August Movie Reviews

*****  Exceptional

****    Great

***      OK

**        So So

*          Blah

Before I Disappear is about this totally messed up guy. In the bathroom at work he finds a woman dead from a drug overdose and his boss, the nightclub owner, doesn't want the publicity so they get rid of the body. Later he finds out it was the rival nightclub owner's girlfriend and he's wondering why she isn't calling him afraid she dumped him. Our screwed up protagonist can't say anything. He tries all night to commit suicide, but the phone keeps ringing. His estranged sister is in lock up and she begs him to pick up the niece and watch her. It was a strange movie with lots of odd characters. It made me thankful my life is not so dramatic. I like my boredom. My review makes it sound like some kind of comedy, but it definitely wasn't. ***

Bird People starts with an American business man (Josh Charles the dead lawyer from The Good Wife) in Paris. For some reason he snaps and decides he doesn't like his life. He quits his job, quits his wife and kids. It seems very self-centered and we get to watch long scenes of him smoking. Everyone in this film smokes. Every now and then there is a bird in the scene. Then there is the hotel housekeeper who is working at the hotel where he is staying. She turns into a bird. Yep, you read that right. She turns into a bird and flies around looking at people. So weird. I turned it off. *

Camp X-Ray is about a "detainee" (Payman Maadi) and a guard (Kristen Stewart) and the hell that is Guantanamo Bay. It was really good. Sad. ****

Decoding Annie Parker is about one woman's experience with cancer after her mother, father, and sister died from it. Convinced there must be a genetic link she passionately searches for answers while geneticist Mary-Claire King  researches to discover genetic markers and mutations that cause cancer. Excellent performances. Cancer baffles me. I'm still perplexed why I'm still alive when my mother died when she was thirty-four years old. My friends are always giving me shit about how their parents lived to be elderly and because of genes, they will, too. Sorry. I don't buy it. If our longevity is all about genes based on our family history, I should have died ions ago. Someday I think someone will figure it out. Until then we are all in the dark. ***

The Girl on a Train is about an alcoholic woman who rides the train to Manhattan every day. She sees the houses on the way, her old neighborhood where her now ex-husband lives with his new wife/former mistress. The woman down the street is having an affair with her psychiatrist and disappears later to be found murdered. The alcoholic blacked out the night of the murder and can't remember where she was and what she did, but she awakens the next morning dirty and covered in blood. Great murder mystery. Excellent performances. ****

Hungry Hearts is about a couple (Adam Driver and Alba Rohrwacher) who have a baby. When she's pregnant she stops eating. The doctors keep telling her she has to eat so the baby will develop, but she ignores them. She becomes very weird and neurotic. Then when the baby is born she refuses to feed him meat (protein) and has him exist on avocados and weird herbal potions designed so he will not digest nutrients. The baby is underdeveloped and not gaining weight. She's starving the baby and herself. She also refuses to take him outside for fear of environmental toxins. It had a very slow start, way too much introduction. I've always liked Adam Driver and he's just starting to do a lot of dramatic roles. ***

Inferno is part of the Davinci Code series starring Tom Hanks. This one is about the release of a virus to cull half the population so the other half can live and the human race won't be obliterated through overpopulation. Through various clues they try to figure out where the virus is located before the bad guys release it. Lots of high drama, intrigue, chase scenes, never a dull moment in an exhausting kind of way. I do like a movie about the risks of overpopulation. ***

Jane Wants a Boyfriend was about the relationship between an autistic woman and her overprotective sister. Hate the title. I couldn't tell if the actress playing the autistic woman was overacting or if that was just the way autistic people are. It didn't feel natural, but I don't know. ***

Kelly and Cal Stupid, uninspired, lacking in creativity title. It's about two people who have lost their former selves and really don't know how to go on with their lives. Kelly is a former bass player in a rock band who got married and is now living the suburban life with  a new baby. Cal is an ex-artist teenager in a wheelchair after an accident that left him without fine motor skills. They develop an odd friendship that satisfies each other's need for companionship, but Cal starts crushing on Kelly and well, Kelly is married. Interesting human relations.***

Last Cab to Darwin is an Australian film about an elderly cab driver who has been given three months to live. He doesn't have family and refuses to be hospitalized. He sees an article about a new euthanasia law and starts driving 3000 kilometers to Darwin to end his life. Along the way he meets some interesting people. Great photography, excellent performances. I had a difficult time understanding the dialogue with their strong Australian accents. ***

