Song Sung Blue

Low cut man blouses and hair that waves in the wind! Look out!

Movie: Song Sung Blue

Running Time: 2:13

Nominated for: Best Leading Actress

How I watched: AMC

When it had me: Unexpected Story Turn

When it lost me: Neil Diamond Songs!

What systems does it challenge: Unsure, it really just tells a story

Instead of talking about Song Sung Blue, I want to reflect on my category above, listed as "What systems does it challenge?"

I added that category a couple of years ago because it felt like a topic that was coming up in every review. At first I thought it really wasn't going to work as a general question for every movie. Not every movie sets out to be a work of activism or make a lofty statement. But as time went on, I found it more applicable than not. In fact, in cases where I was struggling with how to review a film, it is this question that often brings clarity where before I was feeling uncertain. 

All of that being said, I can't think of an answer for that question for Song Sung Blue and I think that explains why I feel so tepid about this film.

This film is upbeat and charming. Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman play real life tribute performers that amass a pretty good following. They sing Neil Diamond songs. (I am NOT a Neil Diamond fan so I'm already needing to be won over.)

There is a big left turn in their lives and careers after an accident. I didn't see it coming and it definitely reinvigorated my interest in the film. At its heart, it's essentially a family drama. They face challenges with midwestern fortitude and cute accents and for the most part I'd say it's a feel good flick. Why is it so long if it's a feel good flick? Good question. As always, I object to it.

This movie just rolled off of me, like proverbially water off a duck. It was completely inoffensive and well made but nothing sunk in or stuck in any noteworthy way. Kate Hudson was good in this role but I don't think the odds are with her in this race at all. She does her own singing in the film, which honestly she made look so easy that I don't think I'm giving her enough credit for the feat.

If you ignore the real life son of the main character and his complaints, there is nothing wrong with this movie. I just think I'm conditioned to watch movies that are taking some kind of stand, especially at this time of year. 

If you like singing and charm and movies that aren't too heavy, go check this out!

Weapons

Run, kids, run!

Movie: Weapons

Running Time: 2:09

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress

How I watched: AMC x 2

When it had me: Initial Mystery

When it lost me: It did not

What systems does it challenge: Lack of community

Weapons is about a town where a whole classroom full of children go missing overnight. They simply get up and run outside and vanish. There is grief and searching and blaming and raging but no one gets any closer to the truth for the first month.

Amy Madigan plays Aunt Gladys in Weapons and became a cultural icon doing so. She could be the merciless mastermind behind a town's suffering but also a sweet befuddled old lady who I swear will remind you of at least one relative you knew as a kid. She was so great she got nominated for a horror film! That is usually a rare occurrence for the Oscars but as the nation slips further into fascism, it seems that horror has found a more prominent place in our collective hearts.

What's really great in this movie is the story telling style. We follow one character at time and learn their piece of the puzzle. I think there are five perspectives that we follow and slowly each of the stories begins to interconnect with the other characters and a broader picture begins to form.

They took that trope in horror films where everyone is so scared but if they just talked to each other and shared what they knew they might be able to work together to get out alive, and expanded it to be the whole movie and it works beautifully. I was so engaged in the mystery I forgot to be frightened. (I told my kid it wasn't that scary so they watched it and disagreed with me whole-heartedly!)

The depiction of the supernatural is so mysterious and specific and diabolical. I love how creepy the vibes are throughout. The ending is too gruesome for most viewers I know but it is a very satisfying watch for me from start to finish.

Train Dreams

It's a pretty movie!

Movie: Train Dreams

Running Time: 1:42 (Is there an award for being under two hours?)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Cinematography, Original Song, Adapted Screenplay

How I watched: Netflix

When it had me: Golden Hour!

When it lost me: Lack of trains?

What systems does it challenge: Hustle Culture. Maybe.

This movie was heavy on the dreams but light on the trains. I think I expected it to be about the railroad and it really isn't at all. 

