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rjbartholomew
Reviews
Learning to Drive (2014)
9.5 stars -- a move for grownups
One of the finest movies I've seen. On a par with A Month of Sundays, another rare film for viewers other than 17 yr old boys. Realistic, moving, cleansing... with characterizations so interesting as to be entertaining.
Blandings (2013)
As brilliant as Fawlty Towers
This series took a little getting used to. Third time watching, my husband and I caught on-- so many verbal and visual nuances to appreciate! Timothy Spall is brilliant. Best thing Jennifer Saunders has done. Jack Farthing is perfect, just the right degree of campy exaggeration, camera, music, performance. Only weakness is it's rather the same plot repeated, but who cares? There needs be a framework for the players to hang their magic on. I predict this will become a classic and cultists bewailing its all-too-limited span.
Five Nights in Maine (2015)
The rare art film that's fully watchable
I'm surprised this film gets any poor reviews. It is well scripted, stunningly acted, artfully filmed, and perfectly edited. The photography is the narrator, almost a character in itself-- intimate right up to the point of discomfiture yet neither artsy nor self-aware. The story seems, at least, to unfold as life unfolds-- you discover what's happened at the seeming pace of real-life awareness... but only seeming, of course, which is the film's brilliance.
What I like best about Five Nights is that it deals with a universal situation without triteness or cloying sentiment.
Sorry if this sound like a PR blurb, but this film is notable and beautiful and worth seeking out. It's baffling that anyone could miss this.
The Crimson Field (2014)
Ten stars
Can't believe this miniseries didn't get the best ratings ever. Either Brit audiences are drinking too much or it was due to a lousy time slot... hopefully not the decision of some psychotic executive. Crimson is as fine a drama as BBC has ever produced. Hopefully some other network will resurrect it... and the cast and crew can be reassembled. A big raspberry to BBC!
Admittedly, the drama here is flamboyant and the tone is mildly but definitely anti-authoritarian. Perhaps 2014 audiences weren't able to handle its antiwar theme what with ISIS reaching its peak. But the plots are so gripping, the acting superb, the realism so real... simply a beautifully made series.