It Hurts Me Too

by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert: Some of the twists from this episode are given away in this review.

The next installment in the plotline juggling show that is True Blood started out with a literal bang: Sookie shot at a werewolf that had let himself into her house. (Is her house possibly some supernatural magnet? Seems like a lot of bad guys just waltz all over it, including Marianne, who turned it into a brothel mixed with a cult headquarters last season.) There were some other fun twists in the episode, including the revelation that Arlene is pregnant, not with her boyfriend's baby, but with Rene's baby. (For those of you not in the know, Rene was the villain from season one.) It also looks like Jason will become a police officer. It's a smart move, since it'll allow the audience to see more of the Andy/Jason bromance that brought so much comic relief to the last episodes of season two.

Alexander Skarsgard once again gave a stellar performance. He perfectly blends Eric's bad boy posing and his inner romantic. He gives great small touches too, like the patting of the funeral wreath after he buried the dead werewolf in an already recently-buried grave. But make no mistakes about Eric; Skarsgard can still give the menace. He's a brilliant leader, one that Machiavelli could be proud of.
Good quotes were brought to you from Lafayette, of course, who commented that it must feel new when Jason said he had a lot on his mind. Talbot had a good zinger too, telling Cooter that it was insulting to boxes to compare werewolves to them. It's hard not to love sarcastic, teenager little brother, who noted that if Sam threw a punch, he would "totally be one of them."
It might be interesting to see what they're going to do with the Sam storyline, since Sam's little brother seems surprisingly like a sociopath. It's nice that they brought Sam's family to Bon Temps, instead of having the rest of this season's Sam storyline happen elsewhere. My guess is that Sam's family is going to abuse their relationship with him, sucking money from him.
Also making an appearance is Alcide. He's a much more attractive man in this show than I thought he'd be. The other new-ish man, Franklin, is total scum, since he's clearly into blackmailing poor Jessica and Tara. He's not much of a villain, since the only thing lamer than Franklin's come-ons is his theme music.
The plotline that is the least interesting? Bill's. It's hard to care what happens to him, even with the information that he is important to Sophie-Anne. It's hard to even believe he's that important to her, since Sophie-Anne said several episodes ago that she was happy to hear he was out of the way. The flashback featuring Bill and Caroline was decent, given the flashbacks are usually dry and uninspired on this show. It's too bad we can't spend more time with Bill and Caroline, because they're a legitimately interesting couple. Lorena's lines are as terrible as Franklin's, like her whole "Your only loyalty is to your own sentiment," which she said to Bill.
Other not good things about this episode included the stilted post-coital dialogue between Tara and Franklin. It sounded more like a bad film from the forties than two modern adults talking to one another. (Bill and his wife Caroline were also somewhat stilted, though not nearly as bad as much of what came out of other vampire's fang-framed mouths.) The lack of chemistry between Tara and Franklin was particularly noticeable given the easy and sweet dialogue between Sam and Sookie and Tara and Jason. This episode was not as good as the first two of the season, but still fun and with some interesting changes to the storyline of the books.

Night Junkies

by Courtney Hilden

Night Junkies, a small independent horror film, is about a vampire named Vincent who accidentally turns Ruby, a stripper, into one of them. Normally, this would simply mean she becomes a vampire, but in this film vampires are more like addicts (interested in blood instead of something like drugs), and Ruby vows to break her addiction with Vincent at her side.
The movie knows how silly it is, since it opens up on a discussion of vampires and how they are all about sex. Sex is actually one of the last things this movie is about, since it makes the connection between vampires and drug junkies, which is a nice change of pace from the usual stuff audiences associate with vampires. She meets a vampire, not in a club, but in a cafe. Vampire Vincent eats a muffin.
Vincent, played by Giles Alderson, is delightful creepy and slightly awkward, sniffing the air. He has this weird nostril thing that would never work on any other character but a vampire. The chemistry between him and Ruby (Katia Winters) is prefect. It's nice that these actors aren't afraid to look like crap, with Ruby's makeup and sweat mixing in that gross way that girls are all too familiar with. These actors actually do look like people who are coming off of addictions.
There are some weak parts of this movie, including the monologues of Vincent, which would be fine if it was just to introduce the movie, but it gets used too often. He also has a strange lisp that makes him sound more like a Muppet than a vampire. Also, there's no need to be listening to the Boss carry on and on about unnecessary metaphors; just get to the point. The villain of the story, one of Ruby's old pimps, wastes our time creeping around her apartment building, harassing old ladies. He's one of the least scary villains, being almost all campy, and not, sadly, in a good way. The villain even gets a monologue, one that is boring and only stalls the obvious conclusion, which is drawn out and corny in its own way. And if that weren't enough, several bits of dialogue that are meant to be funny fall utterly flat.
From such a promising beginning and such subversion of the genre, it might give you the impression that this film is worth watching all the way through. You'd be wrong. The film loses much of its momentum about mid-way. It's an interesting idea, and certain parts of the film work, but what doesn't work ruins the few successful things about it.

