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amandazz100
Reviews
Luzzu (2021)
An insight into the fight to maintain famiy tradition in the face of industy
As a British expat. Living in Malta, this film gave a really good insight into the tensions between traditional Malta and the current fishing industry. Whilst it's setting was magnificent and showed off Malta, the story could have been anywhere where independent small business owners are drowing under a sea of bureaucratic red tape whilst the larger players merrily sidestep whatever the regulations are, secure in the knowledge that who they know/ pay, will ensure that any repercussions will be limited. Not so the little man, where the enforcement of often petty regulations are carried out with draconian fervour, largely because those charged with the task can only realistically catch the least powerful players.
The films is gritty and realistic, the acting powerful, the story line sad with a dark commentary on the effect of globalisation for us all.
Well worth watching.
Provenance (2017)
Reviwing the reviewer
You will see that there is a 2 star review on here. Look closely, somone who joined IMDb for the sole purpose of writing a bad review of this movie. and this movie only! Ha ha - one can only guess how disgruntled he is that film was more successful than he anticipated . funny but a bit transparent.
Its well worth a watch - so give it a go
Fat Fiction (2020)
Modern Chronic Disease is a result of Nutrition mistakes since the introduction of the Dietary Guideliness
This documentaty shows clearly how the key to regaining health is to ignore the current dietary guidelines and instead adopt a Whole Food Animal (and Plant) based diet. This diet is one which will stop blood sugars spiking and allow the recovery of metabolic health.
The documentary is a well organised, evidence based documentary which includes real examples of the impact of eating the current recommended diet on healthy individuals not just those suffering from metabolic illness and introduces you to many experts who can help you to understand the issues. .
There is a steadily increasing cohort of private individuals regaining health ( and maintaining health) by following the recommendations outlined in this documentary. Anyone who wants to live a long healthy life, should watch the documentary and then follow the same actions as some of those in the documentary and take a large black bag to a great deal .of the contents of their larder/ fridge..
For anyone spending time at home, wondering how to optimise their chances of withstanding Corona Virus, you could usefully watch the documentary, follow up the interviews given by reading the evidence yourself and make a start on recovering your own metabolic health. Poor metabolic health has already been implicated in the Corona Virus deaths. This is a must watch, take it seriously - I am speaking as a severe diabetic (Hba1C 10.3% on diagnosis) now with normal blood sugars at 5.3% a with no medications and regained metabolic health for the last two years because I practise what this documentary tells us.
If you yourself, or your family suffer from any of the conditions of modern civilisation ( eg, diabetes, alzheimers, heart disease, stroke, cancer and many others ) then you owe it to yourself to understand the extent to which FOOD is MEDICINE and what you eat is the difference between eating yourself ill or keeping yourself healthy. This documentary is a great introductory start to that process. A MUST WATCH. .
The Biggest Little Farm (2018)
Well worth a watch
The most important element to me was in really gaining an insight as to how nature works, What happens when soils are fed properly; How wildlife can flourish alongside farming; How all animals have a purpose and how every animal, plant and person is part of a huge chain from birth to death. Its a well narrated documentary beautifully shot. It tracks over a 7 year period and I am sure there is a whole lot of footage that would be interesting to see. At a time when farmers are being vilified wholesale and veganism suggested as an answer, this film makes you appreciate that there can be no plants without animals, no plants without the death of something and that our planet is an intricate interconnected globe that we all need to learn how to respect. Nature is bigger than all of us.
Fat: A Documentary (2019)
If you want to lead a a long healthy life, watch this. Pass it onto your friends- help them too.
Three years ago I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes HbA1C 10.3%. I had been on a " diet" for years, " healthy whole grains" low fat, low saturated fat, little meat. Clearly it hadn't helped me, so I embarked on my own research and discovered what did. That was a Whole Foods diet, rich in animal proteins and fats, devoid of sugar, grains ( healthy whole or otherwise) without vegetable oils, without processed foods. Instead simple meals made from fresh ingredients with meat, fish or eggs as the main component. The result is I am no loger diabetic (HbA1C 5.3%) fitter than in decades and I am not going back. This documentary resonates with me because it explains how I got into the mess I did and how I and others can escape it. Chronic ill health is not inevitable - it is the food folks. BAN the beige, ditch the junk, eat whole foods and prosper - Vinnie is telling the truth.
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
A must see film
I wasn't expecting to go see this, but I'm glad I did. it held my attention from the very beginning to the end. The jutaposition of " normalcy" and " rock stardom" made for a fascinating study of the effect of talent and fame.
well worth a visit
The Magic Pill (2017)
Just how do we get the message across that REAL FOOD is good for you and processed food not?
