Everything Everywhere All At Once – 2
In 50 minutes I couldn’t make out the premise, and the characters, action and language (Chinese) were so unpleasant that we figured anything we might do at home would be more fun.
In 50 minutes I couldn’t make out the premise, and the characters, action and language (Chinese) were so unpleasant that we figured anything we might do at home would be more fun.
A “love story” without chemistry set in a fairly bleak future world where public surgery to remove spontaneously growing extraneous organs is the hot ticket. This resembles a George Saunders short story or a Remedios Varo painting on steroids. Director David Cronenberg is the master of the “body horror” genre. One has to wonder why, other than a bizarre personal obsession, this exists.
A provocative documentary about whaling in the Faroe Islands–specifically, an annual (or more) slaughter of pilot whales unfortunately called a “grind.” While the killing is stomach-turning and Sea Shepherd activists politely present the arguments against, the local islanders, and the filmmakers, ask why is this different from slaughterhouse killing of the other animals we eat.
No surprises and nothing original, but in managing to tie up multiple stories with happy endings for everybody–and I mean everybody–Julian Fellowes brought a few tears to my eyes and gave us a pleasant afternoon in the movie house. Everything was a bit pat and no scene lasted more than its allotted 60 seconds; it was also helpful, maybe essential, to have the back stories of all the characters firmly in mind. But the residents of Grantham Hall have been good company for many years, and they didn’t let us down.
This one required a suspension of disbelief that I couldn’t quite muster. Or maybe it didn’t. Or maybe I missed something when the slow pace put me briefly to sleep. Two look-alike 8-year-old girls meet in the woods and I kept waiting–mercifully for only 1:18–for a plot to emerge. Three points for sincerity.
It felt like an art museum, the Watteau gallery in particular, with soldiers parading and lovers dallying. By adapting a classic play, the movie suspended disbelief and even made the songs feel integral to the plot, which they were. Peter Dinklage, of course, is not a traditional Cyrano, but again, we weren’t looking for realism once we fell under director Joe Wright’s spell. This also allowed us to cast aside contemporary feminism and appreciate the dutifully shallow Roxanne. It’s a matter of taste, but we found Cyrano sweet, especially when viewed on a theater big screen.
Not for everyone, but if you came to it expecting Neil Labute’s typically cruel depiction of a male-female relationship you wouldn’t have been disappointed by Justin Long’s bumbling attempt at seduction or Kate Bosworth’s innocent iciness, not to mention the bloody denouement. With only one set and three actors (plus a cameo), this was evidently a Covid project. Even in the fine arts, not every picture is pretty.
A history of volunteers at Israeli kibbutzes, told through archival footage and ex post facto interviews, making no point, having no point of view, presenting no reason for its existence as a documentary film.
Hate to call a movie “cute,” but this was adorable. No bad guys, no one got hurt, nothing really “happened,” just three 19-year-olds figuring things out in suburban Long Island, with a lot of beer, a little weed and some locals. This played like the low-budget first feature of recent film school grads, which it was, which made the performances of the non-actor leads and the pitch-perfect dialogue, quite funny, all the more remarkable. I hope director Emma Westenberg goes on to a nice career, without losing her authenticity.
You could make a movie about the problems caused by the cruise industry, or the evil of raising and training wild animals for human amusement, or the lack of qualifications required to volunteer teach in the developing world, or the self-absorption promoted by social media, or the difficulty of experiencing art masterpieces, or overpopulation in general, but to address them all superficially, lay the blame on “tourism” and call your film The Last Tourist is not insightful, instructive or helpful. You might as well make a movie called Money and list all the bad things people do to get rich. Moreover, the film reeked of moral superiority over the masses depicted who, because of lack of funds or education, weren’t taking the kinds of culturally rich vacations that you and I sign up for. I am told that the film got better toward the end, but I could only take an hour.
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