Like everyone else I loved Breaking Bad but the quick development of this prequel series rather turned me off so I never intended to watch it. When it finally ended after six seasons however, the consensus seemed to be that it’s actually a worthy show in its own right. I thought I’d give the first season at least a shot and so far we’re down for more of it. It’s a lot funnier than we thought it would be and though it lacks the wow factor of drug dealing, the firm focus on legal work keeps it intelligent and interesting.
This is officially the very first Studio Ghibli so it makes for a nice circle to complete our tour of their filmography with it. Unfortunately this is also one of their weakest ones. The early part of the film is downright boring, with violence that carries no weight and no clear theme apart from Hayao Miyazaki’s characteristic love of all flying things. Things improve once the characters actually reach Laputa and the film falls in the more familiar pattern that later Ghibli films would solidify. Still it’s never great and I hate how Sheeta is a passive princess character who keeps needing rescue.
Chantal Akerman’s reputation made a huge leap a couple of years ago when her Jeanne Dielman shot to the top of the polls of the greatest films of all time. As I’ve never seen any of her work, I thought I’d opt for a gentler introduction to her style with what is ostensibly a documentary about New York from the perspective of a Frenchwoman. It still isn’t an easy watch at all as there is no structure and the only dialogue is the reading of letters from the director’s home in France. I kind of just let both the images and the words of the letters wash over as there is nothing concrete to hold on to. It was fascinating see the New York of the era and emotions of the director’s mother comes through strongly, but I still had a hard time being fully engaged with it.
Cinephiles sometimes say that they don’t make love stories any more and that’s somewhat true. The issue is that no one really believes in the idealistic romances of the past and so many of the classic romantic films are now judged to be problematic. So along comes this Korean-American film which on the face of it seems to be about two star-crossed lovers who are destined to be together since they were children. Thankfully, this film is wiser and more mature than that as it recognizes how the decisions that we make in our lives change who we are. I dislike how it makes the world feel so small with its laser focus on the two main characters but I have to admit that it’s a great update on the traditional love story that fits with our times.
With this, we finally close out Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, having first started it more than two years ago. It’s truly been an epic journey and Ray is undeniably a grandmaster that brings life in early 20th century India to life on the silver screen. Pretty every frame of it is so perfectly composed. That said, it’s disheartening how Apu’s life is a seemingly endless litany of miseries. After having lost everyone in his family, Apu finds happiness here only have it snatched away again. I get it, it’s a testament about the fragility of the lives of the poor but give the guy a break already!
I was pleased to see that this made it to Netflix. It’s a Malaysian-Singaporean film that challenged some boundaries, yet never caught serious flack for it. It bothered me that so many of the recent local films we’ve caught were directed and written by ethnic Chinese even when they featured Malay characters. So here’s a film written and directed by M. Raihan Halim and directly addresses the issue of sexual repression in a very conservative Malay village. Honestly this is a rather standard film and anyone will have already seen variations of the format from other countries. But this one is Malaysian and that’s enough to make it fascinating to me.
A new high-concept science-fiction series is always something that I have to watch even if I feared it might be more of a thriller or a drama. The central conceit is original enough but really grabbed my attention is that this is kind of an office dystopia setting in the vein of The Stanley Parable. The series even cites the game as an influence! Despite some clever ideas, the plot develops in a very predictable direction and slows down in the middle of the first season. Fortunately the last two episodes drastically ramp up the tension, all but guaranteeing that we’ll be there for the next season.
