sandlynn2 Reviews

Rosewater (2014)

Good Directorial Debut

[21 July 2015]

This was a good directorial debut film. Good dramatic beginning, great acting by Bernal, good cinematography. However, it loses momentum and intensity once he's imprisoned. It does show how ridiculous and ignorant the Iranian interrogators were, but does not really adequately reflect what Bahari was no doubt going through emotionally. It was a dispassionate.

The characters, even including Bahari, could have used more depth. We glean that his father and his sister were true freedom fighters, that his co-workers in other countries don't really understand all the nuances of what's going on in the country, that his wife and mother love him and that Bahari prefers the safe path of reporting over the path of freedom fighter, but without sufficient depth. As a result the film was more interesting than it was moving.

The Hunting Ground (2015)

Must see for students going to college and their parents

[22 June 2015]

This is a shocking expose of how, for decades, colleges have ignored sexual assaults of their students. If the true number of rapes on campus were known, the school would suffer tremendous financial repercussions. For starters, who wants to send their daughter to a college with high rape rate. Then the school wants to protect the student athletes from responsibility to keep the lucrative sports programs successful, and finally, they need to keep the fraternity system going so need to ignore rapes there. It turns out that all colleges have a high rape rates, the stats are just falsified. About 100,000 college students will be sexually assaulted this coming school year if things don't change.

It's also the story of two very brave young women who are changing things. After their sexual assault complaints were ignored by the University of North Carolina, they dedicate themselves to giving victims / survivors at colleges throughout country a voice. That voice is the filing of Title IX complaints. First they file their own, and then they go on the road, helping students at colleges around the country file their own Title IX complaints. Without the assistance of lawyers, these 20 year old young women are really helping change the whole system.

Since all the colleges apparently care about is finances, this turns out to be brilliant because the penalty if the college is found responsible is the loss of its federal funding. Now almost 100 colleges are under investigation by the Department of Education for violations of Title IX and thanks to pressure from these same women the Department of Education has released the list of the colleges under investigation. Rape victims are suddenly a lot more important to colleges. These young women are doing great, important work even as they are being re-traumatized by repeatedly having to hear other victims stories, not to mention the threats they have to repeatedly endure. There were at least two moments in the film where I had goose bumps because of what was being presented, which I can't say happens in every documentary, so it was very riveting as well.

Wadjda (2012)

Eye-opening look at the lives of women in Saudi Arabia

[20 January 2014]

We went to see this as a family, with our two daughters, 14 and 16. We all enjoyed it. Seeing how the limitations placed on women in Saudi Arabia play out in everyday life was of great interest to all of us. The story line depicted not only Wadjda's efforts to break free from her circumscribed world, but also how adult women struggle to survive. The effort to simply support oneself without a man when one can't even drive or wear clothes that allow for mobility reflects how rules ostensibly meant to "protect" women keep them dependent on men for the most rudimentary basics.

I suspect that even this film does not depict the lives of women in Saudi Arabia completely accurately. Some concessions seem to have been made to the government. No religious police are to be seen, for example. Nonetheless, it is well worth seeing, and we applaud Haifaa al-Mansour for making it. We look forward to her future work.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Great acting but terrible editing

[20 January 2014]

An hour and a half in, I couldn't believe how bored I was. Sex, drugs, general debauchery, yes, we get it. Maybe if you're going after the 18-24 male demographic it makes sense, but for people wanting a film with a plot line, it is excessive. A half hour would have gotten the point across just as well. Had we not known it was up for an Oscar, we might have just walked out at that point, but we figured that it must improve at some point. Right after my husband and I were whispering about how shockingly bored we were, the plot line finally moved on, and it was OK from there. The acting is all first-rate. Can't believe that it is up for an Oscar though; it's a good hour too long.