Homeland, Season 1-6
I finally caught up with Homeland, binge-watching it as I endured my lonely quarantine. Binge-watching has been a comfort. I’m having a hard time absorbing new things. I’ve been re-reading books. Re-watching things. Or, succumbing to the almost numbing drone of a binge-watch. I got so into Homeland, even at its most outrageous, and very much appreciate Claire Danes’ spookily accurate depiction of the mental illness from which I suffer too. Like, wow, it’s a mirror. I wrote about that aspect of it. Unfortunately, without me even realizing it, I became over-invested in the Carrie-Quinn thing, and my hopes/dreams/fantasies about it. I didn’t mean to let this happen! It just happened! I blame quarantine. So when Quinn bit it, I instantly lost interest. I hate it when other people do that – care about their ship more than the actual show – and look at me I just did it too. I’ll get back to Homeland and finish it off!
Help I love him so much I’m a teenage fangirl help
I Know This Much is True (2020; d. Derek Cianfrance)
The HBO adaptation of the Wally Lamb bestseller. Yes, it is a grueling watch, with a lot of misery, but the acting it top-notch. I reviewed for Ebert.
The Big Knife (1955; d. Robert Aldrich)
This was a fun re-watch. I co-hosted one of Criterion Channel’s Movie Clubs – which they do every Sunday on Twitter – and the movie everyone was watching was The Big Knife, one of the most bitter blistering cynical movies about Hollywood ever made. Script by Odets who, yeah, really let his hatred hang out in this one.
Within Our Gates (1920; d. Oscar Micheaux)
I wrote about Within Our Gates, the second film by this pioneering African-American director (if you hear anyone saying Tyler Perry is the first African-American to own/run a studio … just know that they are ERASING Oscar Micheaux. I am only mentioning it because I see it a lot. This is not to diminish Tyler Perry’s accomplishments. But in the rush to say “so and so is the first” or “this is the first time this has happened” – you are erasing the people who were the pioneers in the past.) I wrote about it for this new site NY1920.
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2006; d. Marc Rothemund)
Inspired by writing a post about this HERO, I watched the film based on her “final days”, with much of the script coming directly from the transcripts of her interrogation, and her final moments. Julia Jentsch is incredible in the title role. Scholl was a hero who went to her death fighting for other people. She was not under threat. She was a German. She had been in the Hitler Aryan Youth groups. She was not going to be sent to camps. But what was happening was wrong, and she was brave enough to call it out. Because of her example, it is impossible for Germans to say “But we didn’t know what was happening.” Oh stuff it. If a 21-year-old girl knew, then you have no excuse.
The Vast of Night (2020; d. Andrew Patterson)
I cannot say enough good things about this movie. It’s streaming Amazon Prime. Do NOT miss it. Here’s my rave review at Ebert.
Manhunt: The Unabomber (2017; d. Greg Yaitanes)
I remember all of this going down. It was wild. This series was interesting showing the investigation, and the “linguistic” aspect of it, how the warrant was issued mainly because of the linguistic similarities between letters/manifestos/whatever – because there was so little actual proof. Wild. Paul Bellany as Ted Kaczynski.
The Valhalla Murders (2020; d. Thordur Palsson, and others)
Palsson created this series from Iceland about a serial killer on the loose, and a detective who becomes obsessed with solving the case. But there’s corruption everywhere. It’s really good, the acting is excellent, and the SCENERY is MAGNIFICENT. Why have I not gone to Iceland? And now … I’m trapped in my apartment. But it was nice to visit Iceland through this series.
AKA Jane Roe (2020; d. Nick Sweeney)
I reviewed the new documentary about Norma McCorvey, the real Roe of Roe v. Wade, for Ebert.
