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Reviews
Dead for a Dollar (2022)
Dead for a Dollar ... and then some
Made during the Covid restrictions Dead for a Dollar made it's North American debut at the Calgary International Film Festival. Not a heavy western as it's title suggests but it did honour the code of the wild Wild West and paid homage however so subtlety to the spaghetti westerns of the past with a hint of Tarantino .It was refreshing to have a plethora actors of many different races represented in a western . Waltz , Defoe. Brosnahan Pratt and the rest of the supporting cast did an admirable job with the script . Made in 31 days on a limited budget it felt much bigger than it was . A Canadian Production to boot.
Women of the Movement: Mother and Son (2022)
Historical account that pasteurizes the brutality
I looked forward to seeing this story rendered to the big or small screen after reading Devery S Anderson's account a couple of years ago.
Although this filmed version provides a detailed account or the tragic events that led to the beginning of the civil rights movement , it misses the mark.
When Emmett Till was kidnapped , beaten , and murdered, it was his mother who insisted that his memorial be an open casket . She wanted the world to see the brutality that was foisted upon her 14 year old son at the hands of two racist bigots .
What this mini series does however is pasteurize the events that night . It, for all intents and purposes, closes the casket door, preventing the viewer from seeing the results of the evil endured by one young boy on that fateful evening.
His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley passed away in 2003 and I can only imagine how this miniseries would have been presented if she had been present to provide her input.
For viewers not familiar with Emmett's story the depiction in this miniseries provides a pasteurized filtered depiction of the brutality that was perpetrated that night. We see him travel south from his Chicago home into the Deep South . We see him warned to mind his ways when he gets there. And we see him engage a white clerk in a store . From there we see him kidnapped in the middle of the night and then jump right to his memorial.
The gist and genesis and purpose that drove Ms. Till-Mobley to fire the engine of the civil rights movement is absent . And, as much as many of us have turned an unwilling blind eye to the Jim Crowe era in the United States, we needed this miniseries to force us to confront that brutality . It needed to show us what happened to young Emmett. How he was beaten and bound with barbed wire and dragged behind a vehicle . By choosing not to depict what transpired or even showing the viewer the contents of his casket , the producers have lessened the impact of what transpired that fateful evening .
His mother , I'm sure would have said he deserved more . As she refused to let the funeral shield the world from seeing the brutal reality of racism in America so too should the producers here have honour those intentions .
Yellowjackets (2021)
Plot holes are hard to overcome
We have to accept that a pack of wolves disappear when one is killed away from the rest that are attacking the girls.
We have to accept that an abandoned plane that has vines growing all over it will have a functioning battery still fully charged to allow it to start.
We have to accept that despite being stranded on a deserted mountain hundreds of miles from civilization that there is a large cabin in great shape to house them with furnishings .
These plot holes are huge and despite the great premise that gives rise to this series it is a lot to ask the viewer to disregard .
Cosmos (2019)
I'm not a scientist I'm a movie fan
To have made this film on a budget of $7000 is amazing . Despite critics throwing daggers at the science in the film , from an artistic perspective it was quite well done. It had drama and suspense and ended with a potentially hopeful message for our future . It was a good couple of hours well spent.
Voyagers (2021)
Plot collapses
What appears to be a " Lord of the Flies" in space collapses by the weight of its illogical premises. We are led to believe that these genetically engineered offspring are bred to be bright enough to survive through three generations in an 86 year mission. At first you can suspend your belief when they function as highly intelligent and proficient specialists in space. The fallacy arrives when the majority of these young adults throw science to the wind and accept one crew mates word that an " alien" has killed their chief and is inside another crew member . This despite seeing one of their own murder the chief in video. From that point on it deflates like a leaky inner tube.
Surprised that Colin Farrell and Ty Sheridan would attach themselves to such a project. But alas I guess even actors in the Covid era have to lower their standards for a pay check.
Delivery (2014)
It's not about the comedy
Although this documentary is couched in terms of four friends honing their comedic chops it's about so much more. Mark Myers takes us on his journey towards parenthood ,with his fears and his hopes of that station in life, all impacting on his preparation for his first stand up routine. He introduces us to three other friends all bound together by the same plight as they each prepare their routines for amateur night at Yuk Yuks. Some will fail and others will succeed but the back stories are what makes this documentary shine. While Mark deals with imminent parenthood his friend Sean has to deal with a dying father that he never bonded with. Its clear that the impending birth and death represent the cycle of life and Mark nicely integrates all the challenges of that into the 4 men's journey through their individual comedic processes. Light, humorous and engaging and worthy of your viewing time.
First Man (2018)
To boldly go where no man had gone before
Well after being inspired by the NASA exhibit yesterday what better way to reinforce the experience by catching the biopic on Neil Armstrong and his mission to the moon. We thought it best to catch the picture on IMAX to immerse ourselves in the experience.
This is more of a character driven drama that focuses on the sacrifices made by those that dared to venture beyond our earthly realms and go where no man had gone before. The story begins in 1961 with Armstrongs acceptance into the Gemini program and culminates with him ultimately stepping on the moon. What transpires between those two points is what grounds the entire film. We see a young astronaut who detaches himself from his emotions after the loss of his daughter to cancer, his inability to share his emotions with his wife or children, and his single focused mindset on the missions at hand. Ironically from my perspective, it is these qualities that likely allowed him to achieve the success that he did. He was a solitary man, with a solitary focus, and had a distaste for the fame and attention that would follow him through his career. The character side of the story was balanced nicely with the frailties of the tin cans these brave souls were placed in. You truly experience the cramped and extremely fragile nature of the capsules the astronauts endured. The sets were accurate for the time period and certainly brought back memories of my childhood when I watched that landing on our old RCA black and white television in Glamorgan.
Gosling was good as he consistently is but the true star in my estimation was Claire Foy playing Janet Armstrong. She beautifully displayed what every spouse endures on every mission and struggles to balance her devotion to her husband with the conflict of his detachment.
This film was a nice departure from the influx of superhero movies that seem to dominate the screens these days and remind us what real life heroism is all about and the costs that come with it.