middlehitter-92234 Reviews

Dark Matter (2024– )

Scientists as thugs

[3/10 · 23 May 2024]

Spoilers: I lost interest when kidnapped Justin is confronted at gunpoint by a paramilitary monster using a gun with a silencer and kills his wife because she didn't drop her cell phone. In the next episode the genius scientists allow her to torture him tied to a chair.

How is it that it takes three episodes for these idiots to realize that an alternative Justin was returned to them.

Finally, they so easily justify sacrificing volunteer's after Justin uses the box. Just a terrible script.

Spoilers: I lost interest when kidnapped Justin is confronted at gunpoint by a paramilitary monster using a gun with a silencer and kills his wife because she didn't drop her cell phone. In the next episode the genius scientists allow her to torture him tied to a chair.

How is it that it takes three episodes for these idiots to realize that an alternative Justin was returned to them.

Finally, they so easily justify sacrificing volunteer's after Justin uses the box. Just a terrible script.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

Fuel Oil?

[5/10 · 24 February 2024]

So many reviews here are about the actors' private affairs rather than the movie. The plot holes and ridiculousness are abundant. But if you wanted realism don't watch a movie about a couple of mercenaries who meet cute escaping a coup in a foreign country and then keep their actual jobs a secret sharing a house they built together with weapon stashes unknown to each other. Movies are supposed to set the rules of an alternate reality that enable the viewer to suspend disbelief as long as the rules are followed. This movie did just that until the final chapter introduced the goon squad of expendables for the protagonists to mow down guilt free due to their complete anonymity. It's a B movie elevated by a big budget and celebrity star power. Mindless entertainment to promote popcorn and soda. So sit back and have a Coke and popcorn and quit complaining. (BTW, biggest plot hole: a fuel oil tank in the basement of a house with natural gas heat).

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

Badly needed editing

[6/10 · 26 January 2024]

I have several issues with the film: it is too long, too many characters introduced without context, the time jumps made it difficult to follow, the real issues the film addresses needed more exposition (which scenes could have replaced the numerous metaphorical displays intended to represent Oppenheimer's genius, thinking and emotions).

The first half is very choppy with cuts every few seconds and countless angle and perspective jumps on each scene. I guess the director, cinematographer and editor felt the subject matter involved so many simple conversations that the audience would get bored.

It's too bad they didn't pick an issue and explore it fully rather than give many storylines haphazard coverage. The betrayal was obvious but the second half focused on a complicated structure to allow a big reveal.

Finally, the actual bomb construction, how it worked, and the tests were barely presented (the first test of a nuclear detonation has been done better in nany other films) and the destruction and death from its use in Japan needed a graphic depiction.

Bodies (2023)

Entertaining but illogical

[6/10 · 11 December 2023]

Spoilers follow: As many reviews have indicated, the major plot hole in the series revolves around the time loop that is Julian Harker/Elias "Morley" Mannix' life and genealogy. Even following the time travel rules presumed by the series, Julian being his own ancestor is nonsense. There has to be an original time line with its own path to Elias' birth (and ascension to power) that did not start with Elias. There are other issues with plot devices that aren't fleshed out enough to be convincing. Such as the lack of any investigation into the bombing scheme and all the people necessary to pull off a hidden bank vault that can still be accessed by a single key and into which a nuclear device is deposited without discovery. It is implied that a government plot is the reason - but if true, then why would the government be completely unaware of the existence of the wormhole?

Once I suspend disbelief and accept the flaws, the acting is mostly very good. Steven Graham, who plays Julian Harker seems too stiff until the final episode.

Also, Polly's motivation goes from willful compliance to some version of hateful compliance because she learns her husband killed her father. Why did she agree to the atrocities under either scenario?

But the other actors are convincing in the confines of their character development. It's worth the time but expect to spend some time after tearing it apart.

