How superb The Night Of is

Regardless my sincere difficulty in putting its title in a sentence, the mini-series The Night Of revealed once again the extreme quality of the HBO's shows. Eight episodes that drive the viewer from the commission of a crime to the detention of the only suspect, and to the consequent trial. 

I personally like the mini-series-format very much, because it is what in a sense resembles more what a movie is. In other words, in such series the events flow naturally in the development of a single plot, developed episode after episode without worrying about setting up a sequel (or a season 2).  The Night Of is a long movie in eight chapters, each one of which is almost self-consistent and has its own messages. The result is a complete immersion both in the plot and in the single details of the single scenes. 

The most powerful message (the one that hit me harder) is encoded in the detention of the protagonist, Nasir (Naz). In the very first episode, we see this young man taking a bad decision after the other, finding himself in a horrifying situation and let the panic take control of his actions. In other words, we see an ordinary person becoming the only suspect for the murder of a young woman. The narration is structured to make the viewer know many useful details and thus lead us to believe in his innocence, regardless the fact that we can't be 100% sure.

Since then, the show mainly focuses on the transformation that Naz experiences in jail waiting for his trial. From the hostile environment that is trying to kill him, he modifies his aspect and his behavior to survive the prison. With the investigation running in the background, we become aware of details of Nasir's private life. Therefore, episode after episode, the most appropriate word to describe this process is not transformation, but rather revelation. 

The brutal environment that is a prison is bringing out a hidden side of the protagonist, forced to survive to let his violent side take over and then stuck in what is, by all means, his new life. There is a moment when one may experience the emergent of a doubt: if this is his true self, maybe he did it.

Another striking message is surely hidden in the actions of the cops and it is about how the system works. In every book, movie and TV show, we see the detective saying something that bothers me every time: give up to your right of remain silent because it looks bad during the trial otherwise. In The Night Of we see again this dynamic leading to something very close to a self-incrimination. 

Don't get me wrong, the detective does everything within the boundaries of the law and Naz speaks freely with him, for the standards we got used to seeing in other situations. However, a choice given under the threat of a harder trial (if you don't speak the jury will think you are guilty) is not a choice, it is a kind of abuse. An abuse that leads to a very lousy and superficial investigating job that would have been infuriating even without ruining an innocent young man's life.

The message is thus a reminder that the system, intended as the set of rules and rights that a suspect has, exists to protect the suspects. Justice is all about the protection of the innocents and the show describes very accurately what happens if we let even the smallest injustice happen. In those fake choices, in an investigation blinded by the overwhelming presence of circumstantial evidence, and, most of all, in the transformation of Naz in prison we see a lucid representation of one of the most inhumane plagues of the modern world. 

Since the next thing I want to say can be considered a spoiler, I give the opportunity of stopping here and go watch this superb show. For other considerations on the same theme, I self-promote my review of Orange Is The New Black S4. After the picture the last thoughts on this show (with a spoiler).

A bulky presence in the show is the eczema (or generically the skin condition) of the character interpreted by John Turturro. I have to confess that for 7 episodes and 50 minutes I thought it was a tool to make the viewer feel and sympathize with the poor lawyer seeking justice for his client and redemption for himself. Then a little piece of dialogue hit me with power. Both being a murder suspect and having that skin condition is keeping people away from the two characters. Naz was not found guilty and the skin condition is not contagious, but both characters will have their cross to bear for the rest of their lives. For both situations, we see how society is incapable of finding a way to deal with them, or a solution to cure such problem. It could be me overthinking it, but I found this parallelism brilliant.

In conclusion, a show very well executed, with a clean narration, great acting, and powerful messages. Seeing two young lives either terminated or ruined forever, a family broke in its economy and its personal relationships, a good man doing something extraordinary and coming back to the shitty life of a cheap lawyer left me with a deep feeling of emptiness. That is, after all, the reason why I write reviews after the shows are over. Like a junkie.

Reasons to see (or not) War Dogs

This movie is difficult to decipher. Let me thus start with a lousy synopsis.

The story is developed around a young man, having financial problems like many young men, feeling the responsibility of providing for his family. He randomly meets again an old friend of his that really looks he is not having any problem in paying for meals. It turns out that such friend has a small activity where he sells guns to the US army. Our protagonist joins the company and the two of them start facing bigger and bigger challenges to sign up bigger and bigger contracts and be able to afford bigger and bigger meals. Things eventually go over their head and they got in bigger and bigger troubles.

