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The Judge (2014)
Grief
This film is about grief. Grief generates anger that often simmers in the subconscious mind. It comes spilling out when cued by situations that bring the memory into the conscious mind. It affects others around the grieving person. They are surprised by the sudden explosion of anger. They do not understand it and it gives them a feeling of horror. The grief may be short, but all too often lies buried for a long time. It can heal slowly but the process is filled with sorrow. That is emotionally painful and is why it has dwelled so long in the subconscious. The mind seeks to protect the grievers emotional wellbeing. These emotions all play out in this long film. This theme is not unique to this film but is one more reflection of a fundamental life experience. The actors reproduce the emotions of the film excellently. The film crew creates a wonderful movie.
Bodkin (2024)
Authentic Irish Mystery
This series is a mystery with little comedy. Its filming location is southwestern Ireland in Cork County. The films settings are an impressive viewing of the landscape of the county. The coast is rugged and rocky North Atlantic. The vegetation is luscious green as is Ireland's reputation. An engaging comment in the film is that the rain is heavy or light but still always their unseen in tiny droplets settling on the land. The language is English mixed with captivating Irish. The roads are unpaved, and walking is common. There is no modern architecture. Clothing is heavy as the climate is cool and wet. The mystery is hard to follow and likely requires a second viewing for optimal appreciation. There are a fair number of eerie scenes of the supernatural. Memories of childhood trauma play a role. The end clears up the mystery of the series. It will not be appreciated nor understood unless the whole series is viewed in sequence. I do not recall ever viewing such an Irish series that seems native to the country.
Baby Reindeer (2024)
Complexity of Love and Behavior
This is a series displaying discrete human behaviors. It includes stalking, gender variance, and sexual orientation variance. Of the three, stalking is the major theme. That is fitted within the larger topic of relational challenge in the milieu of the different behaviors. Love is an essential aspect of human behavior and, coupled with such variations from the usual, it is elevated in complexity. The plot unexpectedly deepens as it plays out. The acting is good especially with respect to the stalker played by Martha Scott. Its interest is enhanced by it being based on the real-life experience of the writer Richard Gadd. The series ending is such that it would accommodate a second season.
Liberty or Death: Boston Tea Party (2023)
An Historical Tea Party
I learned about the Boston Tea Party through education as a young person. It remained a sketchy memory of colonists throwing boxes of British tea from ships docked in the Boston Harbor in 1773. It seemed like vandalism by rowdy men and a waste of good tea worth a lot, at the time.
My understanding was broadened significantly by viewing this short film series. The "tea party" was the starting point of the British American colonies' separation from the authoritarian British monarchy and parliament. No person lost their life. The plan and its accomplishment were a masterpiece headed by Samuel Adams and John Hancock, both early patriots of the colonies.
Its underlying driving force was a revolt over a tax on tea. Tea then was used daily by most colonists as a stimulant in a demanding environment. The tax was a ploy by the realm of the British Empire to control its American colonies. Most in the colonies detested this expensive tax without there being any opportunity for them to be represented in the decision making.
The plan of the insurrection was masterfully devised and flawlessly completed. At most it was miraculous and at least very lucky. The resultant heavy handed military response of the British led to the formation of the American Continental Congress. This initiated civil war in 1775. In 1776 the colonies declared independence from Britian and formed the United States of America. The treaty of 1783 formalized the victory of the colonies and granted them independence from Britain.
As such this was far from an isolated "tea party". It was one of the major events shaping the history of the USA. It left me with the feeling that the designation "tea party" was an understatement of a momentous event.
Skim City: The Real-Life Mafia Behind Casino (2023)
The Real Story Behind Casino
This single season with three episodes relates the story behind the Chicago mafia and its establishment in the early days of the birth of gambling in Las Vegas, until its demise after about a 30-year run. It combines original factual film with staged film seamlessly. One can recognize the connection with scenes from the movie Casino. It comes across as a low-key historical documentary, which it is not, but is given that feel to a viewer. Interestingly as that era died, the era of booming USA casino gambling began with the establishment of Resorts Casino in Atlantic City, governed by groundbreaking rules codified in law successfully preventing illegal involvement. For those who have viewed all the fictional mob films of high quality this can still be entertaining, as it is different enough to be interesting.
The Last Czars (2019)
A Violent Transition
This film series gave me insight into a historical event about which I had only a superficial knowledge. It depicts the 1917 revolutionary transition of Russia from a monarchical autocracy into a communist autocracy.
