Bosch, Season 7

Amazon's long-running series came to an end with the latest installment.  Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) investigates an arson case that resulted in 5 deaths, most notably that of Sonia Hernandez, a 10 year-old girl who was found dead of smoke inhalation next to a locked emergency exit.  His daughter, Maddie (Madison Lintz), is still working for Honey "Money" Chandler (Mimi Rogers), a noted defense attorney.  Chandler's latest client floats a deal that puts him, Chandler, and Maddie in mortal danger.  Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) is haunted by his misdeeds from last season and is often more of a liability than an asset; can he make things right with the department and, more importantly, Bosch?  Lt. Grace Billets (Amy Aquino) is known to be lesbian and some of the officers have started to obliquely harass her.  Her captain proves less than sympathetic even as the harassment gets worse.  It's still an old boys club.  Lastly, there is Chief Irvin Irving (Lance Reddick).  He had dropped out of the mayoral race last season and put his support behind the new mayor, Susanna Lopez.  The agreement had been that she would support him for a second term as chief, but she is now balking.  Can Irving corral enough votes on the police commission to retain his job?

This felt more political than previous seasons.  The apartment building management company hired a new landlord to chase off drug dealers and unspecified others.  They were driving out illegals too with notions of gentrifying the area.  They deny any blame for the locked emergency door.  Apartment managers bad.  From hedge fund managers to small businessmen, we find they are crooked and evil; business is bad.  Obviously, this is a crime drama so we are going to encounter criminals, victims, and cops, but this too often felt like political messaging.  Again and again, police proved to be bad.  There were the cops who were harassing the lesbian cop and women cops in general: cops bad, especially the white and Asian ones.  Then there was the sellout of Sonia's murder case because there were bigger fish to fry.  The FBI torpedoes Bosch's efforts to clear the case by taking witnesses and suspects into federal custody: law enforcement bad.  Chief Irving, who is a far more likeable and forthright character than he is in the books, tosses principles aside to retain his job: political machinations, not freely-cast votes, determine the outcomes.  Considering the level of corruption shown among the police in this season, one wonders why Maddie is so eager to join them?

Welliver is still awesome as Bosch and carries this stinker of a season.  The villains were weak or mostly absent.  When they are taken down, it is mostly a yawner.  We didn't see enough of them to care when justice came.  As an interesting side note, the character of Money Chandler was both introduced and murdered in The Concrete Blonde (Book 3).  She has had a far more successful career in the TV series and has stood-in for Bosch's half-brother, Mickey Haller, AKA The Lincoln Lawyer.  The rights for Mickey must still reside with Lionsgate.

There are plans for a spinoff series which currently has Bosch, his daughter, and Honey Chandler slated to return.  I hope it turns things around.

Cancel Culture on the Brink

Though no fan of Sean Penn's politics, he had some choice words for the current trend in casting.  Regarding his role as Harvey Milk, he commented:

Today, almost certainly, I would not be permitted to be cast in that role. We’re living in a time where if you’re playing a gay lead character, you would have to be a gay man. And there have been these casting issues. In terms of finding the balance — you have a period of evolution that certainly has an opportunity for people who have had less opportunities to move forward, that has to be supported.

Yes, it has progressed far enough that a Hugo Chavez cheerleader is having second thoughts about identity politics.  Here's the key quote:

And yet, in this pendulum-swinging society that we’re in, you wonder at some point if only Danish princes can play Hamlet

That's both funny and illustrative.  However, it isn't true.  We have seen plenty of off-type casting in these cases.  Anne Boleyn has recently been played by a black actress.  Lancelot was played by a black actor.  The atrocious Mary Queen of Scots (2018) was filled with anachronistic casting.  It was entirely okay, even commendable, to have black and Asian actors portraying historical figures who were white, but it was racially insensitive for a white actor - Hank Azaria - to merely voice a fictional Indian-American cartoon character, Apu.  This is a one-way street.  Sean Penn is on the wrong side of that street or he would, even now, not have protested.

