![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Oct. 12th, 2019 11:20 amI never thought the Breaking Bad finale required a canonical follow-up - fanfiction is always a different affair -, including where we left Jesse, which ( is spoilery ). Also, the Mike and Gus parts of Better Call Saul are easily my least favourite elements, so I was awaiting the release of this movie on Netflix with trepedition. Otoh: also with curiosity, some nostalgia and expectation, because I still love Breaking Bad, and Vince Gilligan is a superb craftsman.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie turns out to be more of an epilogue than a sequel; one that isn't exactly necessary from a storytelling pov - Jesse at the end of it isn't in a much different position than where we left him in Felina - but does deliver as a love letter to its central character without being over the top about it. It takes place mostly during the 48 hours following the Breaking Bad finale, with flashbacks to Jesse's time in captivity and to his earlier life. Which is where the cameos of long deceased characters you may or may not have heard about come in. (All these scenes are new, Gilligan didn't reuse scenes from the actual show.) Leaving aside that Aaron Paul does look years older and so does Jesse Plemmons - who reprises Todd in easily the most chilling sequences of the film (no physical violence happens, and Todd actually thinks he's being nice to Jesse, it's the genial sociopathy and also what Jesse's reactions say about how broken he's at this point that does the trick), the oeuvre does have a "lost episode" feel. It has the great cinematography, making the most not just of the breathtaking New Mexico landscape but transforming the mundane (a ceiling, for example) into something striking because of how it appears to our pov character. There's the mixture of suspenseful pulp fiction (Jesse the underdog versus various pursuers) and character drama (those quiet moments without which the show would never risen to the heights it did). There's the black humor (ditto). And the short appearances of the deceased in (new) flashbacks are each poignant.
( Spoilers have their favourites, though. )
In conclusion: moving and enjoyable to watch if you like or even love Jesse Pinkman, and I dare say that's true for 98% of Breaking Bad fans. (Including, of course, yours truly.) Not a must, but a treat.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie turns out to be more of an epilogue than a sequel; one that isn't exactly necessary from a storytelling pov - Jesse at the end of it isn't in a much different position than where we left him in Felina - but does deliver as a love letter to its central character without being over the top about it. It takes place mostly during the 48 hours following the Breaking Bad finale, with flashbacks to Jesse's time in captivity and to his earlier life. Which is where the cameos of long deceased characters you may or may not have heard about come in. (All these scenes are new, Gilligan didn't reuse scenes from the actual show.) Leaving aside that Aaron Paul does look years older and so does Jesse Plemmons - who reprises Todd in easily the most chilling sequences of the film (no physical violence happens, and Todd actually thinks he's being nice to Jesse, it's the genial sociopathy and also what Jesse's reactions say about how broken he's at this point that does the trick), the oeuvre does have a "lost episode" feel. It has the great cinematography, making the most not just of the breathtaking New Mexico landscape but transforming the mundane (a ceiling, for example) into something striking because of how it appears to our pov character. There's the mixture of suspenseful pulp fiction (Jesse the underdog versus various pursuers) and character drama (those quiet moments without which the show would never risen to the heights it did). There's the black humor (ditto). And the short appearances of the deceased in (new) flashbacks are each poignant.
( Spoilers have their favourites, though. )
In conclusion: moving and enjoyable to watch if you like or even love Jesse Pinkman, and I dare say that's true for 98% of Breaking Bad fans. (Including, of course, yours truly.) Not a must, but a treat.
