Geoff McFetridge: Drawing A Life – Review. By Richard Schertzer.
If your job requires you to be as creative as possible, it only makes sense that you make the most of the job as you possibly could. Well, that’s exactly what Geoff McFetridge did and, while he may not be a household name, he certainly has the work ethic and resume to prove to you how great he is at his job.
Director Dan Covert is able to craft a charming and sincere tale of a man looking to find his way in life through his artistry and craftsmanship going through highs and lows, which displays his passion for how far he has gotten in the field.
The film evolves into a beautiful portrait of an artist with such a fervor. It begins with his humble beginnings from making nothing from this industry to working with acclaimed director Spike Jonze.
The film has such an innocence with an endearing underdog story that does wonders to compliment its talented protagonist.
The film is perfect for any artist or person working in the media landscape and trying to break out into the mold of that industry. It inspires us to be better, think for ourselves and respect the craft that we are all guests in.
In conclusion, the film proves to be a triumphant take on the artist as well as the art behind it. This is certainly a win in the realm of following your dreams and aspirations.
Abbott Elementary: Season 3 – Review. By Christopher Patterson.
The First Time I’m Gonna Say, Unironically: Don’t Be Late To Class
Back in school, it seems. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” – The Godfather Part III. A quote is never needed more than here. And I checked a lot of possible situations. Though, back to the season, is this the disappointing continuation to finish this show off or is it a breakthrough in a newer direction? The previous season really hit all the usual material you could hit here, so what’s next? Well, Quinta Brunson has the answer, and, thankfully, as usual and as always, it’s better than you can imagine. Thankfully, this season hits a home run in quality most of the time, though it does fall slightly behind on its heels compared to the previous fantastic and quite neat seasons that ran this show. Simply put, the stars don’t align. Well, they don’t align as well.
Abbott Elementary is one of those shows you can just go back to. Its rewatchability is its reliability for the little details. Those little moments that might go unnoticed were in the spotlight. Sadly, that is kind of, most definitely, lost here.
Season three has this aurora that is more generally the same as previous seasons yet flipped on its head. But that “generally the same” part is what’s key. While Abbott Elementary has the usual mockumentary jokes and styles, what it had so uniquely was this sense of individuality. It simply stood out from the crowd since it innovated so much with its unique and promising premise and how it delivered it, plus more. This season goes in, even more than past seasons, on innovation, promising, and delivering, but misses out on more. It simply feels like it didn’t have much time. This is due to the WGA Strike that makes this season feel like a cutting-edge but not always consistent season in the line of television.
One minor, but still frequent enough to a point of mention, issue persistent with Abbott Elementary (with all seasons) is its humour strategy. “You could never expect us to do this.” “Actually, yes. I literally suspected it the whole time.” This quote literally represents my entire issue with this show’s thought writing of comedy. Abbott Elementary has a structure and never feels like it evolves. If I had one issue with so many comedies, it’s that. To put it better, it’s that back-to-basics style that, while serviable enough, never feels enough. Like doing the bare minimum of effort. For instance, when Janine and Gregory surprise Ava with their strategy to keep her principal, they tell her confidently something along the lines of: You thought we would give up that easily. In most comedies, the next line would be nothing but a smile to show a heartwarming moment. Instead, Abbott Elementary takes the subversive route of her saying something like: Oh yes, I did think you would give up; that was literally all I thought. While it is funny, this rejection of a normality in television, this subversive style of humour, when repeated nearly every single, possible second, turns sour and repetitive by not even the halfway point, making jokes like this less funny and more just a smile. Though, for Abbott Elementary, it is a smile about to turn into a laugh since, despite this shortcoming, the writers really have a handle on making the littlest jokes so strong that despite sights of substantial repetition, it flows quite impressively. This criticism is more towards other shows since Abbott Elementary certainly isn’t the only one and one of the better ones by a long, long mile. Though, this Abbott Elementary does suffer from a slight predictability that is quite purposeful. Moments that build to the inevitable and take only a few minutes to, usually, but most of the time you don’t feel those minutes. Though, at its lowest, which is important to account for, you really feel those minutes. It’s almost itched into the show itself. To be clear, I’m referring to moments like a character showing how happy they are to do something in a way where you know it’s going to go wrong.
