Love Crossing Borders

Going the Distance is a recent romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. Meeting in New York at a time when neither is really looking for a long-term relationship, the two are together just six weeks before she moves to San Francisco. They decide to continue their romance despite the distance. Hilarity (and some tenderness) ensues.

The entire rom-com genre is filled with movies about complications in a budding relationship. Usually, these complications are outrageously fictitious, or unrealistically inflated just to create enough conflict to fill two hours of film. So I found it rather refreshing that this film was predicated on a very simple and honest complication that didn't really need extra dramatization. Actually, you'd think in this day and age, there would have been more movies built on this kind of premise.

Even if the market floods with such movies over the next few years, I think this one will remain worth seeing because of a solid cast. Drew Barrymore and Justin Long are a very likeable and sympathetic screen couple. Their relationship is believable, and is well established very quickly; since the movie is about them being apart, the film rightly doesn't spend much time on showing them together.

The supporting cast features Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate, and Jim Gaffigan, and brief but funny appearances by Ron Livingston and Kristen Schaal. Everybody manages to get laughs without being too outlandish. And the film honors the more serious moments well too.

Of course, I don't really claim to have a soft spot for romantic comedies, so it's likely I could only think of one as being "so good." But this might come about as close to that ceiling as I could imagine. I give it a B. There's not a world of substance here, but it's pretty good for a movie night in at home.

You Can't Fight in Here...

I recently heard about a documentary from 1993 called The War Room. It covered the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, from the very first primary battle in New Hampshire through what would ultimately be his election to office. I wasn't sure the subject matter was of inherent interest to me, but I'd heard about it in the context of some "all time great documentary" list somewhere or other, and decided I'd give it ago.

With some additional research, I learned what apparently makes the documentary sit in such high esteem among those who praise it. Clinton's campaign is thought by many to be the first to really embrace "new media" (of the time, of course) and a new philosophy on the art of campaigning. That a documentary crew happened to be there filming it essentially resulted in a film that chronicled the transformation of politics... and a successful one, as luck would have it, since the documentary makers had no way of knowing the outcome when they started filming.

So say those who praise the documentary, anyway. I saw something somewhat different in watching the film today, nearly 20 years later. If a new age of politicking truly began here, then we're still in that age; the vast majority of the film seemed uncomfortably similar to the way U.S. political campaigning works today. Neither the players in their behavior, nor the landscape itself, seem very changed.

Candidates give interviews talking about how "the American people" will surely vote against the incumbent president, because what they "really care about are jobs and the economy." Rally attendees talk about how they're planning to vote for "change." People in the 1992 Democratic National Convention crowd can be seen waving signs for "D.C. Statehood Now!" ("Now" hasn't come any closer.)

Well... actually, a few things have changed. People talk about how heated and toxic the American political climate has become today. And perhaps at a congressional level, you could make the case that's true. At the presidential campaign level, however, things actually seem more vitriolic in the 1992 campaign. We see a clip of a Democratic candidate debate in which -- contrary to anything seen today -- candidates are directly allowed to engage one another. And boy, do they. Jerry Brown and Bill Clinton are seen in a pointed argument with raised voices talking over each other and pointed fingers jabbing.

One other oddity for historians is a brief appearance by Clinton's running mate Al Gore. At one point, he gives what I thought to be the most impassioned, energizing speech shown in the film. The crowd is in a frenzy, and you can't help but think that that guy could have won the presidency in a landslide. Instead, somewhere in the next eight years, the more professorial Gore emerged.

If you're a news junkie, you'll recognize the two primary figures of the documentary: George Stephanopoulos, Clinton's communications director, and James Carville, his lead strategist. (Today, they're noted political reporters for ABC and CNN, respectively.) And the background is littered with other faces that are all over cable news today.

But perhaps the most distinct thing about The War Room is its complete lack of any narration or direct subject interviews. It plays completely "dry," feeling almost like a series of home videos (in part because of the old 4:3 aspect ratio). And essentially, you're left to tell your own story. That could be seen as novel, but I also think this basic lack of perspective keeps it from really being the great documentary it was touted to be. I really think that the collection of clips amounts to an inkblot test that ultimately reveals nothing because it challenges no conceptions. Whatever your opinion of Bill Clinton before you see this film, whatever your memories of his campaign might be (if you've been around since then, of course), this film will not change your mind. It won't show you anything you didn't know.

As a piece of archived history, there is some interest here, and I suppose there will continue to be in the future. But as a documentary film, it does little more than illustrate that "the more things change, the more they stay the same." It's entertaining enough, but certainly not a truly great documentary. I rate it a B-.

Nightswimming

Tonight's episode of Awake was, unfortunately, a real dud for the series. The writers didn't really do anything with tonight's episode that put the signature "Awake" stamp on a rather conventional one-hour cop drama.

Not only was there no trace of Rex in this week installment, but the two therapists also had the week off. There were a few scenes of quiet warmth with Michael and his wife Hannah, but nothing that really made strong use of the show's two world premise. This tale of anxiety over a pending move could have been told on just about any one hour drama. And when the two of them inevitably don't move to Oregon in a future episode, this is going to seem like even more a distraction.

