52 By Women 2020 #19: Mudbound
Good subtitle: There will be mud. Solid ensemble drama with some amazing scenes and always-wise camera decisions. It took me a while to finish. It was uncomfortable, a classic "hard to watch" film, but, I made it through, because I must learn to be more uncomfortable. The film touches on multiple themes of those living in post-war south: rampant unchecked racism, women who have almost zero agency to affect their lives but the moments they can they use with verve, the PTSD of war heroes (or more accurately war survivors).
I will probably return often to a scene where our hero tells off racists, and then our same hero being forced to apologize because he didn't know his place.
I'm slightly surprised Mary J Blige's solid stoic matriarch role got award recognition, as everyone here does fine solid work, but it's not the usual showy performance Oscars notice. I can't tell if that's a good thing: giving props to a quiet performance, or a bad thing: they wanted to award a famous person. Probably a good thing. Rachel Morrison, who was nominated for Best Cinematography for her work here, also did the Nina Simone doc I watched last month and Black Panther! I'm going to keep watch on what she does next.
52 By Women 2020 #20: Becoming
What it is: an enjoyable and moving document of Michelle Obama's life as told to during a book tour. I enjoyed every minute. It was good for my soul. But, I also get the detractors. It is a hagiography. Minor negatives are proof of her resilience. We still wonder if she's keeping us at arms length. She tells us for 8+ years she and her family had to do nothing but be perfect, but that still feels like a concern here. There's a point where Malia talks to her mom, in an awkward kind of way, but still a real, and Michelle feels distant. Maybe they just caught a moment of imperfection, maybe it was proof of how hard she was working, but I do wonder if a non-filmed Michelle would have acted differently. But I act different in front of a camera, so I get it too. The camera is a character, and although it's one that Michelle occasionally opens up to, it's also one she sometimes fears. Nonetheless, her life and wisdom and advocacy is something a lot of us, the youth but also oldies like me, need to hear.
Movie Review Thread
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Phoebe
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Re: Movie Review Thread
I want to see both of these!
Re: Movie Review Thread
They are both on Netflix!
52 By Women 2020 #21: Girlhood
Given how much I adored Céline Sciamma's "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" I was excited to see more of her films. Girlhood is about a black teen in the outskirts of Paris, trying to make it in a world that only gives her chances to fail. Every little bit of structure and meaning for her life is complicated by powers outside her control. Her mom is doing right by working hard for her family, but that leaves her alone with her abusive brother. She tries to escape, into the only people who reached out to her, other troubled teens who steal and bully and fight. She finds her center, and it helps her grow self-confident, but she's also now a bad girl. Damn, how that viral video of that woman saying that "you broke the social contract" I know see it everywhere, and here clearly. She's been given no other healthy option. She's only been given unhealthy options. She eventually realizes her badness when it rubs off on her sister, realizing that her sister is falling into the same trap she is. She's needs safety so she eventually escapes, but then leaves others unsafe and abandoned. And where does she escape might endanger her still. But again, she's left with no choice. Anyways, a memorable film, maybe not as perfect as "Portrait" but seriously so few films are.
(Watched on Kanopy)
52 By Women 2020 #22: Watermelon Woman
A film that has the DYI infused joy and comedy of Clerks, mixed with the DYI infused joy and social-justice message of early Spike Lee. It is a solid debut low budget film. Cheryl Dunye's script is great, there are many funny moments, memorable scenes, and then, of course, there is the occasional bad acting and occasional flubs and stumbles (notable exception is Guinevere Turner, as her magnetic screen presence makes sense as she draws Cheryl in). But the flubs are wonderful in their own DYI way. And since it's a mockumentary, those flubs assist the work. Honestly surprised I didn't see this film in college, except for the inherent structures that would keep a film by a black lesbian hidden from my view.