The Lodger

by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert!: The ending for this episode is revealed in this review.

"The Lodger" follows the Doctor after he has been rejected out of the TARDIS into a small English town.  Amy can't seem to land the TARDIS, and the Doctor follows whatever is making it so into a set of flats.  He becomes the lodger at Craig's (James Corden) place, who is trying to ask out one of his best friends, Sophie (Daisy Haggard).  
It's good to see that this episode wasn't a recycled plot from a recent episode.  Instead, we got to see what Amy and the Doctor are like without each other in each other's environments, which was a nice change of pace.  It was nice to see the Doctor do "normal" things, like having a flatmate and playing football.  On the last bit, it would have also be fun to see the Doctor muck up at football, but it worked better in the overall storyline for him to be good.  Seeing the Doctor shirtless was also nice.  Maybe Matt Smith should think about playing a Greek god.  
The couple featured was way too cute.  They both like each other, they both know they like each other, but they're both way too shy.  The Doctor has turned into a matchmaker, realizing very quickly at the romance blooming.  It seemed obvious that Sophie was going to be captured by whatever it was in the upper flat which would finally galvanize Craig and Sophie to confess their love for one another. 
Sometimes it seems like the crew needs to scout out some more shooting locations, because the town that was featured in this episode looked exactly like the one featured in the first episodes of the series.  But it was a great penultimate episode, setting us up for the conclusion of the this series and the promised resolution of what the cracks all about the universe are about. 

Sex and the City 2

by Courtney Hilden

Does this movie need an introduction? Sex and the City 2 is based on the television show hit of the same name, where four women (Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda) all interact with one another and the city (most importantly, apparently, its men) around them. In their latest outing, they head to the Middle East to scout out a hotel for Samantha to represent.
All well and good, right? Hardly.
Since this review is coming so late, it seems silly to take it down in all the ways it deserves to be: as homophobic, racist, and other miscellaneous forms of insensitive. Stanford and Anthony, two gay men who previously hated each other, are getting married. This would be fine, if Anthony didn't insist that he be allowed to cheat. For a movie written by a gay man and created by various LBGT allies, it still feels the need to create a stereotype of a gay man. And once again, New York is incredibly whitewashed, with one African American woman playing Samantha's assistant. And the section of the movie on the Middle East is filled with every stereotype they can find about Muslims. (They're so sexually repressed! They hate women!) Why this movie had to go to the Middle East and not somewhere else, where the story could have refrained from such poor depictions. (The franchise has managed to make it to L.A. and Paris, why not London, Rome or Milan, all big fashion cities?) The movie exists in a universe where yes, the recession has hit, but not realistically, since Carrie can still afford her old apartment and the girls can complain about having to fly couch. The movie was conceived before anyone apparently realized that depicting people's lives, even rich people's lives, this way was going to smart with an audience that is not so lucky.
The problem with these movies, other than their cultural fails, is that they remind the audience of how much better this material works in a television series format. At least there the audience has time to explore the storylines that get sidelined, allowing them to unfold at a more leisurely pace. The movie is long, but because it keeps moving, it rarely feels so. And mostly, it still works, since the girls are, despite their flaws, fun to be around.

The Secret of Chimneys

by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert!: The mysteries are revealed in this review.

