Juvenile Cinephile

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

DIRECTED BY LYNNE RAMSEY

   Is Eva Khatchadourian paranoid, overly ambivalent, or just plain too close to the fire regarding her son Kevin?  Is she too meek or just at a loss for how to parent him?   Is she a tragic figure or totally unreliable and unsympathetic?  Whatever you believe, she is laid the blame for Kevin because despite all the psychological warfare Kevin waged against her, he never laid a finger on her versus everybody else in his destructive path.  WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN deals with Eva’s perceptions and nightmares about Kevin that take form in big and small acts of evil. 

Lynne Ramsey’s adaptation of the Lionel Shriver novel narrows the dirty deeds yet makes each act Kevin commits more frightening and effective.  The film’s non-chronological order at first seems messy but the film’s build up to the final fifteen minutes makes everything that seemed too blurred in storytelling have more focus.  

For a character portrayed by more than one actor, including an infant, each ‘Kevin’ is a nightmare.  Ezra Miller as the eldest Kevin is a young man who believes he has it all figured out and knows exactly what he is doing, no longer just specific to pushing his mother’s buttons (something that both in the novel and on the screen showed at a young age, a boy aware of what he was doing to his mother), but about everything around him.  There are flaws in his nihilism but his pretentiousness and sinister nature lethally undermine all logic. 

Tilda Swinton plays Eva as a flawed woman who is almost in a horror movie where all the cards are stacked against her and her alone, a woman who truly believes her son is a monster from a very young age but nobody believes her.  Kevin is, of course, a parent’s worst nightmare.  But Swinton is not an outgoing, crazy, shrill counterpoint that we must root for against Miller’s diabolical psychopath.   She plays a woman trying to connect, trying to maintain control, and later, trying to remain anonymous.  The movie is from her perspective and the alienation she feels is palpable but also deceptive.  Her interactions with Kevin, some of which are volatile, show flaws in her child rearing that are both obvious and complex.  But could she have really raised this boy?  Could she have saved him?  Was Kevin born bad? 

I love that Ramsey still leaves many of these questions open to interpretation, preserving Shriver’s novel.  She stylizes the film to a certain extent with a soundtrack that is quite pronounced and post-modern and the close-ups she gives to every major character puts her actors on the spot.  Miller’s malevolence may be seen as too hammy and try-hard compared to Swinton’s subtle brilliance but he is what shakes you to the core and makes your skin crawl.  Those looks he gives to Eva alone make him one the more memorable and detestable villains of any movie genre.  Miller, Jasper Newell, and Rock Duer make Kevin evil incarnate.  Swinton makes a complex protagonist stuck between a rock and a hard place, by her own doing or by her own son remains debatable even after viewing this film.  Miller and Swinton each deserve to be up for every acting award as well as Lynne Ramsey for directing a real horror be a film on the perception of seeing evil within a person you are supposed to love and defend.  WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is one the best films I have seen this year.

5.) PARKS & RECREATION

This show is definitive proof you can recover from the early growing pains of the first episodes, or in its case its first season, and completely thrive.  It has far surpassed its creative sibling The Office with a show that is surprisingly not cynical about politics though the general kookiness of small town government and bureaucracy definitely makes it through the cracks but never feels inappropriate.

After having an excellent full second season it was inexplicably pushed to mid-season.  NBC said it was because Poehler was pregnant despite the fact the show knew this well enough to prepare for some time off by extending the end of the second season to shoot enough episodes for a third season where a hiatus would not be necessary.  NBC responded to this by giving us Outsourced.  And they wonder why they are last in ratings. 

Anyway, the shorter season of Parks & Recreation was amazing and memorable with auxiliary characters like Tom Haverford, Andy Dwyer, and April Ludgate getting to shine while the new additions of Rob Lowe and Adam Scott were pitch-perfect for the show.  Then there was the red state-blue state friendship of Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson that made the show.  Both characters are amazing apart but when they are put together in a situation it makes for great TV.  Also great guests with Tammy 1, Tammy 2, Mama Swanson Tammy, Detlef Schrempf, and Jean Ralphio Saperstein.  But I think we can all agree the star of the show was Li’l Sebastian. 

Standout Episodes: “Flu Season”, “Ron & Tammy: Part Two”, “Li’l Sebastian”, “Harvest Festival”, and “Andy and April’s Fancy Party”

4.) LOUIE

I may have been one out of a dozen or so people that thought HBO’s LUCKY LOUIE was irreverent genius that will likely never happen again on HBO (I mean, seriously, a three-camera, live-studio audience dirty beyond words sitcom ?  On HBO?).  So I was beyond thrilled Louis CK got another chance to do an edgy comedy show.  This was a much better fit, no matter how much I think of LUCKY LOUIE. 