A weak and strong point in this Abbott Elementary (as a whole) is the use of mockumentary-style television. In my opinion, at least, mockumentary-style television can be quite good when it is done properly. The failures of mockumentary shows are that, a lot of the time, the jokes are worn out and never feel innovative. Simply put, they were already done a million times before, to be exact, in The Office (UK) or (US), and half the time they are not really innovative; they are just the same punchline but slightly different. Even worse, we get the stereotypical archetypes. The quirky character, the funny one, the bad boss—it comes in nearly every single mockumentary series since the British The Office and never as original. The only one, I have seen at least, to have done it properly to a point, with this season especially, which has not only revitalised the genre and what it can do but also pushed the possibilities of television, is Abbott Elementary, specifically season three. This season generally feels like a more precise, neater, and groundbreaking version of what mockumentary entertainment can be. If you need any other proof, watch the first episode of this season and how it explains even the camera crew to fit with the more unique style of this season.
Though, there is one issue, for the mockumentary style, and it all relates to one character. Gregory. Gregory is nice for comedic relief somewhat, but he can feel derivative of better cool guy performances, like how John Krasinski was more of a pale imitation of Martin Freeman. For as much depth Gregory gets, his comedic relief could use more of it than what’s consistently presented. For instance, his look into the camera is a joke that has been done by millions of other comedies, like The Office, and feels more derivative and tired than standout and funny. This doesn’t go for many other characters, though, amazingly. It feels like, mostly, Brunson made this show her own in every conceivable aspect.
Season three of Abbott Elementary has this maturity to it that other seasons miss in terms of, at least, its general story outline. The plot points of the characters are now less focused on the mundane lives of these characters, and the oddities these teachers get themselves into, and more of the straightforward concepts like Janine leaving Abbott Elementary and having to make fewer choices on love and more to-the-point yet explosive ones like job decisions.
In a way, this season is a progression and digression of all that came before. While the first season was a nice introduction to the characters general personalities, season two really pushed in depth to knowing each character in unique and complex ways that gave an exuberant amount of depth to these teachers and expanded the world in such a casual and slick manner. Season three, on the other hand, doesn’t really expand any of the characters at all. Really, in a sense, that all feels harshly held back. Instead, we are given the characters just making choices that never feel as detailed or even nearly as interesting and more straightforward. Simply, whatever goes seems to be the attitude here. What makes this work, though, is the switch-up.
This season takes its main lead, Janine, in a unique direction and has a different flow from the previous seasons. In a sense, the show has said: we have seen enough of the characters’ lives; now get ready for the crushing drama that was finally really hit in the season two finale. While there is a point of critique for this decision, sacrificing character depth, it works generally well in serving and making this season an almost precise and sometimes mind-blowing continuation of the immaculate previous season.
The one weak point in all of this is the lack of complexity in the characters. Not to say they are completely one note, but it feels, at points, quite close. In season two, for instance, the romance between Janine and Gregory felt real. Janine, for instance, at one point, attempts to go out with her ex, and Gregory, noticing this, feels almost unhelpful to her ex in his rebuilding of the relationship, almost protective of what he has with Janine. It’s flawed in the sense of what one will do for love, but it’s love. It’s complex. It’s not so simple. In season two, that idea of love blossomed. Now, in season three, it all feels rotten and dry. Though, thankfully, possibly to compensate for this staleness, the romance feels more at the back end of all that season three brilliantly offers. Though that doesn’t make the issues with characters good since there are more direct examples where the romance to be shown slips on its face. Though, to be more direct, it’s like a slip on the cement with the level of clear damage in coherency and heart.
A great example of this is when Janine breaks up with her boyfriend from childhood in the finale of season one. It nicely plays up to the show’s best qualities, feeling intimate despite the humour and having a nice send-off. We see them hug, and it feels like a true goodbye to a relationship and the start of a new one. It’s hard to even watch with the level of emotion there. It feels real in its weight. In season three, moments like in the start, where Janine is rejected by Gregory, feel more shallow as we see it through security cameras with commentary. First of all, though quite a nice execution of the concept the writers were going for, it is quite a horrible way to continue this relationship and feels more like a rough draft that should’ve never been sent out and secondly, the camera being there makes it feel less intimate and more like a discussion on a failed relationship then a continuation, as will be shown later, of a romance. What made Janine and her boyfriend’s breakup more impactful was the care and honesty that was put into it by the writers. It simply beamed with life and love from the writers, despite it being a side story and not a really serious romance. It felt more real than anything Gregory or Janine ever did in season three. The other scene simply had thought and personality—something season three only sometimes has one of. And it’s usually thought with innovation but no strong package unlike previous seasons. Simply put, season three feels somewhat dysfunctionally hollow.
