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Wow, I haven't seen hardly any movies this summer! Nothing has much appealled to me.
Dean's rating scale: ****Exceptionally good, ***Quite good indeed, ** I liked some things about it, but found it to be something closer to average,* Not recommended.
I need to point out that I am not really as critical as I may sometimes sound from my
reviews. Generally, anything two stars or better is something I have
enjoyed, and even those to which I only give one star probably have some
aspects I have found redeeming, though I'd put them
further down my list. Anything with less than a star (that is 0 or 1/2)
is an absolute or nearly absolute thumbs down.
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**1/2 |
Bloody Sunday -- Rarely do we see the lines so clearly drawn in the
first two minutes of a movie. What follows is the most disturbingly
realistic docudrama that I can recall seeing on any topic. The story, of
course, reenacts the horrific events of that fateful Sunday in January 1972
when all hell broke lose in the town of Derry, Northern Ireland, and resulted
in what apparently became the unprovoked massacre of numerous civil rights
activists. The film is also one of the best I've
seen to capture the views from both sides of a conflict, though we soon learn
at whom the finger is pointed. At times, the intensity of the violence
and the sense of chaos and confusion rivals or even surpasses that of the urban
warfare scenes of Black Hawk
Down, and though the bullets are flying in every direction, they are
mostly coming from one source. The shakey
camera movement is straight out of The Blair Witch Project, but
is used to much greater advantage in this case and really gives one the feeling
of being caught up in the center of the action, though
for some it may have the same dispeptic effect.
James Nesbitt is a sure Best Actor nominee for his portrayal of Ivan Cooper, a
Protestant member of Parliament who heads a northern
Irish Civil Rights Association and who attempts to lead a peaceful
demonstration against the will of the British authorities and in spite of
seeming attempts by elements on both sides to undermine the peace. Other
prominent well known civil rights activists are
portrayed, such as Bernadette Devlin, but Nesbitt is the central figure.
Though the film is in color, the dark gray winter climate of Northen
Bowling for Columbine -- Why is it that Canadians, who have nearly as many
guns per capita as Americans and are nearly as diverse, suffer fewer than one-tenth as many homicides? This and other
questions involving the high level of gun violence in America and the climate
of fear surrounding such tragic events as the student slayings at Columbine
High School in Littleton, Colorado are the focuses of
Michael Moore's new film. Michael Moore is sort of a Rush Limbaugh
of the left, with all the moral indignation, but kinder, gentler and without
the name calling and personal invective. He gets criticized by reviewers for being self congratulatory,
unlike Rush who's so over the top that, well, why criticize the obvious.
Rush calls his schtick "entertainment", and
Mostly Martha -- (In German, with English subtitles) -- A perfectionist chef who lives and breathes her culinary obsession wonders why her boss has insisted she see a psychiatrist. Disregarding the absurd notion that the customer is always right, she is given to public displays of rage when someone suggests any slight discrepancy exists in her works of artistry. Living a mostly self-focused existance, a tragic event suddenly thrusts her into the role of a guardian for her niece, and turns her otherwise carefully structured life on its head. Complicating her life further is a competing Italian chef who also serves as a romantic foil. This is a mostly sweet film with a plot that in some respects resembles numerous others you have seen, though with different context and variations on a theme. Hey, there's a good reason for being formulaic -- it works time and time again. What makes the film most worthy of your attention are the nuanced performances, so subtle and credible, from a talented though decidedly unglamorous cast. The subtlety of the performances are a perfect complement to the precise and careful touches of a master chef. You'll savour the feast for the eyes, but will be bound to leave the theater hungry by the sight of it. (Tasty for all ages, though a little slowly paced for some folks, particularly younger ones) **1/2
Secretary -- Sado-masachistic, misogynistic, obsessive-submissive, but somehow liberating, this film is likely to make you feel at times very uncomfortable and at other times quite amused. You may not like parts of what you see, but in hindsight, as you ponder the thoughtful nuances more carefully, the film is likely to leave you affected, which is a sure sign of a good film, though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone lacking broad tolerance for exotic behaviors. This strange exploration of kinky neuroses, both on an intellectual and physical level, is at times darkly depressing and at many other moments lightheartedly comic. It won the Audience Award for Originality at the Sundance Film Festival, and yet you may not want to take your friends to see it unless they are the kind with whom you are accustomed to seeing scenes of steamy sexuality, including multiple scenes of masterbation by both the lead actor and lead actress. The acting is brilliant, and the characters, though pathetically weird, are somehow fully believable in their odd and sometimes demented responses to their repressed and expressed emotions. The film is well worth the time, but again, I say only if you are quite open minded. Avoid it absolutely if you are an absolutist. (Kids -- entirely inappropriate; the maturist of teens only; adults -- take it, with the qualifiers mentioned above, or steer clear) ***
Sprited Away -- (In
Japanese with English subtitles) -- I don't know what kinds of drugs Japanese
animators are taking these days, but I don't want any of what they're on.
This film is imaginative to the Nth degree, though
pointless as far as I can tell. The story line is a bit like
White Oleander -- A teenage girl who is suddenly
forced into a foster home after her mother murders an abusive lover
continues to navigate through a series of tragedies and through feelings of
abandonment. This is definitely not a feel-good movie, nor is it
particularly a tear jerker either. Actually, it's more of a feel-nothing movie, a refuge any sane person would
seek under any similar set of circumstances as those endured by this young
girl. The actress, Alison Lohman, gives a
phenomenal performance, and far outshines the other notable names, including
Michelle Pfeiffer who plays her psychologically controlling mother, and Robin
Wright Penn, Renee Zelwigger and Svetlana Efrenova, who play a series of sadly imperfect foster
mothers. Near the end of the film, the mother-daughter relationship
becomes somewhat melodramatic, and the details of past supposedly relevant
incidents are left inadaquately explained, but this
is a very minor drawback to the film's theme and rhythmn. Since the film is mainly about the failure
of emotional attachments, we end up feeling similarly to the heroin, rather disattached in the end to those around her. This is a
serious film throughout, and don't expect to be
particularly uplifted by a mother and daughter coming to terms and a young
woman coming to age. I found it interesting that there were quite a few long-haired blonds in the audience with me, just as there
are quite long-haired blonds in the movie. Perhaps, it's
not just opposites that attract. (Kids -- perhaps not appropriate;
teens -- generally okay for mature teens) **1/2
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