Brook K
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2000
- Messages
- 9,467
Interesting Jason, haven't heard of The Big Animal. Hope it comes around.
I'm super behind in the theaters but rather than see something new I caught Kill Bill again and stand by my A and #2 of the year ranking.
Hope to get to the theaters this weekend, but for now, 2 more Netflix:
Respiro is a slice-of-life movie about an Italian family whose matriarch suffers emotional and/or psychological problems like hyperactivity or uncontrollable impulses or something. Filmed on a Mediterranean island, it features beautiful scenery and an entertaining and occasionally moving narrative. Highlights are the children/teen actors and their efforts to pass the time with little "modern" entertainments, the love story of the older daughter, and the husband's loyalty to his wife and conflicted feelings towards her problems, especially after they cause damage to the village. B
Owning Mahowny stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman in a based-on-a-true-story role about a lowly banker with a gambling problem that causes him to forge accounts and commit fraud to satisfy his ever-increasing wagers and debts. Hoffman's acting is the rock-solid work we've come to expect in his portrayl of another man in crisis who has lost control of his life. Unfortunately director Richard Knietowsky fails to equal his excellent debut film, Love And Death On Long Island. He never seems to decide what he wants this film to be and fails to tie together all the elements (gambling movie, thriller, police procedural, biopic, con movie) into a satisfying whole. As someone who loves gambling as a hobby, gambling movies instantly grab me, but here, the director fails to capture the excitement and attraction of playing that would drive this man to steal millions of dollars. B-
I'm super behind in the theaters but rather than see something new I caught Kill Bill again and stand by my A and #2 of the year ranking.
Hope to get to the theaters this weekend, but for now, 2 more Netflix:
Respiro is a slice-of-life movie about an Italian family whose matriarch suffers emotional and/or psychological problems like hyperactivity or uncontrollable impulses or something. Filmed on a Mediterranean island, it features beautiful scenery and an entertaining and occasionally moving narrative. Highlights are the children/teen actors and their efforts to pass the time with little "modern" entertainments, the love story of the older daughter, and the husband's loyalty to his wife and conflicted feelings towards her problems, especially after they cause damage to the village. B
Owning Mahowny stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman in a based-on-a-true-story role about a lowly banker with a gambling problem that causes him to forge accounts and commit fraud to satisfy his ever-increasing wagers and debts. Hoffman's acting is the rock-solid work we've come to expect in his portrayl of another man in crisis who has lost control of his life. Unfortunately director Richard Knietowsky fails to equal his excellent debut film, Love And Death On Long Island. He never seems to decide what he wants this film to be and fails to tie together all the elements (gambling movie, thriller, police procedural, biopic, con movie) into a satisfying whole. As someone who loves gambling as a hobby, gambling movies instantly grab me, but here, the director fails to capture the excitement and attraction of playing that would drive this man to steal millions of dollars. B-