Last Weekend is about this incredibly wealthy family, with an incredibly beautiful lake house, and their incredibly spoiled kids and their last weekend before they sell the place. I had a hard time relating to people whose greatest drama is selling a house. Patricia Clarkson always plays quirky characters. I wonder if she's like that in real life. ***

The Lobster was the second weirdest film I've ever seen. The first most absolute weirdest movie, Swiss Army Man, is featured below. August must be the weird movie month. The Lobster was about an alternate universe where everyone lives happily as a couple. If for some reason, you are dumped or lose your couple status and become single, you are sent to a hotel where you have 45 days to find your new partner based on your distinguishing characteristic (good hair, nose bleeds, limps, stutters...) If you do not find a new and suitable partner, you are turned into an animal of your choice. Our star (Colin Farrell) chooses to be a lobster. His wife left him. He is accompanied by his brother, a dog, a previous hotel tenant who "didn't make it". Every now and then the group takes their dart guns and hunts for loners. If they shoot one the loner is brought back to the hotel and transformed into an animal. Nearing  the end of his stay, Farrell becomes desperate and decides to find himself a partner come hell or high water and fakes his distinguishing characteristic, but his lies are found out. He runs away to join the loners and there he meets his true partner (Rachel Weisz - they are both near sighted). Unfortunately in this community they are not allowed relationships. The whole movie was SO INCREDIBLY WEIRD. Are people that bored with filmmaking they resort to making up this kind of shit? LOL. I was recently asked if I could be any animal what would I be. I didn't have time to really think it through but finally came to the conclusion being a bird would be cool. But then I thought some kid would probably take his bb gun and shoot me or one of those horrid crows would fly me into a fence or eat my babies. So I settle on being an eagle. No one really messes with an eagle and they are protected by law. That's the best I could come up with in a short amount of time. **

Manglehorn is about a man (Al Pacino) who is obsessed with the woman who got away. Or who actually left him because he was so emotionally unavailable. Obsession and regret makes him even more emotionally unavailable. Great performances. ***

Mr. Pig is about an elderly pig farmer-alcoholic (Danny Glover) who has lost his family farm and takes off with his prize pig "Howie" to sell him for big bucks to a Mexican factory farmer who was the son of his dad's old pig farming friend for $50,000. With money in hand he asks to see his pig one more time and unexpectedly gets a tour of the factory farm. He goes berserk and refuses to sell the pig to such a horrible fate. He needs to find a home for him, but his daughter begins to worry he's gone crazy and joins him only to find out he is dying from cancer which is why he's settling all his accounts. ***

The Salvation was about a Danish settler in the Wild West who waited seven years before sending for his wife and young son only to have ruffians murder them both on the stagecoach. He catches up to the stagecoach and shoots them dead. One of those ruffians was the brother of the bad guy (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who has been terrorizing the town for profit. Now he's really pissed off. Classic Western plot. It was a great revenge movie, although sad. Too many good people died. ****

Sing Street is about an Irish boy in the 1980s who writes music and forms a band to impress a girl. Outstanding music. Excellent performances. Great hair. Loved it. ****

Swiss Army Man had to be the absolutely weirdest movie I've ever seen! It's about a man (Paul Dano) stranded on an island somewhere in the Pacific. Just as he's about to kill himself because his solitude is driving him nuts, a dead body (Daniel Radcliff) washes up on shore in front of him. The corpse farts. A lot. And Dano uses the body like a jet ski propelled by the gas. Yeah, I have no idea. The weirdness was shocking. When the farting stops and therefore, along with the jet skiing, they are washed ashore on land somewhere. Eventually the dead body starts talking and their relationship begins as Dano figures out all kind of ways to use a dead body (like a multi-purpose Swiss Army knife). SO. INCREDIBLY. WEIRD. Performances were outstanding, but SO. INCREDIBLY. WEIRD.  The writers were crazy. I ended up fast forwarding through it just because I was curious where it might go although it was still too weird to watch. *

