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Captain Marvel (2019)
Captain Marvel (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure
Brie Larson and Samuel Jackson had great chemistry on screen, Ben Mendelssohn totally stole the show and was my favorite character, really great cast of supporting characters. (0 more)
No the most engaging Marvel movie, a couple scenes felt forced, Nick Fury's eye, really ?!? Lol (0 more)
Hate It or Love It: Captain Marvel Has Arrived - 8/10
Captain Marvel is a 2019 superhero action/sci-fi movie based on the Marvel Comics character Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel. It was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The movie was written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, with the screenplay also being contributed on by Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jude Law.


On planet Hala, the capital of the Kree Empire, a female warrior named Vers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) suffers from nightmares involving a woman she doesn't recognize. She doesn't remember much from before her time on Hala. With assistance from her commander and mentor, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), she's learning to control her powers and emotions during battle as is the Kree way. Her unit, Starforce, are given a mission to rescue an undercover Kree operative who might be compromised by enemies called the Skrull, a race of shape-shifting aliens. They must act quickly or the information the operative has will fall into the wrong hands. During the mission things don't go well and Vers/Captain Marvel is captured by the Skrulls who use a device to scour her memories which include the lady from her nightmares. She learns the woman's name is Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening), and that her memories from her past suggest that she has spent some time on Earth. She is escapes to Earth 1995, where she must find the woman and the secrets to her past.


 This movie was pretty awesome. I really liked it and enjoyed it very much. I thought it went by smoothly and the writers had a clear plot, but might not be the most engaging for some people. I know this movie got a lot of hate before it even came out but honestly I didn't see a lot to complain about. Yes it is empowering for females but I didn't feel like it was forced; save for maybe a couple of scenes. It was rated PG-13 so some of the themes might be beyond what children can fully understand but definitely a good fit for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I really like the chemistry between Captain Marvel and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). To me there was an exclusively entertaining character in the Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). He was a pleasant surprise and pretty funny. I thought the casting was very well too, even for the supporting characters like other Kree, Skrulls, and even Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers b.f.f. Movie was generally fun and pretty action-packed. I give it an 8/10.
  
En Concert A Paris by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
En Concert A Paris by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I think it was Mike [Harding] from Touch who first introduced this to me. He said, 'You'll love it, and it's an unbelievable price' which is quite a killer combination if you like collecting things. I bought it and he's absolutely right. It's a master: there's no ways about it, you're hearing virtuosity, ensemble playing to the highest degree. It knows itself inside-out, which means you get this feeling of how it stretches and breathes. Basically if I'm wanting to listen to something from it I close my eyes, fumble around and take one of the six discs out so it's a surprise. Otherwise you can find something for the morning, a raga, blah blah blah. But these are just the most extraordinary devotional love songs. It's from a tradition which has been going on for a very very long time. It's not a part-time job at all; these are people who are dedicated. It's fantastic. I think it's truly inspiring in the sense that it's through listening to that that I've come upon solutions to things that I've been working on myself. It's the peculiar thing: you wake up in the morning having gone to bed with a problem or you're working on something that you don't quite know what the solution to is, and when that marvellous thing happens that all the work gets done in your sleep, it's just the very best. I had an example of that happening with this record. When Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios were making the Transatlantic Feedback film about The Monks, in order to get the editing done they asked people if they would contribute a cover version of a Monks track. From the proceeds of that they were able to finish the editing. I was working with a Swedish friend of mine who'd introduced me to The Monks so much later than everybody else. I said he had to choose the song, and he picked 'Oh, How To Do Now'. I listened to it over and over so it got into my head and my conclusion was that we certainly can't do it like that, because the narrator of the song is obviously a young man who has extremely sexual feelings for a young lady and I thought it'd be highly inappropriate for us to pursue that angle. How do you get an in? I woke up the next morning and thought, 'I know what to do'. I rewrote their text and took the emotion down, made it more devotional and I thought, 'Ah, that's it, it's like Ali Khan'; you change it into that, so in fact it has one phrase that's basically stretched over half the song, and the other part fell into place. It's either the love or the devotion but also the sense of melody, really stretching out lines. That's an example of it being inspiring and useful."

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The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021)
The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021)
2021 | Biography, Drama, Music
6
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Strong Central Performance...The Rest Of The Film Is A Scattered Mess
Lee Daniels is a passionate filmmaker and his passion for bringing the story of Billie Holiday to the screen as the embodiment of the African American struggle against White Officials who are trying to mute her is evident in every frame of THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY.