The Whale (2022)

A Great Play

[8/10 · 25 September 2023]

I'm surprised that so many reviewers missed some central themes in the production. It's obviously adapted from a play. The choice to not expand the movie beyond the apartment added to the isolation the protagonist built for himself through his terrible diet and the enabling sister of his dead lover.

He basically began killing himself shortly after his lover succumbed to his lifelong depression and suicidal ideation. The play only briefly touched upon the additional isolation and otherness thrust upon homosexuality but I felt that the gross obesity was partly an outward manifestation of the self-loathing he felt because his love wasn't, in his mind, enough to save his lover from suicide.

Some reviewers were aghast at his obesity. I deducted a star because the gratuitous use of the naked prosthetics detracted from the realism that Brendon had already brought alive in his performance. But I noted that he is depicted as a person who regularly showers and shaves, changes his clothes and tidies up after himself. He was not disgusting because he is grossly obese, although depressing to see, he is self-loathing.

Other reviewers felt no sympathy for any of these characters. The play takes place over a week in which each character is going through very difficult things. They are depicted at their worst or suffering through terrible events. It is a mistake to decide they are simply horrible based on the actions in one week.

I found some of the acting was overly dramatic (due to the director) and I agree with one reviewer that noticed the typical stage direction where characters hang in the background until they are called up to their next scene. That cost another star, but, really it's a common complaint about plays.

The acting was mostly moving and relatable. It's not a tragedy since the protagonist did not realize a fate due to a character flaw. The obesity is a metaphor to me of the decay caused by clinging to loss rather than face the changed future.

And the Whale theme made sense in relation to the pursuit by the obsessed person who was so terribly scarred by the person she has built up to be a beast that she set about to destroy him by destroying herself. Yes, the daughter is Ahab and she pursues her absent father, the Monster, to punish him, and herself, because she blames him for making her feel so unworthy. And that feeling of worthlessness is shared by every character. In the end, the protagonist finally feels he is worthwhile because he sees his worth in his daughter's eyes as she moves past his decay to see him as the father whose love she was finally able to understand.

I highly recommend this movie.

Dear Child (2023)

Unrealistic and irritating

[3/10 · 10 September 2023]

This series lacks realism for a police drama.

I don't need police training to recognize shoddy investigative work. Also, the primary investigators withhold critical information from each other and they apparently don't report to any superiors. This kind of case would have immediately involved tremendous resources to locate these children.

Also the mind control element affecting the children is much too effective not have involved years of torture. But the children display no characteristics of a tortured person. And Jasmine was only there Five months; why was she so mind controlled when she escaped?

It's not terrible so far but the plot holes and the weird way certain elements are presented using character perspectives who would not have witnessed them keeps pulling me out of the show. And how does a hospital miss a giant shard of glass in the little girl's picket or the convalescing patient's bed for days? A piece of glass used to shred flesh but is inexplicably completely clean?

Then we learn there are three men perpetrators. I haven't finished the series as of this review. But it can only get worse as it wraps up a most unbelievable story.

Angel City (2023)

Racing Louisville FC Fan

[10/10 · 19 May 2023]

I've been a fan of LouCity FC and Racing Louisville FC since they first started playing in the Lynn Family Stadium (I've followed English Premier League much longer). But this three part series provides a perspective on US soccer leagues I had not considered. It is a bit dramatic and could have told more of the story of NWSL and the difficulties facing an expansion team. However, the time spent with the team, coach and manager was really enjoyable. It was especially moving to hear a player and the manager owning their role as a voice for women and the LGBTQ+ (I type this so you know what I mean, but I prefer to avoid that label-I prefer to say a voice for freedom of agency and equality for all because that it was is really being fought for). But even more moving was the athlete's wish to someday just be able to play soccer. The series is not all socio-political but you can't separate the obstacles every non-male athlete must overcome to succeed. I get that professional sports are about profits. But these athletes can attest that the path for male athletes from elementary school on is fully funded, supported and glorified. Women only have the gains they have because they had to win legal battles, elect supportive candidates and speak out in the face of adversity, hatred and actual violence. So, if you already understand the fight but don't care, watch the NFL. I f you want enlightenment and love soccer, this series is a good start.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Long and boring

