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Reviews
Gattaca (1997)
An epic blend of futurism and film noir.
I saw Gattaca at the theater back in the day. Ive watched it numerous times since. Here it is 2019 and Im watching it on Amazon for free and I find myself just as enchanted and saddened by its wise cautionary tale and elegant melancholy. Every scene is compositional excellence. The musical soundtrack actually narrates as art upon art. The dialogue sparkles in both its speech and in its silence.
Jude laws brooding, despondent paraplegic becomes the loving supportive brother Vincent never had. Ethan Hawke treads the tightrope of tension with cool, classic composure.
Gattaca, whose name is composed of the letters of the DNA sequence, explores the question of human perfection and whether it can be engineered through genetic biology or if it has always been in the triumph of faith in God and in oneself.
Annihilation (2018)
A statement about chaos, order and the nature of consciousness
Annihilation seems to wraps very muscular set of arms around all the notions of origin of life, evolution and the meaning of existence. Its likely no coincidence Jennifer Jason Leigh played in the movie eXistence. It leaves us with a nagging question of whether or not chaos can produce order or if the only explanation for order is the existence of will. Without will and order biology is simply a very complex kind of cancer. If random mutation is truly random then there is no reason it should move slowly or quickly or that it should move at all or in any direction. Complexity and simplicity are meaningless without will ordering the systems.
The ramifications of a will and order to life are the impetus behind drives such as loyalty and guilt and the inability to fulfill our desires with a simple replacement. Replacement is a big concept in this story.
Trying to replace organisms and trying to replace relationships. There is hole in the lighthouse which may be a metaphor for the hole in our souls. In that hole is a malevolent yet meaningless thing that wishes to replace us. That thing must be destroyed by fire. The lighthouse is a warning for ships to watch thier course. Perhaps this is a cautionary tale of the chaos that comes from trying to replace the order that has given us life.
Silence (2016)
Scorsese is lost
This movie is a pitiful and insulting rendition of Christian martyrdom. The men and women of history who died for thier faith did so with heads held high and honored to participate in Christs suffering. Scorsese should have read Foxes book of martyrs and then let someone else make this movie.
The Lost City of Z (2016)
Beautiful homage to the spirit of discovery
First off i will never ever again rely on IMDb stars to determine whether to watch a movie. The score of six put me off for a long time. Then I watched it. My heart exploded with the pride and the pain of the great men who risked so much and left their life behind to expand our knowledge of the world. The acting and script and photography were beautiful.
And to all those who gave it anything less than 5 stars please go back to your Need for speed and gone in sixty seconds movies and leave meaningful movies like this unsullied by your uneducated taste.
The Mummy (2017)
Way better than Wonder Woman
I had fun with Tom Cruise and The Mummy. It wasn't the greatest movie of all time but that's a pretty tall order. The pace and the action were thrilling, the effects were immersive and the characters likable and interesting. The rules of this universe surrounding the super nature were full of cool surprises. Sorry (not) that it wasn't full of in your face civil rights patronizing like Wonder Woman, but I think a movie should be judged by the content of its character rather than the number of interest groups it panders to.
Between (2015)
You'll die laughing and bleeding from your mouth
There's a saying that goes the smarter you are the luckier you get. Well this is a show about the dumbest, unluckiest town in Canada- maybe on earth. The plot falls forward under the most contrived and unlikely decisions of characters you can actually manage to like at times, until they take turns screwing up in magnificently pitiful ways. I guess it could be a cautionary tale about what would happen if people under 22 ran the world. There are themes of the importance of due process vs vigilante justice and and the power of a 12 year old to run a black market trading operation. I will say it moves between story lines enough that you don't get bored. The writers of this show are as mischievous with these poor kids lives as the gods of mount Olympus on acid.
You should watch this show. You'll love hating it.
Love (2011)
A giant prank on your intelligence
Never has a film project worked so hard to eliminate as many elements so as to keep it from becoming a real story.
Its like a 90 minute trailer to a dream you had after eating too much pizza while watching Stanley Kubric's 2001.
And how dare they pretentiously call this movie "Love" It would be like me taking a crap and putting it in the Lourve and titling it, "self expression" If you want to tell us that we need human connection, then don't just make us watch a man go crazy in space. Art is art when it achieves its objective. This movie did not make me value human connection or realize it in any deeper way. It made me realize time is precious and to always check IMDb before watching movies with laurel film awards all over the cover.