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Apollo 11 (2019)
Along for the Ride
Apollo 11 is a fantastic example of making an engaging documentary while primarily using archive footage. My biggest regret is watching this at home on DVD instead of on the big screen while it was still in theaters. The editing and added graphics help with keeping the footage engaging. I must give extra kudos to the composer because this movie would be way different without the excellent accompanying score.
Apollo 11 is a great presentation of a historic moment that is worth being watched by everyone.
Lumière! (2016)
A Must Watch for Film Lovers
This movie was a great learning experience. The most I ever learned about the Lumiere brothers' filmmaking was their two shorts of "Workers Leaving the Factory" and "Train Entering the Station." This documentary provides 100+ surviving short films by the brothers and their camera operators. The narration is a perfect inclusion for giving context to each short. But one could also watch this movie on mute and gain a more authentic viewing, while still having the documentary structured in a meaningful way.
I cannot recommend the movie enough. If you are thinking about watching Lumiere!, watch it now!!
The Lion Guard: Timon and Pumbaa's Christmas (2017)
I Wish I Could Rate This a -6.
This is an absolutely awful special. I cannot believe the people who make this show would stoop to this level. The songs were completely awful, Bunga had way too much screen time, and a part of my childhood died watching them contort the Lion King into having a Christmas special where they sing songs about Christmas and "Dandy Klaus."
I must add that whenever Bunga has screen time it is painful to the senses. So having him play such a large role this episode was completely awful. This episode diverges so much from the ongoing plot lines.
Scar makes no appearances, and neither does Makini's staff. This is due to her constantly breaking her staffs.
The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure (1998)
A Painful Experience
Everything about this movie was terrible. It's not even a movie, it's a product. The people who made this slapped together a cheap sequel with low effort (there is a song where nothing but footage from the first film is used). I cringed through pretty much the entire movie. There is absolutely nothing redeemable about this. Frankly, I don't know why I watched this and I am mad at myself for wasting the hour it took to get through this. This "movie" was somehow worse than the incredibly low expectations I had set for it. I recommend this to absolutely no one.
Deux jours, une nuit (2014)
Two Auteurs, One Experience
There are so many great stories and screenplays that exist that will never be made for an American audience because they are not the same story rehashed over and over for consumption. Studios think because they aren't a romantic comedy or a gritty enough drama they won't appeal to audiences. This film would never have been made in America and I am so glad that it was made.
Two Days, One Night is the story of Sandra, a woman who works for a solar company. After taking leave to deal with depression she finds out that she is going to be laid off. The other employees to will each receive a 1,000 euro bonus. At the urging of her friend/ co-worker as well as her husband, Sandra spends the weekend going around to as many of her co- workers as possible trying to convince them to vote to keep her rather than take the bonus.
The strongest part of this film is Marion Cotillard's performance. It is certainly not the only strong part of the film. But if I were only selecting one thing to highlight in this film, she is the one that deserves praise. It is no surprise that apart from "Best Foreign Language Film" Two Days, One Night has largely been receiving "Best Actress" nominations for all the awards this time of year. Including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress! Cotillard gives a masterful performance of a mother who is constantly being beat down by all that is happening to her and trying to remain strong. I truly felt as though I was watching a character's life experience and not an actor delivering lines.
Throughout the story we get glimpses into the lives of the people she works with. Though some of them only appear for just a few minutes they use this time to develop the characters as best they can. The Dardenne Brothers do not try to write as much as possible about them in the short time the characters are on screen so they come off more natural. One scene that I very much enjoyed is when Sandra meets with one of her co-workers to ask him to vote for her and he breaks down crying. He brings up how she covered for him when he was still new and he messed up and he felt terrible for initially voting against her. We learn that the two had a good working relationship and that he is Christian when he brings up "God says to help thy neighbor." Like many other employees he has a family to take care of but, he is willing to give up the bonus because of his principles.
One of the greatest scenes that sums up the large dilemma is towards the end when Sandra visits the last employee she can before Monday. He tells her that he does not want Sandra to loose her job but he absolutely needs the money. The best line in the movie comes when he says I hope you keep your job but it will be terrible for me if you do. It sums up the whole idea of the conflict in this film. This does not become a simplified good versus evil story for the audience to side with heroine and those who vote in Sandra's favor. Those who vote against her and even for her have good reasons and motives. The only person that could be classified as the villain only appears briefly on screen in the last ten minutes. It lets the audience decide if what Sandra is doing is good or bad because even she can see the harm in what she does.
Now I can't really say there were things this film did wrong. Doing a quick check on IMDb shows a result of zero goofs for this film. The cinematography is not particularly memorable like Nebraska or Ida. I enjoyed how it presented the scene and made me feel as though I were silently observing the story unfolding before me. I also would have been okay with the film being longer. It would have been interesting to see a bit more interactions between employees and Sandra or even Sandra's husband. It is Sandra's job and story so it makes sense that it would need to be her doing the job. It would have been interesting to see maybe one or two scenes where Sandra's husband speaks with some male co-workers to convince them to vote for her when she could not. It could have developed those briefly seen characters more.
I would recommend this film to anyone. The MPAA gave it a PG-13 and though I hate to agree with them I really do in this situation. I feel like for kids this would probably not be very interesting but there really is nothing too serious in terms of mature content except for maybe two scenes and curse words every now and then. To all ages 13 and up this is definitely worth watching. This is a foreign film you should not miss!