Friday, October 27, 2023

Seen in September 


Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short are The Three Amigos.

September is a good movie month. In Toronto we have the Toronto International Film Festival, which is often considered the kickoff to the film award season. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to luxuriate in fine theatres viewing ambitious films so I watched this stuff at home and started getting some value out of my Netflix account.

The Three Amigos
YouTube
Classic 80s comedy starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short as three silent film stars drawn to Mexico to what they believe is an acting gig but is something far more dangerous. I can’t believe it’s been so long and I’ve never seen this film until now. I don’t know why it took me this long to see it, but I am grateful for finally having done so.

Tallulah
Netflix
Eliot Page is a wayward youth who, at a moment of crisis, kidnaps an infant from a neglectful mother. Are we sympathetic to the drunken privileged mother who neglected her daughter to have an affair, or to Tallulah, the transient youth who tries to live their libertarian lifestyle via their wits and some minor theft? I found little to understand among any of the characters. Only at the end does Tallulah’s missing boyfriend appear to present some logic to the whole proceedings and only then does she recognize that she has to surrender the child and herself to the authorities. My real problem with this film is that Eliot Page simply comes across as too intelligent to do something so stupid or be so naive as to believe her self indulgent life would ever do any harm to anyone else.

Whisper of the Heart
Netflix
A animated sweet romance about a young girl who wants to be a writer and a young boy who wants to be a great violin maker. I actually thought this was an entirely different film by Miyazaki from Studio Ghibli but obviously it wasn’t. Still, it was a wonderfully animated film about the pressures we put on ourselves and what we think of others until we get to know them.

The Flash
Crave
I’ve see worse super-hero films, but not many as bad as this car wreck of a film. Did I mention it also had some truly terrible visual effects? Apart from all of the external nonsense about this film: Ezra Miller‘s participation, after he had been accused of “grooming” a minor, or the changes in the future of DC films, or whether or not to include Henry Cavill as Superman, etc. etc. etc.. This film simply doesn’t stand on its own two legs. Though I will add it was fun to see Michael Keaton resurrect his role as Batman. 

Read more »

Labels: , , ,