THE BEST OF 2014 - The Best TV Of The Year

THE BEST OF 2014 - The Best TV Shows of The Year

- So it may not be hyperbole to call 2014 television's best year ever. In the wake of last year's Breaking Bad finale, I think there was a collective panic from industry insiders - was the Golden Age of TV over? Had Breaking Bad set the bar so high that it was all downhill from here? The answer was, in fact, a resounding "no." Breaking Bad did raise the bar, but a number of new and returning dramas stepped up admirably to fill the void. 

You guys know that I'm a huge pop-culture junkie. I watch a lot of TV. But there was no possible way I could keep up with the tidal wave of good stuff this year. In fact, no one could. There was good TV coming from broadcast, cable, and premium networks. There was even more good TV coming from Netflix. And Amazon. And any number of other places. In 2015, we're going to get a new season of Community via Yahoo. We're going to get a new Tina Fey-penned comedy - originally meant for NBC - premiering on Netflix. We're going to watch via streaming, EST, VOD, TVE, and DVR. There's too much content, no question. Luckily, so much of it is good that if you don't have a great show or two that you're into, well, you're clearly living in a cave. 

All of a sudden, IFC is doing great shows. Comedy Central is on an incredible hot streak, helping to usher in a TV comedy renaissance that led to tons of laughs this year. Some of TV's best shows are only getting better - with Game of Thrones having its best-ever season, and Key & Peele emerging as *the* must-see comedy on TV. New shows blew me away with their quality and originality. True Detective, Fargo, Broad City, Penny Dreadful. Even shows that I dismissed have apparently gotten better. Last year, everyone seemed with me as I unceremoniously dropped the likes of Arrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from my DVR. Now, all I hear is how I need to get back onboard. Speaking of superheroes, there were tons of them on TV this year. Some of the new comic book shows bombed, but others soared. The Flash is probably my favorite new show of the 2014 Fall TV season -a fun, fast-paced series unashamed of its comic book roots. 

Perhaps no show best summarizes the state of TV in 2014 as well as Black Mirror - a British series that actually first premiered in the UK back in 2011. Here is a series that was mostly unknown in the US, but then suddenly dropped on Netflix in December and became an instant viral sensation. This modern twist on The Twilight Zone - a sci-fi anthology that tells darkly-tinged stories about the dangers of technology - received no promotion, no advertising ... it simply went live on Neflix and word-of-mouth did the rest. 

The other mega-hit that sort of defines 2014 for me wasn't even actually a TV show, but a podcast. More and more over the last few years, I've found podcasts a great way to go more in-depth on a particular area of interest. But Serial was the first podcast that I listened to with the same sense of what-will-happen-next urgency with which I watch my favorite TV series. Serial quickly became a genuine pop-culture phenomenon, and it's yet another sign that great content is now coming from just about everywhere, in many shapes and forms. You can compare Serial to old radio serials, or to true-crime TV, or to This American Life (from which it spun out), but the fact is ... this is pretty much uncharted territory. Listening to Serial felt like an entirely new kind of entertainment experience for me. Like many, I suspect, I went in skeptical, but quickly became a believer. Ironically, in a world in which we're all encouraged to buy huge, vivid, LED TV's, many of us found ourselves, in 2014, huddled around our listening device of choice, enraptured by an audio-only serialized narrative. Who would have thought?

It's exciting. In the early days of TV, scripted series were crafted like stage plays. Only later did TV embrace more cinematic storytelling. Now we're sort of seeing TV series evolve to fully embrace all the new ways that people are watching them. We're seeing shows made for binge-watching, shows made for streaming, shows made for web-watching, and some shows that aren't really TV at all. From narrative podcasts like Serial to serialized story-based games like Telltale's The Walking Dead - it's a brave new world of content. It's all happening. Just remember to go outside once in a while.


DANNY'S TOP TV SHOWS OF 2014:


1. FARGO

- I was skeptical going in, but Fargo very quickly became an absolute must-watch. With the same sort of wit, humor, and sense of creeping dread as the Coen Bros. classic, but with a sensibility all its own, writer Noah Hawley's FX masterwork was the best thing on TV this year. The cast was off-the-charts good - Billy Bob Thornton played a villain for the ages, Alison Tohlman emerged as a bright new star, and Martin Freeman lay claim to yet another instantly-iconic role. The look and feel of the show was utterly cinematic - paying homage to the film while also carving out its own aesthetic. But ultimately, what I loved about the show was the same thing that makes the film an all-time favorite: Fargo is a left-of-center look at the best and worst of humanity - examining good, evil, and they grey spaces in between. 

2. TRUE DETECTIVE

- It was a close race for the #1 spot this year, and for me it was a near toss-up between Fargo and True Detective. I gave Fargo the slight edge, but man, True Detective was an absolute powerhouse of a show. For one thing, the acting of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson was titanic. This was some of the best-ever acting on TV. McConaughey wowed as the ultra-intense, scarred-by-evil Rust. Harrelson blew the doors off as powder-keg, would-be family man Marty. The show reminded me of past favorites like Millennium, in that it wasn't content with just being a procedural cop show, but pushed further to instead become a meditation on the nature of evil. The show took on a tinge of existential horror, leading many to believe supernatural elements were waiting in the wings. But True Detective, ultimately, didn't need otherdimensional creatures to make an impact. It did so by showing us the dark side of what ordinary humans are capable of.

3. GAME OF THRONES

- I've loved Game of Thrones since the first episode, but there was always a slight feeling of inconsistency. The great moments were at times nestled between a lot of padding. Not so this year. This year, Game of Thrones delivered one genuine "holy $%&#!" moment after another, blowing up social media and inspiring endless cries of "no spoilers!" The fact is, GoT was an absolute must-watch this year - and it had everything - from gladiatorial battles to patricide to dragons to ice-zombies to all-out-war. Filled with great, iconic performances and an unmatched sense of epicness, this was the year that Game of Thrones went from almost-great to just plain awesome.

4. NATHAN FOR YOU

- In a year that was a TV comedy renaissance, Nathan For You - and its unlikely star Nathan Fielder - reigned supreme. Nathan For You was good in Season 1, but Season 2 raised the bar and delivered one classic episode after another. The only thing I can rightly compare it to is Da Ali G Show at its peak - because Nathan's ability to meld brilliant sketch ideas with real-world, mostly oblivious-to-the-joke marks is second only to that of the great Sacha Baron Cohen. What's more, Nathan feels like the comedy hero we needed in 2014 - a deadpan geek who mercilessly mocks the consumer culture we find ourselves so squarely immersed in. His outlandish business ideas and get-rich-quick schemes often have a strangely sound logic behind them, but it's Nathan's unflappable commitment to his character and his ideas that sells the joke each and every time.

5. THE AMERICANS

- This show keeps getting better and better. Season 2 of The Americans upped the tension in the Jennings household, increasingly showing the toll that Philip and Elizabeth's double lives takes on both them and their not-so-little-anymore kids. Seeing Philip's fractured psyche start to collapse, as he balances multiple lives and multiple identities, was incredibly compelling. And Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell (and Noah Emmerich - so great on this show) continue to do top-tier work here. To me, this is the heir apparent of Breaking Bad - a sophisticated, smart, satirical peak down the rabbit hole, showing us the darkest side of the American Dream

6. KEY & PEELE

- I've been a fan of Key & Peele from the start, but this year the show really upped its game, becoming a true must-watch, each episode delivering multiple instantly-viral sketches that will forever live in the TV comedy cannon. The show looks amazing - with movie-quality direction. And Key & Peele seem to be able to do anything - playing every sort of character under the sun. This is the best sketch comedy going today - not relying on gimmicks or recurring characters, but just trying out material, experimenting, and making some of the funniest comedy out there in the process.

