RIP Powers Boothe

The actor Powers Boothe has died aged 68.

Texas born Boothe first came to fame in 1980 with his acclaimed performance as infamous cult leader Jim Jones in Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, and he went on to star as Raymond Chandler's detective hero in the HBO series Philip Marlowe, as President Noah Daniels in 24, and as the scheming Cy Tolliver in Deadwood (pictured above).

His films included Walter Hill's Southern Comfort, John Milius' Red Dawn, Oliver Stone's Nixon, Tomsbstone, the Sin City films, MacGruber, and most recently The Avengers, which led to a role in the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

RIP

All The Way (2016)

Bryan Cranston is virtually unrecognisable here as Lyndon B. Johnson, bringing his Tony Award-winning performance of the president to television in Robert Schenkkan's own adaptation of the his hit Broadway play.

All The Way focuses on the first year in office for 'the accidental president', taking us from his swearing in after John F. Kennedy’s assassination through to his 1964 campaign for election to a full term.

The first half of the film tells of the struggles to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. LBJ proved himself a master at political horse-trading, wheeler-dealing with the likes of senators Hubert H. Humphrey (Bradley Whitford) and Richard B. Russell Jr. (Frank Langella); FBI head J. Edgar Hoover (Stephen Root) and of course the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Anthony Mackie). All The Way does not shirk from the responsibilities of dramatising this significant moment in US history and mixes incendiary archive footage - specifically the example of the baiting oratory style of George Wallace - to remind us that, in a world of Brexit, talk of barring Muslims from entry into the US and building a wall between Texas and Mexico, we may not have come as far in the world as we'd like to think.

LBJ was a deeply divisive and difficult figure and Cranston depicts the complexities with aplomb. Nevertheless, it could be argued that paranoia is the one trait all holders of high office possess and this too is explored in the second half of the film which focuses on his presidential campaign in '64, when he feared the likes of opponent Barry Goldwater, and a potential challenge from the brother of the man he replaced, Robert F. Kennedy. 

It's a very worthy film, but rather overlong and a little dull. It's also a touch too familiar to fully engage. All The Way resides in the shadows of not only Selma, the 2014 film that was criminally ignored by the Academy, which told the same events from MLK's perspective and boasted a fine performance from David Oyelowo that Anthony Mackie here unsurprisingly fails to match, but also other HBO fare such as Game Change and Recount, which were also helmed by the director of All The Way, Jay Roach, as well as biopics from Oliver Stone and TV programmes like The West Wing and the US remake of House of Cards. It follows the similar formulaic and identikit path that all of these take, depicting the crises and political powerplays that face our central characters and delighting in the dynamite, curt exchanges that take place away from the public eye. But perhaps the biggest, most unforgiveable disappointment of All The Way is how little it offers its secondary characters, and in this case it is tragically its female characters. Melissa Leo is utterly wasted as Lady Bird Johnson in a film which barely represents the opposite sex.

Nevertheless, All the Way remains a solid enough recreation of the pivotal events that occurred 50 odd years ago that is lifted by Cranston's assured lead performance.

Fatherland (1994)

Based on the bestseller by Robert Harris, Fatherland depicts a 1964 in which the Cold War and Beatlemania are facts of life. But SS uniformed officers still march down German streets and Hitler is alive and well and set to celebrate his 75th birthday with a visit from the U.S. President Joseph Kennedy, Sr. This is an alternate universe in which the allies lost WWII and Berlin, as the capital of the continent of Germania, is the centre of the world.

Rutger Hauer stars as weary Nazi party detective, SS Officer Xavier 'Xavi' March who is called out one morning to the suspicious death of a founding member of the Party. Meanwhile, western reporters are arriving in Berlin for the big summit between Hitler and Kennedy. One such reporter is German born American Charlie (Miranda Richardson), who is approached by a stranger and given some photographs and cryptic clues to a Nazi war secret regarding the resettlement of the Jews which in turn leads her to March when she stumbles upon the bodies of another high level bureaucrat and a prostitute. The Gestapo muscle in on the subsequent investigations and warn March off, but both he and Charlie continue to pursue the truth until they become targets for the Gestapo's bullets.

There are two really great things about Fatherland. The first is the spectacular production design. The Reich architecture of the Nazi Speer is brought vividly to life via in the Prague location shoot, mixing with the squat 1960s architecture in an eyecatching and disturbingly seamless fashion. The second is how Harris' story still manages to draw a horrific shock reaction from us, despite resting on the revelation of a Holocaust we of course all know happened. His fresh spin on this sickening act of genocide is to show the German people discovering it for the first time and the reveal is helped immeasurably by a chilling turn from Jean Marsh who reveals the fate of the Jews fate to a stunned Charlie. 