Twin Peaks, Season 1, 2 (1990-1991; d. David Lynch and others)
I decided to commit to a full re-watch. It’s been such a vile and upsetting couple of weeks – well, in general, the last couple of years have been vile and upsetting – that watching something I know so well, whose rhythms I find soothing and familiar – has been comforting. Brief comfort. But not meaningless. Everything triggers in me a response: the music, the opening credits, the green-color of the credits text … and all the characters. The humor. The fear. The kindness with which people treat each other – right next to the monstrous cruelty they inflict on each other. The relationship between Harry and Dale Cooper is one of the most soothing beautiful portrayals of the possibility of male friendship/male collaboration in existence. Both come to the table with things of value. Neither of them discount the other. There’s no EGO in their shared dynamic. They are OPEN to each other. I find that soothing too. I love this series, even when it goes off the rails in Season 2. I watched this show in its first release. It was appointment television. My boyfriend and I were living in Philadelphia and we cleared our calendars for each new episode. To this day, there’s been nothing like it. I couldn’t believe it was happening AS it was happening. And so there was a weird deja vu in 2017 when Twin Peaks was suddenly BACK, and I felt exactly the same way: I cannot believe this is happening. Is this … real? Season 2 is really strange. James in the Sunset Boulevard–Postman Always Rings Twice situation is unbearable. Nadine going back to high school. Audrey suddenly being like a totally different person than she was in Season 1. Audrey opens up the underbelly of our world, the human trafficking, the pedophilia, the whole sorry sordid context of powerful men like Epstein/Trump/Weinstein … with their rapacious desire for young flesh. Audrey has absorbed that world. She is so isolated, so … strange. Her high school co-horts feel her strangeness. Season 2, once Lynch left, “cleaned” Audrey up, made her socially acceptable, because what she revealed in Season 1 was far too dangerous to let stand. Anyway, I watched the whole thing and I might just start another re-watch. It’s such a deep and textured and layered world, and it gets deeper every time I watch it.
Lance, Part 1 and 2 (2020; d. Marina Zenovich)
The latest in ESPN’s 30 for 30 series … I’m fascinated by Armstrong mainly for his sociopathy. It was so CLEAR in his interview with Oprah. It’s even clearer here. He is clearly still defiant, and the main takeaway I get from his behavior in these interviews is: “Wow. This is an angry angry man.” I don’t think this discounts his work for cancer research. For a long time, I thought it was a “front”. I think it eventually BECAME that (his speech after “coming back” to “win” the Tour de France: “To all the haters out there, sorry you don’t believe in miracles.” You know. He WIELDED his cancer activism as a smoke-screen. But I don’t think it started out that way.) I think, too, it’s very revealing of how he was basically a Big Target for a systemic problem. Everyone was doping. You either doped or you didn’t compete. You couldn’t compete. So … where does cycling stand now? I would have liked to see a little follow-up about what’s being done, what even CAN be done. The doping in cycling makes baseball doping look like kids smoking weed in the school parking lot.
Shirley (2020; d. Josephine Decker)
It’s coming out at the end of this week and I reviewed for Ebert. All I will say is: Elizabeth Moss plays Shirley Jackson, and it’s directed by one of my favorite new young directors. So. Happy to have gotten the assignment.
Fire Walk With Me (1992; d. David Lynch)
By the time Fire Walk With Me came out, my boyfriend and I had broken up (such a gentle term for the wrenchingly insane experience of walking away, which involved me literally – literally – fleeing Los Angeles for Chicago, with just a suitcase of stuff. I left all possessions behind.) Anyway, watching the original series was so much a part of our lives together and so when this came out, I had been living in Chicago for five months – and was already in a show and dating (ahem “dating”) about 3 people. One of whom was Window-Boy, whom old-timers here will recognize. I met him practically as I disembarked from the plane. Not even really an exaggeration. So I was in a totally different place – geographically and emotionally, it felt like Twin Peaks had aired 15 years before, my life was so totally different. I went to see Fire Walk With Me by myself, at the movie theatre on … Diversey, I think? Or right around the corner from where Clark and Diversey and … Broadway? another one of those crooked streets (as my friend Ann Marie called them) converged. There was a big multi-story mall there and there was a movie theatre on a top floor. I saw Titanic there. I saw a lot there. Critics were very negative about Fire Walk With Me. Honestly, I think it’s scary-brilliant and I did then too. Sheryl Lee gives one of THE great film performances, in my opinion. Important film. Very glad Criterion put it out. It deserves to be recognized as a major work, disturbing in its implications, and one of the few films – ever – to deal with incest.