7. MASTERS OF SEX

- The most compelling relationship on TV these days is the one between Michael Sheen's Dr. William Masters and Lizzy Caplan's Virginia Masters. The push and pull between them, the delicate balance of love, hate, resentment, attraction, repulsion, respect, and co-dependency is fascinating, and Sheen and Caplan absolutely kill it on this show. Michael Sheen needs to be in the conversation around best performance in a TV drama. He is phenomenal on Masters of Sex - and has delivered some of 2014's best, most memorable, most devastating TV moments as this character. The show excels at depicting this central relationship, but it also has so much to say about men, women, and America - where it's been and where it is. What's funny is how sex is, in some ways, the least essential part of the show. But rest assured, this is one of TV's best.

8. COSMOS

-  All hail Neil DeGrasse Tyson and his unyielding commitment to making science awesome. Cosmos was educational, informative, and often mind-blowing in its depiction of life, the universe, and everything. But it also was a show with a bit of a chip on its shoulder, relentlessly making the case for science, for the scientific method, for the importance of facts over fallacy. In a world in which influential groups and individuals deny science itself - deny evolution, climate change, genetics - Cosmos was a meticulously-presented refutation to the deniers, and a poignant affirmation to everyone else - of the power and awe-inspiring nature of the universe. Each episode left you feeling awed, humbled, and curious. 

9. COMMUNITY

- Community seemed poised for cancellation in 2014, and when word came down, cries of "Six Seasons and a Movie" swelled from the faithful. And with good reason. After a so-so, Dan Harmon-less Season 4, Season 5 was downright next-level, with all-time classic episodes that hit in rapid succession. From "Repilot" to "App Development and Condiments," from "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" to "G.I. Jeff," Community went totally off its rocker in S5, did pretty much whatever the hell it wanted, and in the process created a whole bunch of awesome. Six Seasons and a Movie indeed.

10. ORPHAN BLACK

-  At this year's Comic-Con, I saw fans cheering, applauding, crying, and basically going absolutely bat-$&%# crazy for Orphan Black, and for its multi-talented star Tatiana Maslaney. And with good reason, I think. The show can be messy, uneven at times. Its underlying mythology is still a little weaksauce, and the less said about the "Tony" episode, the better. But beneath all that lies the biggest beating heart of any show on TV. We love these sorts of genre shows because we feel like we're along for the ride as characters we love get put through hell, beat the odds, and emerge stronger for it. And no show makes you root for its underdog characters as does Orphan Black, with the unlikely members of its "Clone Club" (each played, in a performance that continues to amaze, by Maslaney) serving as some of TV's most fun and most badass heroes. Want strong female characters? Orphan Black has 'em in spades. It's no wonder then that when the twisty, action-packed Season 2 culminated in an all-clone dance party, it was one of the most purely joyful TV moments of the year. 


The Next Best:


11. BOARDWALK EMPIRE

- Boardwalk's truncated final season got off to a shaky start, but business really picked up as the series finale drew near. In the final summation, Boardwalk was a fantastic show - a brilliantly-woven tapestry of a certain time and place in American history, a look at how the American Dream was sold away to criminals and gangsters. There were so many great, award-worthy performances on the show, but when all is said and done, I have to give credit to Steve Buscemi as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson. It was a quietly powerful performance - a man who thought himself above the fray, but who, ultimately, is undone by his own sins.

12. BROAD CITY

- Don't be surprised if Broad City is even higher on this list next year. It came out of the gate firing on all cylinders, yet another hilarious show in Comedy Central's re-tooled lineup that provided a forum for fresh, funny voices. In this case, the voices belonged to Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, a comedy duo that shows that women can do brilliantly stupid stoner comedy just as well as the guys. Their New York-set misadventures are weird and funny, but there's also an authenticity to these two that you can't manufacture. There's no filter here - these girls are doing their thing and I'm just thankful we get to watch.

13. JUSTIFIED

-  Year-in-and-year-out, Justified is one of the best damn shows on TV, and certainly among the most badass. I sort of feel like I'm underrating this past season, only because while it might have been just a bit of an off year for the show, it still delivered a Stetson's-worth of great moments. Sadly, Justified often flies under the awards-show radar, but Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins - not to mention the kickass supporting cast - just kill it week-in, week-out. And I'll say this: now that there's a bit of a sense of urgency, with the upcoming season being the show's last ... there's absolutely no TV show I'm looking forward to more in 2015 than Justified's last ride.

14. THE GOLDBERGS

-  By the end of Season 1, The Goldbergs had become the best sitcom on broadcast TV. It was sort of a throwback - funny and offbeat, but also charming and sweet. The Goldbergs' nostalgic vision of 1980-something suburbia is like looking through an old photo album, and the callbacks to the pop-culture of my youth are always handled with clear and genuine affection. But the Goldbergs is no mere nostalgia-machine. The writing is clever and the jokes are spot-on. My only concern is that Season 2 has grown just a bit same-y and repetitive. Here's hoping for a Goldberg golden age in 2015.

15. PENNY DREADFUL

- This show seemed made just for me. An Alan Moore-esque Victorian horror-adventure series that combined literature's great monsters into one pulpy universe? Sold and sold. But I'll admit, the first episode of the show left me wondering if it would really be all that I hoped. As it turns out, the show evolved into something truly special over time. The biggest revelation was Eva Green as the enigmatic Vanessa Ives. As we learned more about Ms. Ives' inner demons (both figurative and literal), the show became a true tour de force, with Eva Green doing some drop-dead amazing acting that elevated the show to instant cult-fave. More, please.

16. BROOKLYN NINE-NINE

- Brooklyn Nine-Nine's ensemble is very, very strong - and that's led to some of the funniest TV of the last year. Samberg is the headliner, but Andre Braugher is the MVP. His Captain Ray Holt has quickly become one of TV's best and funniest characters, with a deadpan delivery that kills. But the rest of the cast - Terry Crews, Joe Lo Truglio, Chelsea Peretti - have also really stepped up, in a way that reminds me of early Parks and Rec. All the ingredients are there for B99 to become something truly great, and I think 2015 may be its year.

17. SILICON VALLEY

- 2014 marked the return of Mike Judge to TV, and for a brief moment, all was right with the world. Silicon Valley had all the hallmarks of classic Judge, calling to mind things like Office Space and King of the Hill - with Judge's satirical eye now turned towards the tech industry. The cast of the show was great, especially standout TJ Miller. And the way that the show skewered the real silicon valley was nothing short of brilliant. If this was the year that the nerds took over the world, then Silicon Valley showed what it is that we have wrought, warts and all.

18. 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY

- Yes, there is a part of me that wants to rank this higher. It's hard to judge Jack Bauer and co. objectively, because no matter its faults, I love 24 without reservation, and nothing made me happier in 2014, TV-wise, than having the JACK BAUER BY-GOD POWER HOUR back on TV, with Jack dispensing gravitas and kicking-ass like it was 2004 again. The end of 24 had really caused a void on TV, a void that needed to be filled. And thank the lord, 24 returned to give us the badass TV show we wanted and needed. And this wasn't just a nostalgia-run. Kiefer Sutherland was in top form, and the return of beloved favorites (Chloe! Heller!) and the introduction of new ones (welcome Yvonne Strahovski!) made this 24 resurrection a true TV event.

19. PARKS & RECREATION

- Parks is one of my favorite TV comedies of the last ten years, and man, I'll be sad to see it go when it finales over the next several weeks. Season 6 sputtered a bit at times, with certain stories feeling a bit dragged out and overdone. But the show rallied late in the season, delivering some flat-out classics, and then shocking us all with an unexpected time-jump cliffhanger to cap things off. Parks is still one of the best - with an all-star cast that I have no doubt will bring us a memorable final season. Saying goodbye to Pawnee is going to be *literally* one of hardest farewells in TV history.

20. AMERICAN HORROR STORY

- Few shows are so all-over-the-place, yet so can't-stop-watching entertaining, as AHS. The final few episodes of Coven ended strong, and so far, Freakshow has been an odd but fascinating iteration of the show - toning down the horror in favor of general weirdness and character-driven soap-opera. But man, even when the storylines don't add up, the cast makes things ever-interesting. I could watch Jessica Lange's Elsa Mars spout oddball insights and lurid anecdotes all day. For sheer, jaw-dropping WTF-ness, it doesn't get any better.

