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DisinterestedWisdom
Reviews
Stopping the Steal (2024)
Brilliantly Told and Fascinating
This documentary fills in much that many people may have missed about the Trump efforts to overturn the election results at the state level (Arizona and Georgia in particular) in 2020, culminating in the 1/6 riots at the capital - the final, failed attempt to steal the election. Fascinating and authoritative, it features many of the individuals who were then responsible for delivering the elections in their respective states - for example Brad Raffensperger the republican Secretary of State of Georgia. That the plan was so deceptive, so cunning while at the same time so ham fisted is astonishing really and shows how ready the outgoing president was to sacrifice anyone in order to achieve his objectives.
BUtterfield 8 (1960)
A Masterwork of American Cinema
At the time that this film was made, there were a lot of emerging questions socially about trauma and the new non-Freudian views of human behavior. That's the context that I think this film needs to be viewed in because it departs from the book in being less about Gloria's promiscuity and more about the probable cause of her feelings of diminished self- worth which begin in abuse as an young teen. Ligget, her smooth talking counterpart and love interest, is once characterized very poorly by a former college roommate, and we come to see that his morose and churlish personality is shaped by the depression that he suffers from - a state which he anesthetizes like many men then, many today with alcohol. In this sense, the film is remarkably contemporary and works surprisingly well even if the film is sometimes confused about how it wants to portray Gloria. Is she a sex-worker, or merely promiscuous? As the film develops, I think we get the sense that it's both. Still the blurry edges can be sometimes confusing. That said, there's a lot of clever repartee between the two leads, even if it never rises to the level of sparks, and that may be in the intent to show that Gloria can hold her own with the Yale-educated Ligget. Ligget for his part never breaks type, signalling that his old-money pedigree comes with a stiffly repressed personality, and helps explain the formal contours of their relationship. It doesn't always work, especially if we are looking for some sizzle with the smoke, but given the issues that both of them are dealing with the film is less about hormones and more about dopamine. That will come as a surprise to anyone who thinks that this film trades primarily in sexuality. What we have really is a a love story of two wounded people trying to find each other through the morass of their own psychological issues and restraints. And this is a recurring theme: it's evident throughout the film that most of the characters are in some way hemmed in by life and circumstance. The dialogues then do come off as sometimes stilted, but Gloria for her low-bred upbringing and dubious lifestyle, rises to the moment and I think this helps shape an emerging feminist trajectory in her character. That her ultimate fate is predicated to some degree by Ligget's recklessness underscores the theme as does her protean ability to adapt to circumstance and loss. Despite the challenges the film faces in trying to depict these two complex characters - such a film if made today would have an 120 minute runtime at least - I think it scores on most counts with superb casting as well as an engaging script that does contain plenty of comic relief and believable characters. The settings are always engaging and the costumes, particularly where Elizabeth Taylor is concerned are sumptuous. Both leads play their roles with extraordinary craft and Elizabeth Taylor alternates between so many moods, unlike her more sullen counterpart that her acting is nothing short of revelation. The Oscar that she won was well deserved, IMO. I do think that many of the reviews here have failed to understand or take into account the nuance of this film as well as it's moment in film history, so I'm giving it a compensatory 10 stars, although I think 8 is probably more reasonable given some of its failings.