To build on my point further about the romance in this season being more shallow now than even the most minor and inconvenient romances in the show, in season two, it felt as though there was a battle going on with the romance. It was love. And it was war. And it was season two. Season three feels like an unnecessary epilogue to season two, whereas season two felt like Janine fighting at every turn with Gregory’s romances and right back with Gregory for Janine. Here, in season three, it feels like when romance occurs, it’s predictable and thrown at random like on a dart of scribbled in joke ideas. It, quite simply, feels cluelessly directed at. It is like when the character Morten in season three described his relationship and how miserable it sounded. That is the relationship here. Unironically sour and losing flavour or spark. It is a love that feels gone, yet, seemingly, the writers still think it exists. It’s an oddity. It seems to have felt more necessary to have kept Janine and Gregory, based on how this season’s romance feels, apart for good. Even if it’s just a comedy, moments like this would work well.
To touch on the positives, which very much overshadow any negatives, the mockumentary-style direction here feels even more enhanced than in previous seasons. No longer does an episode feel like an imitation in its direction of a better mockumentary show, unlike sometimes in season one. Now, it feels as though the show has found its groove, is running with it, and is making some bold choices so as not to run out of steam. It’s even more impressive considering after like twenty years of mockumentary style shows always having this almost map of how it would run itself dry and when it attempts otherwise, it usually is less good. Finally, Quinta Brunson has beaten everyone to making a new map. This show, unlike almost every other mockumentary-style show in existence, doesn’t feel like it’s beating a dead horse after the third season, but rather, it just got a new one to beat up. And with style and just the right amount of explosion to come with it, this season mostly rocks.
A key element of loss, though, is the factor of unnecessary and annoying continual cameos. To put it nicely, lots of celebrities show up that are celebrities in the show itself. While this seems nice, the fact this illustrates this isn’t some little show now; the issue is that it takes away from the groundedness of the world. Isn’t this supposed to be some little school from nowhere? Instead of feeling like just some school like the premise, it falls into feeling specific, which takes away from the more grounded and humble tone season two really hammered down on. In other words, this season is a betrayal. Though, on its own, these cameos are usually quite humorous and well written. So despite its clear issues, there’s that.
Abbott Elementary, at its best, is when the show just gets it. Not just the characters, but the comedy. When we see each character play off each other or certain characters get paired up, that’s when the show is at its best since it makes for unique or either nicely flowing dialogue or scenes. Here, season three does a great job at this in the general sense, but misses out on the more little moments that defined the previous season. But, in a sense, it makes up for this with some explosive and nice writing decisions by Brunson that keep you guessing at every turn as to which mind-blowing thing will happen next.
Abbott Elementary has many wonderful clips that make us laugh. In order to keep this happy mood in our lives, perhaps you can customize the clips, lines, characters, etc. that impressed you into an exquisite keychain. The Custom Keychains can be designed according to your preferences and give them a unique meaning. And you can carry this keychain with you, it will participate in all parts of your daily life.
It’s an interesting switch-up, to be sure, but it feels more like a restarter than anything. At the start of a series, it usually takes a bit of time or the next season to really get a stronger and better grasp of what’s being played at. Here, it feels as though Abbott Elementary will go down this route with each passing season, changing the game even slightly to keep interest and work with ending storylines like Janine and Gregory finally getting together at the end of season three. This inhibits many nice future episodes to come, but it also limits and possibly hurts the show all at once. One of the main threads is now resolved, and if they break up, then this all loses impact, so a change up, you could say, is more than necessary.
Though if change-ups like this season just keep happening and the cameos continue, the show will lose groundedness and realisticness, and even more, it will just lose intrigue. It would feel like a loose cannon firing for more without understanding where it’s firing. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen, and if this season is anything, it shows Brunson is always one step ahead. Though it also makes clear, some new talent needs to be added to this show, like writers or supporting cast, which could be necessary so as to not fall into repetitiveness or lose itself in mediocrity.
