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Blacklumix
Reviews
Asteroid City (2023)
Fell asleep
Maybe I missed a lot. Because I was so bored I fell asleep several times even though I thought it was too long. Or maybe I didn't miss anything. At least what I was conscious of didn't have a lasting impression on me. Monotone monotony in pastel might be the byline. There were moments when it felt I was watching a sequel to the "Grand Budapest Hotel", but if anything really happened, I couldn't tell. Waste of a cast...the names and palette brought me into the theater. I left with powder blueballs, bewildered and wholly unsatisfied. Yes, oddball things, even momentous things, can and do occur in the seemingly most unlikely places. But they don't have to, so assuming the need to be in such a place is just so much pretention. Shame on Wed in my book.
Hollywood Canteen (1944)
Embarrassingly White
But for one musical group, the Whiteness of Hollywood is evident. But at least the "help" was too. That being said, it is as cornball as all get-out, golly. Luckily for a good cause.... So the roster of that eras actors (and actresses) is pretty extensive, and it is fun seeing how they all supported the war effort by entertaining servicemen. Oh there I go again; no WACs. You'll jist have to deal with it if it occurs to you at some point. It occurred to me about 10 minutes in. But in the end, it is fun to see all the celebs just being people, or at least acting like them, which I can't tell but can hope...
Don't Look Up (2021)
Savvy Satire
"Don't Look Up" is a savvy satire of our current national condition, meaning a sad commentary softened by comedic irony. While like "Titanic" you know how it ends, minimizing any possible catharsis. And that may be why some find it less satisfying, but its surreal insights carry the momentum. Could it have done more? Perhaps but even the best intended message is self-limiting.
Greed (2019)
Surprising
I disagree with the many negative reviews. This is the story of a dogged capitalist who evidences an interesting rigidity in both business and personal matters. I've known wealthy individuals who match up perfectly with his tax code morality and there are many not so veiled jabs at Donald Trump and his family. Satire is both comedic and farcical at its best, and to me "Greed" not only doesn't disappoint, but delivers remarkably well. As an aside I found the many sycophants who buzz around Coogan's miraculous McCreadie like floes around a dunghill to be in the tradition of many great satires.
Swiss Army Man (2016)
An experience
OK everybody else, and I mean everybody, has flagellated the flatulence component of this work to death, so I won't. I thought, however, OK, is this based on some 'real life' story? Perhaps of someone who suffered some kind of hallucinatory illness? Apparently not, or at least its creators won't admit to what otherwise some people might say, ha, I told you so, they're not that creative, this is where they got the idea from. The story instead apparently derived from some very clever but clearly deranged minds. Perhaps the most striking aspect to me is the absence of CGI" moments. Some fantastical sets, yes. Stunts, yes, and at least a couple rather daring. Acting? I couldn't have asked for better, especially from a corpse. Wanna take a ride? I won't spoil a thing.
Please Give (2010)
Small "Crash"
If you view people as case studies in arrested development, then everyone has an issue, and everyone has a story. It's how each deals with his or her issue that makes things interesting in life. And when those issues interrelate to family dynamics, things can get down right convoluted, both as tragic and comic. "Please Give" is such a vehicle. Everyone's issue is not only personal but becomes a family matter at some level. And in the end there is some truth to the concept that blood is thicker than water. Like the movie "Crash" we see how seemingly random personal issues bounce off of the others in our lives, how we react to the consequences given our relative family dynamics, and how we may move on. In the center of this mini-maelstrom is Kate, whose issue of guilt appears to be the nucleus of all matters. Everything seems to spread out from there, and like a galaxy in the distant sky, things coalesce or spin off into directions brilliantly. As usual, whoever makes up the trailer for this tidy package misdirects us completely, which is why I hate trailers.....
The Invention of Lying (2009)
A premise that works
OK, real simple. Ricky Gervais plays.....himself.....again. And I like it. He's the same as he was in Ghost Town, but I'm not looking for him to stretch himself. If I wanted to see him perform Hamlet, I'd hope he would be himself as Hamlet. I perfectly enjoy his setting himself down in a situation and working it completely (or as completely as one can work something in about an hour or so....). There isn't too much chemistry between him and Jennifer Garner, and Rob Lowe's character is more a caricature, but then given the premise, you are in an alien world witnessing the only apparent oddball interacting with it, and so everyone but our hero inevitably has some inherent caricature-ness. So go and enjoy; if you like Ricky Gervais' brand of humor, I really don't think you'll be disappointed.
Couples Retreat (2009)
Well...at least there's Vince Vaughn
We like tripe sometimes, so this isn't a 1. In the end it's satisfying because it is predictable and we all need that from time to time, don't we? It's one of those movies the studios probably could have made in a week -- 3 days in Chicago and 4 days in a tropic paradise, snip here and there, add opening and end credits, and call it a day, where the audience seems to laugh only at the scenes that were clipped for the trailer -- the ones that lured them into the theater in the first place. The only thing that would have dragged it down to a 1 would have been the presence of Jennifer Aniston (odd pained facial expression) or Sarah Jessica Parker (squeal).
