Change Your Image
dwp-08886
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Mary Tyler Moore: Marriage Minneapolis Style (1975)
They crossed a line
I would not call any sitcom "realistic," but MTM plots were almost always rooted in reality, to the point that they could be devastating as well as hilarious. But this one is not, and it is neither. The whole Brazil conceit runs off the rails and they just have to stop the episode in midstream. Also, it is, on one level, astonishing that no one on the show knew that Portuguese, not Spanish, is spoken in Brazil, AND, on another level, it is unbelievable that neither Mary nor Lou (in front of whom Ted refers to speaking Spanish) knows that. It starts out seeming like it must be typical Baxter ignorance. But neither Mary Tyler Moore nor Mary Richards knew? Now that's devastating!
Beautiful Something (2015)
The Nighttime World of Joseph Graham
We are back in the utterly strange and utterly human night-world of director Joseph Graham (Strapped). This time, in particular, men are trying to make art at the same time that they are trying to make connections, and they are trying not to sacrifice one for the other, though in the end they often do. These characters are who you and I are when no one is looking. That is the wonderful and unsettling thing about Graham's work: there is no movie-like artifice, no clichéd interactions you can see coming. Emotions erupt at odd times, as emotions do, and under it all lies a fateful loneliness that it is Graham's special task to explore, as he did so well in Strapped. This is another must-see.
Strapped (2010)
Eerie and romantic
Eerie, expressionistic tale of a young hustler who somehow can't leave the building where he has come to serve a client. Hallways twist and turn and dead-end, and instead of finding his way out, he keeps stumbling into one odd, desperate life after another. Yet the point of view is compassionate and curious. The young man matures and learns as he goes, an especially touching and wondrous process. The film is driven by a superb, understated performance by Ben Bonenfant, a regional theater star (with a specialty in Shakespeare) who is not often seen in films. He helps bring it all together beautifully. Director Joseph Graham (Beautiful Something) makes a powerful visual statement about the tenderness, vulnerability and need of lives that seem perverse or on the edge. Dare I say it, in the end the weirdness becomes heartwarming. A stunning achievement.