"The Secret of Chimneys" finds our heroine, Miss Marple, visiting an old friend and niece, Virginia, at the family's lavish country estate. A count from Austria comes to visit them to secure a business deal, and in the process, is killed. Marple, as usual, is on the case, this time aided by an Inspector Finch, who doesn't bumble around but holds his own and respects her abilities.
It's this Inspector Finch who is the most enjoyable part of the episode. It seems clear that the show is setting up a possible love interest for Miss Marple, who always plays such a quiet role in this series. Possibly Finch is not just a love interest but someone who is spying on her. It would be interesting to see if Finch returns, in what capacity, and what motivations of his will be uncovered.
There were also some lovely touches. The Count was hilariously overdressed in a Dracula-like black cloak and red-ribboned medal. Several of the characters attempting to decode the musical message with a piano was delightful. Having Marple find the diamond and then pull it out of her purse, revealing the rest of the mystery's clues, made for a shocking conclusion, because Marple herself so rarely becomes directly involved (or puts away a brother-in-law.)
Although not as good as previously episodes, it's still a solid entry in the series.

Beautifully Broken

by Courtney Hilden

The latest episode of True Blood continues each of the separate storylines the audience has been watching. Lafayette shows Tara what happened to his mother (and answering the question of what Lafayette does with all the money he makes off of V), Jason and Andy bust a meth lab, Sookie continues to search for Bill, and Sam reunites and bonds with his family.
Lafayette's Mom was the most interesting part of the episode, since she brought a subtle crazy to her character. (And also illuminated why Tara's Mom is such a pain in the ass.) The friendship between Jason and Andy continues to be both funny and sweet. Meanwhile, the audience got to see a flashback including Eric and Godric. It's a pity Godric is dead, because he is far more interesting than so many of the other vampires, since he is so much more cool-headed than most of them. But Eric is no longer a one-note character, and beginning to see his vulnerability to Sookie, who he has some connection with but doesn't know how to express.
The most boring parts of this episode? The main characters: Bill and Sookie. Bill has been kidnapped by the King of Mississippi and Sookie tries to desperately search for him. At this point, it seemed obvious that Lorena was going to show up, though not that he would try to burn her with what looked like a kerosene lamp.
Although this episode is important in terms of setting up other storylines for the show, it was, for the most part, boring. It's almost too bad there are so many storylines in the air right now, because it would be better to just follow the interesting characters, and leave others to rot with the King of Mississippi.

Vincent and the Doctor

by Courtney Hilden

“Vincent and the Doctor” finds our favorite Doctor running after a monster he sees in an Van Gogh painting, dragging companion Amy along. The entire episode was about image and impression, since the episode (visually) referenced Van Gogh’s paintings and contained a machine that could take impressions of things to find what they really were.
The actor playing Van Gogh (Tony Curran) was delightful, sympathetic, elusive and intense. He has created some wonderful villains, and has such large, dark pupils it is possible to drown in them. Even so, it was hard not to think about the cartoon doppelganger of Van Gogh from Clone High. Bill Nighy, who played the art academic, was adorable and sweet. (Seriously, why didn't anyone consider him to be the new doctor?) As always, Karen Gillan brought a wonderful sense of delight and compassion, combining the best aspects of Rose and Donna. Matt Smith did a serviceable job as the Doctor. He's grown into the role, but sometimes he lacks any charisma to set him apart from previous doctors. (Though of course he has the hard job of following what might be the best doctor, David Tennant.) The episode still had tons of fun and well-delivered Doctorism, including the Doctor wondering if time really passed that slowly and in the right order. It was, as a whole, an uplifting episode less about the monster and more about art and loving life.

She's the Man

by Courtney Hilden



She's the Man follows around high schooler and high society girl Violet (the charming Amanda Bynes) as she impersonates her twin brother Sebastian at his new school to prove to her former high school soccer coach and captain that girls can play soccer as well as boys. While at her/his new school, she befriends Duke (Channing Tatum) and Olivia (Laura Ramsey). Olivia falls in love with Sebastian and Duke falls for Violet at a carnival. Violet pretending to be Sebastian must make win the big game aganist her old school and navigate relationships and she pretends to be two different people. The plot is obviously a modern remake of Shakespeare's Twelve Night, similar to 10 Things I Hate About You.
Bynes gives another winning performance. She has wonderful facial expressions and uses her body to give a Chaplin-like performance. She manages to play an awkward but well-meaning young man, and blends in relatively well.
Unsurprisingly, everything ties up neat in the end, just as most of Shakespeare's comedies do. It's too bad that even the remake is unable to address the issues of identity and sexuality that the film does it's best to avoid.

