bmoroncini Reviews

The Beasts (2022)

entitled city people work hard

[6/10 · 7 January 2024]

This movie is well crafted, though it is long and feels longer, like it will never end. The characters are well drawn, their interactions believable, and at times infuriating. Two city people want to retire into organic farm-life. They work as hard as the locals do, and put their personal plan above the will of the community that for generations has been in the valley they chose to live in. "it's my dream, it's my house, you don't understand, it's my life project..." A microcosm of colonialism. While the neighbors who act out of anger are truly unlikable, the real villans are the stubborn entitled main characters.

Aftersun (II) (2022)

people watching

[5/10 · 24 September 2023]

I am not sure what the people who are giving accolades to this film saw, that I didn't. I am quite an avid film watcher, and have no problem sitting through Pasolini, Bergman, or Tarkovsky. This film's self-imposed obstacles are not its slow pace--though the editing room could have been busier with cuts--or even the mundanities of the majority of its content. The problem is that we are given no info on these characters, except for the fact that the father is a sensitive young man, possibly dealing with emotional ups and downs he tries to manage through Ti-Chi and meditation, and that the kid lives with her mother. Their interaction between the two is caring. The father makes two mistakes and apologizes profusely for them, and the kid has lots of questions that are not, or can not always be, answered. I am not insensitive to the nuances and subplots of a relationship, but this was just too little for anyone to justify why, as an adult, the kid should be so haunted by that holiday. I kind of hated this movie, found it terribly pretentious and a bit too precious (what is the point of watching people sleep for almost one minute?). Someone here said "This movie hurts." Well, not for good reasons it doesn't. The performances were the only good outcome, but I still wanted to fast forward to the end.

Esterno notte (2022)

Aldo Moro was not an innocent bystander

[6/10 · 25 July 2023]

I truly appreciate Bellocchio. His direction is dynamic and inventive, his topics always important. What I object to in this production is the portrayal of Aldo Moro as the pure among the bipolar and the corrupt. Moro was as responsible as the rest of his party for the political and social situation that created the conditions for the red brigades to come into action, he was not an innocent bystander whose life was all family and church. His hands were as bloody as andreotti's and it's a real shame that Bellocchio gave this one-dimensional account of his activities and of the reasons why the BR came to be at all.

The Bear (2022– )

Respectability overdrive

[5/10 · 25 July 2023]

So the bottom ideological line of this show is that in order to be respectable you must wear a suite and believe that fine dining is worth your relationships and a coronary inducing level of stress. It is a disturbing and massively unrealistic portrait of the American dream, rags to riches, overcoming adversity, learning stuff on the spot that in reality would take years, just because you wanted it THAT much. From nucklehead to impeccable servant of the rich in no time. On top of it, it's an ode to the mass killing of animals for consumption, and if the fish is not murdered on the spot it's not worth your public kind of deal. All shown in cinema verità detail. Food fetish tv for the capitalist minded.

House of Hammer (2022)

Rich white guy behaves like an entitled jerk and likes kinky sex

[1/10 · 14 June 2023]

So I could not go past one episode. I don't even like the guy as an actor, but that's beyond the point. So far, two women say armie told them what he wanted to do to/with them, but he was handsome and tall so they didn't believe him. When it turned out he was serious about wanting to do those sexual things with/to them, they were hurt and scandalized, because, after all, he is so tall and handsome, how could he possibly mean what he said?! Aside from the inanity of the story, this is bad on several levels, including that it cheapens what #metoo has rightly worked so hard to legitimize, and that is a great disservice. Whether or not he is guilty of inappropriate sexual behavior I do not know, but what is in this thing here, is not it.

Tár (2022)

which is it, todd field?!

[5/10 · 12 March 2023]

My first objection to this movie--other than its pace and the impossibly annoying mumbling throughout--is the directionless of its aim. There's definitely some moralism implied, as those who do bad will pay, mr. Field seems to say, but other than this very simple and naive statement, it is hard to say what field was after. There are some seriously unrealistic moments. As a musicologist the LOL moment came during the lecture at Juilliard. Getting into juliliard is not easy and attending is not cheap. Successful outcome is not only due to talent, but to the relationship one builds. There is NO WAY an undergraduate student--or a graduate one for that matter--would call the berlin phil conductor a b**ch. NEVER EVER EVER. It would be the end of them, and everyone knows that. So, that was silly enough. The bit with in the neighbor's house was strange, but i suppose it was an attempt to illustrate Tar's decaying state of mind, and elicit a subconscious response from the viewer. Then, straight out of that most unsettling experience, she follows her new crush into a quite disturbing setting, and she keeps on going in, further away from the exit. When she falls, she hurts her face, but her wrists and hands, which instinctively anyone puts first as a defense during a fall, are totally fine. Out of that fall she gets this terrible neuropathic pain in her back, but she goes boxing and running. It is so silly, like a cartoon.

