"Head Full Of Snow" Advances American Gods In A Delightfully Surreal Direction!

The Good: Good acting, Decent character moments, Good direction/special effects
The Bad: Light on plot development, Characters only advance incrementally
The Basics: "Head Full Of Snow" introduces more divine entities into American Gods, before Shadow Moon and Wednesday rob a bank.


As American Gods progressed, the show started to find a good balance between telling self-contained stories and building a truly serialized narrative. One of the ways that the show's writers accomplished this was by having episodes where a common theme unites the disparate events of the episode, across all of the characters - both familiar and new. The third episode of American Gods is united by death.

The death theme of "Head Full Of Snow" makes a lot of sense coming off of "The Secret Of Spoons" (reviewed here!) given that the show's most consistent protagonist, Shadow Moon, was given a death sentence at the climax of the episode. "Head Full Of Snow" opens with a lot of potential. American Gods was a new show still with "Head Full Of Snow" and the potential of the show is that it will actually kill off its main character, so the idea that Shadow Moon is sleeping his last night as the episode begins feels very real, especially after a vignette opening that features a death.

In Queens, Mrs. Fadil is preparing a meal for her children when there is a knock on the door. She recognizes the visitor as Anubis, from her childhood, as opposed to any of the figures from her Muslim faith that she converted to later in life. She follows Anubis to a surreal desert where she is judged and allowed to move onto death. In Chicago, Shadow Moon is awoken from his sleep and he climbs to the roof where he meets Zorya Polunochnaya. She looks into Shadow Moon's fortune, then gives him the moon (which takes the form of a coin). Shadow approaches Czernobog and he bargains for a second game of checkers. When Shadow manages to win against Czernobog, the Russian agrees to travel to Wisconsin to participate in Mr. Wednesday's meeting.

In Indiana, Mad Sweeney awakens to a shotgun in his face and when he wanders away from the bar and the driver who picks him up dies in a horrible accident, he realizes that he has lost his lucky gold coin. Elsewhere, in New York City, Salim waits a day for a meeting for which his appointment never shows up. After that, Salim encounters a Jinn who is a cab driver and the two make love, with the Jinn takes Salim's form. In Chicago, Wednesday scouts a bank to rob and he tells Shadow Moon to envision show. Shadow is shocked when, while Wednesday is printing the materials he needs to accomplish his scam, he envisions snow and wakes up to an uncommon snow storm.

"Head Full Of Snow" is a slow build of an episode for its first half and a very basic scam plot for the second half. Wednesday has a scam to rob a bank by posing as a night deposit guard and he relies upon Shadow Moon to cover for him when the police check out his alibi. Ian McShane carries the second half of the episode by presenting Wednesday as an open-minded trickster. Wednesday is slowly opening Shadow up to the possibility that the world is much bigger and more complicated than Shadow has previously believed. Many of McShane's scenes are subtle exposition and philosophy - leading Shadow Moon and coerce the protagonist while asking for his belief - but McShane makes them not only watchable, but engaging. Ian McShane has raw charisma that few actors possess and long before the end of "Head Full Of Snow," it is obvious that Wednesday is a being with exceptional abilities and a strange dependence.

Pablo Schreiber steals his scenes in "Head Full Of Snow" and the confidence with which Omid Abtahi and Mousa Kraish approach their sex scene is a testament to their acting abilities. But in an episode with continued subtle performances from Cloris Leachman, Chris Obi, and Peter Stormare, Ricky Whittle finally breaks out. After all that Whittle's character, Shadow Moon, has been through, "Head Full Of Snow" finally gives him a bit to play that allows him to show some range. Shadow gets exhausted, which makes sense if he gets very little sleep after his death sentence begins and Whittle plays that with an impressive level of control over his body language. Whittle is able to emote well Shadow attempting to focus, but falling prey to Wednesday's voice and the suggestion that he needs to focus.

"Head Full Of Snow" balances the performances with decent special effects. The episode opens delightfully surreal as Anubis leads Mrs. Fadil away and the effects continue with the flawless execution of the Jinn's flaming eyes. Director David Slade does an excellent job of augmenting Whittle's performance with effects-driven sequences of water freezing into ice and the snow crystallizing.

Despite the performances and as few moments of character, "Head Full Of Snow" is an episode where the protagonist does not advance or develop in a truly impressive or significant way. The result is an interesting and easy-to-watch episode that is not overly impressive or concrete on the narrative front outside the context of the larger serialized storyline of the first season of American Gods.

For other works with Peter Stormare, please check out my reviews of:
22 Jump Street
The Zero Theorem
Pain & Gain
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Prison Break - Season 1
The Brothers Grimm
Constantine
Minority Report
The Big Lebowski
Fargo
Awakenings

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into American Gods - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of the surreal series here!
Thanks!]

6/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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American Gods Grows Into Intrigue With "The Secret Of Spoons."