Table 19 is about wedding reception seating and the farther away you are seated from the wedding couple the more undesirable you are. Table 19 is next to the bathroom, barely within sound of the band, and eventually they realize they are the guests that should have "regretfully declined" the invitation but didn't. The story centers on the ex-girlfriend (Anna Kendrick) of the best man who was the maid of honor since it was her best friend's wedding but after being unceremoniously dumped opted out. Of course, he is there with his new girlfriend who was promoted to maid of honor. The ex-girlfriend is placed at the table with a group of misfits. At first it felt like a typical rom-com wedding plot with the jilted girlfriend who doesn't want to go to the wedding, goes anyway, meets a gorgeous guest who sweeps her off her feet and gets carried off into the sunset. However, shortly after she meets and dances with the gorgeous guest, the plot goes sideways. The idea had a lot of potential. I really like Anna Kendrick so that gave it more potential. Unfortunately, the story wasn't that interesting and the characters weren't that interesting. The antics of Table 19 guests became a little meaningless and didn't pack the punch they should have. Most of the time they are sitting somewhere feeling sorry for themselves and bonding over their pathetic states of misfit-ness.  It was borderline stupid comedy but the comedy wasn't outlandish enough to fit. **

Tokyo Fiancee is about this young, sweet Belgian girl who was born in Japan but left with her family when she was five years old. She has dreamed for 15 years of become Japanese and heads to Tokyo. She offers French classes and a handsome young Japanese man hires her. It blossoms into romance and he asks her to marry him...but she is unsure. Do they love each other just because they are fascinated with each other's culture? She tells him of the Belgian tradition of engagement thinking she can put him off for a long time. Then a few natural disasters occur and she is forced to leave. Sweet film. Pauline Etienne is absolutely adorable. It has English subtitles. ***

The Trip to Italy with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. The previews showed scenes from The Trip which I assume was the first movie, but my library system doesn't have it. I constantly felt like I was coming in at the middle of a story. These two comedic actors spent the time eating the most heavenly looking food, driving the beautiful countryside (while listening to Alanis Morrissette) and babbling hilarious banter back and forth while quoting movie lines and doing impressions. It would be fun to travel with people so funny but at the same time it might get old and irritating for a whole week. I think it was fictional, but they used their own names so I wasn't quite sure although the extramarital affairs wouldn't be something they'd publicly admit. ***

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet was about a little boy born with a highly developed scientific mind who's adventurous twin brother dies in a shooting accident as they are researching shooting velocity. He feels like his family blames him. After he invents a perpetual motion machine and wins a prestigious award from the Smithsonian Institute, he decides to run away from home via freight train to accept the award in Washington DC. Strange story. Not realistic at all. How does a little kid travel across country without being caught or worse? Then he gets to the Smithsonian and no one questions where his guardians are? He just shows up and that's fine? Lots of potential and I think it was supposed to be about grief from a child's point of view, but it was trying too hard to be a comedy or a fantasy or both. Too bizarre (theme of the month) It failed every step of the way. American landscape was lovely.  **

I Lost My Bra...

I searched high and low. The last time I remember seeing it I was walking through the kitchen thinking I needed to take it to the laundry. It wasn't in the laundry. It wasn't in the drawer. It wasn't in the bathroom. I started searching in places like the my office, my car, the garage, the refrigerator. Did I throw it in the garbage mentally associating needs to be washed with dirty and garbage? Unfortunately, garbage day was the day before so I was out of luck. This could get very expensive.

You probably don't think losing an undergarment is a big deal. Bras are a dime a dozen. Well, not really. The last one I priced was $30. When did they get so expensive? I only wear very comfortable, 100% cotton sport bras as a rule. This was my one and only "official" bra. White, kind of ugly, straps, hooks. The typical modern torture device for women, but far more supportive (and more uncomfortable) than a sport bra. It's my fancy dress-up bra for when I wear nice clothes. Needless to say, I don't wear it often.

I'm convinced my brain is in a process of serious degeneration. Am I in some kind of downward spiral and too mentally unaware to know? Am I just now noticing?  Is it all the painting I've been doing? Is it just old age? Do others notice?

I don't feel foggy, I just don't have a memory. I can't remember what I've read. I can't remember the definitions of words and have to constantly look up their meaning so I know I'm using them correctly. I turn on the washing machine and not more than five minutes later I don't know why I can hear running water. And I'm losing things.

I bought a roll of painter's tape for artwork. After unpacking the car, the tape disappeared. Last time I remember seeing it I took it out of the bag in the car so I could use the bag for groceries and I placed it in my art tote with my art supplies. I check my art supply tote four times. I looked in the car five times. I checked the refrigerator twice. I checked the garbage. Bathroom, office, bedroom, kitchen shelves. Nope. Did it meet the same fate as my bra?

Hmmm...my bra...garbage. I checked the garbage again only this time I dug down to the before I got home and threw the mail away level. There sits my brand new roll of tape, covered in old food, thankfully still wrapped in its plastic packaging.

