Reviews

Ryan Murphy and his team have created magic realness and characters we will never ever forget. Brilliant just begins to describe this series with heart. Bravo!

Rarely am I surprised by a film. Even less rare am I left speechless. It has already all been done and said, right? Turns out the answer to that question is no. This incredibly brilliant and quiet film reintroduces family and humanness to a world that desperately needs to see the transformative power that tragedy and suffering can bring to a family and community. Molly Shannon is a revelation. She is purely breath-taking in her nuanced and authentic performance. The family that surrounds her in this film is brilliantly cast and subtly and not so subtly used to portray emotion and experience and raw realness. I cannot wait to see this film again and to share it with everyone I care about.

It took me awhile, days in fact, of discomfort to realize how offended I was at the BS that was Star Wars: The Force Awakens. There is no story, no drama, nothing special and bizarrely poorly acted cameos by some surprising actors that want to turn criticism for their bad acting into deflections about 'body shaming' or some such bizarre defense against actual valid criticism. This movie is not about anything. It is a feeble attempt to squeeze one more dollar from a public that loved the original star wars but in a way that took about ten minutes to write and twenty minutes to film the actual acting. The guest cameos were so poor that I cannot believe any intelligent director did not cut them from day one and demand better. I know I expect a certain level of entertainment when I go to a film and this was so far below standards that I may never see another Lucusfilm production.

This is a cynical and disappointing follow up to a fun, clever and memorable movie. This is corporate film making at it's worst. The screenplay is laughably bad, stupid in places, and offensive. There is nothing clever in the writing or the characters placed on the screen for us to witness. I cannot believe that any acting professional would want to be affiliated with this loser of a movie. It may be career stopping inanity for some of the actors here. Product placement is very visible. Any producer who was satisfied with the dailies and approved them for inclusion in to this bomb should find a new line of work. Don't waste your time with this monstrous and offensive follow up movie. It is that bad.

Having spent years of my life living in Asia and being gay I am always attracted to the stories that come from a gay and Asian perspective. This simple but beautiful film is worthy of your attention. It is not perfect. But, it visually shows some of the angst of self hatred and self denial that are common in the gay and Asian communities; Nothing beats the scene of family and three generations doing their best to survive and thrive in today's world tucked into the middle of this movie. I cannot wait to see what the writer and director have next to say about being an immigrant and gay in the world today. Go see this film and then reach out to hear the stories of those you know and love who may be from another place.

This bizarrely badly written and badly acted movie has suspiciously gotten a lot of buzz. It is not anything but a formulaic movie designed to sell us products and the lie that this movie has anything new to offer fans of the genre. Nothing in this movie makes it worth the time or money spent seeing it, even if that was the matinée. I will never see another Melissa McCarthy move. If this professional was satisfied with this terrible script and production then perhaps she should consider another field. Her fifteen minutes of fame have lapsed as far as I am concerned. I would not trust anyone who gives this film more stars than one and would believe they were paid for their reviews before I would believe anyone who loves film would rate this film higher than that.

Right up front let me tell you this is not an easy film to watch. It is vulgar, raw, painful and shocking at times. It is, however, going to stand for some time as this generation's example of how to write a story, tell a story, and create characters that are not only believable, but memorable. Tangerine, the gift we get on Christmas in America, is a story about people who live in constant chaos, in an unsafe and harsh America where not everyone get's sterling silver from the man in the North pole. It is a visually stunning achievement and reminds us that those of us who make art are first and foremost storytellers. Bravo to those who were brave enough to produce, act in and make this story come to our movie screens. Watch out Hollywood, the next generation of artists making movies has arrived.