To end off on a good sight of what this season is at its best, look no further than episode four, “Smoking.” Here, the idea is of the teachers lives interfering with the school, especially with the topic of the teachers on things like cigarettes, and, in turn, some people show up to warn the students while Janine struggles with the facing of a substitute teacher, to which the substitutes practices and Janine’s don’t meet eye to eye. What keeps this episode going is its flowing comedic nature, its clever subtext, and most importantly, the acting. Not once is there a lacking joke. It all just pops.
For instance, we get a biting joke from some student who says something to Janine in the hallway, and it comes off the lines of the student using something Janine said about being high to say she’s high. It works since the cast just bounce off each other so naturally and effectively. It’s this striking and small yet hilarious comedy that is Abbott Elementary almost at its best. At its true best, though, is the scene where we see the students and teachers show up to a discussion on the importance of not taking certain substances where the speaker, in particular, just bounces off of the students questions with this quick flowing nature where each cast member just got the punchline and went for it so well. And a cherry on top is the substitute teacher Janine deals with, has her own comedic style that just bounces with the show magnificently. Even better is that this episode builds on the change up this season encompasses. Here, Janine is facing more than the mundane problems of teaching or a random teaching dilemma, unlike previous seasons. Here, she faces the feeling of being replaced and the rejection of different teaching practices. Thanks to this season’s ever-changing nature, it opens the floodgates to unique and stunning episodes like this that do so much with quite a bit to chew on.
Quinta Brunson leads this show in such an impressive manner that it is worth mentioning highly. She is not only an amazing actor but also a fantastic creator. Two pluses and no minuses.
If I had to describe this season, it’s like a comeback for a cancelled show. It has some of the qualities you love from before, but it doesn’t hit quite the same. Simply put, it’s not the original. Here, it is simply not what came before. But that’s fine. And speaking of fine, that is this season in one word. Just fine.
This comeback quality also signifies why the show feels odd in another way. The previous seasons, for instance, had this timelessness to them, a word I love to use. The last season felt like a show that, twenty years from now, people would still cut on. This season, on the other hand, while nice on its own, is one that would be skipped on the re-watch.
Season three feels like a step up with interesting turns and nice promises, but looking at what it took to get here, this season feels like a fall down an endless staircase and a case of neverending tumbling, though this tumbling is in regards to the specialness the previous seasons had. It had a structure. It felt like a show with family. Now, it feels like just a show with a mockumentary brushed into it with nice comedy and good writing and direction. But it misses the charm. While, as said before, this is due to the strike and all and also the timeline of the school year the show keeps for consistency, it can’t help but feel like an imitation of a better show. Even if, on its own, this is a true good one.
A key to Abbott Elementary is the cast building off each other. Here, that is no different. To be more specific, it’s even better now. The change that Janine and many other characters face as we see and catch up to them is natural in a sense but also slightly phoney in its fanfiction-like presentation with how it conducts so many things, from either the romances feeling forced at points or misdirected with a feeling of indulgence towards certain areas of comedic relief or change-ups that feel too new to really hit hard. It’s a respectable, but slightly mischaracterized, season of what the show is at its best. It’s an identity crisis, almost, that while it works on its own as a great piece of entertainment, it slips up more than before and more noticeably, or, to be precise, well quite noticeably, as the trips here are more apparent.
Despite the criticism I have given, it is all very minor. Especially for this season. Episode four, as I have mentioned before, is like every other episode in general quality, though marginally better. In a sense, while there are a lot of little things to critique, but overall, this is an example of a bold choice made by a great creative that mostly paid off, with some slight issues that might become bigger ones on the horizon. Even with some of my critique, it is more examination towards how the show has progressed since, on its own, than this season fully. Since this season is quite a nice slam dunk.
VERDICT
Abbott Elementary is back and less intimate and grounded, but more bolder and revolutionary than ever, mixed with the usual care put in, albeit more purposefully, it seems, to make a show that not just stays good but also reinvents itself from the ground up.
A Underrated Series That Is Just As Important Then As Today
Time to take it back to the year 2000. If you were even a casual reader, one name would be on your radar. Smith. Well, Zadie Smith, to be exact. Zadie Smith is an author whose impact on 21st-century literature is immeasurable. Simply put, she has defined not just this century so far, but the millennium. And she did it right in 2000 with her biting debut, White Teeth. There’s a saying that goes along the bitter lines of “the book did it better.” While this sadly holds some merit in relation to most adaptations, here is something I would like to call a grey area. Yeah, I’m going for the grey area. Both the film and series White Teeth are fantastic on their own and stand as must-see and read pieces of entertainment. Here, talking about the series, if you haven’t seen it, you owe it to yourself for its unforgettable timelessness that sparks with a level of exuberance and indulgence that is so unrestrained, but that is what White Teeth is. An unrestrained, biting look at a multicultural and generational London. Though, in essence, White Teeth reflects a level of relatability and universality that its description alone might not say.
