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Reviews
Women Talking (2022)
For film lovers
If you don't have the patience, intellect, or attention span for a story that sizzles rather than explodes, then you may find this boring. But if you appreciate good storytelling and cinematic art, then you'll find this movie tense, intriguing, and thought provoking.
The film manages, quite impressively, to successfully carry multiple storylines in a limited vehicle (setting-wise). And with the backdrop of the story being so simple, each character shines more brightly against it.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
Some of the more obvious themes of this film are voice, courage, community (and community within community), and an examination of love and forgiveness. But one other thing I appreciated about it is the dismissal of formal education. The film doesn't explicitly dismiss its importance, as the women were excluded from education as a means of subjugation. But what unfolds in the story is that their complete lack of education had no impact on their ability to reason and think for themselves. Their inability to read and calculate had no bearing on their capacity, just their means of expression. And from what we can tell, the men weren't even receiving a noteworthy education. They weren't even allowed to have maps in the classroom.
I also thought the movie was paced masterfully. We're put in an environment where nothing moves fast except the children. Violence is not shown to us, only alluded to. Conversation is really all we're given. Nobody is rushing or running around frantically. However, the tension in the movie builds slowly on itself. The story slowly, gently wraps itself around you like a boa constrictor and by the end you realize you can't breathe. I wasn't able to exhale until I knew they made it out without the husband waking up or the other men returning early or being sold out by the one lady who stayed back.
Yes, there were opportunities for more action and to go deeper into some of the subplots. But I think it took great restraint not to go there. I believe it must have taken courage to believe in the vision for this film. And lucky for us somebody/bodies did have that courage.
My one criticism would be the storyline of the trans person, Melvin. I don't know whether that character was in the book or not but it's hard to imagine everyone in that environment being so laid back about a woman deciding to live as a man. It's especially hard to imagine the men letting that go. That was the one subplot that I felt garnered a little more context to make it work in the story. Otherwise, it just comes off as an obligatory, poorly thought out queer character that was just dropped into the movie. Representation is good. Tokenization not so much.
That one flaw aside, I found this movie to be wonderful and would watch again and again.
Kathleen Madigan: Hunting Bigfoot (2023)
Mostly funny, but the "millennial" tropes are expired
Much of this special is pretty funny, but I do wish she wouldn't refer to everyone who is ditzy and younger than her as a millennial. It's kind of a cheap (and inaccurate) way to get boomer applause. Most of the people she described as millennials would actually fall into Gen Z. I'm 40 and I'm technically a millennial, so the 20-year-old space cadet millennial trope is pretty played out at this point. Time to bully the next generation, I guess?
It feels like she's pandering to a particular segment of the population (baby boomers) who get off on being triggered by the word "millennial," even if it's blatantly misused. And honestly, the long rants about millennials not only make her come across as an angry, out-of-touch old lady, but those (long) moments of the special feel dated and recycled from thousands of standup sets from 15 years ago.
You say the country isn't ready for war, because of the entitled millennials you encounter at taco bell? News flash: half the millennials alive are too old to be drafted and all of them are older than your typical taco bell employee. Millennials are soccer moms, doctors, plumbers, professors, business owners, etc.
If her set didn't rely so heavily on outdated stereotypes, I wouldn't have voted down for it. But she spends SO much time crapping on Gen Z and calling them millennials that it gets real old and pumps the brakes on the momentum of her set.
La noche más larga (2022)
Like Home Alone, but in a prison...
It's Christmas, Kevin McAlister is home alone, bad guys are trying to break in and get him, and he's using everything at his disposal to keep them out...
Now imagine it's still Christmas, but the house is a prison, Kevin is a serial killer, and there's guns and tear gas involved. That's this movie.
Some elements are so unbelievable... like why are the kids there? Warden gets called into work on Christmas. Why wouldn't he take them back to their mother instead of making them spend Christmas in a prison? I know they needed to be there for the sake of drama, but it's a ridiculous device. Then there's the whole letting everyone get slaughtered thing.
Too much of it doesn't make sense...
HOWEVER lol... if you can suspend the living daylights out of your disbelief and accept it as soap opera level drama, it's a fun watch. You might roll your eyes a lot along the way, but you might also find yourself pretty engrossed. No matter how many times I asked myself "why am I still watching this?" I continued watching. Also, the English overdubs aren't distracting at all.
I will say, however, that I don't think they needed 6 episodes to tell this story. Could've been a movie or 3 episodes tops. Anyway, it's worth checking out.