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65 movie review & film summary (2023)

filmes
But the film from the writing-directing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, whose credits include co-writing “A Quiet Place” with John Krasinski, offers an intriguingly contradictory premise. It takes place 65 million years ago, but suggests that futuristic civilizations existed back then on planets throughout the universe. On one of them, Driver stars as a space pilot named Mills. He’s about to embark on a two-year exploratory mission in order to afford medical treatment for his ailing daughter (Chloe Coleman from “My Spy,” who’s featured in the film’s prelude and sporadic video snippets). On the way to his destination, the ship Mills is flying enters an unexpected asteroid field, gets torn to shreds, and crashes. All of the passengers in cryogenic sleep are killed—except one, who jus...

The Blue Caftan movie review & film summary (2023)

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But Halim won’t. And Mina backs him up all the way. She runs interference for him out front and is silently but plainly exasperated when clients ask for adjustments to create a more “modern” fit. As avid and apt a pupil as Youssef is, she’s not crazy about him either. “I think he’s genuinely interested in learning the craft,” Halim tells Mina. She thinks not. He’ll leave, like every other one, she believes. And then Halim will just get another. “Apprentices don’t grow on trees,” Halim observes. The interest Halim and Youssef take in each other isn’t strictly professional. When Halim teaches Youssef a particular stitch, he does so haltingly, with patience, not just to put his point across but to partake of the particular intimate atmosphere he’s sharing with Youssef at that moment. And,...

Seriously Red movie review & film summary (2023)

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Red is a mess. She lives in the garage behind her mother’s house and goes inside every day for meals. She’s never snipped the apron strings. She is a serial job-loser. Something always seems to go wrong. She’s “quirky,” but it’s quirkiness with an edge. When she drinks too much, she goes bananas. In fact, this is how she loses her latest job. At a company party, dressed up like Dolly Parton, complete with a blonde wig and a skin-tight orange jumpsuit, she got wasted and lurched around the dance floor, grabbing her male co-workers’ crotches. Apparently, this will not fly in a corporate environment, and Red is sent packing. She tries to cheer up by murmuring quotes from Dolly in a mantra, attempting to wiggle into self-worth, dignity, and optimism. How does Dolly do it? Is it a fake it til ...

JUNG_E movie review & film summary (2023)

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“Jung_E” opens with a crawl that explains the setting is 2194. Of course, by then we have long ago made this planet inhabitable, creating man-made shelters to house the remaining factions of humanity. Naturally, these factions don’t all get along, and three have broken off and started a war between the remaining sectors of humanity, a battle that was once led by an incredible soldier named Yun Jung-yi (Kim Hyun-joo). In this vision of the future, consciousness can be downloaded into A.I., and that’s exactly what a team of experts are trying to do with Yun, turning her expertise into a killing machine named Jung_E. However, they keep failing in their efforts as they attempt to virtually recreate the day that Yun died in combat, hoping that if they can map her brain in a way to get past...

Living movie review & film summary (2022)

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The post-World War II London drama “Living” puts Nighy at the center of a story: he plays Williams, the head of the Public Works Department, who receives a terminal health diagnosis and, after a period of shock, begins taking stock in his life and essentially trying to be the best person he can before he goes. It’s a role that calls for subtlety, and director Oliver Hermanus has the right leading man. Williams is an archetypal figure: a bowler-hatted functionary for the state who’s been doing the same thing and living the same life forever. Nighy is 73, old enough to have grandparents who were adults in the 19th century. He seems to understand from firsthand observations that people of different centuries (or parts of centuries) had different energies and ways of co...

The Apology movie review & film summary (2022)

música
There are occasional breaks in their conversation, mainly from Darlene’s best friend Gretchen (Janeane Garofalo), who lives a few hundred feet away. But “The Apology” is essentially a two-hander set in a dark and seemingly endless present moment. What starts as a cordial, if slightly punch-drunk, catch-up inevitably becomes a vague and unsettling confrontation. Jack’s needs appear apparent on their face since he can’t stop expressing himself. But this is Darlene’s house, and she isn’t a passive victim. “The Apology” is also a revenge fantasy, so it’s easy to anticipate what comes next. It’s easy to project one’s feelings onto Darlene and Jack’s dialogue, given that so much media coverage of post-MeToo predatory behavior is focused on abusive personalities instead of their many and unde...

Spoiler Alert movie review & film summary (2022)

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But it’s on one of those dance floors, on a rare night out with a colleague from TV Guide, that Michael meets Kit Cowan (Ben Aldridge), the man who ends up being the love of his life. Kit has everything that Michael wishes he had: Confidence, cool friends, and a muscular physique. And yet, Kit is willing to wait for Michael to let down his emotional walls. Besides, Michael’s not the only one with neuroses—Kit has baggage he has to work through if he and Michael are going to live the monogamously partnered life that Michael, in particular, seems to want.  The chemistry between Parsons and Aldridge is easy and flirtatious, mainly when they engage in witty banter. And “Spoiler Alert” does a good job of showing the lovable side of both of these flawed, vulnerable characters. You can s...

Empire of Light movie review & film summary (2022)

drama, filmes
Colman inhabits Hilary with her customary fullness and impeccable judgment, always putting her energy into conveying the character’s churning, contradictory feelings rather than trotting out the virtuoso tricks and mannerisms that too often signify Great Screen Acting: English Division. When Hilary is at her lowest, with tears in her eyes and lipstick on her teeth, the sight pierces as deeply as seeing someone you know crater in front of you.   Ward can’t match her because the material isn’t on the same level, but he’s still remarkable. His greatest achievement is convincing you that the character has his own inner life that’s as complicated as Hilary’s, even though there’s little in the script to support such a claim. The last 15 minutes nearly undo all the go...

Retrograde movie review & film summary (2022)

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“Retrograde” is about many things, but it’s really about the faces. The cameras linger on the faces, allowing the expressions of suffering, tension, nerves, desperation, to take root or take wing. There is a lot of story here, story the world knows very well. “Retrograde” details the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021, after a nearly 20-year-long war and/or occupation. “Retrograde” is a deeply mournful film, and the focus on humans is why. Empires march through history and individual humans pay the price. The people of Afghanistan have paid the price over and over again.  The film was shot over the months following the U.S. withdrawal. Heineman and his crew is deeply embedded in the situation, with close access to every private meeting, conversation, traveling ...

White Noise movie review & film summary (2022)

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Without spoiling the final act completely, it re-centers the Gladneys back at home, but with death a much more present reality in Jack’s mind. Unfortunately, as the intensity rises, “White Noise” loses some of its impact, especially in a few talky scenes near the end that betray the tone of the first half. Yes, the film always deals with “serious” subjects, but it gets rocky when they take center stage, and the tone struggles to merge satire and marital drama. DeLillo’s book was notoriously called “unfilmable” for decades, and it feels like this last act is where that’s most apparent. Thankfully, Baumbach has two of his most reliable collaborators to keep it from going off the rails. Driver is, once again, excellent here, crafting a performance that is often very funny without relying ...