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Reviews
Wonder Woman (2017)
Movie for every woman, girl, and man
Walking out of Wonder Woman, my husband and I instantly thought about how much our sons and granddaughters would like this movie. Although its creators playfully and conveniently mix Greek and Roman mythologies (names of Diana paired with Zeus and Ares, for example, and Ares rather than Apollo--who's not in the movie--laying claim to divine truthiness), the plot more than works and holds together logically. There is no foul language. In the Greek tradition, goriness is not shown "on the stage." The audience realizes that people have been decapitated, impaled, etc., but the gore is not shown, so girls will not run from the theater and boys will not get aroused by the wrong stuff.
Diana is not a sexualized hero although she and the leading man are certainly sexual beings in the best and modest senses. Fighting is like the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon sort, though not quite so "Ninja." A special effects Oscar is a definite probably.
And the acting is SO good despite the fantasy element. The hero is like a combo of Pitt, Damon, and DiCaprio in their youth. The Amazonian accents are a little disarming, but since all the Amazons are supposedly polyglots, it's okay. And they do sound a little Israeli like the leading lady.
This is a funny, laugh-out-loud script. The ending is inevitable since the script is honest and intelligent.
I haven't really liked an action movie since The Fugitive, but this one I loved!
Cloudburst (2011)
Dated after two years
Olympia Dukakis is a beautiful old lady, miscast in this part. She delivers lines one would expect to hear from Alex of Orange is the New Black, and it just doesn't work for her -- or for this old lady writing this review. Now that same-sex marriage is the law of virtually all of the land in North America, even down here in Old Virginny, the movie does feel a bit dated.
The fact that there is no resolution for Prentice in his relationship to his parents is disappointing. The writer seems to take the easy way out rather than seeing the situation to its probably more interesting ending than this treatment gives it. The movie at times descends to farce, though it has some touching moments. Prentice and Dot give excellent performances despite the weak, undeveloped script and immature directing.
The cinematography in Maine and Nova Scotia are incredibly beautiful. I would not recommend this movie despite the three leads' terrific acting.
Ida (2013)
As I expected
Before going and having read the reviews without spoilers, I realized that the only pithy ending would be for Ida to return to Christianity, not to embrace her Jewish culture. What an insult it would be to the vast majority of Poles, who are Catholic, for her to reject their religion. I don't believe such a movie could be made in Pope John Paul II's Poland. It was sad to see her turn her back on the world, a world that had been so cruel to her Jewish parents, presumably because it did not hold enough for her to make her not want to retreat from it.
Don't think that this spoiler (about its predicable ending) is reason not to see the movie. You see, another character, not Ida, is so well-developed, so well-drawn that her story makes Ida's secondary. This movie is well worth seeing, despite its being pro-Catholic propaganda and also despite the fact that it leaves several questions unanswered -- about why at least two of the characters, Ida and a man, made the choices they did.
"Ida" is a well done and very sad movie, perhaps uplifting only to evangelical Catholics, but well- acted and thought-provoking.
Petty point: I lived back then. Nobody, especially nobody in Europe, was smoking filtered cigs yet. Not till later in the 60's.