Bert Vandecasteele

Month: February 2010

  • Ep. 04 – The Substitute

    One of the reasons I like LOST so much, is because you can rest assured that a) a bad episode is still good compared to most other shows and b) a bad episode will always be followed by a great episode. And because I believe that all is eventually right in this world, I am happy to anounce that, after having watched The Substitute, these rules still stand.

    The Episode…

    In the Sideways story, we got a lot of refreshing set-up. At a first glance, it didn’t seem like that exciting a story, but a lot of hints were given to the dramatic changes in Locke’s life if Jughead had exploded. Apparently, something in the explosion caused Locke to not have problems with his father. It’s a thought worth pondering: what could this have been? But, more importantly: how did John end up in the wheelchair, if not by his father’s hand? There’s probably some sort of couse-correcting involved, but what kind… it’s a mystery.

    Locke having a good relationship with his dad caused another thing: he is still together with Helen. I wonder if she’s going to get cancer and die like she apparently did in the main story? Or was that a lie by Widmore to get Locke back on the island? I liked how destiny shoved him away from Jack and back into Ben’s hands. It was clear that for the final season, the writers would want to squeeze the last life out of the wonderful Emerson-O’Quinn duo, but Ben as a high school teacher? …It blew my mind.

    The much more interesting reveal came on the island, however. In 2007, Sawyer willingly allied himself with the Monster, and thus got introduced to not one, but two of the core secrets to the series. Does this mean Sawyer is now a “bad guy”? My guess is that Sawyer will con our Man in Black in the end. It’d be like Sawyer to do that.

    The Questions…

    This episode made me fall in love with the nemesis. Apparently, he’s not just some diety, but was a man in the past, a man with an obviously backstorywound. Who’s the little kid he (and Sawyer) saw? Was it Jacob? Did they try to kill each other to discover the island’s secrets? I’d say the sickness is probably involved somewhere in there, but I can’t put my finger on it just yet.

    In other news, Richard Alpert took an interesting turn aswell. Never before have we seen him this twitchy and in the dark. After Jacob’s “what about you” to Ben and now his supposed betrayal to Richard, I’m starting to wonder which side is dark and which side is light all over again. Is the monster truly a bad guy? Funnily enough, Richard’s mentor role has been taken over by Ilana. She seems to know everything about everything, but isn’t really letting out more than she wants. I can’t wait for more information on her!

    And, going to one of the core answers in this episode: yes, it is destiny that they ended up on the island. They are possible candidates to fill Jacob’s shoes. At the moment, Hurley seems the most logical solution. But let’s ask ourselves: do we really want anyone to fill Jacob’s position? Would that be a satisfying ending?

    The second core answer – which was not in my questions list because I just figured they’d let it be – concerned the numbers. Apparently, the numbers fit right into Jacob’s love of lists: every number corresponds someone. At the moment, only Sawyer, Jack, Sayid, one of the Kwons and Hurley are still contending. Where is Kate? Wasn’t she touched by Jacob in the season five finale aswell?

    Next Week…

    If they keep the season one structure copying up, next week will be all about Jack. I wonder if he’ll meet someone interesting in his Sideways? I can’t imagine his life having changed so much – his dad even disappeared just like he did back in Season One. It’s so tempting to look at the cast list whether Christian is on it, but I promised myself I wouldn’t this season.

    Anyway, looks like we’ll be seeing more of the temple, the place where the action seems to be happening. Sun, Frank, Ilana, Ben and Richard should have arrived there by now. Poor Sun, missing Jin all over again.

    In All…

    This episode rocked my socks off. I felt so amazed looking at Jacob’s messy list and the implications it had. But it truly were the little things that made this so great: the little boy, Locke getting along with his father, Helen, Hurley’s car not getting hit by Locke’s because he is the luckiest guy on earth… There’s just so many details, I could watch it over and over again.

    Favourite Quote: BEN: Alright, I know I sound like a broken record, but how many times do we have to go over this? If you have the last cup of coffee, you remove the filter and throw it away. Fear not. I will make a fresh pot.
    LOCKE: Actually, I was just hoping for some Earl Grey.
    BEN: Tea? Now there’s a gentleman drink. I don’t believe we met. Ben Linus, European History.
    LOCKE: John Locke, Substitute.
    BEN: Well, Welcome.

