In The Movies AI Is Helpful… Until It Turns On You
“Artificial intelligence, and the desire to smooth out the rough edges of human biology through it, has frequently made its way into the movies. But while the most intriguing of films that dabble in the subject tell entertaining stories, they warn of the complications of relying too much on technology to solve problems. Will a smart machine bring salvation or destruction?” – The New York Times
Seven mostly positive thoughts about the new season of ‘Ozark’
I’ve watched season three of “Ozark,” a Netflix series I’ve been on the fence about since it premiered. A loose spin on “Breaking Bad,” it’s about a family laundering money for a drug cartel — and kind-of-sort-of getting into it. Here are a few of my observations (careful; there are spoilers scattered throughout):
1. Season three is the best season of the series so far. The story line arc works pretty well, with seeds planted early on that bloom in the later episodes. The build is nicely done, so that the final third of the season is shaking with energy and tension. I mean, it’s all preposterous — The cartel leader is all about the Byrdes! The kids know everything! — but my suspension-of-disbelief mechanism was more than willing to help me move past all that.
1. Season three is the best season of the series so far. The story line arc works pretty well, with seeds planted early on that bloom in the later episodes. The build is nicely done, so that the final third of the season is shaking with energy and tension. I mean, it’s all preposterous — The cartel leader is all about the Byrdes! The kids know everything! — but my suspension-of-disbelief mechanism was more than willing to help me move past all that.
2. One critical reason the new season is so pleasin’: Laura Linney. Her Wendy Byrde has a lot more to do this time around, as she moves against her husband and deals with her brother’s mental-health issues. And Linney makes it all fly (Byrde; get it?), bouncing effortlessly from shrewdness to sarcasm to fury to grief to dry comedy (the latter when she is painfully honest with her kids). Dryly Comic Linney may be my favorite Linney, although those scenes with her brother on their short road trip were very fine indeed. These are the first episodes where I felt the actress was truly having a good time with the role.
Seven mostly positive thoughts about the new season of ‘Ozark’
Seven mostly positive thoughts about the new season of ‘Ozark’
Good or bad, all actions have consequences. Some can be small, but some others can be deadly.
That, at least, is one of the few things that we can learn fromOzark, Netflix’s Emmy-winning crime drama about a middle-class financial planner who breaks bad after getting involved with a Mexican drug cartel.
Yes, the subject that the show explores is far from original. A lot of other shows like Breaking Bad, its spin-off Better Call Saul and The Sopranos have all explored the same themes. But unlike Walter White, the antihero of Ozark, Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) isn’t fueled by his ambitions for power, rather simply by the needs of survival. He doesn’t choose to be bad. But due to circumstances, he has no option not to become so. And yet, even when he keeps laundering the Mexican cartel’s money and brings his family into his sinking ship, Marty always tries his best to keep his morals intact and be honest—though he’s willing to lie when it’s for the survival of his family.
This dichotomy is what eventually makes Ozark, despite its unoriginality, feel a little more refreshing and compelling. It’s not about how power and control can corrupt a person, but more about how an ethical man is forced to lose his morality in the name of family and self-preservation.
The Netflix series “Ozark” is shot in Georgia, with the exception of a few scenes filmed at the show’s true setting, Lake of the Ozarks.
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” was filmed in North Carolina.
“The Assassination of Jesses James by the Coward Robert Ford” was mostly set in Missouri, but filmed in Canada.
Since Missouri’s film tax credit expired in November of 2013, movies about Missouri have been shot elsewhere. A proposed bill making its way through the Missouri House would reinstate the tax credit and, supporters hope, bring film projects back into the state. It’s known as the Show Missouri Film and Digital Media Act.
House Bill 923, sponsored by Rep. Kathryn Swan (R - Cape Girardeau), would create a 20 percent tax credit for qualifying in-state expenses and a 10 percent tax credit for qualifying out-of-state expenses for film producers that are longer than 30 minutes and spend at least $100,000 shooting the film in Missouri. If more than 50 percent of the film is shot in Missouri, an additional 5 percent of in-state and out-of-state expenses can be earned as tax credits.