Bad Blood

by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert!: Certain surprises within the episode are revealed in this review.




"Bad Blood," the first episode of this season of True Blood, picks up where the last episode left off, with Tara still reeling over the death of Eggs, Sookie looking for a kidnapped Bill, Eric trying to sell V (vampire blood used as a drug) to fund the Queen of Louisiana, and Sam out looking for his family.  Although the episode was fascinating and moved all these storylines forward, like most episodes of the show, there wasn't much tying these things together. 

The episode opened with what has to be the longest "previously on..." segment in the history of television.  The show is juggling way too many balls at this point not to be confusing, even to those viewers who have been loyally following (including your's truly.)
It's good also to see some of the book's most interesting characters, including Kendra Jones.  Kendra is always in the background of the early books, and in this episode she gets a brief cameo.  Also seeing the Bellefleur cousins bonding over their mutual killer status was nice.  No other character manages to both be badass and sensitive like Terry Bellefleur.  That badass might be rubbing off on Andy, since he went through Jason's window.  (Also: can someone make a techno song of Andy and Jason's mantra?)  The only thing that's sad is to see Eric at his trashiest and horndoggediness.  As a fan of the books, I want to see Eric like he is in the fourth or later books.  Tara was also hard to watch.  Tara's a great character, but seeing her act like a stereotypical black woman (crazy and violent) was disappointing, since this show is supposed to be all about subverting stereotypes, though the show has always struggled to do so with non-white, non-male characters. 
The show, at this point, is espousing an atheist point of view, which would be fine, if this was a simplistic show.  It would be nice to see the show to work to show an complicated answer to God.  It's also sad that the characters often interested in God are stupid or African American.  In the latter case, it's racist, but in the former, it's simple unimaginative.  Also, in the case of race, is it necessary to make one of the few African American characters to be made a slave to white people and sell drugs, as they have with Lafayette?  Aren't there enough of those stereotypes on tv?  The only thing that was good about it was the interesting commentary about blood and drug use.  The magistrate mentions that using vampire blood for drug use was "blasphemy," a word associated with this simplistic evangelist model.  (The magistrate also mentioned that this situation was "moral anarchy.")  Maybe the show will depict drug use as not so bad or terrible in the same way that sexuality is depicted by fundamentalist Christians.   
Overall, a decent episode, one that was funny in its now-standard way and allowed all the characters the chance to naturally grow. 

My Sister's Keeper

by Courtney Hilden

Spoiler Alert!: The ending is given away in this review.

My Sister's Keeper is about a young girl named Anna (Abigail Breslin) who decides to persue medical emancipation from her parents so that they won't use her body to help save her older sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) who is dying from cancer.
Obviously, this is a weepie movie, and only someone with a heart of stone could watch this and not feel anything for this family, which struggles not only with death but with neglect. The characters also seem far more kind and calm than anyone could reasonably expect them to be, given the circumstances.
Parts of the movie are poorly concieved. For instance, the early part of the film allows each character a monologue, and after the second one they start to feel like the screenwriter is incapable of more subltly and creatively introducting its characters. The movie also moves around in time, but because there are few points of reference, it's hard to tell where the narrative is at times, highlighting how contrived much of the action.
What is most disappointing in this movie is the attempt at romance. As Kate begins chemotherapy, she meets another cancer patient, Taylor (Thomas Dekker), and they fall in love. After Taylor dies, Kate apparently loses all the will to live, because her next move in the story is to facilitate her own death by manipulating her sister to manipulate her brother to manipulate her Mom. After all her fighting to stay alive, a boy she barely knows becomes the factor that determines how she lives or not? This is either incredibly poor motivation or a reminder of how pathetic heterosexual girls become within our society.