  • Kyatapirâ (Caterpillar – Berlinale 2010)

    I have a confession to make. Because of a mix-up and the fact that we were three sharing one Berlinale pass, I was unable to go to any of the movies I had selected. Thankfully, I was not that fussed about it and got some different tickets. One of them was En ganske snill mann, which I have already reviewed. I had high expectations for that one, but it turned out to be rather bland. The other movie kind of scared me. But, as it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised and traumatized by Caterpillar.

    The way to tell the story

    Caterpillar is a Japanese movie telling the tale of a wife whose man comes home a cripple at the start of the second world war, in 1941. Because he lost his arms, legs and the ability to speak in China, he is considered a Japanese War God and it is up to his wife to take care of this highly honorable person.

    If you think this movie was all about stereotypical misery, you’re clearly mistaken. The first cliche ending gets broken right away: while the opening credits were rolling, I was sure the movie would end with a broken women choking her husband. I was pleasantly surprised to see the movie tackle this in the first five minutes, and then move on.

    By doing this, the story instantly became something else: it’s the story of a strong, Japanese woman in war-times, defending her honor and doubting her home country and war in general. Her crippled husband was just a catalist, a way to tell this story.

    Eat, sleep, something something

    And that’s the nice thing about this movie. It’s not deliberately showing you anything. It just tosses light on certain moments in the couple’s daily life. Through these moments, you are free to construct your own backstory. You are also free not to. It doesn’t matter and the story doesn’t care. It just happens as it goes along.

    It’s also good to see a movie making such good use of sex. One of the backstories revolves around it in its entirety, linking the two characters together (and I mean this not just in the physical sense). Sex goes from lust, to disappointment, to rape, to trauma, to an entire turnaround of the trauma and reversed rape. But once again, the movie doesn’t tell you this. You have to enter inside it and look around for a bit. Go for a walk in it.

    In All…

    I wish I could write like this. I wish I could hide a dramaturgic construct behind an iconic story that is actually just a theme setting for something much larger: a history, a country and a war. I can forgive the movie for taking the educational road (I know how many people died in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the second World War in general, thank you very much). It just doesn’t matter. The rest was just so impressive. There’s at least twenty movies behind this movie. Unbelievable.

  • En ganske snill mann (Berlinale 2010)

    There are some genres I like but have not really acquainted myself with. One of these is the wonderful Black Comedy – when I watched in Bruges, I was blown away by the way the story was executed. And I laughed, I really laughed. It was brilliant! So, in order to get a bit more Bildung, I watched En ganske snill mann at the Berlinale.

    Giving birth on that back seat of your Mercedes

    First things first: I did laugh. The story of an ex-convict trying to pick up his life after twelve years behind bars worked in all it’s absurdity: the women who all figured he must be sex-craved, the new room which was really more like a prison cell than his old one, the people blurting standardized walls of text in order to try and accept him…

    It was genuinely funny. But why am I only at the third paragraph and already out of things to say? Because, even if funny, the movie was kind of forgettable. It was a Norwegian take on in Bruges, even going so far as to including a midget and three crooks. Or is this some sort of black comedy convention I know nothing about?

    In All…

    I reckon that’s the problem: the decent photography and great acting couldn’t save the uninspired script. Surely, you’ll laugh, but in the back of your head you’ll think you’ve all seen it somewhere before. And that’s because you have. On top of that, the better jokes get completely stretched and repeated ad neauseam. Didn’t they know that a joke is only good once?

    Hey, by no means am I saying you should avoid this movie at all costs. You shouldn’t, it’s a pretty fun ride with some excellent photography in there. It’s like a slice of cake. You get at your grandmother’s. Every damn year. Only this time it speaks a different language. Still cake, though.

  • Ep. 03 – What Kate Does

    I don’t know what it was. Did the season premiere raise my expectations so high, or have I really turned into the thing I’ve dreadest most (an annoying fanboy)? It’s just that the last episode didn’t really set off a spark with me – nor most of the people watching it with me. Why?

    The Episode…

    During the first three seasons, the thought of a Kate episode coming up was an instant alarm bell: this episode would be boring as hell, feature Kate running from point A to B, kill some bad guys on the way, and generally be a pain in the ass. Season Four’s episode “Eggtown” brought a change to that: the episode featured an actual story I was interested in! The trend continued in Season Five: saving Ben was an interesting feat – even if it did feature running around and away. Again.

    But this episode? I just can’t justify the running anymore. It’s too much. The Kate parts of the episode (including the Sideways, who were more about Claire ) were so downright annoying that I was very disappointed – even for a Kate episode. Thank god two things saved it.

