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...

Writer/director Debbie Goodstein shares the true story about a man wrestling with anger issues to the point where it terrifies his family. Joe Fine (Chazz Palminteri) owns a garment business in the mid 1970's.  He has moved his family to New Orleans to start fresh.  It is not the first move, as explained in voice-over by his daughter, Natalie (Jodelle Ferland), and soon we see why.  When his business dreams are dashed, he takes his stress out on his family.  Older daughter Maddy (Rainey Qualley) reveals that this is not the first time he has acted so violently. The film shows an interesting angle as to how abuse can affect people.  In this case it's often more verbal than physical, but he does lash out at times as well. Palminteri does a good job, but as with his other roles he seems to be playing the father like a thug at times.  Andi MacDowell is terrific as his wife,  a Holocaust survivor.  She is scared of her husband, although she loves...

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...

This is a fictional Holocaust film, taking a very real, alarming subject and making a children's story out of it. Considering the sensitive subject matter, I thought it was well done. It stars David Thewlis (Harry Potter) as a German soldier whose son befriends a boy in a concentration camp. The plot requires you to have to suspend reality, since there are some scenes that just wouldn't make sense otherwise.  Based on a children's book, the writers of both the book and the film called it a "Fable", but in the end this misled the audience and caused some negative reviews. I cried of course. I always do, but I did think it was a good film so long as you ignored a couple of obvious flaws.

Film:  For My Father Review:  A very good film about a Palestinian who has to redeem his family name by becoming a suicide bomber. We see what he encounters when he goes into Israel to do the deed. It was a very interesting and poignant film. ------------------------------------- Film:  The Young Victoria Review:That was very good, although I think it would have worked better as a Masterpiece Theatre mini-series with more episodes added to it chronicling her whole reign. The film only covers her early years, and even that scratches the surface. Still it was entertaining with a nice bit of romance. They did bend the truth in one scene, which I heard bugged the British audiences a bit, so that might not sit well with purists, but overall it was a nice film. --------------------------------------------------- Film:  Wonderful World Review:  This is the fourth time since I started attending the film series that I've seen a Matthew Broderick film, and I...

Film: Defiance Synopsis: Based on a true story of three Jewish brothers who find themselves concealing 100+ Jews in the woods of Belarus during WWII, while butting heads with each other as to whether they should fight or survive. My review: It was a bit too commercial for my taste, though the director (Edward Zwick) had said he did that to lure people who might not know Daniel Craig as anyone other than James Bond. He thought it would be a good way to send a message to the audience about these people. In the end it only made me like the film less.  Pass on it. -------------------------------------------- Film:  The Wrestler Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood Synopsis: It's about an aging wrestler (Mickey Rourke), who has a heart attack and has to come to terms with the fact that he will have to retire from wrestling or die. The struggle for him is that he has no idea what to do with his life, as wrestling is all he knows. My review:...

Film:  The Cove Review:  This was very interesting. It's a documentary about a former dolphin trainer (Richard O'Barry) who saw the error of his ways and has spent his life freeing dolphins that are captured for one reason or another.  It has brought some much needed buzz to the plight of dolphins in Japan. The film shows him in Japan with a team of activists who are exposing the slaughter of 23,000 dolphins a year. Interesting stuff. Bye the way, he used to be the dolphin trainer on the TV series Flipper. -------------------------------------------------- Film:  Surveillance Review:  It's an interesting film, but it's not my cup of tea. If you like David Lynch movies, or you like suspense of any kind, then you might enjoy this. I personally like suspense, but this film was disturbing. The script was written by David Lynch's daughter Jennifer. She seems to have her dad's penchant for morbid subject matter. --------------------------------...