Tag: Woman Writer

3SMReviews: Beau Travail

3SMR: Beau Travail
http://internationalfilmstudies.blogspot.com/2018/09/beau-travail-france-claire-denis-1999.html

Never has the Male Gaze been so thoroughly applied to men (by a woman director*) as in Beau Travail. “This movie has not plot,” I whispered to my cat halfway through and while it does have a loose plot, most of the movie consists of languid observations of a small band of French Foreign Legion solders in Djibouti. To reach full mesmer, it’s probably best watched in a dark theater on a day with not much else to do.

Verdict: Good

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home, in preparation for Filmspotting Best of the 2000s March Madness

*Young, fit military men are rather mesmerizing.

3SMReviews: Outlaw King

3SMReviews: Outlaw King
http://www.impawards.com/tv/outlaw_king_ver2.html

Chris Pine and his blue, blue eyes star in Outlaw King, a movie about Robert the Bruce which includes a lot of bloody treachery, especially concerning horses.* This is a solid story with attempts made to include women in the narrative.** The costumes are great in their raggedness and there are a ton of gorgeous landscape shots.

Verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home

*I mean, I got what was going to happen to the horses when they outlined the technique in the training scene, so I didn’t need to watch it repeatedly during the battle scene. (The battle tactics were, admittedly, a genius move on Robert the Bruce’s part.)
**This is always appreciated, though I suspect if more women wrote and directed movies, we would see war movies where women are something besides helpers.

3SMR: The Land of Steady Habits

3SMR: The Land of Steady Habits

Nicole Holofcener’s The Land of Steady Habits left me unfulfilled, which is a rare for this director. As usual, the plot told the story of a rich white, person, but this time it was a rich white male person.* The acting was good (especially Ben Mendelsohn and Edie Falco) and I enjoyed the small intersections of people, but ultimately the movie left me cold.

Cost: Netflix monthly subscription ($7.99)
Where watched: at home

*There are a million movies from the rich white man point of view, but this is Holofcener’s first movie featuring a male main character.

3SMReviews: The Hate U Give

3SMReviews: The Hate U Give
http://www.impawards.com/2018/hate_u_give.html

George Tillman Jr.’s The Hate U Give is full of love: between family members, between people, between friends. It’s also grounded by incredible performances by Amandla Stenberg as Starr Carter and Russell Hornsby as Maverick, Starr’s father. Based on the book I picked as last year’s zeitgeist read, this is a worthy adaptation and worth watching for the performances, for the loss, and for the love.*

Cost: $5.55 (though actually $11.90 because I watched it twice, though actually actually free due to a gift card.)
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12, by myself, and then with Matt. Because when a movie is this good, you come back with someone else.

*It’s also funny in parts.

3SMReviews: Private Life

3SMR: Private Life

Tamara Jenkins’ Private Life is a sad and funny tale of a couple trying everything to become parents, specifically through fertility treatments. I cannot say enough about how good Kathryn Hahn is in this movie–she’s unrecognizable from the comedic roles I have loved her in, and incredibly real. Aside from being a movie worth watching, this sheds light on the high hopes sold by the fertility industry, something probably foreign to women who don’t want children, or who can easily conceive.

Cost: Netflix monthly subscription fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home