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SazVegan
Thank you's to: Brody Vogel, Elizabeth Ball, Barb McColl, Frank VanKoll, Miss Louise Fletcher, Malcolm Parry, Paul Pigeon, Travis Bakker, WISH
"How you do anything is how you do everything"
- Zen proverb
"Nature: the onLy true religion"
- Slayer
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The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch (2020)
Like the plague.. (How do they get away with this?)
This is pure pseudo-science passing itself off as a serious documentary studying an area surrounded by fracking wells & other industrial activity (yes I looked it up!) A more worthwhile capture of viewers' time than fake scientists pretending ubiquitous "anomalies" like red/green dots on a screen ominously ooh'd & aah'd over by dudes claiming they "must mean sonething" (but noone ever knows what) would be, say, legit field analyses of fracking/ other (real-life) polluting industries on nearby ecosystems/lands -- now THAT I'd watch. THIS, on the other hand, reeks of fabricated science-fictional scenarios (pretended to be legitimised by bogus credentials of participants) & contrived suspense, full of circular plotlines & endless repetition -- & for that reason, I'm OUT. Tbh I don't even find ONE of the participants to be genuine or likeable in any way! So I'll avoid this show like the proverbial plague from now on..
Flower (2017)
Nauseating..
For me, there's nothing about this unwatchable movie that lifts it out of its cold, hard shell of mercenary smut: it creeps around targeting the 'dirty old man' audience in its suggestive sexuality, & -- unfortch -- claims no ambitions beyond its painfully self-congratulatory "Look at us: we're soo bad-ass" pointlessness.
I should add a disclaimer however, that any story centering around unfair bullying/ hate-crime/ slandering situations from the perpetrator's p.o.v. Tends to turn me oFF, unless it contains some promise of justice/ redemption or transformative character development.
In this case, the degradation simply revolves on its own circular axis -- with the Lolita-type precocious sex-crazed teen as the main focus, archly over-played by Deutch. But none of the off-putting characters are complex or likeable enough to hold my interest.
Most irritating of all are the same-old sexual stereotypes being peddled here, with a self-congratulatory vibe that's over-confident of its own cleverness/ wit (let the audience decide what it is, else it feels manipulative!) And I HATE feeling manipulated by a mere movie -- esp. Ones like this, that revolve around spoiled white peops doing nasty things to unwitting victims, for no other apparent reason than boredom/ narcissism/ nymphomania.. with a farcical lack of nudity that only compounds the 'fake factor'..
The upshot of all this icky-ness is a type of low-grade porn movie without actual sex acts to heighten realism. How these Hollywood-A-List-offspring can proudly present this wilting weed as a 'Flower' is beyond me..
Cocaine Godmother (2017)
Zeta-Jones makes a meal of a monster
Having just seen this film for the 3rd time, & found not a single review that shares my p.o.v., I'm irked to add my own..
First, let me say that any 'Reviewers' who claim to 'know' GODMOTHER's facts are 'false' only fan their own ignorance & thereby undermine IMDB's integrity.. (These fakes remind me of Trump, i.e. Lacking the depth/decency to doff their biases/egos occasionally & just SEE!)
GODMOTHER delves waaay deeper, beyond mere facts - into the very depths of the fiercely-guarded family/personal life of one intensely complex, personal --even religious -- woman who somehow became a publicly-hated pariah of epic proportions worth BILLION$.. (FASCINATING.. RIGHT?)
HOW, you may ask, have you not HEARD of this underground legend, whose humble start in dirt-poor Medellin as the abused daughter of a prostitute defied the odds to become the ONLY woman druglord in history, whose power rivalled that of Pablo Escobar (also featured, played by D'Arcy Laurie)?
(My guess, from the scornful & wildly inaccurate --even illiterate-- reviews of this fascinating & gripping odyssey, stems from the bigotry/sexism that --STILL!!?-- pervades modern worldviews)
Casting Zeta-Jones as Griselda, in my mind, was a truly inspired choice -- the ONLY choice of genius filmmakers -- & one that ensconced this film firmly in the annals of ARTISTRY..