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Lost and Adrift in the 70s
I find myself mostly in disagreement about how 'masterful' this film is in any way. I found the color-enriched sets tried too hard and were frequently over-saturated, over-dark, crowded and for trying to capture a certain 70's feel bordered almost on suburban squalor. It's been done already, and IMO, much more effectively elsewhere. The characters were mostly mannequins and, like the sets, overplayed. Watching a bearded Bradley Cooper hyperventilate in a white jumpsuit was one of several wierd digressions from the plot that could have been edited out entirely. Other events, such as the OPEC oil embargo bumble in just long enough to help the plot as it stumbles along. The upshot is of course how untethered the 70s was supposed to have been. The two leads barely rise above caricature, and sadly weren't very engaging. In two and a quarter hours we get to know a little about Alana - not much - but considerably less about Gary. But then Gary is 15 - what is there, aside from superficial details to know? What gets lost in all of this 1970s goofiness, however is Alana, who as more of a 'type' than a person is simply adrift - a girl moored only to her family, and not finding her own way. Hers is actually a sad character. Not wanting for talent, she simply has no place in the world. Skipping, as has been mentioned elsewhere from one vignette to the next, her story hardly levitates through the noise although I think that's where the focus of this film had hoped to have been. That leaves mostly the stilted relationship between the two leads, which is marked primarily by and awkward distance, and which never evinces any spark as things progress randomly from one thing to the next. Now, I think a certain amount of randomness was intended; it's supposed to feel like thinkgs are disjointed. It's just that it doesn't work very well because there are no strong leads or plot elements to hold it together. Meanwhile Alana goes from complacency to a glimmer of hope, and I keep wanting her to move on with her life, but as the credits roll, the sense that things have resolved poorly is palpable. There is much remaining that is ambiguous and it's anyone's guess as to how things will ultimately work out for her, but for this movie goer it was definitely anticlimactic. And maybe that's what PTA intended, anticlimactic ambiguity. But ultimately, I think there was a good story in this mess of a film that just never finds it's way out.
The Wonder (2022)
Fabulist Nonsense
I thought that this film was hopelessly amateurish at almost every turn, and unfortunately exploits negative stereotypes about men and religion in yet another attempt to discredit both. Even if not for it's exploitative tendencies, it's poorly executed, repetitive, grimly gothic and generally cliched throughout. Viewed critically, it also lacks plausibility. Mom 'bird feeding' the child is simply ridiculous and wouldn't have sustained the child for as long as it was supposed to have done regardless. The very idea is simply preposterous. Overall, a deeply cynical and divisive film premised on fantastic and misleading ideas.
Ikiru (1952)
Good Film, Not Great
I think some of the gushing reactions to this film may be just a tad overdone. I mean, it's a good film, entertaining, but also at times tedious and lacking in any kind of real character development. Takashi Shimura as Watanabe tends to lay the angst on heavy without actually expressing the sentiment or emotion that one would expect from a man in his situation, especially as it relates to his son. His son and wife are mere caricatures, central to the plot but given short shrift as the film spends an inordinate amount of time on unnecessary development, for example the wild binge night that he spends with the novelist and his relationship with Miki. It does speak to issues of life and death in some roundabout way, and it can be forgiven for being a bit mawkish in terms of Watanabe's transformation; that would be standard for cinema of the period. Still, it is just a tiny bit trite to think that a man who's sold himself so completely into a life of oblivion suddenly finds a passion for service, because... well we aren't sure why. It seems to be the influence of Miki, but hers is anything but an example of service. Its a sweet thought, if not a bit saccharine, but ultimately dubious. In addition, in taking on as much as it does it doesn't always succeed. The critique of Japanese society is always present and reinforced in various ways, but sends the narrative off in too many directions, ultimately diluting the central story line. Enjoyable in many ways, but often discursive, it's a good film but not a great one.
Revolver (2005)
Check Your Ego at the Door
When a baby is born it doesn't have a sense of self as we think of it. The self, or ego, develops over time as we come to identify ourselves with our conditions and circumstances. Around the age of 10 kids start asking the question: "who am I?" Its because they become aware that there's a "voice" in our head. As a person grows, they accumulate memories and begin to identify with their circumstances and the things around them. But we aren't actually that person, the voice inside our head - the ego. The ego is a temporary construct which is completely conditioned by our external circumstances. Think for a moment if your entire life were different - your skin color, your gender, your economic status, even the time and period of your birth. Would you be you? Of course not. You would be someone else very different. The true self, as has been explored by many world religions is not synonymous with the "I" self. And it's the ego, which is the seat of pride, anger, jealousy, lust, greed, desire, hate and so on that are at the heart of all human suffering - bar none. In the beatific state achieved by many religious seekers down through the ages, the ego dissolves into nothingness, revealing the true self, unencumbered by all of ego's attachments as a state of pure happiness (Buddha nature, Christ consciousness, Krishna consciousness, etc. It's the consciousness of the baby who looks at his mother and sees her as himself). With the destruction of the I, me, mine, all of the painful entanglements of this fake self disappear. But this ego self, even though it's simply a conditioned existence comes to believe in it's own reality and is notoriously difficult to dissolve. It's the very nature of the ego that even when we think we are being non-egoistic, it is the ego carrying out the ruse. The ego will never allow itself to be willingly dissolved and all of our conscious attempts to do so are futile; such is the nature of the construct. This is why we fear death - because the ego fears it's own dissolution even though it is largely an illusion. Non egoistic individuals (such as Jesus) do not fear death. You see how weird this is? It's this reality which is at the heart of this film. Now, I don't pretend to understand all of the intricacies of this film or how Guy Ritchie uses various persons and events to stand in as metaphor (I'm still trying to figure it out), but I love that someone has tried to render in metaphor this fundamental difficulty of the ego, it's entanglements, and finally it's dissolution. Who better than Guy Ritchie using the familiar caper motif to do so. It really is the perfect vehicle for it because outwitting a better competitor is kind of what overcoming ego is about. The competitor which is so salient in this movie, but isn't actually seen is that ego. At it's worst, ego is Macha, venal, arrogant and violent (the very worst aspects of human ego). Anyhow, hope that helps. It really is a film that warrants repeat viewing. In my opinion one of the most interesting and compelling films, possibly ever made.
