seeds.

Development, Unarrested

After almost five years of waiting, fans of the Fox semi-hit turned massive cult phenomena Arrested Development were finally validated for their years of wishing. Countless blogs from nearly every pop culture outlet have begged for the return of the sitcom, now counted among the best in history, and for the first time have received some validation. Last week several members of the cast and crew let it slip that not only would the long-anticipated Arrested Development movie be released, but a fourth season (on a network that has yet to be decided) will preclude the release of the film.

Mitchell Hurwitz, the creator of Arrested Development, is widely believed to be somewhat of a “mad genius” when it comes to writing and showrunning. Hardcore AD viewers and cast members often rally behind Hurwitz’s mysterious brilliance, but what’s to stop fans from thinking that in a post-AD world - a world that’s given Hurwitz plenty of chances to re-do Arrested Development - how can he return to the heights he achieved once before?

The short of it is, that without his now legendary cast of characters and corners to cut, Hurwitz is struggling from too much freedom. Even Running Wilde, in its trivial run, still had a touch of madness to it, albeit too little to sustain the show. The second Hurwitz is thrown back into a hole that’s too deep to escape from, the madness will return. So long as Hurwitz has no idea where he’s going - Arrested Development will still be great.

For most fans, just the thought of getting to see Jason Bateman, David Cross, and everyone else (there is seriously not one dud in the entire cast) return to the screen is enough of a driving force for the show’s triumphant return. Arrested Development has proven over the course of the last five years that it doesn’t deserve to be filed away as a cautionary tale, it deserves a proper ending. An ending that only Mitch Hurwitz and the cast have the ability to deliver.

With all the influence it’s had over the sitcom genre (30 Rock, Community, and Party Down are three examples of shows directly influenced by AD) fans are certainly aching for a glamorous return. Somewhat in the vein of Futurama’s ludicrously tongue-in-cheek post-hiatus return to regular programming, we’re certainly expecting some subtle-but-not-really jabs at FOX. Comebacks are rarely done well, but Hurwitz is certainly jaded enough to have spent the last however many years cooking up how he’s going to rub the big wigs nose in it.

Yet, in the digital age, over-hyping could easily hamper any anticipated event. The funny thing about it is the premiere is, is that it may actually be the first time a large portion - maybe even a majority of viewers - get to watch episodes in the standard week-to-week format. The cult following built online and through the DVDs are some of their strongest and most outspoken fans; fans who probably didn’t catch them during the original run. It’s this big machine that just keeps feeding itself and producing more and more fans and more and more interest in the upcoming (finger’s crossed?) debut.

Watching the Bluth family became an addiction for fans, so the tendency for hyperbole is apt, as is the need to critique everything we see. To be able to watch them in a serialized manner rather than week-to-week definitely rewards the viewer, as it is often hard to immerse yourself fully into the rhythm of AD until well into an episode, even without commercials. The idea of only watching episodes one at a time, especially since today’s fans likely saw them for the first time via DVD box sets or repeated online viewing, seems miserable. An Arrested Development watch party leading up to the premiere may be ideal for the fans to be in the correct mindset for the fresh batch of episodes.

Arrested Development’s influence on the modern day was both overt and subtle. The blogosphere never misses a chance to tout the series’ incredible cleverness and ruthless wit, as well as trudge through the “cancelled before its time” mud. Fans of Arrested Development have never allowed it to fade from memory. The show earned a firm place among the lexicon of millions of deeply committed fanboys, on whose strength and resilience the show has finally found new life. Hulu, Netflix, Twitter, blogs the world over, fan pages and watch parties have given the show a depth and meaning that became so far-reaching that it has come full circle. The tension has built so much that is has finally snapped. Ten episodes and a movie to close of one of the most inescapable chapters in American pop culture.

By Mitch McCann and Greg Bright

Hollywood’s Problem with Portraying Racists

When I say the word “Nazi,” I assume only one word comes to mind. Evil. A similar feeling, though maybe not as strong, may come to mind when I say the word “segregation.” While Hollywood always likes to deal with these two subjects, two recent films dealing with these issues have troubled me. They are ‘The Debt’ and ‘The Help.’

Both films are, at the very least, entertaining and each stars very talented, independent, strong,  female protagonists,(it’s nice to see that finally happening) but both are intellectually shallow in their approach to their respective subject matter.

‘The Help’ deals with 1960s segregation in Jackson, Mississippi, a very racist community(to this day) while ‘The Debt’ deals with the aftermath of the Holocaust and its effect on Israel. In both of these films the people are on the wrong side, that is too say, the racists and the Nazis are portrayed as pure evil.

