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yoninahthecat
Reviews
America's Forgotten (2020)
Aspects Of Immigration
The problem with all documentaries that have to be edited into a length accessible to the viewer is that you only have a limited time-frame in which to deal with the subject matter.
The Director/Writer does a great job here, dealing with four (I think) specific 'lives' in order to draw together a series of warnings about the current state of the American Immigration System.
What I found lacking, unfortunately, was the counterpoint, the deeper pry into those lives that were being presented to the Viewer as representative of the whole.
The seemingly endless rows of homeless along the side the roads frequently filmed was played alongside the homeless Vet and his wife with the implied suggestion that they were somehow representative of most of those who find themselves 'on the streets'.
The couple's story was important to cover - but with the necessarily limited time available, the thrust of the film must take on a narrow storyline that guides the narrative in one direction.
This is no bad thing - it's just that it becomes a necessity.
However, as the Media today take their listeners in a totally different route, this film is refreshing, challenging and worth watching. It stands alongside, for example, Simon Reeve's footage of his travels either side of the US-Mexico Border that was broadcast as part of the BBC Documentary series on America.
This is not a pleasant film - but it's a necessary one.
Death by Potato (2016)
Good Directorial Debut
The initial scene had me cringing - the main actor is delivering a speech in a pretty terrible Irish accent. Thankfully, it was meant not to be taken seriously and the film got going very quickly.
The characters are a delight - they very quickly display their wackiness and continue doing so throughout the film. My one criticism is that diction is a bit of a problem at certain points - which would be acceptable had the subtitles been in-sync with the delivery! So, that's frustrating.
Also that the overall volume is varied as if consistent sound level hadn't been achieved.
As an introduction to a new Director, it was encouraging. There are no mind-blowingly new camera angles or staggeringly inventive shots - but the script doesn't demand it as it's a straightforward Farce and works well.
However, the Director's inclusion of the running 'blind girl joke' in the background within the dialogue that's at the forefront of the scene has been managed well. It's one of the funniest in-jokes throughout the film.
It's also good that the Director hasn't tried to spin out the length but has kept it intense and short - which works perfectly.
The film had me laughing - and the querkiness of the screenplay is superb.
All in all, a very good Directorial debut - and, as he also wrote the script, I look forward to seeing what comes next.
Dunkirk (2017)
Threadbare but it works
I could list a few criticisms of this film and decry the 'unrealistic' images being conveyed through the film *but* the film just works.
Probably the cleverest aspect of the film is its choice to ignore a timeline in which to place events chronologically. It isn't too far in when you begin to realise that one aspect of the story line being told has already taken place - while you visit another perspective later in the film as if it, too, is a present.
It's a superb piece of editing - with little gore. The dog fight sequences alone are worth watching.
Inception (2010)
Inconsistent
There's a lot to be said in favour of 'Inception' such as great special effects and a new and interesting concept in which to set a film.
However, although Sci-fi demands that probably impossible concepts in real life must be assumed to be able to happen, 'Inception' isn't consistent to these and jumps around and conveniently ignores its own rules.
For example, needing a gravity kick in zero-gravity, Gordon-Levitt comes up with the great idea of using a free-falling lift to bring it about. Hello? There's zero-gravity everywhere - just by blowing the wires on a lift won't send it crashing into the basement.
And, when Di Caprio needs to go and find a fellow traveller in the victim's mind, he does so even when the victim is awake, returning to consciousness from his 'dreamworld' (that is, the victim's 'dreamworld') when consciousness has already been recovered.
And there are many other problems that space forbids me to relate.
If this film was consistent to its own rules, it would have my vote of approval as being an original and compelling film but, unfortunately, there's no point inventing an alternative reality only to ignore the rules you've made and upon which the premise is based.