The Good: Good performances, Wonderful direction, Characters start to become intriguing
The Bad: Most of the characters are very easy to empathize with, Minimal plot
The Basics: "The Secret Of Spoons" starts the real journey of American Gods with Mr. Wednesday and Shadow Moon getting to Chicago to meet with old Russian gods.


American Gods was a television show that came with a built-in audience given that it was based upon a novel by Neil Gaiman, beloved of the genre fans. Selling the series to a wider audience was done by simply having the show developed by Bryan Fuller. When an executive producer leaves the next Star Trek television series for a project, that instantly raises the stature of the project for which he left it. So, American Gods picked up an initial audience of Gaiman fans, Fuller fans and Trekkers for the look-in and what newbies like me discovered from the pilot episode was that the first season of the show was going to require some faith and time to get into. "The Secret Of Spoons," the second episode of the first season of American Gods is very much a second chapter in a story that is in no way clear yet. "The Secret Of Spoons" does a decent job of more clearly focusing on Shadow Moon as a protagonist and reinforcing the idea that in the world of American Gods, divine influence is a thing, both in the past and in the present.

"The Secret Of Spoons" picks up immediately after "The Bone Orchard" (reviewed here!) and is impossible to discuss without some references to the prior episode. "The Bone Orchard" introduced the essential American Gods characters of Shadow Moon, Mr. Wednesday, and Mad Sweeney,with glimpses into Laura Moon, Bilquis, and the new god Technical Boy, who tried to have Shadow Moon lynched before he was mysteriously rescued. "The Secret Of Spoons" picks up the main Shadow Moon narrative immediately after he has escaped death from Technical Boy's forces.

Opening with another "Coming to America" vignette, this time in 1697 on a slave ship, the imprisoned Okoye cries out to the spider god Anansi. Mr. Nancy appears and delivers a sermon about all that is coming to the people on the ship and their descendants. Okoye's bonds are broken and he frees his compatriots to burn the boat to kill the Dutch slavers. Shadow Moon is stapled up and returns to the motel where he confronts Mr. Wednesday. Shadow returns to his house where he recalls aspects of his life with Laura and confronts the realities of her cheating on him with their mutual friend, Robbie. Shadow boxes up the possessions he wants and prepares the house for sale before moving on with Mr. Wednesday and the mysterious man's muscle.

Leaving Eagle Point behind, Mr. Wednesday has Shadow drive him to Chicago for his hammer. While Wednesday meets with someone at a dive en route, he tasks Shadow with shopping for him. At the big box store, Shadow Moon is spoken to by Lucy Ricardo, through a television. Lucy Ricardo, the voice of Media, is impressed with Shadow Moon and offers him a job on her team, which Shadow refuses. Reaching Chicago, Wednesday meets with Zorya Vechernyaua and weasels his way into an invitation to their home for dinner. There, Shadow Moon encounters the Zorya sisters and they wait for Czernobog (a cattle slaughterer) to arrive. Czernobog gets into a checkers match with Shadow Moon after dinner . . . for Shadow's life.

"The Secret Of Spoons" does a decent job of revealing cultural ignorance to Americans. I took several Mythology courses back in college and high school and it was only as "The Secret Of Spoons" moves into the proper mission of Mr. Wednesday and Shadow Moon that I realized that I had absolutely no knowledge of Russian mythology. The deities visited in only the second episode of American Gods will be new to most viewers. Ironically, Anansi was instantly recognizable to me, but the Russian gods were entirely new to me!

Ian McShane is perfectly cast as Mr. Wednesday and "The Secret Of Spoons" allows him to play the character as wise, knowing and subtly powerful. McShane manages to make Wednesday intriguing to watch in every single scene by credibly delivering even the most diction-intense phrases with a knowledgeable ease and then landing the reductive phases with humor. McShane has absolutely the right amount of charisma to sell the idea of an understated deity roaming the Earth.

Ricky Whittle, by contrast, continues to play the ultimate straightman to McShane and the rest of the cast. Whittle is charged with making Shadow Moon a grounded and realistic character; he is an ex-con who has lived in a very literal world. Shadow Moon is being moved incrementally over the entire first season into a much more mystically-influenced world. Whittle continues in "The Secret Of Spoons" to portray Shadow Moon as a cold pragmatist and while it is hard to care much about his fate yet, Whittle makes the character accessible to the audience by keeping him understated and having his reactions feel familiar.

Peter Stormare continues his trend of appearing in works with, apparently, unwashed hair. Stormare's Czernobog is a pragmatic killer and his character is defined mostly through his long monologues. Stormare is an incredible storyteller in "The Secret Of Spoons" and while his character is not physically animated in the episode, he is dynamic as a storyteller and he makes the character vital to watch.

