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reasonablewoman
Reviews
Bama Rush (2023)
Half of it is about the director
What a weird documentary. The director made herself a major figure in the documentary with a very tenuous connection to her own insecurity about having alopecia. I mean that's a worthy story to tell, which a lot of young people would surely benefit from, but it was strange to include in this film. The director takes up a lot of time talking verrrrry slowly with this weird affect to her voice, to talk about things that happened during filming - but she could've been covered it all in 1/4 the time, and spent more time on actually covering the subject at hand. It was very off-putting. As a result, the whole documentary only scratches the surface of what it claimed to be analyzing.
The Coven (2022)
Don't let the preview fool you, it's awful
And whoever wrote and directed are clearly Christian dudes with some unhealthy hang-ups up women and sex. I'm pretty sure they co-opt Indigenous American face-tattooing customs, too. The nod to The Shining with the eagle's eye view of the car heading to their host's home near the beginning of the movie gave me hope, and there are a few other cool references to other classic horror movies, but that's about the only positive of this movie. The scene that ranks among the worst I've ever seen in a movie of any type, period: the main character spreads her legs and a purple light emanated from her private parts accompanied by an angelic choir - and not in an ironic way.
Motherly (2021)
It's like the writer and director never met people before
Hard to watch because the dialogue is repetitive and unrealistic, and none of the characters behave in a way that makes sense. You get secondhand embarrassment by watching the actors play out an overwrought storyline that most viewers will guess within the first 20 min. So as you wait for it to get to the points, you have to sit through writing that gets the dynamics between women completely wrong- same with mother and child, same with husband and wife. This is what happens when the writers, director, and producers are all men who are all either under 30 or all fantastically immature and emotionally stunted. It's a big brooding piece about how awful women and girls are, and how men are the innocent victims of the vicious games they play among themselves.
Come Play (2020)
Horrific take on motherhood
I wish men like Jacob Chase would stop with their takes on motherhood, because movies like this are part of why American women -- especially mothers - are so likely to suffer from poor mental health.
The movie says that it's a mother's fate to end up tortured and basically a shell (ghost, in the movie) of her former self if she has a child that turns out to have special needs. She is expected to give up everything else in her life, there is no other choice to consider - to do so would be selfish and a rejection of her motherhood and womanhood.
I hope the writer/director stops making films, at least until he grows up enough to recognize that women are more than he gives them credit for, and that movies like this are complicit in patriarchy.
The Retreat (2021)
Breaks the horror formula
Entertaining, unpredictable, and overall a very satisfying movie to watch. So many horror movies end up proselytizing and reinforcing conservative values on the sly, but not The Retreat. I loved it.
Strange But True (2019)
The twists were good, but...
I'm tired of movies written and made by men in which women who don't bear children are treated as disposable and flawed. And try to explain away rape committed by certain types of men as a consequence of women who can't or don't want to have children. That's what this movie amounts to.
M.F.A. (2017)
It flirts with being anti-rape...
...but ultimately just endorses rape culture. The main character puts forth the fact that we will never see the end of rape because our society refuses to teach boys/men that it's their responsibility not to rape women. We allow the things we know perpetuate it to continue to exist, like frats, our justice system, universities that dismiss it, etc.
But instead of making a statement that drastic measures are needed, and focusing on why Noelle feels compelled to do what she does, the film falls back on reinforcing the hackneyed, patriarchal insistence that justice may only be meted out morally via the current "justice system," including white male police officers. But this obviously can't be done, because those entities are designed to reinforce patriarchy, including rape culture.
To sum it up, this film says: We know that ending rape culture is in the hands of men, but we also know men are reticent to do that. But women must still hold themselves to a higher standard, and continue the struggle by going through our existing patriarchal justice system - and to seek justice like Noelle did is more immoral than rape.
Eagle vs Shark (2007)
I thought it was going to be satire...
...about rom-coms, but it's not! Jarrod is an absolute jerk to Lily for the entire movie, but then they end up together because he brought her flowers to make up for it. After not undergoing any kind of growth as a character. It sends the message that a woman should accept any type of behavior from her male partner because he probably just doesn't know any better, and you have to teach him. One of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Alex Cross (2012)
So bad it's camp
The shaky camera effect during the parts that are supposed to be super intense is so bad it's distracting. Bless his handsome heart, Ed Burns cannot act. Neither can Tyler Perry. Did he buy the rights to it or something? It's stylistically a lot like a Tyler Perry movie, including sappy moral platitudes.
Burnt (2015)
Idolizes abusive men
The only thing that made this movie watchable was Daniel Brühl. It glorifies Cooper's character and has the other characters cater to him and his tantrums and desires, but we don't understand why, because he treats everybody like garbage. The movie seems to be saying that as long as you're an okay-looking white dude, you can get away with behaving horribly as long as you do it under the guise of being "passionate." The storyline is implausible and feels like it was written by two fifteen year old boys about what they think it means to be an adult.
Frailty (2001)
Propaganda
The biggest, most doe-eyed devotion to law enforcement I've ever seen in a fictional movie. It makes the argument that police officers are serving God's will and to be followed blindly. No thank you, Bill Paxton.
1BR (2019)
Just a movie about a white girl w low self esteem
Just another movie where the Black girl character is disposable, just there so she can eventually die so the white girl can learn some kind of life lesson. But what that lesson is isn't so clear. Be yourself, I guess? Just another boring script from a white dude without an imagination.