Saturday, December 16, 2017

The Last Jedi Blaster Points

I am writing these notes with no reverence or respect for spoilers. Read at your own peril.

One of my favorite songs is still "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." Not because I like Bono's warbly voice all that much, but because it still encapsulates my feelings about this life the best. I've been skimming new and old shows on the streaming services like I'm looking for something, and it occurred to me recently that I AM looking for something. I just still haven't found what I'm looking for.

As the product of a millennialist religion, to me the anticipation of the star wars movies most resembled anticipation of the second coming, and joyous hope for a world made new. This blessed hope has diminished with each flawed arrival of the christ movie, as disillusioned adults realized they weren't 10 anymore and never would be or simply believed the perfect SW movie WAS possible, it was just in hands incapable of crafting paradise correctly. The blessed hope is that someday, someone WILL craft the perfect SW trilogy, and we will walk hand-in-hand into that eternal realm.

As for me, I have long lost the hope that a movie will save me in any fashion, but I still sift through them restlessly, hoping to find some sign of good in them, and by extension the industry that creates them, and by extension western civilization. Like Luke, I want to find the good in the thing that created me. Not coincidentally, one of my other favorite songs is, "Give me something to believe in."

For now, I hold on to one quote from each movie I see that means something to me, even if I can't explain why. For the Force Awakens this was:

"Dear Child. The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is in front of you." (I went home and sobbed after this movie).

For the Last Jedi it's Luke saying:

"No one's ever really gone."

Which ties with my other favorite SW quote:

"Luminous beings are we. Not this crude matter."

"No one's ever really gone." is simultaneously the hope of redemption in this life and the hope of possibilities beyond it.

I look for hope in SW, and in the original trilogy that was the redemption of Darth Vader. A father's love for his son, redemption, and sacrifice are all powerful themes and their combination in Return of the Jedi is probably my favorite aspect of star wars. I personally think genuine redemption (as opposed to posed redemption with no real contrition), is one of the most powerful ideas in human society, is vital to healing social bonds that every one of us can't help but damage from time to time and I like aspects of our culture that champion that idea in a sincere and meaningful way. Our default setting is angry, gory revenge when we are wronged and while we still haven't really gotten much beyond it in our society, we should still try. And what concerns me most about modern society is the increasing absence of redemption, as if we are afraid the wrong people could make use of it.

I believe in redemption because anger leads to hate and hate leads to suffering and while this is a trite pop-culture spiritualism in a kids movie, it is also an idea intimately intertwined in every major religion. To forgive is divine. That doesn't mean you have to be stupid about it, that doesn't mean you have to pretend someone is sincere when they are not. It just means if you can't mend the wound, the remaining options get less fun over time. Isolation, demonization, and violence are less ideal than the alternatives.

So to see redemption tossed so casually aside in the Last Jedi concerns me, but then again, not every story is a story of redemption. This is partly a story about fascism that cannot be reasoned with. I think western civilization is still figuring out how to deal with fascism politically and Star Wars is some not small part of that. How do we stop violent eliminationists without just violently eliminating them? Star Wars has so far not been up to the task in answering this question, but I'm glad it tries. The First Order is still woefully underdeveloped, and the original empire under Palpatine was 1-dimensional evil. A deep exploration of fascism this series is not.

Part of the problem here, is I don't think we have much of an idea of what a healthy, functioning democracy looks like yet in our civilization, which is partly why you never actually see one in Star Wars. Just cartoon fascism and people clinging to hope that we'll figure it out someday. That moves me, and If feel it, but it doesn't enlighten me. Star Wars has yet to show me how things could be better, just that power is being taken by hateful, violent people and we should stand up to them. And they should and we should and I still want to know what better, specifically, looks like.

More interesting here is the way TLJ seems to upend the traditional star wars story entirely. Not even is this not a story about the redemption of Ben Solo, this may not even be a story about the empire or the rebellion. Both the main empire vs rebels and jedi vs sith storylines are cracking at the seems in this movie, as new stories threaten to break free from beneath them. The rebellion vs the First Order is recast several times as the 1% vs the poor and downtrodden and jedi vs sith is cast as dogmatic religions too rigid in their thinking and the light and the dark as oversimplifications that hurt more than they help.

Luke panics at how readily Rey faces the dark side cave, but the panic seems more that the dark is so seductive a person can't help but succumb. But this is Luke's problem, not Rey's. She touches the dark side and instinctively recoils. It is not who she is, it does not have what she wants, it holds very little power over her. Luke's reaction reminds me a lot of christians who freak out when their kids are exposed to any non-christian opinions. If you genuinely believe your ideas are more powerful and more compelling, why be afraid?