The treatment of gender doesn't fare much better. She doesn't know that calling a female conductor maestra is nothing like calling a female astronaut astonauette?! So, she wants to be called by a male appellative, and when she goes and threatens the little girl who is bullying her daughter, she introduces herself as the girl's father. What is that all about?! To be a strong woman you must be a man?!

Then there's the overacting. There are moments when blanchet performance is ridiculous. The conducting bits are truly embarrassing. Thankfully there aren't too many of them.

At the end, after her outing as a player of people and hierarchies, she goes get a job as conductor for some kind of live show in costume somewhere in asia (philippines?) because she loves music that much...and though there's no reference to any coming to terms with her abuses, after all, those who do ill must pay?

The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker (2023)

exploitation station

[4/10 · 13 January 2023]

So this is a much ado about nothing situation. All this people who are trying to make a buck off of this neuro-atypical kid are disgusting. Of course they pretend to be looking out for him and to want to make him rich, but they could not care less about his well being. They just want to ride the wave of his viral moment. That is not a surprise. In fact nothing is a surprise in this doc, and all the moments that are presented as cliffhangers and mindblowing events are so predictable and ultimately uninteresting, because from the point of view of the ugly people trying to exploit him. If it had been a doc about him, his mental health, the relationship between that and his life choices, or the absence of such relationship, it would have been a much better doc. But the bottom line for this is "we could have made so much money out of him, but he is troubled for real, not just to entertain us."

Stutz (2022)

we self-help in public

[5/10 · 22 November 2022]

These 2 men seem to have a loving relationship, and that's nice. They also seem to think they are the first to practice visualization and to use tools in CBT. There is something half naive half insincere in this, the pouring of the hearts in front of the camera, the mutual acknowledgement of all the work done and all the progress, the intervention of the mother in a documentary that the director insists is about the therapist, the tender moments ... it all, at the end of the day, lacks geniunness, as anything that is performed in front of a camera with a full crew watching, and then edited, does. The attempts at recognizing that implication enhances the lack. Big egos in the room.

A Hero (I) (2021)

plausible, but convoluted and

[5/10 · 23 September 2022]

It pushes all the buttons, and pushes them too hard. The hardship, those giving entirely too much credit to the actions of the main character, the fall from grace...it's quite convoluted and ultimately uninteresting because so is the main character--and so is the search for the type of clear cut moral purity this film seems to be after/about. I understand the cultural bias towards honor. I do not appreciate the pathetic imprint the director forced upon the story, the emphasis on a million little wrong decisions that coalesce into a big disaster, and the inevitable feeling of predictability that derives from watching a train going through a red light at a crossroad, when another train is coming. The stuttering kid was really the last drop.

Sibyl (2019)

very silly people

[5/10 · 14 August 2022]

This film is a mess of unsavory characters and bad, ridiculously unlikely decision. Some of the acting is good, the storyline is silly, the sex gratuitous and graphic. There is not one interesting character. Despite the attempt to give some background to why sybil is so messed up (an absent mother from whom she distanced herself and a sister who gives sybil's children lectures on how to be manipulative) it's a fail all around.

L'idiota (1959– )

faithful to the novel

[7/10 · 13 August 2022]

While some of the acting from secondary characters is outstanding, casting for the major characters--the prince and nastasya filippovna--is so wrong it becomes distracting. The gestural affectations of a 1959 production could be forgiven, but giorgio albertazzi as the prince is impossible to digest.

Mass (2021)

unrealistic and precious

[3/10 · 18 May 2022]

The beginning was unbearable. Instead of creating "tension" it was annoying. And is the room right, are the chairs right, is this ok, are you allright OMG. Every emotion feels as scripted as it is. I like martha plimpton, but she really does not do the character a favor. The dialogue is theatric, untruthful. Good idea, bad execution.

The Lincoln Lawyer (2022– )

so bad in a funny 80s-throwback way

[5/10 · 18 May 2022]

The guy is a champ who wins all the time because he is superiorly smart, and has a team of collaborators that includes two ex-wives and also a couple of "misfits" because he is so down with the peeps. EVERYONE loves him, women and restaurateurs alike. He is a free spirits with the determination of a hungry shark, but has a dark surfer-dude side. All is cooked in some seriously 80s' inspired camera work and electronic music leaks. Also, the one-liners are straight out of a third-rate network TV show. I mean, it's so so soooooo bad lol.

