Posts tagged Hotshots
“The Woman in Black” Is a Movie in Trouble
Feb 11th
A Movie in Trouble
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Woman in Black is a traditional ghost story, and of all the movies about ghosts that have ever been made, this is one of them.
In fact, the only reason to see this yawner with all the tricks and twists and turns of a traditional ghost story is to see Daniel Radcliffe trying to act like an adult in his first starring film role after the “Harry Potter” movies ended in 2011.
Now, seeing as how this is a story about ghosts that wants the audience to take it seriously and realistically, you have to ask yourself one question: “Do you believe in ghosts?”
Well, do you? And then ask yourself more questions.
Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, who works for a law firm in London in either the late 1890s or the early 1900s, whose wife died four years earlier while giving birth to their son, Joseph.
Arthur is sent to a little village in northern England to go through the papers of an old woman who died and report if the law firm should take over the house that she left, which is known as the Eel Marsh House and sits on a piece of land whose only access by road is covered by water whenever the tide comes in.
Arthur is told that this assignment is to prove his worth to the head of the law firm and is his “final warning.”
When Arthur arrives at the village, he gets no cooperation at all from the villagers except for one man, Sam Daily, whose son died many years ago, and whose wife could only be called crazy.
In fact, many children in the village have died, and Arthur eventually learns that there is a connection between their so-called “accidental” deaths and the appearance of a mysterious “woman in black” who is seen occasionally and who has a connection with Eel Marsh House.
Well, naturally Arthur stays at the house to go through all the old woman’s papers, scary things naturally happen, and naturally Arthur sees the woman in black more than once, along with many more mysterious events.
Of course, there are many cheap audio and visual shocks designed to scare the audience, but it is possible not to be scared.
The Woman in Black is a movie in trouble with a really cheap ending.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Albert Nobbs” Is Lovely, Sweet and Tragic
Feb 3rd
“Lovely, Sweet and Tragic”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Albert Nobbs is a project that star Glenn Close has been working on since she won an Obie for playing the role in 1982 in a play in New York City.
Finally released in 2011, the film not only stars Close, but she also cowrote it, coproduced it, and wrote the lyrics for the film’s theme song.
The story takes place in 19th-century Dublin, and the title character is a waiter working in a hotel who has a closely held secret: Albert is actually a woman posing as a man in order to earn a steady wage in the harsh Irish economy and repressed society.
In fact, Close herself said in an interview about the situation of women at that time, “Women had absolutely no rights if you had no money and no family.”
Eventually we learn the tragic story that caused Albert to pose as a man in order to earn money for herself, and we see her try to be as inconspicuous as possible as she goes about her duties in Morrison’s Hotel.
The guests refer to Albert as “such a kind little man,” and Albert doesn’t show any outward reaction to the shenanigans of the more rowdy and roisterous guests.
Every night Albert counts the money she has earned that day, records the amount in a ledger, and hides it all underneath a floorboard in her room upstairs in the hotel before going to bed.
You see, Albert has a dream: She is saving her money to buy a small store in which she can own a tobacco shop and run it from behind the counter.
And then Albert’s plans change.
She gets the idea that it would be easier if she were to marry a woman while still posing as a man, and then the two of them together could run the tobacco shop. And so Albert begins courting Helen, a young maid who works at Morrison’s Hotel, and who is played by Mia Wasikowska.
Unfortunately, Helen is in love with Joe, a young handyman who also works and lives at the hotel, who has told Helen about his plans to take them both to America.
However, Joe encourages Helen to go out walking with Albert in order to get as much from Albert as she can.
Albert Nobbs is lovely, sweet, and tragic.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Iron Lady” Is Slapped Together
Jan 28th
“Slapped Together”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Iron Lady is yet another acting triumph for Meryl Streep as she plays Margaret Thatcher, the longest-seated prime minister of Great Britain in the 20th century from 1979 to 1990, the first woman prime minister, and at various times in her political career the most hated woman in Great Britain.
In fact, she was loved and hated in office as much as her contemporary President Ronald Reagan was in the U.S. and for the same reasons: They both had conservative values and free-market ideology that helped transform their respective countries into industrially depleted and increasingly unequal societies.
In addition, they both danced–sometimes together–while the countries they led were suffering.
The film opens in the present day with Margaret as an old woman out shopping, and when she returns to her flat, her daughter, Carol, tells her that she shouldn’t go out on her own, to which Margaret replies, “If I can’t go out to buy a pint of milk, what is the world coming to?”
Then we see flashbacks to when Margaret was a young woman whose name was Margaret Roberts, played by a different actress, Alexandra Roach, and she is not portrayed as a very likable woman.
And, yes, the film shifts back and forth in time so much in the style that filmmakers seem to prefer these days that you might ask yourself is the whole movie going to be like this?
And the answer is, yes, it is.
We also see Margaret’s husband, Denis Thatcher, played as an old man by Jim Broadbent, and once again the filmmakers try to trick the audience into believing that a scene of fantasy and Margaret’s delusional dotage is reality.
In fact, Broadbent might spend more screen time dead than he does alive.
Major events during Thatcher’s career as prime minister are covered, such as the 1982 Falklands War, the 1984 miners’ strike, the 1984 IRA bombing of a hotel hosting a conference of the Conservative Party, and her replacement as prime minister after a rebellion by her colleagues.
We even see some scenes in which she is advised about her clothes and the way she speaks in public.
The Iron Lady is so slapped together that when it ends, you don’t even realize that this is the scene in which the movie is ending.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”