Similarly, Kylo Ren seems devoted to the dark, but does not seem to fear his explorations into the light. His lines about killing the past and leaving the Jedi and the Sith far behind were genuinely exciting but also the kind of thing an ambitious Sith would say. For the Sith, it's always about being the new force-using iconoclast who reinvents even as he innovates and remolds the universe around him. But still, as a fan I'm genuinely excited to see the genuinely stale jedi vs sith contruction cast aside in favor of more nuanced depictions of light and dark. I think there is such a thing as good and evil, but SW has long been constricted by overly-simplistic mythologies and losing those to some degree will enable more interesting discussions of good vs evil. Is it still Star Wars if you stop talking about Jedi and the Sith? I honestly don't know.

Beyond that, I have no idea where they're going with Ben Solo from here. He's one of the most well-developed characters of the new series, extremely sympathetic, and seemingly as unbound from the Sith as he is to the Jedi. He may have grabbed the helm of the first order, but to what end? He doesn't strike me as the type who wants to rule the universe, just to do as he wants when he wants to. He's an interesting character, but I'm not sure I buy him as the new prime evil of the series. The next movie needs to add something here, in terms of characterization or motivation or new villains (or a surprise resurrection and exploration of his relationship with Snoke or something).

Of course, there IS actually a short redemption arc in this film, but it's not Ren, it's Luke. Rey brings Luke back the way Luke brings Vader back. Luke nearly fell to the dark side in trying to be a Jedi Master, and it scared him so bad he shut himself off from it and went into exile. Here, Rey faces the dark unafraid and without letting it diminish the light in her and Luke, in the end, does the same. I think if there's any powerful emotional core to this movie, it's that.

Not only that, but Luke's final duel is most powerful in what it fails to give Kylo, and by extension the blood-thirsty fanboys in the audience:  violent revenge. The movie does a good job in implying Luke is there to kill Ben, or that Ben is going to kill Luke like Vader killed Kenobi. Luke, finally a Jedi Master, shames them all by solving the problem elegantly and non-violently. He admits he fails him, says he's sorry, and saves his friends and family; all without wasting a life. The last act of the last Jedi Master is probably by far the strongest argument for the existence of the Jedi Order in the history of the franchise. Yoda said the hardest part of being a master was being the thing his students grow beyond and he was talking about Rey, but he was also talking about Luke. Not even Yoda did so much good with so little violence. I was unsure I liked what they did with him as I left the theater last night, and now I think I love it.

With that in mind, I'm still not sure this trilogy won't end with the redemption of Ben Solo. His two most important father-figures leave him with kind words and looks of love on their faces. Han touching his son's face before he falls and Luke with a gentle "See ya 'round, kid." (or somesuch, expect to see Luke as a force ghost in the third act). Moreover, he's still not committed to the dark side. He's abandoned the sith as much as he's abandoned the Jedi. I'm not saying it should end with his redemption; if he relentlessly and continually chooses evil it cannot. I harbor a suspicion that Ren is a stand-in for the angry ostracized man-children in the fanbase, who may choose evil but who we have also failed to bring into a healthy adult community. These are also the most vulnerable recruits to fascist movements anyway, so maybe SW is exploring "how to fight fascism" more in Kylo Ren than in the First Order vs the Resistance.

As far as the Wars part of the Stars goes, I don't know what the new series is doing.  The world-building in this new trilogy is awful. The First Order are just fascists who have not been fleshed out at all. Okay. They couldn't figure out how to depict a functioning democracy so they just nuked the Republic in the first movie(again, this is a big weakness in western civ right now). Leaving a tiny resistance that only gets tinier over the course of the second movie. I mean the entire arc here is the Resistance fleeing from one base, and a slow-ass chase to a new planet which they again flee. Call him all the names you want, but Lucas was significantly better at world-building in the first 6 movies, for all his failings with dialogue and how people work. Details matter and there are not enough details here. The First Order is bad and the resistance is good is all you really get, with not even a sketch of how the rest of the galaxy looks at this point. This part of the plot exists without any context whatsoever and that is frustrating.

So, while I am excited for all the new directions hinted at in this film, it's still kind of a mess. While I enjoyed a lot of it, it resolves too much and has almost zero forward momentum going into the third act, which is a, um, bold choice. There's no question of Rey's parents going forward, there's no question of "will Kylo turn?" (or is there?), the rebels are flying free and happy to their friends in the outer rim (although no one answered, so maybe?). Snoke is dead. The First Order and Ren still plan to take over, but that's how the first movie ended. The resistance is weak and on the run but that's how the first movie ended. There are no characters in dire peril that will need to be rescued, unless we're still talking about redeeming Ben Solo, Luke is dead (but not gone!), and all the series regulars are safe for now. What tensions run taut between them? What ill wind blows them to destruction or salvation? I have no idea and the movie doesn't either. And that's, frankly, very disappointing.

