Indie Blog

Under discussion:

Dead Like Me: Season 01  (2003)

Georgia, 18 dies in the first episode, hit and killed by a toilet seat jettisoned by a defunct space station.  She then finds out that she didn't die and in reality must join the reapers who collect souls and ferry them off to the great beyond sans the boat and the river Styx.  Sardonically the only thing she can relate about her death in  hind sight is that it was tragic that the only guy that got to touch her naked body was the coroner. 

Things get progressively worse for Georgia when she realizes that along with collecting souls she must still hold down an office job in order to live and that she must do this for an unspecified amount of time (maybe centuries).  Tragic, but at least she isn't dead.  She gets to be Undead, and is fitted with another identity.  Oh yeah she also has to meet her boss (played by Mandy Patinkin) and the other reapers everyday at a german waffle house for their assignments.             

Jasmine Guy plays one of the reapers that helps Georgia along the initial training period, and is remarkable as a  tough reaper/ meter maid.  There are a few other reapers that help the new girl gain some perspective on her afterlife, a shifty brit and a fiery southerner played by ex-noxema girl extraordinare Rebecca Gayheart.   They are all good, watchable and fantastically jaded.  The fun part is that I know I would be too, if I had to ferry souls to their own respective heavens/hells, but never got to see it myself. 

Georgia's old family plays a role also, as she gets an outside view of what her family is like now that she's gone.  Although going back home to sneak a few peaks is strictly forbidden, like any good teenager, she does it anyway.  Her mother, introduced as a starsign: Virgo is just like a bitchier version of your mother or grandmother, just hide and watch.  Another great addition is Georgia's little sister who is obsessed with toilet seats after her sister's untimely death, and merrily resists therapy.  Oddly enough, toilet seat trees are pretty.  You'll see.  

Buy this series right away.  It was underrated and brilliant like many things that works years after, it was not truely appreciated in its time.   Unluckily I didn't get to watch it on tv because I don't buy premium channels (Showtime), and I didn't experience it with everyone else.  So if you haven't seen it before, you can watch it now with me. 

Under discussion:

The Witches of Eastwick  (1987)

Witches of Eastwick is neither a treasure on film or in literary form.  Both are about New Englander female empowerment, which is played out literally with hushed spells and evil storms.  The book tends to focus on Alexandra more than the others, which may not be true about the film (Michele and Susan may have wanted more ample screen time).  It is a story about an aging witch and her coven, living in a small town discovering powers and new love in mid-life.  In the movie, this new love happens to be Jack Nicholson, who also happens to be Satan.  Yes, Satan, albeit a humerous one, summoned from the depths of Hell by a wayward spell to prey on these poor Ipswitch women so that they may bear him children.  End Scene.  Let's slap together a raunchy Three's Company and Rosemary's Baby. 

This is the movies greatest failing and highest inspiration, because though the novel, written by John Updike (living legend of American lit.) does not include Satan, the ending is decidedly not Hollywood. In the novel, Daryl Van Horne (merely a man, and an almost broke one) sets up his life in town with borrowed money and not dark powers.  He does have a decidedly pleasing effect on the coven, increasing their power and their libido.  This however, much like the movie, does have an impact on the small town in which they live. 

At the end of the movie jilted Daryl becomes a titanic-sized demon that literally raises the roof off of the mansion in an attempt to kill the tiny women inside.   At the end of the book, you find Daryl is just on the DL and has skipped town with a male heir to a large family fortune.  -Yes, for the record that would be quite different.  Although they both have their flaws, there is still something positively alchemical about them.  The book, though radiantly anti-climactic is more palpable, and feels a touch more real.  The movie has a boffo ending that I just don't buy.  I like the story, or at least the conflict and the meaty bits.  I wish there were a way to combine the two and come back with something better than both, because when it comes down to it, its all about exacution.  Maybe its time for one of those re-makes....     

Under discussion:

Marnie  (1964)

Marnie is insane.  She is hard to know, and harder to accept.  She's a repressed cleptomaniac and a totally ammoral smart-ass, and that's why I love her. 

The movie long considered to be one of Hitchcock's lesser works is by far one of his most watchable for repeat viewing.  It is a guilty pleasure to watch over and over as Sean Connery traps this con-artist and unabashedly stalks her on a trip through the rabbit hole.  As he gets closer to the woman he thinks he loves, he finds that he maybe the one who is trapped. 

There are a couple great Hitchcock suspense moments in the movie as well. - Pay close attention to the shoe in the bank heist scene.  Even after repeat viewing, it is riveting to watch.  I imagine that Alfred put a lot of himself into this movie, and that he had fun making the film.  He does a fine job twisting perceptions here. I find that even though Marnie is manic and vicious, I root for her every time.