Sean Lemme

I started blogging as a way to lazily pass my high school senior project and somehow I've kept doing it for more than half my life

The Birdman Cometh

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Birdman is expanding to a bunch of theaters this week and so it is definitely worth my time to try to put some key presses into trying to quantify the weird, engrossing experience that was my experience watching that movie.

Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, an actor who achieved great fame 20 years ago by playing the super hero Birdman – which is an obvious satire of Batman and in no way related to the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character. Since walking away from that franchise at its greatest popularity, Riggan has struggled to keep his career going and has hedged his bets on writing, directing, and starring in a stage adaptation of Raymond Carver’s short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” Also he has magic powers and is haunted by the voice of Birdman.

This is Riggan’s last chance and he has to fight for it as he faces doubts and criticisms from his daughter (Emma Stone), his lawyer (Zach Galifianakis), his last-second replacement co-star (Edward Norton), the press, critics, and a skeptical public. Through all this the movie makes it clear that Riggan just wants to be considered an artist – that’s why he’s doing this play, that’s why he walked away from his blockbuster franchise, that’s why he wasn’t a better father, or person. Whether he really is an artist, whether he’s actually being true to himself or if it’s really all about ego… That’s up to you.

Which is the way things should be in a movie this intensely surreal. On top of Riggan’s supernatural abilities, the movie is shot and edited to feel like it’s almost one long, uninterrupted take and I could definitely feel it. Despite being mostly scenes of people arguing about acting and other theatrical logistics, the whole two hours were fairly tense just because of how aware I was of the number of plates they had to keep spinning between getting actors to their marks, making sure they perform well, and everything else behind the camera like sound, camera angles, and lighting. It’s really quite gripping.

Birdman is a complex film worthy of some serious conversation – I had a hard time just trying to wrestle my many thoughts about it into this brief review. It is an exciting showcase of the possibilities of modern filmmaking grounded by some terrific performances by Keaton and Norton and an earnest, if not particularly unique, take on the creative process. Almost like a Charlie Kaufman film, except one that’s happy to pay just as much attention to slapstick and dick jokes as it is its lofty themes.

Horrorble: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Transformers: Age of Extinction

What do you want out of a movie? I mean seriously, why do you go to the cinema? Sure, sometimes it’s sweltering outside and you just need to be somewhere dark and air conditioned, and sometimes you’re on a first date and really want to see how well you and this other person can sit silently near each other, but those are answers to why you went to a movie, not why do you go to the movies. It’s something worth thinking about. Something that I don’t believe is easy to answer, but a real consideration if you consider yourself any sort of aficionado. And while you’re thinking about that, think about this: Michael Bay is someone who knows exactly what he wants out of a movie.

He wants that camera at a low angle and constantly moving. These are motion pictures! These are a big deal! Look at the grandeur, the sheer epic-ness that is Mark Wahlberg walking around a barn or Kelsey Grammer sitting at a conference table or Thomas Lennon making a phone call. What are you going to do, film badly written conversations as if they are actual dialogues between people? Fuck no! Spin that shit around, blow the colors out, fill the frame with detail – people will pick out whatever bits of exposition they can. And even if they don’t, who cares? This is a ride, baby, and it don’t stop just because you’re not following.

He wants to do the same fights over and over again, hoping that changes in locale or the precise identities of the hunks of metal pummeling each other will make them feel different. Where do the bad transformers keep finding all these disposable grunts? Even if you’re a giant robot, if you’re almost beaten to death, surely it takes some time to recover, right? At a certain point, aren’t cities just leveled? Like, how many skyscrapers are there really? It doesn’t matter, pay absolutely no mind to logistical concerns. As long as there keep being explosions, gun shots, punches, stabs, and fireballs, everybody wins.

