who are still too uncool to associate with in public, and anything said by anyone needs to be thoroughly analyzed in high school girl speak.  E.g. He said this to me does that totally mean that he's still in love with me?

I know that a lot of people had problems with this movie because of the lack of growth from any of the characters.  While I found Mavis's character extremely frustrating and at times cringe worthy (especially when you see her so deluded and out of touch with reality), I found it more frustrating and unbelievable that there are so many others in her hometown who were just as set in their high school personas.

Last of the Mohicans 

Warning: Video contains spoilers

Last of the Mohicans (it's supposed to be based on the classic book but it's made many liberties ) follows the three last Mohicans: Chingachgook (Russell Means) and his two sons, Uncas (Eric Schweig) and adopted Nathaniel Hawkeye (Daniel Day Lewis), during the French and Indian War as they escort the daughters of British General Webb to a nearby fort.  There's conflict and hints of unrest from the colonists, who are forced by the British to help them fight the French.  There's revenge led by Magua (Wes Studi) and the Hurons against Webb and his daughters.  Hawkeye and Uncas also fall in love with the general's daughters Cora (Madeline Stowe) and Alice (Jodhi May).

It takes a little bit of time to get into this movie, but it picks up nicely once it becomes clear that it's not going to be an easy journey to the fort.  The score is absolutely beautiful and possibly one of my favorites.  The last half of the movie is absolutely breath-taking.  It blows you away.  All of the setup and implications from the first half really come to fruition and it's epic, it's tragic, it's beautiful.

I had trouble finding good clips of this movie that capture it well without spoilers.  While the clip on top does contain spoilers, it happens relatively early in the movie.  The clip below is one of my favorite sequences in the movie and does contain a lot of spoilers so proceed with caution.

The Amazing Spiderman and The Artist

The Amazing Spiderman

After hearing that Spiderman was getting a reboot, I was one of those people who thought a Spiderman reboot wasn't really necessary.  It looked decent from the trailers but it wasn't a movie I was super excited about.

I was pleasantly surprised by The Amazing Spiderman.  The Amazing Spiderman is another origins story for how Peter Parker becomes Spiderman (Andrew Garfield).  It maintains a different voice and tone from the original movies.  It's less corny and while many of the story elements were similar, it's like a really good remix that stands strongly on its own.  I really liked Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spiderman.  His Peter Parker is still smart and witty but maintains more of a sharp, rebellious edge.  Tobey Maguire's Peter was a dork (and that wasn't a bad thing at all since it fit those movies well), while Garfield's Peter is more like that smart, mysterious loner who does his own thing.  I do like how Garfield's Peter doesn't go into being Spiderman with the best of intentions but learns along the way to become a hero.  He and Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) also have great chemistry.  I like that Gwen does get to take more of an active role than Mary Jane has in the past movies.

That being said, there are plot holes and sketchy sketchy biology.  One of my favorite parts of the original Spidermans was Peter's relationship with Aunt May, and while she's still supportive and Peter's only family, isn't she remotely curious or deeply concerned about how often and how badly Peter gets hurt sometimes?

Despite the plot holes, Spiderman is still a fun, superhero movie to watch and I am looking forward to what they do next.

The Artist

The Artist, which won best picture last year at the Academy Awards, is about George Valentin, a famous silent film star (Jean Dujardin)'s fall into obscurity as the silent film industry dies down.  Meanwhile, Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) an actress he helped out during his prime rises to fame as speakies, movies with sound and dialogue, rise to their prime.

The Artist is a black and white film with very little dialogue.  Most of the little dialogue that was in the movie is done in silent film style - with quotes and captions shown after the scene.

A lot of The Artist is very predictable.  It's filled with these storylines that you've see over and over again and they all turn out as you expect  but despite all that, it's still very charming and very well done.    
It reminds you of the power of visuals and music and that you don't necessarily need much or any dialogue to tell a good story.  There are so many great movies that are kind of downers (and I do love my downers, I really do).  At the same time, though, it's refreshing once in a while to see a movie that's happy where all the characters genuinely have their best intentions at heart.

 

Lincoln

Lincoln

I was pleasantly surprised that Lincoln, unlike the name suggests isn't a sweeping biopic, but an intimate look at the events leading up to the Thirteenth Amendment.  There's a lot of accolade given to Daniel Day Lewis for his portrayal of Lincoln and he deserves all of it.  He isn't so much as playing Lincoln as being him.  

