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Reviews
Alienated (2021)
Enjoy it for what it is
Let it be the cute romance it is. The sci-fi is more credible than many, requiring only the usual anthropomorphism. As actors, the happy couple are richer than the typical one-dimensional characters of action films. If you want to feel uplifted, watch it.
Hillbilly Elegy (2020)
Melodrama
Another reviewer from a poor upbringing (Southern, fatherless) to an undergrad U.S. #1 to #5 dependent on category and high ranked graduate school. It happens and I could introduce you to others.
Ron Howard did a compassionate, albeit extreme, treatment. Amy Adams and Glenn Close were the starts they obviously are. Gabriel Basso performed ok for an actor who probably doesn't really have much understanding of that situation.
But finally and most importantly, whether true-based or not, that's an amalgamated story with all the elements. Like the "perfect country song," it has romance, crime, pickup trucks, success, failure,... plus the one that is very rarely actually there because it is way too expensive, heroine. The more realistic elegy would be hard working smart parent but at dead-end job and smart kid with academic scholarship. But of course realistic isn't movie worthy and I get that. Still, this particular exceptional case bothers to highlight. I feel like yelling, "no, it's not like that!"
Epoch (2001)
This movie is much better than prior reviewers have averaged
Yes, lots of predictable, "B-movie" stuff, but solid sci-fi, easily as credible (and hokey) as several older cult movies.
The Boogeys (2017)
True art always has a message
Be sure not to think it's over before the last minute. When it really is over, turn your streaming off for a moment and reflect on... whatever comes to YOUR mind.
Mute Date (2019)
I so wanted to rate it higher.
The film comes alive in the last third with a good, provocative, conceptual question about society and individual human worth. But the sci-fi component is not required or even germane to that question. Further, the sci-fi feature is poorly developed, lacking the complexity and richness which could have accompanied the particular fictional mechanism. The majority of the film takes the viewer in a shallow and different direction from the point which becomes apparent near the end. Watch it to appreciate what might have been.