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017; d. David Lynch)
I am not exaggerating when I say that Twin Peaks helped me endure the terrible year of 2017. When it ended I felt helpless. What was I going to DO now? It’s funny: re-watching it makes me realize just how well it’s constructed, how it really does make sense (or at least “sense”), how it’s not really just oblique, or symbolic, or whatever. It’s a mythology and a world and the Black Lodge has its point of view, and so do the doppelgangers, and somehow Philip Jeffries (aka David Bowie) has been turned into a steampunk chimney with a Southern accent and … I accept all of it? It’s bleak but it’s also HILARIOUS. I think Kyle MacLachlan gives one of the best performances I’ve ever seen – playing three roles – but then really FOUR roles, because Dale Cooper is so altered when he returns. There’s way more to say about all of this but it just filled my soul and heart with happiness that this thing EXISTS now. We HAVE it. It was made on Lynch’s terms and we HAVE it now. Plus: this moment? The first time I saw it I literally gasped. The most purely romantic scene in Lynch’s entire filmography.
On the Record (2020; d. Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick)
A documentary about the allegations against Russell Simmons, and the difficult decision to go “on the record” against a powerful man. I reviewed for Ebert.
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (2020; d. Lisa Bryant)
Based on James Patterson’s book Filthy Rich. Patterson was his neighbor in Palm Beach so he had a front-row seat. I’ve never read a book by James Patterson but I might read this one. This 4-part Netflix documentary doesn’t exactly break new ground and much of the mystery is still intact – who out there is following the money? I don’t believe for a second he was a “financier” and I wish the press would stop calling him that. I think he got his money through blackmail and sex trafficking. There WAS no “financing”. He blackmailed the Victoria’s Secret guy after worming his way in, and just held people’s “bad behavior” over their heads until they paid up. So there’s not much that is new here except there is footage of his deposition which I’ve never seen. Only a small fragment of it is on Youtube and it has always struck me as curious and/or not-surprising that there is so little actual footage of Epstein out and about in the world. He didn’t go to parties, he didn’t make speeches, he didn’t go out in public. So the footage of the deposition was fascinating because you could actually see him in operation. The man was a cobra. I thought the doc was very well done. Brad Edwards is a hero.
THANK YOU for the Vast of Night recommendation. I watched last night and was transfixed.
James – ooh! so excited you saw it! I just rewatched it and it worked just as well as the first time I saw it! Even better, really, since I didn’t have to take notes.
I’d love to hear more of your responses! What struck you? What parts did you like best? and etc.?
Thanks for reaching out!
In my second watch – I was curious about that long long LONG tracking shot through town – I am fairly certain that there is little to no “faking” going on in that shot – except for … maybe? … when the camera goes out the gym window and back into the parking lot … but I just don’t know HOW they would pull something like that off. I love that it doesn’t seem CGI-ish whatever it is they did.
Definitely by the time we arrived at the switchboard scene, I was giving the movie 100% of my attention (this isn’t always the case). The long tracking shot really grabbed me as well — I was hoping you would be able to shed light on its mechanics. Alas!
I appreciated the logical jump to the next step the movie take. Too often in mystery movies, characters will decide “we have to do X” and there’s just no way they could have arrived at that logic-defying conclusion. The movie’s smaller scale assisted with its believability.
I guess the only fault I could find was the ending being very reminiscent of Close Encounters, down to the large tracking shot of the underbelly of the aircraft, with towheaded toddler looking on. But what a spell it cast right up until that point.
What did you think of those transitional fade-ins and fade-outs? There would be paragraphs of dialogue on a black screen. The ones that occurred during the radio station segment? They were novel enough for me, but I really couldn’t tell if others would find them a) hokey; b) too closely mirroring something else; c) out of place with the rest of the movie. I liked them, personally.
// I was hoping you would be able to shed light on its mechanics. Alas! //
Ha! I’ve read a couple of good interviews with the filmmaker and he did talk about how they basically took over the town – the town opened its arms and they were given carte blanche – it’s a town that has not changed since the 50s, pretty wild. But anyway, so far there hasn’t been any interviews that get into nuts and bolts like that.
// The movie’s smaller scale assisted with its believability. //
I love this observation. I hadn’t thought of it that way.
I’m not sure if this is exactly what you mean but in my second watch I was able to focus more on that opening sequence – which I had found a little hard to follow my first watch, mainly because I was adjusting to the film’s style, as I wrote in my piece.