Reviews on here will be 10/10 or 1/10 in the main. 10/10 will come from everyone who recovered their health through changing their diet to REAL FOOD. 1/10 will come from those who believe a plant based vegetarian diet is the answer. There will not be a lot in between. I watched the documentary and I sighed a little because I knew that this continued division would be the result.
My take on this is that any diet which is REAL FOODS is probably a good one. Neither sugar ( our first industrially produced commodity) nor flour ( our second ) is REAL FOOD. When you adopt a low carb or a ketogenic diet, you are doing the exact same thing as any health conscious " plant based" whole foods vegan - eating REAL FOOD. The difference is that real meat and fish products are NATURALLY higher in fat and as such they are " high fat diets" Did you know for example that a simple egg - is 62% fat? If you eat "REAL FOODS" of all kinds including meat and veg you can easily will end up with a diet consisting of about 60% fat. I know because I do and I record it using cronometer a simple program you can download for free . If you eat REAL FOOD across the entire spectrum of choices then you will also have a diet full of natural supplements. Its impossible to achieve health via a vegan diet without any supplements because some of the things you need ONLY come from animal proteins. Anyone can adjust the proportions of the types of real food they eat- meat, dairy, fish, nuts, vegetables, depending on their taste and how that combination makes YOU feel personally.
So why did we all become fat and unhealthy? my take is that it stems directly from the decision to replace saturated fats (mostly meat based) with polyunsaturated oils mainly Omega 6 ( seed oils like sunflower, safflower etc.) This was simply a mistake of gigantic proportions. Om 3 & Om 6 oils are found naturally in animal products and we must have TRACE elements of them in balance in our diet because we cannot manufacture them. Our governments interpreted that as being - Om 6 oils are good for us and advised our food industry to make tons of processed products, using sugar, flour and seed oils - a perfect mix of disease causing foods. There is another thing about these seed oils - your body doesn't send signals saying you are full, when you eat them, that's why you can gorge on chips or crisps or chocolates and find it much harder to do on baked potatoes with butter. We hear all the time " junk foods" are bad for you..but no-one truly appreciates the extent of it - the fact is that actually most people feel a bit dodgy most of the time eating highly processed foods. The MAGIC PILL is an attempt to show real results of people eating REAL FOOD. There is science behind it in vast quantities - who has the time to look - but if you took the time to look it can be found easily.
Because these processed foods are so bad for us, we develop heart disease, diabetes and tons of other things. One of the main aspects of that is that many of us become diabetic and intolerant to eating any more of it - so we can no longer eat carbohydrates - that stops us eating these processed foods . So we recover - there are thousands of stories of people with diabetes recovering their health through cutting our processed foods and carbohydrates. The scientists are working on it too - but it is slow because who wants to fund " just eat real food and you won't need any of our pills , potions or procedures"? Film is a interesting medium, it can be used to deliver an idea, but the format will always be capable of being shot down because there is simply not enough time to also present all the science that is there - the film makers can only hope that it opens people's eyes enough to think about it, and to start looking themselves. if you want to look then simply access @dietdoctor.com and from there myriad experts on the subject each of whom generally provides the scientific references to whatever it is they are saying. In the meantime please understand that vitriol poured on eating a REAL FOOD diet can only really come from those ideologically opposed to meat in any form - and of course the processed food and pharma industries that have everything to gain from keeping you hungry and sick so expect there to be a LOT of vitriol.
REAL FOOD is the MAGIC PILL - the stuff the human body needs to operate properly - eat it and see for yourself.
God's Own Country (2017)
Too formulaic for my taste
The film is beautifully shot and the performances are often riveting SO hats off to the actors involved.
For me the film itself was let down by a sense of both being rather predictable in terms of both who the participants are, and how they behave and what happens to them at both main and supporting levels. and pandering to the current buzz issues such as immigration.
The "gritty" depiction of the life of a farmer - appears to be one that is designed to shock its urban audience particularly through its use of camera angles. I just found that treatment rather obvious.
I found Women in Love - in 1969 a far more powerful movie.
Dunkirk (2017)
Gripping or silly !! I can't decide
I cannot make up my mind on this one. I loved the complexity of the three time strands. I liked the pacing and the use of music to create the threatening atmosphere.
In principle the idea is neat - there are so many men on the beach that giving a few of them a starring role and back story serves to understate the sheer mass of human suffering and terror being experienced during Dunkirk by everyone there, so the ensemble cast idea is a good one.
In reality though everyone has a back story and the film tradition of picking one or two of those out and providing more rounded characters works well in those circumstances because the audience can empathise, as it is, here we have an ensemble caste with a couple of not very well picked out individual characters that is hard to care too much about.
