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Reviews
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Rubbish
I don't think I'm stupid. I've just come from a Alex McQueen exhibition at our NGV. Alex McQueen is a brilliant costume designer who unfortunately left us far too soon. As far as film making goes I thoroughly enjoyed Being John Malkovich. That too is about multiuniverses. Charlie Kaufman is a brilliant writer who wrote a very clever script. Mulholland Drive is a David Lynch film that delves in alternative realities. That too is clever with an ambivalent ending that is open to interpretation.
As far as this one goes, if the intentions of the writers is to say something about the human condition using the metaphors of multiuniverses, then sorry, I missed it. The initial premise of a laundrymat being audited by the IRS I can understand. Taxes drive me crazy. I normally reach for alcohol after I've been audited. The character in this movie I think took a tab of acid and that explains the rest of the movie. I kept with the movie till the end. I'm sorry I did because at the one hour 10 minute mark the credits appeared on the screen. The sensible thing at that point would have been to walk out of the movie. It kept going another hour and I stayed with it, which shows I'm not a sensible person.
Sorry, this movie is a convoluted mess. One star.
Years of Living Dangerously (2014)
Brilliant
People should be ashamed at the way we are destroying this planet. Even reading many of the reviews here, so many of us are in denial, even though the science is indisputable. SHAME. Harrison Ford has done what very few of us are able to do - use his celebrity to travel to Indonesia to question the commitment of government officials there to stop the exploitation of the rain forests for palm oil. Basically the security of our planet is secondary to money making and that explains why no progress has been made to reducing human carbon emissions on the planet. This documentary series pulls no punches on what we have to do to avoid a catastrophe. Pity no-one is listening. Instead the argument is reduced to the Republicans versus the Democrats. The climate doesn't care about people's political affiliations. Those who had the political power to act and chose to do nothing will have to answer to their children and grandchildren who face living on an unlivable planet.
Stardust (2020)
A film version of David Bowie without any of the music of David Bowie
As of this moment I'm about 1/2 hour into watching this movie. I see that it won an award for costume design. That's about all it deserved to win. The real David Bowie sacked his manager for suggesting he could make more money as a cabaret performer doing Anthony Newbury immitations than he ever could as a rock artist. This David Bowie couldn't organise a working visa on a promotional tour of the US, allows his promoter to criticize Man Who Sold The World and allows almost everyone including his wife to talk over the top of him. It stretches the imagination to think this film version of David Bowie could attract more than a handful of concert goers to any of his concerts. What were the screen writers thinking when they wrote this mess? In addition where is any of the actual music of David Bowie in this movie????? In short this movie is an unmitigated disaster.
Secrets of Playboy (2022)
Nothing here.
Three episodes into this series I haven't learned anything about Hugh Hefner I wouldn't already have assumed about him. Where is the evidence that Hugh Hefner is another Jeffrey Epstein? Do I have to watch the rest of the series to find out? Yes, these women were unscrupulously exploited for the Playboy image. Yes, they took drugs and had multiple sex parties in the Hugh Hefner Playboy mansion. Is anyone seriously shocked about the stories these women tell about their experiences once they signed a contract to be a Playboy bunny. Unfortunately once you sign a contract you're liable for the terms of the contract which in this case meant the commercial exploitation of your image for whatever purposes Hugh Hefner had in mind. Being 17 and having your parents sign the contract may be morally wrong but it isn't a criminal offence. These women weren't forcibly coerced into doing things against their will in the Playboy mansion when they started work. They could have chosen to leave any time, but the lure of money and lack of alternative work opportunities appears to have made them stay. It's obvious from this documentary from what the women are saying that Hugh Hefner isn't a nice person. However my understanding is commercial exploitation isn't a criminal offense and none of these women who have come forward to tell their stories to the camera, however brave they are, have presented evidence that Hugh Hefner is a criminal in the same vein as Jeffrey Epstein. For that reason the documentary makers have failed to do their job and thus I can only give this one star.
The BBQ (2018)
An embarrassment to the Australian film industry
The Australian film "The BBQ" combines the mockumentary style of film making of "The Castle" with the obsessiveness theme of "Strictly Ballroom". Instead of a ballroom dancing competition we have a competition to determine who can cook the best BBQ meat. Most of the scenes are set outdoors. Unfortunately for the audience expecting a breezy comedy from the talented Shane Jacobson and Magda Szubanski there is nothing remotely funny to laugh about. The actors appeared to have turned up on the film set with their own predetermined mannerisms and accents (with Magda it's a Scottish accent) and the film maker has no idea how to mold the ensemble of actors together. Neither does he have any idea of where to place a camera. The result is an incoherent mess. One could make allowances if there was one hint of originality in the film script. Alas there isn't. Even the musical score is over the top. For the poor viewer one doesn't know when parody stops and the seriousness takes over. Of course the one thing we know at the very beginning of the film is that the Shane Jacobson character will come out on top at the end. If you're a sentimentalist you might find this film mildly interesting. For everybody else please avoid.