The guerrilla style film making all around New York makes me appreciate its existence for all the three-camera sitcoms that are shot in an LA backlot that calls itself a New York show.  The low-rent style is completely acceptable thanks to CK being one of the funniest guys on the planet who gets to tag along some of the best in the business like Joan Rivers and Steven Wright this season without a real stretch of the imagination involved (though the same cannot be said about Dane Cook’s appearance on the show) while also melding together a slightly fictitious take on his real life with raw honesty.  It also is not afraid to go for completely black humor or just simply darkness. This is a bare bones show that I am glad exists. 

Standout Episodes: “Pregnant”, “Duckling”, “Subway, “Pamela”, “Joan”, “Eddie”, “New Jersey”, and “Airport”

3.) GAME OF THRONES

I never read the books or knew about this universe and in fact, I only started getting drawn in after a particular episode caused quite a stir with its ending.  I am glad the word of mouth was so strong for this and that it was the cross-over hit it became.  Yeah it is gratuitous with its sex and violence like any other HBO show but it fits these characters and their psychology much more than other gratuitous messes the network has been piling up as of late. 

The casting is amazing getting great character actors and unknown commodities together along with child actors who will clearly play an important role on the show much later.  Even cent that show costs to make, and it is a bundle, is there right on screen. It really should not be confused with the genre shows that really do not treat its viewers with any respect like True Blood or even to a certain extent Once Upon a Time.  It helps that George R.R. Martin wrote an episode (“The Pointy End”) but coming off Robert Kirkman’s lame teleplay that he wrote on The Walking Dead, it was not a sure thing that Martin could have succeeded in re-imagining his own work yet it was one of the best episodes of the season. 

The storytelling is simple enough, showing feuding families fight for supremacy, to pick up on and the ensemble led by Peter Dinklage (who was rightfully rewarded with an Emmy) and Amelia Clarke is excellent.  The finale brought the right kind of anticipation for the new season and payoff for what already happened.  This is the best show on HBO and I think they realize what an entity they have.  Hopefully this series lasts as long as the books. 

Standout Episodes: “Winter is Coming”, “Baelor”, “The Wolf and the Lion”, “The Pointy End”, and “Fire and Ice”

2.) COMMUNITY

I feel like on Thursday nights, 30 Rock is a Marx Brothers movie of farce, The Office and Parks & Recreation are a Christopher Guest film, and Community is a New Wave film movement that both embraces and rebels against normal TV conventions.  I do believe it is that far ahead of every TV comedy on the air.  

The ensemble cast has become one of the best on TV thanks to nuanced writing that puts each of them above just being a stereotype, though the show loves to push those buttons every once in a while.  But a show that pays homage to TV tropes and genres only ‘nerds’ would get also has revealed to have a heart of gold.  Dan Harmon and his writers understands the consequences of the actions for all of the characters and have meticulously built a line of continuity that may not instantly re-appear in later episodes, surely does have consequences and importance episodes later.  The show is smart, hysterical, and un-apologetically nerdy to its core that takes chances that no other show, drama or comedy, would dare.  You can tell that the actors and the writers are having the time of their lives with this show which made the potential rumors of cancellation hurt a little more than some boring procedural getting put the pastures, comparatively. 

With reports that the show, despite its laughably bad ratings, is still filming episodes we can hopefully get to see what this already amazing Season 3 will continue to push the show into a well-deserved cult status with other shows like Spaced and Arrested Development. It should win all of the awards in writing and acting but this show may be too ‘out there’, which is a damn shame. 

Standout Episodes: “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”, “Epidemiology”, “Cooperative Calligraphy”, “Advanced Dungeons”, “Critical Film Studies”, “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking”, and “Paradigms of Human Memory”

1.) BREAKING BAD

A show that made you see how high the stakes were in every episode, unflinching and hypertensive that dared you to not look away.  The show showed the decline and rise of both Walter White and Jesse Pinkman while showing the svengali nature of Gus Firing.  Hell, Gus would only be in an episode 10 minutes tops but it would feel like he was on screen the whole time.  Given that we saw what the man was capable of, the feelings and psychology was more than warranted. 

The episodes gave us great, clever camera angels and would take absolutely audacious turns, including half an episode entirely in Spanish or another episode showing a meth party that made you feel like you were on a controlled substance.  The acting by Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul was rewarded beforehand and this season once again proved why, with them each taking dark and unexpected turns that will re-define this series.  But Giancarlo Esposito was the breakout star of this season as Gus Firing who made receiving an order of fried chicken one of the scariest things ever. 

There is really nothing more that can be said without revealing a million different spoils and plot twists so I will just say, long live the Roomba! 

