Ponyo Loves Sosuke!!!!!!!!!

Limit Your Exposure

Last night before exhaustedly passing out watching "I Love You Man," then waking up, going to work, and finally catching up with the season premiere of "Mad Men," I am struck by how much more excited I've been about television than movies over the past several months. So much so that while the list of movies I've missed this summer keeps growing and growing (over 20 new releases to catch up with since last April), I have been quick to both catch up with and rewatch a whole slew of television series on DVD. While a part of this has to do with large screen viewing available comfortably and conveniently in my own home, with no additional purchase beyond what's already on my shelf or on my cable, I think comparing my two most recent viewing reveals a little more.

While I wouldn't even propose to say that "I Love You Man" is even comparatively the caliber of film that "Mad Men" is to respective television series, irregardless of this, there is something to be said for the sheer amount of originality, and in turn unpredictability of "Mad Men," compared the very formulaic "I Love You Man."

Again, "I Love You Man" is just another conventional romantic comedy. I mean, it was written and directed by the guy who brought us "Along Came Polly," and it's only real twist on the genre is to make the love story about two hetero guys and their friendship (I refuse to use the b-word) so maybe I shouldn't expect much as for originality, and maybe I am talking in far too great of generalizations, but I think it's safe to say that out of the 20+ movies I want to see, I have a pretty good idea how each of them will end. In their 2 hour run time, they will quaintly and conveniently reach a satisfying and most of the time happy ending, one which I can either predict right now, or one that I will be able to see coming not less than 45 minutes into the affair.

But week to week, hour to hour, and season to season of most of my favorite ongoing television series, I have no idea how they will end or where they are going next. And it's not just "Mad Men." It's "Lost," "Dollhouse," and "Chuck," and even the late "Battlestar Galactica." Even when they follow formula, such as most weeks I know that Don Draper is suave enough to bed another woman other than Betty, I remain dazzled not knowing a thing about where things are headed, and actually comforted by the fact that I know they could actually end badly and with more remaining questions and things to ponder, rather than every loose end nicely and simply wrapped up.

Ultimately, I guess I am just shocked that with high budget television as opposed to high budget studo filmmaking, with budgets that still exceed a million dollars per episode, there is such a disparity in the risks that showrunners and writers are allowed to take and where stories are allowed to unfold in relation to most modern films and filmmakers.

Pretty Pretty Good

I didn't even make it through all of season 6 of Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (which I plan to rectify), but I cannot wait for the brilliance that will be this next season!

Where Soul Meets Body

A confession. I was disappointed when Dollhouse was renewed for a second season. I wanted it canceled.

While the series had improved over the course of its run, starting with the promised uptick with "Man On the Street," with a really moving performance by Patton Oswalt of all people, and the wonderful reveal of Alan Tudyk as Alpha in the final two episodes, it never changed the fact that I was watching more out of what felt like obligation than actually being entertained or intrigued. But after watching "Epitaph One," the unaired thirteenth episode, I can safely say that I'll be watching next season not only as a Joss Whedon loyalist, but because the show finally has seemed to realize the potential of its premise.

"Epitaph One" skips ahead to 2019 and throws us into a world of actuals versus imprinted. It seems that Rossum Corp., the company behind the Dollhouse technology has let imprint technology rage out of control to a point where those seeking freedom must escape from technology in order to maintain their own personalities.

While I am always a sucker for post-apocalyptic visions of the future (X-Men's Days of Future Past; Buffy's The Wish; Heroes' Five Years Gone) , what makes "Epitaph One" work so well is how over the course of the previous 12 episodes, the groundwork has subtly been laid for this possibly inevitable future. We've seen Topher discuss the possibility of remote wipes and imprints, we've seen the growing bonds between Victor and Sierra, we've been warned that Rossum may have other ideas for the technology other than to serve their rich clients, and in what seemed like just another throwaway standalone, we've seen imprinting used for a sort of immortality as Ms. Dewitt brought her friend back to solve her own murder in "Haunted." "Epitaph One" takes that all to it extreme and logical conclusion.

Finally, the show seems to have realized that instead of leaving us questioning why anyone would hire an imprinted active instead of an actual professional, the real issues the show can delve into are what actually makes us who we are. The technology doesn't just serve the purpose of hiring out the perfect professional with no memory, but the possibility of immortality by moving memories and personalities from body to body. Is there a difference between our memories and personalities that shape who we are and our actual physical bodies and beings? Am I who I am with all my memories and experiences, if I am in a different body? And would I be comfortable living knowing I wasn't in my actual body? There is a real sense of dread presented by Felicia Day's Mag and the rest of the actuals about the idea of being wiped or imprinted over, and ensuring that they stay intact with their bodies.

While I don't know if the show is now going to try to fill in the gaps from Omega to Epitaph One in Season 2, I'll be a little disappointed if it doesn't. It would be a little ridiculous to see our present day characters try to fight a future they don't know exists. Either way, I'm glad to see the show now have larger issues to tackle, and because of it, much larger stakes. While the show is still ultimately about the more personal story of Eliza Dushku's Echo finding Caroline, her true self, it's also about a larger conflict between Rossum Corp. and "actual" humanity itself.