The other big acting moment in "The Secret Of Spoons" comes from Gillian Anderson. Anderson is unrecognizable playing Lucy Ricardo (Media) and that's saying something. Anderson gets Ball's twang down perfectly in her brief scene and she makes the sudden appearance of Media seem far less jarring than, for example, Bilquis's random scene in the episode. Cloris Leachman is predictably wonderful in her subtle performance of the Zorya matriarch, but Anderson makes her lone scene stand out in a surprising way.

Director David Slade gets a huge amount of credit for his direction in "The Secret Of Spoons." Slade makes almost everything and everyone look dirty, but fabulous at the same time. Outside Shadow Moon's trip to the big box store, the settings are filthy, the people are greasy and Slade uses lighting masterfully to indicate time shifts during Shadow Moon's flashbacks in his home. Slade does a great job with opening "The Secret Of Spoons" with an intriguing vignette that looks amazing and in the latter scenes of the episode, capturing the deep wrinkles and shining eyes of Ian McShane makes the mundane look beautiful.

"The Secret Of Spoons" is the beginning of a pretty banal road trip (at this point) where the purpose is not yet clear and the characters are hard to empathize with at this point. That said, "The Secret Of Spoons" has the show gaining a little momentum and making the basic premise incredibly clear as Shadow Moon encounters people who are clearly divine entities working on Earth.

For other works with Ian McShane, please visit my reviews of:
John Wick
Jack The Giant Slayer
Snow White And The Huntsman
Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Coraline
Death Race
Scoop
Babylon 5: River Of Souls

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into American Gods - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of the surreal series here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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"The Bone Orchard" Sets The Bar Weird For American Gods.

The Good: Decent acting, Good direction
The Bad: Erratic and obscure narrative, Characters are generally inaccessible and aloof
The Basics: American Gods opens with "The Bone Orchard," which manages to make a surreal presentation of Shadow Moon getting out of prison and slowly finding his way into a much larger world.


There are few executive producers who attract an audience like Bryan Fuller. Fuller rose quickly from being a writer to a writer/executive producer transitioning from the short-lived fan-loved shows like Wonderfalls (reviewed here!) and Dead Like Me (reviewed here!) to more mainstream successes like Hannibal. When Star Trek Discovery was first announced, Bryan Fuller was the name the studio executives quickly threw out to placate fans (fans like me, who were not, generally, placated if for no other reason than that CBS had a distribution idea long before they had a solid series idea) and it worked for some. But when Bryan Fuller abandoned Star Trek Discovery, it turned a lot of eyes to the project that he was leaving it for: American Gods.

American Gods begins with "The Bone Orchard" and while Fuller's writing and producing began with an admitted obsession with the Star Trek franchise, his interests clearly lie in a very different place now. "The Bone Orchard" is about as far from Star Trek as one might imagine. "The Bone Orchard" opens immediately with a theological (albeit weird) bent and develops into a fantasy that is a fish-out-of-water pragmatist in a world quietly populated by deities.

Opening with "Coming To America, 813," Mr. Ibis writes the story of a small Viking ship landing in North America. When one of the crew is slain by a native arrow, the Vikings decide leave, remaining only on the beach while they wait for the wind to pick up. The Vikings poke out their eyes and fight to get the attention of the All Father, to no avail. After all their sacrifices, when the wind returns, they leave and never get in another boat or speak of their ordeal. Flashing forward to the present, Shadow Moon is days away from getting out of prison when he calls his wife, Laura. Shadow is concerned that something is not quite right and that night while he sleeps, he sees his wife in a dream. His dream continues to a surreal forest filled with bones, a sky that resembles a nebula, and trees that move on their own.

Shadow awakens the next morning where he is led to the Warden's office and told that Laura has died. Released that afternoon, Shadow Moon finds himself stuck in an airport waiting to get back to Eagle Point, Indiana. In the terminal, Shadow watches a grifter get upgraded to first class. On the plane, Shadow is bumped up to first class because the flight is overbooked. There, Shadow properly meets the grifter, who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. Wednesday talks to Shadow and offers Shadow a questionable job. Shadow turns down the job on principle, not wanting to risk going back to prison, and Mr. Wednesday seems to know specific details about Shadow Moon's past and present. When the plane is forced to land because of the weather, Shadow Moon gets a rental car and starts driving the rest of the way to Eagle Point for his wife's very awkward funeral.

"The Bone Orchard" has an ambitious, if very blood beginning. The viking segment is so gory that one would suspect that director David Slade is a big fan of the works of Quentin Tarantino. The episode is beautifully-shot, replays well, and has a surreal pace to it that shows a clear cinematic influence from Twin Peaks. "The Bone Orchard" is a beginning of a heavily-serialized story and the episode, appropriately, follows a skeptical character (much like the audience) being slowly introduced to a much larger world.

