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jameselwynlytle
Reviews
All of Us Strangers (2023)
So Much Love...
This surreal story takes one on a journey through grief, self-acceptance, understanding of isolation, acknowledgment of love, and acceptance of being loved; and it does it in a gentle, quiet, reassuring way.
The sequence of events is all jumbled, but that's the way grief and memory work, right? The narrative is not remarkable, really. What is remarkable about this film is that it takes the position that the living comfort the dead in memory, at least as much as the memories of the dead comfort the living.
We are always transgressing and forgiving one another, and as long as there is love, there is not even need of forgiveness. We exist to comfort one another.
One should be prepared for a very sad film, but out of that sadness the light of the shared love beams bright, which is beautifully portrayed in the final frames of the picture.
It's a beautiful poem of a film.
1938 - Diversi (2018)
This Film Should Be Required Viewing for All Italians
Italy and Italians have never been held accountable for their genocidal actions from 1938 until Italy was conquered by Allied forces during WW II. This film examines that truth, what Italy and Italians did to Jews prior to and during that war, and how the failure of the country's leaders to take responsibility of that behavior - like the Allies demanded of Germans and Germany - led us to the mess that exists in Italy today.
I loved the film.
Head On (1998)
Brilliant character study of a beautiful boy on the cusp of manhood!
"Head On" is a film we should all see, if only to experience Alex Demitriades doing a star turn as magical as Fassbinder's work was in "Shame." Ari, the young man played by Demitriades, is one of those beautiful young things with whom one cannot help but fall in love, lust after, and forgive; and Demitriades understands the character so very well one cannot help but fully believe his every nuanced move. He is simply movie magic in "Head On." The other actors are equally skilled (further evidence that good acting must be in the water in Oz), with Eugenia Fragos as Ari's mother turning in a stand-out performance as well. See "Head On," and leave yourself some time to think on Ari and his youthful transgressions afterwards. Then be glad that you've passed that age.
Volver (2006)
Brilliant, Contorted Gift For the Holidays
I saw "Volver" last night, and enjoyed it. It's not a perfect film (Why does Almodovar have to invent these Gothic, baroque, contorted plot lines, every time he writes a screenplay?), but it's a spectacularly produced piece, suave and beautiful, and a film that will have a long, long, long life. It has the same amount of style as the last Bond film, which I loved by the way, and Almodovar makes women's pieces better than anyone working today, including all the women who come to mind immediately. He's as good as Bergman or Serf or Cukor or Minnelli or De Sica or Rossellini or Visconti or Renoir at telling women's stories. Yes, those are all men, but I hold that when a man makes a movie about women, that captures that feeling of awe and wonderment, tinged with fear that all men have when faced with the closed world of women, together, they make films that communicate to both men and women that very starry-eyed amazement, which makes for truly interesting film. Men see groups of women from the outside, and that's a powerful stance to take when making observations. Those observations may be completely wrong, but they are often fused with the mystery that makes great art.
Everyone seems to be focusing on Penelope Cruz's performance (which is quite good), but what I loved was that every one of the women was fabulous, and I completely believed the completely absurd story they all are truly living. Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, and Chus Lampreave should all be receiving rave notices. My favorite spice in the film was "Gorda Regina," Maria Isabel Diaz, who was as real as anyone has ever been on film. The shot of her sleeping, exhausted, in the cab of the truck, by the drying riverbed, after having done heavy labor and incriminating herself for her neighbor and friend is pure cinematic poetry. I want to know how Almodovar made that shot. The subtle colors in that one picture are stellar in their quality. I'd hang a still of that beauty on my wall, and live with it, in my home, happily. Friends like that are true angels.
Once again, Pedro has told us a story from the hermetic world of the harem. The women take care of one another, and practice their own special kind of private justice, based on a code which seems to come right out of their "Y" chromosome. They are unfathomable. Their reasoning inchoate, but rational, the key to its understanding just out of reach to those of us without the same cellular chemistry. As a friend, with whom I saw the film, said, "Men are unnecessary." For Pedro's women, that seems true. Men are bumbling, thoughtless oppressors, who are of little more use than to offer sperm for procreation. It's not a new message, but one that's handed us most stylishly and palatably by Maestro Almodovar, in this film, and one which I, for one, am glad I heard, yet again, this holiday season. Gracias por llamada, Maestro.