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You've Got Mail (1998)
Another Nora Ephron masterpiece.
A masterful, graceful retelling of "The shop around the corner", one of the classics of 30's Cinema, with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, A funny frank human conversation on navigating relationships, driven by Ephron's impeccable ear for dialog, and taste in music. Ryan's character is the proprietor of a small charming children's bookshop on New York's upper West side; Hanks is the scion of a family which runs a chain of large bookstores, and builds one around the corner from Ryan's. That business contest between Ryan and Hanks characters Is the counterpoint to an email friendship the two characters have struck up online, unbeknownst to either of them. The two characters share online the regrets and doubts and hurt of their real world interactions, exploring all the complexities of being human in relationships. No one has done this brand of comedy quite as well as Nora Efron in these last 30 years; you have to look to the Jane Austen novels, and the genius of the filmmakers of the 30s and 40s and 50s to find anything that's comparable.
Jeszcze przed swietami (2022)
A charming, multi threaded tale of love realized in package delivery snafu.
Love conquers all in this charming, multi threaded tale of misdelivered packages which lead to love. Maria is a single mom dedicated to her child who works as a package delivery person. A childish bit of mischief of a coworker causes all her packages due for delivery on Christmas Eve to be misdirected. The genius in this movie is that each of the misdirected packages has a salutary effect on the recipient, even though unintended. The half dozen or so plot threads are interwoven, so as to deliver to each character, what seems most needed, and most wanted. Maria links each story by virtue of being the deliverer of the misdirected packages. She experiences her own fulfillment in a nicely developed and believable relationship between Maria and Kristof, the Prince Charming who comes into her life, wondering about the package he was going to receive. Kristof ends up appreciating Maria's character and value. In its multigenerational love stories, across social classes this movie recalls "Love, Actually," along with any other number of Cinderella stories. It's charm is in its simplicity, and pace and the positive karma around each of the developing relationships. Recommended.
Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)
A surprising, absorbing piece of storytelling
A surprising, absorbing piece of storytelling, with fine performances by Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba - the best I can recall for each of these worthy actors. Real characters with real emotions make the more fantastical aspects of the film more credible. Swinton is cast against type, playing a sympathetic woman torn by real emotions. Idris Elba despite being a creature of some magical powers, is paradoxically much more human, and his motivation more credible, than in his Marvel universe roles. Recommended for those who believe movie should be about human beings, with real conflicts, and not humanoid types with super powers.
The Contractor (2022)
Awful, on its own terms
This is a film, which is bad on some so many levels, it's difficult to convey them all.
It apes the Jason Bourne movies. I liked the Jason Bourne films - I've seen several of the Jason Bourne films - this is no Jason Bourne film.
What's with Chris Pine's knee in this movie? He goes from limping, to crawling, to sprinting, to climbing, to any number of other inconsistent ways of working with that knee. While the knee is infected, abcesed.
The scene in the aqueduct is not credible, not believable, ridiculous. Chris Pine is climbing the sheer walls of the aqueduct, racing down the riverbank, (again on that knee!) while 10 special forces types are shooting at him with automatic weapons, and receives not a scratch.
The motivation of each and every character is simply missing in action. The scene at the top of the parking garage, where Pine is crying, his buddy is saying it's because I'm supporting a family, but then decides he's going to go all in on attacking Kiefer Sutherland's character With a pistol.
Segue to the ending: the compound that Kiefer Sutherland is maintaining has three tough guys out front, but no others, at all. In a previous scene, they were seem to be dozens moving back-and-forth.
Chris Pines' buddy seems intent on getting himself killed. Jumps out from behind the car full profile, gets shot, doesn't retreat behind the car, instead continues to stand there to be shot again and again.
No one in that house seems to hear about anything that's going on anywhere else in the house, including, without limitation, automatic, gunfire, screeching cars, dying people!
Awful movie. Badly made. Not the talent.
Roy Orbison: Black and White Night 30 (2017)
Inimitable and amazing
This concert film captures Roy Orbison's distinctive sound -a rockabilly crooning across 2 octaves which is so simple, so evocative and so sweet- powering stories and poetry of love and loss. A great voice which powered 3 decades of pop music hits.
Filmed in the last year of Roy Orbison's life, it shows Roy still in great voice, backed by a killer backup band and vocals- Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, KD Lang, T. Bone Pickens, several others, all in their prime, respectful of this rockabilly master, all having a blast. Magic stuff!