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Reviews
The Face of an Angel (2014)
Uncertainty of Main Character Exceeded Only By Lack of Clarity of Filmmaker
This is a very well-made film from the standpoint of production values and acting. I cannot fault any of the technical aspects or any of the main cast members, all of whom do well. As always Kate Beckinsale looks wonderful. Cara Delevigne is a delight. Daniel Bruhl is effective as a brooding and mostly depressed film director, but boy does it get tiresome watching him after a while! The real problem here is the lack of resonance between the main aspects of the story. A thinly fictionalized (mostly by changing the names) version of the Amanda Knox case in Italy is combined with the story of a journalist (Kate B.) and film director (Bruhl) planning to make a film of the Amanda (called Jessica in the film) story. It fails to cohere because there is never any sense of an intimate connection with the director's story and the Jessica story. In fact after a while the director seems to completely lose interest in the main task at hand - making a film of the Jessica story - and he goes off on several tangents, one of which involvies an American college student on a year abroad in Italy (admiitedly, Cara Delevigne makes an attractive tangent). So with no real energy in any of his pursuts, no real drive to connect with or develop the Jessica story, we soon lose interest in the lead character and in the film as a whole, despite its technical polish. At the end there is an attempt to generate unearned emotional impact by referencing Dante's La Vita Nuova, but it really doesn't work. What we left with is a "thing of shreds and patches" to quote Hamlet. It would have been nice to see more of Kate Beckinsale's character, though. The scenes with her in them were infused with a lot more energy and interest. She disappears too soon from the story. (The audience for this film may be tempted to do likewise).
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)
Yes it's Awful But Have Some Empathy For All Involved
Yes it has a lame plot, lame acting, flat direction and cinematography, and laughable special effects (the birds don't actually attack so much as hover in a static formation) but at least we should have some feeling for all that is required to produce a basically self-financed indie film, and for everyone who gave (literally, I doubt anyone was paid very much) their time and effort in the making of the film. Most of us would not have the persistence to follow through with all that is required to complete any kind of film project, let alone one with very little support beyond the individual resources of Mr. Nguyen. That said, in the final analysis any work is judged by its quality, and the quality of this one is very poor indeed.
Every Secret Thing (2014)
Worth Seeing for Lane and Banks But A Mixed Bag
Diane Lane and Elizabeth Banks do the best work in this film, with Lane given an especially difficult role (and to my knowledge her first not altogether sympathetic one). The film was intelligently scripted, unevenly directed, and for the most part held my interest throughout, more for the character revelations than for the plot points. I do feel however that themes and sub-themes were raised but never really developed or dramatized adequately. For example, the bi-racial character of the community and of the principal characters is prominently presented, but then not really given adequate thematic development in the story. We learn, for example, that the kidnapped baby is the daughter of the first black judge in the county, but not much is done with that fact, or with any of the other bi-racial tropes. Also a quibble, but I think relevant when the filmmakers are striving for realism: when the second young girl has gone missing, only the two detectives seem at all involved in finding her. I believe that anywhere in the US (or in many other countries as well) if a child goes missing for more than 24 hours or even less, the entire region pours forth a huge response in the form of media attention, volunteers from the community by the dozens, additional law enforcement from nearby communities, etc. None of that was evident, and simply points out a general problem with this story - that it was not well enough thought out as a whole. Still I recommend it for the work of Diane Lane and Elizabeth Banks.
Big Eyes (2014)
A Success But Limited in Much the Same Way as Ed Wood
Once again Tim Burton has given us the very entertaining and twisted story of a non-artist who nonetheless gives every ounce of passion and enthusiasm to his or her "kitsch" - twenty years ago it was Z-movie director Ed Wood, and now the Keanes - Margaret (the actual painter) and Walter (the husband and poseur). As with Ed Wood, every scene and character manages to entertain and engage. Of course the built-in limitation is that in each case all of this is in recognition of and in service to an inferior artist - and in the case of "Big Eyes", an impostor PRETENDING to be the actual creator of the kitsch. Still I would recommend it for the many delicious comic bits, the performances of Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, and the often on-target lampooning of the cultural and artistic pretensions of the 60's (epitomized by Andy Warhol and his work; in fact he receives a couple of mentions in the film, and a sideways "hommage" when Margaret is shopping in a supermarket against the background of several rows of Campbell soup cans).
Ascension (2014)
Suspension of Disbelief is a Must - Not So for All Logic and Credibility
Reading the reviews and comments on "Ascension" has been interesting with respect to the idea of suspension of disbelief, the common term used to refer to what all audience members (or readers for written works) must engage in with any work of fiction. Cerebrally you are aware that it's all make-believe and trickery, but you switch off that part of your brain and let another part take over for the duration, and that part enters you into a state of mind that regards what you are seeing as absolutely real, as in dreams. Amazing that it works just about every time, even if the work at hand is less than stellar (no pun intended). I think sci-fi lovers in particular are divided between those who are sticklers for scientific accuracy, and those who are more flexible on that score and will suspend scientific disbelief if there are interesting character and other story dynamics to compensate. If "Ascension" had more of the latter, you might forgive it somewhat for being totally baseless in its science. The ending made no sense to me, and I'm glad to see I'm not alone in that regard. Re: Crista - I was wondering how being cooped up in an insular environment could in and of itself propel a quantum evolutionary leap into magical powers of teleportation across the galaxy. Also what will they do on the new planet with no resources? Maybe it will all be made clear if this gets picked up as a regular series. In any case not waiting here with baited breath.