bnemazie Reviews

Ethos (2020)

Modernity versus tradition Turkish stye

[7/10 · 7 December 2020]

This series was recommended to me by others. I just finished watching the series.

This series is very different from the typical Turkish soap opera style fare rom Turkey. Many reviewers have given high praise to this series, so I will focus on things that have not been touched as much by other reviewers.

The series is based on the attitudes of secular educated and professional Turks and the traditional, observing moslem laboring Turks toward one another. It has the honesty to acknowledge the existence of the traditional vs modern divide in Turkish society. For that courage and honesty it deserves high praise as many have given it. The acting is belevable and well done.

The series has a poetic ending of sorts that makes for a pleasant resolution for most viewers. As a person who has seen the catastrophic results of the secular vs religious divide in my country Iran the ending comes across as too poetic.

Circumstance (2011)

Too many contrivances

[5/10 · 19 September 2015]

I noted this movie on my cable service and had it recorded since I saw it had an 86% favorable audience ranking. Since I am Iranian I was more interested to watch this movie. I had recorded the movie on my DVR some months ago until I got to watch it tonight. Unfortunately I was not impressed by this movie.

This movie is about lesbian love between two Iranian teenage girls in post 2009 Iran. The movie is slow moving. There is little character development in the movie. Too many story lines are crammed into this movie and make it incoherent.

The plot is perhaps believable for audiences with little actual appreciation of the real life "circumstances" in Iran, who are accustomed to the usual clichés that abound on mass media narratives about Iranian life. For me the plot was not believable, teenage rebellion ala Western teenager, for example purportedly 16 year old girls doing shot after shot at the party, except among the super rich kids, just does not ring true. The addict musician brother who inexplicably turns religious and Islamic moral vigilante but wears a tuxedo to his wedding and dances with unveiled women in very appealing dress and makeup just does not ring true.

I give the movie a 5 for effort.

The Imitation Game (2014)

Interesting biopic

[8/10 · 27 December 2014]

This is a movie about the British Mathematician Alan Turing and his contribution to the super secret British WW2 effort in cracking the Enigma machine, the machine used by Germans for encrypted communications.

Overall this is a serious movie, however like most British movies of recent years there is a mix of crowd pleasing light humor including taunting, teasing, flirting, and witty dialog to keep the movie from getting too dull or tedious and reveal some character aspects.

The movie uses flashbacks to trace Alan Turing in his early teens at a boarding school and his close friendship with a classmate with whom he shared a keen interest in mathematics and cryptography. It depicts Turing as an introverted and arrogant person with little social skills who is brilliant in mathematics and and a top level mathematician in Britain. It traces the ups and downs of the code cracking team that culminated in the breaking of the Enigma code.

Setting aside the simplifications necessary in telling a story in a feature film and not a documentary, the movie is apparently substantially accurate. There is one subplot involving a Soviet double agent in Turing's team that is not believable at all as we later learn that the cracking of the code was kept secret from even the high echelons of government lest the Germans get wind of it and change the design of the Enigma machine. The security man in charge claims he has allowed the Soviet double agent in Turing's team to let Stalin know of the progress of the effort. The same double agent claims he knows Turing is a homosexual and warns Turing not to blow his cover, otherwise he would reveal Turing's homosexuality, then illegal in Britain and punished by a jail sentence, to the authorities. It is strange that the British security was unable to "sense" what the presumed double agent had "sensed".

This is a movie worth seeing.

The Theory of Everything (2014)

A different take on Hawking's work and life

[8/10 · 6 December 2014]

This movie is based on the book written by Hawking's first wife Jane Wilde. It covers the period from 1963 to 1997. If you are interested to hear about Stephen Hawking's theories in great detail you better watch The 2013 BBC documentary/movie "Hawking" currently on Netflix. This movie does take into account Hawking's theories but the focus is on his personal and family life.

And it does a very good job at portraying his first marriage and the love and devotion of his devout wife through the course of Hawking ALS disease. Some have slighted this movie for not covering Hawking's theories in too much detail, but there is already a good BBC film on the scientific discoveries of Hawking, so a rehash of the same territory would have been a waste of time and effort.

The movie focuses on Hawking's first marriage. It covers how he and Jane Wilde fell in love and married despite Hawking ALS diagnosis and a prognosis of death within 2 years. It is presented with humor and grace and tenderness. It traces Hawking's gradual deterioration from walking with difficulty with canes, to crawling up the stairs, to getting wheelchair bound, to losing his voice and yet surviving and not succumbing to the disease in 2 years as was the prognosis. The movie shows the toll the disease took on Hawking's wife that led finally to the separation and finally divorce.

The acting in this movie is very good, played with understatement and sincerity. The humor is endearing. It is not the definitive film on Hawking, but restores a balance that was missing in the BBC documentary/movie. So in that respect it is a different take on Hawking's life and work.

Hawking (2013)

Fine BBC movie/documentary on Hawking

[8/10 · 27 November 2014]

This is a BBC produced movie/documentary that is more detailed about the development of Hawking's scientific thinking than one would see in other science biography movies. It starts with Hawking at 21 and covers his ALS diagnosis and how he and his family reacted to the news. The movie captures the look and feel of the times very well. It captures the environment in Cambridge where Hawking worked on his PhD, the influences on him, and the world of theoretical physics. The movie mostly focuses on the period from 1963 to 1980, so it is rather sparse on Hawking's later life and his later theories. This is a well made movie well worth watching especially if you have an interest in science in general, but also worth watching as a inspirational story of Hawking's tenacity and perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

The amazing 95 meta score is undeserved

[5/10 · 24 February 2013]

I was amazed by the film critics score of 95, and thought that it should be a really good movie to get such high marks from the critics.

After seeing the movie, I feel the rating is undeserved. The movie is episodic and at the end it comes across as pure dumb luck that that they got a lead on UBL. It seems a cross between a documentary and an action movie which nevertheless is not satisfactory at either level.

Some events in the movie are surprisingly action movie like basically you have to check out your brains to believe them, like a car being attacked right at the exit of a compound With a guard. At the end you are left wondering where the facts end and fiction begins.