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medguy42
Reviews
Happy Valley (2014)
Excellent Look At the Community, Families and More
I liked this documentary very much. Watching people involved in the unchecked crimes of Jerry Sandusky give their side of the story was much more revealing than reading quotes. Matt Sandusky, Jerry's adopted son, impressed me as thoughtful and sincere. He did his best to be fair to Sandusky, saying that ninety percent of the time he spent with the man was everything a kid would want--association with fame, access to football games, etc.--but the other ten percent "would destroy you."
I was shocked when Matt, at the end of the film, said that not one single person from the Sandusky family contacted him after he went public about how Jerry molested him. What kind of people are Dottie and her relatives? If they didn't believe him, you would think someone might want to talk with him and ask him to take back his "lies." But no. That didn't happen.
The one thing missing from "Happy Valley" was any mention of the well-known fact that Paterno decided that some of his players who broke into a residence and beat people should not be put into the legal system. Paterno clearly believed that he and his players were above the law. He decided the law-breaking players would clean up the stadium after some games. It's also known that then-President Spanier and other higher-ups in the Athletics Dept. all agreed that Paterno was in charge of things like this. This piece of history is a big deal. It should have been in the documentary.
The behavior of some of the residents of Happy Valley was detestable. There's an extended scene in which these idiots don't hesitate to grab a sign from an older man making his negative view of Paterno known at the statue of the coach. A woman who wants a selfie with the statue pushes the man aside with her body. Others get in his face with red-neck-type logic. It's scary to see how conformist the community could be---all worshiping a football program.
This film had to be made, and it was made well.
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)
True, True, True
David Miscavige has spent lots of money to make this movie look biased, but the word "biased" makes no sense. You have a handful of former top-level scientologists, right-hand people to Miscavige, all saying the same things. People who spent their lives in a religion are not going to be "biased" against that religion. And what does it say about scientology that these highly-trained, highly-audited "clears" would all try to destroy the religion that made them such capable, high-functioning people? You can't ignore logic, folks. These people were high-ranking officials of the church. Even the church isn't trying to deny that fact. Why would they all be crazy enough to rebel? Did they all want to take Miscavige's place?
I had a quick brush with scientology years ago. I saw an ad from the church, looking for people to translate some of their written course materials. I applied. The guy running the local scientology office offered me a money-back guarantee on a $50 course that he said would teach me how to learn things faster. I took the course and saw how they used social pressure to get "students" to praise scientology. We all had to talk about how much we'd learned that day. No one wanted to refuse to do the cheerleading we were asked to do by the super-enthusiastic instructor.
It's amazing how a cunning and ruthless person like Miscavige can build such wealth with so little education. Scientology's power is a testament to raw greed and ruthlessness.
I watch "Going Clear" twice. It's an eye-opener.
Elysium (2013)
Not Subtle, Not Creative
This is unwatchable. Jodie Foster does not make subtle movies. In "Silence of the Lambs," there were no good men——except for the Scott Glenn character, who was up in his years and not interested in chasing skirts. He was good, the elderly, harmless male. The rape-victim movies she has starred in were not exactly full of good, decent men, either. Now, in "Elysium," set 140 years in the future, the good people are all Latino. All of the poor, disadvantaged people still left on a hellish, polluted Earth are all Latino. I didn't spot any African-American or Asian faces, unless some extra was in the frame, 300 feet from the camera. If you're white, you are evil. Somehow, all the Caucasians are in the top 1 percent.
Matt Damon's lead character is bi-racial. You have to be part Latino and speak Spanish for us to know you're one of the good people. Not a subtle movie. And by the way, film-makers showing us how things will look in 140 years could be a little more imaginative. Will people still be dropping the same f-bombs they drop now? Still flipping the bird? Will tattoos still be the rage, and the more ink you have, the more impressive it is? These film-makers went for maximum action and huge, metal-fortified droids. Not very creative at all.
