X-Factor and the Catastrophic Rebirth of Jean Grey

During my eight month readthrough Chris Claremont's original X-Men run, I bought Essential X-Factor. Now, I'd read some of the early X-Factor issues, and knew they weren't very good, but having so much new X-material at such a low price was too sweet an offer to resist. I didn't actually start reading the book until a couple of days ago, and it lives down to my expectations. Rarely have so many quality stories been rendered completely nonsensical in the service of setting up a book. Let us delve deeper.

The book begins with two issues that give us the retcon that allowed Jean Grey to return to life. Retconning is always tricky territory, for every William the bloody awful poet, a retcon that fit perfectly with what came before and brought a lot more depth to the character, you're going to get five nonsensical, story killing developments. Bringing Jean back was a bad idea from the start, the power of the Dark Phoenix, the reason it stands out so much in comic book history, was largely the ending, where a hero had to face up to the consequences of her actions, not just forget about them and do something new next month.

So, the retcon was destined to fail from the start, bringing Jean back, no matter what Marvel's party line would tell you, does numb a lot of the power of the original story. The primary theme of the Phoenix storyline is that power corrupts, infused with this cosmic spirit, Jean gradually loses touch with humanity and responsibility, she indulges in all her personal fantasies, with Jason Wyngarde, and then proceeds to treat the universe like a toy. Given such power, we see that anyone could give in to these impulses and become a monster. So, the Phoenix force is a neutral power, it takes its emotion from Jean. When that emotion is love, as in the initial crystal universe saving storyline, it can be a powerful force for good.

When she becomes corrupted however, the Phoenix force becomes too dangerous to exist. Jean herself is caught between the pleasure she gets from enacting her new power and the morality she held before. Her personality has been warped, but part of the original her is still in there, and she gains control for long enough to aim the laser at herself and die on the moon.

The retcon alters things so that the real Jean was locked in a cocoon under the ocean while the Phoenix moved around in an exact duplicate of her body. Now, they claim that the Phoenix was pure evil, but some of Jean's goodness fought through and caused the entity to destroy itself. This just makes no sense, why would the Phoenix fuse the M'Kraan Crystal and save the world if its nature was evil? And, it utterly invalidates the original story's point about the corruption of power, replacing it with the maudlin idea that Jean's goodness somehow shown through and forced the Phoenix to kill itself.

One of the problems with this ressurection of Jean is that she's not a particularly interesting character on her own. Like Scott, she has no edge, she's just someone who wants to do good. This is boring, Scott's most interesting time under Claremont was when he was getting into the relationship with Maddy Pryor. He knows he only likes her because she looks like Jean, but that doesn't stop him from going forward with the relationship. So, Scott at least has a little edge, Jean now returns to a boring, pre-developed state.

The major problem with X-Factor is that the original X-Men were generally boring characters. Claremont made X-Men the success it was, and he did so with his people, not these five. So, we've got a bunch of rather boring superheroes lumped onto a team with an absoultely ridiculous premise. The idea of them as undercover mutant hunters seems like it would only feed into prejudice, by making mutants seem devious and secretive. Now, I believe later in the series, they acknowledge that it was all a scheme by Cameron Hodge to undermine them, but at the time, it was clearly meant to be seen as a good thing. It is weird to see Cameron Hodge here, with a human body, not a giant spider thing.

The Jean rebirth was pretty poorly handled, but I think the greater crime of X-Factor #1 is what it does to Scott and Maddy's relationship. What happens here is that Scott finds out Jean is alive, promptly leaves his wife and son without any explanation and apparently has no plans to return to them, instead returning to superheroics. Now, there are some hints that Scott is uneasy about what he's doing to Madelyn, but the fact that he leaves his wife in that manner is pretty much unforgivable.

The book tries to makes us believe that it makes more sense for him to lead this team because he can do more good than he can as a husband, but that just doesn't click. He could be a superhero, and still have his wife and child with him, the real reason he goes to New York and joins the team is because he's still in love with Jean. There's something a bit creepy about Scott, who's been through so much, trying to restart a relationship with Jean, who's living in such a different world than him. I know the passage of time is screwy in the comics world, but emotionally, Scott has grown so much, beyond the sort of childish love that he and Jean once had. He may be able to have a relationship with her in the future, but it's wrong to try to be with her right out of the cocoon.

If you're positioning Scott as the hero of the book, it's a critical mistake to make him such a bastard right from the start. Now, I always have been a huge fan of Madelyn, her story is so sad, she'll always be second best to Jean in Scott's eyes. One of the best moments in Claremont's entire run is during Fall of the Mutants, right before Maddy is going to sacrifice herself to save the world, she tells Scott she still loves him. She took all the awfulness that was heaped on her, and still was ready to let herself die in service of a cause. What happened to her afterwards, in Inferno, was all justification to get Scott and Jean together without guilt.

Reading X-Factor, and the two other issues, made me appreciate just how far ahead of everyone else Claremont was. His emphasis on character growth and continual evolution was unlike anyone else, and a stark contrast to the conservatism inherent in the premise of X-Factor. His run on X-Men is one of the great achievements in serial storytelling, no matter how much Marvel screws with it through retcons like this.

Babylon 5: 2x13-2x16

This run of episodes is one of the series' most consistently strong to date, paying off a lot of long developing plots in a way that opens up some really strong potential stories for the future. It's still not quite there every week, but the overarching narrative is progressing so well, I'm willing to forgive a couple of stumbles along the way.

'Hunter, Prey' is the weakest of these episodes, with an a A story that recahes season one levels of irrelevance. The point of this episode is to continue developing the corruption of the Earth government, but I think we've got that already, so this one ends up feeling like filler. It's fun to watch Sheridan and the B5 crew show up the general, but there's not much else of note.

What is interesting here is the further development of Sheridan's odd relationship with Kosh. Back in the dream, Sheridan got the idea that Kosh is grooming him for something and in this episode and the next, we see Kosh take him under his wing and teach him some odd lessons. I liked when Ivanova tells Sheridan that he's talking like a Vorlon now, because I too was unclear on what exactly was going on with him. I definitely got the emotion of the "pure beauty" sequence, the idea that even in the worst parts of this station, there are sights that will dazzle those who take the time out to look at them.

As we eventually find out, the Vorlons are the last of the ancient races, the others have "moved on." This idea seems heavily inspired by Tolkien. At the end of Return of the King, the ancient peoples go across the Grey Havens, leaving humans to rule over the age of men. It's the same kind of thing here, the Vorlons may be powerful, but they have few ties to this world, their time has passed. However, to ensure the future, Kosh must pass on his knowledge to Sheridan. He must show Sheridan how to view the world in the way he does, only then can they win the war against the Shadows. And, once that task is complete, Kosh and the Vorlons will be able to move on as well. I really like this idea of the ancients, it gives even greater scope to the story.

In 'There All the Honor Lies,' we get further insight into the world of the Minbari. Unfortunately, the Minbari are the least interesting of the alien races, probably because they're the least human. JMS implies that the humans and Minbari have the deepest connection, but the flawed, struggling Narn and Centauri seem to have more similarities to what we are. I suppose he's taking an optimistic view of humanity's future, presenting the Minbari as a potential future for us, a group to emulate. But, a group like that isn't going to be as interesting to watch, and though the Minbari murder storyline causes some good tension, it doesn't work as well as it might have if there was more ambiguity. We know that Sheridan was in the right and it's only a matter of proving that. If he was less certain about what he did then the story's moral questions would have been more compelling. As it is, we're just waiting for the Minbari guy to tell the truth and exonerate Sheridan.

The most interesting ongoing thread with the Minbari this year has been Delenn's struggle to deal with her new hybrid nature. The human side of her seems to be more emotional than she was used to, and that makes it difficult to deal with the pain she's feeling, facing rejection from all around. Her attempt to negotiate a medium between humans and Minbari seems to have thoroughly failed and she's now a flashpoint for their tension. As I've said before, the series' main thematic point is that Babylon 5 is good, a source of peace, while the homeworlds are myopic, seeking only to forward their own agendas. Delenn is now the physical embodiment of the compromises they seek on Babylon 5, and those who reject her are the people who will stand in the way of the peace process.

This episode also gives us the hilarious subplot involving the Babylon 5 store. This one walks the line of being too meta, but it ends up working because it's very funny. I was freeze framing the DVD to check out the Londo and G'Kar action figures, and any time Londo appeared in the same frame as the action figure version of himself, I was cracking up. The episode gives us a lighter side of Londo than we'd seen recently, but it works. He still clearly cares about Vir and the people around him, he's not yet aware of the extent of what he's done. When the consequences of his actions start to emerge, then we'll see a total change in him, but for now, he's tough in negotiations, but still kind to those he knows personally. His rapid rise to power has made him appreciate those who were loyal to him earlier even more.

The episode ends with the almost surreal comedy of the bear tossed out the airlock, floating in space. It's a good comedy bit and is weird enough that it avoids the sitcom flavor of some of the first season's endings. I don't now mind meta comedy, as long as it's funny.

'And Now for a Word' was a very good episode, but I feel like it would have had more impact at the time. These sorts of gimmicky episodes have been used on a lot of shows in the past ten years, and as a result, it doesn't feel as bold as it must have back when the show first aired. It's still cool to see things from a different perspective, but I just sort of accepted it, I wasn't wowed by it.

