Wind River is a gripping crime movie that is newly released on DVD. Set in the rugged, winter mountain terrain of Wyoming, the movie follows a storyline as harsh and unforgiving as the backdrop of its spectacular landscape.
The body of a young Indian woman is found frozen in the middle of a snowy wilderness. She is barefoot, her feet blackened by frostbite, as if she had been running from something for miles until her lungs burst from the below zero air and she dropped dead.
Because the death happened on Indian reservation land, an FBI agent is sent in to investigate. She is out of her depth in that country and she quickly asks for the aid of a local state game warden tracker. As they follow leads, a second body is found deep in the icy backwoods. This new body is a white male who worked at a nearby oil drilling site.
Things move from there toward events that are shocking in their unforeseen, suddenly explosive violence. Wind River is a powerful drama whose spare, tersely written screenplay reflects the hard realities of reservation life and Western self-reliance to survive.
This movie deserves to be on Best Picture lists this year.
Showing posts with label Crime Dramas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime Dramas. Show all posts
Monday, November 20, 2017
Saturday, July 2, 2016
THE TUNNEL a Distrubing Crime Puzzle
The Tunnel is a ten-part crime series now seen on PBS. Back episodes are available on Comcast Infinity.
The series opens with a bizarre puzzle: a female body is found in the Channel Tunnel that runs between England and France. The body is placed exactly on the boundary line between the two nations. What's more, the body is in two pieces, taken from two different corpses. Half of the body is from a French congress member. The other half is from an English call girl.
An oddly matched team of English and French detectives is assigned to the case. The French woman, Elise Wasserman, is socially detached. The English detective, Karl Roebuck, is a sardonic cynic. They work grudgingly together at first.
Bizarre new deaths continue to occur as an anonymous killer, the Truth Teller, stages shocking murders meant to expose the ills of society and the political system. A distorted voice on the phone announces his intentions.
The Tunnel is a gripping and disturbing mystery with no sure sense of where the plot will go next. The awkward chemistry between the two main characters adds another element of uncertainty.
The series opens with a bizarre puzzle: a female body is found in the Channel Tunnel that runs between England and France. The body is placed exactly on the boundary line between the two nations. What's more, the body is in two pieces, taken from two different corpses. Half of the body is from a French congress member. The other half is from an English call girl.
An oddly matched team of English and French detectives is assigned to the case. The French woman, Elise Wasserman, is socially detached. The English detective, Karl Roebuck, is a sardonic cynic. They work grudgingly together at first.
Bizarre new deaths continue to occur as an anonymous killer, the Truth Teller, stages shocking murders meant to expose the ills of society and the political system. A distorted voice on the phone announces his intentions.
The Tunnel is a gripping and disturbing mystery with no sure sense of where the plot will go next. The awkward chemistry between the two main characters adds another element of uncertainty.
Monday, June 6, 2016
AQUARIUS Season Two - The Dark Side of the Sixties
Aquarius (NBC Network) returns June 16 for its second season. This crime series looks at the darkest side of the 1960s decade, while set against a background of the lifestyle and music of that era. Season One was uneven, but interesting enough to continue the series storyline.
The Sixties era was a time of political turmoil over the Vietnam war, when many kinds of revolution were in the air. It was a period that encompassed psychedelic drugs, the Summer of Love, and visionary rock music from The Beatles, Dylan, The Doors, and Jefferson Airplane.
But the Sixties was also infamous for the crimes of the notorious Manson Family - a ragged communal cult that committed a series of horrific California murders under the mesmerizing sway of the demonic Charles Manson.
Aquarius begins in 1967 Los Angeles as LAPD detective Sam Hodiak (played by David Duchovny) looks into the case of a missing teenage girl. He learns the girl may have joined a creepy band of hippie drifters. That puts Hodiak on the trail of the people who would become the Manson Family killers.
The TV series is set against the colorful backdrop of the Sixties culture scene, when the wild permissive freedom of the era degenerated into the frenzied, amoral blackness of the bloody crime scenes left behind by the Manson Family cult. Aquarius shows that beneath the surface of good vibes and pounding music, something evil and violent was already stirring.
