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Reviews
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)
Fantasy is not a substitute for history
One reviewer of this film asks us why 'persons of colour' (their term) ought not to be able to see themselves portrayed as central characters in a fictionalised mid-19th-century England? Well, one obvious reason is that such a portrayal ceases to represent any realistic aspect of 19th century England. The effect of this is that it creates a new fantasy19th century England which was not exploiting its own poor, or sending troops to exploit the labour, products and resources of India and Africa. It's a bit like Will Smith's steampunk 'Wild, Wild West' where all kinds of imaginary machines and gentlemen fill the landscape. That West, and that England, didn't exist and pretending it did is missing an opportunity to tell the real story.
The truth is that 19th century England was a savage country if you were not a child of a wealthy family. Poor English children suffered mistreatment and worked long hours in mills and workhouses. These are the children Dickens was concerned about. The English oligarchy abused not just their own people but people of colour in every part of the globe. Knowing what really happened allows us to change things in the real world, not in some world of the imagination.
People of all cultures are fundamentally and genetically the same. None are innately superior. Any apparent differences between peoples are cultural and transient. Fantasy has an important place in literature and cinema, but not as a substitute for history. It is absolutely vital for our future that our knowledge and understanding of the past be preserved.
Giù la testa (1971)
Didn't think much of it when it was released...
...and a recent TV viewing hasn't improved my opinion. I never thought much of Coburn. He was the most wooden of the Magnificent 7, which was some achievement in a cast that included Horst Buchholz and the always forgotten Brad Dexter.
Steiger turns in the worst performance of his career. Leone's direction has a few heavy handed visual jokes but lacks his usual flair and inspiration. It gives every impression of his going through the motions. The cinematographer was no Delli Colli. Even Morriconi's music (Sean, Sean; Sean, Sean) is below par.
All in all, for someone who thinks the Good the Bad and the Ugly is the best Western (and one of the best movies) ever made, this came as a massive disappointment to me. So it remains.
The Mother (2023)
What strange reviews
This is not a great film. But within the framework of pure entertainment movies it does the job well. It is more than competently directed. The acting - for a film that makes limited demands on it - is good. Joseph Fiennes can be relied on to turn in a competent performance at a minimum. Lopez has learned quite a bit in her acting career; I though it was a solid performance.
There is little novelty in the narrative; nothing we have't seen before, but that is true of many of these action films. You wonder if some of the negative responses are inspired by a touch of misogyny. If this starred Schwarzenegger it would be indistinguishable from 90 per cent of his other jobbing movies, in content and quality, and better than many of them. Simple action entertainment; but perfectly fine for that when you know what you are getting.
1923 (2022)
Real men.
At first glance the 20s street scene seemed to suggest there might be room in the series to set it against some interesting social history, but the camera quickly rolls past the screaming temperance women to focus on the real meat of the drama, a group of suitably grizzled generic rancher types led by gravelly voiced Harrison Ford. Jerome Flynn goes over the top as a generic English sheep farmer, surrounded by more generic sheep farmers. These scenes were followed by the obligatory Indian school brutality scene, where we were treated to a feast of generic psychopathic nuns and clergy. Violence, or threatened violence, seems to be the beginning and end of it. There is no proper script, since all speak in clichés, no actual characterisation, and no real people, apart from the single proper actor in the briefly visible form of Helen Mirren. Unfortunately Mirren has nothing much to do in this world of gruff, generic rancher types. A catastrophic mess that almost achieves the status of parody.