[1/10 · 3 February 2023]

In all the reviews, no one is addressing the appropriation of so many cultures so badly. In both Black Panther movies I felt that the Wakandan culture was nonsense. With so many technical advancements in medicine, electronics, energy and engineering it is illogical that they would mix 19th century African, ancient Incan and Mayan with numerous North American tribal garb, adornments and weapons into this advanced society.

And All the hand to hand, knife and spear fighting felt like an excuse for gymnastic cgi that was exposed as utter nonsense whenever a laser, sonic or percussion weapon was employed. And every warrior comes equipped with outlandish power and strength that is ineffective because they are also all apparently unaffected by being thrown hundreds of feet at speeds that destroy every surface that run into but leave them without a scratch much less serious injury.

As for the screenplay, what a fiasco. The funeral for Chadwick at the beginning was overwhelmed by spectacle while feeling flat because none of his many Marvel super friends attended. Then the Queen's funeral had almost no attendees. Weird.

The Black Panther doesn't appear until the final battle which was basically a weird sonic trap on what appeared to be about 40 people that turned into a naval assault on a single ship. Between both armies I estimated about 200 people fighting. And all hand to hand with wooden spears and battle axes.

I couldn't feel anything for the characters that either spouted cliche after cliche or bellowed grandiose pronouncements in contrived scenery chewing rampages standing in for actual emotion.

Scene after scene of women in tribal garb given free reign to spout empty threats while the muggles sat motionless having been giving no direction in the script.

Finally, the main conflict was that another supposedly advanced race was driven into the sea by ingesting the same stuff that empowers the black panther but they turn blue in a second, grow gills and swim like great sharks. The main guy somehow flies so efficiently with tiny winged feet that he anticipates both bullets, bombs and lasers but can be beaten down with a stick. His achilles heal is that he needs to get wet every few hours.

Glad I watched this on Disney because I was so bored that I solved a few advanced sudoku puzzles while this Marvel drivel played in the background and I never missed a single thing. This is indicative of just how bad Marvel has become. There are truly no new worlds to conquer and the writers are stuck regurgitating the same stories better told as 1870 US westerns than scifi cgi crap.

BTW, I agree that the westerns I used to love are filled with stereotypical white saviors and brown skinned magical natives. But how is Wakanda any better? Its still using the same tropes but it's okay because the none of the cast (but one) is a white guy?

The Stranger (II) (2022)

It's Complicated

[9/10 · 13 December 2022]

This movie demands constant attention while seemingly nothing is really happening. Two men meet and one, the friend, introduces the other, the Stranger, to an opportunity in a criminal enterprise that looks like a smuggling ring for a black market but nothing seems to come of it. Through out the film there is an intensity to the stranger the exudes menace. As they go about mundane tasks to wipe out traces of some unexplained crime, the stranger is forced to reveal more and more of his past to assure the leaders of the criminal group that he is being forthright with them.

Meanwhile, there are interludes of the friend and his 9-year-old son. Their clearly loving and supportive relationship provides a needed break in the tension and a foil to the horror revealed later.

I don't understand the reviews they complain about the acting. This isn't one of those lightweight comedies or action flicks with two-dimensional characters and catch phrases written expressly for the trailers. It's funny how people swoon over a Marvel movie then complain about movies performed by true character actors following the dramatic vision of inspired writers, a talented cinematographer and director, and fashioned by professional editors.

If you love cinema and appreciate the effort to bring complicated and multi-dimensional characters to life, then this film is a must.

I didn't give ten stars because the sound editing drowned out too many conversations. This is a common problem today; emphasizing the music, which is more often just low base rumbling, to build atmosphere at the expense of delivering audible voice.

