Orlando Bloom, Cara Delevingne and Season One of ‘Carnival Row’

Starting out with a bit of a slow burn that is later rewarded, we are glad to share that the premiere season of the Amazon Original series Carnival Row (2019- ) hits a better than expected high note in succeeding with compelling storytelling. As described with decent accuracy by the Internet Movie Database, the series features “A human detective and a fairy rekindle a dangerous affair in a Victorian fantasy world, where the city’s uneasy peace collapses when a string of murders reveals an unimaginable monster.”

(Orlando Bloom as Rycroft Philostrate, left, and Maeve Dermody as Portia Fyfe in Carnival Row).

Orlando Bloom stars as Rycroft Philostrate, or Philo, through the fantasy series set in a post-industrial revolution city named the Burgh. Maeve Dermondy stars as a landlord and love interest to Philo named Portia Fyfe, who’s feelings for Philo are complicated yet nuanced through the season.

(Cara Delevingne as Vignette Stonemoss in Carnival Row).

Much history of war, racial animosity, and resentment over the social upheaval related to both in bringing fae, faun, and others from Tirnanoc to the Burgue. Tirnanoc is a land separate from the city of the Burgue, of which Carnival Row is a district where Burgue society frowns upon the vice, crime, and subsistence of those displaced and shunned by Burgue society are compelled to live. Vignette Stonemoss (as portrayed by Cara Delevingne) flees Tirnanoc as the story of Carnival Row begins. The relationship between Philo and Vignette is strong in the history of both the Burgue and Tirnanoc.

(Tamzin Merchant as Imogen Spurnrose, left, and David Gyasi as Agreus Astrayon in Carnival Row).

The high society of the Burgue lives in the social circles and infrastructure of Imogen and Ezra Spurnrose, as portrayed by Tamzin Merchant and Andrew Gower, respectively. A spell of bad luck combined with flat out mismanagement of the family fortune has put the family in dire financial straights, which risks the position of the siblings living in high society of the Burgue.

(Karla Crome as Tourmaline Larou, left, and Andrew Gower as Ezra Spurnrose in Carnival Row).

It is precisely in these dire straights that the backstory and recent arrival in the environs and circles of Burgue high society that Agreus Astrayon (as portrayed by David Gyasi) becomes an engrossing tale of the larger narrative of the culture of the Burgue, in the senses of the overlapping cultures, the role of high society in the current context of the Burgue, and in how interpersonal stories intertwine to tell something even richer. In telling a story of the loss of such culture from Tirnanoc, and the opposite pull that the Burgue holds, the story of Tournamline Larou (as portrayed by Karla Crome) as friend to Vignette is compelling.

(Indira Varma as Piety Breakspear with Jared Harris as Absalom Breakspear, left, and Caroline Ford as Sophie Longerbane with Arty Froushan as Jonah Breakspear in Carnival Row).

In addition to the propertied classes and the maligned classes of the Burgue, there are the political classes as well. Relevant characters to the larger narrative of this front include Indira Varma as Piety Breakspear, Jared Harris as Absalom Breakspear, Caroline Ford as Sophie Longerbane and Arty Froushan as Jonah Breakspear. Much ado in this circle is made of succession to power, the shadows in which people navigate, and the goals people have to maintain or change the current course of life. Critical to these stories, and largely the culmination of the first 8-episode season of Carnival Row, included Ronan Vibert as Ritter Longerbane, Simon McBurney as Runyan Millworthy and Alice Krige as Haruspex.

(Ronan Vibert as Ritter Longerbane, left, Simon McBurney as Runyan Millworthy, middle, Alice Krige as Haruspex in Carnival Row).

A more accurate synopsis of the first season of Carnival Row is offered from Rotten Tomatoes.

“With a serial killer loose on Carnival Row, and a government that turns a blind eye to the deaths of its lower class citizens, Rycroft Philostrate, a war-hardened investigator, is the only person willing to stop the murders and maintain the fragile peace. But when Vignette Stonemoss, a faerie refugee, turns up in the Burgue, she forces Philo to reckon with a past he’s tried to forget.”

I found the season intriguing, if not the best level of storytelling that has ever existed. The character dynamics and the cultural forces in play through the season are interesting. There is a clear path forward for where the larger story of this series can go, which is made clear through the way the opening season concludes. My sense is that this series is probably not worth investing the time for those who are on the fence for whether an almost 8-hour investment into watching is worth it. My grade for the first season of Carnival Row is therefore 3.50-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, November 2, 2019

Top 20 Movie “Interstellar.”

Top 20 Movie Interstellar (2014) ranks 12th in Matt Lynn Digital’s Top 20 Movies in ranked order listing. This gem as directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan also holds the distinction with Calvary (2014) as the second published in the 21st century to be distinguished by a Matt Lynn Digital listing.

Beyond being a fantastic movie with complicated science and science-fiction theming aligned with overcoming environmental threats to planet Earth, we at Matt Lynn Digital are impressed with the notion that brought Christopher Nolan with “his cerebral, often nonlinear storytelling” to this project. As indicated by Michelle Lanz with Cameron Kell in The Frame:

Christopher Nolan “said it was actually the family themes in “Interstellar” that attracted him to the project, one that he hopes will bring back the glory days of the classic family blockbuster and inspire its audience to dream big.”

It’s interesting to hear Nolan frame the movie in those terms, for the movie delves into some emotionally intense themes. For one example, the movie depicts a future Earth full of dust storms and a worsening food shortage; the storytelling implies a frightening scale of human death.

Ostensibly in response to that, you see Cooper (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey) leave his father (portrayed by John Lithgow) and kids (15-year-old Tom and 10-year-old Murph) behind to pursue a long shot attempt to save humanity by flying into a black hole. Later, the fight between Cooper and Mann (as portrayed by Matt Damon) results in one astronaut breaking the helmet visor of the other. Further, one of these two pushes the other off a cliff on a foreign planet, betraying the mental harshness of deep space.

Family is certainly at the center of the Cooper and Murph storyline. The dynamic between Brand (played by Anne Hathaway) and Professor Brand (portrayed by Michael Caine) further cement the notion that Christopher Nolan isn’t wrong in saying that family feelings are relevant to Interstellar. In fact, I think that these story lines are central to providing some emotional pull to the quality of the story here.

The truth is that in the Christopher Nolan universe of movies, Interstellar is perhaps the most family-heavy movie he has offered us. The remaining quality is the science fiction themes of invoking a very cerebral notion of applying Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity in invoking multiple notions for experiencing the passage of time. The further notion of extending the use of worm holes is intriguing. The essential resolution of the film partakes in a notion that Nolan articulated for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), namely that (in Nolan‘s view) as shared in The Frame:

both movies have “a lot of complicated science…that you don’t need to understand when you first watch…You really need to go along with the emotions of the characters and follow the emotional story…”

Interstellar is not a family movie in the sense that Matt Lynn Digital reviewed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Toy Story would be, for sure. The Sci-Fi theming is particularly pleasing for me, as is the overall cinematic quality. Consider seeing, or rewatching this movie.

Matt – Thursday, March 16, 2017