film & television reviews from Philip Bahr focusing on a gay male gaze | gay film | gay movies | gay television | LGBTQ perspective | classics | indie | television reviews
I rarely talk tech on Reel Charlie, but I saw this ad on C/Net for a $40 Soundbar and just had to post my thoughts. Nothing has changed my home viewing pleasure more in the past five years than my decision to purchase a Soundbar. Until you have decent sound, you can’t comprehend how important audio and music is to the viewing experience. I love my Soundbar. Before that, I had my speakers hooked up to the television. Whatever you decide to do in the near or distant future, I beg of you go consider something other than as C/Net puts it, “your TV’s terrible, terrible speakers.” From C/Net,
Ever notice how the vast majority of speakers you see are big and, you know, three-dimensional? Think about that, then think about that super-skinny HDTV of yours. With so little depth, how can it possibly squeeze in decent-sounding speakers?
It can’t, which is why even top-end TVs tend to sound terrible. Fortunately, there’s an easy (and inexpensive) fix: add a sound bar. In my experience, even a low-end model will provide a great improvement to your TV audio, if for no other reason than it points the sound toward you rather than down into the table or back into the wall.
It’s not much to look at, but definitely nice to listen to.
And here’s a seriously cheap option: Best Buy has the Dynex Soundbar DX-SB114 for $39.99. Shipping is free, but you’re on the hook for sales tax. (You can also find it on Best Buy’s Ebay page if you’d rather go that route for some reason.)
Not much to say about this article on Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling other than to let it speak for itself. From The Guardian,
Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling has claimed the current campaign to boycott the 2016 Academy Awards over claims of a diversity deficit is racist to white people.
Rampling, 69, is up for the best actress prize for her role in the British drama 45 Years, from director Andrew Haigh, where she will compete against Room’s Brie Larson, Carol’s Cate Blanchett, Joy’s Jennifer Lawrence and Brooklyn’s Saoirse Ronan. Asked for her take on the current furore over all-white lists of nominees on French Radio network Europe 1 on Friday morning, the British actor did not mince her words. “It is racist to whites,” she said.
“One can never really know, but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list,” added Rampling. Asked if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should introduce quotas, a proposal which no current advocate of increased diversity has mooted, she responded: “Why classify people? These days everyone is more or less accepted … People will always say: ‘Him, he’s less handsome’; ‘Him, he’s too black’; ‘He is too white’ … someone will always be saying ‘You are too’ [this or that] … But do we have to take from this that there should be lots of minorities everywhere?”
When the interviewer explains that black members of the film industry feel like a minority, Rampling replies: “No comment.”
Read the entire article.
In spite of Rampling’s ridiculous statements, I’m still going to watch 45 Years because I love director Andrew Haigh’s previous work on Weekend and Looking.
Brie Larson is now a sure bet for Best Actress.
I’m a bit late to this, but here’s an outstanding article from Joe Reid on Decider who created a quick list of potential non white acting nominees from this year’s list of films. From Decider,
Today’s Academy Awards nominations were great news for a whole lot of people in Hollywood. Just not people of color. For the second straight year, all 20 acting nominees are white, and everybody’s noticing. It’s an embarrassment for the Academy in any respect, but especially considering 2015 offered several viable options for nominees of color. In this case, “viable options” means “buzzy, well-reviewed moneymakers,” like, for example, Creed and Straight Outta Compton, which were nominated for their white contributions (Sylvester Stallone and the Compton writers, respectively).
Of course, part of the Academy’s problem is that they too often can’t seem to look beyond what’s traditional. In a better world, there are dozens of non white performers who could fill up an entire ballot’s worth of nominations.
Hurray! Giovanni Ribisi is back in the Amazon Prime Pilot, Sneaky Pete playing a recently released ex-con who poses as his prison cellmate in order to create an instant better life for himself. Not all is what it appears to be with his new family. Sneaky Pete proves to be a fascinating look at deceit and reunion. I loved it and hope it gets greenlit for the Fall. 4 out of 5.
Writer/Director Maya Forbes’ debut, Infinitely Polar Bear explores the lives of a young Boston family in Boston during the late 1970’s. Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana play parents to precocious sisters Imogene Wolodarsky and Ashley Aufderheide. Ruffalo’s character Cam suffers from manic depression and because it’s the 70’s, the treatment is harsh. So he often self-medicates with alcohol rather than his Lithium. Saldana’s Maggie gets accepted to Columbia’s MBA program and asks Cam to move back in and take care of the girls for 18 months while she gets her degree. I love an indie full of heart. Infinitely Polar Bear shows lots of heart in spite of the chaos of Cam’s illness. The young actresses playing the daughters are better than they should be – naturals at playing the role of embarrassed children. Ruffalo and Saldana make the film easy to watch, charming with a dash of honesty not always found in issue films. Happy to spent time with Infinitely Polar Bear. 4 out of 5.
What a rare treat to watch a documentary so personal and profound. Netflix’s What Happened, Miss Simone follows the life of Nina Simone from childhood where she witnessed her first dose of racism, to her study of classical piano, to her accidental singing career, to her signature style immediately familiar to anyone hearing her for the second time, to her marriage and motherhood, to her powerful embrace of the civil rights movement, to her disillusionment with the United States, to her ex-pat years, to her life-long battle with depression and mental illness to her comeback in later years. From the opening moment of the film, I sat captivated throughout her story. Struggle, hardship, triumph, connection, loss, love, community. All of that and more, What Happened, Miss Simone captures a monumental talent whose personal life was as complicated as her vocal range and genre-defying music. Her daughter’s reflection is particularly profound. A history lesson, a look into a life lived, What Happened, Miss Simone tells us Nina Simone’s complete story. 5 out of 5 for this essential documentary.
