ravitchn Reviews

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

What is it really worth?

[6/10 · 9 October 2022]

Having read both the book and seen the movie twice I have contradictory impressions. First, Andre Aciman has a deep understanding of the problem of men who are both gay and also feel unhappy about being gay, or rather understanding men who are both straight and gay at the same time. He is better than a shrink or therapist in demonstrating the joys and sorrows of men of this sort.

Still, living through the emotions of the two male characters is not only painful, it is also boring and predictable. It turns out that the only really sympathetic character in the story is the father of the young boy Elio. He alone seems to understand his son and his protege's basic problems and he alone has himself been to some extent in their predicament. In fact one could believe from his role that all men are to some extent in this dilemma of dual sexuality.

My only question is this: who want to know all this? Does this story, granted its brilliant analyses of the problems dealt with, really help anyone who might be in similar dilemmas? I think rather the story is so true to life that it can only cause pain. And if all men to a degree are represented here by the two principal male characters the pain is even more intense for those who do not recognize who they really are sexually, having perhaps blocked self understanding lest they learn too much.

No Time to Die (2021)

Thank goodness Bond finally dies in the flick, hopefully no resurrection.

[1/10 · 31 July 2022]

The old Bond movies were fun. The ones Daniel Craig does are not. This one is boring, ridiculous, too long and without any redeeming feature I can think of.

Morning Joe (2007– )

What makes Joe Scarborough a hero to me

[7/10 · 22 June 2022]

Joe is almost alone in repeating that the most important thing about Trump and his allies is that they are pure and simple Fascists, in the classical sense we have seen in Europe and elsewhere for the last hundred years.

Cruising (1980)

Sexy baloney

[1/10 · 16 June 2022]

A movie whose premise is entirely without any scientific or medical justification. It is scandalous and exploitative but not worthwhile in any way. It does paint the police as homophobic but who is surprised at that? Many homophobes are secret gays, more often than one might think.

Behind the Candelabra (2013)

The failures of Matt DAMON

[1/10 · 14 February 2022]

Just have seen on Netflix discs two films by Damon, both of which he should wish destroyed for good. In Behind the Candelabra he plays a gay or partly gay young man attracted to ugly Liberace, well played by Michael Douglas. Hard to believe relationship. Then I saw Suburbicon, about the Damon character having his wife killed to marry his sister in law, while the neighbors make life miserable for the black couple with boy who moved into the white suburb. Everyone dies except the ones who are innocent. Damon here also should be ashamed. Does he need the money so much?

Walk on Water (2004)

Not about the holocaust but about people affected by it on both sides

[9/10 · 26 December 2021]

Truly this is one of the best movies dealing with the relationship after WWII between Jews and Germans. It avoids all the academic babble about the subject which everyone is probably tired of; instead it deals with real people, good people and people not so good in the past; it gives us insight into how people in difficult situations deal with unavoidable, sometimes avoidable, evil. The acting is great, the two leading men and the leading woman is also great. The movie does not make you cry; it makes you sympathetic where you thought you would not be able to express such feeling.

Georgetown (2019)

Who's who?

[1/10 · 8 August 2021]

Are the two wives of Ulrich played by the same actress, Redgrave?

Was Ulrich ever a Nazi sympathizer?

Surely the DC crowd is more refined and even more respectable in committing crimes than this awful movie shows.

Fatman (2020)

Crap!

[3/10 · 24 July 2021]

Movies are getting worse and worse, perhaps this is owing to the fact that movie theatres no longer have to attract viewers who can see the flicks at home, no matter how bad they are.

Another Round (2020)

Terrible view of Denmark

[2/10 · 20 June 2021]

A most improbably story. All the students are drinking all the time, which I doubt. The five teachers find an excuse to drink heavily to make them supposedly better teachers and better husbands. It does nothing of the sort. I cannot imagine a worse movie in every respect.

Black '47 (2018)

Down with the British empire

[9/10 · 29 January 2021]

This movie depicts the real oppression of the Irish, the first victim of the British Empire, with accuracy and passion. It is not only a fine movie but a grand indictment of the British.

The Outsider (2020)

Crap all the way through

[1/10 · 24 December 2020]

I guess people like this sort of junk. Not me. IT WAS BORING, UNCONVINCING, AND VERY POLITICALLY CORRECT.

The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)

The movie is not much to write about but.....

[5/10 · 30 November 2020]

Having looked up Lucas' life on line it occurs to me that the person he plays in this flick, Bray Johnson, has very much Lucas' own personality. Must have been an easy role for him. NOT A CRITICISM, JUST AN OBSERVATION.

Capone (2020)

Why?

[12 October 2020]

I cannot understand why anyone would make a movie about Capone's last years in dementia. IT ALMOST MAKES HIM LOVABLE.

Bad Education (2019)

worthless

[3/10 · 3 October 2020]

But it has one good feature; it shows how corrupt the NY AREA IS. Trump is really the star of this movie.

