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Reviews
Thank You and Good Night (1991)
This is one of my favorite, low-budget...
...independent films of all time, and since I'm over 50 and have been seeing independent films since I was a teenager, this is saying something. Like the first reviewer here, I too was touched by the heartfelt but honest nature of the film. And I agree that the rough special effects, which indeed are full of kitsch, only add to the warmth of the film.
Jan Oxenberg's look at her own family and its history climaxes in a revelation that I found to be one of the most moving moments I've ever had in watching a film. Ditto for the scene in the (Midtown?) Tunnel. I've scene this film several times, and its emotionally powerful impact on me is renewed every time.
Bravo, Jan Oxenberg!
Children of Men (2006)
I wasn't expecting the film to affect me so much
I usually do not respond intensely to films of future dystopia, so I was not expecting much when I went to Children of Men. But my heart was racing while watching this movie, and my mind is still reeling with its images and depictions of Britain as a war zone of refugee camps, random violence, omnipresent police, religious sects and the disillusion of humans who for a generation haven't heard a newborn baby's cry. I'm sure my strong reaction to the film comes in part from the breathtaking camera-work, including several exceptionally long takes during action sequences which must have been incredibly difficult to shoot. Yes, there are plenty of explosions, stray bullets and blood, but the technical effects entailed are not what draws one's attention.
To avoid being a spoiler, I can't share all the various images and features of the action that add up to one of the most unsettling, apocalyptic visions I've ever seen. But I will say that part of their effectiveness comes from these being presented as a given, not something to be laboriously explained. Clive Owen gives an excellent, understated performance as a once-idealistic bureaucrat propelled into a battle. This film would be pretty awful if some sort of hammy Hollywood actor like Tom Cruise were in the lead. But such an actor was not chosen because this film has far more intelligence in the making than most.