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The Reader (2008)
Hey, y'all, Nazis have feelings too!!
Now that we've all gotten over the initial shock of the Holocaust that was ubiquitous in the last half of the 20th Century, it's time to explore the human side of the Nazis who committed mass murder, torture and rape on an industrial scale... Count me out.
This is not only an inappropriate storyline, it's pretentious. It uses sex and nudity to distract from its unseemly attempt to humanize remorseless killers. The main character, played by Winslet, never expresses a shred of remorse for the 300 murders that she directly had a hand in. Nor the thousands that she indirectly had a hand in. And in that light, we are expected to sympathize with her because, wait for it, she can't read or write, and therefore didn't write the actual report on the incident, that she had direct involvement in: the burning to death of 300 Jewish women and children. Seriously. Talk about tone deaf...
It was bound to happen eventually - and we have now arrived at the stage of Holocaust where it's used as a backdrop for any ridiculous movie with a ridiculous storyline. Because it sells tickets. This is gross.
Skip this embarrassment of a film.
Die Stropers (2018)
Maybe the third time will be the charm?
This is the second Africaans film that I've seen with a gay theme, so to speak, that has a very dark and unsatisfying plot and subplot. "Beauty" (Skoonheid) was the first. I gave it one star. And now this one, The Harvesters. Is it just these two, or are Africaans incapable of making a gay themed film without horrific violence, as in the case of Beauty, or violent emotions, as in the case of The Harvesters. Why?
Both of these terrible films are done VERY well with great performances by their leads and secondary cast, with strong directing, but really questionable writing. No one will ever "like" either of these movies. We may watch them but there is no reason to back for seconds and I regret the first helping in near totality.
The Harvesters has some great acting, very understated, making it all the stronger. It has good directing, but the director wrote the screenplay, and that's where it falls apart. Like Beauty, it's gayness is grotesque. I'm not sure who this pleases, as straight people aren't going to want to watch it, and if there are gay people who do, I hope I don't know them.
Great cinematography, acting, directing, beautiful landscapes, but overall so unpleasing. I may go for a "third time is a charm" with the next gay-themed Africaaner film, but it's not looking good.
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter (2024)
....look no further than your own backyard.
Meet Cathy Terkanian: She is an imperfect hero. Your first impression might be that she is a little annoying. But your second impression won't be any better. She's immediateIy abrasive, brash, over the top. I almost didn't watch past the first few minutes. But something about her, something invisible, captivated me, and so I didn't turn it off. And by the end, I found myself admiring her. Even respecting her - for doing what no one else in the school system, the church, or law enforcement had been able to do for more than thirty-five years.
For the next two-plus hours she walks us through one of the most unbelievable and riveting mysteries imaginable. A runaway at 16 from a difficult home life, and then pregnant, she gives up her daughter for adoption to a childless couple and the promise of a better life for her baby. Twenty years go by and one day, out of nowhere, she receives a letter from a police department asking her for a DNA sample in the hopes that it might match with that of an unidentified Jane Doe found murdered in a cornfield. What then unfolds is Cathy's jaw-dropping journey to uncover the mystery of what happened to the daughter she gave up. This story won't go where you think it's going to go. Instead, it will go everywhere else. And lead back to where it began.
Cathy Terkanian is a determined person. Her story, and the story of her daughter, is unlike anything anyone has ever heard, or imagined. And had it not turned out the way it did, she would have faded into obscurity as a nutcase, a crackpot and a stalker.
This documentary is compelling and will put your heart in your throat and keep it there all the way to its semi-satisfying finale.
Potato Dreams of America (2021)
Fantastic Indie Film
When telling a familiar story it's helpful that it's done in an original and entertaining way. Potato Dreams accomplishes both. A Russian boy and his mother emigrate to America via an American mail-order-bride scheme designed for men in the US who don't bond well with women who have any choices whatsoever with the direction and choices of their lives. It is into this marriage that the mother, with no English language and no prospects in a new and foreign land, brings herself and her young son to America. This bleak marriage is, sadly, more preferable to the Russian life she left behind. The son is left to come to terms with his sexuality in an American household led by a dogmatic stepfather with deep dark secrets of his own.
This desperate story is imbued with comedic frivolity by telling it in a storybook manner with charming stylishness. This effect never undervalues the seriousness of the characters' struggles, but rather makes them all the more dire by their contrast against the the light hearted context in which they're delivered.