21. NEW GIRL

- After a rough Season 3, New Girl has really bounced back for Season 4 - once again finding the absurdist center at the bottom of the weekly tootsie-pop that made Season 2 really shine. Max Greenfield continues to kill it on this show, with Schmidt giving voice to weekly witticisms that make New Girl, still, one of the most quotable comedies on TV. At its best, New Girl is home to some of the sharpest writing on TV, and can, on a good day, make me laugh harder than anything else out there.

22. SHERLOCK

- I binge-watched through Sherlock this year, and I finally got the hype around the series. Really, it's all in the endlessly-entertaining back-and-forth dialogue. Watching Benedict Cumberbatch's socially-inept Sherlock try to fit in with the rest of humanity is the show's ace-in-the-hole, and that was nowhere more evident than in Season 3's way-too-fun wedding episode. Season 3 also brought back arch-enemy extraordinaire Moriarty, and left the door open for even more adventures to come. Can't come soon enough, says I. 

23. THE FLASH

- My favorite new show of the 2014 Fall TV season, The Flash is pure geekgasm-inducing joy for the DC Comics faithful. Borrowing heavily from classic runs on The Flash comics, the show stands out for actually embracing its superhero and sci-fi premise, showing us a full-fledged superhero, in full costume, doing superhero-y things and going on superhero-y adventures. Imagine that - a show that seems proud and reverential of its comic book origins. It's what makes The Flash one of TV's most purely entertaining series.

24. GARFUNKEL & OATES

- The great Comedy Explosion of 2014 continued as cult comedy faves Garfunkel & Oates got their own show on IFC. I really dug it. The two have a unique sensibility and the observational humor is often spot-on. Match that with the catchy and deceptively biting songs, and you've got yourself a winner. With this, Portlandia, and Maron, IFC had a winning 2014.

25. BATES MOTEL

- Bates Motel has really found its footing as a quirky mash-up of CW teen drama and Twin Peaks-esque small-town weirdness. And, you know, Psycho. Norman Bates is still not quite a psycho-killer, but he's well on his way, and watching him downward-spiral into the abyss has made for some fascinating TV. Freddie Highmore is still fantastic as Norman, and Vera Farmiga turns in one of TV's strangest yet most endearing performances each week as Norma. This show is well-worth a binge-watch if you've yet to get onboard.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

- Portlandia
- Maron
- Sleepy Hollow

SPECIAL MENTION: 

a.) THE COLBERT REPORT

- Fare thee well, Stephen Colbert. For years, The Colbert Report has been the spot-on satire we needed, a show that somehow transcended its initial gimmick to become one of the smartest, funniest, and downright essential shows on TV. I congratulate Colbert on his new gig as Letterman's late-night replacement, but man, I will miss the "Stephen Colbert" character. I can only hope that others will step up to fill the void. In the meantime, hats off to Colbert, as it's been a legendary run.

b.) HELLO LADIES

- I did want to mention the fantastic special that aired this winter on HBO, wrapping up one of my favorite shows of 2013. The Hello Ladies special was a brilliant closer to Stephen Merchant's show, and I can only hope that we don't go long without more wonderfully-awkward cringe-comedy from Merchant and his co-conspirators.


INDIVIDUAL AWARDS:


The Best TV Heroes of 2014:

1.) Molly Solverson - Fargo
2.) Raylan Givens - Justified
3.) Vanessa Ives - Penny Dreadful
4.) Sarah Manning, Alison Hendrix, and Cosima Niehaus - Orphan Black
5.) Barry Allen - The Flash 


The Best TV Villains of 2014:

1.) Lorne Malvo - Fargo
2.) King Joffrey - Game of Thrones
3.) Tywin Lanister - Game of Thrones
4.) Boyd Crowder - Justified
5.) Al Capone  - Boardwalk Empire


The Best TV Anti-Heroes of 2013:

1.) Rust and Marty - True Detective
2.) Philip and Elizabeth Jennings - The Americans
3.) The Hound - Game of Thrones
4.) Nucky Thompson - Boardwalk Empire
5.) Helena - Orphan Black


Best Actress in a Comedy:

1.)  - Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer - Broad City

Runners Up: Amy Poehler - Parks and Recreation, Carrie Brownstein - Portlandia


Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy:

1.) Wendi McLendon-Covey - The Goldbergs

Runners Up: Gillian Jacobs - Community, Alison Brie - Community


Best Actor in a Comedy:

1.) Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key - Key & Peele

Runners Up: Max Greenfield - New Girl, Jake Johnson - New Girl  


Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy:

1.) TJ Miller - Silicon Valley

Runners Up: Nick Offermann - Parks and Recreation, Hannibal Buress - Broad City, Troy Gentile - The Goldbergs


Best Actress in a Drama:

1.) Lizzy Caplan - Masters of Sex

Runners Up: Eva Green - Penny Dreadful, Tatiana Maslaney - Orphan Black, Alison Tohlman - Fargo, Jessica Lange - American Horror Story


Best Supporting Actress in a Drama:

1.)  Maisie Williams - Game of Thrones

Runners Up: Annaleigh Ashford - Masters of Sex, Emilia Clarke - Game of Thrones, Angela Bassett - American Horror Story: Freakshow


Best Actor in a Drama:

1.) Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson - True Detective

Runners Up: Matthew Rhys - The Americans, Martin Freeman - Fargo, Michael Sheen - Masters of Sex


Best Supporting Actor in a Drama:

1.) Michael Shannon - Boardwalk Empire

Runners Up:  Walton Goggins - Justified, Noah Emmerich - The Americans, Charles Dance - Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage - Game of Thrones


And that's all, folks - my picks for the best TV of 2014.

THE INTERVIEW, In Hilarious Fashion, Leaves No Target Un-Besmirched

THE INTERVIEW Review:

- Never did I anticipate that THE INTERVIEW would become the international incident that it has. I won't spend time recapping the sheer insanity that has occurred over the last few weeks, except to say that, improbably, an over-the-top Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy has become the talk of the world, and has therefore attracted the attention - and drawn the scrutiny - of an unlikely assemblage of film critics, journalists, politicians, and seemingly everyone else in the known universe. People who never would have seen this movie have seen it. People with delicate constitutions. People who don't find an hour and a half of brilliantly-crafted dick jokes all that funny or interesting. People whose definition of good comedy starts and ends at pre-00's TV sitcoms. I'm not here to insult anyone, but as someone who always tries to talk about movies in the context of what they are and what they're trying to be, I have to give a finger of shame to all those talking out of turn about THE INTERVIEW. If you don't like or don't understand this style of humor, then don't watch it, and for the love of all that is holy, don't provide your highly-subjective opinion like its the gospel. The fact is,  the state of comedy in America is in a really weird place, and has been for a long time. We live in an age of niche comedy, where mom and dad can happily laugh along to TV Land re-runs while their teenaged kids crack up to obscure Adult Swim animation. And each presumes that the other's preferred brand of comedy is garbage. In an age where it's easy to go down the rabbit hole and become a hardcore fan of something, we're seeing an increasing divide between the comedy nerds and the people who know nerds from their favorite show, The Big Bang Theory. What comedy nerds know is that a lot of great comedy is, on the surface, completely dumb. But they also know that it takes a real brilliance to make great dumb comedy, and that often even the raunchiest, silliest comedy contains its own unique form of genius.

