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Reviews
The Invisible War (2012)
simply a great documentary
There are a number of things Invisible War does well.
1. It conveys a point of view.
2. It's about a compelling subject.
3. It has sympathetic characters.
4. It has a narrative arc, which is challenging. It relies on the lawsuit and Cioca's disability claim.
5. The cinematography, audio and film making don't draw attention to themselves and distract from the subject.
I was quoted in a book about sexual assault in the military. In that book the author made the assumption there was some golden age before sexual assault was a problem in the military, a claim she offered no proof of.
I mention this because it's possible to tell the story of rape and sexual assault in the military and get it wrong.
This film uses a pretty hard-and-straight approach. It sticks to cases that are pretty well documented to illustrate the statistical picture create by the military's own data.
And the film has a couple villains to root against. The Air Force major general and her civilian predecessor come off as part clueless and part immoral.
Scoop (2006)
Allen's narcissism is on full display
During one scene Woody Allen quips that he was "born a Hebrew, but converted to narcissism".
This line explains what's wrong with Scoop. Allen is both director and a supporting character, but manages to make the movie about his minor character.
The movie suffers because the everything between the two main characters (Jackman and Johansson) is predictable, trite or not believable.
(The plot also has some credibility problems.) So, the best scenes in the movie are all about a minor character who isn't directly involved in the stories main conflict.
If you are a fan of Woody Allen being funny on screen, you might like this movie. But as a movie, Scoop is exceedingly weak, and when Allen isn't on the screen, somewhat boring.