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Ratched (2020)
Jumped the Shark Before Hitting the Water
We've all heard the expression: as time goes on, even the best of shows need to reach deeper and deeper into their bag of tricks to keep the audience. Stories become more convoluted; characters start behaving in odd ways that don't match their personalities; and events happen that have no foundation. It happens to the best of shows. Unfortunately, Ratched falls into that pit almost right off the bat.
The acting is fine and the production is quite good. That's about where the good news ends. The story is pretty incoherent and one has to work really hard to remain interested.
For one thing, Mildred Ratchet immediately does something pretty horrible to insinuate herself into Dr. Hanover's life, gain his trust and employment in the hospital that he runs. And just as we are about to accept her as an antagonist, we are presented with a different view of her. Yet, it is very hard to view her as an ambiguous, struggling person, where the show attempts to pivot. Generally, you expect a good person to lose their moral footing, as they struggle with various curveballs that life throws at them, e.g. Breaking Bad. That's not so much the case here. Thusly, we are left of with no moral center or an acceptable protagonist. I suppose that could be forgivable -- or even be a thematic device in and of itself -- except that the story is...well, just plain boring.
Isle of Dogs (2018)
Kind of like Lake Wobegon: where all dogs are above average (but this movie is not)
I am baffled, by the number of 9 and 10 star reviews this film has received. If a reviewer starts out by professing their love for Wes Anderson or dogs, their review should be tossed aside as an empty can of sardines that one might find in the trash on the Isle of Dogs.
This film clearly under-performs. Its technical aspects -- the visuals, voices, all the production values -- to my untrained eye are quite good. It's quirky and original. The plot is decent, albeit that there's little tension. What dark, tense moments do exist don't last and don't grab us. In other words, it's rather superficial.
There's little character development, save for one dog, where we can see some character trajectory, but, again, it fails to go deeper. That is to say, the movie plays it quite safe; it engages us enough to keep on watching, but it doesn't want to stir up anything deeper inside of us.
This movie is a tad dark to be a kids' movie, yet too superficial to be a good adult film. I can see where my 12yo would enjoy it.
Valkyrie (2008)
Great, accurate film
This was a totally engrossing political action thriller. We know what's going to happen, yet we remain on the edge of our seats as the events roll forward. This is because we feel like a fly on the wall witnessing a pivotal moment in history.
For the want of a nail the horseshoe was lost...and then the kingdom. The film does a great job conveying that feeling. We get glimpses into the plotter's motivations. No, not everyone is entirely pure and we wonder how come it had taken them so long to arrive at their positions; although, in the case of Colonel Staffenberg it's reasonably well explained.
The acting cast is great and they work together beautifully. No one tries upstage anyone else. The harping about the lack of German accents is plain confounding: Germans don't speak English with German accents; they speak German! I hardly noticed anyone's accent after a short while.
The movie aroused my curiosity about the depicted events and I wanted to see how accurate the film was. I realized that I had as definitive of an account as you can have close at hand: "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", by William Shirer. The film is exceedingly accurate while still adding color and aesthetics. Even some of smaller details, which I assumed were made up, were historically-based.
This is a very good, underrated film.