Lost In Translation

ESPN 30 For 30: Volume 2

ESPN 30 For 30: Volume 2 is a continuation of the landmark series that celebrates 30 years of ESPN. There are some great documentaries in this volume, but it might be weaker overall than the first volume, but taken as a whole it is a great enterprise. The first episode in volume 2, "Two Escobars" about the drug lord Juan Escobar and his influence on soccer in Colombia and one its greatest stars Alex Escobar who was killed by the drug element that infiltrated the game. It is a portrait of two men, a country, a great upset, and a great fall. This and the OJ Simpson episode are my favorites from the series. Some the other great episode for me were: "Into The Wind" (The Terry Fox Story), "Once Brothers" (Yugoslavian NBA players Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac and the ethnic tensions that destroyed a friendship), "The Birth of Big Air" (Matt Hoffman and the birth of X-Games), "Four Days In October" (about the great Red Sox comeback against the Yankees in 2004), "Fernado Nation" (the meteoric rise of the Mexican pitching sensation) "The Best That Never Was" (the story of the non-career of Marcus DuPree), and "Pony Excess" (college recruiting scandal that killed the SMU footbal program). There were several that were flawed for various reasons and might have been better in in another director's hands: "LIttle Big Men" (about the Kirkland Little League World Champions which suffers from pretentious narration), "One Night In Vegas" (Tupac getting shot at a Tyson fight, which has strange poetry slam narration and comic book panels), "Jordan Rides The Bus" (Jordan's return to baseball, which is respectful but un-insightful), "Unmatched" (about the great rivalry between Chris Everett and Martina Natravalova, which plays like a rom-com-complete with a Natalie Merchant theme song). I just didn't have much interest in a few epsiodes this time around: "The House Steinbrenner Built" (not a Yankee fan), "To The Limit" (Tim Richmond-again little interest in car racing), and "Press Pause" (Marion Jones doping scandal seemed to have a bit of an agenda).

30 For 30:Volume 01 (Films 01-15)

I was excited to hear about the ESPN documentary film project 30 for 30, which documents how sports have changed from 1979 to 2009. This period is analogous to my life, since this coincides with when I started getting interested in sports and was probably at the apex of my fandom, thus, many of the stories from the series have personal resonance. The list of directors is impressive as well: Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), Barry Levinson (Diner, etc.), Ron Shelton (Bull Durham), Steve James (Hoop Dreams), and Ice Cube among many others. Many of the subjects appeal to me as well: the demise of the USFL, the death of Len Bias, Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks, Hank Gathers, etc. So I was excited to watch the first set of documentaries.

There were so many excellent episodes in the first series of 15 documentaries: Mike Tollin’s film “Small Potatoes: Who Killed The USFL?” is what I was looking for in this documentary series. There were plenty of profiles of coaches, players, owners, analysts, and fans with lots of footage from the brief 3-year history of the league. This documentary follows the league from the inception to the court case that ruined the league and comes to the conclusion that it was Donald Trump’s ego that killed the league since he wanted to get into the NFL at any cost-he gambled big and lost big bringing down the league with him. I also greatly enjoyed Dan Klores’ episode, “The Winning Time: Reggie Miller Vs. The New York Knicks.” I remember seeing most of those games including the one where Miller scored 8 points in 24 seconds. (I will always be a Knicks hater). Great entertainment. I’ve always been a huge hoops fan, but I’m probably more of a college ball fan, thus I also really enjoyed Bill Couturie’s episode on Paul Westhead and his high charged Loyola-Marymount Lions college team that lost Hank Gathers to a heart attack at tournament time in “The Guru Of Go.” I remember watching the make it to the elite eight only to lose-it was a great run and a lot of fun to watch. Steve James served up one of the best documentaries with his documentary on hometown hero Allen Iverson and the trial that stirred up racial tensions that still has left scars on the community and the troubled Iverson himself in “No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson.”  No less fascinating was the documentary on Ricky Williams and his departure from the NFL and his struggle with finding a comfortable place in the world in “Run Ricky Run, “ which was directed by Sean Pamphilon and Royce Toni. I have seen the film Invictus, and therefore was more invested in Clifford Bestall’s documentary on the Springbok’s 1995 Rugby World Championship in South Africa, “The 16^th Man.” Equally fascinating was the final film, “June 17^th, 1994” about O.J. Simpson’s very public run from the law by Brett Morgen. This is especially true since he didn’t make a conventional documentary but put together all kinds of footage from the media from that day and older clips that provided background context.