Writer/director, Wes Hurley, has done a masterful job of bringing his personal story to the screen. His characters are engaging, especially Jesus, and hold your attention. I found myself captivated. There are so many big budget films that have every advantage going for them but are unwatchable. It is nice to come across this small indie film that punches well above its weight and leaves me eager for a sequel.
If you watch Potato Dreams you'll enjoy it.
Mario (2018)
There is great power in subtlety.
This unusually quiet film, with sparse dialogue, packs an emotional wallop. Its understated style is powerful. I found, at times, that I needed to take a deeper breath. Mario and Leo are on the precipice of professional football careers which becomes further complicated when they fall in love with one another. What ensues next are all of the pro-forma complications and obstacles one can imagine.
What happens is secondary to how it happens. With the flawless directing and writing by Marcel Gisler, and an amazingly talented cast headed by Max Hubacher, Aaron Altaras, and supported by Jessy Moravic, this story just simmers. There is an ever present roiling just below the words which never comes to a full boil. And thank God, because that would have been the Hollywood cheap-out way.
This is one more foreign, gay-themed, film that I wish could be made here in the US. Or at least in the English language. As brilliant as this film is there is no doubt that some of its brilliance is being missed by having to read subtitles. Regardless my English speaker woes, this is a phenomenal piece of filmmaking. Its awesome power is in its unrelenting subtlety.
I highly recommend it.
Manhattan (2014)
Los Alamos 90210
Oh My Gawwwwwwwwwwwd!!!! The longer this thing went on the stupider it got. If you're interested in the story of the most controversial weapons development in human history, this isn't for you. If, however, you're interested in pointless interpersonal relationships that happen out of nowhere and go nowhere, you'll love this. It is as if an actual world calamity met with Peyton Place, then that in turn met with the Bravo channel, then that met with a high school writing team. For instance: there is a storyline in which Oppenheimer has an affair, while his wife is delivering his second child, and that woman then commits suicide because a telephone operator said something mean to her. That side road informs nothing else in the too many episodes that it preceded or followed. They just jammed it in there cuz. This mess has gone the way of Twin Peaks, Riverdale, and other series that go completely off the rails because in the end, they were never about anything in the beginning. Pointless, aimless, meandering through nothing going nowhere...
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
Made me want to stab my eye with a sharp pencil.
I keep seeing this pattern in female writer/director films. A tedious tendency to repeat, repeat, and repeat the same information, like record skipping over the same deep scratch. And separate from that, there isn't one redeeming quality, for nearly two very long hours. For the most part, it is a crazy quilt of very short film clips having nothing to do with one another in that moment. One other reviewer commented on Tilda Swinton's one-note performances across the various movies she's been in. True. She only has one character, Tilda, and she uses it in all of her films. I may have seen worse movies before, but for the life of me I can't think of one. So I'll say that this one is the worst.
Filling in the Blanks (2023)
The only *asterisk in this story is this ungrateful son...
Unbelievable. The level of ingratitude and self-centeredness of this documentarian is - unbelievable. His parents couldn't conceive so they used the services of a sperm donor, NOT a "biological father" in order to conceive, raise, and love the children they wanted to bring into the world. Then at the age of 54, their youngest son discovers that they used said sperm donor to bring him into the world, spoil him rotten (which really seems to have taken) and he then launches into an hour and a half snit over nothing. He idolizes a biological "father" he doesn't even know without bothering to add to the calculation that he, the sperm donor, is on his third wife. And to the actual father who raised and devoted his life to him, he calls him an "asterisk." As is in, not really his *father.
One of the unintended benefits of the commercial DNA tests that are so popular today is that they can identify cases of severe ingratitude in 54 year old children - so that viewers can put an *asterisk next to their names. Like this documentarian did on his father's headstone.
O.J.: Made in America (2016)
Misses a REALLY important aspect of this story
A lot of time in this documentary is spent illuminating, and then re-illuminating, and then re-re-illuminating, the racist thread that runs through American society. And it's a very valid point even though not all of this country is racist. There is a stubborn, racist, anti-equality, strain still exists here and shows no signs of giving up or learning anything. Even without a black skin, a lot of us understand this and in no way diminish it. It is EVERY BIT AS DISGUSTING AND UNACCEPTABLE AS THIS DOCUMENTARY MAKES IT OUT TO BE.
