The Wire (2002 - 2008)

"You remember that one day summer past? When we threw them piss balloons at them Terrace Boys? You remember, just before school started up again. You know, I took a beat down from them boys. I don't even throw a shadow on it. That was the day y'all bought me ice cream off the truck. You remember, Mike?"

"I don't."

The quote above captures the essence of what The Wire is all about. It's a show about cops, a show about drugs, a show about politics and all the areas in between. It doesn't portray all the drug dealers in a negative light, though it certainly doesn't ask you to sympathize for them, just to understand their situation. The quote above happens near the end of Season Five, as two kids we've followed since Season Four, Michael (Tristan Wilds) and Dukie (Jermaine Crawford) are about to separate due to unforeseen events. The show is filled with moments like these, and this one stands above as a defining moment of these characters.

The show's main character, if any, is Det. Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), a renegade cop who goes outside the system and pisses people off to get the results he needs. And though this character is a cliché from most every other renegade cop movie, the difference is McNulty pays for his deeds, and though he produces results more often then not the bosses are so angry at him for what he's done that they kick him out of the unit.

The show is about, of course, wire taps, and they are the centerpiece in all the seasons. The show gets a bit redundant as we watch the Major Crimes unit attempt to set-up a wire tap, get it up, have it pulled, and then fight to get it up again. Just a few of the characters that come through this unit include Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters), Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn), Cedric Daniels (Lance Reddick), and Sydnor (Corey Parker Robinson). Freamon is the driving force of the unit, and is present for all wiretaps, the rest come and go.

Aside from the cops, there are also the street characters: the first season focuses on the wiretaps of the Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) crew, as they run the West side of Baltimore, controlling the corners. In the Barksdale crew you get Stringer Bell (Idris Elba), D'Angelo (Larry Gillard, Jr.), Bodie (J.D. Williams), and Wallace (Michael B. Jordan). Together they paint the crowd of drug dealers who are more or less forced into this life because it is the only reality they know, and all their role models ended up in the exact same place.

And each season brought a different focus, either via wiretap or influence: Season One dealt with drugs, Season Two dealt with smuggling at the ports, Season Three focused on the political aspect of Baltimore, Season Four focused on the schools, and Season Five focused on the newspaper's role in Baltimore. Each time we are introduced to beautifully drawn new characters, whether it is Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer), Thomas Carcetti (Aidan Gillen), the four boys Namond (Julito McCullum), Randy (Maestro Harrell), Michael and Dukie, or Gus (Clark Johnson, also the director for the show's pilot and final episodes, among others), each one is more interesting then the last.

The show is described as being realistic and some may proclaim it is too full of itself in the beginning. I would agree with that sentiment, but it is real and deals with real life. The happy endings rarely exist here, and by the time you get to Season Five virtually every gangster from Season One is gone, either dead or in prison. Things don't always go so well for the cops or politicians either, but they don't get screwed. But each season ends with an air of open endedness, as the characters are either sentenced, or the bad guys evade capturing. There are a few triumphs in the show, and they are indeed happy, but the show lets most of the other characters fail to get what they want. It is very true to life.

The show is filled with dozens of characters, and I want to briefly mention two characters who don't fit in with the cops, delears, politicians, or whatever: Bubbles (Andre Royo) and Omar (Michael K. Williams). Bubbles is a drug junkie, but also a CI to the Major Crimes unit, and he is perhaps the most interesting character in show. We watch him live through impossible moral situations, but I think what makes him the most empathetic character is he is a genuinely nice guy. Sure he steals things, he shoots up heroin, and does other dishonorable things, but Bubbles has a big heart and Andre Royo puts on one hell of a fantastic performance.

Omar, on the other hand, is the show's one plain awesome character. He lives outside the drug world, instead robbing Barksdale's stashes regularly and doing as he pleases. Omar is bonafide badassery, as his presence exudes fear over the entire populace. Everyone knows who he is, fears him, and wants to take him out. But the character couldn't get away with being a badass and still be good: Omar is sympathetic, if only because the Barksdale crew comes down on him harder then he could imagine in Season One, and you start liking him from that point on. True, he knows what the consequences are in his nature of business, but it doesn't make it any easier.