Some of the more fantastical elements of the show have taken a back seat before, but it's been to give more space to a truly interesting detective story. Not this time. Both the Red World and Green World plot reflected on the matter of picking up and moving (and what you have to leave behind), but neither was a particularly compelling case to unravel, nor did they have especially dramatic conclusions.

In the end, the only tension the episode managed to achieve at all was making you wonder how Michael would end up in the unusual position we saw him in during the teaser. But then, this sort of "XX hours earlier" gimmick is getting pretty tired on TV shows, especially when it seems to exist only for this exact purpose: to inject a little interest into an otherwise inert story.

Every series has a bad episode now and then, so it's not like I'm instantly off the Awake wagon. But I am disappointed.

It's Not Easy Seein' Green

At some point, I'm going to have to just accept that subscribing to HBO to watch Game of Thrones is enough for me to "get my money's worth." I keep surfing for movies to watch to theoretically defray the monthly cost or something, and I keep watching some true crap. The latest (and I truly hope, last) example of this: Green Lantern.

I'd heard the critics say the movie wasn't very good. I'd heard a lot of my comic book loving friends say that even they aren't fans of the story of Green Lantern. But I thought, I've seen Ryan Reynolds make some otherwise poor movies watchable (like the remake of The Amityville Horror). Can it really be that bad?

Yes. It can.

It's hard to put my finger on exactly what is wrong with the movie... in part because so much is wrong with the movie. But to pick out a few particularly egregious problems from the whole:

The movie suffers for having so little reality in it. There's barely a single frame of it untouched by the hand of some CG artist; huge stretches of the film exist only on a hard drive somewhere. The movie never really seems to have meaningful stakes, as neither the heroes nor the menace ever seems real.

For a hero and plot that revolves around the power of imagination, the story shows surprisingly little of it. The characters are stock, the dialogue cliche, and the arc of plot a predictable paint-by-numbers hero origin story. Plot holes abound, from gaps in logic to what comes off like missing scenes that would have stitched parts of the action together. ("Wait... how did the bad guy get away there?" and "When did he go capture the damsel-in-distress?")

About the kindest thing I can think of to say about the movie is that you can't really call it "boring." It's such a relentless, noisy assault on the eyes and ears that you can't ignore it -- even if everything you're seeing and hearing is half-baked at best. But I hope that comes off as sufficiently faint praise. I would think that even those with short attention spans and low action-movie standards could still find something more suited to their tastes than this mess.

No, wait -- there is one good element of the film, a solid score from James Newton Howard that is intense and powerful like the work he did with Hans Zimmer on Christopher Nolan's Batman movies. But it's only on the strength of that music that I feel I can rate this movie anything other than an F. Call it a very weak D- instead. Call it nothing worth anyone's time.

Saturday Night Glee-ver

Tonight's new Glee episode had some good story pieces working in it, but as is often the case with a "tribute episode" centered around an artist or theme, there were a few too many songs in the hour to give sufficient space to those stories.

I'll start with the one plot line that did actually feel most "cooked" and fully presented, that involving the new guest character of Wade. He was played by the last of the four finalists from The Glee Project, and though his arrival in the mix was rather abrupt, his short journey and resounding triumph of unleashing the true woman inside him was a positive and uplifting tale.

The ongoing saga of Finn and Rachel has been running all season, so it may not seem right to characterize its treatment tonight as congested... and yet it was abrupt for Finn to decide that what he really wants is to be an actor. He's had a few tastes of it over the course of the series, after all (most significantly in The Rocky Horror episode last year), but never showed any hint that he cared about it as much as football or the glee club. Shrug.

Mercedes and Sam had what could have been a really nice story in a less stuffed episode. It was certainly sweet to see Sam doing all he could for Mercedes -- and also nice that "all he could do" was, realistically, put a video on YouTube. (As opposed to, say, magically conjuring up an L.A. record exec ready to produce her album.) These two have a more interesting relationship to me than Finn and Rachel, and so I feel it's a shame we didn't get to see more of it.

Lastly, there was Santana's desire for fame. This storyline was good for seeing another likeable couple get screen time, and for the return of more wonderfully dopey Brittany lines. (But don't knock stupid. Apparently, stupid can train a cat to do household chores. Wouldn't that be nice?) But the problems with this story were playing moments for comedy that really should have serious implications if you actually think about them. (Brittany posting a sex video?!) Plus, it was all eventually revealed that all that middle material was for nothing; there was apparently a full ride scholarship for Santana already set up by Brittany waiting in Sue's desk drawer anyway.

So... the music. This was a rare case of an episode where the performances that were supposed to be so amazing really were the best ones in the hour. I'm talking about Mercedes' "Disco Inferno" (which was supposed to be on its way to becoming a minor YouTube sensation), and Wade/Unique's "Boogie Shoes" with Vocal Adrenaline (which was supposed to be so good that it would bring a whole auditorium of people to their feet). In both cases, I found it believable that yes, the performances were that good. "Disco Inferno" felt even more high-octane to me than the original recording, and Unique sold not only the energy of the song, but I thought also the fact that, "yup, this person was meant to be a woman."

