Posts tagged woman
“Amour” Is Difficult, but Thought-Provoking
Feb 10th
“Difficult, but Thought-Provoking”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Amour means “love,” “affection,” or “passion” in French, and although the film has dialogue in French with English subtitles and it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Feature, it was not submitted by France, but rather by Austria.
The reason is that the director, Michael Haneke, is Austrian, not French, and so one could say that not everything is at it seems with this film, which goes for the simple story itself.
The film was also nominated for four other Academy Awards, Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Actress, and in 2012 it won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which suggests that this is a well-respected, classy film.
But not everything is as it seems.
For example, you might believe you already know how it ends from reading about it and especially from seeing the opening scene.
But there is much more to it than that an old woman dies.
The woman is Anne, she has a stroke at the beginning of the film, and when she returns home, she says to her husband, Georges, “Promise me one thing. Never take me back to the hospital.”
She is partially paralyzed on the right side of her body, and as Georges begins to care for her at home and as Anne’s condition becomes worse, keeping that promise becomes more and more difficult.
The action occurs almost entirely inside their apartment in Paris, and although other characters come and go, the events consist mostly of Georges’s problems taking care of Anne as her physical condition gets worse.
It sounds boring, doesn’t it, especially since you believe you already know how it is going to end.
But not everything is as it seems.
For example, there are a couple of scenes that end with a planned shock to the audience, and one you might not have seen coming. There are also a couple of scenes that have to have been either fantasizing by one of the characters or the result of the director and screenwriter playing with the audience.
However, after the film is over, you realize that thinking about these scenes adds depth and meaning to the film.
In other words, keep remembering that not everything is as it seems with this award-winning film.
Amour is difficult to watch, but also very thought-provoking.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Zero Dark Thirty” Deserves All the Awards It Receives
Jan 19th
“All the Awards It Receives”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Zero Dark Thirty is the fascinating story of the hunt for Osama bin Laden by the C.I.A. and the attack by SEAL Team 6 on his compound in Pakistan which ended with his death.
It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who previously directed the 2009 The Hurt Locker, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and for which Bigelow won the Academy Award for Best Director, the first time a woman had ever won that award.
That feat could easily be duplicated with this outstanding film.
The title refers to 30 minutes after midnight, and Jessica Chastain stars as Maya, based on the real C.I.A. agent who was most responsible for the work it took to track down and locate where bin Laden was hiding almost 10 years after the attack and destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Chastain has already won an award for this role and most likely will win many more awards for her outstanding acting in this film.
We see Maya at a so-called “black site,” where she is observing the “enhanced interrogation” of a detainee, which is being conducted by Dan, a fellow agent.
Dan tells the detainee, “When you lie to me, I hurt you.”
And Dan does, which is a bit ingenuous, because how can you tell that a person is lying when such interrogation tactics are being used on him?
Maya is based in Pakistan, and we learn that she didn’t volunteer for this assignment to track down bin Laden, but she was appointed to it because Washington believes she is a “killer” at her job.
While we watch Maya and her colleagues gather the evidence they need in order to uncover the whereabouts of their target, we also see the terrorist attacks around the world that occurred during those years, which were attributed to al Qaida, if not to bin Laden himself.
Maya concentrates her search on one man, Abu Ahmed, whom she believes to be the courier for bin Laden, and time is lost over a confusion brought about by his name.
In fact, Arab names are confusing and hard to understand by westerners, including those in the audience.
Familiar actors also appear in the film, but Chastain stands out.
Zero Dark Thirty deserves all the awards it receives.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Smashed” about Wasted People
Dec 15th
“Wasted”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Smashed is just another in a long line of films about alcoholics going back at least to the 1945 The Lost Weekend with Ray Milland and the 1962 Days of Wine and Roses with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, and the only thing different is that this time the lead alcoholic character is a woman.
You’ve come a long way, Baby.
Also, it is an independent film that was shot in only 19 days; so don’t expect too much in the way of production values.
And the only message in films about the fall and more falling of an alcoholic is “Don’t do this,” which leaves only great acting, marvelous settings, or compelling story to see a movie like this, none of which are contained in this movie.
Kate is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and she is married to Charlie, played by Aaron Paul. Kate is a first-grade schoolteacher, and Charlie stays at home and writes music, although we find out later that Charlie has wealthy parents who support them.
In fact, when they wake up one morning after another night of binge drinking, Kate makes a reference to the fact that Charlie stays home and writes, and Charlie says, “Yeah, but my real job is to change the sheets.”
Kate even takes a drink from a flask in her car on the way to work, and then when she is in the classroom teaching her students, she throws up into a wastebasket because she is so hung over.
This prompts one of the students to ask Kate if she is pregnant, because the kid’s mother does that when she is pregnant.
So, Kate lies and says yes, which just leads to an embarrassing chain of events when Kate’s principal and other teachers find out.
Well, Kate keeps drinking, Charlie keeps drinking, and Charlie’s brother and their friends keep drinking, too. Eventually Kate admits that she has a problem, and she agrees to attend a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous with another teacher in the school, played by Nick Offerman.
However, a few meetings don’t do the trick, and Kate keeps drinking and worse.
Matters become aggravated between Kate and Charlie, too, even though he makes a half-hearted attempt to stop drinking along with Kate’s attempts.
Smashed is about wasted people, and don’t waste your money on it.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”