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Reviews
Obvious Child (2014)
Annoying
This is evidently a remake and padded out expansion of a short film, and its relatively brief running time seems too long. I'm all for the right to abortion, but there's really not much of a story here. And I didn't laugh once. I don't find the juvenile "Did you just fart in my face?" humor to be funny.
To repeat because of this site's length policy: This is evidently a remake and padded out expansion of a short film,and its relatively brief running time seems too long. I'm all for the right to abortion, but there's really not much of a story here. And I didn't laugh once. I don't find the juvenile "Did you just fart in my face?" humor to be funny.
Good Ol' Freda (2013)
A Unique Insider's Perspective on the Wonder of the Beatles
Wow, this is a gift to Beatles fans everywhere! I just had the pleasure of seeing the NYC premiere of this film at the Museum of the Moving Image, with Freda there in person along with the film's director, Ryan White. Freda intimately witnessed the Beatles saga from the beginning to the end, as the Beatles' secretary for her day job, and as head of their fan club during the rest of the day. Of course the beginning is the best part – in the Cavern Club with Pete Best, before Brian Epstein even came onto the scene. The Cavern Club photos are amazing! Freda's earnest devotion to the Beatles and their fans is truly inspiring. If a girl sent the Beatles Fan Club a pillowcase and said "Please have Ringo sleep on this and send it back to me," Freda would take the pillowcase to Ringo's mom and tell her to please make sure her son slept on it. If a fan asked for a lock of hair, Freda made sure it was truly Beatles hair. This film will make you relive the wonder of the explosion of Beatlemania through Freda's eyes. It also provides a wonderful glimpse into Brian Epstein's role in the Beatles' success ("Eppie" to Freda and the Beatles). I loved how Freda was totally unaware of Brian's homosexuality, until the day John told her that if she was ever stranded with Brian on a desert island, she would have nothing to worry about.
Thank you Ringo, Paul and Apple for assisting with this film. Thank you Freda.
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Brilliant remake of a John Waters classic
I know there will be naysayers who contend there is no reason to revisit the John Waters masterpiece, Desperate Living. However, Benh Zeitlin proves to be visionary in updating this classic and situating it in post-Katrina Louisiana to reflect the realities of life in America today. Both films depict hardscrabble close-knit communities of outsiders who have rebelled against societal norms. In Desperate Living, the community of Mortville is built atop a garbage dump and populated by degenerate deviants, perverts and criminals. Without doubt, this was a pointed commentary on the then-pervasive climate of moral righteousness that would soon lead to the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan. In Beasts, the community of the Bathtub is itself a garbage dump set in the midst of the bayou and populated by hardcore raging alcoholics. Without doubt, this is a pointed commentary on the plutocracy that is now America, where our government is run solely by and for the one percent. In Desperate Living, our protagonist Mole longs for the organ that should rightfully be hers in order to satisfy the sexual needs of her lover, Muffy St. Jacques. In Beasts, Hushpuppy longs for her fierce crocodile eating mother, who has inexplicably gone missing. In Desperate Living, the denizens of Mortville appear to be victorious in the end when they roast and eat evil Queen Carlotta. It is, however, a Pyrrhic victory because the townspeople will all presumably die of rabies. In Beasts, the denizens of the Bathtub are ultimately forced to evacuate their garbage dump by the powers that be. In a crucial, optimistic change from the source Waters movie, however, they ultimately prove to be morally victorious. This is evident when the fearsome, marauding Aurochs – the beasts of the movie title – stop dead in their tracks and meekly bow their heads down before valiant Hushpuppy.
In short, Benh Zeitlin has not only paid homage to John Waters, but he too has created a masterpiece that will live through the ages. What's more, it is a masterpiece that features haunting, lyrical imagery, brewskies and fireworks that will forever maim your soul. Utterly brilliant.
This is My Land... Hebron (2010)
What a bunch of kooks
I caught a screening of this at the Lincoln Center Human Rights Watch film festival. Boy oh boy, what a bunch of looney tunes those Hebron settlers are! It's sure nice to know our American taxpayer dollars are helping support this madness. That said, I can certainly see an argument being made that this film is too one-sided, with nary a mention of Palestinian-upon-settler violence. The inclusion of news footage on the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre also seemed to come out of nowhere and be a bit gratuitous. My main complaint with the documentary, though, is that the relentless focus on settler ugliness and, on the other side, the anti-occupation Israeli tours came to be a bit dull and repetitive. It would have been nice to have seen the film opened up a bit by focusing more widely on Israeli settlement policy, including some interviews with government officials, and exploring why the Israeli public and political class seem powerless to effect sensible policy changes.
The one thing this film should do is make a star out of that creepy settler who goes on and on about the Palestinian mother and her daughters being "whores." That woman should be in pictures! How about the next Roman Polanski thriller?
Viva Riva! (2010)
A praiseworthy sign for the future of African cinema?
I recently saw Viva Riva! at Lincoln Center, where it was among the opening films of the African Film Festival. The movie was well received by the audience, including, to my surprise, by women. Festival organizers announced that the film had just swept the African Movie Academy Awards, and the general feeling seemed to be that it served as proof African cinema is really coming into its own.
However, aside from the location filming in Kinshasa, I saw very little to differentiate this film from well-produced mass-market Hollywood product. Or rather, it seemed to me a slick American exploitation film on steroids. Much of the "fun" of watching it is that it is so comically extreme and audacious that you wonder whether it could pass MPAA muster and qualify for an R, rather than a NC-17 rating.
This movie has everything you could hope for from a salacious "chicks in prison" movie: explicit sex, explicit violence, gratuitous lesbian subplot, and a scene of a sexy woman urinating. What really puts it over the top, though, even by American standards, is the misogyny. At the beginning of the film, Riva's buddy J.M. is depicted as a family man with wife and children. Soon, however, is so horny that he reluctantly decides to do an "ugly" whore. "Shut up bitch!," he yells, when the whore asks for more money because the sex is so rough. Later, he beats up his wife in front of his kids and declares he is abandoning the family. Afterwards, there is another scene with the wife so we can enjoy her battered face.
During the Q & A after the movie, one of the stars said he thought the director wanted the violence to show the nihilistic state of rage that currently prevails in Kinshasa. A producer stated that the film's final scene with the kid actually represents a hopeful sign for the future. See whether you think this film bodes well for the future of African cinema.
They Live by Night (1948)
What a privilege and an honor!
To see this masterpiece for the first time last night on the big screen at the Film Forum. (Well, as big as the screens get at that theater.) And after the film concluded, the film programmer, Bruce Goldstein, delivered a wonderful surprise to the audience: Farley Granger was in the house! Mr. Granger (looking very handsome) stood up and recalled how wonderful it was to work with Nicholas Ray on his directorial debut. He noted that Ray had been working in theater with Elia Kazan and implied that may have accounted for how skillful he was in directing actors. He also observed that, based on a few of his later films, he thought Ray had eventually gone "a little crazy," but that he was in his creative prime for this film. Boy, was he!
Lions for Lambs (2007)
Worst commercial for Starbucks I've ever seen
This movie, if you can call it that, simply insults the intelligence of people of every political persuasion. I'm a far left-wing American who hates Bush as much as anyone. This crap is the best my side has to offer? The bold new military strategy that a single Senator seeks to publicize as big news: we'll take the mountaintops in the winter so that we can shoot for 360 degrees when the snow thaws. You've got to be kidding! And, gee, I thought we were fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. I didn't realize they were fighting alongside a whole army of Al Queda fighters too! Somehow the news media hasn't picked up on that yet. And Meryl Streep's Judith Miller character thinks she'll be aiding the bad guys in Washington by publicizing this major non-news story? The mountain sequences were so cheesy it looked like the film-makers had to shoot this on an especially low budget. If that shallow twit of a student really represents the best and brightest of our nation's current college students, we're really in trouble. Or was that a high school? And then there's the matter of that huge Starbucks cup being front and center during every Robert Redford scene. I was so bored I just spent my time trying to decipher the writing on the side of that cup.
Love Story (2006)
Excellent, thoughtful documentary
It's about time somebody made a documentary on this superb band that produced one of the greatest albums in rock history, Forever Changes. What a fantastic job for a first-time directorial effort! Fascinating topics discussed include the key interplay between Arthur Lee and Brian MacLean, Lee's aversion to touring, and the relationship between Love and the Doors. The interview segments with Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman and bandmember Johnny Echols are especially illuminating. The film rightfully puts the focus on the creation of the first three albums, while bringing us up-to-date on the sad news concerning Lee and a few of the other bandmembers. One question that certainly arises from the interview segments with Lee, but is not directly addressed, is the extent to which he damaged himself. I was fortunate to see the Forever Changes anniversary tour: although Lee seemed in better shape than Brian Wilson, he hardly played his guitar.