Friday Morning Three-Line Movie Review

Green Book

Something about Peter Farrelly's movie made me squirm, and I think you know why. It wasn't the truly great performances of both Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, both so easy on the eyes that -- well -- they could charm the skin off a snake, as they say, but when the snake is racism and a white man is interpreting it and there's all kinds of gloss and over-arching stereotype, I am not charmed. I am squirming in my seat, like I did while reading The Help and while watching it, too, and should I go on because I think you already get my drift and that drift is that we've got a whole lot more work to do and art to make if this piece of fluff makes anyone of any color not squirm in their seat.










More Three-Line Movie Reviews

Crazy Rich Asians
BlacKkKlansman
Far From the Tree
Sorry to Bother You
RBG
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Learning to Drive
Love and Mercy
Not a Three Line Movie Review
While We're Young
Ida
Force Majeur 
Gone Girl
Saint Vincent
Get on Up
Begin Again
Chef
The Immigrant
Cesar Chavez
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gloria
Labor Day 
Philomena

August: Osage County

Her

American Hustle

Saturday Afternoon Three-Line Movie Review

Crazy Rich Asians

I don't get it. Call me a killjoy, but while I understand how important this movie is with its all-Asian cast, and even though the actors are nearly all charming, the male lead, Henry Golding, is particularly sexy, and the presence of the great Michelle Yeoh works to partly redeem the tiresome superficiality, what is there to say but honestly? I don't get it.














More Three-Line Movie Reviews

BlacKkKlansman
Far From the Tree
Sorry to Bother You
RBG
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Learning to Drive
Love and Mercy
Not a Three Line Movie Review
While We're Young
Ida
Force Majeur 
Gone Girl
Saint Vincent
Get on Up
Begin Again
Chef
The Immigrant
Cesar Chavez
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gloria
Labor Day 
Philomena

August: Osage County

Her

American Hustle

Monday Morning Three Line Movie Review

BlacKkKlansman

I hesitated to even write a review for Spike Lee's new movie because I had so many ideas about it, most of those ideas are floating through my brain like guppies waiting to be swallowed whole by a whale and because -- well -- critiquing it is as overwhelming as the feelings provoked by it. I just wasted a sentence, though, on a movie that deserves, probably, an academic treatise, such is its complexity and craft, and while I didn't think it perfect by any stretch, it made me feel uncomfortable and that's exactly what a movie about race in America should do to a white woman. I don't think there's any need to explain why I felt uncomfortable (and it's a good thing to be white and feel uncomfortable today), but when I wasn't feeling uncomfortable, I was lifted up in spirit by Spike Lee's ability to meld so many seemingly disparate things -- the power of image to influence people, the power (and not so subtle warning of the power) of image in cinema, in particular, to even let people off the hook from truly regarding racism, in this country, the power of laughter to both highlight and horrify, the power of the patriarchy, the obeisance to the patriarchy by even those who are being oppressed, police brutality, anti-Semitism, Trumpism, music and culture and fashion -- into a piece of art that left me feeling both exhilarated and drained.











More Three-Line Movie Reviews

Far From the Tree
Sorry to Bother You
RBG
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Learning to Drive
Love and Mercy
Not a Three Line Movie Review
While We're Young
Ida
Force Majeur 
Gone Girl
Saint Vincent
Get on Up
Begin Again
Chef
The Immigrant
Cesar Chavez
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gloria
Labor Day 
Philomena

August: Osage County

Her

American Hustle

Saturday Evening Three-Line Movie Review

Far From the Tree*

directed by Rachel Dretzin
based on Andrew Solomon's Far From the Tree

It's a given that I'd rush to see this documentary, as I believe Andrew Solomon's book Far From the Tree should be at everyone's bedside and a probable replacement for the Gideon Bible which has been so grossly twisted by its most evangelical adherents. Solomon's book is about humanity for humanity, and in these grotesquely inhumane times when children with brown skin are kidnapped from their parents and put in confinement camps, Solomon's brilliant and compassionate view of difference and Dretzin's visual interpretation of that book, along with a sensitive portrayal of several families' experiences, make for profound viewing. Like the book, the documentary should resonate for everyone because it's about family and love and the gnarly twists and turns of life, for those who might interpret difference as tragedy and for those who know that to hold both tragedy and joy at once is the ultimate expression of grace.








* Andrew Solomon and several of the cast of the documentary attended the screening and answered questions afterward. Here are a couple of pictures that Carl took:

More Three-Line Movie Reviews:


Sorry to Bother You
RBG
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Learning to Drive
Love and Mercy
Not a Three Line Movie Review
While We're Young
Ida
Force Majeur 
Gone Girl
Saint Vincent
Get on Up
Begin Again
Chef
The Immigrant
Cesar Chavez
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gloria
Labor Day 
Philomena

August: Osage County

Her

American Hustle

Friday Evening Three-Line Movie Review

As I sat and watched the documentary RBJ about the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I couldn't help but think about the dead journalists, the babies in cages, the piles of black bodies dead or in prison, the tainted water of Flint, Michigan, the taxes in the form of tariffs, and, of course, the reproductive rights of women, particularly those who are poor or minorities. The movie demonstrates with startling clarity how far "we've" come, because of this woman and her fight for equality, and it also underscores how much is at stake and how far backward we're moving with the despot on the throne and the same old white men calling the shots. The movie is worth going to, though, if you're in need of some galvanizing, if you want to see a fierce woman fight for everything that is good, partnered with a man who supported her every step of the way, and you wonder how the hell we're going to carry on her legacy with so much against us, because WE ARE, we have done it before and we will do so again, and we owe it to her for helping us.









More 3-Line Movie Reviews

Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Learning to Drive
Love and Mercy
Not a Three Line Movie Review
While We're Young
Ida
Force Majeur 
Gone Girl
Saint Vincent
Get on Up
Begin Again
Chef
The Immigrant
Cesar Chavez
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gloria
Labor Day 
Philomena

August: Osage County

Her

American Hustle