The Sixties era was a time of political turmoil over the Vietnam war, when many kinds of revolution were in the air. It was a period that encompassed psychedelic drugs, the Summer of Love, and visionary rock music from The Beatles, Dylan, The Doors, and Jefferson Airplane.
But the Sixties was also infamous for the crimes of the notorious Manson Family - a ragged communal cult that committed a series of horrific California murders under the mesmerizing sway of the demonic Charles Manson.
Aquarius begins in 1967 Los Angeles as LAPD detective Sam Hodiak (played by David Duchovny) looks into the case of a missing teenage girl. He learns the girl may have joined a creepy band of hippie drifters. That puts Hodiak on the trail of the people who would become the Manson Family killers.
The TV series is set against the colorful backdrop of the Sixties culture scene, when the wild permissive freedom of the era degenerated into the frenzied, amoral blackness of the bloody crime scenes left behind by the Manson Family cult. Aquarius shows that beneath the surface of good vibes and pounding music, something evil and violent was already stirring.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
FARGO Best Crime Series on Television in Second Season
Fargo (FX Cable) opened its new season this week as the best crime series on TV. The series is a spin-off from the cult classic neo-noir movie by Joel and Ethan Coen. The TV version has faithfully lived up to the standards of its acclaimed movie predecessor.
The familiar plot elements are still present. The snowy, blank whiteness of the Minnesota landscape. Slow thinking, earnest small town cops. An act of stupidly impulsive violence that triggers a chain of out-of-control consequences. The pervasive undertone of quirky, deadpan black humor.
Add to that a brewing gang war between a local family crime business and invading organized crime mobsters. Caught in the middle is a hapless, none-too-bright married couple who accidently kill one of the criminals, then clumsily try to cover it up.
The great theme of the Coen brothers has always been a bleak, fatalistic view of humanity and the misguided acts that people undertake which lead inexorably to their own destruction. The empty white landscape serves as a metaphor for the amoral blankness in which the characters flail futilely about.
The Fargo TV series is faithful to that theme, offering a pitch black, quirky crime drama and a cast of dumbly motivated, morally vacant people who can't get out of the disastrous situations they have blundered into.
The familiar plot elements are still present. The snowy, blank whiteness of the Minnesota landscape. Slow thinking, earnest small town cops. An act of stupidly impulsive violence that triggers a chain of out-of-control consequences. The pervasive undertone of quirky, deadpan black humor.
Add to that a brewing gang war between a local family crime business and invading organized crime mobsters. Caught in the middle is a hapless, none-too-bright married couple who accidently kill one of the criminals, then clumsily try to cover it up.
The great theme of the Coen brothers has always been a bleak, fatalistic view of humanity and the misguided acts that people undertake which lead inexorably to their own destruction. The empty white landscape serves as a metaphor for the amoral blankness in which the characters flail futilely about.
The Fargo TV series is faithful to that theme, offering a pitch black, quirky crime drama and a cast of dumbly motivated, morally vacant people who can't get out of the disastrous situations they have blundered into.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
AQUARIUS - The Dark Side of the Sixties
Aquarius (NBC May 28) is a new crime series that journeys through both the psychedelic exuberance and the darkest depths of the iconic 1960s decade.
The Sixties era was a time of political turmoil over the Vietnam war, when many kinds of revolution were in the air. It was a period that encompassed psychedelic drugs, the Summer of Love, and visionary rock music from The Beatles, Dylan, The Doors, and Jefferson Airplane.
But the Sixties was also infamous for the crimes of the notorious Manson Family - a ragged communal cult that committed a series of horrific California murders under the mesmerizing sway of the demonic Charles Manson.
Aquarius begins in 1967 Los Angeles as LAPD detective Sam Hodiak (played by David Duchovny) looks into the case of a missing teenage girl. He learns the girl may have joined a creepy band of hippie drifters. That puts Hodiak on the trail of the people who would become the Manson Family killers.