But this second time I realized just how well-constructed the script is – Fay and Everett’s conversation through the gym and then all their way to their jobs is so detailed and so fascinating. At first it seems like they’re “types” – he’s bossy cranky AV nerd, and she’s a breathless acolyte happy to be tagging along. But then she took all these science magazines out of her case and started telling him about all these new inventions – and he wasn’t cranky or condescending – he was interested and nudged her to keep talking. I was just so CHARMED by this – I hadn’t really picked up on it the first time.
And so something about the depth of characterization that is reached during that long walk – how slowly and gently they show more of themselves (and we never see their faces!) – something about it helped it feel so believable. They’re not “types.”
// I guess the only fault I could find was the ending being very reminiscent of Close Encounters, down to the large tracking shot of the underbelly of the aircraft, with towheaded toddler looking on. //
It’s interesting a friend of mine was slightly disappointed in the ending – he LOVED the film but was left “meh” by the ending – he compared the film to Virgin Suicides (which I thought was fascinating – he’s a writer, I want him to write that piece) – he felt how trapped these two smart kids are – she’s not going to college, the boy wants to get out of the town – but who knows .. Anyway, I haven’t had a chance to talk more about it with him yet – it’s been too busy around here – but I look forward to hearing his thoughts.
and I’m with you – I really liked the black screen. It brought us into a dreamy mood – sensory deprivation – if you can’t see, your hearing is sharper. and so there was nothing to distract from what was being said.
I can’t remember – I know one of the black screens was when Billy was talking to them over the phone … what was the other one? Do you remember? Was it the old lady? I’m trying to figure out what the choice might have been – bold choice – I liked it!
Thanks – this is fun.
James – I have no idea if you will see this, or ever re-visit this post – but I found an interesting article with the DP of Vast of Night where he discusses the tracking shots and other things, including the fade-outs:
https://variety.com/2020/artisans/news/vast-of-night-amazon-prime-tracking-shot-1234620232/
in re: that interview;
I am still not sure how the camera lifted up off the go-kart and floated through the gym and out the window … this is where I feel like a drone might have been used.
anyway: fascinating stuff!
I forget whether you’ve read it or not, but David Lynch’s memoir Room to Dream is excellent. Maybe this belongs in the memoir post, but all the Twin Peaks viewing reminded me of it.
We’re also doing a rewatch of Homeland. I think I got to season 4 before. Morena Baccarin remains a challenge to watch. It was fun to see Laurie from Little Women (and the Howard Zinn-reading douche from Lady Bird). Timothée does a very good job at vulnerable/decadent. I’m curious to see him in Villeneuve’s Dune. Claire Danes is excellent, as you say. I also really liked the actress who was Dana – and even more so when I saw on IMDB that she’s studying math at the University of Chicago. Math girls rock!
Oh wow, I didn’t know “Dana” was at Northwestern. Good for her! I was slightly baffled by how in love the writers were with following her “journey”. I found it deadly. Like, on the run with her boyfriend … who was also 26 years old in real life. lol I know why they were doing it – showing the real-life consequences of what happened to their dad -but … it got a little soap-y for me. and agreed in re: Baccarin.
And how she switched from worried housewife to ambitious political climber was a stretch. A better actress might have been able to pull it off!
// Timothée does a very good job at vulnerable/decadent. //
He really does.
I haven’t read Lynch’s memoir if you can believe it.
You might be interested to read – if you haven’t – David Foster Wallace’s essay (which is practically novella-length) about Lost Highway (He visited the set). In my opinion, it’s one of the great pieces of film criticism of the last 40 years. Hell, if I had to pick my Top 10 pieces of film criticism ever, his essay would be on it. It’s in one of his essay collections – I can’t tell you how many times that piece comes into my head, especially during this most recent re-watch.
And it’s not as popular among Lynch fans, but I adore Lost Highway.
I’ve read DFW’s essay. It’s very good.
I just enjoy watching Dana’s face. Her eyebrows are like Mr. Spock to the fifth power of expressive. It’s just something to see her think and feel. Watching her observe her dad, with the combination of “I’m so over his BS” and noticing his confused tenderness and his stress – she’s very good at getting all that. We’re early in the third season now, so we’re just on the boyfriend-on-the-run section.