(Watched on the Criterion Channel, who made it free for all to amplify black voices. Good on them)
52 By Women 2020 #21: Girlhood
Given how much I adored Céline Sciamma's "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" I was excited to see more of her films. Girlhood is about a black teen in the outskirts of Paris, trying to make it in a world that only gives her chances to fail. Every little bit of structure and meaning for her life is complicated by powers outside her control. Her mom is doing right by working hard for her family, but that leaves her alone with her abusive brother. She tries to escape, into the only people who reached out to her, other troubled teens who steal and bully and fight. She finds her center, and it helps her grow self-confident, but she's also now a bad girl. Damn, how that viral video of that woman saying that "you broke the social contract" I know see it everywhere, and here clearly. She's been given no other healthy option. She's only been given unhealthy options. She eventually realizes her badness when it rubs off on her sister, realizing that her sister is falling into the same trap she is. She's needs safety so she eventually escapes, but then leaves others unsafe and abandoned. And where does she escape might endanger her still. But again, she's left with no choice. Anyways, a memorable film, maybe not as perfect as "Portrait" but seriously so few films are.
(Watched on Kanopy)
52 By Women 2020 #22: Watermelon Woman
A film that has the DYI infused joy and comedy of Clerks, mixed with the DYI infused joy and social-justice message of early Spike Lee. It is a solid debut low budget film. Cheryl Dunye's script is great, there are many funny moments, memorable scenes, and then, of course, there is the occasional bad acting and occasional flubs and stumbles (notable exception is Guinevere Turner, as her magnetic screen presence makes sense as she draws Cheryl in). But the flubs are wonderful in their own DYI way. And since it's a mockumentary, those flubs assist the work. Honestly surprised I didn't see this film in college, except for the inherent structures that would keep a film by a black lesbian hidden from my view.
(Watched on the Criterion Channel, who made it free for all to amplify black voices. Good on them)
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Phoebe
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Re: Movie Review Thread
Loving these reviews, I have a whole list to catch up on! Meanwhile an occupant of my house watched the movie called Ted, which is about a teddy bear that comes to life and then the adult man who still lives with him. The teddy bear behaves like a disgusting bro type, which creates complications for Marky Mark's effort to stay in relationship with Mila Kunis. That is as much effort as I care to expend on documenting the fact that I have witnessed this. Show it to your enemies.
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Phoebe
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Blow the Man Down
Two young-adult sisters in Maine are dealing with the aftermath of their mother's funeral when they stumble into weird things happening in their town. It's kind of interesting but also not terribly interesting. There are old ladies and some degree of violence, blood, etc but very low key by most movie standards. So-so. B-
Two young-adult sisters in Maine are dealing with the aftermath of their mother's funeral when they stumble into weird things happening in their town. It's kind of interesting but also not terribly interesting. There are old ladies and some degree of violence, blood, etc but very low key by most movie standards. So-so. B-
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Phoebe
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Da 5 Bloods
This movie was interesting and obviously had a LOT of threads being pulled in for comment, along with some powerful mesages. However, I am not sure I understood them properly. There was just so much at once, and in many ways it was not really a movie for me, you know? I am not the audience for this movie; there was a lot of unexpected violence and I just didn't do well with that, and I ended up feeling exhausted and upset but without knowing what to make of the whole experience. I feel like someone else might be able to better appreciate this, or maybe I just need more time to think it over. On the other hand, Ron thought it was awful and didn't have the deeper messages and meanings I'm trying to extract.
This movie was interesting and obviously had a LOT of threads being pulled in for comment, along with some powerful mesages. However, I am not sure I understood them properly. There was just so much at once, and in many ways it was not really a movie for me, you know? I am not the audience for this movie; there was a lot of unexpected violence and I just didn't do well with that, and I ended up feeling exhausted and upset but without knowing what to make of the whole experience. I feel like someone else might be able to better appreciate this, or maybe I just need more time to think it over. On the other hand, Ron thought it was awful and didn't have the deeper messages and meanings I'm trying to extract.
Re: Movie Review Thread
Villains (2019)
Wow! Did not see this one coming. I saw it billed as comedy horror, but it is more comedy thriller. Fantastic! It is creepy, tense, funny, and sometimes a little scary. I can't recommend this enough.
