Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector and Amy Aquino in Season Two of ‘Bosch’

The Michael Connelly character Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch first premiered in a series of books in 1992. As this is written, the character has led to 24 distinct books and two distinct television shows. We focus here on the second season of the series Bosch (2014-2021), starring Titus Welliver in the title role for the series.

(From left, Brad Carter as Chilton Hardy and Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch in the second season of Bosch).

The storyline for this season picks up six months after Harry Bosch‘s police unit in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California sought a serial killer in the show’s first season. The ten episodes of the second season were adapted from the Michael Connelly books The Last Coyote, Trunk Music and The Drop. The story sees Harry Bosch following a new case of a Hollywood film producer with potential connections to the mob. Information about the years-ago death of Bosch‘s mother introduces the possibility of driving the detective to distraction.

(From left and near lectern, Erika Alexander as Connie Irving, Lance Reddick as Irvin Irving, Steven Culp as Richard O’Shea and Leslie Stevens as Patricia O’Shea in season two of Bosch).

Deputy Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Irvin Irving as portrayed by Lance Reddick, at first aims to stay above the details of the investigation that Harry is pursuing. Irving‘s son, portrayed by Robbie Jones with the character name George Irving, goes undercover on the force. Harry’s investigation heads to Las Vegas, Nevada as George’s experiences in plainclothes begin to introduce a set of considerations for the full Irving family.

(From left, Jamie Hector as Jerry Edgar, Jeri Ryan as Veronica Allen and Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch in the second season of Bosch).

Harry’s time in Nevada reveals that not all is well for Harry‘s ex-wife, Eleanor Wish as portrayed by Sarah Clarke, and her situation with her current husband. The child between Eleanor and Harry, Maddie Bosch as portrayed by Madison Lintz, in certain ways is caught in the middle of multiple situations. Deputy Chief Irving, meanwhile, chimes in with his support of the mayoral race by supporting Richard O’Shea. Steven Culp portrayed by mayoral candidate O’Shea.

(From left, Jamie Hector as Jerry Edgar and Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch in season two of Bosch).

While Deputy Chief Irving’s support for mayor begins to introduce some political fallout for the deputy chief, things too get messy between Bosch‘s murder investigation, the mob and his familial past. Bosch‘s encounter with mob boss Joey Marks, with roots in Armenia and as portrayed by Tom Mardirosian, lead to serious questions for what course to pursue. Bosch and his partner, Jerry Edgar as portrayed by Jamie Hector, pursue Marks while Bosch takes specific measures to protect his daughter and ex-wife.

(From left, John Marshall Jones as Jay Griffin and Sarah Clarke as Eleanor Wish in season two of Bosch).

Circumstances escalate severely in the familial lives of the Irving family and the Bosch / Wish family take unexpected and dark turns as the tensions elevate each family. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) brings in a surprise approach, through Jay Griffin as portrayed by John Marshall Jones, that prompts the LAPD officers to reconsider their original theories of the murder that opened this season. There are the threads of the murder investigation along with the FBI‘s interest in a potentially related set of crimes. There’s familial fallout for the Irvings, the Bosches and the Wishes sharply placed in focus against the trajectory for the mayoral campaign and violence that comes to call with the mob story that includes the tales of Veronica Allen, as portrayed by Jeri Ryan, and Carl Nash as portrayed by Brent Sexton.

(From left, Amy Aquino as Grace Billets and Madison Lintz as Maddie Bosch in Bosch).

The stakes in play for season two make for entertaining television. The tension is real, the characters have depth and character growth. Addressing the puzzle with Harry Bosch‘s mother was an appreciated twist. The investment in feelings among the characters makes for an engaging experience binging this season. I grant season two of Bosch as presented as an Amazon original series, 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, September 14, 2022

John David Washington, Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki in the Christopher Nolan film ‘Tenet’

The cinematic feeling of the Christopher Nolan movie Tenet (2020) stands shoulder to shoulder with any movie he has made. This statement is made in the spirit of the filmmaking, the choreography and creativity of the action scenes, and the presence of a puzzle of a plot buried in abstraction lands Tenet in an arena with Nolan‘s signature style. Does the movie live up to the definition for tenet and work as a story that audiences like?

(From left, Dimple Kapadia as arms dealer Priya Singh and John David Washington as a CIA agent the Protagonist in Christopher Nolan‘s Tenet).

The movie Tenet plays in a world that borrows principles that sound scientific, and quotes actual science, in building a case that a plot from the future to bend the direction of time has been created to manipulate the present in a fashion that allows some to perceive the flow of time in one direction while others perceive it flowing in the opposite, reverse direction. John David Washington, starring as an unnamed man dubbed the Protagonist, is central to the audience’s unfolding awareness of the narrative.

(Martin Donovan as Fay, the Protagonist’s CIA boss, in the Christopher Nolan movie Tenet).

A stunning opening sequence at the Kyiv Opera House in Kyiv, Ukraine offers much of the key to understanding the full movie. The looping nature Tenet begins in the opera house, offering the first insight into the notion that the notion of time will run in two directions. Nolan also used the concept of indicating time moving in opposite directions in Memento (2000), to similar storytelling effect of offering relevance that will only be understood later.

