slowpoked

I rewatched the opening bit again and I have to say, I'm loving the Jessica Chastain array of shock faces for the controversial jokes. It's like Taylor Swift's shock faces but much more genuine and likeable. And since the GG is probably the only awards show from this point forward that will have those controversial jokes, I guess I'll have to wait next year to see the Jessica Chastain shock faces again.

Haven't seen Still Alice, but I trust that Julianne has given a great performance, just because she always does. Loved her in the Kids Are All Right. Such a very understated turn. That said, even though she has no chance in hell, I'd like Rosamund Pike to win because I like to see a crazy deranged female lead role win an Oscar. I'm also rooting for Reese because I always love a comeback story. It's easier to just go say eff it after a string of underwhelming movies and her intoxication arrest, but she worked hard to rehabilitate her image and get back on top. So many men get second chances after screwing up, but not so much with the women. I'm happy to see Reese buck that trend a bit.

Well, I'd like to think that the .99.5% of the world cares about stuff other than Hollywood, so I'd venture to guess more than .5% of the world already know her even before Clooney came into the picture. Otherwise, then it's just a sad, sad world we live in. Especially after Tina mentioned a few of her accomplishments and how ridiculous it is that it's her husband that's getting honored because he's an actor. But it's sweet how George honors her, knowing what he's done isn't even close to being worthy of what she's done, and is still doing. Speaking of Clooney, did anyone catch Tina's "How stupid..." as the audience were laughing after their zinger? I think Tina respects George and what he's done, but she doesn't hide the fact that she thinks it's all silly he's getting an achievement award for basically starring in so many movies.

From what I read, Brody is a pain in the ass to work with. With Kate, what I remember was she was dissed by Michael Bay, of all people, for Pearl Harbor. She did have a mildly successful franchise in Underworld, but I wonder if having a director for a husband has limited the work she can pursue. I think it's part of the act. Obviously the whole thing is scripted even though Cumberbatch is trying hard to sell that he really was just chosen on the spot. Reminds me of that Friends bit she did on Kimmel where she acted the same way. I like Jen Aniston, and I'm happy she's finally getting that movie breakthrough she's chased for a long time, so I may be biased, but I kinda sense a tinge of anxiety in there as well. She's been off the radar for awards show ever since Friends ended, so this may feel like a new terrain for her, again.

Can I just say I loved how genuinely happy Kerry Washington was for Gina's win? She's the quiet champion for minority women in the industry. I have a question for the awards experts here - so Clooney wins this GG lifetime achievement award. Is this something an artist has to apply for to win? I know that sounds stupid, but it came to my mind because here is Clooney winning the award, yet Meryl Streep, who I think has had a more significant career that has spanned for a much longer time, hasn't even won the award yet. That is kinda weird to me that Clooney would get a lifetime achievement award before Streep.

While I thought JLaw was great in SLP, her and Bradley together took me out in most of the movie, because of just how young she looked, and how I know what her age is, where Bradley looked like Bradley IRL. They just seemed so mismatched. My other gripe was that there are already few enough compelling roles for thirty-year old women, let alone thirty-something or forty-something women, and then here comes JLaw who had Hollywood in the palm of her hands, and then gets that role. One less female role in an already shallow pool as it is. You mentioned Angelina - it would have been nice to see Rachel McAdams, Olivia Wilde, or Elizabeth Banks in that role (some of the thirty-year old women apparently considered). Or my personal favorite for a renaissance - Winona Ryder. That's why I'm happy a 35-year old, relatively unknown Rosamund Pike came out of nowhere to get the meatiest female role last year. You know Hollywood could have easily pushed for JLaw or Chloe Grace Moretz, or Saoirse Ronan, or Shailene Woodley, but leave Ben Affleck just fine in there. And Russell Crowe, just shut up. When you, Liam Neeson, Tom Cruise, RDJ, Clooney stop getting lead roles, whether age-appropriate or not, then that's the only time you can bitch about women wanting to get young-women roles.