Where I think this documentary falls short, however, (and this a a big omission) is that while it repeatedly shines a light on racism, and rightly so, it shines little to no light on the powerful "mountain of evidence", and how it was NOT tainted, that the jury willfully ignored and freed a man who slaughtered two innocent people. There was ZERO evidence that anything was tainted. There was suggestion and innuendo that something could have been tainted. Which is no more viable than to say that it was possible that Martians could have committed the murders and then fled back to Mars. The defense's assertions were not evidence and neither were their suggestions.
It wasn't just that the jury had suffered racism and that it effected them and their non-deliberations. It was that they abdicated their duty to sit in judgement of a double murderer and instead delivered a verdict on racism in America. This was egregiously under-explored by not illuminating how strong the evidence was and instead merely replaying again and again that this country has a reprehensible racist streak running through it. In doing so, this documentary completely abdicated its responsibility to show us the full picture.
Ripley (2024)
You definitely need to be multi-tasking to watch this.
Work on your taxes. Clean house. Paint the room the tv is in. Better yet, paint a room other than the one your tv is in. This dull lackluster confabulation sucks the life out of a really great story by Patricia Highsmith. The B&W cinematography, while beautiful, is used like a series of photos in an album - static. And speaking of static, the acting... I'm a super fan of Andrew Scott. From his great subtly (Foyles War) to his great overacting (Sherlock Holmes) but even he couldn't find the way forward in the straight jacket he was jammed into by this screenplay and at the hands of this stilted director.
I've now met the character limit required in order to post this and I'm done.
American Nightmare (2024)
My Rating is for the couple. I hated this Netflix rendition, though.
This very compelling story has already been told, to great effect, on one or two of the true crime shows like Dateline, etc. I can't recall which ones, but it done MUCH better than this was. This Netflix version attempts to hype something that is already a "truth stranger than fiction" story. It seemed to me that the director strained to elicit "f" and "s" words from Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn that they MAY use in their everyday lives, but seemed really out of place here, and borderline inappropriate. They certainly have never presented that way in any of the other formats I'd seen. I know, those were network television... all the same, though. Then, there was the unbearably annoying background music, particularly in the first episode. It just amounted to distracting noise and didn't enhance the story/drama one bit. Huskins and Quinn have no control whatever on how something like this gets produced so there's no fault on their part. I just think the the producers delivered well below the subjects and their unbelievable, but all too true, story. So, 10 Stars for Huskins and Quinn, Zero for Netflix and their contract labor production team.
The Good Neighbor (2022)
Bromance in Latvia and the Return of the Pro-Forma 1950s Gay Villain
I'm not even going into the ridiculous, one after another, plot holes because numerous others here have.
I would happily listen to ANYONE who could explain to me how this title made it out of script review and onto the screen. Is it simply that there is a demographic of women, I guess, that find the main character, David, so dreamy that they overlook how ridiculous the story is? David accidentally kills a female cyclist with his car, whom it turns out, he'd just met and flirted with at a bar. With him, at the time of the accident, is his new next door neighbor, of about 24 hours, Robert, who has developed a massive crush on him. Never mind that they've only just met...
As this becomes increasingly more ridiculous, David , the guy who actually drank, drugged, drove, and killed the cyclist, is portrayed as a victim who wouldn't have been in this mess if the cyclist had: used a light, not worn such dark clothes, and the country road they were on in the middle of nowhere had had a bike path??? Ok?
But he does have the dreamiest eyes, which brings us to Robert. Apropos of nothing, no background, no motive, no establishment of psychopathy, nothing, Robert has become a serial killer in the quest to keep he and David together, except that they're not together. But, you know, Robert is "gay," so, you know... He has sunken the killer's car into a lake, killed a witness, killed David's boss, killed David's real romantic interest, the dead girl's sister (don't ask) twice!! Don't worry, she comes back to life both times because, you know, suspense.
I found the comfortable ease with which the actual killer was repeatedly rehabilitated: he almost turns himself in, he rebuffs Robert, sort of, he's got super dreamy eyes, and he's straight. This film would propose that even if his actual actions are reprehensible, his inner intentions are good. And don't forget the super dreamy eyes. Then on the other hand, Robert is just as easily and comfortably villainized with no pretexted or context, other than him being "gay." As in: "gay" = murderous psychopath. Welcome to the cinematic return of the 1950s pro-forma "gay" villain.