I've always liked Rutger Hauer even though his choice of films does not always make it easy on us fans. He is excellent here in a role that not only affords him the chance to play a good guy - despite his menacing Nazi uniform - and act with good material a world away from the straight to video fare he has a penchant for appearing in. Richardson is also good as the intrepid American reporter,and looks divine in her 60s 'Mad Men'-esque fashions and it is refreshing to see that the film does not force a romance between the two leads. There's also great support from a wealth of talented British character actors including John Woodvine, John Shrapnel, Peter Vaughan, Michael Kitchen, David Ryall and Neil Dudgeon, as well as an early role for Rupert Penry Jones.

Unfortunately, at the heart of Fatherland is a relatively plodding murder mystery cum conspiracy thriller that is rather underpowered in its telling, which makes several passages rather sluggish. 

An unsettling look at an alternate universe that thankfully is just a fantasy, is brought vividly to life in a manner which belies its HBO made for TV roots to deliver something truly striking and distinctive for the eye.

7 Days In Hell (2015)

Many will know of my dislike of most sport, but I have to say tennis is, for me, one I find particularly tedious. Needless to say the last Wimbledon fortnight has hardly been a highlight for me, but 7 Days In Hell made it worthwhile.

This gloriously funny spoof from writer Murray Miller is a mockumentary HBO sports show which was available on Sky Atlantic from this weekend. It details a fictional Wimbledon final from 2001 between American Aaron Williams and Brit Charles Poole  which lasted for seven straight days.

I only know Samberg from his work in the first series of Greg Davies' BBC3 sitcom Cuckoo and he was great in that (seriously, the second series with Taylor Lautner replacing him is shit. Don't watch it!) and he's equally hilarious here playing the adopted brother of Serena and Venus Williams, a controversial Agassi or Borg-like bad boy of the sport. His rival is played by Game of Thrones star Kit Harington, a British child prodigy who is extremely stupid or, to quote his supermodel ex girlfriend played by Karen Gillan, he's like “a child with brain damage” Harington plays it dead straight, which is always a good idea for an actor unfamiliar with comedy.

Its a star studded affair too, with the aforementioned Gillan, Serena Williams, Lena Dunham, Will Forte, Howie Mandel, David Copperfield, John McEnroe, Mary Steenburgen, Jon Hamm, Chris Everet and Michael Sheen (who seems to be channeling the comedic performing style of a 1980s period Peter Cook as a pot bellied chain smoking and sexually creepy sports presenter unable to pronounce his R's pwopewly) all joining in the fun. 

Throw in a menacing and drunken depiction of the Queen, Engelbert Humperdinck, an unsuccessful sex tape and sex with streakers on the court and you have a laugh out loud funny spoof which gave me more laughs than Ted did, which I also watched at the weekend when it premiered on Channel 4. So, funnier than Ted? Indubitably.

Out On Blue Six : The Power Station

This one's been in my head since hearing it on the soundtrack to the feature length last ever episode (boo!) of Stephen Merchant's excellent US sitcom Hello Ladies on Sky Atlantic last night

Funny how you almost kinda forget just how good some songs are - it was a pleasure to rediscover it. Equally, it was a pleasure to discover the stunning model/actress Stephanie Corneliussen who had a role in the finale as one of Merchant's objects of affection, the supermodel Tatiana. 

End Transmission

Olive Kitteridge (2014)

Olive Kitteridge is the story of a misanthropic, strict, but well-meaning, retired schoolteacher who lives in the fictional seaside town of Crosby, Maine. She is married to Henry Kitteridge, a kind, considerate man who runs a pharmacy downtown, and has a troubled son named Christopher, who grows up to be a podiatrist. For 25 years, Olive has experienced problems of depression, bereavement, jealousy, and friction with family members and friends.

This four hour, two part mini series based on Elizabeth Strout's novel is a melancholic, elegiac tale of lives half lived and strained relations with underlying issues and feelings that dare not be spoken whilst the theme of death, especially suicide, permeates throughout the narrative and its duration. The drama is languorous and muted which means you need to have a degree of patience to see where it is going and what it has to offer, but if you invest in it the characters and their perfect playing, combined with a distinctive take on small town somewhat repressed life, pay off most satisfyingly. It's also surprisingly funny in places.

Frances McDormand is - as ever -  sublime in the titular role, managing to tease out some surprising, strong compassion and empathy for such a starchy character, but it was Richard Jenkins and Zoe Kazan who really impressed me initially in the first half; The gentle good naturedness of Jenkins' character Henry Kitteridge was palpably at odds with the prickliness of his wife played by McDormand, whilst Kazan was suitably ditzy and sweetly loveable as Henry's co-worker, the tragic Denise. There's also strong support from John Gallagher Jr of The Newsroom as Henry and Olive's son, Christopher and, in minor but important roles, Peter Mullan and Bill Murray.

