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I still need to finish up last years. Doesn’t sit right with me that I was unable to complete it.
2024 Film Challenge
First category complete!
Good Ol' Terra Ferma:
The class of the group: Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2014) is a good look at what goes on in yearlong stints in the frigid continent. There's a spirit of cooperation whether it's a big New Year's party or a movie festival (!). But it doesn't shy away from the hard part of staying there: the frigid temperatures, forgetting simple things, the resentment at those who come in during the warm season (relatively speaking). Definitely a fascinating watch.
The rest: Desierto (2015) has a couple of decent performances (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Gael Garcia Bernal) but a lack of characterization and depth of story keeps this from fulfilling what could have been a provocative premise. True Spirit (2023) has a gripping real-life story of a teen girl determined to go around the world, but outside of Anna Paquin appearing as her mother (!), but it feels a bit too sanitized for our protection as the film struggles between the teen film it's trying to be (a let's repair the boat sequence with Cobie Caillet's Brighter than the Sun playing) and the true story it is (the sequence where the storms hit as she's fairly close to home). We may have to wait for the documentary on that one. The story of Zan: King of the Jungle (aka Tarzan in the Golden Grotto) (1968) and how it got made is ultimately more interesting than the film itself. Although the jungles in Suriname look nice and there's a couple amusing scenes involving snakes, one gets bored of the efforts of two white men to get gold and Zan's efforts to protect first a prospector who is looking for a treasure and then his daughter while he plays peacemaker between an Amazon tribe and a tribe of natives. I'd guess Edgar Rice Burroughs wouldn't have approved of the efforts of Manuel Cano to get this made.
Good Ol' Terra Ferma:
The class of the group: Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2014) is a good look at what goes on in yearlong stints in the frigid continent. There's a spirit of cooperation whether it's a big New Year's party or a movie festival (!). But it doesn't shy away from the hard part of staying there: the frigid temperatures, forgetting simple things, the resentment at those who come in during the warm season (relatively speaking). Definitely a fascinating watch.
The rest: Desierto (2015) has a couple of decent performances (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Gael Garcia Bernal) but a lack of characterization and depth of story keeps this from fulfilling what could have been a provocative premise. True Spirit (2023) has a gripping real-life story of a teen girl determined to go around the world, but outside of Anna Paquin appearing as her mother (!), but it feels a bit too sanitized for our protection as the film struggles between the teen film it's trying to be (a let's repair the boat sequence with Cobie Caillet's Brighter than the Sun playing) and the true story it is (the sequence where the storms hit as she's fairly close to home). We may have to wait for the documentary on that one. The story of Zan: King of the Jungle (aka Tarzan in the Golden Grotto) (1968) and how it got made is ultimately more interesting than the film itself. Although the jungles in Suriname look nice and there's a couple amusing scenes involving snakes, one gets bored of the efforts of two white men to get gold and Zan's efforts to protect first a prospector who is looking for a treasure and then his daughter while he plays peacemaker between an Amazon tribe and a tribe of natives. I'd guess Edgar Rice Burroughs wouldn't have approved of the efforts of Manuel Cano to get this made.
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