Next to those two numbers, not many of the rest could stack up. The episode opener, "You Should Be Dancing" had some nice choreography, as did the closing "Stayin' Alive." Those were also songs where guys weren't forced to mimic the only-a-Gibb-can-or-should-do-this falsetto stylings of the Bee Gees; guys were allowed to sing in a more reasonable register, and women were also used to complete the harmonies. The Bee Gees imitations on "Night Fever" and "More Than a Woman", on the other hand, really didn't do it for me. And "If I Can't Have You" and "How Deep Is Your Love" are two songs I find too trite and/or boring in general to enjoy them much here on the show.

Overall, I'd say the hour came together pretty well for a theme episode, but still was probably just "alright" in the bigger scheme. I'd rate it a B.

Cabin Fever

Over the weekend, I went to see The Cabin in the Woods, the new twisted horror movie co-written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. Being a long time fan of Whedon's work, I first heard about this movie almost three years ago when it was originally shot. Unfortunately, the division of assets in the bankruptcy of MGM relegated this film to the vault until now, when it was finally bought by Lionsgate and released to the public.

In fairness, no movie would truly be worth a wait like that. But it was pretty damn entertaining.

If you know nothing about the movie already, I would strongly recommend you keep it that way. If you like horror movies, or like anything Joss Whedon has ever produced, that's really all you should need to know to put this on your list. Go see it. But if you find yourself needing a bit more information to convince you, I'll try and give you the rest of this review with the smallest amount of spoilers I can manage.

The plot -- as much as I care to share of it -- revolves around a fun conceit. We all know how classic horror movies seem to feature the same tropes: specific character types behaving in predictable ways, making expected mistakes, getting offed in a particular sequence, all on the way to a typical climax. This movie shows us why that is.

The movie stars a mixed cast of relative unknowns (Kristen Connolly, Jesse Williams, Anna Hutchison), actors who were unknown three years ago but are far bigger now (Chris Hemsworth), veterans of Joss Whedon's various television series (Fran Kranz and Amy Acker) and a few long-working character actors playing in the "Whedon-verse" for the first time (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford). It's a strong ensemble that perfectly delivers Whedon's trademark blend of earnestness with irreverence. There's also a fun cameo appearance from a performer with plenty of fanboy genre cred, best left to see for yourself.

There are a couple weaknesses in the film. One is that it's part of the point that the characters hew close to established archetypes. There are some minor tweaks, but overall, this group of characters doesn't pop as well as many other Whedon creations. (Though with less than two hours of screen time versus several seasons of television, I suppose that's only natural.)

The other is that tweaking the horror genre is itself already traveled territory. Scream was really the first film to lay out many of the "rules" this film plays with. Plus, in that unfortunate delay between the filming of this movie and its release, there's also been Tucker and Dale vs. Evil playing in a somewhat similar space.

That said, these are fairly minor weaknesses. The film does deliver a full spectrum of entertainment, with a few scares, plenty of laughs, several clever ideas to make you think, and more. I'd rate the film an A-, and I definitely recommend that you go see it for yourself.

What Is Dead May Never Die

The construction of this week's episode of Game of Thrones was very interesting to me. As a reader of the books, I was quite engaged by a lot that transpired. But afterward, I had to wonder a bit what the perspective might be of someone who hadn't read the books.

For starters, there was a lot missing. If your favorite character/plotline is Daenerys or Robb, you got nothing this week. If you're still trying to find your footing with Stannis and Davos and Melissandre? Tough luck; they sat out this week too. If you love to hate Joffrey? Too bad; he spent his second straight week off screen.

A non-book reader might then be further flummoxed by the introduction of still more characters -- the skilled woman-warrior Brienne, and the coldly calculating Margery Tyrell, wife of Renly. I would like to think, though, that any trepidation surrounding these two new women would be quickly dispatched by their compelling introductions. We saw that Brienne was a towering powerhouse of a fighter, the best we've seen in a duel since The Mountain back in season one. As for Margery, we saw just how much she was willing to overlook for the sake of amassing power; she's fully aware of what she's getting (and not getting) in marrying Renly.

At least if you're a fan of Arya or Tyrion (and most are), you got plenty to enjoy this week. Tyrion was absolutely in his element, plotting to unmask a traitor in his midst with a carefully constructed ruse. This storyline had no "action" in the traditional sense, but was still fun and tense. Arya showed a wit just as keen at the end of the hour, when she covered for Gendry with the soldiers who'd captured them all. There were also two key moments -- the story told to her of the killing prayer, and her releasing of the fugitives -- that certainly had book fans squealing to see what will come next.

I remain impressed with the way the show has portrayed Theon. I've said before how unlikable I found him in the books, and how difficult I found it to understand his motivations even while being inside his head. I actually think it might be better not to "hear" his actual thought processes, but to instead just see him beg for any scrap of love from his father. He took a big step tonight in turning his back on the Starks, and while I'm certainly not rooting for him, I "get it."

Lastly, we got snippets of Bran and Sansa, the former believing he's assuming the form of his dire wolf in his dreams, the latter suffering in her plight at King's Landing. We also got a small taste of Jon Snow and Samwell up beyond the wall. These stories were all marking time a bit... but of course, we still have seven more episodes to go in this excellent second season.

Hawaiian Tragedy

I recently crossed another of last year's Academy nominated Best Pictures off my list: The Desendants. It stars George Clooney as a father of two daughters, living in Hawaii, whose wife has been involved in a terrible boating accident. She's been left in a coma from which she will never emerge, and so he sets about saying goodbye to her... only to learn that she had been having an affair behind his back in the months prior to the accident.