The Newsroom's Lovelies

With the news that Kat Dennings (above) has joined the cast for the third and sadly final season of Aaron Sorkin's excellent The Newsroom, it's time to ponder the fact that this is possibly the most attractive show on television.

Let's look at the facts

The aforementioned Kat Dennings

Emily Mortimer

Alison Pill

Grace Gummer (Meryl Streep's daughter)

and of course my favourite, Olivia Munn

Phil Spector (2013)

Legendary record producer and music innovator Phil Spector was found guilty for the murder of aspiring actress Lana Clarkson following a retrial in 2009. Sentenced to 19 years to life, today he remains in prison. 

This much we know.

But was Spector really guilty of murder - did he pull the trigger that took Clarkson's life? Or was it suicide? Or maybe even an accident?

Whatever your stance or personal belief, David Mamet's film for HBO. Phil Spector, is told from Spector's defence team's point of view - specifically that of attorney Linda Kenney Baden who handled the closing arguments for the first trial in 2007. As such the film gives strong emphasis on the suicide or accidental death defence supported, she argued, by ballistic and forensic evidence. Played by Helen Mirren, Baden is shown to be a determined professional who is intrigued by Spector and, despite suffering from pneumonia, takes on the case because she is convinced of his innocence.

The real reason to watch Phil Spector, besides any interest in the case, is an assured performance from Al Pacino that goes beneath the images we know from the courtroom - such as that of the elaborate frizzy shock wig - to make a man who is three dimensional and yet still unobtainable. Played with the certain knowledge that he alone knows what happened that fateful night in 2003, Pacino gives us something of the whiny self aggrandising, egotistical tyrant and bona fide musical genius as well as a savant like innocent, wholly vulnerable and only truly happy when he's playing around in the dressing up box or in the production booth.

Mamet's film is - to anyone who followed the story - naturally short on surprises, so instead he colours it with a knowing Hollywood style; Baden's first meeting with Spector occurs at his mansion on a stormy, rain lashed evening, a forbidding structure behind iron gates and barbed wire on an equally forbidding night. Deep inside its bowels, Spector wanders in a dressing gown, preoccupied with conversation largely to himself concerning the fates of those whose lives were tragically cut short through murder, suicide or sheer bad luck; the Kennedys, Lincoln, Monroe, TE Lawrence and Lenny Bruce all being namechecked. It's all deeply portentous stuff and ascribes to what appears to be Spector's overall theory (or at least Mamet's characterisation's theory) that once you're big, someone will want to take it away from you and end you. 

This theory proves to be the key to the film and it's actually quite novel that Mamet approaches such a controversial subject not necessarily via the 'is he innocent or his guilty?' route but more to do with the reason why so many people immediately assumed and believed him to be guilty - a reasoning that surely has something to do with how Spector presented himself down the years as well as the fame and acclaim he achieved. As Mirren's Baden is heard to utter at one point, American juries let OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson off, now they want to put someone behind bars. 

In the end the film closes before the 2007 trail is adjourned. Baden is left to ponder whether Spector's mansion is heavily protected in order to keep people out or to keep him in. She likens him to a Minotaur and admits to having some slight doubt to his claims of innocence. It's a sudden about turn that doesn't necessarily convince, nor is it explained how she reached such a decision - given that the only difference in Spector that day was he wore the infamous big wig to court. It is however perhaps in keeping with her professionalism. Her job is not to believe whether someone is capable of a crime, it's to push the doubt, however small, and the weakness in the prosecution's case to the fore in the minds of the jury. The film ends with a caption informing us that the jury could not reach a verdict and that Baden's ill health prevented her from defending him at the retrial two years later.

Tonight's Tele Tip : The Newsroom

Reaching our shores, and Sky Atlantic, just three days after its US TV debut comes the third and final season of what I believe to currently be the best US TV export; Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom

I don't know why it's the last season. I don't know why there's only 6 episodes this time around. I do know that this intelligent, sharp, left leaning, funny and profound drama about the staff of Atlantis Cable News deserves more, much like the BBC's news drama The Hour deserved more.

It starts tonight, Sky Atlantic at 10pm.

If you haven't seen it before, hurry to Sky On Demand where you can get both previous seasons as a boxset.

You'll thank me for it.

The Many Faces and Reactions of Amy Brookheimer

Because it's real tough being the Veep's campaign manager...

You make some outrageous assumptions...

Though you're still more informed than some of your colleagues...

Especially when it comes to scandalous affairs...