Leading into today’s Oscars announcements, Carol had been nominated for Best Film by basically every association of film critics on the entire planet earth. In fact, it has a standalone Wikipedia page dedicated solelyto the 200 accolades it has received so far. This morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Carol for awards in many categories — Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, among them — but skipped right over it when it came to Best Picture. It’s an even more bizarre snub when you consider that the Best Picture category can now include ten films, but only eight were chosen. The internet has been all a dither trying to figure out what the heck happened, with many entertainment magazines, including Vanity Fair, deciding that ultimately Carol was just too gay.
Wait, though: Wasn’t The Kids Are All Right gay when it was nominated for Best Picture in 2010? Or Milk in 2008? Or Brokeback Mountain in 2005? Yes, the Academy has proven repeatedly that it has no problem with gay films. What the Academy — with its 76% male voter population* — has is a problem with films that do not center on male experience. Even The Kids Are All Right, while technically a film about lesbians, focused its story on a pair of moms rebuilding their family around a man to keep it together, with one of them even having sex with him. And while Carol is a lesbian love story and a queer coming of age story most of all, the second layer of its narrative is a complete dismissal of bumbling, fumbling, entitled men who cannot wrap their minds around women who have no need for them whatsoever.
Saw My Favorite Martian, err The Martian on Blu-ray this evening. Made it through the two hours intact. Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel forms a tight film with beautiful special effects obviously. But I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the suspense? The Martian proved too pretty, too easy. Not enough chaos and strife. How is that possible? It felt like a Sci-Fi 2015 version of the 70’s classic Coke jingle, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing. Serene, pc, hopeful, and sanitized a bit too much. Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor all performed standard, decent acting. Nothing to cheer over. More interesting casting using Benedict Wong and Donald Glover in smaller character roles. In the end, China saved the day. Certainly realistic. The film felt like a NASCAR race. I didn’t hate it, but laughed more than I should have. Laughing at it not with it. The Martian gets a 3 out of 5.
Our thirst for more Jane Tennison may not produce another Helen Mirren project, but it appears an ITV Prime Suspect prequel is in the works. From Variety,
U.K. broadcaster ITV has greenlit a prequel to multi Emmy-winning crime series “Prime Suspect,” which starred Helen Mirren and ran for seven seasons. The new series “Tennison” will be written by “Prime Suspect” scribe Lynda La Plante, and will air next year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the debut of “Prime Suspect.”
“Tennison,” which will comprise six hour-long episodes, portrays the young Jane Tennison beginning her career and reveals why she became such a complex and formidable character in London’s police force. It’s set in East London in the 1970s, when women police officers are being uneasily “integrated” into the force. Twenty-two year-old Tennison is a probationary officer in a world where high-ranking police officers were notoriously chauvinistic, and the rules and regulations often bent.
Here’s hoping they cast a great actor to fill Mirren’s younger character’s shoes as well as work hard on a script worthy of the Prime Suspect name.
Writer/Director Maya Forbes’ debut, Infinitely Polar Bear explores the lives of a young Boston family in Boston during the late 1970’s. Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana play parents to precocious sisters Imogene Wolodarsky and Ashley Aufderheide. Ruffalo’s character Cam suffers from manic depression and because it’s the 70’s, the treatment is harsh. So he often self-medicates with alcohol rather than his Lithium. Saldana’s Maggie gets accepted to Columbia’s MBA program and asks Cam to move back in and take care of the girls for 18 months while she gets her degree. I love an indie full of heart. Infinitely Polar Bear shows lots of heart in spite of the chaos of Cam’s illness. The young actresses playing the daughters are better than they should be – naturals at playing the role of embarrassed children. Ruffalo and Saldana make the film easy to watch, charming with a dash of honesty not always found in issue films. Happy to spent time with Infinitely Polar Bear. 4 out of 5.
What a rare treat to watch a documentary so personal and profound. Netflix’s What Happened, Miss Simone follows the life of Nina Simone from childhood where she witnessed her first dose of racism, to her study of classical piano, to her accidental singing career, to her signature style immediately familiar to anyone hearing her for the second time, to her marriage and motherhood, to her powerful embrace of the civil rights movement, to her disillusionment with the United States, to her ex-pat years, to her life-long battle with depression and mental illness to her comeback in later years. From the opening moment of the film, I sat captivated throughout her story. Struggle, hardship, triumph, connection, loss, love, community. All of that and more, What Happened, Miss Simone captures a monumental talent whose personal life was as complicated as her vocal range and genre-defying music. Her daughter’s reflection is particularly profound. A history lesson, a look into a life lived, What Happened, Miss Simone tells us Nina Simone’s complete story. 5 out of 5 for this essential documentary.
Saw My Favorite Martian, err The Martian on Blu-ray this evening. Made it through the two hours intact. Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel forms a tight film with beautiful special effects obviously. But I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the suspense? The Martian proved too pretty, too easy. Not enough chaos and strife. How is that possible? It felt like a Sci-Fi 2015 version of the 70’s classic Coke jingle, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing. Serene, pc, hopeful, and sanitized a bit too much. Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor all performed standard, decent acting. Nothing to cheer over. More interesting casting using Benedict Wong and Donald Glover in smaller character roles. In the end, China saved the day. Certainly realistic. The film felt like a NASCAR race. I didn’t hate it, but laughed more than I should have. Laughing at it not with it. The Martian gets a 3 out of 5.
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