Sharp Reviews objects: All atmosphere, zero momentum

Sharp Objects (TV Shows)

type

TV series

genre

Suspense

date of execution

07/08/18

creator

Marti Noxon

interpreter

Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson

director

Jean-Marc Vallée

broadcaster

HBO

seasons

1

episodes

8

We gave it a ] B +

I want to throw the phrase "prestige television" into the critical trash, right next to the overused vocabulary like "golden age", "timely", and the adjacent hand wash in the opinion "I'm glad it exists."

HBO's range of talent producing sharp objects is definitely prestigious. The limited series (starting Sunday at 9 pm ET) features Amy Adams, a five-time Academy Award nominee and blue-eyed avatar of the modern human condition. She plays the ambiguous protagonist Camille Preaker. His mother, Adora, is the great Patricia Clarkson, one of those performers who always seems to be at a great year of an EGOT race

Sharp Objects is directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, the filmmaker Matthew McConaughey returns with Dallas Buyers Club before distributing rebirths to everyone in Big Little Lies . The show is created and co-written by Marti Noxon, suddenly omnipresent between this and Dietland . And it is adapted from a book by Gillian Flynn, who also serves as co-author. Flynn achieved the status of a phenomenon with Gone Girl of 2012, and this is only after reaching the most glorious summit of literary success: working as a television critic at Entertainment Weekly . these beautiful people have produced the most glittering drama, the most voracious and the most booz of the summer. It's the sizzling South Gothic, a notion of the small town of Missouri as evidenced by a bady murderer drowned in a river of bourbon and blood.

RELATED: How Amy Adams and Gillian Flynn faced their own fears Sharp Objects to life

Adams first looks like Camille as a gorgeous wreck, the kind of black movie guy who ends up a suspect in his own murder. This is an old school reporter, a drinker who has a problem writing. She is also prone to self-injury, and Sharp Objects can be understood as an investigation into the psychology behind her cut – though it does make the kind of story that has an uplifting message look like . And after seeing seven of the eight episodes in the series, I concluded that his compelling message is, "Damn, s-s-ed."

A journalist in St. Louis, Camille is sent on a mission that requires a touching staff. Her editor is intrigued by the fact that two teenage girls were found dead in the town of Wind Gap, where Camille was raised. This is not a happy return to the house. Valley rides back and perhaps hallucinations on the arrival of Camille. The implications are dark. We receive excerpts from Young Camille (Sophia Lillis), memories of nightmarish events putting an end to dreamy innocence. Lillis looks so much like a young Adams that you suspect a trip back in time or cloning. (She was the only loser in He so it is fair to say that Lillis has the subgenre "Teen Nostalgia in the Horror Forest" on lock.)

The distribution of characters waiting for Camille Broadway melodrama, or a locked mystery. His mother is a matriarch of the high southern tradition. Everyone seems to work for it – including police chief Vickery (Matt Craven), who is not too happy that a big city reporter is sniffing his case. But he also suffered the invasion of detective Richard Willis (Chris Messina), a Kansas City police officer sent to Wind Gap to help with the investigation.

Camille has a young half-sister, Amma (Eliza Scanlen), who is the same old-fashioned as the dead girls. And Camille and Amma have another sister long dead for reasons gradually revealed, whose absence is the black heart void in the center of the house.

Adams gives a great performance, strong even when it dissolves. She is the escapee who returns to the asylum, sadly funny in her interactions with the remnants of nowhere of her high school life. But she also feels, deeply, the darkness on the edge of this city. Sharp Objects orients around Wind Gap women, especially the women of Camille's family. Adora has the fainting charms of a Southern Belle comic book. She tends to wear dresses from Eden, the chromatic opposite of Camille's black wardrobe.

In the middle of these two – in the middle of everything, really – there is Amma. Scanlen is the discovery of the summer. Amma has at least two faces, an adorable and devoted girl who is also a child of a debauched skater. His talent for metamorphosis suggests multiple interpretations of his relationships with Adora and Camille. There is also a stepfather (Henry Czerny) delighted with his sound system, a monument to paternal impotence.

The setting of Sharp Objects is miles and genres removed from the decadence Cali-soap of Big Little Lies. But you feel the same talent of Valley for atmospheres. The small keys communicate an addictive world construction. Vickery's office has a window air conditioner, which he constantly turns for heat respite. Camille visits a local bar, a neon-lit dive as comfortable as the quay cafe Big Little Lies . This is the kind of show where an entire episode depends on your attention to the flowers: who cares for them, who runs them, who cares about the roses, who notices the thorns.

(19459019) Sharp Objects Author Gillian Flynn on writing a story about how women handle anger

But the series has a problem mid-season, a problem of hell-to-the-point. Some evocative images become repetitive of misuse. Amma runs a gang of full-fledged skaters, a trio of teenage girls who float through Wind Gap in the way the Fates have floated across Greek mythology. There is a moment when Camille crosses an empty city center and sees the three girls skating far out the window. It's an amazing visual, nostalgically American and insidious at times.

And then in episode 4 or 5, skaters begin to show themselves everywhere. He begins to feel synthetic, as when you realized that the Cheerios on Glee would never remove their uniform. Many things about Sharp Objects are like that; I've lost count of how many times Camille has reloaded his bottle of water with vodka, but I've had the first 327 point.

In the first, there are two main suspects for the murders. And for the great majority of Sharp Objects they are the suspects. It's by design. It's a holistic mystery, less about the dark act than about society that has led to the dark act. The story of Wind Gap is wild, and the dark atmosphere of Sharp Objects could inspire some chatter. (There is a point where everyone seems guilty of something.) But the episodes in the middle are snaking. The penultimate episode is a stunner, and yet I'm worried that "You'll love it if you watch the first seven episodes" is another criticism that no one takes seriously. Who has the time?

The haunted and mesmerizing mood of Sharp Objects walks on me, however. Comparisons with mysterious short-term sagas like True Detective are obvious, but it's more of a quivering meditation, a portrait of the multigenerational feminine struggle. Any scene with a combination of Adams, Clarkson and Scanlen is wonderful. And Messina is at Peak Messina here, gruff and tough and somehow the most naive person on the screen. The prestigious collaboration has produced a brutal, gentle confection as an afternoon badtail on the porch, bruised like a national hangover. B +