Feb 2009 – A Damn Fine Cup of Culture

Sorry for that post title. I was going for something clever and intertextual, but after staying up for the Academy Awards I simply don’t have the brains for it.

Did anyone else see them? I was doubtful that I’d enjoy them – but I did, not least for the huge grin on Danny Boyle’s face that grew with every one of his mates winning an Oscar. And his Tigger impression was sweet. I always knew that the man who directed 28 Days Later had to have a genuinely sweet side to him.

Incidentally, the last two films I’d seen at the cinema were among the most nominated titles: Frost/Nixon and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. A lot has already been said and written about how the latter is practically a remake of Forrest Gump; my only comment on that is that yes, in terms of plot this allegation is absolutely true. But David Fincher, thank the celluloid gods, is no Robert Zemeckis. It’s not his best film, not by a long shot, but it’s a poetic, not a little surreal story about the things and the people we leave behind. As such I found it very effective and another illustration of Brad Pitt growing as an actor with every year.

All things considered, though, I was more taken with Frost/Nixon, perhaps more so because I didn’t expect to be. The first film I’d seen Michael Sheen in was Underworld, which ranks high in my list of worst films ever. (No, Kate Beckinsale in tight leather doesn’t stir my, ahem, imagination any. Sorry, Kate.) I wasn’t prepared for his strong, nuanced performance as David Frost – but I was doubly not prepared for Frank Langella’s sad, pathetic, tragic Richard M. Nixon. Who’d have thought that the guy who played Skeletor in the film version of Masters of the Universe would be this good? I should probably go back and watch those early Deep Space Nine episodes he was in.

What next? Well, I definitely want to see Revolutionary Road and quite possibly Milk and The Reader. And at some point I should check out The Visitor, which garnered Richard Jenkins (yes, that’s right – Nate the Elder from Six Feet Under) a nomination. Ah… something isn’t right if you don’t get to go to the cinema at least once a week!

Yes, I’m afraid I have to admit that I have been somewhat amiss in updating the blog. My boring, sad excuse? Work. Work, work, work. (I could write an entire scene just using variations of the word, but I think we can all do without that one.

But there are a number of things on my list of Things to Blog About. Even if some of them go back months, they’re definitely not forgotten.

Now, if only I could remember what they are…

The Wire, season 5. Most of the reviews I read were almost a bit embarrassed – yes, the final is good but it’s widely agreed to be the weakest of the series. If it had come earlier it would have been less of a disappointment, but after the potent tragedy, the incisive satire, the sheer all-round greatness of the earlier seasons – well, it felt like The Wire light.

This was perhaps clearest in how the season may just be the funniest of the five, but it lacks a strong tragic counterpoint. Yes, there’s sadness in what happens, even in McNulty’s harebrained scheme, but not to the level of Frank Sobotka’s tragedy, or Bunny Colvin’s, or that of the kids in season 4. And what tragedy there was felt like more of the same, not the deepending of previous seasons. Michael, Dukie, Prop Joe, Omar – they didn’t really bring anything new to the table. As such, season 5 felt less like the last chapter and more like an epilogue. Arguably, the only truly new aspect – the media – lacked the complexity of the series’ earlier depictions of deep flaws in the system grinding up people who try their hardest to get by.

Nevertheless, season 5 worked well as a sendoff to the series and its characters, not least due to its final episode and its uncharacteristic hopefulness. Yes, the system still sucks but – suprisingly optimistic for The Wire – our heroes, the McNultys, Danielses, Michaels, Bubbles, have a chance of surviving, of getting out. Which, in hindsight, may be a touch sentimental… but damn, if it didn’t bring a tear to my eye as I watched it.