Postby Mr. Reindeer » Tue Sep 19, 2017 5:35 am
Continuing my rewatch....
The cut to the electric pole in conjunction with Richard is indeed interesting. I wonder if it hints at his lineage -- he is the physical human embodiment of Lodge malevolence.
This one really feels like the series settling into its quintessential groove: about a third of the time is spent in Twin Peaks on a sort of mini-movie that will have almost no follow-through in subsequent Parts, roughly a third is antics with Dougie and Bushnell and Janey-E in Vegas, there's a scene of the FBI crew, and random cutaways to scenes of Mr. C's scummy criminal network. This is also by far the least mythology-driven Part so far (and therefore the one where I have the least "unanswered question"-style comments so far). My only real question is who sends Duncan Todd the red square message. I suspect it's Mr. C, who can sense that DougieDale is still alive, and that the message is sent to him due to Mr. C calling (and destroying) the Buenos Aires black box (but maybe this is just wish fulfillment on my part/trying to make some sense of Argent 2).
So many phenomenal Dougie moments in this one. The look of boyish wonder when he stands in the elevator (although I still question the mechanics of why the doors keep opening), the smile of adoration when he hears Jade's name, the stern "make sense of it."
Dale making a fist when he sees the boxing poster is another hint at what I was speculating in my recent Part 5 post, that Coop has violence embedded deep in his soul. I really want to do a deeper analysis of this at some point.
Boy, that Lindholm/Stanton scene sure plays differently, huh? What a difference a few months makes. Actually, I'm pretty good at separating actors' terrible real-life actions from the performance, so Lindholm doesn't bother me too much. I was much more focused on HDS. "Waiting for the hammer to fall." "I've been smokin' every day for 75 fuckin' years." Man oh man. All his material was beautifully meta even back when he was alive, but now it tears me to shreds. The scene of the boy's soul (?) floating up is interesting now that I've learned that HDS was an atheist (or, at least, deeply agnostic). He plays it so sincerely and beautifully. And good God, his hair alone deserves a Best Supporting Actor Emmy.
It's interesting how certain Parts, or in some cases certain stretches of this "movie," seem to have their own leitmotifs. I mentioned earlier how Parts 3-4 seem to repeatedly hint at the old series motifs (owls, sycamores, Arthurian legend) before this is abandoned for the rest of the series (actually, I spoke too soon...we hear more of Vegas's Arthurian obsession in Part 6). This one has the mysterious green light we last saw in Part 5, which seems to replace the "portable Red Room" as Dale's new guiding light, and does double duty as the hit-and-run boy's "soul." We also have, I believe, the only two references to the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars as well as an unusually explicit Occupy call-out; an uncharacteristically high number of topical references for this series.
I really wish we'd seen more of Red. Getty's physicality in this one is so hysterically funny, so full of subtlety. It feels simultaneously gloriously spontaneous and meticulously choreographed. The weird judo punches, the hesitant alternating-hand gun motions. Terrific stuff. And I adore that establishing shot for the scene, with a log flume (?) seemingly going on forever. Does anyone know where/what that shot is?
I love that Miriam having just started school actually fits with the September date seen elsewhere. It gives me faith that the series timeline does fit together on some level.
There's a great piece of subtle L/F humor I missed on my first two viewings: when Phil & Dougie walk toward Bushnell's office, there is a woman handing a binder to a man (probably a client of Lucky 7). He opens it and says "This is empty!" and she reacts in embarrassed fashion.
I love the mood of the rainy Philadelphia night. Even inside the bar, the weather seems to be seeping in, coloring the joyful interactions we see as Albert skulks through on his mission. Diane also seems more sad here, as opposed to the angrier characterization she generally defaults to. I know it's a pain to shoot in rain, but I wish we'd gotten more moody weather, particularly in Twin Peaks/Washington State.