Review of Two Period Pieces: Rules Don't Apply and Public Enemies

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Rules Don’t Apply (2016)-When you think about it, it’s kind of strange that Warren Beatty has only directed five films which is surprising considering his capital in Hollywood: He has a directing Oscar win under his belt, he’s renowned for his charm (in more ways than one, hint hint), and he has political tastes that align well with Hollywood. The last of them is a features iconoclast Howard Hughes. It’s likely not surprising that an iconoclast and ladies’ man like Beatty would relate to a visionary of a historical figure who had a big appetite for wealth, status, and woman. For those who thought Beatty was a shallow product of his era (who wasn’t a rebel in the 60s?), it’s admirable that Beatty knocks Hughes off his pedestal. The story is told from the point of view of a young woman (Marla, Lily Collins) who falls prey to Hughes’s charms and is left to suffer the consequences (AKA a pregnancy, he ignores until the epilogue).

In fact, it’s hard to find a more pessimistic take on Hollywood. Through the eyes of Marla, Hughes is just a microcosm of a whole system that will spit out Hollywood’s chaste young virgin girls once they get deflowered. Similarly, Marla’s true love (Alden Ehrenreich from Solo) is used the way most unpaid interns are. Howard Hughes has been a popular subject for Hollywood. Most notably in the 1980 film Melvin and Howard, and the 2004 film The Aviator. He was even alluded to in the Bond film Diamonds are Forever as the billionaire whose identity Blofeld alluded to. In these films, Hughes is depicted as an oddball who is trapped in a prison of his own making. His mental illness is always a clear part of the narrative, which enables the audience to feel a little bit of sympathy towards him. Without fully spoiling the ending, the film nicely finds a way to split the difference between villain and sympathetic character for the agoraphobic billionaire in the final scene.

Public Enemies (2009)-Considering how storied the genre of 30s gangster films is, I really was primed to sink my teeth into what should have been a prime example of what this genre offers. The film is by Michael Mann who is supposed* to possess God-like consistency, and it stars Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, and Johnny Depp. Could a casting director have selected any trio more suited to the period? If he’s not going as a pirate or gothic figurine, the next most likely choice for Depp’s preferred Halloween costume would be pinstripe-decked gangster. Similarly, Marion Cotillard has flapper written all over her. And Christian Bale is solid in whatever box you squeeze him.

The plot tells two parallel stories in the classic fashion of most crime genres: The cat-and-mouse game between a criminal and the man struggling to track him down. The mouse is notorious bank robber (played by Depp) John Dillinger (whose life was insanely interesting), while the cat (Bale) is Melvin Purvis who ran the Chicago office in charge of tracking him down. The character of Purvis isn’t given very much color. He’s mostly an archetype and inaccurate one at that: The real operation was directed by local law authorities until relatively late into Dillinger’s 14-month reign of terror. The script needed a composite character and, as previously mentioned, a broody Christian Bale in a crime movie gets the job done. However, this side of the story, while somewhat of a necessity, is mostly mechanical. One suspects that the script didn’t want to give the (even before the era of cancel culture) morally irksome J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Cudrup) a bigger role as the hero. It’s a shame though, because this is just burying the lead.

Dillinger isn’t necessarily given the hero treatment either. He’s portrayed as somewhat of a feral beast: Instinctually driven to protect his comrades and lovers. He’s also exceptionally clever which is what makes the action scenes so fun.  His famous prison escape scene with a decoy gun, whittled from wood, is played with the kind of claustrophobic tenor from an expert craftsman behind the camera. This is the rare film where I can even pick out the soundscape (the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns, especially) well enough to feel like it should have received a Best Sound nomination at the Oscars (I normally have a weak ear for that).

At the end of the day, the technical construction of the movie is solid but it doesn’t amount to enough “wow” moments to make the whole exercise feel more than typical.

Giving a Second Chance to Shows That Lost My Attention

 Upon learning that my friend’s trepidations about watching films over two hours was that his attention span usually couldn’t handle it, I found myself in similar territory. Blame the advent of cell phones and YouTube but I’m pretty heavily aware that over the past 15 years, I’m significantly dumber than before.

Because it’s not good to have a brain that turns into mush if it has to pay attention to something longer than a half hour, I try to actively train my brain. I try to read books and if I can ever finish one, it feels like compling a marathon. I also think that there are a number of serialized hour-long shows that can be a slog, even if they tell a good story. Sure, we can all jump at the Americans, Homelands, or Breaking Bads, but we’re looking at it the wrong way. The joy of watching TV isn’t to latch onto the most adrenaline-producing high and ride it out; it’s to find a challenging show like Florida Project or The Resort and stick it out through the exposition, to an even greater reward.

I traditionally do a list of top 12 shows with 10 runners-up, and there’s always enough shows (dramas, comedies) to fill up that list. However, looking over my list last year, there’s a ton of shows I gave up on like Mrs. Davis, Big Door Prize, Cleopatra, Transatlantic, and I hobbled to the finish line with The Diplomat.

On the other hand, some of the dramas I did finish like “Locke and Key”, “One Piece,” or “Fubar.” These are pretty flawed works.