Stowaway (2021)

The crew of the MTS-42 are set for a two-year mission to Mars.  There is mission commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim), and medical researcher Zoe Leverson (Anna Kendrick).  They have hardly begun their Mars Transfer orbit when Barnett discovers blood on the floor.  After unscrewing a panel, a man falls on her, breaking her arm.  The man is unconscious.  However, he had a badge that identifies him as Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), a launch support engineer.  Unfortunately, the carbon-dioxide scrubber was damaged beyond repair and the ship cannot support everyone all the way to Mars.  The one potential solution is deemed too risky.  While Barnett and Kim are resigned to tossing Adams out of an airlock, Zoe is determined to save him.  The risky solution would have them climb the tether to the counterbalance that provides the artificial gravity.  It may have unused liquid oxygen.  Zoe is determined to try.

The movie only has the four characters.  There are no scenes with ground control.  In fact, all the conversations with ground control are one-sided since you cannot hear what ground control is saying.  Very different from Apollo 13.  Zoe is the central character and Anna Kendrick does a good job in the role.

There were some things that were annoying.  How did Michael get sealed behind a panel?  One expects a story about him sneaking aboard and having a cohort seal him in.  Nope, he just accidentally got stuck behind a panel where the mission critical life support system was housed.  Okay.  Speaking of the mission critical life support system, why is there no backup?  They couldn't even jury rig a fix.  Why weren't they using some sort of tether when doing their spacewalk?  They have special equipment to climb the tether but nothing to attach them if they slip.  Gah!  Since the stowaway angle was hardly explored, the movie could just as easily have been the same system failure that required all the same steps.  The stowaway angle added little beyond knowing which person was likely to get spaced.  Finally, why did the man have to be pathetic?  During the launch, he vomits in a bag.  When transferring to the space station, Zoe carries his bag.  When climbing the tether, he's winded and clumsy.  And it wasn't just him.  Michael is too uncoordinated to help.  Save us, strong woman, save us!  Ugh!

There were too many inconvenient coincidences to make the story work.  It looks good and the ship is cool, but the plot is too much of a stretch.  The plot holes just grated.  Skip.

The Black Box

It is May 1992 in Los Angeles and the riot is in full swing.  Harry Bosch and partner Jerry Edgar are in the back of a squad car as they go from crime scene to crime scene.  There is not time for real investigations, just an opportunity to photograph the scene and collect any obvious evidence.  Perhaps the murders can be solved after the riot.  They arrive at an alley where National Guard troops have found the body of a Danish photographer.  Before they can do more than a cursory investigation and locate a single 9mm cartridge, they are called to another murder.

It is 2012 and Bosch is working Open Unsolved.  There has been a match on the cartridge he found 20 years before.  Multiple gang murders can be linked to the gun and Bosch learns of a gangbanger who is doing time in San Quentin for one of those murders.  He learns who gave him the gun and who he returned it to.  That man is dead and the gun hasn't been part of a crime since, as far as LAPD knows.  As Harry pursues the case, he finds roadblocks from his Lieutenant and even the Chief of Police.  It is nearly the 20 year anniversary of the LA Riots and it would look bad if the only crime solved was that of a white woman.  Despite a bogus investigation by Internal Affairs, Harry presses the case and even goes rogue to keep his momentum.

Definitely a good read but I must be getting too familiar with Connelly.  I picked out the twist in the opening and was a bit miffed that Harry didn't.  Recommended.

In the Heights (2021)

Usnavi is a bodega owner in Washington Heights with dreams of moving back to the Domincan Republic.  He has a crush on Vanessa, a hairstylist from Daniela's Salon, who has dreams of being a fashion designer.  His best friend is Benny, who works for Kevin Rosario's cab company.  Kevin's daughter, Nina, has just returned from her freshman year at Stanford.  She and Benny had a thing that may rekindle.  Claudia, an elderly woman from Cuba, has become the abuela (grandmother) to most of the youth on the block.  Sonny is a teenager who works for Usnavi.  There are other lesser characters, including Lin-Manuel Miranda's cameo as a street vendor.

