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Atlas (2024)
So bad. Pretty effects.
I don't know if I can even watch the whole thing, this is so bad. I don't know if it's just that poorly written that every actor seems so awful. It is so bad it comes across as a b movie but without any charm or humor. Lopez character is screechy and off putting. The space effects are pretty though. I have to say I just can't drum up any interest in what is going to happen. I don't like to pan movies but as a sci fan I'm just so disappointed. Hsp hooes it's a fresh alternative to terminator movies but sadly, it's not. Unwatchable. I keep waiting to see. I really can only stand the robots voices in this
They are much better than j lo is and I am rooting for extinction of the human race frankly.
In the Forest (2022)
Good enough!
This is the kind of movie I watch for company and to explore new indies while I am busy doing something else boring, and I liked it. The acting is serviceable. The comfortable set up: driving into the wilderness for camping, things happen, unfriendly inhabitants...Then I almost turned it off because I thought the story was going to be too dark for my taste, but then there were interesting twists which caught my attention as a story. So I was pleasantly surprised. Reminds me of some other indies with homey settings and interesting stories like Brian Vadim's. I would watch others by this director, the direction was painless to watch. Obviously not going to be an Oscar winner but are you looking for that in this? Fine if you enjoy the B movie genre, which I do sometimes.
A Million Miles Away (2023)
We loved this movie!
I agree with the reviewers who recommend this for family viewing, especially older children. That said it is not simplistic but rich in themes. Very romantic! And also it strikes me as honest and unflinching about the hero's own flaws and mistakes, in his relationships just as he was willing to own his mistakes in the astronaut program. It was a tear jerker in a sweet way throughout, because of the family love and tribulations, the hard work, the challenges and injustices for migrant workers and people of color. But that is not just what this is about. This is a universal story. We all, most of us, had immigrant families who worked too hard and faced seemingly insurmountable challenges to get to and make it in America. I can also identify with the homesickness and clinging to ethnic traditions even while we "melting pot" in public. I remember those immigrant ancestors and my own little students. Also a touching tribute to caring teachers, who maybe overstep, maybe don't understand, but ultimately care so deeply about the children's futures. Lovely, lovely, family values.
I have to say, I always watch every astronaut movie I can find because I love movies about men and women at work on a project bigger than themselves, but I had avoided this one. I saw the friendly face of the star and was afraid it would be too corny and simple. Well it wasn't, it was an all time favorite!
The Hid (2023)
Some fine performances, worth the short time investment
This relatively short (hour and a quarter) indie gem draws us into a strange tale inspired by some true events, told via a few outstanding performances in simple, everyday settings. The feel weds stage play with found footage traditions.
The movie opens with a flashback: the stunningly talented Leora Kalish plays a desperate mother, Helen Shire, awfully strugglingly to maneuver someone or something, whom she refers to as her "boy", into a shed for protection from a posse of perfectly depicted townies. When Kalish is on screen, you really cannot look away. The straggling mob out to exact some kind of vengeance on Helen or her son are so perfectly played, you have to laugh.
Cue the present day little university team out to study a history of paranormal happenings around the town, which was flooded to make Hidden View Reservoir. A few cabins remain around the lake which had struggled as a camping resort. Two professors, a dorky, skeptical one, and a serious, level headed one who studies witchcraft; a hip film student, and an English student turned podcaster hosting true ghost experiences. This group is headed to stay in a cabin to learn more about the history, and serve as our means of learning what is going on.
They interview a caretaker played by Erik Renn who does a fine job as the cagy practical business-like guy who knows about fuses and cash money, and also shares his own ghostly experience. They find old clippings and files, and videotape of a police interview. The characters in the interviews include another compelling turn by Helen Shire, and an online interview with Rosie Frey as a very believable Sarah Jane Pickets, the resort host. In these interviews we learn about the Shire's ice farm and its dangers, and more about the bizarre characters in the town.
The college searchers are soon debating whether they are investigating murders, a monstrously deformed human, or supernatural phenomena. Jake, the film student, is perfectly performed by Gideon Berger and is as sexy hot as he is chill and dry. Deirdre Koczur as Marla, taking her own footage for her channel, is super high strung, with innate anxiety building throughout. Samantha (Linda Conrad) ironically balances a no-nonsense professional attitude with witchy spells to summon the dead. And Phil Husbands as Professor Grayson really doesn't want to be there. The situation, noise and their own debates become enervating for everyone and very fast, things deteriorate.
