VIOLETA WENT TO HEAVEN- 2011. Synopsis by Netflix. “Chile’s answer to Bob Dylan, Violeta Parra brought folk to the masses. This dramatized biography combines her music and life into a unique pastiche. The result reveals Parra’s conviction and passion as no conventional documentary could.”
3/18/13- Very good early reviews. TRDB.
3/29/13- A good review in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
9/4/17- I really liked this movie very much. TRDB. Netflix Disc.
Add comment March 19th, 2013
MARIACHI GRINGO- 2013. Synopsis by Netflix. “A stifled, small-town man stuck in a dead end life, runs away to Mexico to be a mariachi singer. MARIACHI GRINGO is a musical tour-de-force exploring the reality of “following your dreams” across cultural, personal, social and geographical borders.”
3/15/13- Today’s NY Times gave this a very good review. TRDB.
4/16/15- Miserable– I don’t know what the NY Times was thinking. TRDB.
Add comment March 15th, 2013
THE SAPPHIRES- 2012. Synopsis by Netflix. “The spirit and vitality of 1960s soul music are at the core of this film about a real-life Australian aborigine singing group and their bumpy career. Three sisters and a cousin are brought together as the Sapphires by a talent scout with a plan”
3/14/13- Excellent reviews all around. TRDB.
3/22/13- A poor review in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
8/19/13- Although one feels like they’ve seen this formulaic movie 100 times before it was still fun when the characters weren’t acting stupid. TRDB. Netflix.
Add comment March 14th, 2013
MY BROTHER THE DEVIL- 2013. Synopsis by Netflix. “As a 14-year-old Arab living in London, Mo is desperate to make friends and worships his older brother, Rashid, a gregarious local gang member. But Mo eventually makes an ill-fated play to fit in that changes both brothers’ lives forever.”
3/14/13- Great reviews. TRDB.
3/22/13- A very good review in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
10/6/13- An excellent depiction of the drug and gang culture, this time about the Egyptian Diaspora living in England. The movie is also about family and, in particular, brotherly love. Very good and I enjoyed it. TRDB. Netflix.
Add comment March 14th, 2013
ADMISSION- 2013. Synopsis by Netflix. “While scouting applicants at an experimental high school, Ivy League admissions officer Portia Nathan discovers that the school’s founder is her former college classmate John Halsey — and that she may have a connection to one of his students.”
3/14/13- Mixed reviews at best. TRDB.
3/22/13- A barely OK review in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
11/4/13- A few bright spots in an otherwise weak story. TRDB.
Add comment March 14th, 2013
I KILLED MY MOTHER- 2009. Synopsis by Rotten Tomatoes. “Hubert Minel, a brash 17 year old, dislikes his mother intensely. He gauges her with contempt, only seeing her out-of-date sweater, her kitschy décor and the vile bread crumbs that lodge in the corners of her noisy mouth. Below the surface of these irritating traits, lie the ingrained mechanisms that his mother has always cultivated so dearly – manipulation and guilt. Hubert, confused and torn by a love-hate relationship that obsesses him more and more each day, wanders in and out of an adolescence that is both marginal and typical, combining artistic discovery, openness to friendship, ostracism, and sex. All the while, he is consumed by his all encompassing contempt for this woman he somehow once loved.”
3/13/13- A very good review in today’s NY Times. Other critics have liked it as well. TRDB.
8/29/13- Very difficult to watch the conflict between mother and son but the movie was well done and I enjoyed it. TRDB. Netflix.
Add comment March 13th, 2013
ELECTRICK CHILDREN- 2013. Synopsis by IMDB. “Pregnant by music? Rachel, a young teenager from a fundamentalist Mormon community, believes in immaculate conception, while her fundamentally religious family regards her condition as an intolerable transgression. The search for the child’s origins is a revelation for the 15-year-old.”
3/8/13- An OK review in today’s NY Times and from others as well. TRDB.
9/30/13- An interesting fable that held my interest. It’s different all right but worth seeing. TRDB. Netflix Streaming.
Add comment March 10th, 2013
THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE- 2013. Synopsis by Rotten Tomatoes. “Superstar magicians Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) have ruled the Las Vegas strip for years, raking in millions with illusions as big as Burt’s growing ego. But lately the duo’s greatest deception is their public friendship, while secretly they’ve grown to loathe each other. Facing cutthroat competition from guerilla street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), whose cult following surges with each outrageous stunt, even their show looks stale. But there’s still a chance Burt and Anton can save the act-both onstage and off-if Burt can get back in touch with what made him love magic in the first place.”
3/15/13- A poor review in today’s NY Times and mostly negative reviews from others as well. TRDB.
3/6/17- This movie was so stupid it was hilarious. I really enjoyed it. TRDB. Netflix Disc.
Add comment March 3rd, 2013
THE CALL- 2013. Synopsis by Netflix. “When an abducted teenage girl makes a frantic call from the trunk of a serial killer’s speeding car, she connects with a sympathetic 911 operator who’s dealt with the perpetrator in the past.”
Mixed early reviews, more negative than positive. TRDB.
3/15/13- The NY Times liked this movie in today’s review but most critics did not. TRDB.
7/24/13- I just couldn’t get into this movie and turned it off. TRDB.
Add comment March 3rd, 2013
FUTURE WEATHER- 2012. Synopsis by Netflix. “After her mother abandons her, 13-year-old Lauduree tries to hide the fact that she’s living alone as she pursues her quest to help thwart global warming. But soon she must negotiate a difficult relationship with her alcoholic grandmother.”
3/1/13- A very good review in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
6/5/13- A bit over-acted at a few points but overall a very good movie with some very good scenes. TRDB.
Add comment March 2nd, 2013