Watching Carrie and Saul lie to Congress to save the CIA, I gotta tell you it was hard to “root” for them. It’s a similar twist to watching Elizabeth and Phillip in The Americans . You are invested in the characters, but what outcome would you want in the real world? In the case of The Americans , you don’t want the characters to succeed. In the case of Homeland, I don’t want them to succeed in lying to our elected representatives. But I do want them catching the bad guys. It’s a nice bit of writing and acting to be able to carry that off. It’s a different sort of suspension of disbelief from a world of fairies and talking flowers. More like a suspension of moral judgements. It feels different from having an anti-hero though. I’m not quite sure why.
And, I am cautious about telling someone how to feel, but it doesn’t seem like the person who posted Watch What You Want, Find Comfort Where You Can ought to be feeling bad about shipping Carrie and Quinn if it gave you pleasure.
I guess I found Dana annoying overall and the focus on her made me sick of her! I did like the last glimpse of her, working at a motel in the middle of nowhere. The consequences of Brody’s treason/treachery. I was glad she changed her name.
and I don’t know – that being said, I feel like the series lost something when Brody bit it and the Brody’s disappeared from the show. That was such a GREAT and gripping arc, playing out as a long game.
OH and I meant to mention this: you know who else I was disappointed when he left the action? VIRGIL. I loved Virgil so much and he suddenly vanished with nary a mention of him. His far less interesting sidekick remained and somehow … fell in love with the Iranian CIA girl … but it was so subdued I barely realized what had happened – and then next season we learn he took a year off and smoked meth all day or whatever he did – to deal with his grief about the murder of this girl he never even dated. Maybe PTSD from what happened at the embassy would make more sense – but the “romance” with Iranian girl barely registered, so it felt phony to “pump it up” into some huge emotional thing (for this character I didn’t even care about). I did like when he went to work for that Steve-Bannon-Alex-Jones type guy – that was a fascinating and stressful bit of intrigue.
// More like a suspension of moral judgements. It feels different from having an anti-hero though. //
For me it’s like Zero Dark Thirty. People were so angry at the portrayal of torture and the lack of moral ambiquity/questioning in that world. Yeah but – in that world they DIDN’T question it. Not everything is meant to show every side of every issue. It’s very frustrating.
I feel like Carrie would have lost her job a long time ago. although she’d always “be CIA” because “the agency” is like Hotel California.
I had a friend “who’s CIA” – I actually met him because he started commenting on my blog – starting around 2003, 2004, so early days – and very early on I sensed he somehow had high clearance and was probably “on the payroll.” He spent time in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan … PRIOR to 9/11 … and practically the only people there then were CIA, of off-the-books intelligence agents working with the Northern Alliance trying to strengthen the resistance to the Taliban – I’m not saying that’s what he was doing, but that was just my educated guess … and I was like, “hmmmm” but in general it barely seemed like he had a job. another “tell.” Like he was “on call”. We’ve lost touch so I don’t know if he’s even still out there. He was not like Carrie, going to work every day. He lives far away from DC. But then he disappears for 4 months and you have no idea where he was. and he’d never tell you. He did tell me some cool shit but I was sworn to secrecy. :) The first time we met, we got drunk and I decided to just flat out ask – (conversation #33 here LOL … I was proud that I had lived a life where that conversation could actually occur). I am sure he laughed out loud if he ever watched Homeland!! A cool detail: he worked for years with the team who was searching for Amelia Earhart’s plane. He’s an aviation history guy. Got an email from him once (he called me “red”): “Hey, Red. Watch the news in the next couple of days. You’ll know it when you see it.” So spy-like! lol A couple days later the news broke that they found fragments of Earhart’s plane. He wasn’t mentioned but I knew immediately that that was what he was talking about.
