Change Your Image
findingdina
Reviews
Warehouse 13 (2009)
Worst Trout Pout Ever
The lead actress in this show has the worst trout pout in show business. I think it's incumbent upon studios, especially for shows on t.v. that cater to a young demographic, to be responsible and not cast actors/actresses who so obviously have, and advertise base, cosmetic surgery. J. Kelly will look like Emmanuelle Béart (now) when she's 50 -- no going back once one has had that level of lip surgery. Let's consider the implications of casting and representations of body- images for young women. Otherwise, the show is unoriginal on a number of levels, totally derivative, in terms of imagery: Citizen Kane meets Raiders of the Lost Ark. And, how about the narrative: Tales from the Crypt (without the humor) meets X-Files (missing decent acting). So bad. The only thing good about the show is Saul Rubinek, a wonderful character actor.
Lucky Christmas (2011)
Hallmark romance film that actually has a more realistic depiction of contemporary class anxieties!
What I like about this film is that it foregrounds class issues, two people who don't have much money, yet one holds a lottery ticket that belongs to the other. And, thus, it becomes this nice allegory of how we should share wealth among poor folks. No one person should possess such a "ticket to ride." And, by the way, I am annoyed by the previous reviewer who is trying to compare a Hallmark produced film to Rene Clair's 1931 film "Le Million." Of course, the lottery tale is a cliché, it's one of the greatest clichés in all of cinema (the Cinderella tale is an equivalent). Yet, this film's Hallmark cliché worked for me (after a day of house cleaning, mind you): a mise-en-scene of old cars, cramped living quarters, and manly construction sites. And, people wanting to find each other through/in isolation. Too bad there's not a ticket for all of us.
Iron Man (2008)
racism and Iron Man
As someone who follows American cinema closely, I followed "Iron Man's" marginalized cinema - - how the production apparatus inevitably imbibed the film's own narrative's formula of "using and disposing" stuff. I don't care HOW PRECIOUS Terence Howard was in the negotiating process for the negotiation of Iron Man II. The P.R. debacle of firing a black man and replacing him with another black man (even if that man was/is the most amazing Don Cheadle), was horrific. Such an exchange emerged as an egregious act of exchanging one "black commodity" for another "black commodity." And, I plan to write on the 'white boy' mentality, at end, of this director/writer. Shame on you --- * DS
Suits (2011)
Re-review two years later after my original "Extremely promising; however. . ." post.
After watching the fourth episode, I was one of the first reviewers of this show (August 2011), and my review concentrated on the good/the bad and with a desire to affect narrative shifts/development (hopefully producers' minions read these things, and I think so given the show's subsequent development). Caveat: I write about media as my profession, and, again, I rarely take time out to write this kind of stuff because I have enough on my plate. But, SUITS has emerged as a private indulgence. Yes, it's an L.A. Law remake (and there are still issues with genre -- "what does it want to be?" is still a problem), but it's a much more self- conscious and playful show, and the writing is brilliant, evoking noir-like banter. After two years, and my original review, I am happy to see the show develop its women characters (and not overly sexualizing Jessica, like before, one of the most powerful African-American women characters on television) -- I like the new stylists' choices of making her stylish/sexy but not overly Ally MacBeal, such as the use of asymmetrical dresses/suits during episodes when she was in conflict with Harvey or Darby (nice homonym, by the way). But, what's the deal with all of the bags/purses? Professional women don't bring Hermes Birkin bags to every in-office conference (I think I have counted the number of purses in a shot, and it's kind of astounding, enough already with product placement). The "Rachel" character has also developed. I was a little worried about scene changes: those establishing pov shots that focused on Rachel's bootie, but then there was a funny complementary shot focusing on a woman looking at a man's bootie. Rachel is developing as a character; that said, the actress who plays her needs to eat a muffin, as she's tubercular these days. I keep expecting her, out of starvation, to fall over the copy machine. Still love the filmic banter (meta-cinematic references to film culture, super fun and opens up the show), and now it's not just btw Harvey and Mike, but is extending across the show/characters (even to Louis). And, yes, Louis. He's still a caricature, but he has pathos -- yes, he's a comic relief figure but also a person now. And, I think my favorite episode this season was the great Cat Trial, which made me laugh out loud in its surrealism. The show is now much more bifurcated, but in a good way. It attempts to explore legal culture (but it does not glorify such work, as it examines the economic determinism that runs against humanist ethics) but also has these really fun, outrageous, implausible fun sub-narratives that are about human empathy, struggles and, well, neuroses. And, what is legal culture but the expression of human neuroses? I like where it's going because I don't know where it's going, which is a rarity. That said, as a suggestion, I think it needs to exteriorize (beyond the lame Game of Thrones line) & open up the space of the firm. And, Mike Ross is now kind of in limbo. I still think he should go to law school and maybe now with Rachel (as a means of personal legitimization?). Could be some fun scenes of them being equalized in law classes.