Standout Episodes: “End Times”, “Box-Cutter”, “Crawl Space”, “Thirty Eight Snub”, “Hermanos”, and “Face Off”

Others shows I like (that are just not Top Ten Worthy):

• Cougartown
• Parenthood
• Homeland
• Happy Endings
• Raising Hope
• Top Chef: All-Stars
• Futurama
• Bob’s Burgers
• Beavis & Butthead
• Shameless
• Misfits
• It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
• 30 Rock
• Curb Your Enthusiasm

10.) AWKWARD.

This freshman show is one of the nicest surprises of 2011.  I normally ignore live-action MTV shows, original and reality, like the plague.  Yet Awkward. is the right mix of edgy, salty, sweet, and hysterical.  The mistaken legend of protagonist Jenna Hamilton, believed to have attempted suicide when she accidentally slipped in her bathroom while reading a mean-spirited anonymous note, makes it both a blessing and a curse, but mostly a curse. 

Unlike its network cousin Suburgatory, which if for not the tremendous ensemble cast would have made me drop the show in record time, it is not made to be insightful about suburbia or the high school experience beyond Jenna’s experience.  Suburgatory on the other hand makes me hate the main character who would be on the My So-Called Life side of character point of view that I find nauseating.  Awkward. runs on its point of view, much to its benefit as it leaves open the mystery of who would write such a mean letter to her and her anxieties about two boys she is crushing on, Matty and Jake, feel real and not pointless drama.  The sexual content on this show is pretty liberal and casual.  Considering Jenna was 15 during the first episode, I am surprised the PTC was not up its ass like MTV’s other live-action teen show, Skins (American Style).  With that said, sex does not make the show but the writing and characters make me adore this show. 

It helps that Jenna is supported by an ensemble that feel straight out of Daria and Mean Girls.  The completely out of touch but heart in the right place Guidance Counselor, the heavy set cheerleader with an attitude, a Donnie Darko-like weirdo stalker of Jenna, and her impulsive, slightly immature but has a heart of gold best friend Tamara who pretty much makes me laugh whenever she opens her mouth. 

Awkward. unexpectedly became one of my new favorite shows for 2011 and I hope it continues to go strong into season 2 and gain an audience it more than deserves with its sharp writing.

Standout Episode(s): “I Am Jenna Hamilton”, “Pilot”, and “Fateful”

9.) ARCHER

Sometimes edginess can come from some unusual places and Archer is no exception.  Could any network, or any live-action show for that matter, have gotten away with what this FX cartoon that spoofs spies did this past season?  Making your lead character have cancer and make a joke out of it is like a TV death wish yet I found myself laughing at the plight of Sterling Archer having breast cancer (you read that right).   The second season also offered some hysterical origins of both Archer’s elder, geriatric, sad sack of a butler in Woodhouse and the highly disturbed scientist Dr. Krieger who may or may not be a clone of Adolf Hitler. 

Sure, Jessica Walter as Mallory Archer is essentially Lucille Bluth in cartoon form but the voice cast of H. Jon Benjamin, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, Aisha Tyler, Chris Parnell, and show creator Adam Reed is among the most talented and comedic ensembles on television. 

The show dealt with a lot more continuity this season but the beauty of Archer is that even missing a few episodes hear and there does not mean you will not laugh your ass off watching the latest episode.  This show was not afraid to go dark and come out to a ray of sunshine, all while remaining tonally true to the show’s origins. 

Standout Episodes: “The Double Deuce”, “Movie Star”, “El Secuestro”, “Stage 2”, and “Placebo Effect”

8.) THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

Lately it feels like people are re-embracing the prime time soap with new shows like Revenge completely running with it in ways that even the outlier Desperate Housewives did for the sake of a laugh.  But I think Revenge also owes a debt to The Vampire Diaries. 

Notice I give TVD the distinction of prime time soap than Sexy Vampire show.  When this show came out it gained notoriety as a Twilight-fication of television and an overly sanitized version of True Blood.  Yet, it has become better than True Blood.  Including other myths like witches, werewolves, doppelgangers, and even hybrids of vampires and werewolves make sense in TVD world while True Blood just seems to throw in new myths and characters for the sake of it.  So much happens episode to episode while maintaining the overall arch.  The pace of each episode is a breeze that makes you want more and more.  It is almost the show Netflix was created for.  You can watch multiple episodes and never be bored. 

The acting in the show is fun, pulpy, and compelling, especially Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev in a dual role.  No character is sacred from having something happen to them which I respect showrunner Kevin Williamson continually doing so not for the pure shock of it all but for good storytelling.

The show should not be thrown aside for its CW distinctions.  It is well-written, compelling, fun, and unpredictable.  It mixes both the old fashion sensibilities of the prime time soap with the new school quick-paced, ensemble show that makes you still care for the leads as much as the memorable side characters. 

