cndiverhudsonriver Reviews

Holiday (1938)

That Arresting Moment

[10/10 · 1 February 2024]

When Ned says "I know" to his sister Linda when they are upstairs alone in the play room to which Linda often escapes we've witnessed one of the simplest and most touching moments in the films of that prewar era, or of any other era. I thought that this kind of emotional authenticity in films only began in the 1960s. Ned is confiding with great sensitivity to his sister that he's seen that she's fallen in love with Case and she acknowledges to him that he's correct. This showstopping moment is also so arresting because it's surrounded by the artificiality and falseness of Ned and Linda's family, their friends, and their values because of which the brother and sister have suffered, the mutual understanding of which they share. Although they feel overwhelmed and alien at that moment, in their mutual understanding they in fact overthrow the falsity of their families valuing wealth and connection above everything. Simultaneously they effectively overthrow the value of the values on which America was built.

Body of Lies (2008)

This Film Should Wake Us Up

[31 January 2024]

Looking back at Body of Lies and A Most Wanted Man, the security service overloads in each film make the same mistakes! Given that the films were based on books written on the one hand by a former British M1-5 operative and on the other by an American reporter whose turf was the Middle East these may be mistakes that our actual security service overloads are making in the real world right now. If so, one wonders if European And American intelligence agencies are much good at protecting us from attacks by Middle Eastern terrorists and have people die in consequence?

What are those mistakes? Inability to play the long game. Not understanding how to developed informants because of lack of understanding of the indigenous culture's imperatives. Inability to escape from Overload Superiority Complex, which is why the indigenous culture is never understood. Lack of the maturity needed to resist political pressure from above. Strong arm violence instead of subtlety. Idolizing technology, which impoverishes the maturity needed for human understanding.

Mark Strong is superb as head of Jordanian intelligence. Utterly convincing depth, awareness, ability, both completely at ease with the man on the street and with a touch of the aristocrat as well. He makes his American counterparts look like barbarians from a childish, crude, cocky young nation who think that they own the world.

Detective De Luca (2008)

Unusual historical and character depth for detective series

[10/10 · 6 December 2023]

I've watched this series several times, and will again, because, like excellent short stories, each episode richly evolves the time, the place and the personalities of its second war Italian era. Want a true feel for the Italian style of life? Here it is. And the plots are human, believable, full of real life's idiosyncracy. Furthermore, you will be bowled over by the cinematography! I can't think of any other detective series in its league. Most interesting for a non-Italian in 2023 is what the series reveals, in a lot of subtile detail, about what life is like in an era when class and political fascism permeate everything. De Luca is rare in such an era because of his integrity and dedication to doing a real job as a detective. The danger of choosing such a path is presented without sentimentality. The friendship and respect between the detective and his sargent throughout the series are the leven in the loaf.

Licence to Kill (1989)

The most appealing Bond...

[1 March 2023]

...because Dalton is the most able Bond actor, as his emotions are real, not formulaic, and therefore he draws us to him, an usual achievement in a thriller. He therefore shows us a completely different direction that the series could have taken, away from the always masterful, but unreal and therefore Idolized super spy, to a human being in humanly believable situations. Has Hollywood ever made an action thriller like this? (And, for me, he is also the most handsome of the Bonds.) Would they fear doing so, convinced that we want the fantasy? This is Hollywood's conservatism at play. Consider that they feared Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow would be seen as either drunk or gay and balked. But the audience found the richness and idiosyncracy of the character Johnny created immensely appealing!

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Victory Of The Subtext

[10/10 · 14 August 2022]

This film is a thriller, a very good one. It also does something that I wouldn't have associated with an action film and it does it convincingly. It shows the main character, CIA analyst Joe Turner, being captured intuitively by the nonverbal content of an event, working his way into that content, and articulating it effectively. This is a rare capacity that our everything is on the surface society rarely suggests even exists. And Turner's ability to do this is what sets in motion all of the key events in this thriller, by God! Just as this capacity is dangerous to the powers that be in this film so it is dangerous in the real world - which is why our world is sliding into climate, ICBM, and environmental oblivion....

Django Unchained (2012)

Unique, Extraordinary, Courageous

[10/10 · 23 June 2022]

I never thought I would see a film like this, an unvarnished depiction of the horror of slavery before the civil war. This is a film that changes you, that you don't forget.

The film looses it's authority somewhat after the good Doctor makes the choice that those who have seen the film know about. There is therefore after that point an implausibility about the film because I believe the Doctor was too clearheaded to have gone that direction.

Nevertheless, this is a crucial film that we Americans needed to see.

Lost in Translation (2003)

Two Actual People Actually Togeather

[4 April 2022]

A middle aged man whose wifes is fixated on image maintenence inessentials and a young woman whose husband is fixated on his self important career. But the two of them, while feeling abandoned and discounted, are able to be open togeather, to be into silly fun, and to have felt silences. They affirm to each other that that is what is good, what is human, rather than the social status of this or that fixation.

A Very Peculiar Practice (1986–1988)

Perhaps The Best BBC Satire Ever

[9 February 2022]

My god, this is a wonderful series, edgy, charmingly innocent, deliciously, hilariously mad and original. Fighting the heroic, eternal battle against the British predisposition to go Margaret Thatcher!