Inheritance (I) (2020)

A violent and awful movie which still keeps you guessing

[4/10 · 30 September 2020]

A very sick movie about some very sick characters. It forces you to watch til the end to see who comes out alive, but the story has no redeeming features and the acting is not especially noteworthy. I AM MORE AND MORE TROUBLED THAT MOST OF OUR NEW MOVIES ARE ABOUT VERY SICK PEOPLE IN VERY SICK RELATIONS WITH OTHERS. SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE -- I GUESS IT IS OUR CULTURE WHICH THE MOVIES ONLY REFLECT.

Apocalypto (2006)

The Spaniards came too late

[4/10 · 27 September 2020]

It is good to be reminded that some of the native peoples were more brutal and impossible than even the Spaniards with their Catholicism and religious phobias. We are being taught that the white man is always bad and the native man good. This is obviously not true and a movie which shows this is a contribution. However, this movie is brutal, too long, and predictible. I would not recommend it really.

Where's My Roy Cohn? (2019)

The truth for a change

[8/10 · 11 September 2020]

While I DID SEE THE Army- McCarthy Hearing on tv in 1953 I did not know of Roy Cohn's later deeds and misdeeds, since I had left NYC. It was eye opening to see that such worthies as Barbara Walters, Ronald Reagan, Ed Koch, and even Cardinal Spellman were in his corner and his cronies. Learned a lot about our urban elites, quite different from what I had thought. And the way Donald Trump modeled his life on Cohn, including the weird family influences, was most welcome..

The Girl on the Train (2016)

I saw the film twice and read the book once

[4/10 · 1 August 2020]

It took me three encounters with this weird movie to get the point. When I got the point I realized I was no longer interested. I also wonder why the book takes place in LONDON and its northern suburbs while the film is transported to New York City and the HUDSON VALLEY.

I think the books got rave reviews because the novel loving NY elite wanted to push it, but the novel, like the movie, is quite mediocre.

Emperor (2012)

The unexpected story of MACARTHUR and JAPAN

[6/10 · 12 June 2020]

I expected this movie to be about MACARTHUR BUT IT REALLY WAS ABOUT A MACCARTHUR WHO DIDN'T EXIST. The general that FDR said was the most dangerous man in America here is a clown of sorts, perhaps Tommy Lee Jones did not have it in him to be dictatorial enough to play the real would-be dictator. In any case, Mathew Fox does a good job with the difficult task his General in Command gives him; MATERIAL WITH WHICH TO DECIDE between letting HIROHITO LIFE OR DIE. The decision to let him live was probably the right one, but Fox's earlier introduction to JAPAN was well done, sex, history, and politics all in one for a fairly young man.

Emma. (2020)

Proof that we are not anymore into JANE AUSTEN.

[4/10 · 1 June 2020]

DREADFUL MOVIE. But the problem is with JANE AUSTEN, MORE THAN 200 YEARS OUT OF DATE AND NO LONGER POSSIBLE TO ENDURE.

Once in my youth some 50 yeas ago I LOVED READING AUSTEN. I no longer can. The novel was relevant from late 18th century to late 20th century. IT NO LONGER IS OR CAN BE. And this kind of social novel is even more unable to talk to us today.

Dark Waters (2019)

Important movie on an important topic, but very poorly acted and staged

[7/10 · 20 April 2020]

Yes, many of our corporations think that what is good for them is good for all of us. They cheat us, they injure us, they poison us, and they kill us. But let me put this in context.

Science has found that no social, political system has been more guilty of killing and maming people through economic activities than Communism. Both China and Russia and eastern Europe have been polluted more than Capitalism ever dared to do and all in an attempt to prove that Communism can give better results than Capitalism. It did not and cannot. All economic system destroy more than they create at times.

Climate change will destroy us all until a solution is found. Communists won't find it, Trumpers won't find it. PERHAPS SOME CAPITALISTS WILL, PERHAPS NOT.

The Song of Names (2019)

Dreadful!!!

[2/10 · 16 April 2020]

The acting is poor, the story is not credible, the motivations of the violinist is not believable, and the goals of the boy and then man MARTIN not supportable.

Downton Abbey (2019)

Forget the critics, it is a movie for virus time

[7/10 · 4 April 2020]

I enjoyed it very much, just like the series before it. I especially liked the way the servants managed to get their way vs. the ridiculous requirement of royal entertainment. I also appreciated the glimmers of democratic sentiment in the portrayal of LUCY SMITH and her mother and how the dowager lady Crawley took it all. The fellow playing Tom Branson was also very good. The Brits are good at this stuff; too bad they are not in real political life.

Yes, it is escapism, but so what? There is a lot to escape from.

The Return of Martin Guerre (1982)

an error

[10/10 · 4 April 2020]

Martin did not return from the Hundred YEARS WAR WHICH WAS OVER A CENTURY BEFORE.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Boring, boring, boring

[3/10 · 31 March 2020]

The only good part of a boring three hour flick is the last half hour when justice of a certain sort prevails. The final fate of the Eli Wallach character is great.