Standout Episodes: “Klaus”, “Know Thy Enemy, “The Sun Also Rises”, and “The Last Day”

7.) JUSTIFIED

FX seems to either have the quirky, edgy comedies or pulpy melodramas you can eat up like candy.  The latter sometimes overdoes it (looking at you, Sons of Anarchy) but Justified Season 2 pretty much made its melodrama compelling and appropriate. 

The ensemble of great, underused character actors made me appreciate this show even more, if to not to make mention of the excellent Timothy Olyphant as US Marshal Raylan Givens.  But Walton Goggins and Margo Martindale pretty much walked away with this season and for good reason. 

Season 2 of Justified proved not all finales have to be about a bloody mess of a shootout.  It proved having a glass of moonshine can be as intense if not just a little more lethal. 

Standout Episodes: “Brother’s Keeper”, “The Spoil”, “The Reckoning”, and “Bloody Harlan”

6.) FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Now, when this show ended I didn’t just sit crying to Adele’s “Someone Like You” but were the waterworks out in that finale.  The little show that could, a show I left for dead in its second season, came back to life and worked like gangbusters to the very end. The writing and the acting were second to none and thankfully Emmy voters realized this, rightfully awarding show-runner Jason Katims and Kyle Chandler with statues. 

The naturalism and honesty between Coach and Mrs. Taylor make them the show’s rock and moral compass with no drama beyond the normal family matters.  It was a breath of fresh air.  But like many people, I was skeptical of the new high school and cast of characters.  The new characters, led by Michael B. Jordan, Matt Lauria, and Jurnee Smollett were no Riggins or Tyra or Smash but they didn’t have to be and damn, were they good as their characters.   That is not to say the returns of old favorites were not welcomed, in fact, it felt right and sincere.  It may be corny, but that is Friday Night Lights in a nutshell, a show that is sincere about the human relations and human condition in small towns.  I am having severe withdrawal.

Standout Episodes: “On the Outside Looking In”, “Don’t Go”, “Texas Whatever”, “The March”, and the series finale, “Always”

BEST NEW SHOW RANKINGS OF 2011:

1.) Game of Thrones

2.) Awkward.

3.) Homeland

4.) Happy Endings

5.) Shameless

6.) Wilfred

7.)Prime Suspect

8.) Bob’s Burgers

9.) Boss

10.) New Girl

GUILTY PLEASURES

1.) American Horror Story

2.) Pan-Am

3.) 2 Broke Girls

SHOWS VOTED OFF THE ISLAND:

Sons of Anarchy

-A third season that felt like an eternity was nearly saved with a fourth season that ultimately wrapped up with a pretty lame ending. Add in Kurt Sutter’s downright insane ego behind the scenes and I just think the bravado does not match what is put on the television.   For a show that went there in its second season it has curled up in a fetal position refusing to be harsh against fan favorites who all sort of have it coming. 

The Killing

-I think it should have been known that it getting a second season meant little headway made in the Rosie Larsen murder case but betraying its own compelling, early episodes that showed real discipline by making it about unmemorable racist family members, Seattle entrepreneurs, missing Muslim girls, and rain, rain, rain, really just made people seethe more with anger at a finale that did….. nothing.  

SHOWS THAT WILL BE GIVEN MERCY… FOR NOW

Glee- Now I know I defended Season 2 but my goodness did its back-nine really take wind out of my sales.  Not only ignoring what made the show great, the background characters getting to shine and the new additions like Dot Marie Jones, and making it an unnecessary love triangle made the show a real train crash to watch.  The original songs was a good bit to have for one episode and I am fine that “My Cup” exists but I really wish the show went more in the direction of irreverent dark comedy than an ABC family level of romantic drek.  Characters like Quinn and Sue Sylvester took steps back to the point they are not even in the building and unnecessary drama and conflict that came out of nowhere for many of the regulars made me think that the Ryan Murphy has no concept of a filler episode.  Even the genius of Holly Holliday was overstayed with the ridiculous episode, “A Night of Neglect”. For all that, I loved the Santana and Sam (before he moved and came back) storyline, Blaine brought a new energy to the show, and I wish Karofsky got more of a moment in the sun.   The show is still struggling to regain form but it has its highs and lows. But I still think Ryan Murphy is Mr. Rad and will likely cut off the break lines to the Glee bus. 

LAW & ORDER: SVU

-My Ultimate junk TV show has become ridiculous.  Meloni leaving would hurt more if this past season didn’t waste him and the rest of the cast with episodes that do not even bother to do the legal side of things anymore and have little subtlety or nuance.  I pretty much am relying on re-runs at this point.  The new season with new cast members is sort of regaining form but it is still missing the procedural magic of five-six years ago.