Cold Blood

by Courtney Hilden


"Cold Blood," the latest episode of Doctor Who, picks up where the last episode left off, which finds our heroes, the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy (Karen Gillan), trying to negotiate peacefully with the Silurians, aliens that once inhabited the Earth and mean to go back.
If the Daleks are meant to be the Nazis, then these aliens are apparently the Bush Administration, since they apparently "don't negotiate with apes." Points to the show for using science fiction as a way to discuss moral problems and political issues. This is where the show should go instead of recycling previous ideas from the last few seasons.
It's possible to read the Silurians as not an alien species but as another race. It would be easy to see them, given that they were the original owners of the planet, as indigenous people. The Doctor at least encourages both sides to negotiate instead of out-right war between colonizers and the native people. Unfortunately, the humans, the colonizers, are weak enough to be goaded into killing one of the Silurians. What makes this problematic is that the hero, the Doctor, defends the humans, the colonizer, and not the oppressed group. It's also dangerous that the oppressed are depicted as unhuman, literally green and scaly.
The episode was a solid entry in the series, especially since it ditches the overused plots and characters and goes for something different.

Murder at the Baskervilles

Spoiler Alert!: Part of the ending is revealed in this review.
by Courtney Hilden

Murder at the Baskervilles, or, as it’s also known as, Silver Blaze, is about the famed Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Watson going to Sir Henry Basker’s estate in the countryside. Silver Blaze, a horse, has disappeared, and his trainer has been murdered, so of course Holmes and Watson are on the case, since even the investigator admits he’s “completely baffled.” Eventually, Holmes discovers the horse on a nearby farm, disguised with painted-on spots. Nothing in this film is particularly surprising, making it mostly a bore.
At the same time that the audience is following Holmes, they’re also following the lives of some of the other characters. We see the uninspired and not very menacing Professor Moriarty, the arch-nemesis of Holmes, plan various schemes involving the same horse. It turns out Jack, about to marry Diane Basker, the daughter of Sir Henry, has a large amount of debt from gambling on horse racing. Jack doesn’t want to go to his father-in-law-to-be because Sir Henry disapproves of gambling. There are even the pathetic police attempting to solve this case on their own, deferring to Holmes instead.
It’s hard not to compare this Holmes (played by Arthur Wontner) to other depictions, and unfortunately, he’s not nearly as engaging as other actors, but he does a serviceable job in the role. Wontner wears the infamous cap and smokes a pipe, and looks surprisingly like Basil Rathbone, who is the so famous for playing the role. Wontner is very stiff throughout this movie. When he smiles near the end, it lights up the screen, making you wish he was playing something that would allow him more emotions that just passive and annoyed. Moriarty is not nearly as terrifying here as he has been in other depictions. Instead, he just seems like an ordinary professor, the kind that wears corduroy pants covered in chalk and bubbles through badly organized lectures.
There’s some strange stuff going on in this film. For one thing, all the characters are wearing typical Edwardian clothing, despite Holmes being a late Victorian creation. At one point, one of the female characters actually says “What’s up?” which sounds incredibly modern. The scene where a gangster shoots at Holmes and the police is terrible, more so than most older movies, because the gun look and sounds like it is just shooting air. Because of the lighting, the scenery in the movie looks much more dramatic, like a Gothic cemetery, than it does like the English countryside. It’s actually beautiful, and is perhaps the nicest thing about an otherwise boring movie.
For a movie that clocks in around an hour, this is an incredible drag.

Lost Children of the Blood

by Courtney Hilden

This latest episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent follows Nichols (Jeff Goldblum) and Stevens (Saffron Burrows) as they solve the case of a young co-ed murdered in her own dorm room bed. The episode combined every "dark" thing the writers could apparently think of: blood, Goths, vampires, Jung, and cults. The Goths or vampires (the distinction between the two never being clear in this episode) were all either bad guys or incredibly easy to manipulate by the bad guys. Goths and vampires (as either of these subcultures will tell you) are similar but not the same, and dislike being meshed together. Suffice to say, the episode reeked of sensationalist tabloid fodder more than it did of serious crime solving. Goldblum and Burrows bring a similar D'Ofrino/Erbe dynamic.

