Entries tagged 'cat:Films' (Page 1)

Film: Hesher

Entry created on 2022-05-27 author:steeph (294) cat:Death (7) cat:Films (13) lang:en (154) top:Films (11)

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This is a movie that I quite like but because I don't know it for long and because there are signs that the movie contains an artistic allegory or something that I don't understand as a major part of the story, I don't include it in the list of my favourite movies that I've started recently.

IMDB plot summary: A young boy has lost his mother and is losing touch with his father and the world around him. Then he meets Hesher who manages to make his life even more chaotic.

For me the movie is hard to fit into a caregory. 1-star reviews call it "silly", a "rediculous script", "horrible and offensive" and a "waste of talent". Some say it's saved by good acting. Others at least give it that it's still a comedy and not supposed to treat its topic only with sincerity. I say it's a funny, chaotic and offensive comedy with a rediculous script, great acting, telling a silly story with horrible moments and it doesn't care to take any of the topic it touches seriously. I don't really agree with other reviewers about the point it supposedly is trying to make. I don't even think it's mainly about loss of a family member. That's just part of the chaotic story that's dominated by a chaoric character. Does it need to make a point? Does it need to take a side in something? Can't it be rediculous and weird with no fixed statement built in. I don't mind misinterpreting movies as long as I get to enjoy some of them precisely for not getting a point out of the story. This is a movie that performs that rare, fulfilling gratification that I mainly remember from watching great comedies for the first time in my teens. And it may be because I don't understand the parts of life this movie is depicting like I didn't understand life when I was 16. But if it means that I can enjoy a movie because it's funny and weird, I take it!

Casually Posting About An Actual War

Entry created on 2022-05-18 author:steeph (294) cat:Blog Article (1) cat:Films (13) cat:War (1) lang:en (154)

This entry is not a statement about either topic.

I'm not going to write about any aspect of blog and social media posts by people who're safe from war for now and the forseeable future talking casually about war, a war, the war or related happenings, nor address any specific of such posts. I just felt like making one myself.

This article:

Schreenshot of the beginning of an article on bbc.com.

Headline: Marianna Vyshemirsky: 'My picture was used to spread lies about the war'

Author: Marianna Spring

Photo: A young blond woman in front of a damages building is looking into the camera.

Text: "The beauty influencer was accused of being an actor after this photo was published"

URL: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-61412773

reminded me of this scene:

Screencap from a scene from the movie Wag The Dog: At a film stage a fake movie clip from a supposed war is being produced.

Another screencap from the movie Wag The Dog: The resulting news footage of a young blond woman in front of a damages building.

from this movie: Wag The Dog (1997).

Film: Martian Child

Entry created on 2021-12-24 author:steeph (294) cat:Films (13) lang:en (154) top:Films (11)

The Martian Child is one of those cute, emotional movies with a child in an important role that left an impression with me and is deemed very much worth watching but I'd have trouble explaining why. I'll push myself through this bit of trouble and try. I think I mostly like it because of the cute. I think of it as sort of like Big Daddy but more serious (and without Adam Sandler). Big Daddy isn't a bad movie overall. I've re-watched it so many times before I realised that movies can be a lot better than that, because it's just too cute not to. But it is a typical Adam Sandler movie with the depth and humor of a typical Adam Sandler movie (and with Adam Sandler).

The Martian Child is another foster child/adoption movie about a single, previously childless man. (Why are there so many movies about this, btw?) In comparison with other movies in this category the closeness to reality of its depiction of the circumstances, the process and the foster care system is probably above average. But I don't have any experience to judge that. That's not the focus of the story, anyway.

For me the story is about the child's unique and uncommon personality. I like how it's never really explained what events in the first five years of his life may explain what every grownup in the story sees as peculiar and concerning behaviour and every child in the story sees as weird and sometimes repellent. It may be important for the grownup's goal to enable him to grow into a normal enough person to function in society. (I assume that's their goal and why they are so concerned about his weirdness.) But it's addressed in the movie only as much as necessary.

For other viewers it may be just as much or more about the new father's development and the challange of and challanges that come with fostering a in general and this child in particular. It's about all of that. But ultimately, the reason I decided to watch it again was that it's an emotional story with a cute small child actor acting and speaking all timid while saying things normal people would find surprising, strange responses. So a good story well told is a great bonus, as it were.

Film: Harold And Maude

Entry created on 2021-12-05 author:steeph (294) cat:Death (7) cat:Films (13) lang:en (154) top:Films (11)

This is a movie that hardly anybody seems to know nowadays. I have no idea how well known it was when it came out in 1971. But I imagine not enough. I don't find most movies from the 80s and older very enjoyable. So I guess by that definition I have to count "Harold And Maude" (IMDB) to the relatively few special movies from that time period. It's not moved or impressed me like other movies on that imaginary list. But it's a very nice story very well told and an uncommon story at that.

I guess that's all I wanted to say here. Check it out (if you want to watch a coming-of-age movie about ~~friendship~~love and a life-defining experience that is unlike any other movie that would be aptly so described and features just enough implied humor to not be called entirely a drama by me).

Film: The Road

Entry created on 2020-12-27 author:steeph (294) cat:Films (13) cat:Thoughts (69) lang:en (154) top:Films (11)

The boy's father in "The Road" is not a good father. Change my mind.

All things considered, I'm glad he died. It would have been even better had he died earlier.