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rene_rossini
Reviews
My Reputation (1946)
Loved The Honesty!
A widowed mother of two pre-teen boys let's herself fall in love again. With a judgmental and shallow mother showing no empathy for her daughter and catty "friends" spreading rumors, Barbara Stanwyck attempts to hold it together while struggling with grief and her new life. Instead of the usual situations we see in movies from this generation where mothers are martyrs and blatant family problems are swept under the rug, this movie portrayed a woman giving herself permission to embrace life as a single woman.
As a middle aged widow of two boys myself, I understood the tug of war feelings Jessica suffered with through the movie. She's devoted to her boys and has a difficult time without them. Her friend encourages her to join them on a ski trip but she feels guilty enjoying herself. When you lose your spouse, there's the feeling of "how dare I be happy when my husband is dead? How dare I go out to eat, travel, or even laugh when my husband is dead?" We see her struggle with those deep emotions.
When her boys start hearing rumors about their mother implying she's not behaving appropriately with her new love interest, they confront her. Again, I love how close the relationship is between mom and sons. I nurtured a close relationship with my boys, reaffirming to them that my love was unconditional and they could talk about anything with me. My boys are protective of me so there were some intense moments when they got confrontational with "interested" men. I was fortunate to have lots of heart to heart talks with my kids and explain that I'm not just a mother. I'm a person with feelings, goals, and the need for companionship with a grown man. I was so surprised when Jessica sat her boys down and expressed the same feelings! She listened to them and answered their questions regarding if she still loved their father. What a progressive scene! She doesn't cave and give up her man and her dreams and she also doesn't selfishly abandon her boys.
Trying to cram a traumatic, confusing time in a woman's life into two hours involves moving things along quicker but this movie really captures Jessica's struggles and inner strength. It's a chick flick you should take a peek at!
Cujo (1983)
Classic King
Pretty simple story. Mom and son drive out to a backyard mechanic to get some work done on their Ford Pinto. When they arrive, the place is vacant, except for the family dog, Cujo, who has been infected by rabies. He has already killed a neighbor and the mechanic and now focuses on mom and son, trapping and tormenting them for hours.
I love this movie! A Stephen King fan since I was a preteen, Cujo is scary because it is believable. I give it a 10. Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro give such realistic performances I always find myself almost in tears during some of their scenes. The scenes in the car are so skillfully directed that you forget the dog(s) is trained and sometimes it's actually a puppet or actor in a dog suit. THAT'S what a good scary movie is supposed to do! Others here gave this movie a 6 or 7, stating they didn't like the music, the development of characters was slow, the kid was whiney. This movie was from a short story that was told for one reason. To scare the hell out of you! I think some viewers have forgotten how to just sit back and enjoy a movie for what it is. I don't think the director was hoping people ran out and bought the soundtrack. I don't think he meant to change the world by educating the public about rabies. It was made for the fun of scaring people. Some viewers felt the need to educate us on the real symptoms of rabies and that we shouldn't let the movie deter people from getting a St. Bernard. This was not a documentary and I'm sure the director was not expecting an Oscar nomination! They just wanted to entertain us for an hour and a half!
What I found very strange was other viewers expressed how great the actors were, how suspenseful the movie was, how realistic the dog attacks were and yet, they gave it a weak rating. What deserves a 9 or 10 for them?
I have been on this site since 2009 but only very recently started reviewing. I'm not in the movie business, not a writer, I've never studied the making of movies. Some movies are meant to be thought provoking and when I read reviews I learn a lot more than what I originally did from watching. But some movies just need to be enjoyed and we need to remind ourselves that, "it's just a movie". I respect other viewers and enjoy reading reviews. This time, though, I felt I had to express my observations.
Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer (2021)
Two documentaries in one
This is my first time writing a review here although I've been a constant reader for about 10 years.
I won't get into the details of the docu, that's been done above.
I agree with others, this is really two documentaries. I had never heard of this serial killer, which is shocking considering the amount of crime shows I've watched the last 20-25 years, that's why I decided to watch it. They jump right into the gory details, the detectives interviewed are old school and relaxed, and there's very little dramatization.
Times Square in the 70's needed to be described because it's atmosphere at that time played a part in who was being murdered. Although I have been to NYC many, many times, for some reason I was not aware how wild it was back then. Netflix begins it's documentary inside a documentary at this point. This doesn't annoy me, like others, because it's chock full of how Times Square evolved but they get so in depth you almost forget what the original story is about.
Like other Netflix documentaries, there are times when you expect more information and are left asking, "so what else?" They skim over details like forensics and evidence which are what people are looking for in a documentary.
If this is a new crime story for you, settle in. Times Square and The Torso Killer were a perfect storm. This documentary covers other topics, as well, like how women began to fight for new laws protecting rape victims, whether they are a prostitute or not. Just when you thought you've heard it all...