AS such, the facts of G's public fame/ persona are outward incidentals that merely mark the well-publicized chronology (that anyone can Google & memorize in minutes) of a landmark legend in drug-trafficking history.
THIS film goes much further.
Catherine the Great (my homage to this powerhouse performance) immerses herself in the role with such commitment I didn't recognize her at first! When I learned it was CZJ I was floored -- but hardly surprised, as her skills surpass those of most movie stars..
But Zeta-Jones ensures a fresh understanding of La Madrina's explosive effect on everyone around her. She's utterly magnetic as she coolly navigates layer upon unexpected layer of Griselda Blanco's rise as the 80s'/90s' most powerful drug lord next to Pablo Escobar.
We have every reason to believe in the truth of G's complexities & contradictions --even the fetching femininity-- behind her persona's famous ferocity -- with Zeta-Jones at the helm of a stellar cast of outsize, sexy talents. The electricity that bounces between them throughout is as palpably real as the sparkling scenes & tender interludes that keep the humanity incongruously, satisfyingly alive, reminding us that this film is --above all -- about real people in extraordinary situations that grew beyond their control.. A dream-come-true that turned into an outsize nightmare noone predicted at the time..
Zeta-Jones employs boundless stores of creativity in shaping our privileged view of Griselda's full plate & increasingly anxious state, with the subtle sensitivity of a quintessential artist. Clichés are avoided to lure us helplessly into G's inner sanctum --moved from Medellin to Miami-- where the real dramas of her secretly-guarded family-life spin out of control before spilling violently into the coke-laden streets of Medellin & Miami...
Course, only a supporting cast of such prodigious chops could keep up with Zeta-Jones' technician's timing to make this a riveting inside account of an underworld anomaly. She seduces us --without makeup no less!-- into G's harrowing world of cons & dealers, shaping its harrowing highs & gob-stopping lows that had me howling hysterically, squealing delightedly & waiLing in abject, inconsolable gRieF at unforgettable points throughout this deliciously exaggerated --somehow real-life-- rivetting romp..
Rarely do I find myself so involved in a performance I sense her every repressed/ unexpressed emotion as intensely as the standout quips that are layered & loaded to a 'T' all through thiS spree (G's thickly-husked "You DID say please" portending her fledgling fury @ hubby #1 flashes to mind, capping as it did my own 1st crescendo of said deafening howls..)
The precision-based pace of this unbelievably-real feminist lore raises its stakes from mere 'docu-style' drama to genius genre of its own -- a must-see account with all the scandalous lows & hysterical, heart-stopping highs you could possibly fit into 2 hours of your paltry, pathetic life.. LOL.
Middle-age didn't phase the girlish Griselda, who entered her heyday as the 40-something murderous mover-shaker of Miami's cocaine-soaked scene (straight out of Sodom): THIS matriarch was too busy trying to manhandle her million-dollar empire to manage her man AND send her sons off to school (a job she turned over to the only one in her life she could trust, her longtime lesbian lover Carolina)
When her 2 oldest teenage sons devise one of their pranks to convince their cool drug-dealing mom to hire them on, she relents -- but not before putting up a weak protest of eye-rolling, winning perfection you can't help but join in the family fun..
GODMOTHER is full of such lighthearted contrasts to offset the disturbing violence that crescendoes like a volcano, with La Madrino (as she was affectionately known by her inner circle of family & fearful faithfuls) firmly conducting the action.. just as it's Zeta-Jones at the film's offbeat centre, making this epic a tour-de-force in its own right, on top of its lofty position as a "gangster"-film Honorary Member (the halfway-mark beat before that invariable - deserved - spiralling descent to the 'depths' ensures its installment - maniacally & destructively - therein..) IE. As a bona-fide Gangster flick, noone ever gets out alive..
SO YEH: WOW...
SaRaH (SaZ) C.