    First off, I liked the fact that one of the main characters of the second season made his return: the sickness. Yes, apparently there is a sickness, and the whole thing wasn’t just a Dharma trick to get the people to stay down the hatch. We also found out – with the usual bit of LOST extrapolation – that it is related to the Monster. Will Sayid be able to conquer it? He’s the one character where the “salvation” question has been the most prodominant. He’s also the character who, in my opinion, kind of needs it the most. Sawyer said it all.

    The second saving moment was – believe it or not – related to Kate, if only slightly. I’m of course talking about Sawyer’s goodbye to Juliet. Man, I really feel for the guy. I like how they’re really building towards his downfall: for that last five seasons, he’s slowly become a better person. Juliet’s death, however, plunged the guy right back into the abyss. I’m excited to see where they take this.

    The Questions…

    Apart from the whole sickness thing (which I didn’t mention in the questions because I considered it answered), this episode was very low on questions. Now we know that Claire is still on the island, and that she’s possibly gone insane – Rousseau style. That raises the questions: was Rousseau sick? Or was she telling the truth, and were her comrades the sick ones? Maybe I’m looking into it too much: she was probably telling the truth.

    Next Week…

    Next week’s episode, the subsitute, will probably feature Locke. I wonder if he’s going to call Jack up? I hope we’ll get a bit more insight on who this mysterious Man in Black (or the Monster) is. On the Sideways of things, I wonder if Locke really went on his Walkabout. And: who, if there was no island and hence no reason for Abaddon to recruit John, told him to go on it in the first place…

    In All…

    There were some interesting things going on in this episodes – some nice reveals. But seriously, if I’ve gotten this far, it means I’m not just in it for the reveals. I’m just not fond of Kate. I guess this is my problem – only my problem seems to be shared with everyone in the room.

    I sometimes wonder: where are the Kate fans? If every episode is written for a different audience, then who are the people they write Kate episodes for?

    Favourite Quote: SAWYER: He’s an Iraqi torturer who shoots kids, he definitely deserves another go around.

  • The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

    Creative problems ask for creative solutions. This must have been clear to Terry Gilliam when he was in the middle of shooting The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Heath Ledger died. Gilliam didn’t fret, he just shot down production for a month and looked for a solution – a solution which, in my opinion, makes the movie better than it might have been.

    George, no Barry

    The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus tells an ancient story: the pact with the Devil. Immediately, upon the introduction of this Becketian Devil, a little bell started ringing in my head: this movie was either going to be lame or not end well. You see, a Devil’s pact has a slight disadvantage: you can’t win.

    That doesn’t mean that Parnassus is automatically a dark movie: sure, it has its dark passages, but it doesn’t traumatise – not in the slightest. One could even say it’s quirky, kind of like Alice in Wonderland, we get to cast a look into someone’s mind; a look very similar to a feverish dream. Funnily enough, Parnassus’ mind is exactly what I imagined Terry Gilliams mind to be like.

    No review without Heath

    It would be impossible to talk about this movie without discussing Tony, Heath’s character. It should be no secret that Ledger died in the middle of shooting this film, and that – seeing how much time and money had been sunk into it – the team would have to come up with a solution.

    In my opinion, they did this brilliantly: Ledger, upon entering the imaginarium, is performed by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. If you think they shoehorned those actors in just to cover Ledger’s death, rest assured: they are a great addition to the story and even add more depth to it.

    I’ll start by saying this: every metamorphosis is treated like a reveal. This means that we, the audience, are just as surprised to see a different actor as Tony himself. But it’s not just that – it’s made into a vital character point: Parnassus doesn’t know who he is, we don’t know who he is… in fact, he doesn’t even know himself! The character feels like a chameleon – the change in actor just empathizes this.

    In All…

    I’m not saying The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a stroke of genious. It’s not, it has flaws (the plot is kind of hairy, it’s very entertaining but never tense, …). I’m saying this movie shows how you can find a creative solution to a very unfortunate problem. And just for that, it’s worth going to go and see it.

  • Ep. 01-02 – LA X

    What an incredible trip it’s been – and this is only the beginning of the end. From the moment the episode LA X (a double feature, thank you very much nice people at ABC) started, I was sure it’d not only be a mood setter (like “Because you left”, the fifth season premiere), but a nailbiting, action-packed question answerer. We’re back for the swan song in the final season of LOST.

