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Reviews
Happiness for Beginners (2023)
Tooooo cute for words...
The plot, the characters, the acting, the dialogue...so adorable. So saccharine. So CON-temporary. Yet another movie about a boring person finding herself. And, guess what? The person she finds is just as boring. I plead guilty to having watched this to the end, but it's probably because it was 90+ degrees here today and I could barely keep my head up, much less get off the computer.
I'm a former back-packer, hiker and hard-core camper. The "wilderness" section of this movie was ludicrous, the usual weary trope of people being afraid of bears. I found it hard to believe that the campers had even broken a sweat.
What has happened to movies? And, more disgusting, why did I watch this to the end?
Mustang Island (2017)
I wish I had the chops and heart to write like this
Real people, real feelings, real kinda resolution. Whoever wrote and created this movie never once stepped back from their respect for their characters; never made a joke at the characters' expense; never caricatured them. I cared for the main players. And the teen-age wahoos were perfect - absolutely heartless and dumb. Thanks for pushing me to go back to working on my new novel. That's the highest praise I can give.
Skinwalker Ranch (2013)
Shocking appropriation of taboo Native American material
The term "Skinwalker" is taken very seriously by traditional Navajo (Dine), so seriously that I am not free to go into detail of the meaning of the term in this review. It is clear that the non-Navajo director/producer/actors etc who made this movie did not delve into the meaning of the term "skinwalker". If they had, they may have understood what serious danger and cultural misrepresentation they were dealing with - and not made the movie.
Do your own research on the internet. You will find out..
The Card Counter (2021)
I love gambling movies, BUT, this one left me yawning...plus,
I'd like to explain what was going on with Tell "sanitizing" the motel room. I've written about compulsive gambling - I know it first and second hand. It is pretty common for compulsive gamblers to also live with obsessive-compulsive disorder. I figure that was what Schrader was doing with that scene. Anybody else got the same idea? Or a different one. I found the scene powerful and sad.
Byron Baes (2022)
Byron Baes should be Borderline Baes
I live 30 miles north of Sedona, Arizona, in Flagstaff. I know Byron Baes. I know the shrieking women, the shrieking men, the desperation, the jaded innocence, the spiritual necrosis. I've heard conversations that were word for word, dead-on replicas of the dialogue in this wickedly funny and heart-breaking series. I can't wait to get right back to it.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
I was a radical in my twenties at this time - because of people like the 7
The moment when Tom Hayden stands up in the court-room and begins reading from the list of names in his hands - that moment made me want either a time machine, or for all of us to step into the street tomorrow and begin reading our lists of the atrocities our current administration has inflicted, and is inflicting on the America people, and many other people at this ugly time.
I know my longing for those kinds of actions will be unmet. We are all far too occupied nattering around on social media and keeping ourselves busy, busy, busy. I also know that the Chicago 7 would not have had their moments of power without all the women who staffed radical offices, answered the phones, made copies, filed, and and and. The movie portrayed that injustice accurately.
Before you write, "Okay, Boomer," know that I'm too old to be a Boomer. I'm a furious and heart-broken old woman.