The TV series is set against the colorful backdrop of the Sixties culture scene, when the wild permissive freedom of the era degenerated into the frenzied, amoral blackness of the bloody crime scenes left behind by the Manson Family cult. Aquarius shows that beneath the surface of good vibes and pounding music, something evil and violent was already stirring.
The Sixties era was a time of political turmoil over the Vietnam war, when many kinds of revolution were in the air. It was a period that encompassed psychedelic drugs, the Summer of Love, and visionary rock music from The Beatles, Dylan, The Doors, and Jefferson Airplane.
But the Sixties was also infamous for the crimes of the notorious Manson Family - a ragged communal cult that committed a series of horrific California murders under the mesmerizing sway of the demonic Charles Manson.
Aquarius begins in 1967 Los Angeles as LAPD detective Sam Hodiak (played by David Duchovny) looks into the case of a missing teenage girl. He learns the girl may have joined a creepy band of hippie drifters. That puts Hodiak on the trail of the people who would become the Manson Family killers.
The TV series is set against the colorful backdrop of the Sixties culture scene, when the wild permissive freedom of the era degenerated into the frenzied, amoral blackness of the bloody crime scenes left behind by the Manson Family cult. Aquarius shows that beneath the surface of good vibes and pounding music, something evil and violent was already stirring.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
BROADCHURCH Returns With Season 2 Mystery
Broadchurch (BBC America Cable) is back for Season 2 of this gripping British mystery series.
Season 1 dealt with the investigation of a boy's murder in the small English seaside town of Broadchurch. Teamed on the case were detectives Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller. Hardy was an outsider assigned to the case, Miller a local native of the town. Miller personally knew many of the town residents, one of whom was secretly a killer.
The first season ended with a shocker: Detective Miller's own husband, Joe, turned out to be the killer. He was arrested and confessed to the crime as his wife reacted with stunned fury. She was sleeping right next to the killer all the time and never knew it. Case closed, right? Not so fast, it seems.
In the new season, Joe Miller suddenly pleads not guilty in court, throwing the case into renewed chaos. A full criminal trial is begun, forcing the town, and Detective Miller, to relive all the agonizing emotions of the boy's murder.
The trial threatens to expose previously unknown revelations about the murder case and suggests new trouble ahead for detectives Hardy and Miller. The unexpected trial is a wrenching plot twist on a case that viewers thought was solved and done with. But there seems to be more coming that we never knew about before.
Another bonus is the prickly, entertaining chemistry between the two detectives as they face the pressures around them. With a cast of characters with hidden secrets of their own, Broadchurch is an engrossing drama of sinister psychological mystery at its best.
Season 1 dealt with the investigation of a boy's murder in the small English seaside town of Broadchurch. Teamed on the case were detectives Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller. Hardy was an outsider assigned to the case, Miller a local native of the town. Miller personally knew many of the town residents, one of whom was secretly a killer.
The first season ended with a shocker: Detective Miller's own husband, Joe, turned out to be the killer. He was arrested and confessed to the crime as his wife reacted with stunned fury. She was sleeping right next to the killer all the time and never knew it. Case closed, right? Not so fast, it seems.
In the new season, Joe Miller suddenly pleads not guilty in court, throwing the case into renewed chaos. A full criminal trial is begun, forcing the town, and Detective Miller, to relive all the agonizing emotions of the boy's murder.
The trial threatens to expose previously unknown revelations about the murder case and suggests new trouble ahead for detectives Hardy and Miller. The unexpected trial is a wrenching plot twist on a case that viewers thought was solved and done with. But there seems to be more coming that we never knew about before.
Another bonus is the prickly, entertaining chemistry between the two detectives as they face the pressures around them. With a cast of characters with hidden secrets of their own, Broadchurch is an engrossing drama of sinister psychological mystery at its best.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
BETTER CALL SAUL a New Crime Series Gem
Better Call Saul (AMC Network) had an entertaining two episode debut that showed strong future promise. The new series is a prequel spinoff from the classic series Breaking Bad, and features sleaze ball criminal lawyer Saul Goodman.