Today I opened a drawer I thought was unused, empty. There sat my bra. Keeping company with two old sport bras I thought I had thrown away. I had convinced myself my bra collection was getting sparse because I was throwing the old, ratty ones away. Nope, just forgetfully reorganizing.  I seem to be perpetually confused. Confusion is a brain issue, too. Hmmmm.

This sucks...but I AM finding things! I guess I'll know it's really bad when things disappear forever...unless I don't even notice it! Is this the start of Alzheimer's? God, I hope not.

BTW, do let me know if I start writing incoherently. I might not notice it.

Heat Wave

This heat wave is making my roses crazy! And the house is so hot they are opening too fast.

THEY SMELL SO GOOD!

We Got Haze

Forest fires in the north have hazed the environment. Unusual temperatures in the 100s make outside pretty unbearable...except in the early morning hours. During my walk I happened to glance at the horizon and the sun just coming up over the hills was a vibrant red! So beautiful. It took me too long to walk home and grab my camera so much of the red was replaced by orange, but the view was still amazing:

July Movie Reviews

*****  Exceptional

****    Great

***      OK

**        So So

*          Blah

Anesthesia was about this mix of people questioning the meaning of life. It was a little too abstract for me and even the lectures of the college professor went way over my head. I normally don't like Kristen Stewart but she was really outstanding in this movie and had some great lines on the futility of life. **

Arrival is a sci-fi with a whole lot of human emotion thrown in to make it less science-y. It's about this linguistics expert (Amy Adams) who is called to help the government try to translate alien language when twelve extra-terrestrial ships land all over the world and no one knows who they are nor what they want. The octopus-like creatures make strange whale-like sounds and when Louise starts showing them words they spray black ink-like substance on the glass partition creating abstract shapes. Because Earth is divided into various countries all with different leaders, many with their own alien ship to deal with, we humans can't quite get it together and sharing information on each of the ships becomes problematic. Naturally China and Russia decide to do their own thing and plan to attack their ships (idiots) based on misinterpretation of the alien communication. It was long, drawn out, somewhat boring, and Adams was unemotional through most of it. It was like she was in a trance. which might have been appropriate, but still irritating. The music was obnoxiously irritating although fitting in a weird way. There was time jumping, too, although you don't realize what is going on until the end. Actually I'm still not real clear what was going on...and that's how I know it's sci-fi! **

A Ballerina's Tale is about the rise of Misty Copeland, first African-American principal dancer in a major ballet company. Lots of history on other African-American dancers. Just watching her exercise exhausted me. It was fascinating especially the part where she talks about the pain tolerance of dancers and we find out for two long she was dancing with fractured bones! Eeeew. Excellent documentary. ****

The BFG is based on Roald Dahl's book of the same name about a little orphan girl with insomnia and one night she sees a giant roaming the streets of London. Afraid she will tell other humans about giants, he snatches her and carries her to Giant Land to live with him in his very cool cave. The other less friendly giants want to eat her so they have to figure out a plan. Outstanding!! Good lord! Talk about bringing this book to life and with such wonderful special effects. *****

Blood Relative was about a young woman who ran away from her broken home and multiple step-fathers when she was a teen. She contacts her ex-con, ex-biker father (Mel Gibson) while on the run after shooting her drug-cartel boyfriend. It doesn't take long before they find her. He taps into his connections with various gangs, prison inmate friends, and biker clubs for assistance all the while trying to not violate his parole. It was really good. I don't normally like shoot-em-up movies with lots of violence, but this one wasn't so mindlessly bloody and the plot was excellent. Great role for Gibson. ****

Born to Be Blue was based on a true story about trumpet player/heroin addict Chet Baker and his rise then fall then rise again. Outstanding performance by Ethan Hawke. The time travel and flashbacks were a little discombobulating, color to black and white, but that's just me. Depressing story due to the drug addiction. ***

Denial is about the libel trial between a Holocaust professor (Rachel Weisz) and a Holocaust denier who claims the Holocaust never happened and the very strange English legal system where the defense has to prove the accuser is wrong. It was good. Weisz fake Queens accent was irritating, but maybe it was supposed to be. ***

