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Reviews
We the Animals (2018)
A movie about a writer's coming of age
It's not easy to film the process of a writer, but this movie nails it-the loneliness, the passion, the necessity to write-and it does so with beautiful animation and a focus on Jonah. Yes, it's a Bildingsroman and the story of a loving but troubled family and, yes, it's about a 10-year-old's recognition that he's gay... but for me, it's the story of a boy who writes. And, of course, the narrative is based on the life of Justin Torres who penned the novel from which this film is adapted.
Favorite moment: Jonah smiles for the first time in the whole movie after kissing Dustin.
The film deserves wider recognition.
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
I smiled all the way through
The joy in watching a great tragedy is hearing and seeing all the ironies and traps of fate working to overwhelm a prideful protagonist. That's why Oedious can make you laugh. Not funny ha-ha... funny catharsis. Joel Coen's "The Tragedy of Macbeth" gave me this pleasure. Having taught the play for more than three decades, I appreciated the cuts and additions Coen authored-especially the focus of the ever-mysterious Ross (creepily played by Alex Hassell) as an anti-hero. Denzel was a first-rate Macbeth: marvelously contemplative for a man of war and so appropriately contradictory... so fair and foul.
I Carry You with Me (2020)
An beautiful blend of documentary and drama to tell a true story.
Executive producer...Norman Lear...and so unsurprisingly the film entertains as it recognizes so many painful social issues, especially homophobia, immigration, and the plight of the undocumented in the US.
The Truffle Hunters (2020)
A documentary of a metaphor
The profound differences between the lives of four old men who have devoted themselves to their dogs and to truffle hunting is contrasted throughout the film with those who make their money and their meals by exploiting them.
True Story (2015)
The movie hooked me as much as Longo hooked Finkel
I just bumped into this film on HBO. I had never heard of it or read reviews, but the premise and the actors led me to stick around for a few minutes . . . and then for the whole duration. I found the film absorbing and gripping. Franco, especially in those close-ups in the prison interview room, mesmerizes just as Longo must have done in reality. If we never find out all the whys we'd love to understand, that's because this is a true story, and life just doesn't answer all the questions that screenwriters of fiction can pen.