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Nomadland (2020)
Best Director?
I'm glad not to have paid to see this and that I didn't waste time, since I saw it on an airplane.
The director, who showed so much promise describing America, with no-name actors up until this film can be described only as a sell-out. And so early in her career.
Another sell-out is the huge product placement is so blatant, it almost goes without mentioning.
Think, large ecommerce company.
Nice photography backdrop and camera work for depression, poverty and homelessness.
Mahjong and the West (2014)
Feature Length Student Project
Filmed in Jackson, the locations and actors are too clean-cut for 'the real' Wyoming. The main character is too immature for 15 years ago moving to the big city.
The screenplay is two dimensional and childish. The men are undeveloped as characters, basically props for whatever the gals are disjointedly feeling. The story of a supposed childhood trauma goes undeveloped, until the anti climatic unresolved, non sequitur ending.
Mahjong is a prop also, along with the Chinese buyers of the ranch. Maybe the producers trying to sell the film into that market.
The ubiquitous booze in the American West is realistic however.
Chloe Zhao, co-incidentally Chinese American, this is not. 'The Rider' would be a better American "West" choice, including the talented development of a meaningful backstory.
Frontline: Weinstein (2018)
Typical for PBS
This one-sided documentary barely scratches the surface of the creepy ugly underbelly of the movie industry. And it refuses to name the Democratic Party, but instead the throaty narrator explains with a throw-away generalization, "Weinstein was even involved in the political arena".
No one knows what will be the ultimate end of this story, so it is impossible to say how this incomplete film ends.
But, rest assured the film never develops that Democrats, including the female 2016 Presidential candidate, were at best grateful for his financial campaign contributions and star power endorsement. At worst, they were most likely complicit with his offensive, possibly criminal behavior and sociopathic retaliation against his mostly female accusers.
One wonders if the Democratic candidate won the 2016 presidential election, would this story have seen the light of day?
Lean on Pete (2017)
British director and East Coast actor in an American Western
This film had some redeeming moments, some well-done cinematic shots, but some bad half hours.
It featured a disconnected plot, and undeveloped character relationships, including the boy's relationship to the horse.
Charlie Plummer played a good part, but Steve Buscemi, a good New York character actor with many fine performances, played his standard role, a sarcastic funnyman, and was mis-cast as a serious Westerner. The boy's journey to the end sequence through such rough terrain was unrealistic.
Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America (2016)
Love conquers hate
There really is a war which has gone on and is going on between truth, peace and love vs. lies, war and hate. The struggle is between the light of truth and the darkness, occluding that truth, not relating to skin color in this context. Daryl articulately asks a simple self evident and self answering question something we learned the answer to in grade school. Listen for it.
Another reviewer calling Daryl's approach to curing anger between blacks and whites 'simple' as a term of denigration, implying Daryl might be 'simple' and not worth listening to. A good question to ask ourselves might be - Who of all the complexity purveyors in this film are outright making money or at least on another level stoking their ego from their public political position, as a professional advocate of a cause they espouse? Follow the money to find the jive talkers. Buy this film and support a great cause.
Daryl is a decent musician, who has played with some true hero's of American music - even showing us some stride piano playing at one point in the film which is very technical. Daryl is not failed at life, like his detractors and frankly like some of the world's most evil demagogues were and are before they rose into whom they became infamous. Daryl is hip, educated, and worth listening to! Is he making money himself from this film? I hope he is. I don't feel shaken down for buying it.
Lion (2016)
TV Movie
The director has only directed shorts and TV series before he directed 'Lion' or 'Scheru'. And that kind of confirms why I thought it was pretty good, but nowhere near a modern classic, Hollywood or anywhere. The acting was average, but in the final scene one couldn't help feel tears since we know it is a true story. Is it just me or was this a feature lenghth paid ad by Alphabet, Inc. (Google) ?
Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words (2016)
Not enough about Frank's musicianship
Like many music features and documentaries, this film focuses on the shock of the extraneous and the less important content of the musician's life - in this film, of the political input Frank had at one time. Frank called Tipper Gore, wife of Democrat Al Gore, and her crusade to label explicit lyrics "right-wing", if I heard that correctly. So Frank was not much of a political pundit, but he was an amazing, and talented musician, a Jimi Hendrix groupie and quite possibly the first rapper in his own world and ours. Not much of his music was included and what was, didn't include his best work. One could guess the producers had a hard time getting the rights to his best music. No mention was made that Frank was embraced as a serious musical composer in Frank's later years by peers such as Pierre Boulez. Frank Zappa was possibly the only musician to cross over from pop to serious music, rather it is more common to remember the many 'sell-outs' who went from classical to pop. The interview questions and answers were poorly selected, amateurish at best. A student film might have been better.
Before Midnight (2013)
If I could give it a zero out of 10, I would
That Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke were interviewed by Charlie Rose recently, really makes this 'film' even more sickening to me. We walked out.
This was a boring elitist Euro stereo-type talking about nothing in a Greek hideaway overlooking the sea. Maybe self-absorbed writers and college professors with too much time and money on their hands find this haughty garbage worth wasting their time in their ivory towers? The first 15 minutes were simply an inane tête–à–tête single camera through the windshield driving through the albeit beautiful Greek countryside. Julie Delpy mis-spoke in English in the tiresome scene, at least this 'academic' film could have fixed that? That I wasted both my time even that I cut the waste short, by walking out, and money on this really irks me. Life is too short and there are many better things to spend money on.