and in re: Carrie/Quinn: Listen – if you want consistency from me, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Not everything I do lines up with everything I’ve ever said. I’d be in big trouble if that was the case. The Carrie/Quinn thing ended up depressing me because I was too invested and for me it had become THE point of the show. Like Destiel people reading into home decor and thinking that Dean and Castiel are central to the show’s dynamic. That way danger lies! One of my philosophies is to judge the work for what IT wants to do, not what I want it to do. at least as a critic – for me, it’s the only way to be. So many critics are like “If only this work lined up with what I want and need” and i’m like … really? So I was mainly disappointed in myself that I ignored that belief! But at least I have Season 2-4 to think about. :)
I watched The Vast of Night last night and really enjoyed it. If the word “talkie” hadn’t already been coined 90 years ago it could have been invented to describe the first 20-30 minutes of this movie. I really loved the hyper-verbal aspect of it. Maybe not His Girl Friday-level banter, but very good. My hearing has degraded to the point that I usually have closed captioning on (thanks Brian May for hitting that note 40 years ago in Santa Monica which left my ears ringing for a month). Even with CC on it was a fun challenge to follow.
Like you, I was happy when Everett encouraged Fay to tell him about some science things that she was fascinated by – and she obliged him. It was funny to hear that cell phones and self-driving cars were predicted for 1970.
The long shot through the town was just cool! I agree that the blackouts added tension and suspense.
I also loved Mabel. I was a bit surprised that Everett didn’t believe her.
If your friend does write a comparison of this movie to The Virgin Suicides be sure to let us know. I would love to read that. I keep wanting to respond to your Sucker Punch/Gold Diggers of 1933 piece, but haven’t quite worked up anything more meaningful than some comments on the music.
Oh, and speaking of music, I loved the music in The Vast of Space. Holst’s Jupiter seems to get more play (at least to my notice), but Neptune:The Mystic is gorgeous and made such a mood here.
Two nights ago I watched Color Out Of Space. That has to be one of the creepiest movies I’ve seen in a long time – I liked it a lot. Don’t know if you’ve seen it.
Mutecypher – so excited you saw it and love your detailed response! I watched it again so I could focus on it without writing notes.
It was wild how that opening sequence made so much more sense to me the second time. I mean, not that the ACTION is complicated – but that there was so much going on I didn’t know what to focus on, and the camera doesn’t orient you at all. So going in the second time, since I knew who they were, I was able to really get into the banter – and I caught much more of it!
It’s pretty obvious that Everett has a crush on Fay. lol and she obviously has a crush on him. But nobody knows WHAT to do about it. I love that this isn’t addressed at ALL – except for the one scene with … her older sister? I got confused – saying “that radio boy is calling” – all girly and insinuating and Fay giggles – but I liked how the romance isn’t explored. It’s just deep deep subtext.
I really need a little special-features explanation of how they pulled off that tracking shot. Maybe some kind of stabilized low-to-the-ground Steadicam-ish thing – it’s clearly not on a track, otherwise we’d see them – There’s the moment where it bounces over the ridges on the grass, but it’s just very slight – the camera isn’t wiggling all over the place. I don’t know … I’m so curious about how they did it, and what was faked and what wasn’t! I love to nerd out about stuff like that.
// I also loved Mabel. I was a bit surprised that Everett didn’t believe her. //
Yeah, me too! And how creepy was it when Everett started murmuring Mabel’s alien-speak in the car and the husband and wife went into some kind of trance? But … Everett and Fay were NOT susceptible to the chanting? How does that work, I wonder?
and hmmmm . Color Out of Space – no I have not seen it!
I don’t know anything about drones – but could that long tracking shot through the town have been done via drone, perhaps?
I don’t know enough about drones either, but I did think one could have been used.
Two tempting bits of info about Color Out of Space: Joely Richardson is really good (I loved her blunted affect to all the outrageous behavior in Nip/Tuck) and there are alpacas. The alpacas are called The Animals of The Future. Almost as good as The Greenest Animal.
It it is really creepy, so maybe not the flavor everyone craves at present.
Back to The Vast of Night… I grew up in Oildale, just across the Kern River from Bakersfield. I think the Joad’s ended up there after their Grapes of Wrath tour. Whenever I hear an Okie/West Texas accent I get a feeling that I suspect is the same as an expat gets when she hears a voice from the motherland. Reminds me of where I grew up and left. I know the movie was set in New Mexico, so I was curious to see if that was an accurate placement for that accent. I found a Wikipedia article on Southern American English and there was a map of where it is spoken; the westernmost edge is in eastern New Mexico. Oh, plus one circle way away from the continuous mass, centered on Bakersfield Ca. The accent did belong . And Steinbeck knew what he was writing about.
