Movies |
The Weekend Binge
By
Published: May 19, 2016
Category:
Drama
It’s that time of the movie year. Just before the seriously awful action movies with simple dialogue — because: the foreign market — and the few films so good that adult audiences might leave the lake to see them. So there’s “Money Monster” (go, go now) and nothing. These may fill the gap.
THE STATE WITHIN
Could an international corporation be a criminal enterprises? Could our government happily do its bidding? For a few days after watching two episodes a night, I was living in a “State Within” world — I questioned every news story, imagined the machinations behind it. Not a bad thing. 420 thrilling minutes. Just watch the trailer.
TOP OF THE LAKE
Jane Campion created “Top of the Lake” and directed several episodes, and that’s where any piece about the series needs to start. Her recent work hasn’t been widely seen, but in 1993, she got an Academy Award nomination as Best Director — only one other woman has ever been nominated — for “The Piano.” (She won for Best Original Screenplay.) At Cannes that year, she was the first female filmmaker to receive the Palme D’Or. “Icon” applies here.
The series is set around Queenstown on New Zealand’s South Island. (Campion was born in New Zealand and still spends part of the year there in what she calls a “hut.”) Some of “The Lord of the Rings” was filmed here; this area’s all about grand, mythic scale. And variety. In one image, you can see New Zealand’s second largest lake, vast snow-tinged mountains and, along the shore, waves of grass. It’s here, set against stunning and wild nature, that we find the fictional town of Lake Top.
“Top of the Lake” starts as a thriller. Twelve-year-old Tui Mitcham, fully clothed, walks into the lake. She’s pulled out, examined, found to be five months pregnant. Who’s the father? She won’t say. And then she disappears.
BLEAK HOUSE
Of all the distinguished adaptations of classic English novels, ‘Bleak House’ is among the greatest. The writer is Andrew Davis, whose credits are impeccable (“Pride and Prejudice,” starring Colin Firth). The production is lavish: great houses, squalid and exalted London, a cast of 2,000. Gillian Anderson (once of ‘The X-Files’) might seem an odd choice as the wretchedly unhappy Lady Dedlock? Well, she’s astonishingly moving. This is not a minority opinion. ‘Bleak House’ had 10 Emmy nominations and won a Peabody Award.
A FACE IN THE CROWD
People who don’t like Trump often cite this movie. It’s great no matter what your politics are. Lonesome Rhodes, media rocket, got his start in jail. When we first see him, he’s a drifter doing short time in Arkansas. He’s cheerful, handsome, and, in a good ole boy way, mildly charismatic — he’s Andy Griffith, in his first movie role.
Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) shows up. She’s got a radio show called “A Face in the Crowd.” Its premise: Everyone has talent. And here’s Larry Rhodes, strumming his “Mama Git-tar.” Of course this Sarah Lawrence graduate is going to switch on her tape recorder while he sings an original song called “Free Man in the Morning.” Romance follows. So does an audience. Soon he’s got a national TV show and bigtime sponsors. Ah, TV. It’s just made for a guy like Lonesome.
BORGEN
To call it “the Danish ‘West Wing’” — but with a female President — doesn’t begin to describe it. Stephen King beat the drums for it, calling “Borgen” the best show of 2012. I’d go further: “Borgen” is some of the smartest TV ever made. Can you stream it? No. You have to buy it. Trust me on this: If you buy season 1, you’ll go right on to 2 and 3.
ARLINGTON ROAD
“Domestic terrorism.” You’ve been encouraged to think that means Muslim jihadists, disaffected immigrants, close the borders, bomb ISIS. The facts: since 9/11, foreigners have been responsible for 26 deaths by terrorism in America. Right-wing home-grown Americans: 48. So think pleasant suburbs. Think white men. Think someone you’d never suspect. Think noon. A suburb of Washington, DC, a street dotted with houses just a shade too small to be McMansions.
