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Wild Tales (2014)




I'd had this anthology movie on my list for quite a while and had high expectations due to the praise I've heard and it's ratings. I thoroughly enjoyed it but was still a tad let down. Of course the 6 tales have varying degrees of effectiveness, but usually when these types of movies are really good, they are interconnected in some way. It was just 6 separate tales of people losing their minds. A couple of times I thought there were incomplete endings. Tales 4 & 5 are the ones I really thought should have been better. Still a good ride overall.



Wild Tales (2014)

Worth it just for that in-car fight segment alone.



Victim of The Night

Carlito’s Way- 10/10

It might be my favourite mafia movie. It has a sensitivity that the genre lacks. While your goodfellas or godfather tells stories with gunfire Carlito’s way is a very subtle story and character-driven movie- almost like a play.
I also prefer Carlito's Way to Goodfellas.





Nomadland (2020)

Our protagonist, Fern (Frances McDormand), is suddenly faced with two calamities: her husband has died, and the plant at which they both had been employedfor years closes. Since the plant was the chief employer in the town, everything soon dries up, and is literally taken off the map. Soon Fern decides to sell her belongings, buy a van, and take off on the road looking for work. She initially takes seasonal employment at an Amazon regional center, then when that ends, she moves on looking for other work. Along the way she meets dozens of other working nomads who aretraveling the highways in their vehicles likewise looking for temporary employment in order to maintain their vagabond lifestyle.


Fern quickly learns from others how to survive on the road. Some of the featured true life motorized nomads were interesting, what with the personal stories from these non actors ringing true. She meets the real life Bob Wells, who is something of a guru in the traveling lifestyle. There are a couple of others she meets who play an important part in her education. She eventually meets David (David Strathairn), a fellow traveler. After several chance meetings and a shard job David expresses feelings for Fern, and invites her to stay with him at his son’s guest house. Fern declines, and soon heads off for the road, where she seems to feel comfortable.

If one is expecting something to happen, it really never does, apart from a minor back story revelation which gives some clue as to Fern’s motives. The film teetered between a documentary and a drama, with the documentary portion being more engaging.
The picture will appeal to those who enjoy slices of life and poignant human stories. Otherwise it’s a bit of a slog. We see Fern cooking on her single burner stove, she bundles up to sleep, she takes endless aimless walks in the western outdoors, all of which eventually becoming uninteresting, causing the viewer to wonder where the film is going.


The cinematography was good, but there was too much of it. It seemed like every frame consisted of a wide vista shot of the American West. They were impressive at first, then became repetitive. It's almost as if the photography of the landscapes was intended to make up for the lack of story. The editing soon felt aimless. The minimal single piano score fit very nicely.

Reportedly writer/director Chloe Zhao was simultaneously working on this
movie along with the upcoming MCU film, Eternals. Whether the film would have changed any, given Zhao’s full attention, it’s hard to say. I haven’t read the book, but it would be interesting to have seen this as a pure documentary, without the narrative’s need to be attentive to a protagonist.


Doc’s rating: 5/10





Wasn't bad. Have to admit, I prefer the 1988 remake as it has a little more oomph to it but it was neat to see where it all started. Can't wait for the sequel.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Hiding Out (Bob Giraldi, 1987)
+ 6/10
Out of Bounds (Richard Tuggle, 1986)
5/10
The Longest Night (Errol Taggart, 1936)
5.5/10
Arna's Children (Juliano Mer-Khamis & Danniel Danniel, 2004)
7/10

Intense, heartbreaking depiction of what happens to Palestinian youth affected by Israeli occupation. The director was a Jew.
Dr. Kildare Goes Home (Harold S. Bucquet, 1940)
5.5/10
The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (Éric Rohmer, 2007)
5/10
Lupe (Andre Phillips & Charles Vuolo, 2019)
5.5/10
12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957)
8/10

Suspenseful study of a jury and how irs concept of reasonable doubt can evolve.
Lingering AKA Hotel Lake (Yoon Een-Kyoung, 2020)
+ 5/10
Mafia Inc (Daniel Grou, 2019)
6.5/10
The Ghoul (T. Hayes Hunter, 1933)
5/10
A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 1966)
+ 7.5/10

Thomas More (Paul Scofield) and King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) "discuss" various subjects relating to the latter's marriage to Anne Boleyn.
Rage (John Balazs, 2021)
5/10
Knute Rockne All American (Lloyd Bacon, 1940)
5.5/10
Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981)
- 7/10
Miss Sharon Jones! (Barbara Kopple, 2015)
6.5/10

Soul singer Sharon Jones returns to touring with her band the Dap-Kings after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Honesty Weekend ( Leslie Thomas, 2020)
5/10
Praying with Lior (Ilana Trachtman, 2008)
6.5/10
Tentacles (Clara Aranovich, 2021)
5/10
Pelé (David Tryhorn & Ben Nicholas, 2021)
6.5/10

Pelé's rise to the greatest footballer in the world is put in the greater context of Brazilian history.
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The Irishman -

Pride and Prejudice -

Thelma & Louise -



TWO LOVERS
(2008, Gray)
A film with the word "Two" in its title



"So I'm going to ask you a question now, and I'm going to be direct with you. I hope you don't mind.
Are you a f**k-up?"