While The Descendants lost the top prize to the steamroller that was The Artist, its three screenwriters (including Jim Rash, currently appearing on the hilarious sitcom Community) did win for their screenplay, adapted from a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. I thought I was prepared for the tone of the movie in advance; I was instead surprised by what I watched.

I thought the movie was going to use a lighter touch, peppering the proceedings with a lot of humor around the tragic situation. Something along the lines of a 50/50. Not really. The film certainly does have a few lighter moments in it, but this is not a film about trying to face death with a smile and a laugh.

Well alright then, I thought as the movie unspooled. Perhaps the pendulum would swing in the other direction and this would be a movie designed to wring you out like a rag by the closing credits, to wrest tears from you whether you want to cry or not. Nope... it wasn't that either. The nature of the plot meant there were too many intentionally awkward and uncomfortable moments for the audience to ever give over entirely to the drama of the situation.

Instead, The Descendants ultimately offered another take on death that I've rarely seen explored in a movie: numbness. It all seemed crafted to hollow you out inside, and put nothing in to fill the space. The overall tone of the movie, to me, felt like emptiness.

George Clooney carries he full weight of the film on his shoulders. He's most assisted by the older of his two screen daughters, played by Shailene Woodley, and her boyfriend, played by Nick Krause. But without this carefully modulated performance from Clooney, the film wouldn't work. He was nominated for Best Actor for this performance, and even though it's largely subtle work, it's deserving. A few other actors you'll probably recognize do pop up throughout the film -- Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Beau Bridges, and Robert Forster -- though none really has more than a few minutes of screen time.

My tastes would be for a movie that picked one of those other styles I expected. Still, credit where it's due to this movie, that does find another voice and uses it well. I give The Descendants a B. You'll certainly want to already be in a particular mood when you go to watch it, but it's worth making the time to watch.

Whatever Reposessed Me to Watch This?

Recently, I decided to take a chance on watching the 2010 sci-fi action movie Repo Men. Its a "near future" story in which artificial organs are repossessed by the manufacturer when their owners default on installation payments, killing said owners in the process. It seemed like a premise possibly prone to cheese, but also possibly a vehicle for some interesting social commentary. Plus, it starred Jude Law; I figured that I've liked him in a variety of films, and he probably wouldn't have signed on to a movie wholly without merit.

Of course, what I should have been focusing on was the fact that it co-starred Forest Whitaker, who after his appearance in Battlefield Earth, should never again be trusted to choose any script with any merits whatsoever.

There's no wry commentary of any kind. You just have to buy into the crazy premise, and then accept when the movie quickly turns into a mindless "run from the bad guys" mess done infinitely better in Total Recall. Or hell, done infinitely better in the still mediocre Surrogates.

This complete mess of a movie really has only two points in its favor: breakneck and inventive fight choreography, and cartoonishly hysterical gore. But even both of those modest successes are cases of rapidly diminishing returns. The gore shocks in the first instance or two, elicits laughter in the next dozen or so, then actually starts to bore the audience when it devolves into an apparent contest between makeup effects artists trying to one up each other. The fight choreography is intense, but ultimately just as boring by the time the end credits roll.

Oh, but before you get to those credits, you have to watch the utterly predictable ending, telegraphed from an hour and a mile away. A scene of hamfisted exposition early in the film, serving no apparent purpose to contextualize anything you've seen so far, is of course going to play in the obnoxious ending.

If you're a fan of gore, you might watch to be impressed by the work here. (Though even for such a person, I can't say I'd recommend watching it all in one sitting.) But even being generous, I might only rate this a D-. You really should all just steer clear.

Ricky's Tacos

I've said of past episodes of Awake that I appreciated the way they attempt different types of stories within their format, not settling into a single routine. But I think tonight's episode stretched in a direction I hope they don't return to again.

Specifically, tonight's episode really underscored for me how important the main character's relationships with his wife and son are to the overall fabric of the series. There were only a couple of very brief scenes with Hannah in Red World this week, and essentially none at all with Rex in Green World (save for a dialogue-free, three-second piece of a closing montage). And without the vital personal stakes that those characters provide, this episode of Awake teetered on the edge of just being "Another Cop Show."

Yes, the episode dangled the ongoing conspiracy in front of us a bit... but not really progressing that storyline, just keeping it alive. I suppose I do want this story to go somewhere interesting in the long run, but the fact that it seemed so inert to me in this episode just underscored even more how important the family element of the series is.

There was some consolation, though, in the fact that at least the cases this week were interesting for "Another Cop Show." Well, certainly the Green World case was. The rape/suicide was a sad tale that got sadder still when the truth of it was finally exposed near the end of the hour. It was also interesting that this dark storyline actually led to a very warm scene for actress Laura Innes as Captain Harper, the scene in which she drew the truth out from the little girl. It showed a caring side to her character, whereas the Red World incarnation of the captain seems to be more of a "mustache twirler." A reluctant one, but still ultimately part of whatever the Evil Plot is.

Just a small bump in the road, I hope. We'll see what the show brings next week.

Not Worth the Wait

Around five months ago, I wrote that I was planning to see Paranormal Activity 3, but saving the experience for a dark night at home for (hopefully) maximum effect. Now that the movie is available on Blu-ray, that time has come.

