Sunday, February 9, 2014

New Website!

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new year: 2014.  And with that, I give you my new personal website!

It's been a labor of love and any of you out there with thoughts about it, do let me know.  Life is fluid, and so is my image.  I'm interested in putting my best foot forward.

On a different note, here are some of the most amazing shows/films I've been watching:

ARROW
Holy moly, this is probably the best adaptation of comic format to screen format (of any size--sorry DC Universe).  Arrow has successfully maneuvered its way around nearly every obstacle that makes adaptations of masked hero stories so corny.  The acting is exceptional, the writing smart and playful, and Stephen Amell's lead performance is wholly inhabited, haunted, and nuanced.  The weaving of the multiple story lines is a thing of beauty and I haven't gotten tired of "the island's" mysteries being teased out way into the second season.  Can we still have flashbacks to the island next season, or even in perpetuity?  Doubt it.  But for now, it's all good.

TRUE DETECTIVE
My sister and I have soft spots for police procedurals so big they could be called soft zones.  The great thing about this one is the assured pace, McConaughey and Harrelson's incredible character work, and the examination of American poverty.  The show's structure plays with time, and both M and H give dual performances, one in the past and one fifteen years later, with the years in between as legible in their eyes as in their hair and makeup (which is pretty great, too).  There's not really an emphasis (yet) on the central murder as much as one on the growth of the detective's relationship over the course of time and how deeply the case's influence ripples through the rest of their lives.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY
I have got to give it up to this show.  Yes gory, yes campy, yes operatic, but also unparalleled weaving of socio-historical horrors within the flashy, season-specific horrors.  AHS:COVEN is about witches but also about race and female agency. AHS:ASYLUM was about a scary mental hospital and serial murder, but also about abuse of power, religious hypocrisy, race, and social oppression.  The first season was about ghosts but also the deterioration of a marriage and school shooting, etc.  The list goes on, it's a show with a very progressive conscience masquerading as pure entertainment.  And who else has the guts to cast so many actors who've been shut out of the mainstream glam?  The commitment to diverse casting on AHS is really unmatched with the exception of GLEE, also same producing team.  What America looks like really gets to be seen here.  Also, Jessica Lange is a goddamn genius.


I wrote little bits on twitter about the following films I had the privilege to see at AFI Fest:

OUR SUNHI
THE SELFISH GIANT
LA JAULA DE ORO
THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT
THE LUNCHBOX

These may or may not be in theaters near you anytime soon, but they were some of the best that world cinema has to offer.

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