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Reviews
The Laundromat (2019)
Outstanding, timely film.
I'm going to have to read the book from which this film emerged, but I'm assuming that the screenplay is in good faith. Aside from the outstanding satirical performances from an outstanding cast of actors, this film cuts deep and clearly into the sickness that we are all faced with today.
I posted a positive teaser on Facebook while in the middle of the film, and then went on to write more stridently about it after Meryl Streep's diatribe at the end.
(Just Google "1209 North Orange Street," mentioned in this movie, to get a taste of what I mean.)
Speaking of the end, if only there was an end to these practices on the horizon. We can do this.
GLOW (2017)
Sensitive, deep, compassionate, and funny!
I came to this show because of Marc Maron. I've followed him since the early years of his podcast, and even came out to see his standup a few times. What struck me about Maron is what strikes me about this series: An honest take on human psychology vis a vis real situational human circumstances.
A situational comedy on steroids.
I remember M*A*S*H making me tear up occasionally, but this mfer manages to make me cry at some point in every episode, especially Season 3.
A most unlikely favorite for me (I could give a crap about professional wrestling IRL,) but the writing and performances, and the *commitment* of the cast to the story is extremely moving and revelatory. I'm in love with everyone who worked on this drama.
Axis (2017)
What is up with these negative reviews?
It's like Short Attention-Span Theatre up in here.
I found the film human, and riveting. If Michael Mann had shot this (and there seems to be an obvious influence,) people would be predictably raving.
The raw dialogue was smart and voyeuristic. And the driving around was soothing and familiar. The slow build of the phone calls, escalating to the climax, was genius writing.
I'm just glad I ignored these other folk on here and watched it anyway. I could watch it again.
Two thumbs up, Aisha!
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Brutal Mastery From Tarantino With The Right Sprinkle Of Humor
Absolutely brutal, and I'm taking a half-star just for that reason.
Kidding (mostly.)
Tarantino really pulled one off this time, and that's saying something for a guy with films like "Pulp Fiction" & the "Kill Bill" series under his belt. His other films, written or directed, never quite reached those apexes, but were still good popcorn fare. He's back and definitely flexing his chops with this one, and he, and his excellent cast (Jennifer Jason Leigh nearly out-boxed Samuel L. Jackson! Nearly.) Complete with signature snappy dark comedic dialogue.
Don't know if I'll revisit it - the violence really is off-putting for me - but it *is* worth a revisit.
The Subjects (2015)
Oh, c'mon, this was outstanding.
Yea, I could probably nick a half-a-star or more off of this for trivial reasons, but goddammit this was highly entertaining.
The characters are circumscribed well, if a bit cartoonish, but they are played with real commitment and so anyone with heart will go with that aspect.
The "physicist" among them was charming and manic and had a great close-out in the end credits.
I liked this as much as I did "Coherence" and "Chronicle" (and others like "Primer,") with the bonus that the superhero and the time-travel conceits were included in one movie.
If you're just looking to get your fantasy stroked, this movie will do just fine.
Hummingbird (2013)
How To Stay In Your Skin
This film is like that moment when you are shaving - or, alternately, putting on make-up - and you suddenly take a hard, unexpected look and see that you are ugly, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it.
No morality tale here, except maybe in the sense of how to stay in your skin when your morals have decayed beyond... Redemption. There is a touching fragility to these flawed characters, even the brutal protagonist, played brilliantly by Statham. Yes, Jason plays Jason for the most part, but something deeper peeks from beneath that Neanderthal brow, and I respect that this didn't require of him the Full Metal Thespian reject of his action hero stereotype.
There were a couple of stereotypical wrap-ups in the voice-over at the end, but they were incidental to the overall emotional force of the movie.
It was moving, from beginning to end.
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
A Ripping Good Yarn
"Zero Dark Thirty" is a ripping good yarn. And that's the problem with it.
A word about the torture sequences that begin the saga: I've noticed a somewhat lively debate over whether or not the film "condones" torture, and I find it a silly argument in this case. This film does not present torture to exploit the fantasies of reptilian machismo in the repetitive and adolescent way of Fox's mostly Bush-era "24" (and as, frankly, most cinematic and televised drama cartoons it.) It simply *presents* it to the viewer.
I would say that critics on both sides of this "debate" are merely projecting their own feelings on the matter. Reality, once again, as Rorschach inkblot. I was repelled by what I saw, and I felt as much sympathy for the haplessness and moral ambiguity of the torturers as I did for their victim. But I see no reason to indict the filmmakers for reaching for the steady gaze of realism (perhaps they did not adequately present the extent of such brutality, but I ask: Is that even possible? In a *film?* I think we sometimes ask too much of the silver screen.) As I said, a ripping good yarn. Fantastic story arc. Protagonist angst and doubt, failure, triumph, a wonderfully silent reflection at the end that lets the viewer decide just what made those tears fall. Not to mention the mastery of suspense in a movie where the viewer already knows the outcome.
Or did I know the outcome? And does this fictional representation of history really reveal that outcome? Look, the body of Bin Laden is famously alleged to have been dumped into the - sorry, "buried at" - sea. Allegedly Bin Laden, allegedly dumped. Perhaps the dramatic narrative would have been adversely interrupted by expositing on this "factoid" - I am no director - but this is inarguably some serious history here. In any case, the film leaves me no satisfaction on an undoubtedly Executive action that was unnecessarily confusing to the public... or at least, to me.
This omission calls into question the factuality of the rest of the narrative, as realistic as it, truthfully told, come across.
I wear my tinfoil-hat with pride, but it's an ambiguous pride. Conspiracy "theories" are flimsy boats in treacherous waters, captained by exploitive (Alex Jones) and gregarious (Jesse Ventura) characters, and efforts to find True North are actively thwarted by the impish shenanigans of intelligence leadership (often mutinously abetted by their own captains - I'm looking at *you*, Jones.) But these theories persist because there is indeed so much that is hidden from us - in the name of national security, CYA, or for simple darned *whimsy* as far as I know or can tell. And so I try to be "reasonable" and avoid full-naked-Truther body slams into the froth, but there are questions to which answers are actively refused.
There are those who think that the film (and the book on which it is based) are vetted creations of the CIA. This is a reasonable suspicion. There is, after all, a Senate panel investigating this. And where goeth the CIA, the truth does not easily go.
I enjoy a good yarn as much as the next guy, but thumbs down on this story on its display of glib ignorance of its historical import.
That said - I give it "8" out of the customary 10 stars.
Fetching Cody (2005)
Responsible Art
Our hero Art is appalled at what has happened to his street girlfriend. When the unlikely opportunity to muck about in the past presents itself, he embarks on a search to find just the right moment where he can apply a tourniquet to her bleeding life.
Nothing seems to work, until Art finally faces up to his own role in her demise.
This story is told with charming devices - a magical beat-down easy chair garnished with Christmas lights, a street prophet that could be right out of "The Fisher King," and an easy humor that coaxes out the darkness of the story and its players with sharp relief.