A Serious Man (2009)
Looking for a good Job?
If the Coen brothers were assigned the task of updating the Bible as a TV series and had to produce a pilot episode, then this would be by far what the book of Job would look like. Or is there something to the Asian bribery subplot that would be an update of the Merchant of Venice and how Shylock might have dealt with his situation? Or even more to the point, if the 1960s were to repeat themselves, there is no doubt in my mind this is what they would look like, sans only 1 thing, being any reference (that I recall) to Vietnam. So maybe that's it, an apocalyptic look at pre-Vietnam America and the bizarre and in retrospect petty trials and tribulations of a middle class family (that happens to be Jewish) living in a suburb that could be anywhere USA during that era, unaware of the future events that would truly test their core values. Which leads me to the unexpected part of the film -- the first 10 minutes or so being in Yiddish (with English subtitles) in a shtetl somewhere in (most likely) turn of the last century or older Poland, where one is left stunned by what the point was. In the end my summary would be something like "what goes around, comes around." I'm afraid it will attract primarily Jewish audiences even though having listened to the audience reactions in our darkened theater I became convinced that, assuming the majority of the audience was in fact Jewish, still most of them didn't get a fair number of the references. And then there's the final scene, which may seem even more of a mystery given what has led up to it, but maybe it's the final affirmation of powerlessness over the imminent and inevitable. I left the theater breathless.
The Informant! (2009)
Fabulous
I felt as though this movie was in the tradition of "Catch Me If You Can" with huge twists and turns that kept me fixated on how bizarre things were becoming as the story evolved. Matt Damon's adept portrayal of Mark Whitacre never lets up as to whether he is the guy in the white hat or the black hat, even as some of his most important and self-professed life facts come unraveled. There are times when you want a movie to wrap things up in a neat, tidy bundle at the end because it is escape and you want that experience to come to closure to gain some personal level of satisfaction. This is one where for me the satisfaction came instead from not having that kind of ending but rather leaves you breathless and somewhat in wonder as to the complexity of Damon's portrayed character.
Doubt (2008)
Brilliant, complex, but not the feelgood movie of the holiday season...
I'm not sure if a movie is supposed to have a "message". Alternatively this movie has many. It is a tightly woven story; likely because the playwright also did the screenplay. Almost everything is a double-entendre, but if you want to be immersed from the moment the film starts, keep the idea in the back of your mind that everything has its own "nature", and that we trap ourselves controlling it.
Hoffman, Streep, Adams and Davis are all magnificent. Streep plays a lot of herself, but don't let that overshadow the complexities of her character. Hoffman is probably more enigmatic, and rightfully so; his portrayal is more akin to his "Capote". Davis, who has only one scene, takes advantage of every moment the camera is on her; watch her emotions.
What some may find frustrating is the the visuals do not reveal the "answer" as to whether something did or did not happen between the sole Black student and Father Flynn.
There are so many themes keeping them separate in mind may be difficult, but the underlying tone is one for me that questions whether in order to have conviction about something, one must internally suppress one's severe doubts. Imagine the juror in a capital case where execution is sought, struggling with the doubts that must be overcome by a decision based upon circumstantial evidence that could take a life. "12 Angry Men" comes to mind.
If you come away depressed, or confused, do not despair. One of the struggles I saw was whether discipline and order stand in the way of the truth. Watch as it all unfolds, and how much effort it takes the characters (Father Flynn and Sister Aloyisus) must take in order not to reveal the truth.
But if you were expecting a "deus ex machina" to reveal all, the final scene will prove equally dissatisfying. Look beyond the "crime" and into the substance of the nature of the characters and everything they do. This will also help understand a vignette involving the cat and mouse. Enjoy.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
Darker is not better....
The money shot for most of us who enjoy the 1951 film (I won't call it a "version") is "Klaatu Varada/Barada (depending on what you hear) nikto!" where we all learn that Gort is really OK. We forgave how Gort could possibly have escaped detection rescuing Klaatu and returning him to the spaceship in the middle of DC because the story was relatively simple and straightforward, was essentially positive and non-violent and, like most of the films of its genre and vintage, ended with a question mark (literally or figuratively). Here I think even the director got lost with too much going on, and for me the ending left little doubt in my mind what the future would hold, giving me little solace despite the ending. One of the keys to the success or failure of this movie should have been how the characters change and/or evolve in the face of their coming into contact with each other and the revelation of alien's real mission. Instead for me it fell really short as changes of heart, so to speak, just appeared like "ta das" out of nowhere. For those who love to watch the government (and especially the military) arrogantly flounder, flail and fail, however, there's plenty of that. Compared with a very camp 1951 story, I just don't think this "version" will stand the test of time, still or otherwise. Comparing disaster films I would put "The Day After Tomorrow" heads and shoulders over this one, in every category including special effects (the CGI here was really somewhat cheesy).