Lincoln is like that beloved professor who tells the best stories, but not the professor you want to run into at the end of the day when you're just trying to go home because it takes him a while to get to his point (my favorite story that Lincoln tells is the George Washington story).  You really get the sense that Lincoln is so empathetic, really *loves* the people even if he doesn't know them personally, and is just full of so much compassion.  It works well for him as a public figure but in a lot of ways, there's not enough of him for his own family.

There's a really fantastic supporting cast, including Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, JGL as Robert Lincoln, Lee Pace as a staunch Democrat against the amendment, Jared Harris (Lane Pyrce lives!) as Ulysses Grant, and many many others.  Field is memorable as Mary, who really gets your respect when you see how pulled together she is just moments after breaking down.  My personal favorite out of the supporting roles, though, was hands down Tommy Lee Jones as abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens.  Stevens probably has some of the best lines and zingers in the movie.  He's extremely tough and even unsympathetic when you first meet him (even though you agree with his philosophies whole heartedly)         but he really grows on you as the movie goes on especially when he's asked to compromise some of his values for the Amendment.

The House of Representatives in Lincoln is extremely dramatic and extremely entertaining to watch.  Another one of my favorite storylines is Bilbo (James Spader) and company, Lincoln's secret "seedy" vote negotiators who help Lincoln secure the 2/3s vote he needs for the Amendment.  If they ever did a spin off of this movie, I'd love to see one about them.  Or maybe I should just go ahead and see that other Lincoln movie.

Skyfall and The Master

Skyfall

     Skyfall is no Casino Royale, but it's an enjoyable movie.  It pays homage to a lot of older Bond films.  One thing that I've really appreciated about the Daniel Craig Bond films is that they're trying new ways to tell the Bond story.  While Quantum of Solace with a Jason Bourne-feel didn't work too well, Skyfall does a great job incorporating and adapting classic Bond elements for a modern era.

     Craig as Bond is still as sullen, moody, and sarcastic as ever.  (It looks like our current Bond compared to the others is the best at drinking.)  He's a bit slicker in terms of his fighting compared to his brute force in Casino Royale.  This Bond is really at his best when he's exchanging quips with either M (Judi Dench) or some of his new associates.  I was afraid that for this movie, they'd revert Craig's Bond back to an extremely suave killer a la Pierce Brosnan's Bond, but Craig's Bond is still the same "rough instrument" from Casino Royale, howbeit he's feeling a bit older and outdated.

     Skyfall features a strong supporting cast.  Judi Dench as M is fantastic as always.  I've always enjoyed her relationship with Bond.  I almost wish that they had a chance to test it a bit more in this one.  Q (Ben Whishaw) and Eve (Naomie Harris) were also great new additions.  Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) is a bit stiff but he's not really given terribly much to do.  The same goes with Silva (Javier Bardem), the main villain, who has so much potential, especially after you just meet him.  Bardem does a fantastic job with Silva and I really wish they'd developed him more and made him more more prominent in the movie early on.

The Master 

     I saw this one a while ago and I'm still not quite sure what to make of this movie.  The Master is the latest from Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will be Blood).  The movie follows Naval veteran Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) as he meets Lancaster Dodd (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a cult leader, and joins their cause.
   
    The best part of this movie was hands down Joaquin Phoenix.  Freddie Quell is just insane, wild, and off the rails- an id personified.  It was fascinating to watch him because you can't quite guess what crazy thing he was going to do next or what small thing will set him off.  I also liked that although this movie was known as "the cult movie," it didn't mock cults and really tried to show the movie from their perspectives.  They delve a little into cult tactics (but most of it is about the mentality) and it's engrossing and genuinely creepy, especially the eye color scene.  The cinematography is also gorgeous.  Landscapes seem to play a large role in Anderson's movies and The Master is no exception.  

    I have mixed feelings about this movie because it meanders, seemingly directionlessly.  The character development is fantastic but I'm not sure what any of it means in the end.  There are repeated words and phrases like Dodd claiming that he's sure he's met Quell before but we don't ever get a resolution on what he means.  I can see film critics getting excited about this movie and all of the Freudian implications and there are a lot in this film, but at the same time, each of the characters, especially Quell have memories grounded in reality that it's hard to reconcile that with the explanation that the three key characters in the movie (Quell, Dodd, and Dodd's wife played by Amy Adams) are supposed to be Freudian manifestations.  Anyhow, The Master is certainly an interesting movie but also extremely baffling.