Wednesday, 31 December 2014

Against the Current

(http://thefilmivejustseen.blogspot.co.uk)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 2008
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Drama
Director:
Outstanding Performance:
Premiss:: Struggling with a tragic past, a man with an urgent calling enlists two friends to help him swim the length of a river.
Themes:: Alienation | Destiny | Friendship | Grieving | Identity | Loneliness | Loyalty | Narcissism | Self-expression | Solipsism | White culture | White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Going with the Flow

Well-acted and well-directed but, ultimately, a self-indulgent and superficial piece of White whining.

The characterization is thin & weakly-differentiated. There is little clear sense that these people live in an emotional and social bubble from which they choose not to escape; this being the central reason for their malaise.

If only Whites got out more, saw life in its true, objective perspective & stopped pretending to face their issues when they are merely evading them - as here.

(www.whedon.info)

Tuesday, 30 December 2014

Julie & Julia

Rating: 40%

(www.aceshowbiz.com)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 2009
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Romance
Director:
Outstanding Performance:
Premiss:: Housewife cooks all the recipes in a cook-book for a dare.
Themes:: Alienation | Friendship | Identity | Loneliness | Narcissism | Political Correctness | Self-belief | Self-expression | Solipsism | Stereotyping | White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Joy of Solipsism

Mediocre movie about mediocre Whites that is as trivially-obsessed with trivia as its mediocre characters. This determination to be decidedly-average is made worse by the White use of blogging as a substitute for being published by peer-reviewing (& rejecting) publishing houses; hence, the awesome trivia and nutter-on-the-street-corner-talking-to-himself quality of real-life White blogs.

This one concerns the White obsession with using food as a means of cementing personal relationships - as if the means of sustaining life could also sustain marriages and friendships. That such is not the case is emphasized by the shallowness of the self-absorbed characters on offer here and the perfunctory critique of McCarthyism.

(http://hellogiggles.com)

Too much dramatic padding extends this film beyond its natural shelf-life to two hours. If it were not for Meryl STREEP (doing a kind of drunken Wendy Hiller) and some lovingly-photographed edibles, this would be sheer torture from start to finish.

(If Jane Austen can offer profound observations about the lives of middle-class Whites - despite her miniscule social-palette - why can’t Nora Ephron?)

Monday, 29 December 2014

Idi i Smotri
(1985)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

WEBSITE: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)...

(http://themetropolistimes.com)

[Come & See]

Subjectivist war movie that gets the point of defensive war (establishing truth over lies) from the position of someone whose entire Russian village is massacred by occupying Germans. This disorienting technique immerses us in the muck; while firmly anchoring us emotionally.

The life changes wrought, not by war as such, but by the realization that war is inescapable, are shown with chilling candour. To become effective, the Russian partisans must act in accordance with the old rubric: The only good Nazi is a dead one.

(http://themetropolistimes.com)

The acting is as grueling to watch as to perform in its search for extreme authenticity. There is a deft understanding of the anger Total War causes - without indulging in narcissistic emotionalism.

Ultimately, a clever indictment of White supremacy, as a young man visibly ages in his journey through the killing fields of Byelorussia.

Sunday, 28 December 2014

Conseguenze dell’amore
[Consequences of Love]
(2004)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.guardian.co.uk)

Claiming to be about every man possessing a secret he cannot reveal. However, swap the words ‘will not’ for ‘cannot’, in the previous clause, and we are closer to the truth than this film dares to go.

Secrets keep us from true intimacy with others precisely because we fear giving away our secrets; ie, we fear closeness: Frightened of dying without first having experienced the fulfilment of love; yet fearing that very completion.

Alternating between a European art house sensibility and slick Hollywood visuals, like its characters, we oscillate between boredom and excitement: The stylistic flourishes keeping the audience awake between the slow parts. A schizophrenic film unable to decide its goals and successfully failing at being anything other than an unempathetic portrait of an unloved junkie; equating fear of love with death.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Saturday, 27 December 2014

MORRIS: A Life with Bells On

Rating: 80%

(www.anglotopia.net)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 2009
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Comedy
Director:
Outstanding Performances:
Premiss:: The film follows the fortunes of an avant garde Morris team in their struggle to evolve Morris Dancing.
Themes:: Alienation | Identity | Narcissism | Nostalgia | Self-expression | Solipsism | White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Review Format:: DVD

Weird Caucasians

Superior and, ultimately, affectionate satire on Morris Dancing that overwhelms with its po-faced brilliance.

