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hollywood10

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2 hours ago, splinky said:

Emilia Perez on Netflix. Interesting story. What would you do to make your most impossible dreams come true? What would you be willing to give up?

Certainly an unusual movie, Spanish and English. I am happy I saw it. Happy to see Zoë Saldaña in a role that stretched her. 

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On 1/6/2025 at 7:10 PM, Wilfrid said:

Also showing there is Mike Leigh's new film, Hard Truths, which, through it's leading performer, apparently conjures memories of Secrets & Lies, 1996.

I haven't watched movies on airplanes for years, but I remember that's how I saw Secrets & Lies when it was new and I remember crying.

Guess I need a ticket to this new one.

Going tomorrow. I expect it to be very funny and very moving. I haven't been to Bar Boulud in a century, so dinner there afterwards where I will weep over the pate en croute.

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1 hour ago, splinky said:

Zoë Saldaña be acting up a storm in this and Selina Gomez was impressive

I agree and well done on the accents. ETA copied from your post, I can see the accents on my phone but can't seem to select them.

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"Hard Truths," a return by Mike Leigh to his small-scale domestic dramas. This is widely described as a comedy. Yes, you will laugh, but a comedy it certainly isn't.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivers one of the best performances you will ever see, and with the camera so often tight on her face there is no escape for her. The rage and loneliness she exhibits is exhausting. Michelle Austin is great as her warm-hearted sister.

Relief comes from her two laughing nieces who are just adorable. 

Look, all the performers are great. It's hard to say much more without a spoiler alert. Suffice to say, the ending isn't easy.

 

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Janet Planet, playwright Annie Baker's (of whom I'd never heard) first film. It stars Julianne Nicholson - medium H is a fan, which is why we watched - and traces the low-key events of the summer of 1991, before her daughter starts sixth grade. This is one of those quiet, languid independent films in which a few mildly important things happen, but nothing much changes. It was pleasant enough, the performances are good, and it's shot well, but there's ultimately not enough there there.

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I good smattering of European cop dramas on Prime:  The Responder (Martin Freeman is always good, but I think he's exceptional here); The Bay; The Tower; The Jetty; Furia (Norwegian); Hope Street (pretty hokey, not as good as the others); Dalgliesh.

Came across Reilly: Ace of Spies, a 1981 BBC miniseries staring a very young Sam Neill.  About Sidney Reilly, a Zelig-like spy for the Brits who seemed to be involved in all the major events from 1890 through the mid-1920s.  Quite good.  People sure knew how to dress back then.

Landman (Apple TV).  Another Taylor Sheridan offering in the vein of Yellowstone.  Men are men, women just want to fuck, climate change is a hoax.  (It's interesting that Red America loves to paint the blue states as pompous and elitist, but I can't think of any shows more elitist and divisive than Yellowstone and Landman.  If you're not a rancher/roughneck (or not fucking a rancher/roughneck), you're pretty much an idiot.)

Bad Sisters  (Apple TV).  Just started it, but it's terrific.  I love Sharon Horgan.

 

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On 1/6/2025 at 6:56 AM, small h said:

A Complete Unknown, aka a lot of good things that happened to Bob Dylan, plus one thing that seemed bad at first but also turned out to be good.

Edward Norton is very good as Pete Seeger. An interesting aspect is that many actors depict characters from the period not specifically identified in the film, to wit: Jimmy Dean, Tom Wilson, Maria Muldaur, Barry Goldberg, Sam Lay, Kenny Rankin, Bruce Langhorne, Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow.  

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Daughters of the Dust (1991). I watched it on Criterion but there seem to be a number of streaming options.

Wow. Visual poetry, so beautfiul, the people and the shoreline setting.

Briefly, this tells the story of a group of Gullah settlers on one of the Sea Islands. Their ancestors arrived as slaves, but it's now 1902, they are free, and a number of them plan to head to the mainland (and the North). Others choose to stay. A series of conflicts are presented, between history and the present, between African rites and Christian observance, between duty to ancestors and a "civilized future."

Initially, it's a puzzle, darting back and forth in time before largely settling in 1902 (its narrator, at that point, hasn't yet been born). The dialog is in Gullah or Geechee. I have seen references to a subtitled version, but this wasn't it; you just have to concentrate and tune in. Almost all the words are English.

And then there are surprises in the cast, like a cameo appearance by Gullah food writer Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor and even a young actress I remember as a yoga TV instructor a few years later.

Not for everyone, I suspect (I would call it slow cinema) but I was captivated. This was the first movie by a Black woman director, Julie Dash, to get a general release.

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1 hour ago, Wilfrid said:

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

Because of this movie, I took a solo camping trip to SC and GA to check out the Sea Islands and try find Gullah or Geechee speakers (I was successful). I went in December, which I don't recommend, 'cause even though it's the South, it's still pretty cold. Or it was in 2000.

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Our exposure to Gullah culture began when we first decided to visit Charleston and wound up commuting from Isle of Palms for a week.  A couple of the islands in between were centers of Gullah culture/cuisine back then (don't know about now).  Subsequent, more exposure was during our stays on St Simons Island, when we travelled around the area.  We didn't find either group to be soliciting tourists, nor were they particularly interested in spending much time speaking with us in stores or restaurants.  Fully understandable (& actually refreshing).

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And another masterpiece, Toute Une Nuit on Criterion. Chantal Akerman's reputation just keeps growinjg and I hadn't seen this one. Apart from the final scene, all filmed udring a very dark night. Not much continuity of plot or character (a bunch of people running into each other after dark), but it's visually unbelievable.

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