Effie Gray is the true-ish story of art historian John Ruskin's wife (Dakota Fanning) who he ignored and treated like garbage. This story line was featured in the movie I saw about the Pre-Raphaelite artists a while back. Most of the plot deals with her marital situation which was very depressing. In the end she falls in love with artist Everett Millais and gets a divorce which is unheard of in the 1800s.  Most of the performances were excellent, but the plot was slow and not very interesting. Dakota Fanning rocked a great English accent, but if the character was supposed to be Scottish...hmmm? Her character was very stoic which might have been appropriate, but Fanning tends to be unemotional no matter what character she's attempting and that's not a compliment. **

Every Thing Will Be Fine was about a writer (James Franco) who when driving in blizzard conditions on a country detour hits a boy on a sled. He gets out and the boy is sitting in front of the car in a stupor. He sighs and thanks God. He walks the boy up to the house, carries him on his shoulder, makes conversation, and when he reaches the door the mother asks where her other son is. The driver didn't realize the older brother he hit was under his car. A really memorable scene! The movie is about how this man and the dead boy's family deal with such a trauma. Interesting. Maybe a little slow. The music was really melodramatic like a ghost story which was a little unsettling. ***

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them the latest J.K. Rowling film about a British wizard / magical creature advocate (Eddie Redmayne) who travels to America carrying a suitcase full of magical creatures. When bad things start happening, it's all blamed on the few innocent creatures who had escaped. Redmayne's character, Newt, was such a quirky, nerdy guy with so much bizarreness he was just another creature. The story was incredibly convoluted with way too much going on, way too many theories and rules and weird names of things it lacked connection. Even the never-ending special effects were so bombarding the exhaustion of it inspired...apathy. Oh, another building falling apart, another explosion, another poof of smoke, ho hum. The thing that makes Harry Potter is so lovable is it is all about humanity: relationship bonding between friends, family, community, and situation. Lots of human emotion. This was like a bad sci-fi trying to be clever through fantasy with individual players either for or against society lacking connection. Even the protagonists were antagonistic toward each other. Destruction rebuilding effects were cool and the ecological/animal protection themes were excellent although I think they could have added much more emotion through these fantastic beasts. Colin Farrell plays the bad guy and then he changes into Johnny Depp! I wonder how much Depp got paid for his five second cameo? **

Fences is about a former baseball player for the Negro League in the 1950s. Now he's a garbage man supporting his family. Lots of long-winded speeches about life. It was written as a play and it feels like that. Even though the performances were outstanding, especially Denzel Washington, I didn't care for it as a movie. I wanted it to get to the point of the plot but it just rambled on. *

The Founder is about how Ray Kroc (Michael Keeton) built the McDonalds empire. Fascinating. He teamed up with the McDonalds brothers to franchise their fast food restaurant based on speed, quality control and product reputation, signed a contract giving them ultimate control of the product and as he was losing money he found the "back door" and bought all the land out from under them!  They threatened to sue him but realized they already lost and were forced to sell the whole franchise corporation and their namesake to him. Kroc was a great businessman, but the story was pretty sleazy. The imitation milkshakes said it all! Great story. ****

Hell or High Water What a stupid title. I guess it could be worse, but I know it could be better. This movie is about two Texan brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who go on a modern day bank robbing spree. The bank recently foreclosed on their family ranch, wheeling and dealing their mother before she died in the sleaziest way possible after oil was discovered on the property. Jeff Bridges plays the almost-retired Texas Ranger who goes after them. Excellent performances, excellent sets (the dirt and dust of Texas), and excellent thought-provoking story. I enjoyed the intrigue as it wasn't clear why they were robbing banks (sorry for disclosing too much) and I love a corporate greed revenge theme. Great ending. ****

Hey, Hey It's Esther Blueburger is a strange coming-of-age story out of Australia about a weird little girl who goes to a very pompous, mundane private school where no one gets her and everyone teases her. She has no friends, spends her lunches alone in a room, and befriends a duckling from the science department until it ends up dead for a dissecting project.  She does have a brother who is just a bizarre as she is. She meets a girl from the local public school and begins skipping her school so she can go to school with this other girl where she blossoms in the misfit group and proceeds to find notoriety as the school bully. I hate the title. **

Jungle Book (2016) Outstanding. I loved, loved, loved the cartoon version as a kid. This one featured a human boy and a whole lot of digitally enhanced animals, some looked very real except they were talking, some didn't. Great voices by Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson and Christopher Walken. I was surprised they included the songs although I think it was easier to add the music to the cartoon movie. Beautiful sets. Loved it. Kids would absolutely love it although it does get a little violent and scary. ****