The quality of the cast is outstanding and helps the believability necessary to both take all this nonsense seriously while, simultaneously, laughing your socks off.

(www.showroomworkstation.org.uk)

The movie’s only failing is that it does not fully explore - comically - the cultural emptiness and superficiality that would keep Whites Morris Dancing after the agricultural roots, meaning & purpose of such dance have long exhausted.

Friday, 26 December 2014

Carousel

Rating: 60%

(http://loyd-theater.com)

Also Known As/Subtitle:: Unknown
Year:: 1956
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Music
Director:
Outstanding Performance:
Premiss:: Billy Bigelow has been dead for fifteen years, and now outside the pearly gates, he long waived his right to go back to Earth for a day.
Themes:: Compassion; Courage; Destiny; Empathy; Friendship; Humanity; Identity; Loyalty; Mankind; Personal change; Self-belief; Self-expression; White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Oklahoma!
Review Format:: DVD

Visually-interesting but thematically-dull musical with some extremely-imaginative choreography but generally-banal music and lyrics - as well as a trite story and plot.

Its single good musical theme (a waltz) is effectively worked-over throughout the movie’s length, but fails to bring the wishful-thinking nature of its story of self-belief truly alive.

The excellent Shirley JONES is wasted, while the realistic location-shooting tries to hide the artificiality of the story - mostly failing.

Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (Esthetics) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Thursday, 25 December 2014

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings

Rating: 40%

(www.telegraph.co.uk)

Also Known As/Subtitle:: My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding
Year:: 2011 -
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Non-fiction
Director:
Outstanding Performances:: None
Premiss:: UK Gypsy weddings.
Themes:: Alienation | Family | Friendship | Identity | Narcissism | Self-expression | Snobbery | Solipsism | Stereotyping | White culture | White guilt | White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Caucasian Fear

The usual patronizing, White supremacist gobshite about a culture Whites refuse to treat with respect or courtesy; that is, any culture other than White.

What could have been an interesting anthropological study about a necessarily-secretive culture descends into camp as Whites and Jews find any number of reasons to mock those who hide from others out of the sheer need of physical and cultural survival.

Jealous Whites are quite unable to accept that the very culture they ridicule possesses the cultural depth they clearly lack. And, yet, Whites are perfectly well-aware that their mockery tacitly reveals this dearth of Caucasian cultural-substance.

No compare-and-contrast between the culture of the makers and that of the subject is ever objectively-presented; resulting in no exploration of the White supremacy that prompts nonsense-tv like this - nor of the White supremacy that makes gypsies unwilling to accept outsiders. Nor is their any exploration of why Whites need to feel superior to others to desperately evade their existential angst.

A pseudo-documentary saying more about the people who made it than those in it.

Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Duck Soup

Rating: 100%

(http://jimmyakin.com)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 1933
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Comedy
Director:
Outstanding Performances:: All
Premiss:: Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs Teasdale.
Themes:: Alienation; Compassion; Courage; Destiny; Emotional repression; Empathy; Family; Friendship; Humanity; Identity; Loneliness; Loyalty; Mankind; Materialism; Narcissism; Nature; Personal change; Political Correctness; Religion; Republicanism; Self-expression; Social class; Snobbery; Solipsism; White culture; White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: Cinema

Quite simply the best comedy ever made.

Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Chop Shop

Rating: 80%

(http://nymag.com)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 2007
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Drama
Director:
Outstanding Performances:: None
Premiss:: A resourceful street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard. In this chaotic world of adults, he struggles to make a better life for himself and his sixteen-year-old sister.
Themes:: Compassion; Courage; Destiny; Empathy; Ethnicity; Family; Friendship; Humanity; Identity; Loyalty; Mankind; Materialism; Personal change; Redemption; Self-expression; Social class; White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Ladri di Biciclette
Review Format:: DVD

Chop-Chop

Not quite up to the Ladri di Biciclette standard of brilliance, but impressive nonetheless.