The rest of the films had their merits, but weren’t as interesting for different reasons: The first installment, “Kings Ransom,” directed by Peter Berg, recounts the blockbuster trade that sent NHL all-tiem great Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. Although interesting overall, I would have liked to have had more background information about Gretzky’s rise and overall career since I am not a big hockey fan. This one suffers from staying to close to the specific subject of the trade in my mind. I think Barry Levinson’s documentary on the Colts marching band, “The Band That Wouldn’t Die” also falls in the same category, as Berg’s film in that it is was too specific of an event to merit the hour long documentary in my opinion. The fact that the Colts up and moved to Indianapolis one night in 1984 is a part of a larger story that eventually has the Ravens moving back into town and that is glossed over. “Muhammad & Larry” directed by Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan,” was mostly filmed when the event took place. Maysles filmed it but couldn't find a distributor for it at the time. Muhammad is always entertaining and poor Larry Holmes continues to be underrated. “Without Bias” directed by Kirk Fraser is a heartbreaker, especially since I forgot that his younger brother was gunned down a year after Len Bias had his heart attack-a tough two years for that family. I can really remember watching Jimmy The Greek every weekend and then seeing his fall from grace. It was then revisited by Fritz Mitchell with “The Legend Of Jimmy The Greek.” I think Adam Kurland and Lucas Jansen’s “Silly Little Game” about rotisserie baseball might not have been of interest to many sports fans, but I have to admit I use to play these silly little games myself when I was an adolescent-however, never officially rotisserie baseball. Ice Cube’s Straight Otta L.A.” was entertaining, but not one of my favorites-since I’m a Seahawks fan, thus a Raiders hater.

 

The Killing

AMC has another interesting crime show in its line up, The Killing. It is the story of a mysterious murder of a young high school girl who was found in the trunk of a local politician's campaign car trunk. The music, aspects of the story, and the Pacific Northwest location (Vancouver standing in for Seattle with several Seattle establishing shots mixed in) draw to mind comparisons with David Lynch's noir-ish Twin Peaks. However, it is adapted from a Swedish crime series, which sounds fascinating in its own right. Here is an interesting interview with the show's crator Veena Sud.

Mildred Pierce

There's a new miniseries on HBO, Mildred Pierce, directed by Todd Haynes (Safe, Far From Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, etc...) starring Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce. It is an adaptation of the novel by James M. Cain, that was made into a successful film in 1945 that won Joan Crawford an Academy Award for Best Actress. Cain is best know for two other adaptations that became film classics: The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. There's a really great article from Hilton Als in The New Yorker discussing Cain and the current HBO production. It looks like I should start with the well-known classics since I am interesting in reading some books by Cain, who seems to have been an inspiration to Albert Camus's novel The Stranger. As for the HBO production, I have been enjoying it a lot so far. The first three parts of a five part series have aired and the production values are what you have come to expect from HBO-the depression era Los Angles has been painstakingly recreated and there are fine performances from the supporting cast including great work from Melissa Leo and Mare Winningham. I'm looking forward to the next installments.

Best TV Of 2010

I think there's too much good TV these days and I don't have enough time to watch all the good shows, but these are the ones I thought were the best of 2010:

1. Breaking Bad-I think this was one of the best seasons of TV ever. This show just keeps     getting better.

2. Mad Men-another great year, but probably not the best. Matthew Weiner doesn't     disappoint.

3. The Pacific-I think it was better than Band of Brothers-I was inspired to read the     biographies of the three main characters the series was based on. Great production values.

4. Community-this show is really hitting its stride in this season.

5. Justified-FX's new series based on a character, Rayland Givens, from Elmore Leonard     short stories and novels. Timothy Olyphant looks good in a hat as we know from     Deadwood. Again I was compelled to search out the source material. Great ensemble     acting with lots of interesting guest stars.

6. Friday Night Lights-saw parts of season 4 and 5 in the calendar year, but it has good     writing and excellent lead actors.

7. 30 Rock-still dependable comedy in its 5th season.

8.True Blood-this is something of a guilty pleasure-it can be hit-or-miss, but there's always     a lot of sex and violence.

9.Dexter-made interesting by the always reliable Michael C. Hall.

10. (Open: I'm thinking about starting to watch a new series like Boardwalk Empire or     Treme, but haven't started yet)

 

 

Bottle Episodes

Alan Sepinwall, probably my favorite TV journalist,  explained what a bottle episode is in his recap to the fascinating episode "Fly" of Breaking Bad that recently aired. And I thought he had some interesting insights:

I am going to talk to you for a few paragraphs about how the sausage gets made in television. If you'd rather not think too much about production logistics and budgets and whatnot and just focus on why "Fly" was such an unusual, incredible hour for this series, just skim until I start talking about "The Sopranos." 

But I want to start off with sausage-making because it was clear to me that "Fly" was what's known in the industry as "a bottle show" - that is, an episode of the series shot almost entirely on existing sets, with a minimum of guest stars. The idea is to keep the budget as small as possible, so that you can then spend whatever money you saved on another episode down the road. (Or, in some cases, so you can compensate for a previous episode that cost more than anticipated.) 

Last year, "Breaking Bad" tried to do a bottle show with "4 Days Out," the episode with Jesse and Walt trapped in the desert after the RV's battery runs down. The idea was that it would only feature Cranston and Paul and take place largely on the standing RV set and therefore be dirt-cheap. Instead, it wound up being one of that season's most expensive episodes, as more and more of the action began creeping outside of the camper and into the desert itself, which meant lots of location filming, often at irregular hours (a lot of that episode, you may recall, took place around dawn and dusk to get a particularly beautiful light quality), and that costs man-hours, it costs crew overtime, and it costs simply to transport all the men and materials back and forth from the studio to the desert. 