This is the approach Hollywood has always taken on this subject, and in their defense, it’s hard to look at it any other way. How could someone believe that they are better based on their race?

However, it is important to remember that these people are human beings, people who were not that different from you or me. People who, for the most part, probably weren’t pure evil. Look at the films from Germany in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s, these people were as artistic, as human as anyone on earth. Even the Nazi propaganda film “Triumph of the Will” is still revered today, not because of its message, but because of its extreme artistic merit.

In the south it wasn’t just the mean people or the “bad guys” who were racist, everyone was. Yes, racism is an evil thing that, for the most part, isn’t accepted in this day and age but it was in the 1960s and nearly all white people were to some degree racist. That’s why it took so long, and took so much fighting, for racism to end, because it was institutionalized into their thinking .

It’s extremely difficult to look at these people as humans like you or me (especially in the case of the Nazis) but it is important that we remember that they were human or what’s to stop it from happening again?

By Greg Bright

Like and Follow Seeds!

Crazy, Stupid, Love | Film Review

Some men have all the luck, and in the case of Crazy, Stupid, Love that man is Steve Carell. Not only has Carell’s character Cal been married to an ageless wonder, Julianne Moore, for the past 25 years but he also gets to have fling with the sexiest 45 year-old woman in America, Maresa Tomei, and several younger woman, then to top it off, the gorgeous 17 year-old who babysits his kids is infatuated with him. Even by Hollywood standards the man is pretty damn lucky.

Crazy, Stupid, Love is the story about Cal whose wife (Julianne Moore) asks for a divorce after 25 years of marriage. As is expected, this throws Carell’s life into chaos and eventually he finds himself at the hands of a womanizing guru played by the film’s biggest surprise, Ryan Gosling.  Gosling, known for his more demanding dramatic roles, not only holds his comedic own against the likes of Carell and Emma Stone, but on more than one occasion is able to steal scenes right from under them. 

The story gets away from itself on more than one occasion, whereas at least three times it looks like the film is about to wrap up only to add another element to the story, I must say it was rather entertaining and a lot of fun. It is definitely fluff and its message of “love can conquer all” should not be taken seriously, but it’s funny enough to not be a waste of your time.

Review by Greg Bright

Follow and Like Seeds!

Awkward | TV Review

After their terribly misguided foray into scripted television with Skins, I had to see what MTV would do with their second attempt, Awkward. A show about a high school sophomore girl who slips and falls in her bathroom and it is mistaken for a suicide attempt.

Like all MTV shows, the emphasis is not on doing anything new or original, just repackaging what others have already done to try and make a quick buck. The show has all the stereotypes of a John Hughes film, parents who don’t get you, boys who like you but won’t date you because you’re in a different social clique, and rumors get started about you that aren’t true but none of the spunk that made them classics. 

On a positive note, the show does make you feel for the main character, Jenna Hamilton (Ashley Rickards), mostly do to Rickards quirky charisma and overall the show does seem to have an energy about it. I just wish they wouldn’t waste the energy on worthless cliche plot elements and horrible attempts to understand the dynamic of female relationships and just have fun because, really, all a high school student wants to do is have fun.

Review by Greg Bright

Follow and Like Seeds!

Weeds and Louie | TV Catch Up

At the end of what was originally supposed to be its final season, Weeds left us with Nancy surrendering herself for the good of her family. It was the perfect end to a very uneven season (to put it lightly) and really was the perfect way to end the show, Nancy taking the fall for something she didn’t do, to save her family, because in the end, Nancy is always trying to protect her family, much to the chagrin of her family. But alas, here we are in season 7 and 2 episodes in, it has been much like the 6th, trying just a tad too hard.  

Instead of showing us the trial, we start three years later and with Nancy getting released from prison. In it’s first scene, the show has already copped out. Instead of showing us the fun of a trial and how the rest of the family copes without having Nancy around to guide them, we just start when they are reunited three years later, and Nancy is able to, you guessed it, sell marijuana again. 7 seasons in, murder, imprisonment, you name it, Nancy has been a part of it, hell she’s been a part of a Mexican drug cartel and yet all she wants to do is sell marijuana? It’s amazing how little Nancy has developed. She has gone from one of the finest actresses on TV to an annoyance.  

If you’re like me, you’ll keep watching, hoping for the moments, flashes really, of the old brilliance of the show, but if you’ve just been watching on Netflix, I urge you to stop at season 5, its final great season. 