Stylistically, I would have liked a bit more grit. Today, you could have shot this on high end DV, as a nice contrast to film, but here, it's on the same stock, so only the somewhat shakier camera work differentiates it from the show's usual cinematography. Now that we're so used to handheld, verite style camera work in fictional shows, this doesn't particularly stand out. Friday Night Lights or Battlestar look more 'realistic' than this episode did. That said, the on screen graphics gave us some interesting information, and the interviews with Earth personnel gives the best insight yet into how the Earth government views Babylon 5.

This episode is quite prescient in its depiction of a conflict over purported weapons of mass destruction and a US government that is none too eager to heed to UN regulations. Babylon 5 has always been positioned as essentially the UN, but never more so here. They talk about using the station as a means to prevent another major war following the Earth-Minbari conflict, but with time passed, it's lost its purpose. I'd imagine Bush would say the same exact thing about the UN, he certainly didn't listen to it when it came time to invade Iraq.

Battlestar Galactica is consistently hailed for its topicality, it's from a decidedly post 9/11 mindset. Babylon 5's first season came from a totally different, more hopeful political time. This season seems more relevant to today, the fundamental series conflict between globalism and selfish nationalism is always going to be relevant.

The news format allows for the most fun piece of the episode, the Psi Corps commercial. It's a bit obvious in its parody, but it works both as comedy and as a look into the way that the Psi Corps wants to present itself. This episode is most interesting in showing how perspective and intent affect presentation, the way events are skewed to support the Earth government's agenda.

Beyond the format, there's a lot of really strong story stuff here. The conflict with the Centauri transport is similar to what we already saw in 'Acts of Sacrifice,' and I'm guessing that's the reason they chose to go with the news presentation, to keep things fresh. In the documentary interviews, we mostly see what we already know, but there's some interesting character insights. Delenn's near breadown is tough to watch, and G'Kar's description of the Centauri invasion of the Narn homeworld connects it closely to our own planet's colonial history. I like the juxtaposition of G'Kar and Londo's wildly different accounts of the Centauri occupation. When Londo's in the public eye, he remains a skilled diplomat, always skewing events to serve his own agenda, and his recent success has given him the confidence to be even bolder with his interpretation of the truth.

The past few episodes sway the viewer decidedly to the Narn side of things, so I like that they have the Narn ship come in and attack the Centauris. It complicates things and is indicative of how war really works. If one side isn't playing by the rules, the other isn't going to either, even if that attack may be 'wrong.' I love the scene at the end where she asks G'Kar is he thinks Babylon 5 still works and he responds in the negative. His loss of faith in the diplomatic process is one of the show's most compelling arcs.

Based on its title, I was expecting some big developments from 'In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum,' and it delivers. The episode's best twist occurred in the teaser, when we find out that Morden was on the ship with Sheridan's wife. It's a brilliant twist because in the answer it gives us about Morden, it opens up so many new story possibilities. As 24 shows us, it's always good to have our hero have some personal involvement in the conflict.

This episode reveals a ton of background on the Shadows, a lot of it could be deduced from what we'd already seen, but it's nice to pull all the pieces together. It turns out that it's human explorers who woke the Shadows from their rest. Considering the show so wholeheartedly endorses space exploration, it seems odd that human exploration would be the cause of this massive threat. I suppose the point is that we must be responsible in our exploring, or it could lead to awful consequences. The Shadows are now assembling their forces, and I'd imagine they'll make themselves known just in time for a season ending cliffhanger.

The Shadows either hired or killed all the people on the Icarus, and considering the fact that the story is available, I'm assuming Anna is still alive, perhaps coerced into aiding the Shadows. That could lead us to a fantastic conflict where Sheridan has to choose between attacking the Shadows and killing his wife, or putting the galaxy in danger by letting them go. When you set up the pieces like this, the story practically writes itself. I'm assuming there'll be some twists in there, but it was a brilliant choice to connect Morden with that piece of backstory.

This episode also gives the Captain a bit more edge. One of my main problems with the human characters so far is that they're too good, there's little moral ambiguity in their behavior. Here, we see Sheridan breaking the law and even putting Talia in deliberate psychic danger, all in the hopes of getting the information he needs. It's the most interesting the character has been and I hope we continue to see him pushed into this morally ambiguous territory. He knows that his wife could potentially be alive, and that's going to change the way he approaches war with the Shadows.

Morden has become this show's equivalent of The Smoking Man, only appearing occasionally, but providing our human link to a vast conspiracy. His total calm in the interrogation room is great, and leaves me wondering whether he actually doesn't remember what happened, or was just saying that. Considering he probably wasn't an evil guy when he went out on the Icarus, it's quite possible he was reprogrammed by the Shadows to serve them. He certainly looks evil when he's talking with those two Shadows in his cell. However, he, like Londo, may have been lured to their side by some kind of material reward and is now thoroughly ensconced in their world. Reprogramming would make it easier for Sheridan to get his wife back, with him eventually breaking through to the real her, however it's also possible that she's just being held prisoner because the Shadows know she could be valuable down the line. Putting the personal and professional responsibilities of the hero in conflict is the key to great drama and that's what this episode has done for Sheridan.

This was a fantastic episode that filled in a lot of backstory and opened up some rich potential directions for the series. Already, Sheridan is aware of some connection between the Centauri and Morden, and pursuing that connection could lead back to Londo. If the Minbari become aware that the Shadows are working for the Centauri, that could lead them to ally with the Narn. I'm guessing that the Narn-Centauri war will eventually segue into the war with the Shadows, with Earth/Minbari/Narn going up against the Shadows/Centauri, but only watching more episodes will tell for sure.

2006 Screening Log: Part II

Here's all the films I saw in the second half of 2006. The ones with an asterisk are films I'd seen already, but rewatched.

Five Star
A Scanner Darkly (Linklater)
Nashville (Altman)*
Mysterious Skin (Araki)*
3 Women (Altman)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Altman)*
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coens)*
All That Jazz (Fosse)*
Miami Vice (Mann)
Goodfellas (Scorsese)*
Idlewild (Barber)
Ellie Parker (Coffey)
The Godfather: Part II (Coppola)*
Manderlay (Von Trier)
Samaritan Girl (Kim)*
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Meyer)
The Science of Sleep (Gondry)
The Doom Generation (Araki)*
The Departed (Scorsese)
Inland Empire (Lynch)
Last Days (Van Sant)*
Marie Antoinette (Coppola)
Blue Velvet (Lynch)*
Crash (Cronenberg)
Wild at Heart (Lynch)*
Blade Runner (Scott)*
Casino Royale (Campbell)
The New World (Malick)*
The Fountain (Aronofsky)
Mulholland Dr. (Lynch)*
Kamikaze Girls
Babel (Inarritu)

Four Star
About Schmidt (Payne)
Images (Altman)
Clerks (Smith)*
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (Winterbottom)
Clerks II (Smith)
Hotel (Figgis)
Shopgirl
Snatch (Ritchie)*
Collateral (Mann)*
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Mitchell)
Bucket of Blood (Corman)
Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (Meyer)*
Daft Punk: Interstella 555*
Captain Blood (Curtiz)*
Vixen (Meyer)
Stranger than Paradise (Jarmusch)*
Scarlet Diva (Argento)
Borat (Charles)
Poison (Haynes)*
Layer Cake (Vaughan)
George Washington (Green)
Time (Kim)
Rocky Balboa (Stallone)
Little Children (Field)
Children of Men (Cuaron)

Three Star
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Verbinski)
Jesus Christ Superstar (Jewison)
Stealing Beauty (Bertolucci)
Manhunter (Mann)
Splendor (Araki)
Little Miss Sunshine (Dayton)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Little Shop of Horrors (Corman)
Hard Candy
Shadows (Cassavetes)
Down in the Valley
Three Times (Hsien)
The Prestige (Nolan)
Matewan (Sayles)
Tongues Untied (Riggs)
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (Argento)
Trust (Hartley)
The Great Yokai War (Miike)
Center Stage (Kwan)
L'Enfant (Dardennes)
The Queen (Frears)
The Black Dahlia (De Palma)

Two Star
Popeye (Altman)
The Passenger (Antonioni)
Memoirs of a Geisha (Marshall)
California Split (Altman)
Cache (Haneke)
The Illusionist
The Hitch Hiker
Maniac
Battle Royale
Sweeet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (Van Peebles)
Little Fugitive
Suicide Club
A Portrait of Jason (Clarke)
Harlan County, USA
Killer of Sheep (Burnett)
The Moderns (Rudolph)
Drugstore Cowboy (Van Sant)
Daughters of the Dust (Dash)
Kicking and Screaming (Baumbach)
Firecracker
Quintet (Altman)
Hostel (Roth)
Battle in Heaven
The Proposition
Brick

One Star
Aeon Flux
Whale Rider (Caro)
Altered States (Russell)
Park Row (Fuller)
Salt of the Earth
Pink Flamingos
Harlot (Warhol)
Vinyl (Warhol)
A World Without Thieves
American Dreamz (Weisz)

Subtracting stuff I'd watched before, here's the overall ratings breakdown.

Five Stars: 16
Four Stars: 17
Three Stars: 22
Two Stars: 25
One Star: 10

So, there were a lot of really good movies, but I also watched a bunch of clunkers. I've covered most of the canon at this point, so the new stuff I watch is likely to be more experimental. That means that sometimes it's great, but a lot of the time, it doesn't quite make it. For comparison's sake, here's the figures for previous years.