(From left, John David Washington as the Protagonist, Himesh Patel as Mahir, a fixer, and Robert Pattinson as Neil, handler to the Protagonist, in the Christopher Nolan movie Tenet).

It is in the theater that we first meet Neil, the handler of the Protagonist, as portrayed by Robert Pattinson. It is in the midst of the confusing melee of the attack on the opera house concert that we meet the police, the team combatting the attack that included Neil and the Protagonist, and a third party that we learn about seemingly weeks or months later when the Protagonist is debriefed by the Protagonist’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) boss, Fay. Fay is portrayed by Martin Donovan.

(From left, Elizabeth Debicki as Katherine Kat Barton and Kenneth Branagh as Andrei Sator in the Christopher Nolan movie Tenet).

It is in the debrief that Fay points out the test that Neil and the Protagonist had suffered at the hands of the third set of actors in the Kyiv Opera House, operated by a group of secret Russians led by Andrei Sator, as portrayed by Kenneth Branagh. Getting to Sator involves contacting British intelligence officer Sir Michael Crosby, as portrayed by Michael Caine. It is through Crosby that connections to arms trafficker Priya Singh from Mumbai, India and Katherine “Kat” Barton, an art appraiser and Sator’s estranged wife, are established. Singh is portrayed by Dimple Kapadia while Barton is portrayed by Elizabeth Debicki.

(From left, actor Michael Caine as Sir Michael Crosby with director and screenwriter Christopher Nolan on the set of the Christopher Nolan movie Tenet).

The story of Tenet itself became straightforward for me at the point I had the relationships among the characters clear. The visual quality of the movie borrows experience from Dunkirk (2017), a sense of scientific sounding abstraction from Interstellar (2014), and a sense of nesting from Inception (2010). In the sense of bringing these pieces together, a definite sense of cinematic experience are applied in a way that I appreciate.

Perhaps it was in the attempt to spell out a puzzle, using a lead character without a clear sense of identity or certainty, that I felt the emotion of Tenet came up slightly short. While Nolan tied the ending realization to the opening opera house introduction of Neil and the Protagonist, Memento offered something more than I received on an emotional level, than with Tenet. I appreciate and like Christopher Nolan‘s Tenet, which I give 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Matt Damon, Christian Bale and the film ‘Ford v Ferrari’

It was avid car aficionado in the form of Lynn‘s West Virginia uncle who turned me on to the biopic film about the 1966 automobile race 24 Hours of Le Mans. This particular film, and the facts underpinning it, tells the story about the stranglehold that the Ferrari brand had on the race at the time as well as the battle Ford had in becoming relevant there for a four year stretch beginning in 1966. The film that addresses this contest is Ford v Ferrari (2019).

(From left, Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby and Tracy Letts as Henry Ford II in the film Ford v Ferrari).

The crux of the film starts around the time that the Ford Mustang as a vehicle was introduced, with Ford owner Henry Ford II (as played by Tracy Letts) making an overture to Ferrari owner Enzo Ferrari (as played by Remo Girone) to acquire the motor company owned by Ferrari, and being soundly rebuffed in a move to increase the sales price to Fiat. This led to a courting by Ford of Carroll Shelby (as played by Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (as played by Christian Bale).

(From left, Stefania Spampinato as Enzo Ferrari‘s English Translator and Remo Girone as Enzo Ferrari in the film Ford v Ferrari).

The means of being rebuffed by Enzo Ferrari opened, or perhaps revealed, an emotional rivalry between he and Henry Ford II that revealed some interesting dynamics in the way Ford was operated as a company. Lee Iacocca, as portrayed by Jon Bernthal, brought Carroll Shelby into the Ford company when Henry Ford II demanded engineers and money into the company to have the wherewithal to compete with Ferrari at Le Mans.

(From left, Jon Bernthal as Lee Iacocca and Corrado Invernizzi as Franco Gozzi in the film Ford v Ferrari).

The compelling notion of what worked in the movie Ford V Ferrari was first the racing story with the fortunes of two automobile companies at the center of it. Also there were the personalities within Ford, with Shelby and Miles as clearly outsiders to the corporate culture of the larger company. Iacocca was a bit of a middleman between that culture and the work getting done by Shelby and Miles.

(Josh Lucas as Leo Beebe in the film Ford v Ferrari).

Josh Lucas as Leo Beebe was the face of that corporate culture, and in many ways vilified for his role in how the 24 Hours of Le Mans came to a resolution in 1966. There was natural tension in his trusted role in Ford and the natural conflict that arose in holding the Shelby / Miles team to an account that also reflected on the public face of what Ford wished to project. Said another way, a story of Ford v Ferrari was the means for how mean with well-defined senses of self worth worked together. This came into play as well between Shelby and Miles, the both of them and Beebe, and the full lot of them and Henry Ford II with Iacocca in the middle. Ken Miles and his wife, Mollie Miles as portrayed by Caitriona Balfe, had their own form of intrigue as shown in Ford v Ferrari.

(From left, Caitriona Balfe as Mollie Miles and Christian Bale as Ken Miles in the film Ford v Ferrari).

I found the movie Ford v Ferrari both entertaining and interesting. There’s history in the telling, despite some clear fictionalized dramatization included for the sake of the telling. The fiction offered something that worked for me in this case, though there are some muscle car folks that might not agree. I rate Ford v Ferrari at 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, July 15, 2020