The new series begins while Saul is still named Jimmy McGill and trying to survive while doing public defender cases for peanuts. But the seeds of the future Saul Goodman are already being planted.
Jimmy sets up a phony pedestrian injury scam with two skateboarding brothers, but the plan goes grotesquely wrong. The subsequent leg breaking scene in the desert is a blackly comic gem that's as outrageous as the wildest scenes in Breaking Bad.
Another plus is the return of two familiar characters from Breaking Bad -- tough oldster Mike Ehrmantraut and drug thug psycho Tuco.
Still in process is Jimmy McGill's transition into Saul Goodman. He changes his name because he thinks it gives him more credibility if clients believe he is a shrewd Jewish lawyer. Later to come are the shoddy TV ads, "Better Call Saul!" and the strip mall office.
The fun of Better Call Saul will be seeing Saul's ongoing character transition while he tries to survive entanglements with various dangerous criminal clients. It looks like a great ride is in store for viewers.
The new series begins while Saul is still named Jimmy McGill and trying to survive while doing public defender cases for peanuts. But the seeds of the future Saul Goodman are already being planted.
Jimmy sets up a phony pedestrian injury scam with two skateboarding brothers, but the plan goes grotesquely wrong. The subsequent leg breaking scene in the desert is a blackly comic gem that's as outrageous as the wildest scenes in Breaking Bad.
Another plus is the return of two familiar characters from Breaking Bad -- tough oldster Mike Ehrmantraut and drug thug psycho Tuco.
Still in process is Jimmy McGill's transition into Saul Goodman. He changes his name because he thinks it gives him more credibility if clients believe he is a shrewd Jewish lawyer. Later to come are the shoddy TV ads, "Better Call Saul!" and the strip mall office.
The fun of Better Call Saul will be seeing Saul's ongoing character transition while he tries to survive entanglements with various dangerous criminal clients. It looks like a great ride is in store for viewers.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
FARGO TV Series a Dark, Quirky Crime Drama
The movie Fargo, from Joel and Ethan Coen, is a Neo-Noir masterpiece with a stupid criminal plan gone wrong, deadpan black humor, and dumbly out-of-control violence.
That's a lot for the new TV series based on the movie to live up to. But based on the first season so far, the new series is off to a promising start.
Familiar plot elements from the movie are present: The snowy, white blank landscape of rural Minnesota; earnest, slow thinking small town cops; a hapless local businessman, Lester Nygard, who gets himself ensnared in a web of lies and criminal acts.
At the center of it all is a sinister figure -- a cold blooded contract killer named Loren Malvo, whose presence is like an amoral catalyst that triggers a chain of violent events wherever he travels.
The great theme of the Coen Brothers has always been their bleak, fatalistic view of humanity, and the misguided acts people undertake which lead inexorably to their own downfalls.
The Fargo TV series is faithful to that theme, offering a pitch black, quirky crime drama, and moments of wild, spontaneous violence that change all that follows.
Beach Rating: 4 Palm Trees
That's a lot for the new TV series based on the movie to live up to. But based on the first season so far, the new series is off to a promising start.
Familiar plot elements from the movie are present: The snowy, white blank landscape of rural Minnesota; earnest, slow thinking small town cops; a hapless local businessman, Lester Nygard, who gets himself ensnared in a web of lies and criminal acts.
At the center of it all is a sinister figure -- a cold blooded contract killer named Loren Malvo, whose presence is like an amoral catalyst that triggers a chain of violent events wherever he travels.
The great theme of the Coen Brothers has always been their bleak, fatalistic view of humanity, and the misguided acts people undertake which lead inexorably to their own downfalls.
The Fargo TV series is faithful to that theme, offering a pitch black, quirky crime drama, and moments of wild, spontaneous violence that change all that follows.
