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granese1
Reviews
The New Look (2024)
Loving the story but hating the camera angles
Why oh why oh why is the camera so often on the floor looking up at the actors' throats! I hate it.
Both Mendelsohn and Binoche are terrific, comme toujours.
There is quite a bit of marginally profound discussion of the role of creativity in coping with depression and hard times.
Loving the clothes. I particularly like the inside look at the politics and rivalries of the designers and the couture houses. Also interesting is the depiction of postwar France, not something often seen. The occasionally mangled accents don't bother me.
I wish the entire series had been made available at once. Waiting for a week between eps is too much like old tv.
Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing (2004)
a good story perhaps, but otherwise just dreadful
This movie gets a 2 from me because it's so earnest and because the flashbacks were beautifully photographed. What might have been an interesting story (I haven't read the book, but now will) is buried in cumbersome directing and editing and a creaky script. The film was interminable. There were too many reaction shots in the interview sequences even when there weren't any reactions. I thought the leading actors were mildly believable, but the others seemed as awkward as high schoolers. I saw this with an enormously respectful audience. I don't know why there wasn't more coughing or sighing or other outright signs of exasperation. Two things in particular made me crazy: a totally gratuitous, but oh-so-tasteful sexual encounter that went on way too long and the reading of long passages of (not very good) poetry that I assume was included to convey the essence of Sarton's novel, but which just stopped the film dead in its tracks. Very disappointing.
Morvern Callar (2002)
Great concept, appalling execution (SPOILER RE CONCEPT)
I saw this flick at Telluride, introduced by its charming, earnest director, in a packed house. I think people sat through the film in deference to her. I was shocked at how bad the film was. It rambled, it crawled, it dragged. ALL WAS REVEALED at the end and my goodness, what a very little "all" turned out to be. No one else seemed to enjoy it either. (SPOILER) I liked the premise and the concept (at least as I interpreted them) of exploring how a person deals with grief, even though one cannot help thinking that young Morvern desperately needs a class in ethics. This movie reinforced one of my General Rules of Film-Going and Movie-Watching: avoid movies where (1) the heroine has a bad manicure, and (2) the camera keeps focusing on that manicure.
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
A wonderful film
Amid all the silly stuff that comes out at Christmas, this is outstanding. It would be outstanding in any season.
If you're looking for a moving story about the importance of never giving up, this is it. The story is shocking. As an American who idealizes all things Aussie, it made me wonder whether racism may simply be endemic to human DNA and thus, we must always be on guard and aware of that tendency if we are ever to stamp it out.
The children are terrific. Branagh is a bit too over the top (as always), but since his is only a small part, it doesn't really matter. It's the landscape, the journey, and the determination that make this movie such a wonderful experience.
Ignore the curmudgeons and go see this wonderful film.