Bardo

I thought I heard Bardo was supposed to be bloated and pretentious? I didn't read much; I'll have to circle back.

I've also heard Synecdoche and Malick movies are bloated and pretentious, but I never felt that, even when they were egocentric or incoherent. I must be sympathetic, or akin.

Bardo looks a lot like Malick: drunken and dreamy, in a way I can't connect. So what do I get from such an experience?

I can't connect with it, yet I feel it. As for ideas, it's reflective, not like a mirror, but like the surface of a pond, transient and bent. I glimpse my own reality in its glinting, though I can't stare it down, nor fix it for a moment. If I want its treasure, I must endure its shifting.

I wish I knew more about Mexico. That ignorance is one reason I couldn't connect.

Another is how abstract and personal it is. I wonder how autobiographical? Many artists do abstract personal pieces. Maybe this is his. Certainly his others I've seen were easier to digest.

Did I enjoy it? It was abstract and alien. Sometimes beautiful. Ultimately felt. I liked it.

The Book of Mormon

"I still have maggots in my scrotum" -- what sounds like a dumb running joke is really a reminder that however much we're made to root for the Mormons, however much they appear to prevail, the writers want us to know how little they're fixing real misery on Earth. The musical wouldn't work if this reminder was more aggressive -- it'd be too depressing to enjoy, and I imagine there'd loom a culture of rejection by Christians. As is, the musical manages happy-go-lucky popularity without missing its point. It's a skillful balance.

Louis CK: Back to The Garden livestream

His specials are still as good as anyone's, though they've lost luster for me. I wonder if he'll ever reinvent himself again? Or just age like Carlin, never losing his edge yet never shocking the game like he once did. What would it take to reinvent? Some sort of trauma I suppose.

I wonder if his scandal was good for him. He has seemed more grateful since. He's not quite as cocky. Hopefully he understood that that was the point...

It's still extremely impressive how every single special over the many years has been good, nearly every single joke. But I know what he has to offer at this point. The jokes are novel enough to be good (insofar as novelty and quality are related) but not novel enough to be ecstatic. It's just more Louis, inevitable Louis, old friend.

With each special I feel optimistic it'll be good, and hopeful if not optimistic it'll feel new. I was especially hopeful this time as he said in his emails these may be his best jokes ever. I guess I fell for that. I wonder if he believed it. Maybe they are some of his best jokes ever, but it doesn't feel quite like it used to. I think that reflects more than just my aging. I think it says something about his evolving role in comedy.

My perception of his timeline since Shameless (2007) lifted him from irrelevance:

1. a couple-two-three crucial specials. He's inspired, likable, groundbreaking, unrefined.
2. a couple specials culminating in Comedy Store (2015) where the jokes are still good but he's getting more cynical, possibly depressed, less likable. He's refining his craft, but his persona is diving a bit. I recall Comedy Store as a low point. Personality matters.
3. 2017 (2017) was good. He's still refining (his wardrobe) and his mood lightens. A couple experimental bits like in Comedy Store, but altogether lighter.
4. scandal
5. a few specials that feel mutually alike -- more gratitude and grace from him, likability as of old, but now he's a legend. He appears effortlessly great, time after time, though it simply can't shatter the scene like it used to, unless he shatters himself constructively.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

After Kill Bill, Ip Man, and Enter the Dragon, I sought "an all-around convincing martial arts movie." I don't have it, but with Crouching Tiger the genre is beginning to feel real.

It joins some of the strongest elements of the others, washed in a rapturous fantasy they lacked. The fundamentals were solid -- combat, special effects, narrative -- but it was the romantic/historical sweep that elevated Crouching Tiger. I was immersed, even as my cliche alarms rang.

I didn't expect such empathy for the characters. Previously I sensed a trend of characters as idols, worth worshipping or condemning, not adoring or pitying. Crouching Tiger, for its foreign stylings and far-fetched physics, touched unexpectedly near.

Still we have shallow archetype, absurd fighting. I'd be interested in a martial arts movie with skilled fighting that was a little more realistic, surrounded by subtler drama.

I need a lot more before I can love a movie like this, but I like it.

1. Kill Bill
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
3. Ip Man
4. Enter the Dragon