The Russian Romanov autocracy had lasted for 300 years, and the Russian communist autocracy has now lasted a little over 100 years.
The 1917 revolution was atrociously violent, manifested by the well-known murder of an entire family consisting of two parents, four female children, and one male child.
The transition from dictatorship to democracy has yet to be determined with respect to a time and the option of a violent versus peaceful transition.
Pain Hustlers (2023)
Film Hustle
This film engenders feelings of anger and sadness in that it diverts viewers from the reality of the problem of drug addiction. The film is fictional but inspired by a nonfictional newspaper article in 2018 expanded into a book in 2023. The article and book describe the role of a pharmaceutical company in falsely exaggerating the benefits while minimizing the dangers of the legal opioid fentanyl, eighty times more potent than morphine. The film loosely mimics the article and book describing the catastrophe surrounding the pharmaceutical marketing of fentanyl, represented by the fictitious name Lonifen. The marketing is claimed to have fueled the fentanyl crisis. However, in recent years the source of fentanyl has been through the illicit underground market.
Opioids are addictive and fatal if the dose is too large. Deaths from illegal opioids of unknown strength are most often accidental and not deliberate. The death rate from fentanyl increased fourfold between 2016 and 2021 reaching an estimated 70,000 deaths in 2021. These deaths were predominantly among young people.
Today, by far, the major source of fentanyl is illegal as opposed to legal. The death rate from fentanyl has risen in recent years due to complicity between China and Mexico. Chinese entities supply the precursor chemicals needed to make fentanyl and thus claim that they are not supplying the actual drug fentanyl. Mexican cartels then use these chemicals to manufacture the drug fentanyl. The Mexican government claims that the USA does not adequately address the problem of addiction, and that it is therefore not their problem. The fentanyl is delivered into the USA by the Mexican cartels and USA drug dealers. This can only be dealt with by the Federal and State USA governments which have failed to do so, especially with the porous borders of the entire USA, allowing for smuggling of the drug.
This film is marginally productive in bringing further light to the problem. It is too inaccurate and incomplete. It therefore deserves a low rating as it is misleading.
Too Hot to Handle: The Climax (2023)
Transition from Playing to Affection
Episode 10, The Climax, is the end of five seasons of reality film encompassing 49 Episodes all variants of the same basic, but entertaining plot. I approached this series with curiosity but pessimistic expectations. I watched Series 5 and ended with a sense of uncertainty as to what it meant. However, the curiosity had increased such that I embarked on a binge view of Series 1-4.
The series is composed of five distinct retreats, advertised to social players as a complimentary party with other young adults just beyond the adolescent social period. The criteria for acceptance was a high sexual drive, in concert with brief relationships, with no desire to build an emotional connection. However, the guests were not aware that this was a psychotherapeutic retreat with the goal of changing their outlook and behavior, from players into persons committed to a more lasting relationship as couples. The players were shocked and disappointed when notified of the authentic basis for their gathering. However, they were motivated to stay by a reward of substantial prize money for players who best transitioned into couples, dedicated to each other rather than individually to themselves.
I came to appreciate that most of the players had been hurt by emotionally painful relational rejection in their past, leaving them afraid of being hurt again, and phobic of commitment beyond an emotionless transient interaction. The first goal of the therapeutic retreat was for them to face the unpleasant truth of that fear.
The second goal was to recognize that they had feelings of emotional rather than just physical attractions to another person.
The third goal was to change their behavior from that of a player to that of a caring person towards another and for that to be bilateral.
Some, but not all, players were able to make the transition, but most were able to gain insight into themselves and this, plus the chance at a monetary award, kept them trying.
The successful couples bonded very well. However, I experienced cautionary thoughts. First was that the success was due to starstruck love, a physiologic experience of pleasure, which is transient, lasting from just a day up to six months, when it usually fades. In essence, one form of pleasure had been replaced by another. This made the long-term outcome uncertain, but still possibly successful for the couples who had taken the first step towards a long-term relationship.
For me, the most interesting part of the series was speculating which couples were and were not likely to succeed, and why. I learned something about human behavior important in the lives of people in that time of young adulthood.