In any other film, a guy who drinks, drugs, drives and kills, is the villain who's only just outcome is to be tried, convicted, and in prison. Here, he's the love interest. And by comparison to the "gay guy", soooooo much more preferable, because of the dreamy eyes. I'm guessing the demo for this genre is the prison pen pal, soon-to-be bride, of an incarcerated murderer. Even so, I would hope that they would be put off by this hash of a script/story/film.
The Little Things (2021)
All the depth and dramatic tension of a comic book...
Ok, that's not fair to comic books. They often do have dramatic tension and suspense. But this film has none. And to make it worse, the ending is so ridiculous that the indifference I felt for the first hour and a half turned to insult at the end. Two cops are tailing a serial killer. One cop goes for coffee or something. The serial killer approaches the remaining cop, Malek, and promises to take him to the burial site of his last victim. Does that cop say, "let me get my partner." No, he says get in and let's go. In the middle of the night. With the serial killer. The killer brings him to a deserted area, what else, and tells the cop to start digging. Which the compliant stupid cop does. After digging about five holes, no body, he kills the killer with the shovel. Unreal....
Welcome to Chechnya (2020)
Everything old is horrifying again
I found out about this documentary after meeting one of its executive directors three years ago. It's taken me since then to bring myself to watch it. That, despite the fact that I knew it would be a worthy story. More than worthy, actually, more like heroic. But having seen some of the horrifying youtube videos that came out of Russia in the early 2010s, taken by the torturers of gay men, I knew that this would be hard to stomach and so I put it off, and off, and off.
The procrastination ended a few nights ago and it was both more horrifying and heroic than I thought it would be. I saw young men and women fleeing for their lives to escape being sadistically raped, murdered, and beaten by their government, the police, people on the street, and their families. And I saw others who didn't escape who were sadistically raped, murdered, and beaten within an inch of their lives by their government, the police, people on the street, and their families. These monsters video taped their unspeakable crimes, in order to continue enjoying them, and they're shown briefly here.
I was expecting to be a little shellshocked after seeing Welcome to Chechnya. It didn't disappoint, so to speak. It's brilliantly and heartbreakingly done - and stomach churning. The heroic young gay and lesbian people were the only thing that made it tolerable. But they were nearly offset, completely, by the mayhem happening around and to them. And now there are images and scenarios that I will never be able to unsee. I watched this film because I thought that if they could endure these nightmares, I owed it to them to see what they endured, or how they died. Now, I have only my nightmares. Small inconvenience compared to a life of nightmares or no life at all. I recommend Welcome to Chechnya. It's important that we see that the monstrous inhumanity inflicted on the Jews by German society, more than 80 years ago, is still alive and well with a new target and a new nation. Documentaries about the Holocaust tell us what happened. Welcome to Chechnya tells us what IS happening.
The Swearing Jar (2022)
With Patrick J Adams and Adelaide Clemons, this could have been a bolt of lightning.
I love Adelaide Clemons and Patrick J Adams, and now I love Douglas Smith. But I don't love this film and I wanted to. The dialogue is overwritten and wordy, and unnatural. And then there's the halting and stuttering style in which it's delivered. It makes for overly long and tedious scenes being stretched beyond their meaning. It was really annoying.
These are such terrific actors but they seemed manhandled by the writing and directing and therefore constrained or trapped in what could otherwise be a very compelling story. Only Patrick J Adams seemed to be able to get beyond these shackles. He's natural and engaging and able to allow his quiet subtext to roar without drawing attention to it. I wish his role had been larger. And I wish the other two very talented actors could have done the same. It's my impression that they weren't allowed.
Adelaide Clemons (and I didn't know this) has a beautiful singing voice and her songs, sprinkled through the narrative, are effective even when the narrative isn't. There are a few really strong
moments but they're just too few to elevate this film to the "must see" level. Most of the scenes are just way too drawn out and just have way, way, too many words in them. The script seems like something that sounded really good in the writer's head, or looked good on paper, but does not sound right on people. They just don't talk this way in real life.
The Son (2022)
How did this ever get produced???
Several reviews here have spoken well of the total failure of this film. I'm only adding my voice here to amplify how poorly it is written. Though the directing is equally bad, it might have overcome both of these obstacles had it not been also cursed with a seriously weak performance by one of its leads, Zen McGrath. One wants to give a young performer a chance, and the benefit of the doubt, but this kid is so bad that it can't be overlooked. He's just not up to this, and may need to look at other careers.