3:10 to Yuma

by Courtney Hilden

3:10 to Yuma is a Western following Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a rancher desperately in debt, who agrees to transport Ben Wade (Russell Crowe), a notorious criminal, to the Contention Train Station to get Wade on the 3:10 train to Yuma, a prison. While transporting Wade, the two feel each other out, not exactly bonding but developing a level of respect.
Bale is engaging as Evans, and you can’t help but root for him. The film also stars the geek-approved Kevin Durand (who played Keamy on Lost) and Alan Tudyk (who played Wash on Firefly). Given Durand’s menacing performance on Lost, it’s unsurprising that he also plays a bad guy here, though it’s a one-note character. It’s too bad Durand wasn’t playing the bad guy, as Crowe’s Wade is stiff at the beginning of the film and far too warm at the end. Tudyk plays Doc Porter, one of the few uncompromisingly good guys in the movie, and looks better here with his blonde beard and large glasses than he does in his other recent movies. The only actor who grates in this movie is Logan Lerman, who plays William, Evans’s oldest son.
The film also had a surprising amount of people of color. Often, Westerns have whitewashed the American West. Although this movie isn’t perfectly progressive, it does at least acknowledge that there are non-whites in the West and that they are treated poorly because of it, like when they stop at a labor camp populated mostly by Chinese immigrants, who are treated as slaves. Unfortunately, all of the Native Americans in this film were depicted as evil, since one was part of Wade’s band of thieves and the others were part of the “blood thirsty” Apache tribe that attempts to kill most of the main characters. The only good thing with the Native Americans is that Evans acknowledges that they were kicked off their land and that the Apaches here are the kind who absolutely refuse to move and are more likely to be violent because of their social position. Most Westerns don’t acknowledge the unfairness and inequality that the U.S. government encouraged, but this film does, although it’s brief. Unfortunately, the Apaches are also apparently incompetently violent, since Wade defeats them. And, as always, all the good guys are white.
There were lots of realistic touches that made the movie work. For example, most of the blood was appropriately dark to the point of black. (Most movies make blood bright red so it’ll stand out, but in fact when exposed to air like that, it oxides much more, turning it dark.) The details on the sets, especially Porter’s operating room, were dead on and gave a great feel to the movie.
Like most Westerns, they're not much for accuracy but do have lots of violence. It's an interesting movie since it attempts to give a Christian allegory to a genre that has always worshiped lawlessness and rough living, and some of the actors give great performances.

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

by Courtney Hilden

Miss Marple has recently come back to the screen, and this time the mystery is around the poisoning of Heather Babcock (Caroline Quinten), who was murdered at a party being held by Marina Gregg, a movie star. At first, no one can discern why Babcock was killed, and Gregg insists that she was the target. As Miss Marple investigates, she discovers that lots of characters have motivation for killing Gregg, but she also realizes it's not as simple as that.
Marple almost seems to be playing with the police detectives, giving them enough clues to solve the crime without mentioning how they are pertinent to the story. One of the things that was disappointing about the first series in this new version of Marple was the lack of information on her. She was just a detective that the audience could use to see the crime. Marple here has more of a personality and flaws, including friends and fragility. Marple goes so far as to taunt characters with what she discerns about them, making her much quicker and tougher than the average old woman gumshoe. Some of the other characters were delightful, including Marple's best friend Dolly (Joanna Lumley), a snoop, and Ella Blunt (Victoria Smurfit), Jason Rudd's too-devoted assistant, who both brought surprising style to their characters. The interactions between Marple and Dolly were particular authentic to the relationships between friends. Miss Bence (Charlotte Riley) was also great, coming off as world-weary and totally disinterested. Riley's deadpan delivery adds a touch of humor over all the murder and intrigue.

The film has an incredible sense of enthusiasm. You get the feeling that the creators love the material, the time period, and everything about classic movie stars. The soundtrack of this episode was particularly fun, since it imitated the dramatic incidental music that is associated with old movies. The set designs for the movie of Nefertiti were beautiful and glamorous.
By far the most charming of the new Marple series, and a good time for mystery or classic movie fans.

The Hide

by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert: This review gives away part of the mystery, though thankfully, not all the ending.