Unlike most of Bryan Fuller's post-Star Trek: Voyager works, "The Bone Orchard" starts American Gods off without a hook. Most of Fuller's works have an easy-to-describe one-line concept: girl dies and becomes a grim reaper, young woman starts hearing voices (possibly divine) from inanimate objects in the shape of animals, etc. American Gods does not have that type of hook for its protagonist and "The Bone Orchard" is a slow progression into anything resembling a larger narrative. American Gods is an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book, which I have not read before now; "The Bone Orchard" feels very much like a first chapter.

On its own, "The Bone Orchard" is a tough pilot to get thrilled about. The episode is generally well-performed, but it has a surreal, often-disconnected quality, much like the cave scene in The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!). Shadow Moon has visions in his dreams and right around the time that viewers get interested in the journey that Shadow Moon is on trying to get back to his hometown, "The Bone Orchard" leaps to an unrelated scene featuring Bilquis bedding a blind date . . . before consuming him through her vagina. The storytelling for "The Bone Orchard" works better in the context of the larger season and the overall narrative than as a concise story of its own. Shadow Moon has a disconnected story in "The Bone Orchard" and given that the show and protagonist have no clear hook to the story, the pilot is a bit off-putting on its own and it requires a lot of faith to come back to the story to see where it is going.

"The Bone Orchard" does what it has to do with setting up the broader story of American Gods, but the mysterious elements surrounding Shadow Moon, his dead wife, and the identity of Mr. Wednesday are broken up with a narrator character and a sexual consumer, the sudden appearance of a leprechaun and an attack by a virtual-reality headset. "The Bone Orchard" sets up a complicated world filled with apparently supernatural individuals and the basic concept is a practical one; Shadow Moon enters the narrative filled with gods, demigods and supernatural beings with the same skepticism as the modern audience. Shadow's gritty, real world is opened up incrementally in "The Bone Orchard" as he transitions from the cold, hard reality of prison to slowly make himself open to a Faustian bargain with Mr. Wednesday.

On the acting front, Ricky Whittle dominates "The Bone Orchard." Whittle had a comparatively unmemorable part in Austenland (reviewed here!) and in "The Bone Orchard," he plays the role of Shadow Moon with suspicion and an aloof quality that is not entirely accessible, but is completely practical for the character. Whittle is joined on screen by Ian McShane and Pablo Schreiber for the bulk of "The Bone Orchard." McShane has a massive body of work and Mr. Wednesday allows him to immediately show off some range transitioning from lost and weak to cocky and subtly powerful. While Whittle has to play in subtle changes, McShane shows off range. Pablo Schreiber is impressive in that he plays another asshole character, in the form of Mad Sweeney the leprechaun, without any hint of his Orange Is The New Black antagonist.

The best pilot episodes get viewers to want to tune in to the next episode. On that front, "The Bone Orchard" is a dismal failure. On my second viewing of the episode, it occurred to me that if I didn't know where the story was going, I wouldn't have cared enough to continue. On my first trip through the first season of American Gods, I went into the second episode on the faith that Bryan Fuller had a plan. That plan or any real intrigue from the protagonist is lacking in "The Bone Orchard." Faith in Fuller is rewarded, but "The Bone Orchard" is a much more erratic start than some might hope given how so many genre fans raved about American Gods right off the bat.

For other pilot episodes, please check out my reviews of:
"Snow Gives Way" - Iron Fist
"The Cage"- Star Trek
"Pilot" - Twin Peaks
"The Gathering"- Babylon 5

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into American Gods - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of the surreal series here!
Thanks!]

4.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Less Than The Sum Of Its Parts, The Twilight Saga Holds Together Poorly.

| | | The Good: Moments of concept, Portrayal of young love, Cinematography
The Bad: Underdeveloped characters, Melodrama, Stiff acting, Belabored plot
The Basics: The Twilight Saga starts as a charming tale of love between a mortal and an undead individual and drags out a dismal series of conflicts for multiple movies.


There are few movie series’ that have been produced in recent memory that have both such loyal fans and such rabid detractors as The Twilight Saga. Based upon a tremendously popular book series that pretty much defined the contemporary teen paranormal romance genre, the cinematic Twilight Saga was one of the smartest bets by the studios in recent memory. It came with a build-in audience, had a sufficient franchise to draw out and had the potential for mass appeal. And it worked: the success of the first two films made household names of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner, as well as launched the career of a number of the secondary performers in the films, and inspired the studio to split the final film into two to milk the fan base for additional money and keep the “phenomenon” alive.

But the same things that made the series seem initially strong also gave so much for the detractors to rant about: the films, which feature vampire and werewolf characters, were remarkably bloodless and for a great romance epic, the main couple was shockingly sexless. The acting was mixed and the fact that the film could not keep a consistent director to maintain a singular vision for the films may have worked against it (especially on the press circuit). For my part, I look at what is directly in front of me. Having sat down and rewatched the entire cinematic rendition of The Twilight Saga, there are several things that stand out to me now, looking at the work as a whole. As it will inevitably be viewed as a solid Saga (shocking that when Breaking Dawn, Part 2 was announced for DVD and Blu-Ray, no collector’s series set was announced simultaneously!), it behooves one to consider the entire work.