Charro! (1969)
Cowboys Didn't Wear Mutton Chops
By the time this film is made, the genre was close to running its course with the great films of the genre having come and gone. To say that this this film adds nothing to it, is being generous. When you first see Elvis in his frumpy hat and partial beard - the mutton chops looking absurd - you know the whole thing is going to be utterly artless, which it is. The plot which involves the theft of a solid gold canon, isn't worth the effort. It's absurdly silly. Positioned next to the Westerns of Sergio Leone, such as the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - made a full three years earlier, and from which this film learned nothing - this film is almost laughably inept.
First Reformed (2017)
Not for Mature Audiences
This isn't a film for intelligent and mature audiences. It's so implausible as to be absolutely moronic. It is filled with heavy-handed innuendo which may titillate the sensibilities of less sophisticated viewers. When the pastor, ex-military man that he is, removes a cache of home-made bombs himself, rather than calling in the bomb squad, and we find later, removes them not to safe disposal, but under his own bed (!) - you know you are in silly la-la land. It only gets worse from there. Don't waste your time with this ridiculous film.
Peter Rabbit (2018)
Parents Avoid This Garbage
I took my two boys, 5 and 8 to see the Peter Rabbit movie. Wow. Hard to believe what passes for a children's movie now. It was so vulgar, so lowbrow, so cynical, so completely inappropriate. And this, a treatment of a children's story which is among the most lovely and most charming we have, period. I think Beatrix Potter must be turning in her grave. Peter Rabbit, sticking a carrot in someone's butt crack? Just gobsmacked. I got up after about 10 minutes and got a refund. Took the kids out of there.
Des hommes et des dieux (2010)
Uncompromising
This film is very well produced and acted. It's quite easy in fact to forget that these are actors and feel that you've been invited into the confines of the monastery and the experience of these cloistered monks. This is accomplished, in part, because of the heavy emphasis on the liturgical life of the monks. A deeply spiritual film, it is uncompromising in it's depiction of the life of a cloistered monk, putting the life of Catholic prayer and it's spiritual dimensions at center screen. The process that the monks go through as they deliberate the threat that they face is deeply informed by Christ and his passion. And while there is no way to really capture the inner reality of a group of eight men devoted entirely to God as they go through this traumatic time, I think the film does a great service to what happened (it is based on actual events). Despite having different motives, different levels of religious fervor and sometimes conflicting desires towards self-preservation, the focus on perseverance in service to the community (despite being cloistered Trappists, who take an oath of silence, and generally do not make an active ministry)is deeply humanizing. This is the kinds of film, I think that Western society needs and helps remind us, even as we slide ever more deeply into pointless self-interest, that our highest values and finest aspirations coalesce when we are centered in service to the one who made us.