I could ramble on and on, and describe dozens of other characters I haven't mentioned or subplots that happen. But I will simply praise the show overall, and crown it's fourth season as the best season of the show. The four kids focused on in that season are all terrific actors, and give the viewer a good idea of how these teenagers are forced, from an early age, into the life of drugs and why they think they have no choice. They don't expect to live past 25 if they're lucky, and such a dictated short life is a sad one.

The writers do a terrific job of balancing all these characters in all these seasons, and giving you just enough of every storyline to keep you satisfied. If you go back to any of the latter seasons and just dissect the events of an episode, your head will spin with the amount of storytelling the writers accomplished so effortlessly (or so it seems). Knowing each character, their drive, what makes them them, is such a difficult task to accomplish and the writers have done it admirably. They also are not afraid to cast characters aside if they don't need them; indeed, McNulty appears rarely in the Fourth Season because the show has no reason to focus on him, and they are ok with that (Dominic West still gets first billing, though).

And the acting is so good that I forget these are not real people, that they don't exist. I would say that more for this show then any other I've seen, though The Sopranos and Six Feet Under both feature terrific ensemble casts and convinced me these were real people. But all these actors are terrific, and to find so many great actors for a such a wide reaching show is quite an accomplishment. I never research a show while I'm watching it because once I see the actor interviews or the director interviews, I'm reminded that this is a show, it doesn't exist, and that kills a bit of the magic for me. Maintaining that illusion through these five incredible HBO shows is something I feel I've done rather well.

So is this the greatest television show ever made? Indeed I may have to say its close. While the HBO kin The Sorpanos and Six Feet Under are both equally great, both suffered from less-then-stellar final seasons (though the endings to both shows, particularly Six Feet Under's, are incredible). The Wire's weakest season is its first, I believe, and it gets better and better until it reaches a pinnacle with its penultimate season. The fifth season, though terrific, is more exaggerated then we're used to, but, in the end, David Chase, the creator of this show, has made some of the finest television I've ever seen. I don't know if I can hope to find a show better then this.

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

As the final shot of the movie faded out, and the credits began to roll, I started to absorb what I had seen, process what I had heard, and interpret how I felt. But it was all quickly summed up by the old lady who was sitting behind, who said, "That movie almost made me cry."

I do not clearly remember Maurice Sendak's 1963 story book, on which this is based. That book contains 338 words, I guess, and this movie contains 101 minutes. How you expand a book that you could read in under a minute to a full length feature that explores all the emotions and turmoils of childhood is a sight to behold and fall in love with.

The plot is thin, but basically tells the story of young Max (Max Records) who likes to play, but who also is somewhat ignored by his older sister. When his mother and he have a disagreement, he runs away, and enters his imaginary world via a little boat. There he meets the Wild Things, voiced by an all-star cast including James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Cooper, Forest Whitaker, and Paul Dano. Gadolfini is the only one I was able to recognize, and the rest disappeared into the fur and feathers of their characters.

The movie is a dark one, especially for one intended for children. I believe the movie will scare children, but it will not scare them in a horror film-kind-of-way; at a horror film, you experience empty, meaningless scares which hold no emotional resonance and that you can shake off later (save the few great masterpieces of horror). This will scare kids because it bleeds with truth, and is something that will resonate with any grown-up or child. I say it is scary, but I don't say that meaning kids won't like it. They will. People don't give kids enough credit for being able to understand deeper, more thematic issues.

The CGI in this film is incredible because it serves the story and enhances everything around it, something I wish more filmmakers would pay attention to. The Wild Things exist, are in fact people in fur costumes, but the faces are CGI, and that is what is important. It allows young Max, who is quite incredible in this movie, to be able to act off these characters because they exist for him as they do for us. He doesn't have to pretend that these things exist and hope that the emotion comes through later.

