Why Seeing Benedict Cumberbatch on Sherlock Is an Aesthetically Rewarding Experience

I quite enjoy Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock.

I only gave the series a try after one of my best friends who came to visit me from Ohio a few weeks ago encouraged me to do so. And since I tend to share similar aesthetics with my close friends, I figured I'd enjoy it. And I did.

One of the things I quite appreciate about friendhsip is that it saves one a lot of time when it comes to selecting the right form of entertainment. And I am painfully picky about the latter.  Friendship is a good enforcer of efficiency. Ok, but why am I engaging in a non sequitur already? I'm not even past the third paragraph!

Alright, let's look at the trailer first and see if it suits your fancy:



I get a lot of work done usually with a particular episode of Sherlock in the background. I create a lot of work strategies as Cumberbatch utters the great script. The episode is called Scandal in Belgravia and it has replaced my quotidian dose of Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys.

Aesthetically, this episode does something for me. I reckon I know what that is but it's far more interesting to talk about other things here. Like, the appeal of deduction. The big picture comes to light most beautifully in the end and the details are nicely delineated one by one as Sherlock deduces away.

By way of offering more context, Sherlock has a website called Science of Deduction and, funnily enough, the creators of the show have actually created a bona fide site that reflects what they mention in the series. Seriously, this series is so quirky it is bound to make one chuckle a few times. And Cumberbatch has some phenomenally gripping lines like: "Sherlock Holmes: Oh, enjoying the thrill of the chase is fine; creating the distraction of the game, I sympathize entirely but sentiment! Sentiment is a chemical defect found in the losing side," or "'You look taller in photographs.'" - "Take the precaution of a long coat and a short friend." Or my favorite: "stop boring me and think!"

This is a fun series. I'd recommend the second season over the first and the current third. Cumberbatch has an Asbergers-like delivery of lines that is quite something to watch. I didn't use to be a fan of his but after seeing him in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy I started to change my mind. I quite enjoy him now. And if you're looking for something fun and smartly written, give Scandal in Belgravia a try. It's available on Netflix as well as iTunes.

You might just keep revisiting it and use it as a background soundtrack too.

Harry: You look taller in your photographs.
Sherlock: Take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend. - See more at: http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/sherlock/series-two/a-scandal-in-belgravia/#sthash.8iyzCoYD.

Harry: You look taller in your photographs.
Sherlock: Take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend. - See more at: http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/sherlock/series-two/a-scandal-in-belgravia/#sthash.8iyzCoYD.dpuf

Harry: You look taller in your photographs.
Sherlock: Take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend. - See more at: http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/sherlock/series-two/a-scandal-in-belgravia/#sthash.8iyzCoYD.dpuf

Harry: You look taller in your photographs.
Sherlock: Take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend. - See more at: http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/sherlock/series-two/a-scandal-in-belgravia/#sthash.8iyzCoYD.dpuf

Harry: You look taller in your photographs.
Sherlock: Take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend - See more at: http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/sherlock/series-two/a-scandal-in-belgravia/#sthash.8iyzCoYD.dpuf

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye: A Story of the Pandrogyne

I plan to see this. While checking out the previews I got to thinking of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I also thought of the theory-laden film High Art, a favorite when it came out and one that I have been feeling like revisiting lately.

Lovers of industrial music will undoubtedly find this documentary especially intriguing as it features Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, the founding member of Throbbing Gristle. The life story of P-Orridge is one of unique pursuits and brave edification. The one term that will stand out to most will be the term pandrogyne and how it gets contextualized in the actual lives and love story of two individuals.

You can learn more about the film here.

A Review of the Film "Tenure"

Knowing what it's like to teach in higher academia is not something one can simply read about. Experiential knowledge obviously trumps cognitive knowledge here. It's a lot like snowboarding, really. You get the hang of it by practicing. Teaching in higher academia is not the same for everyone. There are, however, certain similarities in the experience. Teaching is often the least important aspect of the experience and publishing new research takes precedence more often than not. The phrase 'publish or perish' is not simply a cute little thing someone came up with when pursuing tenure. It's real. At the core of it lies much truth about general progress and the tenure process in higher academia.