Now to describe why White Teeth works so well is, well, to describe why the book works so well also:
The people are what White Teeth is really about. Even more, White Teeth is about what people really are. If they we are anything but humans. Are we what were born into or who were related to? Or are we enough? Or is it enough to go day by day feeling like your living a lie?
Throughout White Teeth, we see each character have an evolution, all related to what is to be them. Irie is stuck in what society expects of her, and her longing to know what makes her, her. We have already seen her mom overcome the hurdles she saw in her life, and this likely prevents her from letting Irie go to Jamaica, but in return, Irie becomes rebellious and soon leaves. Joshua and his parents reflect the stereotypes and horrors of modern, privileged, and pompous British people. And through this, we see how it affects each member of the family acting and being as they do and how it affects others. We also see how London itself festers itself within their lives and the transitions they have by the end.
It is also the United Kingdom’s colonising history that speaks volumes throughout this, which is a secret underliner to the characters’ conflicts. Smith not only touches on generational trauma but also the cycles of rebellion that come from parent to child and also speaks to the United Kingdom’s history while also touching on the humans within it with a level of thought and consideration. This is also while always hitting the hard topics that are as important then as they are now, like homophobia, racism, and sexism. Smith, over twenty years ago, broke the conventions of not just what a debut can offer (also at twenty-four), but also what a literal debut novel can accomplish. She hits on so much more than all of this, and so well, and so indulgently, but that is the bite of White Teeth. There’s a striking and unique yet so-needed excessiveness to it that makes the bite all the harder. No one does it better than Smith.
The idea of “who you are” is what White Teeth sometimes sets its sights on. It’s the feeling of learning about your culture and the feeling almost tied to living up to and living by it, and that feeling and individualism are at the centre of this series, and it never loses sight of this. For all the curveballs Smith might take in her story to shift in an almost directionless yet so pointed way, this idea remains at usually the forefront. I say usually since I would not say forefront, as I believe Smith never does it. Give a full forefront. White Teeth is like a box of so much that you have to almost limit yourself to tying them to something whole also knowing that is the intention behind this machination. Even more, back to the main point of this paragraph, Smith will use this “who you are” dilemma to hit moments like cultural appropriation and other situations like being yourself versus your roots.
White Teeth is, at its most simplest if it can be downsized at all, a reflection of people of a variety of backgrounds just living their lives in London. Though, to be more precise, with the opener of this paragraph, the theme would be under this, “What is it to be British?” A key thing we see in most characters is their feeling of not being enough about their culture, not fitting in, other characters not accepting them, and what it takes to be British or whatever that means. While we see some go down the route of accepting themselves and letting go of their culture and making their own identity, becoming individualistic, others become sucked into their culture and rebel in some ways from the United Kingdom’s customs, either feeling not accepted or something else. A key to all of this chaos is the feeling of: Is being yourself enough? Is not being born in a country where you stand as yourself enough, or are you not enough of that? Though, as the novel and series shows, being British is everywhere around you. There is no standard, since simply existing in this world is enough and, if you want to be more general, just being there should be enough. Since it is the people that make up a nation, that are a nation. Not what it was, but what is now.
These are key areas to which Smith directs her attention, and in the series, it is just as itchy as the book, and, at points, it feels just as visceral. That feeling of not belonging—that is what is itched in. Smith, in one of her best choices, decides not to show judgement but rather observation, in my eyes. A brilliant thing about Smith is how interpretive her choices are in White Teeth. While it seems no judgement is given, that is just my sole perspective. What makes this all the better is the purposeful intention. This could be done by anyone, but here, with everything, Smith seems to have planned even the thoughts of the observer. It feels like an ironic case of hysterical observation. The irony of that will become clear later with the term hysterical hopefully to stay on your radar.