"The Hide," an episode of Foyle's War, follows Foyle, newly retired and about to leave for America, and Sidekick Sam and her new beau Adam at their boardinghouse on the green. This time around, Foyle is investigating a young man named Devereaux who has been accused of siding with the Nazis while a British P.O.W. during the recently ended Second World War. The suspect admits to being a member of the British Free Corps, a group the Nazis formed of P.O.W.'s by tempting them with better food and freedom. (Historically, this is an actual group. In a small moment in Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim is asked to join the American Free Corps, a similar division.) Foyle suspects that there are other forces afoot, and begins investigating, coming upon a young woman brutally murdered, a mother who died when the suspect was young, and the British secret service. Meanwhile, Sidekick Sam and her boytoy Adam attempt to persuade the town not to sell the green to a fast-talking opportunist. Here, it's historically accurate as well, since medieval European villages almost always had town greens, which is where the locals were allowed to let their animals graze, just as the episode explains.
The easiest way to judge how good a mystery is to see how quickly you can guess the answer. It seemed obvious from the beginning that the first Mrs. Devereaux had been murdered by her husband, since it's rare that anyone would be gouged out by a deer. I've been around deer my whole life, and they'd never dare let a human get that close to them, and certainly not to the point where they would feel threatened enough. They're deer, not wildebeests. Otherwise, the episode has a few twists and one devastating surprise at the end, making it a decent last romp.
It's too bad this is the last episode of Foyle's War, since these mysteries are engaging and interesting in that they shed light on lesser-known aspects of the Second World War and criticize the Allied idealized vision of the new Western society they have created. It would be nice if we could continue following Sidekick Sam, who was always the most fascinating character within the series anyway.

A Little Bit of Feel-Good

A review of I Could Have Been Your Cellmate
by Courtney Hilden

Mo'Nique's I Could Have Been Your Cellmate is two smaller films in one: a stand-up performance and a documentary on a women's correctional facility in Ohio.
As uninformed as most Americans probably are about correctional facilities, they’re probably even less informed about those facilities for women. At this particularly facility, “the Farm,” over 80 percent of the prisoners have suffered from some kind of abuse. A large majority of women prisoners are mothers.
The most powerful part of the documentary are her interviews with the women. The women all look incredibly normal, not like, say the women in Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” music video. One of the prisoners Mo’Nique talks to looks like an-about-to-retire Grandma. A fair amount of the women have very positive attitudes about their incarceration, saying that they have jobs or are taking classes in an effort to improve themselves.
Mo’Nique herself obviously believe in rehabilitation for prisoners, which is part of the reason she filmed this documentary and comedy show. She herself explains that they deserve “A Little Bit of feel-good.” She even admires them, because they’re still standing. Even if you don't like Mo’Nique, but seeing her here as a caring, respectful, kind observer of prison life will make you respect her in turn.
I also ended up learning more about her. For example, I had no idea that Mo’Nique was a mother or that she had been abused by her first husband. Upon further research, I discovered that her own brother abused her and was later sentenced to jail. This detail gives the documentary an extra oomp, since, as she keeps saying in her standup performance, “could have been your cellmate.” And maybe that’s the most interesting thing about Mo’Nique: she sees the prisoners and her as more similar than different. Her comedy is about uniting people in humor, not isolating them into groups.
She discusses a lot about sexuality. There were little hints of it in the beginning, mentioning the race problems within the prison and the belief that female prisoners are lesbians. She riffs entirely on the idea of anal sex, saying that she respects and pities gay men. She then criticizes those who use the Bible to defend or reject homosexuality, saying that it’s about what they think, not what the Bible says. “I don’t feel like you have to turn to the Bible…for all of your righteousness,” she explains.

The only thing odd about the film was it's structure. In the beginning, Monique interviews several prisoners. Then they cut to her standup performance at the prison. Then, at the end of the film, they go back to interviews and shots of her seeing other parts of the facility. Why it's structured this way is never clear, and it feels incoherent.
Mo’Nique is always fun to watch, especially where she wears an orange-jumpsuit designed dress. What makes this comedy special different is that, as an audience member, you can tell that Mo’Nique was working to make a cathartic experience for these female prisoners. It’s hard not to admire that desire.