As you can see, the story it is not very original in its development, but absurd (in a good way) enough to be entertaining. The ground material is very valuable and the plot flows almost always from point A to point B, without messing around too much. To be fair, I found a couple of small subplots to be unnecessary at the point that probably I would have enjoyed more a movie 10/15 minutes shorter.

The actors' performances are overall very convincing. Special mention to Jonah Hill, that is confirming himself to be a great actor, pulling off a great performance yet again.

What I didn't like about the movie is that it lacks in personality. It seems to me that they wanted to keep a bright tone while narrating very dark events. They are telling a very upsetting story about how the army is getting its weapons, but it looked to me that the movie doesn't take a stand on that matter. It looks like it is denouncing something, but it doesn't really do that. I can't really define it better than just saying: the narration is too flat. 

In other words, it is a movie of half measures.

Probably they could have achieved a much better result by explaining the transitions in the behavior of the characters, that are, instead, something that simply happens on the screen. This is a common risk in movies based on true stories (and the reason why it is not my favorite genre). Since the facts narrated really happened, the movie makers often think that we, the viewers, do not need much to be involved in the plot or in the psychology of the characters. 

In conclusion, the experiment of Todd Philips of moving from the Hangover trilogy to a serious movie was bold and the result shows all the difficulties that one may encounter in such transition. 

Reasons to love and watch the Flash

On October 4, 2016, the Flash is coming back on our screens with the third season of a quite well-designed TV Show. I will never make a mystery of my passion towards this superhero, therefore I tell you right now that I'm not going to be objective in what follows.

The Flash is a TV show narrating the origin and the story of Barry Allen, CSI that acquires super speed by being struck by a lightning and become, as you may guess, the Flash. The episodes generally have the structure of a comic book: there is a bad guy, it is hard to take him down but eventually we succeed. This aspect gives a bright tone and a nice pace to the show. Alongside with that, we have the main plot that runs for the entire season (20 something episodes) and, with its twists, is the best aspect of the series.

As one may expect, everything in the show is inspired by the comic books. However, and this is something that I absolutely love about the show, there is quite a dose of originality both in the characters and in the primary or secondary story lines. This is nontrivial for this kind of shows, often scared of pissing the comic book fans off or too reverential to the original material. The final effect is a very enjoyable and entertaining show both for old time fans and those approaching this amazing superhero for the first time. 

The tone is kept bright, among other things, by a good comedy, extraordinary references to old and new popular shows, and by the comic book structure of the episodes itself. To be fair, keep this tone is a necessity to soften up the tragedy constantly happening in the main plot. 

To explain why I associate Barry Allen to a tragedy, I have to dig deep into my memories of 20 years ago, when I started reading the comic books.

In the DC universe, there have been many Flashes, but Barry Allen is surely the most important one. The reason is not only that he has more exposure than everyone else, but also because his storyline is by far the more involving, in my opinion. Barry Allen is constantly brought into a path of pain and loneliness, no matter how hard he tries. The tragedy begins (not chronologically, in comic issues) when his archenemy, Professor Zoom (the Reverse-Flash), comes back from the future and kills his wife, Iris West. A homicide that drives him insane and makes him violent for several issues. Years after, when he is going to get married again, the Reverse-Flash makes his appearance with the same purpose: kill his future wife on their wedding day. In the attempt of stopping him (in an excruciating sequence), Barry kills his enemy by breaking his neck.

From The Flash Vol.1 #324

Since Barry never showed up at the wedding, his future wife loses her mind. During the trial for murder, his lawyer gets bombed, the replacement risks her life too, the jury gets brainwashed, he has to leave his own identity for good, and he is finally found guilty. A man with no identity, alone, Barry escapes to the future to clear his name. There he finds Iris (yes, it is confusing, she wasn't really dead), the love of his life, and they can live happily ever after... for 6 months. Indeed, the universe starts to explode, leaving him with nothing again. This time (Crisis on Infinite Earths #8), he has nothing to lose and sacrifices himself to save the multiverse in an another painful sequence. It is 1986, the heroic end of Barry Allen. 

Crisis on Infinite Earths #8

Some Flashes and 23 years later, DC makes him come back to life with Rebirth. This time, Barry is infected by the Reverse-Flash, transforming him into a weapon to kill his loved ones by touching them. Here Barry learns that the Reverse-Flash was responsible for everything bad ever happened to him and finds himself helpless in front of such evilness. A revenge from an enemy he didn't even meet yet, a theme that will emerge again in Flashpoint (that will probably be the inspiration story for the upcoming season of The Flash).

