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

Sunday Morning Three-Line Movie Review*

I, like millions of other children who grew up in the late sixties and seventies, loved Mr. Rogers with a quiet intensity, and while I've always attributed that love to how calm the show was, how devoid of the frenzy of the other children's shows (I was a rather serious child who disliked cartoons and all that yelling and banging), after watching Morgan Neville's beautiful documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? I'm thinking it was more because I knew on some deep level that Mr. Rogers loved me. The documentary spends little time on Rogers' life and more on how he drew from his experience in child development and a deep spirituality (he was an ordained Presbyterian minister) to shape an inimitable show that celebrated and honored true human emotions without judgement. I teared up several times in the movie, particularly during the parts that demonstrated his love and attention toward children with disabilities and those of other races, and I left the movie wishing that he were still alive to shore us up in these terrible American times.



















*I used to write a Saturday Three-Line Movie Review and decided tonight to revive it on Sunday mornings, particularly if I've seen a movie (I don't go nearly as often as I used to). You can read other Three-Line Reviews here:


More 3-Line Movie Reviews

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