Two petty criminals break down while making their getaway, so they break into a house looking for a new vehicle. Then they make a discovery and shit goes sideways. The acting is so good. Maika Monroe (who I don't know) and Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise) play the criminals. Kyra Sedgewick and Jeffrey Donovan are the homeowners. They are very stylized, and they play their parts to a T. Jeffrey Donovan in particular just killed me. No matter what was going on, if he was on the screen, I was watching him. And he always made it worth my while.
If you haven't seen this yet, then go watch it. Lisa and I both really enjoyed it.
Wow! Did not see this one coming. I saw it billed as comedy horror, but it is more comedy thriller. Fantastic! It is creepy, tense, funny, and sometimes a little scary. I can't recommend this enough.
Two petty criminals break down while making their getaway, so they break into a house looking for a new vehicle. Then they make a discovery and shit goes sideways. The acting is so good. Maika Monroe (who I don't know) and Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise) play the criminals. Kyra Sedgewick and Jeffrey Donovan are the homeowners. They are very stylized, and they play their parts to a T. Jeffrey Donovan in particular just killed me. No matter what was going on, if he was on the screen, I was watching him. And he always made it worth my while.
If you haven't seen this yet, then go watch it. Lisa and I both really enjoyed it.
All I know is my food tastes better when I take my food-tastes-better pill.
Re: Movie Review Thread
The following are available for free until the end of June by searching "Black Lives" on Criterion
52 By Women 2020 #23: Daughters of the Dust
The first widely released film by a black woman (Julie Dash). It felt like watching Shakespeare (poetic, moving, also I don't understand half of it) as directed by Werner Herzog (beautiful, slow, big questions, personal, puzzling). Based on that, it's both offensive and understandable that Hollywood didn't give her money for another feature film (at least until recently, 25 years later). It's confounding at times, purposely so. It's also a work of beauty and confidence. Herzog, for example, has never made a big hit but has made films for decades, allowed to try different things, and made many masterpieces. Instead we are stuck with this "what if." Amplify black voices, yes. Allow them the chance to succeed, yes. But also, allow them chances after they fail. It's called equality, people!
52 By Women 2020 #24: Black Panthers
Agnes Varda's quick document (maybe over a single weekend) of a Black Panther rally in the first few years of the movement. There are hints of extremism (I still hesitate when anyone says "any means neccessary") but I hadn't seen a more clear view of the goals of the party, and more clearly how my education on that group was incorrect. It says a lot about the difference between white power, which shares a let-us-do-what-we want, but those wants are different; the complete subjugation of others vs the autonomy of not being subjugated. Their tenants, to not be harassed by cops, but also to improve health and education and financial security of black people, is very reasonable, and is very much the same movement we see today. Their movement was admiringly feminist (Kathleen Cleaver has a lovely scene discussing afros). There are some thinking I've had since then, half-baked via wikipedia, like: they can be right that cops were terrible, but also maybe Huey wasn't framed for killing a cop. I've long been suspicious of authority with weapons who claim they are just leaders, so in many ways their leadership and the cops are sides of the same coin. Power corrupts? That's not new. Got more thoughts, but all half-baked so I won't note them here. I got more learning to do.
52 By Women 2020 #25: Losing Ground
Indie drama about a successful black woman intellectual, and the compromises that she had to make to appease men, career, love, and race. The slowburn of microinjustices on our main character, which at first she ignores but is soon consumed by, reach a climax at a party in the country where the love and work triangles meet and finally things break loose. The plot is well constructed, including an apt film-within-a-film in which she lives out her joy and pain. The final shot is perfect.
52 By Women 2020 #23: Daughters of the Dust
The first widely released film by a black woman (Julie Dash). It felt like watching Shakespeare (poetic, moving, also I don't understand half of it) as directed by Werner Herzog (beautiful, slow, big questions, personal, puzzling). Based on that, it's both offensive and understandable that Hollywood didn't give her money for another feature film (at least until recently, 25 years later). It's confounding at times, purposely so. It's also a work of beauty and confidence. Herzog, for example, has never made a big hit but has made films for decades, allowed to try different things, and made many masterpieces. Instead we are stuck with this "what if." Amplify black voices, yes. Allow them the chance to succeed, yes. But also, allow them chances after they fail. It's called equality, people!
