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Jotho
Reviews
Transamerica (2005)
A surprise from Felicity Huffman
This was a much better film than I had anticipated. The story was well-told if a tad predictable and all the performances were convincing. All the players seemed to be particularly well cast, from the main characters to the momentary appearance of a diner attendant. Felicity Huffman has what I imagine would be a difficult role, - a woman being a man being transsexual, which she carried off with a kind of tragic dignity. It was touching and a far cry from Desperate Housewives. I hope she gets some kind of gong for her performance and that the rest of the cast and crew are pretty pleased with themselves. The visuals are good, too, and so is the timing, so all in all I have given it a high score for a good bit of entertainment.
Gladiator (2000)
Escapist fun
This is the Robin Hood TV series of the year 2000. Not a gentle movie, but full of good goodies and bad baddies and a bloody good time at the movies when you don't want to be intellectually challenged. Great good fun. Highly recommended for anyone over mid-teens. Absolutely verboten for the very young or sensitive.
Todo sobre mi madre (1999)
Magical
Just drag yourself along to the subtitled experience of a lifetime. Do you remember how you felt when you first saw Un Homme et Une Femme? Well, here is that sensation feast all over again, but with so much more passion and drama. It is so lovingly made, so enchanting. Swept along the river of living and dying and loving and hating, it is hard to believe it is in a completely unfamiliar language. Go See It! Take someone you love. Mind you, if you hated Central Station, this probably isn't your kind of film.
The Insider (1999)
Jim Schembri is wrong again.
We settled for The Insider because American Beauty was all full up. Russell Crowe and Al Pacino were terrific, and the story of course is worth a movie script, but what got us were a) the music - a fabulous mix of opera and jazz as I recall and b) the photography. Mind you, I was going to spare IMDB one of my mediocre "reviews" until I saw what Jim Schembri had to say in The Age. If you are one of those who knows that whatever JS is attached to will be the opposite of what you are likely to think, this is a movie for you!
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Surprise!
This is a terrific experience. One of its many blessings is that Cameron Diaz is suddenly likeable. This film is totally different from anything I've ever seen before. It is great fun, completely pointless, rude and silly and highly recommended. John Malkovich is a legend!
Big Daddy (1999)
C***** movie
This is the movie you thought they wouldn't still be making. It is not funny. It is not poignant. It is not heart-warming. It is sexist, stupid, insulting to women, children, men, and all the people who worked in or on the bloody thing. I just cannot believe the list of credits for this film, which looks like it was put together according to the most tedious predictable formula in American movies. It is irritating because I spent money on two kids I love only to wonder how I could have been so stupid. It would have been economically rational and amusing to have got a Hayley Mills video. It is too late for me to warn you off it at the cinema, but for god's sake don't waste money on it at the video shop.
Go (1999)
My advice is "Go!"
My husband and I were probably twice as old as the next youngest person in the audience, but we LOVED it. If you liked it, you might also like Two Hands, for roughly the same reasons. This is a nail-biting suspense (or is it just me?) with Two Hands (not Pulp Fiction or Seven) type resolutions. Terrific!
Central do Brasil (1998)
In Praise of Older Women
Fernanda Montenegra must be feeling just a little of the old chagrin that she didn't get one well-earned Oscar. Josue reminds me of Sudi de Winter in our very own Say A Little Prayer and he is marvellous, but Ms. Montenegra is the joy and the tragedy of this fantastic film. This was my first vicarious experience of Brazil and has a terrifying air of realism. Definitely a film of educational value but it needs much longer credits so you get a bit of a chance to restore your equanimity before leaving the cinema. Wonderful. Fabulous. And highly recommended.
Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
Comparable with Animal Farm
On a par with George Orwell's masterpiece as an allegory of modern life. Contrary to popular mythology, our four year old was on the edge of his seat, but rapt. If the critics don't frighten everyone out of seeing this film, it should become a legend. Highly recommended for adults and even young kids (with parental support). Four and a half stars.