The writing... holy cow, this script is so OVER-WRITTEN as to be comical. There were literally times when I inadvertently laughed out loud. The most egregious moment being the gunshot, which I saw coming twenty minutes earlier, as the young teen was begging his parents to take him out of the the psych ward. And worse, in the fake "dream" scene. The whole time I was thinking to myself that this might have been written by a marginally talented, but inexperienced, teenager.
Laura Dern and Hugh Jackman give solid performances but for no purpose. They are lost in this mess of an over-written, overwrought, screenplay. It's kind of curious how on earth this whole mess came together. I'd love to know the inside baseball on that. THAT would make a good film!!
Sodom (2017)
Pip Brignall, a terrific actor, is perfectly cast here.
Don't let the terrible title and misleading trailer dissuade you from watching this fantastic movie.
This film kept populating in my Prime account. Because of the way it's being marketed I've avoided for at least a year, but finally got bored enough to give it a five-minute chance before tossing it for good. Instead, I was hooked as soon as the dialogue between the two characters began. What I realized immediately is that Sodom is well written, directed, and acted.
I couldn't disagree more with those who think that Pip Brignall is miscast as the "straight" footballer. Far from it. His character, Will, comes off as "gay" - because he is gay. What we see here, mainly, is the "gay" Will - his persona when he's not faking who he really is. There are some minor flashes of the "straight" Will when appropriate. And I won't mention where, here.
Pip Bignall constructs an amazing portrait of Will as a confused and tormented man who's yet to come to terms with who he is. His face is clownishly contorted at times which reflects his great struggle from within. He often draws out the vowels of a simple word (weeeeeeeeeeell..), torturing their pronunciation as if to road-test them before fully committing to them (a theme). THIS is the Will that has rarely been seen by anyone, other than the four other men he's been with. He himself doesn't know who this Will is and is discovering him in real-time in these encounters.
So, no, Will is not a butch he-man of a footballer. Thank God. He's a gay footballer with a butch facade - most of the time. All of this added together is a compelling and heartbreaking portrait of someone who most gay men can relate to in some significant, or minor, way. It's the lack of confidence, because of society, to explore the unknown. The crippling need to fake our way through the familiar and approved path that ALL people have to navigate. It's just that for gay people, with regards to an opposite sex partner, it is an impossibility with a fuse. That, is who Pip Brignall brings to life beautifully and in painful detail in this stunning film.
Everyone seems to agree that Jo Weil is fantastic here, and I do as well. His Michael is patient, seasoned, and knows of love and loss. His years of doubt are decades behind him. His Michael establishes a perfect polarity to Pip Brignall's Will. I hung on their every revelatory word. The evolution of their evening rang true and never felt to me as gimmicky or artificial. Granted, it is not a run of the mill date, as dates go. But I couldn't definitely see this one as something on each of their horizons, somewhere, at some point.
With all that out of the way - the writing and directing by Mark Wilshin is wonderful. The atmospherics breathtaking. That dance!!! It made my heart beat faster. I can't recommend this film highly enough. It is unusual, compelling, and expertly made. I have one small quibble with it that I won't bother with, and, that doesn't prevent me from giving it a 10 out of 10. Enjoy. You won't regret it.
Aftersun (2022)
Fragmented Narrative to the Point of Meaningless
I would very much welcome a talk by the director/writer, Charlotte Wells, about how this film speaks to her and others. For me it's like a dogwhistle that I can't hear, but others clearly can. The Power of the Dog is a similarly styled film. And its fragmented narrative, which seems to be a theme with female directors/writers, was just as unenjoyable.
I read several reviews here in the 10 and 1 categories just to get some disparate views and insight. They were all compelling. I mostly agreed with the 1's, however, one of the 10's made a case for the fragmentary style. Where I come down though, is here. I had a forty-five year career as a ballet dancer and choreographer. Early in that career I was speaking with another choreographer, a female, I'm male, and she said this to me nearly forty-five years ago: "It doesn't matter whether the audience likes or understands my work. It only matters that I'm creating." Her career did't last a minute. "This" feels very much like "that." To Leslie is meaningful to the writer/director - and that's all that matters. Or, it communicates with a largely female audience and I'm not getting it. Both are possible. Either way, I didn't care for this loosely-strung-together series of anachronistic vignettes/images. It came off as a jumbled mess of memories - oh, was that the point? If so, it was a miss.