So listen up, people. If you're going to critique comedy, then understand what makes good comedy. Understand that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are very smart people who are very good at what they do. Understand that there is a cleverness to their films, a sense of comedic timing, and an underlying wit that is leagues ahead of more pandering-to-the-lowest-common-denominator comedies that THE INTERVIEW will inevitably get lumped in with by people who don't know any better. I'm not trying to be a jerk or a snob here, I'm just urging people to give their thoughts more educated context then "derp, The Interview sucked, I didn't laugh once - those guys are idiots!" No. Appreciate the art-form or keep your views to yourself. Or, at the least, have the good sense to acknowledge that the film just isn't your cup of tea, so you may not be the best-qualified to speak on it. I get it - there's an undeniable absurdity in the idea that *this*, of all movies, was the one that became a rallying cry for freedom of speech, that led to Presidential comments and political debates. Because of that, there's inevitably going to be a backlash, both overt and more passive-aggressive. I can't tell you how many times I've read: "I had no interest in this stupid movie, but I'll see it because patriotism." Again: no. See it or don't see it - that's your call. But don't be blind to the point here, the point which your passive-aggressive qualifiers are in fact undermining: that, by-god, we live in a country where we are free to be funny in whatever manner we choose. We live in a country in which comedy *can* be celebrated as an art form - a place where the very *idea* of comedy - cutting through the barriers of convention and getting at some greater Truth (even if said truth is absurd) - is valid.

So how is THE INTERVIEW? I wouldn't put it quite at the sublime laugh-riot levels of last year's This Is The End, or even say that it's as good as the bro's vs. schmoes brilliance of this summer's Neighbors. But it is really, really funny. In many ways, it's the silliest movie that Seth Rogen has yet made, with a lot of very over-the-top cartoonish gags, with barely a foot - or even a toe - in reality. And that might not be everyone's bag, but I think it fits. A place as strange and fundamentally absurd as Kim Jong Un's North Korea deserves to be treated absurdly. And a guy who claims to talk to dolphins and to not defecate simply has to be taken to task and skewered. When the reality is so fundamentally silly, so too is the satire.

As always though, Rogen and Goldberg's script isn't *really* even about North Korea, but instead about two man-children who are forced to (at least slightly) grow up. Rogen plays Aaron, a TV producer who left a career in more serious journalism to work on a fluffy, Access Hollywood-style entertainment show. James Franco plays Dave, the over-eager host of the show who is also Aaron's best friend and biggest bad-influence. When Aaron finds out that Kim Jong Un is in fact a fan of his show, he sees it as a chance to branch out to covering more serious subject matter. He arranges an interview with Un, but before he and Dave can head to North Korea, they are confronted by the FBI. Given the access to the notorious dictated that Dave is set to be granted, the feds want Dave to be the catalyst for a top-secret assassination plot.

Rogen and Franco are a well-matched comedic duo, with Rogen's stoner every-man a good foil for Franco's slightly-crazed eccentric. Franco goes full-on broad with his comedy here, and goes full-throttle with his "I AM ACTING FUNNY IN A COMEDY MOVIE" affectation. It gets a little grating at times, and I do wonder if the movie would have worked a bit better had Franco toned it down just a tad. But Rogen's more grounded character - and the overall sharpness of the script - helps to offset the fact that Franco is slightly overdoing it. The fact is, the situations Franco finds himself in are completely insane, and so his slightly insane character is not completely out of place. As it turns out, Franco's Dave befriends the fawning Kim Jong Un, who acts like an insecure dork who's just become the best friend of the coolest kid in school. Un tries to impress Dave with his cars, tanks, food, and women, and the easily-manipulated Dave soon finds himself warming up to the childlike Un. Randall Park plays Kim Jong Un to perfection - he comes off as an overgrown kid who balances moments of charm with moments of unbridled psychopathic scariness. The running joke is that Un is pretty much stuck in a phase of teenage insecurity - worried that liking Margaritas and Katy Perry might make him gay (responds Franco: "If liking margaritas and Katy Perry makes you gay, then who would ever want to be straight?"), and spinning all manner of absurd lies about his supposed god-like status. But Park is great here - extremely funny, but also scary and effective as a villain when need be.

There are some great supporting players who also knock it out of the park here. Lizzy Caplan goes above and beyond as Agent Lacey, Aaron and Dave's ultra-competent and perpetually frustrated handler. Diana Bang is also a standout as Sook, a top-ranking lieutenant of Kim Jong Un who harbors feelings of resentment for her supreme leader. Bang really kicks some ass here, and also displays a real knack for comedy in some of her scenes with Rogen. Also, have to give a shout-out to Veep's Timothy Simons, who has a really small role but delivers maybe the funniest line of the film during an extended Lord of the Rings riff.

Evan Goldberg really shows off his directorial chops here. The film foregoes the bright, hyper-saturated look of most modern comedies, instead looking more like the sort of action/thriller that the movie seeks to lampoon. And when the action heats up, it's super well-directed, with some hilarious yet pretty-damn-badass fight scenes and even a tank chase. Yep.

If you don't like scatalogical humor, then you should probably avoid this one altogether. But man, for those of us who can appreciate well-honed raunch, THE INTERVIEW delivers it in spades. But again, you've got to respect the extent to which Rogen and Goldberg know exactly what they're doing with the movie's humor - gleefully undermining every (and I mean every) moment with the potential for serious dramatic weight with something silly and wonderfully absurd. There are occasionally stretches where the movie flatlines just a bit, but overall, it produces pretty great gags on a consistent basis.

It's all pretty silly and funny, but I do think there's a method to at least some of the madness. There are no sacred cows here - the joke is on Rogen and Franco's characters as much as it is on anyone else. But beneath the absurdity there's also a pretty biting takedown of Kim Jong Un's North Korea - not in a way that's incredibly substantive or serious, but more so in that the movie 100% calls out Un on everything about him that, in real-life, is just as silly and absurd as it's portrayed in the film. The movie holds up a funhouse mirror to Un, imagining a world in his image - where everyone acts with all the reason and enlightenment of a moody fifteen-year-old. This is the absurdity that a guy like Un deserves thrown back at him. In the 40's, Hitler was punched out by patriotic re-imaginings of his concept of the "ubermensch" - KO'd by the likes of Captain America and Superman. In the 80's, we imagined rugged lone wolves like Rambo to singlehandedly take down the Communist machine. Now, for the guy who talks to dolphins and has no butthole, it's hard to argue that cult-comedy stoner maestros Rogen and Franco are the unlikely, absurdist heroes that Kim Jong Un deserves.

Is THE INTERVIEW a comedy classic worthy of the special place in history it shall now receive? Debatable. But is it the kind of ballsy movie that's worth rallying around, as an example of freedom of speech at its most free? Yes it is. This isn't a dumb movie - its characters are dumb, but the people behind the scenes know that, and they know what they're doing here. They've made a very funny film, but it also happens to be a film that stands for something: the All-American idea that no one, be they your best friend or the dictator of a foreign power, is above getting some egg on their face. Especially if said egg is well and rightly deserved. It's fitting then that the film fades out to the over-the-top power chords of the Scorpions' "Winds of Change." Comedy is just another form of rock n' roll, baby. A little dirty, a little misunderstood ... but man, it can help to tear down those walls more than you might think.

My Grade: A-

CALVARY Is a Sweeping Cinematic Elegy

CALVARY Review:

Father James: I think there's too much talk about sins, and not enough about virtues.
Fiona: What would be your number one?
Father James: I think forgiveness has been highly underrated.

- From writer/director John Michael McDonagh, CALVARY is a darkly funny, elegiac, and downright badass film. Set in a small Irish town where everyone knows everyone, the film opens with a stunning scene: local priest Father James (the great Brendan Gleeson) sits in his confessional booth, listening as an unseen man states his intent to kill him in one week's time. Why? Because the man was molested by a priest as a child, and now he feels that someone must suffer for the sins of the Church. He doesn't want to kill a bad priest, because few would take note. Instead, he wants to kill a good priest, a good man like Father James. That, he feels, would be a meaningful sacrifice. From there, the film follows Father James through the next seven days - and as he interacts with the various locals (many of whom are having some sort of crisis of faith), our list of potential suspects for the would-be murderer grows. The film is only part mystery though. It's also a meditation on faith and sin. Father James' struggle is not just to avoid being murdered, but to avoid what that murder would represent: the death of a community, of a faith, of a way of life. As James tries to make peace with his life, with his congregants, with his formerly-estranged daughter - we come to see him for what he is: the last good priest. He's the last bastion of what his faith could have been had it not all been flushed away by lies and sin and corruption. It's a hell of a story, and a hell of a film.

