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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘PRODIGAL SON’ ON FOX NETWORK
In 1991, Jodie Foster’s young FBI trainee Clarice Starling sought the advice of Anthony Hopkins’ imprisoned Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and serial killer, to apprehend another serial killer in the psychological thriller “Silence of the Lambs.”
FOX network’s new series “Prodigal Son” is arguably inspired by the film that launched the fictional Hannibal Lecter as a pop culture legend probably as well or even better known than authentic mass murderers like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer.
Unlike Dahmer’s crude method of eating the body parts of many victims, Hannibal Lecter demonstrated his sophisticated approach to cannibalism by noting that he would have a nice Chianti with fava beans and the victim’s liver.
Well, what does this all have to do with “Prodigal Son,” a crime drama about a gifted criminal profiler tormented by his own demons? A lot in terms of connecting the titular character to a fraught relationship with his serial killer father.
Barely minutes into the first episode, Tom Payne’s Malcolm Bright gets fired from his job as an FBI agent. His unorthodox methods, including an assault upon a sadistic police officer, don’t sit well with his superiors.
Malcolm’s unconventional approach to law enforcement is explained by his bosses informing him that he ignored protocol, intimidated those with whom he disagreed and annoyed “every cop from here to Tennessee.”
More hurtful was the assessment that Malcolm demonstrated psychotic inclinations not unlike those of his father, who committed twenty-three murders and is known by the moniker of “The Surgeon” and deemed to be a predatory sociopath.
Understandably, Malcolm changed his last name so as to try not to be known as the son of Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen), a seriously deranged killer that caused Malcolm at the age of ten to cooperate with the local police.
The horror of discovering a trunk in the basement with the partially nude body of a dead young girl has left Malcolm with nightmares that persist to this day, though shifting insights into the ordeal leave room for doubts about what actually happened.
But what is very real and not the subject matter of bad dreams is the relationship that Malcolm forged as a child with NYPD lieutenant Gil Arroyo (Lou Diamond Phillips), who just might be the father figure that Malcolm needs.
Even after being given the boot by the FBI, Malcolm has so much to offer in solving mass murders that he ends up being a consultant to the NYPD, thanks to Lt. Arroyo but very much to the consternation of other police officers.
Afflicted with PTSD and tethered to a daily routine of consuming an assortment of medications, Malcolm cannot escape his routine nightmares focused on the tragic events of his childhood.
More telling of the trauma that troubles Malcolm is the flashback to when his father said, before being taken away by the authorities, “I will always love you because we’re the same.”
While Martin has been locked away in an asylum, Malcolm has not visited his father for ten years, and if his mother Jessica (Bellamy Young) has her way, he never would.
Meanwhile, a string of murders of women in New York City demonstrates a pattern considered the work of a Dr. Whitly copycat and Lt. Arroyo believes that Malcolm could enlist the help of his father to solve the case.
While Gil Arroyo remains grateful that Malcolm once saved his life, two police officers also working the murder case think, and not unreasonably, that the forensic profiler is either a psycho or too much of an oddball for police work.
Detective JT Tarmel (Frank Harts), resentful of the profiler’s presence, is easily annoyed when Malcolm calls him every name that starts with the letter J, but Detective Dani Powell (Aurora Perrineau) shows more sympathy to Malcolm’s personal issues.
Socially awkward and practically devoid of any meaningful personal interactions with others, Malcolm’s best and seemingly only friend is his younger sister Ainsley (Halston Sage), an ambitious TV news reporter pursuing every murder story.
On the other hand, Malcolm’s mother, a successful businessman who suffers from the coping mechanism of having too many alcoholic beverages, is domineering and meddlesome, trying very hard to convince her son that working on murder cases is not good for his mental health.
What’s more, she’s adamant that Malcolm stay away from his father, forthrightly warning “He is a cancer. He will destroy you.” These may be words to the wise, but Malcolm does not heed them.
The crime scenes being investigated by Lt. Arroyo with the help of Malcolm are grisly and disturbing, which may not be as unnerving as when Martin tells his son that “there’s so much more I can teach you about murder.”
The gruesome crime scenes, the oddity of the father-son relationship and Malcolm’s eccentric behavior makes “Prodigal Son” the kind of drama that could be too unconventional for network television to hold up over the long run. Only time will tell if this show works.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Soper Reese Theatre
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 1966 romance, “A Man and A Woman,” starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimee, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 1 and 6 p.m.
Entry to the film is by donation.
Winner of two Oscars, for Best Foreign Film and for Best Original Screenplay, director Claude Lelouch’s ode to the aching beauty of falling in love is tender, charming, simple and so very French.
It features a musical score by Francis Lai you’ll never forget.
The movie is sponsored by Michael Adams. Not rated, but does have adult themes and some nudity. Run time is 1 hour and 42 minutes.
The film will be shown in French with English subtitles.