I think the secret was that Duck was getting confidential files from his wife's computer to give to Sandy, which Sandy then gives to Tasneem, in exchange for people on the kill list. That was how Tasneem was able to blackmail Duck into becoming a spy for her, because if he doesn't go through with it, the FBI would receive copies of the files that Duck was stealing from the Ambassador's computer from the Taliban, so the treason would be out in the open and his wife's career is over. So Tasneem and the Taliban most probably sacrificed some of their own people so Haqqani could put his master plan in motion. During the first episode, Sandy said his "asset" has always been correct regarding the locations of the terrorist and that's why he gave Carrie the OK to strike that compound because Haqqani was supposedly there. I don't think we're ever gonna get any kind of closure regarding the Pakistanis - the writers have said they are no longer going back to Pakistan in S5. So I guess Tasneem and Haqqani won this round in the Homeland world. Which is just as well, since the Homeland CIA had been very incompetent this season, and I wouldn't feel that a US win in the end is earned, no matter how I want to have them kill Tasneem and give justice to Fara and the rest.

Thanks Zuleikha. That part is in the movie too. But maybe I just missed the realization by the Baker that Rapunzel is his sister, not just knowing that he had a sister. Thanks for the other tidbits as well. The Witch had that song with Rapunzel - IMO, Streep's best number in the movie - so I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to in terms of the Witch's story arc. I just felt like something was missing with her, and that maybe it would have bothered me more if I had seen the Broadway play. It just felt like Cinderella, Jack and Little Red Riding Hood's characters were all fleshed out, and Rapunzel's was just kinda there.

I saw this yesterday and liked it a lot, despite not being too familiar with the original Broadway work. Kendrick and Streep turned in solid performances, but I was most surprised with Emily Blunt. I didn't know she could sing! I loved all of her songs. And for once, Johnny Depp didn't bug too much. There was a lot of laughter during Chris Pine's scenes. I don't know if they're laughing at him, or just totally amused at how campy his performance was, especially during Agony. But I gotta give it to Chris Pine - he embraced to campiness of his role and even notched it up a couple of levels. One question for those who saw the Broadway production - it seemed to me like Rapunzel is mostly a non-entity in the movie and the movie could have done fine without her, seeing that it's not even her hair that is included in the potion (which reminds me, whose hair qualifies as "yellow as corn" if it wasn't hers? Just any other blonde woman?), and The Baker didn't even find out that they were siblings. Did she play a more prominent role in the Broadway production?

Well, now that Javadi is being brought up - isn't he the one responsible for the car bombing that wiped out the CIA HQ in S2? And yet, he still became a high-level US asset after that. So maybe this negotiation thing with Haqqani is just par for the course in the Homeland world. It is. Vis a vis with Carrie being back in the US, at least Carrie has her baby, sister and nieces to go home to, even if she doesn't want to be with her sister for most of the time. Quinn has nobody, just an empty apartment...

Yeah, this is my main problem with what Dar did. Like someone else posted, there's no way he's doing this on his own - he has orders from above, most probably connected to what Lockhart said in the previous episode that there's been a lot of hush-hush meetings. But Haqqani isn't just your "normal" terrorist. He breached the embassy, shut down a CIA station and killed Americans, which I would assume is huge worldwide news. He should be on TOP of the kill list, not negotiating to be off of it. That's like Bin Laden saying he'll never do 9/11 again as long as the US promises to stop hunting him. Or to stay in the Homeland world, just like finishing the prisoner exchange thinking all is well and Saul will go home peacefully only to have the CIA convoy be shot by snipers. Why is Dar Adal so confident that these MF'ers aren't going to stab you in the back, again, like what Lockhart told the Ambassador when she was still trying to make peaceful negotiations with the ISI? So say they release the video despite the pinkie swear - what happens next? Haqqani goes back on the kill list, but yeah, good luck finding him especially now that he enjoys full protection of the Pakistan government And why is it that Saul seems to be the only person qualified to be the next director that Dar had to make a deal with the devil for it to happen? Lockhart came out of nowhere last season to be the director. And I assume there are still a lot of high-ranking officials left in the agency despite the car bomb in S2. In Saul's case, I understand there is a lot of conflict going on. On the surface it looked like he became suddenly power-hungry and has shed all of his integral beliefs in exchange for that power. But earlier in the episode, he said "I want to make this right". Could be a classic case of the means don't justify the end, but the end is all that matters. Saul accepts the position despite knowing what it took to get there, then proceeds to kill Haqqani and Tasneem anyway...Or I can only hope that is what will happen and all will be right between Carrie and Saul forever.

So upon rewatch, I think it's not that bad...I guess I was just waiting for that climactic commeupance for the Pakistanis, especially Tasneem. But it seemed like the writers wanted to focus on the conflict IN the US to set up the next season. So what's up with Haqqani now? Are they turning him into the Pakistan Javadi now??? And how the heck is Dar Adal, of all people, convinced of Haqqani's commitment and promise that Saul's video will never leak out? Seriously, what is this, a pinkie swear between Haqqani and Adal, and all is forgiven?! This is the same man who said that there will be no more killing after he got the list, then proceeded to kill Fara anyway. Saul is right, he is an effing terrorist, how can he be trusted?!

