The Critical Filmmaker

I'm not a prude - at least I don't think I am - but lately I've been wondering about the proliferation of movies that involved people cheating on their spouses and how it's presented on screen. A few years ago Michael Douglas starred in a film called Solitary Man about a man who is given only a few months to live, and decides to go out and leave his old life behind, divorce his wife and essentially have his mid-life crisis adventure while there’s still time left.   The writer/directors claimed they were trying to show how wrong it was, but yet I didn't get that vibe from the film.   Instead I saw it as a man trying to find himself even if it meant leaving his wife and sleeping with a much younger woman.   And yet, I felt the writer/directors were trying to hide the fact that the guy was actually living the life they wanted to live. Instead they had to have a moral, a lesson as to why it's so wrong just so someone in Hollywood would distribute it. Do all fi...

Film:  Frozen River Synopsis:  It's about a woman whose husband up and leaves the family without warning. She's desperate, because they had enough for a final payment on a modular home, and he's ran off with the money. So she has only a few days to pull together the funds, and she can't earn the amount needed on her salary. So she has to resort to some desperate means to get the money in time, taking a huge risk that could not only put herself in danger, but also her kids as well. My review:  This is a powerful film and very compelling. ------------------------------------------------- Film: Away We Go My review:  It's a cute film, though somewhat over the top at times. I'd recommend it, but I wouldn't rank it at the top of the list of comedies. ------------------------------------------------- Film:  Beeswax My review:  Boring. The production values were very amateurish - lower than low budget - and the writer/director decided to throw away...