He wants these things, and Michael Bay keeps getting them too. Because everyone else wants them. There’s a safety in knowing exactly what to expect, and it’s what’s made Transformers one of the biggest franchises in the world. If anything, this new one, Age of Extinction, is the safest bet yet, because by switching leading men from Shia LaBeouf to Mark Wahlberg, they’ve eliminated the chance for a remarkable performance. What I mean by that is that at least Shia always gave us a central character to hate, a human piece of shit whose terrible behavior could distract us from the hollow spectacle around him. Mark Wahlberg is a great actor, undoubtedly, but he’s not someone who typically elevates material, and as you might expect, he just coasts through this movie like Schrodinger’s actor, simultaneously giving a good and bad performance, just another cog in Michael Bay’s terrible machine.

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T3 82: Top 10 Breakfast Cereal Brands

We live in a caffein culture in which real breakfasts are ignored by pretty much everybody in favor of tasty desserts that go well with coffee. But before now, in the past, we were younger people who liked something different. Something a little more… straight-up sugary. Join us this week as we literally and figuratively dip our spoons into the deep bowl of childhood by figuring out our 10 favorite breakfast cereal brands. But can we see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch?

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Gone Baby Gone

Gone Girl

The world is a vampire. The systems society has put in place intending to protect people have been perverted by opportunists, sycophants, and psychopaths looking to walk all over the little people. Everything is broken, and anyone could find themselves with their very life in the balance at any moment. At least, that’s the world, or at least the America, that Gone Girl, David Fincher’s darkly comedic latest mystery, is set in.

Because if I told you there was a movie starring the likes of Ben Affleck, The World’s End‘s Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Casey Wilson, and Missi Pyle as almost exactly Nancy Grace, you’d think it was a comedy, wouldn’t you? In some ways, this movie is exactly that. One of the things that makes Gone Girl such a pleasure to watch is that it manages to showcase not just the frustration, terror, and uncertainty of a horrible situation, but the absurdity of it as well.

Ben Affleck is Nick, a regular guy who co-owns a bar with his twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon) and comes home one day to find his wife has disappeared. As the search for her begins, Nick finds himself under increasing scrutiny as the media, community, police, and even his family begin to wonder if he’s got something to hide. Nick’s just one of those guys that outwardly seems too great – he’s too smooth, too cool, too handsome – someone people basically want to hate. Which is why Affleck, who people do seem to desperate for a reason to hate, is so great for this role, and delivers one of his best performances.

As does Rosamund Pike as Amy, the eponymous missing woman. Watching her side of the story is equal parts depressing, horrifying, and infuriating, and it all works because Pike is so good at playing such a damaged character. It’s undoubtedly among the year’s best performances and deserves more positive attention than she’s been getting. One of the biggest complaints I’ve read is that people feel the movie doesn’t explain enough how Amy came to be broken the way she is, but I say that ambiguity makes her all the more interesting.

More than anything, Gone Girl is another showcase for how slick and thrilling David Fincher can make a movie. He finds something in every scene that adds the extra weirdness or humanity or memorability that helped keep me interested as a viewer. I remember a scene with Margo storming out of Nick’s house and on the way she briefly leans down to pet Nick’s cat. It’s such a bizarre touch, to throw off her dramatic exit like that, but it’s the way people actually behave. And it made me wonder how important that darn cat was going to be in the grand scheme of things.

But in the grand scheme of things, nothing really matters save the story people want to here. Gone Girl could have been a good murder mystery, but what made the movie great is the way it deconstructs the stories people tell themselves. But to try to explain that without spoiling anything would be quite a challenge, so instead I’ll say go see this damn movie, it’s not doing super great in the box office you jerks!

Destiny! Destiny! No Escaping That for Me!