You got the drill; it is hard to not feel for this character. The spirit of sacrifice, the constant tragedy, a hero steadily looking for friends, for people that could fill the empty places of his life. All these themes are nicely represented in the TV Series. Yes, so far the events are different than the original material, but it is not hard to find the same kind of emotions and challenges of the comic books (without the deja vu feeling we don't like).

The Flash: Rebirth #5

The Flash is the story of an extraordinary man, facing an extraordinary villain, and walking in a world of pain to find something to run to instead of run from. What we saw in the first two seasons was designed to transmit us the internal conflict of Barry Allen. We saw our beloved hero reaching the peak of this conflict and doing the most egoistic move of his life: coming back to time and fix everything bad the Reverse-Flash did (thus virtually erasing everything happened on screen so far). 

Since this is exactly the premise of Flashpoint, I'm looking forward to see how the authors will apply the originality shown in the past two seasons. Some people on the internet is very excited by seeing Flashpoint on screen, but I think they will not use the original material more than before: it would be difficult to introduce a Batman or a Brasil ruled by the Nazis...

Before concluding this too long post, a few words on the criticalities of this series. The biggest one is surely an excessive amount of the so-called filler episodes. I understand the necessity of covering several months with a season, but the feeling is that every season could have been 3/4 episodes shorter. 

I also think that the comic book structure does not work ideally in the mentioned filler episodes. By resolving the arc of tension within 40 minutes, the plot looks very rushed if it is not necessary to the development of the main storyline: it works in a comic book, not on the screen.

At last, one slip in the otherwise brilliant TV adaptation of the original material. We met the Reverse-Flash, the perfect villain driving the comic book story, but we never saw a glimpse of his motivations. We were told that he hates the Flash, but we never had a chance of seeing how or why he does it. I believe that his jealousy, his obsession, and his anger deserve to be on screen to give us a tridimensional image of a villain so important to be often compared to the Joker in the comic books. This is both a flaw of the show and the main reason why I'm so excited for the new season: if the source material is Flashpoint, there will be plenty of opportunities to give Eobard Thwane the deepness he deserves.

I wrote too much, it always happens when I like something too much. For other considerations on the Flash as a TV series, you can read this post. Otherwise, let me know in the comment section how do you like this show.

Why can't critics stand Suicide Squad?

I don't really like writing bad reviews and this movie has its bright spots (listed in my other review). However, from Rotten Tomatoes to almost everyone else, the judgment of the critics is unanimous: it is as bad as Batman v Superman. At the same time, twitter is full of fans that are so happy to define Suicide Squad the best movie ever. This post is to explore the reasons for this discrepancy, that in my opinion is due to the fact that critics and fans are looking to different aspects of the movie. Before you start making your blood boiling with anger, I am not judging which approach is better. Since my spoiler-free review was mostly focused on the great aspects of the movie (that are what fans like to search in a movie like this), here I will develop the critical points of it.

Spoiler alert: I wrote a spoiler-free review here. Everything on this post will refer specifically to the events of the movie.

Weak plot. The premise is good, you need something against a hypothetical new evil Superman. We also need someone to throw under the bus if something goes sideways, so let's make a team of bad guys. Then we realize that crazy people with bats and bullets are not going to win against an evil Superman, so let's throw in someone with magic too. The transition of the Enchantress from controlled in captivity to I want to destroy the world is not smooth, it happens way too easily. For this reason, the mission to stop her looks like a warm-up, a Peter-Parker-saves-the-kitten kind of story. When you then realize that there will not be anything more than that, here starts the disappointment about the main plot. On top of that, the messages are not so well displayed and when they are, they are not the good one. There is something dangerously close to the glorification of an abusive relationship, never addressed as abusive as it is. The redemption of the inmates is blurred as every other theme that pops out at random moments.

The Joker is irrelevant. I appreciated the performance of Leto, showing great braveness in giving a different look to a character so loved by the fans (and therefore a very polarizing topic of discussion). However, it is a fact that his presence is irrelevant to the plot. He is a disruptive force, appearing from now and then, and not really doing anything to move the plot along. The only event that affects the main characters is when he frees Harley Quinn, but such arc is resolved literally 3 minutes later when he fails. So I suspect that the Joker was introduced only to justify the flashbacks regarding the true star of the movie (Harley Quinn) or, even worse, to have cool shots for the trailers. That brings me to the next point.