Beach Rating: 4 Palm Trees
Saturday, July 27, 2013
BREAKING BAD and the End of Walter White
Breaking Bad returns for its final episodes August 11 on AMC Cable. After all that has taken place in this violent, addictive series, one truth is certain: Walter White cannot simply walk away from it all free and clear at the end.
We've watched Walter's corrosive transformation from high school chemistry teacher to meth lab cook to ruthless drug kingpin. Early on, Walter learned there are only two basic values in the brutal world of the meth business: Power and Survival. Walter began only wanting to survive, soon making ever harsher moral choices in order to do so. He has finally achieved a position of power himself, a role which he sadististically relishes. But by now he has descended into such a swamp of criminal corruption that there seems no way back for him at the series end.
Walter's ultimate fate is similar to that faced by another ruthless criminal character, Tony Soprano at the end of the great Sopranos series. For all of his past violent deeds, Tony got a suitable payback: a sudden bullet to the back of the head in a Jersey dinner booth. The abrupt black-out ending was a shocker, but a brilliant metaphor for Tony's own end in the amoral blackness he existed in.
That stunning series finale set a high bar for Breaking Bad to follow. Whatever is waiting for Walter White could be the result of his own new found arrogance, an innocuous error that he makes, or a sheer, random disastrous event. But whatever happens to Walter must be an inevitable outgrowth from this contradictory character and the moral complexities of this outstanding crime series.
We've watched Walter's corrosive transformation from high school chemistry teacher to meth lab cook to ruthless drug kingpin. Early on, Walter learned there are only two basic values in the brutal world of the meth business: Power and Survival. Walter began only wanting to survive, soon making ever harsher moral choices in order to do so. He has finally achieved a position of power himself, a role which he sadististically relishes. But by now he has descended into such a swamp of criminal corruption that there seems no way back for him at the series end.
Walter's ultimate fate is similar to that faced by another ruthless criminal character, Tony Soprano at the end of the great Sopranos series. For all of his past violent deeds, Tony got a suitable payback: a sudden bullet to the back of the head in a Jersey dinner booth. The abrupt black-out ending was a shocker, but a brilliant metaphor for Tony's own end in the amoral blackness he existed in.
That stunning series finale set a high bar for Breaking Bad to follow. Whatever is waiting for Walter White could be the result of his own new found arrogance, an innocuous error that he makes, or a sheer, random disastrous event. But whatever happens to Walter must be an inevitable outgrowth from this contradictory character and the moral complexities of this outstanding crime series.
Friday, August 12, 2011
London Riots Predicted in HARRY BROWN
The ugly violence of the recent riots in London was literally predicted in last year's bleak, angry crime drama "Harry Brown."
The movie, now on DVD, stars Michael Caine as a retired senior who lives locked inside his apartment like a frightened rabbit in an urban neighborhood under siege by vicious young thugs.
When the old man's best friend is brutally beaten to death by the gangs, Harry Brown gets a gun and goes on a rampage of his own.
The frustrated English police go in force against the territory of the thugs in what turns into an all-out urban war. The street battles are graphic, leading to the shocking deaths of police officers themselves.
There are no answers in the movie, only ugly questions about the breakdown of the rule of law and social order in a confrontation with an amoral, violent underclass.
"Harry Brown" is a disturbing, nightmarish movie. Unfortunately, it is now the face of reality on the streets of England.
The movie, now on DVD, stars Michael Caine as a retired senior who lives locked inside his apartment like a frightened rabbit in an urban neighborhood under siege by vicious young thugs.
When the old man's best friend is brutally beaten to death by the gangs, Harry Brown gets a gun and goes on a rampage of his own.
The frustrated English police go in force against the territory of the thugs in what turns into an all-out urban war. The street battles are graphic, leading to the shocking deaths of police officers themselves.
There are no answers in the movie, only ugly questions about the breakdown of the rule of law and social order in a confrontation with an amoral, violent underclass.
"Harry Brown" is a disturbing, nightmarish movie. Unfortunately, it is now the face of reality on the streets of England.
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