But perhaps less knowledgeable about your own personal life...

(It's been a year actually. Oops!)

You can instantly think of strategy on the hoof...

You're just the best!

At least, I think so

Iron Jawed Angels (2004)

Iron Jawed Angels is a 2004 HBO biopic about the Women's Suffrage Movement of America and the trials and tribulations these women - and specifically Hilary Swank as their leader Alice Paul - were faced with in securing their right to vote.

The film offers, to quote the blurb on the DVD, 'a fresh and contemporary take' on historical events. What this means is director Katja von Garnier uses disorientating modern pop music, nifty editing techniques and sped up camerawork to tell the tale. At best it offers a distinctive and kinetic experience, at worst it makes much of the action feel like a pop promo or, worse, a Tampax advert! I'm not averse to such anachronistic techniques - in fact in other productions I find it quite favourable - but given that the Suffragette story is, in any part of the world, such an overlooked and under-explored moment in our history, the basic facts are fresh enough to an audiences eyes without the need for such contemporary enhancements. Indeed, film and TV making seem very happy and eager to tell stories about how the Establishment of yesteryear shamed us with its acts of war and slavery but they all too often seem loathe to discuss how they mistreated and abused, to use a term they may feel comfortable with, 'their own'. Perhaps it's something to do with unsettling our perceived notion of security, rights and democracy, to know that such things have happened and can happen in so called civilised society.

It is really only when we reach the film's last half and the most severe hardships for our heroines - their time in the prison/workhouse and the force feeding techniques Alice Paul was abused with when she commenced her hunger strike - that the flashy visual verve is slowed down to allow the harsh reality of the tale to be told, and I actually think this section is improved because of it. Sadly by the time we reach this it becomes clear that much of the initial screenplay by Sally Robinson et al has perhaps, for better or worse, become lost under the weight of the director's chosen path and the narrative emphasis on Swank's Ms Paul, and we realise that we know little enough about much of the film's supporting characters who are also suffering internment. Despite being played by such commendable and talented actresses like Frances O'Connor, Laura Fraser, Vera Farmiga and Molly Parker, they are to varying degrees little more than ciphers. Certainly Fraser in particular has a vastly undeveloped and ill explored role, despite securing some beautiful close ups throughout the bold and often charming visual style. Outside of this stage in the film, other actresses including Julia Ormond and Angelica Huston also lose out, with the former, as Inez Millholland, in particular suffering the  indignity of portraying her character literally campaigning herself to death in front of a revolving sky visual perhaps last seen in a Talking Heads video! 

Equally Patrick Dempsey as a potential love interest for Swank is equally short changed, though I think that's intentional to explore how Alice Paul had to put everything in second place to her campaign. This is shown in a rather awkward but discreetly shot moment in which Swank takes a wank in a bath tub. It's jarring, but it does on reflection suggest a loneliness to the character as well as explore the notion that sexual desires are just as prevalent in women as they are in men - something society sometimes has trouble admitting to this day.

Once the characters are freed from prison the story all too swiftly moves to its resolution. It's a shame because as anyone who has researched this moment in history knows it is false and rather cavalier to suggest one woman staged a hunger strike and then as a direct result secured the vote for women across the USA. There was much more time and effort and struggle and hardship to come for so many campaigners yet this is largely ignored to wrap the film up. 

Despite such criticisms and my still uncertain stance on whether I feel the anachronism worked overall, I would still recommend Iron Jawed Angels; it is an important piece and a still sadly all too rare depiction of and testament to the sacrifices and bloodshed those brave women endured to give their sisters of today a democratic voice.

Theme Time : Various Artists - The Wire

Greatest American TV show ever? I think so.

Running for five incredible seasons, David Simon's The Wire has its roots in his factual book Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets and The Corner, which both looked at Baltimore's crime and drug problem from the police and the pushers and addicts POV respectively. Both were made into hit TV shows; Homicide: Life On The Street and The Corner. But The Wire wasn't just police and thieves, The Wire was the story of a city, and the story of our time. TV as the visual novel. Dense, entertaining and utterly thought provoking.

It's theme Way Down In The Hole was penned by Tom Waits for his 1987 album Frank's Wild Years. A gospel and blues inspired track, it fitted the show perfectly, and each season uses a different recording of it against different opening credits to distinguish each 'chapter' from the last.

The performers are, in order;  The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits, The Neville Brothers, DoMaJe and Steve Earle...

It also gave us many great characters, but perhaps the most iconic was Omar, the modern day cowboy outlaw, played brilliantly by Michael Kenneth Williams

Anna Chlumsky

Another actress who makes me go a little bit quiet is Anna Chlumsky, one of the stars of the brilliant Veep