Review: ‘The Leftovers’ 3.08 – ‘The Book of Nora’

It’s hard to review The Book of Nora and not reflect on the entire season or even the full series as a whole. Partly because it is natural to reflect back when a series ends but also because this episode does a great job encapsulating the issues the show initially wanted discuss and analyze. The first season was about how people deal with grief and the existential dread of massive problems you are powerless to fix. The second and third season shifted to discussing how people work towards moving past their grief and try to find some sort of solace or contentment in life.

People are flawed and what we feel will bring us comfort might not, and that’s why the story that Nora tells Kevin in her dusty Australian house works so well as a final note for the show. What you think you need might just be what you want. Many of us aren’t lucky enough to get what we think we need, whether it is financial stability, that new car or a new house. These things might be Band-Aids on top of the real problem and what you need is to fix something deeper. Nora thought she needed to see her family to get closure but upon realizing that she literally wasn’t a part of their world anymore she was able to move on. She was able to put them to rest knowing that somewhere and in some timeline; they are content with their life. She got what she wanted, but what she realized she needed was slightly different.

Kevin on the other hand, possibly reflecting on his constant messiah status, is the rare person who finally gets what he wants and is able to find comfort. He is able to die one last time and destroy that world he visits in his suicidal visions. To me this puts to rest any future chance of visions or hallucinations. Kevin replaces his need to get to that world and find answers with the search for Nora. Leaving the door open to supernatural elements, even with Nora gone, Kevin knows she isn’t really gone. He searches tirelessly, 2 weeks a year, for what he thinks he needs. With Kevin always being the exception that proves to rule, Nora is what he wants and needs. As Kevin and Nora say in that final scene, they are here and that’s ok. More than ok, being there together is enough.

 

Quick Thoughts:

• Laurie is alive! With her being alive and Kevin not seeming to know who Nora was, I thought this might be the afterlife. Maybe in the afterlife you forget some parts of you and finding those that affected you in life helps you regain that knowledge. Wait, was this LOST all along?
• Carrie Coon national treasure status confirmed? CONFIRMED
• If you are not on Instagram, and love this show, go check out the cast a crew accounts. Some great behind the scenes shots and a lot of great reflection on the show.
• This show will go down as one of the best in the history of the medium. It didn’t last long, but its star shone so bright in the darkness that is ocean of vacuous television.

Tweet

The post Review: ‘The Leftovers’ 3.08 – ‘The Book of Nora’ appeared first on ScreeningClub | Insight Into the Media You Love.

by Christopher Moore
This post first appeared on http://screeningclub.com/2017/06/05/523/ on ScreeningClub.com.

Review: ‘The Leftovers’ 3.07 – ‘The Most Powerful Man in the World (and His Identical Twin Brother)’

In The Most Powerful Man in the World (and His Identical Twin Brother) Kevin literally grapples with himself. It amazes me how little Kevin dealt with the tasks he was given when he went to the other side. Shortly after looking into the mirror shard and becoming The President, he asks the kids where their shoes went and delivers John’s message to Evie. The rest of the episode is about Kevin dealing with the destructive parts within himself that drive him away from his family and loved ones. The parts of himself that are never at rest and never feel satisfied. These parts of himself are physically manifested in the form of a key embedded below his heart. Kevin literally pulls that part out of himself and uses it to destroy the place where he has sought refuge from his self-destructive life.

In last week’s episode Kevin tells Laurie that he knows he was dead when he visited the hotel, but he had never felt more alive. That’s because when he is on the other side, he always finds a clear purpose and there is always someone there to tell him what he should be doing. Kill Patty, sing to get home, take the girl to the well. That purpose is what he doesn’t feel in real life and it is what drives him to these suicidal visions. What this episode did is move Kevin beyond that. He knows he screwed up with Nora, but he also knows that if somehow he gets back to Nora he can finally find comfort and serenity with her. Together.

 

Quick Thoughts:

• Man, I was searching every scene for Laurie. Maybe she isn’t dead after all?
• I loved the final scene with Kevin and his father, it felt like someone leaving a cult for the first time. After you put all that restrictive dogma behind you all you can really think is “what now?”
• Where is ya boy Holy Wayne at? Let him reprise his role as Presidential Body Guard.

