American History X

This is the 1000th post on this blog. I know no one cares but I think that's pretty crazy.

So American History X is not a terrible effective argument against racism. If that's its goal, then it failed. Still, I loved the movie itself, minus a couple tone deaf scenes, mostly because of Edward Norton's superb performance. He basically has to play three characters - a normal teenager who kowtows to his father's beliefs; a ripped, militant skinhead; and a reformed ex-con. I'm not sure how much time he had to transform himself physically so completely from phase 1 to phase 2, but it's pretty startling. And the several scenes that are just him talking or arguing with others for minutes on end are generally the best in the film. You feel his rage, his sorrow, his disappointment. He really did a great job sympathizing a character who's despicable for about half of the movie.

Otherwise, the film has a few strengths. It's a good looking movie, with the black and white/color disparity in the flashbacks and current events more effective than I would have guessed. And Norton's far from the only cast member who's not a slouch. I can't decide whether Edward Furlong is more annoying here as a teenager or in Terminator 2 as a kid, and his narration is especially irritating. But the various authority figures around Norton and Furlong are all generally very good, no matter what side they're on. And the film uses violence very well, highlighting the most important moments of the story in a way that makes the story a lot more intense. But yeah, the failure to actually make a convincing argument against all the racist rhetoric it spews throughout is something of a concern, and the unearned ending really doesn't have the emotional effect they wanted it to. I could easily see a white supremacist watching the film and being even more convinced of his beliefs despite its purported message. Still, as a movie, I liked it a lot.

My Name Is Earl - Season 4

After season three featured a lot of continuous plot lines, the fourth returned Earl to his natural environment as he got back to his list, with 27 episodes of wacky trailer park hijinks for us to enjoy. Earl has never gotten as much attention as the other shows on NBC's consistently solid Thursday evening lineup, but it's always there, providing solid laughs without asking you to care too deeply about anything in particular. It's sort of a nice appetizer before heavier hitters like The Office. I don't love Earl, but I appreciate it.

I liked some of the continuous stuff in the last season, though the show is probably best in this form, with Earl checking off past transgressions in fairly humorous and clever ways with plenty of opportunities for one-off guest appearances. They do dip into the serialized stuff here and there still, with cool things like a long-awaited reveal of the truth behind Crabman's past and a two-parter that tells the story of the Crab Shack's former owner, featuring Geraldo Rivera. The show's fun whenever it deviates from the formula by putting the cast on another show within the story, and they poke some fun at the odd decisions made by network executives as well. It seemed like Ethan Suplee showed off his range a lot more this time, emerging from his standard dopey-guy persona, and I'd like to see him be in that mode more often. Randy's funny, but maybe not the best outlet for a talented comedic actor. The finale ends on a cliffhanger, and the show's future has yet to be decided. I'd like to see it come back, not because I care too much about the unanswered question, just because I still enjoy it most weeks.

Clerks II

Clerks II is all right. Not the best thing Smith's done, but pretty funny. It's nice to see the old guys again, even though the presence of Rosario Dawson as an actual actor throws their badness into stark relief, plus brief appearances by Jason Lee and Ben Affleck add to the nostalgia. The movie runs on the fumes of past enjoyment a bit too much though, content to continually remind viewers of stuff that already happened before. There are a few new characters, although they're mostly used as the butt of Randal's jokes. I just had to look up what his character's name was. You decide if that means anything.

So um, yeah. Smith uses his characters as a mouthpiece for his opinions (Randal's rant about The Lord of the Rings having a boring plot and homosexual undertones was pretty hilarious while watching a movie where two guys talk about nothing for an hour before confessing their undying man-love for each other), has some WACKY sexual hijinks happen, Jay and Silent Bob do the Jay and Silent Bob thing, everyone learns a valuable lesson in the end, and it's all probably what you expect it to be. Not bad, but nothing new for him. Should I see his last movie about porn? I don't know. I probably will in the next few years.

My Name Is Earl - Season 3

The third season of NBC's redneck-comedy-that's-smarter-than-any-actual-redneck was much more plot-based than the first couple. To quickly recap, it's about a lowlife named Earl who decided to turn his karma around by making a list of every thing he's done wrong in his life and trying to fix them. The first two seasons had some continuity and entertaining flashbacks to his previous doings, but most episodes revolved around finding someone he'd hurt, realizing how the simple crime he committed had ended up turning their whole life upside down, and making things right in the end, learning valuable lessons on the way.

