Escape at Dannemora

[mfunk9786]

Well, HBO GO was down the night the new season of True Detective premiered, so LQ and I got desperate and thought "maybe the people who've been raving about Escape at Dannemora aren't kidding?" So then we've watched over half of it, and I came here to see all the other raves and... nothing?! Really?! I'm disappointed in each and every one of you. For television, this is an absolute tour de force - easily Ben Stiller's best directing work, big, Coen-esque performances from the likes of Benicio del Toro, Patricia Arquette (doing something nakedly brave here, moreso than she ever has and that's saying something), Paul Dano, David Morse... and one unknown (to me) standout who has been breaking my heart in pieces at this point in the series, Eric Lange as Arquette's well meaning but mostly unappealing husband. His efforts to make his wife turn her attention back toward their modest life are beautifully realized, and provide harsh contrast to the reality of what Arquette's character has been plotting.

Knowing what's coming because this is based on a very recent true story doesn't lessen the impact of the whole enterprise any, this is a really excellent piece of work (we're through 4 episodes, so unless it really comes off the rails for the final 3, I feel confident saying that). Whether your HBO is up and running or not, go watch this instead, True Detective will be there for you and I when we get back.

[domino harvey]

I came here to see all the other raves and... nothing?! Really?! I'm disappointed in each and every one of you.

easily Ben Stiller's best directing work, big, Coen-esque performances

I mean, you're making the cheap shots so easy

[mfunk9786]

Not sure what you mean exactly, as I was kidding in the first part you quoted, and the second part is a given but remains very true in this case. He might be aping the Coens in this series but it's likely that anything set in a rural snowy northern U.S. town is going to be subject to that sort of comparison, directly or indirectly

[Daneurism]

On episode 7. Can't believe how good this is. The level of character building in this is particularly impressive

Spoiler

(That murder sequence...good lord. That's gotta be among the most disturbing ever filmed)

[mfunk9786]

Finished this up last night and while I felt that the final episode was overlong and could have stood to tighten things up (100 minutes, I think, with much of that being the escapees running around the woods), this series is a triumph and right around the lower bracket of my top 10 films of 2018 if we're going by the miniseries = film metric that we've begun to adopt around here. Definitely the best television/streaming serial I've seen since Twin Peaks: The Return, and a great resume for Stiller as a director for hire for more serious material. The whole thing made me feel so existentially itchy, with so much pain for the people involved on all sides, and has a rich sub-textual despair that just oozes out of it. The mere mention in the finale of the Chinese restaurant that Joyce and Lyle ate at in the 5th episode, when Lyle reveals through tears that he knew Joyce was cheating on him "when she started ordering off the diet menu at King's Wok," was the final straw in a series of moments with that character in particular that managed to just shatter my heart into pieces. Such a sincerely realized picture of people who are trapped, by geography, their own limitations by no fault of their own, and of course their own mistakes.

Special notice for how great Episode 6 is: where it comes in the story is essential to it being told completely and correctly, and it colors everything that follows in how ruthlessly and straightforwardly it's presented, as Daneurism just stated. LQ and I took the train (and bus, when our train connection was missed on the way up) through rural NY to Montreal this past weekend, and it's hard to overstate how much Stiller got the small details of the desolation and desperation of that area correct.

Hey TV, if you're listening: More of this sort of longform, dramatized true crime storytelling, please!

[knives]

Hey TV, if you're listening: More of this sort of longform, dramatized true crime storytelling, please!

True Detective season 4 staring Mel Gibson and Kevin Spacey just got ordered for you.

[mfunk9786]

Wait, is someone on this series stained in some way that I'm not aware of? Or am I just missing your joke?

[domino harvey]

Big woosh on your part there. He's just doing like a genie would and granting the letter but not the spirit of your wish

[mfunk9786]

Ah, a monkey's paw scenario! Hell, you might be surprised at how much I'd want to see that

[domino harvey]

I mean, that upcoming Gibson movie with Vince Vaughn is like 2/3 there

[connor]

Is there any way for non-Showtime subscribers to watch this?

[mfunk9786]

Almost every streaming platform that carries Showtime, along with their own app, offers some measure of free trial (ranging from a few days to a full month), so I would recommend just signing up for one of those and making yourself a calendar reminder to cancel before you're charged real money. Of course, watching for-pay content for free isn't a great way to support that content blah blah blah, but yeah there you go

[MongooseCmr]

Boy, I wish I shared your enthusiasm for this mfunk, but I really not seeing it. I though this was a very good true crime story with a great first episode that's ultimately too linear to make ~9 hours of runtime work. By the time they've found the escape route in episode 3 the story just sort of plods along to it's inevitable end (I didn't see the final episode because the runtime seemed extravagant, but I know the story already.) I'm really not seeing the Coen comparisons at all.

I'm not convinced of the performances either. Arquette is good, but watching this just after Olivia Colman plays a similarly emotionally needy, mentally unwell older woman letting herself be abused in order to feel wanted she doesn't completely hold up. The way she swings from aloof to seductress, or from a willing participant in their scheme to having a petulant nervous breakdown when a superior talks to her doesn't come across as a fully embodied or written character, or at least not someone registering as complex. It's a bit of a mess. The actor playing her husband is going so broad as a slack jawed mouth breather that it verges on parodying a person with mental disabilities. I like Dano a lot though.

[therewillbeblus]

I didn't like this at all. The performances are solid, especially Arquette, but otherwise it offers nothing new and isn't even 'the familiar done well'. I find a lot of these longer miniseries to be frustrating in using their time to offer details that aren't particularly significant or interesting. It's just stretched out time, which - sure - eliminates the cinematic illusions of suspense to focus on the banalities of real time, but I don't really need to see meditations on transactional interactions and characters who choose to be thin as defenses. It's just not compelling. I liked Benicio's interaction with Morse early on, when he asks him to look into his eyes and tell him that "everyone has a personality," but that also exhibits why this is so dull. If you shield personality, or characterization, we're left with a bunch of shallowness. That works for maybe two hours, but the rest is tiring. Dano kinda tries to be an ambiguously alluring character, but the presentation (and flashback) is so removed that it doesn't gel with what he's attempting with his performance

[Professor Wagstaff]

Along with pointless details, I'd add that these miniseries include too many needle drops where the song needs to be played in its entirety. Love & Death drove me nuts with this. Whole songs by people like Rod Stewart or Blondie to establish meaningless things like Elizabeth Olsen driving somewhere, parking the car, entering the building, and going to a room. When watching Escape at Dannemora recently, I was wondering why we needed 3:47 of Elton John's Take Me to the Pilot to establish that Arquette is still horny, del Toro isn't helping, and Dano is doing all the digging.