The Lost Daughter (2021)

hard to say why

[5/10 · 4 January 2022]

There are so many things that make little sense in this story and character's personality, that it's hard to say what this was about. I imagine the point should be a mother's redemption through inexplicable actions (as atonement for other hard to explain actions) and relationships. The film invites the laying down a map of moral judgment, and at the same time implies that if you do have one, you are a bad person who doesn't understand that a woman has needs besides being a mother. I must have missed the part where she is blackmailed into having two kids. All that aside, or perhaps not so much aside, these characters are plain unlikable. The protagonist, who for some random reason everyone insists cannot be a day over forty, is slightly hysterical, inconsistent but not surprising. She is this genius academic (really?!) who years after all her mishaps with kids and hubby, on vacation, exchanges flirty looks (why?!) and pursues a relationship with the mother of a young child, who belongs to a family of perhaps greek mafia associates. Thankfully the super precious filming of the first 30 minutes doesn't persist, but i still can't find any value in this whatsoever.

Limbo (VI) (2020)

pretentious and offensive

[3/10 · 11 December 2021]

Whimsical film school quality. Beginners discovering directing with subject matter way over their heads. Failed aspirational depth. Dark comedy that is neither dark nor comedy. Offensive to refugees (and to viewers)

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (2010)

3 for effort

[3/10 · 25 November 2021]

I watched this because i like kiefer's work. Not unexpectedly but still off-putting-ly the all-around pretentiousness of this doc (and of its subject) is ludicrous. These people take themselves so seriously, it's a real shame.

Lemebel (2019)

Beautiful Lemebel

[6/10 · 11 November 2021]

This is an artistic take on a documentay. The life and art of lemebel are told through archival footage and her own voice. Lemebel's force is humanized in informal interviews and casual discussions, and then elevated in very slow moving segments that instead of adding detract from the experience. An artist worth exploring, no doubt, but here there's too much material that should be on the editing room's floor. Some moments, like a partial reading of "Manifiesto," are worth gold, though, and i have a hard time believing that more material like that doesn't exist, floating around somewhere. Thank you for making it, but more of lemebel, less of the filmmaker.

Dope Is Death (2020)

solid

[7/10 · 25 October 2021]

The amazing footage is a large part of why this doc is worth watching. I think there's a problem with focus. Clearly the role mutulu shakur took on, the takeover of the hospital, the dope that cops and government threw at low income people of color to disarm resistance, are all interconnected, still, it feels a bit choppy, like, little docs within the main doc. Still recommended!

Scenes from a Marriage (2021)

if you know people like this you need new friends

[1/10 · 13 September 2021]

He is a philosophy professor who does not know the difference between description and definition. She is some high end tech exec with the decisiveness of a paper bag. They are emotionally stunted and cannot handle anything. They are monsters of entitlement and what does this have to do with Bergman (not that he was not a monster of entitlement, but his characters were a bit better thought through)

Can't Get You Out of My Head (2021)

pop history

[5/10 · 21 February 2021]

Again adam curtis discovers hot water and documents it through images in his preferred music video style, which i imagine is supposed to be cool with a touch of edgy. there's some great historical footage that would do just fine left alone. i wish i could say i learned something

1,000 Times Good Night (2013)

from the beginning...

[5/10 · 18 October 2020]

...the main character becomes hateful. i was hoping the drama would revolve around her guilt, since she ruined a whole kamikaze mission and had a woman die without accomplishing what she had planned to die for, in order to take ONE MORE FREAKING PICTURE. but no, the conflict is with her lifestyle and her family. also, whatever you identify with, male, female, non-binary, etc. if you are actively involved in war missions, i have an idea: don't have children. just a thought. even all that aside, poor writing, sophomoric and melodramatic

Inside Look: The Assassination of Gianni Versace - American Crime Story (2017–2018)

boring

[5/10 · 13 July 2020]

I watched this because i was pleasantly surprised by the people vs OJ. there's no comparison. this one is boringly executed, and the cast is no fun to watch--with the exception, perhaps of penelope cruz, who is in the impossible position of doing a donatella versace (WUT!?)

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

greatly framed, fundamentally weak

[7/10 · 14 May 2020]

The vacillation between points of view in the ideological battle for abortion falls dramatically on one side at some point, which is only a problem if you, like me, disagree with that side. but why would these two women be friends to start with? one is smart and a go-getter, the other seems borderline cognitively impaired and beyond annoying. the smart one would never put up with the borderliner's crap, unless there was a bond we are never shown and have to accept in a leap of faith the director is unjustified in expecting.

Silver Lake (2018)

makes paper bags sound interesting

[2/10 · 3 January 2020]

More platitudes? more banal dialogue and stereotypes? no can do. it's full. 2 stars because i am too nice to give 1

Private Life (2018)

super annoying white privilege looks at itself and fails

[6/10 · 23 July 2019]

Artistic NY couple has whimsical problems and fixates on giving birth, making whimsical comments about how wrong it is and still going ahead with all kinds of procedures, spending money they don't have on IVF, involving family members to create tension at the infamous disastrous thanksgiving dinner and so on