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martinlschneider12
Reviews
San Francisco (1936)
Simple Minded but Awesome Moments
The dialogue, by today's standards, is extremely simple minded. Yet, the story grabs you. Up to a point where one wonders, when is it going to happen, when? Then it happens. I find it remarkable that there's no detail about awesome special effects. I wonder, how they did it. Especially when it first strikes and you inside a capacious dining, theater set. The details are really scary. I note that the son of the effects person, John Hoffman, has written here. I am hungry for more details about the hydraulic platforms, the miniatures, the falling bricks, the fires, tell me all about it.
First Reformed (2017)
Approach With Caution
This film scrutinizes some of today's most urgent social and personal issues. With novelty and intensity. It surprises. Moment to moment.
It admits these are issues without neat answers. Perhaps with no answer...like Schrodingers cat is it alive or dead or both?.
Bobby Kennedy thought we could make good civic things happen if only we approached our common public issues with love. Naive?
Money seems to drive so many things....Schrader wonders do we have to live with unfettered greed?
Sorry for the generalities but this is a film you need to experience yourself.
I rate it a 10 for its creative approach to some of our most profound issues.
Isle of Dogs (2018)
A Work of Art
A timely political story. A very bad guy is in charge. He needs a scapegoat. Dogs are it. The dogs are all sent away to a kind of concentration camp. The dogs are just regular people-like dogs. They do need outside assistance. A good guy helps the dogs organize and overcome their oppressors and their human-like failings.
It is beautifully told with characters and landscapes drawn from Japanese historical art style. The cast and the vivid landscapes are fabulous to see. And it is all believable.
The Death of Stalin (2017)
Vastly Over-Rated
We saw Stalin in a nearly fully theater. About six people laughed a lot fairly noisily. This is heavy handed and repetitious satire. We get it from the outset. The joke is that everyone is justifiably scared of the dictator. He kills people whom he dislikes. All those near him fear his casual lethal wrath. Okay. They behave like scared rabbits. They are crude, vulgar and often stupid. There are some witty exchanges. But not two hours' worth. Still, the next two shows in Brooklyn were sold out. But there'll be a lot of disappointed movie-goers and this phenom will fizzle as the word gets out that Iannucci is no Jonathan Swift or John Oliver.