mhellerman Reviews

The Last Kiss (2001)

This movie is about the male - and CHAUVINISTIC point of view on life, marriage and fatherhood. Painful to watch.

[1/10 · 8 June 2005]

Let's not fool ourselves. This movie is a male chauvinistic one. And not wonder it is written and direct by a man (an a male chauvinistic one!). Some other commenter (from Brazil - another guy-commented on the nice ladies in the movie... Of course the ladies are nice in the movie! is part of the chauvinistic point of view: WOMEN are bait for the eyes. Because it is a movie for guys, it clearly represents the point of view of GUYS. See?

Every woman in this movie wants a relationship, wants to "trap" man (this is the angle in which it is played out). Notice for example the never ending line of bed partners the corn-row guy has. Notice that they ALL think it is for "real" when it is for him no more than a one night stand. The same repeats again with ALL the women that go to bed with him, so the film HAS A point and a very clear point of view on women, that it is "exposed" at that time.

The same sub-theme happens with the main couple: He is as responsible as her for the kid they are expecting, but HEY! HE Is the one that feels TRAPPED.

ALL THIS MOVIE is about MEN feeling TRAPPED, and the WOMAN that "PRESSURE" THEM. I understand it tries to be "dissimulated" and "fair" but it cannot hide its real, chauvinistic point of view.

THE END represents the point of view of the typical MALE CHAUVINIST mind: Trust me, these are men I have met all my life (I come from a machist country in Latinoamerica!) - Many of these men think that women are "zorras" - translate as the word B****, so their believes are:

a) Women want to use you and exploit you. They are demanding. They talk all the time and never shut up. b) They are all b****es, if you let them out of your sight, they will go around with another guy.

So the end ILLUSTRATES that point: "THat women demand of men, until they become "castrated" (stay at home with baby - devote himself to the family) and then they go out and f*** around because they are not trustable".

------------- I know that there are some "latin" men that do not think like that, so don't start posting things against this email, but this movie illustrates THE WORST of the masculine view on marriage, commitment, fatherhood, women, etc.

These are "poor exploited guys" who are fighting to be free, and they are AGAINST their fathers/uncles (illustrated by another character) because these older men are the ones that "settled" (not that they CHOSE IT CAUSE THEY LIKED THIS LIFE) - so at the end of the movie, these young men, that did not want to be "like their elders and settle, those who wanted to be free" finally HAVE TO "settle" as well".

Is married life and fatherhood what they really want to do? We don't know, they just "settle", as it said at the end of the movie, very clearly... the message is "maybe settling is not that bad - we gave up our REAL dreams" (Escape - have an infatuation with a young and sexy woman, etc)

And the end is clear: She castrated you now she will go sleep around... isn't that typical machist? This movie SUCKS!

King of the Corner (2004)

A MUST SEE! -This could even be the kind of a movie that affects your life!

[10/10 · 5 March 2005]

This is a very interesting movie, it is much more powerful than what it seems to be, it will leave you thinking - This could even be the kind of a movie that affects your way of seeing life!

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The main role, played by Peter Riegert is so excellently done that I have no doubt he should be considered for an Oscar and however many acting awards are out there!

At the beginning you don't know where it is all going... but then you get caught in it, and when the climax comes, with Eric Bogosian as the Rabbi (what great casting!) you just don't know if this is the biggest klutz ever, or the smartest man of wisdom in disguise! It is AWESOME! (Reminds me in that way of Peter Seller's "Being There"...

-----ok don't read anymore if you haven't seen the movie!------------

Please check the moment when he says: "A bar-mitzvah does not make a man a man, do you want to know what does?" and there is no answer... and you want to fill in the dots and say "CONFRONTING DEATH DOES", specially the dead of a parent, it is so moving because it gets you to the point, and YOU have to come to the answer...

Or when he gives the completely wrong eulogy, on how this life was really nothing special, and the son jumps to remember the little moments of his father's sacrifice, and the sacrifice was not how much he worked, necessarily but how he put energy to play with the kid EVEN when he was dead beat!

The owner of the funerary home comes to hurry things up and the Rabbi stops him by saying: "He (the son/Riegert) is saying Kaddish" (which is a prayer said for the dead)- The son is remembering his father in his own words of value, and that substitutes the Kaddish, because what better prayer is there for his father's memory than this one he is saying, where he is cherishing who he was, imperfections included!

The climax of the movie is SO powerful that it will affect you, sooner or later, take my word for it! Out of "revisiting" the father and his "value" the son can now take charge of his own "insignificant but yet so significant" life.

