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MariaVictoriaLC
Reviews
Blonde (2022)
Unwatchable
Excruciating performances of tedious characters. Every scene is overwrought and the flashbacks mean the tortured scenes have to be re-endured. Presumably, Marilyn Monroe's story has been told and depicted so many times that this cinematic adaptation of Oates' version had to pick at the scab more deeply. Yes, the scarring effect of parental mental illness on children is horrific. Yes, the casting couch is vile and despicable. Yes, the patronizing studio heads exploited people destroying their lives, and this film lays it on thick. You want to love this film, but it takes itself so seriously it becomes repellent.
Hotel Coppelia (2021)
The transactional world of life and love on the fringes
Great film by the young Dominican Director Jose Maria Cabral, with the same raw brutality he depicted in Carpinteros. Through the lens of the 1965 American invasion of the the Dominican Republic, Cabral hits on some classic themes including the brutality and arrogance of a dominant force over a weak nation, the legacy of sexual exploitation within families and society, the misplaced emotional bonds that keep people together. The film could have used more editing as it loses its focus at times and the plot becomes a bit murky. This seems due to Cabral's inability to let go of some of the side stories and characters, which, while interesting, distract from the story's arc.
Some of the characters are a bit cliché, including the general, who was reminiscent of Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now" (or is the cliché reality?). Nevertheless, as viewers we become invested in the film's characters and care what happens to them.
As a Dominican, I found the presentation of that historical moment, and how it affected these people who were already on the fringes of society, intriguing. Kudos to Cabral for depicting his unique Dominican point of view in film. Give us more!
Gravity (2013)
The Hero Quest in Space
While I was captivated by the Gravity's masterful cinematography, midway through the film I realized that it is really not a sci-fi movie about space, or about being an astronaut, but rather a representation of the classic quest myth as described by Northrop Frye and further defined as the monomyth by Joseph Campbell.
Our hero, Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), has struggled on earth with a great loss, her daughter's death, and is numb to life. She must travel to the "underworld," in this case outer space and battle her demons in order to redeem herself and recover her ability to live. As in the classic myth, she has a mentor, Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), who guides her through her trials, but in the end she must fight alone to win her battle and return to life.
We see her floating in the space station as a fetus, and in the final scene she is reborn, nearly drowning in the process and emerging from the sea as if from a womb, even having to learn to walk again, stumbling on the beach. But she has survived the challenges and has now been restored to life. The setting in space is tangential to the theme; space and the astronaut's technologies are secondary, merely an updated setting for the archetypal hero quest myth. The movie is lyrical, and while a technological tour de force, more importantly Gravity arouses primal emotions by way of its structure as a universal myth.