Star Trek: Discovery: That Hope Is You, Part 2 (2021)
Hugs and kisses all round
The 'Discovery' commune duly communes. Even the little pet robots are smoking something. Everybody loves everybody. Floods of tears and heavy emoting from Martin-Green. The actor playing Saru took himself off to another job. Whatever Roddenberry might have meant by 'connectedness' it's hard to believe he meant this grim display of wokefulness. Contrary to the showrunner's and writers beliefs any future humans have will be founded on science, not cuddles. It makes the worst episode of 'Enterprise' (and there were many) look like an epic. The single star counts as a minus and the Star Trek franchise has consigned itself to a black hole.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The epitome of schmaltz
Stewart, as usual, hams his way through seemingly endless hours of featherweight, superficial emoting about the value of financial services in Hollywood and Wall Street's hollow, uncomprehending version of Dickens. Give me the Victorian slums of the hard edged original any day.
Enterprise: Cogenitor (2003)
The moral vacuum of space
From the beginning it is made clear that the congenitors form a kind of slave class within their society, unnamed, disregarded and exploited. In the finale we learn that one of them preferred to end their life rather than continue in this underclass role. The viewer has only to try the thought experiment of imagining the congenitor with dark skin to understand how broken is this episode's moral compass. The moral relativism that occasionally bursts through the thin veneer of Star Trek captain's rationale is on show here at its very worst, as Archer pompously demonstrates the feeble understanding of the issues that caused him to fail Ethics 101 at the Academy.
A Suitable Boy (2020)
Actors still learning the craft
My disappointment with this production was all the greater because I sat down well disposed to enjoy it, since there are few opportunities to see Asian actors at work in a straight drama.
I'll have to assume that the script was up to Davies's average quality (which is normally very professional) because it was a little difficult to judge the script when everything else about the production was stilted and heavily wooden.
The direction was reminiscent of BBC productions from the 60s, where the cameras were constrained by heavy studio pedestals. It showed little imagination, movement, narrative flair or style in the shot selection and montage.
With a few exceptions the general standard of acting seemed to be informed by the exaggerated style often seen in light entertainment, where voices, facial expressions and emotions are writ large and projected across the room. Enough has been written and shown over the years about the subtle qualities required for dramatic acting for the camera. Less is more. No doubt this ensemble will become very proficient in time but this was an unfortunate project to practice on.
Ansiktet (1958)
The artist versus the establishment
There is more than one way to read this story. It might be, as some have suggested, a kind of religious parable (Bergman was the son of a pastor after all). It might be an examination of art versus science, with doctor in the role of the scientist, faced with the spiritual side of human nature.
But what are we to make then of the sudden ending; with its abrupt change of mood, the rain giving way to sunshine, the blaring music and the swinging, squeaking lamp?
Perhaps it is really a tongue in cheek, even self deprecating, story about the role of the film director as illusionist. In that interpretation Bergman might be poking fun at his own trade. Thus the faux mystery of Vogel unravels to a simple banal explanation, and the artist faces exposure and humiliation. But the artist writes his own script and he is swept from the clutches of bourgeois officialdom by a message from the King; a classic 'deus ex machina'.
1917 (2019)
No people, just actors
The list of great films about war will not include 1917. Kubrick's Paths of Glory is about people; 1917 is about actors. Costa Gavras brilliant Battle of Algiers will be there. Downfall. Mash.
The director of 1917 was distracted by the technical concept and many of the sequences are impressive; in the way that a clever ride in a theme park may be impressive. Nothing more.
The Shooting Party (1984)
The evening coming in across the fields
As a minimum, worth seeing for the superb moment when Nettleby (Mason) and Cardew (Gielgud) discuss the printing of pamphlets.
Gielgud's role as the protester, and the various reactions to him, including from the customers in the local hostelry, are perfectly scripted and acted - and strangely moving. It is one of the film's multiple narrative threads.
There are no points for seeing that the shooting party prefigures the global conflict to come. Nor is it really the case that the setting of the film is in some transitional world between a vanishing bucolic idyll and our modern age. The relationship between violence and civil behaviour that the film explores were as well known to the Victorians as to us. The Great War revealed nothing new about man's inhumanity. The only extra element, which the film darkly hints at, is the scale and consequences of the violence which modernity is capable of inflicting.