Reviews

They do not make em' like this anymore. The men are displayed as scumbags and the women are abused but cling to love. However, the direction and cinematography is professional. Steve McQueen and Ali Mcgraw play off each other well. They are sexy leads and believable. The film is sad with sad people. Sally Struthers is a victim to a Suddam Hussein lookalike and enjoys a pork rib food fight in a car with a kidnapped tortured driver. The film is a perverse look at the American Dream and how it can lead desperados into sick and twisted abuse, as if it is normal. There is a scene where McQueen keeps hitting and slapping Mcgraw for being neglectful and sloppy. It was disturbing and a reason to pass on this disturbing film. Men are not as bad as you think, and women are not the victims you think they are.

A humorous adventure of friends in their 30's, early 21st century men who go to Las Vegas, and have a blurred night of escapism through illicit drugs.

The question is; Do you relate to these men?

Imagine, getting married but you figured a night in Vegas is wiser than a sound sleep before the day of commitment.

Cocaine and other drugs appear in dialog which leads to fun times amongst a generation of friends who are experiencing the benefits of a Capitalist system.

It's all for fun and there are moments of mockery and truth. It showcases male degradation in the 21st century and a regard to a National decline.

The acting and direction is clever and has a watchable effect. The film wants you to identify with synthetic substance experience. Is this you? Cocaine, selfishness, immaturity, betrayal, forgetfulness, promiscuity? I would rather smoke a homegrown blunt and take a walk in the forest by a stream with my animal companions. Make that Experience a film, with a male identity and companionship.

I am not a fan of that Genesis song.

First and foremost, Julia Garner is a camera's best friend. She gave an award worthy performance wearing a mauve top in a toxic drab corporate work environment. The Character is designed in poetic imagery utilizing classical elegant 1940's feminine allure. Beautiful close ups. Skillyfully directed. The morning ride to work delivers us into a hell that exists for many of us especially fresh out of college. A sequel could reverse the gender role. Slow and captivating. Well crafted. I could feel the shallowness and the shadiness of the work place. It's all over America right now. Time for a Renaissance.

Greenland is somewhat fun and entertaining yet, this movie is creepy with cliches. So much so that I feel a real person did not write it. Gerard Butler carries the weight as the alpha caring father. Lucky for him he had just one child. No telling what the script would have done with three kids but, I know it would have just simply worked out and they would make that plane to Greenland in 5 minutes even though they are in Georgia. It will work out. The keys will be in the drawer. The medicine will be there. Dad will have a 50 acre ranch. The truck will have a full tank of gas. Only dad will figure out to drive backwards. Phew, a turkey sandwich shows up. Oh, a truck just happens to be going to Lexington. Then, the cell phone issue. WTF! It's a real bad movie with much potential to be so meaningful. Yet, it's another fine example of our degrading film industry. If I was 10 years old, I would love this movie. Some of the special effects and imagery of the comet hitting Earth were cool and scary.

Relic is practically a three character horror film set in one location. Kind of like the well executed and sexy film, "Dead Calm." There is a scene in Relic where we find Mother, Daughter, and Grand Daughter brushing their teeth in a rather blah swirling manner. It seemed like it was suggesting a culprit to dementia; genetics or nurtured chemicals? Relic took a social and family issue and made it a horror story with film technique. It works until it doesn't. So painful, this demon that takes our loved ones. We all become relics to the future generation. Our homes, chairs, sweaters, quilts, stained glass windows... The grand daughter is dull and given no range. There are no intimate past moments shown to us. Dementia who once played in the yard with her daughter. Or, a moment with childhood love, or fits of family trauma. All we see is a daughter not wanting to accept that mom has lost it as she has aged alone in the American Dream. Well directed but lingers into a heavy sigh.

What was the point of Aqua Man? A mindless unbalanced, and uncomfortable film. The cast and script seem a step off. Ben Affleck as Batman is questionable. Have another drink. Gal Gadot has many feminist posing closeups. Superman has a nice chest with sultry nipples being caressed by Lois Lane. There are flying beings evolved from locust that cyber garble. A bad soundtrack. A formula we all have seen in the previous super hero 21st century films. A superbad film. Stupid. The Flash? Cool Actor...wrong part. Hate this stupid movie.