The Thing About Pam (2022)

Hupp is despicable and RZ channels her perfectly

[10/10 · 15 April 2022]

I notice that the reviewers giving very low ratings didn't actually watch the series. A little curating would help give an accurate score by cutting out reviews that are just grinding an axe.

RZ nails it as do all the other actors in this exaggerated take with a dateline perspective. Pam's psychotic and delusional confidence in her entitlement at the expense of others' wellbeing and, in three cases, their very lives, is horrific to watch.

I was even more saddened and angered by the husband's enablement of her crimes through his willful passivity. The actor perfectly tipped us off that he knew what Pam was doing but lacked the will and character to stop her or leave her. His apathy was nearly as criminal as her premeditation. Yet he is a free man today.

And the prosecutor, the judge and the police were all perfectly portrayed in the adherence to such selfish perspectives so completely divorced from the facts before them. Their autocratic abuse of authority is clearly portrayed as the real enablement of the destruction of so many lives.

I really enjoyed the comedic take whenever the production displayed a reenactment based on Pam's lies to the authorities, including the defense attorney's courtroom bafflement. Her stories were so outlandish and filled with holes that a straight enactment would have been confusing.

I know people lost their lives and their freedom and the series could have been a humorless attempt at authenticity; but the producers took a different route. I applaud this production because it was a complete success at walking that line between a factual representation and a sarcastic and humorous send up of all the true crime documentaries that claim to be completely factual while obviously exaggerating events for their shock value.

If you didn't watch the whole series in good faith, and in the vein it is presented, then your review is irrelevant. It's like watching Taxi Driver and complaining that it was too dark, violent and wholly unfunny.

Julia (2022–2023)

Julia is so much more interesting than this...

[4/10 · 3 April 2022]

If you've watched Meryl Streep play Julia Child then you can't help but see the sad attempt to channel not the actual Julia Child, but Streep's version of Julia Child. We know Child from her TV shows and interviews, and they, along with numerous books, provide a portrait of a natural, competitive and delightfully off-beat personality. Streep's version gleefully captures her dedication, ambition and pride in her accomplishments, without appearing arrogant or snobbish. But its a stylization that fit well into Streep's own personality.

Left out to make her seem more modern, Julia was a chain-smoker, even between courses when she dined, and only quit after a medical emergency in 1968.

And, there were no black and very few female producers in television, and none in Child's short lived series, which ran only from February 1963 to 1966, 119 episodes in black and white, with the 3 pilot shows likely taped over and the first 13 episodes of the season lost to deterioration. The shows everyone recalls were the color shows that were taped from 1970-73.

This new Julia is saddled with too many two-dimensional stereotypes (misogynistic men, overly-engaged women, a finicky and easily-manipulated husband- Paul was supportive from the beginning and was her partner in shopping and kitchen prep in the first season).

I did enjoy seeing her home kitchen so perfectly reproduced from the actual kitchen now featured in the Smithsonian Museum.

And the ideas that Julia had so many insecurities about making a show that was her idea or that the tv production that was so cash strapped that they agreed to let her proceed with the pilot only after she ponied up the money are pure fiction.

(there were actually three pilot episodes filmed in a single week before the 26 show first season was green lit, the first was a soufflés, then an omelet and last the coq au vin.)

Also, Julia had tried to earn money charging for cooking classes in her home in the early 1950's not while taping the cooking show in 1962.

And Julia's husband and her friends certainly did not have free reign to run about the set barking orders at the set carpenters and crew. However, Julia was joined by a group of volunteer women in 1965 who helped with shopping and kitchen prep, before and during production. Julia earned $50 per show plus food costs.

I will try another show, the first three have aired, but I hope they will bring a fresh and more accurate perspective, and more chemistry between Julia and her husband, Paul, and not more of the same.

West Side Story (2021)

Unnecessary

[4/10 · 14 March 2022]

Just watched it again. Maria has a great voice and Anita is wonderful to watch. The choreography was great, but repetitive. Every song had the same marching past the camera, super fast cuts and twirling dresses and high kicks.

This version really went out of its way to depict the Jets as jobless, street punks who terrorized the neighborhood for no reason at all. Inexplicably violent and then even as would be rapists. The Sharks, whose gang name might not have ever been used in this version, all have jobs and ties to the neighborhood and they are targeted by the Jet gang for no particular reason except it is their "turf". Although there is no reason to call it turf since the sharks and jets all live there together, and the Jets are obviously a racially diverse group who hate Puerto Ricans for no reason.

I don't mind a realistic depiction of conflict with despicable characters, but we're supposed to see this outcome as tragic. Tony is fresh out of jail for almost killing a person, who lived by sheer luck, and who supposedly tries to stop the rumble, murders another person instead. Then he sleeps with the victim's sister who, for no reason at all, is in love with him after spending a few hours with him. Nonsensical.

Finally, the peaceful friend hunts Tony down and shoots him in revenge, even though he knows that Bernardo first murdered Riff. Why?

Face it, West Side Story was written for a white 1950's audience and it should have been left there.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Open to Interpretation

[9/10 · 21 February 2022]

Donnie Darko affectively contrasts mental illness with societal ills within a construct of a pseudo scientific theoretical take on time travel wormholes. Donnie is a untrustworthy narrator due to his schizophrenia who is included in nearly every scene. This should tip off the viewer that each occurrence he presents rests on his skewed viewpoint.

You may interpret the entire movie as a fever dream in the moment of his death. But that lacks support from the scenes that occur without Donnie's knowledge or participation.

The better interpretation is that Donnie is actually struck by a fall from his bike that opens his mind to the coming wormhole that allows a jet engine torn from a jet to fall to the Earth 28 days earlier striking his bed. He sleepwalks away from his death and visualizes the exact moment that wormhole will occur as a conversation with a costumed character, the Rabbit, has yet to meet.

The Rabbit empowers Donnie to question social expectations but also directs his actions which uncover social ills and crimes. He allows himself to confront indoctrination into ignorance and hate that is being disguised as spiritual and theological education.

Ultimately, Donnie attempts to meet the terminal event that he thinks is an apocalyptic end but is actually only his own end. It is then, with the accidental death of his friend and Donnie's retributive murder of the negligent person, who is revealed as the person inside the Rabbit suit, that Donnie realizes that he must return to the roadway where he first opened his mind when he fell off his bike. He then resets the time back to the wormhole event but without his forewarned sleep walk. He dies in the engine drop.

His death allows all the events he put in motion in his attempts to unravel the confusion he was experiencing from his schizophrenia and foreshadowing to never occur. Thus saving the lives of his friend and his mother but allowing the sins of other actors to continue (without Donnie uncovering of the preacher's child sexual abuses his mother won't be on the plane and Donnie's death may also keep his sister home, too).

This is the final message of the film that our understanding of society and our attempts to better it will always have unintended consequences.

I loved this movie and would have rated it higher had a few of the minor characters been better written with better actors (Seth Rogen, Jerry Trainor and Patrick Swayze are so cliched and their performances are flat and lifeless). But Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Noah Wylie, Beth Grant, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Drew Barrymore and others are all tremendous.

The Proposal (I) (2009)

So many awful moments

[4/10 · 6 February 2022]

It is not that terrible. Most rom-cons are pretty bad and this one is about average for the genre. Most people will enjoy it but some scenes are just bad and others are just wrong.

First, the scene where Betty White is wearing a phony drug store 'native' garb and chanting. Then the scene where she appears to tell Margaret that she is Inuit? That is all truly offensive. Then the maudlin scenes where she pressures one person after another to do things for her. Especially when she fakes a near death moment.