Terrible What Passes For a Ninja These Days

Wow, do I wish I saw Speed Racer on the IMAX. Seriously, this film got a bum rap for no good reason. It's visually inventive, kinetic, emotional, and exciting. There wasn't a minute I wasn't thoroughly entertained. Really, why this was panned is beyond me as it truly is a live action cartoon, with its layers of live action and CGI frames, along with a mature anti-corporate message. After the travesty that was Matrix Revolutions, the Wachowskis really made a comeback with this one. I have to thank Dennis Cozallio and his wonderful blog for convincing me to see this critically panned film, which is actually one of the best of 2008. Go Speed Racer Go!

Ms. Bronte...

Mike Leigh has always been one of those directors I have been meaning to catch up with, but after Career Girls, I can't say that I am too excited to see more.

I remember back when Secrets and Lies was up for Best Picture I just knew it was not for me. It looked like non-stylized melodrama, and while my tastes have grown and changed since then, I didn't get much out of Career Girls.

While Leigh's attempts at naturalism, and his ability to let scenes play despite not feeling like set pieces, but rather just an oppurtunity for his actors and characters to vamp and for us as an audience to get to know them, their quirks, their tics, and their facial rashes, it lead to me feeling dissatisfied by the lack of much of anything. I can see falling in love with a Leigh film if the characters are just right, because it seems to fall in love with his characters is to fall in love with his films , but this was not the one for me.

The Times They Are A-Changin

Despite yet another horrible audience at the Navy Pier IMAX, I have to say I fully enjoyed Zack Snyder's Watchmen. After reading almost every take on the film I can find, and probably not having much to add to the discussion, I have to say that the film is a success as an adaptation, and not entirely a success as a freestanding film.

My big question after viewing it is, will anyone that hasn't read the book be at all interested in this slavish adaptation? The entire structure of the film follows the book almost to a T (despite some cuts) with long flashback sequences and changing focuses and narrators in a way that made me feel like "wow, they're really pulling this off" but in a way that I have to imagine will make the unfamiliar wonder, "where is this all going anyway?"

The long asides built into the book, like how Jon became Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl II and The Comedian in Vietnam, and Rorschach's childhood all worked in adding depth to the characters, fleshing out the alternate history, and just as cool set pieces, but by the end of the film, the climax and resolution ends up feeling a little rushed. Unfortunately, the revelation that The Comedian is Laurie Jupiter's father seems to come out of nowhere rather than the emotional moment it should be.

At almost 3 hours, and I feel this actually speaks to the strengths of the film, it made me think that the director's cut with everything included will actually be stronger by making the film more sprawling and spacing things out, making the whole experience wash over someone, rather than making the end feel like some sort of rush to the finish line.

Doomsday

11 hours: 50 minutes

My thoughts to come.

I'll show you around the city, and we'll eat well. We'll drink good wine. We'll make love.

Once again I was promised a return to form from Woody Allen, this time with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and I was disappointed.

It would be easy to attack Woody Allen and his films for the kinds of characters they present. Characters with the financial means that allow them to take summer trips to Barcelona to study the Catalan. Characters who are high-minded, narcissistic, self-loathing and mildly pretentious. Characters who can worry about the meaning of love and their own self satisfaction rather than how they're going to be paying their rent. But to fault the film for presenting the social class of characters that Woody has been exploring for most of his career, when he isn't dabbling in the Depression, isn't really fair.

While my own financial and employment dissatisfaction served as a small barrier for my engagement with the film, what didn't work for me was that much like Match Point, the film is simply a play on small and familiar themes. Match Point was all about chance and whether someone can be at the right place at the right time to either change their social class or to get away with murder.

This time around, Woody presents his treatise on European romance. When I say European romance, I mean this concept that to travel to Europe is to indulge in a different life, a more care free life. The idea that Americans can throw caution to the wind when in romantic cities and indulge in sexual experimentation with little consequence (exemplified with both Vicky and Cristina's romance with Juan Antonio) or that to be European is to be more passionate and artistic (exemplified by Cristina's photography, as well as most of her relationship with Juan Antonio and Maria Elena). That to live in Europe is to be on vacation all the time.

I can respect the films exploration of these ideas. The problem is that it all just ends up feeling a little too small. By the end, everything is just a little to pat and dry as unsurprisingly, Vicky and Cristina realize that no matter how idealistic Barcelona may have seemed, it isn't what they want in the long run. Vicky ultimately needs the safety and stability she seemed to running away from, and Cristina always needs something new or she'll get bored.

In the end, the film doesn't commend its characters for what they've learned. Rather, it shows contempt for nearly everyone. As a viewer, we look down at Vicky first for being so straight laced, on Cristina for being so aloof and indecisive, on Juan Antonio and Maria Elena for being so emotional and overly passionate while lacking any real intelligence, on Doug for being a shallow financial douche bag. By the end, this contempt is just unsatisfying, as the film really provides no real answers to the questions it presents by being an exploration of a theme. If filling one's life with passion, love, and art isn't the way to overcome dissatisfaction and find meaning, then what is?

Mr. Smith