You Talkin' To Me? THE DEPARTED Review and Much MORE

Back from the weekend, and not quite ready for another Monday. I'm telling you, the world is a scary place right now. North Korea testing nuke - yeah, I mean everyone on earth not named George W. saw this one coming, but the prospect of Kim Jong having the power to level a major city is not exactly pleasant. My already paranoid mind went into overdrive last night, as I fell asleep after staying up too late watching CNN and MSNBC, and had all these crazy dreams involving nuclear warfare. One in particular was really strange ...

DANNY'S MESSED-UP, NUCLEAR-PARANOIA-FUELED DREAM:

I was at some special screening of the Borat movie, that for some reason was held at this huge high school somewhere. Before the movie, everyone was mingling on the football field having a good time. I saw Sascha Baron Cohen emerge in full Borat getup, and went over and started talking with him, joking about Kazakhistan and whatnot. Suddenly, Cohen breaks character and in his normal voice starts yelling expletives, and I was like what is going on? I look up and there's like 25 giant missles coming right towards us. I started running for shelter than woke up, moments before I was to be vaporized. Crazy huh?

ANYWAYS ...

So yeah, it's just a messed-up world sometimes. The entire concept of a nuclear arms-race is just totally absurd when you think about it (if you're not convinced, watch Dr. Strangeglove ...), and the fact that we've been in a prolonged war with Iraq while allowing an insane dictator to openly test a nuke is, similarly, fairly mind-boggling. And meanwhile, conservative Republicans are writing scandalous emails to 16 year old Congressional pages while preaching about family values. Lesson: don't mess with pages!

But while I'm moping about the seemingly impending nuclear apocalypse (hey, wonder if JERICHO will get bumped up in the ratings now?), a movie came out this weekend that was the perfect catharthic experience for those feeling nihilistic. Yep, I'm talkin' 'bout ...

THE DEPARTED Review

Now this, my friends, is a movie. A movie with texture, with layers. A movie that it's okay to find flaw in, because it works on so many levels that it invites the kind of analytical criticism that a great novel or play warrants. Was this scene the best way to emphasize that theme? Was this character used as effectively as possible? Whatever the case, Scorcese is back, and he's darn sure given us something meaty to think about with his latest, The Departed.

So far, The Departed is up there with my best of the year to date. It's Scorcese's return to the dark, gritty, violent, world of organized crime, and any fan of movies knows that that means that one of the best director's of the last thirty years is making a return to the genre he does best - in other words, this is a cause for celebration.

Of course, we as filmgoers are lucky, because Scorsece has assembled an amazing cast here. Aside from the quality of the performances, which I'll get to in a minute, it is unspeakably exciting to see young actors like Damon, DiCaprio, and Wahlberg mix it up with the likes of Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Sheen. This movie has a real "passing of the torch" feel to it that gives it an added layer of weight and depth that is exciting to watch as a fan of these actors. It's like the film equivalent of watching an aging but still-kicking Jordan match up with a hungry rookie named Kobe.

But yeah, DiCaprio and Damon each turn in career-best performances here. While Damon will probably be a bit overlooked, as his character was written in a lightly more over the top manner, DiCaprio brought an emotional depth and scrappiness to his role that made it a very memorable, perhaps Oscar-worthy performance. But watching Damon and DiCaprio play off of one another, despite scants amount of actual screentime together, made for a classic cat and mouse game. The tension between their characters was palpable even when not in the same scene, up to and including a climactic moment where they each have the other on the phone, too cautious to say anything and each waiting for the other to make the first movie. Classic.

Jack Nicholson is pretty great here as well, but what do you expect. Given the "rockstar" nature of his character, Jack is given creative license to be over the top, and he does so with the charismatic blend of scariness and zaniness that has made him one of cinema's most enduring stars. Sure, there are one or two moments where he probably oculd have toned it down a notch, but mostly, his schtick fits, because The Departed isn't so much a dead-serious film like Casino, but more so a black comedy a la Resevoir Dogs (Actually the two have much in common). So Nicholson's antics are fitting, hilarious, scary, fun, and don't overshadow everything else, because his theatricality works within this film's overall tone.

Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg are total scene-stealers in this movie. Baldwin does a slightly more self-mocking version of his "brass balls" character from Glengary Glenross, and proves yet again that nobody does self-important comedic deadpan like he does. The man can do it all - from drama to black comedy to sitcom humor (hello, 30 Rock). Wahlberg really surprised me in this movie. At first glance, his character is a typical ball-busting asshole cop. By the end of the movie, he is the surprise breakout character of the film, thanks to impeccable comedic timing and snappy line-delivery by Wahlberg. Baldwin and Wahlberg have some absolutely hilarious exhanges and individual lines that had the audience I saw the movie with applauding out of sheer appreciation.

The rest of the supporting cast is similarly great. Martin Sheen lends some added class to an already classy-production, but he centers the movie as one of the concious and father-figure to his two-faced colleagues in the police force. All of the other smaller roles are well-filled as well.

Also, relative newcomer Vera Farmiga does a very nice job as the woman caught between Damon and DiCaprio. Her storyarc is probably the toughest to swallow in the film, as it rings as being a bit too convenient .... but Farmiga is extremely solid and it's great to see a lead actress in such a star-filled cast who is legitimately talented, multi-layered, and believable, and not simply another star shoehorned in to complete an all-star lineup of name-actors. That being said, she has some great scenes with the two male leads, and does play a key part in completing the almost Shakespearian plot of the film.

Yes, I said Shakespearean. From its dark humor to its theatricality to its sometimes over-the-top plot twists, and especially with its classic Shakespeare-style ending (you almost wait for the characters to yell "I hath been smote!" as they systematically drop dead towards the end in increasingly sudden fashion), this really does feel like Scorcese's attempt at crime drama-as-Shakespearean tragi-comedy. But it all works. The narrative flows effortlessly, and the crisp directorial style heightens the mood and intensity but never overshadows the characters. This movie pulls off the tricky feat of gritty crime drama mixed with flashy humor with ease and grace.

Also, as a New Englander and BU grad, I love the way in which the film captures the feel of Boston. From the accents to the music (Dropkick Murphys!), to the bleak scenes of the T's rustic orange line to the local pubs to the overarching mentality of Irish scrappiness - this was a real film of and about Boston as much as some of Scorcese's other movies are films of and about New York.

Finally, as much as this was a classic Hollywood tale of cat and mouse games and guys caught on the wrong side of the law and betrayals and gunplay and snappy dialogue, it was also for me a movie that really came together thematically. A movie about the high price of lies and deception, about the inevitabilty of death and the self-destructiveness of criminals and those who hunt them. This, in the end, in spite of one's individual critiques or issues with it, was undeniably damn good movie-watching in the classic sense. They don't much make 'em like this anymore, so go to the theater, enjoy, and discuss.

My Grade: A

... So yeah, good movie watching this weekend. Also saw The 300 trailer on the big screen ("Tonight, WE DINE IN HELL!") and a few other solid-looking previews for The Black Diamond and a few others.

- Also, I finally, finally saw Network. I know, I'm about 30-odd years late in jumping on this bandwagon, but see this movie if you haven't already. Especially those of you who work in TV. Amazingly, it is as fresh a satire today as it must have been then, and it's scary how many of its visions of an entertainment and ratings-obsessed television industry have come to pass. So yeah, see it. A classic - a masterwork of superb acting and the potent combination of Sidney Lumet's directing and Paddy Chayefsky's words. And, also, an obvious precursor to Studio 60.

TV STUFF:

- No new FOX stuff to report on, as most shows are on hiatus for the baseball playoffs.

- Like I said, I was all ready to dump Jericho but I have to admit, I am now almost more morbidly curious about what if any parallels exist between the show's fictional nuclear attack (hinted to be caused by North Korea) and our current real life political mess. If only the show were actually halfway decent. As it stands, it is atrocious. What a shame.