Then, the awful scenes where people drag Margaret from one thing to another with her mumbling objections as she obediently goes along. This is supposed to be the dragon lady so abusive that the entire office fears her?

Then all the scenes with that creepy guy who shoves a canapé into Margaret's mouth as a waiter in the house, is supposed be the town male stripper, is the manager of the variety store, and is the deacon at the wedding (what is with that awful accent). All cringy and stupid.

But all the scenes with just Bullock and Reynolds were really entertaining.

Sophie's Choice (1982)

Educated Audience Required

[10/10 · 31 January 2022]

Like several other films in the 1980's, the screenplay relies on narration from an observing, and participating, character to provide a (faulty) perspective both to inform and misdirect the audience.

I can see from some of the low opinions of the film that some reviewers simply disliked the characters (or their duplicity) and others lack the literary education to appreciate the screenplay.

Based on a novel, the stories told of the war and the Nazi horrors are channeled in broken english through a tragically flawed woman just a few years freed from surviving a concentration camp with a terrible guilt over her murdered children. In her combined survivor's guilt and self loathing, she takes up with a charismatic schizophrenic who abuses her and emotionally tortures her.

Meryl Streep's performance as Sophie is amazing in its depth and complexity as she portrays a highly educated person struggling with a new language (a fact that is established early) and living in denial of her family's sins and her own terrible retribution.

Kevin Kline as Nathan is horrific and spectacular portraying a delusional and threatening menace.

Stengo gets pulled into Nathan's grasp as he falls in love with the beautiful Sophie and finds himself both protective and embittered by her weakness for Nathan and her family history of antisemitism.

The mixture of Sophie's and Stengo's fear and attraction to Nathan (through one abusive episode after another) builds upon the lies they accept from each other until the truths of Nathan's and Sophie's past and their tragedies are revealed.

This film is a masterpiece delivered by an excellent cast.

Antlers (2021)

Atmospheric Horror, but predictable

[7/10 · 17 January 2022]

First, I really dislike the use of cheap jump scares when a character is engrossed in study and someone just touches her shoulder. Second, the use of some indigenous or aged character solely for exposition and to preach morality. Third, the use of a child bully who dies to make some karmic point. Have the guts to kill off a sympathetic character rather than demonize a child character. Finally, the use of the sacrificial minor character that enters the house/forest/cave just to be killed in some horrible way. Better to build empathy or interest for the doomed person so their death is unexpected.

These tropes should be avoided because they are so predictable and had these scenes been written differently or had the script included additional interactions that develop these 2D characters or had there been more interactions among the stricken family, then the horror of this curse would have resonated on an even deeper level.

I loved the boy actors and their poignant and eery performances. The stricken father was impressive in his ability to mix his anguish with the growing rage. Plemons and Russell are excellent in their hollowness from their own childhood trauma.

Ultimately, the creature effects and the human carnage are pretty amazing.

All in all a striking horror story that relies on mostly well developed characters.

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

Should have stopped after one movie

[3/10 · 9 January 2022]

The sad fact is that The Matrix was a good idea made into a pretty good movie with some big plot holes. Every sequel that followed, including this one are just cash grabs that badly tweak the original screenplay in ways that leave even larger plot holes.

The first two sequels were fairly incoherent and repetitive, but this last one made my head hurt. If I have to decipher the motivations and purposes for why two computer programs are fighting each other in the simulation, why the most advanced, and exceedingly lethal, robots have decided to join the humans seeking to disrupt the robots only remaining source of energy, and why it was beneficial for the robots to rebirth Neo and Trinity in the first place, and especially as an ordinary housewife and, incredulously, as the actual creator of the original Matrix series, which was just a game all along, then I have to accept that the writers have no answers either.

