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Ripley Recap: Death in Palermo [Vulture; ungated]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:29 PM on April 15, 2024

Nice touch, with Inspector Pavini using the blunt instrument as his ashtray. So close and yet....

Another nice touch: the long shot of the bloodstained bathtub on the Inspector's first visit.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 9:19 AM on April 15, 2024

I thought this was great. Tom's chuckle on entering the posh Excelsior suite was a *chef's kiss*, followed by the inevitable disappointment. I also enjoyed the epistolary back & forth with Marge, and the every-single-time wrenching tension of "Tom in a bank"
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:19 PM on April 12, 2024

I just started watching this, and noticed that Episode II hadn't been posted here (though I, III, IV and V have been).

I think this is an incredible approach to the story, dark and encroachingly creepy. The paired scams in this episode (the fallen girl & the taxi that Dickie falls for (willingly?) and the mafioso's suggestion that Tom & Dickie take a bag to Naples (which Tom (willingly?)) falls for seems significant: both can be fooled, but in this case Dickie by… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:54 AM on April 10, 2024

Vulture recap: True Detective: Night Country Season-Finale Recap: Ghost Town
The Ringer recap: Who Done It? Breaking Down the Finale of ‘True Detective: Night Country’

Positive notes: Foster & Reis can act. It's not entirely supernatural. Many loose ends wrapped up. Reis learns her "true" name. The Kid learns his lesson. We find out who shot Wheeler. Also who killed Annie. Really. And Qavvik gets his Spongebob toothbrush… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:13 PM on February 19, 2024

I'm kind of rooting for a Qavvik spinoff. He can be Ennis' Ted Danson, run a bar where everybody knows your name.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:30 PM on February 15, 2024

I saw this when it came out and it made me feel very adult. Roberts was also in "Star 80" about the murdered Playboy bunny Dorothy Stratten, and "the Pope of Greenwich Village" and seeing those made me feel even more adult. It also sealed in my mind Eric Roberts as a "mature" actor and his roles as "important." There's a great sex scene in The Coca Cola Kid that plays out like a pillow fight with feathers flying everywhere. At least, I think it was a sex… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 5:11 PM on February 11, 2024

and then she goes back to work for a man.

this is ... not how the movie ends.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 8:43 AM on February 4, 2024

I am curious to find out who shot the abusive guy and what happened after. I thought that scene was very fine, Danvers telling the kid half truths cross cut with the scene. When the abusive guy turned I would have shot him. So did Danvers do it and Navarro got angry? Or did Navarro do it and Danvers got angry?

Somehow I want this to be a key to the puzzle.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 8:53 AM on February 1, 2024

My current theory is that Danvers shot him and Danvers got angry - that she can't stand having Navarro know that she did it.

Interesting, though wouldn't that reverse the power dynamic between Danvers and Navarro? Like it would have been impossible to knock Navarro back to Troopers as she could just say "If you do that, I'm telling." I think Danvers has the upper hand in that pair, and that makes Navarro grind her teeth.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:46 AM on February 2, 2024

I'm not saying there aren't assholes like Danvers everywhere, but giving these specific traits to a lead character for no reason other than to model bad behavior seems really strange.

In her defense, Danvers is an equal-opportunity asshole. She seems to treat everyone with at best disdain, at worst open enmity. It would be justified to see her comeuppance but I hardly think that's likely, given she's the star.

On the other… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:53 AM on February 2, 2024

The expository dialogue is kind of killing me though

very on brand for the franchise.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:06 PM on January 23, 2024

Given what Issa Lopez says in that Polygon interview, they are clearly overcompensating for this by bolting on True Detective lore from the past (Cohle, the spiral, straw dolls), but the again, Ennis is where the seams of the fabric of the universe are coming apart, so it's all good.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:09 PM on January 23, 2024

True Detective: Night Country showrunner Issa López weighed in on the conversation herself, saying "The story behind that poster is so long, it would require its own season of TD."

I would .... watch that
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:20 PM on January 24, 2024

Calvin's OK but I like Elizabeth better. More of her please!
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:05 AM on November 20, 2023

‘Nyad’ Review: Neptune’s (Estranged) Daughter [New York Times]
To Its Credit, Nyad Makes Its Subject Look Like a Real Asshole [Vulture]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 7:13 AM on November 4, 2023

absolutely, it's all she ever talks about!

also, [spoiler] there is a moment at the end when her paternity [Greek] is called into question [by her] and the whole destiny/name/goddess thing wobbles. but only for a bit.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:07 AM on November 5, 2023

I have not seen this but wonder if Funes the Commissioner is related to or based on Funes the Memorious, who is cursed with remembering everything. Now I'll go see if I can find out more about it.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 2:56 AM on November 4, 2023

To me, the pivotal scene was less the test than the bomb being unceremoniously trundled out of Los Alamos afterwards by the military

Agreed. A lot of "end-of-Raiders of the Lost Ark" / "Top men" energy there.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:58 AM on August 23, 2023

In case you're sitting on the fence, let this Fox News Review convince you to go:

‘Barbie’ film ‘forgets core audience’ in favor of trans agenda and gender themes, Christian movie site warns

"The new BARBIE movie forgets its core audience of families and children while catering to nostalgic adults and pushing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender character stories. Furthermore, the movie was poorly made with multiple premises,… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:30 PM on July 20, 2023

I took 1 star reviews of #Barbie from furious men on letterboxd and put them on the posters because it makes the film seem ever cooler.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 5:47 AM on July 24, 2023

Yanis Varoufakis jumps the shark:

@yanisvaroufakis
Watched Barbie last night. Went in fearing that I might be won over. Misplaced fear. Found it excruciatingly awful. Shame on progressive-feminist critics who gave it good reviews. A triumph of corporate propaganda over cinematic values/art. Miss it if you can!
7:02 AM · Aug 21, 2023

posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:58 AM on August 21, 2023

if you look back at the Mission: Impossible films, there’s a clear connection between them, a commonality that gives each movie core: running like all hell.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:39 AM on July 11, 2023

Mission: Impossible and Eurocentric stunts, from Hollywood to Hong Kong. What does an action movie want to be?

a perfectly cromulent essay about the franchise & more
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 7:51 AM on July 21, 2023

Corner!
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 5:16 AM on July 16, 2023

Me looking at watch, seeing there’s only 15 minutes left: WHAT is going on here?!?!!!