On the surface, Louie should be a horrible show. It’s about a fat, balding white single father who doesn’t really do much except raise his children, and be depressed when they aren’t around. But yet it’s one of the best and funniest shows on TV and it all comes back to Louis C.K who directs, writes and edits every single episode himself. He has no interest in sugar coating anything. His daughter tells her she likes living with her mom more, so when she turns her back he flips her off. It’s absurd yes but really it’s what he wants to do. He knows it’s not her fault, she’s just being honest but god damn it it hurt him, so he takes it out on her when she isn’t looking.   

It’s absurd but honest, and that’s what the show is all about, venting the frustrations of being a shitty but loving single father. All the headaches that come with it, the financials concerns, other kids’ parents, the depression, and the loneliness. It’s all there, and since it’s Louis C.K. you know he’ll make it as funny as humanly possible. A show that is not to be missed.

Reviews by Greg Bright

Follow and Like Seeds!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seeds/135875826468409

@SeedsEnt

Transformers 3 | Film Review

There really is no film director in the world like Michael Bay. I don’t necessarily mean that as a positive or negative statement, it’s just that there is no director who understands action elements so well, I would say one of the finest, yet has no idea how to make a movie around them. And his latest film is exactly the same way. In fact, I may go so far as too call it his best film to date.

Now, don’t take that last statement as an endorsement of the film, more like the only positive thing I have to say about it. The film, much like the second one, is a jumbled mess more concerned with being cool, then being coherent. After some overdone attempts to blend historical events with its fictional story, the film starts us off with a long shot of our new leading ladies (barely) clothed ass.  An exploitation of the female body we’ve all come to accept from Bay. 

All of this should have been things I expected but my issue is that Bay promised this film was different. That he was concerned with the story and wanted to make a better film. Now I wasn’t expecting some Terrence Malick masterpiece like The Tree of Life but I was expecting it to be a better movie then, say, Transformers 2. And he promised it would be, but, of course, it wasn’t. 

I see no reason to review any more of this film other than to say why would you waste your money on this film when you can see all the action scenes in the trailers that are all over the internet and most of them in HD! And if you want to see woman wearing hardly any clothes, God made search engines for a reason people.

Review by Greg Bright

Follow and Like Seeds!

Tree of Life | Film Review

Legendary director Ingmar Bergman said that a great filmmaker understands that a film is a series of images and that one must spend equal time on each one since no single image trumps another. I have not seen a contemporary film that does this as well as Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, a film that deals with life and death by questioning existence through two completely different stories, one a macro story detailing the creation and (futuristic) destruction of the earth and the other a micro story about the creation and eventual destruction of a Texas family. 

The film has a very loose and non-linear narrative that is somehow able to do everything a strong narrative does without needing a strong narrative. Much of this should be credited to Malick’s incredibly focused directing and pitch-perfect editing.There is very little dialogue in the Texas family story and obviously none in the creation story, instead everything is shown to you in actions and facial expressions, only a strong director and strong actors could pull this off and they do. The three child actors were stunning, I recently reviewed Super 8 and talked about how good those children were, well these blow them out of the water. Each of them were fully developed characters with incredible amounts of depth. 

Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, who play the father and mother, each could have been stereotypical caricatures of the overly strict dad and caring mother but instead they play parents who are always trying to do the right thing for their children and sometimes fail, but always love them. I have never seen the dad role played quite how Brad Pitt plays him. A man who truly, and deeply loves his children but is unsure of how to show it to them in a world dominated by men trying to be as masculine as humanly possible.

It terms of pure film-making technique the film is truly sublime, if the cinematography (by Emmanuel Lubezki, a career defining job), music (Alexandre Desplat), and editing (by five different people) don’t win the Oscars this year, then the Oscars are wrong. While Inception’s editing changed the blockbuster film forever, The Tree of Life’s editing takes the whole concept of editing and flips it upside down. I imagine that ten years from now people will be talking abut how revolutionary the editing on this film truly was. 

I haven’t even gotten to Terrence Malick, the mastermind behind this magnificent work. Malick has already created multiple masterpieces (The Thin Red Line, Badlands, Days of Heaven) but this is his best film to date. The film is so focused and so personal to him and yet it feels personal to each viewer as well. Not since Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has a film been able to be so personal to so many people who all can (and will) have such different ideas for what the film was trying to be. 

The film is a true cinematic epic, the type of film that demands your attention from beginning to end and at least a couple days after it ends. For the love of everything, go see this film.