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sallymom34
Reviews
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
Wonderful movie
I so enjoyed this movie! The acting and writing were excellent and I was very moved by the end. It was so enjoyable! In particular I loved the long scene where Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling fell in love over the course of an evening. They had amazing chemistry, she is really turning out to be a terrific young actress. And he is always spot on. It was wonderful. But everything was good! Sometimes Julianne Moore isn't that sympathetic to me but I enjoyed her here very much. The same for Steve Carrell. This was his best work since the movie with Juliette Binoche (I loved that one, too, DAN IN REAL LIFE). As opposed to some of the gross out comedies of the summer, this one really trusted the intelligence of the audience. I hope these filmmakers continue on.
The Presence (2010)
Wonderfully original ghost story
I recently caught this beautiful film at the Dallas Film Festival. The response of the crowd was certainly different from some of the reviews here. The audience loved the movie, which was evident not only by the response during the movie but during the Q&A after the movie with the director. I went with three other people and while our reaction in some ways was split - two of us loved the opening, which is very quiet, very still and two were not as fond of the opening section as they were the rest of the movie - by the end all of us found the movie very creepy and thought-provoking. Some people in the audience, including one of our group, cried at the end. We all had different interpretations of what was going on. We found the ambiguity in the movie very refreshing. Finally a movie that asks the audience to participate and think! Subsequently I am befuddled by some of the reviews here. I guess some people were expecting a horror movie but the movie is not a horror movie. The director, while noting that the production team has had a hard time labeling the movie, given it is so different from the norm, did call it a Gothic romance. One of my friends thought it was a twisted fairy tale. It certainly is lushly photographed and the score we all thought was incredible. I don't want to give away too much but if you are in the mood for a creepy, tense yet someone romantic twist on a traditional ghost story, and you don't mind being asked to think, this is an excellent film. People always seen to complain about Hollywood making the same type of movies over and over. This definitely is not the same old thing!