TV Drama: ALL THE WAY (2016) AA+

Starts off slow but don't miss this amazing HBO film . . . and the acting by Bryan Cranston.  The mental anguish of being President is shown in excruciating detail.

From Other Reviews:
It’s easy to see how Bryan Cranston won a Tony award for his portrayal of Lyndon Baines Johnson in “All the Way” on Broadway.  The sheer physicality is astounding — the jowls, the mid-body sag, the bark, the drawl, the shoulder slump. But even more impressive is the range of moods, from conniving backstabber to righteous indignation to outright fury and crippling insecurity. This is a lion seen from all angles.

The film, follows LBJ from the year after John F. Kennedy’s assassination. It focuses on two events: LBJ’s push for the historic Civil Rights Act, which pits him directly against his fellow Dixiecrat politicians, and his re-election, which is almost undermined by those Dixiecrats and the civil rights movement he is trying to support. This isn’t politics for the faint of heart. Nor is it for those who like their historical figures shiny and golden. 

The film presents LBJ and King as imperfect men who sincerely wanted to do good, even if their paths weren’t completely straight. Much of the backroom dealing and power brokering is revelatory.There are some fine supporting performances here — most notably from Bradley Whitford as a loyal-if-appalled Hubert Humphrey, Melissa Leo as the beleaguered Ladybird Johnson and Stephen Root as J. Edgar Hoover. But, beginning to end, this is a tour de force for Cranston. Great stuff.

TV SERIES REVIEW: THE NIGHT MANAGER (2016) AAA

DO NOT MISS THIS SERIES.  

I saw it on Netflix DVDs.

This is one of the BEST spy type drams I've ever seen.  The acting, plot line, music, cinematography are all great.  And I'm not the only critic who thought it was  special.  The series has received widespread critical acclaim. The Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland called it "one of the greatest series of all time".

The six-part serial began broadcasting on BBC One on 21 February 2016. In the United States, it began on 19 April 2016 on AMC. IMG sold the serial internationally to over 180 countries.

It is based on a John le Carre novel.  Adam Sisman, le Carré's biographer, wrote in UK daily newspaper The Daily Telegraph, "It is more than 20 years since the novel was published, and in that time two film companies have tried and failed to adapt it, concluding that it was impossible to compress into two hours. But this six-hour television adaptation is long enough to give the novel its due." He added, "And though Hugh Laurie may seem a surprising choice to play 'the worst man in the world', he dominates the screen as a horribly convincing villain. 

IGN reviewer Jesse Schedeen gave the miniseries an 8.8 out of 10, saying "The Night Manager proves that television is the ideal format to bring le Carré's novels to life. This miniseries is tightly paced, suspenseful and boasts strong performances from the likes of Hiddleston, Laurie, Colman and Hollander. With any luck, this series will open the doors for more of le Carré's classic spy tales to make their way to the small screen.

Movie Review: Department Q: A CONSPIRACY OF FAITH (2016) AAA

Nexflix streaming:Subtitles

This is the third of the Department Q series  . . . and probably the most painful and "dark" to watch.  Its about the brutality and kidnapping by a serial killer.  But if your are into detective stories, this one is a classic (My triple A rating), will keep you at the edge of your seat.  A movie that must not be missed.

Storyline
An old note is found in a bottle in Jutland which has traveled very long across the ocean a long time ago. The note is hard to decipher, but when the Danish investigator from Section Q receives it, the odd personalities within the section find a new angle on it and try to unveil yet another old and diabolic case even though the lead is cold.

Other Reviews:
A Conspiracy of Faith is a thriller but one with quite a differing approach. It dispenses with the comedy of the earlier film and instead goes for a pretty downbeat approach. Hardly surprising really when you consider that the story is about two cops investigating the case of two abducted children. This kind of material is always one that is going to be somewhat dark, another recent north European film The Treatment (2014) dealt with this subject in a very head on manner and consequently was very disturbing indeed in places. A Conspiracy of Faith only goes so far with its dark material and by the end of the film slightly dissipates its impact further by having its narrative go into more standard thriller territory. But despite that, this is still another compelling bit of Nordic noir.

This is the best of the three Department Q films in my opinion, it is not darker as such, off course the fact that its about kids getting taken is just not very nice to think about, but the cases they are working on are dark and we are beginning to know the characters and their different persona's and they really capture many great aspects of the characters and their interaction with other people.

Serial killers are always strange and dark, but this one is very well portrayed by Pål Sverre Hagen, he really seems like this nice guy, good looking (a Norwegian Ryan Gosling), well spoken, calm and trustworthy. But deep down he is just a bad bad man, with a terrible past and a twisted mind.

It might seem that there is a decline in the movies, but this is still rock solid. I can only imagine that the book is even more than that. It has characters from the previous movies (and books of course) and has a case that is pretty strong. You don't have the urgent feeling and the playfulness it had in the previous movies. As dark as they got, you always had something light in them.

As the previous Department Q films, this haunting crime-film is all about the darkest and most twisted evil people, and they're terrible actions towards innocent people. In this film it also deals with children, so it's very gripping. As a Norwegian I'm delighted to see Norwegians actors in this film, they really brings life to the film, acting in a convincing way. It even has a Norwegian director. But this it danish crime at it's very very best.

Movie Review: LOVING (2016) AA

An excellent and touching movie . . . if you are interested in the history of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. 

Loving deals with the courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown in Virginia. 

Yes, until 1967, "interracial" people were not allowed to marry in many southern states.  A carryover from the days of slavery. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the  the right to marry. 

I felt the movie could have shown more of how the issue was handled in court. 

The decision was cited as precedent in U.S. federal court decisions holding restrictions on same-sex marriage in the United States unconstitutional, including in the 2015 Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges.

If you are interested in this case see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia

TV Series Review: Season 2: THE KNICK (2014 - 2015) AA+

Season 1 was rated AA+.  Season's  2 episodes are just as good . . . if not better.  Just look at this rating from Rotten Tomatoes:

Critics Consensus 97%: The Knick delivers an addictive second season with stunning visuals, knockout performances, and disturbing moments adding up to a period drama that's anything but dated.

This do-not-miss TV series originallly showed on Cinemax. It's now available from Netflix on DVD's

An EXTREMELY good medical drama set in a downtown New York City Hospital the early 1900's . . . where they try to maintain their reputation for quality care while planning a new and better facility "uptown" by getting donations from the rich of the Gilded Age.  Primitive (1900) medicine and surgery in very realist terms.  It also does a better than great job in developing the personalities of the staff and the patients.

Edited from Wikipedia:
After the conclusion of the second season on December 18, 2015, it was announced that Cinemax had ordered a script for the season three premiere and a season outline, with negotiations for a third season. In a December 2015 interview with director Steven Soderbergh, he confirmed that Dr. Thackery dies in the season two finale, and that it was all planned from the beginning, and Clive Owen only had a two-year contract for the series. Soderbergh also said,
 "I told them [Cinemax] that I'm going to do the first two years and then we are going to break out the story for seasons 3 and 4 and try to find a filmmaker or filmmakers to do this the way that I did. This is how we want to do this so that every two years, whoever comes on, has the freedom to create their universe. However, Soderberg decided, depending upon what those futures seasons were, he would like to direct those two future seasons by March 2016."