joelmpa

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Waste of time. Most of the film has people you don’t know running around to places you don’t know for reasons unknown. Could have been filmed in a parking lot. The big reveal is anything but. Goodman must have been desperate, though to be paid fir one expression - a scowl - maybe isn’t that bad. At least Farmiga didn’t waste much screen time on it.

A very powerful film, providing an African view, qua 1966, of the aftermath of colonialism. The central performance is compelling. And the writer/director Sembene was one of the most important voices of his generation.

Triter than the tritest sitcom, Crazy Rich Asians revels in adoring the material excesses of its super-rich subjects while pretending to mock them. The two leads can’t act, most of the other roles are silly caricatures - with the exception of Gemma Chan, who somehow conveys authenticity in a sea of contrivance. The humor is few and far between. I have no idea why so many critics recommended this forgettable waste.

A must-see for anyone who likes jazz, or just musical history in the fifties and sixties. The interviews are a cut above, especially by Bennie Golson, Jimmy Heath, Sonny Rollins, Coltrane's first daughter, and even, believe it or not, Bill Clinton. The music is superb, somehow finding the time to have excerts from Coltrane's most transcendent work -- Giant Steps, Naima, Alabama, My Favorite Things, Alabama, All Blues and more. (Only one of my must-hear favorites is missing - Afro-Blue.) Intelligent, coherent -- a great introduction to Coltrane if you don't know him, and a wonderful appreciation for those of us who do. Even the animations are beautiful.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Starts off absorbing, band interactions are interesting. But second half is a bore and utterly predictable. Should have let Breslin solo, rather than spend so much time on Nivola's dreary narcissistic monotones. Shue's role could have been developed more, especially her relationship to her daughter. Instead, the ending just doesn't ring true.

This is a wonderful film. You don't have to be a Ken Loach fan to enjoy it. Loach, who has made a long and varied cache of usually trenchant portraits of British working class life, with sidetrips to the Spanish Civil War, janitor organizing in America, and the pain of the Irish Rebellion circa WWI, departs here with a serio-comedic approach that should expose him to new fans. I watched with someone who never heard of him, and is usually drawn to more popular entertainments, and they loved it. Stick with it through the early slow going.

Avoid.this. Sad waste of acting talent. Ludicrous plot, no suspense, absurd pontificating about people living dead lives. The director may be better suited to be a mortician.