Critical Commentary: Marlowe, Banshees, and a Few Others

It has been awhile since I have put pen to paper, figuratively speaking, and offered some Pop Cultural Critical Commentary, so here goes.

Let's begin with...

"Marlowe"

Director Neil Jordan takes a crack of putting Raymond Chandler's classic world weary gumshoe Phillip Marlowe on the big screen.  This time it's Liam Neeson who portrays Marlowe, and this Chandler/Marlowe fan was quite satisfied with Neeson's interpretation of this classic character right down to the trench coat, snap brim fedora, and office bottle of rotgut whiskey.

As for the story, set in 1939 Los Angeles, cool icy blonde Claire Cavendish asks Marlowe to find her lover, Nico Peterson, who has gone missing.  Marlowe learns that Nico was killed in a hit and run accident a few weeks prior, but, no, Claire recently saw Nico across a crowded street in Tijuana, which she sexily pronounces "T'juana".   This leads Marlowe into a world of movie studio corruption, drug dealing of "Mexican powder", prostitution, and, of course, double dealing and blackmail.  Are the good guys really good?  Are the bad guys really bad?

Of course, the plot details in a story like this take a back seat to charaterization, dialog, and the moods created by the production itself (scenery, costumes, etc), and on that score, this movie succeeds.  One quibble from me, though:  Jordan was obviously going for a film noir-ish  look on this one.  You know, shadows cast by sunlight through venetian blinds, neon signs for crummy bars reflected in puddles on the mean streets of LA, lazy cigarette smoke, but if that is the look and mood you want to create, why not make the ballsy decision and film the movie in Black & White?  "Marlowe" is a fairly good and entertaining movie, but it would have been better if was in B&W.

Kudos to Neeson as Marlowe, as I said above, and to Diane Kruger, an actress with whom I was not familiar, as Claire, and a special shout out to Jessica Lange as Claire's mother.  She has definitely graduated to the designation of an "old pro" as an actress, and she was terrific in this role.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

By the way, when I got home from seeing this last night, I went to the Google Machine and typed in "actors who have portrayed Phillip Marlowe" and there have been an astonishing number of them in the movies and on radio and television.  I stumbled upon THIS ARTICLE on the topic which discusses seven such actors, Powell, Bogart, Montgomery, Garner, Gould, Mitchum , and Neeson, which you may enjoy reading.

I'll try to be briefer in the rest of my commentary.

"The Banshees of Inisherin"

This movie is critically acclaimed and has been nominated for a slew of Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, and two for  Supporting Actor.  It is beautifully filmed and is beautiful to look at, but when it ended, Linda and I looked at each other and said "Okay, what exactly was that?"

Set on the isolated Irish island if Inisherin in 1923, sounds of cannon fire and bombing can often be heard coming from the mainland as the Irish Civil War rages on.  One day, Padraig (Colin Farrell) goes to meet up with his long time drinking buddy Colm (Brendan Gleeson) only to be told that he, Colm, no longer wants to be friends with Padraig any more.  There doesn't appear to be any good reason for it other than that Colm just finds Padraig too "dull" to be friends with anymore.  Some of these early discussions on friendship, "niceness", and legacy are thought provoking and almost humorous, but then the film takes a very dark turn.  I won't reveal what is involved in this turn so as not to give a spoiler.  Anyway, the results of this act by Colm are what left us scratching our heads.

It has since come to my attention that the movie should be viewed as a metaphor for the madness of the Irish Civil War that was taking place concurrently to the little war between Padraig and Colm.  The Irish Civil War eventually ended, but relations between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland remained tenuous at best, so what was really accomplished?  The same could be said for what happened between Padraig and Colm.

The acting alone gets this one Three Grim Stars from The Grandstander.

"Ted Lasso"

Season Three of Apple TV's "Ted Lasso" debuts later this month.  When I mentioned this to Linda, she said that she had never seen the show.  So, this has sent us back to watch the first two seasons of the show, her for the first time, me for the second time.  We are halfway through Season Two.  Linda is enjoying it immensely, and I am as well as I am picking up on some things that I missed or have forgotten from my first viewing.  I have written of this show before, so I won't detail it once again, except to say that if you have access to Apple TV, watch this show.  

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

"Shrinking"

This Apple TV+ series stars Jason Segal as a psychotherapist who, as the series begins, is still in mourning and grappling with the death of his wife a year earlier.  This has led him a tailspin of drugs and alcohol, a fractured relationship with his teenaged daughter, and a host of professional problems as he attempts to help his patients deal with their issues.  Doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs, does it?  Trust me though, this series is funny and thoughtful as it takes us through the shitty stuff that life can throw at a person.  A new episode of this series drops every Friday. Five episodes are now available to binge as we await each Friday.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

By the way, Harrison Ford is eighty (80!!!) years old.   For whatever reason, I have a hard time wrapping my arms around this fact.  He's great in the show, by the way.

And in conclusion, a book review.

"A Slow Fire Burning"

Paula Hawkins' first novel was "The Girl On The Train", and it was a terrific story, from which a pretty good movie was made.  

Everyone anxiously awaited her second book.  "Into The Water", which came out in 2019 and was terrible.  I only got through it thinking that "well, this has to get better", but it never did.

Last month I saw the paperback edition of her third novel, "A Slow Fire Burning", and I bought it to break the tie, so to speak.  Who is the real Paula Hawkins, the edge of the seat writer from "Girl On The Train", or the puts-you-to-sleep writer of "Into the Water"?

In this one, a young man is found dead, murdered, on the crummy houseboat where he's been living somewhere in England.  The tale revolves around three women connected to him:  Miriam, the nosy, busybody neighbor who discovers his dead body, Laura, a young woman who was with him on the last night of his life, and Carla, his aunt.   Oh, and Carla's ex-husband Theo is also a significant character in the book.  The title of this book is appropriate, because it sure is slow.  I mean, sloooowwwwww.  Who killed Ben and why?  Well, by the time you slog through 411 pages of this, you don't actually care. Ben was a shit and so, it seems, is everyone else in this story.  Lock 'em all up.

The book did serve one purpose though: I won't be buying Paula Hawkins fourth book, whenever it appears.

One Star from The Grandstander.