John Michael McDonagh clearly shares his brother Martin's (In Bruges) knack for beautifully-written, bitingly funny, eminently quotable dialogue. There is a wonderful poetry to the script of this film, and it's a joy to listen to the witticisms and observations that are spoken by these characters. At the same time, the film looks incredible. Never have I wanted to visit Ireland so badly as I have while watching CALVARY. Sweeping views of the green Irish countryside, epic shots of the crashing waves along the shoreline, and many smaller, more personal moments that are also impeccably framed and only accentuate the film's drama and humor.

The anchor of this film is undoubtedly Gleeson. What a performance. Gleeson delivers in so many ways as Father James, making him an incredibly human, multifaceted character. James is a good man, but he's also got a dark past that haunts him. He steadfastly believes in the good that the church can do, but his eyes are also open to the rot that infects it. There's no question that the film paints James as sort of a Christ-like figure, but that in no way detracts from the raw humanity of the character. What the film does do is make James' plight about something bigger than just him. And we see that weight of responsibility, that burden in Gleeson's narrowed eyes as he walks the beach, as he converses with person after person who seems to have lost their faith. James is a man of the people - he hangs at the local pub, cracks jokes with kids, and is accepting of all types. He is a simple man in many ways: he believes in goodness, and forgiveness, and that people can change (in one of the film's most powerful scenes, he goes to visit an old student who's been locked away for murder, praying for some semblance of remorse or hope for redemption). But he faces a world that seems to corrupt that ethos on an all-too-regular basis. Gleeson is so good here, and just super badass to boot. His singular presence, matched with McDonagh's sharp dialogue, is a match made in cinematic heaven.

The rest of the cast is great, filled with fine actors who collectively paint a vivid portrait of a town, and of a way of life, on its last legs. Game of Thrones' Aidan Gillen is fantastic as a hedonistic, atheist doctor who gets a rise out of antagonizing Father James and his beliefs. M. Emmet Walsh is fantastic as an aging writer planning for his looming death. Dylan Moran is memorably smarmy as a millionaire who finds no pleasure in people, possessions, or anything at all. Chris O'Dowd shows real dramatic chops as a troubled man whose wife is cheating on him. Domhnall Gleeson (who I just realized is the son of Brendan, and who is having a banner year) is disturbingly twisted (his M.O. these days) as the aforementioned unrepentant killer. And Kelly Reilly is a real standout as James' back-in-town daughter, Fiona, who returns to her father's care after a failed suicide attempt.

As someone who's fascinated by religion, and the role of religion in modern society, I couldn't help but get really caught up on the meaning and significance of this film. It helps that the movie is so thoughtful and witty in its musings about the church. It's funny, I've known many religious leaders who were good. People who consoled the sick, helped grieving families, mentored children, and were, overall, the kind of people who inspire and set a good example. But how to reconcile those people - and all the good that can come from religion and faith - with all the bad? CALVARY looks closely at that quandary, serving as a mournful (but also darkly funny) eulogy for the Good Men, for the Father James of the world. The men pushed out and away from forces both internal and external. CALVARY tells the tale in grand, funny, badass, epic fashion.

My Grade: A-

UNDER THE SKIN Is Mesmerizing and Strange Indie Sci-Fi

UNDER THE SKIN Review:

- This is one of those movies that's really hard to review and definitively relay my thoughts on. Immediately after viewing it, I was convinced that it was sort of a mess. I thought it was indulgent, overly-long and slow, and just sort of pretentious in that "man, this is *really* trying too hard to be indie-arthouse-cool" way. And yet ... I couldn't stop thinking about the movie after watching it (and no, not just because it features a very naked Scarlett Johansson). Certain scenes in the film kept rolling over in my mind. I think there's something about the way the film is presented - in an almost hypnotic, trance-like way - that gives it a sticky quality. It's certainly a movie that I won't soon forget.

UNDER THE SKIN casts Johansson as a mysterious alien being who has come to earth to (for reasons not quite known) kill humans. Presumably, she is using her prey as some sort of food or fuel - humans are a resource to be exploited. What's more clear is how she is going about this grisly business. Having taken the form of an attractive human female, the unnamed alien roams the streets of Scotland, looking for victims. The alien has just enough understanding of human speech and behavior to do her job. And, looking as she does (like, er, Scarlett Johansson ...), the alien is able to fairly easily seduce lonely men and lure them back to her lair. Once there, the seduction continues, culminating in the men being led into a murky pool of black goo (beckoned by the sultry Scarlett, they barely realize what's happening), where they are trapped - frozen in a toxic bath that slowly reduces them to near-nothingness.

These seduction scenes are initially a bit repetitive. But they are also eerie as all hell, and they're where director Jonathan Glazer really shines. At times, Glazer's direction is almost maddeningly methodical. But in these scenes, it's downright hypnotic. Everything is shot in an abstract manner that makes the alien's pit of blackness feel 100% alien. There's a lack of physics and geometry in the scenes that throws off your equilibrium and induces real feelings of dread. What the hell is happening? With each seduction scene, we get a slightly more complete picture of the fate that awaits these poor saps - and as we discover more, the whole scenario only gets creepier.

Apparently, some of the scenes in which Scarlett first meets and picks up these men were shot sans actors, meaning she actually just sort of cruised the streets incognito and chatted up guys. There is definitely an unscripted feel to some of the scenes that makes them that much more unsettling. It really does feel like her character is stalking and preying on these men. However, where the film starts to *really* get interesting is when the alien encounters a deformed man. Her main criteria for selecting victims is, primarily, that they are men without families or close relations who will miss them when they're gone. But she hadn't really considered other factors, and the deformed man's deeply ingrained trauma throws her for a loop. Before, she had only seen men as animals. Now, she begins to question the morality of what she's doing. Throughout the second half of the film, the alien begins to yearn for more genuine human experience and emotional connection. But opening herself up in that way also makes her vulnerable, and sets her up to be a potential victim - to go from hunter to prey.

As mesmerizing as parts of the film are, I do think that Glazer overdoes things a bit with his stylized, art-film aesthetic. Certain moments lend themselves to the sorts of long, contemplative takes he favors. But not every moment benefits from the methodical pace. Prolonged shots of nothing in particular feel unneeded. Basically, the movie constantly walks a fine line between artfully methodical and insufferably glacial. So many films - sci-fi in particular - could stand to slow things down and be less jumpy. But UNDER THE SKIN asks just a little too much of our patience at times. It also doesn't help that the narrative is kept so intentionally vague. The book on which the film is loosely based apparently provides a lot more back-story for the alien. But the film gives us little, despite throwing in lots of frustratingly vague moments meant to hint at the larger narrative. For example, we see lots of scenes of mysterious men on motorcycles following the alien around, presumably cleaning up her mess and keeping law enforcement at bay. Presumably. In truth, the movie provides next to no information about the motorcycle guys, so the continual cuts to them often feel like time-wasters.

And yet ... certain moments in the film are just *so* striking and unforgettable. The seduction scenes in the pit. The encounter between the alien and the deformed man. A later scene in which the alien realizes she's not as human as she thought. And notably, the climactic scene in which we finally get a glimpse of what's "under the skin," and see the alien's true form. Glazer does some amazing stuff here, and I give him credit for, at the least, trying something totally out-there and different with this film. There are certainly no easy or pat answers in this one, but it is a conversation starter. What does it mean to be human? To be a woman? To be an aggressor as opposed to a victim? Scarlett Johansson typically has that slightly off-kilter, detached affectation, and she cranks it up to eleven here. Perfectly cast, she makes the most of the part and really sells the whole unnerving, mind-bending aesthetic of the film.

