Change Your Image
marian-1
Reviews
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
One of the best
Superb adaptation of Stephen King's story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. It is very true to the story, with all its mood, plot twists and the bad guy you love to hate. Characterization is magnificent. I am not normally a Tim Robbins fan, but he does a near perfect job here. Very satisfying. Worth seeing many times. The scene with the music from the Marriage of Figaro is my favorite. The relationship between Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman's characters grows into one of the most satisfying in fiction. As all great fiction does, this story and the movie of it make you question what is real, what is true, and what is important.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
There may be hope
I saw this at a nearly packed theater in a complex where other movies were showing on a Saturday night. The audience was a good mixture of age groups and gave this film a standing ovation at the end. There may be hope for this planet yet.
CNN carried a story saying that the science of it is very good though not exactly perfect in some scientists' eyes. We don't need perfect. We need very good and, very importantly, engaging. Al Gore is doing what I have not seen anyone else able to do up till now, get ordinary people to listen. As the climate crisis becomes more and more inescapably in our faces, more politicians will jump on it, but Gore has lead the way, has been leading the way, for a long time while it was an issue most people were happy to avoid looking at.
Some may see this as a shameless bid for popularity. Hey - if it gets him popularity, he's earned it! By getting people to look at a not only inconvenient, but scary truth, Al Gore is demonstrating himself to be an actual world leader. Haven't seen one of those for a long time. Hope he does run again. He's got my vote.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Breakthrough event in cinematography
The book, The Joy of Sex, defined bisexuality as the normal human condition. It said that what is abnormal about people who are homosexual (a term, BTW that ought to be applied to either gender) is not that they are attracted to people of their own gender, but that they have an aversion to the other gender.
Everything makes more sense if we look at human sexuality as a spectrum from the people who are only attracted to their own gender, ranging through the (majority) middle ground of people who may have a preference one way or the other but could go either way, depending on a number of factors, through the people on the other end of the spectrum, who are only attracted to the other gender than the one they are. Looking at it like this, we do not have to get into big debates on "whether someone is really gay or not". Most human beings are in the middle somewhere. Understanding and tolerance of that fact will go a long, long way toward making this world a more reasonable and happy place to live.
In spite of the fact that the editing is quite jerky and choppy in places and could have been greatly improved upon, this is one of the best movies I have ever seen. The two main actors and the two main supporting actresses all did outstanding jobs of subtly portraying profound emotion. The film has the aesthetics (and I am not talking about the scenery), depth of story, character and the layers of meaning that make true art.
Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001)
One of the worst.
One of the worst movies I have ever seen. Excruciatingly slow-moving, boring and stupid. Lots of juvenile bathroom-humor, drawn out into painful tedium. I like Jeff Daniels, but he should stick to acting and forget writing. I am amazed this is rated as high as it is. I call it a turkey.
A Room with a View (1985)
Woderful Italy
Wonderful Italy, wonderful characters, wonderful story - what more could you ask? The brilliant Maggie Smith & the exquisite Helena Bonham-Carter are enough to make this a winner, but it has got a lot more going for it. The relative stiffness of English society at the time contrasts with the warmth and openness of life in Italy with interesting results.