The Twilight Saga is a rare example where the parts, when put together, make something significantly less than the films on their own. Allow me to explain.

First, The Twilight Saga consists of the films:
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn, Part I
Breaking Dawn, Part 2

For those unfamiliar with The Twilight Saga, the five films follow the exploits of Bella Swan, innocent, pale klutzy high school student who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington when her mother wants to travel more with her new boyfriend. Forks, a mist-covered rural community, is where Bella’s father lives and works as a sheriff. There, Bella meets the mysterious Edward Cullen. Edward, she quickly learns, is a vampire, but a friendly one. Bella and Edward begin a romance, which puts them in danger when a roving trio of vampires comes through and starts killing humans and attacks Bella.

On Bella’s eighteenth birthday, there is an incident and Edward abandons her, ostensibly for her own safety. At that point, Bella rekindles her friendship with Jacob Black, a local who she slowly learns is a werewolf. Jacob’s protective instinct kicks in and while Bella prevents Edward from killing himself so he is no longer tormented by his love for Bella, the attempt draws the attention of the powerful Italian vampires, the Volturi. The Volturi come to Forks shortly thereafter when the villainous Victoria raises an army of vampires to destroy the Cullens and the werewolves and vampires work together to protect Bella and put down the threat of the rogue vampire clan.

After Bella graduates high school, she and Edward get married and during their honeymoon, the unthinkable happens: Bella gets pregnant from Edward and the spawn is something no one quite understands.

What struck me most about rewatching The Twilight Saga all together was what a weak link New Moon (which I rather enjoyed when it originally was released) was and just what a forced sense of conflict the Saga possesses. The initial villains are dispatched fairly quickly and make way for a far less sensible group of villains. The Volturi are visually menacing and creepy beyond belief, but they are basically superpower vampires who claim to be working to preserve the vampires and keep them off the humans’ radar while being the most obtrusive group of vampires: while the Cullens and the other vampires seen in the Saga generally blend in, the Volturi look like out-of-date elves who kill humans with startling regularity.

The love triangle (a term I loathe because it seldom is actually true – and is not in The Twilight Saga, as there is no emotional connection between Edward and Jacob) between Bella and Edward and Bella and Jacob seems increasingly forced as the film series goes on. In fact, outside of most of New Moon, it is painfully clear to everyone save Jacob that Bella has chosen Edward as her love interest. Even more than any problems with Kristen Stewart’s (who plays Bella) acting, Bella becomes a problematic character for the way she makes her choice, yet keeps stringing Jacob along.

Ironically, Eclipse, which might be the least-respected of the films, is a stronger link in the storytelling. With a compelling villain, a cool effect (the battles in this film are bigger and actually have significance) and a real test for the Edward/Bella relationship where Edward’s solution is not simply to run away, Eclipse actually stands up as a solid and engaging film. It is, when viewed as a whole Saga, also the high water mark of the films.

The final two films seem like much more of a coda comparatively. They seem like a necessary evil to the story, as opposed to a vital chapter, a simple fleshing out of the promise at the climax of Eclipse as opposed to an engaging end to the story. Here is why: the wedding is an inevitable, obvious plot point that was pretty much foreseeable the moment Edward returned to Bella in New Moon. The incident with the Volturi is a forced plot point – in a perfect world with the seemingly endless financial resources of the Cullens and the fact that the Volturi are in Italy, Bella and Edward could have easily avoided them for all eternity – and the conception of Renesmee seems an artful dodge for an audience obviously not prepared for an actual adult relationship. In other words, the first year of most real marriages is, frankly, hell (after the Honeymoon period wears off). It takes a real love and patience to survive the first year of a marriage as two people give up doing everything their own way and figure out how to do things “the Us way.” That, however, is not what the audience who wants to gush over an immortal love between a hundred plus year-old man and an eighteen year-old woman wants to watch. So, the writers and directors provide a much more literal hell (and a less-than-subtle admonishment about the dangers of sexuality!) when Bella’s first lovemaking produces a monstrous pregnancy that (among other things) shatters Bella’s spine and leaves her with becoming a vampire as her only viable chance of survival. Instead of taking the fantasy of immortal love and making it seem more real, The Twilight Saga makes love seem more preposterous and uncomfortable and dangerous.

