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Reviews
The Chosen: I Have Called You by Name (2019)
The real life in the gospels
People with problems that can't be solved-this is the story of the Bible that The Chosen presents so well. Mary had demons and it is presented in ways that many viewers can relate to-with their unsolvable problems. Peter and Andrew are so pressured financially, it dominates their lives and their relationships suffer fractures. Andrew is plagued by anxiety, and Peter is a conniver just trying to survive. Two characters are hustlers, staging fights and acting as bookies. All these are left desperate at the end of the episode, yet have teasing encounters with the central character played addictively by Jonathan Roumie.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Cinematic Translation of 1984
I saw 2001 when it came out and watched it again in 2022, 56 years later. In the interim I have become well-read. The lightly developed storyline enables the movie's ongoing relevance.
As movies often create sympathy for bad actors, so this one creates sympathy for HAL, to excuse the murderous pride that HAL indulges. The rationalization of the murders is the benefit of a more-real reality than people occupy.
Today the combination of the federal government and big Tech threatens to impose HAL's condescending animosity for humanity upon us all-and to do so in the name of a greater value than people.
Yesterday (2019)
Humor, beauty, tension
I haven't enjoyed a movie this much in a long time. The premise of the movie is waking up in a world where the most profitable moneymakers, that you grew up with, never existed-and you can replicate them. The choices presented to you draw out your character-for better or worse. The truthfulness of the movie exceeds that of all my other favorites. The moral is somewhat like What Women Want with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt-it is a very satisfying tale of personal character transformation.
I'll Follow You Down (2013)
Action for my mind & heart
Love versus innovation, relationship versus advancement, sacrifice versus ambition: in contrast to usual movie drivel, Continuum activates my mind and heart.
Yes it is slow-paced, beneficially. This allows you to relate to the characters, and that is where the action is in real life. The people and the relationships in this movie don't need the cheap cinematic sex and other tricks to feel like real people to the viewer.
The science is fantastical of course, but within the boundaries of the movie it is good science, and the characters act like real scientists with real lives and sorrows-not big-cranium intellectual elites.
The ending is very unlike anything else in time travel movies-better, because the compulsory choice is clearly delineated for the characters, and the choices they make are compelling. I would have sat through this movie just for the love in the ending. In fact, that's just what I have done, several times.
Viewers who are not into people might rate this movie poorly, preferring kinetic action and shallow sex-based relationships, so there is an ample supply of movies for those reviewers. Other reviewers who love the art of movie production could miss the movie's success at portraying real characters a viewer can relate to. To each his own.
Barney Miller: Field Associate (1981)
Another prophetically predictive Barney Miller episode
Mr. Klein is arrested for protesting the Trilateral Commission. Dietrich commences an unnecessary conversation in which he confirms what Mr. Klein fears: the installation of its members into powerful positions of government, erasing national borders and consolidating world government. As usual, a Barney Miller episode demonstrates that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Cats (2019)
critics are idiots
I loved this movie, much better than the broadway edition. t.s. eliot's cat poems leave lots of room for Hooper's interpretation and his addition of the story line from the eyes of Victoria is a genius way to make sense of it. Also the way that multiple cats contribute to each character's song was very enjoyable. The acting was superb.