Attack of the Killer Albino Whale

Or, a review of Moby Dick
by Courtney Hilden

Moby Dick is the novel that most high schoolers loathe to read, especially since it takes frequent, chapter-long breaks to describe sperm whales, to the point where academics have wondered if there was something homoerotic in Melville's descriptions. Here, the novel has been turned in, rather faithfully, to a movie.
For those of you not familiar with the novel, the story follows Ishmael, the narrator, on his first trip on a whaling vessel named the Pequod out of New Bedford. Ahab, the ship's captain, is obsessed with annihilating the title whale. Ahab had previously lost his leg to the creature and will have his revenge even if it means destroying the ship and himself. As Ahab's quest continues, his insanity spreads to the rest of the crew, who become increasingly crazy like Marlowe in Heart of Darkness.
The land and day scenery in the film is phenomenal and beautiful, loving shot by someone who clearly loves Sargent-like views of nature. Much of the rest of the film is shot like a horror film, with dark shadows closing in the actors and flashes of lightning dramatically illuminating the anti-hero, Captain Ahab. There's something terrible and comic about the mariner church at the beginning of the film. The preacher actually climbs into a mini-ship turned pulpit, even bringing up the ladder. The colors chosen for this movie are beautiful and spot-on considering the subject matter.
Orson Welles gives a perfect, go-for-broke performance in this film as the preacher. He's a chameleon, disappearing behind the massive beard and blending into the role. Gregory Peck, thirty-eight years old at the time of the movie, seems far too young for the role of Captain Ahab. I was struck by how baby-faced he was, and it distracted me from much of his performance. He has one expression the entire movie, a foul snear, making Ahab even more one-note than he was in the novel. Near the climax of the movie, his depiction slides into camp, to the point where he's not so much playing Ahab but a cartoon of Ahab. Unfortunately, Ahab is such an essential part of this film that Peck's performance ruins what would otherwise be a splendid movie.

Unsurprisingly, the movie depicts Queequeeq, the Other of the novel, as a stereotype of every "strange" aspect of native culture. He has his hair in a ponytail and is decorated in designs painted on with black Indian ink. His English is bad; he's uneducated. He's just a cannibal; no attempt is made to explain that his culture may not simply be savage. He simply is a savage. Queequeeq is even a magical Other, since he uses magic to predict the oncoming slaughter and then gives up living. It's too bad but not very shocking that a movie made in the 1950s would have an simplistic portrayal of the one character of color.
The film's soundtrack is filled with the delightfully baroque music older movies loved to employ. In some movies it's distracting, but here it manages to just be another part of the story, as incidental music ideally should be.
It's hard to believe the screenplay was written by Ray Bradbury, the science fiction writer, buhe film is in many ways a success, since it manages to show all the many aspects of the original novel. It's a juggling job that a lesser cast and crew would have never pulled off. Moby Dick as a movie is just like the novel: an epic achievement in American storytelling.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

by Courtney Hilden

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is the latest from David Sedaris, one of the most popular creative nonfiction writers out there. Sedaris writes mostly out of personal experiences, and this book takes us into his childhood, all over the world, and with some of the weirdest humans you’ll ever meet.
The beginning of the book is filled with zippy, short and funny pieces. “The Smoking Section,” the last piece in the book and from where the title derives from, is the hardest section to work through, and is a bit of a slough until Sedaris takes a trip to Japan, at which point it morphs into a travel narrative.
The best piece in the collection is “That’s Amore,” about David’s relationship with an angry old woman who lives across the hall in the same apartment complex. The piece does a good job of highlighting what Sedaris does best: eccentric characters and hilarious situations. Sedaris seems to collect the bizarre, referring in other pieces to how much he likes stories of freak accidents and his sister Amy’s collection of horse porn. As a fan of Strangers with Candy, I found myself keeping an eye out for information about Amy, who played the show’s main character, Jerri Blank, to the point where you wondered about the kind of person who could create such a character.
Since Sedaris has admitted to making up parts of his stories, it’s easy to find yourself questioning everything he writes. Anything that seems far too strange, even for fiction, gets discarded in the act of reading. It’s almost detective work, almost a game, discerning what is real and what is not. It’s possibly the sort of thing to drive a reader mad, or, at the least, take focus away from the stories themselves and think about Sedaris as a untrustworthy narrator of his own adventures. Creative nonfiction, a relatively new genre, has been privileged over other kinds of writing, especially by the publishing industry and the reading public as better because it is “true.” If creative nonfiction isn’t true, than it does not have the assumed inherent advantage over other forms of writing. Mostly, it seems that the resentment over this controversy about creative nonfiction is the result of other genres being ignored, despite their dedication to being as emotionally true as creative nonfiction. Sedaris, in taking away the one advantage that creative nonfiction has over other forms, has forced the genre onto the same plain as the rest of creative writing, for better or worse.