Change Your Image
stevenmcallihan
Reviews
L'attesa (2015)
Binoche is spectacular
Many of the reviews here have lamented the ambiguous plot line and non-definitive ending.
Within the first 2 minutes I was asking myself the same thing any mother would ask - "why did my son kill himself?"
If she tells her son's girlfriend right away that he's dead, she may never know.
Spoiler alert- we are never told throughout the movie that her son committed suicide or even that he's dead at all.
The answer is in a mother's admission of infidelity in her own marriage, a dinner party with arduous implications, and ultimately an unfaithful girlfriend's confession.
A raised eyebrow, a tear, lilting laughter turning to sadness. Shrewd questions. Cold awareness.
All in a mother's countenance, without a word spoken.
All to draw out the truth.
That's why "The Waiting" is occurring.
"If not for this young girl's promiscuousness, my son would be alive".
Heart wrenching.
Cinematic magic.
Jack Irish: Black Tide (2012)
Pickle jar?
Great Aussie film noir
Just finished the second installment, Black Tide.
Well paced, with GuyPierce displaying just the right amount of befuddlement and tenacity. As in the first movie, attention need be played during every scene, as some very important characters and clues often come up only once, and you'll be the befuddled one half way through the show..
Supporting actors do a wonderful job and many return from the first movie. It's not imperative that you watch the first movie before you see Black Tide, but it's great as well and I'd advise it. Things can get confusing enough in film noir as it is.
Most importantly-Looked everywhere on line- what was in the pickle jar- testicles?!
Might have to just read the book!
A Quiet Place Part II (2020)
Rambling lack of intensity
Loved the first film. You could feel
people purposely not breathing in the theater and cringe with any clang or footstep.
Q2 followed the daughter's lead and just rambled down the road towards a future Q3.
Found myself checking my watch 35 minutes in and kicking the empty chair in front of me, hoping something would happen.
It didn't.
Angel's Dance (1999)
Beyond good and evil
Neitzsche's neophytes tango eloquently in this delicious dark comedy. What's not to love about a hit man who has a code by which to live?There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth. And if you gaze long enough into the abyss,the abyss will gaze back into you. As for the victim,Sheryl Lee, that which does not kill us makes us stronger. As her angelic transformation progresses, she must fight monsters without becoming one. For those who have given this hidden gem a low grade, perhaps these Neitzsche quotes will upgrade their thinking. Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed. The higher this movie soars, the smaller it appears to those who cannot fly.
For this particular profession one must train one's conscience, for it kisses as it bites.
If nothing else, this movie will lead you to further explore Mr N's other observations, what wicked fun!
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Please make it stop
How many Chris Pine "shocked face, its 1984" looks can you tolerate?
Less could have been much more.Edit to 1 1/2 hours.
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
NOT a movie for children, and by that I mean anyone born before 1969.
OK, so most movie goers feel someone 50 years of age is ancient, and anyone older couldn't possibly find their way to the nearest movie theater, much less stay awake for over two hours in the dark.
I fully understand many of the posts that complain "the plot went nowhere-- nothing happens" if you weren't around when Ike was president, Kennedy was shot, TV screens were all black and white and every family watched what was on together because there were only 2 channels. There was "Tuesday or Friday night At the Movies" so we gray hairs have seen Steve McQueen weekly on Wanted,Dead or Alive (Bounty law) or in The Great Escape (the movie role Dalton lost) or Nevada Smith (Nebraska Jim) multiple times.
Spagetti western references- ahhh ... Clint- who became famous as Rowdy Yates in the 1950's TV western "Rawhide".
Did you folks pick up on Dalton and Booth banter "Maybe we'll go to Delgato's and drink some Mezcal"?
Ah "HOMBRE!" You put ze hole in me!
But- don't focus on Paul Newman--
Who was the Bad Guy... the guy who was once a TV western hero known as Paladin in "Have Gun, Will Travel?" and subsequently found himself being constantly cast as the villain (Big Jake, the Shootist, Winter Kills,etc)... Richard Boone. Sounds a lot like Booth doesn't it?
And what was Dalton's agent's chief complaint-- too many bad guy parts...
So- If you're over 60, do yourself a favor and go see this Tarantino masterpiece.
There are priceless pearls dropped before swine in every scene that the youngsters can't possibly recognise or relate to, but will touch your heart immediately.
Don't read this last paragraph spoiler if you haven't seen the movie yet:
What's with the rambling plot?
So...You're Quentin Tarantino, a complete movie geek, and late one night, you realize the 50th anniversary of the Sharon tate murder is fast approaching and you wonder, what if these three hippie low-lifes mistakenly first walked into Steve McQueen/Clint Eastwood/Richard Boone's pad by mistake?
Tarantino's genius is introducing his young audience to Sharon and these men in a fabulously entertaining suspenseful way. If only Hollywood could corrrect more of the mayhem that was the 60's...
And put on that old Paul Revere and the Raiders album once more before you go.