Change Your Image
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Reviews
America to Me (2018)
Great contemporary slice of high school life undone by lack of reflection
This doco gives great insight into the lives of high schoolers in 2016, not only in Oak Park, but effectively highlights the challenges of cross-cultural / cross-racial education in the context of continuing white supremacy even against ongoing efforts in schools ad schooling to address racial inequity. The overall message is that even when everyone can see more or less where the problems are on the ground, and everyone knows which individual teachers are making a difference (good and bad), the system does not appear to change. The portraits of ambitious teachers (black and white) seeking to make a difference and enacting this in their relationships with students is the strength of the series and every teacher would I think learn from these. The filmmakers also get great insight out of the students, who are often savvy about the opportunities and limitations of the camera but nevertheless give great content at no small personal risk - mostly I felt that I am privileged to have lived my own teenage-hood largely away from the camera.
The series is let down by its self-satisfaction with its own role on behalf of those who agreed to appear in the film, and its lack of interest in the lives of those who chose not to be interviewed (the Black principal and Asian-American Superintendent being the most prominent). We get no insight into the very real political constraints that play a part in what is not unfairly characterised as their lack of engagement with the life of the classroom. Here Steve James makes the poor choice to interview the principal's white predecessor to comment on the current principal's performance, and unsurprisingly the current principal is found wanting for their lack of bravery as leading to the lack of success (a critique echoed elsewhere in the series). The scenario of a white filmmaker interviewing an old white man to get quotes about the poor performance of the principal is literally the only insight we get into the many political relationships up the chain every administrator knows is part of the art of survival. In this respect, it mirrors some of the racial dynamics it attempts to critique - there are other Black school principals of many different ideologies who, I am sure, could have shed light on the dynamics of the situation, but James chose not to include them, preferring to keep the camera on the side of the more clearly worthy.
But in documentary ethics today, we discuss the need to study up rather than down, if we are to avoid making works that unwittingly satisfy a privileged demand for an experience of outrage on behalf of those who the privileged would never actually engage with. I enjoyed the series but couldn't help but feel that a Black filmmaker would have distributed our attention and sympathy differently. This is perhaps the lesson the series is asking teaching administrations to understand, but the series also needed to ask it of itself, and we don't get that.
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (2013)
Watch if you don't know Grace Lee Boggs
This is a documentary on Grace Lee Boggs, one of the most significant US activists of the 20th century, a Chinese-American who devoted much of her life to the Black Power movement and to the city of Detroit. If you don't know her work and would like some introduction, watch this for sure as she is truly awesome. Unfortunately, the film does not match the commitment and subtlety of her thought, and the framing positions her less within her intellectual and social worlds and more within liberal narratives of violent vs non-violent revolution and whether the Boggs is appropriately engaged with the filmmaker's concerns. The film made me think that if I had done anything worthwhile in my life (I have not) I would be very wary about someone coming to make a doco on me, so perhaps instructive in ways not intended by the filmmaker. There are a bunch of videos online of Boggs telling her own story; hard to imagine anyone genuinely engaged would prefer this instead but perhaps the narrative could engage some people, enough props to the filmmaker for choosing an excellent subject.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Enjoyable fluff for the fan or Francophile
I'm really baffled by the praise for the film, and Woody is one of my favourites. He obviously loves Paris and he wants to stage the fantasy of 1920s Paris as his, perhaps it could be anyone's, his point is simply the classic Romantic line that forces that move us to be interested in another time and place are unappreciated by capitalist materialists.
The characters are generally flat, and Owen Wilson as the protagonist is another of the awkward stand-ins that Woody ventriloquises. There is little of the detailed structure of interpersonal engagement that usually give his films something to chew on. All the figures of Euro-American modernism that are celebrated in the film are also flattened into stereotypes.
The art direction is superb and the city looks its best version of its cliché. But where Manhattan paired the visual city with the interior world of its inhabitants, this one is all about the surface.
La piel que habito (2011)
Audacious as ever, in a new form
I love Almodovar, but this certainly didn't provide any of the immediate warmth, havoc, or diegesis that to me locate his overall style. It's a tightly wound, typically audacious medical thriller with horror elements (ugh! my least favourite) that still ends up being a triumph of humanity over morality in a way that seems distinctly Pedro.
Enough people have discussed the plot, I'll just say that it felt more rewarding to me when comparing it to Greek mythology - while the pacing and characterisations are certainly fulfilling, at its core it is a ruthless analysis of the archetypal paradoxes of heterosexual male desire. It is in no way austere, but if read as an argument on the structure of heteronormativity it gains an added dimension.
This is definitely not the feel-good Almodovar burying his philosophical gems under a beautifully soapy surface. It is a beautiful film, but seemingly attempting to sit in or disrupt a US Hitchcokian genre. A film that might be as challenging for the fan as the non-fan. One to leave you pondering the limits of humanity.
Match Point (2005)
Great class analysis in a contemporary noir genre film
Great film, mostly free of many of the Woody tics that turn off the non-fans. Woody goes to the UK with a story from a film noir enthusiast who's view of England comes from too many Jane Austen novels. At the surface, there is a classic love triangle with the other woman, but the setup of the class dimension gives the film its bite.
Rhys Myers' character is the upwardly mobile Irish tennis pro finding his way into the jungle of the English upper class; the crux of the film is that his attempt to solve his romantic problems will end up being practically-motivated rather than achieved through finessing social relations, and we are left to the very end to find out whether or not this is his undoing.
Rhys Myers is OK, Johansson brings the screen presence but the reason to watch the film is for the relatively tight plotting (by Allen standards) along with WA's always-excellent eye for the underlying dynamics of sexual attraction and obsession. Much to enjoy in this film.
Anything Else (2003)
The film is pretty accurately rated
At around 6.5. From what I've seen, the gist of an IMDb Woody Allen rating is that you can add two points to the film if you're a fan, and subtract two points if you're not.
My first time seeing this on the small screen, through a sequential re-viewing of the entire works (most of which I'd seen before, but not this one). Of course it has some great lines, deep existential truths and some perfectly observed moments. This is why I would watch any Woody film, you never leave empty.
On the other hand, Allen's tendency to ventriloquise any protagonist that isn't him is in full effect with Biggs not really up to the character's dialogue as written (whether this is a problem with writing, acting or casting doesn't really matter). Also, the early script often drags, as Allen's tendency to hammer home a relationship dynamic in the character setup makes for a lot of work in the first part of the film. I guess non-fans might be turned off by the lack of likable characters.
In the end though, this one contained some gems in the writing; and insight into the way the world provides you with plenty of impetus to conform to a bad situation, but very little to move to a better one.
Don't usually like to write a spoiler, but for me the obvious twist left undone in Allen's assault on authority is that HE should have ended up dating Ricci's character while sending Falk off for 'his own good'. As it is, Allen gave himself the easy out. He's a prick like that. But also one of the best film-makers that ever lived.
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
Great watch
Really, I believe that all of Woody's films are worth watching, and I think you either have that attitude or you don't. If you don't, this won't be one that makes you a fan, but I do think it will pass a couple of hours in an entertaining fashion.
For the fan, this has to be enjoyed as a great period piece that has a high motor, ploughing through the dead spots while retaining a few signature Woody insights into the deeper questions of truth, evidence, love, desire that he has always returned to. Great acting, sets, cinematography all around.
I find it quite ironic that the IMDb review channel features discussion of the Woody / Soon_yi situation as appalling, while at the same time romance between a Woody in his 60s and the female leads in this film somehow should be untenable. A consistent theme of his films (that he would later, unfortunately, stage in real life) is that love always surprises us and is not reducible to rational calculation. Perhaps in some ways this is his deepest and truest insight as a film-maker, even as I have to hold my stomach at his real-life moves. But the moral core in his films, even from this period, is stronger than 99% of what gets made today.
It's Complicated (2009)
Enjoyable enough due to the performances.
Most of the other reviewers have pointed to the formulaic script, limp direction, and overall sappiness. In this day and age, holding rich white folk to be some kind of generic representation of the modern condition seems a bit forced - the script really needed some Woody Allenesque interest in the unique story of the individuals. Unfortunately, none of the characters surprise us with their development, the supporting characters are caricatures and it all feels a bit predictable.
Streep and Baldwin are both excellent and the film is worth a DVD view for their performances alone. Streep in particular does a lot of work to carry the film, great presence and subtlety and her chemistry with Baldwin is terrific. I wanted to like Martin but he never convinced until the party scene. And as everyone notes, John Krasinski is just a scene-stealer wherever he shows up. Everyone else could be replaced with cardboard cutouts without much drop-off (not always because of the performances, there just isn't much to work with).
All in all you could spend a worse evening in front of a romcom, there are a few genuinely funny moments and it's not bad. I guess I just was hoping for something great. Good to see a film with an older woman as the romantic lead regardless.