You did get the memo about the time fissures, didn't you?

I just saw it and am aligned with the general sentiment, not the worst of the five movies, not the best of the three good movies, but totes worth it to see my hero age semi-gracefully.

They say history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes, and there was a lot of… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 5:50 PM on July 9, 2023

The secrets of Indiana Jones [nice little essay from The Economist]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:35 AM on July 11, 2023

I've got this on my to-listen-to list, it seems fantastic.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 9:45 AM on July 7, 2023

I read this like 30 years ago due to an effusive blurb from Pynchon. I think I enjoyed it, but I honestly don't remember a thing about it.

This is exactly my experience. Pynchon blurb, the rest a blur.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:55 PM on July 2, 2023

in all them time
Henry could not make good.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:16 PM on May 29, 2023

Here's a interesting, though wrong, read: ‘Succession’ Tricked a Sliver of America Into Thinking That It’s a Good Show
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:55 AM on June 1, 2023

It's ... something.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:29 AM on May 29, 2023

I was rattled by what seemed to me to be the only moment of sloppy editing in this whole series, which was when Noho Hank was sobbing and John was brought in, you could clearly see Noho Hank just standing there rigid in the background, lightly blurred, while the sound was of him emotionally breaking down, and the cuts there were just ... not good. I thought so much of this show, technically, that I even though there might be a reason for it, that the scene was fake or in the editing room or in… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:29 PM on May 29, 2023

Episode 10 is titled "With Open Eyes", also from the Berryman poem Dream Song 29
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:14 AM on May 23, 2023

Given the very Titanic-like poster for this season, you might say they hit the iceberg this season when Logan died and the rest has been scurrying around like rats while USS Waystar / Royco slips into the deep.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 7:27 AM on May 23, 2023

The End of Succession Is the End of an Era in TV
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 9:05 AM on May 26, 2023

Best line of this episode was Greg's Tom's: I drank things that ... normally aren't drinks. "and just because something is on fire doesn't make it news"
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:18 PM on May 15, 2023

QFT: If you just have the internet raise you, you wouldn’t ever want to leave your house. You’ll find whatever you want to be scared of. It’s there. [from the excellent interview jabah linked to above]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:31 AM on May 9, 2023

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

It may have been an optical illusion but I am pretty sure the faux-"Minions" poster on the side of the Waystar Studios in H'wood (seen in an aerial shot when Roman is… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:31 PM on May 1, 2023

on a different note, I love to see love, Roy/Wambsgans style

I keep expecting Shiv to drop the baby bomb, and yet she doesn't; I still think she's the wily-est negotiator and that Logan's youngest grandchild is the, er, Trump card
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:33 PM on May 1, 2023

it's the second time Roman's fired Gerri; it was one of what turned out to be Logan's final wishes. Both times though Roman's played "backsies"; he is in love with her still, after all
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:52 PM on May 1, 2023

Poor Cristobal.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:40 PM on May 1, 2023

He’s aping Logan without understanding.

Ka-RAY-oke

I hear that you're building your little house deep in the desert
You're living for nothing now, I hope you're keeping some kind of record
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:03 PM on April 24, 2023

I still think Tom will end up on top somehow, he's a weirdo but a true killer.

I agree with this. Tom, of Siobhan is my favorite.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 8:57 AM on April 25, 2023

nthing The Thick of It (and In The Loop) as viable methadone for the Succession-addicted.

I worked with a Malcolm Tucker-alike for a number of years and can confirm that it's mostly very dense smoke & swearwords and if you have the spine to just chuckle wryly in their face most of it dissipates to no ill effect on you.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:44 PM on April 25, 2023

SGT. PEPPER´S Lonely Club Band. Bee Gees, Peter Framptom. 1978.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:21 PM on April 24, 2023

Kendall: And, like, where's, you know, where's Kerry?
Roman: Oh, in Marcia's trunk, inside an anaconda, inside a sarcophagus.

a-also: "Strap-On Juliet" is my new favorite band name.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:08 AM on April 18, 2023

Don't forget that no matter what Shiv's baby is a Roy.
And even though ("he doesn't even hug his grandkids") Logan is dead, baby Shivroy is like a pawn become queen.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:15 PM on April 18, 2023

Cristobal Sifuentes: "I feel like I'm Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz"
NoHo Hank: "I'm Dorothy"
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 6:24 AM on April 18, 2023

Season 4 is clearly the Connor Season. Officially now.
I somehow keep expecting Alan Ruck's face to do that Ted-Danson-reveal-at-the-end-of-season-one-of-The-Good-Place contortion.

The Willa-Connor boat was full of journalists among the invited guests, they probably figured out real quick that something serious was going down.

And a big Roy-sized "Fuck Off!" to the LA Times.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 11:07 AM on April 10, 2023