Change Your Image
sherryttreehouse
Reviews
Dogs in the City (2012)
Far better than I expected!
Inundated with advance ads here so by the premiere they had my (dubious)attention.
Everything indicated that it was "reality TV", not of favorite of mine when it's talent shows. I was also concerned because the lead who professes to "speak dog" & was once a stand-up comedian. Would we just get a occasional glimpses of dogs being silly, then him doing five minutes of shtick? Thank God, not even close!
In the 1st half hour, he set up 4 different issues that families or individuals were having with their dogs, by visiting each owner & pet in turn. He made the acquaintance of each dog & you could tell by that alone that he knows dogs and their "psychology". He tried to prepare the owners with what he saw as the difficulty in the relationship, which in every case was part human failing & part the dog doing half of what his instincts said & the other half what his owner seemed to want.
After talking with the owners/dogs in their homes or offices or at the park, he left and talked more directly to the audience about the roots of each problem in turn.
In the second half of the show, he returns to each owner/pet and tries to explain & implement the strategy that he's settled on. For the most part the dog "got it" when he was interacting with them. The problem was changing the attitude of the people or else getting them to do -precisely- the physical moves that he suggested. By show's end, all 4 situations had improved, though only one was really 100% settled.
Interspersed for a few seconds here & there are pix of NYC dogs being walked or carried thru the streets & in the parks. Some of the sights are ludicrous but there's no commentary--the sights speak for themselves.
I am intrigued by this show! The dog whisperer really knows what he's doing but he often has an uphill battle with any given owner. I would love a revisit in a few months to the owner of the model agency & to the couple where the dog from a former relationship has come between them. Did they listen? Did they follow through? Yeah, I'm hooked.
Into the West (1992)
Sweet and fun and even a little mystic
This is a great family movie, for family's which don't have very small children. (The death of a parent figures into the plot.)
Without giving away too much, it's the story of reconciliation between a boy and his father and between the father and his family. That part of the plot alone would make it a good movie. In addition, there's a 'magical' horse (symbolic of something that might be a spoiler), the hilarious road trip of two British kids (who think if they go far enough west with the horse they'll end up in the American 'Old West'), and the chance to watch that handsome Gabriel Byrne act in a film in which he -isn't- a bad guy.
Lonely Hearts (1982)
A love story for the rest of us.
I saw this movie nearly twenty years ago now, and I'm still wishing that I had a copy.
I'm not going to say much about the plot, because it's actually a very simple one. Two slightly older, slightly less than attractive people begin to have feelings for each other. Both have difficulties in social situations, and neither has a lot of experience with dating or with interacting with members of the opposite sex. The movie is kind of a duet of romantic motion: forward, backward, a mis-step, a detour away from the path to a relationship, treated with great sensitivity and affection for the main characters.
I wish more people knew about this film. It was such a refreshing contrast to the usual formula of two gorgeous people eyeing each other across a room and instantly having an affair. Hollywood does what Hollywood does. Lonely Hearts shows us a slice of life.