{"id":129187,"date":"2017-07-02T10:22:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-02T14:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=129187"},"modified":"2023-06-13T08:50:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T12:50:44","slug":"june-2017-viewing-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=129187","title":{"rendered":"June 2017 Viewing Diary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mad Men<\/strong><\/em>, Season 2 – 7
\nNot sure why I decided to do a re-watch. I think what happened is I watched the pilot and then couldn’t stop myself. It’s been a terrible month. I needed the comfort of the familiar, even if … my God, sometimes this was an ugly show. Binge-watching it was a unique experience (and I binge-watched it the first time around too). I imagine if you watched it in real time it may have had a very different energy. Don Draper, seen in compressed fashion, comes off as pure empty-souled …. not sociopath, but just an Empty Man. He has sociopath-LIKE qualities, but it seems more that he is more compulsive than anything else. In love with novelty. Nostalgic for a life he never had. Completely moronic when it comes to other people. Sometimes. Because sometimes he is completely brilliant when it comes to other people. This is the benefit of being completely detached. The benefit and the curse. Blown away by the overall brilliance of the acting in the ensemble. I was bored to DEATH by Megan and Don. I had forgotten just how much their relationship dominated Season 5. Wayyyyy too much time! This past re-watch I was pretty much ALL. ABOUT. BETTY. That character HAUNTS me. January Jones gives a performance that she will never give again. It couldn’t happen again because … Betty Draper couldn’t happen again. Her REACTIONS. Her sudden spurts of meanness, pettiness, her childishness, her pathos. It is a great great performance. A very ODD performance. Unique. A commentary on a generation (generalization: my mother and my aunts were not like this) of women who had NOTHING TO DO. Child-rearing, sure, but that’s a couple of hours a day. The kids are in school the majority of the time. You are a pampered doll in a house with nothing else going on. Betty is eating her heart out<\/i> with boredom and untapped potential.<\/p>\n

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Before Anything You Say<\/em><\/strong> (2016; d. Shelagh Carter)
\nI interviewed director Shelagh Carter about her new feature<\/a>, premiering at the Madrid International Film Festival this month.<\/p>\n

Twin Peaks: The Return<\/em><\/strong>, Episode 5 (2017; d. David Lynch)
\nOne of the most unforgettable moments of the series thus far (and that’s saying something) happens in episode 5. I need this series right now like I need water and air. <\/p>\n

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The Journey<\/em><\/strong> (2017; d. Nick Hamm)
\nThe St. Andrews Agreement as … sit-com? My review for Rogerebert.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Twin Peaks: The Return<\/em><\/strong>, Episode 6 (2017; d. David Lynch)
\nBeyond exciting character entrance. The already-legendary but never-before-seen “Diane”, played by Lynch-muse-extraordinaire Laura Dern. Also, Harry Dean Stanton – who was already old when he played the role in Fire Walk With Me<\/i>, returns. The section where he sits on the park bench, staring up at the waving treetops, is just one of many examples why this series is like Balm in Gilead.<\/p>\n

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\nSpeaking of Gilead …<\/p>\n

