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drjohntas
Reviews
The Cobbler (2014)
Awful Ending to a an otherwise Good Movie
A gentle, amusing, entertaining movie, perfect for one of those nights when you don't want to be stretched.
But the ending is possibly one of the worst I've ever seen .. the closing scene is completely unnecessary and totally out of genre. It looks like it was tacked on as an after-thought and completely destroys some of the intriguing parts of an otherwise good narrative. Some loose-ends are a good idea in a narrative and tidying them up with a ridiculous closing scene treats the viewer as being brainless and unable to cope with curiosity. In less than 5 minutes this absurd ending turns the "missing" father from being a person of mystery into a heartless husband and dad and a Marvel-caricature , in the same moment destroys the character of Jimmy who is beautifully played by Streve Buscemi, and gives Dustin Hoffman the final words in a film he was probably not required. The film already has a perfectly good ending in the preceeding understated scene between Carmen (Melonie Diaz) and Max (The Cobbler). My advice is switch off the movie at the last ad-break and remember the film for all its really good moments.
Aaaaaaaah! (2015)
Flawed genius
I love films that are seriously different. This film is exactly that. Why?
Almost all film and TV drama portrays its' characters behaving as humans do, one way or the other, in all sorts of scenarios. Even animation (Shreck, Monster inc) and animal (eg "talking dog genre", Babe, Nemo etc) movies depict the characters behaving in ways consistent with modern humans. You as watcher can easily relate to the characters
even if in violent or extreme scenarios.
Not so Aaaaaaaah !.
In this exceptional film the writer and director have made an attempt to change the depiction of personal, social and sexual behavior to fit a conjecture that humans could have carried full blown ape behavior and mores with them all the way from the jungle to modern post-industrial society.
On that level the film is riveting and a challenge to the cast of professional actors who did pretty well with it. However, on a serious downside
. I found myself constantly battling with an endless need to suspend and re-suspend disbelief. It was really difficult to have an immersive experience with the film. You may argue it is not necessarily a bad thing to be forced to cerebrally multitask
. but Fantasy and/or Sci-fi works well if it is consistent within itself. Suspension of disbelief is best achieved as a brief hypnotic act and you are in. This film constantly bothered me with its inconsistencies. Examples.. it places non-verbal grunting apes as the equals of our modern humans with exact achievements in science, architecture, technology and so on. Clearly absurd. Intellectual achievement require an extraordinarily complex language structure. All things need to be named and defined. Language is an essential prerequisite for thought. Grunting apes cannot achieve the results. A flat panel TV and iPad have advanced physics behind their creation. You can't grunt your way to an iPad. Also.. the human/apes in this film behaved in ways which were messy/anarchistic/destructive in the extreme. So why were they clothed in such immaculate clothing, and why was the film set in such an over-clean, over-ordered environment where absolutely nothing was out of place. The physical structure of the city environment, street cleanliness and manicure park lands shouted "INCONSISTENCY". And where were the forces of control (police etc) which would need to be present and dominant in a society with such rampantly anarchistic behavior.
And furthermore
there were absurd, unnecessary .. school-boy-humour jokes injected into the film (eg a store manager masturbating all over a framed photo of Prince Harry) with no reason plot-wise .. doing nothing but challenging the integrity of the film.
I think many viewers will abandon the film as "this is too silly". However, for me it was a fascinating and rewarding experience. Recommend it?.. sure do.