An engaging melodrama, shot in a documentary style, about the essential nature of a capitalist country like the United States which, despite its claims to be a haven for migrant workers, is only the most effective haven for White migrants.

A warm and emotionally spontaneous Latino street culture is reflected in the ramshackle, almost-barrio world of Queens, with its collection of low-level criminals and undocumented migrants.

This intimate work is told from a young boy’s point-of-view as he navigates through the chaotic adult world in search of a better life for himself and his older, sometime prostitute sister.

Life affirming and heartbreaking in equal measure, but somewhat lacking in adult perspective.

Monday, 22 December 2014

Rokkk

Rating: 40%

(Image: http://in.movies.yahoo.com)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 2010
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Horror
Director:
Outstanding Performances:: None
Premiss:: Anushka gets a phone call from a strange man who informs her that her sister is in a mental asylum after being arrested for killing her husband and sister-in-law.
Themes:: Alienation; Courage; Destiny; Friendship; Identity; Loneliness; Personal change; Self-expression
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Weak horror with an atmospheric beginning.

Sunday, 21 December 2014

Conte de Noël

Rating: 60%

(www.rottentomatoes.com)

Also Known As:: Christmas Tale
Year:: 2008
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Comedy
Director:
Outstanding Performances:: None
Premiss:: A troubled family is no stranger to illness, grief & banishment. But when their matriarch requires a bone-marrow transplant, the estranged clan reunites just in time for Christmas.
Themes:: Alienation | Destiny | Emotional repression | Family | Identity | Narcissism | Solipsism | White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Reasonably-clever black comedy of manners in which the current cream of French acting talent mostly express their emotions openly – often to camera – no matter who gets hurt.

A bone marrow transplant is used as a metaphor for the inter-relatedness of family but never rises – as a thematic trope – above the trite notion that blood is thicker than water.

The style of the film changes to match the emotions displayed and so is varied. Yet there is actual emotional self-indulgence here, especially as the result of the over-length and the lack of any real psychological depth. The only genuine hook onto which to hang ones interest is the fact that the movie is good at showing how women so often rule the domestic sphere; being shown as alternately self-deluded and wise – especially about men.

Despite all this, the wit carries the day and makes it at least watchable.

Saturday, 20 December 2014

Armée du Crime
[Army of Crime]
(2009)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(www.toutlecine.com)

Emotionally-moving film about the ethical choices to make before becoming a Resistance fighter, as well as the attempt by the Germans in the Second World War to blame Maquis activity on foreign Communism and immigrant Jews. By so doing, they hoped to sow discord both within and between native resistance groups.

Although a slow starter, this movie builds to a stunning climax, as the French authorities energetically collaborate with the Nazis in their increasingly-desperate attempt to exterminate European Jewry.

(www.toutlecine.com)

Friday, 19 December 2014

Witness
(1985)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	Cinema

(Image: http://www.linternaute.com)

Unusually thoughtful and profoundly-emotional policier. A trite cops and robbers’ premise is effectively married to a story of a thriving farming-community and an impossible romance - that does not cop-out with a syrupy ending. We feel like intruders upon a deeply-alien way of living that has long since past, yet somewhat to be desired because of its Edenic qualities.

The director, Peter Weir, is a visual storyteller of a high order who makes telling contrasts between different cultures. Using a focus on details rather than a broad-brush technique, he creates a picture of a complete world we can thoroughly believe in. This poetic, emotionally-sensitive style is unusual for a Hollywood thriller and works well; emphasized by the self-consciously naturalistic, Vermeer-like lighting.

Aside from the usual - but here perfunctory - generic trappings, this is a fine romance. Its only real and unresolved problem is its identity crisis over which audience to appeal to: The romantic melodramatists or the police proceduralists. This tension both adds to the drama as well as, paradoxically, serving it. The dramatic conflict here arises from a people wanting nothing to do with the “English”; not surprising given the cynicism of this shunned, wider White culture. Yet, there is also time for much humor as the hero-of-the-piece learns the idiosyncrasies of Amish life.

