July Movie Reviews

*****  Exceptional

****    Great

***      OK

**        So So

*          Blah

Boredom is a documentary film on boredom. Very interesting information. They start out by describing how people get bored, for instance, non-stimulating environments and repetition. Sitting does something to one's brain to enhance boredom. Our education system is a prime example of the most boring place on earth with rote memory repetition, sitting, required non-activity and discipline, and an overall lack of interest with play time relegated to a very small percentage of the day.  Then as adults we select jobs so we can sit all day and do repetitive, uninteresting work. Although we assume when we are bored we become lethargic and our brains slow down...it's actually the opposite as boredom activates our brain creating stress. Addictions were thought to be physiological or psychological, but this movie says addictions are caused by boredom. It's boredom that makes people seek risk-taking activities. I've been bored most of my life unless I'm traveling, hitchhiking or doing something highly stimulating. Over the years I've met men who tell me they are never bored as if this makes them cognitively superior. I always think stupid people aren't bored because they are easily entertained. Someday I'll think it out loud. In conclusion, boredom is killing us. ***

The Child in Time Benedict Cumberbatch is the father of a four year old and one day while he takes her grocery shopping and takes his eye off her for a second, she disappears. So horrible. I can't imagine.  Kelly MacDonald is his wife and the story is told through flashbacks illustrating the torment they both experience in the following years. So sad. ****

The Deflowering of Eva van End is a Dutch film about a very awkward adolescent high school girl who is ignored by her dysfunctional family and tormented by her classmates. Her class sponsors visitors from Germany and she is assigned the adorable Veit who will live with her for two weeks while they practice their English. He is into meditation and positive thinking and proceeds to impact the whole family one by one with his charm. The girls at school are all over him, Eva's older brother tries to torment him and fails miserably, Eva's oldest brother who has just moved out with his girlfriend falls in love with him. It's a fairly weird movie with humor much like the God movie I saw not too long ago. Great performances. ***

Dreams of a Life is a documentary about the life and death of Joyce Vincent, a 38-year old woman who died in her apartment in 2003 but her disintegrated corpse was not discovered for three years. THREE YEARS! The television was still on, she owed an enormous amount of unpaid rent, utility companies never shut off her services although they went unpaid, no one complained about smell or questioned her non-existence. The film interviewed old friends, co-workers and boyfriends who described a beautiful, well-educated, friendly person as they tried to make sense of how someone could slip through the cracks and be so utterly invisible to everyone around her. So sad, but I totally get it. With so few friends and fewer relatives, I often wonder if anyone would even question if they didn't hear from me since I'm so reclusive. None of it surprises me. I think there are a lot of reclusive, isolated people who could disappear and no one would question it and she had far more friends and relatives than I have. Now it's time for me to rant about how disconnected technology has made us as a society.  We no longer contact people to find out how they are or what they've been doing...instead we look at their Facebook page or Twitter feed for signs of life and call it good. Something is wrong with this. It disgusts me. ***

Edge of Tomorrow Weird sci-fi starring Tom Cruise. What's not to hate? It's about a guy who relives the same combat day over and over because when a mega alien kills him he is contaminated with "mimic blood". I don't know. Someone suggested I see this so I can watch Tom Cruise die over and over again. LOL I actually watched the whole thing but I can't count how many times I wanted to turn it off. *

Goodbye Christopher Robin is about the writing of Winnie the Pooh and its effect on the real Christopher Robin. His parents were horrible. Granted, his father was suffering from PTSD due to his service in WWI before anyone knew what PTSD was, but his mother was so incredibly self-centered. It was during an era when wealthy parents ignored their kids and went off on vacation for a month leaving the nannies to raise them. Hard to believe people were ever like that. The kid that plays Christopher Robin is shockingly adorable. The woods were magically beautiful. The guy who plays Milne looks just like him.  Great movie. I'd love to live in that house in the country. *****

The Iran Job is about an African-American professional basketball player who is hired to play for a team in Iran amidst the political unrest. It was a very interesting look at the Iranian culture, especially the way they treat women. The basketball player befriends three women. Legally they aren't allowed to sit close to men, sit in a car with them, be in an apartment with a man, go without their head scarves or coats in public and sometimes not even allowed to watch a men's basketball game. They break all the rules and have to sneak around for fear of being arrested and imprisoned. I worry about the film - if the authorities see it, wouldn't they go arrest the women anyway? It's so absolutely backwards and hard to believe women are treated so badly in other countries. ***

Lady Bird is a coming of age movie about a high school senior (Saoirse Ronan), her head-strong mother who has no filter, her best friend, her romantic encounters, and her constant search for herself. It had some funny moments, but nothing special. ***

The Leisure Seeker I read this book a few months ago so I was eager to see the movie starring my idol Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. It's about an elderly couple who take their old camper-van on one last road trip together. He is suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's and she's dying from cancer. It's a great commentary on aging especially for married people who have spent their entire lives together. It was sweet and funny yet tragic. Aging is not for the weak for sure. This one had some extra scenes I don't remember in the book and I liked the way they ended it with a bit more closure than the book. Outstanding performances. ****

Source Code is about a terrorist-type bombing of a commuter train just outside Chicago. It already happened.  An inventor developed a something called source code that can repeat eight minutes of simulated time and they use the reactivated brain of a dead solider to enter this time capsule to discover who the bomber was before he can blow up Chicago. Yeah...I know I'm not explaining it very clearly. Me and sci-fi just don't get along. However, despite the science fiction confusion, it was good. First, it stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the captain who is sent on this mission and is re-sent to repeat the eight minutes over and over to gather new information. He's very confused and disoriented at first, not knowing where he is, where his men are, if his father knows he's stateside, but he complies with the commander's demands to find out who the bomber is. It was good, confusing, but entertaining. ***

Three Worlds is about a French guy who after a night of partying is driving home with his two friends from work and he runs over a man. A woman who was arguing with her boyfriend just happened to be looking out the window and witnesses the whole thing. The man drives away assuming no one has seen him, fearful of losing everything after being promoted at work and soon to be married. He tries to cover it up, but is consumed by guilt. The witness contacts the victim's wife. The story is how the man, witness, and victim's wife are bound together in this tragedy.  Great performances, but the story was  little weak. **

Wakefield was about Howard Wakefield (Bryan Cranston), successful lawyer with a wife and two daughters, living in the suburbs, working in the city, constantly fighting with his wife, sick of the mundane repetitive treadmill his life has become...he decides to just disappear. But not really disappear - he lives in the storage space above his garage while watching his family carry on without him. He spends his days huddled in his space, listening to the radio doing crossword puzzles, and by night he's scrounges garbage cans for food and supplies looking quite insane and homeless. Very odd. I can't believe he would be able to exist for a year without being discovered. Cranston was brilliant. ***

Zodiak was about the Zodiak killer in California in the late 1960s. The all-star cast included Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr., Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox,  and a whole bunch of others. So creepy this guy was never arrested due to insufficient evidence. Many years later they finally find the key to be able to arrest him, but he died from a heart attack right before the interrogation. How frustrating. I read somewhere that 6,000 murders go unsolved each year. Jeez. Great soundtrack from the late 1960s. Really LONG movie. ***

TELEVISION: Sometimes I don't have that many movies for the month because I am watching a television series. I think I'm going to start adding them at the bottom of my movie list. This month I saw the first season of The Handmaid's Tale.  Good god! I think it was the scariest thing I've ever seen on TV, movie, DVD or video! Absolutely frightening! For those of you living under rocks who have never heard of it, it's about world population coming to an end when fertility dies...few women are having babies and most who are able to get pregnant loose them or the newborns die. They briefly blame this on pollution and not taking care of the environment. A fundamentalist religious group decides society needs to get back to basics with a patriarchal society and subservient women. Their chapters grow in every state, they murder Congress and eventually they take over a large part of the USA and call it Gilead. (The capital of the USA is now in Anchorage Alaska.) Unfortunately anyone on the east coast is under their domain. All fertile women are captured and used as baby-making slaves. And you know most modern American women would never put up with that so of course, they have to torture them into submission and servitude. So we have state-sponsored rape on a regular basis under the guise of holiness. Disobedience could be anything from getting your hand chopped off, your eye plucked out, or hanged. The other options especially for those who don't get pregnant are to be sent to the colonies to work in toxic environments or be hookers!  Those who try to escape run like hell to Canada and refugees are given free health care. LOL. I love the subtle messages. So frightening because it's so plausible. The story focuses on Offred or "Of Fred" because her rapist is name is Fred, (Elizabeth Moss) and I love it we can hear her thoughts. Outstanding performances by all, but especially Moss. Every day I watch it I had nightmares that night....that's a warning.