The Notebook (2004)
Love's Meanings
As I viewed this movie, a question transpired. Who was the first person I was especially attracted to? It was long ago in adolescence. I thought the recipient of my attention was more remarkable than any person I had ever met. Everything about her seemed good and nothing bad. I fell asleep each night and woke up each morning with the thought of her. I walked by her house nearly every day. I had less appetite and everyday happenings were hazy distractions from my feelings. I thought of being with her in a state of solitude, togetherness, and tenderness. I ached to see and be with her, and yet shook with anxious anticipation for the moment to come. That moment never came. Nature blessed me, and the aching desire subsided and then was gone. However, her name and memory would unexpectedly flash into my mind, cued by certain people, places, or things. The memories became increasingly fewer but, as evidenced by this reminiscence, never went extinct.
I realized eventually that I had fallen in love. My feeling was merely one meaning in a dictionary with many definitions of love. I was hit by the mythical golden arrow of cupid. In some ways it mirrored the definition of a biological addiction.
In this film, the mutual attraction of Noah and Allie was akin to both having been struck by cupid's golden arrows. Nature's innate neurons and neurochemicals were transformed into a feeling nurtured by a chance meeting, at a carnival in Seabrook Island, South Carolina. Their attraction was an intense experience of affection and intimacy, in an existence more pleasurable than any other thus far experienced. Noah and Allie experienced upbringings differing in many ways, yet it is said that opposites attract. However, it is also believed that likes belong together. Alas, as the film denotes, their love was torn apart by the vicissitudes of life. However, once again they met by chance and fell in love, but it was different this time. It was not so much that of lovers but that of mutual devotion. It was an emotional bond not easily broken by the vicissitudes of life. The ending was well done and awakened this viewer's emotive self.
La La Land (2016)
Day Dreaming
Sometimes, when I am engaged in the chaos of everything, everywhere, all at once, I muse about another place and time. That reverie is in La La Land, in a club with a neon sign, at a table with a low-lit candle, listening to the softer side of jazz, reminiscing about licorice pizza, looking into the eyes of my favorite person among all those I remember.
Thus was my initial, emotive, impression of this fictional film. The story starts with an upbeat meeting of two individual young adults aiming to find a path in life, with respect to their vocation and relationship but with vocation trumping relationship. Nature enters and they fall in love and their relationship now trumps vocation. Through tough times they support each other and begin to achieve their vocational roles in life. Alas, their relationship falls victim to the requirements of their vocations. The relationship mutually fractures. Five years later they briefly interact in a jazz nightclub, as two people passing through a dark night without a word, but as their eyes connect there appears a slight mutual reminiscent smile. There are touching moments in this film, but this scene is the most poignant. The time of the classical musical romance film is waning but this one has adapted, achieving balance between the musical and romantic parts.
It struck me that it requires a multitude of entities and people, each with unique skill sets and standardized emotions, to come together to make a movie. However, the individual emotional parts synthesize to create an emotional whole which is unique and entirely new.
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
The Fallacy of Revenge
This is a slick fictional film. It depicts a story which is a love relationship between two young students, Edward and Susan. It also depicts a tale which is a fictional novel written by Edward and dedicated to Susan. The story and the tale run parallel through the film.
The love story part is about a relationship that turns bad. Susan, an aspiring art historian, and Edward, an aspiring creative writer, fall in love with each other and marry. Susan's domineering mother opposes the marriage, believing Edward is below her economic status. Pathetically, she comes to resent Edward as failing economically and socially and, further, aborts his child and engages in an affair. She angrily ends the marriage after this spiteful behavior, leaving an angry Edward. She marries within her social rank, but as the years go by the relationship ultimately turns negative, and her husband is away from home working and engaging in affairs. Her daughter has stepped over the line from adolescence into young adulthood and is starting her own life. Susan is alone in a beautiful house, and one likely believes she deserves this.
The tale part is a thriller novel of terror depicting psychopathy at its worst. Tony, his wife, and their adolescent daughter are kidnapped on a dark Texas road by three severely anti-social persons who rape and murder his wife and daughter. Tony survives but carries tremendous guilt for not saving his wife and daughter. The memory is not suppressed deep enough in his subconscious. His grief comes pouring out in the form of anger and is accompanied by the need for revenge. He achieves revenge with the help of a dying detective but dies himself, while exacting the revenge.
What is the connection between the love story gone wrong and the grotesque novel? The connection is anger, which breeds revenge, which makes bad things worse. The love story ends with Edward losing his wife and unborn child. The novel ends with Tony dying because of the need to revenge the loss of his wife and daughter. Edward has written the novel to spite his ex-wife, thus enacting revenge, and exhibiting less than laudable behavior. In essence both Edward and Susan have suffered the consequences of harboring anger and its offshoot, revenge. A Biblical moral, to consider, is that revenge is best left to a higher spiritual power, whence punishment will fit the trespass.
