Thursday, March 5, 2015

Best of January/February 2015

Movies
Gravity had obvious problems. A bombastic soundtrack, little character development, and a penchant for dramatic, gratuitous destruction. But due to some terrific visuals, Gravity managed to sweep me away. I congratulate the main character: space. And boy, George Clooney really is a man of constant sorrow.



The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance feels like somebody's fan fiction come true - drop Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne down in a Western town, and watch them be themselves. But it's far more than just a rote Western. John Ford sets the story on the brink of civilization, as impending statehood threatens the both the violence of outlaws and the wild, free ways of independent cowboys. What is the difference between the two? That's the question this movie asks. My review.

TV
We've been told that this will be the last season of Foyle's War, but I'm not holding my breath. After all, we've been told this twice before. Hopefully it's a false alarm, but on the other hand, the show needs some serious new life. Anthony Horowitz has been a wonderful showrunner, but the latest seasons have suffered from splitting interest between Foyle's investigations and the adventures of that guy who's married to Sam. Did I say adventures? I meant sappy stories about how bad the world was before the NHS.

Agent Carter varied in quality throughout its 8-week run, but was overall a very solid addition to my weekly line-up. That's why this is here instead of the very uneven second season of Broadchurch. For the most part, it managed to live up to my initial observations, though it was too bad that the show thought it had to weaken its heroes to make way for a heroine. Besides the unfortunate lack of Jarvis as the series continued, another down-side was that it killed off my favorite character. Is it worth another season, even so? Definitely.

Hannah Long

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