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Reviews
El globero (1961)
Dated style
Some 1961 movies still hold up. But not many. And not this one.
Based on Chaplin's The Kid, this movie follows the extremely implausible goings on of a balloon salesman (globero). I don't want to spoil the plot twists.so instead I will focus on its style.
It tries to copy Chaplin's Vaudeville acting style. But it pales by comparison. The camera work is disjointed and distracting with countless jump cuts and poor continuity.
The fights and blocking seem intended to have been hilarious, and maybe they were to unsophisticated viewers in the 1960s, but today the haminess of feeble karate chops that elicit exaggerated wincing and terrible bruise make up fall flat, even for kids.
The obviously empty luggage and horribles holes in the plot are now unforgivable sins in cinema. Even for slapstick comedies that seek to be profound.
This might be an interesting film for a film historian. But not for anyone else who wants to spend two hours wisely.
Paterson (2016)
This isn't a review exactly. It's poetry, just like this movie
If you're looking for a movie, don't watch this.
If you want to see poetry in film, this is your baby.
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I used to be married to Laura.
And I was Paterson. For 20 awesome years.
A year ago this month I became Everett.
And my wife became Marie.
And so I spent the whole credits crying.
I'm glad I watched this film alone.
Roma (2018)
Director shows off at actors' expense
The reason critics love this film is that the camerawork is stunning and it has many subtle allusions. If you love to study the nuanced choices great actors make then watch a different show.
I was pleasantly surprised that the black and white photography added a crispness to the imagery that shows off what a high definition TV can do. But I was greatly disappointed that no theatres showed it the launch week in Calgary (Dec 21, 2018).
The story is filled with symbolism an English teacher like me will love. But the extended male nudity will deter much classroom usage.
And the plot? Most people crave a problem that worsens before it gets resolved. Many tiny problems here have no development, an opportunity missed in favour of seeming "realism". It ends up coming across like a documentary before music and narration have been added. A hundred years from now kids will be refashioning this film with a score, which it does not have, and some voice over, to see if more tension can be created. My guess is that it will become a film-class darling. Until then...
A History of Christianity (2009)
Engaging history; Oxford professor balances big Christian developments with "his story"
In brief (the abstract): Diarmaid MacCulloch takes viewers on a fascinating journey to churches worldwide providing key links to how these buildings and the people in them relate to the biggest developments in Christianity. It's aiming at a broad audience, and works well.
The full review: Oxford professor Diarmaid MacCulloch makes the complex history behind the world's largest religion approachable and understandable. And, might I add, personal.
MacCulloch's book of the same name ("A History of Christianity: The First 3000 Years") is much more academic than this documentary, as the book is filled with arcane details and sometimes head-spinning depth. The book, for example, delves deeply into the ancient Greek roots of Christianity, but there's none of that here. Instead, he effectively incorporates the strengths of his visual medium while keeping it crisp and to the point, using the clues and cues that church buildings worldwide provide and linking them in fascinating ways to just enough of the many key developments in the history of the Christian church. He does it through passionate narration, extremely short but telling interviews, and lots of kid-friendly analysis.
The music superbly fits the classy and passionate tone MacCulloch sets in his way of speaking and interviewing -- I have a feeling we'll be hearing a lot more from James Atherton and/or Johnny Clifford, the two credited composers.
While I have a few minor quibbles with some of the conclusions MacCulloch draws (he is too broad in his condemnation of the Christian church's response to the Holocaust, for example, when my own grandfather is a typical example of those who stood up against Hitler in the name of Christ -- he was sent to Dachau. Remember that many people even in Germany did not realize the full extent of the death camps, as there was no free press in Germany), the fact that MacCulloch questions, interprets and speculates on the underlying implications of many facets of the story makes it especially entertaining and engaging.
Notably, he is careful about avoiding the jargon that is inevitable in such a documentary and he apologizes for and explains it well when he uses it.
Anyone interested in getting a fair and relatively unbiased view of Christian church history would do well to turn to this TV program -- even preteens with a little parental supplementation. He shows the warts in church history while he admits to having a Christian upbringing himself. But he also confesses to being a "friend of Christianity" vs. an adherent or apologist.
I really love this personal, narrative approach to big events. It's both "his story" and "history".