To Leslie (2022)
A Journey Through Purgatory
This is a fictional movie about an alcoholic. It opens with a young woman, Leslie, and her adolescent son, James, winning a lottery in a small Texas town in which they were born and grew up. She is excited and plans to live a good life, to purchase a restaurant, and relate to her son. She promptly deteriorates further into an alcohol dependency and leaves town. She is so deep into addiction that she abandons her son to the care of her friend, Nancy. Six years later, her money having run out, she finds herself at the bottom of a proverbial bone-dry well of life. Her friends, more accurately her drinking companions, have faded away. One might be sympathetic but for her disgusting behavior. In desperation she calls her son, now a young adult living in a city, and goes to live with him. He accepts her on one condition; she cannot use alcohol. She promptly breaks this promise, and her son arranges for her to stay with her friend, Nancy, and her partner, Dutch, back in her hometown. She promptly steals money from Dutch, and uses alcohol, so they lock her out from their home. It is unlikely that "tough love" will be successful. In this town there are no rehabilitation havens for alcoholics. Viewer sympathy for Leslie crawls back, ever so slightly. She meets a man, Sweeney, who surprisingly offers her a job and a place to stay. He seems to be a good Samaritan, but possibly an enabler. She continues to drink but he gives her more chances. Messing up once again, she ends up in a bar listening to Willie Nelson singing "Are You Sure", a touching moment in the film. Initially, she laughs off the lyrics, a form of denial, but then begins to feel sadness as the song winds down, and reality sets in. As her dysfunctional defenses crumble, she feels the pain of losing her son. Sweeney gives her yet another chance to cease alcohol use and get serious about her job. She enters a dangerous withdrawal from alcohol without supervised medical attention. Sober, she reluctantly attends a dance where Nancy publicly embarrasses and denigrates her. She ends up in a bar and almost starts to use alcohol, but leaves. She commits to recovery and takes up the process of making amends for those whom she has harmed during her alcoholic times. She initiates renovation of a dilapidated restaurant, and 10 months later inaugurates opening day, but no one comes to the restaurant. She is devastated and almost takes a drink from a flask but perseveres. As she is closing a customer drives up. It is Nancy asking for forgiveness for her angry behavior, though relating she will never forgive Leslie for abandoning her son. Nancy requests a menu and then relates she needs another place-setting, at which point her son enters the restaurant. There is an emotional ending with amends and happiness. Leslie's denial and sadness is replaced by openness and happiness. For the viewer to optimally share the emotional ending, the film should be watched from start to end. It is said that addiction is never cured, but requires being in recovery, especially during life's inevitable trials, as the risk of relapsing back into the addiction always remains.
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Lots of Pride and Lots of Prejudice
This is a fictional film based on the novel by Jane Austen. It is a love story, a bit syrupy sentimental, akin to the modern-day soap opera genre, but much better as an early 1800s version. There is a lot of prideful and prejudicial behavior on the part of the main protagonists. Gossip often leads to prejudice. Pride is misinterpreted when backed by prejudice. Observation without direct validation may lead to misinterpretation which hurts rather than helps another person. Darcy seems to have a social phobia leading to difficulty interacting with people other than those close to him. Elizabeth exhibits mild histrionic behavior, too easily affected by gossip, thus complicating relationships. Most love stories are best served by a happy ending as this is. I can appreciate how the book is considered a classic.
Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)
A Man and a Dog; A Love Story
This film is about the bond between a man and a dog. It is a fictionalized variant of a true story, but with the essence preserved, and thus bound to be emotionally appealing. It can be thought of as a love story between a human and his pet dog. The star is not the man as much as it is the pet dog. The setting and characters are almost a fairy tale. The turning of the man's feeling from neutral to strongly attached is iconic but still heartening. During the winding end to the film most viewers would likely be choked up or welling tears. The attribute of evoking these emotions is what makes it a top 250 film. The film engages in personification imbuing the dog with the possibility of human emotionality. The dog is not human, and likely does not feel grief, but does exhibit the very human trait of hope. One leaves this film experience enveloped with a pleasant feeling.
