imdbusrr Reviews

Riviera (2017–2020)

A waste of an opportunity to make something great

[4/10 · 1 November 2017]

Three disclaimers:

1. I have nothing but admiration for Julia Stiles' talent as an actor.

2. Because of the aforementioned, and really because of the acting cast generally, I'm glued to this series

3. Dmitri Leonidis deserves special mention for succeeding in conjuring a fictional character who is literally unsurpassed in my experience for annoyingness. What a dick.

Having said that, for real-life tools, Paul McGuiness has to take the gong/hammer/a good whack, anyway, for bastardising a production that should have been very special. Maybe he thinks that offending and disappointing one or two people such as Neil Jordan for instance, is trivial in comparison with the numbers of 'ordinary' viewers who may be non-offended enough to part with $.

The problem is that this 'ordinary' viewer is cringing. It's genuinely mortifying hearing some of the dialogue. It's throwing me right out of the experience, reminding me that there are many idiots in the world and that quite a few of them manage to get to places where they can do real harm- in this case to the screenplay/script/whatever you call it when it's a TV series.

I'd rather be writing happy positive reviews of stories I love, but the waste of talent here has me sad, and there is a need to make it known that this isn't good enough.

Once again, it has to be said: If you're a smart producer, you'll be able to make a thing of high quality that the masses will love. FIND A WAY NEXT TIME, DAMN YOU.

Passengers (I) (2016)

Kyrgyzstan Kidnap In Space Cave

[6/10 · 4 January 2017]

In Kyrgyzstan, they have the not-so-delightful custom of kidnapping fiances to save on dowry money. The old caveman trope has heavy-jawed caveman in fur toga, club in hand, dragging cave-woman by the hair. Etc etc. This film is for me a loose remake of 1966 film 'The Trap' which has Oliver Reed as a fur trapper dragging wife hairwiseinto his Alaskan wilderness 'cave'. As per trope, she gets used to it and even becomes attached to him.

Jennifer Lawrence seems like a pretty with-it modern woman. I'm wondering how she was persuaded to play this politically retrograde role. Did she think the developed world is free enough of the last thousands of years of female subjugation that this story won't be a representative example of same? You can't escape context, and this film's context screams 'made by cavemen to serve their agenda', unfortunately. I'm giving it two extra stars for the moderate degree of that specialised quality of wonder sci fi films bring. 4 extra stars for Michael Sheen, who is great as the resident android. Any that would have been given for entertainment value are cancelled out by political dodginess.

A Month of Sundays (2015)

Film Makers' Film That Dignifies Australia And Our Craft

[10/10 · 25 April 2016]

Even favourable external reviews of this witty, wise and beautiful film have been almost dismissive and certainly offhand. One shouldn't be surprised that the aggregated rating on Rotten Tomatoes is so preposterously low [29% at last glance- I will glance no more!]; it's a representation of the level of ignorance that's out there in official critland, especially North American critland, but as well in the UK. They have almost no clue what makes Aussies tick, and they won't get this film.

'Professional' reviewers lacking the ability to bring real wisdom to bear no matter how broad their knowledge of film, and still feel entitled to adopt such condescending tones as the following: "could find a few art house takers in Anglophone territories", "well-worn notions of redemption and acceptance". To take this tone, vaguely accusatory of unoriginality while finding it crucial to make sure the reader takes note that the reviewer has IDd at least two of the themes is a lot like that old joke in which a man wouldn't join any club that would accept him; 'I guessed what the film is about, therefore it's too easy and beneath me'.

Shakespeare dealt in 'well worn' themes. They're well worn because they are deeply required themes to be represented for humanity, and they should be eternally worked over.

One external newspaper reviewer, someone we need to know is super- clever, found fault with a long camera shot which, being a tribute to another director/film, was 'distracting'. Bring it on I say. The richer the film's material, the more there is to love. Life is also full of subplots and digressions. What's wrong with a little whimsy? It's thoroughly enjoyable. Another claims that the film's central friendship is too unconventional and that suspicions of serial killer madness might be fitting; that the film might better have been made as a thriller. What a poisonous notion, that friendships can only be allowed to exist founded on introductions by mutual friends with the right credentials.

I'd like to thank the film makers here for showing Australians what we really do still need to be reminded of, namely that the most desolate culturescape is enriched by the people who dwell therein. We have everything needed for nourishment of the soul to offer each other if we can transcend convention and ennui and only connect. There is nothing wrong with editorialising, nothing wrong with a little didacticism. Why conceal it? You don't have to agree. Just don't find fault with the fact some real values are being presented.

Australia has for years been afflicted with a housing 'bubble'. Whole generations of the population are being screwed. People can't afford to buy shelter these days, and television therefore proliferates with architecture/house/reno/interior design porn. In Month of Sundays we are shown that even profiteers in this giant racket are demoralised and damaged in such a climate of greed and exploitation.

