Change Your Image
SpringBeagle
Reviews
A Good Woman (2004)
Good story mediocre execution
Too bad that this production is seriously miscast because the premise and story is so much fun. Much of the humor is lost because the casting of the main two actresses is awkward and so much of the meaning and situations in the scenes do not play out as originally intended. This to me is the major problem of the film. The fundamental bones and structure of the story and its characters can't be supported by the two female leads and often just fall flat. They are not meant to play these characters.
Unhinged (2020)
Miscast Female Lead; Story Unbelievable
The actress playing the female lead and parent was so young, I thought in the beginning she was her son's older sister. The story was unbelievable and made worst by the miscasting because the actress looked so young fresh, sweet and perky that her character's rude behavior and choices made no sense. There were just so many moments in the script that seemed like one mechanical set-up after the other but with no emotional backup or authenticity behind it.
Honest Thief (2020)
Awkward script and stiff direction
Many moments in the script seem awkward, mechanical, improbable and unbelievable. The premise is unbelievable and improbable. Character motivations are not believable. The dialogue and direction are both stiff awkward and there is no subtlety--even the efforts to be comical or slick are heavy handed. Liam Neeson is a natural but even he can't save this clunky script and stiff production.
Allen v. Farrow (2021)
Very Well Made Documentary and Very Revealing
This will change how you view Woody Allen and you will most likely have trouble watching his films in the future because it is very revealing. Very well made with access to many of the people at the center of the incident.
Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests (2021)
Sloppy Documentary Feels Thrown Together with no Effort to Understand its Subject
This doc feels like it was thrown together over a weekend simply by slicing together YouTube inserts with very shallow grasp of its subject. I gave up watching it after 17 minutes. I forced myself to skip forward several times to try to find any core thesis, but came up empty-handed. Why was this even made? From the music, to the editing, and to the production, it's all very hastily thrown together. It feels like it is trying to ride on the coattails of MBTI's success, by pretending to question it or very superficially challenge it and then presenting no real argument or compelling story. There was simply no desire to explore MBTI in depth. A doc with a shallow understanding of its main subject is not very compelling. In the end, I lost interest and pulled the plug.
Mrs Lowry & Son (2019)
Wonderful Performances Tell a Painful Story
I became literally physically nauseous after seeing Vanessa Redgrave's character slowly eat away at her son's confidence. This is a story about two deeply different people who are mother and son and see the world completely differently. The mother is clearly a narcissist and the son is blindly devoted towards her. The movie is very simply told and the performances are marvelous.
The Devil All the Time (2020)
Flat Flat Flat
The story doesn't know what it wants to be. This film is all over the place. It is ambitious but lacks depth. It wants to have meaning through imitation and lacks any real meaning. Over-baked and over-puffed nothingness.
The Assistant (2019)
Well Made but Have Issues with Casting
I read the book "Catch and Kill" and I had heard this was based on Harvey Weinstein. The original assistant who helped break this case was an Asian female assistant of Harvey's based in London, so why are all the minorities literally extras or two bit players? Why did the director choose to do this?
The Dollanganger Saga: Flowers in the Attic (2014)
Watched ONLY for Ellen Burstyn and for the Book
Read the book years ago and I'm a fan of Burstyn. Heather Graham is so painfully awkward I just fast forwarded. Terrible casting of Graham--what were they thinking is beyond me. I know that's harsh but watch it and see if you don't agree. All I wanted was to spend some time with Ellen Burstyn. Extremely stiff direction.
They (2017)
Nice cinematography
Nice camerawork but lot's of mumbling throughout this film. The main character mumbles and it's distracting and alienating.
Voyeur (2017)
Narcissists and Psychopaths Galore Try to Cook Up Nothing
From the beginning, this documentary runs out of steam because it's just chuck full of narcissists and psychopaths, desperately all trying to pump meaning into a meaningless hobby of a boring creepy psychopath who bought a motel and for decades peeped at thousands of his guests. This delusional psychopath actually wants us to think he was contributing to society and doing a social experiment because he logged his into a greasy journal how many times each man got off and how many times the women didn't. Really? This is enough material for a full documentary? The man should be hauled off to jail but instead the journalist writing and hosting this nothingness tries to convince us that this pervert is fascinating. Don't bother wasting your time finding anything of substance here. I found all of these people rather obsessed with their creepy self-obsessed selves. They were boring and predictable, so I unplugged after 30 minutes.
Look at Us Now, Mother! (2015)
If you are into psychology
Then you will enjoy this real portrait of the filmmaker's mother who appears to be a classic narcissist and who has gaslighted her daughter for her entire life and triangulated her family members to make her daughter feel as if she was the "problem." Despite all this, the filmmaker appears to have survived it all, wise, and patient. I get the impression she can see through her mother's tactics. Note to filmmaker: it's not about forgiveness but acceptance. Your mother does love you and she's funny too.
Cake (2014)
No Surprises
Spoiler alert..... the film fits into those categories that seem the trend these days where it starts on a down note and pretty much ends on a down note. The characters fail to change and you see very little growth. I personally don't find this type of story very conducive to great filmmaking because it lacks drama. Compounding matters, it appears Cake is a self-produced picture by Aniston the main star, which can sometimes lead to a a lack of objectivity. As a result, Aniston's dialogue is often wordy and the character repeats the same lines over and over or plays the same mood notes. I suppose this could have been avoided if she were not producing and writers had exercised more control or an editor could have simply cut out the fat. The film also has quite a few false endings where it simply feels as if it won't end but you've already gotten the point and the main character keeps repeating the same lines as if in a loop, again a symptom of a self-produced star driven picture. I will note that I admire Aniston and think she's a very strong actress but this picture spun out of control from the lack of it. I did not know much about this picture before I watched it but the filmmaking broadcasted it was self-produced by these symptoms.
The Gambler (2014)
Lacks the Required Grittiness
This would have been much easier to remake if the director had stayed true to the grittiness of the original. It's stripped clean here. From the cinematography, to the acting, the music and more, there is an overall lack of desperation. It's as if everyone making the film has never experienced desperation or addiction of any sort, which I know can't be true. Even the music is inappropriate and sounds like someone randomly picked tunes from their favorite alternative rock radio station. The romantic subplot is mere fluff and also lacks grit from the casting to the photography and inappropriate music making me feel as if I was suddenly watching a romantic comedy. Why did this UCLA beach blonde love interest work in a underground Asian owned casino? Huh? Shouldn't she have been Asian? And what would a young college student even see in this loser? Some choices just made no sense and were out of date, out of context, and simply not the right tone. I would say even Mark Wahlberg was in over his head and the role was not the right fit for him.