All that said, beyond Luke's redemption, there are some things that really worked for me. Laura Fucking Dern. Her dramatic lightspeed sacrifice that was such a stunningly powerful and beautiful moment that I gasped out loud. Leia force-pulling herself back to the ship. It worked for me and my only question for those who hated would be: Would it have worked for you if Luke had done it? why or why not? My suspicion here is old women in dresses are traditionally coded as helpless so to see an old woman in a dress save herself strikes people (*coughes* men *coughs*) as a ridiculous spectacle. I just liked the reminder that Leia is a Skywalker.

The battle on Crait was great, if anti-climactic. Like I said, I ultimately like it as a powerful end to Luke and the Jedi, but in terms of the actual battle, it kind of fizzles.  Although those speeders were cool. Visually lovely though, in traditional star wars fashion.  Finn's battle on the ship and vs Phasma was pretty great. BB-8 generally kicking ass, especially in the AT-ST, worked very well for me. Bencio Del Toro's codebreaker guy was interesting. The New Han Solo ladies and gentlemen! The alien creatures were good and I wanted more. The throne room fight scene where Rey and Ren face off against Snoke's goons was fun and I like how they eschewed the traditional lightsaber tropes in general in this film. I thought the humor generally worked. Poe on hold for Hux was probably Poe's best moment.

In terms of things that could have worked better, Chewbacca should have taken a bite. Finn's side adventure interrupts the flow of everything. Seems more appropriate for a rogue one style spin-off (honestly, they didn't know what to do with Finn in this movie, which is a shame because he's great). Not enough material for Finn and Poe slashfic. Finn and Poe are in love and I won't believe otherwise. Not quite enough star-fighting for my taste.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think Finn should have been in a healing chamber the entire film as a macguffin as one of the vulnerable the resistance was trying to save, and then brought him back in the next movie when Rey returns. It would have brought more tension to the escape from crait and would have been more of an emotional anchor for the resistance to rally around. You can easily translate the Rose/Finn "we're here to save what we love." line to an argument about whether an injured and unconscious Finn should be left behind or saved. He's a great actor and a great character, but his character off on hijinks side adventures just doesn't work in this story arc.

This trilogy is weird. Johnson took a right angle from Abrams and Abrams will probably have to take another sharp turn to save it. The lines leading from movie to movie will probably not end up lining up too well. A lot of complaints about modern cinema revolve around flashy cinematography that essentially doesn't go anywhere, promising the meat will be in the next installment. These movies are always leading somewhere great but rarely great in and of themselves. There's lots I like about the Last Jedi, but I think that critique holds some water here. Too much hinges on where the next movie goes and this movie should hold up better under its own weight than it does.

I'll watch the next movie both because I love Star Wars and I'm curious how they'll resolve any of this. I'm hoping it will still have that one good line worth holding on to. But I'm not expecting it to save me, or turn back time, or usher us into a bright new Star Wars paradise and neither should you.

Friday, December 08, 2017

Frasier^2

Upon this, the occasion of my second full watch through of Frasier, a few thoughts.

Still great. Soothing. Excellent to drift off to sleep to.

Niles is creepy about Daphne for many seasons, but they do try and pin it on him. There's even a whole episode about him having to see her as a real person. Still, not my model for a healthy relationship.

I hated what they did to Daphne's character post-marriage. She loses all her quirky charm in favor of being Niles' dream wife. She doesn't do the psychic thing or horrifying tales of life in England at all after and it's a shame.

Wendie Malick is great as Ronee in the final season, and I wish she'd been added years earlier. She plays off Frasier very well and is funny in her own right.

I hated how they wrote Felicity Huffman out of the show. Her character goes from tough as nails and smart to vulgar buffoon in her last episode and it feels totally out of character.

Cheers and by extension Frasier are some of the funniest TV I've ever seen but the underlying tragedy of all the characters depresses me. The cheers reunion episodes. These are characters who spend their time skating next to the abyss and laughing into it. It would be depressing if it wasn't so funny. Frasier ends on a hopeful note, but as a guy currently in a low spot, watching Frasier spend his 40s failing to find love or purpose was bleak. When I wasn't laughing out loud and holding my belly, that is.

I still love the "party goes horribly, horribly wrong" formula. The best one was the episode that started with the end of the party as it spirals out of control, giving no context for any of it. The writers weren't afraid to poke fun at themselves and I appreciate that.