It is WONDERFUL that this film shows how some problems may NOT be "solved", and yet, people can go on living: I cherished the part where his wife (I. Rossellini) is saying that she doesn't know how to "solve" a situation they went through, she does not know what to ask for, how to act, but she has not forgotten what happened. In the movie there is no "solution", it is not solved and yet, it is not the end of the world. And maybe in a situation like this, there is nothing that she should ask for or get, because how could one buy "peace of mind" back? Do you erase a bad moment with gifts or apologies? And should the "hurt" party ask for compensation or is it the other party who should change something of his/her thinking? This "answerless" answer is the best solution to this kind of conflict that I have ever seen in a movie.

There is probably no one answer, but just different ways to go on living, ways that can be worse of better...

Nothing is "big" in this movie, every emotion is subtle, and the changes are subtle too, but those subtle changes can affect a life. And there are no formulas, no solutions, no destinations to arrive to, but rather the point is how the trip is faced, how are we predisposed for that trip... it is so deep and amazing that this movie is now still running in my head many hours after, and I know for a fact that it will affect me for long time to come.

This movie is definitely a bet for life... WONDERFUL. -----------------------

I had the pleasure of meeting both Shapiro and Peter Riegert tonight and they are the most awesome and kind human beings, i hope their partnership and their movie go far... I do believe Riegert should be seriously considered for an acting award here!

Thank you! Mhellerman a.k.a I from A, land of Aristarain

West Beirut (1998)

EXCELLENT MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[10/10 · 17 May 2003]

This is a WONDERFUL movie, it is a historical glimpse on Lebanon, 1975, through the eyes of a teenager. If (usually) U.S. citizens ask themselves "how can "those people" live in "those countries"? This is the perfect answer to it. When you have a LIFE, FRIENDS, FAMILY, when you don't believe that things can be changed, when life is LIKE THAT, you accept things that you cannot change.

The protagonist (EXCELLENT actor Rami Doueiri) goes through life as a happy go lucky teenager, used to living under such political changes, but untouched by them. In this movie of "coming of age", you can follow him in his seamless transition into adulthood: the realization of what life has became.

PLEASE DO NOT MISS THIS MOVIE - IT IS A MUST SEE - from any angle that you may want to look at it. You will gain different undertanding of things that you probably had before, if you are not a citizen from Lebanon, watch it and learn something.

Amy's Orgasm (2001)

AWFUL!!!!!!!!! pretends to be so modern, and it is so BACKWARDS

[1/10 · 12 April 2003]

SPOILERS!!!!!! Let me tell you, I signed up at IMDB, JUST to write my opinion of this movie, it SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! it is sold as so modern, single women dating (and masturbating, oh!) and it ends up being a most brain-dead, conservative fairy-tale. It is just the writer/director/actress indulging herself.

see the philosophy lesson develop:

a) The character things you should not have sex unless you want to marry the person (no shopping around)- she writes a book and she is SOO famous....... (and rich) but SAD because she is ALONE.

b) but she is horny

c) (she thinks masturbation is only ok for single people)

d) she meets a wild boy a la howard stein

e) but he end up bein a nice, sensitive person, ill-treated by his family. (like howard stein?)

f) she says I love you, he doesn't

g) oh! a conflict finally?

h) he DOES love her (but she keeps thinking love does not exist, people only are together for sex reasons (and herself then?)

i) cause she is jewish and MODERN, she does not go to a shrink, but to confession (ooooooooooohhhhhhhhh!)

j) because the priest was cool, he is now out of priesthood and tells her "stop acting like the book"

k) she is invited to a big rally in washington to talk about how women can stand on their own, and do not need man to be valued.

l) she stands, weeps and says that "WOMEN NEED MAN TO BE FULFILLED"

AND THIS IS NOT EVEN IRONICAL!!!!!

m) all the political correctness of having a lesbian manager dissapears ( SHE - the writer AND the director, and the ALTER EGO of the character) REALLY MEAN IT!!!!!!!!

n) of course, nice guy sees it on TV

o) she writes another book, and imagines herself at different ages SINGLE SINGLE SINGLE (you see, that was the ONLY problem!)

p) he comes to her signing and they smile at each other, she starts being neurotic again, and talks and talks, and he kisses her to shut her up... ah! that is love

q) movie has ended

Conflict of the movie: I want sex - I don't want sex with someone I will not marry - I have sex - OH! fairy tale! I WILL marry him.

read me again

conflict of the movie: that I have rented it, spent almost 5 bucks and 1, 30 hours of my life, plus, all these reviews I am writing to vent steam.

movie is worth 0, pity there wasn't that option!

Nine Queens (2000)

excellent - excelente

[10/10 · 12 April 2003]

Great movie - the only flaw? it should have ended after the bank closes...

THAT REALLY happened in Argentina (and it was AFTER the movie was released!) everybody's assests in the banks were FROZEN and exchanged for bonds, that value NOTHING.

It should have just ended there to clearly show that the government is the biggest con artist, the worst thief of them all!

great movie, you can get a feeling (in a fun way) of living in Buenos Aires sometimes... I was mugged on the bus so many times... but we still love that city....

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