Natalie-355-390388 Reviews

Ad Astra (2019)

In my top 3 of Worst Movies Of All Time and I can't remember the other 2

[1/10 · 9 December 2019]

Like other reviews, where do you start with how bad this movie is? It has few redeeming qualities and, sadly, it's not so bad it's good, so can never achieve cult status for being so awful. It's boring, stupid (yes there really are Moon Pirates and Space Monkeys) poorly researched and terribly scripted. Characters are unengaging, sub-plots go nowhere (the main plot does too), wasted actors (eg. Keifer Sutherland pops in for awhile and then has a sudden medical emergency and disappears; Natasha Lyonne from Russian Doll has a bit part as receptionist on Mars, Liv Tyler appears sporadically as estranged wife), overly dramatic acting that is occasionally confusing and completely unscientific (it's a still a sci fi movie... You can't get away with phoning it in on basic physics and science) combine with the dull monologues of Pitts character to simultaneously bore and confuse the viewer. The best way to sum up this movie is: hot mess. Watch it for the space monkeys.

Nathalie Granger (1972)

A film, heavy with empty space

[8/10 · 26 October 2014]

Being no expert in French minimalist films, I stumbled across this film as it bears my name. Being a minimalist myself, I was compelled to watch it even though the reviews are variable. Much could be written about what Dumas was trying to convey in this film, but watching it is like standing in front of Yves Kleins 1962 'Monochrome Painting'- make of it what you will. Two women (sisters?) go about their day in their middle-class French house of the early 1970's. While the movie narrates the seemingly mundane, there is an undercurrent of mystery and perhaps malice surrounding the child, Nathalie, whom the movie is named after. We barely see Nathalie, but the viewer is drawn into joining her disturbed mother, Isabelle, in waiting for her while staring vacantly or walking the garden in her black cape. The two women prepare Nathalie's clothes and suitcase for her impending trip away to boarding school. The silence is occasionally broken by updates on the radio about the police hunt for a pair of serial killer teenagers who are hiding in the nearby forest. While nothing of note appears to happen, the air is heavy with expectancy, drawing the viewer in. What's wrong with Nathalie? Why do they have to send her away? What terrible, violent behavior does this seemingly innocent child display that would cause her to be expelled from school. The Other Woman/Isabelle's sister? mentions Nathalie told her she would like to kill people and become an orphan. Gerard Depardieu plays, in what appears to be his first movie, the role of The Salesman, who punctuates the emptiness with his bumbling door-to-door sales visit to sell a washing machine. Personally, I found this scene masterful. The women shred his confidence through their impenetrability and the statement "You are no salesman". Their cruel coldness cuts so deeply that he returns later, having questioned his entire life and career choices. He really is a bad salesman. Some may have missed the black humor in the ending of this scene where they finally let him know they already owned the model of washing machine he was so ineptly trying to sell them. They were only playing with him, like the black cat that stalks their house may play with an injured mouse. Others have commented about how this scene was unnecessary and misplaced but I believe it is the clue to what is wrong with Nathalie. The women are cold, hard and unemotional, particularly Nathalie's mother, Isabelle. We see they are capable of emotional cruelty. Has Nathalie been damaged by her mother and aunt (?), and is acting out with violence in a desperate attempt to for love and attention? The scene where Nathalie catches cats to push in a pram is telling. The cats will not oblige and run off into the forest. Nathalie yearns for love, but what she tries to love runs from her. In anger she pushes the pram into a ditch. The abandoned pram appears in other sequences, perhaps as a symbol of rejection. I am grateful for having found this obscure movie. It leaves a mark on you, and it's openness to interpretation and symbolism leaves you thinking even after the credits roll.