Medium Mashup

Category: Reviews

Reviews of Movies, TV, and Games

  • Parks and Recreation: Final Season Review

    ron canoe

    Sitcoms are, by design, all about stasis and repetition. The audience is sold a premise, and then the show has to keep telling stories within that premise until it is either cancelled or comes to an end. Character growth is kept to a minimum, and often resets at the end of each episode. Nobody typically becomes more successful than they already were at the start, and if anybody gets married or has children, it almost always has to be with another central cast member.

    This makes it difficult for writers to end a show. If any lengthy arc is essentially against the rules, then how do you cap things off? How do you put a definitive point on something when your goal has been to stretch it out for years on end? In the past, these have not been major considerations; most shows just ran until they were no longer popular, and then were cancelled without an ending. This has changed in recent years and, while I’m sure it terrifies some writers’ rooms, it has been used as an opportunity for others.

    (more…)

  • American Sniper Review: The Hazards of Thematic Confusion

    AMERICAN SNIPERThe following article is a review of American Sniper, but it goes further in-depth than most of the reviews on this site. Because of this, I am posting this as a “Review” and a “Deep End” article. Due to the nature of the review, spoilers will be discussed.

    First off, the good: American Sniper is a technical marvel. The film is the frontrunner in both sound categories at the Oscars this year, and it is obvious why. The way that the sound team layered the background noises in Iraq onto the “silent” moments while Chris Kyle is lining up shots gives everything a additional layer of realism and tension. Also well done is the way these background noises fade out momentarily between breaths and heartbeats prior to Kyle firing his gun. When Kyle returns to America, harmless noises like lawnmower engines and auto-repair work rise up in the sound mix to subtly indicate the way that he is always on edge. Combined with Bradley Cooper’s strong performance, the film is able to say a lot about Kyle’s mental state without throwing it all into the dialogue.

    (more…)

  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Review

    dawn-of-the-planet-of-the-apes_b58f0fOf all of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ successes, the most significant is the way that it frames its conflict. This is not a movie where I found myself rooting for the humans to destroy the apes, or a movie that made humanity out to be the bad guys who destroy everything in their path. Instead, both sides are made to be sympathetic and are simultaneously given reasons to be afraid of each other. It’s a much more realistic and, dare I say it, “human” way to look at war and diplomacy than one would expect in a summer movie, especially one where a whole “side” of the potential conflict is made-up of talking, horse-riding, CGI apes. Instead of man vs. ape, the conflict is between war and peace, and I found myself very much on the side of peace, despite the obvious future of the “Planet of the Apes” and the demands of a big-budget summer release. I actually cared about both sides.

    (more…)

  • Better Call Saul Review

    better-call-saul_62d3c2(I will be discussing spoilers for the first two episodes below)

    A lot can be said for Better Call Saul, and how it does or doesn’t recapture the magic of Breaking Bad in its first two episodes, and I’m sure I’ll get to a lot of it below. However, first I would like to examine a single shot in one of the first scenes of the pilot.

    The scene, a courtroom waiting for public defender Jimmy McGill (the future Saul Goodman), is a beautifully executed moment of patient impatience. The sound design in this scene is superb; the omnipresent hum of the fluorescent lighting, the pitter-patter of the court stenographer, the ticking of the clock, the creaking of chairs, the occasional stray cough, the slushing of ice in a Big Gulp convenience store soda, all contributing to the rooms increasing ennui. The prosecuting attorney, a stern-looking man in a suit, appears to be jotting notes on his notepad. We then get “the shot,” a close-up of his notepad, where he has been drawing a barbarian on a unicorn.

    (more…)

  • Selma Review

    SELMAIt’s common knowledge in the entertainment industry that the studios, both major and independent, release all of their most likely “award” movies towards the end of the year. This has more to do with marketing and campaigning than anything; nobody trusts academy voters to remember more than a few months back, and this way they can spam the trades with “For Your Consideration” ads to remind people of their great new movie.

    This means that you typically see two types of films release at the end of the year. The first is the kind of film that a studio or distributor found to be utterly compelling and unique, and figured might stand a chance as an award contender. This year, Birdman is a good example: something off-beat but interesting that they could push during award-season. On the other hand, you have the “important” film, the kind that doesn’t necessarily have to be good because its subject matter alone places it on a pedestal. These are often the tragic-then-inspiring biopics, or the topical message movies, or the historical event pieces.

    (more…)