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plovrchick
Reviews
Alice & Jack (2023)
Toxic people
Alice and Jack is simply an appalingly bad series.
Alice is unsympathetic and a narcissist. Jack for reasons known solely to the writer seems unable to live without repeatedly attempting to have a relationship with a woman who just.isn't.worth.it.
He marries, has a child, but apparently they don't mean anything, compared to the chance to be emotionally abused by a pathologically nasty person.
As much as I have enjoyed Domhnall Gleeson in the past, I found his character to be a puzzle, and ultimately I think this series could have been done as a one episode cautionary tale about how NOT to have a relationship.
It ought to be titled Relationships for Narcissists.
Belgravia: The Next Chapter (2024)
Absolute dreck
I was surprised that there was a second season ofBelgravia. The first season had an engrossing storyline and a fine cast-Dame Harriet Walter Tamain Grieg to name two.
That the writers chose to focus on the character of Frederick Trenchard is puzzling. The characterization seem to be 21st century attitudes imposed on late 19th persons. The character of Clara, for instance, is an attractive young woman from a family with no money. She marries a wealthy man and then behaves in a manner that makes no sense. Spare the viewer the cliché of her being a free spirit and that she's somehow bold and forward thinking.
Poor Things (2023)
The only Poor Things are the viewers
I understand that Poor Things is a fantasy/satire, but it is such a pretentious, pseudo-intellectual piece of tripe.
A film adapted from a novel written by a man, adapted by a male screenwriter and directored by a pretentious, arty man, who deign to explain to the audience that women's self-actualization and freedom are achieved through lots and lots of sex and full frontal nudity. This is such a tired, tired fantasy and trivialization of women.
I would truly like to see a talented actor such as Stone learn that being nude and simulating lots of orgasms isn't as bold and free, as she seems to think it is. It takes just as much talent to play a character who is allowed to be multidimensional,rather then being defined primarily by the number of sexual acts she has.
Did anyone involved in this project consider the problem of consent when they created a female character who has an immature brain?
Lanthimos for this viewer is straight out of "Thr Emperor's New Clothes". There isn't anything there.
Cousins (1989)
One cliche after another...
A parade of tired cliches, beginning with an ethnic wedding, complete with two oafs rating the female guests, a first dance to the theme from The Godfather, and a tiresome teen who dresses like a mafioso wanna be. The main characters have little charisma and seemed to be going through the motions.
But this is another ill conceived English language remake of a foreign language film, so the characters are just a jumble of quirks and tics that the screenwriters think will make the characters feel like real people. Whatever charm the original film might have had was lost.
This film is like fingernails raked across a chalkboard- highly annoying in every way.
The Seventh Veil (1945)
Psychological claptrap
A handsome production, well acted, especially by Ann Todd, but it left me disappointed. A young girl mentored by a hectoring, emotionally stunted guardian, treated as a performing seal for his thwarted ambitions, and yet viewers are expected to buy into a happy romantic future for the Guardian and the young woman?
Todd's performance is the movie's strongest asset, with her credibly portraying a young teenager and then a young woman.
I recognize that the screenplay reflects its time period, but a much older man treating his much younger female ward as he does has an undeniable cringe factor, for this viewer.
Phantom Thread (2017)
Meh
I have watched this film at least three times, and although the costumes are exquisite and the performances of DDL Manville and Krieps are excellent, this is a odd, odd film.
That Alma deliberately poisons Reynolds is bizarre. Reynolds is eccentric and he marries a psychopath.
Disappointed to see DDL finish his career with such a nothing of a film.