UNDER THE SKIN can be tough to get through at times, but I think it's a must-watch for film fans and for sci-fi fans, if only to see something completely different and experimental. It took me a while to realize it, but this one most definitely got under my skin.

My Grade: B+

INTO THE WOODS Falls Flat

 INTO THE WOODS Review:

- Disney. Fairy tales. Musicals. It all goes together like chocolate and peanut-butter, right? In theory, yes, which is why I went into INTO THE WOODS feeling pretty good about this movie's chances. What I soon discovered, however, is that the film falls into the dreaded category of movie-adaptations-of-stage-musicals-that-still-feel-like-stage-musicals. I get that for fans of the stage play, there may be a certain thrill in seeing what they already know and love up on the big screen, spruced up with A-list acting talent and Hollywood f/x. But for everyone else, me included, I end up watching these sorts of films and wondering "why?" Film is a different medium than stage, and in theory you're not limited in a movie the same way you are in live performance. But INTO THE WOODS stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that. So we see the same locations pop up over and over. We see songs in which heroes frustratingly sing *about* great adventures, without us actually getting to see the adventures. And we have to go through the ritual of hearing lines meant to be delivered to the guy in the back of the auditorium, loudly and with a wink, delivered to no one in particular on-screen. Don't get me wrong, there are moments of INTO THE WOODS that really shine - and the cast is so good that they're able to sort of put the material on their backs and carry it to the finish line. But I felt like a lot had to have been lost in translation here. As is, this felt like a so-so album, from which I'd have preferred to just grab the big singles off iTunes rather than spring for the full enchilada.

Stephen Sondheim's stage version of Into the Woods first played to audiences in 1987, but before and since we've seen many, many iterations of this sort of revisionist fairy tale premise. Even in the world of Disney musicals, last year's Frozen utilized some similar tropes when skewering the traditional "Prince Charming" archetype. And so INTO THE WOODS' fractured fairy tale story feels only partly novel in this big screen adaptation. The tale centers around a humble baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) who desperately want to have a child - but find themselves unable to conceive. It's soon revealed that their inability to have children is in fact due to a witch's curse, struck upon the baker's father and intended to affect his entire bloodline. However, the witch (Meryl Streep) is in a bargaining mood: she agrees to remove the curse, if the baker and his wife procure a collection of items needed for the witch to cast a spell that will remove her own curse, restoring her beauty. As it happens, the items the baker needs are all fairy tale staples, and as he seeks them out it leads he and his wife into the woods, where they stumble upon the likes of Cinderella, Prince Charming, Jack (of Jack and the Beanstalk), Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, and other storybook characters. The result is a greatest-hits version of many popular stories (many of which have, over the years, been themselves adapted into Disney films), except usually with a slight twist. The stories are all modified to better suit their interconnectedness, and each is given a darkly funny twist or two, in keeping with the film's arched-eyebrow approach to the classic fairy tales it gently skewers.

The problem is that the skewering is so gentle that it feels barely-there. Perhaps the film doesn't have quite the sharpened edge of the stage play, but it certainly doesn't have enough bite to feel all that novel, or even that funny. The film's funniest moments involve Chris Pine's Prince Charming, who - though we've seen this sort of take on the noble prince before - manages to be a high point with his over-the-top, self-involved swagger. Pine at least gets to play a character where the joke is clear. Meanwhile, other talented actors and performers are saddled with characters who feel only half-formed. Emily Blunt, for example, is absolutely giving it her all here and knocks all of her songs out of the park. But who is the Baker's Wife supposed to be, exactly? Some late-movie revelations about her character seem out-of-left-field and undercooked. And that's true of a lot of the movie's characters. The story tries to pack in so much that a lot of stuff feels rushed. I honestly had little idea what was going on with Meryl Streep's witch during the movie's second half. People who had seen the play later gave me the scoop. But the movie often seems to cut things short before we've even gotten the punchline or proper payoff.

Lack of payoff also means that, as mentioned, the movie seems unnecessarily beholden to the confines of the stage. Here's an example: Jack's big song about climbing his beanstalk and meeting (and stealing from) the giants who live in the clouds above. It's a fun song - and young actor Daniel Huttlestone nails it. But it also left me wondering why we were listening to Jack singing about giants rather than seeing Jack's adventures play out for ourselves. Director Rob Marshall - who also did the film version of Chicago - seems to forget that in a movie you can juxtapose whatever images you want over the songs. But instead of giants, we watch Jack swinging around a tree for ten minutes. Every so often, the stage-y direction works to the film's advantage - as when Chris Pine's Prince (who dotes after Anna Kendrick's Cinderella), and his brother, a Prince (played by Billy Magnussen, and who pines after Mackenzie Mauzy's Rapunzel) share a comedic song about their mutual anguish atop a waterfall. But more often than not, I was left wishing that the movie would break away from its source material and really go big with its visuals. Certainly, the subject matter calls for it.

What really keeps the film afloat is the cast. I've talked about Chris Pine and Emily Blunt, but Anna Kendrick, Meryl Streep, James Corden, and a host of others deserve credit for really giving it their all, and making most of the film's songs - even when they're not super-catchy - come off as spirited and energetic. I'll also give special mention to the movie's two kid leads - Daniel Huttlestone as Jack and Lilla Crawford as Little Red Riding Hood. Both are real scene-stealers, and they might just be the best performers, song-wise, in the movie. As for Johnny Depp as the Big Bad Wolf? He's okay. The Wolf seems like sort of a wasted character in the film - he appears relatively briefly, and doesn't make much of an impression beyond the fact that his costume is really lame. I mean, come on, this is a musical about fairy tales - who decided that the Wolf was just going to be a creepy guy with a mustache? It's another of the movie's odd aesthetic choices that seems to stubbornly insist on preserving the look and feel of the stage. 

I initially was charmed by INTO THE WOODS big opening number, but it turned out that the film just keeps losing steams as it goes. By the film's conclusion, it had become incredibly draggy. There are some bright spots along the way, but mostly, the jokes lack punch, the riffs on fairy tale characters seem obvious and not particularly clever, and the songs - while performed ably by the cast - are not particularly memorable. Hardcore fans of the musical may find bits and pieces to latch onto,  but it seems that whatever wit and cleverness was in the original has been, mostly, sliced and diced from this version. For most, this one is bound to fall flat.

My Grade: C

SELMA Soars With Still-Relevant Vitality

 SELMA Review:

- And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth." 

I often think of this quote from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness when I think about the United States. Our popular mythology paints America as the greatest country in the world, a place where freedom reigns and opportunity is there for any to seize. Indeed, America is yea land of great promise and unlimited potential. But too often, we forget that our country was not born of innocence. America's story is not one of immaculate conception, but of a long and evolving struggle to overcome and move beyond the sins of our past. In just the last fifty years, America has struggled to overcome a shadow of racism, of bigotry, and of oppression - and echoes of that recent past still reverberate today. It's hard to watch SELMA and not think of the unrest that has gripped the country over the last year, in places like Ferguson. It's hard to watch SELMA and not think of how, only fifty years ago, large parts of the country were still segregated, and large swaths of its African-American population were actively being denied the right to vote. But it's also hard to watch SELMA and not come away from it oddly optimistic. America is imperfect - it was plagued by injustice and it is plagued by injustice. But in large part thanks to the efforts of people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., America is a better place now than it was then. This is a country that, for all its faults, was and is a place where individuals can make a difference, regardless of who they are, or where they come from. This is a country that can change based on the will of the people, that is in a continual state of self-repair. This is a country that was and is, perpetually, moving forward. SELMA brilliantly captures a moment where America decided to move forward - to march towards progress in a way that could not be denied. The film is a moving, inspirational story that also happens to be a cinematic tour de force. Filled with phenomenal performances, and impeccably directed by Ava DuVernay, SELMA is one of the absolute must-see films to come out of 2014.

