Susan Hated Literature

Jul 30 2007

Reaper 1.01

Published by Fence under Moving Pictures, TV

Dir: Kevin Smith
Writ: Tara Butters & Michele Fazekas

Bret Harrison - Sam Oliver
Tyler Labine - Bert ‘Sock’ Wysocki
Missy Peregrym - Andi
Ray Wise … The Devil
Allison Hossack - Mrs. Oliver
Andrew Airlie - Mr. Oliver

Yet another pre-air show has escaped onto the wilds of d’internet. Isn’t modern technology a wonderful thing? Right, on with the recap. We open with Sam on his birthday. He is 21 today, but his parents seem a little off, odd would be a good term^[1] His brother Kyle is more normal in his response, the usual brother banter goes on. Sam, at first distracted by a news story about an arsonist on the news, retaliates by asking, ever so innocently about a letter from Stanford. It turns out that Kyle had applied, and didn’t get in. His parents are a little upset at this, something that Kyle can’t quite understand and protests that Sam never went to college. His mother however disagrees, Sam did go to college, for a whole month, it just made him sleepy so he came home. They are both very proud of him.

Linknotes:

strange is another good word ↩

Tags: 8 Stars, Allison Hossack, Andrew Airlie, Bret Harrison, death, humour, Kevin Smith, Michele Fazekas, Missy Peregrym, pre-air, Ray Wise, Reaper, Reaper 1.01, sff, Tara Butters, telly, The Devil, Tyler Labine

No responses yet

Feb 25 2006

Good Night, and Good Luck

Published by Fence under Moving Pictures

David Strathairn - Edward R. Murrow
Robert Downey Jr. - Joe Wershba
Patricia Clarkson - Shirley Wershba
Ray Wise - Don Hollenbeck
Frank Langella - William Paley
Jeff Daniels - Sig Mickelson

It is the 1950’s, and McCarthyism is rife in America as the hunt for reds under bed trundles on.

In CBS Ed McMurrow begins to highlight McCarthy’s scare tactics and methods on his current affairs television show. The film is told both by the actors and by actual footage from the time. We get to see McCarthy, to hear his own words, and see the scaremongering of the time.

Shot in black and white it all looks great, but the film itself was simply too subdued to grab my attention. I have a feeling that this may be because of the mood I was in while watching it, but the low-key nature of everything simply served distance me as a viewer from what was going on. I also didn’t like the way the film seemed to stop every now and then to let us hear a song. There were maybe three of four from Dianne Reeves. They did sound lovely, and helped to create an atmosphere, but I just felt that they slowed the film down.

Despite these few problems this is a film worth watching. Strathairn is fantastic as McMorrow, and all the supporting cast do great jobs.

It also performs very neatly at alerting us to the present day situation, and how we can learn for the past. Yet at the same time there is no sense that this is hitting anyone over the head. You can see lessons for today if you wish, but no one is forcing you.

Clooney Studio | IMDb | Talking Pish | jFalstaff