Two Lovers follows Leonard, a young man suffering from bipolar disorder and reeling in from depression and several suicide attempts related to his break-up from his fiancée. Now living with his parents, he tries to make ends meet working at their laundromat in NYC. Unbeknownst to him, he is set up with Sandra, the well-intentioned daughter of his father's business partner. At the same time, Leonard also gets involved with Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), a troubled neighbor that's also having an affair with Ronald, a married man from work.

In the end, the film could've used a bit more focus between the two relationships and perhaps a bit more exploration into the characters. I'm still torn about the ending which I felt was decidedly tragic, even if I kinda felt the film was trying to sell it the other way. But I think that the fact they did things the way they did was somewhat bold, at least from the point of view from which I interpreted it. At the end of the day, honesty does go a long way, even if it's to walk away from something you should to avoid pain, suffering, and heartache to others. Whether the characters did that or not, I guess that's up to you.

Grade:




Full review on my Movie Loot
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I really like Two Lovers as well. I saw Leonard's journey as one of recovery, with Michelle representing his addiction and Sandra representing who he needs to be with to break the habit. I like all of the James Gray movies I've seen - I haven't seen The Immigrant or Ad Astra yet - and most of them have that left-hand path/right-hand path dilemma, which makes sense since he's so good at portraying it.



I really like Two Lovers as well. I saw Leonard's journey as one of recovery, with Michelle representing his addiction and Sandra representing who he needs to be with to break the habit. I like all of the James Gray movies I've seen - I haven't seen The Immigrant or Ad Astra yet - and most of them have that left-hand path/right-hand path dilemma, which makes sense since he's so good at portraying it.
That's a pretty good metaphorical approach to it. But what really had me a bit more troubled was...

WARNING: spoilers below

The quick shift of Leonard from being on the verge of leaving everything for Michelle, even telling his mom that "he's happy", to him just making a U-turn towards Sandra when Michelle leaves him, to the point of giving her the engagement ring he had bought for Michelle. Like I said in the review, I saw it as tragic even if I don't think the film was selling it that way. And I mean tragic in that IRL you don't just shift from engaging to X to engaging to Y on one night. It's certainly not healthy and I don't know if we're meant to believe this was a "happily ever after" ending.


As for Gray, this is the first film of his I've seen.



WARNING: spoilers below

The quick shift of Leonard from being on the verge of leaving everything for Michelle, even telling his mom that "he's happy", to him just making a U-turn towards Sandra when Michelle leaves him, to the point of giving her the engagement ring he had bought for Michelle. Like I said in the review, I saw it as tragic even if I don't think the film was selling it that way. And I mean tragic in that IRL you don't just shift from engaging to X to engaging to Y on one night. It's certainly not healthy and I don't know if we're meant to believe this was a "happily ever after" ending.


As for Gray, this is the first film of his I've seen.
WARNING: spoilers below
I do like the scenes where we see Leonard and Sandra together, but I agree that there are many, many more - perhaps too many - with Leonard and Michelle. It's practically 80/20. Since Leonard and is family are Jewish, I assumed that Leonard and Sandra belong to a branch of Judaism that practices arranged marriage, but maybe I just told myself that so that the implied happiness in the ending makes more sense.



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The Girl On The Train (2021)......2/10

This is an Indian Hindi film starring Parineeti Chopra. Simply put, the main character's flashbacks were repetitive to the point of agonizing, leading me to skip to the next scene. And again, and again. Chopra's acting was as agonizing to watch as well, and her head wound looked like a slice of smoked salami. Too much else wrong with it to list.

Someone tried in vain to produce an entertaining plagiarism of the 2016 original starring Emily Blunt, which I enjoyed.

The Indian version was, of course, yet another one of a plethora of "inclusive" failures brought to me, courtesy of NETFLIX.

Boooo!



I love this movie. So good. Loved Paltrow as a girl from the ‘burbs of NYC. So not her, but she was convincing.
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THE SERBIAN LAWYER
(2014, Nikolic)
A film from Serbia



"One truth, another truth... a third truth. Who decides which one is the real one? Is it the New York Times or the judges? Is it the factions back home?... Is it me? I don't even know what the truth is in my personal life."

The Serbian Lawyer follows Marko Sladojevic, an international attorney assigned to defend both Karadžić and Milošević. What is notable is that Sladojevic was a Serb that was against Milošević during his youth, and had to flee the country eventually. The documentary attempts to chronicle the inner struggles of the lawyer in trying to do his job while trying to balance it against his own beliefs and his personal life.

Unfortunately, the documentary is not very successful. Despite setting up some compelling drama in terms of Sladojevic's conflicts and the details of the crimes and the trial itself, director Aleksander Nikolic never really delves into anything, but rather chooses to jump from topic to topic without much cohesion. Also, most of what little analysis is done about the case, never feels properly closed or finished.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot