The choice Michael makes throughout The Reader create not just conversation for people leaving the movie theatres but deep philosophical debates that will last for a while. Stephen Daldry does very well to make the viewer think deep inside themselves to find their moral barometer. The film could have been a bit stronger in some areas, but it creates a stir of controversy that moviegoers and students of film will be talking and arguing about for years to come.
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Musical/dance movies are usually square pegs trying to fit in round holes. The idea of people randomly breaking into song and dance is such a bizarre concept to fit within a realistic setting, many movies abandon trying to make it fit and just embrace the absurdity of it. Few films pull off the feat of making a serious movie where the core component is dance. Footloose is one of those films that you can take seriously even though everyone is one beat away from just getting loose with their feet. Herbert Ross’s film is far from perfect, and there are those who might shy away from the nonsense, but it does enough right to make it a very enjoyable film even for those who tend to shy away from these types of films.
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Very few films can change how films are both watched and made. Jean-Luc Godard’s À bout de souffle (1960) not only changed how movies were made but defined how they should be made. Godard’s use of editing, sound, mise en scene, and the story helped make this film regenerate new thinking on how a film should be crafted and begin the French New Wave of cinema.
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This will be a short review because, quite frankly, Weekend Pass is barely a movie. Sure, it has opening credits, over an hour of moving pictures with sound and music, and then end credits, but if that’s the checklist for a movie, then this movie makes some of the middle-school drama projects I’ve seen look like Oscar winners. Lawrence Bassoff wrote and directed a film that is a direct insult to other movies playing in the same multiplex. Save some time and don’t even bother reading the rest of this review; this movie doesn’t deserve that much thought.
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There are few occasions where an actor or actress has such an amazing performance that they can single-handily save a film that seems to be devoid of balance or even a proper script. Anne Hathaway nearly does that in Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married. Hathaway’s role as a recovering-junkie thrown back into the wild world amid her sister’s wedding ceremony almost makes the movie watchable if it wasn’t for the parts of the movie in which she isn’t the focus feel like sludge.
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Even with Kit Paget’s strong woman character, Covergirl is a dumpster fire of a movie. Who knows what Jean-Claude Lord was thinking, but if he seriously thought he was making a good film, then he was fooling himself. This is such a bad movie, if it were walking down the same sidewalk as me, I would take a chance and run into a busy street to avoid it.
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There is a weird rumour that ViacomCBS and NBCUniversal are considering a merger. Because their losing market share to streaming rivals, they’re looking at ways of getting back on top; like they were when decades ago when the competition was less fierce. If it is in the cards, this merger is foolhardy and doesn’t address the fact that neither company has compelling enough content or a strong enough brand-name to compete with Netflix.
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product to someone, their audience must have been a blood relative. It’s the type of film that isn’t necessarily bad, but it is very rough around the edges and contains mistakes that a first-year film student would be smart enough to avoid when working on class projects. Bernie Goldmann and Melisa Wallick’s Meet Bill feels unpolished at times and downright awkward at parts but still has some strong performances and an intriguing story that make the film barely watchable.
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The Buddy System feels like it was crafted in a Hollywood factory and designed to make a few bucks at the box office without much thought. Considering the acting talent involved, you would think Glenn A. Jordan would have been able to make something more than a good pilot for a sitcom. However, The Buddy System is not a television pilot but a feature film. It’s barely decent while it lasts but it really doesn’t have an enduring quality that will make you want to go back to it or even remember much of it after viewing.
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By all accounts, El Sur is an unfinished movie. Although the key players disagree as to why, it’s abundantly clear that this movie is incomplete. It’s disjointed as parts of the story seem like they’re unintentionally missing while other parts of it are hyper-detailed. Yet Victor Erice is still able to tell an intriguing tale of a daughter growing up to realize that her father isn’t the deity that she has mythologized but a man with flaws. It takes a while for the movie to find its footing, but in the end, it’s worth the journey.
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Madness Brewing 