I was not at all familiar with DuVernay prior to seeing SELMA, but she makes a huge impression here. The film is just incredibly well-crafted. The narrative wisely avoids giving us a drawn-out MLK biopic, instead focusing entirely on the events surrounding the 1965 protest march that King and his supporters led in Selma, Alabama, with the goal of securing equal voting rights for African-Americans. Even though the film gives us only a snapshot of King's life, it's a snapshot that gives us a wide breadth of information about the man and what makes him tick. We see the sense of purpose that drives King forward, as well as the doubts that haunt him in his darker moments. We see the struggles in his marriage to his wife Coretta, and how the threat of exposing his infidelities is dangled in front of King by the FBI - should the need arise to take him down a peg. We see the delicate relationship between King and President Lyndon B. Johnson - who likes that King is a non-violent activist, but who is also in no rush to make sweeping legislative reforms while preoccupied with the budding conflict in Vietnam. The film tells us so much about MLK the person, even without telling his entire life story. Instead, it shows him preparing to mount his biggest and most politically volatile demonstration to that point, and shows us the moment in time when he became more than just an activist, but perhaps the single most important and influential figure in the entire country - maybe the world. 

DuVernay imbues the film with an intelligence that is refreshing and commendable. She doesn't shy away from getting into the weeds when it comes to the issues - but that attention to detail makes the film not only more credible, but all the more fascinating as well. SELMA really gives a thorough - and thoroughly engrossing - account of what the national political climate was like at the time of King's march. We see the march not just from King's vantage point, but from that of LBJ and his office, as well as from Alabama governor George Wallace - who was virulently anti-civil rights and anti-King. But the film is also sweeping and moving and emotional. Not because it's unnecessarily maudlin, but because it conveys in full the power and symbolism of the march, and what it meant for the people of Selma, Alabama, and the country as a whole. DuVernay displays a real sense for visual sweep, filling her film with chill-inducing shots of the march, of MLK's speeches, and of people coming together in support of his cause. There's also a real sense of horror in the film as well. Scenes of violent police brutality and murder are genuinely disturbing and scary. But they are necessary, in that they provide a visceral reminder of the kind of flagrant abuse-of-power that King and his cohorts were fighting to put an end to. 

David Oyelowo is just plain incredible as Martin Luther King. Oyelowo is an actor who has become a Hollywood mainstay in recent years, and one who's consistently turned in fine performances. But here, he raises the bar, big-time. This is great stuff - Oyelowo plays King as a flawed and weary warrior, a savvy political negotiator, and a skilled performer who knows how to crank up the gravitas when need be. In short, he (aided by a great script) at once makes King iconic, but also grounded and multidimensional.

The supporting cast here is also off-the-charts fantastic. The biggest standout to me is the great Tom Wilkinson as LBJ. He plays the former President as a cantankerous and stubborn pragmatist who, though not in any rush to appease King and his cause, still finds himself determined to come out on the right side of history. Watching Wilkinson's LBJ spar with Oyelowo's King and Tim Roth's smarmy George Wallace is one of the film's greatest pleasures. I also have to give credit where it's due, and mention that Oprah Winfrey absolutely kills it in a small but crucial part, playing Annie Lee Cooper, a Selma resident determined to vote, despite the state's efforts to prevent it. Carmen Ejogo is also quite good as Coretta Scott King - she has very justified tension with her husband, but also can't help but admire his drive for change, and remains a steadfast public supporter despite the issues in their private life. I also loved pretty much every actor playing the members of King's inner circle. Wendell Pierce as Reverend Hosea Wilson impresses, as does Colman Domingo as Rev. Ralph Abernathy - who delivers a soul-stirring monologue while sitting in a jail cell with King that is among the film's most memorable moments. Another of the film's best scenes involves Stephan James as a young John Lewis (who later went on to become - and still is - a long-serving US Rep), in which Lewis provides some much-needed motivation to King to help renew MLK's faith in their cause. Lewis was a leader of the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), a group of college-age activists who at times came into conflict with King's more measured approach to protest. Lewis uses King's own words to remind his mentor of the importance of their work, and the need to maintain hope that change is possible. It's a great, affecting moment that is another example of how the film humanizes King. It's not afraid to show the cracks that he sought to keep away from the public view.

SELMA is vital, important cinema - but it's also a fast-moving, gripping, wholly engaging and emotionally involving film. What I found really interesting about the film is that it dared to not just be the glossy, smoothed-over re-telling of this chapter in MLK's history. It shows us the good, the bad, and the ugly of the march on Selma. It showed King as a flawed but inspiring leader, and LBJ as politically-motivated to a fault, but also admirably independent when backed into a corner. It shows us an America that is fractured, hurting, bloodied - but also an America that has infinite potential and that can rise to the occasion just when things look bleakest. The brilliance of SELMA is that by showing us these people - and this country - without mythologizing or pulling punches, it in turns becomes that much more inspiring as a film and as a slice of our shared history. We can do better. The film urges us to hear that message - and does so perhaps even with a bit of a chip on its shoulder. "Look what we can do," it pleads, even as it evokes the likes of Ferguson and other modern parallels to the events of fifty years ago. The film doesn't just present the events of Selma as an over-and-done chapter of our history. Instead, it presents them as a living reminder of the work still left to do.

My Grade: A

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Concludes The Middle Earth Odyssey In Epic Fashion

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Review:

- And so it ends. After six movies and two trilogies, Peter Jackson's sprawling Tolkien adaptation is complete. And for that, I am sad - and, also, eternally grateful for what Jackson and his team have given us. Look, I get that a certain cynicism about Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings franchise, and this third Hobbit movie in particular has crept into both certain circles of fandom and the mainstream press. The Hobbit should not have been three movies. Peter Jackson has fallen in love with CGI at the expense of practical f/x with tangibility and soul. The Hobbit films have gotten so wrapped up with elves, dwarves, giant troll monsters, and the massive wars they wage that the titular Hobbit himself has all but gotten lost in the fray. I get it, and to some extent I agree with the knocks. But I also still love these movies, and I still think that they have a magic and a heart and soul that only Jackson could give them. You can pick 'em apart, sure, and god knows people have. But with these movies, and with FIVE ARMIES in particular, my doubts are overshadowed by a feeling that this version of Middle Earth - filled with amazing sights and memorable characters - is one of the greatest fictional worlds ever brought to life on screen. THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES is, to me, a fitting goodbye to that world, a movie that's packed with action, but that also poignantly brings the series full-circle, and to a satisfying conclusion. I walked away with a smile on my face, but also with a lingering sadness that the end of this film marked the end of something truly special.

Over the course of multiple reviews I've talked about what makes Jackson's Middle Earth movies so uniquely great - but I'll talk about all of it just a little more here. Let me start by talking about the world-building. Maybe we take it for granted with these films, maybe we just figure that Tolkien laid so much groundwork, that ... of course these movies would follow suit. But look at how many fantasy and sci-fi film franchises feel like they take place in loosely-constructed, not well-thought-out worlds. We live in a cinematic age now where countless YA adaptations feel that a world based on a simple hooky gimmick is enough. But Jackson never took shortcuts with his Middle Earth films. These are lived-in, breathed-in stories, with history and lore and no detail taken for granted. Jackson and co. truly brought Middle Earth to life, and in my view that absolutely cannot be discounted. BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES serves as an exciting culmination of all that, bringing together the disparate factions and peoples of Middle Earth in a way that's often thrilling.