First Half of 2005:
Five Stars: 16
Four Stars: 27
Three Stars: 34
Two Stars: 23
One Star: 32

Second Half of 2005:
Five Stars: 9
Four Stars: 30
Three Stars: 29
Two Stars: 18
One Star: 11

First Half of 2006:
Five Stars: 8
Four Stars: 32
Three Stars: 50
Two Stars: 45
One Star: 14

Best of 2006: Top Ten Films of the Year

With this, we shall bid farewell to the year that was and move on to something new. This year had a lot of really great films, and for me, represented a continuing evolution in the way I view cinema. I'm less and less interested in narrative, more interested in style and emotion. The year's best film is a perfect example of this, and a lot of others on the list are too. So, read on and find out...

10. Idlewild - I was waiting for this film for a while, and, apparently unlike the rest of the world, it totally lived up to my expectations. The musical is one of the most distinctly cinematic genres, and this is one of the few film musicals that feels fresh and now. For whatever reason, it's become a conservative genre, rehashing the same classic hits and packaging pre-existing songs into cash in jukebox narratives. This one does use some pre-existing songs, but it feels distinctly new and alive, incorporating those songs seamlessly into its world. The final performance sequences rank with the most purely fun material you'll see at the cinema this year. It may not be boldly groundbreaking, but it delivers on exactly what it promises.

My Review



9. Manderlay - Von Trier remains one of the most challenging, confrontational filmmakers working today. This film, finally released in the US in early 2006, expands on the world of Dogville, presenting a similarly constructed allegorical world that poses challenging questions about the United States and its history. It's ridiculous to criticize Von Trier for making this in spite of the fact that he's never been to the US. He is aware of what our national policy has produced, our attitudes have global reach and he is forcing us to confront those attitudes. The stage setting never feels gimmicky, instead it allows us to focus on the actors and their characters. While it doesn't quite match Dogville, this is still extremely powerful cinema, anchored by a fantastic lead performance from Bryce Dallas Howard.

My Review



8. Funky Forest - This is the oddball on the list, a Japanese film I saw at the New York Asian Film Festival. It's a three hour long journey through a hyperactive subconscious, full of comedy skits and bizarre images. This is truly like nothing you've seen before, a relentless assault of strangeness. There's the deadpan comedy of the Guitar Brothers, the oddness of a UFO abduction and alien dance sequence and the hilarious Homeroom stuff. Like another bizarre three hour film on this list, it's more an experience than a narrative, and that's a great use of cinema.



7. Babel - Inarritu expands on his previous work, taking the small scale dramas of Amores Perroes and 21 Grams and throwing them onto a global canvas. What makes this film so powerful is the way we're completely sympathetic to every character when they're on screen, in spite of the fact that their agendas are in conflict. But, seeing the events from their side, makes us realize that there's no us/them, it's all one massive human organism surging forward. Chieko's trip to the nightclub is one of the year's best scenes, a fantastic swirl of light and motion. This is the best multicharacter ensemble drama since Magnolia.

My Review



6. The Departed - It lacks the intellectual gravitas of some of the films on this list, but few can match it for pure entertainment value. Scorsese takes Infernal Affairs as a base and then throws on massive amounts of operatic excess, in the acting, cinematography and violence. Every single actor seems to be having the time of their life in this movie, and Wahlberg in particular has never been better. The film allows Scorsese to create a canvas of pop excess, one that was still compelling even though I already knew what would happen next. This is what a remake should do, take the original story, but film it with a different spirit. The restraint of the original is all gone, replaced by a distinctly American voice.

My Review



5. Marie Antoinette - Another vastly underappreciated film. People who criticized the film for its embrace of materialistic excess totally miss the point. For Marie, consumerism is the only way to escape from the strict, limited role she fills in the court. Few moments in film are as joyous as the montages of her at her country estate, the Malick inspired journey through beautiful natural landscapes, and her nighttime frolic with her crew. This is the most alive, real period film since Barry Lyndon, and part of what I think is so jarring is that the film depicts its historical subjects as people with flaws rather than caricatures out of history books. Even if Marie wasn't exactly like this, she was the eighteenth century equivalent of a Paris Hilton, so it makes sense to position her in that context. I can guarantee that this will one day experience a positive critical and cultural reevaluation.

My Review



4. The Science of Sleep - I was a bit shocked to find this film on no other top ten lists I've seen. This darker 'remix' of Eternal Sunshine goes to a rawer emotional place than that film, replacing Charlie Kaufman's ironic wit with a character arc that's distinctly Gondry's. I love the way a small, everyday story is made huge through the dream sequence visuals. In our own minds, minute conflicts, like the letter incident, are played out as epic dramas, and few films have captured that sense better than this. The film feels so close to Gondry, it's painful to watch some moments, that's the sign of a good film, that it can move us so. Bernal and Gainsbourg have fantastic chemistry and I love the ambiguity of the ending. This is a film full of visual wonder and emotional power, that's what the medium is all about.

My Review



3. The Fountain - A wildly ambitious film, I'm just happy that Aronofsky finally got a chance to tell his story. This is the kind of movie that's pounced on by critics for not quite acheiving what it sets out to do, and I'd agree that there's some missteps. But, I'd rather see a film that's so challenging and packed with material that doesn't quite make it than one that sets out to do something small and aces it. The Fountain is the most cosmically alive film since 2001, and though its scope is more focused, it still tells some vital truths about the human experience. The final twenty minutes or so are absoultely sublime, with two of the year's most powerful images: the plants bursting out of the conquistador, and the future Tom being ripped apart in a burst of light. No moment in cinema this year made me gasp like seeing that small white dot of light on a black screen explode into a gush of image and beauty. With this, Aronofsky proved he can do more than just his 'hip hop montage style,' and I'm very curious to see where he goes next.

My Review



2. INLAND EMPIRE - Ordering these last two was the toughest thing about this list. I went back and forth a bunch of times, and came out with this order. But, these last two films are nearly equal, and both a jump ahead everything else on the list. Anyway, what can I say about this film that I haven't already? It's a totally new use of cinema and one of the boldest artistic reinventions of any director ever. After two viewings, it's only just begun to reveal its secrets, and I think I'll watch this film again more times than any other on this list. There are moments in here that have an almost mystical power, like nothing I've ever seen before. I love that Lynch continues to push his art forward, while it may not be as consistent as Fire Walk With Me or Mulholland Dr., there are moments in here that eclipse anything he's done before. And the closing credits sequence is one of the most joyous things I've ever experienced in film, the perfect capper to a strange, enthralling journey.

My Review (2) (3)



1. Miami Vice - I went back and forth on the number one, but a third viewing of Miami Vice put it over the top. I was enthralled right from the opening cut, which dumps us into a nightclub with no exposition, no context, only a weirdly outfitted dancer and the sounds of Jay-Z/Linkin Park. The DV photography is absolutely gorgeous, the best use of the new technology to date, giving us seemingly endless cityscapes and oceans that stretch out as far as we can see. The relationship between Sonny and Isabella is perfectly presented, giving us just enough that we can feel what the characters are feeling, a search for joy in the moment, but always aware that the relationship will not last. I love the final moments of the film, as Sonny watches Isabella disappear out to sea and they each return to their lives. Beyond narrative, Mann has an unparalleled eye for aesthetic greatness, be it in the sequence at Yero's club, or just in Gong Li's fantastic sunglasses and suit when she's walking off the plane. The film creates a cohesive, stylish world, one you drift into when you watch it. That's what I want from a movie, to be fully immersed in something totally other, yet completely relatable. This film did it, and that's why it's the best movie of the year.

My Review (2)



Next up, I'll post my Screening Log for the second half of 2006, with star rankings for everything I saw. Then, at some point later in the month, I'll post my Academy Award nominations/winners, which will wrap up 2006. And tomorrow, look for my preview of 2007's films. Six of this year's top ten films, the top six, were in the 2006 preview, so it's worth taking a look at. And here at the start of 2007, just a thanks to everyone who read the blog last year, and keep reading this year. And, just to recap.

1. Miami Vice
2. INLAND EMPIRE
3. The Fountain
4. The Science of Sleep
5. Marie Antoinette
6. The Departed
7. Babel
8. Funky Forest
9. Manderlay
10. Idlewild

Best of 2006: Top Fifteen Albums

Has anyone else on the internet done a top albums of the year list yet? I don't know, I haven't seen any. Seriously, I'm a bit behind on this, but there's some different picks, so perhaps you'll find somethin worth checking out.

15. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat: Few albums create such a well defined world as this one does. The title track features a fully developed narrative that makes it hard to believe Jenny was a child star, not a poor girl in the South. The songs are in a country gospel style, but there's enough of the driving rhythms of Rilo Kiley to keep things interesting. "The Big Guns" is suitably charging, while "Rise Up With Fists" has a wonderful, relaxed rhythm. But, the highlight is the ethereal "Born Secular," a startlingly beautiful mix of vocal harmonies.

