Come at the King, You Best Not Miss
July 25th – August 1st
The Runaways – I like Kristen Stewart. She seems to be improving. And if that brooding, biting her lip thing is the only thing she can do, then I truly like that thing she does. And whereas Dakota Fanning has been wonderful since she started this whole acting thing (at age 7 with 2001′s I Am Sam), it has taken me a while to come around to seeing her as a genuine actor rather than some precocious brat. And, of course, Michael Shannon impresses as always. But performances aside, the movie was just too musical biopic meets after-school special cliche. Even with some tame drug use and too obvious bisexual curiosity, the story seemed sanitized. I wanted gritty. I wanted something crafted with handmade stencils, black spray paint, ripped t-shirts, and safety pins (or a chainsaw, at the very least). This movie is too pretty and neat. It was like some faux-vintage The Runaways t-shirt for sale at Hot Topic passed off for authentic. Getting at the right idea while kind of completely missing the point.
The Wire (Season 1) — Oh. My. God. This show is wonderful. I gave up on it too soon when it first aired. It just wasn’t doing it for me. But all the critical praise and love for it made me reconsider it. And boy am I impressed. I can bet that I dismissed it too early the first time through for being another police procedural. Whereas I was into the character drama of something like Six Feet Under, this didn’t do it for me. But now…after making it thru the first season…I am in love. It’s so beautifully dense and feels terribly authentic. And the performances–from the leads to the street soldiers–are amazing. I can’t wait to start up on season 2.
I’m sitting here with the complete second season of The Wire in my hot little hands…
Okay, you’ve convinced me. THE WIRE recently began showing on channel 101 on DirecTV. I watched the first 7-8 minutes and gave up (it felt too cliche/formulaic). I’ll try again.
It took a few episodes for me to really get into it, but then I was Hooked-with-a-capital-H.
It is, on some level, just your basic police procedural, but there have been more nuanced, well-developed characters than on almost any other show I’ve seen (at least since Six Feet Under and The Sopranos). It takes awhile for all of that to unfold, though. If you have the time and the patience, I definitely advise sticking with it.