Let the Music Play On: Season 2 of The Deuce & The Power of Maggie
There are only two women in this world I would ever fear losing out on a companion to: Maggie Gyllenhaal and Marion Cotillard. When it doesn’t work out with someone or if I’m thinking about where my sweetheart is spending his time not communicating with me, I picture them with Maggie or Marion. As many friends have told me over the years: that is not a worry you have to have, boo.
The Marion story I will get into in another post, this post is about Maggie. What strikes me about her is the way she embodies her roles. She’s never just a pretty face, the minute she enters a scene, you instinctively know that she’s an intelligent woman. There are so few of these characters that we are allowed to see on film and television, that when they appear you cling to them wanting to know everything about them.
In The Deuce, she captivates you with the way she fits in, but also sticks out like a sore thumb. This girl doesn’t belong on the track and she moves with the confidence of someone that didn’t come from the traditional background of the disenfranchised. When we learn that she’s from an upper-middle class family from Long Island you start to shout, “why are you on the streets?!” That’s what makes her roles so interesting. She begins her character’s story from one place (in this instance as a prostitute) and then you see the layers of her character unfold and you need to know why it happened. How many of the other women in this show did you ask yourself that question about?
The story than shifts. You don’t just want to learn about how she got where she is, you root for her to get out of there and make something for herself, on her terms. When she falls in the porn industry, you immediately know where she belongs — she needs to be behind the camera making the shots.
Candy isn’t a sad character that ended up on the wrong side of the tracks. Candy is a phoenix from the ashes who will take over the fringe of the film industry and bring it mainstream. Once we hit the 80’s, Candy’s sitting in Hollywood meetings making deals and it wouldn’t surprise me if she found herself at a Palm Springs bar having drinks with an older Don Draper who would look right at her and see a kindred spirit — someone who’s story is different from everyone else’s, but who made an even more magnificent story out of it without ever lifting the veil to reveal her true self.
I’ve recently made the switch to the Fire Stick and Sling TV and it was such an exhausting process to cut the cord and get everything in the house right that I haven’t downloaded HBO Go yet. It will probably be the next season of True Detective or Game of Thrones that motivates me to do it. When I do is when I will finish the second season of The Deuce.
In the meantime, I watched Maggie in The Kindergarten Teacher last night. It was hard to sit through because it was so raw. She’s a teacher that crossed the line continually, but for good reason, or rather, reason that only people that shared her philosophy would consider a good reason. She has a fiver year old in her class with the talents of Mozart that writes poetry as if he’s been doing it for twenty years. The child’s family could care less and he has no one else in his life willing to foster this gift. She takes it upon herself to do so to the detriment of her career and personal life. Rule # 1 — if it’s not your kid, stay away. Her character doesn’t realize this, but something she did see clearly, with her removed from the picture, no one cared that this kid was a genius and no one probably ever would.
She continually chooses projects that stand out and make you think. If I see a film with her attached to it, I make a mental note to watch it when it comes out because you already know there will be substance to it.
Watch The Deuce and watch The Kindergarten Teacher on Netflix.
I have my articles ready, it’s just been busy on my end and I haven’t had a chance to get them loaded. More to come this week and we will be back to our regular schedule by next week. Stay tuned…