Truly Madly Deeply (1990)
Crying is Therapeutic
This is the ultimate romantic movie. See it when you could really do with a bloody good cry. I LOVED it.
The D Generation (1986)
Heaven on the telly
If you loved the Monty Pythons/ Not Only But Also/ Not the 9 o'clock News/ Beyond the Fringe etc. era of telly, this is the sort of stuff that gives you hope for the future. Rob Sitch was the funniest man alive: he probably still is, but he's grown up, and does more grown up stuff. If you need another reason to leave all your money to the ABC, D-Gen is it.
Tender Mercies (1983)
Enduring
According to my DH (darling husband if you're not a yank): this is the ultimate in synthesizing the emotional and existential in life. I hasten to add we have been married for seven years and he's never got it from the video store for me to vet. However, it is definitely his favourite movie. let's see.
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Cringe humour
This movie was good fun, if a little over-rated by my friends. If you like slapstick and another tall gorgeous inauthentic blonde, you'll love it. Where does Hollywood get this notion that the female lead has to be an orthopaedic surgeon to have credibility? It doesn't work. Mary is so vacuous and boring it is hard to imagine all these blokes being obsessed with her, but then again, electrocuted dogs and hairsprog is all part of the kind of humour that leaves you chortling and squirming in this escapist effort. I should have taken more notice of the reviews on this page: I probably wouldn't have bothered with another dumb and dumber experience. But I laughed.
You've Got Mail (1998)
Nora Ephron can do better
Many years ago I loved the book and film Heartburn. So I was delighted to take my next door neighbour (Laura, age 11) to see this latest effort by Nora Ephron. I was very disappointed. Somehow, I wouldn't have thought this writer/director would make a screen hero out of Meg Ryan's character. So wholesome, so pretty, so polite, and loyal to her staff and her mother's memory. Her biggest problem is that she can't be horrible and stick up for herself, which is of course why she is so lovable. Blecch. Aren't movie-goers generally fed up with female actors who look sexy and adorable even when they have a disgusting flu? This is one of those films where every surface is polished, the children are endearing and cute, and the email connection only ever takes .5 seconds. Mind you, I can forgive Tom Hanks his tedious virtues, largely because I am never going to see Saving Whosywhatsit. He is proof that male actors don't have to be perfectly photogenic in every scene to be the object of my desire. The other male lead got off badly, as did political correctness. The contempt heaped upon his efforts to be ideologically sound was balanced by the best performer in the show, the supposedly bitchy wicked witch of a girlfriend Tom's character dumped. She was great, and all the better for the relief she provided from the worst excesses of American sugar coatings. Come to think of it, I suppose that is the role of the baddie. It's the story that's so mundane. Even Laura thought the film "was missing something". "Dramatic tension" I suggested. She didn't argue. This is a film of NO SURPRISES! There is one great thing about this film. The opening sequence and the introduction to New York felt authentic and I loved the feeling I was visiting the city. This is a pretty dubious commendation, as I haven't even been to the northern hemisphere, let alone NYC.
Se7en (1995)
Shocking
This film has taught me to check the rating first. I was completely blown away by the sheer horror of it, and three years later I still have flashbacks. There was a warm and encouraging feel to the film, after exciting credits and introduction to very appealing characters, which could not have prepared me for the outcomes. If ever a film goes down as the turning point in our desensitization to violence, this is it. I hope I never see anything like it again.
Heartburn (1986)
IS THERE SOMETHING THE MATTER WITH ME?
It is some years since I saw this film, but I definitely thought at the time it was vastly under-rated, and now that I have seen the voter's scores for this, I am surprised all over again. Obviously, I have to log off and go to the video store to refresh my memory, but: the story was great, the song Joni Mitchell contributed was one of her all-time bests, and how could Meryl Streep ever be in anything that wasn't worthwhile? By the way, the book was better, punctuated with recipes. It is an autobiographical tale, which bursts the balloon of the Watergate heroes and is definitely one of the most entertaining and realistic of the cinematic versions of life and love.