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Nobody (2021)
Best man gets revenge movie ever.
Okay, maybe not the best. Man on Fire still exists.
I usually avoid this trope because it's been done to death. I dislike a lot of slow motion CGI in these kinds of movies so this was a breath of fresh air. If this storyline is your cup of tea this one knocked it out of the park.
Biohackers (2020)
Enjoyable - Not sure why other reviewers are so critical.
No, it's not Dark, but it didn't strike me it was trying to be. For one, it's far less serious. There are exactly zero comedic characters in Dark, while this show has three. The science is over the top, but as long as you're not a doctor or a scientist it's possible to suspend reality and just enjoy the story. It's no less implausible than Rain. I thought the main character was quite good. The pace was a little too quick. I think it would have been better spread out over a few more episodes to give more opportunity for the characters to develop, but they did a good job in the 6 episodes they had to work with. American network television can't manage the same level in 12 or 13 episodes most of the time.
I'm at that point where I'm struggling to find something really good to watch I haven't already seen. That happens when you binge watch too much great television, so you find something to hold you over. This did it for an evening. Looking forward to Season 2.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Streep is incredible. The message is horrible.
Streep makes this movie worth watching despite the awful message this movie sends to women. Once again, women are told there is a limit to how much ambition is acceptable. Once again, it's a mortal sin not to put up with, console, and eventually cave to a sulky male partner. How dare a young woman prioritize her career for ONE YEAR. The last straw for me? She finally gets the break she took the job for in the first place, to meet an editor of a revered publication, but turns it down, because boyfriend's birthday. Which did no good. She was still late and he was still deeply wounded. DEEPLY.
But don't be alarmed, because it all turns out in the end. She quits the job, makes up with the boyfriend by telling him she was wrong about everything, is relieved he still has enough room in his heart for her that SHE can follow him to another state where he got his big break. Don't worry, she did get her "dream job" working at a much lesser publication than what she was hoping for. I mean, at least she got the "serious" journalism at all. Hopefully it will be lesser enough the wonderful boyfriend will put up with it.
So gross.
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (2019)
If Kubrick had a sister.
I love Stanley Kubrick films, but I've been frustrated for a long time that his depictions of the feminine are so idealized. The smiling mother or wife with her long hair and dress spinning between sheets of laundry. While his portrayal of men is brutally honest and painfully complex, his portrayal of women betrays him. It's hard to talk about art without comparing one artist with another and I hate it that I have to compare Céline Sciamma with a man, but because the playing field is virtually all men that's the reality.
This film is "The Thin Red Line" level beautiful. It is truly a masterpiece and it is everything I've longed for from a Kubrick film he could not only not make, but likely has no desire to, nor is it his responsibility.
In the same way Kubrick virtually ignores the concept of a woman as a unique individual, Sciamma does the same with men. With the exception of a few rowers in the beginning and a courier at the end, there are almost no men in this film. It is both a stand alone piece of exquisite art (every frame is a painting indeed) and an exploration of women not portrayed in contrast, opposition, or in cooperation with men, but on their own. While the reality of masculine dominance dictates their lives, their shrugging acceptance of it leaves the characters free to be individuals with no regard for man as a person. The lack of fight actually removes men from the equation almost entirely. They are a nameless, generic force in their lives. As individuals they do not exist. That erasure leaves nothing but the women and their universe is every bit as intense, painful, joyful, conflicted, and complex as the universe of men.
Cats (2019)
Gah! Just let dancers dance already!
Setting aside all of the other problems, lets talk about something that seems to be an epidemic in Hollywood. Once again they insult audiences by assuming we won't be satisfied just watching a dancer dance. The dance sequences, not numbers, suffer the same problem The Greatest Showman did. There are way too many cuts and special effects. A leap doesn't have to be Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon impossible to be beautiful. One of the reasons the Broadway version is successful at all is the dancing and that's because the audience is allowed to see it in it's entirety, not cut up to the point it's barely a dance at all. Long wide takes are what made the dancing in La La Land enjoyable to watch even if the dancers weren't Fred Astaire\Ginger Rogers astounding. It just proves we love to watch people dance. You'd think with the popularity of programs like So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With the Stars it would be obvious even to Hollywood by now.
CATS the stage play is a weird experience to watch. Putting it on screen was always going to be difficult, but to virtually remove one of the only elements which made the original good gave this movie no chance of success. Others have commented on the lackluster music so I won't bother.
Ballerina (2016)
Might be okay for the 7 and under crowd.
I knew this movie wasn't going to be realistic, but my 11 year old dancer and I decided to Netflix it. I didn't know it was going to be that bad! So you can become a ballerina in a few weeks? This was rediculous even by animated feature standards.
If you're the one of the "greatest dancers of her generation" and you get injured, you become the cleaning lady? Even if you don't get injured, Is the message that life is over once you're done dancing, but hey, go for it anyway? You can't even become a proper paid teacher? You have to do it in your spare time between the dishes and mopping the floors?
I thought maybe she would somehow sneak into the school, start in the baby class and be really tall and clumsy, with a montage of her slowly becoming the same height as her peers. At least have the audition something they're working towards over a few months, but days? It's honestly insulting to the other girls in the movie who've been working for years. I get it that people are talented, passionate, and driven and reach their dreams in record speed, but sheesh.
I wasn't aware the Nutcracker is performed in the summer or that Clara at any time wears a crown and Pointe shoes. Speaking of Nutcracker, we sure didn't hear much of it in a movie supposedly revolving around getting to play Clara. What's with the pop music?
Ugh. Characters were underdeveloped. Too many side characters. Too many unnecessary scenes and at the end of the day, it equates becoming a ballet dancer with the Karate Kid. It doesn't work.
The Whispers (2015)
The deaf thing was ridiculous
I'm not going to go into all the nonsensical things the adults, and kids, do in this show, but I do have something to say about one of them.
The whole deaf thing really grated on my nerves. First of all, when you lose your hearing you DO NOT lose the ability to TALK! It is so ridiculous that a kid who KNOWS HOW TO TALK just stops because he can't hear. Even people who have been deaf since birth can learn to speak. For someone who already knew how??? Um yeah... Stupid stupid stupid.
My other complaint I was willing to overlook. While the deaf community may be split on the use of cochlear implants, I can guarantee you they would have used one on a child who already knew what it was like to hear, because that is the most difficult challenge about them. I guess that was kind of a minor thing and most people aren't going to think about it because, they don't even know what a cochlear implant is, but it irritated me.
But yeah...the whole not talking thing because he lost his hearing really irritated me. And then suddenly Drill fixes his hearing and omg it's a miracle..HE CAN TALK! Dude... he already could.