An important thing that ties White Teeth together is what the United Kingdom is today. Well, today when it was released. Smith shows the diversity of London on display that, even today, isn’t commonly shown and uses history as a nice guide in areas. Just as good is the level of intricacy on display. It is clear Smith knows not just the history of the United Kingdom but also literature with the level of skill given to her characters and how she writes her world.
Nobody is perfect. A fact that has never been made more clear than in White Teeth One of the greatest things Smith did was not have stereotypical characters from each of these unique cultural backgrounds. Instead, she made each character humane and complex, filled with their own perspectives and outlooks that never felt overwhelmed by others. No one in Smith’s universe is innocent, and shades of wrong and evil are present in all of us, but there is also beauty. In other words, there is no exploitation or examination of the characters’ flaws excessively; rather, they are left casually and as normal as someone you might talk to. In other words, they are realistic. While characters’ decisions are detailed, judgement is a term lost in interpretation here quite brilliantly. Even more, when Smith handles purposeful it seems stereotypes, she switches the conventions almost immediately to show a level of depth and history that, while can only be speculated, says a million more words than she can describe.
This whole examination here on the self leads Smith to hit topics like, in particular, toxic masculinity. The examination of what it is to be a man all relates to Smith’s continued discussions of war, murder, harassment, and a million more things I likely forgot about. The most clear instance is in Millat. Millat becomes a rebel under his education in London, likely from distance and jealousy from his sibling and a rebellion inside him. This also gives him a womanising and sexist attitude that becomes rampant. Smith uses this character at first to examine, it seems, the flaws behind UK education and speak to cultural, generational, and educational factors that can turn someone into this mindset. Smith will later shift into fundamentalist Islam and the effects this will have on his mindset, being set and questioning his beliefs. He can be called an almost lost and angsty rebel who speaks to a level of topics that is hard to say in a single sentence. Though looking into this character alone is to say a thing Smith does with her characters here. She makes almost all examinations for a specific purpose, like an experiment. Yet, this is nicely hidden behind the depths of the characters to a point where, unless you’re searching for it, it can almost just feel like people just living their lives, as wacky as life can get.
One of the most distinctive elements of White Teeth was its grinding, expansive, and evasive yet upfront style. As mentioned before, it’s Tarantino-like. While someone like Tarantino kept it more to the films and more precise, with a level of direction and writing that would keep audiences up and steady watching, Smith and this series aim for a more laid-bouncy style that throws a punch with a billion or so words that on first listen one might very much miss. Smith and the screenwriters here simply convey the magic of White Teeth. As pointed out by a harsh critic of White Teeth, James Wood, hysterical realism. Though Wood might have seen this as a detriment, here it is at the core of why Smith’s debut novel and this series works so well. Its unique style and flair are certainly well provided with this hysterical realism, but to see it as a point of critique misses the fundamental idea of individual work. Putting art on a pedestal of what can and can’t destroys art since art cannot be taken down for its uniqueness. That is what art is. It’s ironic a term that seemed meant to tear down a work only builds it up since this is, quite simply, what makes White Teeth, White Teeth. Its abundance and overlooking nature into every plot point and little event or moment in every single character lives is a core of what makes it what it is. It’s what makes White Teeth shine and blossom.
Wham bam. Thank you, Smith and the people who directed this wonderful series. Yes, the direction rocks here. Somehow, this unknown series, based on a three-year-old or so book, gets some of the best direction and some of the most stylistic and nice choices to ever grace a single season of television. I say this with a great deal of reason, since have you seen the direction? Each shot just pops with a level of early 2000s indulgence into the styles of the times it conveys and captures that free-throwing timelessness that makes it generational, not just in storytelling but also in pure fanaticism. Simply put, the direction here is so nice since it has this ladder to it. One side is more reflective of past cinema and characters wear themselves. Both pop at the scene and yet are so centred in the time it takes place but not defined by it. Like the novel, its singular individuality and beauty blossom to the sound of its own beat.
You are in a Zadie Smith adaptation production. Imagine. And action. The acting here just pops with a fun release, it feels. Like, the cast just got and loved the script they were given. Here, the acting has this attitude and feel that is controlling yet free at points, which makes the twists hit all the harder and the smaller moments all the more emotional. Clear standouts are, firstly, Naomi Harris who brings this casual and fun filled performance that sparks a sense of hope and life deeply needed in a White Teeth adaptation. James McAvoy gives this quirky and weird then over the top performance that excites with his level of charisma at points and purposeful lack thereof. Sarah Ozeke is the most standout here, giving a joyful, like her mother in the series, performance but unlike her, filled with this level of depth and complexity that can switch in a heartbeat. This is not even going into a dozen other cast members who just kill it since they all are, simply put, spectacular.
