rickcote Reviews

La La Land (2016)

Golden age of Hollywood cinema re-imagined for today

[10/10 · 17 September 2016]

Telluride by the Sea (Portsmouth, NH) led off its 2016 weekend film festival with La La Land, a captivating film that hearkens back to the golden age of Hollywood cinema yet remains firmly embedded in present-day Los Angeles life. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling bring a startling depth and nuanced feelings to what could easily have been another trite variation on the theme of falling in and out of love. The film impressed me on so many levels, for the quality of the direction and cinematography, the seamless transition between musical song-and-dance numbers with a powerful narrative, the inventive choreography, the authenticity that Stone and Gosling brought to their portrayal of their characters, and the amplification of the intensity of their romance enacted through their singing and dancing. This film is not-to-be-missed by anyone who loves the classic Ginger Rodgers-Fred Astaire movies and who longs for a modern re- invention of this genre.

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

extraordinary filmmaking, very disturbing

[9/10 · 25 September 2011]

I saw this film at Telluride by the Sea (Portsmouth, NH) prior to its general release. This is not a film I would choose to see normally, based on its subject matter. However, as a festival-goer, this was what was offered for the late evening screening. This film is visually stunning, and masterfully composed. You know early-on that a Columbine-style ending is inevitable, nonetheless hope that some miracle may yet occur to avert this disaster. Swinton is absolutely magnificent (as always) as the mother desperately trying to cope with raising a psychopathic child, but equally impressive are the performances of the actors who portray the developmental stages of Kevin from early childhood to the brink of adulthood. What elevates this film is the visual and musical narrative that accompanies the initial time-skipping introduction and then the more linear progression of Kevin's growth to its final, terrible conclusion. Interestingly, the emotional crescendo of the film occurs not near the end when Kevin carries out his horrific violence, but rather in the middle of the film at moments when we observe the impossibility of living a "normal" family life with a child who is incapable of feeling or expressing the human emotions that bind us together.