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newleafvegetarian
Reviews
Final Account (2020)
Deeply disturbing
It would be simple to pass judgement on the characters of this documentary as I'm sure that many will, but if we look at these old men and women who were inextricably cast into the nightmare that was wartime Germany and Hitler's Final Solution and see them as normal people it becomes all the more horrifying.
Their obvious struggle to justify the heinous war crimes that were committed by their fear of retribution - being executed for not following orders, fall short even in their own minds of excusing themselves. The nazis never executed any soldiers for refusing to participate. The question of what defines a perpetrator is asked over and over but the answer is not ultimately resolved. This is the unanswered question of all wars. What are we all capable of under the guise of patriotism? Where do we draw the line when military action becomes genocide? And when the truces are called and soldiers retreat over the dead bodies of non-combatants how do they explain to their children why they "had" to do it.
At the end we come to understand that the director lost his grandparents to the concentration camps and that might explain his unrelenting cross examination of his subjects but in a world that really hasn't changed much since 1938 in terms of people's gullibility to personalities of cult, we should perhaps instead view it as a warning of what is still possible rather than an indictment of the German people.
Synchronic (2019)
Unbelievable
Synchronic starts with a very intriguing first scene. Then downhill from there. The well worn time travel theme has been around for eternity and this movie added nothing new to the concept.
The acting was generally bad but that could have been due to a poor script more than the talent. Maybe it's just me but the idea of a drug physically removing you from one dimension to another makes no sense. The potential of a perceived shift in time is much more believable and the story would have been more interesting if it had stuck to that premise.
I found it pretentious, patently manipulative and overall a waste of movie watching time.
I should have watched Inception a second time.
The Watcher (2022)
Underwhelming
I don't understand the viewership that placed this latest Netflix "thriller"at the top of the watchlists.
Naomi Watt should have left this script at her agent. There is no cohesive explanation for any of the events even after 7 complete episodes.
Little subplots that go nowhere just keep popping up and disappearing. The Watcher tries to hard to be a social commentary in places and not enough on keeping things psychologically taught. It's a pity because the potential for a decent story is there and the cast is certainly up to the task but at the end no one could ever be convinced that any based on a true story plot could be this hokey, even in these crazy times.