Change Your Image
eliotar6998
Reviews
Be Water (2020)
A Hero Worth Idolizing
The inspirational value of Bruce Lee is best expressed by his response to the question of whether he thought of himself as Chinese or American. "You know what I want to think of myself," he said, "as a human being." Bruce Lee was a man who spent his entire life building bridges; between styles of martial arts, between cultures at odds with one another, and between inner and external philosophies. He felt that true strength comes from within, and that by recognizing that strength, as well as all the flaws that coexist alongside it, one can achieve greatness despite all odds. Bruce Lee is a hero worth idolizing because he did not see himself as one. He did not view himself as a star, or a saint. He was true to himself, accepting the good with the bad. He was confident, but not conceited, wise, but not condescending. He was a man who fought for all he achieved, and deserved every ounce of his success.
It is essential, given the current climate of racial injustice in the United States, that a documentary about a man who played such a role in dismantling prejudice against Asian-Americans take all the racial factors involved into full consideration and treat them respectfully and knowledgeably, and this documentary does exactly that. It is about Bruce Lee, yes, but more importantly it is about the struggle that he and so many Asian-Americans face even today. It is a story of a man who was able to raise himself above it all, against all odds, and prove to the world that an Asian man could outshine any leading actor, and that by virtue of his determination was equally if not more deserving of the superstardom so often relegated to the white Hollywood elite.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Painfully frantic, like watching a montage on fast forward.
The Rise of Skywalker felt more like a 2 and a half hour trailer than a movie. Every line of dialogue was snappy to the point of ridiculousness, and the movie made absolutely no attempts to follow the age-old guideline of showing rather than telling, opting instead to drop expository info dump after info dump, constantly disrespecting the viewer's ability to infer even the simplest pieces of information. There was no glue to ground the movie emotionally, and every scene felt more shoehorned than the last. It was as though a different person wrote each scene, with no attempts to tie them together or set up plot points in such a way that they would provide any sort of emotional impact. I left the theater not feeling sad or angry, but empty, and as a life long fan of Star Wars, that was the worst possible reaction I could have had to such a movie.