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Highly Over-rated
As I write this, the film is regarded as one of the two most likely to win Best Picture at the Oscars. I wouldn't bet against it. But, I'm sorry, having a powerful, undeniable message like "slavery is the greatest evil" does not, by itself, make a film great. Steve McQueen directed "Shame," which I could only endure for about 15 minutes. Like this movie, it was over the top. In that movie, it was sex that Mr. McQueen expected to fill seats in theaters. It did not seem like reality. I would be the last person to say that the worst kinds of torture and abuse were not heaped on black slaves in the United States. Of course they were. But if plantation owners spent as much of their time every day on demeaning and punishing their slaves, all of those plantations would have failed economically. Mr. McQueen filled the movie with non-stop whippings, lynchings and other abuse. Those slave owners would have done better without slaves, doing all the work themselves, if they actually devoted that much time to abusing their workers.
The musical score was a joke. Completely amateurish. The composer listed in the credits doesn't appear to have scored any other movies previously. The music does little or nothing to help us feel for the characters. Did Steve McQueen feel that he didn't even need good music to make a great movie?
Schindler's list, also a movie about genocide and the evil persecution of a people, was about a man in a good, safe position in life, who took big risks with his life for others. It had a more complex, richer story and characters. Spielberg did not try for an Oscar by delivering lengthy scenes of torture. In my opinion, this film does not deserve a Best Picture award, but it's likely to win one.
Flight (2012)
An Overrated Flight (Spoilers)
*SPOILERS* Precisely because the average rating on Flight is so high, I feel the need to add my thoughts about the movie (and script.) The definition of "spoiler" isn't all that tight, so I'll alert you to what I think are mild spoilers, below.
Early in the movie, Denzel Washington's character, pilot Whip Whitaker maneuvers his commercial aircraft through what looks like great turbulence than I can imagine a non-military flight taking off in, in real life. It looks like the plane is taking off in a hurricane. Unlikely. During the same flight, Whip manages to wrestle the un-flyable, defective plane to a heroic crash landing. And he does all this with a blood alcohol level that makes him legally drunk. Even for Hollywood, this is too much. Alcoholics -- especially those with decades of heavy drinking under their belt -- do not tend to think that fast, or have lightning quick reflexes. Some athletes hit home runs while hung over, but that's while actively drunk. The kind of clear thinking and super-fast analysis of complex situations that this hero demonstrates aren't compatible with alcoholism.
*SPOILER (in the next TWO paragraphs) Movie-goers tend to like and respect bright, highly capable characters. And while Whip is a super-human pilot, he is super-weak and/or super-dumb when it comes to his actions following the crash landing. Despite being told not to drink in the coming weeks or months by the lawyer assigned (by Whip's union) to help him, Whip immediately proceeds to indulge in heavy drinking. It's dramatic alright, and makes us wonder how things will play out, but that character wouldn't be that stupid. Yes, he would probably have to drink, but this man knows his blood will be tested soon and that he may be facing a long prison sentence if convicted of causing deaths, so a bright guy like Whip might go to a doctor, try to get meds and other treatment to help him stay sober in the immediate future. The devil-may-care attitude we see throughout much of the movie is unrealistic for this character.
*SPOILER* He abruptly stops drinking after years of heavy drinking -- and no withdrawal symptoms? Probably possible (everyone's body reacts differently to things), but unlikely. He'd have tremors, maybe hallucinations, alerted mental status, etc. Going cold turkey is dangerous. People going through it seldom look and function like Whip does for a few days.
(END OF SPOILER) Whip's relationship with a down-and-out drug addict/hooker is kind of a cliché at this point. How many more movies do we have to endure where the troubled hero gets the help he needs from a hooker with her own problems? No points to the writer for this cliché.
John Goodman plays a supremely confident drug dealer who is a long-time friend of Whip's. He does a fine job in a colorful role, but for my taste, the cartoonish nature of that character is out of tune with the rest of the movie. It wakes us up and makes us laugh, but if the movie and its message are to be taken seriously, Goodman's character robs the film of some of its gravity. It comes across as a self-conscious attempt at pandering to the audience by making sure we get a few laughs thrown in.
Bottom line, this is not an Oscar-worthy script. One of director Robert Zemekis's biggest movies was "Forrest Gump," whose mentally-challenged protagonist was able to rise to the top of several pyramids (like ping-pong, the food business, etc.) It makes sense that he would also like the idea of an alcoholic pilot who saves many lives with his heroic actions. The ending was satisfying, but it felt contrived. I think "Flight" has been the beneficiary of over-enthusiasm.