Tag: Historical

Blinded by the Light is a Perfectly Fine Film

(which is not to be confused with a “fine film”)

The review:

Gurinder Chadha creates a perfectly pleasant and predictable* Sunday Afternoon Movie* with Blinded by the Light. Springsteen’s music is ably used to further the plot—especially when Viveik Kalra’s character Javed is first introduced to the Boss during a terrible storm.** I had a lot of problems with this film, but enjoyed the lead performances, the depiction 80s-era discrimination, and period details.***

The verdict: Good

(just barely)

Cost: $11.00
Where watched: Baghdad Theater with an audience of Bruce fans who clapped at the end.

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Literally every scene played out in a way that was not at all surprising.
**A movie watched as the last pleasant gasp of weekend before the unpleasant chores to gear up for the week begin.
**That said, with the depth of the Springsteen catalog, I would have liked them to not have used “Born to Run” in two different parts of the film.
***Though it did the thing I hate: deploy outdated technology for no purpose except to make the audience laugh. In this movie there was a scene with an early mobile phone. The phone had no reason to be in that scene.

Favorite IMDB Trivia Item:

The movie is inspired by the life of journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and his love of the works of Bruce Springsteen. It is based on Manzoor’s memoir Greetings from Bury Park

A Serious Man is Full of Serious Expressions

The review:

Ethan and Joel Coen are not in any hurry to tell Larry Gopnik’s story in A Serious Man which makes for a meditative viewing experience. The gradual decay Mr. Gopnik’s life is expertly captured by Michael Stuhlbarg* and his misfortune lays the foundation for our entertainment. It’s a slow-moving movie in nearly every way, but constantly amusing and the period details are great.**

The verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching these Coen favorites:

Further sentences:

*He has such good facial expressions!
**Also well captured: the amount of profanity spoken in early adolescence. I suspect the ages of 12—15 are peak profanity for most youth.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The Coen Brothers stated that the opening scene was nothing more than a little short that they made up to get the audience in the proper mood, and that there is no meaning behind it.

3SMReviews: On Chesil Beach

3SMReviews: On Chesil Beach

Dominic Cooke’s On Chesil Beach is two-thirds of a great movie. The scenes with Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle* are taut, troubling, and also have enough heart that you want the couple to make it through their wedding night. After we leave Chesil Beach, it’s a bunch of awkward aging makeup and the movie heads in an obvious direction.

Verdict: Skip unless you are a Saoirse Ronan completist or enjoy two-thirds of a good movie.

Cost: free via Multnomah County Library DVD
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead: Atonement, Revolutionary Road

*Who was also delightfully pouty in Outlaw King as Edward, Prince of Wales.

3SMReviews: At Eternity’s Gate

3SMReviews: At Eternity's Gate

Julian Schnabel takes some chances in At Eternity’s Gate and those chances paid off for Willem Dafoe, who was nominated in the Best Actor category for an Academy Award. It didn’t fully pay off for me as this movie was slow, and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open.* I liked how they dealt with the dreaded accent thing,** and the visual things were interesting, almost enough to get me to stop thinking about the fact that a 63-year-old man was portraying a painter who died at 37.

Verdict: skip, unless the visual things intrigue you

Cost: $1.75 via Redbox
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead some other movie with Willem Dafoe, like The Florida Project, or The Life Aquatic with Steven Zissou

*Indeed, I took a short break and napped for 30 minutes so I could more fully watch the film.
**You know, when the actors all talk with some sort of quasi-English accent, except they are (mostly) Americans playing people who are say, French. This movie starts in French, which sets the tone, but then most of the film the actors talk in standard American English.

3SMReviews: The Wife

3SMReviews: The Wife
The Castleman’s are flying to Stockholm

Bjorn Runge’s The Wife is a perfect vehicle for Glenn Close’s seventh Oscar nomination and, aside from her performance, a so-so movie. While Close’s performance is nuanced, Jonathan Pryce was all over the place and mostly a distracting presence.* This exists also as a movie where audiences can say after the credits roll, “Thank goodness it’s not like that today!” which is a statement I wish were true.

Verdict: skip, unless you are in it for the Glenn Close performance

Cost: Free from Multnomah County Library (my first Lucky Day Movie!**)
Where watched: at home

*His accent came and went which was perhaps an attempt to show his informal home-life self and his formal Nobel-winning writer self. This attempt was not successful. It also seemed like he couldn’t quite nail his character’s view of Glenn Close as the wife.
**New movies that don’t go into the hold system, but hang out at the branches waiting for you to snap them up! They’ve had this system for books for years now, I’m excited to see it for movies too.

