gaylordsmythe-higglebott Reviews

Jenny's Wedding (2015)

Queer but a critic

[5/10 · 9 January 2016]

Looking at this movie in a vacuum, I would give it a five. The writing is /eh/, the use of music could be better (the way Same Love was used threw me out of the story), and the acting was serviceable to pretty good.

This movie does not exist in a vacuum though so I will award it one extra star for something that also hurt the movie writing wise. The troubles Jenny and family are going through are stated very bluntly, all tell, little show. However some of those conflicts are things I worried about when coming out and things other queer people have gone through.

I can see this film being a comfort to people, whether it's the happy ending or just confirmation that someone has had the same thoughts too.

As for me, I don't have a desire to see it again but I will watch it if a friend asks me to.

Do I Sound Gay? (2014)

Interesting discussion points but meandering

[4/10 · 27 November 2015]

When we hear someone speak, instantly biases start to form. This person sounds old/young, educated/uneducated, local/foreign, male/female, urban/rural, etc.

While this documentary is not the best material for discussing the topic, it does focus on one mostly untouched topics in the gay community. How a specific nasal speech pattern has become coding for gay in the U.S.

We start the documentary with David, a man in his forties who recently ended a relationship with his boyfriend. One thing that has been bugging him is the way he sounds. The elongation of vowels, nasality, and crispness of diction that make up a gay stereotype that has endured for decades.

The film covers some interesting topics like discrimination against men perceived as effeminate, a possible origin of the gay accent, and the deconstruction and progression of David's voice as he continues speech therapy.

However, this would be much better at half it's length. This film has a fair bit of star power behind it, but most of the celebrity cameos drag the pacing and should have been cut. The film loses focus at times.

If the topic of the film doesn't sound interesting to you, give it a pass. Otherwise, rent it/stream it. As of this review being posted, it's on Netflix.

Heat (1986)

Few memorable bits in the first half, forgettable second half

[5/10 · 2 September 2014]

I give credit to any medium that starts with me disliking a character, then gets me to change my mind a few scenes later. We also get some memorable moments, one which will not leave my head anytime soon.

After the fifty minute mark though the intensity started to die, and with it my interest.

This movie is two stories that /mostly/ come together in the third act.

Story one I quite liked. The killing intent Holly (Karen Young) exhibited grabbed my full attention. We also get a thoroughly despicable (if not terribly fleshed out) psychopath as a bonus.

Story two was where I started to drift. Rich white dudes who think not getting hurt period can be solved with winning a fist fight. Mex's (Reynolds') self-destructive tendencies which had me pitying him, but didn't really make me feel closer to him emotionally. (Shucks, I felt closer to the Black Jack dealer.) Our lead kept sabotaging his own dreams and his character wasn't strong enough that this type of story worked for me.

The ending had adequate tension, but not enough to save the movie.

The two reasons I would recommend this film are 1) Karen Young's performance 7/10 stars and/or 2) You are a Burt Reynolds fan.

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)

Scary Movie if made by Mel Brooks

[5/10 · 18 January 2014]

Anyone seen Scary Movie? Right, imagine that but with Mel Brooks' humor and one source material.

It is the usual jokes that pop up in a Brooks picture, but without that great lead and spark that have people remembering Young Frankenstein or Blazing Saddles. Also, if you are unfamiliar with Dracula beyond dude is a vampire, then many of the references will fly over your head. Along with most of the entertainment I got out of watching this.

I give this a five because there is nothing new here. I didn't dislike it. There is just nothing I haven't seen in other films he collaborated on.

If you are channel surfing and see Dracula: Dead and Loving It watch if 1)You really like Brooks parodies 2)You are a Dracula fan and a comedy version of the story is appealing 3)There is nothing better on

Otherwise, pass.

Pillow Talk (1959)

I can see why people would love this movie but I just can't

[6/10 · 16 January 2014]

The settings are cute, the wardrobe lovely, the actors talented, and the script snappy, but I really could not get into this film.

This is one of the many movies I have seen with the formula of manipulative louse finds upstanding citizen with something they want (ex. power, wealth, that body), cons them, louse ends up not following through with it because true love, upstanding citizen finds out truth and freaks, but no worries, they get back together in under twenty minutes.

I disliked it in Guys and Dolls, but here there are no side plots or fantastic music numbers to distract me.