If I did achieve maximum effect in not going to the theater, I sort of hate to think how I would have felt had I actually gone. To call the movie a disappointment is overstating the matter, since I probably wasn't truly expecting that much from it. But I was hoping for better, I suppose, and didn't get it.

The first Paranormal Activity was a bit of a gimmick, but a very effective and well-realized one. The second film was a bit of a re-tread, but had a very novel way of linking to the first movie that ultimately made it an enjoyable experience. This third installment, though, smells a bit too much of "been there, done that."

The story takes us back to the late 1980s, to the childhood of the two women in the first two movies. It apparently runs in the family that the boyfriend likes to tape things, and so we see footage of an earlier "haunting" surrounding these girls at a young age. And while the opening moments of the movie explain how these tapes came to be "lost" and unseen by the adult women (thus providing an explanation for how the first two movies could even come to pass), it's rather impossible to explain -- after you see how the movie ends -- why the tapes even survived and weren't destroyed.

But okay, let's say you agree to check that logic at the door. (These movies already ask that, to a certain extent, in demanding you not question why the characters wouldn't at some point just put the camera down.) Then you're left with a bump-in-the-night movie where too many of the scares are cribbed straight from the earlier installments. You get the "person pulled out of bed by an invisible force" moment, the "someone stands by the bed and watches someone sleep for hours straight" moment. The one original contribution to the mix here is a "panning camera" gag that involves a makeshift rotary fan turned into a camera mount that pans methodically between two rooms, allowing for a few clever "what's happening while we can't see it??!!" moments.

The truth is, if you liked either of the first two movies, you really couldn't dislike this movie. They're all just too similar. And if you've never seen any of these movies? Well, this third installment might be as good a place to start as any. My suspicion is that whichever Paranormal Activity movie you watched first would be your favorite. But to see a new one churned out every year in time for Halloween? There's not much juice left in this particular piece of fruit. I rate number three a C.

Big Brother

Glee is back from its "mid-winter" break, and wasted no time in revealing Quinn's fate from her car accident. (The sing-songy tone of the narrator in the re-cap was an early tip: it wasn't fatal.) She survived the accident, but is now in a wheelchair. The doctors say her paralysis is likely temporary, but she optimistically thinks she'll be back on her feet in just seven more episodes. We'll see...

But in the interim, I think it's very interesting to pair Quinn with Artie. Those two characters have had essentially no interaction with one another for the series to date, and whichever way the story breaks, it's likely to yield some compelling drama for one of the characters. Either Quinn won't recover, and she'll have to really come to terms with her new life; or she will recover, and Artie will have to deal with the unfairness of her paralysis being temporary while he remains confined to his wheelchair. Both scenarios seem full of dramatic possibilities.

The main plot of the episode revolved around Blaine's pompous, tormenting older brother coming to pay a visit. I found it interesting to give Blaine the storyline of feeling overshadowed by a demeaning sibling. Since his introduction in season two, he's essentially been the most together, self-assured character on the show (with the possible exception of Sue Sylvester). On the one hand, you might find inconsistency in his sudden shrinking in the light of his brother. On the other hand, what better character to take down a peg? While the story certainly was compressed (playing out in just a part of a single episode), the tonality of it felt right. It's a Glee happy ending that put them on good terms so quickly, but the emotion of their conflict felt genuine even when the specifics of it (basically, all of Cooper's behavior) felt less realistic.

Speaking of being taken down a peg, Sue's story this week started with her being challenged for control of her Cheerios. But that seemed merely the Macguffin to pull her more into supporting the Glee club for the rest of the season. Her real story surrounded her developing pregnancy, and the revelation that her child has Downs Syndrome. I feel like the jury's still out on this one. The very idea of giving Sue a pregnancy storyline is over the top even for such an over the top character. But maybe it's best to approach the whole thing like a science fiction tale. Just accept the impossible premise, and then see if the resulting story depicts emotional truth. I'm working on the former; we'll see if the latter materializes.

Oh, and Finn and Rachel are once again questioning their marriage plans that they were certain of after they were doubtful after they were certain. Yawn.

Music this week rested squarely on the pairings of Artie with Quinn and Blaine with his brother Cooper. I've always felt Dianna Agron's voice one of the weaker ones on the show when it comes to solos, but I also think she has paired with more different characters in duets than anyone else to good effect. The take on Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" made for a good opening, though was better than the later "Up Up Up."

Meanwhile, Darren Criss and Matt Bomer were a good match. I was a bit aggravated that the writers couldn't just pick one Duran Duran song and have them sing that, but the final act take on "Somebody That I Used to Know" was really a solid performance for both. As for Blaine's solo, "Fighter", I thought the best work belonged to director Eric Stoltz and his staging of the sequence. Darren Criss seems to handle bouncier, light material than he can handle more dramatic moments like this, but the way the montage was put together, I still bought into the overall message.

I'd call this episode a B+. I'm looking forward to seeing where things go from here.

That's Not My Penguin

I finally had a chance to catch up with last week's episode of Awake, and I continue to be intrigued by the way the series keeps exploring its premise. Rather than just settle completely into a standard format where Michael solves a crime in each of his two realities -- with a connection between them -- the writers are still trying new things.

