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Brownian Movement (2010)
Engaging Psychological Study
"Brownian Movement" or, more technically, "Brownian Motion," is the random motion of particles suspended in a medium, a concept named for Scottish botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858). It describes an observation relating to plant pollen that he first postulated in 1827.
In this story, the "particle" is Charlotte, a physician, and the "medium" is the hospital where she works. Charlotte circulates among the patients and selects them at random to engage in sexual encounters at a secret flat that she's rented. In contrast to her husband, an engineer who is handsome and masculine, her pick-ups are often physically repulsive and weak.
Others have criticized this film as dull or boring, but I found it engaging in the tradition of films by Yasujiro Ozu, Ingmar Bergman, Alain Resnais, and Agnes Varda. The visuals, especially of the illicit flat, are exquisitely composed and reminiscent of the artist Edward Hopper's interiors.
Except for one startling outburst, the film is a quiet psychological study to be savored slowly. The action is often limited to the actor's expressions and if you're looking for a fast-paced plot punctuated by lurid sex, then move on.
Córki dancingu (2015)
Daughters of Dancing
This was the first full-length film by Agnieszka Smoczynska and was recently screened (in late 2020) on TCM as part of their "Women Make Film" series. Due to its mature themes and casual nudity, it was originally shown in the wee hours of the night, but was available for a few weeks on Watch TCM. I streamed it to my wide-screen TV via a PC that I use as a source for various on demand services.
In Polish, the original title, "Córki dancingu," translates into English as "Daughters of dancing." In fact, the main characters, a pair of barely pubescent mermaids, sing more than they dance. The English title, "The Lure," is really more appropriate in that it evokes the Sirens of Greek mythology, who lured sailors to their death on rocky shores, an allusion that has some relevance here.
The plot has been summarized in many other reviews, so I'll just move on to the comments section. On paper, the story comes across as absurd -- cannibalistic young mermaids come ashore to become part of a song-and-dance cabaret act. However, think of it as an allegory for the rites of puberty. A young girl gets her first period and blood becomes a monthly drama. She discovers boys, as well as the seductive power she wields over them.
While a little rough around the edges, it never failed to surprise and I couldn't turn away, even during the disturbing scenes. A long-time friend, who grew up in Poland, commented to me abut the "Three Colors" trilogy by Krzysztof Kieslowski. He said that much of the meaning behind the dialogue and plotting in those films was lost on non-Poles and I suspect the same is true here. If nothing else, the subtitles sometime seemed to be a bit abbreviated and some of the bizarre twists may have their inspiration from the centuries-long social and political upheavals that form the Polish identity.
If you missed it on TCM, "The Lure" can be still found on some of the streaming services, If you like enigmatic, feminist themed, Euro-cinema, this one is a must see.
The L Word: Generation Q (2019)
Sad Downward Spiral
This is my fourth rewrite and probably my last. After season 1 of the reboot, I mused about giving it 5 or 6 stars and ended up with 7 because despite its many flaws, I couldn't turn away. Season 2 does nothing to address those flaws and only amplifies them.
At the heart of the issue is the truly dismal writing and recycled plots. What I mean by the latter is that every episode feels like the last -- lovers hook up for a 45 minute relationship, go their separate ways, and move on to someone else in the circle. A long term relationship is maybe two episodes. The sex is furtive, clawing, and frantic Passion quickly turns to disillusionment. Couples mate and run. There's virtually no romance or tenderness to be found.
Many user reviews criticize the acting and justifiably so. Leisha Haley (Alice) is the only actor who seems comfortable in her role in both seasons. In season 2, Kate Moernig (Shane) starts to mature and surprisingly, so does Leo Sheng (Micah). As for the rest of the cast, Jennifer Beals looks like she knows how badly her character is written and and can't help turning Bette into a self-caricature. Jacqueline Toboni, insufferable as Finley, is completely over the top and slides further downhill as the episodes progress.
Shane and Micah are the only ones who show the remotest sign of character growth. Given that that the story is set in LA, you'd think that someone would be seeing a therapist. And what's with the cinematography? In contrast to the original, the dark interiors make GenQ seem like film noir without the noir.
Edited excerpts from my review of January, 2020, which followed Season 1:
1. Nice to see several of our favorite characters return to reprise their roles from the original.
2. Let's face it -- GenQ is a soap set in an atypical milieu. It's not that far from the original in its absurd story lines, it's just that the original had more finesse and imagination. It was also educational in the way it presented the nuances of lesbian culture.
3. Unlike most of the lesbian and gay couples I know, there are no long-term, stable relationships shown here.
4. There are some truly annoying characters -- mainly Finley (Jacqueline Toboni) and Jose (Freddy Miyares), the latter now thankfully gone.
5. As for the acting, a lot of it seemed under-rehearsed or perhaps the product of one or two takes. I have to blame the directors for many of the cringe-worthy performances or for settling for whatever the actors gave them, but it could have been questionable casting.
How many more experienced actors didn't audition or turned down parts because of the graphic sexuality (mainly in Season 1) -- deep kisses, gratuitous nude scenes, and mucho faux sex. In the original, Jennifer Beals (Bette) was never exposed past her underwear or she discreetly covered her breasts when she was shown naked in bed with a lover (true, too, of Marlee Matlin, Cybill Shepherd, Jane Lynch, and other A-listers). Clearly she had enough star power to draw her own lines, while newcomers had to accept what they were offered -- well, it's better than waiting tables forever.
I really don't have a problem with sex scenes, graphic or not, but they need to make sense in the context of the story. There was something about the graphic sexuality in the original L-Word that seemed more right, especially in the early Jenny Schecter story line when she's finding her voice as a writer and exploring her sexuality.