Standout Track: Born Secular

14. Nelly Furtado - Loose: She's got the best song of the year on here with 'Maneater,' relentless, 80s inspired, but distinctly 00s. Timbaland fills the album with weird, expansive synths, in simple, but memorable lines. The synth part on 'Promiscuous' gives a great base for the flirting vocal interplay between Furtado and Tim. I've heard that song so many times and it just never gets old. Other strong stuff is the wistful finale, 'All Good Things,' and the glitchy, trip hop 'Afraid.' A lot of people criticized Nelly Furtado for putting on a new persona for the album, maybe that's true, but just listening to it, you get a standout example of distinctly 00s pop.

Standout Track: Maneater

13. Peeping Tom - Peeping Tom: Mike Patton is the most versatile vocalist working today, able to seamlessly move from assaultive screaming to smooth crooning. His best work is distinctly experimental, and the greatest knock on this album is that it's something of Patton by numbers. But, Patton on autopoilot is still worlds better and distinct than most people at their best. 'Five Seconds' is one of the nastiest album openers I've heard in a while, starting with the ultra smooth delivery of "Strolling through the slaughterhouse of love," eventually cutting into his more assaultive scream style for the chorus, then quickly scaling back for the verse. That's what makes Patton so special, the contrast and variety of his vocals. This album has a whole bunch of great stuff, particularly 'Mojo' and 'I'm Not Alone.'

Standout Track: Five Seconds

12. Men, Women and Children: Electrodancerock is my favorite musical form to emerge here in the 00s, and I think bands like The Rapture are one day going to be hailed as pioneers. They opened the door for a band like Men, Women and Children, one of the smoothest fusions of dance and rock to emerge yet. The album opens with gnashing guitars, then segues into an ultrasmooth disco rhythm. That perfectly sums up what the band does, mix rock and dance elements into something that's a lot of fun to listen to. There's no bad track here, you could drop any of these on a club floor and get people moving.

Standout Track: Time for the Future (Bang Bang)

11. Bruce Springsteen - The Seeger Sessions (We Shall Overcome): This album initially seemed the definition of throwaway, if Rod Stewart is any indication, the covers album is a prime sign of artistic atrophy. Rather than approaching these songs with an acoustic, one man style, Springsteen arranges them for a full Dixieland band and creates one of the most fun albums of the year. I love the extended instrumental solos, particularly on 'O Mary, Don't You Weep' and 'Eyes on the Prize.' More than any other album this year, I wish I could just jam with these guys, drop my own solo in there. This is exactly what a cover should do, preserve the message of the original song, but expand on it in some way.

Standout Track: Eyes on the Prize

10. Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That: I've got to start by saying that this album was a bit of a disappointment. Alphabetical is one of my all time favorite albums and it took a while to get used to their new direction. However, there is a lot to appreciate here. 'Long Distance Call' joins the pantheon of their other perfect pop singles. The other songs rely less on their trademark warm synths, going for a straight rock direction. 'Sometimes in a Fall' builds to a fantastic release in the chorus, and emotion infuses all the songs. Still, it feels less distinct than their best work, and that's why this is ten, while Alphabetical was the second best album of 2004.

Standout Track: Long Distance Call

9. Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors: He keeps the momentum from 2004's brilliant You are the Quarry going with another fantastic set of songs. You'd think the guy would have less angst at this point, but there's still plenty of emotional trauma to draw from. The epic opener 'I Will See You in Far Off Places' is full of eclectic instrumentation, making it unique from other work in his catalogue, but it's the driving rock songs like 'You Have Killed Me' and 'In the Future When All's Well' that form the core of the album. The ridiculously excessive finale 'At Last I Am Born' is distinctly Moz in its theatricality, no one else could pull off that song, but he does it seamlessly.

Standout Track: The Youngest was the Most Loved

8. The Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics: As with "It's Never Been Like That," this album had the misfortune of following two masterpieces. I think the Lips did a great job of building on what worked in 'Bulletin' and 'Yoshimi,' and also bringing in new elements. No one sounds like they do on the bizarre pop of 'The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song' or 'The W.A.N.D,' but my favorite moments from the album are the Pink Floydian 'My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion' and 'Pompeii am Gotterdammerung.' Those songs feature absolutely gorgeous psychedlic instrumental sections.

Standout Track: My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion

7. Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape: Making a comparison that will likely cause rock purists to cringe, this is the "Amnesiac" to "Love Angel Music Baby"'s "Kid A." That album was a revelation with its 80s inspired pop songs. It's one of my favorite albums of the decade. This one has some songs that are just as good as the best on there, "Sweet Escape," "Early Winter," "4 in the Morning" and particularly "Wonderful Life" are all perfect. Unfortuantely, the other songs are more disparate in quality, the opening single, "Wind it Up" is pretty bad, and there's a few forgettable crunk sounding songs mixed in there as well. I think listeners of the future will view this album and its predecessor as one unit, and likely appreciate it more as a result. But, if you were to take the six best songs off this album and the six best off "LAMB," you'd have the best pop album of all time.

Standout Track: Wonderful Life

6. The Pipettes - We Are the Pipettes: From 80s inspired pop to 60s inspired pop, this is just a perfect a record. 60s girl group music was great, and this stands with the best of it. The lush strings and vocal harmonies help make the simple songs sonically memorable. The lyrics are clever, and things never repetitive, a major potential problem with a group like this. Any track on here could be a single.

Standout Track: Pull Shapes

5. Scissor Sisters - Ta Dah: Continuing the journey through decades, we stop at the 70s, for another fantastic era aping pop album. The opening track, 'I Don't Feel Like Dancin', co-written by Elton John, inhabits the same space as the Beegee's best work. 'Lights' is another high point, using a great horn line for a song reminiscent of 'Superstition.' 'Land of a Thousand Words' and 'I Might Tell You Tonight' are top notch ballads and 'Kiss You Off' proves they can still do more modern style electropop. It's shiny, smooth pop, and I'm really hoping to get to see them live in March.

Standout Track: I Don't Feel Like Dancin'

4. Goldfrapp - Supernature: Continuing their evolution from ambient downtempo songs to driving glamrock pop songs, this album proves they weren't lying when they titled an album "We are glitter." The albums opens with a string of three perfect pop songs, the atmospheric synths of their early work still present, but now backed by club style bass. There's a bit more humanity in a song like "Ooh La La" and particularly the finale "No. 1" than in their early work. "Time Out From the World" proves they can still do lower tempo, chilled tracks, but it's the driving pop songs that linger. They've released five singles off the album and they're all great songs. This is their best album yet, and I hope they continue to evolve in this current direction. My only request would be that she brings back the siren-like high pitched vocals used on 'Lovely Head,' mixing that with these club style songs could create something totally new.

Standout Track: No. 1

3. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds: Of all the albums on this list, this one feels the most like one cohesive work. While his debut had some killer singles, it didn't really flow. Here, the tracks bleed into and out of each other, stretching out into interludes that bridge them together. More generally, the album moves from the ultratechy mechanical opening, with the title track and 'Sexy Back,' gradually becoming more organic, culminating in the acoustic finale. Unlike a lot of people, I thought 'Sexy Back' was a fantastic first single, and it sounds even better in context, after the almost Nine Inch Nails style title track. Timbaland drops so many fantastic instrumental loops in here, each song feels like it has the potential for a great ten minute club mix. I already covered My Love here, some other standouts are 'Love Stoned,' which starts as a driving club song and segues into a gorgeous indie rock style by the end. 'What Comes Around...' isn't quite 'Cry Me a River,' but it's pretty damn close. There's not a bad track on here and they flow so well together, Timberlake and Timbaland are working on a whole different level from everyone else in pop music. I'm glad that some of the most popular songs of the year are also some of the best.

Standout Track: My Love

2. Cansei de Ser Sexy - Cansei de Ser Sexy: Another mix of dance and rock, this album is just so now, breaking down generic boundaries and, above all, embracing a pop sensibility. Their disco style basslines are infectious, as in the opening buildup on 'Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above.' The driving 'Alala' and hilarious 'Art Bitch' are also highlights. The album is unrelentingly dirty, something I didn't even notice for a long time, because I was so caught up in the driving dance beats. It's simple, but infectious, if you wanted to show someone where music is going, you couldn't do much better than giving them this album.

Standout Track: Music is My Hot, Hot Sex

1. Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit: It feels like ages since I heard this album, but in that time, nothing has topped it. I think Dear Catastrophe Waitress is their best album, but it wasn't a sustainable direction, this album is the perfect fusion of all the different eras of B&S, while at the same time establishing a more upbeat status quo. A track like 'Sukie in the Graveyard' might have been played as a lowkey acoustic number in the past, now it's uptempo, with a great synth line and a killer guitar solo. 'White Collar Boy' is a great anthemic track and 'Song for the Sunshine' is a weird, 70s style funk song. The other albums on this list generally take one thing and do it well. This album is all over in terms of style and tempo, while still maintatining a cohesiveness. No song this year can match the fragile pain of 'Dress Up in You,' but one track after we're into the exuberant 'Sukie in the Graveyard.' No band today can match the scope of their catalogue, and the quality of this album bodes very well for their future. I can't wait to see what's next.

Standout Track: Sukie in the Graveyard

Babylon 5: 2x10-2x12

It's a big blog day today, later on I'll be posting the year end best lists for both films and music. But, first, more Babylon 5. With the start of the Narn-Centauri War in 'The Coming of the Shadows,' I wasn't sure how the show would structure itself. Would we go to a purely serial format? Not exactly, while the war hangs over everything, it remained in the background for the first two of these three episodes. Much like the Shadow threat in the beginning of the season, we always get some hints about what's going on, but the show is still mostly standalone episodes.