The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
How about a light-footed Irish reel before winter sets in, before the rest of our lives sets in? Here's a poem by Barbara Crooker, who lives in Pennsylvania. Her most recent collection of poems is The Book of Kells from Cascade Books, the winner of the Best Poetry Book of 2018 as judged by Poetry by the Sea.
Reel
Maybe night is about to come
calling, but right now
the sun is still high in the sky.
It's half-past October, the woods
are on fire, blue skies stretch
all the way to heaven. Of course,
we know that winter is coming, its thin
winding sheets and its hard narrow bed.
But right now, the season's fermented
to fullness, so slip into something
light, like your skeleton; while these old
bones are still working, my darling,
let's dance.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Barbara Crooker, "Reel," from The Book of Kells, (Cascade Books, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Barbara Crooker and the publisher. Introduction copyright @2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘TERMINATOR: DARK FATE’ (Rated R)
The global phenomenon of “The Terminator,” a science-fiction film co-written and directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, was unleashed 35 years ago on a modest budget by Hollywood standards.
The premise involved a cyborg from an apocalyptic future that traveled to the present to ensure the extermination of the human race.
The film moved at a blistering pace and featured an action heroine, which was highly unusual at the time.
Young waitress Sarah Connor (Hamilton) was being hunted by a T-800 model Terminator (Schwarzenegger) sent from the future on a deadly mission to kill her and her unborn son, the future leader of the human resistance.
The relentless T-800 was sent by Skynet, a future A.I. system created by Cyberdyne that was set to destroy all humans. Meanwhile, Kyle Reese was also sent back in time, but his mission was to protect Sarah at all costs and help save humanity.
Put this way, “The Terminator” set the stage for variations on the same theme, following up in 1991 with “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” that positioned Sarah Connor’s son John to face unrelenting challenges.
We can now move past the next three installments to arrive at the subject of this review, “Terminator: Dark Fate,” which delivers on Schwarzenegger’s original promise of “I’ll be back,” even though he has never left the scene.
Nostalgia plays a big part in this sixth chapter of the franchise because Linda Hamilton reprises her role of Sarah Connor, no longer a young waitress but instead a tough, gun-toting, take-no-prisoners warrior abhorring the soulless robots of the future.
James Cameron, creator and director who launched the franchise, is no longer behind the camera but serves as a producer and one of almost a half-dozen credited with the story such that his imprint on this one is unmistakable.
A fresh face targeted for reasons unknown, Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), a young auto factory worker in Mexico City, lives with her brother Diego (Diego Boneta) and father in a modest working-class neighborhood.
Working at the same assembly plant, Dani finds out that her brother’s job has been usurped by a machine, an ironic circumstance when the killer robot Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) turns up disguised as a human wreaking havoc at the workplace on a mission to kill the bewildered young woman.
Just in the nick of time while Dani and Diego are on the run, a soldier from the future comes to protect Dani. Enhanced with superior strength, Grace (Mackenzie Davis) may be tough but outmatched by the shapeshifting Rev-9.
During a demolition derby chase on a highway that looks like the end of the road for Dani, Sarah Connor arrives to fire bazooka rounds at the indestructible robot more fearsome than the T-1000 from “Terminator 2.”
Not only able to simulate human emotion and capable of guile to get its way, the unstoppable killing machine has a liquid metal skin that creates bladed weapons and can also split into two separate entities that fight independently.
Escape from Rev-9 takes Dani, now protected by Grace and Sarah, across the border into Texas where they find Schwarzenegger’s T-800 posing as a human being named Carl with an adoptive family.
To say that the reunion of Sarah and Carl’s T-800 is anything but riddled with animosity on Sarah’s part would be an understatement, as she vows inevitable revenge upon the cyborg who took her son’s life.
As much as the three women appear divided on how to deal with the omnipotent threat posed by the persistent Rev-9, it becomes increasingly obvious that they have no choice other than to annihilate the cyborg assassin with the help of Carl.
There’s absolutely no surprise to anyone that Dani somehow figures into the future of the human resistance. After all, why else would the heartless machine that is Rev-9 go to such great lengths in his deadly pursuit?
The final battle scene involves an aerial chase, culminating in a death match in a power plant and a spinning turbine with an awesome explosion. Those left standing were on a rollercoaster of action sequences that are spectacular and exciting.
One would be hard-pressed to say with a straight face that “Dark Fate” abounds with novelty. That’s not the point. Bringing back Linda Hamilton has the same welcome feeling of returning Sean Connery to the role of James Bond in “Diamonds Are Forever.”
That Hamilton, buffed and menacing at an older age, is the ultimate Sarah Connor is part of the mystique and, without slighting the other great characters, the best of all reasons why the franchise has now regained its footing as a breathtaking action-adventure in the franchise.
“Terminator: Dark Fate” may be seen as an amazing reboot of the franchise or the concluding chapter to where “Terminator 2” left off nearly two decades ago. Whether a tribute to the past or the unfolding of future adventures, an explosive thrill ride is delivered for the fans.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.