Publications don't happen with ease. On the contrary, to get published in a well regarded journal takes time. A whole lot of it. When an article is submitted for publication at a refereed journal, i.e., the only journals worth considering, it takes anywhere between 8 months to well over a year before the work can appear in print. Granted, this presupposes that the article will appear in print. More often than not, it won't. It is customary to get a lot of "Thanks, but no, thanks" before getting the one "Yes." And that is just one kind of stress.

And this also happens to be the premise of the new film Tenure starring Luke Wilson as the protagonist, Assistant Professsor of English, Charlie Thurber. Some of the film is basically conflated emotion and surface scratching. Some, however, is as close to reality as it gets.
"Passion isn't enough anyone. That's what messed up." says Professor Hadley, one of the characters in the film. And Prof. Thurber seems to concur towards the end of the film.

Professor Thurber - played better than most would have played him by the often underrated Luke Wilson - seems to do most everything right. The one thing he can't seem to do well is publishing. His article is rejected by every journal worth anything and it's been well over 6 six years since he started the tenure process. Unlike his father who had taught very successfully at an Ivy League school, Thurber finds himself at a small college of liberal arts somewhere in Pennsylvania with very little hope of getting tenure.

"I'm not charmed by you, Thurber" says an older colleague to self-effacing but lovable Prof. Thurber. However, who is charmed by Thurber are his students and that, in the end, seems to provide the only answer that matters to him.

Luke Wilson manages to show with relative ease what it means to enjoy one's chosen profession. Being a teacher is not just about knowing the material well. Granted, that's a necessary and important component. Being a teacher, a good one, is about human relatability. And that is Charlie's forte.

I suppose this film didn't manage to make it to the theaters because it is, as they say in Hollywood, a 'small film.' Small, more often than not, is good, however. And this film is no exception. Do rent or iTune it. You might be charmed by it.

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Tilda Swinton's Film "I Am Love": A Review

Tonight we saw the Tilda Swinton-produced film Io Sono L'Amore. We loved it and spent the drive to the restaurant, the dinner, and the drive back discussing it. Let me start by first pointing out that this is not a film that may be quickly watched, filed somewhere, and consequently forgotten. It tends to have the kind of effect that a truly rich tiramisu has: it'll unequivocally beg for attention from all of your senses and organs post-consumption. The film is steeped in literary traditions stemming from Sophocles while contemporaneously being bathed in rich visual imagery.

At the core of the film lies the deeply intimate relationship between Emma and her son who adores her completely, Edoardo. To be able to truly decode this beautiful relationship one needs to be able to truly get the relationship between Jocasta and Oedipus. This film offers a kind of visual feast that is truly overpowering to the senses. From the bold colors of Swinton's wardrobe to the gorgeous architecture and arts that the city of Milan has to offer, the list of aesthetic contributions goes on and on.

This film varies from others when it comes to the candid way in which it deals with familial dynamics, sibling rivalry, the discussion of a love lost between two long-term spouses, gender and identity, birthing one's self anew, attaching to new love, marriage, art appropriation and ownership, et al. Ah, and, naturalmente, there is the theme of the importance of the culinary arts and how they epitomize such basic human drives as sensuality, instinct, the pampering of one's taste buds and so forth.

In sum, did I like this film? Absolutely. I felt the way I tend to feel when at the Seattle Art Museum. Well fed. And if you love Europe and linguistic diversity, this film will most certainly not disappoint.
Brava, Tilda, brava!

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Chloe: A Review

I had an opportunity to see the new film Chloe after returning from my travels in the Southwest. Visually, this is a stunning film.

Stunning.

The way director Atom Egoyan captured the color red particularly is simply breath-taking. Egoyan managed to translate eroticism and the text of misunderstood sociality well largely due to his expert use of the color palate. Economizing on language makes sense especially if other paralinguistic things do the talking such as color or the act of gazing through windows, or the text of clothing. The first thing I noticed while watching this film was the almost perfect way the color of the house matched Julianne Moore's red dress in the beginning of the film as well as Amanda Seyfried's character's red fingernails. Homework well done, indeed!

As we were in the theater I kept thinking of how much I had missed seeing Liam Neeson in a truly substantial role. Neeson doesn't just play the professor role well; he exudes it most effortlessly. There is much to say about talent shining through as a result of smart pairing and true professionalism. Few male characters play the 'good guy' characters as convincingly as Neeson.

Enter Julianne Moore.

