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Das Lehrerzimmer (2023)
a struggle to do the right thing
I don't think it is a spoiler to say that this is a movie that's not about sex or jealousy or murder or revenge! How refreshing!
A sympathetic and enthusiastic teacher, less enthusiastic colleagues, and a mixed array of students provide the context for an exploration of the idealistic call to do the right thing and encountering binds and double- and triple-binds - whether personal, legal, or societal.
The movie reflects that motives and resistance don't have to be invented - even some petty stealing at a school is a bona fide, tense, and evolving life situation. The film brilliantly lifts the protagonist's struggle to be an archetypal muddle of what is right?
Intensely interesting and smart.
God's Own Country (2017)
great acting, provocative
From the first scene of John's vomiting, there was tension between sensuality and revulsion.
The context of farm and family, and essentially being alone in the experience of John, were poignant and showcased every nuance of John's miserable life and wishing to emerge from misery.
The actors and characters were terrific. Although a bit obvious and inevitable, isn't life a bit obvious and inevitable? The one freak character, the amazing Romanian presence and abiding nature, reconciling, evolving.
I saw this with subtitles, and recommend - I think the words spoken were not so essential but there's much that I wouldn't've understood without!
All of Us Strangers (2023)
a study of psychological absolutes divorced from reality
Just to start with - the movie is good, I didn't pan it, though I didn't like it either. For what it is, a bleak psychological study, I guess it is good, but there must be ways to frame a psychological study in a sympathetic context, no?
Once upon a time there was an empty building. Except for Adam. Alone. One day Harry knocks on his door. Unwholesome, drunk, unwelcome. Harry stalks Adam. Instead of telling Harry to get lost, Adam invites him in. Now in ths "relationship" Initiated through sex Adam moons about his dead parents, because obviously their loss and approval is what's needed for a fulfilling life. Now in the movie there are other people are commuting here and there as well, go figure. And there are people in the disco where Harry facilitates Adam's mooning with drugs - just in case viewers like me are too literal. Whatever the drugs are or even consent don't really matter, it facilitates the journey. Adam cringingly gets into bed with his mother and father and finally upon securing his fantasized approval, he comes back to that same implausible relationship which will somehow be fulfilling, evidenced by the residential building is now populated. The End.
That people cry in the theatre probably means I'm the insensitive one, but perhaps they are projecting their own need for approval.
Past Lives (2023)
meditation on losing what you never had
It might be possible that the movie is about characters suffering an early loss and becoming stunted - indeed, as children they are companions and she already loves him and they go on a chaperoned date before she leaves and he is shut down and pronounces "good bye." Thus sealed, their pure love is preserved. Nice.
But I found the movie rather indulgent, not really about some subtle psychological retreat, rather, the movie glosses over character development because it is not about a parallel universe and how things could've/would've been different or any sort of romance; rather, an indulgent tortured meditation positing a missed opportunity as the cause for a irrevocable fantasy of loss.
As such a meditation, character development is minimal - and the acting is great - but it is only because of a gratuitous scene or because a character says so that we know she's a writer at all, that he's an engineer (who was in the military and he learned Chinese), that she loves her husband or he loves her. I don't key into soundtracks but i suspect the film was so affecting because of it, but I blame it for how manipulated I felt this movie to be.
The opening scene with some stranger commenting about what the three are doing there at four in the morning is a very weak narrative contrivance, telling the viewer what to wonder about - even a conversation with the bartender would've been less gratuitous.
Rain Man (1988)
thoroughly uncomfortably underwhelmed
Somehow this was on the list of a "must see" movie I never saw.
I finally got around to it.
i'm guessing it just didn't age well. Of course Dustin Hoffman's performance is great, but the rest? Either as part of some story or just as supporting actor, Tom Cruise's heavy-handed asshole character strains credulity. Every scene is uncomfortable and not because Raymond is autistic, but because Charlie is yelling at Raymond and giving him commands like a bad dog owner.
Die Büchse der Pandora (1929)
jews in weimar Germany
Even though this film is brilliant, extraordinary, in every respect, it is sinister for other reasons. it is a propaganda piece through and through. other users don't attribute to the menorah its obvious significance - it denotes who is Jewish. since it is prominent and merely background just after the two minute mark of the very first act it's not a spoiler. It is worth pointing out what another IMDb user shrewdly notice and pointed out which might utterly defeat this notion - that the menorah depicted is not a Jewish menorah - it is neither a seven-armed temple menorah nor an eight-armed menorah of Hanukah which would have an additional higher place - and of course Pabst would have been aware - I cede that. Still, when I regard the image, it is so striking, and the motif of jews everywhere is either a menorah or a star, so I suggest that the menorah is suggestive nonetheless - and that is its whole point - to cast a shadow.
Fact is that in this period following WW I the new Weimar government entered into the treaty of Versailles, casting lots of restrictions on Germany and obliging Germany to pay huge reparations, particularly to France. So this questioning arose premised on the superiority of Germans - how could Germans - noble, hardworking, faultless, superior - how could Germans have been defeated? Since there could be no more powerful foe, the enemy, such inquiry reasoned, resided within - what would constitute the 'stab in the back.' this line of inquiry looks to blame Germany's disgrace on anything but military prowess - what was the source of moral turpitude? cowardice? profiteering? scheming? plotting? seduction? wantonness? cheating? what could possibly have hobbled noble Germany's exalted aspirations?
The source of some sort of inner degredation this was projected onto Jews, finding expression in antisemitism that was gaining traction and found a central place in Hitler's Mein Kampf.
The proto-Nazi stereotype applied to the character of Schigolch is not subtle, and considering the relationship between him and Lulu ... well, you don't have to agree with this thesis, but you can't ignore it.
A great study of stereotypes.
Japan Japan (2007)
mishmash plus gratuitous penises
there's no plot or integration of themes or anything, it's just nothing. not even "about" nothing - rather, it is just nothing. perhaps the producers and all knew that so they decided to call a character gay and have him watch a very explicit clip from a Japanese video on the internet depicting what is known as bukake, essentially guys ejaculating on someone's face. but sexuality has nothing to do with this film - penises and semen, though often very nice, do not a movie make. without penises and semen no one would have mentioned this movie but because of them perhaps the film benefits by supposed "gay interest" appeal. however, regardless, this movie sucked. if you want to see the sex scenes do what the protagonist did, find them on-line.