Still, the basic idea of that episode went to the core of "Breaking Bad" - that of teacher and pupil stuck together, getting on each other's nerves, and revisting all the damage they've done to themselves, to each other, and to the world at large since they teamed up. So it wasn't surprising that the show would try to revisit the basic conceit - nor that Vince Gilligan and company (here with Sam Catlin and Moira Walley-Beckett on script, and Rian Johnson directing) would find a way to do a bottle show as a bottle show. Having already spent the money to build the huge Walt-cave set, they were able to dwell inside it for 95% of an episode, with no castmembers other than the two leads (which is valuable, since most TV shows these days can only sign a few regulars to appear in every episode), and no other speaking parts. 

And it was through that attempt at minimalism and frugality that we got the "Breaking Bad" equivalent of the "Pine Barrens" episode of "The Sopranos." Only this one was, heresy though it may be, better.

Both "Pine Barrens" and "Fly" were black comedies about crooks out of their element (Paulie and Christopher lost in the woods, Walt and Jesse trying to play exterminator), but much as I love "Pine Barrens," it stayed in that minor key. "Fly" started out as slapstick; one critic on Twitter compared it, not inaccurately, to Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the Road Runner, and certainly Walt's fall off the railing was as broad a moment as this show has had. But as Jesse realized the only way to control Walt's obsession with the fly was to play along, it turned into something much darker, and deeper, and tenser, until we got to that riveting scene where Jesse is standing atop the rickety ladder, with his only support coming from a Walt who's barely conscious from sleeping pills, and Walt is talking about Jane, and we wonder..

Misc. Arts Links

David Mitchell's latest novel about Japan, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet, is out and looks intersting.

CNNGo-Bangkok lists 12 Thai films that got good reception at the Cannes Film Festival.

The NY Times' Michiko Kakutani takes down Martin Amis' latest novel The Pregnant Widow-I'll still probably read it.

The AV Club's Scenic Routes looks at Citizen Ruth, Alexadner Payne's first film.

Tracy Thorn of Everything But The Girl gets here solo album, Love And It's Opposite, reviewed in The New Yorker-I'd like to hear the earlier one as well, Out Of The Woods. 

Friday Night Lights is back on at NBC (I watched it online already-so it's a worthwhile season to watch). But I  will follow along with the commentary at Slate anyway.

Justified

There's an entertaining new drama produced by Elmore Leonard, based on one of his characters from his novels and short stories, Raylan Givens, played with panache by Timothy Olyphant: 

It was adapted for television by Graham Yost, the creator of the series “Boomtown” and a writer on “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” who also developed the series as a whole, which, after the first episode, consists of new material. Leonard, along with Yost, is one of “Justified” ’s executive producers, and is reportedly so pleased with the enterprise that he’s going to write another Raylan Givens story. Leonard’s work has been adapted before, with mixed success—the Steven Soderbergh movie “Out of Sight,” starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, ranks high on fans’ lists, as does Barry Sonnenfeld’s “Get Shorty”—and many writers revere him. This is actually something that Leonard is famous for: being worshipped by other writers. Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” is based on a Leonard story, and Tarantino’s career in general is an homage to the Master. Accompanying the publicity material for the series was a blue rubber bracelet, the kind that people wear to show their support for good causes, with the letters “WWED” on it. They stand for “What Would Elmore Do?,” the question that the show’s shepherds said they repeatedly asked themselves. So far, their answers to that question have been more sharply Leonardesque than their effort to replicate What Elmore Did Do in the short story. It perhaps doesn’t help that the first two episodes weren’t shot in Kentucky; something seems a little off. And the two female characters in the first episode are weak: the ex-wife, Winona (Natalie Zea), doesn’t have much of a part, and Ava, the husband killer, eludes Carter’s efforts to inhabit her with conviction.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2010/04/05/100405crte_television_franklin#ixzz0kvHHIUh2

Links Of The Day: 04/06/10

"Your masterpiece sucks," user ratings at Amazon in Salon.

A New book is discussed in Road Trip With David Foster Wallace in Salon.

There's an interesting sounding new documentary coming out from visionary director Michel Gondry via Salon.

Treme, David Simon's new series about New Orleans for HBO gets a rave review from The New Yorker's Nancy Franklin.

I'm really enjoy Season 3 of Breaking Bad so far, my second favorite TV show after Mad Men.

The ESPN series "30 for 30" sounds really interesting, the latest installment, "The Guru of Go," is about basketball coach Paul Westhead-best known for his fast breaking Loyola Marymount teams

At The Movies With The Simpsons

I happened to catch this Simpsons episode crammed with film references:

If you spent Sunday evening focusing on more urgent matters, you may have missed a “Simpsons” episode crammed with more (and more obscure) cultural references than a 22-minute animated show would seem to allow.