A Monster Calls Good lord, I had no idea what this movie was about. I had just watched The BFG and the previews for this movie looked similar:  kid, companion giant, special effects.  I had no clue. It's was about  kid who is dealing with his mother who is dying from cancer. Yeah, he's also dealing with bullies, an absent father, and a witch of a grandmother, but it was more about the fear, anger, guilt from anger, denial, isolation, and the fantasy world created to avoid the reality.  Spot on. I sobbed. With the exception of the bullies, it was my story, same age and same evil grandmother and absent father. It hit a little too close to home. Outstanding performances, awesome special effects, beautiful settings and scenery.  The watercolor/ink illustrations were beautiful. Great themes. ****

Moonlight is about the evolution of a gay black man from boyhood growing up in the hood with a drug addict for a mother, bullied constantly through school, and coming to terms with who he is as an adult. Very sad on so many levels. Great performances, but it was a little slow. I had no idea what was going on the first half hour. ***

Pelé was the story of the famous soccer player from childhood to the World Cup. Excellent story. Excellent performances. The kids were adorable. ****

A Perfect Day is about a group of humanitarian aid workers during the war in the Balkans in 1995. A man, or as they constantly refer to him "the fat fuck," from one of the villages fell or was thrown down the local well and his dead body has contaminated the water supply. Due to a number of conflicting bureaucratic regulations with various peace agreements, it's forbidden to get him out even though the village desperately needs water, but even if they could they can't find a rope and spend much of the day searching for one while encountered dead cows laying across roads which is known to be a trap for mines. The characters are hilarious (Tim Robbins and Benicio del Toro), but the war themes are heartbreaking. It was good. Loved the dog. Vicious animal on a rope. They decided to slip him some tranquilizers, but in the end, as they say the tranquilizers only made him worse. Then they zoom into the dog. Hilarious shot of the dog. LOL.  ***

Pete's Dragon  I've got a theme going on here - kids with friendly, giant companions. There seem to be a lot of children's films based on books produced just in the last couple years. Every time I come across one I think hasn't this been out for a long time??, but I think I'm just remembering it from my days as a children's librarian.  This movie started out the total opposite of a children's movie: car accident with dead parents, tiny boy alone lost in the woods with wolves chasing him. Jeez. Enough to give kids nightmares. Then the dragon saves him and the dragon is like a big playful kitten that chases its tail, sleeps on its back, jumps, rolls, plays with anything that moves, sneezes, and flies. And very protective. The dragon didn't look as realistic as I would have liked BUT it was lovable and friendly and after the horror that was the beginning of this story, the dragon needed to be like a big, friendly, cuddly, green furry stuffed  animal. Adorable story. Great performances. It's a North American  Jungle Book only without the singing...oh, there is one song, but animals don't sing. Great role for Robert Redford with his animal rights advocacy. *****

Snowden Is he a traitor or a patriot? This is the story of Edward Snowden, his background, his government experience and pretty much his disgust with the sleazy way the American intelligence operates.  Clearly he's a patriot. ****

Time Out of Mind is about a homeless man (Richard Gere) as he exists in the city, negotiates the bureaucracy of shelters, keeps safe on the streets, sells his clothes for alcohol, and deals with his demons. Most of the framing is filmed through windows, from the building out to the street or vice versa, however, what was exceptionally striking was the soundtrack. Lots of noise. There is never silence and usually three to four different sounds intermixed on top of each other - people yelling, people talking, pigeon wings flapping, traffic, sirens, coughing, singing, tapping, horns honking, music, utensils clanging, laundromat dryers banging, new voices screaming, different voices laughing, both the inside building and outside street noise simultaneously.  And it's all amplified over the dialogue between the main characters. Really ingenious. Then Ben Vereen shows up half way through playing another homeless man who talks loudly non-stop and follows Gere around. All this clatter was incredibly irritating to me as someone with a hearing sensitivity, but added so much to the experience of being homeless and mentally ill "lost" in a large city. There was an unsafe element to the noise and I just wanted peace. STOP THE FUCKING NOISE!  At one point near the end of the movie Gere's character explains to someone when his life fell apart, he couldn't stop the noise in his head. Ah ha! It was very depressing and a little slow, but I think even the speed of the movie was purposeful as well. Really brilliant filmmaking which is why it gets such a high rating. ****

EMFs and Cell Tower Locations

There is a website called Antenna Search that will locate cell towers and antennas within four miles of your home. I know we have towers because I can see them on the far hill. I didn't know we had NINE!?