This week, the main twist was putting front and center the question of whether Michael is hallucinating one of his worlds, by having him deal with a schizophrenic hostage taker committed to a delusional reality of his own. There were also interesting new ways in which the two therapist characters were used this week. First, Michael interacted with Dr. Lee outside of the doctor's office -- and ultimately got to be on the scene to see Michael do his job very well, deflating concern over Michael's ability to function. And yet, this was undermined on the spot by the realization that most of Michael's interaction with Lee in the episode was actually a hallucination.

The Dr. Evans scenes were also compelling, as we finally saw a crack in her unwavering support for Michael. She began the episode encouraged that Michael was taking a healthy step forward to resolve his situation. But by the end of the episode, she and Lee had begun to flip-flop in their opinions of Michael. Now she was the one concerned that continuing to entertain the "other world," in the way he was maintaining it, was going to begin doing psychological damage to Michael.

All this said, I'm still trying to keep my enjoyment of the show at arm's length, if possible. Even though it's on NBC, where the ratings don't have to be all that high to ensure renewal, the series has been sliding dramatically since its premiere. It may well be that this single run of episodes is all the Awake we'll get. If so, then I'll hope for continued quality in however much we still get to see.

The Night Lands

Tonight's new installment of Game of Thrones definitely cemented for me the feeling I had after last week's season premiere: I'm going to enjoy this story in this medium more than I did actually reading A Clash of Kings.

I'll have to tiptoe extremely carefully for a moment here, so as not to spoil anything for those who haven't read the books. But as even the TV viewers have now seen, Theon Greyjoy is a more prominent character in book/season two over book/season one. And when I read it, I pretty much hated him. Now George R.R. Martin does have a way of starting you out hating a character, then twisting things around to make you like them later... or at least feel sympathy for them. I struggled in this with Theon, as I find his motivations rather hard to accept or justify.

Oddly, it took just this one episode for me to suddenly start down the road of understanding Theon better. Punked by his sister, replaced by his sister in the eyes of his father, rejected by his father. Yes, he's still an entitled little brat who hasn't had life even half as badly as he thinks he has... but I'm starting to see the bigger picture of how he basically spent his whole life dreaming of a homecoming, and then is spurned when it comes to pass. Mind you, all of this material is also present in the book, but the series writers have found just the right way to bring it to the screen to highlight the most important points. I'll be looking forward to Theon's story in the coming weeks.

Of course, the two characters I most often hear are reader/viewer favorites -- Tyrion and Arya -- were both great this week. Tyrion's marvelous manipulation of the former Captain of the Watch, and installation of Bronn, was a great scene. But he also traded barbs with the Spider and his sister once again this hour, and both were highlights of the episode. Meanwhile, Arya had a great exchange with Gendry, and showed she's lost none of her fire during her recent ordeals.

I may have to go back and check my reading comprehension here... or maybe it's just that it's been a rather long time now since I read A Clash of Kings, but I don't recall it being presented as whole truth than Stannis was sleeping with Mellisandre (though I do believe it was at least implied). Of course, neither of those characters is a perspective character in the book, so I suppose without someone else there to watch them, implication is all we could get. It adds an interesting texture to an already murky relationship.

We had a bit more of Jon Snow this week, and a brief touch of Daenerys. But several stories were necessarily put on hold for the week to make room for the rest; no Bran in Winterfell this week; no Robb or Catelyn out in the field (and nothing of captive Jamie either); no Joffrey (though he was still very much a topic of conversation between Cersei and Tyrion).

And as always, some interesting additions. As with last week, the biggest chunk of new material not from the book (if I recall correctly) was a scene involving Littlefinger. In case we'd forgotten his betrayal of Ned last season and needed a reminder of just how dark and dangerous a character he truly is, we saw him this week menace one of his women with chilling civility.

Once again, I look forward to next week.

Wedding Bells

Hello all!

My sister's wedding was last night, and now I'll be getting back to the routine here. Some of you might be hoping for a comment or two about the occasion here, so I'll try not to disappoint. Still, the bottom line is -- I don't have much to say. I'm very happy for my sister and my new brother-in-law, who both were clearly having a wonderful night.

For any future wedding planners out there, I'll throw out this tip: if you want to increase your chances of a "memorable moment," use children in your ceremony. My sister's young daughter was the flower girl last night -- and also a significant part of the ceremony, as the couple made a point of the event not just being about the two of them coming together in marriage, but the three of them coming together as family.

But you can't account for a young girl's temper just a couple minutes before the start of the ceremony. She had just freshly not gotten her way in some thing or another, and while she was still willing to walk the aisle as required, she threw her fistfuls of petals at the floor in rather entertaining fashion. Later, though, she perked right up when she took part in a sand-pouring ceremony (similar to how many weddings employ the "unity candle," but appropriate for children that should not be playing with fire). When she climbed up on the stool and saw all the glass and colored sand arrayed before her and quietly whispered "wow!", everyone smiled.

Also providing some fun was the young son of my two good friends, who served as ringbearer for the occasion. Though apparently not pouty, he wasn't inclined to stand still, and was very much in love with the sound his handsome shoes made as he walked around. He also had a great moment where he leaned into a microphone to start talking, and then recoiled in embarrassment when he realized it was actually on and functioning.

