Movies
Dreary drama about three generations of uninteresting men trying to get a handle on their lives. It's not what you call a very subtle film and whatever drama there is, is handled with the grace of a sledgehammer. The final nail is the wooden performances, which make it even harder to sit through. Hud isn't a very pleasant character, and Newman had all the trouble in the world trying to channel that into a solid performance. The setting is dire (the black-and-white cinematography doesn't help), the drama is crude and the pacing is slow. Kudos for trying to make a more realistic Western I guess, but that doesn't make it a good film.Read all
A film championed by the AFI, which usually means it's going to be excessively cheesy and overly American. And sure enough, Norma Rae is an absolute disaster of a film. Take some generic social critique, and add a lead who, despite her own well-being, takes it up for the little man, and you have Cinema (capital intended). The performances weren't great, the presentation was dire and the plot is little more than a billboard sign that unions are great. It's one of those films that probably bears some national importance, but it's hard to see why anyone outside the US should care about this film. Certainly not because of its cinematic qualities.Read all
This is the kind of cheese that is bound to do well at the Oscars (and it did). It's an attempt at feel-good that is so misguided and queasy that it becomes almost impossible to watch. It doesn't help that the film has no other redeeming qualities, making this a real bottom dweller for me. The performances aren't the worst (not great either though), but the cinematography is drab and the soundtrack is an absolute earsore. The plot is cheesy and the characters paper-thin. What remains is a film that fails at what it set out to do. Fingers crossed I'll have forgotten about this one sooner rather than later.Read all