I Did It All for the Nucky.

Last year like everyone else I was thrilled when it was announced that Marty was directing the pilot for a new HBO show. When said show arrived I gave it a try once and never bothered to return. As it's tradition, the Golden Globes showered the new kid in town with awards and so did the SAG eventually. Then a few weeks ago when Emmy nods were announced, Boardwalk Empire led the way. I couldn't help but wonder what was I missing on that everyone else loved so much.

Unlike a show like Game of Thrones for example that got me so hooked I devoured the whole first season in a day, this one did nothing for me. At the insistence of my buddy Andrew (who recently got me hooked to Parks and Recreation like a crack whore, on well, crack) I got my little hands on the entire first season and recently made my way through every single ep.

If there's something I pride myself in is my ethics when it comes to discussing popular media. I refuse to discuss something I haven't seen in its totality, so I held my peace and now can talk freely about the show.

I guess one of the main reasons why the show never truly clicked with me is because I've never been much into the crime and gangster genre, I respect but don't love The Godfather for example, but hold your breath, so I had a slight bias when watching this show. I was pleasantly surprised by the way in which the writers create some fascinating characters like the one played by Jack Huston (pictured above). I of course loved, loved, loved when they link his character to The Wizard of Oz (the book, not the movie obviously) and for all his precision as a cold blooded murderer, there's a sense of possibility in his story.

Of course I loved Kelly Macdonald's Margaret, as the soul of the show she has the difficult task of being both a symbol and a human but there's nothing this woman can't do. This could've been another take of her troubled wife from No Country for Old Men but she turns her into something more, something that tempts me to come back next season.

Also, I'm a sucker for a Scottish accent.

Now most of what bugs me about the show is how uneven it is and how it relies so much on mediocre actors to carry, take Paz de la Huerta for example, sure she has amazing boobs and is quite hot but I felt her Lucy lacked the slutty selfawareness of someone who uses her looks to get ahead. Same goes for Michael Pitt, who as Andrew himself said is just a poor man's version of Leonardo di Caprio. Those two are the weakest links in a truly outstanding ensemble that somehow never really shines as a coherent whole. The best scenes are always the one in which Macdonald interacts with others.

Oh and Michael Shannon is all sorts of terrific as a slightly psychotic bureau agent trying to get his hands on the mob. I love his character and therefore I was surprised when this happened:

One of my favorite characters doing my least favorite character and then leading to something that promises to tie the characters closer together next season...I have a full month to decide if I wanna invest more time with these characters (new season begins September 25th)

Oh and as far as my blasphemy goes, I much prefer Tim Van Patten's directorial work in Game of Thrones than Marty's in this.

Where do you stand on Boardwalk Empire? Care to convince me to like it or do you support my cause?

The Messenger **

Director: Oren Moverman
Cast: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton
Jena Malone, Steve Buscemi, Eamonn Walker

Three months before he's done with service, Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Foster) suffers an eye injury that sends him back to the US. He's placed in a casualty notification team for the remainder of his time in the army with Captain Tony Stone (Harrelson) a harsh, detached man for whom delivering news of death is just another duty.
Will, with his baby face and sensitive grunts feels that Tony's inhuman delivery of news is a disservice to the family of people he knew in Iraq. Tony, who has never been in combat, despite having been in the army at least two decades longer than Will has the steely purpose of a robot and tells Will that rule number one in their job is to never make physical contact with the people they're talking to.
With little regard for subtle dilemma, the screenwriters (Moverman and Alessandro Camon) establish a ying-yang dynamic that in another genre would serve as comedic relief, but in an independent moody drama can only mean ominously forced empathy.
In that way we see as Will and Tony deliver news to all kinds of people, each vignette becoming a who's who of multiculturality and familiar background (to remind us of course that the army isn't just made up of people like the main characters).
Before long we also enter into their private lives and see Tony as a recovering alcoholic for whom sex with young women is both entertainment and a way to keep him grounded.
Will enters a troubling situation when he becomes interested in Olivia (an extraordinary Morton) a young widow he delivered the news for.
Before long the film shifts the importance from the families to the messengers by using unoriginal manipulation techniques.
In one scene Will does weights at the gym when his pager beeps him, he continues lifting with anger and sorrow. The exercise meant to represent the weight of the world on his poor Atlas' shoulders is merely a distraction from the fact that the people whose lives he will break into perhaps are the real ones who had no choice to make. Not to mention Will's eye condition which requires him to use eye drops that fall like tears down his cheeks when he's not supposed to cry or feel anything.
Entire families are destroyed by children who enroll and must go to wars they don't understand, but Moverman doesn't understand this.
His movie offers no possibilities for those for whom the very existence of the army and foreign invasions are a mystery.
Harrelson and Foster are quite good in their roles and bring their characters closer to the impartiality the director never bothers to.
Harrelson plays Tony like a time bomb even if the screenplay takes him to the oh so overused element of "he must have a big secret that wounded him and makes him act like this".
While Foster's troubles, we might believe, come from the fact that his ex girlfriend (Malone) is about to marry another guy.
The fascinating limbo that exists in the fact that soldiers can't return to their ordinary lives is lost in the film's big "the Army takes care of you like a family" discourse and what should've worked like an apolitical essay turns out only to be a buddy/road movie that has us waiting when Will and Tony will realize they're maybe alike, share a hug, a beer and move on to the next house.