Northern Soul (2014)
England in the 70s
I've often reflected that English film making hasn't done enough to explore the English experience (compared for example to American reflexiveness in film which has been ongoing part of US cinema since the start), so I find films which look at England's cultural and social experiences with a little bit of favorable bias, and find in this film, about a phenomena probably little known outside of the UK something quite welcoming. Northern Soul, for anyone unfamiliar was a dance/party movement based on obscure American soul music which appeared in Manchester (among other places) in the late 1960s and who's preference, unlike the tastes of the capitol, tended towards lesser known soul music, often of a more up-tempo character. Wikipedia reports that the relative rarity of these soul sounds(as opposed to mainstream, commercially viable Motown sound) made for an environment where a single DJ might have the only pressing of a certain track. The best songs were naturally coveted and DJs might even travel to the US in search of new songs to bring to the dance floor. An entire subculture of music, dance and fashion emerge out of this milieu. That said, this film isn't a documentary and doesn't pretend to be. The story follows the friendship of two disaffected youth as they emerge deeper into and discover themselves through a nascent musical culture. For one of them it's a path of self-destruction and for the other self awakening. Gritty in its realism, Northern Soul embraces a darker side of English working-class society and views the movement, perhaps not unfairly as a respite from the malaise of urban-industrial England in the 1970s. That it occasionally overplays the meme is an evident enough fault and puts the main characters into transformations of identity that aren't always fully convincing (Steve Coogan plays a particularly loathsome secondary school teacher well, if not to slight excess). Matt, one of the film's protagonists transforms rather quickly from enthusiastic teen to angry firebrand in a not entirely nuanced way. We see this again in the ending who's glib tidiness is slightly out of tune with the film as a whole. The presence of drugs as antidote to social malaise comes as no surprise, and inevitably there is tragedy. Northern Soul does at times play that hand also a bit strongly, even as the music recedes into a background role to the more sobering realities in the front. The devolution from euphoria to dystopia where drugs become involved is not a new idea in cinema (or elsewhere) and it's truth is no less evident here. Still, the film is convincingly realized with terrific performances and tight, thematically consistent cinematography that never releases the viewer from a sense that the the straitjacket has yet to be loosed - something that music alone is incapable of doing. The music, the dance and the sheer expressiveness of the club scene provide balance and give the viewer a glimpse into the scene, a kind of English Saturday Night Fever. Enjoyable but not without faults, this is a great look at a time and place and tells a story that needs to be told.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
A Sugary Confection
It's a film that defies analysis, because frankly, there's no real meaning behind it. It's a bit of a sugary confection, with a very thin story and wholly unbelievable scenes, sets and characters. It's not quite interesting enough for fantasy, but it is probably well classified within that genre; absurdist fantasy. It departs from other absurdist films by this director in being quite untethered to any plausible reality, making it not quite nearly as compelling as some of his other, in my view, better films. Ralph Fiennes as a disappearing species in a disappearing milieu would be interesting if the film weren't so completely farcical. And so you have a kind of cartoonish mystery balancing on completely impossible and implausible scenarios carried out by mostly nonsensical characters, giving this film all the depth of a comic book. It's simply impossible to give a crap about any of it. The pastel-rich pastiche only adds to the sensation of being afloat in a sea of cake frosting. Not a great success, in my view, and hardly interesting enough, frankly, to have kept my attention from wandering.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Bland, insipid, artless.
Among other problems with this movie, is the plain fact that Ben Stiller's Walter Mitty possesses no character appeal. He's a cipher, and in being played as such evokes, for me, little in the way of empathy or, worse, interest. If he loses his job at Life magazine or gets the girl is of no account, whatsoever. The proxy for this dullard's boring existence is his vivid fantasy life, wherein the mild-mannered Mitty transforms himself into all manner of heroic beings. Mitty's heroics are created using all of the Hollywood slight-of-hand available, and instantly produce a kind of superhero Mitty, because of course, we can never have enough of super heroes and never enough of special effects. These manufactured effects do little to compensate for the story, which is still quite a bore, and is built around the flimsiest of plot. The fact that his fantasy world is created using various sort of computer generated gimmicks makes Mitty less interesting, not more because there's no real person there. He becomes even more remote and one-dimensional as a character. When Mitty later breaks out of his shell, and goes on his pilgrimage to recover the lost film slide, he becomes a completely different human being - heroic in a different, and if less computer animated way, still no more plausible. There's no transformation of character, no nuance whatsoever in how the meek and timid Mitty suddenly becomes a kind of Bear Grillis, and the leap of faith is simply too much to accept. Worse even, Stiller doesn't even try to play to that. Stiller plays Stiller the action figure, making the whole abbreviated excercise of super-hero fantasy excess turned survival adventurer a hackneyed excercise in clumsy and unrealistic story-telling. I can forgive a plot that's slender and fare that's light-hearted at best, but the utter artlessness of this film makes it one to avoid.