Tweet

The post Review: ‘The Leftovers’ 3.07 – ‘The Most Powerful Man in the World (and His Identical Twin Brother)’ appeared first on ScreeningClub | Insight Into the Media You Love.

by Christopher Moore
This post first appeared on http://screeningclub.com/2017/05/29/review-the-leftovers-3-07-the-most-powerful-man-in-the-world-and-his-identical-twin-brother/ on ScreeningClub.com.

Review: ‘The Leftovers’ 3.06 – ‘Certified’

Certified acts as a spotlight on the character of Laurie while at the same time moving our overall story forward. A lot of what has been shrouded in mystery, i.e. what is this new cult’s plan for Kevin, has been cleared up. Kevin Sr., allowing his son to take on the Jesus role, is planning on using Kevin’s ability to go to the afterlife to get the final rain from Christopher Sunday. Once Kevin Sr. is able to complete is final ritual, the world is saved from a second flood of biblical proportions.

But when you hear tell of someone speaking to the dead, everyone wants in the action. Grace wants answers from her kids and John wants to know why Evie left. Yet again finality and closure is being used as a driving force in the Leftovers. You could even say that what happens (or did it?) to Laurie in this episode is her finding closure within herself. As the storm that was foretold moves in, Laurie finds contentment in her life. So much so, she might have chose to end it right there. Laurie has had one of the most fascinating arcs on the show. From a character who was seemingly devoid of emotion and empathy to one of the emotional cores of this season. She’s taken up the mantle of the respectful skeptic, sort of a more reasonable version of John from last season. But in a world that has seemed to move beyond reason, it can be extremely hard to remain a skeptic.

 

Quick Thoughts:

• I think it’s a given that Kevin will make it to the afterlife, but I’m not sure it’ll be as easy as last time.
• I also don’t think we’ll see everyone Kevin was asked to speak with while he’s there. We might not even see Laurie.

Tweet

The post Review: ‘The Leftovers’ 3.06 – ‘Certified’ appeared first on ScreeningClub | Insight Into the Media You Love.

by Christopher Moore
This post first appeared on http://screeningclub.com/2017/05/22/review-leftovers-3-06-certified/ on ScreeningClub.com.

Review: ‘Alien: Covenant’

However many entries within the expansive saga of the Alien universe the 79-year-old Ridley Scott winds up making, Alien: Covenant will no doubt signal a most essential turning point in the series’ canon. Having been an enormous fan of the flawed but engrossing Prometheus, I was elated by the news of Scott’s plans to continue down his existential rabbit hole complete with the nefarious “engineers”, Weyland Industries, the all-consuming questions of life and creationism, and to chart the paths of our hero Elizabeth Shaw and her synthetic android sidekick David along their renewed journey to finding those answers. So I was a bit angry to learn early in the film’s development that Shaw (and her portrayer, Noomi Rapace) would not be returning to the follow-up, and that the new film would be all but detaching itself from the core events of Prometheus with a new set of characters and locations and mysterious connective ties to its predecessor. She was this franchise’s Ellen Ripley, and this series of films were to be her story; how could it possibly continue on without her? Or so I so wrongly bemoaned.

As the opening scene of Covenant makes abundantly clear, a series this grand in scope that asks questions as profound as to what it means to create life could never be about one feeble mortal being. But a rogue synthetic android obsessed with the very nature of his own existence and that of his makers, one who simultaneously detests the lifeforms responsible for creating him while also unwaveringly devoted to the idea of creating life of his own, and one who’s cold, calculated and lacking in any semblance of humanity enough to see these exponential ideas to their next phase? That’s a character worth centering a franchise such as this around, and that’s what Covenant does to itself and future entries in the series, but also retroactively Prometheus. It turns out we were only secondarily following the story of Elizabeth Shaw and her team’s mission to discovering the origins of Earth; what really mattered were the underpinnings of one immortal being’s quest to understanding the worthlessness of humankind along his path to creating life worthy of his own unrelenting standards. It’s in that sense that Covenant picks up right where Prometheus left off.

