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Reviews
Death and Other Details (2024)
If you love classic whodunits, you'll love this
Not sure what other reviewers thought this was going to be, but this show is right up there with all the other murder mystery series I enjoy. GREAT acting, beautiful set design, well-developed characters. Violet Beane is a knockout in this and made her character weirdly relatable. The whole thing is like a super sexy Mrs. Marple and I binged it.
My favorite part is how they do the memory flashbacks, which feels like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was mesmerizing. I couldn't stop thinking about how much love and care it must have taken to work out all those cuts. Perfect music choices, too.
Great Photo, Lovely Life (2023)
Stunning and nuanced
This is without a doubt one of the strongest and most self-aware documentaries I have ever seen. Beautiful visuals and nuanced delivery. It feels like I'm experiencing someone's memories firsthand.
The film rings so true to family dysfunction - and the complex ways that the human mind processes that dysfunction in order to protect ourselves. It tracks many years in the life of the family, so we see through the camerawoman's eyes how family dynamics play out both short-term and long-term. It's honest and heartfelt.
So many documentaries go overboard with exposition and oversimplify trauma. This one doesn't. Highly recommend.
Pumpkin (2002)
Daring and thought-provoking
This movie is so much better than the reviews indicate. I'm not taking a moral stance on it (do you need to with art?), but it was original, riveting, and definitely reckless. I loved that the characters weren't one-dimensional and you could feel for different characters at different times throughout the film.
Christina Ricci is amazing and her jock boyfriend was pretty fascinating too.
Love the soundtrack.
The Batman (2022)
Less vengeance, more cringe
I wanted to love this movie. It unfortunately has many cringey, overwrought moments throughout, with ridiculous expositional dialogue.
Entertaining with some good performances, but overall this movie brings far less of the vengeance promised in the trailers and far more of a comically emo Batman. The supposedly scary moments don't resonate because nothing is at stake in this movie.
No heart in this film and it doesn't come close to Nolan's.
The production design is fantastic, so maybe that accounts for the positive reviews. But I think the real reason there are such glowing reviews for this movie is that we all need Batman right now in real life.
An Inspector Calls (2015)
Heavy-handed
Great until close to the end, when the obvious is said out loud like it's a revelation... and then everything becomes overwrought. Would have been better with more subtlety. Or if it ended earlier.
Wild Mountain Thyme (2020)
Babe + Moonstruck + Love, Rosie
Moonstruck is one of my all-time favorite movies and this one by the same writer has a similar vibe. It's magical realism and there's no point judging aspects that aren't "realistic." I recommend it - it's a sweet movie, not least because of the relationships between the fathers and their children.
Are the accents bad? Yes.
Let Him Go (2020)
Outstanding and heart wrenching
Beautifully done but painful to watch. The acting is top notch.
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
Good, unless you ever took math
This movie was almost good. I love Barbra.
There were a few parts so badly written that I couldn't look past them... including all the scenes with math in them. I am no math wizard, but a) why is he surprised a grown woman knows that 9 is a prime number and b) why is he teaching 9th grade math at Columbia? It's like they forgot to plan the math scenes and had someone's kid write dialogue and chalkboard sketches at the last minute.
For the record, Barbra and Bacall outshine everyone in this movie. Jeff Bridges and Pierce Brosnan are there as... furniture?
There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011)
Less of a mystery than it is a reflection on grief
The most poignant part of this film for me was when the sister-in-law - who adamantly insists she would know if Diane had a drug or alcohol problem - smokes a cigarette and then jokes to the cameraman about how no one in her family knows she smokes...
Strange But True (2019)
This movie could have been good.
Wholeheartedly agree with this review:
"This is the kind of film that explains itself too early and then has nowhere to go except into rote, B-picture thrills. The final act is a prolonged, too-conventional stalking... The climatic stretch of cross-cutting, scored with "Oh, the humanity!" music, is a staggering miscalculation. It strains for tragic grandeur, even though everything leading up to that point would seem to call for a terse and unpretentious wrap-up."
Run (2020)
Exactly what you'd expect
If you know Munchausen Syndrome, you know this movie. Skip it.