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Reviews
The White Lotus (2021)
Uplifting in its fresh look at tourism and class
The only problem with this series is that my husband's howling laughter is going to impair my hearing.
Apart from that, I love the script, the social critique, the eerie, suffocating shots of waves, the ironic POV on the "scenic" elements and kitsch Hawaiiana, the perspective on class, race and colonialism, and the mix of slapstick and subtle nuance in the acting.
And the music! I could just put the introduction on repeat.
Only reason I gave it 9 out of 10 is that we haven't seen the final episode yet.
Save the Date (2012)
Ideological subterfuge
Kevin is stupid, Beth is obnoxious, the bookshop is boring, marriage is so not cool, so Sarah is entitled to behave like an irritatingly narcissistic adolescent (especially since she is so pretty). No material problems get in the way of Sarah's self-centered, vacuous life. She doodles and it leads to a solo exhibition that even gets reviewed by Artforum. Now, come on! That almost makes the movie veer into surrealism! Enter considerate, whale-loving Jonathan. Although I personally find his squirming body language rather distasteful, the script tells me I'm supposed to think he's cute. There is an epic (as in unbelievably corny) scene with him cuddling the retrieved cat on the stairs. This (of course) signals that it's time for Sarah to settle into conventional child-rearing mode. And sis opportunely turns nice and understanding. Problem solved. It all happened so quickly I didn't even have time to start feeling sorry for the boring characters. Honestly, there's something disturbingly insidious about this movie camouflaged as an indie film. I have an eerie suspicion it was funded by the pro-life lobby in an attempt to get the slackers and dudes back on the baby-making track. The film ends suddenly - because, I guess, it has to, since the story would have turned painfully mundane from then on. (Unless, of course, Jonathan is a psychopath and the screen goes black because he flips and applies a hatchet not too gently to her head when she tells him she's pregnant. Now *that* would at least have made this film mildly interesting.)