fmoramar Reviews

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

State of the art acting by Dench, Blanchett and Nighy

[9/10 · 29 December 2006]

What a treat to watch three of the best actors of our time in the same movie! Judy Dench is an international treasure; Cate Blanchett never looked better or created a more compelling character in any of her other movies, and I had the good fortune to discover Bill Nighy on Broadway in "The Vertical Hour" with Julianne Moore the night before I saw "Notes from a Scandal," and I now want to see everything he's done. A superlative creator of character. "Notes from a Scandal" tells us a lot about the "British" penchant for relishing "scandals" (they invented the tabloid press) and also about the odd, intersecting relationships that have become a nearly commonplace reality in the contemporary world. Both Blanchett and Dench (as Sheba and Barbara) teach at the same Islington secondary school. And both, in very different ways, embark on "inappropriate" relationships that create turmoil in their lives and the lives of their community. Judy Dench conveys the desperate loneliness of her character's life and a remarkable scene of her smoking a cigarette in a bathtub conveys the distinction between her kind of loneliness--an older, unattractive, single woman with no real connections in life--and the more endurable kinds of loneliness that many of us share. This is a gripping film that moves crisply from one scene to the next, missing only a very few beats along the way. A must see.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

A truly extraordinary and original movie

[9/10 · 28 December 2006]

I saw this film after reading about 1/2 of the book and I was reluctant to see it before I finished the book, but I was absolutely absorbed by the film from the beginning. The film so fully engages our senses, especially our sense of smell that you can almost smell the on screen smells in the theater. (In the 60's there was a film experiment with a process called "Aromarama" where actual smells were released into the theater...this would have been the perfect film to do that with.) The visuals in the film are stunning and several of the scenes are unforgettable. In addition, the film takes a number of surprising turns keeping us off guard throughout. It's difficult to say too much about the plot without giving too much away, but the evocation of 18th century France is extraordinary. It's a film about a man's obsession to discover who he is and whether it is possible for him to love and be loved. Many people may find aspects of "Perfume" puzzling, but it's really quite carefully worked out thematically and gives us substantial insights into deeply lodged human needs and desires. We all want to make a difference in the world and the main character is driven by that need and the need to shape and discipline his talent so he can contribute something. That need becomes perverted in the course of his achieving it. This is not a film for everyone, but I loved it.

Asylum (2005)

Interesting, but strains your credibility

[6/10 · 4 September 2005]

Here's a lively intense film, beautifully acted, gorgeously shot, energetically directed, and yet the whole doesn't quite come together. It's in some senses a period piece that pretty well gets stuck in its period--England in the early 60s, when a lot of smoking and Freudian psychoanalysis were both in their heyday. There are a lot of twists and turns in this drama, each one grimmer and more outrageous than the last, but in the end what you admire are the sensitive and engaging performances of Natasha Richardson and Ian McKellen, both of whom take us into this soap opera of a drama and make us care about their characters. That's more that can be said for the screenplay which would fit comfortably on daytime TV. It's worth watching for the performances, but its not a film you'd recommend to friends.

Junebug (2005)

The kind of movie that makes you thankful for Independent films

[9/10 · 29 August 2005]

Here is a quiet, small, but extremely touching and real movie about family, relationships and the clash of cultures in today's world. Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) is a Chicago art dealer who specializes in "outsider" art--art by eccentric or mad untrained artists--and she discovers that a truly weird artist whose work she wants to represent in her gallery lives in North Carolina, not far from her new husband's family. She met her husband George's (Alessandro Nivola at an auction at her gallery and the chemistry between them was off the charts. They married a couple of weeks after they met, and she has never met his family. The two travel to Carolina, ostensibly to talk the artist into signing with her gallery, but the movie's core is the interaction between Madeleine and George's dysfunctional but deeply bonded Southern family. Amy Adams as Ashley, George's sister-in-law, steals the picture with her effusive energy and vitality. Another of the most striking things about the film is its lack of a musical soundtrack, a technique that puts all the focus on the characters and their actions, without steering you to feel this way or another about them. I loved it.

Independent Lens: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) Season 8, Episode 22

Should be required viewing for business majors

[8/10 · 28 May 2005]

This is a film that will clearly polarize viewers. Yes, it's a selective view of what happened at Enron but it is stunning in its depiction of the denial, greed, and self-congratulatory aspects of corporate culture, and shows us how "the smartest guys in the room" are often the greediest guys in the room as well. The key thing about Enron is that no one could say clearly how it made its money. Here's a business that became one of the largest corporations in America, essentially bamboozling people and creating a totally unnecessary service and many phantom sub-services. The men at the top were clearly aware of their wrongdoing, but everyone passes the buck. Can we ever change the "bottom line" mentality of corporations who put fast profits ahead of ethics and basic honesty? I doubt it, but if more business majors saw this film they might have some inkling of the world they're getting into.

Layer Cake (2004)

Some clever moments, but ultimately disappointing

[5/10 · 28 May 2005]

Yes, this is a crime thriller with many twists and turns, but a lot of gratuitous violence and one twist and turn too many knocked me out of its orbit. Essentially it's a very standard formula movie. The bad guys keep doing each other in and you can see the irony of the end coming from a long distance. The performances are well done, but I found myself caring very little about these hard nosed criminals. Very little or no feminine energy in the film, and what feminine energy there is is a parody of femaleness. ("Some enchanted evening...you may see a stranger...") And damn, some of those British accents are hard to follow. I kept thinking subtitles would be appropriate in several places.

The Holy Girl (2004)

A subtle, beautifully acted, well written study of the contradictions of female adolescence

[9/10 · 28 May 2005]

This is a film that will not appeal to everyone (see previous comment) but I loved it. It's an extremely subtle portrayal of a young female teenager growing up in a Latin American culture with it's odd views of sexuality (you can have anal sex before marriage and still consider yourself a virgin) and its sometimes overbearing religiosity. It also portrays the life of a divorced single mom in that culture with insight and exactness. The young actress who plays Amelia is a future star--she has the slyest smile and the most expressive face I've seen on the screen in ages. And Mercedes Moran, who plays her mother, is also excellent. It's written and directed by the very talented Lucrecia Martel whose direction conveys a sense of eavesdropping on these people's lives. A beautifully done film.