//But … Everett and Fay were NOT susceptible to the chanting? How does that work, I wonder?//
And how was Mabel’s baby susceptible… as a baby? And would Fay and Everett be treated differently by the aliens than people who were susceptible? Lots of mystery.
//It’s pretty obvious that Everett has a crush on Fay. lol and she obviously has a crush on him. But nobody knows WHAT to do about it. //
I love that sci-fi/mystery trope where two solution-focused people have some chemistry but don’t acknowledge it (much) during the action. Kinda like Hicks/Ripley. It adds a different tension, but also provides some comfort: these folks know what’s important NOW, but I hope they stick around and get to address the other important thing later.
alpacas! Lol. Forevermore they will be associated with Supernatural and I just love that.
I was wondering about the accents too. Thanks for the intel!
(another excellent thing about a movie like this is you suddenly “get to know” all of these phenomenal brand-new – to us anyway – actors. Actors have a way of getting sucked up into the maw of the industry – “typed” and recycled – so something like this is so refreshing. These aren’t amateur actors of course but it was great to not have any baggage attached to them.
And I thought Bruce Davis did an absolutely brilliant job and I was wondering if they recorded those conversations – both sides – at the same time – or if he had to do it all alone in a booth. Either way: it was an amazing performance and we never even SEE the guy.
I looked up his credits. He’s from Oklahoma. He’s worked quite a bit but most of his roles have been like “Police officer” or “Prison guard.”
God, you could just hear his whole life in his voice.
// I love that sci-fi/mystery trope where two solution-focused people have some chemistry but don’t acknowledge it (much) during the action. //
“solution-focused” – yes! I love that too!! Ripley and Hicks for sure!
War Games is in that trope. They have a short kiss but really the whole thing is let’s figure this out!!
Here’s an interview with Andrew Patterson in Filmmaker Magazine about The Vast of Night.
Wow, reading War and Peace while he shot it and using some changes in rhythm from that… that’s something. It’s been so long since I read it (and it doesn’t make my reread list) that I will just have to take his word for it.
And his next movie is a revenge story set in the honeybee industry? I’m up for that.
Thanks for pointing to this interview.
// that I will just have to take his word for it. //
lol I know.
yes, I found it so interesting and I love how he truly is independent. And local – Oklahoma, Texas. Not a Hollywood insider. Nobody gave him money to do this – it’s a purely self-generated project. I love when an outsider comes along and makes all these bold experiments with visual narrative style – it’s always so exciting!
I watched all the way through the end credits. He thanked the Oklahoma City Thunder and Kevin Durant. Some Thunder fans are still grumpy at KD for going to the Warriors, but not Andrew! And even though he filmed in Texas, the Mavs or Spurs weren’t thanked. Those regional rivalries…
Ha!! Good catch – Id never have picked up on that.
And didn’t he use like a local boys’ basketball team AND their cheerleader squad for those scenes in the gym? I love that!
Fun fact regarding “The Vast of Night” — the lead actress is Sierra McCormick and she played little blond Lilith in two episodes of Supernatural. She was in “No Rest for the Wicked” as the horrific girl holding the family hostage. She was also in “Yellow Fever”, appearing to fearful Dean as Lilith, tormenting him while he was wracked by the fever.
Whoa!
I wonder if future generations will play 6 degrees of Supernatural!
“He was in a movie with alpacas, that’s one degree.”
Pat – yes! I was like “ohhhh of COURSE!!” when I looked her up. I didn’t mention it in the review though because … if I mentioned every time an SPN alum shows up in anything it’d be in every review! lol
She was great as a child actor – and I am telling you – the scene she does with the switchboard in Vast of Night is one of the greatest sustained pieces of acting – in one long take – over 10 minutes long – that I’ve seen in a long LONG time. It’s real acting. It takes real chops, real preparataion to pull that off. It’s like a scene in a play where you really have to DO what you have to do. She had to learn how to work that old switchboard, and she seemed to be a total pro. I was so impressed!
When I was watching it to review it, halfway through that scene I realized, “Hang on a second … I think this is all one take …”
And I rewound to watch again. It’s just dazzling.
So go little demonic Lilith!!