The first thing I noticed was that most of the first half of the film is shot at magic hour. That is both gorgeous and quite a feat. The affect of all these many colored skies and golden light filtering through trees is a very romantic one. It serves the story of Joel Edgerton's character building a life with Felicity Jones and it also serves a larger theme.

Overall there is a quiet and contemplative feel to the film. It's a kind of meditation on a time when life had less noise and bustle and perhaps more freedom to forge your own path. Edgerton works as a logger and once as a railroad worker (there's the train!) and builds a homestead with his wife. While the work appears difficult there is also a sense that you a shape your life however you want. You can build or maintain, you can lounge among the trees and exist with nature. There are fewer templates and expectations in place.

So for me the movie really asks, what defines a life or a person without the more rigid expectations that we live with today? Is it your work? Is it your family? Is it what you are proud of or the moments that haunt you? Or is it some deeper connection to everything around you that you might discover when you have the time to do so?

It's dreamy and languid at times, dark and lonely at other times but it feels like a worthwhile thought exercise. It's a unique and lovely little movie. And it happened in under two hours! You KNOW how highly I approve of this!

P.S. I called this film a meditation and then found out that the calm app made a meditative sleepstory based on this movie! Have you heard of this? It's a 22 minute retelling of the film with nature sounds and soft music. Check it out here.

Sentimental Value

*she is formerly known as the Worst Person in the World

Movie: Sentimental Value

Running Time: 2:13

Nominated for: Best Picture, Directing, Leading Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress Twice, Editing, International Feature, Original Screenplay

How I watched: Prime

When it had me: Renate Reinsve

When it lost me: I got sleepy briefly in the middle

What systems does it challenge: The only thing it might challenge is avoidance of therapy?

Sentimental Value is a family drama of both tiny moments and epic emotions. This is such a unique piece of writing. The way the story bounces around from character to character and from era to era is organic and unpredictable. It's like a piece of music, changing tempo and rhythm as it goes.

My only quibble with the editing is repeated cuts to black between scenes, even very short vignettes sometimes. It felt a little choppy to me but I tried to embrace each one as a breath.

The acting is terrific. With four acting nominations from one film, it makes me wonder how it didn't get nominated for casting. It seems like they did something right! 

Sadness becomes its own character and we follow it on its wavering path through generations of this family. The question becomes how can a father and daughter who are so far apart and need so much from each other bridge the gap? It seems so real; a divide that maybe we have all seen in our own families. Something so simple and yet seemingly impossible to solve.

Beautiful film making!

The Secret Agent

This guy is just immediately trustworthy and sympathetic!

Movie: The Secret Agent

Running Time: 2:40

Nominated for: Best Picture, Leading Actor, Casting, International Feature

How I watched: AMC

When it had me: Immediately

When it lost me: The very end, unfortunately

What systems does it challenge: Dictatorship, Corruption

This movie was engaging. 

Did you know that Netflix has asked all of its directors to dumb down their movies? They want more exposition and they want the filmmakers to tell and not show because they know that most of us are on our phones while we sit at home and watch shows so they want it easier for us to follow along. Frankly, I'd rather you make something so good that I want to put my phone down to focus on it.

That's what The Secret Agent is. It is complex and they throw you right in the middle of intrigue, only scattering clues along the path as you go. The lead actor, Wagner Moura possesses a combo of charm, warmth and mystery in Pedro Pascal proportions and I was completely drawn in.

The setting is (mostly) 1977 and the vibe is spot on. The colors, music, fashion, even the soft focus of the camera completely evoke the era in a very immersive way. 

Get ready for what I'm about to say next: this movie is 2 hours and 40 minutes and I find the running time completely justified! I know. It's shocking for me to say so. There were so many characters and intertwining storylines that they actually used the time in a constructive and non-repetitive way. In fact, they left me wanting more. I still had questions at the end.