So there -- if you want a bigger chance for some light-hearted moments at a wedding, look to the kids.

Congratulations to the happy new family!

Talk Amon---- Amongst Yourselves

As I mentioned a few days ago, my sister is getting married tomorrow. I'll be taking the day off of both work and blog for the occasion, and I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to sleep in by having a night out on the town tonight.

So, sorry... but no witty blog post for you tonight or tomorrow. I should be back in action Saturday.

For those of you hoping for something, I'll leave this little nugget for discussion. Yesterday, I had a repeated attack of hiccups. It's not something I'm prone to, but for whatever reason, I had hiccups come and go five times -- sometimes for as long as half an hour before I could shake them. The one sure-fire cure that seems to work for me is eating a spoonful of peanut butter, but I didn't have a jar handy at work yesterday during most of the "attacks."

Is there a hiccup cure you swear by?

Moving the Pieces

I have written before of my long love of the musical Chess -- this despite never having seen a professional production of the play in person. I discovered the multiple soundtrack albums in high school, was jealous when my high school actually did the play the year after I graduated, and most recently, enjoyed the reimagined concert version on DVD. But now I can say I've finally seen it for myself -- the Arvada Center here in the suburbs of Denver is staging it, and I went last night.

Oh, what a fun mess Chess is. The music is my favorite overall of any musical I've ever heard. But its story has never completely worked. And so Chess has become a perpetual work-in-progress for over 25 years. Even its creators basically give their blessing for any staged production of it to mix up the songs, reorder the scenes, and rearrange the dialogue in search of that elusive perfect production. I'd heard that the Arvada Center was mounting a new version of the play, and I just assumed it would be a full staging of the concert version I'd seen on DVD. But no, it turns out that the theater world is still not done tinkering with Chess.

This production does retain a lot of the elements that worked in the "Chess in Concert" version. But it also tries out some new ideas, and largely they did not fit quite right. Most awkward was the attempt to modernize the timeline -- or to at least bring it forward to after the fall of the Soviet Union (and the invention of flip cell phones). The whole American vs. Soviet nature of the chess tournament in the story really needs a 1970s or 1980s backdrop to fit, not to mention that the references to main character Florence's birth in the early or mid 1950s make no sense in any later time frame.

Different versions of the play have portrayed the wild man American chess player, Freddie, differently in the second act. Some times, he's a returning competitor going in to face his Russian adversary a second time. Other times, he's a washed up failure now watching from the outside, but trying to still manipulate the game behind the scenes with politics. This production awkwardly tried to retain both elements, having him compete while simultaneously trying to pass as a separate master manipulator.

A problem not really solved in this version more than any others is the behavior of the characters. The first act still asks the audience to believe in a love established in only two scenes, and a seven year business relationship of obvious friction somehow now busting up overnight. It asks you to imagine for yourselves how the love went sour during the undramatized year that passes during the intermission. It asks you to accept the motivations of all three main characters turning on a dime during the second act. It's a schizophrenic story, and can probably only be sold by an over-the-top acting style that probably wouldn't ultimately entertain anyway.

But oh... that music. And, in this case, the staging. The Arvada Center's production had an impressive two-story set with a spinning turntable, a raised "chess board" space, a moving balcony, and industrial-looking staircases framing it all. And the action was placed upon it in dynamic and entertaining ways.

And there were some very skilled performers in the cast. The ensemble chorus was a solid support throughout, and shined during the few numbers in which they got to take on specific roles ("Press Conference" and "Embassy Lament", in particular). Denver local Stephen Day, as Molokov, was the one performer to consistently land his jokes and elicit laughs from the audience. Lisa Karlin made a strong Florence; her vocal prowess in the songs was matched by a Herculean effort to try to build a behavior arc for her character in spite of the limited script support. And Tally Sessions was a phenomenal Anatoly; he seemed like he might be a bit shaky at first, but by halfway through Act 1 (and with his powerful "Anthem" in the Act 1 finale), he cemented himself as the best in the cast.

You're not likely to think Chess the best night you've ever spent at the theater. But if you can forgive the odd compressions and contortions in the story, it is a feast for the senses -- the visuals will impress, and the songs will move you. If you're at all familiar with the music, you'd do well to attend in the next two weeks before the show closes.

The Last of a Generation

This afternoon, I received the unexpected news that my grandmother passed away last night in her sleep. These things do happen, of course, but she still seemed active and healthy enough for her age when I saw her a few months ago at Christmas. The timing of it was just a surprise.

A little less than six years ago, when her husband died, it was just 2 days from when I was going to be flying out to Indianapolis on a business trip, and would have seen him again at a dinner. Today, we're just 3 days away from my oldest sister's wedding, which my grandmother had been planning to attend -- I would have seen her again. Even at their respective ends, it seems the two really were cut from the same cloth and meant to be together.

My grandmother was a very loving and caring person, and I'm very happy to say that I got to learn how much so before she passed away. When I finally worked through all my fears and got the nerve to come out to my family and friends, she was a big question mark. Well... actually... she wasn't at all. She had spent her entire life as a deeply religious woman, with staunchly conservative views. I suspected she'd have a hard time with the news, and her own daughter my mother thought so too. I was very seriously entertaining the notion of just never telling her.