The Handmaid’s Tale<\/em><\/strong>, Season 1, Episode 9, “The Bridge” (2017; d. Kate Dennis)
\nOne of the strongest aspects of this series is its style, its color scheme, its setting. Using what seems to be very simple means – careful color choices, careful lighting choices – the team behind the series has created an entirely “Other” world, with recognizable elements to our own (houses and cars and sidewalks), but definitely off-kilter. Reed Morano, who directed the first three episodes, was largely responsible for establishing this style. I interviewed her in 2015<\/a> about her feature-film directorial debut, “Meadowland” (a film I reviewed when it played at Tribeca<\/a>). Morano is a well-known and respected cinematographer (just check out her credits), and so her understanding of visuals (evidenced in Meadowland<\/i> as well) is bar none. I am thrilled to see where her career has gone since then, and it was already an amazing career. I have some issues with The Handmaid’s Tale<\/i>, though. Granted, it’s been a long time since I read the book. I understand why they have made some of the alterations that they have, but I agree with those who have pointed out the racial issues in the choices they’ve made. It brings up questions and aspects that are then totally not addressed. In the book, black women are sent to “the colonies.” That’s a comment on the middle-class white-girl feminism that has dominated since Day One, a “brand” of feminism that I never felt comfortable in anyway, because it was so middle-class aspirational, with the assumptions of regular careers, husbands, children, life-work balance, blah blah. I went to a community-organizing meeting once in my 20s, and the Head Honcho Lady started off by saying something like, “As women, we are naturally empaths …” We are? I’m pretty cranky. Also, don’t say “We.” I am the proud owner of a vagina, but you haven’t met me, you don’t know me, you don’t know my goals, my background, you are ASSUMING shit all over the place. She went on, “We are mothers and wives and partners …” NO. WE ARE NOT. I wasn’t any of those things in my 20s, although I hoped for it, assumed it would happen – no, I was more of a harlot wreaking havoc in my 20s, and I had a blast – My hopes for the future Me, once I got the Harlot out of my system (still waiting …) were shattered eventually and here I am and I’ve made peace with it – or, whatever, after literally going insane in my late 30s – I now accept my life has value even though I haven’t participated in the most IMPORTANT thing a woman can experience, apparently … BAH. This type of looping in all women under the title “We” is constant. We all want the same things, right? We’re all the same! You’d think that kind of rhetoric would only come from evangelical men. Nope. It comes from the Halls of Feminism too. And it’s gotten worse and even more alienating to someone like Yours Truly (Kelly Diels nails it.<\/a>) My crowd has always been the bohemians, the outlaws, the weirdos, the artists, sometimes literally circus people, more diverse than a suburban\/white-collar-office environment (often the focus of white-girl feminism) – not part of the capitalist structures at all. When you join Show Biz at an early age, you get used to the fact that you don’t fit in, and you don’t feel self-pity about it because you’re doing what you want to do – and office work is something you do to pay for acting classes – and once you find your tribe you’re all set. You’re outside the mainstream. Atwood acknowledged this disparity in her book in what is probably a pretty realistic way, at least in a dystopian universe, since white supremacy is clearly part of Gilead and patriarchy and all the rest. Anyway, there are problems with how the series is handling all of this (they’re ignoring it, in other words). Elizabeth Moss is amazing – no surprise there – and Joseph Fiennes, in particular, is great too. I’ve seen people interpret the Scrabble game as manipulative. I don’t see it that way, or at least not ONLY that way. Scrabble is a non-sexual chummy thing you can do with the opposite sex. Hanging out with a woman in a non-sexual way is one of the things that institutional patriarchy cannot understand, cannot countenance. It puts women in a box: Mothers, Sluts, Older Women so Who Cares About Them. That Scrabble scene shows the loneliness of MEN in a patriarchal society. My two cents. At first I didn’t like what “they” had done to Serena Joy. In the book she is a Tammy Faye Bakker evangelical-type. In the series, she is more of a conservative mouthpiece about woman’s rightful place. But it’s ended up working very well. She is now living in the world she helped create. It’s not so fun is it, Serena Joy? Maybe you should have just moved to Saudi Arabia and left your country-women alone. The main issue I have is opening up the perspective beyond Offred’s. The book is first-person only. Part of its terror. Outside of her perspective is the total Unknown. Here, that is shattered. It’s more of a thriller. I am hoping that they stick to their guns. The tragedy of Moira is that she doesn’t get away. She succumbs to the drugs, the sex. The Moira in the series is very different. Which is … gratifying, but kind of goes against Atwood’s point. Anyway, I’ll keep watching. <\/p>\n

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Big Little Lies<\/em><\/strong> (2017; d. Jean-Marc Vall\u00e9e)
\nHoly shitballs this 7-part series was AWESOME. GREAT acting. I did a little Tweet-thread about Robin Weigert as the therapist, which I should turn into a post, because the work she does is important, especially as Exhibit A, B, C, and D in why Listening is the most important thing an actor has to do. And why didn’t anyone tell me that Elvis plays an enormous role in the finale? Seriously. I’m pissed nobody mentioned it to me. I would have tuned in for that alone. <\/p>\n