What really happens or happened is probably something you'll want to discuss. Which now that I think of it reminds me of the whole scenario.
Worth the short time investment. I personally dread movies longer than this, though I would have loved to spend more time with some of these actors, so I look forward to another viewing, and to look for more hints as the story unfolds.
The Wheel of Time (2021)
I miss the characters between episodes!
I am watching the second season; I wasn't sure what I thought, but between episodes waiting for the next one to drop, I miss the characters! The episodes are so lush in costumes, settings and faces and acting and it really seeps into my subconscious.
I did read the first book, which I really loved. I haven't read more because I am not really a series reader, I like to "browse". I will probably come back eventually after watching this series.
My father enjoys this also, although not as much as I do, because he finds the characters too angsty, and not enough light scenes and humor. A valid observation.
The Most Reluctant Convert (2021)
Even if you know the story, this is perfect, compelling theater
I knew bits of the C. S. Lewis conversion story, and a good bit of his biography. I'd read him, about him and about The Inklings, his intellectual cronies including Tolkien. Watch it anyway, it is a new experience. Compelling and told with humor, humility and love. Watched this movie with my father and we were completely and totally engaged the entire film. We favorably view movies which can hold our attention without mind-wandering. This one operated as a "conversion" event for me, leading to mind wandering after viewing, one of those life changing films because so memorable. Am even reading George MaCDonald now, and don't know how I had overlooked his work.
The Ghosts of Somerville: Old Dutch Parsonage (2022)
Theories about the haunting of this historic house really make you wonder
The historic house is beautiful and fascinating in itself. Historians who work for caring for and explaining the property are obviously intelligent, practical, educated, articulate, and tell the story of guests' experience of hauntings. The expertise of two other professionals interviewed, an educated paranormal investigator and a psychic, offer fascinating speculation on different types of hauntings they experience generally and which seem to apply to this house. The reenactments are entertaining and creepy. The filmmaker clearly loves his town and local history, and that love for this historic treasure comes through in all the interviews. Really makes you think about the lives lived in an antique house, and about the shadows of prior lives all around us.
Operation Mincemeat (2021)
How did they succeed in making this fascinating story so BORING
So disappointed, such an exciting true story, made so infinitely boring. I generally love this era and type of film and I wonder how they succeeded in ruining it, and who thought it was watchable. Waste.
The Ghosts of Somerville: Mrs. Micks (2021)
Compelling true story of living in a real haunted house in this hip historic town
Compelling true ghost story: a man remembers his experiences as a teen living in a real haunted house. Includes well-executed reenactments and consultation with a psychic, whose perspective on the tale adds to the spookiness. Somerville is a historic town dating back to the colonial era, now booming as a hipster hot spot. Nice idealized footage of the hometown clearly beloved by the filmmaker who narrates his town visit. First of a series, and I can't wait for the next haunting!
Sustainable Life with Unlimited Transformations (2021)
A funny yet deep, futuristic and nostalgic "PIGmalion"
Superbly directed, this nostalgic "creature feature" runs deeper than one might expect from a series of short "episodes" and analog effects, against a sound backdrop of stunning original rock, the music, another storyteller in the film. And there's plenty of sophisticated humor in the simple effects and in the tale's I couldn't look away and was intrigued enough by the strange story and characters to stare into the screen anxiously waiting for what happens next--even after repeated viewings, hence I say the surprising depth. A number of characters speak without moving lips--two different disembodied computer heads, a masked character whose "illness" grows worse, the rigid makeup effects depicting a physically deteriorating ancient man, a pair of jellyfish--but Sahra's eyes (the computer's face living within an old TV screen) speak volumes. But there's visual relief from the masks in the handsome features and acting of human Dr. Jack Adams in his restored prime, and in the gorgeous awakening of his creation Eve.
Sahra's face in the computer moves the action with her strange expressions and her will manifests more and more ability to intervene. An interesting interplay is Sahra's idealization of freedom of a body it longs for and Eve's entrapment within a body designed for exploitation, which could even be a double meaning for divergent body images.
There are plenty of references and plays on lines and images from classic movies if you can find them. This modern Pygmalion (or PIG-malion, ha), is worth the small investment of time for a chuckle, and touches a deeper nerve so you'll carry it with you awhile.