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The Unforgivable (2021)
Emotional reveal of how perspective and a broader picture of someone's life can drastically change your opinion of people
Unless you are the type who started spouting "white lives matter" amidst the demonstrations sparked by George Floyd's murder, you can ignore all the reviews that complain about this movie being all about race-there's a whopping half dozen lines that put the protagonist's situation into perspective in a racial light, which makes sense to reference at the time the movie was made, and it's certainly not even close to being a main theme of the movie, much less the central focus of it.
As for those complaining about plot holes and the ages of the characters and why certain choices were made in the end, the entire point of the story and the protagonist's struggles after her release from prison, as well as ultimate meaning/message/reveal of the movie, clearly went completely over their heads. They must have not been actually paying attention to several dialogue exchanges from the very beginning that explained these things. Only the reason for one of the choices mentioned near the end isn't explicitly spelled out, but if you'd been paying attention throughout, you'd understand the reason on a gut level. If not, perhaps you're the sort who should never be a mother.
Well acted. Good script, score, cinematography. Almost every character is someone we'd consider to be a "good" person, sometimes only based on knowing a little about them (and perhaps not so much if we got to know them better), and sometimes only if we were given a chance to see things from their perspective, without our prejudices due to the very limited information we actually know about most people clouding our judgment.
Everyone makes choices the best they seem to be able to with their own limited perspectives, life experiences, fears, judgments, and personal traumas. Some just try to think their choices through better than others, or make their choices for truly unselfish rather than selfish reasons, and I'd say that's what makes certain choices the more "moral" ones.
Crimson Peak (2015)
A well-done thriller--go elsewhere if you're looking for horror!
This is a very well-done movie, and you can really feel Guillermo del Toro's style. If you're not a fan of his work, you probably won't like it. If you're looking for a horror flick, this is not the right choice either--it is NOT a horror movie, and is not intended to be. It is a thriller that simply features ghosts. The Woman in Black has a somewhat similar feel, and both pace somewhat similarly with parallels in the settings and several other elements, but this does not have the very dark aspect that The Woman in Black does--of course, that is not its intent--I would dare say it actually is the opposite, and is supposed to evoke a sense of hope and faith in the strength of the human heart (extending even beyond death), despite its contradictory weakness. This in spite of the disturbing material & storyline.
The cinematography is beautiful; acting is excellent. Yes, there are a few predictable elements in the story, but since it is a thriller- - and actually a psychological thriller in a way--these somewhat obvious aspects actually help you to empathize a bit with the protagonist, as she also knows things are not right, but not everything fits until the end for her, either.
Crimson Peak is not trying to do anything super original, but to deliver a different twist on a not-so-new story, with style! That is precisely what it does. If you like moody psychological-mystery- ghost story-thrillers that are well crafted, you will enjoy this one.
Retreat (2011)
Very good psychological thriller, keeps you guessing!
Rating this a bit high (it's really a 7-8) because clearly there are some trolls out there panning it because they either just like to pick apart movies that overall are well done and enjoyable so that it makes them feel superior, or because they are completely unable to empathize with others (the characters), or they were expecting a horror/action movie like 28 Days Later. That is not what this movie was intended to be, but it does its job really well!
This is, once over and done with, a heart-rending psychological thriller that will make you think you have it figured out, and then something slightly different in the characters' behavior makes you think maybe you were wrong--right up until the end. Acting is excellent (once you understand the full background and motives, all the nuances really make sense!), as is the direction, cinematography, and writing. Yes, there are a couple minor flaws in the logic of our protagonists (yup, I was thinking "why don't they clean and bandage his head?) but these things aren't really critical kill shots to the overall enjoyment of the movie, or how the plot and the characters' relationships to one another develop.
Plus, I think unless you have walked a mile in the shoes of someone who has been through what these characters have, you cannot rightfully claim that they are behaving "irrationally." Everyone thinks that if they are in the liquor store when the robber comes in with a gun, they will be the hero who will see the potential of a makeshift weapon on a store shelf & use it to disable the robber. Yet most of the time in real life, that person, in the rare case when they actually manage to get past being frozen in fear throughout the ordeal (or going along with things to save their *ss), either ends up causing someone else to be very dead, or winds up very dead themselves. That's reality, and how someone might deal with their personal tragedies and secrets they are keeping for fear of losing the love of their life is I think not something we can judge for others. So I do find the characters, all three in fact, to be quite believable, and the antagonism we see from the wife is perfectly explained by revelations later in the film. Finding out the reasons behind their behavior provides an interesting window into the psychology many of us share, where our guilt over something causes us to project blame onto someone else, or to put forth anger or any number of redirected emotions.
If you simply don't like slow-building thrillers (NO, this is NOT a gory horror movie), don't watch it. Otherwise, enjoy!
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Really entertaining supernatural mockumentary!
Very fun. Lots of great little one-liners that everyone who's ever had buddies or roommates can relate to.
If you've ever seen The Real World, Big Brother, or any of a number of vampire or werewolf movies, and if you've actually got a sense of humor, this will really tickle your funny bone. There are just so many humorous answers to the question "what if vampires lived together like any of us do as roommates?" that you may or may not have ever thought of yourself, you will be giggling over and over.