Unfortunately, he tries to do so much with this film, that he accomplishes very little.

Let’s start with what works in this film: the TERRIFIC performance of Andra Day as the titular character. Day embodies the troubled artist strongly and she does all of the singing of this world renowned performer. It is a superb performance and she rightfully deserves her Oscar nomination.

What doesn’t work? Pretty much the rest of the film.

Daniels has so much material to work with - and a terrific actress at the center of it - that he tried to cram EVERYTHING into this film, consequently, the film is scattered and doesn’t know what it wants to be.

Is it a biopic? A look at an artist who overcame a horrific childhood? A look at an artist that is battling demons? A look at an artist that has toxic relationships with men? Or…is it about the United States Government trying to suppress free speech in order to keep the African American from rising up in the 1950’s?

The answer is…it is all of that…and none of that. Just when you think the film has it’s footing in one direction, it pivots in another and rarely gets back to tie off the other.

For example, look at the title of the film - THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY. So, it must be about the United States (in this instance, the Federal Drug Agents) trying to bring Billie Holiday to justice. And…at the beginning it IS about that…namely in the guise of stopping her from singing STRANGE FRUIT and trying to frame her for her drug use. So…you would think that the film will, eventually, get Holiday on stage to sing a triumphant FULL version of Strange Fruit.

You would think that, wouldn’t you.

Now…to be fair to Daniels and this film, there is about a 15 minute portion of this film in the middle that shows Holiday’s heartbreaking childhood, followed by a haunting song sung by Day. It is a very effective portion of the film, and that (and Day’s performance) are worth wading through the “highlights and lowlights” of Holiday’s life that is the rest of this film.

I have not seen the lauded 1972 LADY SINGS THE BLUES that is a more straightforward Bio-pic of the singer (starring Diana Ross), after watching this film, I think I will.

Letter Grade: B- (because of Day’s performance and that 15 minute segment)

6 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
1997 | Drama
Well Deserved Oscars for Williams, Damon and Affleck
One of the benefits of “Secret Movie Night” is that it forces me to watch (or rewatch) a film that I would not seek out on my own. Such is the case with this month’s selection - GOOD WILL HUNTING - the film that made Matt Damon and Ben Affleck stars and earned the late, great Robin Williams his only Academy Award.

Leaning hard on the mantra “write what you know”, GOOD WILL HUNTING tells the tale of a generationally talented math prodigy, who grew up in South Boston and fights his demons to find his place in this world.

Famously, the screenplay of this film earned Damon and Affleck Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and it is well deserved. They paint a picture of life of these “Southies” that appears to me real and genuine. The “family” feel of the friendship of the main characters rings true and Damon and Affleck have real chemistry with each other - like old friends playing off each other.

However, the relationship between Affleck and Damon’s character in this film is only the 3rd best relationship in this film. The best, of course, is the relationship between Will Hunting (Damon) and the shrink that is assigned to him, played by Robin Williams. It is a haunting, raw, emotional and REAL performance by Williams - one very deserving of the Oscar - and I was more than a little sad to watch this performance knowing that this uniquely talented performer is no longer with us.

The surprise to me in this rewatch of the film is the performance of Minnie Driver as a young lady that becomes emotionally attached to Will. Driver’s performance as Harvard student Skylar is also real and the struggles of her character to get a connection with Will was heartbreaking to watch.

Good Will Hunting also features strong supporting work by Stellan Skarsgard as the MIT Math Professor who discovers - and then becomes jealous of - Will’s talents and Ben Affleck’s younger brother, a then unknown Casey Affleck, who steals almost every scene he is in.

All of this would not have worked without the magnificent, Oscar nominated, Direction of Gus Van Sant (DRUGSTORE COWBOY). He was the perfect choice to direct this intimate, personal drama and he has a way of drawing out the emotions and rawness of the characters on the screen without being cloying or overdramatic. He was a strong contender for Best Director that year (as was Good Will Hunting for Best Picture) but it ran into a roadblock that was James Cameron and TITANIC.

If you have never seen this film - or if you haven’t seen this in quite some time - check out GOOD WILL HUNTING, it is well worth your time.

Letter Grade: A

9 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)