Destiny

Destiny is one of the most expensive games ever developed, and rightfully so, given that it is the new franchise from the biggest publisher in the industry, Activision, and one of the most successful developers, Bungie. I mean, how else do you follow Halo? That series defined a console generation and a strange flavor of Mountain Dew. The only way you can possible solve the problem of living up to that legacy is by throwing as much money at it as possible. But now that Destiny has been out for a month, a lot of people are asking if that money is actually on display.
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Let Go Your Earthly Tether

The Legend of Korra Season 3

There’s nothing like The Legend of Korra on TV, and now that sadly includes Korra itself, which transitioned to online-only midway through its third season after Nickelodeon massively dropped the ball at marketing the show. You see, the first three episodes of “Book Three: Change” (the series calls seasons books) leaked, forcing the network decided to rush the season out, announcing the premiere just a week before it aired and with almost no fanfare. Not surprisingly, Korra experienced series-low ratings, and before the show could recover it got bumped into cyberspace.

For a big fan, this transition has been bittersweet. On the one hand, this is exactly the show I wish kids were watching. It’s truly all-ages entertainment, smart, beautifully made, and an action series with a kickass female lead, there aren’t a lot of those going around. But on the other hand, it’s been six weeks since “Change” ended and the new season, “Balance,” is already available to stream. It undoubtedly will be the last, and it’s kind of crazy to think that the world will be without Avatar again before 2015.

I first got into this franchise is college, when some YouTube videos inspired me to check out The Last Airbender, which was cursing into its excellent final season. I was aware of the show before that, it was something my brothers watched, but Nickelodeon stigma kept me away. I’m glad I gave it a chance, because that show ended up being among my favorites of all time, and now its successor is finally getting to be at that same level.

“Change” is all about the ramifications of the last season, “Spirits,” which ended with Korra deciding to leave the portal between the worlds open, allowing spirits and humans to live together. This has caused at least two major shifts in the world: Republic City is overrun with spiritual greenery and people all over the world are discovering they can airbend. This allows Korra and the rest of Team Avatar a chance to finally get out of the city and travel the world as they begin rebuilding the Air Nation.

There are obstacles along the way, none of which is more dangerous than Zaheer, a dangerous, philosophical anarchist who is fittingly played by Henry Rollins. After discovering he can now airbend, Zaheer escapes from prison and reunites his own team featuring an armless waterbender, an earthbender who can create lava, and a firebender with combustion skills like that guy from The Last Airbender. Together they set out to capture Korra, and prove to be the most dangerous and exciting villains the series has ever had.

Probably the greatest thrill of The Legend of Korra for me is how exciting and amazing it is to get beautifully animated and choreographed magical kung fu fighting on a weekly basis. Having enemies that are capable of each kind of bending meant that every fight this season was interesting and different from the last, especially the final battle of the season, which, because of spoilers, can’t be explained but must be seen.

I couldn’t get as invested in this show as I am if I just watched for the fighting, however, and “Change” is also the strongest season of the series in terms of character development. Previous mistakes are undone and turned into opportunities for growth, insights into hidden pasts are given, relationships are shifted, broken, and strengthened. For the first time, I’m starting to really care about this Team Avatar the way I did about Aang’s Team Avatar. No easy task considering every season of Korra has been about half as long as one of The Last Airbender.

Look, I know I’m not winning anyone over by writing about how special this franchise has become to me. It’s probably too late anyway, given the digital death sentence Nickelodeon has given the franchise. But I had to write something, and if you are interested at all, you can stream the whole series at Nick.com right now and catch up in time to be on board this sinking ship before she’s completely underwater. I have the utmost confidence “Balance” will be amazing. And I know I’m going to miss her a whole lot when she’s gone.

T3 81: Top 10 Fall Songs

As you can tell from the Shocktober posts which surround this one, fall is here. You might not have thought much about it, since the season doesn’t get enough love. No one wants Autumn to come because that means the summer has to end, and then once it’s here everyone wants to skip through it to get to winter and that wonderful Christmastime. This week’s podcast is for anyone who can recognize all the fun that September, October, and November can be. I’m talking about the new school year. I’m talking about the release of most of the good movies and video games for the year. I’m talking about Halloween. I’m talking about Thanksgiving. I’m talking about Black Friday… Wait never mind, Black Friday sucks.

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