And on the execution of those aforementioned ideas, some really ambitious narrative swings and particularly the character of David as played amazingly by Michael Fassbender, Covenant is a tour de force. It’s the rest of the film around those things that occasionally lacks. Similarly to its predecessor, outside of maybe three or four characters (everyone not played by Fassbender, Katherine Waterston and Danny McBride, essentially), the entire cast mainly exists to function as useful idiots there only to purge exposition and drive the plot forward through strings of awful decision-making. Oh and also to become gruesomely murdered by the various iterations of the iconic xenomorph creature. As has been justifiably championed by the critical community, Covenant returns the saga back to its original 1979 Alien horror roots, and to mostly terrifying effect the film is not shy about playing up the suspense and subsequent savagery of the abundance of xenomorph-related deaths. There are so, so many.

The action-horror elements are acceptable but more-or-less unremarkable and unimaginative. The occasionally flimsy CGI attributed to the xenomorphs doesn’t help those scenes feel any less plain. I’d argue from a visionary and technical level Covenant takes a noticeable step back from Prometheus, for reasons that aren’t quite clear to me yet. That being said, from a narrative perspective coupled with the sheer complexity of its own ideas, Covenant takes a definitive step forward above any film in the Alien saga to date. Watching as it fades to black on a cliffhanger more terrifying than anything else in the entire film preceding it with the series’ most irreversible act to date, my anticipation for Ridley Scott’s next chapter only surmounts. This time I’ll have a better idea of what to expect.

Rating: **** out of five

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, Billy Crudup, Damien Bichir

Runtime: 122 minutes

 

Tweet

The post Review: ‘Alien: Covenant’ appeared first on ScreeningClub | Insight Into the Media You Love.

by Michael Lang
This post first appeared on http://screeningclub.com/2017/05/21/review-alien-covenant/ on ScreeningClub.com.

Review: ‘The Leftovers’ 3.05 – ‘It’s a Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World’

In what will most certainly be our last Matt-centric episode of The Leftovers, It’s a Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World lets us in on Matt’s world view one last time. This entire episode is a trial of faith for Matt. He’s is literally trapped in a lion’s den for almost the entire episode. Forced to face his inner demons, we learn that Matt views his life as a devotion to God. Even sacrificing his relationship with his wife to follow what he believes is God’s plan. Matt and his group of disciples endure the Lion’s den, but not without working out their differences with each other on the best way to deal with Kevin once they get to Australia.

Meanwhile, in true Leftovers fashion, we get a cold open and hints from the periphery of this episode about the tensions that are growing all over the world as people brace for the 7-year anniversary of The Great Departure. A nuke went off, but luckily no one was hurt. But a nuke going off anywhere in the world is enough to start a war between nations. Global war and great fireballs descending from the sky are prerequisites to the end times. But how much of this is a self-fulfilling prophecy? If you are crazy and think the end of the world is coming, you might launch of nuke to kick things off. Then other delusional people may see that launch as a sign that their own end-times beliefs are coming true.

I think that all that macro-level stuff with most likely stay on the periphery for the rest of the season. What this season, and maybe even the entire series was about is whether or not Kevin is the second coming of Christ. Beyond that, whether he is or not might be secondary to his struggle to accept it either way and take on a role that is needed.

 

Quick Thoughts:

• Anyone know if that Frasier the Lion story is true?
• I loved the scene between “God” and Matt. He doesn’t think that was God, but he was talking to God either way.

Tweet

The post Review: ‘The Leftovers’ 3.05 – ‘It’s a Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World’ appeared first on ScreeningClub | Insight Into the Media You Love.

by Christopher Moore
This post first appeared on http://screeningclub.com/2017/05/15/review-the-leftovers-3-05-its-a-matt-matt-matt-matt-world/ on ScreeningClub.com.

Review: ‘The Leftovers Season’ 3.4 ‘G’Day Melbourne’

The first two seasons of The Leftovers are dramatically different, taking place in a completely different setting and focusing on many completely different characters. In my mind, it was safe to assume that the formula would hold true for this third and final season, but that hasn’t been the case. As we move deeper into season 3, we are finally getting the change in scenery but we are getting a diminished focus on new characters. Last season it seemed all roads led to Jarden, now it is seeming like all roads lead to Australia. Maybe it has always been about Australia in some way. Even going back to season 1.