The film is a kind of half way house - a bit of a war movie, with a few superheros. You can tell it is made by someone more used to the fantasy figure genre. The characters that have been picked out behaving like comic book heroes in terms of the scrapes they get into and how they get out of them, with true Hollywood cliff hanging moments.
The movie is also curiously "unviolent" as it made for audience under 12. the beach scenes severely understate the brutality of the situation and the horror of war. The explosions were rather anodyne - Bodies being blown up on beaches but no discernible injuries afterwards.
I also thought the scenes on the beach looked rather sparse - for what was supposed to be 300,000 men.
Showing this from the perspective of the men on the beach without actually seeing the enemy works well but the actual terror of being on the beach does not come across that well especially when the beaches are both so empty and so orderly.
The ending is weak and very "Hollywood " unrealistic and happens abruptly - almost as if the money ran out
There are a few " laugh out loud " moments from a British sceptic - where someone gets saved at the final moment - true typical Hollywood super hero stuff - not really fitting for a war movie - where such moments probably didn't happen- people just died.
The story ark in the boat probably works best, but that is because it reverts to the tradition of finding characters one can empathise with, though even here rather too comic book for my tastes.
Overall I enjoyed the movie and I found it absorbing, but I don't think its a war masterpiece.
La La Land (2016)
Over-hyped and tedious
Hats off to Ryan Gosling to learn to play the piano for this - great achievement However, in the end people cannot suddenly become talented pianists, singers and dancers just by practising for a film part. each of these skill is extraordinarily tough and unfortunately I don't think the lead characters pulled off either the singing or dancing elements very well. the result was insipid and not very memorable.
Within five minutes of leaving the cinema there were no tunes or dance sequences that I could recall and the plot itself was rather depressing. All in all not worth the money
C'est arrivé près de chez vous (1992)
Worth watching , though horrifying
This film is brilliantly put together. The test of a really good film is if you can still picture it in your mind's eye months, even years after watching it - this film works at that level for me. The subject matter is horrifying, the sheer normalcy of the way the plot unfolds and draws in the camera crew into being part of the crimes being committed is beautifully done. The way horror can seem normal to those involved in it - has all too often been demonstrated to be very true in the real world. All in all I loved this film.
Baby Driver (2017)
for car chase aficionados - great new lead
I loved the soundtrack for this film, The art of Baby, was played perfectly. In the end it was really all about the car chases - which whilst well done, i tend to find - you seen one you seen em all.
I would have been interested to know more of the back story about how Baby became indentured. I found the love interest a little weak in so far as it wasn't given the full time to develop compared to the time spent in cars - as such I think its more likely to appeal to younger men that more mature film goers. That being said I did enjoy watching it!
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Depressing , hard to follow and fundamentally " meh"
Whilst I appreciate that this film is emotionally raw, it was so depressing for so long that I just found it generally depressing rather than absorbing. Its like watching something you know is good because you've been told how worthy it is, and yet the experience itself left something to be desired. I found the " street scenes" annoying - whilst no doubt having people interacting in a " real fashion " is very truthful - in practise I couldn't follow a word that was said a lot of the time.
What the Health (2017)
Vegan anti meat propaganda
An interesting film, full of seemingly important science most of which does not stand up to scrutiny.
I totally support the idea that our processed foods are harming us and we should all eat " real foods". However I do not think the evidence presented that meat is harmful is sufficient to try to turn people away from a significant source of nutrition A lot of evidence suggests that sugar and highly processed flours are at the root of many of our health problems including diabetes.
This documentary has been created by vegans with an agenda. They should be a lot more clear up front what their bias is. Many people will be misled into thinking this is balanced science. It isn't.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
a travesty
This is not a film. There is no discernible plot whatsoever. The film has no pacing at all, the cast should be ashamed to have taken the money to be in something which is no more than a CGI fest. Some of which - including the ending scenes are even taking the mickey out of that - The film is boring, the characters have no empathy with each other, the love interests risible, practically none of the creatures have any personality at all. the scenes are chaotic and move between locations with no discernible logic. This is no doubt the worst thing I have ever sat through and seemed endless.
I would have left early had I not been stuck in an end of row seat. I needed a drink to recover from the sheer frustration of sitting through it.
Hinterland (2014)
Hauntingly Beautiful
From the opening shot the film invites attention. We immediately feel drawn to the two characters and we sense how important it is that Harvey meets up with his old friend Lola. Harry Macqueen manages to convey longing , trepidation and hope without little dialogue. Both actors play their parts well and the setting is beautiful.
I particularly liked the ability to convey such a depth of emotion with no graphic demonstration of it. The camera work demonstrating where Harvey is thinking of Lola is very cleverly done
The film goes to show that you do not need big budgets, or even big story lines to captivate an audience. Good actors, directing , a lovely setting and beautiful camera work can achieve that.