    The Episode…

    As per tradition, the season opener dropped us right into the action, confusing the hell out of us. At first, seeing Jack on the plane kind of disappointed me – after all, you know who you’re watching and when you’re watching, but as soon as he went into the bathroom (right after the crash didn’t happen) and spotted blood on his neck, I was sold. But the real shocker only came afterwards, when we were literally thrown out the window, into the water and witnessed what happened to the island: the bomb blew up in 1977, sinking the island and killing everyone. So it worked!

    Or did it? Apparently, in some other timeline – or, actually, in the right timeline (meaning the one we’ve been following for five seasons), the explosion didn’t work. Apparently, the bomb’s explosion didn’t sink the island but used the electromagnetism in such a way that it tossed our survivors back to 2007. I guess this is the Schrodinger’s cat principle, only with a deep underground shaft as a box and a hydrogen bomb as a cat. Time cannot decide whether the bomb prevented or caused the incident. Obviously, this is faux science, but if you’ve been swallowing this stuff for five seasons like I have, you learn to let go and just roll with it.

    It has to be said that, without the shadow of a doubt, the faux-2004 story was the more interesting one throughout the episode. The first hour was riddled with copies of Season 1, only slightly changed to make it feel irritable. Most notable amongst these moments was the introduction of Desmond, whom noone seemed to have seen other than Jack. Interesting.

    On the other hand, the happenings on the island were much more of an introduction than a continuation of the story: Jacob is dead, there is Smokey Locke, we’ve reached the insides of the Temple (not entirely convinced about this yet, by the way: sure, they used to be pirates, but I’m not too fond of the Asian guy), they revived Sayid (duh)… It all felt a bit like set-up. Except for one thing: our black guy is the monster.

    The Questions…

    Looking at the questions, I’m amazed at how many were addressed in some way. My favourite one is the obvious nudge towards Desmond’s story: apparently, Henry Ian Cusik is a credited cast member for this episode. That’s pretty interesting, considering he had less lines than Boone or any other former cast member (safe for Claire). Does that mean Eloise will have been right all along, and Desmonds trip is not over yet? Oh please, let it be so!

    What happened after Juliet banged the bomb is still a bit of a mystery. There are two timelines, but how will this play out in the end? Is one line real and one fake? What is this building towards? I’d be pretty disappointed if fifty percent of the season turns out to be fake, but I’m sure they have something interesting up their sleeve.

    And hurrah: the faux timeline means that Locke is still alive and well (even if paralysed) somewhere! I’m very excited about the idea of Locke and Jack becoming the best of friends, I hope they pursue this idea further. On the island, in 2007, however, Locke is really and truly dead. His place has been taken by… someone, who happens to have the power to change into a smoke monster. Interesting! This is hinting towards an explanation I’d been hoping to get for ages now: how Locke “looked into the eyes of the island” and “the beautiful thing he saw there”. Was this our black man playing a trick on Locke?

    Finally, on a less interesting note: yes, Richard was one of the passengers aboard the Black Rock. A slave, apparently. I hope we get a flashback about this; I’d love to see Richard in that time period and how it came to be that he stopped aging. But if we never see this, I can live with it aswell; the crumbs we’ve been getting suffice.

    Next week…

    Next week’s episode is titled “What Kate Does”, an obvious nudge towards the Season Two episode titles “What Kate Did”. Did she do something different in the Faux 2004? And why? I’m not too fond of Kate episodes, but seeing her get in the cab with Claire was an interesting idea. That means we will see Claire again – certainly off the island, but maybe in the 2007 timeline as well.

    I’m also very intrigued by this “Lennon” character, mostly because he’s performed by John Hawkes, an actor I love very much. Most people seem to know him from Deadwood, but I immediately recognized him as “the guy who put his hand on fire” in Me and You and Everyone we know by Miranda July. This role’s completely different than that movie, though. So I vote: less Asian guy next week, and more Lennon!

    In All…

    It’s great to have LOST back for one last time. I’ll be glad when it’s over, but I love it when new things get introduced: they always do it so graciously, in typical LOST style – even if the things they introduce are always very, very different. I mean, with the introduction of the “faux LA X” (a false flashback or a flash sideways, we don’t know yet), I think we’ve seen all possible narrative ways of playing with time now, right?

    In this way, the show has increasingly become a series about narration; about how to pursue a concept so far that it becomes an idea of its own. Maybe that’s why, despite the obvious flaws the show has, I like it so much?

    Favourite Quote: JACK: Nothing’s irreversible.