In that respect, the show's structure reminds me of The X-Files, where there was a clear divide between the standalone episodes and the mythology episodes. Thankfully, they do acknowledge major events in the standalones here, and most of them tie into ongoing plots in some way. However, it is still frustrating to go through these less important stories and have to wait for followup on the major events.

I had heard that 'GROPOS' was a really weak episode, and those lowered expectations meant I actually really enjoyed the episode. Anything's going to be a downturn after 'The Coming of Shadows,' but this one does an admirable job of thematically tying in with what we saw there, as well as developing the ongoing story of corruption in the Earth government. If I have one complaint about this episode, it's that it's using something of a stock story, and stock characters, with the soldiers on leave. I feel like I've seen this before, the fighting, the camaraderie.

But, I think that's partially the point, to show that these behavior patterns are always going to be part of being a soldier. Putting your life in danger means having a devil may care attitude, and that means starting a bar fight for no apparent reason. In the case of Dodger, it means seeking out small moments of emotional release wherever she can find them. In this case, I felt Garibaldi was rather misunderstanding in the way he treated her. He knew what she wanted, and when someone's just passing through your space station, it's not the time to talk about wanting a long term relationship. In most shows, you usually don't have one of your main characters having a one night stand without any consequence. Witness what happens to Skinner or Mulder in The X-Files. Here, they choose to emphasize Garibaldi's emotional pain and confusion, which forces him to ultimately push Dodger away.

A part of the episode that didn't work so well was Franklin's relationship with his father. This felt cliched, and also covered the same territory as most other Franklin storylines. He always has to proclaim his sacred duty as a doctor and defend that against some outside force. I'm assuming it's building towards some major crisis later on, but I think we get the idea by this point.

A more effective piece of the episode was Delenn getting bullied by the soldiers. In this, and the next episode, we get a great sense of how disconnected she is, caught between two worlds, but belonging to neither. For the people on Babylon 5 who are committed to diplomacy, that is the inevitable conflict, forced to place the good of the galaxy as a whole above their loyalty to their own world. When she's kicked off the Grey Council, B5 becomes her only chance to make things better.

The thing that makes this episode work is the finale, where we see that all of the soldiers we knew have died. The ending makes the episode because it puts their actions in context. All these people knew they could die at any time, they were prepared to accept it, but I don't think the people on Babylon 5 were. A major theme of the show is the idea that war is awful and destructive, and this ending perfectly conveys that.

Next up is 'All Alone in the Night,' an episode with a rather goofy A story, but a lot of good stuff in there as well. Sheridan's kidnapping just doesn't work. They always like to put the Captains in action situations, and that works sometimes, but here, the set looked fake and the story itself was pretty nonsensical, and, at a time when there's so many warring factions out in space, it seems odd to have it be a random ship that attacks the Captain.

That said, I loved the dream sequence. This one seemed inspired by Twin Peaks, with its ambiguous dialogue and heavy stylization. What do I pull from it? It looks like Ivanova will die, as anyone who's watched the Six Feet Under opening credits, a crow does not bode well for one's future. And, Kosh will apparently have some major role to play in the future, though he remains decidedly ambiguous now.

While I may complain about some of the show's pacing with regards to major story development, I love the fact that Kosh remains in the background, still mysterious. Today, I feel like people would be complaining by midway through the first season that they haven't gotten all the answers they want. I think people neglect to realize that answers are never satisfying, it's the journey there. Now, in the case of Lost, I think they forgot to develop characters and tell a story, instead they just teased mysteries, and that's why people were so frustrated.

The ending fits thematically with what I was saying before about Delenn. Sheridan is technically betraying the Earth military, his only true loyalty is to Babylon 5, and when he calls the others in, they too pledge loyalty to the idea of diplomacy over their own homeworld. This development is a perfect thematic fit because the whole point of the show is that Babylon 5 is the only hope for peace, while the homeworlds are only seeking power for themselves. Even the Minbari are now on the path to war, things are getting worse for the galaxy. This also confirms that the conflict with Psi Corps and the Earth military will be the show's major B-story going forward.

The best episode of these three by far is 'Acts of Sacrifice,' which gives us our first major insight in the Narn-Centauri War. The opening is very well done, both in terms of effects and in terms of emotional engagement. The sequence recalled the Rebels' escape from Hoth in Empire, and is one of the few works to capture that same reckless spirit of fighting against a seemingly invincible foe.

This moves us into G'Kar's quest to obtain military aid for the Narn cause. Both the humans and Minbari say that they would love to help, but can't get the homeworld to agree on it. If it was up to Sheridan, would he send in major military aid? I'm not sure, I think he's too canny to fully commit to one side, particularly when it would mean the potential loss of a lot of Earth soldiers. Delenn's reason for not helping G'Kar is a brilliant use of continuity. She knows that the conflict between Narn and Centauri is an ongoing thing that is only going to get worse with this war, and helping one side will just perpetuate the cycle of violence.

However, both she, and we the viewers, know that G'Kar is less to blame for what has happened. He's the one who was willing to make peace back in 'The Coming of Shadows,' and is justifiably trying to defend his people. He believes he can convince the Earthers and Minbari to offer him aid, and his attmepts to conform to their rules of behavior causes problems within the Narn community. This whole storyline is masterfully executed, showing how much G'Kar has grown. He understands how the Babylon 5 diplomatic system works, and is willing to play by its rules, even if it means subjecting himself to physical harm and eventual emotional reaction.

The scene where they tell G'Kar that they can only offer him meager aid is the high point of the episode. Here, we see that all his effort could not sway them. He will get help for his people, but nothing he can show, and nothing to aid in the war. It is a good thing, and the diplomatic side of him knows that, but the warrior side wishes he could have more. He has to keep his emotions in check, and thank them for hte aid, playing by their rules, but outside he breaks down, in a mix of laughter and tears. He's been spiralling downward over the course of the season and is likely headed for a major break in the future.

The other major storyline focuses on Londo. Following 'The Coming of Shadows,' I was wondering how they'd keep Londo as a regular character. He seemed to cross a line there, and that's reflected in this story. Rather than show him as an outright villain, we see the same guy, now forced to deal with the effect of his actions. He seems to have become a kind of mafia don, fielding requests from many friends he never knew he had. Londo is smart enough to recognize the hollowness of their affection, and he seeks true friendship from Garibaldi. Of course, Garibaldi is aware that Londo has crossed a line and is not really comfortable treating him in the same way he did before.

It's interesting that we're still made to feel sorry for Londo, despite viewing him as a total bastard in the G'Kar parts of the episode. The scene where he's at the bar at closing time is so sad, and even when he does drink with Garibaldi, it's a totally hollow feeling. I like how everyone is scared of him, even though he detects no change.

Elsewhere, Ivanova's Earth sex was one of the funniest things the show's done so far, a nice counterpoint to the dark stuff going on elsewhere. The humor on the show has definitely picked up, early on it was a bit sitcom, but the darker general tone means the humor stands out more. It's like on Buffy, season six was both the saddest, darkest season of the show and the funniest.

So, this was a strong run of episodes. I would have liked more on the Narn-Centauri War, but this last episode was fantastic, and I'm really excited to see where things go next.

Babylon 5: 2x06-2x09

This run of episodes features the series' best so far, along with some lesser, but still strong hours. I approached the first season as a prologue, something that wouldn't have that much merit on its own, rather it was a necessary step to reach the riches the rest of the series held. So, when I hit the end of the first season, and the crackling opening of season two, I figured the series was in the home stretch, ready to take this Shadows arc to greatness. But, that's not exactly what happened. The standalone episodes here are a marked improvement over season one, but the series still has some issues with consistency. Maybe it's just that an episode like "The Coming of Shadows" is so good, it makes everything around look a bit shabby.

I'm not sure if 2x06-2x08 were set up as a deliberate arc, regardless they form a nice thematic trilogy surrounding Talia and the Psi Corps. She's a character who wasn't developed much in the first season, and it's good to see her getting some time. The B5 universe is the best treatment of what would happen if people actually developed psychic powers that I've seen. In something like X-Men, there's just telepaths running around, and someone with Xavier's powers could easily wreak massive havoc on the world. In reality, those powers would be tightly controlled, and the inevitable conflict between the safety of the individual and the safety of society as a whole makes for great drama.

The immediately notable thing about 'Spider in the Web' is two of the guest stars: Adrienne Barbeau of Carnivale and Jessica Walter of Arrested Development. It's weird to see Walter in a serious role after the absurdity of AD. It's nice that the show consistently brings in guest stars from shows I like. The episode has some other notable stuff, specifically the further development of Psi Corps. I'm always a fan of government conspiracy and secret experimentation, so the stuff with Psi Cop Thirteen was very interesting. These three episodes indicate that Psi Corps will be the second major villain as the show goes forward, after the Shadows. The glimpse of their headquarters in the San Diego wasteland was very cool. It's interesting to see the state of the various homeworlds, and scenes like that make the show feel less claustrophobic. Rather than just being a ship, the show is an entire galaxy.

This is an episode that's notable more for the information it brings to the overall series development than for the actual story it tells. The ongoing conflict with Mars positions Earth in the role of England, to Mars' thirteen colonies. Normally, Earth is equated with the United States, I suppose the point of the Mars stuff is to show the cyclical nature of history, new stuff will always replace the old, and those who try to fight it, like HomeGuard, are resisting the natural force of evolution.