And the performances are all around magnificent, from little Max to all the voice cast who add so much depth and emotion to their characters that you love each and every Wild Thing, for all their flaws and attributes. And though I kept thinking of Tony Soprano whenever Carol, the main Wild Thing talked, I eventually forgot Soprano because this is a different character completely. The Wild Things are kids themselves, and that is what makes this movie so beautiful.

Because really, it is all in Max's head, everything that goes on. Or maybe it isn't. Who knows. The movie is beautiful because it is so honest about childhood, and I kept having memories flood through my brain of events in my past that oddly mirrored what happened in this film. Max claims to have magic that slips through the cracks, and gets into an argument with Judith (O'Hara) about how there is nothing that can plug up the cracks. And a dirt clod match ends with Alexander (Paul Dano) calling time-out, but still getting attacked and getting upset. And when Max tells Carol how the sun will eventually die. These are all just a few scenes that make up a greater movie.

And this kid's film is one-in-a-million because it is quite drab, it's colors primarily browns, blacks, and whites, and not as vivid as what our ADD addled youths are used to these days. Like Pixar, it ignored making the pop culture references and focuses on characters and story, and that is what kids and adults want more then anything. Warner Bros. should be commended for sticking with this project, and letting Spike Jonze, who's only other feature credits include the incredible Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaptation (2002) (both Charlie Kaufman scripts) run wild with his imagination. So far he's only made three films, and I consider all three to be spectacular. Whatever Jonze does next, I'll be paying attention.

Rated PG, contains many dark themes and a limb dismemberment.

World's Greatest Dad (2009)

To put it lightly, World’s Greatest Dad may be one of the most shocking things I have every seen. Not shocking in a “look at how much torture I can throw your way,” but in a “people really act like this” kind of way.

Robin Williams, in his best role for quite some time, plays Lance Clayton, a poetry high school teacher whose course is suffering, whose girlfriend keeps blowing him off, and whose son is the greatest monster to walk the earth (Daryl Sabara, no longer a cute Spy Kid). When tragedy strikes, Lance somehow finds it is the greatest thing that every happened to him.

I don’t want to talk too much about this film because that would give away so much of what makes it so special. In the last month we have had some great trailers, for movies like District 9, Inglourious Basterds, and In the Loop which intrigue you but don’t tell you too much about the film. World’s Greatest Dad has another spectacular trailer that undersells the movie. It’s probably the blackest comedy I’ve ever seen.

I do feel the movie gets carried away in its second half, blowing everything to its biggest possible extreme, but it also feels strangely authentic. I urge those who haven’t seen the movie to stop reading and go see it now, for I fear cannot continue without spoiling the best parts of the film.

The movie is a great study in our morbid fascination with the dead, especially when death comes unexpectedly. In the worst people you remember the best parts about them, and lay them to rest in the most delicate and painless way possible. This movie feels like writer and director Bobcat Goldthwait reacted so strongly to the public’s reaction to Michael Jackson’s sudden death that he went out and made this movie. It has a certain timely and timeless quality about it.

When Michael Jackson died, everyone was stunned, because he was only 50. Farrah Fawcett’s death earlier that day came with smaller impact because it was known she would die, but people didn’t focus on someone who was probably a genuinely nice person, and instead focused on the pre-white Michael Jackson. From recent years until his death, the public hated Jackson, and when he died, he was our hero.

The same applies to this movie. It is so twisted, so morbid, yet so true. The movie is set in Seattle, but you would only know that if you were a Seattleite. The movie never tells you, but one wonders if there is some deliberation in setting it there. Williams walks out of the Guild 45^th and stares at a magazine stand downtown. Yet this made me happy, made me feel like there was an extra something in this movie for me. There are no shots of the Space Needle or of downtown at large, and the High School is no school I know of. But it is an interesting, deft touch.

People will go to see this maybe expecting a Disney comedy. When I first saw the poster, that’s what crossed my mind. This is a movie you are either totally for or really against, but no matter where you stand on the quality of the movie, you cannot dispute its important message about our culture and our times.