Jude, a good and determined man is brought down by a society of pompous priviledge male ego and the strong feminist spirit of the woman he loves. His breakdown of this system's indirect abuse is a moment of great remorse. A well directed and acted film that captures Thomas Hardy's classic Novel of the late 19th century; Jude, The Obscure. If only Jude had met Tess Of The Durberville's. What a fantastic love story that would have been. Thomas Hardy novels translate very well to the cinema screen. "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the God's. They kill us for their sport."

My roommate asked me if I got a storage unit today. I saw my roommate 6 times in his car after moving out. My roommate asked me why I locked my door. The Invisible Man is about that person who you feel is messing with your life. The film is weak and cliche. Poor acting and goofy cinema techniques. I just watched it on a flight and had to fast foward to the end. However, I connected to the invisible force that sabotages someones life. I can not believe that my fellow humans allow such invasive destruction. A friend of mine in Portland, OR described her torment similar to this film. The fact that I am now experiencing the sense that something invisible is ruining me is too coincidental. I live in Portland. I moved in with her ex boyfriend. Destroy this evil. Wait till a group destroys your life and gets away with it.

Thomas Hardy witness life in England during the Victorian Era, a time of mental and emotional oppression and fundamental values played out by a dominate religious male sect. Hardy showcases his characters against pastoral settings and mists, rural roads, candle light, tight interiors, and a love story usually develops among the literary painting. Hardy also plays on the purity of his characters, void of ego. In Far From The Madding Crowd there is a pure character who is rejected by the vanity of feminism. Yet, pure love is present and remains on the sidelines throughout the film. Gabriel Oak is the focus in study. "Do What Is Right" he states to a fearful and distraught Bathsheba. Matthias Schoenaerts plays Gabriel Oak, a hardworking and gifted shepherd. He has a spirit of a saint and a warrior, a man to strive to be. He reminds me of Jude, The Obscure, another character who was seen as pure and placed in the vanity of the institution and feminism. In Tess of The Durbervilles, Tess was the pure individual raped by the institutions controlled by the male world. One can see where feminism would rise. Remember that this was written in a time where a woman with three suitors would seem unfitting. Hardy loves to play on the circumstances that keeps pure love from blossoming, making the protagonist go through much hardship and strife before they have a second chance to act again on what once was and always eternally felt. Hardy also lives in a handsome world surrounded by handsome people. A lovely film and story.

I am sitting here watching this animated nightmare with my niece who seems to like the movie. I asked her; "Is that it?...is that all the emotions they are presenting to you? Where is wisdom? Where is faith?" The film is disturbing as it presents no magic to being a kid. It seems to play a lot on getting down in this world and reacting with anger and fear. Joy tries to rescue the mind but is being manipulated by outside forces trying to be goofy but lost in deception. I am not sure what this film is trying to suggest. I recall as a kid I use to have two characters in my head, little aliens, one good and one bad. They would do battle but good would win out each time. Yet, the little manipulative one would sometimes disguise himself as good. Yet, wisdom would come into play and I would send both aliens out of my head. Is Disney being operated by a cult? Each film dumbs the mind with eye candy tactics. Every time a Disney film ends my mind is left empty and my memory is void of emotion. Use wisdom and stay away from this warped garbage.

I wrote a screenplay 13 years ago called Cloning Jesus. A Battle in Tikrit, Iraq where American forces defeat the enemy after a aerial bombing. A watch tower crashes through a mosque and cracks the floor where a stairway leads down to a tomb. Guess what body lays in the tomb. In the end it turns out that you can not clone the Spirit. They fail. Whats weird, is that I made up the name Tikrit. Unaware of the real city where Hussein was found. Never saw this film. It sounds completely stupid. Find two drops of blood? Jesus was a man who smoked Christ and it enlightened to greatness and he became self aware. That Roman Pope committed the greatest ever told and look what it caused. There is you movie.

