Spontaneous Musings

Difficult work day, since felt like warmed over crap during most of it. But tis over. And muddled way through two negotiations. Also learned more than I ever want to know about structural, electrical and environmental engineering.

Last night watched the flick The Town directed by Ben Affleck, also starring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Hunter Renner (I'm confusing him with Jeffrey Hunter apparently - can't think why (not being sarcastic here, I honestly can't think why)). (Renner is the guy from The Hurt Locker, who was also nominated this year for Best Supporting for the Town, and who I think should have been cast in the Americanized version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This guy just disappears into his roles. Amazing character actor. Poor Affleck is too pretty to quite pull that off.) The flick, courtesy of netflix, was rather enjoyable - in that it held my interest throughout, and had more going on than what you might expect. It was your standard flick about an anti-hero, who is trapped, yet still changes his life for the better. ie. unlike most noir flicks, it has an upbeat ending. But it is definitely an anti-hero drama.


While there's violence - it's no more than what is currently on television. If you can make it through one episode of Game of Thrones, Buffy, Supernatural, NCIS, Hawaii 5-O, The Closer, etc...you can watch this. Actually it's pretty tame in comparison to television violence. Was television always this violent? And why do we whine less about the gratuitous violence then we do the gratuitous sex? Particularly since you sort of have to subscribe to cable, specifically HBO to actually get the gratuitous sex. (The broadcast networks in the US are actually pretty prudish when it comes to nudity and sex.) Curious minds want to know?? I mean there's a lot of gratuitous fight scenes and violence in Game of Thrones but I've yet to see anyone really whine complain about it. But one or two gratuitous sex scenes and people go nutty. Noticed this with True Blood too. (Anyone else remember the days when you had to wait until Midnight to catch porn on HBO or Showtime, and it was pretty lame? (Just me then. Ghod I feel old.) Showtime used to have an erotic anthology series called "Red Shoe Diaries" hosted by David Duchovny of all people. It was sort of Twilight Zone meets Love American Style with lots of sex but not much nudity. Very weird show. ) Anyhow, sorry about the tangent, but it struck me as odd today. Not to worry, The Town has far more violence than sex in it. (none of which I'd define as gratuitous - okay maybe a little of the violence.) I think there's maybe one sex scene and if you blink, you'll miss it. Other than that - mostly talk and violence. And no real violence against women.

There's really only two women in the movie anyhow - both involved with Affleck. One gets pushed around a bit - but mostly because she's a witness to a bank robbery. No rape. No sexual violence.

Some good performances. Jon Hamm, of Mad Men, is rather good in it, as is Titus Wellver from both Lost and The Good Wife.

The tale is about a bunch of career bank robbers. The lead character, Doug McCray, played by Affleck, falls in love with an assistant bank manager who they took hostage to get away, for maybe a space of ten minutes. He doesn't fall in love with her until after they release her. And she has no idea he's the bank robber who took her hostage when they fall in love. Actually that bit is a little scary. Most of the flick is told through Affleck's point of view, although we get a bit from Jon Hamm's FBI guy tracking him and his crew, and from the bank manager he falls for.

It's not what you think. It's more a character focused drama than either a romantic or crime drama. And it takes place in Charlestown, Mass - outside of Boston - which has created more bank robbers than anywhere else in the country - according to the film. The story and theme are about being trapped by your environment and family in a life you don't want and unable to get out of it. That inertia. Affleck's character inspired by his feelings for the bank manager - decides to do whatever he can to get out, to leave this life behind him. It's about to a degree his struggle to reach that point - to push out of that inertia. Noir film often follows this type of theme - the idea of being trapped, stuck, and unable to get out of your nightmare world - foisted on you by either birth or merely economics and family. Although this isn't quite noir, a bit too sunny in aspect to be noir, I think.

Overall - an interesting film. I think most people would like it. The bank robbery bit felt realistic. And there's a rather funny exchange between Affleck's Doug McCray and the Witness - where he explains how he knows what to do if you witness a bank robbery by listing off the number of television criminal procedural dramas that he's seen.

Also finally watched the season finale of Supernatural - which was rather disappointing. I admittedly spent the first half betting myself on how quickly the female guest star would kick the bucket (die). Turns out I needn't have bothered - she died five episodes ago, and is merely a delusion Sam cooked up inside his own head to torment himself. They picked someone I don't remember or never saw.

They built up the whole Sam and soul thing and being flayed in hell ---then well, landed with a thud.
It was like watching Angelus tour Angel's mind in Orpheus, Angel S4 all over again - except not as interesting. Actually - I think Angel may be the only tv series or film I've seen that has done that trope halfway well. It's possible, I suppose, that I've watched too many tv shows and films like this in my life time. I don't know. But I also didn't find the ending where Castiel gets all empowered and decides to annoit himself God and kill anyone or anything that doesn't respect him - all that interesting. Except to bemoan the death of the comedic Balthazar who is my favorite archangel. Damn, he was fun and played well by Sebastian Roche. Oh well, at least Crowley's still hanging about. How much you want to bet the boys will be teaming with him next year, after all their whinging about Castiel doing it? The lesser of two evils and all that.

But enough snarking. I did enjoy the episode. And I do, believe it or not, enjoy Supernatural. I was weaned on this stuff. Also I studied the mythology the writers are using in Supernatural in college.
Know all about the dark Christian end of days mythos and urban folktales that wind their way into it.
So find Supernatural rather entertaining from a purely pop culture, mythos perspective. It's plot - from my pov is a tad on the simplestic side of the fence. But it does at least make logical sense.
The lack of female characters and how they are treated does fit with the verse and genre - which is pulp noir horror right out of 1940s dime comics. You can almost smell the ink on the pages.
Also the tv writers reference all those dime comic and novel writers including the most revered and well known of the bunch HP Lovecraft. Watching Supernatural is a bit like sitting with my brother and his friends as they chat about comics...or sitting in college lounge discussing Frank Miller's graphic novels. It's fun. Probably shouldn't analyze it too closely - it and Vamp Diaries share that in common.

This episode wasn't as good as the episodes that proceeded it. But it had it's moments. Sam tracking down himself and facing himself down - rather liked the confrontation between Soulless Sam and Souled Sam. Also, the bit where Castiel pulls a fast one on Queen Raphel and Crowely. Apparently the writers felt the female death count wasn't high enough with two and had to throw in a third, can't have two guys and two girls die after all. Oh wait, no Raphael was male angel in a female body. So two for the price of one.

The theme...pretty much the standard trend, all the cool kids appear to be doing it at any rate - guy decides to tread down the road of best intentions to win a war and save the world and maintain free will and peace...but alas, he takes on a heck of a lot of power and does a lot of nasty things, becoming in effect the very thing he was trying to defeat and fight against in the first place. In short Cas becomes Lucifier and/or Raphael. He becomes the monster he feared. Joss Whedon did a similar story thread with Angel in the Buffy comics...except I think Supernatural's take on it works better, less muddled and simpler. When doing this trope, since it has been done so many times now, it's tempting to complicate it to avoid getting bored. Personally, I think the writers spent too much time watching Coppola's Apocalypse Now in college, either that or they have Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness on the brain.


Whew. Sorry about the snark in the Supernatural review, did say had a crappy day, right? And yeah, I know shouldn't give up my day job to become a professional reviewer on the net any time soon.