Need For Speed and Splenda: Top Gun Maverick

I thoroughly bought in by the second half of Top Gun Maverick (directed by Joseph Kosinski), the long postponed follow-up to the 1980’s machismo cult favorite. The dramatic pauses made me giggle a bit in the first half as did the intensely serious military explanations. But not a big deal, simply like jumping into a… Continue reading Need For Speed and Splenda: Top Gun Maverick

Anais in Love: An Arc de Goodenumph

France may as well be Mars to me. They’re such odd people. They are so rushed, emphatic and impatitent as evidenced by the character Anais (portrayed by Anais Demoustier…coincidence?) in Anais in Love, written and directed by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet. Eerily similar in plot to The Worst Person in the World, Anais in Love is a… Continue reading Anais in Love: An Arc de Goodenumph

Nick Cage: Commitment & Self-deprecation=Hall Pass

I consider this two year period my renaissance with Nick Cage. First he recaptured my heart with his understated, yet powerful role as washed up chef in Pig. Now, in a far lesser movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, I have to give him a pass for humility and pure fun. The story is… Continue reading Nick Cage: Commitment & Self-deprecation=Hall Pass

Jumpin Jake Flash, Bay’s Ambulance, a Gas Gas Gas

If only I could get paid for this, I’d be a wealthy woman…Now that I’m back to my normal Buddhist zero expectations, I had fun watching Michael Bay’s smash up extravaganza. Credit goes to Chris Fedak who adapted the screenplay from the Dutch original, who either added or maintained the perfect balance of melodrama with… Continue reading Jumpin Jake Flash, Bay’s Ambulance, a Gas Gas Gas

Worthy Story, Too Much Fighting, All at Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once is by the writer and director team of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinhert (Swiss Army Man, weird flick). I had the misfortune of hearing too many hyperbolic compliments beforehand, setting it up for the inability to live up to great expectations. First, great premise: the world is f’ed up (of… Continue reading Worthy Story, Too Much Fighting, All at Once

Mothering Sunday: Stop the Presses

Preface: A quote from Sheila Heti’s book Pure Colour which sums up the special quality of relationships falling on the cusp, fitting my experience with the movie Mothering Sunday: “Sometimes a person is meant to move forward in the world with the one they love at a distance, and that the distance is there to… Continue reading Mothering Sunday: Stop the Presses

Montana Story; acting as majestic as the mountains

a brother-sister dynamics film

Scott McGehee and David Siegel (of What Masie Knew, another jewel of a film) have come up with another compelling family story adaptation (Mike Spreter the original author), this time centering on a brother-sister dynamic. Showing now at the Sarasota Film Festival, the film is definitely worth seeing (and if I could fit it in,… Continue reading Montana Story; acting as majestic as the mountains

Compartment No. 6, Don’t Passover the Little Guy/Girl

Winning three awards at Cannes, directed and adapted from a novel to the screen by Juho Kuomanen, Compartment No. 6 is not a film at which to sneeze, yet because it didn’t make the U.S. Slap Fest, most people probably pass it by. But foreign films are often deeper than American (sorry USA) and Compartment… Continue reading Compartment No. 6, Don’t Passover the Little Guy/Girl

Sarasota Film Fest Documentary: Oleg, an Editing Feat

“Oleg, The Oleg Vidov Story” is an editing feat. As a documentary told in chronological story, no matter how exciting the events, a writer (in this case, Cory Taylor) and director (Nadia Tass) have to spice it up with timely clips that put us in the subject’s milieu. And Oleg does this in a fascinating… Continue reading Sarasota Film Fest Documentary: Oleg, an Editing Feat