The bite stands. That is how to describe this series. Transferring adaptation has one risk. Losing the uniqueness of the source material. Not to say it has to be one-to-one, but if it attempts what White Teeth does here, losing the sauce of the original is doomsday. The original White Teeth is a biting look at a group of individuals of diverse backgrounds, their transformations and evolutions through generations, and the effect London has on them. Though, even with this bold idea, Smith, at just twenty-four, also aims to use her unique prose, to make something that is not just powerful but also quite uniquely humorous. Thankfully, everyone, from the cast to the director in this series, delivered. And then some.
Charles Dickens was an author of many things, but one of them, at his best, was his timelessness. In a sense, he captured sometimes a universal quality in his work that propelled so many since it was the simplest thing that may be riled up to an eleven, but it just clicked and was an event many people will encounter since he took specks of life and grounded them in, as said before, in a timeless way. Now, why am I talking about some random author from like two hundred years ago? Well, Zadie Smith can be described, in my humble opinion, as a clearly better author and updated one that shows what Dickens could offer, but for a new century and millennium, and if I had to choose which of the two would be studied in a century, it would, undeniably, be Smith. She simply captures and understands the authenticity of all she writes, with her characters’ feelings feeling so real and relatable yet distinct and human all the time, and yet, unlike Dickens, her works feel so standout.
For instance, let’s use Great Expectations for comparison. Great Expectations tells the tale of Pip, a boy living with his cruel sister and uncle-in-law, and weaves it into his growing up and seeking love from someone who is not to love, at least how he wants. Though, what is not the focus? As the title suggests, it means being grateful for what you have. Pip expects so much but learns he is left disappointed so often, and this is since he was starting to lose focus on what he already had. In a sense, the message is don’t expect too much and be grateful for what you have, but do seek things out but don’t get caught up in them. Enjoy life, simply. What’s key about this series and novel, you see, is its timelessness. The message of being grateful and how it tackles love is done in a specific way, but it is all weaved under an underlying and clear message that connects with so many still today. Dickens was able to be direct and so general by making his story not stuck in the times and more escapist but clear in style to give it universality and texture. Smith, in a sense, accomplished this and also did not. Unlike Dickens, she does not ever shy away from any hard topics, and she makes sure her work is not dated or anything and draws a fine line on keeping that clear. To put it precisely, Smith bites more and harder than even some of the most known authors to exist.
A great way to end off a look at White Teeth would be to answer why it stands out so much. Well, it’s not the usual pompous writing you might expect from the hype. While White Teeth is intricately written both in show and novel form, it uses past history of literature like its going out of style and effectively builds a bridge in between more neat and fancy prose and more bolder, more today-like styles in a convenient and audacious manner that only Smith can offer. Smith and this series also did all of this in 2000 and 2002. We only really see even half of what Smith does and talks about here getting mentioned after she published White Teeth and even then it still needs more focus. Even crazier is the impact White Teeth has had on this century and millennium. To put it nicely, its impact is clear from almost every genre of book you can find. It, quite simply, changed the game and did it better than most other books out there. Sadly, this impact with the book isn’t matched by the equally good series that is at the forefront here.
While it is hard to say, the series version of White Teeth has been long forgotten. Not in the sense that it never gets talked about, but even when it does, it barely does. It is a situation where quality doesn’t equal success and is proven more than factual.
If there ever was one thing you couldn’t say White Teeth has or that you’re a liar, it was creativity. Smith didn’t just create a world; she made the world human again. All with a smile.
Now timeless. The word. Timeless. Something that expands its age and hits just the same as when it was released, or even more. The bite White Teeth had in 2000 and again in 2002 has not gone rotten or numb, but, if I had to say, it has actually gotten stronger. You could say that there is even more depth considering the time we live in.
