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Texas Cyclone (1932)
Texas Cyclone (1932)
1932 | Action, Classics, Western
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A fun western starring Tim McCoy, king of the western at the time and who would make a biography full of stories for Hollywood to film. The movie is fun, with fast and realistic fight scenes. The story is also great, which despite being a cliché, it would be great if they were used for a series these days. We still have John Wayne, at the beginning of his career and with his excellent charisma already honed that would earn him the post of king of the western in the following decades. The film is fast, so all the unwinding too, but the film manages to close all the ends very well. I enjoyed it a lot.
  
Avatar: The Way of Water (2021)
Avatar: The Way of Water (2021)
2021 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
9
8.7 (10 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Probably the best SFX to date (1 more)
Liked it more than the first
Amazing visuals
I was a bit dubious about this sequel at first. Being 3 hours long and sounding like the same plot as the first film. True the Humans return and need to deal with the home species once again, along with a revenge angle not expected.
We get to see more of the planet this time, new creatures, clans and how the lives of the characters have changed as they settle in. It looks amazing, the SFX are unbelievable mixing human actors and animation with it looking so realistic. I think overall this just a bit better than the first one.
  
Pieces of a Woman (2020)
Pieces of a Woman (2020)
2020 | Drama
8
6.7 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Realistic view of Grieving
Films about grief are a tricky proposition, for while they can be cathartic and life-affirming, they can also be dour, depressing experiences that spiral downward under it’s own weight.

Fortunately, PIECES OF A WOMAN avoids wallowing in it’s own melancholy and gives the audience a thoughtful, heavy, exploration of grief and what grief does to a dysfunctional family.

Written by Kata Weber, who wrote this as a way to deal with her own grief, PIECES OF A WOMAN tells the tale of how a family deals with a tragedy when a home birth goes “horribly wrong” (not spoiling anything here, it’s in the marketing material).

I was fearful going into this film that we would be subjected to an intense, bloody butchery of a home birth, but Director Kornel Mundruczo and actors Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf and the always good Molly Parker gives us a loving, caring, intense and (ultimately) sad and tragic beginning to the film.

And then comes grief…and anger…and blame…and isolation.

Sitting squarely in the middle of all of this is Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret in the first 2 seasons of THE CROWN) in her Oscar Nominated turn as the birth mother in the middle of all of this. We follow her as she drifts in oblivion while those around her try to tell her what to do and how to feel. It is a haunted, holisitic, realistic portrayal of a person who just wants to fade into nothingness rather than feel the tragic loss.

Shia LaBeouf (TRANSFORMERS) proves, once again, that he can act as the husband/father. His character, Sean, is impotent to prevent the tragedy, care for his wife and deal with his own grief. He, too, creates a real character and the interplay between husband and wife are all too realistic.

The great, Oscar-winning Actress Ellen Burstyn (the mother in THE EXORCIST) is on board as the domineering mother of Kirby’s character who demands that someone pays for the death of the child. This is the type of showy-role that an aging, revered actress is normally Oscar nominated for and I am surprised she was not (especially because an added layer was added to her character that makes her, as well, realistic).

Credit for all of these performance has to go to Director Mundruczo for steering this ship away from maudlin and melodrama and squarely into the real world. It’s not a perfect Directing job as the film does tend to dwell on the grief and Kirby’s character does spend a good deal of time looking out the window while a solo piano plays single notes, but those are nits on an otherwise solid effort.

All-in-all I was pleasantly surprised at how moving - and real - this film is. You have to be in the mood for this movie (grief is not a happy subject) but you will be rewarded with a strong look at grief and it’s affects.

Letter Grade: A- (I could have used a few less moments of looking out the window to tinkling of the piano keys)

8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(OfMarquis)
  
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
2004 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

"This is one of my favourite films, and I’m going to almost insist that you say in this article that people must go and watch a song called Carol Brown, from the new series of Flight of the Conchords. It’s been directed by Michel Gondry, and it’s just so amazing; for the rest of the episode you can’t really see that it’s him, but up comes this dazzling thing. I just think for a movie with such a massive concept, that idea, that sort of fantasy, should be done by being completely realistic. In a way it’s like Let the Right One In – the office where they alter your mind feels like a ghastly dental surgery. So you’re in this weird mixture between something that feels terribly realistic, with Kirsten Dunst jumping up and down on a bed, absolutely normal, and yet it’s completely freakish and odd and had these spectacular special effects in it. I love the sort of downbeat-ness of the love story — the fact that, really, they’re sort of right for each other, but only because they’re not right for anyone else. I think it’s a genuinely great fantasy movie, a great love story, and Kate Winslet‘s hair is, after all, blue, so that’s obviously a good reason for seeing it. You’ve been on this massive ride, and it gets back to these people in a corridor, which I suppose is like — if you land on the moon, there’s just you on the moon, and I think there’s something profound about the whole thing."

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