All Her Fault: McLuhan and Poe Would've Loved It

My wife and I binged All Her Fault on Peacock the past two nights.  It's a riveting, powerful, different kind of kidnap drama, with all kinds surprises and twists and turns in family relationships.

Herewith some of the highlights, with no spoilers:

• The lead detective -- Detective Alcaras (very well played by Michael Peña) -- has real heart.  My wife said he reminded her of Brandis in Task, and she's right.  You know, it's hard to come up with a fresh take on a genre as well worn as the detective, which goes at least as far back as the 1840s with Poe, but All Her Fault (and Task) does that, and does that very well.  I hope we see more of this character (his partner, Det. Greco, played by Johnny Carr, is good, too).
• Most kidnap stories focus on the angst of getting the child back home, which All Her Fault does, too.  But it also delves deeply into who did the kidnapping, and how and why this came to happen. 
• The immediate family of the kidnap victim of course is always a central part of a kidnap drama.  In All Her Fault, that family is a little more than immediate, and they each have significant stories as well.
• Friends and business associates also have important stories, which intersect with the kidnapping story.
• Back to the kidnapper's story: there's quite a narrative there, too.  Indeed, All Her Fault is as much the kidnapper's story as the family whose child was kidnapped.
• Marshall McLuhan liked to talk about synesthesia, the rare blending of senses, that a few people have, in which hearing a sound can immediately generate an image, and more.   This plays a crucial role in All Her Fault.
• I guessed who the real villain was pretty early on in the eight-episode series, but it was exciting seeing that play out.

How's that for a review without spoilers?  I will say that the acting was excellent -- Sarah Snook, who was so good in Succession, is superb as the mother of the kidnapped child, Dakota Fanning was fine as friend Jenny, Jake Lacy was memorable as the father, and hats of to Duke McCloud who played Milo the victim.

Narcos Mexico: A Riveting Prequel

With Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán on trial in New York, what better time to watch - and review - Narcos Mexico, the fourth installment in Netflix's justly acclaimed Narcos series.  Actually, it's a prequel to the other three Narcos, but it's just as powerful.   It takes place (obviously) in Mexico, but it's the story of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and the massive weed cartel he and his brother Rafael Caro Quintero put together in the 1980s.

El Chapo appears as a low-to-high-level henchman of Rafael's.   And Pablo Escabar and the Kings of Cali put in an appearance in a great episode in which Gallardo goes to Colombia to get make a deal for the coke distribution which is beginning to rival and exceed his weed trade.   Indeed, Gallardo's shift from marijuana to cocaine is one of the turning point in Narcos Mexico, and has some unforeseen and unhappy consequences for Gallardo.

The other central theme is the dedication - some would say obsession - of American DEA Agent  Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena to bring down Gallardo's Guadalajara/Mexican/world drug cartel.   In case you're not familiar with the real history, and/or haven't seen Narcos Mexico, I won't tell you how this all turns out.  But I will say that there are close calls galore, and death expected and unexpected meted out in almost every episode.

There's a narrator - Scoot McNairy - who sounds a lot like like the narrator of the first three seasons but is not.  The acting is excellent - especially Diego Luna as Miguel, Tenoch Huerta as Rafael, and Joaquín Cosio as their uncle 'Don Neto' Fonseca Carrillo. Michael Peña does memorable work as Kiki, as does Alyssa Diaz as his wife. And it was a real treat was seeing Wagner Moura as Escobar and Francisco Denis and Alberto Ammann as the Cali bosses back in the 1980s one more time.

And here's the confession I often make when I watch these series:  I know the drug cartels murdered a lot of people and did a lot of very evil things.  But in the narrative framework of the story on screen, I always feel a little bad when things don't go right for them, and a little bit glad when they do.  For that reason, I wouldn't be totally devastated if El Chapo dug a tunnel and got out his jail in New York, just as he did in Mexico, but that's another story.

See this series.  If you like this kind of stuff, you'll love it.

 

the Neanderthal cartel

Frontera: Powerful Border Movie with a Minor Problem

Just saw Frontera on Netflix.  Released this past summer without much fanfare, the movie brings to the screen many of the simmering issues presented in The Bridge - on FX for two seasons and now departed.  Ed Harris puts in a standout performance as a retired sheriff whose wife is killed, and devotees of Rectify will be happy to see Aden Young (Daniel on Rectify) as Harris's erstwhile deputy and now successor.   Also on good hand are Michael Peña (just seen as Mark Solano on Gracepoint) and Eva Longoria.

The story has some major twists and surprises, and I won't give any of them away.   But I can say that the movie really excels in a variety of intersecting plots that not only include family life on both sides of the border but sharply drawn differences in decency and brutality, intelligence and not so bright, in the the major and minor characters.   It's a measure of how well presented a movie is when you can remember minor characters such as an older women who helps a younger woman who's pregnant, and a sheriff's assistant who does the right thing.   At the same time, though we think we know the major characters pretty well, our expectations are slapped in ways that keep the story percolating and largely unpredictable - no mean feat in such a well-trodden area.

There was one small part, however, that bothered me, because it presented a conspiracy theory as if it were a matter of confirmed reality.  At one point, the people from Mexico being escorted to the United States by a "coyote" spot two in their group in Islamic prayer.  A bit later they freak out when they hear them talking Farsi.  As far as I know, the idea that political enemies of the U.S. from the Middle East - i.e., would-be terrorists - are entering the U.S. through the Mexican border originates in the over-active imagination of conspiracy theorists and some Republicans in Congress.   True or not, this played no role in the movie, and therefore its inclusion in the movie makes no sense - unless the makers of the movie were trying to smuggle in a half-baked political statement.

That said, I would still strongly recommend Frontera, for its great acting and memorable human stories.