Sophie's Choice (1982)
PTSD Tragedy
This film is about three people from very different backgrounds who come together in 1947, two years after the end of WW 2, and "become the best of friends". Sophie came to America after liberation from a Nazi concentration camp. Her family was amongst the estimated three million non-Jewish Poles and three million Jewish Poles killed by the enslaving Nazis. Suffering from severe malnutrition, she is befriended by Nathan who guides her to health, and they become lovers. She has difficulty suppressing the horror of her past experiences and he seems to provide her with comfort. Stingo, a naive aspiring writer, rents a room one floor below Sophie and Nathan. The past secret lives of Sophie and Nathan, unknown to each other, slowly unravel as the story progresses. Stingo slowly becomes aware of the secrets of Sophie and Nathan. When the scene came forth enlightening the meaning of the words Sophie's Choice, I felt uncomfortable emotions welling up within me necessitating a break to allow my ego to regather strength. The sadistic, psychopathic nature of the Nazi elite is well displayed in this film. War is a malevolent characteristic of humans throughout history, its hideousness never so well documented as with WW 2. The acting is superb.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Artificial Intelligence Circa 1968
I rewatched this film, having first watched it shortly after its release in 1968. I was surprised at how little I remembered about the film. The entry scene of ape precursors of Homo Sapiens mildly disturbed me, for uncertain reasons. Most of the film is a fictional look at space exploration in the future with a base on the moon and ships able to explore further into the solar system. The pace of the film is slow motion accompanied by classical musical pieces. The ending is opaque. However, one aspect, the memory of which has stuck with me, is HAL the fictional computer, labeled a HAL 9000 artificial intelligence program. It is pertinent to today's introduction of artificial intelligence programs available widely to the public. The controversy is accuracy and the potential to mislead people. HAL became a rogue entity leading to a destructive force luckily terminated by a resourceful human. One is left considering whether fiction can become reality. Further HAL may come across as a humanoid entity with emotions. However, HAL uses words that describe emotions but does not experience the feeling. Lastly, it occurred to me, that the combination of "HAL" the computer and George Orwell's "Big Brother" authoritarian leader, from his fictional novel 1984 published in 1949, is a possible recipe for a disastrous combination.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
The Source of the Term Orwellian
This film stunned me and is not advised for the faint-hearted. It is based on the novel by George Orwell published in 1949 a year before the author died. It was released as a film in 1984 and is said to follow the novel relatively closely though a better appreciation will follow a reading of the book. It is a chilling tale about authoritarianism and written just after the end of WW 2. The authoritarian is named "Big Brother", a term that has emerged through time as representing any entity that dictates its favored way of life and backs it up with the threat of enforcement. The enforcement by Big Brother is extreme depravity such as to be sickening. It heightens one's guard to be aware of the creep of stealth authoritarianism before it morphs into blatant control too powerful to reverse. The story is fictional, but fiction often bumps against the blurred line separating it from reality.
Powder Blue (2009)
Sympathizing with Misfortune
This film is directed, screenplay written, and coproduced all by Timothy Linh Bui. It is rated R because of scenes containing some respectful nudity, a failed lap dance, bad words, and snorts of cocaine.
This may partially explain the limited USA theater showings and low earnings.
It starts with an introduction, individually, to the six main characters. It moves on to interconnect them in four parings, each seeming to be like the proverbial persons that pass in the black pitch of a cloudy dark city night. All the characters dwell in a pit of lonely, situational depression.
Of the six main characters four live and two die. The acting of the cast was excellent. Of special note, Jessica Biel practiced hard in order to physically perform several challenging exotic dances. Her premium dance was to the gloomy musical piece "The Werewolf" by Cat Power.
The storyline might be described as unremarkable if reviewed objectively by a critic. Especially dubious, but also intriguing, is the scene of powder blue snow falling in a warm climate. However, reviewed emotionally, I felt it to be well differentiated from a typical, standard, dark and moody tale. As such, I perceived the film to be quite engaging.
As They Made Us (2022)
Interesting Look at Borderline Personality
The film is a story about a dysfunctional family. Interestingly one person, in the family of four, seems to be the cause of the dysfunction in all the other family members. That person is Barbara, played by Candice Bergen. She portrays the role of a Borderline Personality disordered person. For most laypeople, the insight into Borderline Personality is difficult to make, especially as the word borderline does not portray lucidity. If one follows Barbara closely, one uncovers some of the traits of a Borderline person. There is the predilection to insert herself into the lives of others with an annoying intensity. She reacts to the negativity on the part of others with unbecoming staged hurt. She exhibits the defense mechanism of denial by not reacting appropriately to stressful situations. Most of all, she makes others significantly uncomfortable and thus signifiantly decreases the quality of her own relationships. The film should add clarity as to what is meant by the word borderline in the setting of this film.