The first ten minutes of this painful documentary goes beyond any justice. The scientists involved in this corrupt and mindless experiment should be tried by a court of law for intentional cruelty and torture. If my tax dollars paid for this experiment then our government is corrupt with eyes wide shut. A Mother is systematically tortured by having 6 two week old infants chimps taken from her. The 6th being the title character. What was gained here was pure psychopathy. There was no need for this experiment except for vain exploration. This film gives every reason why science needs regulations. However, since this is not going to happen then will someone please point to the red button so I can give it a huge push. This is perhaps the most horrifying film I have ever seen. What were these scientist hoping to accomplish; to raise a chimp to be human? For what purpose? To serve humans? To be slaves? To fill a void? We have to be a mutation in the gravest form. I want these scientists prosecuted.

Carmo, Hit The Road is about two people who find companionship and love in the rural back country of Brazil where lawlessness, recklessness and rape run amok. The film follows these two characters on a gritty journey to escape the hell around them. Marco rescues Carmo and Carmo rescues Marco in a similar circumstance. A sexual film of much perversions and pain and yet there is hope constantly following them, a cupid of sorts in the form of Jesus and a Spiritual Boss. The film has a Pulp Fiction camp to it that works quite well...well, unless you get easily offended at the constant male intrusion of forced sex. The film grows lighter with each passing hardship as Marco and Carmo become more reliant and attracted to each other. Predictable perhaps, but the two leads carry the weight of the film magnificently. A film of perseverance and strife, of truth and pain. A Charm lying in a sea of filth. One of my favorites films as it was unexpected and directed with a well composed hand. Brilliant and effective. Not for those with a weak stomach or delicate and protected mind.

Silverlinings Playbook begins on an uneasy feeling, a man (30's), Pat, is released from a mental hospital, picked up by his mother, who is adamant about getting him out of there asap. Pat has some anger issues that become too violent at times, threatening society. Yet, his reaction to a betraying act by his wife seems justifiable to me...in a moment of rage with the wedding song playing. The answer? Meds. Dope Pat up on prescriptions and cloud his mind. Put him away for a while to study.

The film fires up at the entrance of Tiffany, an alluring young woman who becomes an object of affection for Pat, in a peculiar and spellbinding way. The attraction is captured brilliantly and effectively. Love at first site pours off the screen. Follow this with a witty emotional script about love in this prescribed modern life. The moment we see this attraction is so aching to those who know this moment. It is a very pleasing time to recognize someone you could be with for the rest of your life...no questions...in silence, a look, a recognition of yes...risen from melancholy and regret.

A beautiful film to watch again, in segments. It is definitely trying to say something under the surface. Refreshing, fun, and potent. Great acting and casting was dead on. But, as we all know, Love is fleeting, as is sadness and regret, pain and happiness. A sequel might not be a pleasant experience. But, I'm optimistic as is Pat, who is designing his Playbook...

Nastassja Kinski evokes something in the viewer. In Maria's Lovers, she is able to transform from an adolescent sexual lolita to a captivating experienced woman. I viewed the film in a foreign language so I just examined the characters, pacing, lighting, and what I witnessed was an obscure treasure from the 1980's. Nastassja Kinski was in her prime in 1984. She was an eccentric actor to the American audience, ravishing, spell binding, odd. Maria's Lovers is beautiful and lyrical, a film that lingers in the mind, asking questions and relating to moments of lovers. A fascinating study. The directing and cinematography are graceful. I love when we see Maria for the first time. She is so captivating and yet, something else...not sure what...something cool and refreshing. A Film for the Registry.

Roman Polanski's masterful film Tess is like a rich dessert. Nastassja Kinski plays the Title character. She moves throughout the landscape with much enigma and haunting allure. The mists of oppression engulf her spirit as she is consistently victimized by the vanity of a Christian male dominant world. Thomas Hardy's acclaimed novel Tess Of The D' urbervilles is brought to fluid imagery. The film is filled with enchantment such as Stag stumbling upon Tess who is resting in a pile of leaves: "All is Vanity" she states. I actually prefer Hardy's scene in the novel where there are wounded birds that fall from the tree Tess lays under. The film lingers for close to three hours like an ambling horse on a county road. The cinematography is awe inspiring. One of my favorite films. I love Tess's walk to her in-laws church only to have her boots taken away by a former suitor of her absent husband. All is vanity.