52 By Women 2020 #24: Black Panthers
Agnes Varda's quick document (maybe over a single weekend) of a Black Panther rally in the first few years of the movement. There are hints of extremism (I still hesitate when anyone says "any means neccessary") but I hadn't seen a more clear view of the goals of the party, and more clearly how my education on that group was incorrect. It says a lot about the difference between white power, which shares a let-us-do-what-we want, but those wants are different; the complete subjugation of others vs the autonomy of not being subjugated. Their tenants, to not be harassed by cops, but also to improve health and education and financial security of black people, is very reasonable, and is very much the same movement we see today. Their movement was admiringly feminist (Kathleen Cleaver has a lovely scene discussing afros). There are some thinking I've had since then, half-baked via wikipedia, like: they can be right that cops were terrible, but also maybe Huey wasn't framed for killing a cop. I've long been suspicious of authority with weapons who claim they are just leaders, so in many ways their leadership and the cops are sides of the same coin. Power corrupts? That's not new. Got more thoughts, but all half-baked so I won't note them here. I got more learning to do.
52 By Women 2020 #25: Losing Ground
Indie drama about a successful black woman intellectual, and the compromises that she had to make to appease men, career, love, and race. The slowburn of microinjustices on our main character, which at first she ignores but is soon consumed by, reach a climax at a party in the country where the love and work triangles meet and finally things break loose. The plot is well constructed, including an apt film-within-a-film in which she lives out her joy and pain. The final shot is perfect.
Re: Movie Review Thread
52 By Women 2020 #26: Down in the Delta
Whew, I made it half way before the end of June! "Down in the Delta" I really really really liked. Top notch ensemble acting, well-constructed story, a confident and competent debut (and sadly final too) by Maya Angelou (oh to have a thimble of her talent). There's a moment early on, where one of the actors is having one powerhouse scene after another, and then the film moves on without her, and it says a lot about how great this film is, that is can do that and the film survives and thrives.
Knocks on it can be for being very 1990s, but I like how 90s it feels. I'm comfortable in the era I grew up in of watching classic films by myself and watching made for tv films with my family. This feels like a mix of both. Again, comfort food for me. Also a knock could be that it sometimes hits the feel-good family vibes, that I gotta say... I love. I don't mind feeling good, being inspired, being happy when things go right, and crying at many emotional moments. Not to say it's completely feel good, I don't want to spoil any moments here. But, if you're ok with 90s-styled films with feel good moments, I highly recommend.
Watch here: https://www.criterionchannel.com/black- ... -the-delta
Whew, I made it half way before the end of June! "Down in the Delta" I really really really liked. Top notch ensemble acting, well-constructed story, a confident and competent debut (and sadly final too) by Maya Angelou (oh to have a thimble of her talent). There's a moment early on, where one of the actors is having one powerhouse scene after another, and then the film moves on without her, and it says a lot about how great this film is, that is can do that and the film survives and thrives.
Knocks on it can be for being very 1990s, but I like how 90s it feels. I'm comfortable in the era I grew up in of watching classic films by myself and watching made for tv films with my family. This feels like a mix of both. Again, comfort food for me. Also a knock could be that it sometimes hits the feel-good family vibes, that I gotta say... I love. I don't mind feeling good, being inspired, being happy when things go right, and crying at many emotional moments. Not to say it's completely feel good, I don't want to spoil any moments here. But, if you're ok with 90s-styled films with feel good moments, I highly recommend.
Watch here: https://www.criterionchannel.com/black- ... -the-delta
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Phoebe
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Re: Movie Review Thread
I have seen this before and loved it, so probably should re-watch sometime. Love Alfre Woodard, who has the best "wtf now?" expression ever.
Re: Movie Review Thread
I need to see more Alfre Woodard films, her filmography is full of films I've always wanted to see but have missed.
52 By Women 2020 #27: Sleepless in Seattle
Really enjoyed this. I speak of "confidently made" often, but here the confidence is "this will be a big film" -- the soundtrack in particular -- feels like it exudes "this will be popular and a beloved film for generations". Nora Ephron's romantic comedy powers are at her highest here. There's so much to like, but like every little bit part is given a little bit of humanity and humor. My favorite, is Jessica's dad, who has two lines, both of which made me gaffaw, the first of which begins, "Jessica, this is your father...". Says a lot about their terrible relationship, and also how hard it is to introduce a new character at the climax of a film. Loved it.