Im Westen nichts Neues (2022)
This has nine Oscar nominations???
I'd had this in my Netflix cue for months and finally found the spare 2 1/2 hours to watch it. About ten minutes into it I just got a funny feeling. So I came here to check out its score, pretty high, and a few reviews (which I didn't read but only looked at their ratings) also pretty high: 8s, 9s. And 10s. So I thought, "oh, this is one of those films that just takes a while to get going.
Several reviews here remark that this film doesn't follow the book, the Oscar winning film from 1930, or even the inferior (their word) 1979 version with John Boy in it. I've never read the book or seen either films. Too bad I had to finally jump aboard with this mess. I'm sure the criticisms about its failure to follow the source material is spot on, but I come from a more pure perspective in not having been tainted with any expectations for that. I merely watched this for its value as a "film" who's only responsibility was to communicate to its audience.
This film is a parade of horribles. It is a grocery list for every possible way to die on the battle field - for 2 1/2 hours... As with anything that gets repeated WAY too often, it just gets boring after the first 20 or 30 scenarios, and you still have 2 hours to go. There is no acting here because there is no character development or dialogue to act. The main character emits wordless grunts a lot. I mean A LOT. He comes off more as a truffle pig than a soldier at war.
As these soldiers died off throughout the film, I got the uneasy feeling of not caring. It bothered me until I realized that 1) I was bored, and 2) I had no clue who any of them were because their humanity had not been established - even after 2 1/2 hours. Rather than developing characters that we can bond with and follow, this film is a long video game of explosions and death. It's characters are two-dimensional and cartoonish. When they're gone, it's just on to the next, and then the next, it's just monotonous.
There is one astonishing self-inflicted wound here by the production crew. Makeup. Twice "Paul" falls into a muddy swamp, face covered in WET mud. Seconds later he's walking away with dried, caked, mud covering his face. It's not just dried, it looks as if it were applied with trowel to his face and then baked on in an oven. It is inconceivable that a director and makeup artist could do this and not realize what a huge mistake it is. We're only left to conclude that they had an outcome in mind and didn't care, because they think their audience is stupid, that what they were doing didn't comport with the physics of water evaporation - which is not instantaneous.
Finally, and I could go on and on about just how. Bad. This. Is. Rather than a musical score, symphonic or electronic, someone came up with the genius idea of using a drum trap set for the entire underlying music bed. The action is punctuated with rim shots and paradiddles. And at the oddest moments. Rather than enhancing the action and drama, this only serves to make the viewer jolt and ask, "what the hell was that". Even after you've settled in to what it is, you never stop going, ????, when you hear it. The only reason that this is not the worst aspect of this terrible mess of a film is that it doesn't really detract from the film because you just don't care.
Analysis Paralysis (2018)
Another gay romcom. Hell yes!!
I really don't get the 2's here... Anyway, this film is Fun with a capital F. It's only 90 minutes long but a lot has been packed into that short run-time. The two leads, Gaffney and Held are excellent. Held especially has range and great comedic timing, and despite being handsome, a funny face when he wants. Together, they are a great team and I would love to see a sequel. Also, the parents played by Laura Wernette and Chopper Burnet (their last names rhyme. Was that intentional?) are very funny. There's no point in going into a lot of depth here as this is just a funny film designed for fun. Done! But I will mention that Jason Gaffney has a scene at the end which did, surprisingly, bring a tear to my eye. And then I went back to laughing. This is well worth anyones 90 minutes.
Un rubio (2019)
Still waters that run deep, and quietly
I knew nothing about this film or any of its participants when I decided to watch it. I don't even recall why I chose it. The first half-hour frustrated me because it is exposition that repeatedly tells the same plot-line. Fortunately, for me, I have patience with slow films/stories. It's my nature to hold out hope that some justification for such a slow pace will appear. In the case of The Blonde One, it certainly did.
You can't not (double negative, I know) feel, in your gut, the hurt and disappointment of Gabo, the blonde one, as Juan repeatedly back-benches him, without warning, for other affairs. Both of these men are late in dealing with their sexuality. Neither understands, yet, that the relationship they have with one another is subject to, and guided by, the normal constraints that most humans operate from. There's no carveout for gay guys fumbling in the dark, so to speak. Juan doesn't know that it's wrong for him to treat Gabo like dirt. And Gabo doesn't know that he doesn't have to accept it.