That was it???? Like nothing happened...

I know it's probably losing its novelty by now, but I was waiting for the SNL Ladies' song number (ala Twin Bed last year), since Li'l Baby Aidy said in Back Home Baller that they'll be back for Christmas. And it would have been fun to see them do it with Amy.

Upon rewatch, there's one thing I didn't quite understand - why is there suddenly a Kill Order on Quinn? Is it because he went AWOL? I know he abducted that ISI contractor, but how did they even know it's Quinn? And why was he being followed in the first place? Quinn is not like that contractor - he is a CIA official just like Carrie. The location of that truck is very suspicious too. It's not even that far off from the embassy gate, is just behind one of the soldiers' trucks by the embassy and with Pakistani soldiers just milling around. Why wouldn't they question a suspicious truck parked along the embassy? Oh, it's because they're really working for Haqqani. In that case, why even ask for embassy security when these very soldiers assigned to guard that place are all basically Haqqani allies anyway?

I guess, what I meant was, ugly it up for the role itself, like what Theron, Aniston, Reese and Kidman (off the top of my head) has done. I liked that Amy is an NY socialite, loved her money and was worried about her looks going away. Usually, the glamorous, regal women roles only get nominated if you're playing the Queen. Yeah, that's what I loved about the Amy character (and greatly aided by the way Pike played her). Pike also mentioned this in one of her interviews - it's very rare to get roles like this for women, because as much as the society have advanced in their thinking with regards to women's roles in the society, there's still that underlying belief that women should act and behave a certain way, and if it's outside of these parameters set, they're psycho. They're evil. They're screwed in the head. Something's wrong with them. Women should only act in a good way. Men can act gentlemanly, powerful, jerky, piggish and society will just dismiss it as "men being men". In that regard, I also loved the fact that Amy "won" in the end. She did not suffer for her sins, or got karma. Tyler even laughed it off and said they should just profit from it. She clearly got the sympathy of the public and even the police knows it will be an uphill battle to turn that tide away from her. It's a villainous and amoral character in the lead role that's very compelling and will get the audience (at least in my case) thinking. I loved it. I think there's some progress being shown here. Last year, Sandra got a role that normally would have been reserved for a man in a sci-fi movie and got nominated for it. This year, there is an "anti-woman" role in that will be a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination this year.

That, and the fact that they didn't have to hack anything for this "mission". At least, not that I can remember. Every mission it felt like the team has to prove their genius statuses by hacking into something.

That's an interesting callback actually, because Dar's principle of "the mission always comes before the people" has been mostly an important theme this season, and Carrie herself was confronted with that when she wanted to take Haqqani out even if it meant killing Saul. At that moment, Carrie was prepared to choose the mission. It's actually quite a nice touch of irony, that Quinn, who worked under Dar Adal the longest and should be very familiar with his principles, chose the person over the mission. That's true. IIRC, back in Season 2, Quinn and Dar were running a side operation unknown to Carrie and Saul: assassination of Brody after he has served his purpose (I forgot what it was that time). It just didn't go through because they needed him still. That's a pretty fast turnaround of events though. Wasn't the last episode exactly the day after the first wave of evacuations, meaning Saul might have probably just landed in US while Carrie is looking around town searching for Quinn? And I assume the debriefing would take awhile, given Saul's condition. Then Dar would have to make that trip to Pakistan, go through the ISI and Taliban network and have some significant conversations with Haqqani. That would take days, I think. I think whatever Dar is doing, it didn't involve debriefing of Saul. It was probably put in motion the moment the embassy was attacked, or even before that. He likely already knew of the embassy breach plan, since he seems within the inner circle of Haqqani. He let the attack happen, even if it meant losing CIA operatives and making the US looking like a weakling to the world, so the bigger "plan" can be set in motion. War, not Love is the literal meaning, I think.

I thought the kid was Ralph too. Pretty deceiving, with Paige crying and Walter's "you're going to be with your parents for Christmas." I did think it's funny that just last episode, Paige was admonishing someone to let Walter stew for just a minute, instead of just pushing him to work nonstop, and tonight we see Walter running to the water and screaming his lungs out in frustration. Hey, geniuses get emotional too!