The only real negative is one that should be obvious from the last nine films I watched: there isn't even lip-service (no token best friend, no nothing, only one or two extremely bit parts) to racial representation in this film.
52 By Women 2020 #27: Sleepless in Seattle
Really enjoyed this. I speak of "confidently made" often, but here the confidence is "this will be a big film" -- the soundtrack in particular -- feels like it exudes "this will be popular and a beloved film for generations". Nora Ephron's romantic comedy powers are at her highest here. There's so much to like, but like every little bit part is given a little bit of humanity and humor. My favorite, is Jessica's dad, who has two lines, both of which made me gaffaw, the first of which begins, "Jessica, this is your father...". Says a lot about their terrible relationship, and also how hard it is to introduce a new character at the climax of a film. Loved it.
The only real negative is one that should be obvious from the last nine films I watched: there isn't even lip-service (no token best friend, no nothing, only one or two extremely bit parts) to racial representation in this film.
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FlameBlade
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Re: Movie Review Thread
Finally watched Inception.
Most cerebral action movie I have seen. Awesome sequences. My favorite one has to be the hotel.
Most cerebral action movie I have seen. Awesome sequences. My favorite one has to be the hotel.
Heracles. Fists. Pantheon.
Clue in ancient Greece.
Clue in ancient Greece.
Re: Movie Review Thread
Love the hallway fight too, doubly that it uses the same technique (a giant turning cylinder) Stanley Donen and Fred Astaire invented a half-century earlier...
52 By Women 2020 #28: Queen of Katwe
On Disney Plus. I often forget Mira Nair, but everytime I see one of her films, she captures something beautiful. That this comes after her Amelia Earhart flop is a positive sign that Hollywood may be starting giving women second-chances like they always do for male directors. As for the film, we all love David Oyelowo, right? And we all love Lupita Nyong'o, too. So see this film! It has both of them, acting up a storm! It's Disney produced, but it's only Disney in a way: it's an inspirational film about a young girl. Otherwise it's very much a lovingly crafted film that is very unflinching about what poverty is like. Plus, watching this during our pandemic, it's hard not to see how one could avoid the plague when you have to live like that. Also, like Girlhood, the film shows the no-win choices society forces poor and/or black and/or women to make to survive/thrive.
52 By Women 2020 #28: Queen of Katwe
On Disney Plus. I often forget Mira Nair, but everytime I see one of her films, she captures something beautiful. That this comes after her Amelia Earhart flop is a positive sign that Hollywood may be starting giving women second-chances like they always do for male directors. As for the film, we all love David Oyelowo, right? And we all love Lupita Nyong'o, too. So see this film! It has both of them, acting up a storm! It's Disney produced, but it's only Disney in a way: it's an inspirational film about a young girl. Otherwise it's very much a lovingly crafted film that is very unflinching about what poverty is like. Plus, watching this during our pandemic, it's hard not to see how one could avoid the plague when you have to live like that. Also, like Girlhood, the film shows the no-win choices society forces poor and/or black and/or women to make to survive/thrive.
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Phoebe
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Re: Movie Review Thread
Promised Land, I think it was called - Matt Damon and Jim from the office, whassisname. Neurodegeneration, hello.
Anyway, there was fracking and there was a bad company and there was Matt Damon making a lot of serious faces, doing a lot of Acting. I found it all very slow and incredibly unlike real life.
Anyway, there was fracking and there was a bad company and there was Matt Damon making a lot of serious faces, doing a lot of Acting. I found it all very slow and incredibly unlike real life.
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Tahlvin
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A Lego Brickumentary. It was actually pretty interesting. One segment talked about using Legos as therapy for autistic children, where they would pair them up in teams of three: one to read the directions, one to find the pieces, and one to assemble them, so they would have to work together to build the object, and they would switch roles after a period of time so each child would get a chance at each role on the team. And holy crap, the Rivendell construction at the end of the documentary!