I cannot logistically afford to watch all the good art there is produced on a yearly basis. There’s not enough time. As a serious (or whatever word you want to use) consumer of TV, I owe it to myself to watch a substantial amount of challenging output.

For years, I have understood that serialized television can have a slow burn at the beginning as you sift. The big question I ask myself is whether I am challenging myself by what I watch. It’s far easier to watch “Office” or “Futurama” reruns than it is to dive into a new show. In that spirit, I’ve tried to revisit a few shows and see if I can make it through the full season (what I consider to the measure of completism):

In this tradition, I’m giving a second look to a few seasons of shows that didn’t hit me off the bat:

Mrs. Davis (S1, Peacock)-This is a bizarre show about a nun battling against some form of A.I. that has taken over the entire planet. It leans really hard on style and jagged storytelling. For instance, the nun character’s relationship with Jesus, is presented as a story of a couple with a chaste partner who doesn’t want to copulate until marriage. It’s not immediately apparent but reading a recap will tell you that he’s supposed to a version of Jesus that only she can see- a move that deliberately opens more doors than it closes. It’s often a cardinal sin of a reviewer to admit they don’t get something, but let’s face it: These metaphors and other literary tricks push the story too far into confusion, and I had to stop again after four episodes lest I dig myself deeper into plot holes I’m not invested in.

Never Have I Ever (S3, Netflix)­-This show made my top 12 list in previous years, but with the long breaks between seasons, I tend to treat each season like a brand new show. In the third season, I initially shied away because it seemed like a lot of the drama was becoming circular: Paxton, Ben, Dev, and the other characters were rotating romantic partners like musical chairs. I also have to admit, I felt like it was shoehorning in another lesbian plot with Eleanor and Aneesa. Upon second viewing, I’m appreciating genuine care to detail in Paxton’s character: He’s legitimately stepping out of the castes of popularity that define him and finding his own way, which is accurate to the high school experience.

Cruel Summer (S2, Netflix)-The first season of this time-jumping team show made my honorable mention, for it’s interesting take on today’s cyberbullying climate on how lightning quick status can change between two high school doppelgangers. The second one dragged a bit and lowered the stakes from an abduction and abuse of a teenager over several months, to the leak of a sex tape. The characters are decent (in particular, that of an exchange student who integrates well within a family) and the Pacific Northwest has a decent sex of place, but it’s mostly basic teenage drama. Unlike its predecessor, the timescapes hardly mesh with each other to form a rich tapestry: The characters just get more jaded and goth. About six episodes in, I’m considering giving up.

Sunny (S1, Apple)-Set in a near alternate future in Japan, the great Rashida Jones plays an American (Suzy). She’s a bitter and pragmatic ex-pat who plans to go to Japan to live a life of solitude (a cultural practice known as “hikikomori”), until she accidentally falls in love with a programming genius named Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima). The series revolves around Suzy tracking her husband’s disappearance and uncovering the secrets of his past. There’s a mysterious pollyanish AI robot (the titular Sunny) that also figures into the plot.

Rashida does a great job playing against type as a kill joy, but dour characters don’t always make for engaging television, and she tows the line. This is particularly the case where the expectation of a show set in in Japan — a land of endless fascination and hyperstimulation to our Western eyes –sets up our hopes in a certain direction that doesn’t involve the protagonist moping in a pool of ennui.

There aren’t a lot of positive characters to balance out Sunny and cancel out the net dreariness. The optimistic robot Sunny is meant to be a foil but AI characters don’t float my boat. Half the reason I wouldn’t call Star Trek: The Next Generation great TV is because I never bought Data’s struggle “to be human.” After a lull in episode three, the show started picking up for me once again.

Russian Doll (S2, Netflix)-I didn’t initially begin this season because I figured “why would a show about breaking out of a closed time loop need a second season?” Would Groundhog Day have been improved with a sequel? This season’s existence is a stretch: There’s little reason for Allen to still be in the picture, but the show at least acknowledges it (re: Nadia’s best friend (Greta Lee) getting jealous) and the show mostly exists because TV deserves more Natasha Lyonne in odd situations. The second series is an absurdist, quasi-comic time travel saga in which Lyonne is trying to correct mistakes in her family’s past (she inhabits the bodies of her mother and grandmother) to recover the family treasures: Gold bullion that her Eastern European family invested in when the tragedy of the Holocaust created a distrust in banks. There is some major early-on-set confusion in the pilot if you’re consuming this in a vacuum. Once you catch up on the internet, episode five hits a major speed bump when our heroine jumps from her mother to her grandmother’s body.

My Lady Jane (S1, Amazon)-A whimsical period piece set in Tudor-era England centering around a spunky heroine who wants more from life than being in the idle rich. She’s the live personification of every Disney Princess, only she’s semi-historically based on a woman who briefly became Queen for nine days. The interesting angle should be Jane’s personality and her interest as an amateur scientist in an era in which science was batshit insane conjecture. Instead, the series takes a turn towards a trite will-they-or-won’t-they art and fantasy (her paramour is an on-again-off-again centaur seeking a cure). Four episodes in, this isn’t on the top of my priority list, but it might be worth another chance if The Decameron (another satiric period piece that recently came out on streaming) doesn’t work out.