Next up is 'Soul Mates,' a good blend of comedy and darker overtones. This is likely the last time we can view Londo in such a comic light, he crosses a line in 'The Coming of the Shadows' that makes it much tougher to relate to him in the way that we do hear. This episode again demonstrates the way that power is corrupting him, as he uses his privelege over his wives to garner favors and good treatment. It was a bit predictable that he would choose Timov in the end, precisely because she was being so stubborn, and because she was the most developed of the three. But that didn't prevent it from being a fun storyline, and a good stop on his character arc.

This episode also gives us a guest appearance from the guy who played Holtz on Angel. He's a great actor, so it was good to see him here, and what a universe crossover it was when he sells something to the Giant from Twin Peaks. Anyway, this episode did a good job of continuing the development of the Talia/Garibaldi relationship. Garibaldi's a very sympathetic character and it's tough to watch him get shoved aside for Stoner, right when he was making a connection with Talia.

All the characters on the show seem to have some major trauma in their past, and quite frequently the person who caused that trauma will turn up on the station. In this case, Talia's forced marriage to Stoner fits right in with how they've been developing her, the memories he brings up bring up more doubts about the morality of the Psi Corps. He offers her a 'cure' for her psychic powers, and it's unclear whether that cure would work. Even if it did, I don't think she would take it. Though she may suffer sometimes, I think she recognizes that the psychic powers are critical to her self definition, and to take them away would mean taking away everything she's known her whole life.

Those doubts carry over into the next episode, 'A Race Through Dark Places,' which is a sequel to one of the first season's best episodes, 'Mind War.' I really like the way these three episodes were placed back to back, chronicling the development that makes Talia denounce the Psi Corps at the end of this.

Before delving into this, I'll just mention how good the dinner scene with Sheridan and Delenn was. I always love the struggle of non-humans to become human, as with Anya on Buffy. It's a great chance to point out the absurdity of our customs, and also ponder what it actually means to be human. There's opportunity for comedy, as done here, and poignancy, as in 'GROPOS.' Sheridan sure seemed interested in Delenn, are we headed for an interspecies relationship? I'm not sure if it will happen with these two, but I'd imagine there will be something down the line.

This episode brings back Bester, one of the series' best villains to date. He's there to hunt down this underground railroad of telepaths, which is being run by Dr. Franklin. Franklin is consistently shown with something of a death wish. He's doing unorthodox and illegal things to help people, unconcerned with the consequences these actions could have for him. In light of 'GROPOS,' it's possible this is all an attempt to prove that he's tougher than his father, and just as willing to take risks. Regardless, I'm assuming it will lead to some bad conseqeunces for him in the future.

Talia is kidnapped by the group, and they use information and positivity to change her, rather than threats. This works because we're on the side of the refugees, so we're rooting for the character to help them. I do like the followup on the stuff with Ironheart, the deep connection that telepaths feel. This was also touched on with Ivanova and her mother, and connecting with these people means that Talia has to help them.

The misdirect with the psychic vision directed at Bester definitely worked on me. I was really shocked when Talia killed them all, surprised that the show would make such a bold choice. It was a bit disappointing from a boldness perspective to see them quickly renege on that and reveal it was a hallucination. However, from a character point of view, it makes much more sense for Talia to develop this way. That said, it would have been interesting to have one of our main characters in such tricky moral territory.

The final scene of the episode was well done, building on the connection already established between Ivanova and Talia. I'm not sure why she didn't go to Garibaldi instead, considering the fledgling relationship between the two of them. Is there something more than friendship going on with Ivanova and Talia? If the show was airing today, I'd say yes, but that sort of thing wasn't as common on TV back in the mid 90s. It would be fitting for Ivanova to fall in love with a telepath, someone who could give her that same deep feeling she got from her mother, but the fact that she had that boyfriend, Malcolm, indicates she's not a lesbian. That dynamic probably wasn't intentional, but I'm just saying, that's what I got out of it.

That brings us to the series' best episode so far, 'The Coming of Shadows.' Going into this one, I was expecting a lot. Not only is it the season's titular episode, it also promises major development in the ongoing mystery of the Shadows. The episode did not disappoint. The major difference between Babylon 5's 'wham episodes,' and similar episodes on something like Buffy or The X-Files is that the B5 ones not only give major development for present events, they provide a glimpse of the overall arc, perfectly doled out teases of what will eventually happen to the characters. After watching this, I was like "Wow, it's on between the Narn and Centauri," but I was also like "Wow, things are not looking good for Londo in the future." That's something unique in television, most writers have no idea where their characters will be three years out. Having the whole story means we can see these pieces of the future and only later realize how it all connects.

Speaking of connecting the future, this episode brings back the much maligned Captain Sinclair. Even though I was cracking on him frequently, it was great to have him back. O'Hare has a great voice, and when called upon to be stoic and authoritarian, as here, he's great. It's only in more emotional situations that he ran into problems. Sinclair is in charge of the Rangers, a group of human and Minbari who apparently have a lot of knowledge about the Shadows and the overall threat facing the galaxy. I'm assuming that O'Hare himself didn't want to return that much, so having these Rangers is a good chance to keep his spirit in the show. I'm aware of the TV movie 'Legend of the Rangers,' so apparently they'll have a large role to play in the show's universe.

In addition to contacting Garibaldi, Sinclair has a message for Delenn. In 'Babylon Squared,' we saw future versions of Delenn and Sinclair on some kind of mission in the past. He contacts her here, presumably initiating the contact that will eventually lead to their journeys through time and space. It's a great followup to that previous mystery, the brief scene letting us know that they still know what's going on.

But, the main concern here was Londo's corruption and the outbreak of the Narn-Centauri War. Starting on the Centauri homeworld, this episode gives us a wider scope than the show has previously undertaken. In Centauri society, there is a generational divide between the older, who are content with their reduced position of power within the galaxy, and the younger, like Lord Refa, who seek to return the Centauri to a position of preeminence. Londo ostensibly believes as Refa does, it's what he tells Morden back in 'Signs and Portents,' however, through his position on Babylon 5, he's also more aware of the other cultures. To him, the Narn are not a faceless mass, though he may dislike G'Kar, there is a bond between the two of them.

It's painful to watch what happens to G'Kar in this episode, he is the one who steps up and goes to the Centauri Emperor's gathering. He is humbled by the Emperor's message of peace and for a brief moment, he really believes that things can change. The scene with him and Londo at the bar is brilliant because of our conflicted feelings. We're watching G'Kar, filled with hope, and we know that all his hopes will soon be dashed.

Londo's path to corruption has been one of the most compelling arcs of the series so far. I love it because there was no one moment where he 'turned evil,' nothing has changed in him as a person, he's just made a series of choices that have compounded to the point where he is now irrevocably trapped in this bond with the Shadows and the quest for power with Refa. So far, his work with the Shadows has been one sided, they've done his bidding and he hasn't paid for it. Only when the Narn ship was destroyed on the rim did he get a sense of what his actions are resulting in. Here, he begins to understand the consequences of what he's doing. His choice to attack the colony started the war, and soon I'm sure we'll see that the Shadows don't just give for no reason. They will call on him for favors, and when the people on Babylon 5 find out about the Shadows, they'll be none too happy to find out that Londo has betrayed them.

His tragic trajectory is reinforced by the dream. Back in one of the first episodes, he mentioned dreaming that he was killed, with G'Kar at his neck. Here, we get a glimpse of that, but it's unclear whether what we're seeing is a set future, or just one possibility. I love the shot of Londo watching the Shadow fighters over the Centauri homeworld, and also the quick change from his coronation as emperor to rotting flesh on the chair. The makeup on old G'Kar and Londo was great, though the choking played a bit goofy. Some more chaos in the camera movement might have made the scene work better.

Throughout the show, I sometimes wish that JMS has a directing partner, like Aaron Sorkin has Tommy Schlamme. JMS is clearly a gifted storyteller, but unlike Joss Whedon, he doesn't seem as interested in film as a form. The show is very strong visually, but generally in what's being shown rather than how it's being shown. Now, this was a time when TV was decidedly less cinematic than it is today, but still, a moment like the Emperor's hallway walk shows how cool things can be, and a lot of the time, the show just doesn't work as well as it could in terms of cinematography and visual construction. This episode is actually pretty strong visually, that's more of a general criticism.

The effects in this episode were uniformly strong. The Londo outside shot was notable, as was the start of the Narn-Centauri war, with a whole bunch of ships moving through space. The effects here give me hope that we'll see some great stuff as the 'Great War' approaches.

The rawest emotional moment of the show so far is G'Kar's breakdown after finding out the Centauri destroyed the colony. In that moment, I wanted him to go and just assault Londo, he'd been so thoroughly betrayed. Sheridan's approach was obviously more logical, but in that moment, you feel what G'Kar is feeling and don't want him to stop.

It's interesting watching this episode because I'm a huge fan of both Londo and G'Kar, and I'm rooting for them both, even though their intentions are opposed. Still, Londo seems to have crossed a moral line here. He has killed nearly 250,000 Narn, on top of everyone he's killed before. He's gaining power, but I see a major fall in his future. I love the fact that they're doing this arc and taking him down this dark path. It's unlike anything I've seen on TV before.

