#phil nolan

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1933 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century storybook by Phil Nolan and Dick Calkins

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Nolan women crush wednesday-d his shoes

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MODEST REVIEWS: Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, 2013)

I was rigid with fear and bewilderment when I found out that Mr. Cuaron, who hasn’t touched a feature since the masterful Children of Men, had cast Sandra Bullock as the lead for his next: a simultaneously claustrophobic and open-spaced thriller in which we're stuck watching two people for at least 90 minutes straight. I imagined all the ways a director could fuck this up, but found comfort in the fact that if anyone could take such a concept and make it work, it was him.

Cuaron teams up with god-tier DP Emmanuel Lubezki once again to deliver one of the most unique and spectacular films I have ever seen. The viewer is thrust into a desperate situation from which there is no diversion and no escape, only the struggle to survive. Cuaron avoids flashbacks and nonlinear events, techniques that distinguish Gravity from other small-cast survival films like Cast Away and 127 Hours. He doesn’t take you off the narrative rails because he wants it all to feel real. 

The great thing about Gravity is that it is an achievement on every single level. The writing, performances, sound design, cinematography, and special effects all jump out in their own brilliant ways. This film showcases the very best production professionals at their very best.

Cuaron employs much of his trademark long-take and hidden-cut scenes in order to make action feel fluid and sink the viewers into suspended disbelief on a deeper level. The delicate dance between CGI and live action is so seamless at times that it leaves even the most savvy audience perplexed. The mixture of all of these elements controls and accentuates the rise and fall of tension. Gravity is a physically and mentally immersive experience, evidenced by the sold-out crowd's jumps, sighs, and visible cringes. 

There has been a curious bit of backlash regarding its scientific accuracy and overall premise. It is this writer's opinion that these critics are nagging on very unimportant and peripheral details of a very well thought-out and executed thematic structure. Perhaps they would have found the film enjoyable if they weren't sopping wet blankets of pessimism and facetiousness.  

Phil Nolan is a video editor for NowThis News. He loves pizza and genius. You can follow his Tumblr blog here.

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MODEST REVIEWS: Arrested Development, Season 4 (Mitchell Hurwitz, 2013)

by Phil "@nilpholan" Nolan

The internet and all of its profitable entities are built on one sole law of social media physics: That people will overreact en masse to every little cultural event as if it is the rapture or the apocalypse, and sometimes both at once. Bearing that in mind, we plunge into bar-none the most anticipated, speculated on, and desperately scrutinized television comeback in history.

Hurwitz, Howard, and company make their return in a very raw and unfamiliar new format: the 'Netflix simultaneous release.' This is the first show of this new wave to cater their narrative to a full-on binge viewing. The framing is a series of chaotic interlocking story lines that bounce unintelligibly through time, setting, and events that will confound anyone who isn't giving this show their complete and undivided attention. Perhaps their intention was to make a show you have to watch more than once to truly appreciate. This may be season four's biggest initial weakness. It is extremely unwieldy.

The other, very risky move: each episode is centered around a single character. Whereas the old episodes would bounce from character to character before one could get annoying, this season runs on the faith that each member of the Bluth family can hold your enjoyment for 35 minutes at a time. It is, simply put, challenging to sit through at times.

Its last biggest weakness is a crippling amount of celebrity cameos. Virtually every speaking extra role is filled by a comic or actor the audience is likely to recognize, to the point where if the viewer encounters a normal, casted extra, they're left racking their brain to figure out if they should know that face/voice. Add this to the meandering timeline, and you may end up full-on nauseous. 

For a lot of people who had rested all their comedic hopes and dreams on Hurwitz's capable shoulders, these reasons and more may leave them feeling disappointed. In the age of "Capslock first, rationality later" social media, disappointment often turns to abject rage that echoes across a thousand twitters. 

For those of us who tempered our expectations with an open mind and gratitude for seasons past, season four is actually quite enjoyable. Expecting the new AD to be bigger and better can cause one to lose sight of the fact that anything remotely close to the original three seasons is still amazing television. 

These characters shine through all the chaos and deliver their familiar and nostalgic idiosyncrasies all over the place. For all the nonsense and production mayhem, it really does feel like yesterday that all these actors first won us over. The performances aren't lacking anywhere in the original cast, despite Portia De Rossi's brand new face:

  The humor remains the same in a great way. It builds new jokes and satisfies our nostalgia for old jokes without getting lazy or masturbatory. It's warm, genuine, and has the same 'carefree in the face of absurdity' tone of Fox's most begrudged cult-favorite cancelation. 

Much like The Wire, the new Arrested Development takes a few episodes to get used to. Your patience is rewarded as the fragments of story fall into place and the format becomes second nature. At the end of the season, with all of the drawbacks aside, I had fun watching this. It felt like the first time I watched the original. I was once again hanging on my favorite characters every action, and once again, I will be watching this season several times over. 

Thanks for busting your asses to give me more of what I love. 7 Bananas out of 10.

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MODEST REVIEWS: House of Cards (Beau Willimon, 2013)

Times are tough for dramatic television. AMC is about to lose their best show, leaving it with an aging Mad Men and a degenerating Walking Dead. When Game of Thrones isn't on, HBO's biggest hit is riding solely on the controversial tits of an overweight twenty-something. Who would have thought the savior would be Netflix? Apparently, a lot of talented directors. 

House of Cards dropped as a full season immediately available on the streaming platform this month, a game changer tuned for the modern viewer's lazy-weekend, season-long, binge-viewing experience. This show happens to be perfect for the venue because of its intoxicating and addicting nature. 

HoC is firing on all cylinders. Kevin Spacey in a lead television role is a piece of hype I could never ignore, and he delivers on the hype like he has for twenty years. Rep. Francis Underwood is endlessly captivating, impressive, and unpredictable. This is, of course, completely unrealistic, as your typical representative is sitting in an assembly hall all day finding ways to put off economic crises that they made up. The show is essentially a dive into the mind and workings of Washington's most cunning political assassin and architect. Backing up the legendary Mr. Spacey are Rooney Mara's similarly gifted sister Kate, and a cast of vaguely familiar faces from film and television who can already consider their roles on House of Cards to be breakouts.

Cinematically, the strongest influence of any of the all-star names associated with the project is Executive Producer / Director David Fincher, whose 'Social Network'-esque modern aesthetic and smooth camerawork style blend very well into the political intrigue of Underwood's life. The use of shadow and darkness over faces in particular is a phenomenal device that works wonders to viscerally distinguish acceptable political behavior and posturing from low-brow secrecy, sabotage, and deviancy. 

I can't recommend this show enough. I'm hooked for all the right reasons. There's nothing better to me than getting to explore every facet of a truly complex and fascinating character who is in constant conflict, as well as the company they keep. You won't regret watching House of Cards... unless you get fired for calling out from work to watch it and then try and blame it on Obama and then get called a moocher for collecting unemployment and then get try to pray for forgiveness but there's no pope so you turn to Satan and abandon your family and friends, rotting in a pit of hellfire forever in eternity. 

9 out of 10. 

Phil Nolan is the #rarest member of the NowThis News team. Shooter/editor and Tumblr lord, Phil's twitter ain't bad either. 

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Buck Rogers, 25th Century A.D. Big Little Book (1933)

Publisher: John F. Dille Company 320 pages Author: Phil Nolan Artist/Cover Artist: Lt. Dick Calkins