As in another film I love, The Cave of the Yellow Dog, Month of Sundays has plenty of amusing little 'lessons'. As two people cathartically indulge grief-filled nostalgia on the site of a demolished former family home with their backs to the street, behind them processes a bunch of fairy-costumed little girls with party balloons in colours impactfully vivid. The lost past is desolation, but here behind you is the bright and alive present if only you could turn and look. A death is a cruelly unexpected breakup, but if and when you can find the courage to let go, the many colours of life await. The welcome mat is reversed: welcome to the world. Everybody is vulnerable without a single toothmark on the scenery, ever. The acting in this film is really seriously fine and so are the editing decisions.

I love a contemplative film that respects actors and the subject enough to let duration pass. This sort of style is powerfully immersive, especially for anyone who may recognise the many cultural references that bring us straight to our memories of very particularly Aussie times and places without recourse to cliché or stereotype. Not enough can be said in praise of this film. External critics, drop your complacent posturing and lift your games!

The Intern (I) (2015)

countering the common criticisms

[7/10 · 9 November 2015]

The film is being dismissed as 'light comedy'. That is selling it short. Lightness of touch, otherwise known as subtlety, is not the same as insipidity, which is what a many reviewers are saying or implying is the case here. The absence of explosions/shootings may have something to do with some reviewers' feeling somewhat at a loss, but like immature people they are quick to blame the film on this rather than look to their own perceptions or deeper into the material at hand, which is plenty rich. Fourbytwos over the head are not always needed, especially with an older, more experienced audience.

Fault has been found with the soundtrack, which also lacks explosions and has been felt to be anodyne. Again, no fourbytwos. The director respects the intelligence and wisdom of the audience and does not belt them over the head aurally with cues to emote NOW and NOW, THUS.

This lack of overt guidance is too much for some. One reviewer complains about gear shifts and intolerable thematic justapositions (comic heist/workplace sexism) and unexpected plot shifts. It seems the 3-act play has built itself into the cranial boneage of some people. They're the lovers of Johann Strauss and never Bartok, of meat and 3 veg, of everything familiar. Interesting that the lack of violence, extremity and bangs and crashes in general in The Intern is problematic for them while at the same time they don't cope with a little play around story structure. This is how desensitised we've become in one direction, while remaining absolutely reactionary in another. Just like some teenagers, mistaking costume variation (to limited degrees) for radicalism.

Older audiences will recognise the themes and challenges to the characters in the film, and the pains they bring. Enough said. And now focus on the wisdoms that are displayed here for the picking. They are many.

Prometheus (I) (2012)

if you're going to be a passive consumer you run the risk of going hungry

[10/10 · 30 January 2013]

It's got so that anyone daring to write anything positive here might be afraid of being lynched. This hateful atmosphere is far from being simple expression of people's having been underwhelmed by a film. People have come here especially to express large volumes of real vitriol. They're hurting, because the film didn't satisfy standard expectations, didn't conform to formulae that are considered to be tried and true.

Worst 'crimes';

-unhappy ending. God turns out not to be so sympathetic or kind.

-no neat wrap-ups. In film, unlike in real life, there have to be satisfying answers to all questions raised.

-answers are given, but not to questions people might have been aware were being asked, and the tinge is in the air that those answers are not 'yes'.

-stereotypes are not adhered to; characters act uncharacteristically. This is perceived as script deficiency rather than plot devices in the service of a fable.

-inversion of sympathies; 'Baddies' have right on their side, but we want to dislike them, and for us to dislike them, they need to be wrong, not right as in this film. 'Goodies' are ultimately seen to be misguided and via their representation the human species is seen as a mistake, as a child born monstrous (one review even attacks the film for anti-human 'propaganda'). The alien/proto-aliens are more sympathetic than the humans they menace.

The film needs to be twice the length it is. Well, a lot longer anyway. The strong impression I've gained is that it's been chopped to bits to cram it into 124 minutes, and that the lost footage contains much of the character development and symbolic references that were needed. The film should have been unfetteredly something that 124 minutes wasn't enough for it to be. It has been forced to try to be something a lot less ambitious, possibly with haste. So it's fallen between two destinations, perfectly attaining neither.

I don't care about any of this. I'm a complete fan. I hope the director will not be deterred by all these squeaks of protest and will sustain the grand vision. God knows the world needs imaginers, risk-takers, askers of big questions. Ridley Scott makes things with a lot of beauty in them. There is inevitably also in reality and in fiction great pain. So our makers were not God. They were incredibly beautiful anyway, thanks to Ridley Scott. Keep going, Ridley. You are doing wondrous work.

It seems mean spirited to bung a rating on the same scale for a film like this as is used for 'lampoons vacation' or whatever they are called. As others have put as close to zero as they could despite having acknowledged the stupendously spectacular effects and design, I'm going to ignore with a vengeance the damage done by forces that tried to smash this project and hastily reconstitute is as cheap entertainment. Ten out of ten for sheer elevation of the wonder of imagination, for profundity. My thanks to all involved for the excellent journey.

Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)

Purity of heart

[8/10 · 10 July 2011]

This film had a certain soft and contrived look that reminded me a lot of films like Seabiscuit or Field of Dreams. The sentimentality quotient was about the same, the emotionality of the soundtrack about equivalent, though this music was quite a lot better. Those other two films were a bit hard to watch, but the sincerity of this one has completely won me over. I think the film is tragically underrated. There are some films I love for their artistry, some for what they teach; this is one of the latter, and I suspect many people don't like to think how their efforts might pale in comparison with Bob Jones's. This might lead to sour-grapes negative votes for the film. I don't agree with them. Some people really do try that hard to be good and live up to expectations, and actually manage not to fall apart in the process. As one who has caved in and felt that strange, totally solitary and empty freedom of total loss of a dream of success, I could relate very well to Bob's feelings, and I was hoping he'd prevail. If the film can do that to a skeptic like me, it's done a good job. I admire the man and the filmmakers. I hope the portrayal has been accurate. It's nice to think purity of heart exists in the world. Very nice casting too.

The Seventh Sign (1988)

unexpectedly affecting

[25 September 2009]

OK, let me just say that it's a long time since I've seen this film, and it's the sort of thing that irritates by being so often horribly written, directed, acted, implausible and vacuously melodramatic (as per the supposedly underrated 'Ninth Gate'. Furthermore, I'm an atheist. Yet I've never forgotten The Seventh Seal. I will never forget the implacable, murderously sad face of 'The Lamb' visiting Earth in Lion mode. There must be something about strange weather, tectonic events and red rivers that is hard-wired in humans to evoke dread and fascination, because I have also never forgotten feeling both of those things, watching the results of the breaking of the biscuit-shaped seals. Well, red rivers = war, and that's happening now, so maybe these images got under my skin because they were topical. We're expected to side-line these sorts of considerations though, with our view obscured by Demi Moore and biblically referenced mystery plot stuff. Moore i can easily glance past, and the bible i know almost nothing about (have only seen the Angers Tapestries for an education in Revelations and apocalypse), so was able to watch the film in something approaching freedom, even with the aforementioned preconceptions about the genre. Demi does an OK job as always, no real problem there. The naked pregnant thing is no big deal; those who are disturbed by that should get a life. The plot moves along efficiently. we do want to know what happens next..so far so good. Things come to a denouement; will The World prevail or will Armageddon complete itself? Nothing so exceptional there... but just one or two things did very much move me; the notions of the greatness of love and sacrifice- in this context nicely morphed to counter patriarchal tropes- and the Guf. For someone who has always thought of all unborn children as pre-existing, waiting only to be summoned to this mortal coil, the idea of the Guf is heart-clenchingly sweet and beautiful. All in all, all I can say is just have a look :-). Despite your well-reasoned and fair reservations, there is something in this film that you might find unforgettable, and as others have mentioned, moving.

The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005)

Beautiful unfable

[10/10 · 26 June 2009]

this is my favourite film.

Remember Yertle the Turtle? Gertrude Mc Fuzz? The Sneeches? These are fables, their moral payloads gently, because humorously, delivered. Such a story is the Cave of the Yellow Dog, in which it isn't good to cherish the artificial above the real, or to elevate caution above love, or to worship the modern over the tried and true, or to be overbearing or ill-tempered when you can be patient and polite. It is suggested that we look deeply at whatever comes along in life, believing in the benefits that the unrolling before us of the red carpet of fate may bring. We are asked not to look at life short-sightedly, thinking only of profit and loss in the immediate situation, but to take a more long term, big picture view of the meanings of events in life. The sub-themes used to carry these concepts are, beyond the apparent domestic issues, those of death and of reincarnation, weighty themes indeed. And yet they are plumbed so delicately and gently that we practically never even notice that we are being given important ancient lessons in life that have global application in this time of human-caused environmental crisis.

I don't believe in fate, but even though the film could on one level be seen to promulgate the notion of destiny, you don't have to subscribe to that or any of the other ideas, to be moved by the love and reverence for the reality of the ordinary in the lives of the family of characters.

I've said my comment contains spoilers, because it would surely spoil the film for me if, not yet having seen it, i were to read this. If you haven't seen Cave of The Yellow Dog, please forget and ignore all you have read, and just allow the film to wander cherishingly through the green plains of a beautiful land.

Koziyat rog (1972)

A must-see for any discerning film lover

[10/10 · 6 October 2005]

Even if you can't see a sub-titled version, you won't miss anything; as someone has already mentioned, the dialog in this film is extremely minimal. Instead, the viewer is immersed in the story through the natural sounds of the wild Bulgarian hills, empathic and creative (but never obtrusively 'there') camera-work and the amazingly expressive and authentic performances of the two lead actors.

When this film was released it was seen by three million people in Bulgaria, and the population then was only 8 1/2 million.

It is sad to relate that the director, Metodi Andonov, lived only a few years after the making of this film. With so few examples existing of his craft, The Goat Horn is even more precious.

An absolutely beautiful, unforgettable film.