Allhallowsday wrote: ↑March 15th, 2024, 4:48 pm
CinemaInternational wrote: ↑March 15th, 2024, 3:14 pm
...Or awards too. It will undoubtedly be up for some (especially in a year with few other shows in the running), and uneven though Feud was this year, Naomi Watts turned in her best work in years, and Diane Lane was clearly enjoying her character's acid lines.
I liked all of the performances; don't forget
JESSICA LANGE!
NAOMI WATTS I am now in love with. I do not blame the wonderful performers for a very spotty script, which I believe had an OVEREMPHASIS on foul language. By today's standards "big deal" insert eyeroll, but then, these Swans weren't swearing the "f" word at each other in public places. Nope.
I couldn't forget Jessica Lange, especially not because of her run of marvelous performances in The postman Always Rings Twice, Tootsie, Frances, Country, Sweet Dreams, Crimes of the Heart, Music Box, Men Don't Leave, Blue Sky, Rob Roy, and A Thousand Acres. Some of those films might not have been as good, but she always gave her all.
It's nice to see Naomi Watts get a good role again; it had been too long; she has had a strong talent for a long time. The first time I saw her was in an Australian miniseries called Brides of Christ (1991), about nuns and students dealing with the turbulent 60s. She was one of the students, about 23 when she made it, and she was excellent in it. I've always kept an eye on her since, and she gave fine work in the gritty Mulholland Drive and in the old-fashioned The Painted Veil (one of the few remakes better than the original).
As for the language, it was overkill and anachronistic for the time, but all too common now. I recall seeing a marvelous film a few years ago called Motherless Brooklyn. It was an exceptional film, but the swearing level was way too high for something set in 1959. It was the film's only flaw. With regards for this series, I think it falls into the same pitfall as many other modern shows, be it a broadcast channel like FX or HBO or a streaming platform like Netflix: they feel the best way to grab interest is to lay on the language and nudity in heavy amounts. They call the use of such things the defining trait of high-quality dramatic TV. Strange, but I remember high quality dramatic or comedy/drama network shows of the past (Peyton Place, St. Elsewhere, Knots Landing, Cagney and Lacey, LA Law, China Beach, thirtysomething, Northern Exposure, Moonlighting, Homefront, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, Family) and they never had to go that deep in that material because they all had good, solid, relatable writing. And frankly, they have aged better too.