The Twilight Saga has somewhat inconsistent direction but, oddly enough, a consistent sense of spectacle and quality of cinematography that makes the movies eminently watchable. The pacing for the Saga is off and the acting is inconsistent. However, while Kristen Stewart gets the awkward nature of Bella Swan right in Twilight, it is not until the Breaking Dawn movies that she is given more room to express range, so she goes through most of the Saga stiff and portraying boredom over passion. In rewatching the Saga, it is actually Robert Pattinson who stands out for the poor acting. Whereas Taylor Lautner portrays Jacob Black as an invested, interesting, and passionate guy, Pattinson’s role seems to be simply to show up. Edward Cullen is cold, passionless, and frightfully dull and Pattinson does not make the role any warmer. Instead, he is stiff, gives Stewart almost nothing to play off of and yet, when he smiles, that is supposed to substitute for actual personality.

It, alas, does not.

Ultimately, any one of the Twilight films is fine, but when viewed together as the complete Twilight Saga, it becomes tiresome and more of a mess than it ought to. Fans and moviegoers deserve quite a bit more.

For other film sagas, please check out my reviews of:
The Dark Knight Trilogy
The Harry Potter Saga
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy

5/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Conviction Before Trial, The Slow Execution Of "Justice" In Hard Candy.

The Good: Good DVD extras, Exceptional acting, Well-written and directed
The Bad: Not at all entertaining, Deeply disturbing, Utterly gruesome
The Basics: Terrifying but exceptionally well-made, Hard Candy is a tough depiction of torture that does not need to be viewed, certainly there is no entertainment value here.


Every now and then, I encounter something as a reviewer that I find so horrific and grotesque that my kneejerk reaction is to pan it into oblivion and strongly recommend against seeing it. The thing is, there are some works which are terrible and gruesome that objectively viewed are absolutely brilliant. In other words, there are movies that are well-assembled and set out to be disturbing in their themes and structure, but are so well put together, so well accomplish what they do that they become something other than the entertainment they claim to be. The best example I have of this is Requiem For A Dream, which does what it sets out to do with a high level of quality, but is so over-the-top as to be utterly without value or need to see. There are some things we understand, but we don't need to subject ourselves to and as conscientious reviewers, I try to help steer people away from.

Tonight, I add Hard Candy to that list. Much like The Passion Of The Christ, Hard Candy is created with a simple premise and illustrates graphically torture. But where Mel Gibson used flails and blood, writer Brian Nelson and director David Slade use psychology and innuendo to torment a man and the audience for the better part of ninety-five minutes. I am bouncing between a high and an average rating because qualitatively, Hard Candy has much going for it, but I know I will not recommend it and hopefully, those reading this review will decide not to subject themselves to this film.

Hayley Stark is a fourteen year-old girl who meets photographer Jeff Kohlver on the Internet. After chatting on-line for three weeks, they meet together in the daytime at a coffee house. Jeff, who is thirty-two, is clearly intrigued by Hayley but seems committed to remaining on the right side of the law in his dealings with her. However, Hayley essentially invites herself over to his house under the guise of listening to a bootleg recording from a concert she wanted to go to. Against his better judgment, Jeff brings Hayley home with him.

At Jeff's house, Hayley begins to assert her control more, fixing the pair screwdrivers and putting her music on. When Jeff prepares to take photographs of Hayley, he falls unconscious. Jeff wakes up tied to a chair. Hayley seems unnaturally sober and admits to drugging him. Confused, Jeff begins to try to figure out what is going on while Hayley begins to ask questions about the girls that Jeff has taken photographs of. After she accuses him of being a pedophile, Jeff realizes Hayley is not playing and soon her interrogation turns violent as she realizes that Jeff will not confess to the wrongs she believes he has done.

What follows is essentially a fourteen year-old girl preaching, interrogating and castrating a 32 year-old man as she administers justice, believing he has killed a local girl who has gone missing.

The plot pretty much says it all because there is no moral to Hard Candy. Instead, this is a character study of two antagonists. It is a collection of brilliant lines and amazing artistry and a cold sense of brutality that is disguised as righteousness. And it is agonizing for its length and all of the pauses and the fixed stares.

Hayley is quickly established as a girl who is in control and she sees the world in very black and white terms, as is appropriate for a fourteen year-old. She has judged Jeff guilty before they meet in person and every moment she is on screen, she is acting so that by the end, the viewer has to ask themselves just what truths she might have let slip amid the stories, potential lies, and accusations. She is a vigilante and a girl with a vindictive streak.

Jeff, sadly, comes across strangely human and part of what Hard Candy does exceptionally well is raise questions without answering them. But in watching Jeff get tormented by Hayley, the viewer has to seriously ask themselves whether or not there is a crime Jeff could be guilty of that deserves the torment he is suffering. In other words, in a civilized nation where most people can acknowledge that nothing justifies torture and was founded on a principle of abhorring cruel and unusual punishment, how can we find such acts at all entertaining?! Only a monolithic fourteen year-old living in a world of binary logic would believe that somehow tormenting an alleged (not even accused) pedophile somehow balances the scales of justice for the crimes he allegedly perpetrated. Jeff often seems far more human than Hayley does.