Too many scenes were there only for the trailers or to set up Justice League. If the plot is weak, if the message is not clear or even absent, if (as we see in a moment) the characters are badly presented, then the risk to be a big commercial spot for a movie coming out the next year is concrete. Nowadays it is a trending habit to send the viewer somewhere else outside of the movie. I think they want to ride the success of the TV Shows' golden age we are living in. Maybe the evolution of the cinematographic techniques is to get closer and closer to what a TV series is. I still think that the difference should be very well defined or, if not, should go in the other way. For example, Stranger Things is great because it is very close to being an 8 hours movie. Since we already had a set-up movie with Batman v Superman a few months ago, every anticipation looks redundant and too much a commercial move. 

All that being said, at the Flash' cameo I jumped on my seat. Because the Flash is cool.

It falls short in the building up of the characters. I am well aware that the characters are the strong suit of Suicide Squad, in the other review I glorify Harley Quinn and friends. What I didn't like was the structure of the movie in presenting them. We spent too much time listening to someone talking about the main characters rather than seeing them. I know that all of them were never presented on screen, but this is a poor and lazy choice. For example, in Guardian of the Galaxy, we had a bunch of new characters and they presented them to us by making them do something useful for the plot. The first thirty minutes were essentially a list of names, telling us characteristic that not always were then developed. Like the difficulty of working with other of Captain Boomerang is addressed once in the bar scene (when he leaves) and resolved in the next one without any evolution or reason. I'm sorry but characterizing someone almost exclusively with flashbacks and not giving any development to the character is just poor, lazy writing. 

The more I think about it, the more I realize that the movie is holding up only because of the amazing performances of some actors (and the amazing soundtrack), that is something that fans love, but critics usually don't.

Or it can simply be that the hype for the movie was too high to be fulfilled. In any case, I found fascinating how the public is divided on this particular topic, so please share with me your thoughts in the comment section.

Reasons to see (or not) Suicide Squad

I waited for this movie since the very first teaser, then the best trailers of the decade came out, the hype was real. I went to the movie theater for the first show of the day. Thus enjoy a spoiler-free review, hoping that you will find your own reasons to see it or not. If you want a spoiler review, click here.

Synopsis: The US Government is worried that the next Superman is going to be a terrorist or, god saves us, a vegan and decide to have a backup plan. Since they have some criminal doing nothing in their jails, why don't use them and their extraordinary abilities? Best idea ever, what can possibly go wrong? Well, something does and we can make a movie about it. (Yes, I have to improve my spoiler-free synopsis).

The first thought I had as soon as the movie ended was: a lot of flesh and no bones.

The acting is great. Margot Robbie is perfect as Harley Quinn and way out of reach of all the others. She is a driving force, she has good jokes, her character is explored with more attention than the others and it was a great choice. Will Smith is good in being Will Smith, his Deadshot has his own deepness, is human and funny. In a movie where everyone is potentially the star of the show, these two are great casting choices because they catch your attention and maintain the harmony with the rest of the cast.

The most anticipated character, however, was the Joker. The internet got wild when they leaked the first pictures, and even wilder when he appeared in the trailer. I appreciated the Jared Leto's courage to bring on screen a new Joker. The heritage of Heat Ledger and Jack Nicholson is pretty heavy and it takes a great actor to transform the role and himself yet again. I believe it is pretty pointless to say if one is better than the others since they belong to different movies with different tones. In fact, I think that his performance is somehow obscured by the little amount of screen time and by the presence of other great performances. The Dark Knight was a movie about the Joker, here is more like a disruptive force that appears here and then. The attention is more focused on Harley Quinn and friends.

Another positive note is the soundtrack. As we saw in the trailers, the production was well oriented in combining great songs with great action scenes. I can't say that they live up the level of the trailer, but they surely go close enough.

All of this is what I call "Flesh".

What is missing (the bones) is a solid story. In a movie where the main characters are bad guys, you need a really good antagonist and the movie fails in that. We spend the first part to introduce the characters and then jump into the main plot, that is so weak to be confused to a warm up mission.

I didn't feel any tension, nor the movie made me care about what was happening on the screen. Yes, great characters, funny, but without a story to support them the risk to be a pointless movie, another expensive set up for the Justice League, is real. The structure of the movie is more unstable than other productions of the same kind. To sum up, everything in the movie is great, except the movie itself, and this makes it even more disappointing to me.

In conclusion, I don't really know if recommend it or not. I had fun but I walked out of there disappointed, I appreciated the cameos but I recognize them as a set up for what is coming the next year. Thus please let me know how did you like it or which of these aspects you care more about.