The episode begins with the Narn-Centauri War breaking out, and I'm assuming a new status quo for the show. This will likely lead into war with the Shadows, but I'm really curious to see how it develops. I have seen GROPOS, but that doesn't touch on it too much. And that one will be reviewed in the next post, I think this one's long enough.

Little Children

The 2006 film catchup continues with this excellent film. Most reviewers have equated Little Children with films like American Beauty and The Ice Storm, and that's certainly a valid comparison, however, it's not like this is a ripoff of those films. There's room in cinematic suburbia for a number of different visions.

The film's trailer was one of the more striking I saw this year, using the sound of a train whistle and ticking clocks rather than typical musical score. Those motifs are repeated in the film's opening, creating a strong feeling of unease. These two sounds weren't arbitrarily chosen, the train and the clock are the critical symbols in the two main characters' lives.

The train is the vessel by which characters move from their suburban homes to their urban workplace. For Brad, the whistle mocks him, reminding him of his unemployment, his failure to become a typical suburban father. When he goes to take the bar exam, his wife drops him off at the train station, the typical gender roles reestablished, however, he quickly abandons the chance to pass the bar exam and gain societal status, preferring to continue his affair with Sarah, his escape from the pressures of his everyday life.

For Sarah, the clock is what gives her day structure. There's the 10:30 snacktime, and then the wait for her husband to return so she can go on her daily walk. She mocks the mothers who have their children on regimental snack schedules, but she herself is just as much a slave to routine. For her, life is all about waiting for brief moments of happiness. At first, it's just being alone, later it's abou passing the dull 48 hours of the weekend so she can return again to the pool and Brad.

The film uses a narrator, something that's frequently criticized in films. That's because the narrator is usually telling us what we already know, however, here I think it works because he tells us the characters' thoughts rather than their actions. So, when we hear that Sarah thinks of herself as an anthropologist, we're also aware that she is not as distanced as she appears to be. In a movie, you've got a bunch of tools available, and voiceover is one. If it can help the audience get something more out of the film, there's no reason not to use it. I love visual storytelling as much as anyone, but for conveying exposition, it's frequently easier to just say it right out than go through a clumsy dialogue scene to convey the same thing.

For Sarah, that anthropologist line is critical. The film is about her process of losing that distance and becoming just like those other suburban mothers, it's about accepting her lot in life. She's so frustrated by the mothers, and their refusal to see beyond the world that they live in. She is not quick to condemn Ronnie, and scoffs at the idea that he should be castrated while the others just nod along. When Brad arrives, he provides her with the chance to show her distance from them. She's willing to engage with him rather than just view him as a fantasy object.

However, as the film progresses, Brad becomes the exact same fantasy to Sarah that he is to the mothers. Only, she's actually with him rather than just viewing him from a distance. Brad is the escape from her boring life with her husband, and even though her relationship with him is an attempt to escape suburban monotony, it winds up locking her into the life inextricably. She falls into a routine because it means seeing him, and this once aggressive feminist is reduced to spying on his wife from her car. This scene feels a bit goofy, but that's exactly the point. She's ashamed to be doing it, but she can't stop herself, that's what her whole character arc is about, getting caught up in something she knows is stupid, and for a moment, believing it could lead to real change.

The book club scene is a bit on the nose, but sums up her arc well. Having the other woman call Bovary a slut was something I could definitely see happening, and Sarah's change in perspective on the book is a great indication of her changing perspective on life. She is no longer an academic, removed from her environment. She is Bovary, trapped in a world she can't stand, and tricking herself into believing in escape.

Brad's plight is a bit different. He is completely emasculated by his relationship with Kathy, perfectly summed up by the scene with the jester's hat in the beginning. He is raising his son, but Aaron still responds to his mother more. Brad has absolutely no power, and he longs for the freedom he had in his youth, a freedom exemplified by the skateboarders. Brad is still an arrested adolescent, the prom king quarterback of the football team.

What attracts him to Sarah is the fact that she needs him as much as he needs her. he doesn't get that from Kathy, who's utterly self sufficient, viewing him as a nanny, or even another child. Sarah has the same frustrations about life that he does, and they can escape together. This culminates in the scene after the football game, where they kiss and decide to run away together. Again, they seem more like teenagers than adults, seeking an escape from the parents who want to keep them apart. In that moment, they both believe that they can escape, but ultimately, we know that it's not going to happen.

After pledging to utterly reject their suburban world, they're both confronted with an event that makes them give up the dream of escape and commit fully to their role. For Sarah, that is the confrontation with Ronnie at the park. Whereas she once found the mothers' panic ridiculous, she now finds herself deeply scared. She does try to comfort him, but when Lucy goes missing, she hunts for her, full of fury. When she does find her, she shoves her into the carseat, no longer someone who just happens to have a kid, she becomes a mother there. By not putting her in the carseat, Sarah was valuing her own comfort over her child's safety. Now, she forgets about that and decides to go back home because it's what Lucy wants, abandoning her own dream.

Brad finally talks to the skateboarders and is given the opportunity to indulge in the ultimate youthful play, ditching his appointment to skateboard. For a moment, he finds the exact escape he was seeking, soaring through the air, he is young again. But, he crashes down to Earth, and, injured, he literally rejects the idea of leaving with Sarah by giving his note to one of the skateboarders. That dream is for a younger man, and he is now grown up.

The ending is sad in some respects, but realistic. Together, Brad and Sarah would have likely found the same problems they had with their respective spouses, it was the novelty that attracted them, their mutal imprisonment more powerful than anything inherent to themselves. The film is about the way they move from outsiders to insiders, and accept their roles within the community. Yes, they lose something of themselves in the process, but, it's the only viable option for their futures.

This is all paralleled by the story of Ronnie, who similarly struggles to find a place for himself in the community. He resists and continues to indulge his 'psychosexual disorder.' However, in the end, he also destroys that which separates him from the community and makes a bid to conform. Will they accept him after he's castrated himself? I doubt it, but I think they'll be less openly hostile.

The stuff with Ronnie frequently felt like a different movie. I read a couple of reviews which said that his story steals the movie from Brad and Sarah, I'd disagree. I think their stuff was fantastic, and his, while good, also felt a bit cliched. I don't think the film would be stronger if that plotline was cut out, but perhaps trimming it would have made it work better, as a comment on the main storyline rather than a subplot that distracts from the film's core.

The one misstep in the film was the Slutty Kay stuff. This sort of over the top comedy didn't mesh well with the more subtle humor of the rest of the film. I think doing something about the husband's internet porn addiction is a valid choice, but this was too broad.

Other than that, I was thoroughly caught up in the story this film was telling. The narration gave it a different feel than some similar films, and the acting throughout was top notch. The film barely expanded beyond New York, and that's unfortunate, it's certainly worth seeing.

Babylon 5: 2x03-2x05

After the supercharged start of the season, things slow down a bit and retreat back into a standalone episode structure. I didn't love any of these, but they were stronger than comprable episodes from season one because each episode is somehow tied in to the developing story of the Shadow War.

Based on the title, 'The Geometry of Shadows,' I was expecting a big episode, but what we get is an episode with some good stuff, and a story that doesn't really work. The dud is the Drazi conflict. It's meant to be nonsensical, but it winds up making them look stupid. If anyone could just take the sash and become leader, wouldn't that be a better battle strategy than just attacking each other? I suppose the point is they're so stuck in a specific worldview, they couldn't think outside the box in that way. But, it doesn't really work.

Better is the story with Londo. The best scene of the whole episode is actually the first, where Londo meets with a representative of the Centauri government, and they talk about his potential rise to power. I like the new decorations in his room, particularly the picture of himself on the wall. You get a real sense of the new power going to his head, something that will likely figure large in the character's future.

The technomages are potentially interesting, I'm assuming they'll turn up again in the future. The most important scene is sthe final one with Londo, where Elric drops some hints about what will happen to Londo, and it's not looking good. I do have to say that the name Elric is pretty cheesy, this isn't supposed to be Dungeons and Dragons.

Next up is 'A Distant Star.' This is my favorite of the three episodes. For one, we get a guest appearance by Twin Peaks' Russ Tamblyn. I like the relaxed feel of the episode's opening. By avoiding any major conflict, we're able to get a better sense of the characters. Sheridan is clearly uncertain about being stationed on Babylon 5. He's an explorer and a warrior, not a diplomat. That's why he delegates more of his duties on the station than Sinclair did. He not only wants to empower Ivanova, he also can't be bothered to deal with these petty alien disputes.

Things pick up towards the end of the episode, with the well executed hyperspace rescue sequence. Again, we get a hint of the shadows' power, with their quick destruction of the squad leader. I thought that Warren would wind up being taken captive by the shadows, leading to an extended Battlestar style subplot, but that's not to be. He returns and we get a pretty happy ending, with a sitcom style wrapup to the diet plotline, a plotline that is quite funny. But, underlying this happy ending is our knowledge of what's out there and the destruction it promises for the crew. That development at the end gives the episode a relevance beyond just the standalone story.

There's a similar relevance to 'The Long Dark,' but the A story is season one level. The guy playing Amis is absurdly over the top and just doesn't work with the story. He crosses from the line from insane to just goofy. I get the point they were trying to make, but it just doesn't work, and even tying the story to the Shadows at the end doesn't help much.

