Change Your Image
LindaMayBrigati
Reviews
Roh's Beauty (2014)
Excellent Film!
The Excellent Egyptians do not hold back on what really happens with the infiltration of the Mafia and how it ruins women, the family, the children, the fathers, and the neighborhood, but, more importantly the soul: even the title, "Rouh's Beauty" reflects this theme. Rouh means soul in Arabic.
Parallel instances occur even in America - under the guise of hidden institutionalized rape - within the churches, governments, even between countries, states, cities, and families. Let's not kid ourselves: America does indeed reflect these immoral qualities. This film speaks the Truth as ugly as it is.
The ending scene, as the Raped Roh walks through the prejudicial streets among the demonic taunts of the "blinded women" who have become "prostitutes" as well, she retains her beauty, clarity and purity, even though she is defiled by them all. Egypt has a way of possessing simultaneous dual conflicts, which are clear to one's naked eye and soul: It is beautiful and ugly in the same moment - it is dirty and clean at the same moment - contradictions that share equal space in time, as if they are one in the same, without contraction. One senses the verification of these incongruities the minute your foot sets upon the land within a mystifying love that fills the air.
The character of the real blind man sums it up succinctly, "The darkness holds me back in protecting you, Roh."
Excellent acting for the entire cast... Excellent Egyptian Film.
Vault (2019)
Unbelievable plotline - lacks true motives.
DeNucci tries his best to "fill in the holes" for his version and story of the Bonded Vault Heist. But, what is his fantasy, lends to unrealistic and hard to believe assumptions that do not logically pan out. The greatest example is this - Raymond Patriarca does not need to steal from himself, thus, the supposed "plot twist" of his confession to the theft to satisfy his own greed fails and pales in its own light: the character portrayals of these "real" individuals suffer. Due diligence in his research on this topic might have helped DeNucci create a real blockbuster. Dialogue was too "on the nose" and lacks subtext, as well, too much expositional writing and not enough "showing" of the personality and inner workings of each character, leans to very slow pacing and a disturbing reliance on cliché verbiage and presentation of this genre and era. There exists no theme in this movie - no Central Dramatic Question - no inciting incident - no plot points - no climax - no resolution - no arcs in character development. I would label this as an attempt for the genre of "documentary" rather than a "live action film". This would contribute to the account for low ratings, as the "hype" established in marketing and advertising, "The Largest Heist in History" expectations were not met; the audience wants to be highly entertained - not experience the common theme of strained in disbelief - ironically a rip off - where set ups, payouts, and payoffs are non-existent.