The Dead Kid (2013)
Masterful
Director Gregory Goyins latest masterpiece, The Dead Kid is a thoughtful meditation on the thin veneer that separates life and death, and upon which life, in all of it's fragile interconnectedness rests.Children become the perfect vehicle to explore the theme, not only because we've finally become witness to the danger and the harm of bullying, but because they are often the silent victims of the failures of the adults around them.
Seamlessly binding the terror of the Atlanta child murders into the story, a steady feeling of uneasiness parallels the disturbing events that surround the disappearance of Frankie Thomas, and the disarray and confusion that this creates in a small community. A sort of psychic trauma begins to envelope those involved, tilting reality askew and hinting that the sextant is not merely misaligned, but that the stars themselves have come disjointed. There are no isolated events in this universe as tragedy begins to self perpetuate. Artfully blurring the boundary between life and death, sanity and madness, The Dead Kid resonates powerfully as it hints at the fragility of a life and the web that binds us all.
It would be easy to see this film as a reflection on bullying, and it is that, most assuredly, but in this masterfully sensitive adaptation of Gillian King's short story, Director Greg Goyins again demonstrates a level of insight and command of the medium which is rare among young directors .
After the Denim (2010)
A Powerful Examination of Time, Perception and Loss
After The Denim, based on the short story by Raymond Carver, a new film co-directed and adapted for the screen by Gregory Goyins marks the screenwriter's directorial debut. Impressive from start to finish, After The Denim suggests the start of a very promising new film-making career in the works.
Ill at ease, James Packer finds his normal state of discomfiture further aroused when, arriving late for bingo, he and his wife's seats are occupied by a young couple, one that may or may not have been themselves decades earlier. James' bitterness is apparent immediately upon seeing them. This sets up a dramatic standoff, which is carried out with brilliance, as James confronts them for what he perceives to be cheating. The pettiness of the (imagined) offense is exponentially magnified in James' uneasy world, where the loss of his own son (years earlier), and the imminence of his own decline factor strongly in the dark prism of his imagination.
Goyins takes a big risk here. As James and Edith Packer approach the bingo hall, I found myself asking, where can this go? And indeed, without the strength of impeccable direction and timing, the bingo-hall showdown could have foundered in a mire of banality. Casting, acting and film editing all factor to magnify the intensity of the moment, lending a sinister aspect to an otherwise ordinary young man and his date. The encounter between Packer and the young couple, wholly successful, takes us deeper into James Packers' fragile psyche.
As the Packers approach the bingo hall, James declares, 'I don't feel lucky tonight'. These words, finally, will be prophetic when, upon returning home, the specter of imminent tragedy is unveiled. James Packers' imagination races back to the youth and freedom of the couple at the bingo hall; his bitterness now displaced on them. If only...
After the Denim is a study on loss, age and the toxic effects of envy. Still, James Packer arouses our sympathy in spite of his failings, and in this there is much to be admired - and in doing so locates the part of elder agoniste appropriately into a length panoply of such characters - who's struggle is to remain meaningful in an age where one's relevance is marginal at best. We are reminded of Laertes, Odysseus' father, who, awaiting his sons' return from foreign adventure erodes the slow erosion of self that accompanies the loss of his son. There would be no harvest of vigor in the person of his child.
A short film, with finely tuned performances distills with maximum economy the breadth of the characters' experience, delivering completely on the strength of Carver's short story.
To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)
Great Fun, Brilliant
I saw this movie back in 1995 when it was released. At the time, all three lead actors were still quite contemporary. Seeing the three of them playing roles as drag queens was just classic (not to mention hysterical). It was/is also somewhat groundbreaking if you think of three Hollywood actors playing drag queens.
The story takes redneck bigotry and homophobia head on, but in a fun way.I'm not going to pontificate on the film's message, but if you are a redneck or a bigot, you may not like it so much. If you have an open mind, there's a lot of fun to be had with it.
If you enjoy this, I can also recommend 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch', and, 'Breakfast on Pluto', which go a bit further in dramatizing the issues and experiences cross-gendered people.