VERDICT
White Teeth was a biting and comedic series that, like the novel it is based on, deserves to be remembered not just as a fantastic work but possibly as one of the most groundbreaking and influential pieces of entertainment to be released based on not only the range of influence that it has already stirred but also the innovation always and so abundantly on display. One of the nicest things to think aboutvWhite Teeth is that it may show some the world isn’t as small as they think it is. And it may show others a variety of cultures and perspectives desperately still needing to be talked about today. Thankfully, it was handled with more care and thought than entertainment then and somehow still today. It, quite simply, had a better dentist. And that dentist was Zadie Smith.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – The BRWC Review. By Daniel Rester.
George Miller’s Mad Max series has been delivering fresh sci-fi action to audiences since 1979. After a long break from the series, Miller returned to it in 2015 with Mad Max: Fury Road. Many, including myself, listed Fury Road as the best film of 2015, one of the best films of the 2010s, the best Mad Max film, and one of the best action films ever made. Miller now returns again with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which plays as a direct prequel to Fury Road. The big question: Was a prequel a good idea, or did Miller simply set the bar too high with Fury Road?
Furiosa never comes near the lightning-in-a-bottle greatness of Fury Road. It’s an overlong, episodic, occasionally clunky, and somewhat unnecessary prequel as it tries to connect dots to the 2015 film. Its last few minutes, meant to directly bridge the two films, have some questionable continuity decisions made too. All of that said, Furiosa is still a solid and thrilling entry in Miller’s series that works well enough and is even quite excellent in some scenes.
The prequel has no Max Rockatansky in it, instead focusing on the past of Imperator Furiosa, the character played fiercely by Charlize Theron in Fury Road. Here she is played by Alyla Brown as a child and Anya Taylor-Joy as a young adult. She is taken from her home, a green “place of abundance,” and forced to live in the desert wasteland with a gang run by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth).
Eventually Furiosa is caught in a war for resources between Dementus and Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). She learns to become an effective driver of “war rigs” from Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). As the years go on, Furiosa seeks revenge against Dementus and hopes to return home.
Furiosa is slicker and more reliant on CGI than Fury Road, but it still contains some level of grit in its stunt work and wasteland aesthetic. The costume, makeup, set, and vehicle designs are just as cool and creative as ever. Miller ups the use of motorcycles and flying machines this time around, but there is no shortage of wild cars and trucks either; Dementus using a chariot with three motorcycles provides quite a visual.
The action scenes occasionally feel routine but for the most part they are intense. They work best when they are helping build the relationship between Jack and Furiosa, which mirrors the Max and Furiosa relationship in Fury Road at times. Miller also shows a lot more of Furiosa’s sniping skills this time around, which provides a break away from the usual vehicular mayhem.
Both Brown and Taylor-Joy do a fine job of following in the path Theron provided for the character. In typical Miller fashion, the main character has little dialogue, so the actresses must express a lot through their eyes. Taylor-Joy and Burke have strong chemistry together and help give the second half of the film some heart. While the Furiosa and Jack relationship is interesting, it does ultimately feel odd that the Furiosa and Immortan Joe relationship isn’t explored more instead; further complexity to that dynamic would have added layers to the core conflict in Fury Road.
Hemsworth is the film’s standout, throwing himself into Dementus and making him a delicious villain. He’s an unpredictable and colorful character who fits into Miller’s world perfectly. Miller uses the character as a springboard to be able to show more of Gastown and Bullet Farm as well, as the two were only glimpsed briefly in Fury Road.
Furiosa is a well-made prequel despite never fully feeling like its existence is necessary. Miller still provides a world to get lost in, full of meticulous and kooky touches. Perhaps next time he should move forward instead of backward with the storytelling though.
If you had the chance to take on a rigorous competition if it knew that it would change you and your family’s lives forever, would you do it? All signs say that most people would and this movie proves it perfectly.
The story weaves a tale of multiple women who are attempting to break the glass-ceiling in conducting that is most commonly dominated by men. The women come from différent parts of the world, with différent backgrounds and have their own unique style to the craft.
Director Maggie Contreras is able to capture the heart and soul of, not only the competition itself, but the vigor, intensity and passion of the women who participated in the event and it does such wonders for talented women in the industry of conducting.
The movie benefits from its raw authenticity that seems to be missing from a lot of movies. Its sincerity and endearing charm is what keeps it afloat around a weary world that surrounds it and it certainly is able to stand on its own two feet.
It’s also worth noting that each woman is incredibly talented and showcasing that talent in this film is truly remarkable.
All in all, this film is a symphony of beautiful and dulcet tones that makes for such entertaining viewing.