3SMReviews: Cold War

3SMReviews: Cold War

Cold War is dedicated to director Pawel Pawlikowski’s parents and left me wondering many things. It a beautifully composed movie* with stunning performances, especially by Joanna Kulig. I was fully engaged the entire movie, and yet, it left me rather cold.**

Verdict: Good

Cost: $8.00
Where watched: Cinema 21

Consider also watching: Blue Valentine, Never Let Me Go, Revolutionary Road

*It’s good looking in black and white with whatever aspect ratio makes the film square. Plus, there’s a lot of music.
**I needed more background on the main characters. And I didn’t so much get the ending. I’ll be googling now.

3SMReviews: Vice

3SMReviews: Vice
Christian Bale (left) as Dick Cheney and Amy Adams (right) as Lynne Cheney in Adam McKay’s VICE, an Annapurna Pictures release. Credit : Annapurna Pictures 2018 © Annapurna Pictures, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Adam McKay wants to include everything in Vice, and that is the number one thing that sinks the movie.* How much more successful would this film have been if it had just focused on one issue like the Big Short did, perhaps Cheney’s use of the unitary executive theory? Also, despite the makeup and extra weight, Christian Bale never completely disappeared into Dick Cheney, though Amy Adams was good.

Verdict: Skip

Consider watching instead: The Big Short, The War Room

Cost: $10.50
Where watched: Cinema 21

*Also sinking the movie: the conundrum of making a biopic about someone who is intently private. Sure, you’ve got that disclaimer with the f-word at the beginning, but when a lot of your movie moments focus on private conversations, we can guess that those conversations were made from thin air. And then what do we really know about this person?

3SMReviews: Green Book

3SMReviews: Green Book

I’m glad I watched Peter Farrelly’s Green Book in a theater, because it gave me further insight into who is really enjoying this movie.* Both Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen were impressive, fully embodying their characters and taking on a physical persona very different from previous roles. However, every single plot point in this film was incredibly predictable, something that ultimately sunk whatever slim hope there was of me liking this film.

Verdict: skip, unless you are a die-hard Mortensen or Ali fan.

Cost: $6.00
Where watched: Laurelhurst Theater with friend Kelly.

Consider watching instead: Dear White People, Selma

*My theater was filled with white people with white hair, most likely of the early-to-mid baby boomer age. They greatly enjoyed Mortensen’s character. I would love to see this with a younger, less-white audience. I’m guessing the reaction points and noises would be different.

3SMReviews: On the Basis of Sex

3SMReviews: On the Basis of Sex
(l to r.) Armie Hammer as Marty Ginsburg, Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Cailee Spaeny as Jane Ginsburg star in Mimi Leder’s ON THE BASIS OF SEX. ©Focus Features. CR: Jonathan Wenk / Focus Features.

We welcome Mimi Leder back to the directing fold with On the Basis of Sex, a movie that attempts to illuminate another step on the path to seeing women as people, in this case, via a tax law case adjudicated by the Tenth Circuit Court. Felicity Jones does a great job masking her anger and dismay at the many slights Ruth Bader Ginsberg endures as a “lady lawyer” ahead of her time. I particularly appreciated Cailee Spaney as Jane Ginsberg, who spends a lot of the film not being impressed at all by her mother’s achievements instead issuing multiple cutting remarks.* The movie is a little draggy during the court scene, with much too many reaction shots of the judges, but other than that was a good use of movie-watching time.**

Verdict: good

Consider also watching: Hidden Figures, Bend it Like Beckham, The Runaways

Cost: $5.55 (though free due to gift card)
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12

*According to an article in Vanity Fair, she was exiled to TV directing because of Pay it Forward. This is her first movie since 2000. I liked Pay it Forward.
*Something masochistic in me really enjoys that hyper critical stage of adolescence depicted on screen. Also, Armie Hammer also was quite good at Marty Ginsburg’s supportive husband role.
**Also, that last suit Felicity Jones wears as she walks up the steps of the Supreme Court? Amazing! The very last shot of the movie? Perhaps a bit pandering. Discuss.

3SMReviews: The Squid and the Whale

3SMReviews: The Squid and the Whale

Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale is very successful at creating trapped, uncomfortable, angry feelings which made this movie not fun to watch. Which it is not to say it wasn’t a very good movie because it’s packed with spot-on performances* and succeeded at creating the above range of feelings. While Noah Baumbach films of late tend to be populated with people I don’t want to spend time with in real life, but enjoy tremendously seeing on screen, the Berkman family were a bunch of people I didn’t enjoy all around.

Verdict: Recommended

Consider also watching: The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), The Royal Tenenbaums

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home

*Including a 22-year-old Jesse Eisenberg playing a high school student. My goodness, what must he have looked like when he was an actual high school student?