The story involving Mariah and Franklin isn't much better. The show's strength so far isn't romantic drama, particularly when it's clearly for a standalone episode, not a long developing relationship. I'd like to see some of the major people get romantically involved, but this kind of story is contrived to serve the standalone plot, not build on long term character development.

So, these three weren't the best, but they never reached season one levels of bad. The Shadow threat continues to build, and hopefully we'll get some payoff soon rather than just these hints. In particular, I'm hoping to see more of G'Kar. His brief appearance in 'The Long Dark' is good, but we still haven't gotten a followup on his suspicion that Londo was involved in the attack on Quadrant 37.

Babel

I finally saw this today, a film I'd wanted to see since it was screened at Cannes, but somehow missed for the couple of months it's been in release, and I am definitely glad I did. Inarritu's first two films are both interesting, but they lack the scope that this film has. 21 Grams is one of the most relentlessly depressing films I've ever seen, what makes this film stronger is the way it mixes moments of beauty and peace in with the heavier stuff, so we get a total emotional experience. It's like Irreversible, the bad stuff is even worse because when we know how good things can be.

I'm hoping that Inarritu was making a thematic trilogy with his first three films, because it'd be a bit excessive to go back to the same well again. That said, there are some crucial differences from his previous work. The basic show how one event affects various characters in unexpected ways remains, but rather than the strict separation of stories we saw in Amores Perroes, everything here is intercut. There's some of the chronological fracturing of 21 Grams, but it's used in a much less confrontational way. Instead of disorienting us through the blending of time periods, the disparities between the various storylines are used to create dramatic irony, by giving us information that the characters don't have at that point. This is most notable in the juxtaposition of the Richard/Susan storyline and the Amelia storyline.

In the film, the four storylines remain distinctly seperate. The characters from the storylines never cross over, the closest we get is the phone call from Richard to his house. The lack of implicit connection thankfully means we avoid any ridiculous Crash moments, the audience is allowed to make the connections rather than having them forced upon us. The first storyline, and my least favorite, involved Yussaf and his family. I'm never a big fan of 'village life' stories, maybe it's shallow, but I enjoy visual glamour, the neon glow of a city to a dusty desert farm. This one starts out slow, but by the end, it's picked up. Yussaf's surrender to the police is tough to watch.

In all the stories, Inarritu does a great job of quickly setting up the characters and the world they live in. Just looking at the place he lives, we know who Yussaf is, while Susan's refusal to risk drinking the local icecubes tells us all we need to know about her. Her storyline was visceral and full of tension. The theme of the film is the way that failures to communicate lead to awful consequences, and here we get a fantastic sense of just how alien this world is for Richard and Susan. They are there as tourists, to experience the exotic, but only from the safe confines of a tour bus. When that bus is attacked, all order breaks down, their safe haven from the 'real' Morroco is gone and they drive off the bus route into the village.

The difference in privelege and values is clearly evident. Susan does not want to be operated on, likely afraid of infection, unaware that her life is in the balance. The whole sequence does a great job of capturing what it's like when someone gets injured like that. The people on the bus are sympathetic, but don't want to get themselves hurt for someone they barely know. Richard completely loses perspective and rails against anyone who's not working to help Susan.

We get a great sense of how much of an ordeal this is, the stitching scene is painful to watch, and it's all capped by the fantastic scene at the payphone. I'd seen that image in all the film's promotional material, but in the context of the film, it's absolutely devestating. In that moment, Pitt makes you forget about Brangelina and all that tabloid stuff. He's so in that moment, and the juxtaposition of his son's happy recounting of his day with Pitt's crying is phenomenal. It's even more affecting because of what we know will happen after this conversation, the ordeal that the kids will go through. That's the best use of the chronological displacement, to completely change the meaning of this conversation by showing the other end now. 21 Grams felt like the time displacement had no particular purpose, here it's carefully considered and makes for a killer emotional moment.

The other end of that conversation leads to another great plot thread. Towards the end, the story confronts you with the outside perspective of what happened. Amelia wanted to go to a wedding in Mexico, so she took the kids she was supposed to be watching across the border with her drunk driving nephew, then abandoned them in the desert so she could flee the police. But, going through it with her, we have a completely different perspective on the events. We are so immersed in her subjectivity, it's painful at the end when the police won't even consider her side of the story.

What makes this storyline work is primarily her deep connection to the kids. It's basically a parent-child relationship, and I think she has some pride in taking them to her home and showing them her culture. They are having fun at the wedding and she is too, I love that the scenes there are played with joy in the moment, it's a temporary escape from everything else around them, into music and dancing. That makes it even worse when things go awry towards the end.

A series of small mistakes at the border leads to the major mistake, when Santiago drives off. The costuming and makeup on Amelia at the end tells us all we need to know about her state of mind. She is completely lost, and it makes sense for her to go off in search of help. The ending is tough because we know she'll never get a chance to tell Richard her side of the story, and even if she does, he won't care. He'd have to see it from her point of view, as we did, to really understand what happened.

That leaves one storyline, the highlight of the movie and the one that really makes it more than anything Inarritu had done before. Chieko is a Kim Ki-Duk heroine in a Wong Kar-Wai world, and her story is so powerful I think Inarritu might have been smart to make it into a standalone feature. Kim Ki-Duk uses the inability to speak as a way to show the distance between people, and also the deep connections we can make that transcend words. To him, speech is a societal defense mechanism to guard our rawest emotions. Chieko does not have this option, she struggles to express herself, and winds up seeing her physicality as the only option.

Chieko has a deep pain from her lack of connection with the world around her. The sequences in which the sound cuts out and we see the world as she does, people talking, musicians playing, but no sound, are startingly effective in showing how she experiences the world. I was wishing we could hear what was going on, and then was only after a short shot, it would be agonizing to view the world like that all the time. The scene where the guy comes up to her at the arcade game and she is unable to communicate with her is painful. The rest of the film has a lot of raw stuff, but it takes place on a big, global canvas. I feel like her storyline is much more relatable, Richard may be struggling to find help for his wife, but eventually he will, and then he can return home to a comfortable, easy world. Chieko does not have that option, she will always find it difficult to connect with 'normal' people.

Seeing her failure with him, she decides to use the asset that speaks loudest, her body. In seeking physical affection from all around her, she is trying to break the shell that distances her from the world. She cannot hear, cannot talk, but she can still feel, and evne if it's fleeting, she wants to experience that kind of communication that transcends words.

The film's best sequence, and one of the best in any film this year, is when Chieko goes to the club with her friends. She seems to be making a connection with that guy, he understands her inability to hear and is able to deal with it. They forge a connection while moving through the city and when they enter the club, she almost seems to hear the music. In the moment when she sees her best friend making out with that guy, she shatters, both her best hope for love and her best friend gone. She now drifts through the streets alone. What makes the moment so powerful is the whiplash transistion from Chieko's happiness to complete devestation, from inifinite possibility to sad resignation.

Stepping back from analysis, let me just say that the club sequence was visually dazzling. I love the swirling lights and strobe effect, particularly on Chieko after she sees him kissing her friend. I also love the way he cut the music out to give us a sense of what it's like for Chieko at the club. We watch as she seems to hear the music by watching everyone else dancing, and then struggles with the transistion between songs. It's so visually excessive, immersing you in this moment and I absolutely love it. This is what cinema should be.

So, Chieko is absolutely desperate for some kind of connection, so she calls the police officer. She wants someone who won't be able to turn her down, just someone to be with, who she assumes will want to be with her. She tells him what she thinks he wants to hear, and tries to keep him from leaving. Then, she emerges naked and stands in front of him. This nudity was necessary because it emphasizes her vulnerability. She has no power in the situation, offering him all of her, forcing herself on him, and crying when he rejects her. She just wants to feel, but societal restrictions constantly get in the way. There's something so sad about that, and it's easy to imagine her mind buzzing, desperate to tell someone how she feels, but unable to do so.

Completely rejected, she stands out on the balcony, contemplating suicide. It's her father who finally holds her hand, reaching out and breaking through the shell she lives in. She is desperate to feel, desperate to know that someone does love her and she isn't completely alone, and he's the only one who's able to do that for her. Here, I think she realizes that throwing herself at men isn't going to get her what she wants, there's a deeper kind of feeling, a catharsis she finds at the film's end.

I thought this storyline was just amazing. I really liked the rest, and it wasn't like I was just waiting for her to come back, but it had so many of my favorite things in cinema, and such a fantastic visual environment to work in. It would have been easy to not include it and make the film narratively tighter, but for me, it was the highlight of the film.

Throughout the film, there was a great emphasis on visual storytelling. The language differences, and a deaf protagonist, meant traditional dialogue wasn't going to cut it. So, we got a lot of visual communication, but throughout, there were also moments with no dialogue, dwelling on wonderful images. The score, with its driving, looping rhythmic build worked great with these moments, particularly at the end of the film. It was never cloying, creating a mood that allows us to feel rather than telliing us when to do so.

I think this was easily the best of the Inarritu trilogy. It was the most ambitious, with a mix of locations and characters. But, what really made it work was that I cared about the characters and was right with them on their emotional journeys. I've also got to give respect to the acting throughout, with everyone immersing themselves in character, an immersion that allows us the audience to completely accept the narrative reality. This is a great film and I think you'll be seeing later this week on my top ten list.