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Reviews
Nebraska (2013)
Touching, irksome
While I was touched by the father/son dynamic, I was irked by the tired stereotypical treatment that small-town America always seems to require when portrayed by the movie industry. The role of the two grown children of Woody's brother was particularly cartoonish, and the lines written for his wife were simply unbelievable. I have grown up in and around small towns, and found myself disappointed with the film's "straw America" attack. People in small towns, I have found, are typically of loftier character than what Hollywood would have us believe. I have always admired Bruce Dern, and am happy to see him on screen again... I just wish more respect had been paid to that generation that grew up in an age where people perhaps knew more of life than the one that critiques them.
Was the black-and-white treatment supposed to suggest, as in Pleasantville, that these people lead colorless lives? Perhaps not. But sometimes I wished I could have enjoyed the blue sky Dern's character was absorbed by.
The Innkeepers (2011)
what happened? and why?
Well, we knew there was going to be trouble if she went down into the basement...
I just finished watching this, and I must admit the two main characters were likable enough, but I was expecting some sort of clincher or twist or explanation, but instead, the end came and... nothing. For me, having become accustomed to films that give you something to think about or to be surprised by, this movie surprised me by having nothing surprising or thought-provoking to qualify it. It was just... over, like the writers got started but never finished, and yet the movie was made anyway. Some elements of what is normally considered to be a plot are present, but its like a ghost story told around a campfire that concludes, "And then she died. The End." I couldn't believe anyone would go through all the trouble of making a movie (even though I can't imagine a movie that would require less money to make) with such a lack of story. NOTHING gets developed. Absolutely nothing. It was so nothing that I had to write about how surprised I was that such a thing could even be made and still be classified as a movie on par with other efforts we typically refer to as movies.
True Grit (2010)
I don't blame the Coen's for the "no ending" ending
It's not their fault. It just isn't fashionable any more to end things in a way that smacks of some bigger narrative, as though there is some greater purpose to things.
The acting was superb, as everyone says. I enjoyed the dialogue, and am grateful for the Coen brothers in trying to preserve it. I often wonder how much we, as those who never lived it, can say, "It was authentic". But it sure SEEMED as though a good amount of research went into the dialogue. If so, I am grateful to the Coens for this. If not, I am bothered to be misled, because the dialogue indicates we as a race may really yet have such a capability.
But it was the ending that disappointed me. It was just a big let-down. Maybe the philosophy behind what is entertainment has changed, or maybe what people find entertaining has changed, or maybe what the movers-and-shakers think WE should think is entertaining has changed. Anyway, I found the "no story here" ending kind of nullifying as to the rest of what I had seen.
I do feel sympathy for anyone trying to make a "good" movie these days, though. If it ties up everything in a bow, it is seen as trite and naive. Perhaps because this movie looks back around an age of American prosperity on an era that in some ways matches our own for bleakness, it could be said to have captured something for today.
The decorum of the people as represented in this movie, to me that was what informed me (or entertained me, whatever that term may mean).
Monkey Trouble (1994)
Perfect Family Fun with a Real Message
This is probably the best "kids movie" I know of. I don't know why this film hasn't garnered a higher "star" rating...maybe because it isn't "edgy" or cynical enough to fit current sensibilities of the darker society we are becoming. I've noticed many I've presented it to in classrooms or Sunday school groups dismiss it at first blush due to its cover and subject matter, but I haven't found an audience yet, from primary school kids to jaded teens, who have not become totally captured by the story it presents. Not one scene seems superfluous. There is not one minute in this film that does not keep everyone's attention. Thora Birch is perfect in her role. The light and jaunty musical score also receives a lot of credit in my mind as to how everything moves along so well. The music alone brightens my day! And how many movies in this genre have had the animal play his/her part so well? AND ... How many films out there that do as well as this one in conveying to children how serious or complicated things can become when we try to hide things from those we should trust?