The main thrust is that the main character is on the outs with his dictatorial government (as well as some others) and is in hiding until he can get new paperwork that allows him to leave the country with his young son. You know, the kind of story they will be telling about Americans in five to eight years. There is a mix of realism, surrealism and absurdism in the filmmaking styles but it always stay grounded on the main goal.

Ok, the end is where they lost me a little. It was so engaging and immersive that when they made a choice to pull back on the story telling style for the ending it felt anti-climactic. I have read up on reasons for the way they told the story and these ideas may work on an intellectual level but in reality it was a small let down. If they had nailed the end, this would have been in my top five movies of the year. It isn't but its still really great film making.

Bugonia

What's going on here?

Movie: Bugonia

Running Time: 1:59

Nominated for: Best Picture, Leading Actress, Original Score, Adapted Screenplay

How I watched: AMC

When it had me: The Trailer

When it lost me: Abuse of the vulnerable

What systems does it challenge: Conspiracies, Revenge

I have not been looking forward to reviewing this movie.

Emma Stone, Jesse Plemmons and Aidan Delbis put in fantastic performances in this very wild movie. The latter two believe that Emma is an alien and must be stopped at all costs. So there is an attack and kidnapping and a whole lot of crazy in service of that goal.

This movie is classified as a comedy/sci-fi. The trailer looked like events would be absurd and silly and very funny but that was not my experience of the movie. I read one review that stated it was listed as a thriller at their theatre. Which has got me curious again, who makes the official call? What did Lanthimos want us to see it as? 

There is a vulnerable character who suffers manipulation, abuse and ultimately harm and it shook me. I couldn't square that with the idea of this being a comedy. I'm trying to figure out if I went in thinking it was a horror film if I would have been able to withstand the brutality of the film. But specifically envisioning the director laughing about certain events made me feel really uncomfortable; like when a party gets too raucous or a boss starts telling racist jokes. I was no longer in a safe space and I just wanted out.

All of the elements are top notch. It's shot beautifully, it's paced well, it sounds and looks like the work of a director at the top of his game. I have no complaints with the film making in that sense.

The movie is so completely out of pocket that it should have been fun for me. I can't exactly pin down what I think the message is here. We're definitely getting a warning about conspiracy theories but it also feels like there is more to it. The genius is lost on me but it certainly has gotten through to most viewers better than it did for me. I'm glad it's been an enjoyable experience for so many.

Hamnet

Me when my kids perform at Shakespeare Camp

Movie: Hamnet

Running Time: 2:05

Nominated for: Best Picture, Director, Leading Actress, Casting, Costumes, Original Score, Production Design, Adapted Screenplay

How I watched: AMC

When it had me: Shakespeare

When it lost me: The Title, almost?

What systems does it challenge: I'm not sure this one fits in that mold?

I don't know why the title of this film annoys me so much. It's from the book of the same name, by Maggie O'Farrell and immediately the movie explains that this name is interchangeable with Hamlet. So why interchange them? I don't know; I just had to get over it.

The film imagines the behind the scene story of why Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. I want to ask why we need to make guesses about this but the movie is too good for me to worry about it.

First, let's talk about witchcraft! In this imagining, William unapologetically marries a witch of the wood. She communes with the forest, has ancestral knowledge of herbs, healing and spell-casting. She is prophetic and feral and powerful. Jesse Buckley really deeply embodies this role and delivers something above and beyond. I can't imagine her not winning.

Paul Mescal is equally incredible as the bard himself. As a self-professed Shakespeare nerd, I wanted to spend a little more time with this character and the words of Hamlet, my very favorite play ever. It took some time to get there but when we did, it was so worthwhile.

Ultimately, the movie is an exploration about grief and what we do with it. As a viewer, I sat a long time in some very uncomfortable emotional landscapes but it never felt cheap. The acting was too damn good. It always felt truthful rather than manipulative.

This was a beautiful, troubling, and ultimately hopeful space to inhabit for a couple of hours. It made me feel like there is truly magic in nature, love and creativity and through those practices we can not only survive but thrive.