Reviews

I admit I only watched the first half of the movie, but I saw the critical moment, and I saw the aftermath.

There was no drama, no momentous event, no transformation in any of the characters. I'm totally into subtlety, but the subtlety in this movie verges on a huge non-event.

In addition, even though we had the subtitles on, there was no subtitling of the English dialogue - as if every foreigner who speaks English is easily understood by every other English speaker - OR - as if every hard-of-hearing movie buff will be able to lip-read the non-English speakers in this movie!

The new policy that requires a minimum number of characters in a review is not helpful. I prefer to read short, pithy reviews.

It's hard to quantify why this show doesn't work. Certainly the historical inaccuracies turned me off, especially the language - who in the fifth century asks, "Gotta minute?"

But it's way more than that - mediocre acting, uninteresting characters, a plot as slow as a soap opera, and no beauty or elegance whatsoever. I'm not really into fight and battle scenes, but I would have welcomed a few in the first episode, in place of the violent beatings and degradation it contained.

Game of Thrones has huge pluses over this show, including internal consistency, and gorgeous actors with true talent.

This movie drew in both my husband and me enormously. We agreed on the 10 rating - we loved the in-depth character examinations, the feminist spin on women's "madness", and the slow but inexorable plot and people development.

Great casting, terrific acting, brilliant directing!

Shirley Jackson is a genius, and we can easily see why. Her insight into the strangeness and complexity of the human mind is fantastic. She can see the norm, she can understand what's expected of her, but due to her difficulties, she can't manage to conform. And all of us who don't fit into the molds understand. She's our hero. We want to be her.

Mr. Altman's gritty 'reality' is impressive. I felt the cold, and smelled the body stink.

But all of that doesn't seem to be enough of a rationalization for the cold depiction of sex slavery and trafficking found in this film. There's no judgement, no negative viewpoint, just bald acceptance of a filthy, horrible way of life.

Altman elicits terrific performances, as usual. Nonetheless, I couldn't finish watching this movie. There was no viewpoint except MALE.

My husband (who is such a great guy) asked why we should continue watching. What could it bring to us - what joy? What positivity? What insight?

We both agreed - nothing.

We were tricked into watching this miserable little piece of dreck because it came on immediately after a Noir Alley presentation, before Eddie Mullet's ending monologue.

I LOVE Mr. Muller's commentaries about the film noir movies he curates - he's insightful and informative without (usually) giving away too much. But after Raw Deal (7/30/22), this short came on without notice or intro, BEFORE Muller's closing bit.

Ugh. It was awful! The acting was leaden and dry; the plot was predictable and uninspired; and the production values were completely blah.

Eddie! What were you thinking!?!?

To force this on an unsuspecting audience while we fiddled with the set trying to figure out what was happening - is just terrible! But with such poor quality - even worse! Please - never do that again!

A perfectly constructed film, with great music and a terrific cast. The humor is subtle and sweet. The values are admirable and honorable. Yes, it's a feel-good movie, but a really good one.