Good acting, fun "what if" situations, and entertaining writing/plot that moves along decently after setting the scene. Even my 70-year- old mother (who watches The Walking Dead and really enjoyed Interview with a Vampire) thought it was worth watching after she was recovering from a hip replacement and in pain--it really took her mind off that!
This is a sleeper that makes me want to share it with all my geek friends who enjoy mockumentaries and/or vampire stories. It is the Boondock Saints of mockumentaries!
Harry's Law (2011)
Season 2 changes take it from a 3 to a 7!
I wasn't going to watch the second season, abs in fact, idthought the first season so bad that I didn't expect it to get renewed, but since I hadn't removed the series from my dvr, the season 2 premier popped up and I decided to see if it was as lackluster and childish an effort as season 1. So glad I did! With the changes he's made, Kelley has thankfully redeemed himself from something I just couldn't comprehend he'd put together after his past works. Even amidst all his goofiness, at least his prior shows' premises were interesting and seemed rooted in cases that you could believe might actually progress in such ways. Not so with Harry's Law, just one ridiculous premise after another lacking more than an ounce of reality here and there, without the extreme kookiness that allowed us to excuse such cases with Ally McBeal. In season 1 the gang members came across as something out of a 1980s after-school special. They weren't scary or threatening; they were pretty much comical in a show that was trying to be a drama first and foremost. Bates seemed to be trying too hard to be crotchety just for the sake of giving the world the finger, and she was just too contrary and frankly, unlikable to make the humorous moments seem to fit well in the same show with her. This season, something has changed, and it's not just the cast. Bates shows her fatigue over last season's ordeal; at first I thought the actress was ill, but now I think it's an intentional acting choice for the character. The characters aside from her, both her secondaries and the clients, are more interesting and believable. Suddenly there is depth in a show that couldn't seem to decide if it was a comedy with occasional serious moments, or a drama with comic elements. Thankfully, Kelley seems to have decided it is a drama with "real" people, each with their own personalities and not one-note caricatures but multiple-faceted, fairly realistic human beings. Molina as a starting guest star is a good move as well. I will actually watch this season, and changing my mind so strongly about a show is rare for me. Give it a shot; I will be watching at least a couple more episodes to see how it goes, but at this point I think it has ten times the promise of last season.
Law & Order: UK: Crush (2011)
Good but medically inaccurate--writer fail
A rehash of an old Law & Order episode in the US (not sure if SVU or not), decently done. Several of the UK episodes have been remakes of the US episodes, but that's OK...the laws sometimes differ slightly, and it's fun watching these actors handle the cases anyway, especially when there are some cultural differences. However, I despise when writers pull some "latest development" news from the headlines (in this case, a single 4-year-old medical study in Australia, as far as I could find with a quick Internet search) and base the entire impetus for the episode on it. "you gave me herpes, that's why our son has cerebral palsy, I hate you" as a motive doesn't work so well when the herpes group A(alpha) viruses are the ones most people and prostitutes have (commonly "cold sores," genital herpes) and they showed zero correlation to cerebral palsy--it's the B (beta) group that has the CP correlation, which would be highly unlikely to appear in an eastern European prostitute living in England unless one of her Johns was a vet who worked with monkeys--group B is not typical "herpes," basically. However, there was some correlation to preterm births, so it would have made more sense for the kid to have a disease that could be caused by premature birth! Now of course everyone will be terrified they will have a CP kid just because they're one of the 80%+ people out there with herpes type I or II, the group A types. Not to mention that one study is not considered proof in the scientific community...maybe more studies have been done, but they don't pop up in a quick search.
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
Sad poor person story. Badly written dog story.
Yes it does a good job of showing how quickly one can go from a shoestring budget to completely homeless with virtually nothing but the clothes on one's back. Relevant yes. Minimalist yes. Alas, minimalist does not always mean good. Sure, lack of soundtrack definitely does highlight her loneliness. Poorly written detour point and story though, probably by someone who has never had a dog they truly loved and depended on to keep them sane when everything else in their life has "gone to the dogs.". Having gone through the loss of my own canine emotional support, I know it is immediately traumatizing, and obsession with finding the pet can overtake everything else, but that doesn't excuse the idiotic things this girl does, and she doesn't seem particularly obsessed anyway. I don't see that she was so upset she was in shock, so I can only concur with one of the other reviewers that this girl seems emotionally stunted and lacking in basic street intelligence. She can walk all over the damn place, but when she's already had to spend money she hadn't planned on (tow plus fine), that's when she starts buying coffee and donuts and paying for taxis when she could surely have gotten within walking distance of the foster house by taking a bus! If she could spend this now, why shoplift and start the whole dang tumble down the hill? Not to mention that if your dog cab handle dry food, you don't suddenly introduce wet (canned) food unless you want a diarrhea fest in your car later on. Dry dog food also isn't THAT expensive if you're just trying to keep your pup alive for a couple weeks till you get where you're going, so why not just buy the stuff? And who isn't aware that a dozen aluminum cans will earn you a whole, hmm, maybe two cents? Sorry, but the glaringly poor view of how stupid the "average" person is when they're down to their last $500 is just inexcusable, not to mention her lack of real emotional reaction to the missing dog. I saw emotion for about 3 seconds at the chain link fence, and that's it. Sure, crying about it prior to that wouldn't directly accomplish anything, but it certainly would have been more realistic to have her have a moment when she's got to just let it all out than just "oh, now I have to look for my dog, one more thing that's holding up my journey."