Not to mention the Lego art exhibit a guy did in NYC:
I just love the creativity! What some people are able to come up with and build from just their imagination!
Not to mention the Lego art exhibit a guy did in NYC:
I just love the creativity! What some people are able to come up with and build from just their imagination!
Wash: "This is gonna get pretty interesting."
Mal: "Define interesting."
Wash: "Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die?"
Mal: "Define interesting."
Wash: "Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die?"
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Phoebe
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Re: Movie Review Thread
Oh wow, that first picture is amazing. We should watch this!
Re: Movie Review Thread
52 By Women 2020 #29: Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Oh boy. This movie is unlike any movie I've ever seen. It's 200 minutes long, and like most long movies, you have to adjust to the rhythm of the film, otherwise you'll get impatient. "2001" is a classic example of a film where you need to buy into the pace in order to appreciate it. The pace of this film. It is, quite easily, the slowest moving film I've ever seen, but also one of the most boring films too. Boring on purpose, though. Part of its goal is to bore us. You can't adjust. Or at least I couldn't. I know Andy Warhol would film people sleeping, but this is a film film with a crew, amazing production design, and a story to tell. In my youth, my older brother told me "My Dinner with Andre" was the worst film he saw (I've seen it since and loved it). I'm sure that means he's never seen this film. This is "My Dinner with Andre" without Andre.
It's a film about chores. And why Jeanne has to do these chores (cough cough society cough). Cutting a potato was an important task in this film. Making coffee, a huge scene in this film. Sex is also a chore here, and what really drives home the feminist message. In most scenes, the main character would start a task and the film will not cut until that task is complete and she has left the frame. Part of the slowness is to spot when things go wrong. Part of it is to show the monotony of motherhood. And part of it is what remains when she leaves the frame.
So, even though it's a top 5 most boring film ever, it's good, and I do expect its themes will stay with me more than the two or three popcorn films I could have watched instead.
Oh boy. This movie is unlike any movie I've ever seen. It's 200 minutes long, and like most long movies, you have to adjust to the rhythm of the film, otherwise you'll get impatient. "2001" is a classic example of a film where you need to buy into the pace in order to appreciate it. The pace of this film. It is, quite easily, the slowest moving film I've ever seen, but also one of the most boring films too. Boring on purpose, though. Part of its goal is to bore us. You can't adjust. Or at least I couldn't. I know Andy Warhol would film people sleeping, but this is a film film with a crew, amazing production design, and a story to tell. In my youth, my older brother told me "My Dinner with Andre" was the worst film he saw (I've seen it since and loved it). I'm sure that means he's never seen this film. This is "My Dinner with Andre" without Andre.
It's a film about chores. And why Jeanne has to do these chores (cough cough society cough). Cutting a potato was an important task in this film. Making coffee, a huge scene in this film. Sex is also a chore here, and what really drives home the feminist message. In most scenes, the main character would start a task and the film will not cut until that task is complete and she has left the frame. Part of the slowness is to spot when things go wrong. Part of it is to show the monotony of motherhood. And part of it is what remains when she leaves the frame.
So, even though it's a top 5 most boring film ever, it's good, and I do expect its themes will stay with me more than the two or three popcorn films I could have watched instead.
Re: Movie Review Thread
Dave Made a Maze
Watch this! It's fun. It's weird. It's smart while also being super-dumb. You'll walk away feeling good. Strangely.
What? You need more?
Okay fine, in the first five minutes of the film, Anna comes home to find cardboard box fort in her living room. Her boyfriend Dave has built a labyrinth, and he's inside it. After a few minutes, she asks him to come out and he says he can't. Because he's lost. And when she says she's going to tear it down, he begs her not to, because it doesn't work that way. So she calls for help.
This is the whole premise of the film and it is wonderful. The whole family enjoyed it. It has dark and weird moments, but it is so much fun. If that last paragraph hasn't sold you on it, then I don't know what to tell you. This is exactly the movie I needed right now.
And it's only 81 minutes long. Not even a big commitment.
Watch this! It's fun. It's weird. It's smart while also being super-dumb. You'll walk away feeling good. Strangely.