Moore is the kind of actor who facilitates. One of the films in which I truly enjoyed her performance is a little indie title called Trust the Man. In it, she plays a well-known actress who struggles with the daily burden of quotidianity, family responsibilities, and female insecurity. It's in this little film that I remember feeling justified in my usual enjoyment of her work. Moore is a pro and it shoes in the kind of work that her co-stars manage to produce. More recently, refer to Colin Firth's own Oscar-nominated performance in A Single Man which I reviewed here.
Chloe takes place in Toronto. The vibrant downtown is beautifully captured by Egoyan's lens. The area of Yorkville comes to life beautifully and the pace of daily life seems to match the pace of the narration quite well.

Another thing that struck me while watching the film is how much range Amanda Seyfried is showing. As a friend of mine noted to me about Seyfried's work in this film, "it breaks her out of a mold she might otherwise be stuck in." Her work in Big Love is worthy of attention and I have long thought that she has the potential to be very, very good. And that she is in this film.

This is a beautiful, sad, visually rich, and narration-mature film. The performances by Moore and Neeson stand out. But what perhaps is the making of the film is Amanda Seyfried's convincing portrayal of delusion and disassociation from reality. Ah, and the way the director captured the color red. It made me think of Pedro Almodovar for a bit. Maybe I'll revisit an Almodovar title or two in the near future.

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graph per wikipedia

Mysteries of Pittsburgh, a Review

Mysteries of Pittsburgh is available OnDemand now. I thought I'd give it a careful look this time.
It's a tricky thing, this watching-film-based-on-literature thing as the viewer already had a preconceived notion of plot in mind.
Michael Chabon's first novel by the same title served as the inspiration for this film. Loose inspiration. Very loose.
As I was informed by a HetPer reader who also kindly sent me the screenplay to this film a few months ago this production was a rather sophomoric attempt.
I agree with him now.
But the film still has one important redeeming quality. I'll explain.

I gave the screenplay a looksee and it did seem to differ much from the novel. But then again, filmic adaptation is supposed to bring a number of differences and much novelty with it.

You see what makes Michael Chabon so brilliant is his infallible instinct about gender and gendered traits. Few authors can decode gender and sexuality the way he can. Naturally, his unique instinct is rather challenging to translate on the big screen and some understanding is required when judging any director's effort who attempts to adapt him.

One of the things that bothered me about Mysteries of Pittsburgh, the film, was the fact that they completely erased an entire character, Arthur.
Another thing which sort of relates to the first plot problem listed, is that the character of Cleveland who in the book is portrayed as rather heteronormative was turned into the love object of both Jane and Art.
Bad decision there.

Even though the usually brilliant Peter Saarsgard played Cleveland, it still left me, the reader/viewer wanting for more. A waste of talent, really.
One of the things that makes the book so poetic is the Art/Arthur relationship. This is at the very core of the book and it is entirely left out.
Ah, and then there's the Sienna Miller-played Jane who is too much in the center of the film. Miller has range but in this case her range was a little too wide. Less of her would have been more for the overall film.

Mena Suvari's Phlox could have been used more as the few minutes she's on the screen she does somehow bring you back to the novel. Suvari's version of Phlox looks like the French major Phlox in the book. Alas, she wasn't used enough.

And then there's Nick Nolte's 'Dad' character who could have been clothed with better lines but, of course, wasn't.
The one thing that delivers in this film is the city of Pittsburgh itself. I am lucky to be one of those people who gets the area and its references. This is a part of the country that one needs to see/experience to get. The heavy industrial traces of huge bridges and once productive factories are captured well enough in this film. They're not captured the way Curtis Hanson so brilliantly did in his version of the Chabon-inspired Wonder Boys, however.

Cities like Pittsburgh are difficult to capture for the big screen as they are truly multilayered. Even though they ooze concrete urban and industrial vibes, they're also somehow rustic. It's an odd combo but it's also what makes this neck of the woods so uniquely beautiful.
Even though geographically I tend to privilege the West, there's something truly poetic about Pittsburgh. It's one of those places where literature can get inspired.

Mysteries of Pittsburgh has many cinematic flaws.
It's one redeeming quality, however, is its capturing of Pittsburgh.
After those of you whom I know in real life have had a chance to see this film, I know I'll most likely receive texts saying, 'I liked the book better.'
As you should.
However, I find myself espousing a kind of compassionate leniency that's informed by one thing and one thing alone: Pittsburgh.

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