GiftsA birthday passed this week and I received some geeky goodies: The Isle of Cats, a hefty board game about cats on boats (thanks Nath!) and Now We Are Six Hundred, a collection of Time Lord poetry (thanks Josée!).
"Accomplishments"
In theaters: As with other musical biopics of the last few years, don't expect too much chronological accuracy from Baz Luhrmann's Elvis - that's not what it's about. Do expect the director's baroque style and a picture as energetic as its subject. Austin Butler manages to track Elvis' energy levels quite well, I think, from early frenzy to a certain stiffness to those final days, and while the trailer made me want to send Tom Hanks a letter asking him to stop doing voices and accents, he quickly melts into the character of Colonel Tom Parker, con man extraordinaire, very quickly. That Parker is the narrator makes perfect sense in a story where Elvis has little control over his own career - someone self-serving and unreliable, shifting blame for the tragedy, instead tells it, but can't repress the artist completely. Luhrmann has a lot of fun before things turn sour, the movie working rather well when it's a bit of a comedy, but he sadly turns to hackneyed biopic tropes at the end, letting the melodrama play out straightforwardly, cutting to footage of the real Elvis, and dumping epilogue cards before going to credits. What I found most intriguing however, is how he dealt with the whole question of "white man appropriates black music". Through actual scenes but also editing devices, Lurhmann consistently reminds the audience of where the music came from, and paints Elvis as a folk hero who legitimized black music, and therefore black artists, at a time when skin color meant it couldn't reach most people. When the movie needs soundtrack music, it doesn't go to Elvis, it goes to hip-hop, or modern artists whose careers could be said to be similar, placing this one seminal artist in the context of a musical continuum, from which he sprang and that sprang from him. Elvis the Motion Picture is uneven, but there's a lot to like. (Geek Talk: I expected the comic book stuff, but not that many (or any) Star Trek visual references.)
At home: In one of Judy Garland's first "adult" roles (you know what I mean) as one the eponymous character of Presenting Lily Mars, she's initially matched to a Mickey Rooneyesque character, then migrates not only to stardom (Lily wants to be an actress), but to a love interest a dozen years her senior (the show's producer). It's like it's making a statement, Garland growing up to mature star status over the course of the picture. One of those 40s comedies with the fun banter and zany characters, it's very amusing and Garland is extremely charming. Surrounded by operatic singers, she further shines by contrasting her jazzier style, belting out songs in her deeper voice. Unfortunately, I don't buy the ending. The play that's being put on is at one point said to fizzle out at the end. Well, so does the movie. There's a crucial scene that should act as a pivot for Lily's career and life, but it's not convincing in the least. Jumping into a final number should blow the doors off their hinges, but it feels tacked on. It doesn't erase everything that went before, but it sure doesn't leave you satisfied.
After two more seasons of Suits (3 and 4), I'm not sure I can keep going. Having abandoned the "case of the week" format of the first season and extending cases and their consequences over most of a season or all of it does make it more of a binge-watch, but the soap elements have become obnoxious and repetitive. The central love affair is particularly annoying, with the characters acting like they have the emotional maturity of 5 year olds, in a constant cycle of stupid fights to cute reconciliation, but it infects every other relationship. Everyone seems to be on an infinite loop of betraying and making up, getting fired and re-hired, etc. etc., and since the larger plot requires less introduction per episode than "case of the week", there's a lot more of this soap filler than I want to endure. The writing is tic-heavy, with all the characters having the same speech patterns, which becomes quite noticeable when you are binging. Sadly, while the show started with an interesting grift plot, it quickly lost its way while trying to make itself must-see TV.
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