6. As the risk of beating this to death, much of the dialogue has real issues. When I can sit on the couch and practically mouth the next lines word-for-word before the characters speak them, then something's wrong. Many of the conflicts between the couples were so cliched and devoid of logic, that I had to fast forward to the next scene.
This also refers back to my criticism of the directors. A good director knows how to motivate their actors, even when a scene is poorly written, or knows when to send the script back for a rewrite. Granted there must have been time and budget constraints, but the script should be polished before shooting begins and the writers need to be on hand to make revisions when it's clear that something isn't working.
7. The music truly sucks. The background music, the soppy ballads, and the opening and closing credit tunes all suck. Where's BETTY when we need them?
Finally, what is it about Showtime, the HBO wannabe, that keeps their dramas from realizing their full potential. Unlike HBO ("The Sopranos," "The Wire"), AMC ("Breaking Bad," "Better Call Saul"), Amazon ("Mrs. Maisel," "Fleabag"), and FX ("Fargo"), among others, Showtime's series are always straining for the top shelf, but never quite reaching it. After watching episodes of "Dexter," "Shameless," and "Ray Donovan," I came a way with a feeling that they're drawing on a pool of B-list writers or that the showrunners (here, Marya-Lewis Ryan) keep underestimating the audience. GenQ feels like its been dumbed down for the lowest common denominator.
Is it a cultural thing at Showtime's executive level? Granted, HBO has had it's share of turkeys (Alan Ball's awful "Here and Now" and the unwatchable "Hello Ladies"), but when they're good, they're very, very good.
Compared to the disappointing Season 1, Season 2 was on such a downward spiral that it was barely watchable. I kept hoping for redemption, but it never came. If there's a Season 3, I won't be there.
The L Word (2004)
Who Killed "The L Word"?
Even if you've only read a few of the reviews or synopsis, by now you know that "The L Word" revolves around a group of mostly lesbian women, their lovers, and the occasional male who live in and around Los Angeles. I've viewed the entire series twice and while I'd love to give it 10 stars, I can't for the simple reason that there's a point where the story arc goes off the rails, the reason for which only became clear after some Internet detective work.
There are a lot of terrific performances here (plus a few wooden ones from non-actor, real life gay icons who play themselves in cameo appearances), including many by actors with whom I wasn't familiar. These include Katherine Moennig (whose talents are completely wasted in the series "Ray Donovan"), Rachel Shelley, Erin Daniels, Laurel Holloman, and Leisha Hailey. Curious to see what else they had done professionally, I started looking up their IMDb profiles and noticed that in 2009 Leisha Hailey reprised her role as Alice Pieszecki in a film called "The Farm."
It turns out that "The Farm" was producer and writer Ilene Chaiken's proposed sequel to "The L Word" and was set in a women's prison. The synopsis reads, "After being convicted of (murdering) Jenny Schecter, Alice is incarcerated in California's Humboldt State Farm and Prison for Women." A shocking revelation, indeed!
So where did "The L Word" falter for me? It began with Season 4, Episode 5, titled "Lez Girls," which was also the title of Jenny Schecter's story about a group of mostly lesbian women, their lovers, and the occasional male. In the course of the first three and a half seasons, one of the story lines follows Jenny (played by Mia Kirshner), the naive mid-western girl from Skokie, Illinois, as she discovers her inner lesbian. The other principals, who routinely meet for coffee at The Planet, a cafe by day and lesbian bar by night, are all supportive of Jenny, but for no apparent reason, in her published work she trashes them as shallow, mean, and self-serving. Towards the end of Season 4, Jenny denounces her friends (especially Tina) with a mouthful of uncharacteristic obscenities.
In Seasons 5 and 6, Jenny's behavior becomes increasingly diabolic until the climactic final episode of the series. Here the plot takes on the air of an Agatha Christie murder mystery, wherein a dozen characters each have sufficient motive to send Jenny to her untimely death.
The problem is that Jenny seemly becomes the woman from Hell overnight, without any real explanation for her metamorphosis from angel to devil. Although in the earlier seasons she experienced fantasies involving her grandparents' eastern European origins, quasi-death wish dreams about being a high-wire acrobat in a circus, and so on, she was never depicted as bi-polar or predatory in her day-to-day life. By the end of Season 3, she emerged anew, embracing her power as a woman, self-confident and no longer a girl-child.
In reality, Jenny's social decent was designed to be a set-up for Chaiken's post-L Word career. La Chaiken, knowing that this series would eventually come to an end, wanted to continue with another series in the Showtime galaxy. "The Farm" was going to be her ticket, but after screening a never aired pilot, Showtime declined to pick it up. As I see it, the whole Jenny as she-devil thread was a waste of film.
It's too bad, because, like so many viewers, I became attached to many of the characters and was sorry to see the series end without resolution for most of them. Presumably, "The Farm" would have answered these questions through a series of flashbacks, but it was never released on DVD (I couldn't even find a pirated copy) and is apparently locked in a vault somewhere, never to be seen. We can only hope that the proposed "L Word" sequel comes through and settles some of them -- did Tina and Bette make it as a couple in New York, what happened to Max's baby, and, especially, what drove Alice to the breaking point, how she did the deed, and so on.
Were it not for the Jenny debacle, I'd gladly give "The L Word" 9 or 10 stars. Yes, some of the plot twists are silly and defy logic, but that's what drives series like this one. However, if you're looking for insight into the breath of lesbian behavior and social-sexual practices, this is a good place to begin. Though, you could just as soon call it a wrap at the end of Season 4 and devote some of the 20 hours you'd save to watching "Tales of the City" (but Season 1 only).