In G’Day Melbourne we see Nora work her way deeper into, and get cut off by, this new research team. They certainly are more serious than your average con-job, which leads me to believe that they are legitimately trying to do research but have severely crossed the line in the ethics division. Speaking of ethics, it seems they even have their own sense of moral superiority after turning down Nora’s money when they hear the wrong answer to their question. It’s odd, they have most likely condemned over 100 people to death in the pursuit of knowledge but Nora’s answer went too far for them.

On the other side of this episode we see Kevin going down the hallucination rabbit hole again. It was interesting to hear Nora refer to his hallucinations (sarcastically) as visions. Everyone always thinks the prophet is crazy until he’s proven right. We’ve seen Kevin have a lot of visions on this show but if he is Jesus Chris Superstar, he might not have been crazy all along. I just wonder what the event will be that proves (even to himself) that Kevin is chosen.

 

Quick Thoughts:

• I loved the airport scenes and specifically when Kevin made Nora. He is a cop after all.
• I wonder if Justin Theroux was told whether these visions were real or not. You would think it would have an impact on the way he portrays Kevin’s grief and anguish.

Tweet

The post Review: ‘The Leftovers Season’ 3.4 ‘G’Day Melbourne’ appeared first on ScreeningClub | Insight Into the Media You Love.

by Christopher Moore
This post first appeared on http://screeningclub.com/2017/05/08/review-the-leftovers-season-3-4-gday-melbourne/ on ScreeningClub.com.

Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’

All I can ask from a Marvel movie, especially a sequel, at this point in the studio’s dominant reign is that it aspires to deliver a film beyond expected plot convention with some degree of thoughtfulness and creativity (unlike, say, The Avengers: Age of Ultron), and as was the case with Civil War last summer, I’d say Guardians Vol. 2 definitely does that. This is a film that takes some pretty hefty swings – the film’s reintroduction of the Guardians to the tune of “Mr. Blue Sky” from the POV of Baby Groot immediately springs to mind – most of which all coalesce around a final product worthy of the time spent investing in this mostly unremarkable but emotionally impactful story.

What I appreciated most about this film is that underneath the generic adversarial banter and obligatory Vol. 1 callbacks and last-ditch third-act world saving is the story of one man’s journey to connect with the father figure he thought long abandoned him. That’s really all this film is about and it’s through that core simplicity and universal relatability that Vol. 2 earns its place among the better superhero sequels in recent memory. Kurt Russel, initially given the convincing Robert Downy, Jr. de-ageify treatment in the film’s opening flashback sequence, is great here in that father role playing opposite Chris Pratt.

I understand that they are “Guardians of the Galaxy” and that Galaxy guarding is what most people are likely paying their money to see, but I really could’ve done without the Third-Act Rush to Save the World Team-up that dominates the film’s back half. We’ve seen it dozens of times before, and while it isn’t as irredeemable as the identical scene type in Vol. 1, the sequence felt more tacked on than it needed to be. It doesn’t completely torpedo the film as it’s able to rebound shortly afterward, but I still would’ve liked seeing it go, similarly to the film’s first two-thirds, a more unconventional, introspective route.

But even with a sloppy final act there’s no taking away what Guardians Vol. 2 is able to accomplish before and quickly following its few missteps. Even if I could do without the space raccoon in mostly every scene he appears, the movie is still very funny. And the chemistry and comradery among the Guardians is as weird and delightful and gushy as ever. These people are a lot of fun to be around. That plus genuine, earned emotion and aspirations of interesting, original moviemaking typically go a long way for me, and there’s no shortage of any of that in this one.

Rating: ***1/2

Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Kurt Russell

Runtime: 137 mins

Tweet

The post Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ appeared first on ScreeningClub | Insight Into the Media You Love.

by Michael Lang
This post first appeared on http://screeningclub.com/2017/05/06/review-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2/ on ScreeningClub.com.