The third is different though. Earl starts off in jail, where he was put in season two's finale, finds his way into a coma, and then in a final plot dealing with Billie, the possible girl of his dreams. The list is still usually the center of focus, but there's still a lot of experimentation and changes to the formula. The show's interesting because it often has the mentality of a family comedy, always trying to teach lessons, but the humor and subject matter are quite often not child appropriate. I like Jason Lee more as the charismatic fast-talker, but he fits quite naturally as Earl. The thing is Earl makes more sense as the kind-hearted guy he's turned into than the jerk he spent most of his life as, but that might just be Lee's likability.

The whole cast is pretty spot-on. Ethan Suplee's really come into his role as Randy, Earl's simple-minded brother. He's pretty central as the season goes on, and has a lot of great moments. Crabman is still great, and there are some good guest appearances by Michael Rapaport and Alyssa Milano. I hope the fourth season is more of a return to form, but the third was an enjoyable diversion.

My Name Is Earl - Seasons 1-2

If you just look at the commercials, My Name Is Earl can look really dumb. But that's just the intentionally trailer-trash characters. The supporting cast is really good at conveying stupidity in a really entertaining way. My favorite secondary character is Darnell, otherwise known as "Crab Man". He has a very friendly relationship with Earl, his wife Joy's ex-husband, and often seems simple, but he actually has a lot of knowledge in his head and a shady past that has yet to be explored. There's plenty of things like that in the show, it might seem outwardly like just a dumb comedy, but a lot of time is spent developing characters and relationships.

The main character is Earl, obviously, played by Jason Lee. At first, he's almost unrecognizable in the part. If you're familiar with him from his other movies, like the Kevin Smith stuff, he seems a lot different. The voice is the same, but the mannerisms and appearance is like night and day. It's really impressive how much he dives into the role. Does Earl look like a guy who used to be a pro skateboarder? Earl is one of the best main characters in years. He's funny and likable, and while he's obviously made a lot of bad decisions, you can see that he's become a new person and is really trying to make the world better. Once in a while he slips up again, but his passion for the list and making up for his mistakes are very believable and endearing.

The first season was mostly a bunch of interrelated one-shot episodes where Earl usually found someone he'd wronged before from his list, fixed a relatively simple problem, but then realized something else that was wrong or an unanticipated way his error had been worse than he expected, and figures out to make it right while learning some valuable lessons. Season two branched out a lot more. The list was less prominent than before. He still used it a lot, crossing off names and adding more, but there were a lot of side plots that weren't even related. He goes all over the place helping his friends, and the big story arc for the season is Joy's trouble with the law after an attempt to get a refund on her busted entertainment center. It resolves with Earl making a big sacrifice to help the people he loves, and I have to wonder how major the ramifications will be for the next season. Earl and his friends and family have really grown, and the show has a lot more emotional depth than you'd really expect from a cursory glance at it.

Mallrats

I've always thought Kevin Smith was a much better writer than a director. He writes great, clever dialog, that maybe isn't too realistic, but is just fun to listen to. When he has his actors up there just saying his lines and being good actors, his movies work. But when he tries too hard to do some real complex scenes, it doesn't really work. He's not very good at directing. I thought Clerks was good for being made so cheaply, Chasing Amy was a great study of relationships, Dogma was a smart look at religion, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was just stupid fun. I've now seen Mallrats, leaving Clerks 2 as the only View Askew movie I haven't seen. Mallrats is funny, but probably the worst movie in the Askewniverse.

It's not bad, just not great. I saw the extended version, and apparently it's quite a bit longer than the theatrical cut, so I don't know if the extra length really helped or hurt it at all. Jason Lee is maybe too loud a bit too often, but he's still great as Brodie, and he's really what holds the movie together. He consistently has the best lines and is most involved in the story. His friend's girl troubles are probably given more face time, but he's much less charismatic in his role, and I didn't really care that much. I like Jay and Silent Bob when they're just being stoned idiots, not so much when they're performing stupid stunts that don't fit with the rest of the movie. It's an entertaining movie, it just has less merit than I'm used to from Smith.