In fact, in Hard Candy, the only crime we witness Jeff make (though I refuse to say anything about the last half hour of the film) is transporting a minor (without parental permission) and the crime of stupidity. The stupidity comes in bringing a fourteen year-old into his house (which is not, technically, a crime). Jeff makes a mistake in bringing a minor home, but even that is not illegal (just somewhat witless). It remains believable and in character because Jeff is moderately famous for photographing teenage girls in somewhat risque positions.

The point, though, is that while audiences might be polarized about Hard Candy and be tempted to side with either Hayley (the vigilante) or Jeff (the victim in this context, even if he is potentially a victimizer), the struggle is far from entertaining. It is quickly executed as a psychologically devastating battle between a girl in far too much control over a helpless man. So, unlike something like the masterful hour of television "Duet" (reviewed here!), which involves a man being interrogated for an hour, Hard Candy is not so much an interrogation, but an outright depiction of torture and psychological torment. And it lacks a social message, so instead of being especially clever, it is just cruel.

That said, the acting is absolutely amazing. Ellen Page is brilliant and cold as Hayley Stark. She has a masterful ability to present long speeches and voice the cold, logical voice of righteous vengeance. And in the opening moments of the film, she is brilliant at playing shy and mousy. She telegraphs a few of the reversals, but in the lone scene where her character is out of control, she is spot-on. Moreover, in moments when Jeff breaks loose and there is a physical altercation, Page is amazing at displaying pain and exertion. And whenever her character is lost, Page plays is with her full body and eyes. She is haunting and truly great.

And she plays off Patrick Wilson perfectly. Wilson spends most of the film tied to a chair or a metal table. Yet, even so confined he gives a performance that is active, terrifying and deeply empathetic. Wilson makes us believe completely in Jeff's reality as he is tormented and waits for Hayley to kill him.

On DVD, Hard Candy comes with two commentary tracks and honestly, the only reason I even have a debate in how to rate Hard Candy is that I watched the film three times. After the first time, I told myself, "I will not subject myself to that again!" But, I decided, I would do some work and put the commentary track on, so I didn't have to watch it, but I could listen to people talk about it. The commentary track with Slade and Nelson is informative and insightful and actually discusses the ambiguity and technical aspects of making Hard Candy. The commentary track with Page and Wilson is pleasantly lighthearted and in fact contains the best comment that can be made on the film. When Hayley knocks Jeff unconscious to transfer him from the chair to the table in order to perform surgery on him, actress Ellen Page says, "Why don't we stop now, I don't want to watch more." Everyone involved in the film knew they made something controversial and disturbing and I appreciated Page admitting she didn't want to see what came next. There are deleted scenes and featurettes on the making of the film and its controversy, but they add little that the commentary tracks did not already cover (the only thing the commentary tracks do not answer is how old Ellen Page was when Hard Candy was shot).

Hard Candy is a brutal film without catharsis and while I can live with that, there is a cruelty depicted on screen that is not entertainment. We are lessened by watching it and trying to experience it as such and for that reason I cannot stress enough that this film ought to be avoided.

For other works with Ellen Page, please visit my reviews of:
Super
Inception
Whip It
X-Men III: The Last Stand

8.5/10 (NOT Recommended!)

For other film reviews, please be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the movies I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Doing More Than Just Encouraging Fans, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Delivers!

The Good: Decent acting, character development, special effects, Sense that story is going somewhere, DVD/Blu-Ray bonus features
The Bad: A lot feels very familiar.
The Basics: The next installment in The Twilight Saga, Eclipse progresses the stories and relationships from the earlier films and is entertaining for viewers from teenagers up.


Series’ become tougher and tougher for non-fans the longer the series persists. Those who are not embedded in a phenomenon tend to be looking for something that builds on the prior installments while still giving viewers something that feels new, if not entirely familiar. So, for example, with Twilight (click here for review!) the pressure on filmmakers was to please fans and get an audience who had not read any of the books intrigued in the story and characters. With New Moon (click here for review!) the pressure was to retain the audience and not simply repeat the teen melodrama aspects and allow the audience to feel like the story was actually going somewhere. They largely succeeded. With Eclipse, the third installment in the Twilight Saga, the stakes are raised, especially for those who are not already glued to the series.

For that audience, the fear has to be that Eclipse will simply be a repetition of the two prior installments and will be more teen melodrama than anything else. After all, in The Twilight Saga, there is a romance to vampires and werewolves and much of Kristen Stewart’s acting involves alternately looking moon-eyed and falling down. With Eclipse, the formula is broken and the film fearlessly illustrates what it only implied in New Moon, that most vampires are actually angry and quite evil. While New Moon had the carnage off-screen, Eclipse illustrates it and the conflict becomes more than just a teenage “I love him,” “no, I love the other guy,” “no, I love the first guy more” story. And it is bound to be well-received by the fans. It was well-received by this non-fan.