So the story is that a man with fantastic charisma which he uses to pick up women is hogging the party line of the female lead. She is rightfully annoyed about this but he is dismissive and says she is just jealous he isn't one of the women he chats up.

She complains to multiple people, but everyone without a crush on her hints that she is not really mad about not being able to call people from her home (what?) but what she is really upset over is not getting the D.

Manipulative louse gets away with it because he put all his character points on charisma. (I did some home installations a few years ago and I would have been really uncomfortable with someone crowding me like that, no matter how pretty they are.)

Then they meet outside of the apartment, face to face, for the first time. Louse goes,'Wait, the woman who has been yelling at me is hot. I want a piece of that.' He proceeds to use a fake accent to chat her up. Cue shenanigans of him trying to keep her from finding out the truth. Insert rest of formula.

Movies like this make me want to take the upstanding citizen aside and go, "Honey, I know you are lonely and really attracted to this person, but I want you think about something for a moment. The person you are attracted to has spent years of their life manipulating people to get what they want. Behavior like that does not clear up overnight. Just because they love you doesn't mean those bad habits won't reemerge. So I want you to think about this for a while away from them before you find yourself swept along in something that could be really damaging down the line.

I know I'm over-thinking this, it's a comedy. On the other hand, there are much worse movies out there who don't deserve such a loop hole. I'll stick to my 6/10, only because many people won't be bothered by the same things as I.

The Iron Lady (2011)

Great acting, directionless story.

[5/10 · 30 November 2013]

The cast did a fabulous job but by the end of the movie I had no clue what they were trying so say. There is a potentially good story here, but there was no overall theme or opinion.

I will as say an American born after Thatcher's appointment, I did learn a fair bit.

An aged Margaret Thatcher suffering from dementia remembers her time in office. The biggest failing here is making the past have any relevance to the present. I felt like I was watching two different films. One was cliff notes of a politician's career. The other was a lonely old woman hallucinating her dead husband.

There was nothing to bridge these concepts together. It would have been better if they had chosen one idea and run with that.

Quartet (2012)

A film terrified of having a plot.

[3/10 · 30 November 2013]

Four retired singers with bad blood between them try mend old grievances in time for the show they are putting on to save the retirement home. Simple enough plot, but I have seen great films with even less to work with.

Not the case with this movie. No, this film runs screaming at the mere thought of doing anything with the character quirks and problems the leads face. Even any comedy that comes from it is weak.

For example, one of the four suffers from dementia. It seems like this will play a major part? Does it? Nope. There is a three minute panic but then it magically fixes itself. Even the main problem's resolution is only acknowledged with a throw away line at the end.

Another problem is how they use the retirement home setting. A place where people spend there twilight years until they die or become so sick they go to hospital. To use the environment properly, death needs to be something the film has to take a moment to really discuss. What we get? Gambon's character getting a short monologue about how he is getting old. There is zero change in his character or mention of it again after the scene ends. I know this is supposed to be a lighthearted, feel good movie, but their purposeful avoidance of the subject just feels ill- fitting. It would be like if "Death at a Funeral" only spent two minutes to say they are all gathered together because someone died, then studiously fail to mention it the rest of the time.

One bright spot are the irl retired musicians and singers. They get to show off a lifetime of experience in their craft. Unless you are a die hard fan of one of these professionals, give the movie a pass.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Ooh and ah over the art, giggle at the flesh tone trousers, then go read the comic.

[6/10 · 30 November 2013]

I adore the manga. It is easily in my top five favorite manga I have ever read. It wasn't until years later that I saw the movie. I didn't care for it. I wanted to like it, I really did. It's a gorgeous film.

I understand why they couldn't show the full story in a movie. To give you an idea, the movie covers the events of the first of four volumes, altered so the story can end there. If they had tried to cram everything in, the story would have been a muddled mess. So while I'm sad many of my favorite characters couldn't make an appearance and that the scale of the world is much smaller than the source material, I get it.

What really bothered me was the reduction of depth in the main character. The trouble with writing messiah characters is making them a little too perfect. The book was able to take it's time with the character. By the second volume she has to make her first big compromise and by the last volume she has to make a series of tougher and tougher choices. The movie just didn't have the time. The major character traits are still there, but with the exception of the duel, it shows none of the internal struggle she had in the series.