Whatever you do, do not read the book before you watch the movie. You spend the entire film (if you can finish it) asking rhetorically and angrily: "Why did they take a story that works and turn it into a story that doesn't work?" This movie is a behind-the-dumpster, coat-hangar abortion.
Reviews
14 Reviews
The Good Girls
(2018)
Understated, tense, gorgeous
22 February 2021
An understated slow burn. As tense as a horror film. Psychological. Lots of pregnant silences. You see stories about the rich destroying themselves and others. You see stories about the others getting destroyed. But what if you're in that scene, neither the predator nor the prey, effected by the results, and have no control over what's happening. This film made me feel uncomfortable and helpless. Marvelous. The costumes and sets are gorgeous too. Ilsa Salas is stunning.
Exquisite.
23 January 2021
The Challenge
(1955 TV Movie)
Strangely Relevant
22 January 2021
In another time I might not have rated this so highly, but in January of 2021 this film is strangely relevant. Change the subject matter a little and the arguments that take place at the climax could have happened yesterday. The message of the piece was at risk of coming off as sermonizing, but the acting was strong enough that it never felt that way to me. The concept of the ending is original.
Rod Serling / James Deaan
22 January 2021
The plot feels truncated, like Serling wrote a 60-70 minute script that he cut to fit into 40-50 minutes. It's worth watching though for Dean's performance. I never liked the character, and Dean lays it on pretty thick, but his presence is electric.
El complot mongol
(1978)
Stylish adaptation of a great book
9 November 2020
I like the director's style enough that I will seek out more of his work. And as far as adaptations of books go, this one is better than most, so the screenwriter was on the ball too (edit: I just learned the screenwriter is also the director). I finished the book today and watched the film today. The film was made very shortly after the book's publication so they are of the same era.
Alien Code
(2018)
More thoughtful than most movies.
19 October 2020
Gave this a try randomly on YouTube thinking it would be bad. It hooked me. I kept waiting for it to get bad and it never got bad. Finally I turned off all the lights in the room and just enjoyed it. There is so much talent in the world that we never see because the media swamps us with its trash. I watched all the credits and I've never heard of a single person involved with this film and it's better than most films I've seen.
The Return of the Soldier
(1982)
Faithful to the Novella
29 June 2020
I just finished the novel today and watched this on YouTube and am only writing this to say it is amazingly faithful to West's novella. You rarely see a movie that stays so true to a book and then succeeds as a film as this one does.
Alien Arrival
(2016)
Brilliant storytelling
30 December 2019
This film kept me interested all the way through by not spoon-feeding me the plot. I didn't know what was going on and it wasn't irritating me with bad performances or dialogue and so I just kept and kept and kept watching. Almost a minimalist script for long stretches with honestly no bad lines in it all the way through. One of those totally random clicks on youtube that paid off big time. This was much more European and artistic in its framing than what comes out of Hollywood. Almost an art film ... almost. Highest compliments. I loved it for the reason some hate it -- It is unconventional. I have noted the name of the writer-director and will be following his career from now on. Very refreshing.
A Rainy Day in New York
(2019)
One of Woody Allen's best films in the last 10 years
2 December 2019
Since this film is not being screened in the US, I drove to Tijuana Mexico to see it. Of Allen's films over the last ten years I would rank only "Midnight in Paris" and "Blue Jasmine" above this one. it shares some elements that have appeared in his other films over the past decade, but he puts them all together this time in an exceptionally elegant way. In the hands of a less masterful storyteller this movie would have been a mess. But Allen makes it look easy. Not a single word or scene is unnecessary, nothing is missing, I always knew exactly what was going on, and the movie never, for one single second, lost its momentum. As always the performances he drew out of his actors was astonishing. Every single one of them moved me. Even one actress who was only on screen for like two minutes. This is brilliant story-telling. Of the last ten films I would tie it for third place with "Wonder Wheel". "Wonder Wheel" had a more dramatic effect on me, but the arc of this film felt more natural. What a shame Americans cannot see it without going abroad.