Bella Swan and Edward Cullen have made it through their Senior year of high school and as their relationship is deepening, Bella is applying to colleges. They realize they have slightly different views on both marriage and Bella being turned into a vampire, their own conflicts are enhanced by Charlie wanting Bella to spend more time with Jacob than with Edward. But in nearby Seattle, Washington, there have been killings which Jacob knows are the work of vampires. Bella, despite Edward’s dislike of Jacob, continues to visit Jacob and Jacob’s werewolf clan moves to deal with the vampires, while Jacob becomes more protective of his best friend. When Edward and the Cullens are given proof that the problems in Seattle are the works of vampires, Alice sees the menace coming to Forks and the Cullens are forced to flee.

With an army of vampires descending upon Forks, Bella, Edward and Jacob flee in order to protect Bella as she appears to be the target of the rage of the vampires. With the newborn attack imminent, the Cullen family joins forces with the werewolves in order to prevent the slaughter of humans and the exposure of both supernatural communities.

The nicest thing about Eclipse is that while the characters seem largely the same in the film, the plot has an almost constant sense of movement and the film feels like it is going somewhere. And where it goes is worth the wait. The key to who is behind the army of vampires and why makes perfect sense and the emotional resonance carries back to the final scene of Twilight, which works for those who have seen the prior installments. For those who have not seen Twilight, the motivations for Victoria are repeated enough so that she seems like a reasonable villain. Newbie viewers are more likely to be lost by the appearance of Jane and the Volturi than Victoria and her arc.

On the subject of Victoria, Bryce Dallas Howard steps into the role beautifully and while fans might miss Rachel Lefevre, Howard does a good job of playing Victoria as both harsh and wounded. In fact, I didn’t even notice the recasting until the credits, that is how flawlessly Howard assumes the looks and mannerisms of Victoria as characterized by Lefevre.

On the character front, Eclipse does a decent job of progressing Bella, Edward and Jacob, though it narrowly misses recreating the sense of watching the same ridiculous love triangle in the prior film. The movie works in this regard because it leaves the characters with a much more firm sense of who each of the principles are and what direction they are headed in. Bella manages to swoon more for Edward and the resulting decisions she makes feel much more organic than simply having to choose between the two lead hunks. The result is that Eclipse replays better than New Moon for those who are not looking at the series for the teenage romance aspect.

As far as performances go, Ashley Greene continues to steal her scenes as Alice Cullen, the vampire who is able to see the future (except when it is most useful). Fortunately, her vision is explained and explored more in this movie, as is Jasper’s twitchiness. Jackson Rathbone has played Jasper as twitchy and dark and in Eclipse he is given the chance to steal a scene or two for more than just chill factor. He portrays Jasper in a more adult fashion and when Jasper begins to take a leadership role in the planning of the combat, it is Rathbone’s performance which sells it.

The leading men do what they have done before, so there are no surprises from Robert Pattinson (Edward), Taylor Lautner (Jacob), Billy Burke (Charlie, Bella’s father) or Peter Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen). Facinelli deserves a special note in that his role as the Cullen patriarch is given more importance in Eclipse and Facinelli makes good use of the screentime. His trick is to both provide a level of consistency and to make quiet scenes where Carlisle provides deeply human wisdom seem inhuman and Facinelli nails it.

Kristen Stewart continues to do a decent job of balancing Bella’s role as damsel in distress and normal teenage girl. In Eclipse, the role is a bit more physical for her and she seems up to the task. Waifish girls everywhere have a new role model in Stewart’s Swan and she plays off Pattinson well, so at the very least the film portrays a very real sense of sexual chemistry.

Finally, while New Moon had some morph effects which were not ideal (notably with werewolf transformations), Eclipse has the kinks worked out. The special effects are amazing – especially the new effect that gets around blood and gore related to werewolves slaughtering vampires! - and adult audiences are likely only to be disappointed in that they do not go far enough. The climactic battle has startlingly little blood for a conflict of its magnitude and those looking at this for an adult sense of realism are likely to be a little let down. The lack of blood is actually well portrayed and the fracturing of limbs is pretty awesome!

But those looking for something new to swoon about in Forks, Washington, where vampires and werewolves are real and they are all interested in teenagers, Eclipse is something to rave about.

And there is more to rave about with the two-disc DVD and Blu-Ray presentation of the film. There, Eclipse is loaded with two commentary tracks as well as a small number of deleted scenes which flesh out key moments of the movie. There is also another six-part featurette on the making of Eclipse, which fits with prior Twilight Saga DVD releases. As well, there are music videos for songs featured in the movie and on the Eclipse soundtrack. In other words, there is plenty to enjoy!

For other Twilight Saga merchandise or works, please check out my reviews of:
Twilight trading cards
The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner (novella) By Stephanie Meyer
“Edward And Bella” Hallmark Ornament

8/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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