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GrassRootsGuy
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Infinite Storm (2022)
Great Story Poorly Told, Alas
Major holes in emotional and action plot. Great story, poorly told.
SPOILERS
Black toes indicate frostbitten toes, yet "John" recovers and runs away. Duh.
Somehow, Pam learns about "John" and meets up with him, but still doesn't know his name?
Duh.
Two people in freezing cold blizzard both get soaking wet in a creek that would have been close to freezing and just keep on walking down the mountain?
Duh.
This looks and feels like over dramatization by script writers who have never been outside or on a mountain or in heavy snow and have not learned how to "show" rather than "tell."
While the script claims the rescue of John enables Pam's recovery from loss of her children, we don't see that happen; no indication of this critical development that should be the turning point for the central character.
Nice try.
Certain Women (2016)
Study Guide For Viewer Repelling Movie
This trilogy feels like a film school end of term project.
Nice try and some good shots, but if you want to get paid...
Might get an academy award if there was one for "three slices of boring lives."
MY GF and I searched long and hard and after significant stretching decided the theme here might be
lawyers get involved with strange, lonely people and need a lot of discipline to detach from those who cannot be helped and sometimes, especially women, they are stuck to their tar baby clients...
Though it's not clear the one certain woman is a lawyer, she might be.
This will have great value for film students as a lesson in how to make a nicely shot movie that goes nowhere.
Take note of the "camera attached in and out of moving car or truck" shots with good audio, kids.
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I'll See You in My Dreams (2015)
Can't recommend despite good cast
My GF and I - about the same age as the principal characters - searched in vain for engaging plot, interesting characters, revealing scenes, insight, something to save this movie... alas, it spins until it ends... and, like the name of one of the most interesting characters, a boat, So What?
Blythe Danner seems to have wandered aimlessly through life like a leaf on a river, singer, teacher, wife, widow. Then her dog dies - the one really touching scene in the movie - she meets a pool boy (alas no sparks fly, more like ashes blowing in the wind) - then a handsome engaging age- appropriate man (Elliott) with predictable results... what I wanted all the way through was the "Why?"
Why was she so listless? She can't explain why she stopped singing? We can't understand the drifting pool boy. We don't know why the handsome stranger moved to California to start a new life nor what that life has been.
Granted, the story illustrates some truths about love and aging, including a painfully clichéd speed date session, but it was like a bland soup and left us groping - in vain - for spice and meat.
Tomorrowland (2015)
Definitely worth the price of admission
I walked out with tears in my eyes and feeling good about the story, the action, the characters and the plot. Call it a feel-good B-movie with computer generated graphics.
Raffey Cassidy is a special standout as Athena, creating as charming a robot as you will ever meet, sweet as possible without becoming saccharine. Clooney gives excellent curmudgeon.
Yes the movie is didactic and urges us to think positive, as our cynical reviewers note here. But I didn't find it preachy, just an upbeat shot across the bow at climate deniers and warmongers, reminiscent of "Pay It Forward."
Yves Saint Laurent (2014)
Shallow visually interesting should have been 30 minutes
This reminds me of flipping through a spiral bound photo album... nice pictures but what's going on... who are these people... what are they feeling... why... why... why... did he, or they, or she...
Like Wikipedia we get some factual display of events but little interpretation. Great fashion shows and everyone, almost without exception, is beautiful. I must confess I fell asleep several times so maybe I missed some key elements.
It may well be, in the style of French movies, that clues lurk, waiting for discovery on the third or fourth viewing, but first time around I left wondering, unsatisfied with many questions.
I got a good sense for what things looked like, but little understanding.
Histórias que Só Existem Quando Lembradas (2011)
See it best with hair trigger fast forward...
The criticism and praise so far are all on point. Languid doesn't describe the pace which makes French movies look like action flicks.
However...this might not be a spoiler but will label it so out of an abundance of caution... one scene is worth the wait... when Madelena finally poses, in the nude, and looking down, slowly, almost painfully, silently releases her tensed up arms to reveal her aging body at first with a sort of shame... then gradually raises her head and chin to look proudly then defiantly into the photographer's camera... you get an understanding of this old woman's strength... this one scene demonstrates what acting and direction can achieve...
August: Osage County (2013)
Wear a flack vest, fasten your seat belt and see it
Watching this was like seeing the opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan" set in a dining room. Machine gun verbal abuse fired straight at the heart in all directions. Not a wasted line. Every utterance loaded with import. Every character revealing some new flaw or history in every word. In the end - many will disagree - a redemption for almost all. Note the Indian woman. The only one not in the family and the only one who can take decisive action and do what needs to be done - with a shovel. Note the scene where Barbara's daughter is leaving with her father and the car window rolls up and Barbara sees herself. Oscar worthy for whoever constructed that scene. Note the mentions of the word truth and how it truth is used as a weapon to flagellate. Note how the audience gasps at the big reveal about Little Charlie. Note that almost everyone, in the end, has done what they needed to do which is to run - don't walk - run from this horrible yet ultimately sympathetic character (two efficient sound bites tell the whole story about generations of something beyond dysfunction) who has ruined all their lives. And note, and see what you think, about the mileage road sign at the very end... Like watching Private Ryan, I could barely stand the pain and couldn't take my eyes of the screen. And like Omaha Beach, this Oklahoma movie is littered with the dead and dying, though some still breathe. ###
Love (2011)
Triumph of self indulgent obscurism
As Harry Zimm might have said, "You got about 20 minutes of story here." If you add a long series of silences. No, make that 10. So to stretch... ignore technical realities that might interfere with whatever you are trying to say, like, do you think anyone in their right mind would send a single astronaut up to staff a space station all by him or her self? Would they carry six years of food and plastic water bottles from Safeway? In the event of catastrophe on earth, would no one communicate to the space station... ever? If you can tie up the civil war with a space station in 2039, without writing a new script, please, add your comments. In summary... when you have no story, splice together a bunch of images. Add some music. Add nonsensical dream sequences. At the end say it was about love.
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Babel (2006)
Guns, children and unintended consequences
Watch for the start of plot lines featuring adults and guns dramatically affecting children... Note the movie is dedicated to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's three children. Good explanatory quotes from him in interview by Paula Nechak in Seattle Times Tuesday, October 24, 2006. This taut, tense set of stories will have you cringing, wondering what's next at every moment, hoping against hope that what you think might happen, won't happen. You have to listen carefully to the dialog for subtle hints that will help you understand some of the characters, like the relationship between Richard and Susan and why they are on a trip to Morroco. Most plot summaries I've seen emphasize "misunderstandings," but I didn't get that subtext of "failure to communicate" so much. To me the movie was more about people, particularly children, suffering the consequences of adult decisions.