The finale promo was full of Dar Adal's monologue, or speech, or conversation with someone. One thing that stood out with me was when he said (paraphrasing): "What I did doesn't compare to what I was able to get", with matching scene of an SD card being handed over. So I'm thinking it may be some sort of celebration in which they were able to get very, very valuable intel, and maybe capture Haqqani as well - all's well that ends well - and they were celebrating that, even if it came at the expense of their colleagues dying.

I think even Carrie knows Quinn is right, judging by the embarrassed look on her face. She probably just didn't have enough guards to bring with her as the remaining people are being evacuated. She knows she didn't have a chance. I'm confused by it too. It looks like the government soldiers are even going to provide security and convoy for him as they get him transferred "safely". I thought he is considered a terrorist, and even Bunny said that those prisoners received in the exchange will remain with the government - "We don't want to see them on the street as much as you..." And it's looking like Khan is just taking orders from Tasneem now and he's even responsible for Haqqani's safety. If that's really the case, then it's kinda rich for Bunny to correct the Ambassador - "Haqqani's demands, not ours..." - when they were doing the negotiations for Saul's release.

I'm kind of confused with Carrie's conversation with Khan. Maybe I missed something, but how come Carrie is acting like she had just known that the ISI is in bed with Haqqani because of the car and embassy attack? Didn't she already know this when she figured out that the ISI, and by extension Haqqani, already knew where Saul was hiding because of the drones above him? And that's why the were acting so cool while the ambassador was still trying to negotiate with the Pakistan government re: Haqqani's demands.

Me too. It's so refreshing to see an icy, femme fatale lead who stayed cold and calculating all throughout the movie. Someone who wasn't apologetic for her behavior and didn't need a redemption "arc". And also someone who didn't have to get ugly, and didn't have a big crying fit or a big come-to-Jesus speech. Pike was amazing. I haven't seen the other performances yet, admittedly. But it kind of bothers me that Julianne Moore is apparently leading the race with yet another usual Best Actress type role. Ah, that's right. But yeah, I'm a little surprised about the others though. I don't see Affleck schmoozing around, although it's not like he has a shot at getting any. The Director race seems crowded, but I think Fincher has a good shot. I thought Carrie Coon was terrific as well, I thought there would be some buzz for her for Supporting.

I'm surprised Gone Girl isn't nominated for Outstanding Cast Ensemble (SAG's equivalent of Best Picture). I don't think it's Best Picture material, but it's a well-acted movie, from its leads down to all the supporting players (Carrie, Kim, Tyler, Missi, NPH, Amy's parents). Maybe it didn't campaign hard enough? It does feel like the people behind the movie is not doing the usual Oscar schmoozing. It's looking like Pike will have to land that Oscar nomination just based on the strength of her performance alone. One thing I like about GG is that it had strong, compelling female characters all around, which is a rarity for Hollywood movies, unless you're making a girl-power movie. Keira Knightley has said it's just another day at the office being the only actress in The Imitation Game. I read on EW that some expected movies didn't make the SAG cut because they screened late for SAG voters, or didn't even get to submit screeners at all. EW mentioned Selma and Unbroken being in these categories. And maybe that's how Gyllenhal was able to sneak in vs. the actors in Selma and Unbroken.

Now that the whole season is coming to a close - So Sandy's "asset" was Tasneem, and Sandy was trading state secrets with her in exchange for people on the kill list, which I assume her and Haqqani were more than willing to give up in exchange for this big plan of embassy invasion. Tasneem "gives up" Haqqani so the CIA wouldn't go searching for a dead man while he makes his big plans. However, Saul put a little monkey wrench in the plans, but it turned out to be even better since Haqqani got some of his men back. So in light of all that happened, shouldn't Lockhart be culpable for the embassy invasion as well because he knew fully well that Sandy was in bed with the enemy trading state secrets? Something that Carrie outed him earlier in the season? But that fact seems to be forgotten after all that happened, and it's looking like Dennis will be the sole fall guy for all of this. BTW, where in the world is General Bunny in all of this? I had the impression that he is Tasneem and Khan's boss. Why didn't anyone made a phone call straight to him and bypass the ranks? Carrie already knows there's a mole within the ISI, so why trust anyone who is not the possibly highest ranking official. And the fact that Khan is a very high-ranking official, but he gives in to Tasneem's wiles??? Great hour of action, and I did a little gasp when Fara got killed the same way I gasped when Aayan was killed. But lots and lots of question still. A little digging deep and a lot doesn't make sense....