Of course, part of the thrill of seeing these conflicts play out is in watching such accomplished actors pitted against one another. There's a climactic scene in FIVE ARMIES in which Middle Earth's various great powers collide in a confrontation with a returned and slowly-but-surely re-powered Sauron. It's Ian McKellan, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, and Christopher Lee all being completely and utterly awesome. Not just because they're great actors, but because over the course of six films these actors have wholly and unashamedly committed themselves to these characters. McKellan *is* Gandalf. Weaving *is* Elrond. Blanchett *is* Galadriel, and Christopher Lee - 92 by-god-years-old and still kicking ass - *is* Saruman, and hot damn, the man deserves some sort of award for being possibly the greatest and most badass person alive. In any case, these actors and so many others have really gone above and beyond the call of duty for this franchise. Specific to FIVE ARMIES, I of course have to mention Martin Freeman. In a year in which he's impressed as Watson on Sherlock and as Lester on Fargo, he again nails the part of Bilbo Baggins - bringing the same sort of understated expressiveness and comic timing to this role as he did to those others. Few doubted that Freeman could pull off a great Bilbo, but I think his excellence in these films is oft overlooked. In this final chapter, Freeman's Bilbo has ample opportunity to shine, even in the midst of many conflicts that at times overshadow Bilbo's hero's journey. In particular, I loved the interplay between Freeman and Richard Armitage's Thorin. Thorin, here, finally goes almost-full-villain - mad for power and corrupted by the cursed treasure won from Smaug. Armitage really kills it and nails the character's descent into darkness and eventual return to the light.

Freeman and Armitage's fantastic performances need to be talked about. So too do the incredible visuals of this movie. Yes, I agree with the masses who wish that the original trilogy's more "solid" look was kept for the prequels - which suffer at times from too-glossy CGI that hampers the believability of some scenes. At the same time, I feel like these complaints sometimes come at the expense of giving Jackson the proper credit he deserves as a director and visual stylist. For every moment in FIVE ARMIES where I wished that perhaps there was a bit less CGI, there are several more in the film that just plain wowed me with their visual splendor. There are so many scenes that are just gorgeously framed, that look like the Tolkien-inspired illustrations I saw as a kid come to glorious life. Jackson is still a master at doing those iconic storybook-esque shots that make the film seem *un-real* in the best way possible - fantastic and painterly and larger-than-life. Jackson's large-scale action is still in many ways the best in the biz. His sense for portraying size and scope is unmatched, even if chaos occasionally overwhelms geography and cohesion. But still, the big battle scenes in this film are epic as all hell. At the same time, there are smaller moments in the movie that just look and feel perfect. I'm thinking, in particular, of a quiet scene towards the end of the movie in which Bilbo and Gandalf sit and reminisce about the adventure they've had. Talk about storybook visuals - the scene looks like something out of a Hildebrandt painting. So to those who endlessly knock Jackson's visual storytelling abilities (especially those who don't also acknowledge his unmatched strengths), my perspective is: I don't think we're watching the same movies here.

On a related note, the entire production team on these movies needs major kudos. The costumes, the sets, the overall aesthetic of the Middle Earth films is just so, so good. And it really shines here as armies converge - each meticulously adorned in unique armor and clothing. These films are simply awesome to spend time with. And a huge part of that is the impeccable production and art design. And the music. I mean, that music. Howard Shore's various LOTR themes are modern classics, and these Hobbit films have carried on the tradition of having absolutely epic, atmospheric, at times haunting scores. I will say that FIVE ARMIES does an excellent job of mixing in classic Middle Earth themes at just the right moments. Conversely, I love some of this trilogy's newly-created themes. The Laketown theme is, to me, a new classic.

So what doesn't work in FIVE ARMIES? Let me list my main gripes that keep the movie from being *as* good as it could have been:

a.) Not enough Bilbo. In general, I agree with the general sentiment that The Hobbit didn't necessarily need to be three movies. I always liked the fact that the book was a simple fantasy story that then set the stage for a much more sophisticated and sprawling epic. But oddly, FIVE ARMIES feels a bit rushed, in that so much is going on that the trilogy's central thematic throughline (at least in theory) - Bilbo's journey - seems to get shortchanged. To it's credit, the movie comes back around to Bilbo by the end, and sort of makes up for leaving him on the sidelines for much of the movie's middle. But what did irk me a bit is that Bilbo's story and character arc is slighted in favor of stuff we didn't need. The movie has too much Legolas, for example. We got enough of him in LOTR - we didn't need even *more* extraneous scenes of him kicking ass in this one. There's also a bit too much time spent on Laketown's comically conniving villain Alfrid, who is better, I think, in small doses.

b.) Battles that lack cohesiveness. Late in the movie, as the film shifts its focus from the main battleground to more personal fights, I couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated that elements introduced in the war scenes never got proper resolution. For example, we see giant sandworms introduced by the evil orc army, but we never see how they are defeated by the allies. Later, I had to roll my eyes a bit when a familiar deux ex machina from the original trilogy returns to serve as the tide-turners in the war. Lame.

c.) Too much cartoon-physics. I get that this is Middle Earth, and I am aware that in LOTR we got Legolas sliding down the tail of a beast as if surfing. But that was one funny/kewl moment. In FIVE ARMIES, we get several of those moments, that come right in the heat of otherwise intense battle scenes. It's one thing when an entire sequence is staged with a certain aesthetic - i.e. the barrel scene in Desolation of Smaug (which I love). But to insert random videogame moments into gritty battles is sort of annoying.

d.) That Strider call-out. There's one super cringeworthy moment in the movie - a bit of unnecessary foreshadowing of LOTR that feels very forced. Should have been left out, or at least handled in a more organic fashion.

Those were my chief complaints, really. And though I have those grievances, they are still not enough to turn me against FIVE ARMIES or Jackson's Hobbit trilogy in general. I would have loved a single, simple Hobbit movie that related to the LOTR trilogy in the same way the book does. But I take these for what they are, and I can't deny that I've enjoyed them. And there really is a lot to love. In addition to stuff I've already mentioned - the great performances, the visuals, the music, the world-building - I could spend paragraphs giving shout-outs to all the stand-out stuff in this film. Here are a few. Evangeline Lilly's Tauriel adds a strong female character to the story, and she's just kick-ass in general. Lilly is great in the part, and you can't help but root for her worlds-collide would-be romance with the dwarven Kili. Billy Connelly! The beloved comic and actor appears in FIVE ARMIES as leader of a dwarf army, and man, I grinned bigtime when I heard that distinctive Scottish-accented voice rally his diminutive troops to battle. Lee Pace is also, again, sort of great as Elven king Thranduil. The Piemaker does a great job at playing the stoic, emotionally-distant monarch. Mark Hadlow as elder dwarf Dori is also great. He's sort of the heart and soul of this trilogy, in a way. Finally, I love the movie's ending. It's a perfect segue into Lord of the Rings, and it made me want to immediately go and watch the LOTR trilogy. Jackson manages to make the ending comforting and poignantly sentimental, all while hinting, slightly ominously, at dangers yet to come.

It's been quite the ride. I think back to the release of the original LOTR trilogy, and remember each of those films being a true pop-cultural mega-event. I was too young to have seen the original Star Wars trilogy in theaters at the time of their release - and these films felt like that sort of monumental moment for me. Not only that, but as a kid I'd read and loved and become perhaps slightly obsessed with Tolkien's fantasy novels, and seeing those stories realized on-screen in such epic fashion was an undeniable rush. The fact that, after so many fits and starts, Jackson and key cast members returned for The Hobbit - it was an unexpected bonus. And though these films have not been the masterpieces that the LOTR films were and are, they have been true pleasures nonetheless. To be able to visit Middle Earth again, to be able to go back to this world, to see these characters again - it's been not just fun, but in it's own way, sort of magical. As I said, you can critique and pick apart these films, but man, if you can't see the magic that happens when Sir Ian McKellan dons his wizard's cloak and becomes Gandalf the Grey ... you might need to turn in your film-fan card. I only hope that we continue to see genre films - be they from Jackson or others - that carry on the tradition of what Jackson and his team did with their Middle Earth odyssey. But what's special about these films is that they now exist as a sort of portal to this world. For years and decades to come, people will revisit this cinematic world when in need of some of that magic. They'll watch as a reminder that even the smallest and unlikeliest of creatures can make a difference. They'll watch when in need of fellowship, fantasy, and great adventure.

My Grade: A-