Tod@s caen
(2019)
Great start followed by catastrophic collapse
19 November 2019
This started well, but just before halfway lost its focus and ended horribly. It was so bad I wanted to give it one star, but, the storytelling concept in the beginning actually had me excited that it would be good. I have to at least give it credit for the first half hour or so. Ms. Higareda needs to stick to acting. The worst movies she's been in that I've seen are the ones where she has a writing credit.
Fireball Forward
(1972 TV Movie)
Edmund H. North
21 July 2019
I tracked this down and watched it on YouTube because of its writer Edmund H. North. I'm watching all of his movies and he delivers again with this tight well-paced story. There is a little over-acting and the battle scenes slowed the movie's forward momentum, but that's not on him. The dude wrote scifi, noir, westerns, war movies and more. He can tell a good story in any genre. I thought Gazarra was great in this. The surprise appearance by Loretta Switt before she was famous was fun.
Irrational Man
(2015)
A cross-breeding of drama and farce
24 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This film walks a razor thin line between drama and farce. It straddles these moods so perfectly and subtly that I only realized it was doing so because of the audience I saw it with. I would be taking in some scene as straight drama, you know, but then, suddenly, about a third of the audience would erupt into hee-hawing laughter. I kept thinking, "What's so funny?" But then I realized that some of the situations they were laughing at were indeed farcical. The actors play the scenes completely straight all the way through (straight enough to dupe a viewer like me). But the situations, especially as you draw toward the end, become more and more absurd. This is really brilliant. Because the cross-breeding of these moods furthers the theme of the movie. The professor's theories seem very solid and impressive, or "dramatic," but the more they are put into practice the more they become caricatures of themselves, or "farcical." And when enough people like me are duped by the "drama" of the type the professor is espousing, eventually you get fascism. Maybe the "irrational" of the title refers as much to suckers like me as to the professor.
All this might also apply to people in general. At one time or another we all profess goals and ideas that seem to us solid and real, but turn out to be, upon reflection, a little comical.
All this might also apply to people in general. At one time or another we all profess goals and ideas that seem to us solid and real, but turn out to be, upon reflection, a little comical.
Irrational Man
(2015)
Mortal flaw in narrative
8 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
***contains a really big ass spoiler*** ***DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE***
I looked around everywhere for someone else to make this observation but cannot find it so I guess I will write it down myself. Allen sometimes overlays the action with narration from the two lead characters. The narrations feel like the characters are reflecting on things that have happened to them in the past. You know, like they are telling us the story. And yet Abe dies at the end. How can he be reflecting on this story and telling us about it if he died before it was over? Until the credits started rolling I was not sure he actually died. I thought maybe we would see him in a prison hospital or something. In his other movies Allen has demonstrated a consummate control of the narrative. I mean he can cut it up and rearrange it and keep it all consistent and logical. So this flaw really struck me as weird. I suppose he might be taking artistic license. Or maybe the irrational idea of the title gives him the right to do something illogical with the narrative. I am not a film buff. I like chocolate donuts.
I looked around everywhere for someone else to make this observation but cannot find it so I guess I will write it down myself. Allen sometimes overlays the action with narration from the two lead characters. The narrations feel like the characters are reflecting on things that have happened to them in the past. You know, like they are telling us the story. And yet Abe dies at the end. How can he be reflecting on this story and telling us about it if he died before it was over? Until the credits started rolling I was not sure he actually died. I thought maybe we would see him in a prison hospital or something. In his other movies Allen has demonstrated a consummate control of the narrative. I mean he can cut it up and rearrange it and keep it all consistent and logical. So this flaw really struck me as weird. I suppose he might be taking artistic license. Or maybe the irrational idea of the title gives him the right to do something illogical with the narrative. I am not a film buff. I like chocolate donuts.
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