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Reviews
Lady Ballers (2023)
Good example of why picking on the powerless isn't very funny
This is a "Daily Wire" attempt at comedy. Forgettable, but as you can see by the outsized ratings they have an army of upvoters at the ready. And/or a cultish following that prefers to watch a movie-length "punching down" red meat fest over anything resembling clever and amusing writing and acting. Though there were a couple things that induced a mild chuckle, guess that's pretty good for this movie.
Although DW is full of unintentional comedians like the hilarious propagandist Ben Shapiro and the "change my mind" guy, this film is such a strange, strange beast at how hard it works to NOT be funny. It's a meandering storyline built around what just seem like right wing meme gripes and talking points. It's supposed to be about basketball, as you can see from the cover, but it gets so distracted by trying to get through a list of things that scare them that they don't even get around to playing basketball until about halfway through the movie. It's a messy slog.
Rather than continue, "Some More News" on YouTube produced an excellent, well researched review of LadyBallers that is actually way funnier than this "comedy." SMN's writing and acting and timing is top level, and they have managed to critique it on the merits of what the "change my mind" guy asked them to, non-politically and on technical merits. Learned a bit about filmmaking 101 too. It would be awesome if right wingers could relay their perspectives in a way that is honestly funny, but unfortunately this movie just falls dead on the floor and feels like trying to watch my grandfather poop for a couple hours.
Two stars for giving a chuckle twice. It's not a good movie by any means, but any "leftie" would have to allow them a participation trophy for making an effort.
Maid (2021)
Shows the violence of the American social system
As a man who suddenly became disabled after decades of working hard, this movie illustrates pretty well the traps in place to screw those of us without a few million stashed away when it happens. The American social "safety" net is designed to screw us and suck whatever limited life energy we have left to survive without insanity, or worse. Although the protagonist is young and fit and beautiful, and there is even a young child involved, she is forced to face the continual violence of a system which prefers she and her child just go ahead and die. But if she chooses them to stay alive, they will suck whatever labor they can from her because, of course, raising a child in America isn't "work." The judicial traps, the repeated despicable piles of useless and inhumanely invasive paperwork thrust at her at every turn, with years of jail and hundreds of thousands of potential fines if she fills something out incorrectly are shown in this drama- often with amusingly internal dialog showing how foreign and abusive they are to the victimized citizen.
I'm not all the way through at this point but already love the acting, though could do without the musical breaks and other interludes that seem to turn it into a music video at times. But when focused and on point to the systemized violence heaped upon those of us who are handicapped in one way or another and can barely fight back- this is a brilliant film illustrating the effects of essentially the "Reagan Revolution" we continue to suffer from. If you are anything less than extremely wealthy and able-bodied in this country you are ALWAYS under the threat of one surprise accident or incident taking away all of your stability and then your health and sanity. And YOU will be made to feel ashamed and guilty for natural consequences of living within a sick and petty society where only the healthy and exceedingly rich have any sort of buffer against it. It's madness, as this woman's perspective clearly illustrates at so many points in this series. And even if you are empathetic to her fall and the traps, you see others in her life, even resource-rich, that have their own agendas and blind spots that can't fathom or figure out how to really help her. Because they are also swimming in the same cesspool of a culture that elevates money and social status to a degree that creates a degree of sociopaths within all of us.
This makes a good companion to "I am Daniel Blake" for getting at least a sense of what it's like to find yourself tripping over cracks in the sidewalk of neoliberal capitalism. Whether burdened with a baby and domestic violence, or suddenly experiencing a heart attack or stroke which takes away your body's ability to do what you've done for survival in the "sweat of your brow" commodification of all life necessities, I commend efforts like "MAID" and "I am Daniel Blake" which examine the experience so intimately.
Being this is an American movie, I have no doubt that in two more episodes it's going to have a happy ending and all she has experienced will just be what made her into some sort of success. And I will probably consider throwing my crutches at the TV screen. It dismisses all the people who are older, less pretty, less mentally present, and less lucky who have to live what she is going through until they get frail and give up. Nonetheless, for an American movie it's still showing a lot of the challenges and perhaps might even lead to proper shaming and rebellion against forces that set up a society to do this to people. Hint: Google "Family Offices," "Panama Papers," "NAFTA" and go from there.
Barbara Erenreich wrote a book many years ago called "Nickeled and Dimed," which could almost be the source material for much of what this movie tries to show. Sad that "The Golden Rule" has been bastardized to "Those with the gold make the rules." This series is one of those that tries to ask us whether or not this is how we want to have our society function, and if not, where do we go from here...