Much like Hamilton, the majority of the story is told in song.  There is dialogue, but rapping is the driver of most of the action.  It is a singing, dancing extravaganza.  The characters can be charming but their 'problems' are often juvenile.  Usnavi is too shy to ask Vanessa on a date.  Nina doesn't have a Puerto Rican community to support her at Stanford.  Vanessa needs a cosigner to rent a place closer to the fashion district.  It is hard to get invested in the numerous little dreams of the plentiful characters.  It is very busy and, at nearly two and a half hours, quite long.  There are imbedded messages about racism, immigration, and gentrification.  This often came across as whining.  When Sonny turned out to be a Dreamer, it was just par for the course.  America is so unfair.  Nonetheless, every backstory about the 'old country' is always a much worse situation; America offered opportunity and employment, but a lot of focus goes to the negatives.  Wonderful.

Not being a fan of rap, this was mostly boring.  It drags on as every story is a foregone conclusion.  Well, Usnavi's story was a bit of a mystery on account of the framing, but it all turns out as the standard happy endings.  My favorite part of the movie was the revelation of Usnavi's naming; when his father migrated to America, he saw a ship and liked the name: US Navy.

If you are a Lin-Manuel Miranda fan or like rap, this might be for you.  Otherwise, skip.

To Catch a Thief (1955)

On the southern coast of France, someone is stealing jewelry from the wealthy and all eyes turn to John Robie (Cary Grant), a former jewel thief know as "The Cat."  Though Robie vehemently denies the thefts, no one believes him.  His former colleagues, who now have menial jobs, are certain he is guilty.  No help from them.  The police are determined to arrest him.  No help there.  He does find an ally in H. H. Hughson (John Williams), whose company had insured the stolen jewels and is suffering huge losses.  Hughson provides a list of potential targets and Robie plots a stakeout to uncover the real thief.  Along the way, he meets American millionaire Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis) and her beautiful daughter, Frances (Grace Kelly).  Can Robie uncover the true thief before he is sent to prison or killed?

The chemistry between Grant and Kelly is terrific.  The scenery is positively amazing and makes one want to travel to France.  The movie won an academy award for cinematography and I can see why.  This is the third of four collaborations between Hitchcock and Grant.  It is the third and final collaboration with Grace Kelly.  Highly recommended.

A Quiet Place Part II (2020)

Day 1

Lee Abbot (John Krasinski) drives down the street and walks into a local market in his small town.  The owner is staring at the TV, watching something smoking.  When Lee asks about it, the man says there was an explosion.  Continuing about his day, Lee grabs some fruit and then makes his way to a baseball field where his son, Marcus, is playing.  Among the spectators is Emmett (Cillian Murphy) with his son.  There is also Evelyn Abbot (Emily Blunt), Regan Abbot (Millicent Simmonds), and Beau Abbot.  During the game, a fireball is seen coming down from the sky in the distance.  The game breaks up and everyone leaves.  And then the first monster descends on the town.

Day 474

With her newborn in her arms, Emily gets Regan and Marcus to collect what they can from the farm before setting out.  Regan uses her father's map to find another survivor.  Perhaps they can find shelter with someone else.  To their surprise, they find Emmett.  He is alone, his wife and son both having died.  He'd rather Emily move on but circumstances are dire.  Regan is determined to make use of the newly-discovered feedback sound that practically disables the monsters.

The movie is an amazingly good prequel/sequel.  The story is tight and well-told.  Events are setup so that the audience can enjoy the eventual payoff.  The tension is kept high.  Very impressive.  If you liked the first one, you will definitely like this one.

My big qualm about this movie and its predecessor is the fact that these things were able win so easily.  I'll accept that their hide is thick and might protect against shotguns or small arms but a .50 caliber gun would cut them in half.  And now it turns out they can't swim.  The Navy should be sitting just off the coast making a racket to attract them and wipe them out.