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Twin Peaks: The Return<\/em><\/strong>, Episode 7 (2017; d. David Lynch)
\nFinally my friend Larry Clarke makes an appearance, as one of the “Detective Fuscos” (I love how they’re introduced as “Detectives Fusco”) who questions Dougie and Janey-E about the missing car. Janey-E is very quickly becoming a hero to me. At first she seemed like one of those cranky constantly irritable wives (although if you consider what Dougie – her husband – has been up to, who can blame her?), but now she is emerging as a take-no-prisoners righteous Woman Warrior. She has NO idea what is going on but she will be DAMNED if they are taken advantage of. I love how the two head detectives (that’s Larry there on the right) reach for their notebooks at the same time. Go, Larry!<\/p>\n

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The Beguiled<\/em><\/strong> (1971; d. Don Siegel)
\nA re-watch in preparation for the obvious. I had almost forgotten how overheated the whole thing is. The lesbian sex fantasy!! The incest! Clint’s smooth exposed chest! The kiss with a 12-year-old in the first scene! WHAT?? I think it’s all rather fabulous, although it’s funny: if you look at it through the prism of male castration\/emasculation anxiety (which is what Siegel said it was all about), the story appears one way. But switch the prism away from the male point of view, and all kinds of other possibilities emerge. They’re there in the original. Maybe Siegel wasn’t fully aware of what he was unleashing.<\/p>\n

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\nAt any rate, this re-watch leads to …<\/p>\n

The Beguiled<\/em><\/strong> (2017; d. Sofia Coppola)
\n… which I loved. I loved it for what it WAS. I did not judge it for what it left out, for what it was not. I haven’t said much on the controversy because – from the moment it arose – the lines were so clearly drawn that any conversation was impossible without being accused of bad faith. A very annoying aspect of social media. For me, the work stands – or doesn’t – on its own. Coppola is an artist. She is under no obligation to please anyone other than herself. It may not be to everyone’s taste, and clearly it isn’t, but NOTHING is to everyone’s taste. I loved how Coppola dug into the very elements in the original that were present and yet subconscious. The power of the female sex drive. The erotic possibilities inherent in the male presence. I realize that sensation may not be true for all. But it’s true in this film. I reviewed for Rogerebert.com. <\/a><\/p>\n

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The Little Hours<\/em><\/strong> (2017; d. Jeff Baena)
\nI had to go to the screening of this in the middle of a dreadful week where I thought I was losing my mind again. Literally. I was fraying at the edges. I didn’t want to go. It was 100 degrees outside. My mother was visiting. I was overwhelmed by the disaster unfolding, nationally. (Well. That’s still true. It’s been true for over a year now.) I had been assigned this film to review, and the screening just came up in the middle of the worst week possible. But I dragged my ass there. And to my absolute delight, the film almost single-handedly washed away my troubles. For the 90 minutes it went on, at any rate, and that’s all anyone can hope for. I LOVED this movie. And I trusted my reaction to it because I went into it so grumpy. It opened Friday. Go see it! I reviewed for Rogerebert.com.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Groundhog Day<\/em><\/strong> (1993; d. Harold Ramis)
\nI went and saw the Broadway production. It was on assignment. So far, that potentiality has not come through, although maybe it will. At any rate, I went to go see the big Broadway musical of this beloved film, a film that I think will be watched 100 years from now, when all other Oscar-winners – important movies so-called – have faded into the vaults of memory. I walked into the production skeptical. Almost rolling my eyes. And I was blown. AWAY. Again, I trusted the strength of my reaction because I walked in there totally closed to it. It is so damn good. Profound. As profound as the film, if you can believe it. The production really digs into the aspect of Time, as well as the potentially-life-changing – if we could just accept it and act on it – realization that other people are struggling too, that everyone around you has hopes\/dreams\/specificity. There IS no “Other.” Until other people become Real to us, we are lost as a human race. The Broadway production really gets that. My mother and I watched the movie during her visit. It was so much fun. <\/p>\n

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\nSpotlight<\/em><\/strong> (2015; d. Tom McCarthy)
\nA re-watch. I reviewed for Rogerebert.com.<\/a> I felt like celebrating the free press right now. Gee. I wonder why. <\/p>\n

Twin Peaks: The Return<\/em><\/strong>, Episode 8 (2017; d. David Lynch)
\nBliss. An hour of pure BLISS. <\/p>\n