- You know, I'll go on record as predicting big things for 30 Rock and Twenty Good Years. On Friday, I saw the Departed in a fully packed theater, and the entire audience snickered and smiled when Alec Baldwin first appeared on camera -- it was clear that his hilarious character from 30 Rock was on everyone's brain. Those commercials have been doing a great job of promoting the show, and are just really funny. Everyone is pronouncing the sitcom dead but NBC, I am proud to say, has two pretty good ones coming up this Wednesday.

COMIC-BOOK ROUNDUP:

- A quick update on some good stuff I've been reading lately. Still have Brian K. Vaughn's "Pride of Baghdad" sitting on my coffee table. I'm waiting for a open weekend day where I can really sink into it, as I've been reading nothing but superlative reviews thus far. But anyways, here's some stuff I've been digging lately:

- PAUL DINI on DETECTIVE COMICS - Dini, you may know, was the mastermind, along with artistic collaborator Bruce Timm on the seminal Batman: The Animated Series. So to any Bat-fans out there, having Dini write Batman comics on a monthly basis as the new regular author of Detective Comics, is a dream come true. While Dini started off a little slowly, somwhat hampered by inconsistent art teams, with this month's ish Dini is firing on all cylinders. Clever dialogue, guest appearances galore, and gorgeous artwork thanks to Don Kramer. If Dini can keep this up, this is, no doubt, quintissential Batman.

- Y: THE LAST MAN - If you've read my blog consistently you know how much I've loved Y for the last few years. Simply put, this is epic, funny, exciting storytelling. This past week saw the release of the landmark issue # 50, and it was, as usual, a great read, filled with simple, clean, but amazingly emotive artwork from Pia Guerra. Set to end at issue 66, this issue was a reminder to savor the last year and hald of Y, possibly the best ongoing comic of the last 5 years.

MARV WOLFMAN on NIGHTWING - Marv Wolfman is a legend of comics. In the 1980's, he turned a poor-selling book called Teen Titans into the No. 1 comic on the charts, and did so by including unprecedented realism, maturity, and by taking beloved characters like Wally West and Dick Grayson (the original Robin), and actually having them do the impossible in the realm of comics -- grow up. Wolfman took Robin the Boy Wonder and turned him into Nightwing - a new incarnation of the hero who instantly became a fan favorite. Of late, Nightwing has had some rough times, not from any particularly dastardly supervillain, but from the menace of hack writing and lack of respect from DC editorial. So it was a huge relief to see Wolfman, who knows Nightwing better than anyone, come in to replace writer Bruce Jones, who in only several issues churned out some of the worst and most off-putting Nightwing tales ever told. Wolfman's writing is decidedly old-school, with some stilted narration and familiar plotting, and the art by Dan Jurgens is a bit inconsistent and not Jurgen's best. But man, after the atrocity that was Jones, the first Wolfman-penned ish felt was a very welcome return to familiarity. Even with its lack of new-school style and polish, the voice, the tone, the attitude felt right.

52 - What started as an experiment in weekly storytelling has quickly become a must-read for comic fans. As the story expands beyond the initial cast of primary characters, it really has begun to feel like a weekly glance into the fantastical world of the DCU rather than a conventional serial story. Half the fun is the spotlight on lesser-know supporting characters, including this past week's emphasis on Dr. Will Magnus, the pipe-smoking, plad suit-wearing ingenue and creator of the Metal Men. While this series has had its ups and downs, it's always the first thing I read every week, as it really does feel like a series where anything can happen.

OTHER STUFF:

- Whoah, Google bought YouTube for an insane amount of cash. I don't know about this one ... YouTube's grand social video-sharing experiment has yet to amount to much more than a bunch of clips of old TV shows and of girls dancing to Aqua songs. Similarly, Google's video offerings have thus far been weak. Can two wrongs make a right ...?

- Leave it to the local LA News to cover car chases and celeb scandal when the North Koreans are poised to blow us to kingdom come. Unbelievable.

- And yeah, I haven't mentioned it yet, but you may have noticed that the blog has surpassed the 15,000 hit count! Not too shabby, I dare say.

- Alright, thanks as always for reading. Keep reading, and I'll keep fighting the good fight.