But it was another wedding, of another of my sisters, that ended the feasibility of that "plan." My grandmother was going to be attending, and so was my boyfriend, and even if I'd had the energy for some sort of masquerade, I no longer had the desire -- for so very many reasons. So a few weeks before the wedding, I wrote my grandmother an e-mail (yes, I had a grandmother in her 70s that used e-mail) and told her the truth about me. I invited her to call if she wanted to talk about it -- or not to, if she wanted that.

Two days later, she did indeed call, and we talked for a while. I wasn't sure what questions she'd want to ask -- very few, as it turned out. Mostly, she just wanted to hear my voice, it seemed. At the end of the call, she basically said, "well, you sound the same as you always have." And that was that. She came to the wedding, met my boyfriend, and it wasn't any kind of issue at all. She came back for Christmas, and was no different with he and I than she was with my middle sister and her husband, or my oldest sister and her (for the next few days) fiance. And it never seemed like she was making any effort to accept me. She just did.

My preconceptions were completely wrong. In a situation where I was asking her not to look at me any differently than she always had, I was made the hypocrite -- I assumed that she would be different than she always had.

She was the last of my grandparents. I never knew the first, who died before I was born. Two others passed away before I told anybody I'm gay. But one got to know the real me, if only for a few months. And I got to know more about her too as a result.

I'm very fortunate to have had her in my life, and I will miss her.

My Top 100 Movies -- 70-66

After a bit of a break, it's time to pick back up with the countdown of my 100 favorite movies.

70. Changeling. Angelina Jolie powerfully demonstrates that she's not just a pretty face in this Clint Eastwood-directed film about a 1930s woman who goes through the horror of having her son go missing... only to face an even greater horror when the police return to her the wrong child, and then begin to look at her as though she's the one going crazy. The acting is what puts this film onto my list, as I noted in my original review.

69. Saving Private Ryan. It's been a while since I watched this movie, and I really must make time for it again. Many were upset when Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture over this film, and while I don't think it's an outrage by any means (as Shakespeare in Love is on my 100 list too), I agree this was the superior movie. It has the soul of an epic war film, but the heart of an intimate character drama. The performances are amazing from top to bottom. I've seen many war movies, but this one stands head and shoulders above them all in my mind at conveying a real sense of what the experience of going to war takes away from a person.

68. The Illusionist. Over time, I've warmed to this period piece starring Edward Norton as a turn-of-the-century magician. What once I saw as slow-paced, I now see as methodical and full of purpose, and a vehicle for great acting from Norton and Paul Giamatti. The story is also clever, and has a lot to say about the lengths one will go to for love.

67. Sneakers. I love a good heist movie, and I think this is one of the best. It has a wonderfully eclectic cast of top shelf actors, including Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Mary McDonnell, and Ben Kingsley. It demonstrates that movies that are meant at their core to be "just fun" don't also have to be stupid, an assumption too often made by summer popcorn fare. It also marked one of only a couple times in his long career that composer James Horner actually shook up his formula and wrote interesting new music (though he would then go on to reuse this reinvented style in a long "second age of Horner").

66. 50/50. It was less than two months ago that I saw this movie for the first time, and I ended up making room for it in my top 100 list. As I said then, I think this was the best movie of 2011.

The North Remembers

Rejoice! Game of Thrones is back!

Season two of the HBO series will be based on the second novel of George R.R. Martin's series, A Clash of Kings. Overall, it was a book I did not enjoy quite as much as the first book. Still, it was a very enjoyable read, and tonight's season premiere gives me hope that it will make an even stronger season of television.

One of the ideas that has formed in my head over the years since I read that second book was that not as much happened in book two as in book one or three. And while that may largely be true, what might be implied in that statement -- that "nothing" happens in book two -- isn't true at all. We have so much to look forward to in these ten episodes, and whatever moments of slackened pace there were in the book are sure to be excised to fit in the time allotted.

Tonight was a great example. There were so many balls in air at the close of last season (and new ones now to be introduced) that many plot lines were afforded only a single sequence -- or even only a single scene -- to check back in and get things rolling. And so we had just one scene of Daenerys, only slightly longer sequences for Bran and Jon Snow... and Arya, who had more chapters dedicated to her than almost anyone in the book, appears only for seconds at the conclusion of the hour.

And I found myself eagerly interested in all the stories. Even Stannis and Davos, and boy did I find those Davos chapters the driest of all in A Clash of Kings. Seeing the character of Mellisandre brought to life suddenly makes all that a great deal more interesting. And maybe now having a face to put on Davos will make the book better when I eventually go back and re-read it.

With the loss of several cast members in season one, Peter Dinklage now moves into the first slot in the opening title sequence. And indeed, Tyrion could now well be said to be the star of the show. Certainly, his scenes tonight were some of the best. Watching him trade barbs with his sister Cersei was one of the best exchanges yet on the show.

And just as with season one, I find myself just as drawn to the new scenes added that do not come from the book. Tonight's most significant addition was an exchange between Baelish (Littlefinger) and Cersei, where he tries to lecture her about the use of power, and is menacingly put in his place. It was a great scene on many levels, though one must really know what happens to both characters in the story ahead to really appreciate just how well this scene sets both of them up for the twists to come. (And in the interests of protecting my readers who don't know the books, I'll say no more.)

I'm thrilled to have this series to once again look forward to every week.