The cast underplays beautifully to produce a picture that, more than anything, speaks with images rather more than with words. Major plot points are conveyed visually as characters intuit each other’s feelings - especially about each other. Almost a silent movie, the characters’ deepest emotions are teased out by the merest gesture or facial expression. Simultaneously, the people solace themselves that they know that the inevitable temporariness of their situation will eventually be re-balanced by the film’s end.

The casting, direction and cinematography are faultless; making this apparently slight film a subtle look at the clash between past and present, both in fact and in our imaginations.

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Tropic Thunder
(2008)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(www.listal.com)

Black Like Me

Clever (rather than funny) movie that both parodies Hollywood film clichés and satirizes Hollywood production practices. The jokes are explained rather than delivered - with numbingly-repetitive effect.

This particular parody is little better than what it parodies; revealing that this comedy is not really about anything much outside of itself and is, therefore, wholeheartedly self-indulgent and narcissistic. The satire aspect is more pointed than the parody, but never seriously criticizes the fact that Hollywood makes so few great films (nor why); save to elicit a powerhouse performance from Tom Cruise.

(www.gt5italia.it)

The other standout here is Robert Downey, Jr as an actor so neurotically-obsessed with role authenticity that he actually comes to think he is Black. The rest of the film lacks this shrewd satire (on Whites’ view of Blacks).

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

Being John Malkovich
(1999)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://www.empireonline.com)

A gateway into John MALKOVICH’s mind is discovered and people are charged US$200 for spending 15 minutes inside it. When Mr MALKOVICH discovers this, there is hell to pay.

This highly-original movie is about individual carpe diem and, when not having done so, vainly wanting to be someone else instead. It is also about trying to look at life through others’ eyes and, thereby, trying to control them. That this can never work is the source of the plotting and character development: Wanting to be something you are not, because you are unsuccessful, and wishing to have success without effort - as this seems to be how others achieve it. But this can only lead to either being a puppet or a puppeteer - not someone in ones own right.

(http://www.virtual-history.com/movie)

There are also issues of the lonely desire to discover what it is like to be the other sex. And the neurotic need for control of others as a substitute for their not wanting to be in your company - rather than acceptance of others or even tolerance. Ultimately, fear-of-death and a wish for immortality pervades the entire drama - especially the kind of immortality that can only come from passing-on ones genes to ones offspring.

All of the performances are excellent, especially Catherine KEENER as a polymorphous perverse. She is genuinely fascinated by the sexual possibilities of the discovery of a way into John MALKOVICH’s mind, even while being emotionally-disturbed by their intriguing nature. Cameron DIAZ and John CUSACK convincingly play the central, unhappily-married, couple surrounded by a fate and circumstances they lack the will to make work for their own benefit. Moreover, John MALKOVICH and Charlie SHEEN are very game actors who play their so-called parts with aplomb. (MALKOVICH: Spike Jonze wants me to be in a movie called Being John Malkovich! What part does he want me to play? AGENT: The clue’s in the title, John!)

The only minor flaw this film possesses is that it is too clever for its own good and so partly obscures its own themes. Yet it is well worth watching more than once since it is probably the most original, bizarre and weird (yet matter-of-fact) comedy ever made - albeit with shades of Alice in Wonderland.

Copyright © 2012 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Führerprinzip:

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.

(1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)

Pages:

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

Going with the Flow

Tuesday, 30 December 2014

Joy of Solipsism

Monday, 29 December 2014

[Come & See]

Sunday, 28 December 2014

Saturday, 27 December 2014

Weird Caucasians

Friday, 26 December 2014

Thursday, 25 December 2014

Caucasian Fear

Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Chop-Chop

Monday, 22 December 2014

Sunday, 21 December 2014

Saturday, 20 December 2014

Friday, 19 December 2014

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Black Like Me

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

Contact Form:

Science:

Sleep of Reason:

Humans & Aliens:

Führerprinzip:

About Us:

Disclaimers:

NB:

NB: