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Reviews
Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl (2018)
Her Music Is GREAT - BUT!
I love Kate Nash's music. I was in a record store, and they were playing Girl Talk. I bought the two CDs they had in stock. I picked up the third as soon as I found it. They're all great. I still have one left. I'm sure it's wonderful. That's her music. I wish there were longer clips of her live, with the actual performances. That's a shame.
Her life, shown in this, is a disaster of her own making. She takes no responsibility for her own failures. The part that literally had me covering my mouth at her sheer stupidity was selling her clothes for $255. This is a person who lives on social media. She has a rabid fan base, and didn't even consider ebay or putting them up on instagram, twitter, facebook or her own website. Hey fans I'm cleaning out my closet...
The manager stealing her money is fairly common. She wasn't big enough for it to be unnoticeable. A little common sense and vigilance on her part would have put an end to it, before the real damage was done. She's not Billy Joel.
The person that nailed it was her mother. Who basically said she wished Kate had learned about responsibility. Because it's obvious she didn't. By the end of the film, it seems like she's still clueless. But, she did learn how much her music means to the fans, more than doubling her goal on kickstarter. If my life were like this, I'd be mortified to put it on display.
Gigantic (2008)
One Big Problem
Everyone seems to have the same problem with this film. The alter-ego, metaphorical homeless guy, who keeps bloodying Weathersby. He's not real. So, was Weathersby beating himself? He was badly bruised after every fight. Characters in the film commented on it. Asner hit the dirt when the bullet hit the tree, and everyone heard it.
Lets say Weathersby was beating himself. A 28-year-old single guy, whose working as a mattress salesman, probably lost his virginity in the back of the car with Happy, and bloodies himself, was able to get a Chinese baby. Something he's wanted since childhood.
It takes more to adopt a dog in NYC than it took for this lunatic to get a baby. That's...
The characters were entertaining to a point. I mean who doesn't take their kids to the wood with guns and eat mushrooms?
Separation (2021)
Why?
I don't remember the film, but YEARS AGO a supernatural human like creature walked upside down contorted. It was cool and scary. All these years later, it's HACK. Along with every other unoriginal wanna-be scary part in this snore fest.
It was 21 minutes before anything happened, and that was an auto accident. Then it was another 20 minutes of sheer boredom before the next yawn filled scare.
If you took the "who committed the hit and run?" and made that the focus of the film, it might have had a little more entertainment value. I believe it was this snippet of the story that got this trash made.
If you like horror films, don't watch this. Unless you're tired and can't get to sleep. This will work like a tranquilizer.
The Ice Storm (1997)
PRETENTIOUS
With the director and cast assembled, this should be no less than a 7 star film. It was beautifully shot, the performances (given the material) were excellent. So, what's the problem? The script/story!
The film opens with a wrap around. Maguire is stuck on the train in the ice storm, expounding the Fantastic Four the comic book metaphor for his family. He gets off the train to his solemn father, mother and sister. This would be interesting IF they weren't miserable cusses throughout.
This is a film that had no one to root for, or even like. The closest anyone came to not being completely pathetic was Joan Allen. She fell short. Feeling alone with thoughts her husband is cheating, she goes for a bike ride and steal cosmetics from the local pharmacy. Of course she gets caught.
Here's a few of the other characters -
Kline - cheating on his wife with neighbor Weaver.
Maguire likes the beautiful Holmes, but she's more interested in his roommate
Krumholtz. How can you blame her? Maguire carries around the latest issue of the Fantastic Four.
Weaver's youngest son is destined to be a serial killer. The other is a complete moron. I internally clapped when he died. I just wish they'd have killed everyone else. 14-year-old Christina Ricci just wants to see boys without pants. When dad catches her touching the moron's willie, she doesn't ask what he was doing in someone else's house and on the walk home he tells her "I'm not mad. I don't care. I just don't like him."
I can picture all these actors reading this garbage and thinking they're making the next great think tank film. Look at these characters, look at their dramatic lives. So what if they forgot any entertainment value. Well, great drama can be entertaining.
That's where the word pretentious comes in. Add on arrogant and elitist. Besides actors who will kill to do any deep drama, this movie was made for people with these qualities. It certainly wasn't made for the average film goer. Because this film looks down on those people.
If you really want to know how good this film and characters are, watch the behind-the-scenes featurette where none of them have a clue to what they did.
Dark Shadows (1966)
Simply the Best
I grew up on this show. I was 5 when it started and 10 when it ended. Like so many others, I'd run from the school bus to get in front of the TV in time to see it. As a child, I thought only of the spooky creepy aspect of the show. Vampires, werewolf, the most gorgeous witch that ever lived. This show was made for kids like me. That was half a century ago.
Years ago I bought a group of the VHS and couldn't make it past the first. How could I have loved this show? I guess it was a good childhood memory. But it didn't fare well with time.
This past year I found the DVD complete series for a reasonable price, and it didn't take long to watch the entire collection. What a FABULOUS show. It wasn't just the monsters, because the beginning didn't really have any. The writing and acting is superb for the first and only "gothic soap opera". The storylines characters might be dated to when the show aired. But the humanness and emotional reality of what family was isn't lost for a second.
There's a reason this show 50 years later still has a fanatical fanbase. It deserves it.
Songbird (2018)
Have To Love Indie Indie Cinema
I was expecting very little from this movie. From the Blu-ray cover, I thought I'd make it through 10 minutes before turning it off. The first few "documentary" style minutes were not very good. But, once it got down to the narrative, this was a thoroughly entertaining love story.
To appreciate this, you need to be able to watch very low budget, almost home made quality movies. The acting and characters made up for the unpleasing visual aesthetic. This is from the UK, so it's character driven, not standard 3-Act-Structure.
For what it is, it's damn entertaining. I know I'll watch again, actually quite a few more times.
It's a keeper.