What? You need more?
Okay fine, in the first five minutes of the film, Anna comes home to find cardboard box fort in her living room. Her boyfriend Dave has built a labyrinth, and he's inside it. After a few minutes, she asks him to come out and he says he can't. Because he's lost. And when she says she's going to tear it down, he begs her not to, because it doesn't work that way. So she calls for help.
This is the whole premise of the film and it is wonderful. The whole family enjoyed it. It has dark and weird moments, but it is so much fun. If that last paragraph hasn't sold you on it, then I don't know what to tell you. This is exactly the movie I needed right now.
And it's only 81 minutes long. Not even a big commitment.
All I know is my food tastes better when I take my food-tastes-better pill.
Re: Movie Review Thread
Sweetheart
This is a tight, well-paced horror film with some clever social commentary woven underneath the very tense and scary horror. Keirsey Clemons (who I am previously unfamiliar with) is 95% of this movie, and she's really good. She washes up on a desert island with no prior explanation and very few words, and sets about your typical cast away type survival stuff. But there is evidence that she is not the first to end up here and further evidence that something terrible stalks the island at night. I love a horror movie that allows its protagonist(s) to be smart and capable, and this one does that.
My hat's off to writer/director J.D. Dillard for conveying the tension and fear so effectively using virtually no dialogue while the camera focuses so much on just the one actress, with only bare glimpses (if that) of the terror in the night.
This is a tight, well-paced horror film with some clever social commentary woven underneath the very tense and scary horror. Keirsey Clemons (who I am previously unfamiliar with) is 95% of this movie, and she's really good. She washes up on a desert island with no prior explanation and very few words, and sets about your typical cast away type survival stuff. But there is evidence that she is not the first to end up here and further evidence that something terrible stalks the island at night. I love a horror movie that allows its protagonist(s) to be smart and capable, and this one does that.
My hat's off to writer/director J.D. Dillard for conveying the tension and fear so effectively using virtually no dialogue while the camera focuses so much on just the one actress, with only bare glimpses (if that) of the terror in the night.
All I know is my food tastes better when I take my food-tastes-better pill.
Re: Movie Review Thread
Hotel Atemis
Jodie Foster stars as the nurse running the Hotel Artemis, a maximum-security, subscription-only medical facility for criminals in near-future Los Angeles. The setting is fantastic. The mix of sci-fi medicine and security in the midst of urban squalor and a mix of racial and class tensions works really well. The cast is really talented and full of people I know and like.
Sadly, the story is just kinda lame and predictable. The dialogue tries to be slick, but it's really contrived, and the plot relies on the contrivance of a half-dozen characters all thrown together by chance into the same place at the same time, and then through the course of the movie we keep discovering these amazing coincidental connections between the characters that complicate the plot and keep it moving. The writing just felt lazy... or like it was written by committee. I enjoyed the film for it's good qualities and high points, but it wasn't a good film.
What I wish for Hotel Artemis is for it to be rebooted as a TV series. It has a lot that it could say about wealth and privilege, race and class, policing and security. There's so much potential here, but the film ultimately just burns it all to the ground.
Jodie Foster stars as the nurse running the Hotel Artemis, a maximum-security, subscription-only medical facility for criminals in near-future Los Angeles. The setting is fantastic. The mix of sci-fi medicine and security in the midst of urban squalor and a mix of racial and class tensions works really well. The cast is really talented and full of people I know and like.
Sadly, the story is just kinda lame and predictable. The dialogue tries to be slick, but it's really contrived, and the plot relies on the contrivance of a half-dozen characters all thrown together by chance into the same place at the same time, and then through the course of the movie we keep discovering these amazing coincidental connections between the characters that complicate the plot and keep it moving. The writing just felt lazy... or like it was written by committee. I enjoyed the film for it's good qualities and high points, but it wasn't a good film.
What I wish for Hotel Artemis is for it to be rebooted as a TV series. It has a lot that it could say about wealth and privilege, race and class, policing and security. There's so much potential here, but the film ultimately just burns it all to the ground.
All I know is my food tastes better when I take my food-tastes-better pill.
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