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Reviews
One Day (2024)
Beautiful in a way the movie couldn't be
Anne Hathaway could never be like the book Emma who was less beautiful than Anne actually is. People keep comparing her to Ambika which does the latter a disservice. People are expecting cookie cutter beauties in order to have chemistry. While I admit I felt no chemistry in the first few episodes, that is the point. They had just met. They didn't truly know each other yet and they were so different.
As the series continues and the years pass you see the change in her appearance and their chemistry. This growth in both cases was perfectly portrayed and brilliantly executed by the costume and makeup departments, as it was beautifully portrayed by the actors. I'm sad to hear people turning it off after a few episodes because of the lack of chemistry. They are missing out.
While I knew the ending I was still shocked and broken by it, more so than in the movie. This series gave me the time to fully fall in love with Dex in a way the movie did not and thus I felt his grief more keenly. Leo was brilliant as Dex. Jim Sturgess is a fine actor but I didn't love him the way I do Leo. While those of us who have seen both recognize iconic scenes portrayed by both sets of actors, for me personally I just LOVED Leo and Ambika in a way that will haunt me as much as the montage of "what ifs" at the end of the final episode. What if indeed.
The Winter House (2021)
Beautifully bookended
This movie may not be what you were looking to watch but you will want to see it if you are a fan of indie movies with beautiful cinematography and highly nuanced characters. The pace is slow but it builds steadily. Lili Taylor puts on yet another brilliant but overlooked performance. François Arnaud delivers as Jesse, a troubled man who you believe to be one person, but as the story unfolds you find he is another. However the surprise of him, uncovered brilliantly by Eileen, shows that he has depth and strength to not only match hers but to add to hers. The visuals of the cold winter lend a beautiful match to Eileen's mood at the beginning of the film with the arrival of spring matching the change of her mood at the end. It begins and ends with a letter but not in the way you expect. This is a movie of hope, love, and rebirth that is beautifully bookended.
The Class (2022)
A bit of an inflated rating but...
Bear with me.
We have Lyric Ross who has demonstrated wide emotional depth and tremendous talent on This Is Us playing an edgy teen. There is Debbie Gibson coming in as a teacher who most know as a pop star from the 80s but she is also a Broadway caliber actress. In a gimmick casting we have the vice-principal played by Anthony Michael Hall, a darling of John Hughes films who continued his acting career for decades, as well as John Kapelos also of The Breakfast Club playing a parent to one of the teens. We have a newer talent in Charlie Gillespie who rose to fame in Daytime EMMY winning Julie and the Phantoms (as the Bender type character). We should have a hit on our hands in this "reimagined" (cough remade cough) Breakfast Club. But unlike the 1985 classic, the writing is bad. The directing is bad. The editing is bad. I blame this on the director of this film who also wrote it and cast one of his kids as one of the stars. She is no Molly Ringwald.
Fashioned as a more contemporary version tackling issues not widely discussed in The Breakfast Club, there was so much potential. Good actors and a proven premise combined with a good original song performed by Hannah Kepple of Cobra Kai fame fell short because the cast can only work with what is in the script.
There were some good dramatic moments which could have been played out in more depth but instead were cut between goofy unneeded antics or trying to split the cast up into too many locations. It was disjointed and it always felt like I was coming into the middle of a conversation. Had the stories been allowed to be fully fleshed out, or perhaps the characters been left together and forced to be in each other's space like in The Breakfast Club some magic could have happened. I rated it higher than it probably deserves because the seeds are there and we all have different taste so others will probably love it. The best scene of the movie, in my opinion, is almost at the end so stick around for it.
Survive the Game (2021)
You know it's going to be bad when
It's so poorly edited you can see crew with surgical masks on in the background of a major scene in the first 10 minutes. With Bruce Willis as a top biller I expected to see him beyond sitting down the whole time. Yet another poorly made CMM/Bruce Willis flick. These two have cranked out I think 5 of these shoot them up flicks in the past couple years. Some are better than others. It's cute seeing CMM's real life wife make an appearance as his character's wife. But I had trouble sitting through unfortunately.
Love You Anyway (2022)
Beautifully and uniquely created
This film was a part of the Six Feet Apart experiment and was filmed by the cast with iPhones at the height of pre-vaccine COVID. I loved the unique take on seeing what someone with depression at that age goes through both through her own eyes but also through the eyes of her life long best friend. As someone who has struggled with mental health issues for most of my life, I enjoyed seeing this young beautiful cast play people who seem to have perfect lives deal with true crippling depression and how it affects not just the one suffering but also those who love her. Nobody has a perfect life no matter how it looks from the outside. And this movie deals with actual depression, addiction, and negative coping mechanisms used to deal with life throwing you a curveball. We all act and react in different ways and this movie shows that. It also shows that with the right treatment there is happiness to be found. The character Lucas Parker played by Charlie Gillespie put it perfectly. "It feels really great to feel great... again"! LOVED this movie. So glad I bought it.
The Wilds (2020)
Hooked after episode one
Watched this for Reign Edwards after seeing her in Love You Anyway. Got hooked after episode 1. The twist at the end sucked me in and I binged both seasons in a few days. I truly hope there is a third. Season two begins parallels which were interesting to see. Each episode not only takes a look at each character but let's the viewer in on a new piece of the puzzle and it all comes together beautifully.