BTW, the last of the trilogy revealed that Neo in the Zion world was the real simulation with powers to shut down the robots with his mind in that simulation. So why would the citizens of the Zion simulation bother trying to convince the human batteries in the matrix to reject that simulation and wake up in Zion, which is just another simulation, rather than just destroying the battery towers in the Zion simulation. After all, none of the human batteries in the matrix and none of the people in Zion are really people anyway, are they?

I gave two of the three stars because there are a few scenes with emotion and good acting. All the actions scenes might just have been deleted scenes from the first sequel.

Nomadland (2020)

A Documentary with real actors

[8/10 · 25 April 2021]

It's interesting that Fern's personality, the seemingly meandering story and realistically slow pace of this movie mesmerized many people and disappointed many others. If the viewer simply allows Fern to be who she is, wounded, withdrawn, selfish and egocentric while also engaging, thoughtful, hard-working and compassionate, but always on her own terms, they might appreciate the film more.

She is not drawn simply to fit into a narrative like many roles. She is the story and the backdrop of her journey is her meander through the pathway of seasonal work in this fantasy of nomadic culture that does exist but is really much more perilous, much more tribal, and much more ungenerous in real life.

I loved this film because it did not plant Fern in a world of politics, racism and misogyny, classism and judgement. It ignored those realities so we could better get to know Fern and the snapshots of the people that influenced her after her life was shattered by her husband's death and her town's demise.

Green Book (2018)

Response to Othershipwrecks

[8/10 · 1 January 2020]

Othershipwrecks, I greatly appreciate your accurate and educated thesis on our culture and general lack of awareness. However, many writers, filmmakers and other artists have tried your logical and direct approach in laying bare the institutional and structural racism all of us European descendants both benefit from and purposefully or complacently further; an activity we suspend or deny when emotions are charged. I commend such efforts to clarify the brutality that Green Book only hints of.

But we also need artistic half-measures, like Green Book, which are, indeed, a passive reminder of our racism, to provide a gentle prodding to place our racism top of mind for awhile without alienating us.

Those more profoundly disturbing and accurate films haven't accomplished much more, though we both may wish they would. And they only draw a much more receptive audience. You see, most of us will avoid a direct assault on our lack of moral outrage and action. A combination of many influences must be used to alter the structural racism, if even possible.

And, as we witness, will likely never succeed so long as the white minority controls most of the nations' wealth.

I do not believe humans will ever trade our tribalism for homogenization; our need for visual familiarity is in our animal nature and only evolution may alter that characteristic. So, in the meantime, we must recognize our racism, promote awareness, protect each other, and strive to be better than we are.

Green Book is well-written, superbly acted, and tries to provide something more than stereotypes, not well enough to get the last two stars. It is what it is.

Hereditary (2018)

Hereditary is worth your time

[7/10 · 23 September 2018]

Those who hate this movie have missed some major points. The mother and grandmother are both psychotic and have suffered from mental illness their entire lives. Toni Collette is a manic insomniac who works relentless and prolifically on her miniature realist scenes that are haunting and horrifying; and apparently well received. Her husband is a hollowed out shell from decades of dealing with his wife and her mother. She even admits at one point that she tried to abort her first born, gave her second born over to her crazy mother to raise and then tried to burn than both in a fire. All the while her mother has been leading a coven and trying to raise a demon to life. When her mother dies, her plan to bring the demon out through her grand daughter, Charlie, is thwarted when she is killed on a horrible and incredible accident that may actually have been orchestrated by some good Power. So the coven switches strategy and engages crazy Mom to hold a seance. This resurrects Charlie and allows her to first possess her mother and then her brother so the demon obtains a human host.

The problem is that at two hours the director failed to tighten the script and had to resort to a disappointing exposition by the coven leader. He'd have done better to omit the stupid naked coven people and the cheap laser light show. At the point that Mom is possessed and is actively severing her own head in the rafter he could have let her body fall and ended the movie with the son breaking the fourth wall with a knowing look.

People would get to use their imagination to decide if this was a possession or if the son was behind it with the grandmother all along.