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The Putin Interviews<\/em><\/strong>, episode 1, 2, 3 (2017; d. Oliver Stone)
\nIt’s pretty challenging to breathe the air of pure propaganda. It’s gross, actually. But I felt I needed to watch, to get my bearings on what we – meaning all right-thinking-people – are up against. The man’s eyes are like a shark’s. I am embarrassed at how often he mentions how great he is at Judo. <\/p>\n

The Bachelorette<\/em><\/strong>, Episodes 3, 4, 5 (Part 1 and 2) (2017)
\nI am so #TeamKenny I want to put it on a bumper sticker. I’m upset at the show with its handling of a clear racist run amok, especially since this is the first time there is an African-American bachelorette. Total missed opportunity to really deal with a white supremacist attitude, which is exactly what was on display. That nasty Southern piece of shit got inside Kenny’s head and Kenny could not recover. It put him between a rock and a hard place. If he fought back, he would just be confirming that bigot’s preconceived notions. If he didn’t fight back, he was betraying his own sense of his dignity and worth as a person. It was painful to watch. He was my favorite from the moment he emerged from the limo in episode 1. And now he’s gone. And now the majority of African-American men are gone from the lineup. Only nonentities are left. I’m angry at the show. Kenny, you are too good for this show. Best of luck to you. I’m sure, based on the show you will be deluged with offers – and whomever you choose, she’s a lucky woman.<\/p>\n

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Supernatural<\/em><\/strong>, Season 3, Episode 3, \u201cBad Day at Black Rock\u201d (2007; d. Robert Singer)
\nFirst three steps of my re-cap process complete:
\n1. Re-watch. Take copious notes.
\n2. Go through again and get screengrabs.
\n3. Opening paragraphs written.
\nThis takes me forever. Supernatural<\/i> people, I salute your patience. This is such a good episode. <\/p>\n

Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath<\/em><\/strong>, Season 1, Episode 9 (2017)
\nSeason 1 ended in January. It is a powerful document. I could not be more impressed with Leah Remini if I tried. As someone who has been obsessed with this cult for almost 2 decades – so much so that – on occasion – I have TRIED to get recruited, just so I could understand the inner-workings from a first-person point of view – I cannot believe I have lived to see the day that this series would actually be running on a major network. Seriously. I thought the South Park episode was a revelation. And it was. The first real sledge-hammer to the public mythmaking (helped along by Cruise’s insane public behavior). But this? This is real advocacy. She tackles every aspect of the abuse, going at it from every side. The stories told are horrific – not new to people like me – but new to others not so obsessed. Important. This was a follow-up episode that aired in May but I’m only getting to it now. A group discussion with 6 different people, each of whom have gone after the cult from different angles (authors, lawyers, researchers). This is major. I am so glad there will be a Season 2. At this point, the cult is basically a real estate agency. That’s it. Except for those still trapped. There is more work to be done. Thank you, Leah Remini. I cannot imagine the Fair Game shit you are experiencing. You are brave.<\/p>\n

Citizens Band<\/em><\/strong> (1977; d. Jonathan Demme)
\nIt’s been years since I have seen this film. I saw it at the height of my Paul Le Mat crush, which came flooding back into my soul during this re-watch. He’s such a positive presence. Almost … earnest? Charles Taylor devoted a chapter to Citizens Band<\/i> – about one town’s obsession with CB radios – in his new book, Opening Wednesday at a Theater Or Drive-In Near You: The Shadow Cinema of the American ’70s<\/a>\"\"<\/i> (I interviewed Charley about that book here<\/a>), and that was the impetus to give it a re-watch. (It’s on Amazon video.) I love how everyone is kooky. And everyone – even the Nazi – is redeemable. “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND HIM IF I DON’T KNOW WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE?” Jonathan Demme has always been really good at this kind of gentle ensemble work, and he revels in the small moments, the grace notes, the human comedy of it all. Like this gesture. <\/p>\n

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Mad Men, Season 2 – 7 Not sure why I decided to do a re-watch. I think what happened is I watched the pilot and then couldn’t stop myself. It’s been a terrible month. I needed the comfort of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2627,4,31],"tags":[2493,600,2365,2490,2696,78,2448,2263,2489,2637],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129187"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158437,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129187\/revisions\/158437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}