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Reviews
Cocktail Molotov (1980)
Perfectly captures that adolescent longing for direction
I first saw this movie in a local art house when I was pretty much the same age as the main characters. I had just spent a year in France, and saw it when I got back to the States. I was, at the time, quite sensitive to the very different political tracks the two countries were pursuing at that time -- France had just elected its first socialist president, and the US had just elected Reagan. Against that backdrop, I was 18 and searching for direction myself -- a little lost, a little romantic, and starting to develop a political self, all at the same time.
The movie had a profound effect on me at the time, and I ended up seeing it two or three times, buying the soundtrack, etc. (Great soundtrack with Murray Head and Yves Simon songs.) It is really the story of these three teens' confusion about the same things I was confused about: love, family, politics, the meaning of life. The background metaphor of the kids taking off from Paris to Venice, just as Paris is erupting in serious student/worker revolt, illustrates wonderfully how the adolescent dramas we all get so engaged in can keep us from seeing the bigger picture around us. It also mirrored my own generational sense of having just barely missed out (by being too young) on my own events of '68. The ultimate directionlessness -- and perhaps pointlessness -- of their quest is painted both poignantly and matter of factly.
I saw this film again a few years ago -- it had not been available on video in the US during the intervening 20 years -- and I was anxious to see whether I would still like it, if it would still have some meaning to me. And I have to say that it has held up remarkably well. It is one of the best coming-of-age movies I have ever seen. (Of course, it is also one of the very few serious coming-of-age movies that focuses on a girl.)
Casa de los babys (2003)
As complex and unresolved as the underlying issue(s)
The genius of this film is exactly the characteristic that many here have criticized it for: it contradicts itself all over the place and ends abruptly with no resolution. What possible resolution could you expect? Adoption is an inherently troubling phenomenon. It always involves awkward intersections of race and class, opportunity and the lack thereof, sex and sexism, law and morals. I found this film to be deeply troubling in all the ways it should be, due to the topic.
I think Sayles did a brilliant job bringing together a number of very believable characters and just showing them to us for 90-some odd minutes. All have their contradictions, and none clearly speaks some unambiguous authorial opinion. The son of the hotel owner mouths his leftist analysis with his buddies, but is really a drunken loser. Rita Moreno, through her frustration with her husband's politics, voices the frustration of so many women: politics is one thing, but who'll take care of the kids? And of course, the reverse is implied as well: kids are one thing, but who'll take care of the politics? You can go through each of the characters and seem some inherent pull in opposite directions.
I loved that none of the characters is entirely sympathetic, except perhaps the three homeless boys. They are all complicated and corrupted by a complicated and corrupt world that places a premium on babies and motherhood, but only under the "right" circumstances for the right women and the right kids.
I was very grateful that there was no real closure at the end, and that all Sayles had to say was that, despite all, both the least sympathetic and the most sympathetic of the potential moms were about to leave with babies.
Anyone who cares about kids and women should see this movie. And certainly anyone who is considering adoption (domestic or international -- either way, it's all the same issues) should see it. In sum, a very thought-provoking movie.
P.S. -- Did I mention the incredible soundtrack?
A Family Affair (2001)
A terrible movie
On just about every level. This is one of the worst lesbian movies ever made (although Claire of the Moon and that John Sayles movie, Lianna, are pretty good contenders as well). Dreadful writing -- cliche upon cliche, that hackneyed talk-to-the-camera shtick, it just goes on and on. And yet she thinks she's clever? Helen Lesnick cannot act and looks to be at least 15 years older than her character claims to be. Bad editing. A cheaply done movie and it looks it. Just bad bad bad. Are we sure this movie wasn't made in the early 80s for film school class?
You want a good lesbian movie, go see the Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love. Go Fish. Bound. Just about anything is better than this waste of celluloid, videotape, bits, whatever.
Mary Poppins (1964)
A great one to pass along
This was the first movie I ever saw, at a drive-in in probably 1968 or 1969, when I was just 4 or 5. Today I watched it with my two-year old for the first time, and he just plain loved it. He laughed non-stop during "I love to laugh" and danced with Dick Van Dyke through most of the numbers. A wonderful feeling to get to pass this incredible movie on to him. A delight.