That is the journey of this story. And like so many excursions in life, it's the excursion itself that is compelling. In this case, the journey is nearly voiceless. The drama is conveyed by glances, posture, simple gestures, and any other wordless manner of communication. Sound boring? It's not. It is, rather, very powerful - to the point where one wonders whether or not more dialogue might have actually weakened the film. Personally, I think it would have. This film is only "silent" in the sense that it is nearly wordless. It is without words, however, that it communicates volumes. And loudly.
The main characters are played by Gaston Re and Alfonso Baron and they are nothing less than gobsmacking in their intimacy and power. Their awkward and unexpected relationship teeters on a knife's edge like a high wire act in a hurricane. You can't not watch. And as transcendent as these two actors are, they are able to succeed in this story because of the brilliance of their director, Marco Berger. Berger is the genius that has this story in the palm of his capable hand. He knows what the story is and what it isn't. He never strays from his vision. He knows how this will be told, where it will start, and where and how it will end. This is remarkable because his method of story telling is so unconventional. There's not too much of a roadmap for this unless you go all the way back to Ingmar Bergman and others from that era.
It's not often that my patience for slow films pays off. But it's for films like The Blonde One, where it's a huge lottery win, that makes it worth all the others that didn't. Quite an achievement for Berger, Re, and Baron. The Blonde One is probably not for everyone. Which is too bad. For me, it goes into a category with other greats such as Rear Window, Bicycle Thieves, or even Midnight Cowboy, in that it is a standout in its genre, if not the best of its genre.
La scuola cattolica (2021)
I HATED THIS FILM!!!
The first 90 minutes of this film is a nonsensical montage of behind the scenes glimpses into the hidden lives of unimportant spoiled rich Italian boys at an all-boys Catholic school. Your entire attention is wasted on trying to figure out why you're being shown this. How is it important to whatever this story is. The answer is: about 5 minutes of this would have been plenty to establish a context for what the final 30 minutes is actually about.
I'd never heard of this crime before. And in this film the final half hour is a horrific ringside seat to the sadistic rape/murder of two young girls. The women are beaten, raped, drugged, and thrown into the trunk of a car. The scum that commit these atrocities parade around naked in between assaults. THIS IS A RAPE/PORN/SNUFF FILM. It is nothing more than that. The writers/director should be ashamed. It is every bit as vile as Funny Games... If you haven't seen that one, it's just like this one only more.
The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)
I Hate All the People at This Wedding
And the writers, and the director, and myself for watching this piece of crap all the way to the end. It is one of the stupidest movies I've seen in a while. Point of personal privilege here: I'm going to focus on the gay couple. Not because it's worse than the other storylines. They're all equally AWEFUL!!! It seems that a lot of gay storylines lately center around whether or not to turn your relationship into a three-way. Ok, I'm gay, in a relationship for a while, know lots of other gay people, single and coupled, and literally NOT ONCE has that topic ever surfaced personally or through any of our friends. Not once. And yet, if you go by the latest films released, with gay characters, you'd think that that is the driving tension for all of us... Also, anal sex has to figure in prominently in our every day discussions about anything. And last, and then I'm done with this drek, the writers think it's hilarious that the main female's "boyfriend's" last name is Bottoms. Get it, bottoms??? Like anal sex bottoms??? That is SOOOOOOOO funny.... One can only hope that this mess sinks to the bottom (hahahah) of the sea and disappears forever.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
Don't. Just don't.
Oh. My. God!!!!!!!!!! This is possibly the most overwritten screenplay ever. I watched all the way to the end, which wasn't easy. The exposition never stops. It just goes on, and on, and on - amazing plot twist when the young mother stabs the old mother with a hatpin. Like every other plot point here, it leads to nothing.
I'm a huge Maggie Gyllenhaal fan. It broke my heart at the end when I saw her name come up as writer/director. She's a terrific actor though.
Burning Man (2011)
First film I've ever hated for the first half, and then wept all the way through the second half
This film is told in a non-linear mess throughout the first half of of the this film about loss and grief. It's confusing and ineffective. Somehow, though, I kept watching into the second half as it unfolded into a raw and gripping portrait of a family struggling through the worst possible situation. Matthew Goode and Bojana Novakovic are finally freed from this messy screenplay in the second half to give compelling and effective performances. I don't need to say much more other than it's worth gritting your teeth through the first half in order to experience sad beauty of the second.